'London here we come!' - The Hen Weekend...

I cannot recommend a bloody good hen weekend enough to anyone getting married. It is an awesome way to de-stress, enjoy the girls and come back with a clear head.

For the previous couple of weeks I'd been getting extremely stressed out and worked up by a lot of things to do with the wedding and to be honest I couldn't wait for it all to be over. It got to the point where I didn't even want to go on my own hen weekend and was seriously thinking of calling it off - thank you hubstobe for talking me out of that one!

So, what happened...

I'm going to steal Kez's list of events and expand on them!

Imaginary friends & the gatecrashing lady our train journey - Kez was the only one boarding the train at Birmingham (the rest of us were getting on at Warwick Parkway) so had to pretend she had lots of imaginary friends so she could bag us two tables for the journey. There were seven of us so we piled our bags into one seat and took up the other seven, only for a lady to get on and insist she had that seat despite there being others nearby?!

Kirsty identifying Cox when she couldn't find Oli & Glee being their new song - the girls had arranged party games 'Guess Oli's body parts' and 'Mr & Mrs'. I however, managed to pick Kez's husband out a couple of times instead of Oli lol! I also found out that 'our' song according to Oli is Glee's 'Don't Stop Believing' despite our first dance bing to a Take That number?! BOYS!!

"Why are you Lebanese?" - Stoopid dance teacher. As we were having a Glee themed dance lesson the girls had arranged t-shirts like the cast wore in the 'Born this way' episode. Mine said 'Can't sing' - thank you for that one Lauren! Anyone who watches the show will know that Britney thought lesbains were Lebanese hence Lauren's t-shirt lol!

Don't stop believing/single ladies megamix requires a double vodka - we even managed to get a bit of the single ladies routine into it whoop whoop!

Short changing the taxi driver to Revolution - this bit I know nothing about?!

Cocktails, Elvis cocktails & the chilli shots (inc his & Lauren's 3!) - possibly the best bit of the evening, our cocktail lesson at revolution in Soho. Amazing fun, we were trollied by 7:30pm!! and there were chilli shots for those who lost each cocktail race - poor Lauren got 3 and informed us she had red pooh the next morning!

Shot train not working - poor Elvis, our cocktail teacher, was trying to impress us ladies with his shot train only for it to fail at the first glass!

Our fancy dress theme being über popular...oh and Friar tuck - possibly THE best fancy dress theme ever! London underground stations - I was Maida Vale. 

A few more highlights from the weekend...

£50 rickshaw rides & "the chase" - beat that rickshaw & take them out if you have to
Robbie Savage welcome & Kez's attempt to sneak in free
Weird oriental pole dancing & old grannies
"My Frangita" is for pleasure
£17.40 for 3 shots of vodka & 1 can of monster
Singing Pink songs to the taxi driver on the way home
KFC & no zinga towers!
Dolly getting the night of her life
Late night fag stop with Imo in pj's, OCD t-shirt, blazer & no shoes
Wasted by 7.30pm & in bed before midnight

I'll leave you all to wonder about these ones lol! 

 A HUGE thank you goes to Kez for her amazing organisational skills and for giving me an even better hen weekend than I could have imagined or planned myself. You are a star and I'm incredibly lucky to have such fabulous friends xx 

Celebrations & Smiles...

It's been a week of good things all round for us really (at long last things seem to be working out & heading in the right direction!)
It started on Monday with the news that I had got the transfer I had requested to another store, which in turn meant we can now rent our first proper home together...excited muchly!

The happy week ended with Oli's graduation ceremony at Coventry Cathedral on Thursday 24th November. I can't begin to tell you how proud I am of him and what he has managed to achieve.

For reasons I won't go in to, there were times when I thought we'd never get here and there were times when I thought he was giving up which is why these happy photos mean so much to me. It was a fabulous end to an awesome week - I only hope it continues! : )

All that's left for me to say is "Ol, I love you so much, I'm so very proud of you & I can't wait to be your wife!" xx

One, yes just ONE month to go!...

I can't quite believe I'm writing this but yep, there's just one month to go, four weeks on saturday until I get to marry my most favouritest man in the wholest, widest world!

So, what's left to do?

Not a lot at all to be honest! This last week we've paid for the car, the church and then the hotel at our 'final details' meeting today. The timings have been agreed for the running of the day and all that's left to do is enjoy the rest of the run up.

And then there's my hen weekend, this weekend in London and I can't wait to have a girly weekend full of fun & surprises (nice ones I hope lol!)

Until next time xx

Is it time for another update?...

It's been a while coming but I can actually see everything coming together now and it's exciting...so ridiculously exciting! So exciting, that if I think about it too much I start to feel sick, you know like you did as a kid before Christmas?!

Just me then? ; )

I've just spent this morning listing and sorting and listing and packing and listing everything. Yes, I'm a huge fan of lists as you may have already gathered, so much so that I'm going to share my updated "To Do..." list with you in a bit! You lucky lot!!

We now have boxes and boxes of stuff...24 to be precise. All neatly arranged into three piles - Church, Daytime & Evening. Hubstobe is going to think I've completely lost the plot when he gets home from work tonight lol.

So, the earlier mentioned updated "To Do..." list? It's here:


The Order of Service

• meet with vicar to finalise hymns, readings & Order of Service (21st Sept)
• order 10 extra blanks 
• order paper for inserts
• make up extras
• print inserts
• assemble them 

The Church

• give readers copies of their readings
• type up & print 'posh' copies for the day
• finish pew end decorations
• sort confetti bags & orders of service into baskets for 'bride' or 'groom'
• pay for church 

Daytime Reception

• decide on cupcake designs
• finalise and put names on table plan
• fill favour boxes
• print labels for favour boxes
• write names on placecards
• sort all bits into a box for each table
• make up pom poms for wall
• print photos for wall
• assemble 'bunting' for wall
• make up pom poms for vases on top table, cake table & guest book table
• paint stems on stars for above vases
• draw up layout of room and give to wedding co-ordinator
• buy ribbons for wall display
• buy pegs for wall display 
• make up pom poms for tables
• paint welcome sign 
• buy frames for welcome table
• print photos for welcome table
• print inserts for menu's and assemble them 
• buy decorations for reception xmas tree 

Evening Reception

• paint signs for dress up box
• type up 'instructions' for dress up box to go in frame
• buy a few more hats for dress up box
• put sweets into jars for candy store
• label jars
• sort items into separate boxes 
• find a dress up box
• pay for DJ
• paint frame for dress up box
• pegs for dress up 'smile' bunting 

Photographer

• arrange meeting to discuss ideas etc
• pay for photographer

Other Bits

• complete gift list at John Lewis
• make up H2B's waistcoat
• paint 'thank you' sign
• buy gifts for best man, ushers, bridesmaids, flower girl, parents & readers
• pay for car

See! There really isn't a lot left to do at all so, fingers crossed, the three days I have off work before the big day will hopefully be spent pampering and generally enjoying the excitement of the build up...I did say fingers crossed!!
; )

I'm feeling quite calm about it all now it's all been listed and sorted - if only you could see how anal I have been lol - so I can now look forward to the things we've got happening before the big day...

• supporting hubstobe in the Birkett Relay 6hr race at Silverstone
• bonfire night & fireworks (I'm such a kid!) 
• my hen weekend...woooohoooo!!!
• hubstobe's graduation ceremony
• christmas shopping

And on that note I'm off to write up my list for the reception co-ordinator : )
Until next time xx

2 MONTHS TO GO!...

Wowsers! There's just two months left to go before the big day! Really cannot wait to be a Mrs now : ) xx  

Time keeps ticking!...

After a couple of major panic sessions I feel like I'm back on track with everything...at last! The 'To Do' list is slowly but surely becoming smaller and to be completely honest - it wouldn't majorly affect the day if those things weren't completed.

The meeting with the vicar went well - all of our hymns, readings & music are sorted  - just waiting on him to agree the draft of our Order of Service and we can get those printed and made up. This is where I start getting frustrated...when I have to wait for other people before I can continue with what I need to do...impatient should be my middle name!!

All of our RSVP's have been returned with only one 'no'...which I'm amazed and incredibly honored at to be honest! So now to the table plan...
This has not been as problematic as I thought it would be, at all, we're very lucky in that we don;t have the usual 'oh they can't sit with so and so' and 'ooh they don't like each other really' so fingers crossed all of our guests will be happy with where they've been put!

My next task is to lose a stone before the wedding! I always thought that having to get into a wedding dress would be all the motivation I needed but it appears I was very wrong! All I want to do is eat - and not healthy stuff either. I'm craving sweets & chocolate all the time...what is wrong with me?! Will keep you posted with how I get on over the next few weeks though!

Until next time...
xx

Three months to go! : ) ...

It doesn't seem five minutes since I was writing the 'four months to go' post! Any way there's now just...

...months to go!!

Time for a quick update? Well, we're pretty much sorted! There's just a few little bits to make up, a few RSVPs to chase up and the table plan to sort & put together - can't wait for that one lol!

We went along to a wedding fair at the hotel last week which although was no use to us in terms of suppliers it was great to see the room properly set up for a wedding...very exciting!

The mini-moon in Edinburgh is paid for and we can't wait for a few days away together as Mr & Mrs.

The preparations for our hen & stag weekends are in full swing and the suspense is killing me, I'm not gonna lie! I love and hate surprises in equal measure!

I think that's all, we're having a wedding-free weekend this weekend...just lots of rugby and a bit of shopping...heaven! : ) xx