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!

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!

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!