ONE MONTH TO GO!!!

People keep asking me if I'm nervous. The simple answer is no. Should I be? Am I just deluded and idealistic living in a perfect little wedding bubble? I don't think so. I made my decision about James a long time ago. I moved in with him. Then we bought a house. And now we have a family of four with a dog and a kitten. I was always in this for the long term. So no, I'm not nervous. I am incredibly and unbelievably excited about the wedding but also about being married. I've always craved the security and the 'forever' pledge that marriage carries with it. I've been ready for it from the moment I was born and now it's finally almost upon us.

One month today, on 26th September, I become Mrs Reid. The day that we have planned together for the whole of this year will come together and I'm sure it will be magical. I'm also sure that things will go wrong, and if they do I genuinely don't care. What's important is that James and I will be making our  vows and is someone stutters during a speech or a glass of wine gets knocked over it really won't matter. Even if it pees with rain from the moment I wake up until the moment the sun sets (or the dismal clouds darken) I really won't care as long as I end the day a Reid. If we mess up the dance it will be a shame but it won't be the end of the world. If my hair come down I'll be upset but it won't ruin things. If Sam barks when he sees me in the dress or gets a pawprint on the train then I can live with that. I can live with anything as long as I have James beside me and from this time next month I'll know that I always will.

The majority of the preparations have now been made. There are a few handcrafted touche still to be completed and the drama of the table plan is yet to be approached but I'm hopefully that we'll breeze through that in the fairly relaxed way that we have tackled the rest of the planning up to this point. In fact I have to say that breezily is the approach we've taken to most things about the wedding. Our decisions have been fast, almost snap, and we have remarkably agreed on almost everything. I say almost but I can't off the top of my head think about anything we've disagreed on. Except perhaps me making a speech.

And so in one month our engagement will be over and our marriage will begin. I have to say I've loved the last year and I will miss the status of fiance and the excitement of the planning. But then being married will open other doors and who knows where the next few year will take us.

Here's to September 26th. One month today!!!!

Hen do number two

I'd arranged a day trip to London to see a friend yesterday. Or so I thought. I arrived unsuspecting in Leicester square and settled down with my book to await my friend's arrival. When she did arrive we decided to go for a drink and I followed as she led purposefully to a nearby pub. As we approached the bar someone snuck up behind me and shouted 'boo' and there were two more of my closest friends. It seems there had been some scheming going on. 

I won't go into too much detail about what ensued but it involved ice cream, cocktails and soho. I left London more than a little tipsy and very happy. Thank you so much guys!

Transport

I might have documented many months ago the discussion between myself and my mum about transport to the venue. Intitially we were relying on guests to source their own transport and we were planning on having just the top car. However this gradually evolved, first a second car was chartered for mum and the bridesmaids. Then a minibus was laid on from the station to the church and then on to the venue. Now, finally we have organised a coach to take guests from the venue to the church and back and cancelled the second leg of the minibus journey as those guests will be able to use the coach. The thinking is that this will reduce congestion in the village and will allow us to have greater control over people's timings. It has also been decided that mum will drive herself and Sam to the church. After all that! 

It was then left to me to alter the arrangements for the top car, which James had booked. This is because I will be getting ready at home rather than at the hotel as originally planned. For some reason it was my responsibility to do this. It did mean I got to choose ribbon colours and the champagne though. Despite my sweet tooth I chose brut as I knew James would prefer that and I know his appreciation of alcohol is much greater than mine. 

5 weeks today!

The final details

Saturday saw us once more at the venue - this time to discuss the final details with our wedding planner. I came armed with a contact list of all our suppliers but sadly without my head screwed on! As we blithely chatted away about who would be needing food I completely forgot to mention that we had a videographer. When we were discussing what would be brought to the venue to be set up I forgot the mention the twist on a guest book that we'll be having. 

James helpfully forgot to bring the contact details of our piper but I managed to track them down and get them to Amy a few days later. We also had to choose the children's menu for the three who will be having it - lemon sole goujons of course! Aka fish fingers. 

The next time we're at the venue will be the evening of 24th September, when we'll show our photographer round pror to the rehearsal at the church. 

Exciting! 5 weeks tomorrow ...

RSVPs

When invitations were sent out 6 weeks ago  we set an RSVP date of 15th August. This wasn't the for the good of my health or to make life awkward for our guests - it was simply because there are a lot of things that revolve around the final numbers and names of guests. Everything from the seating plan to the amount owed to the venue and to the number of handmade favours needed.

Sadly when the RSVP date passed, roughly 20% of the RSVPs were still outstanding. I know that life is busy and that little things often get forgotten in the big scheme of things. Unfortunately something that may seem trivial to some of our guests, such as a missed RSVP date, is actually important to me. The wedding is the biggest, most exciting and most highly anticipated day of my life. I was born to be a bride and I'm lucky enough to have met a gorgeous guy who is crazy enough to want to marry me. At this stage I should be able to finalise all the plans for the day - instead I am finding myself chasing people by all available means for their responses. I'm not fussy as to how people respond - verbally/ by text/ by email or with a more formal written response are all acceptable - just as long as I know. In my opinion the only thing that is not acceptable is to not respond in any way at all. Even letting me know what is causing the delay is fine - I too have had to try and swap shifts and arrange pet care for our new additions.

We have had some brilliant responses from people. Some have made me laugh and others have made me cry, in the nicest possible way, at the touching things that have been said. Some people are flying half way across the world to attend, while others are pinching pennies and have saved up to be able to afford the journey and accomodation for the day. These are things that I think are too much to ask of people and yet they have done it without thinking in order to spend our special day with us. These people know who they are and they also know that our appreciation for these gestures knows no bounds. The majority of people will have had to book time off work in order to come. So many people have done this unthinkingly and also made the time to respond to the invite. Others haven't and I think they should know just quite how unfair this is. As the wedding draws ever closer I want to be spending these final weeks in eager anticipation, rather than chasing people for replies. There is still a lot left to organise and we have put a lot of thought into making the day special, not just for us, but for all those who attend. Please, if you haven't yet replied then do so soon. If you have then I thank you from the bottom of my heart and for those who can attend I really can't wait to see you. I know I will reply to any wedding invites in future by return as a courtesy to the couple involved.

In the meantime roll on September and those last few replies... Please!

Social life? What's that?

It struck me yesterday that the wedding plans have completely taken over our social life. Not helped by the fact that I work such antisocial shifts, I regularly find now that whenever mine and James' free time overlap we have managed to shoehorn in a meeting with the florist or a viewing of the venue. I'll nip out before a shift to pick up the banns certificate or bank a wedding cheque. And as for going out and seeing friends... Well they'll be at the wedding won't they? Eek. 

6 weeks to go

With just 6 weeks remaining until the wedding I think the time has come to announce that our family is expanding. Over the past two weeks James and I have suffered a number of sleepless nights - all in the name of our new pets. Henry the six year old retired sprocker spaniel gundog joined our ranks 2 weeks ago and coco the 12 week old rescue kitten came home 2 days ago. As I write this I have Henry resting under my left arm and coco asleep along the length of my right leg. And no... I'm not pregnant! 

Florist

Last Monday we had our final details meeting with the florist. Our journey was fraught with difficulties and I became so stressed on the drive that James had to take over to prevent me binning the car in a hedge out of sheer frustration. We eventually arrived 90 mins late but were met by a smile, a wagging tail and a cup of tea! We were also allowed to bring our dog in to say hello although of course he immediately disgraced himself by peeing twice!

Excitement over we got down to business and discussed the final arrangements for our floral decorations on the day. The plan had evolved slightly since our first meeting as I have now created the table plan myself and the church ladies will be decorating St Gregory's. However, we had decided that a pedestal display in the foyer of the Lord Rissington suite at the hotel would go down well and we also decided on some decorations around the cake table.

The meeting was fun and friendly and gave us both the chance to unwind before the long treck home again. Nicole has since sent through the revised quote and will be arriving at the house on the day at 0830 in the morning. Who knew everything starts so early for an afternoon wedding?

45 days now...

The second fit

Monday saw me back at brides of Winchester for another fitting of my dress. Unfortunately horrendous traffic put paid to my relaxing morning and meant that I only just made it on time. Combining that with being pre-night shifts meant I wasn't my usual chatty self. 

The dress fitted much better this time. The bodice had been taken in by 2 inches meaning that it didn't fall down and made for a more flattering silhouette. This time the hem was taken up and some adaptations were made to cater for my bustier. The bespoke adaptations were also mocked up. 

All of this took almost two hours during which I felt more like a mannequin than a bride to be and my ankles went to sleep in the shoes. After all that we've had to schedule in another fitting aside from the one already down for September just to make sure that everything is perfect for the day. I suppose that unless I win the lottery the dress is the most expensive item I will ever wear so it may as well be perfect :-). 

Only 57 days to go... 

Gift list

On Sunday we finally had the opportunity to go to john Lewis and do the scanning for our gift list. We'd been having a think about the sorts of items that we wanted on it and had what we considered to be a reasonable list. We had been advised to wait until now as john Lewis change and update their stock on a regular basis and by scanning now we minimise the chances of disappointment if things we want are no longer available. 

When we arrived we first had to go through all the T&Cs before being let loose on the shop floor with the scanner. We decided to work logically from the bottom of the store back up to the top. As it happened the bottom floor had kitchen equipment which meant that we spent about 80% of our time down there. It's an awfully strange sensation being so utterly greedy and spending other peoples money. 

I know from having received other peoples gift lists how frustrating it can be if the cheapest item is over £50. I think James and I have inadvertently gone a bit far the other way though. In the end although it felt like many more we only scanned 26 items so I think we're going to have to go back or online and expand the list a little. 

As a little snapshot some of the items we've added to the list are...

An ice cream maker

A barbecue

A picnic hamper

A nespresso machine

And cluedo! 

The flower girl dress

Many months ago in a little shop in Stow on the Wold I saw the dress that I wanted my flower girl, Darcey to wear. The dress was ivory coloured with a full netted skirt and inlaid purple daisies in the skirt and around the waistband. I sent a photo to my cousin for Darcey's approval, which was granted. It was then a waiting game until nearer the wedding to get the dress close enough to the date to insure that Darcey wouldn't change size too much. Unfortuantely this backfired when I looked on the website and found that the ordering time for the dress from the shop exceeding the amount of time left before the wedding. Step in google and in a few minutes I had on order, for delivery a few days later the dress I wanted. It arrived last week and we arranged for Darcey to come over on Wednesday to try it.

With purple polished nails Darcey arrived very eagerly on Wednesday accompanied by Louise and my Aunt, Sue. We got her into the dress and she loved it. It was the perfect length and the body is large enough to allow some room for growth before the wedding, without swamping her if she doesn't grow. In essence it was perfect and Darcey certainly seemed to agree. She was most reluctant to take it off but was persuaded to do so out of fear of damaging it. Thus she was released into the garden to play in her normal clothes. There followed a failed attempt by Louise and I to sneak upstairs unnoticed to see Darcey's present. She was reluctantly persuaded to stay downstairs but as soon as Louise and I came down she said she wanted to come up to see what I'd shown Louise. With a bit of improvisation I took her to see my shoes and the table plan which she thoroughly appreciated. We then admired the mural of African animals that adorns our spare bedroom wall and when we returned downstairs Darcey announced that she was staying. While I fundamentally like the idea it wasn't particularly practical this week due to my night shifts. Although we tried to persuade Darcey of this she very cleverly replied that James would be able to look after her. Sue told her that James couldn't cook but unfortunately this didn't work as Darcey remembered James cooking for her and countered that of course he could. She was eventually persuaded to leave and did so with a parting gift - a hand drawn picture of her in her dress complete with flowers on the skirt which I have stuck up in the wedding room (yes I have taken to calling the smallest bedroom the wedding room given that it houses everything from dresses to table plans to jewellery and presents).

The bridal 'do

Today I got to live out my dream afternoon. I had a trip to my hair and make-up artist to trial my look for the wedding. Armed with my hair accessories and my Mum I headed the hour and twenty minutes down the road to meet the lady I'd hired for my big day. I've always loved being pampered and having people play with my hair so I was very excited about the prospect of an afternoon of it.

Naturally, given I was with my Mum, I arrived early and we were able to go in half an hour before our appointment time. I was having the trial at Heidi's house and we were ushered in and given cups of tea while we discussed ideas and showed her photos of my dress and veil to help guide styling.

There's no secret about the fact that my hair was always going to be curled for the wedding, as I've always preferred the softer wavy look to my naturally straight locks. What I hadn't decided until recently was whether I was going to have my hair half up or all up (down was never really an option). My preferred option is going to remain a secret from all until the day but suffice to say when Heidi had finished with the hair I was more than happy with the pretty and feminine bridal look that had been created. The accessories complemented it beautifully and I was delighted.

Once we had a tick in the box for hair it was on to make-up. I rarely ware more than a trace of make-up and so it was agreed that I would want a natural look on the day that would just enhance rather than overpower my face. To a fairly natural foundation we added smokey eyes and a lovely subtle lipstick as well as waterproof mascara. I was very happy with it all, as was Mum. At the end of 2 and a 1/2 hours we were done and I was released back to the wider world as a slightly more glamorous version of my normal self.

Heidi turns out to be quite a feisty character. I got on really well with her and I'm really looking forward to her being involved on the day. She had some very amusing tales of wayward bridesmaids (although I'm sure that won't apply to mine!) and it's clear that she won't stand for any nonsense. She will email me the schedule for tomorrow detailing the time slots for my bridal party to have their hair done and say she will probably arrive not long after 6am. Apparently as the bride I get done last and thus can have a lie-in. My only concern is how Heidi's schedule will tally with Helen, the photographer's schedule so I may have to liaise beforehand about their respective plans to ensure that there isn't a clash of ideas on the day!

Less than 8 weeks now. I can actually say... We're getting married next month!!!!