Tuesday 29 May 2012

Moving on up!

Hi!!

Because I couldn't change the name of this blog to the new 'married' name you're just going to have to come and find my new adventures.

I'll make it easy for you though.

Click here!!      Or here!!       Why not try here too??

Saturday 12 May 2012

Just Married

Grace Louise Smith became Grace Louise Bell today after marrying Adam Peter Bell. She was 40mins late and put everyone in a panic, but she looked absolutely beautiful.


With Much Love From The Mother of The Bride xxx

Monday 7 May 2012

So... What's Next?

We have everything sorted.

So, what do you do when you think you have everything sorted for your wedding? Which is in just over 5 days may I add.

There are a couple of little things left to be finished off, but nothing that will take lots of time.

I am going to my cousin's house tomorrow so she can play around with my hair for mine and Adam's Wedding Day. I have kind of decided what I want doing with it, I just hope it looks okay. I must remember to take my veil and tiara.... which pink plastic and shiney.


Adam asked what my hair would be looking like so I told him "half up and half down with a veil on top" then he looked at me a bit weird, so I said "the only reason I told you is because I know you can't imagine it in your head". So true.

We do need more bottles though, which is slightly worrying me. We went and bought flowers for the Reception the other day and I did a little test run with some of the flowers and fairy lights - it looks extremely good but I think we are about 20 bottles short of having the full set. The idea looks really good though. Apparently, bottles & flowers seems to be really 'in' at the minute, which is really cool because I am never usually 'in' I am always just getting there and then styles change. It's weird though because I didn't even know they were 'in'. I just thought it looked good.


















Anyway, back to what you do when you have everything sorted.

Currently, I am getting my emotions stuck into 'The O.C.' right from the beginning; and a series called 'The Killer'... don't judge. I suppose I should be packing, but as anyone from Uni will tell you... I'll probably do this on Friday. If Adam and I were sticking around after the wedding then I would probably pack then but since we're not, it'll wait. On the plus side, I haven't really unpacked since moving back to my mums in January. I'd say 70% of my stuff is still in boxes.

Or, you could go on bored.com ? I hear they have some pretty good games and pics and what not on there.

Oo! On other news! Adam and I will have a couple of little additions to our mini Bell family when we get from our holiday in Spain at the end of June. They'll be called Phadra and Kushka -


The picture isn't the best in the world. But they are the ones on the top left and top middle.

Thursday 3 May 2012

Itsy Bitsy Bits

When I started planning mine and Adam's wedding I don't think I realised just how much was involved. I am happy to say that besides the cake everything has been paid for, and we have a honeymoon booked. Sure, it's Blackpool and sure it's not somewhere abroad like we'd have wanted. But, since neither of us can remember going there before at all - it'll be a good experience to share together.


But when planning you think of the big things, dress, suits, cake, ceremony and reception location; you kinda forget the smaller stuff, like cake stands and decorative flowers in the Chapel room etc. I think the itsy bitsy bits have actually cost us just the same as the bigger bits - thank goodness we haven't had to pay anything towards our Reception location, but it is home and it is where we would like to be. I'm so glad that Adam and I chose to get married in Bradford and I am thankful to all the people who have said they will come, from places as far as Switzerland and Luxembourg! I cannot wait until next week.

So, I know, I know, I've been a little 'lacking' in the blog posting department recently and even though I have loads to tell you, I also have loads to do. This is just a mini catch-up and run down of what has been happening the past couple of days:

Tuesday
Bridesmaid dresses arrived - I posted about that already

Bridesmaid Dresses - Looksee Here!

Wednesday
I went to Costco yesterday and Makro so I'm just deciding which one I like most, but I think I am edging towards Makro, however, I am not sure if they have one in Newcastle. Surprisingly enough they are cheaper than Costco and have a wider range of things. Joyce and I were stood staring at lots of plates, lots and lots of plates, different sizes, shapes, colour, material. My mind was almost boggled. Joyce told me not to settle for anything that I didn't want, but, as I said yesterday "right now, it matters that everything goes and looks perfect, but to be honest, on the day, I won't care, it won't matter' which is true. It won't. If we hadn't have had so long to plan I probably wouldn't have done as much as I have. It'd have been cake and biscuits or something. I also bought more cutlery yesterday too just incase people don't want to use the same knife, fork and spoon all the way through. Yes we were supposed to be borrowing from someone, but, we are just using clear ones now - that has taken a little cost out of the budget that we didn't budget for, so I'm having to sacrifice elsewhere but oh well you have to do what you have to do. So, yesterday at Makro and Costco Joyce and I bought:

Plates
Bowls
Knives, Forks, Spoons
Plastic Cups
Chocolate Jazzies
Chewy Bars

I know I didn't need the last two, but sometimes, you just gotta.


Thursday/Today
I bought the last of the flowers today for the Reception. Country Baskets didn't seem as daunting as it did before and we fulfilled our mission quicker than last time - 2 hours quicker. I was trying to imagine all my flowers in bottles and we only got a limited amount of flowers due to funds so hopefully it'll look good. I want to create a spring effect and maybe real flowers might have looked and smelt better but oh well what can you do? We bought a lot of flowers that go with the bouquets so it'll look really good on the day before when we set everything up with all the lights and things. It's the itsy bitsy bits that count. That given it that finished overall effect.

At the moment I am slightly addicted to watching 'Say Yes to the Dress' and 'The OC'. Don't ask me why. I obviously need more drama in such a drama filled life.


Things that still need to be done:
Order of two days
Cutting of organza & table roll
NEED MORE BOTTLES
Cake knife and cake stand
Design and write thank you cards for all favour bags
Design and write sweet tokens for the sweets table
Organise transport for Reception-y things from house to chapel
Actually set up the reception and chapel room


Full days until the wedding: 8 (and a half)

Tuesday 1 May 2012

Happy World Happy Grace

So far, all planning, is going well. We haven't had any major major hiccups. At one point I honestly thought my bridesmaid dresses were never going to get here. But! Get here they did. Eventually. After 3 attempts. Third time lucky I suppose. But, it is all UPS's fault that the dresses didn't come the second time round - shouldn't have tried to deliver them yesterday when nobody was in.

Here is a little sneak peek of the dresses - you can't see them on anyone though because then that'd ruin the day!


What do you think?

Sure they're a little crumpled, but, wouldn't you be if you had flown all the way from America - taking 5 days to do so.

Adam and I put a timer on our phones and on my laptop and because it asked for the 'hour' we are getting married technically at this point in time, there are 10 days until our wedding. 10. Does this get me nervous? No. Does this get me excited? Well, yeah kinda. But, the thing that got me the most excited was that we received the bridesmaid dresses today. And I finished off and printed the Order of Service yesterday so now everything is pretty much coming together.

Tomorrow I go to Costco with  family friend to buy plates and bowls, then on Thursday (if I can get hold of my flower lady) we will be going to Country Baskets again for more flowers. The house is going to look like a Country Baskets advertisement there will be that many flowers.


We still have to print out sweets tokens, organise the table plan, print out the poems and then, I think, we sit and we wait. Until next week. I am definitely getting excited/nervous/anxious - I started pacing rooms this morning.

Saturday 28 April 2012

She's Here, She's There...

She's Everywhere!

Today... has been insane. But incredibly fun. I started at 9:30am and practically stopped by falling asleep at 7:30pm.

We met with our photographer today! Ruth Mitchell is very lovely and friendly. I am so glad that we can have a relaxed working relationship with her because Ruth will be in some of our most intimate moments at the house when I get ready and at the chapel. Adam and I had a pre wedding shoot too and it was so much fun! I have no idea why but Adam was just so funny and we were able to relax and get some really great photos. We showed Ruth around the chapel; and I am sure it used to look a lot bigger - but hey I was 10 or so the last time I remember it properly. There is plenty of space though so no pressure.


Then, Adam and I went to my house, picked up Bethany, and drove into town, to do a swop over and pick up Michael (my brother).

Mike and Adam went up to Newcastle for Adam's stag do - an 11-a-side football match at Chester le Street (I think). I really hope he is having a good time and getting really hyper on shloer or diet coke! Bethany and I went into Leeds - on a mission. We were going to find me some wedding shoes and a tiara, and she was going for some holiday clothes.

We rang Emily in Sunderland to ask if she had gotten the rest of the bridesmaids cardigans and shoes, but she said no, and told us she was getting up right that second to go into town and get them.

We went into the first shop, with extremely high hopes as we'd seen shoes online that we really loved, and there they were. We asked for them in a 6, but because of the way they are made and the way my feet were already a little swollen, the shoes wouldn't fit on, I asked for a 7, but they didn't have them in my size. I asked for another shoe in a 6 but they didn't have it, and the other shoes we tried on that we had high hopes for just didn't really scream 'WEDDING'.


DILEMMA!!!!! DILEMMMAAAA!!!!

Emily rang Bethany and I, and told us that the shop that we were buying the cardigans from didn't have Bethany's size in stock and wouldn't have it in before the wedding if we ordered it. Emily was panicking (I am sure this is my job) because we needed to get the cardigans. I told Emily to breath (I am sure this is Emily's job) and we would sort it. We checked if there was a 'Select' store in Leeds, but the closest one was at the White Rose Centre and Emily told me the closest available 18 to her, was in Peterlee. I said if there was a problem then we could order the 18 from the internet, but then I had a brain wave.

My friend, and collegue, Carolyn, lives next to the White Rose Centre, so I rang her and after lots of pleases asked her if she could possibly go into the White Rose Centre if she wasn't too busy (please) and to go to Select (please) to see if she could find the lemon cardigan we needed (please) in the size 18 (please). Carolyn said she'd let me know...


...At this point Bethany and I have been into about 8/9 different shoe shops and have completely given up hope on ever seeing a white pair of shoes that I won't fall over in. It wasn't even that they were out of my budget because they weren't, they just weren't easy to walk in, or the shop didn't have any. Then we remembered we were in there to shop for Bethany too, so we had a break from shoes, shoes, shoes and had fun shopping for Bethany's holiday to Spain.

After that we went into a shop for some shoes and went into their Bridal section and saw tiaras. So, Bethany was my tiara stand as I tried on about 6. We found this really beautiful one that was big enough to look pretty but delicate enough to look elegant. I was just about to buy it when I found a child's tiara, that was soo much better than mine! No Fair. So I bought that one instead.


Carolyn found the cardigan and bought it for us!!! YAY!!!

It got to about 5:20 and Bethany and I are really starting to drag our feet because of the shoes, I mean we had looked in every place we thought possible, we knew we had a couple of shops left but just as we thought they weren't the best, and didn't really have anything in. In the end we got a completely different pair of shoes to what I had originally wanted but they are still really nice, AND COMFORTABLE; which is the main thing.


All in all, we got the shoes, we got the tiara, we got some deliciously scrummy food, we got some little extras for the wedding and Bethany got her clothes for Spain, well some of them.

I shall let you know, which photo's we pick from the shoot with Ruth today!

Next on the agenda:

Flowers, Food, Cake & Cosco.

Days Until The Wedding - 13!!!!

Wednesday 25 April 2012

Up with Love, Down with UPS

Urgh,

I officially dislike UPS. The courier service. They're annoying. Them and their stupid brokerage charges...

My dresses are in the UK, they were in Castle Donington (wherever that is), from Castle Donington they were transfered to Dewsbury; which is where they shall now stay until UPS receive their stupid brokerage charge. I wish people who had used UPS before had warned me of the brokerage charge that can be anything from £10 to £100... great.

So, now the dresses are in Dewsbury. However, until we get them here and open them (possibly tomorrow, possibly Tuesday) we won't know if all 5 dresses are in the package because mum said the box looks kinda small for 5 adult bridesmaid dresses, which is now stressing me out even more. It'll be fine. The dresses, I told mum, are just vacuum packed for smaller packages and less postage. It's a good thing the box is so small, I hope.


Adam picked our wedding rings up today and now he has to guard them with his life, his eternal one, not just this one. He sent me a picture and they look amazing. I can't wait, it is going to be so awesome! The rings even come in their own little HSAMUEL boxes. I love HSAMUEL. Anyone wanting to get engaged/married go to HSAMUEL. In every store I have been in they are friendly, relaxed, not rushing you out of the store, patient, helpful, they're great.

Rings, bridesmaid dresses, I am sure there was something else.... shoes!!!

Wedding shoes!!


Anyone that reads my blog and is married and got married in a white dress, can you please tell me where you got your shoes from? I don't know if it is just me being picky or whether it is just simply because there are no really nice white wedding shoes out there. I have looked on pretty much every single UK website I could find and in every high street retailers, and nothing. I know the majority of women get married in ivory these days and therefore the demand for ivory has gone up and the demand for white has gone down, but seriously.... Debenhams had NO WHITE SHOES at all. None. They must have had about 50 pairs of shoes in their Bridal collection and not one was white. So, if any of you have any good suggestions for places to buy wedding shoes please let me know!

Monday 23 April 2012

Stop! Wait a Minute!

Mr Postman!

Waaaiiitt.

Okay, yeah, so I can't sing.

Sorry. Offline life has been incredibly busy these past couple of weeks. It's been nearly a week since I posted. AH!

Things are slowly coming together. I am in my final week of work, I am having mixed emotions to this but still new beginnings are good. I finish on Friday.

I have about a million things going on in my head and sent a very nice (yes it was nice, honest) email to the place in America that I bought my bridesmaid dresses from and asked them if the dresses were on their way, since they are very late now, and they told me the dresses would get to them on the 18th April and the dresses would leave them and arrive here by the 25th, which is only 5 days after they were supposed to get here.


So on the 18th I went to the Bestbridal.com website and checked my order, it still said 'Processing'.
I checked it again on the 19th, and it still said 'Processing'.
So, just be on the safe side, I checked it again on the 20th and it said, 'Processing'.

By this time I am practically turning into melted jelly on the floor waiting and waiting for these dresses to be available or at least change their status to 'Delivery'. So yesterday, even though it was Sunday, I just couldn't bare it any longer and I emailed them and said 'I really hope they are on their way' or something nicer to that effect, and I wasn't expecting to hear anything back over the weekend.

At this point, I got really bored and decided to delete all the unread emails on my hotmail account (I have like 300 odd), I know, it's all procrastination, things will get done I promise. So yeah, I'm scrolling down and deleting emails and I came across an email from UPS.

UPS.

No, not ups. U.P.S. So I clicked it.

My dresses had been sent out on the 18th AND THEY ARE IN THE UK.


Now we just need to hope that they fit.

Things to sort:
Order of Service (need designing & printing)
Order of two days
Favour Bags
Cutting of organza & table roll
NEED MORE BOTTLES
Cake knife and cake stand
Paying people
Go shopping with my florist again to get flowers for the Reception
Making 140 favour bags
Design and write thank you cards for all favour bags
Design and write sweet tokens for the sweets table
Organise transport for Reception-y things from house to chapel
Actually set up the reception and chapel room

Is it just me or...

...is the list getting smaller....??

Wednesday 18 April 2012

The Bridezilla Wins!!

Grace 1 - 0 ASDA

I went to ASDA yesterday, marched in with a trolley up to the drinks isles and proceeded to put as much J20 and Shloer into my trolley as I could. I got to 17 cases of J2O and 22 bottles of Shloer... This would not do at all. I needed 100 bottles of Shloer.

I grabbed the nearest customer service assistant to me and asked them for help. Apparently, they were there when I rang last week regarding all the bottles of Shloer that I wanted, so I'm famous... In ASDA anyway. I told them I was getting married in 3 and half weeks and was getting incredibly bored of being told I'd get a call back from their trade manager for the drinks I needed to order, so in the end I came in. They agreed with me. Since I was alone I asked them to go get another trolley (I did ask nicely I promise), so off they went as I carried on trying to pile more bottles of Shloer into my trolley... Goodness knows what anyone thought, not like I cared at that point in time.

When he came back with my second trolley we started filling it up with even more bottles but it just wasn't working and it was taking forever, so in the end I asked him (nicely) if there were any packaged drinks out the back we could have instead of putting the bottles in one by one, good for the arm muscles but not the packaging of glass bottles. He said he'd go check, as I was slowly depleting ASDA of their Shloer stock.

He took ages out the back at one point I actually thought he was stood watching CCTV with other members of staff laughing at me putting bottles in the trolley one by one but eventually he came back with 4 packaged crates of Shloer and 6 packaged crates of J2O AND A BIG MASSIVE CARRIER TROLLEY... thing. It was one of those huge ones that they have all the boxes on when putting out stock.

This guy and I filled up this tray trolley thing with 8 x 12 crates of Shloer, 6 x 4 crates of J2O and the trolley was then filled with 11 x 4 crates of J2O, 4 x 4 (2ltr) Sparkling Water, 2 x 12 cans of tonic water and 4 bottles of Shloer.... It was really fun. I didn't even have to carry a thing.

The woman at the checkout won't forget me in a hurry either! She had to put through 52 bottles of shloer seperately.... whilst the guy on the other end put them back in boxes and celotaped them together.

I called a taxi firm that didn't have a mini-van available but said they'd send a big taxi and we went to wait outside with all my drinks...

...Oh and cat food, eggs, yeast and a capri-sun, because I was thirsty.

The taxi I called broke down so I had to call a different one which came a little later. The taxi driver was awesome and extremely friendly. We packed his car choc-a-block FULL of glass bottles and off we went. He unloaded the whole of his car without a single moan and only wanted normal fare for helping me. So I gave him a little extra fare for being so nice.


So, at least 3 members of staff at ASDA now know I am getting married in 3 weeks and so does the taxi-driver, aswell as the staff in Wilkinsons that I notified the other day. It's all good.

Monday 16 April 2012

Tip for the Toast

If you want to buy drinks (non-alcoholic or otherwise) whatever you do, do not ring customer services at any large supermarket, just go in and buy it.

ASDA is the culprit at this time. I have been trying to order lots of bottles of shloer and J20 from them and you'd think I was Einstein giving them an equation to solve. I have been trying to get hold of them since last Wednesday to make sure they have in enough shloer and J20 for our wedding-ly needs but maan. I was told someone would ring me back Thursday, they didn't. I rang them Saturday and was told someone would ring me back and they didn't. I rang them again today and was told by a member of their staff "well nobody rang you back because if the prices change and we order you in 100 bottles of shloer and you don't have enough money to pay for them then we are stuck with lots of stock we don't need"


How
Unbelievably
Rude. 

1. I didn't actually tell her how much money we had to spend so wouldn't have had a clue of whether or not we could pay for all the bottles of shloer that we want.
2. How on earth is that an excuse for no-one to get back to me.
3. Surely they'd ring me back and explain this to me.

When I told that actually we do have enough to spend for the 100 bottles of shloer, amongst other non-alcoholic drinks, and not that it was her business anyway to decide whether or not I had enough money, she put me through to someone else - without even telling me.


This other person, apologised, and I finally thought I was getting somewhere until...

...They took my number and told me they'd ring back at about 1:30pm, unless they meant 1:30 am (highly doubtful).

So, you guessed it. Nobody rang me back. I think this is appauling customer service for someone who is actually wanting to spend so much in store. Therefore, tomorrow I am going in and buying as much as they have in stock of all the drinks I want and putting in a formal complaint against the customer service at Rooley Lane, Bradford, ASDA.


I mean, you'd think they'd actually want me to spend my money?! Apparently not. I don't care if they are the cheapest around, and I will still be going to them anyway but the fact that I have to go in and sort it out myself like literally go in and buy it in a trolley and take it home in a taxi is disgusting. If I'd known, I'd have just done that in the first place. 

Sunday 15 April 2012

Fields of Thought

So far this week we haven't had any major hiccups with regards to the wedding planning, and I hope I'm not jinxing myself when I say that. But, if I am then at least we will know this whole jinxing malarky is actually real.

For anyone who prays can you please give Adam and I a little shout out for no rain on our big day. I don't mind if it rains a couple of days before and immediately the day after but y'know I have got to have something to work with.

I realised on the 12th as I was travelling up to Newcastle that it would be the last time I get the train to Adam's before we get married; and fingers crossed the last time I have to get a train for a long time. I also realised it was exactly a month to the date before we get married which is quite sweet. Then, major reality kicked in earlier this evening when I realised that this weekend is the last weekend I'll be up in Newcastle before we get married and the last time I see Adam's parents before the big day!

We still don't have bridesmaid dresses which are due to apparently arrive in 5 days and we are well on our way to buying the bridesmaids cardigans and shoes, just need one bridesmaid to get hers sorted and then we are all okay.

I go through bouts of calmness and craziness. I can really see how some people refer to the bride as a Bridezilla. I may have jabbed and poked a few times when things haven't gone my way but hey, if now isn't the time to be selfish then when is? I'd rather be 100% happy with things then just pretend. Sometimes however, I really don't mind at all - the brain boggles. It really does.


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Saturday 14 April 2012

Being Bridezilla

Whilst I have a spare minute I shall post.

We went to a wedding yesterday which was awesome. Everyone kept coming up to me and saying, "Not long now"... Yeah and don't we know it!

4 weeks today. Adam and I will be married. We both, now have the piece of paper that says we can get married all we need to do is not lose it.

We have everything sorted except the bridesmaid dresses which are due to arrive on the 20th of April. At the moment I am not really panicking since we still have a little time for them to come and make adjustments if needs be, it's just if something happens and we are still waiting for the dresses the week before, then, a word of warning, stay away from me. I may be an emotional time bomb waiting to blow up.

Adam and I sorted the table plan today. Or rather I did it and Adam made changes where necessary. We think we have everyone where we want them to be but sometimes it was just so hard to place people. I mean, we have invited people we want at the Reception because they are the closest people to us and we want to share some extra time with them, so of course we want them all to be right next to us. But I'm afraid someone is just going to have to be at the back. So, I'm sorry whoever you are at the back but we didn't place you there on purpose, we just placed you there because it was either that or everyone just sitting in a big circle around the Bride and Groom... oops sorry yeah, Adam and I.


Savoury food is now completely sorted. We are still waiting to hear about cutlery and plates. We haven't done the order of service or the order of the day for those that need it i.e. wedding photographer and people with cars. We haven't sorted any sweet foods but we are on the way with doing that and...

...Any ideas on how we can keep the drinks cold? I reckon it'll have to be a traditional ice bath full of bottles. But things are on their way to being sorted. Oh, and I still need to get my shoes.


Sorry for not posting for a few days I am going to try and post every day from now on because I feel my blog is a little like a soap opera, and people have to know what is going on.

Well, to be honest, at the minute not very much. I am finishing work in two weeks so I am pushing myself to get the NVQ that I started, finished and I am also trying to make sure I have everything else at my mums packed and ready to go when I move up North, to Newcastle. Lots of changes going on which will all come into affect after we get back from our Honeymoon on the 19th May 2012.

Tuesday 10 April 2012

The Ins and Outs

This Easter weekend has been so crazy. We've had my sisters at my mum's which means some serious girly catch-up time but it also means I don't get to post because I am so busy talking not typing. Sorry.

Not much has gone on though. We've finally got someone to do food for us. The amazing thing is, we are just going to give them the list and they're going to buy the food. Perfect. That's one responsibility off my hands and still another 50 in the balance.

Wedding planning is supposed to be a fun experience and I think between the stress outs and grumps it has been a very interesting time that I would never like to repeat again. The wedding ceremony and Reception seem to be pretty much sorted now. We just need to move on to the table plan, but I've no idea how my fiancee and I are going to do that because he's never here. We'll have to have a skype conference call or something.

We are torn between the idea of putting people next to people they know or putting them next to people they don't know. I think a lot of my friends would just about talk to anyone so there is no worry there. Then of course there are the whisperings of 'Oh now you can't put that person there, or that person there' but people shall just have to sit where we want them to sit. Afterall, it is only a day.

Next month we've had a blessing in the disguise of cakes and buns and sweet treats which means I've been able to put some money aside for my tiara and shoes. I could go in my bare feet but who knows what will be on the floor and I walk pretty flat footed... I know my name is Grace but I am certainly not the most Grace-ful person I know. I'll just have to learn how to walk properly.

Checking the List
 
Design, organise and write an order of the day for the Ceremony for guest
Organise and write an order of the 11th and 12th for the Wedding party (where people need to be)
Organise and write down a list of people we need for setting up the wedding, preparing food, handing out food and cleaning up after the wedding
Buy and pick up 5 bridesmaids pairs of shoes and shrugs for the day
Go shopping with my florist again to get flowers for the Reception
Contact someone regarding borrowing cutlery and plates for the wedding - if they dont have enough then we're pretty much screwed.
Making 140 favour bags
Design and write thank you cards for all favour bags
Design and write sweet tokens for the sweets table
Make sure we have a cake stand and cake knive for the day
Get Aaron and Haley to practice musical item & isle music
Organise transport for Reception-y things from house to chapel
Organise seating plan and write out as necessary
Actually set up the reception and chapel room


So, even though we've done a lot of things on the list already there are still other little niggles here and there that need to be sorted. They are kind of in the forefront of my mind but we are getting there with a lot of them.

The favour bags are definitely a work in progress. Last time I counted I think we had about 90ish. So that's not bad. We are still looking forward to seeing you all at the wedding.


 Oh, and if you read this and you know me from school, when I was younger etc. and you want to come to my Wedding Ceremony then please let me know. It's probably a bit late to try and book any time off work but in case you're reading this and think that you might really want to come along, it's not that I don't like you and haven't invited you it's just because my family is so big and Adam's family is so big we've had to put those people first.

Friday 6 April 2012

Now, That's Fascinating...

We (meaning Bethany and I) went shopping with mum today for her dress for the wedding. We thought it'd be a good idea to make sure mum gets something before there is a mad rush to get everything done and she ends up going in just her underwear.


I think we did very well actually. Bethany and I went through the whole of one floor of Debenhams and picked out lots of dresses we thought mum should try on. We didn't pick any really long ones but we picked some very pretty ones. We got to the dressing room with 10 dresses that Bethany and I had picked and 1 dress that mum picked. On one dress went, then off, then on went another dress, then off; we got through about 6 of the dresses before mum found one she really liked and Bethany and I agreed. It was only at this point that we realised it was the 1 dress that mum had actually picked out herself to try on. What are kids for really besides to make your life harder? We were very influential in the choosing of mum's dress, if she hadn't tried on all the ones Bethany and I had picked then she wouldn't have known that she definitely didn't want them, but, in fact had wanted the one dress she chose to try on.


So, with the dress out of the way we got onto a pair of shoes. We didn't find any of those in Debehams. Just a side note: if you're wanting to get Bridal shoes from Debenhams and you have a white dress, then go somewhere else. They had four racks of 'Bridal' shoes and NONE of them were white. They were all ivory and the shoes they did have that were white, were very high heels (1 pair) or very summery (wooden wedges). We went into M&S for mum's shoes; which she picked straight away.

Two shops two things bought. Mum sorted.

But, the funny thing about today was that Bethany and I were trying to get  Mum to buy a fascinator. She hates them. Doesn't see the point of them, and thinks they will make her head funny.


Well, some of them were so pretty hilarious, and did make her head look very elongated. I guess they're supposed to be big and all over the place but I know I'll never wear one unless it doesn't look so over the top like the ones we same today. I mean, one of them was so big I don't think anyone could sit within half of metre of me because it went so far out on my head. I'd probably poke someone's eye out...

I wonder why fascinators always look better on someone else but never good on me. We had a good laugh anyway.


Food, Flowers and Cake on the agenda for the end of April, which brings us to 2 weeks before the wedding. Ahhhhhh

37 favour bags down (a friend has another 19) 46 down - 104 to go....

Thursday 5 April 2012

Majorly Awesome Things

So, there has been loads going on this week!

I haven't posted every day mainly because I've been so busy making bags... lots of bags. Every day.

But, also because if I tell you everything and show you everything that is going to be at the wedding then you'll not actually want to come because you'll have seen everything.

Lots of majorly awesome things happened this week.

Everything I ordered from the internet got delivered... One thing got delivered Tuesday and I only ordered it on Saturday. Not bad for timing or posting at all.


 I got to buy some really lovely wrapping paper from a shop where it was like 75% off... so I thought, "Thank you very much!" I bought 8 rolls and now I think half the staff in Wilkinsons now know I am getting married in 5 weeks. I was at the checkout and they asked what the wrapping paper was for so I said I was making 150 bags for my wedding. They asked when it was and I told them it was in 5 weeks time. (Grace 1 Wilkinsons 0)


Then I asked a guy if they had double sided sticky tape and they showed me where it was but then I asked how much I would need for all the wrapping paper I was using. He asked what I was using it for so I said for favour bags, for my wedding.... and then I slyly may have possibly added that I was getting married in 5 weeks (Grace 2 Wilkinsons 0). I paid for the double sided tape in the dowstairs area of Wilkinsons, at this point nobody asked what I was using it for but I thought I might aswell tell them anyway.... (Grace 3 Wilkinsons 0).

Then, yesterday I got even more post. Even more Reception things! Yay!

But, today. Today was the best.

Also delivered today 13 Pistachio 3 Yellow
 Today I got my piece of paper that said I can get married. I can officially get married. In the eyes of the law there is no reason why I cannot get married to Adam. Yay! But, on a sidenote, the people in the Registry office really need to like smile or something, or take a chill pill or have some chocolate because they are the grumpiest most depressing people ever. Someone should teach them to smile. I was on the weddings floor not the registry of sad things (like the d word). So yeah, I really need to put this piece of paper somewhere that it won't get lost.

AND!!!! TODAY!! My florist and friend, Sarah, brought my flowers over to my house!!! All of my bridesmaids flowers and my flowers. They. Are. Amazing.

Speechlessly amazing. The flowers had to come here because Sarah has a cute, but quite destructive child (so she says), so we had to take them. I don't mind though. I have been staring at them on and off for a few hours.

Only a select few get to see them though! Sorry! You'll just have to wait.

Sunday 1 April 2012

Random Bridal Rambling

I have been posting in this blog on and off since October 8th 2011, which seems ages ago now. I saw a screenshot of my desktop screen when I first got my countdown calender and it said 177 days to go... where on earth has 137 days gone?


We started making favour bags today. It is actually cheaper to make them than to buy them, thank goodness. They are being made out of wrapping paper because we don't want them to be too thick but just heavy enough to hold what we need in them. We got 19 bags from 1 sheet of 50p wrapping paper. I love the paper though! It's not red like I originally thought but it's actually white with red spots... sort of a spots theme going on, I wonder why?

When Mum and I started making 'mock' bags it was really interesting to see that so many people have so many different ways of making paper bags. Mum knew one, I found one online and then after all that we've chosen to make them from a completely different design altogether.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ir3UXImfPmA&feature=fvwrel

(I would put the video in but for some reason Youtube on blogger doesn't think it exists - but it does)


We've actually on just cut out 19 A4 sized pieces of wrapping paper to put into bags, just need another 131... I suppose it'll keep me busy. But already my list of things to do has gone down quite a bit. My auntie is going to do the sweet's tokens for me, and once we give her the details of the Order of Service I am leaving all of that in her *fingers crossed* capable hands. My auntie is very artistic though so I should be okay. Just the control freak inside me, and I don't like telling people to change something if it's not what I want... I feel bad. Anyway, so this is what we have left to do:

Design, organise and write an order of the day for the Ceremony for guest (meeting with Bishop next Sunday to discuss this)
Organise and write an order of the 11th and 12th for the Wedding party (Yeeahh.... we'll get there on this one)
Pay the photographer (2/3 done)
Pay the sweets table lady (90% done)
Organise and write down a list of people we need for setting up the wedding, preparing food, handing out food and cleaning up after the wedding (Yeaahhh.... I wrote the list just needs organising)
Buy and pick up 5 bridesmaids pairs of shoes and shrugs for the day (14th April)
Organise and write a list of food for the day that will feed the five thousand (written just needs organising)
Go shopping with my florist again to get flowers for the Reception (Beginning of May)
Buy food and drink for the day (Yeaahh... we'll get there on this one HELP)
Contact someone regarding borrowing cutlery and plates for the wedding - if they dont have enough then we're pretty much screwed. (the person we need to contact is on holiday - how useful lol)
Making 140 favour bags (work in progress)
Design and write thank you cards for all favour bags (waiting until we get some engagement pictures taken, we're going to use those for the thank you cards - 28th April)
Make sure we have a cake stand and cake knive for the day (was borrowing a cake stand from someone at church but not heard anything recently)
Get Aaron and Haley to practice musical item & isle music (next week)
Organise transport for Reception-y things from house to chapel (hmmm.... any volunteers)
Organise seating plan and write out as necessary (will happen few weeks before wedding, when we know who is coming)
Actually set up the reception and chapel room (week before wedding)


So, I do have sort of everything planned and although the list isn't much shorter a lot of things are in the process of getting sorted. We'll get there.

Saturday 31 March 2012

Same Old Saturday

I know it might seem to some that I'm not very excited about mine and Adam's wedding but I assure you I am. I am very excited about it. I am just not 'normal girl' excited about it. But I do like to talk about it at every given oppotunity that I can. I mean I started randomly talking to this woman who worked in Boyes today about tiaras, little did I know that she already knows about my wedding since she's a member from Bradford, but how was I supposed to know that?! She just got to find out some more information anyway.


Oo people!!!! 6 WEEKS TODAY!! You can tell that it's getting close because I've stopped counting down the months and started counting down on my fingers! Well I have got a lot sorted today and in the past few days it's just still this stupid food matter. I mean, we have to get prepared 225 sandwiches.... and we want to home cook/bake a lot of things so we're needing to put a list together of how much we need of each specific thing and then ask people at church if they can roll their sleeves up, get their aprons on, get the family involved and start baking. Annoyingly enough though, baking and cooking and making can only be done earliest a couple of days before the wedding, which is in 6 weeks... did I say?


We need 5 groups of people, some people can be in more than one group and no group is cooler than the other. We need groups that will:

Cook the food before the wedding
Set up the chapel with us
Prepare the food on the morning of the wedding
Serve the food at the Reception
Clean up the mess than nearly 150 people make.

Any volunteers??


On other news, today I bought lots of things for the Reception.

Got to love internet shopping. I stayed on budget for pretty much everything besides the stuff I can't add up properly so that's why it wasn't right in the first place. But I bought:

Wedding Guest Book
Battery Powered LED's
Crystals for Tables
Table Runners & Chair Bows
Bubbles
Doilies
Car Ribbon
Table Banqueting Roll

So that's it. All sorted for the reception (except for the flowers). You'll have some nice, beautiful tables to sit at, but with no food. It's all good. You can just talk and we'll order pizza!


Just kidding.

I'll get it sorted. Honest. Just not this week because the chapel isn't open tomorrow because of General Conference, so looks like it'll be next Sunday, AHH! Easter Sunday!

Friday 30 March 2012

Posh Picnic

I think it's time I started talking about the food with other people besides my mum.

It's probably been put off for a while because I didn't want to think about the size of the task at hand, but I suppose I'd better get it sorted or else nobody is eating anything at the wedding. Not that I'll notice or anything.


We're having a posh picnic; meaning we're having a picnic but inside and at a dinner table. People who know me know I'm not one for going posh. When you think of a wedding table and food you most probably think of the best crystal glasses, perfectly hired china and the food available... not to mention the fact that you have two glasses to drink from and lots of cutlery. I think usually there are at least two forks, two knives and two spoons. At our wedding there will be one of each for each person. You'll toast with whatever you have filled up in your glass and I'll even be happy if you toast with an empty glass!

This posh picnic won't include the usual table cloths and such but it'll be all the table rolls and organza material I ordered for table runners. But, what it will include is:
Quiche portions

Triangle cut sandwiches

Sausage rolls

Victoria sponge

Jam tarts
 So you're average every day picnic really. I am really hoping the weather will hold out for us, but don't worry my friend and florist, Sarah, have quite a few tricks up our sleeves for bringing the outdoors in!

Well, mum did always used to call me the coal-miner's daughter.

We added up roughly that we will need about 275 sandwiches so... times that by 4 (because thats the sandwiches cut into triangles) and that is oh, only 1100 triangles.... not that many then. We're thinking of seperately savoury and sweet just so it's easier to access when people are going in and out. It is going to be so much fun! All bright and breezy. I just hope that the picture I have in my head comes out okay in reality, I mean I do usually have a good eye for this type of thing but who knows... Sometimes I wonder whether I actually have a brain at all.