Purple and Pearls

All the blogs I read are telling me Spring is here…  I’m not convinced (Although I did go the whole day yesterday believing the clocks had gone forward and my mobile phone had “auto-corrected” the time whilst I was asleep… no I’m not a natural blonde!)

Outside is grey, dull and rainy.  It feels like ages since I’ve seen the sun, in fact we had a discussion in the office about the last time we had seen a beach.  Sunday 6th December in Rhyl.  It was freezing!  Before that I can’t remember!

To cheer myself up I’ve been looking at pictures of the places we’ll be going on our honeymoon.  Yes, not everywhere we go will allow us to wear shorts and t-shirts, but none the less it’s cheered me up.  I feel like I need a holiday but today November seems a million miles away.

I found posts about San Francisco on the English Muse, which instantly lifted my spirits

Saturday morning the plan was to, pick up Mom, pick up Natalie, pick up Suzie and be at the bridal shop for 10.45.  Easy…

Problem 1.  I struggled to get out of bed so didn’t arrive to pick up Mom until 10:18.  After throwing a jam sandwich (breakfast) into my mouth we raced off to pick up Natalie.

Problem 2.
Mom “What time did you tell Natalie we would be picking her up?“
Me “Erm I didn’t! I thought you were telling Natalie what time we’d be picking her up…”

Cue lots of frantic phone calls to poor Natalie who was still in bed!  Change of plan, grab Suzie – who was wearing the “Bridesmaid” rhinestone t-shirt I had made her when I first asked if she’d be my bridesmaid (Isn’t she super!) – then shoot round to Natalie who had only had 15 minutes to wake up and get ready!  (Sorry Natalie, next time I promise I’ll give you more notice!  Thanks for being such a star!)

We arrived at Sallie Bee Brides a little late but it didn’t really matter.  The shop was heaving.

Problem 3.  Despite the Mark Lesley website saying that this shop stocked the dress I had originally wanted to see, they didn’t have it in.  A little disappointing, but they did have something very similar.
The owner of the shop Silvia was lovely.  She advised us on colours and styles and after grabbing a few dresses off the racks we were shown to the quieter changing rooms upstairs.

The first dress Natalie tried on was by True and she instantly fell in love with it.  An a-line taffeta dress which ruches at the side and has bead details.  Suzie later tried it on and I have to say it’s a strong contender.
Another dress I really liked was by Mark Lesley, it was a simple taffeta dress with a diamond brooch detail

Happy Saturday!

I know I said we would split Suzie’s wedding into 5 parts but we thought it would be nice to finish it properly so we have extended it to this post.

I know this doesn’t really follow the whole Friday Photo theme but it sums up my week pretty well and like it!

Happy Weekend! x

By the time the evening guests started to arrive the atmosphere had really settled down – there was no stress in the air everyone was having a great time. The DJ had started playing, I was floating around the room greeting people and telling them what a wonderful day it had been so far.

The shrugs were off and people started to filter onto the dace floor, it was time for me to pop back up to the room with my lovely bridesmaids! My GORGEOUS Vivienne Westwood shoes as amazing as they were killed my feet so I quickly snuck into my trainers and hoped no one would know (of course everyone knew as soon as I started dancing, bouncing around like a lunatic!).

We went back down stairs and all started to dance and before I knew it they were announcing that we were going to cut the cake, now this is another one of those things that no one really tells you that you should practice but I think that you should! How do you cut the cake?  If it’s tiered which tier do you cut? How do you hold the knife…..?  So many things to think about! We had no idea what we were doing, I thought back to friend’s weddings and what they did.  Right, ok Rob place your hand over mine and we basically just hold the knife over the cake and then cut… we seriously fudged it up! At one point Rob put his hand across my chest, God only knows why!! Well we did our best that’s all I can say!

To my delight the DJ announced that our band “Fatlip” would be playing the first dance song, Rob and I made our way onto the dance floor and Pete (long time friend, lead singer of “Fatlip” and top class usher) started to play. Rob had chosen a really funny, sweet song as our first dance, its called “Grow Old With You” and is sung by Adam Sandler in the film “The Wedding Singer”

I wanna make you smile whenever you’re sad
Carry you around when your arthritis is bad
All I wanna do is grow old with you

I’ll get your medicine when your tummy aches
Build you a fire if the furnace breaks
Oh it could be so nice, growing old with you

I’ll miss you
Kiss you
Give you my coat when you are cold

Need you
Feed you
Even let you hold the remote control

So let me do the dishes in our kitchen sink
Put you to bed when you’ve had too much to drink
Oh I could be the man who grows old with you
I wanna grow old with you

Neither Rob nor I are very good dancers so luckily the song only lasted about a minute and a half, we romantically shuffled around the floor, it was lovely! As soon as our first dance was finished the band struck up and just blew the night away! They were incredible!! Everyone commented on them! If you need a really good funk, soul and blues band let us know!

The evening continued with dancing, drinking and lots of general merriment until the wee small hours of the morning. As Rob and I said goodnight to our few remaining hard core party guests and retired to our room we were greeted with such a lovely surprise, Moo and Beth had decorated our room up with loads of battery tea lights that flickered in blue, blue rose petals scattered on our bed and on the floor it looked so lovely! There was also 2 ice buckets on out table one containing a bottle of champagne and one containing a 2 pint of skimmed milk… WHAAAA I hear you say… haha…

Also on the table were 2 champagne glasses decorated with Mr & Mrs E and 2 cereal bowls one with Bob and one with Squish and a box of Weetos!! I heart Weetos!!!

Thank you girls im not sure if even you will know this Moo…but when Rob and I arrived in our room and enjoyed all the decoration we went to turn on the lights and we’d had a power cut! It took me a while to realize that we had actually had a power cut and it was not something you girls had done!! Rob had to go down to reception and get them to turn on our lights!! As Rob and I turned off the lights (once we had then turned back on of course) and settled down to sleep it was such a wonderful feeling knowing in the morning I would wake up next to my husband for the first time…

Sneak a peak tomorrow to see the dreaded morning after pictures!

Supplier List
Wedding Venue – The Forest Hotel – Dorridge
Wedding Dress – D2031 – Eternity Bridal
Menswear – Moss Bros
Bridesmaids Dresses – 6537 - Alfred Angelo
Cake Makers – Elite Cake Design
Photographer – Stu Moles – Razorsmile
Decoration – Balloon Heydays
Make Up – Liz Burrows – Beautiful Day
Hair – Katie – Perfexion Hair
Shoes – Vivienne Westwood
Veil – eBay made by a seller called Kalandra
Headpiece – Flo and Percy

We’ve booked in to a local bridal shop tomorrow to see their bridesmaid dress collection.

I’ll have Suzie and Natalie with me to offer their opinions and maybe try on a few frocks.

Unfortunately Hayley is working so won’t be able to join us. (I’m sure she’s secretly relieved… standing in a dressing room in your smalls, whilst a lady you’ve never met before thrusts a giant mass of net and dress over your head isn’t really anyone’s idea of fun!)

I’m really liking this dress at the moment from Mark Lesley

style 1096

Hopefully they’ll do it in a variety of purple colours for me to choose from!

After yesterday’s wobble and the kind advice and support from everyone I think I’ve come to realise it was the shape of the white bouquet that I loved.

If I can have a big fluffy purple bouquet I’ll be a happy girl!

So flowers to make my bouquet fluffy.

Before going out into the reception area to greet our guests as husband and wife Rob and I had a few quiet moments in the separate room just to sit and enjoy. This was really nice, we drank Bucks Fizz and chatted with our closets family who were there with us. After about 10 minutes I was getting itchy about my guests and wanted to share my happiness so we ventured out of the room and into the reception and bar where they were all waiting and enjoying drinks!

It was a really great feeling to be greeting my guests with hugs and kisses as Rob’s wife! Robs wife!! WOW that is only just sinking in! What a wonderful feeling!

We had lots of candid photos taken in the bar before we rallied the troops together and headed outside for a couple of group shots! I was really excited to be able to get the whole gathering in the photo; I hadn’t thought we would get the weather to enable us to! The Wednesday and Thursday before the wedding we had had a great downpour of snow which had caused us a few problems, the main one being that Birmingham Airport was closed and ‘The Germans’ were due to fly in Thursday morning – their flight was cancelled!!! NIGHTMARE, they managed to get another flight out which arrived on Friday afternoon. I thought even if the snow clears it will be too cold for us to stand out and have photos taken in my strapless dress (brrr) but I can honestly say I couldn’t feel a thing – not once did I feel the cold.

It’s really great to be able to look back on a photo of all our guests looking so happy for us. After a few more photos with the family we headed inside where the ceremony room had been transformed into our wedding breakfast room. I decided if I was going to make it through the meal and speeches it would be a good idea to make a quick loo-stop! I grabbed the girls and we headed off. Now im not sure how many people realize when they are jumping for joy that they have been chosen by their dear friend to be a bridesmaid just what the ‘job’ entails, most of it will be dress shopping and cake tasting etc….. But one job in particular that’s kept quiet until a couple of days prior to the big day is your bridesmaid duty to accompany you to the loo and hoik your dress above your head while you pee!! CLASSY! This is something I had always assumed would be the case. Well as it happens I decided to relieve my bridesmaids of this task and opted for stripping off and going to the loo solo! I think this worked much better!! My dress had quite a simple fastening so it was easy to jump in and out. We went up to the room; I jumped out of my dress and did the biz. Rob and I decided to sneak off for a quick cuddle in our room before the breakfast started, me in my infinite wisdom thought…’I know instead of getting back into my dress now ill wrap myself in a towel and dash quickly up the 2 flights of stairs to our room, everyone will be downstairs, no one will see’ – WRONG I dashed in my undies wrapped in a towel and met on the way my now brother-in-law, my aunt and uncle and my cousin!!! 

Rob and I got about 5 minutes together to reflect on the ceremony and have a quick cuddle before I rushed back downstairs luckily only meeting my brother-in-law again on the stairs to the room where the girls helped my back into my dress. 

The tables were all set and people started filtering in for some food, Rob and I were the last to enter and were announced by the hotel manager, they flung the doors open everyone cheered and standing before us was a tunnel of our men saluting us with lightsabres! It was so great and a memory I will never forget! 

We took our seats and began the meal. We had chosen the following menu for our wonderful guests:

Starter
Roast Tomato Soup, with Basil Croutons

Main Course
Braised Shank of Lamb 

With garlic Potatoes, Glazed Vegetables and Cracked Mustard

Vegetarian Option
Spinach & Mushroom Pithivier
With garlic Potatoes, Glazed Vegetables and Cracked Mustard

Dessert 

Raspberry Cheesecake
With Mixed Berry Compote

Tea & Coffee, Petit Fours 

This seemed to go down very well, Rob and I went round the tables during courses to say a quick hello and were faced with smiling guests and empty plates! 

After we had all enjoyed the meal it was time for the speeches. Im not going to go into huge detail here but let me just say that they were all wonderful. My dad went first and even though he was very nervous he did a great job. Rob followed on with a very sweet and funny speech, he was so natural, like he was just speaking to his friend – and of course he was!! Rob’s brother Dan was the last to speak and Best Man – his speech was soo wonderful and funny, it had everyone laughing!

We finished up with some tea, coffee and petit fours (fancyyy!!) and then everyone cleared out for the room for a drink while it was turned around for the reception. The DJ and Band came into set up

The party was just about to kick off……

I’m sure it’s something every bride goes through but I’m wobbling, nothing major – I still love my dress, I still love the venue and I still 100% want to marry Has!

No I’m wobbling over my bouquet.  I’ve mentioned before that I don’t have a huge amount of knowledge in the flower world.  I know what I like and what I don’t like and that’s about it!

The bouquet I have discussed with my florist Jennie will look similar to this.

Thank you

The registrars invited the rest of the procession back into the little room while they went off to prepare the guests for our entrance. Mum and Jim (my brother) were the first to walk down the aisle followed by Beth and Laura and the last to arrive in the room would be me and my Dad! We all took a deep breath; you could feel the emotion and nerves in the room. By this time I was actually really excited, it would only be a few more moments until I was back with my fiancé. After living with each other for over 5 years it was strange not to have spent the night before our wedding together! I just wanted to see his face smiling at me!