Wedmin

Today was devoted to wedministration and a few other bits related to our house move. In essence we are now at the business end of the planning. Deposits having been paid we're now reaching the point where second installments/ balances are needing to be settled. Naturally I have lost track of the various suppliers and deadlines that are needing to be met and thus today I have had to scour inboxes to find out who needs what by when. This information has then been transcribed into my wedding diary which contains all the relevant dates and contact numbers.

It was also D-day when it came to deciding on who gets invites and for what part of the day the invitations are offered. Surprisingly I found I didn't hit my maximum in terms of numbers for day and evening invites combined. I am allowed up to 75 guests in total for the evening but I only reached 70. That said my maximum for the day is ideally 50 but I am issuing 60 invites for the day to people who may realistically attend. I am also issuing 12 euphemistically termed 'courtesy invites' - these are day invitations that I am sending to people, mostly abroad, who have already advised us that they are unable/ unlikely to attend. Of course if any of them change their mind my numbers are completely blown but it's a chance I feel I have to take.

Today I have also been in touch with the two vicars concerned regarding the reading of the banns. The one who will be conducting the service has already arranged for them to be read in his parish the first three sundays of august. The one in the parish in which I now live is not being quite as helpful but I'm hoping will be of more assistance when I can speak to him on his return from holiday.

I have arranged my trial appointment with the hairdresser for my hair and make-up and I have agreed with my Mum to attend the appointment to offer a second opinion. I am very excited about this and for reasons that I am unable to elaborate on I need to have my trial a fair bit in advance of the wedding. The date has thus been set for 2nd August - exciting!!!!

Finally I have completed and sent to print the information insert for the invitations and supplied my Mum with about 95% of the addresses she needs - the others I have sent out requests for. The printers had completed the job within minutes of me sending the document over so watch this space for the invites coming out in the next week or so - if you're one of my guests that is!

91 days to go...

Calling on the vicar

For weeks we had looked forward to this weekend. It was to be a quiet weekend at a country house hotel and we were heartset on relaxing. The hotel in question was one we had viewed as a potential wedding venue and thoroughly liked, just not for our wedding. We had secured an amazon local deal and thought we would sequester ourselves in the peace and quiet of the room to unwind. I did however decide that as the hotel was just outside Stratford on Avon we could combine the weekend with our next meeting with the vicar, which he had requested should take place around about Easter time.

I didn't feel this meeting would detract from the quiet weekend as we could easily see the vicar before checking in to the hotel. As always with us though things didn't remain as simple. 

Instead what actually happened was that we had to shoehorn in a meeting with the mortgage advisor early on Saturday morning. This meeting, which had been due to last two hours, overran considerably meaning that we had to race up to Tredington to see the vicar. Thankfully the timings all worked out... Just. 

This meeting with the vicar saw us discuss in greater detail some of the elements of the ceremony. We (I) decided on at least one of the hymns and the readings. As yet we are still to determine the rest of the music. We discussed the basis of an order of ceremony, which we can start to flesh out. 

The other thing we did was to schedule in a date for the wedding rehearsal. While the weekend beforehand would have been the obvious choice James' parents are not coming down until the Tuesday so we have decided to have our rehearsal on the Wednesday preceding the wedding. It will have to be in the evening as I presume I will be working and so will James. 

After the meeting we frequented the village pub where we could quite easily have a meal on the Wednesday night. They also agreed to open on the day of the wedding so people, namely the groom, could have a quiet drink before the ceremony. It would also offer somewhere for any early arrivals (wishful thinking) to congregate.