Purple and Pearls

We have been engaged for 2 years.

2 years ago at the Grand Canyon, days after Has got down on one knee

The other night Has asked me if it has felt like 2 years, he was surprised by my answer as I said yes! More even!

Has and I would always talk about marriage and our future, from very early on in our relationship we knew we were going to be together – yes I know how cliché and cheesy that sounds but that’s how we both felt.  I can remember spending our lunch breaks together sitting in Birmingham City Centre discussing what our dream wedding would be like, we’d discuss details like where and when, who my bridesmaids would be and who he would ask to be best men.

Now we’re 6 weeks away from the wedding and I feel like I’ve been planning it for years - part of me will really miss the wedding buzz.  I have enjoyed every single moment of being the bride-to-be.  The evenings spent with my closest family and friends creating all the details for our day.  The shopping, finding bargains and winning competitions.  Having late night chats with Has imagining what our day will be like.  I’ve loved writing this blog immensely and I can’t imagine not logging in every day to write up a new post.

Then there is the other part of me, the bigger part that can not wait to be married.  I can’t wait to be a wife and a Mrs.  I can’t wait for our wedding day,  spending 3 weeks alone together on our honeymoon and then the rest of our lives!

x

Today is Purple and Pearl’s 1st birthday! Our first blogiversary if you will!

This time last year I made the decision to start up this little blog to record my journey as a bride-to-be.  So much has happened in just 1 year, from the first post, to Has leaving for India and coming back home again! Suzie and Rob’s wedding where I had the honour of being a bridesmaid.  In July we had our pre-wedding shoot, our invitations were sent out in August and I was even blogged about!  Numerous DIY projects have been started and finished, there have been flaps and stresses, excitement and nice surprises

I’ve made some fantastic friends since starting this blog and truly get excited when my email tells me I have a new blog comment or someone mentions my name in a tweet.  Half the time I still can’t believe people actually read what I have to say!

The next blog-year is going to be very, very interesting… I have a few plans and ideas up my sleeve – but first…  I have a wedding to attend!

I want to say a huge-heart-felt-thank-you to every single person who reads Purple and Pearls and if you’ve just stumbled across my little purple world – Hi, won’t you stay a while?

Today was my first dress fitting.

I have to admit I was very nervous and almost dreading it.  Finding my dream dress was a struggle from the word go.  I detested dress shopping and really didn’t enjoy the whole experience.  When I found my dress it was a huge relief, I’d worked myself up so much about finding the prefect dress that I was convinced I wouldn’t find one I was 100% completely in love with and I’d have to settle.

So as today loomed closer I started to question my decision.  Did I love it as much as I thought I did, or did I just settle?  I have pictures of my dress and for the last few weeks I have studied them assuring myself that I do still feel the same way.

When I arrived my dress was hanging up in the changing room.  Even from looking at it on the hanger I knew I still loved it.  I put it on with the help of the shop assistant and stared at myself whilst she did up the back.  My waist looked tiny and I sparkled.  I caught a glimpse of my smile in the mirror and knew I had the right dress on.

Purple shoes on, I walked out of the changing room and tried not to look at anyone directly for fear of crying!  I stood in front of the full length mirror and twirled and smiled and sparkled.

The seamstress came over and said I would need to have around ½cm taken off the front of the dress.  She spent ages pinning the bottom and asked me to walk around the shop to check the length, not that I minded I loved wearing it.

When it came time to take the dress off, we noticed that a few crystals and beads were missing and that there was also a little red mark.  We pointed these out to the shop assistant and she said that it wasn’t a problem and that everything would be sorted.

This is where the story turns bad.  When I came to organise my second fitting I noticed the standard price for alterations was £145.  Not really believing they could charge me so much for ½cm from the hem I asked them about it only to be told it was the standard price and nothing could be done to change it.  I have flat out refused to pay £145 for someone to adjust the hem, when in all honesty it is wearable at the length it is now.

As it stands now, the shop are going to replace the missing crystals, remove the mark and steam the dress ready for us to collect next week.  It’s up to me now to decide whether it needs altering at all.  I will have to take it to another seamstress anyway to add a bustle to the dress so I will probably get a second opinion.

It just infuriates me that they think they can get away with charging so much for a tiny alteration.  I would have understood if I was having a lot of work done to the dress or something more complicated or delicate, but it seems an obscene amount of money for something quite straight forward.

I am now faced with the questions on where to store my dress, whether I do in fact have it altered and if so who can I get to do it.  I am going to speak to the ladies at the store I bought my bridesmaid dresses from and seek their advice, I’m wondering whether their seamstress would be willing to help me out.  Fingers Crossed.

I bought my dress.

Saturday 28th February 2009 was the date that I placed the order for my dress to be made.  Saturday 28th February 2009 was the last time I had my dress on.

On the Friday 11th September 2009  I had a call to say my dress was in the shop, I went to see my beautiful dress and stared at her hanging up.   It was then that I made an appointment for my first dress fitting.  Wednesday 15th September 2010.  Tomorrow.

The shop dress and the only one I’ve ever tried on is a completely different colour to the dress I have ordered.  I’ve never ever actually tried on MY dress.  Tomorrow I will try on my wedding dress for the first time ever and I’m so nervous!  I know I still love it and I know it’s still “the one” but I can still feel butterflies in my belly when I think about putting it on.

I think the moment I put the dress on and stand in front of the mirror, it’s going to hit me as to just how close the wedding really is.

With all the excitement I had completely forgotten to do my 2 month countdown to do list!

We have managed to sort out quite a lot since my last to do post.  Invitations day and evening have been sent out.

We’ve booked our Dallas hotel plus quite a few honeymoon events.  I’ve also created our honeymoon itinerary and bought our travel insurance.  We had an evening tasting potential dishes at Nailcote Hall and finally decided on our menu.

We also managed to tick a few more things off our list including choosing and ordering the wedding party suits and I had my hair trial.

So for September…

• Finish the Chrysler Building Order of Services.  I have quite a few cut out already but I now need to complete the actual booklet that goes inside.  I’ve done the design it’s now just a matter of filling in the details.
• Have first dress fitting!!!!!!!!!
• Attend meeting with Nailcote Hall to discuss all the finer details including our menu choices, number of guests, how the day will run and to find out any questions we have.
• Arrange appointments for the bridesmaids to have their dresses fitted.
• Organise our table plan.
• Buy wedding underwear.
• Make up favour boxes and buy chocolates to go inside.
• Pay Registry Office!!!
• Confirm music, vows and readings.
• Chase outstanding evening RSVPs

We’re getting close now, things are starting to feel a little more real now.  I think once I have my wedding dress on at my fitting it will really hit me!

• The journey time to and from work goes from a 20 minute commute to a hellish hour crawl, as the kids are back at school.
• The dark nights begin earlier and earlier every day.
• I have to start wearing my autumn coat.
• Friends start discussing details like how they will get to the venue.
• After saying “Hello” the next comment people usually make is “wow the wedding is close you must be really excited!”
• Realising there are only 2 more pay days before the wedding… yikes!
• Guests tell me they’ve sorted out their outfit.
• Supermarkets and shops are stocking up for Halloween and Christmas (Really! Tesco’s today had selection boxes!?)
• Our tour operator has sent us details through regarding time changes to our honeymoon flights and have pestered us for advanced customer information.
• My first hen party is just days away…!
• The due dates for full payment for our suppliers loom ever closer.
• I have my first dress fitting in 3 days.
• Has tells me he’s having wedding dreams.
• I’m buy birthday and Christmas presents in advance so it’s not a rush when we get back from honeymoon.
• My heart flutters when I think about walking down the aisle.

54 days

Yippee!!

Has and I went back to Nailcote Hall last night to sample another main course after being slightly disappointed with the courses we tried last week.

We were seated at a lovely table by a window which over looks the front lawn of the property, it was a lovely evening the sun was setting behind the giant trees and it was just beautiful.

The building on the left is actually where we’ll be getting married (in just a little over 2 months time!)

Again all the staff at Nailcote were beyond wonderful, our chosen meal of Stuffed Supreme of Chicken, Sundried Tomato & Chorizo Mousse, Rosti Potato & Forestiere Sauce arrived at our table looking absolutely delicious, in fact it was so tasty I completely forgot to take a photo until I’d eaten a few bites!

The dish was amazing, the flavours worked so well together and considering I hate mushrooms, I was able to pick out about 4, push them to the side of my plate and get on with the rest of the flavours.  The vegetables were fresh and Has’ favourite part of the dish, the rosti potatoes were divine!

So yay, we now have our complete menu!

Warm Smoked Salmon & Lime Tartlet with Lemon & Saffron Mayonnaise

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Cream of Broccoli & Stilton Soup

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Stuffed Supreme of Chicken, Sundried Tomato & Chorizo Mousse, Rosti Potato & Forestiere Sauce

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Chocolate Fudge Cake with Orange Ice Cream

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Filter coffee, tea and mints wafers

Last night was our menu tasting evening at Nailcote Hall.  I’ve been so excited about visiting again and trying out the food, from the moment we booked Nailcote I’d heard good things about the food, so my expectations were set pretty high!

We arrived and were shown to the bar area for drinks.  We enquired about the drinks prices, to get an idea of what our guests would be paying on our wedding day and the bar man instantly said he could provide us with a bar tariff to take away.  Over all the prices are pretty standard for a 4 star hotel.  A pint of Carlsburg will cost you £3.55 and a Magners will set you back £3.70.

Once our table was ready Terry the restaurant manager showed us to our table in the Oak Room restaurant, the conversation quickly turned to that of the breakfast the morning after our wedding as normally the Oak Room is where this is held.  Terry explained that it had room for 50 guests and as there will be more like 60 guests staying over he suggested they could open up the marque for us to have a buffet style breakfast at no extra cost.  Fantastic!

We had picked two menus to try out.  2 dishes of each course from each menu were brought out.  Has had one option and I had the other, we then swapped half way through so we each got to try all the courses.  My parents did the same.

The first course was between a warm smoked salmon & lime tartlet with lemon & saffron mayonnaise or a fan of charentais melon with raspberry sorbet & orange compote.

We had a clear winner.

The warm smoked salmon & lime tartlet with lemon & saffron mayonnaise was by far the best, whilst the melon was delicious, we all adored the tartlet.  It was divine!

Next up was the soup course, it was between cream of broccoli & stilton soup or cream of leek and asparagus soup with wholemeal croutons.  This one took me by surprise, I had expected to prefer the leek and asparagus but the broccoli and stilton was just amazing.

The main course was between pan-fried breast of chicken with chasseur sauce or rump of lamb nicoise, served with a light mint jus.  Whilst both dishes were yummy, we could find fault with both.  Compared to the rest of the menu we didn’t feel like these dishes were as good.  We have enquired about going back for a second taste of another dish.

By this point I was feeling rather full, but I always have room for pudding! I honestly thought the dessert would be our hardest decision.  It was between a chocolate fudge cake with orange ice cream or eton mess cheesecake with a mint syrup.  On paper they both sound amazing, and I thought I might have favoured the lighter option with the cheesecake, but the moment the chocolate fudge cake hit my mouth I knew it was the winner!

I was pleasantly surprised to find Has and I agreed on everything – I thought there may have been a course we would differ on but we both felt the same way about each dish.  Which is a really good thing because we actually both have quite different tastes in food, so if each dish appealed to both of us – hopefully it means our guests will like them too.

We still have the main course to decide on, but we’ll hopefully be going back to try another option soon.  It’s so exciting to know what we’ll be eating on our wedding day.  It was a lovely evening out with Has and my parents I really had fun.  The staff at Nailcote were wonderful, very professional and very helpful.  Terry displayed excellent knowledge about each dish we asked about.  The food did live up to my expectations and more, it was a very successful evening.

Our menu… as it stands.

Warm Smoked Salmon & Lime Tartlet with Lemon & Saffron Mayonnaise

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Cream of Broccoli & Stilton Soup

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TBC

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Chocolate Fudge Cake with Orange Ice Cream

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Filter coffee, tea and mints wafers

The sun is shining, the temperature is high and we’re sitting outside enjoying what can only be described as a rare summers day in England.

“Does weather like this make you regret choosing to get married in November?” ….Rather smugly I reply “Not at all”

We have a few reasons for choosing November as the month we get married in and the English climate only played a small part in our decision.

Has and I don’t really cope very well in the heat.  I have sun allergies and end up with an unsightly rash if I sit out in the sun too long and Has can’t stand the heat and gets very flustered.  We have been to weddings before where the temperatures inside the venue have been stifling.  The majority of the guests spend most of the evening outside in the cooler night air and the dance floor stays empty.

Then there’s the flip side.  You can never predict what the weather will be like in summer, one weekend you could have glorious sunshine without a drop of rain and then the next could see monsoon storms unleashed on your wedding day.

By choosing November we feel like we have cheated the weather a little.  We know it will be cold and we know it may very well rain.  However one of our requirements for our venue was for it to be both beautiful on the inside as well as the outside, so hopefully getting gorgeous photos won’t be a problem.  We know in November our guests aren’t going to be suffering with heat stroke, or be forced to stand in the rain in strappy sandals and summer dresses.  At least we can be prepared for cold, wet weather and if someone is smiling down on us and we have the beautiful clear, sunny and crisp day I see in my head then that’s a bonus.

Our second and main reason is simple…

The day we decided to make our relationship official was the 8th November 2001.  So it seemed logical to us to get married around that date, as it’s obviously special to us.  Years before marriage was on the cards we would often talk about how we would love to be married in November, I just remember thinking “Well the next 8th November that falls on a Saturday is 2014, and I don’t want to wait that long!”

We always celebrate or at least acknowledge the 8th November every year and we didn’t want to give that up, so when we did get engaged we just knew that our wedding date would fall in early November.

Plus I happen to think that winter weddings are super romantic!

Source

During the first few months of being engaged I used to say things to myself like “I wonder how I’ll feel with 3 months to go” or “This time next year we’ll only have a few months to go before the wedding!”

Well “3 months to go” is here.  From out of no where the wedding seems to be very close… too close I still have loads to do and sort out! eek!

Last month in between festivals, weddings and birthdays we actually managed to achieve quite a bit from my last “to do” list.

Chalkboard place card hearts have been sanded and ribbon has been attached (Thanks to my Mom!) Painting project completed.  We had our pre-wedding shoot and created our guest book photo album using our photos.  Also by a stroke of luck found shoes for 3 of the bridesmaids!

Very productive.

For August we need to step up our game…

• Invitations HAVE to be completed and sent by the start of next week.  NO room for delays!
• Evening invitations have to be finished and addressed by the end of the month, ready to be sent in the first 2 weeks of September.
• Buy my wedding underwear.  I have my first dress fitting (eeek) in September so I want to know what I’ll be wearing underneath.
• Book our Dallas hotel
• Compile a honeymoon itinerary.  We have so many flights to catch I want all of our information secure in one place so we know where we have to be and when.  We’ll also do a pack for the mothers so they can track us at all times
• Buy travel insurance 9oops something we should have done a while ago!)
• Start to make up favour boxes and store them ready to be decorated and filled with goodies.
• Start to collect treats for the children’s entertainment bags.
• Continue cutting out the Chrysler Building order of services
• Speak to a few suppliers (Venue and florist) about booking appointments so we can confirm small details and what will happen on the day.
• Celebrate our birthdays!!  Both Has and I are August babies and just because we have a wedding to plan doesn’t mean we can’t make time to eat cake, get drunk and sing Happy Birthday to each other!

Happy August everyone – enjoy the rest of the summer (!?) before we know it September will be here with it’s cooler breezes and darker evenings! x