Wedding preparations

[Anna]

Mmmmm, dreamy!!! Love those shoes! I know how hard it was for me finding wedding shoes, lucked out though as I found Italian handmade ones in 2 1/2 UK size 5 8?) US ladies and I wanted soemthing not squared and flat heeled LOL

As for wearing in leather shoes an old way is to wear thin sock, newly washed so they are still damp and walk around until they are dry so to speak... Not a comfy feeling be yields comfy fitting shoes :lol:

Hugs

[Elicia]

Muriel, your dress is lovely and it looks like it was made especially for you and no one else....and...THE SHOES........OMG, I love them....I liked the first ones but I like these even more....you are going to be such a beautiful bride.......

e.

[Muriel]

Well plenty of stress over here now, to do with official people telling me various and wrong things about what paperwork etc I need. Not impressed at all! Doesn't do me any good stressing, especially as it is always when I want to go to sleep that I think about it :yes: Anyway, don't want to go into details, but it'll be mighty close whether we'll be registered in time for getting married on the date we want.

In the UK you have to get married in a registered premises for it to be legal, with a Registrar. It isn't a case of just anyone applying to be a Registrar and getting married wherever. With this in mind we've always said we would do our own Celebration (in an unregistered premises) with our own words and our friend leading it, and then have our Reception at the same venue. That way we don't have to transport people between venues, it is cheaper and more people can attend. Then we'd do the legal bit seperately with just very close family, and not make a thing of it, just look on it as signing the paper. This is supposed to be on the morning of the Celebration day, but if we don't get the right paperwork back by the Celebration date at the end of May, we'll just postpone the legal bit. Still stressful though!

On the plus side we're getting decorations slowly sorted. One of the supermarkets here has just started a new summer range of stuff and I saw these and thought they looked lovely and weddingy. So we got them for the tables and then along with that decided that having bigger versions at the doors would be lovely too. So we're looking into fake trees, hiring trees and buying trees. At the moment I think we're going for buying them, but they are rather expensive. We found some lavender trees at a garden center, and if we give the trees away as presents to parents after the day, then I think it is worth it. These are similar, but not the exact ones we're looking at.

The other colours we've got are dark blue and bright orange/pink. So want my wedding bouquet to have the orange/pink roses. Again looking into having a bouquet made with a round head of roses and a stem to hold. Debating whether to get a bouquet of artifical flowers(in an orange/pink colour) so I have a reminder forever or whether to get real flowers. Thinking maybe artificial for the bouquet and real for the buttonholes and corsages. What do you think?

[KathieB]

I'd vote for real flowers in the bouquet and a sort of trailing bouquet design to go with the lovely flowing lines of the dress and train. A basketball bouquet seems too starkly modern for the traditional theme that you are following. The roundness of the topiaries, though, I think is spot on. :yes:

[Scotty]

Hi Muriel, just followed your wedding thread and think it's all looking great, you must be very excited. I would go for real flowers too. I had silk flowers for my first wedding and always wished I'd had real ones instead. I thought it would be nice to keep the flowers but in reality they lived in the loft after the wedding and I didn't do anything with them anyway. When I remarried I had real roses sprigged with rosemary and the fragrance was beautiful, kept wafting over me throughout the day - lovely.

[KathieB]

:o White roses with sprigs of rosemary and lavender. Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh

[havanaholly]

White roses with sprigs of rosemary and lavender. Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh

There she goes, reading my mind again! I agree that a trailing bouquet of real flowers would look more in keeping with that dress and those gorgeous shoes.

[Muriel]

A trailing bouquet it is! It'll have some bright roses and small ivory orchids in it, can't remember what they are called, but they are multiple blossoms on one stem.

4 weeks to go! :wub: Haven't heard anything about the paperwork yet, but not been thinking about it either. Got other things to worry about :wub:

My grandmother is sending me a couple necklaces from america for the wedding. So we've been looking out for a package. They were supposed to be delivered on the 19th, but didn't (I was in until 3:45pm) so we thought they might have gotten stuck in the volcano flight ban. But by tuesday 8 days later they still hadn't arrived. Grandma tracked them and it said they'd attempted delivery on the 19th! Nonsense! I was in and no card was left, so we didn't know who to call to find out what happened either. Called in at our local post office, but they didn't have it and didn't have a clue about which company might have tried to deliver it. Anyway, eventually found out through the USPS that it was Parcelforce that were supposed to deliver it. So I phoned them and they said they'd sent two letters to say it was with them awaiting customs payment. Odd that we didn't get either letter, and very odd that it said delivery was attempted! So I paid the charge and had it redirected to the local office and asked Chris to pick it up today. Well he decided he didn't have enough time (which I dispute, he just isn't organised enough :angry: - I'd asked him to try after work at around 4, but he could have tried earlier in the day when he went to the shop next door to get a snack! grrrrrr) So now he's away and can't pick it up tomorrow. Post office is open 9-12:30, I'm working 9-1. Monday is bank holiday, so it is closed then too. Which means tuesday. Really we (grandma and I) wanted to make sure it was there today! Will have to see whether I'm comfortable enough bribing one of the people at work to pop to the post office for me as I can't leave the shop even for a minute tomorrow

Photos: had a great professional photographer and a student of hers booked for the wedding. Found out tuesday that she has a 90th family birthday booked that weekend and can't do our wedding after all. But has passed on her role to another student, who she says will probably take better pictures than her anyway... Well was going to go for just students to start with anyway as we couldn't really afford a professional, but after arranging a professional I'm disappointed not to have her! No so much about quality of pictures, more the experience. But I'm sure the pictures will be fabulous anyway. We're meeting with the students in a the next week or so.

Shoes haven't stretched enough yet, but we're investigating further stretchers so am confident it'll be fine on the day.

Gotta sort out my recipes and shopping list next I think for our arrival cornbread and later desserts. Also having a water bar with various cordials, squashes, fruit etc to put into water, so need to sort out what we need for that too.

Cakes are sorted, but gotta find a cake knife! might just end up being a regular sharp knife.

Gotta hire drinks glasses. Still working out the numbers for that.

Still need to make our guest book. Saw a book online where instead of people writing on the pages, there were little envelopes stuck to each page and you put little notes with messages on in each envelope. Really liked that idea, so making a book like that.

This weekend we'll sort out my hair and figure out what to do with it with mummy and sister.

And then in a couple weeks gotta get my nails done! Looking forward to that. It is an unusual thing here to have false nails, but I've had them a few times in the past (mainly in the usa!). They are quite fun and I'm looking forward to the pampering :throw:

One thing we haven't yet found is a cake topper. We want Elliot the elephant cake toppers, but can't find any for sale. They used to make them, but can't find any now. Chris' brother was going to try and make some, but he is in his final year of university and his final exhibition is the week after our wedding, so he's a bit stressed and busy. So looking myself, but not finding! These would be ideal but are out of stock, so might have to make some myself similar to these. Anyone have other ideas? or seen any for sale?

4 Weeks!

[Anna]

Sounds like you have a plan on how to tackle all those "need to do" things real well Muriel!

Not familiar with the Elliot elephant cake toppers but found some darling elephant toppers over on ebay when trying to find a pic of one... Sounds lovley and will also suit that wonderful fabric really well!

Hugs

[Scotty]

Hi Muriel, you sound very busy but organised. I've never heard of a water bar before, good idea. I had problems with Parcelforce delivering from USA too. I ended up going on a consumer programme to get them to sort it out as they wouldn't respond directly to me.

Loving hearing all the wedding plans.

[Selkie]

Muriel, is this what you are talking about ? Or something along this type of thing?

The "water bar" - sounds yummy and very chic.

Water Bar article

Here is a picture of how someone set one up.

Sounds like a lovely wedding ... love the idea of the Lavender and trailing flowers and greenery.

[Muriel]

Similar, but I would let the people make their own flavours. Tried to link to where I got the idea, but it seems to not be there anymore. The blurb from lazybride.com about it was:

With summer weddings approaching, I thought I'd share this refreshing (and cost-effective) idea along. If you're having an outdoor wedding, why not offer guests a water bar to quench their thirst?

Offer still water infused with cucumber slices. Have fresh herbs like basil, mint or thyme in pretty vases as well as fresh cut fruit, like limes, lemons and starfruit. Chill a bottle of sparkling water (like Perrier or San Pelegrino) in a wine cooler made out of ice with fresh flowers suspended within for a pretty touch.

Basically I'm thinking bottles/jugs of water, ice, bowls of cut fruit (different fruit in each bowl), and some flavoured cordials/syrups so you can make your own flavoured drink.

Got my pearls! A kind lady from work went and got them for me. Grandma sent three different lengths to try out, so I'll take my dress along tomorrow and figure it out with mummy and sister when we do hair.

[Anna]

Really like the water bar idea Muriel. SO happy to hear that you did get the pearls, it is never easy to await things, esepcially when you know they are "just around the corner" so to speak.

Hugs

[KathieB]

Oh, Muriel, it's all coming together! It's going to be a wonderful day for you and Chris!

[Muriel]

Hair is just about sorted now! Will have it up in a decorated bun with flowers and pearls around it. The hair will be braided or twisted on top before it gets to the bun. Sister is making earrings to go with the pearl necklace and bracelet. Gotta sort out the makeup now!