The Hen Dooooo!

What a wonderful weekend I had!

I felt so special, it was lovely, all my close friends and family were there.

Here's me in my veil and sash, and I was excited at this point!

We had lunch first at Mum's, she did a bit of a buffet with lots of fizz going around, and then we headed by mini bus over to Stratford for a shop and mooch.

The bus ride was fun, and made it quite special, all piling in together and heading off. Dad even wore a hat, with a little sign saying 'Hen Party Chauffeaur' on it! Oh, and Benjy came along too for company!

Then we snuck into the bathroom at the Holiday Inn hotel by the boat place in Stratford, and got changed into our Georgian costumes. Everyone had gone to so much trouble, it was fantastic, and they all looked brilliant!

Here's me and Carly, Keily and Sally and Louise and Samira on the boat with our fizz!

And into the castle for dinner, in our fancy costumes!

We had a serving wench doling out soup for starters, lamb casserole for main, apple crumble for pudding, a huge cheese board, and then fudge and coffee for after! It was fab, and then we all piled back onto the bus and got home for about 12.30 - 1.00 in the morning. A really different, but fabulous night!

Banners Planners

I've sketched out in my head what I think I'd like to do for Church banners to decorate the walls. I really like a couple that I found on google, which were simple, with words and viney leavse.

The words were taken from the Book of Ruth:

Where you go, I will go

and

Where you stay, I will stay

Which I think are lovely, and full of faithfulness, and love. I've typed it out in a nice font, blown it up on A3 so I can cut around the letters, and then cut them out of black or dark green felt. I've then used heart shapes to make leaves and will find a trim of cord to make the stalks and I can add a purple butterfly and heart like flowers too.

I'm going to reserve the Easter weekend for the sewing, and keeping it simple should mean it's achievable. Hopefully! I hope I'm not going to wear myself out with all the craftiness?! I still have to do another count for the favours, and stuff them and sew them up, but I've decided for the men, mint imperials in organza will be fine, so will get some circles and ribbon to make those up soon.

Week Three - Resolving Conflict

Steve and I had to do week three of our marriage course at home. Worship group was cancelled tonight, so we used the free evening to sit down and go through it.

The session was entitled 'Resolving Conflict' and we had to go through our differences, compare notes, and discuss finances which cause more arguments than any other matter, which was highly appropriate as we are in the midst of negotiations about buying a car together, which Steve will stump up money for as I'm poor. Well, not poor as such, I don't have savings or money coming in int he same manner as Steve (i.e. thousands at one go) my income is regular and enough to live on so we have differing opinions on how it should be.

Anyway, Steve moans about having to do the course, but I really think we both are getting a lot out of it. It's making us talk and open up about things and getting us to resolve things that could become an issue later on. It's been helpful :)

Organisation

I have felt super organised this past week and off the previous list have also got kiddie bags sorted, and the men's gifts. Feeling pleased with progress.

Starting to think about church wedding banners and whether I could feasibly make two matching ones with meaningful bible verses and simple yet beautifully elegant decorative art. Hmm. Might be a tall order! We'll see. I still have seven weekends to go.

Shopping for Stuff

TWO MONTHS TODAY!!!! TWO MONTHS!!!

Well, I got paid last week, and have been busy buying on Ebay.

I've bought:

12 metres of lavender organza for the Beacon windows.
1 roll of ivory organza
1 5 tier cake stand
2 snorkal sets
1 make-up pallet to take to Mexico

I still have to buy:

Fudge
Lavender
Three more photo frames
Possibly more paper
Gifts for Amy and Sarah
Gifts for Nick, Paul and Richard
Something for Isaac and Theo
Colouring books for kiddie bags
Gift bags for kiddies

Is there more to buy? I can't think?

Two more pay days.

Week Two - Communication

Week Two of marriage class. This week, was about communicating with each other, how our loyalty will be to each other and that together, we're the unit, the family circle. I liked that element.

Then we had to plan out our 'date nights' and when we would work to see and speak to each other. And guess what, we agreed!! So we're going to aim to have breakfast together in a morning, spend an evening together once a week, go away on a mini-moon once a year, and a week's holiday together, no family once a year too! We'll keep our romance alive!

Week One - Listening

Well, we made it to the class. And it was ok. Steve wasn't really taking it seriously. We had to do a listening exercise which he didn't like, and took exception to. But on the whole, I felt it was good to talk about serious things before the nuptial date.

We have four more to do now, and one of those will be as homework, just the two of us!

Marriage Course

It's our first of five sessions this evening. And Steve has double booked himself. A sign of things to come?

Grrr.

Cups of Cake

Steve has a new job where he is filming footage in a bakery, which is a charity for homeless people. He came back on Saturday with a box of beautiful and tasty cupcakes for me, (which h says was Valentines gift but I know it was really networking) and has said he thinks we should order from them rather than me make them.

1 - it saves me so much hassle and stress the day before
2 - It's connected with his work
3 - It's helping a homeless charity which is what our Church is about now

It seems too perfect to be true.

So 150 cakes it is please! The lady in charge is Miss Frost and the area of Birmingham is Snow Hill so it's called Frost and Snow bakery. And they're pretty, and the icing is delicious. Brilliant!

Vroom Vroom

Dad has booked us a car. It's a little beetle convertible, cream coloured and open top! How cute will that be?!

One Ring To Rule Them All...

Steve and I had been planning to make a Valentine's weekend of it, next week, and go to the Jewellery Quarter on the Saturday to choose our wedding rings, and then on the Sunday, attend Steve's gala dinner for 'I Am The West' but the dinner's been postponed, and Steve came by on Friday with a bottle of posh prosecco for me (which was a buffer btw) as he is now having to work next Saturday.

So instead, we did it all yesterday!

We met Chris our photographer and my friend Keily at the Beacon to chat about what we want from the day, and headed down to Birmingham afterwards to the Jewellery Quarter.

I didn't really want white gold, I wanted something more hardwaring, like platinum, but due to the cost and Steve's face going green, I opted for palladium in the end.

We went into about eight different shops, comparing, contrasting, and Steve went for a 6mm titanium ring which was £60, and mine was a 2.5mm paladium ring costing £81.25 (you pay by the weight!)

I was looking at 3mm but as my engagement band is so narrow, I really quite liked the narrow wedding band. I have such short fat fingers that the more narrow the better for me really!

And here they are in their little gift bags:

And mine is on the left, and Steve's on the right:

And time for a close up!!
I was very happy yesterday indeed! So we came home, had a celebratory indian take-away, and opened the prosecco. Lovely lovely!!

The Second Fitting

I went back today for another fitting and it was fab! I took my sash along, and we've devised that if I get a second one (which is on it's way now thanks to email and paypal and promptness) she can sew it onto the dress and bring it round from the zip to my right hip and bring a second one from the other side, maybe fasten it with a bow and then a glitzy brooch! (Also on it's way!)

I loved trying my dress on again though. The waist is being taken in a bit more too. I don't really want to lose too much weight, but I do want to looked nipped in. I'm very happy with it though. and my shoes.

*happy sigh*