See you on the other side

So, this is it. We are off. Travelling down today, setting up tomorrow, wedding on Saturday. My apologies that posting has been sporadic, things have been a little busy here.

Back in a couple of weeks after the honeymoon with some recaps and photos.

Thank you all for your wishes and thoughts.

x

DIY Details and How-To: Rose Petal Confetti

{Image by me}

In the beginning, I was going to buy rose petal confetti, beautiful, fresh scented rose petals to use as confetti. And then I was made redundant and my budget for such things dropped dramatically. So I had another look at the Real Flower Company and saw the dried rose petals which was a more realistic option to make myself at home.

I started by harvesting the pink roses which grow all around our kitchen window and drying them on a tea towel in the kitchen but I quickly realised that they would not be enough. So, each time I have been to the shop, or to the tube station, or lately, the job centre, I have taken a plastic bag and filled it with rose petals which I have deadheaded from all the beautiful rose bushes around my neighbourhood. I never realised quite how many roses grow up and down the streets of N5.

Sadly, this being England and last weekend being perhaps the only sunshine we will see all summer, the petals haven't been drying quite as well as I had hoped. So I had to give them a little helping hand in a low oven this afternoon.

Lastly, in order to hand them out to people at the church, I have made some paper cones which are rather sweet and can be made very quickly on the evening before {as I don't think we can transport them made up}. The petals also look rather beautiful in our vintage teacups but are less practical to hand to people after the service.

---
and if you wondered how to do it yourself, it couldn't be easier. collect rose petals and separate. put oven on the lowest setting and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper. sprinkle petals onto the greaseproof paper and leave in the oven for 5-15 minutes depending on petals, temperature and how engrossed in the tennis you are, remove from oven and cool on a tea-towel.

My list doesn't seem to be getting any shorter...

...but we seem to be getting things done. My mother has done excellent work with logistics ensuring people can get too and from the reception. I just wish some of the guests would RSVP {in any form, we are beyond caring now whether it is done officially or not} to make her life easier.

My hen party is next week and everything has been paid for and the tea party finalised. I cannot wait to eat the sandwiches, cakes, scones, cupcakes and little bite sized pieces of chocolately goodness that are planned for the top tier of the cake stands. I just need to finish off my outfit and all the last minute logistics but I am really looking forward to it.

This weekend we are going away. To stay with M's parents. M is playing in a golf tournament. I am going to print and collate 100 orders of service which as yet have not been finalised, checked by the vicar or approved by my mother. I foresee a long afternoon tomorrow trying to get it all done in time for printing.

This week I am going to finish the bridesmaids' presents, jewellery and my hair piece for the reception. I have decided to make a hybrid headband style thing from the silk flowers, merry widow veiling and a peacock feather or two. I plan to sew it to a hairband and hope for the best. I must also make the BoyBird and the napkin labels.

We then have to buy M his shirt and BestMan's tie. I think these are chosen, they just need purchasing. Speaking of purchasing, we also now have to pay all the final amounts to the various companies. It's scary seeing so much money leave our bank accounts.

---

The advice I have for anyone one month out from their wedding is this: take some time out for yourself. Do something else, think about something else. Delegate. Cross some things off the list which no longer seem important. Get things done so you're not rushed in the last week. Pack for your honeymoon in advance.

The advice I have for anyone further back in the planning process is this: time flies. The wedding seems ages away and there seems to be lots of time. And then there isn't. Get things sorted early. Delegate early (but remind later on, so things don't get forgotten). Set a metaphorical deadline for getting diy and projects finished. You will over run. You will not want to be making whatever it is 2 weeks before the wedding. enjoy the planning process.

M's suit

In getting married I have learnt a new skill: clothes alteration. Dresses and suits a speciality.

I was shown how to take apart the seams in M's suit trousers and then how to let out various parts (turns out M may have similar taste to his uncle but not waist size). I have then been reshaping the jacket arms to make them more slim line and to help the suit fit M's image of how he should look in a month's time.

I sat there, sewing machine illuminated in a pool of sunshine, the muted chatter of my two sisters and my almost sister-in-law floating down the hallway as they discussed my hen party, and realised how much I have enjoyed planning this wedding. Our wedding.

So this is it...

... one more day until I am qualified but unemployed. Depending on how the rest of this week pans out I will either be posting non-stop or I will be not posting, full stop. (Although I will be back soon*).

Until then, I leave you with this image:

{Image from Author's Personal Collection}

Girl shoe meets Boy shoe. Both came to live in our house having started their lives in their respective shoe halls in Selfridges. We bought M's yesterday. Mine we bought the week after we got engaged last summer.

And since I once promised some more shoe shots, but never got round to it:

{Image from Author's personal collection}

* If my irritating computer issues are solved that is.

The Groom: Suit and Boots (Part II)

We have been back and forth about My Boy's suit for the wedding but we may have found the answer last weekend. I know I said here that we thought perhaps not black but...

The suit in question is a bespoke suit that used to belong to M's uncle, which the uncle in question wore once only - to M's brother's christening. It is a black, 3 button, 3 piece which has slight 1970s shaping (the most obvious being the slight boot cut to the trousers) and with a little tweaking here and there {how fortunate we are that M's brother's wife is a fashion designer who understands tailoring} it should fit M perfectly.

So not exactly what we were initially thinking but vintage, recycled and with a bit of family history too.

Thankfully it's lapels are not quite as wide as this:

Mick Jagger

{Image by Getty, via Glamour}

Indeed, it looks perhaps a little more like this. Which is quite funny since Wayne Coyne is M's style icon for his wedding attire.

Wayne Coyne

{Image via Bona Fide Darling}

And while we had been thinking that a white shirt would go well under a blue suit, a white shirt under a black suit looks like funeral attire.

{Image by Liberty}

And then all we need to do is find him some boots to wear with it...

Peonies made me do it...

Peonies showed me photographs by Toast. So I went there. And looked. And wanted. And wished. And hoped someone might ask us which shop they should buy a wedding present for us from...

{Image by Toast}

A Going Away Outfit

Traditionally, the bride and groom leave the wedding for their honeymoon before the rest of the guests. The bride would change into her 'going away outfit' and the couple would say their goodbyes and depart (usually in a car decorated with Just Married written on it and with old boots and tin cans attached to the bumper) whilst the guests carried on the party.



We are having our own version of this tradition: we shall leave the reception in our vintage car - complete with an old boot and tin cans - just before the end and head to a secret destination (i.e. a hotel) for the wedding night, returning in the morning to have lunch with our families before departing for our honeymoon. I am going to have a going away outfit, which I shall change into on the Saturday evening to leave the reception and shall wear the next day for the brunch.



And yet again, I didn't want to buy anything new for the occasion, so I (well, T really) has been altering a dress which a friend bought in Whistles sale several years ago and never got round to having it altered. So, she very kindly gave it to me (thanks Jo, much appreciated) and T and I have been altering it to fit me. It was a size 14 and I am a size 8 so we have unpicked the band underneath the bust and undone all the seams. T has altered the outside to fit and I am in the process of making the seams in the lining match. We shall then cut some off the sides and re-do the seams and then attach the band again. We have also shortened the dress from a mid-calf length to mini-dress length. It is white, so I can wear it with my wedding shoes and headpiece and cardigan but it is more practical and comfortable than the wedding dress. I can also fit pretty underwear underneath so I have bought some ivory silk frilly knickers to change into as well (as I can only fit flesh coloured seamless ones under the wedding dress).



I should have taken a before picture, but I forgot, but I shall endeavour to take some progress and after photos and post them. And this dress at least is not a secret, as it has been hanging on our bedroom door since Christmas with half it's hem pinned up waiting for a free Saturday for T and I to begin work.



I was also deeply impressed by T's sewing ability. To be perfectly honest I would not have known where to begin with the dress, yet T pinned so quickly I had barely been in the dress a few moments before she was directing which seams to unpick and what needed altering. Literally in four hours we had eaten lunch and afternoon tea (complete with scones) and done the vast majority of the altering process.

Afternoon Tea on a sunny Saturday afternoon, originally uploaded by rachel-catherine.

(A glimpse of our sitting room. And yes, that is an upside-down Bentwood Chair in the fireplace. It's leg is wobbly and we didn't want a guest to come a-cropper if they tried to sit on it.)

T Minus 3 Months

I could scarcely believe it when I opened my desk diary this morning and realised that there were exactly three months to go until our wedding day. [More pressing in my mind is the fact that I have precisely 41 days until I am made redundant. With no job to go to. Yet I digress.]

This week we decided that hand-writing all our invitations was no longer practical. I had a go at the weekend and it just didn't look right. I couldn't get the calligraphy to look like I wanted and I don't have enough time to perfect it and then write it out 75 times. So we have started to look into other options. There is no money in the budget to get them printed professionally (i.e. letterpress, thermography etc) and, or perhaps but, regardless of budget I don't think that would suit the ethos of the wedding. So, home-made they will remain, just less home-made than writing them out myself.

Potential Brother-in-Law the graphic designer has already been asked/pleaded with to design the order of service and the posters so it made sense to ask him to do the invitation as well. I think it will just be text and our peacock motif, printed by computer printer onto the cards that I have already bought. With a map and an RSVP card, when we can agree the wording. Sending an invitation to our wedding, hosted by my parents, to several different generations of guests throws up more issues regarding the RSVP cards than one would have thought possible...

I have also made good inroads into "project diy bridesmaid present" (which I will photograph, write and then pre-upload for publishing whilst we are on our honeymoon so as not to ruin the surprise in the -admittedly unlikely- event that As 1 or 2 or T is reading). I have made two parts of their presents, commissioned a third and then will be adding another part when I have chosen it. I just hope that they like them...

The "great plate search" still continues, quite literally in fact as we have managed to purchase over 100 cups & saucers and tea plates. It is just the dinner plates which are harder to come by. We have also decided to purchase the cutlery for the occasion, as it seemed a pointless expense to spend £40 delivery hire charge on cutlery which we can buy from Ikea for less money. Afterwards all sisters and cousins who have houses/are off to university etc can have a set or twelve and the rest we shall donate to a homeless shelter or similar.

Cake Toppers (the story commences)

Girl Bird in progress I, originally uploaded by rachel-catherine.

M and I got engaged on the 28th June 2008. The next week back at work I started looking at wedding blogs and stumbled across Peonies' blog. Reading through her archives I came across two posts, the first showing two bird cake toppers and the second the instructions detailing how to make them.

I printed out the instructions and had a bash a few weeks later but my attempt looked so poor that I abandoned the project for a while. Last night however, I decided to have another bash. This time, with the aid of a sewing machine I made much faster progress and finally after a few hours Girl Bird started to take shape.

These two rather poor quality photos show her as she is at the moment: body just about intact, wings and veil made but pinned on, legs formed and sort of attached, tail attached but needing to be sewed to the body and pins for eyes.

Still, I think she is rather sweet. Her tail and that of her Boy Bird (yet to be made) are peacock feathers to match our theme...

Girl bird in progress II, originally uploaded by rachel-catherine.

My Boy Writes: The Drink

Hop over to Elizabeth Anne Designs to read the original...

{Image from Author’s Personal Collection}

"Choosing wine for a wedding is a tricky business, especially if you are “in the business”. I’m often called upon to help my clients get the wines just right for their big day. Like me they have pretty fixed ideas but for most people this is not the case.

Some people simplify, they pick their favourite wines and serve them. It is their wedding after all! Others are very aware of their audience and also what the wines they pick say about them. Others still have no interest in wine and serve fabulous buckets of cocktails and beer or just leave it to the caterers. Tragically, plenty of over-bearing fathers and mothers (I suspect I have the potential to be one of these) invest thought and cash into providing perfectly aged classic but interesting wines which get gulped down at an alarming rate by the guests, only to be superseded by the aforementioned capacious cocktails and beer.

The range obviously needs to be limited, ideally to one white and one red (and maybe a sweet wine). It makes a lot of sense to go for a classic and recognisable combination: Red Bordeaux and White Burgundy or New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and Australian Shiraz. It is also a good idea to opt for something that is easy to drink and versatile (with food and without) and in some cases low-ish alcohol is a good idea (German Rieslings fulfil this function extremely well). In an ideal world the wine will match your food and projected weather (not easy in Devon). Ultimately though, for the majority of people the wine is a conduit, a catalyst, a lubricant. It is more important to not get it wrong than it is to hit it out of the park.

For me, however, it is extremely important. It doesn’t need to be showy but it does need to be memorable. Rachel doesn’t entirely share my enthusiasm for wine but she does understand that it is very important to me and has acquired quite a taste for Riesling and anything fizzy and pink (embrace that cliché Honey!). We are also aware that the guests will be expecting something special and we are determined to live up to that. The decision was made fairly early on in the planning process that we would take full responsibility for providing alcohol, there will be no bar. Since our budget for booze is tight and a large quantity will be required, we decided to restrict the range of drinks to something fizzy to start (maybe including some homemade elderflower “champagne”), wine with the meal (and after), some beer and a barrel of cider from our friend Shaun at Piglet Cottage. So, we need unusual but widely appreciated wines with a bit of WOW! factor in large quantities on a small budget. Ah…

Clearly, we need to compromise. It would be great to have English wine, excellent fizz and flowery, summery whites and in perfect keeping with the theme for the wedding. Unfortunately English wine is expensive and good reds are few and far between. After lots of hunting and discussing we found a really delicious Riesling (German) for a good price and several bargain reds to choose from (it’s looking like something from the Languedoc currently). Fizz is always the trickiest bit and champagne prices have been bumped up significantly of late. We tried some lovely Prosecco but we find it less celebratory and have now found a cracking Cava which is in a really open, approachable style and this looks like a winner at the moment.

{Tuscany: Image from Author’s Personal Collection}

When we first thought about booze for the wedding, we thought our ideas might be at odds with the expectations of our guests. Surely the wines should be finer than ever on this most significant day. We soon realised that in fact the spirit of our wedding called for something much more personal and involved and that making our own fizz and serving honest, real wines with a sense of place and a meaning for us, alongside local beer and cider made by new friends was just perfect.

We’ll save the Stag’s Leap for anniversaries!"

{Image from Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars}

T minus 3 and a half months (or 105 days to go...)

In November I posted my to-do-list. Three and a half months on, with exactly three and a half months to go, it thankfully looks a bit more manageable. Which is a good job since wedding planning is not the only thing on my mind...

*Make and send the invitations including calligraphy maps and RSVP card inserts.

*Choose readings and the people to read them

*Finalise music to be played during the signing of the register and ensure accompanist is happy.

*Finalise order of service and have printed.

*Collect my dress from the alterations lady. Make accessories & veil.

*Make bridesmaid's jewellery (components ordered & have arrived). Finish diy projects/presents/etc.

*Finish collecting crockery including tea trays and vases.

*Send colour sample to ribbon supplier and finalise order. Make labels for the napkins. Make seating chart. Assemble table decorations from peacock feathers (ordered) and wine bottles (collected). Order match boxes.

*Taste cheese for the cake. Finish cake toppers.

*Fill in details in guestbook and arrange for someone to ensure people sign it. Make photo display

*Collect material from family and friends and make into bunting to decorate marquee.

*Book transport for guests between church and reception.

*Taste and choose wine, champagne and beer. Sort out glasses.

*Ensure groom purchases clothes for him and ushers and BestMan

*Flowers and buttonholes

*Pay balance on honeymoon, book extras.

*Design poster to advertise band and DJ. Ensure logistics for PA system and equipment are in place.

*Purchase presents for wedding party.

*Choose and purchase wedding bands

My Boy Writes: Food Glorious Food

See EAD for the original...

"To my mind food, drink and music are the three most important structural aspects of a party; the framework for the more ethereal connections between people and their ideas and emotions. This week we will look at food.

I think food is particularly important at family celebrations. Feasting at family events is a tradition that crosses cultures and has very deep roots in our collective cultural history. For myself and Rachel preparing food with our families is very much a part of our culinary heritage and it was important for us and our families to be closely involved in the selection and preparation for our wedding meal, as we would not be on the day. Thus, we decided on a hog roast (the ultimate feasting food) and we opted for a buffet rather than table service to capture the spirit of a family celebration rather than an event. It was important to us to bond over food with our caterer and we found just the man.

Shaun from Piglet Cottage has exceeded all our expectations. First off, the name is fabulous. It is inspired to use such a cute name for something as medieval as spit roasting meat. Shaun is a true enthusiast and a pleasure to chat to about food. He bakes his own bread and is desperate to provide some wonderful sounding canapés including smoked squirrel and a sort of andouillette thing which he proposes to make from the meat off a pig’s head. Most important of all he is local and all his food will be too.

Shaun is an effortless salesman, he imbues you with such confidence in his abilities that you are keen to leave as much as possible to him. He has a local cheese source which we will now use for our cake (of cheese) and he seemed horrified that we might think he would provide anything but leaf tea and fresh coffee, again he will use a local merchant. Our aim from the start was to involve as few people as possible (outside our guests) in the wedding. In Shaun, we have someone who will take full responsibility for all things food related and will be happy to flex in order to make the day work. We won’t even need any waiting staff! Shaun also makes his own cider (primarily for pig basting) and he is happy to provide a barrel to our specifications (dry/sweet, sparkling/flat) to make it a proper Devon wedding.

So, we will be having a hog roast with a choice of four seasonal salads (a potato salad and a huge pile of asparagus are certainties and a couple of others to be confirmed) and home-baked bread preceded (probably) by some off the wall but delicious locally sourced canapés. We love the canapés Shaun is offering (Smoked Squirrel, andouillette, smoked salmon, in fact smoked anything) but we are struggling slightly to slip it into the budget.

We knew we would find it hard to trust someone to handle food, drink and music. A great old friend (now a budding DJ) is taking care of the music, I can handle the wine and it feels like we have made a new friend in Shaun who will handle the food.

Next week, the deep deliberations of a wine merchant. What do you serve at your own wedding?"

Our Wedding Vendors: Guest Book

At the reception we hope to have a table to keep our guests entertained if the weather is inclement (and let's face it, it is England in June, rain is highly likely*) and the drinks reception on arrival has to be held inside the marquee on the dance floor.

We are going to have a long table which at one end will hold the cake(s) (more on that later) and the other shall hold our guest book surrounded by a photo display, which I am hoping will include photos of M and I throughout our lives and also wedding photographs of our parents and grandparents and other family members. After all, it is a family celebration, a joining of two families, and I think important that they are all featured even if they can no longer be with us physically.

The guestbook was causing me some concern as I wanted something in which guests could write messages and we could stick our engagement cards and messages and our wedding cards. Yet in order to fit our ethos it needed to not be new. I also didn't want anything too saccharine or twee. And then, browsing on Etsy the other day, I came across a vintage 1970s wedding guest book which funnily enough sort of matches my baby book. There are places to write down all the wedding party details and then pages for the guests to sign and then a sort of photo album part as well. And yes, it is twee, but it is 1970s, so it is a bit kitsch, a bit retro, a bit of a tongue-in-cheek poke a little fun at twee guest books. So, it is, in theory, perfect. And being vintage, it already existed, yet being blank, we are able to use it. Now, just waiting for it to arrive and hoping it looks as good in reality as it translated in my mind from the photos!

{Image by Buttons'N Such}

*Highly likely rather than guaranteed as it is neither the Glastonbury weekend nor Wimbledon week...

Elizabeth Anne Designs: Head wear, hair & make-up

{Images top row L-R: Birdcage veil from Style Me Pretty;

photo by Leigh Miller, headpiece by Sweetsnlo, Kate Triano;

Images bottom row L-R: Headpiece by Boring Sydney,

photo by Jennifer Behr, hat by Emily-London,

birdcage veil via Style Me Pretty; Image centre: Portobello}

Click here to read my full article on Elizabeth Anne Designs. And stay tuned for M's post about our food and the caterer tomorrow.

What's in a name...

Two weeks ago I hadn't given what I would be called when I am married any thought beyond whether to bother creating a double-barrelled name from M and my own. I had always assumed that I would become Mrs M's Surname and had never considered any other option.

I suppose I am quite a traditional sort of girl, both in values, expectations and activities that I pursue. I am an active member of my local Women's Institute group, I enjoy baking & sewing & making things. I value family life and my friends above a career, although interestingly because I have to have a job I have ended up/chosen to enter a male dominated profession. I believe in marriage for eternity. I also believe in equal rights for everyone to marry/enter civil partnerships. Yet I also believe men and women are different. I have no issues being female rather than male. I celebrate being female, yet do not feel threatened by men. I do not believe we are judged by our gender rather valued for our differences. I am not a feminist and I do not believe we are judged by our honorifics, which is why I had not given my title a second thought before now.

I am also driven by etiquette. I like to know the correct ways to address people and I still send hand-written thank you letters to anyone who invites us to stay with them, addressed as per correct form, unless I know specifically they choose another form of address (although thinking about it, I don't think I do know anyone that doesn't). I send e-mail thank you messages after suppers, parties etc but those never involve titles, so don't count. On a form I always tick Miss, as I do not consider myself to Mrs (yet) or Ms. To me, Ms is used by divorced women and single women hiding their marital status and I am neither. I stress that is to *me* because it is a personal viewpoint of an arbitrary word, not a slight on divorced or single women.

I then read this post by A Practical Wedding and then Cate's post on Project Subrosa and realised that to some women my age, whether they are known by Mrs or Ms is something they have given a great deal of thought. I understand that there are women to whom it is important that they are not recognised for their marital status, that they believe as Mr does not identify anything particular about a man, other than he is a man, so therefore women should have a suitable title to identify them as female but say nothing further. They choose to use Ms in this instance.

Reading all these viewpoints didn't change my mind rather actually clarified for me that I will choose to use the title Mrs when we are married. I do not see Mrs as indicating that I belong to my husband, as if I am chattel. He knows and I know that we belong to each other and our collective family name of Mr and Mrs HisSurname will indicate that to each other and everyone else. If anything I look forward to being a family unit with a shared surname rather than two individuals who happen to live in the same building. In the same light, I look forward to being Mrs HisFirstName HisSurname as I am confident being my own person yet proud of being his wife. It is also traditional and I enjoy following tradition.

Indeed, that is how we shall be addressing our wedding invitations, to Mr and Mrs John Smith. Unless I know that a female friend has a preference for Ms, I shall be addressing couples who are not married on separate lines as Miss Jane Brown and Mr John Smith or the other way round if we know the man better (I think that is the only deviation from traditional etiquette we shall use). The invitations will also come from Mr and Mrs MyFather'sFirstName TheirSurname despite the fact that my father is a Dr as this is a social occasion and therefore academic titles are not appropriate. Apart from the Chaplain. We shall address him as The Reverend FirstName Surname.

My Boy writes: An Introduction

{Image from Author's Personal collection}

See his orginal post here on Elizabeth Anne Designs

"When I first met Rachel I wasn’t ready to fall in love. Now we
are seven years on and I can’t imagine it any other way. I still sometimes feel
like that single guy, happy keeping my own company but I now think
relationships free you not bind you.

Often the first night means nothing, for us it was crucial.
I was lazy and comfortable being so and Rachel was in denial, she was still
pretending that she wanted to be with her school sweetheart. That night changed
everything, we gently found our way together. We are still very much as we first
were, we still bear our own burdens we just lean on each other too.

I have been thinking about proposing to Rachel for 4 years,
I can pinpoint it actually, we were in her place in London Bridge and I envied
the life that her flatmates had. I thought marriage might solve that. Oddly I
wasn’t looking to fill a void, I just thought I should want to fill that void.
I’m actually incredibly self-sufficient but now less so every day,
happily.

I wanted to propose somewhere that meant something to us. It
had to be Cornwall on a beach. I’m not much for set pieces and wanted everything
to be as organic as possible and Perranporth enabled that perfectly. I picked a
load of perfect spots which Rachel unwittingly steered away from. We seemed to
spend all our time in the bar on the beach. I finally managed to corner her with
champagne and fish n chips and the obligatory newspaper to mark the day, The
Times tragically.

Proposing was incredibly pure and huge, much more than I
ever expected. I’m not usually short of words but I was then. She said yes and
we rung everyone!

We were pretty swift to get things moving, spring or summer
2009 seemed to fit and we started looking at venues. We had decided that we were
happy to part from convention and get hitched somewhere that meant something to
us. After much discussion, our old university town started to make lots of
sense. Suddenly it was right and we went with it. We found our venue and never
looked back.

Rach and I love a good party and we want to firmly imprint
ourselves on this one. It’s all in the detail and I will elaborate on each part
weekly from now on.

And so here we are, less than 4 months away. I can’t wait!"

Going to the chapel (II)

{Image from Author's personal collection}

Apologies for the poor quality

This is the view of the chapel from the altar steps looking back towards the entrance with the organ up at the top. After 4 visits out of term time when the chapel was closed, we finally visited on a day that it was open. And not just open, we went to a service. We listened to our Chaplain introduce the Bishop who led the service and we listened to a (much depleted) choir, whose voices soared up into the sunbeams stretching across the chapel, filling the entire building with a glorious sound.

The day before we went through the marriage service with the Chaplain and he explained the meaning behind the vows, which really brought home the reasons why we are choosing to get married and how after we are married everything will have changed, even if nothing really has. It was quite moving. He also approved our hymn choices and we met the Director of Chapel Music to discuss the options involving the organ and the choir.

We now need to finalise a few things and then we can get the orders of service approved and printed. And once that has happened I might be able to show them to you...

Inspiration Board: T minus 4 months

{Image credits:

Top row - Venue (from Author's personal collection), shoes from Rupert Sanderson website, petals from Real Flower Company, marquee by Really Good Marquees;

Second Row - Photo by Robyn Kessler, crockery by The English Tea Party;

Third Row - Photo by Jose Villa, venue (from Author's personal collection), photo from US Vogue June 2008;

Bottom Row: Car by Damian Hall Photography, peacock from Stylemepretty.com, flowers by Love Life Images}

Sshhh... can you keep a secret?

Ever wanted to hear about wedding planning from both sides?

Intrigued as to what M has to say for himself?

Want to know what he really thinks about some of the wedding planning?

Stayed tuned to Elizabeth Anne Designs and you might just have some of your questions answered...