We recently visited my parents in Derby and Cat went to have another dress fitting. We also went to see the registrar to go over the ceremony and some questions we had. We saw the senior registrar who promised us that we were paying good money to them to make sure everything went without a hitch. On second thoughts, maybe that’s a bad thing. The good news is that he said we can sue him if it all goes wrong!

After that we went back to Mickleover Court to meet up with Tracey to finalise the plans. I think it is fair to say that we were both really impressed with her, she answered all of our questions and was very competent and came up with some great ideas. We have all but put into place the venue side of things – we just have to pay for it!! We also met up with the chair covers woman, and we have some ribbon to practise tying our bows!!

My outfit and Adam’s are now complete, the cravats having been the last item to get. We’ve not had our final fitting as it were, but I’m confident that everything will fit.

We’ve been in touch with our photographer who shall shortly be scouting out the venue. We’re going to try and meet with her when we are next in Derby to discuss the exact photos we want, and to ask her any final questions.

The only other progress has been my speech. I managed to start and pretty much finish it in about an hour, although I haven’t looked at it since. My fear is that everything I wrote and found funny, was down to tiredness or my appaling sense of humour!

Within the next few days, we will be running through every aspect of the day on paper to fill in all the gaps we might have missed. Things like the guestbook, which my mum has very kindly offered to look for. But I’m pretty confident that all the major things are sorted.

Besides which we have plenty of time to sort things out – looks at calendar – or maybe not…

So we have been overloaded with work and this website has not been updated in a long time. Many things have happened since the last post so I’ll just try to summarise it here.

- Bouquets: We bought and received mine and the bridesmaids bouquets. They are silk with the colour scheme I chose (red and white). They look lovely and they were quite cheap as well. And we can keep them for a long time. So adding this to the centre pieces for which we have the material already, the flowers: all done!

- Bridesmaids dresses and jewellery: They have all arrived and the dresses are lovely I also bought the jewellery already, again within the budget, and it looks fantastic. Jemma tried it all on yesterday and she looked stunning

We went to Derby this last weekend to take care of a few things and so I could have a girls night out with Russ’s family. It was really nice! I knew some of them and other met them at the restaurant and they are lovely. The best part is that two of Russ’s cousins (Dana and Kate) are getting married at around the same time we are.

So this weekend:

- Registrar: We delivered all the documentation in hand so it’s all set. All we need is a meeting with them closer to the date to discuss vows and other ceremony stuff.

- Dress: I finally ordered it. And I’ve decided for ‘The One’. I realised that no matter how many dresses I tried, I always had that one in my mind and I would regret not having it.

- Photographers: We spent the weekend meeting photographers so we could choose one that was both affordable and we felt comfortable with. It was exhausting! Some of them were good but too expensive, other were truly horrible . In the end we went for a woman we really felt comfortable with. She’s young, nice, her style is what we like and she is cheap! We are just waiting for the contract to be sent. We’ll write something more about it once things are set.

- Chair covers: Dana told us about a wedding exhibition so we all went there to look for bit that we are still missing like chair covers. We saw a lot of stuff, including a fashion show (none of the dresses really impressed me). One of the companies for chair covers was almost within what we were expecting but then Dana told us about another one even more affordable Thanks!!!

So in the end it was a very fun weekend and it was great to have Russ’s family involved. It was also very tiring… But I glad to say that we have almost everything sorted out! And there’s still months to go! Really enjoying it!

Finally after much searching I found my wedding shoes. It was quite difficult as most at pointy or open at the front. But finally got them and cheaper than expected

My advice?

Look in all the shops that sell any kind of shoes. All of them, even places like Next and John Lewis. You may be surprised with what you find.

Yesterday we also received the part of the stuff we are going to use to make our table centre pieces. It’s a lot more fun doing it ourselves and I thing it’s really going to work.  Russ tried it last night and success!!!

It’s all coming into shape

In the UK as well as many other places (all but Las Vegas) it is necessary to register the upcoming marriage at the Register Office. Cat booked an appointment a few weeks back and we went yesterday.

After ensuring we were who we said we were, we had to individually answer a series of questions without helping each other. This is more difficult than it sounds. Also, you have to let the registrar ask the full question without interrupting them. All these legal requirements seems a bit over to top to me, but I guess as long as we end up married, we’ll jump through the hoops!

£60 lighter, we walked out and need to collect our certificates in a couple of weeks. Anyone passing by the MK Register Office in the next 15 days can see our notice posted up!

With all the depression news and after becoming more aware of how much wedding stuff costs, budgeting became an important part of our lives. I was the main budgeter but after a few arguments on how much money we really have I decided to pass the burden to Russ. IT geek as he is, he found a software that keeps everything in order. I was happy to realise that all my previous hand-made budgeting was correct and I may have found a new career .

Anyway, the news are worrying. We are going to struggle to pay for the wedding. We already reduced the guest list to a minimum, trying to not alter our idea of the wedding we want. We are now reducing everything else but still I may not be able to get The One dress :-(  We will still have a fantastic wedding though, I’m sure! It’s all part of the fun  and budgeting is still one of my favorite activities (and now Russ’s as well) and nothing like a good challenge to keep things interesting.

Let’s hope things improve, keep your fingers crossed

Mark it in your calendars!

Finally, after the contract was perfect, signed and sent, we provisionally booked the date at the Derby registrar and we booked an appointment to give notice of our wedding at the Milton Keynes registrar.

The cheque for the venue was also sent and the wedding insurance was bought.

It’s all on the way now and if all goes according to the plan, we will get married on Sunday, 28th June 2009 at 3 pm

Still lot’s to do though, and the bugetting has been adapted. Oh dear wedding are expensive!

Picking our venue was only half the battle. Once we’d decided where to hold our wedding, the next step was to let them know, so they could send us out a contract. We got in touch, and after lots of questions, emails bounced forwards and backwards, we got a copy of the contract in the post.

Apart from Cat’s name being completely wrong (mine was perfect which was unusual), there were still a few other things not on the contract that worried me (no drinks package, no sign of a discount for having a Sunday wedding etc).

More to-ing and fro-ing ensued, but I’m glad to say we’ve managed to get a contract we are happy to put our names on. We just need to know who exactly to pay, and where to send it to. Please, we want to give you money!!

My next tasks are phoning the registrar in Derby to make sure we have someone to perform the ceremony, as well as call the Milton Keynes office so we can give notice of marriage. Also I have to find wedding insurance. So it’s getting busier, and it will only get worse from here!

I could think of several candidates that would fit the bill, but one name stood out from the rest. I’ve known this person for well over 10 years, and even though we have both moved about the country (and eventually ended up just a few miles from each other) we’ve kept in touch. He has been a good friend, and is one of the funniest people I know, although most people wouldn’t understand why I think that (well I find him hilarious, and that’s all that matters ).

He came over yesterday at my request, quite unsuspecting of any dastardly scheme, and we went out to dinner at Wagamama. It was there that I popped “the big question’, and fortunately he said yes. I dare say he was even rather chuffed I’d asked!

So without further a do, I’d like to say a big thanks to Adam “Johnno” Johnson from both myself and Cat, for agreeing to be my main man when the time comes. Thanks Adam!!

We will try to get both together a much as possible, however, the last thing I want is to be retrained by tradition. So what we will do is personalise tradition.

We will write about these things in separate posts dedicated to separate subjects so that it’s easier for people to find the information they need.

But just as an example, main table settings will be adapted, guests outfits will be of free choice (jeans and flip-flops if they want) and all the bridesmaids need is the dresses to be the same. Shoes, jewelry, hair, will be as they feel comfortable.

We just want people to have such a good time as we do

There is only one problem: Just close family from Russ’s side there are about 80 of them. Adding friends and my family there are close to 120 guest! Our budget is so small, especially considering that I might not even have a job at the time, that it is almost certain we won’t be able to have a proper sit down reception.

We already started asking for prices and our fears are confirmed. In order to have so many guest, the only possibility might be having a cerimony and a party with no food or maybe just a simple small buffet

We will go up to Derby in a couple of weeks and look at venues – we are shortlisting them already – and we hope we can keep the plan as it is and invite everyone.

Sophie and Russ’s mum are compiling a list of family – names, contacts and birthday, which is a big help!I already had Bridezilla moments but to be perfectly honest, so far I’m really having a good time ;-). I like organising