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…

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!

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!