Finally DIYing

Over the Easter weekend my parents came down to visit us in our new home in Bristol. Apart from being absolutely freezing, we had a good weekend. We started with dinner at Prosecco, a fabulous Italian restaurant in Clifton that has featured on one of Gordon Ramsey's shows. On Saturday we went shopping for jewellery for my mum to wear to the wedding, and bought some gorgeous Art Deco-esque pieces. The wedding was the activity of the day on Sunday.

Whilst my dad checked the final costings from our venue, my mum and I got out the guillotine and glue. We worked out how to do the pew end decorations, and made a really good start by making all the individual paper heart shapes (55 in total). Then we boxed them up and mum took them home to finish (thanks mum!).

The final draft of the order of service was approved (again a job for my Dad), and printing was going well until we started to run out of ink. More has been ordered and is on its way from amazon as I type!

And then we sat down, had a lovely roast dinner and some chocolate eggs. Because there wasn't much else to do. People keep asking Mum if she's really busy with wedding things, and she keeps saying no, not really. She is knitting cardigans, shortening dresses and planning the cake decorations, but apparently that doesn't make her busy! I haven't really had time to be busy(!) but I have managed to get an interview for the job I want. The interview is on the 24th, and the wedding is the 27th. I think that week I will be a whole new level of busy!

There are tasks that need to be done (in fact I should email the planner at our venue right now before I forget again), but there doesn't seem to be at many of them. Either I really have got everything done earlier than most brides, or I've forgotten a whole heap of things! I'll let you know on April 30th which one is true!

The one year wobble

This week the dress wobbles kicked in. From what I've read, having dress wobbles is not unusual. I would imagine that most brides have them earlier on in the planning process thou, rather than waiting until the last minute!

The wobble has been creeping up on me for a couple of weeks. I'm going to follow the well trodden path of blaming wedding blogs for sowing the seeds of doubt - there are just so many gorgeous dresses featured on the blogs, and what if mine isn't as nice? I have to say that the dresses I pine over are usually real wedding posts, not styled shoots or dress collections. I'm not sure whether I can simply relate to the brides better, or if it's more complicated than that. Maybe my aversion to strapless dresses puts me off?!

I don't think the wobble is based on anything other that not having seen The Dress for 2 months. I am very much hope that on Saturday, when I put The Dress on with all the accessories (and my hair will be done too) that the wobbles will go away. If they don't then mum and auntie J could be in for a fun evening!

The wobble got so bad on Friday that I called my mum (who has The Dress) to reassure me. It wasn't until I got a text from her this morning that I realised the significance of Friday - it was exactly one year since I'd ordered The Dress. Coincidence?

Delegating away the weeks!

The wedding is approaching rapidly - so rapidly that I have no idea where the time is going! My dad pointed out to me this morning that I haven't blogged since february 12th - oops!

It doesn't help that (as I predicted) I have had many other tasks to do as well. Applications for the job I want to do in August closed yesterday, our flat still isn't completely sorted (we still can't find things!), and apparently life still has to happen too! I'm even multi-tasking now - let's hope I don't burn our dinner whilst I type!

Many things have been crossed of the wedding to do list since I last wrote. The men now have complete outfits (including shirts - previously they were at high risk of having to wear suits only!) and my flower girls have shoes and cardigans. The RSVPs are all in, and so are the meal choices. We've done the table plan, practiced our first dance and ordered the fizz.

The key theme of the last few weeks has been delegation. I think I've done pretty well with this, but I guess that's open to interpretation! Gadget isn't working at the moment, so several fiddly and time-consuming tasks have been done by him. This includes the postcards for the table names, the poster/guest book, and a secret surprise project.

I didn't buy the girl's shoes, my soon to be sister-in-law did. The girls picked them, which means they absolutely love them (they have sparkly butterflies on so that's not really a surprise!), and I didn't have to do anything! My dad has finished the map we're using as the table plan, so I just have the title left to do. He's also doing signposts for the church parking.

My mum and godmother will be having a wine-fuelled craft evening for me, and my MOH is sorting out the bubbles we want to use instead of confetti.

None of the tasks completed so far have turned out exactly how I imagined them. Some are better, the rest are just different. But here's the point - IT DOESN'T MATTER! Everything looks fab, and most importantly it is done! None of the tasks I have delegated were on our priority list, but they all have to happen for the day to run smoothly. I can highly recommend delegating - it has made my life much easier!

What wedding plans?!

Well I have now been in Bristol, my new home city, working in my new job for 2 weeks - and nothing is really sorted! Everything is still everywhere (i.e. impossible to find) and we don't have a proper 'base.' Next week we move into our own flat, and I'm hoping things will get better soon after.

I'm trying to catch up with friends and family who I haven't seen for two years, and they all ask two questions. Are you enjoying being back, and how are  the wedding plans coming along?

I can't enjoy being back, because I haven't had time to realise that I am back! And wedding plans? What wedding plans?!

Apparently our wedding is 10 weeks away. I don't know this becasue I'm counting down, but because my (very excited) friend told me so yesterday. I'm guessing that now is the time that most brides go into planning overload, with table plans, RSVPs, order of service etc to finalise. I can only guess at this though, because I haven't even looked at my planning spreadsheet for two weeks. I can't access it at work (damn the NHS and their weird security ideas!) and we don't have wifi in our temporary flat. So I have very little idea what I'm supposed to be sorting out!

I have (hopefully) managed to get the critical things done. We have found our local church in Bristol and applied to have our Banns read there. (For none Church of England people, if you marry in church you don't go to the registrar's office to get a licence, the church does some odd historically based thing of announcing to the congregation that you're getting married. It has to be done where you live and where you are getting married, and takes a month to do.) So at the very least, our wedding should be legal. I haven't ordered the sparkling wine yet, so it might be a bit sober!

I have also discovered that I might have a job interview the same week as the wedding. Yes folks, three days before the Big Day I might have to talk someone into giving me the most important job of my career. That will really help my stress levels!

Luckily everyone has rallied round and offered to help - so when I can access that planning spreadsheet the first thing I need to do is delegate as many tasks as possible!

Reality bites?

We should be on a plane heading for London Heathrow now. As you can probably tell (or guess if you've seen the news) our flight has been delayed by the snow. We are now expecting to land at around 5pm on Saturday, which means any spare time we had that day has now gone.

Instead, we have some spare time now. I'm sat in my friend's apartment in Mountain View, California reading through my planning spreadsheet and working out what has to happen on Sunday, so that Monday (the Big Wedding Planning Day) flows smoothly. There's a fairly long list:

• List of all the items/questions relating to the venue, church, ceremony, flowers and photography to take with me, and a pen so I can check them off or make notes.
• Working UK credit card and cheque book with me (more tricky than it sounds).
• Figure out how we're getting to our reception venue (hopefully my dad is taking us, but if not it's a bus and a train). 
• Consult with both sets of parents regarding any questions they want us to ask.
• Confirm that the vicar is coming to the house, and not us going to the church!
• I'm sure I've missed something, but I can't work out what yet!

Then, as I was pondering how long this would take me and how jet-lagged I'm going to be on Sunday, another thought occurred to me. I actually get to see all the things we've bought for the wedding but not yet seen! My mum has a whole drawer full (to overflowing) of craft punches, cardstock, books, cake toppers, cufflinks, socks, ties and pocket squares. Then there are the flower girls dresses and page boy suits in the wardrobe. And the icing on the cake - she actually gets to see my dress. On me, in real life, properly done up! That should be a very exciting moment. Maybe Sunday will be ok after all!

I'm Back!

And I'm no longer upside down! My first post of 2013 is coming to you from the Northern Hemisphere - apparently it's pretty cold in the UK but we haven't made it quite that far yet. It was gloriously sunny, if a little chilly, in California today, where I have been shopping. Mostly not wedding related, but it's so nice to have real shops again!

I have bought two things for the wedding - primer (a nice radiating moisturising one, not a shine free one as I have such dry skin) and waterproof eyeliner in a blue slate colour. That's all the make up I'm planning to buy (except a new mascara which I need anyway), but we'll see how the first test run goes soon enough.

I have also sorted another thing for the wedding - my lovely friend who we're staying with here has agreed to do one of the readings. I'm very excited about this, particularly as she likes the reading we've chosen. Gadget has decided we have to buy her the book now (can't remember exactly but I think I've said that our reading is actually a children's story).

So things got a bit crazy just before we left our flat, and I didn't have time to schedule any posts to publish whilst we've been travelling. I' also completely out of date with my blog reading and have slightly lost track of the RSVPs, so I've definitely got some catching up to do! And really, I should get it in before monday because that is The Day of Wedding Planning. I'll tell you about it on tuesday (should have plenty of time to write a long post on the train to see the almost-in-laws).

We land in the UK on Saturday, and my Dress only has to make it on one more flight and a short train ride - although so far the dress has had more room than I have, and has even travelled first class! Thank you Qantas, you've been fantastic.

That's all for now...

Inviting approval?

It has happened - the invites are on their way out! I haven't sent all of them yet, but we've already had seven RSVPs - and a range of positive comments!

I'm pretty relieved about the comments - it was always going to be a risk sending e-vites, but we decided that it was a risk we were prepared to take. You can't please everyone, but  it seems you can please some people - even if you just do what is easiest for you. Several of the replies we've had have included comments about how much they liked the invite and website - some were friends, but one was an older relative - so hopefully we've not upset too many people!

I've also only had one failed delivery email, and my parents were able to provide an alternative address for that person. So now it's a case of watch this space, and hope none of them have been eaten by cyber-space or junk mail filters!