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…

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!

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!

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

So yesterday Jemma and I went hunting for wedding dresses. She had booked appointments in two shops, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. The one in the morning was a very posh shop so we decided to dress up to it including high heels (big mistake). The afternoon one was a normal shop, the kind where I can actually afford to buy something.

We parked miles away from the first shop because we are cheap and the parking was free, and we walked there only to almost be blown away by the wind. It turns out that the lady was actually very nice and she knew what she was doing. She didn’t pressure me at all to buy anything and showed me dresses that were right for my body shape and the cheapest in the shop

Jemma took lots of pictures and I felt like a princess. The dresses were absolutely beautiful! There was one that the lady convinced me to try on and… It is The One! Oh my, it fitted beautifully and made me slim and gorgeous! There is only one problem. At £1100 it is way above the budget we agreed for the dress

We then went for lunch at Wagamamas (2 for 1 because we are cheap), back to the car and to the next shop. We walked miles in the rain on high heels and my feet are still killing me.

The next shop was small and a bit chavvy. The woman was horrible! Very rude. Didn’t like it at all. She didn’t even let Jemma take pictures except for my favourite one. In the end there were two that I liked very much. At around £700 the are a lot more affordable. But they are not The One. Every time I look at the pictures and see that dress, it makes me want to cry because I love it so much! I even dreamt about it. I wish I could put a picture here but Russ can’t see the dress.

Jemma was fantastic, really helped me a lot and got me into the spirit

I just wish Vanda could be here as well…