After the last post I meant to write one completely dedicated to the wedding invitations. Unfortunately a lot of things happened and between job hunts, PhDs and exams, we barely have time to sit down.

We decided early on that we would make our own wedding invitations. It would be cheaper and a lot more fun! Even better, Steph (Russ’s sister-in-law) has a scrapbook business so she could give us invaluable advice. She even offered to make them herself, but I’m a ‘bit’ of a control freak and I wanted to have my hands on them.

In any case, she helped us a lot! She took us to a place where we could buy the card and paper a lot cheaper than anywhere else (we would never find it ourselves) and she found these gorgeous little cards to put on the invitation. They were so cheap we couldn’t believe it, and they can even be used for thank you cards!

She also gave us tape and all sorts of stuff I didn’t even know existed to complete the cards (sorry, I have no idea what the technical names are :-$ ), and she taught Russ how to use this gadget to fold and cut and stuff. Because it was still early we didn’t do everything but now we need to finish the invitations in Portuguese so we can give them to people when we go there on the new year. We printed the insides, all we need now is to cut them and glue them, which we expect to do this Christmas

Thanks Steph, for your great help with the invitations. I have a feeling we will still need your help with them, but Russ is the talented one and it was a surprise how interested he was in it :P.

P.S.- we also took Dana’s advice on the chair covers and signed a contract. The contract with the photographer is also signed and I went and took my measurements for the dress. All systems go!

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!