EAD Living

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My Dress (again)

My Elizabeth Anne Designs column this week...

I picked up my dress last Friday. Turns out that the dress I thought I didn’t like too much I like a whole lot better now it fits me properly. I thought I would make some kind of belt for the waist but when I tried it on with the silk ribbon I had dyed to match my shoes, I decided to cut myself some slack and just wear it as a ribbon. It still looks good but I don’t have to try and work out how to make a belt. With only a month left to go, I am all about cutting myself some slack and crossing things off my to-do list.

I was a bit worried that the alterations wouldn’t work and the dress still wouldn’t fit. As I am sure I’ve written before, I bought the dress one unseasonably hot day in July last summer in a charity shop in Southampton. Turns out when it’s really hot things seem to fit a bit better than they do when it a more normal temperature. I.e. the dress was too big. At least a dress size too big, more round the lower back. So I took it to an alterations lady (which turned into a bit of a saga involving missed appointments, extra fittings, wasted taxi journeys and a final collection in the rain outside Kings Cross railway station like some kind of drug deal. Literally cash for dress) and now I love it.

So much so that I took really bad photos in the mirror in the kitchen later that afternoon with my phone whilst M was out. Want to see one? It’s the best you’ll get for the next month!

{Photos from Author’s personal collection}

I tried it on again on Sunday when my sisters came to stay. Just before they had a secret meeting with my almost sister-in-law about my hen party. I loved it so much that my sister took some photos of me in it in the garden. My neighbour popped his head over the fence to admire the dress and ask me when the big day was. Even with my veil just a piece of fabric {albeit the softest of soft silk tulle} pinned to my head, it looked good. Not sure I can be bothered making it into a veil when 2 kirby grips will do the job just fine. But I probably will. Just in case.

Just need to get some invisible knickers to wear underneath as the pair {mine are without the embroidery} I bought for later on that evening are too visible through the dress. And maybe a pedicure.

My Boy Writes: The Wedding List

My Boy's 10th column for Elizabeth Anne Designs can be found here.

"Rach and I really enjoyed compiling our wedding list. It is a great pleasure to visualise your future together even from a very materialistic point of view. We both spent plenty of time trawling through household porn – glasses, pots and pans, mixers, rugs, bed linen etc. and debated / argued over the relative benefits. I was pushing hard for a list compiled solely of wine, a sneaky tactic which made my other suggestions seem less controversial. So… I have selected wine glasses, some dazzling copper pans and a selection of kitchen knives and quietly encouraged friends to buy us wine whereas Rachel has suggested a fabulous mixer, bed linen, a bread-maker and several other highly practical things. We also settled on plenty of things which we were equally enthused about including every decent cook book we could think of and a table for the garden.

{Image credits (from top): Kasumi knife via here; Kitchenaid mixer via here and Lyonnaise frying pan via here}

As fun as the process was we both felt a weight of responsibility for our selections. In reality there is nothing selfish about a wedding list but it feels like there is. Our hope is that the majority of people will have plenty of ideas about things to buy and will not even by aware of the wedding list (we are sending it out on request). Clearly we run the risk of duplication but this is balanced by the pleasure we will get from opening the presents without prior knowledge and tracing back the thought processes of our friends and families. Even getting a sense of how they understand us or at least what we are lacking. This is one of the victories of mass celebrations; the gifts take you back through your life to shared memories and enthusiasms.

We agreed early on that if there was to be a wedding list it needed to reflect our different tastes and the differing means of our guests. It was important to find readily affordable gifts which we would love to be given whilst providing a few things at the upper end for those who want to spend a lot of cash. We wanted the list to be specific enough to serve its primary purpose – to guide those who don’t know what to buy without being overly prescriptive. Our hope is that some people will look at the list, get a sense of our style and select something in that style. This way we will see them in the present and the list becomes something more than a shopping list.

The monetary aspect of weddings is a big one. The whole thing is expensive and at a certain point in one’s life you start getting inundated with invites. In many instances you will need to cough up for a stag / hen do, a present, travel to the wedding, hotel and so on. This is a great thing and to me these are mini-holidays. It is however slightly difficult to balance the books and 6 holidays each summer, no matter how mini, stretch one’s budget. We were determined that our wedding would fulfil all our hopes without bankrupting our friends and the wedding list is at the core of this. We do not expect people to buy presents. If you will forgive the cliché, their ongoing support (especially in putting on the wedding) is more than enough and we wouldn’t want people to be put off attending because of monetary constraints. We have tried to find decent places to stay for sensible money and to lean on all friends and relatives who live locally to put people up. Thankfully, Devon is pretty cheap… So they will have plenty to spend on presents. Yippee!"

Rings II

At 5 weeks to go until the wedding day, our to-do list still looks a little long. Thankfully, this afternoon we were able to cross off a big item from the list: choose and purchase wedding bands.

As I wrote before, my engagement ring was designed by M in conjunction with a rocks man and made by a craftsman in London’s Hatton Garden {the jewellery quarter of London since medieval times}. At the time I could only show you a very poor quality snap taken on the day we got engaged but here is a better photo:

{Image is of my ring via Duttson Rocks website}

So, we wanted our wedding bands to match my beautiful ring. We returned to the same craftsman, in his tiny studio, to discuss what we wanted. Our decision was very easy. We have opted for bands which match the band on the engagement ring but slightly wider at 3mm for mine and 5mm for M’s.

My ring was measured (and cleaned; it hasn’t looked so sparkly since M first gave it to me!) and then M’s finger was measured. A price was quoted and agreed and they will be ready next week. It couldn’t have been easier and I am so pleased that we have at last sorted them out. Really makes the wedding seem much nearer and real having ordered the rings.

My Boy Writes: The Stag-Do - Review

Click here for M's latest Elizabeth Anne Designs column...

"Last weekend was my Stag weekend. 3 days of fine food, wine, walks, football and much hilarity in a beautiful house on a Loch in Scotland.

Things couldn’t have gone better. Everyone got on (most of the time) and some new bonds were formed; across generations in some cases. Almost 40 years separated the youngest from the oldest but this didn’t get in the way. There were no strippers, nobody was tied to a lamppost (although they did throw me in the Loch) and there were no serious injuries. We didn’t destroy the house and everybody made their respective flights back.

This was a weekend of relaxed hedonism. Our aim was to leave everything except 2 big meals (Friday and Saturday nights) completely in the hands of the group. We wanted everyone to come and go as they pleased. We wanted to see people quietly reading in one room whilst in the next people downed shots over an improvised version of paper, scissors or stone. We wanted to see one group of people trying to shape vodka into lines with a coaster right next to a 60-odd year old being taught to play guitar by his son’s friend. We wanted to galvanise the core group of men at this weekend and make them a powerful collective force on the big day and after. Remembering back through the haze and smoke, I think we succeeded. Well we certainly had a lot of fun!

Myself and my best man decided not to fly back. We drove down the west coast of Scotland and ultimately on to Dumfries before slipping round the corner and down into the Lake District. We tried Penrith and Keswick (both of which were too built up for our tastes) and settled for the first night in Grasmere. We found a great pub with half decent food and incredible views. Monday was an exquisite day and the sun just dances on the hills there. It’s a photographers dream. We watched the sun go down with pints of well-kept ale.

We were up early-ish and planning a big walk. Sadly the weather had closed in and mindful of how shamelessly under-equipped we were (the only jacket I had was a suit one) we decided that discretion was the better part of valour and viewed the lakes by car. We had lunch that day in one of the finest pubs I have been to, The Drunken Duck. It wore the gastro-pub title beautifully and demonstrated that a pub doesn’t need to be rustic to be real. We continued rambling after lunch and decided to skip a visit to the dales (the original plan) and to get to know the lakes a bit more. In the spirit of adventure we tried to trace the hill path from Ambleside towards Boot. I originally led us down a somewhat slippery “road” which was clearly not designed for cars and we very nearly smashed ourselves into one of those gorgeous dry stone walls. So a swift three point turn; try to avoid the guy dragging a tractor with a tractor and back on to the right road. We drove up and up and up, amazing view after amazing after amazing view. This road summed up the lake-district for me, the style is consistent but it just gets better and better until you run out of superlatives.

We spent another very relaxed night in a cheap half-renovated house near Eskdale with beautiful grounds and headed back to London via Shropshire. This was the perfect way to wind down after the stag and a great opportunity to spend lots of time with my oldest and best friend.

“A most satisfactory binge!” – Hugh Laurie"

DIY Details: Bunting

A sneak peek of my Elizabeth Anne Designs column this week...

...I did however find time to make a start on the bunting which we are using to decorate our marquee at the reception and thought you might like to see how it is turning out, as it is nowhere near finished. Clearly, we need much more than this!

I began by sending an e-mail to all the female family members and friends I could think of that might have hoarded scraps of fabric over the years and so far have received a bag of donations from my Mum, her sister, my Grandmothers, M’s Mum and other female friends. I also dug out my childhood material box and have utilised some of what I found in there too. The nice thing about this is that most of the fabric is offcuts of clothes or things people have made. In photo 3 you can see the remains of my Mum’s nightie that she wore when pregnant with me, a pink and white spotty dress I wore when I was little and the blue sprigged fabric which comprised my ‘wedding outfit’ as a child [a skirt and waistcoat which could be worn over a white blouse - it lasted for years as it could be let out - much more wear than a dress which I would have quickly outgrown]. The floral fabric under the number 6 is left over from a dress my Mum made for summer events, which she wore to my graduation. So a lot of history which I hope might spark some reminiscing at the wedding...

I will post the 'how-to' tomorrow if anyone is interested.

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*With the usual apologies for the poor quality snaps from my BlackBerry. I really must get a better camera when I have some money.

My Boy Writes: The Suit

See the original on Elizabeth Anne Designs...

{Images top left: Liberty; top left middle: R. Soles; top right: Robyn Kessler;

Bottom left: Mick Jagger (Image by Getty, via Glamour);

bottom middle: Michael Caine (Image by mptvimages, via IMDB);

bottom right: Wayne Coyne (Image via Bona Fide Darling)}

"The aesthetic of our wedding is of primary importance to us. The feel we
are looking for is that of an English summer party with lounge suits and flowing
dresses. It will be relaxed and free-form and guests will be encouraged to wear
clothes they feel comfortable in although I think Rachel is keen for there to be
plenty of hats.

This is unashamedly based on what we enjoy wearing and allows me to not
wear a tie and try to look as much like Wayne Coyne (of Flaming Lips fame) as
possible. So… my suit will be black, 3 piece, really quite tight and the jacket
will be shortish and 3 buttoned in a roughly late 60’s style. Other inspirations
include 60’s and 70’s rockers (Mick Jagger especially) and of course Michael
Caine. On my feet will be brown boots in some sort of cowboy style and my shirt
will be bright and on theme (maybe peacock blue).

Both mine and Rachel’s outfits are recycled in some way, hers from
Oxfam and mine is a suit that used to belong to my uncle (in the 70’s). He wore
it to my brother’s christening according it even more significance. I think a
new pair of shoes are in order, perhaps from R
Soles.

It’s really nice to indulge one’s vanity occasionally and pleasingly in
this case everybody seems to think that it is an entirely reasonable way to be. "

EAD: The Invitations

From Elizabeth Anne Designs:

They were only 2 weeks late with 2 months to go until the wedding but this weekend we finally finished and sent the invitations.

We wanted our invitations to be beautiful but practical. Much as we love letter pressed designs and intricate professional designs, we knew that our reasonably small budget couldn’t buy everything that we wanted. So we chose to spend money on beautiful and high quality cards and envelopes but cut the costs as the design elements were done by family members (although he is a Graphic Designer so we knew we were in safe hands) and we did the printing ourselves using M’s parents’ home printer.

Yes, the invitations do set the tone/theme of the wedding but this doesn’t mean that they have to be professionally made. The theme of our wedding is peacocks so I think this comes across through the invitations as the peacock motif ties each part together. The tone of our wedding is intended to be a semi-formal family gathering with lots of diy elements yet not at the expense of some luxury and details. I think (hope!) that this comes across as well.

Each envelope contained the invitation (4), a response card (6) and map (3) and was then hand addressed (1) and sealed with our peacock motif stamp (2) on the back. They were posted at the weekend so should begin arriving at our guests addresses today onwards.

Cost breakdown:

• Peacock Stamp from Baby Jewels - $21.00
• Black ink pad - £2.50
• 75 cream wove Smythson plain envelopes - £25.00 (bought with 20% discount)
• 100 cream wove Smythson correspondence cards - £16.00 (bought with 20% discount)
• Turquoise card - £4.00
• Guillotine* - £9.00
• Plus use of a printer and ink cartridge and 75 sheets white A4 paper which M’s parents already owned and did not charge us for.

So, excluding postage costs we spent £71.50 ($105) {so £1 ($1.50) per invitation} which I don’t think is too bad. And, if I say so myself, if you ignore the fact that there is no texture to the printing, they look professionally printed. I am so pleased we decided to use good quality paper and envelopes as that really reduces the home-made aspect.

Yet getting the invitations designed and finished ourselves wasn’t an easy task. It required lots of organisation and re-thinking of ideas until we settled on a design and method of printing which was workable. We had almost given up as the cards wouldn’t print landscape until I realised that they would print portrait and sister-in-law-to-be came to the rescue in pointing out how easy it was to rotate a pdf image clockwise, so it printed vertically but read horizontally. It gave M and I an opportunity to be creative and really work together as a team to get the invitations from an idea to a reality, far more so than if we had paid for a finished product. Overall, we were really pleased with the result; I hope our guests are too.

—

* By far one of the best equipment purchases we made. No more rulers whose edges are not straight and knives with blades that aren’t sharp. Plus, I can use it for card making in the future, perhaps even for our thank you cards (utilising the peacock stamp to continue our motif through to the end).

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The Invitations (Part Three)

This girl's internal dilemmas continued. Having solved the tag issue thanks to Marie (for the suggestion) and her darling boy (for purchasing it), her thoughts turned once again to the invitations. She was so pleased with the support that she had received and realised that invitations were not a competition. She knew that, but she also loved beautiful things, in fact, she only wanted things for her wedding that were beautiful.

Still, it was more important that their best people came to the wedding, not whether the invitations were perfect. Besides Alex had done a fantastic job and as long as they had the correct information on and reached the correct people, their purpose would be fulfilled.

And accompanying the invitations and the RSVP cards (don't ask, yet) would be this map:

{Wedding Map (unfinished), originally uploaded by rachel-catherine}

Well, a finished version of this map. It will have place names and our names and the date and another reference to the wedsite/website. She just hoped people would see it for the handmade charm with which she intended it, not just wished she had photocopied part of a road map...

Oh, and for those of you that asked, this is the peacock image:-

{Peacock Image, originally uploaded by rachel-catherine}

And it's stamp brother which matches it will be used to 'seal' the backs of the envelopes and to create the thank you cards.

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If you care to read about this again, in a slightly altered format(!), follow this link to Elizabeth Anne Designs...

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Oh, and this may be my last post for a week or so. Having a minor operation tomorrow (diagnostic) but have been told to take two weeks off work. Hoping to be at least up and organising and maybe even blogging by next week, but we shall see...

Honeymoon: Sneak Peek

{Image Credits: Left column & Top Centre by Botelet;

All other images from Author's Personal Collection}

86 days until the wedding; 87 days until we get two weeks off and views like these. I cannot wait...

(See Elizabeth Anne Designs later today for further details)

Still here, just busy

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Held a fabulous birthday party at the weekend, although I am not sure the neighbours agreed. Wedding planning still continuing, it is just of the boring, arrangement making, paying people and getting new quotes type of thing which is not so interesting to write (or indeed read) about.

If you like, you can follow the story from the beginning here:-

EAD I - In the beginning
EAD II - The Proposal
EAD III - When & Where part I: The Ceremony
EAD IV - When & Where part II: The Reception
EAD V - First things first: The shoes and then the theme
EAD VI - An overview of the Day

Otherwise, I leave you with this quote.

“If the person you are talking to doesn't appear to be listening, be patient. It may simply be that he has a small piece of fluff in his ear.”-- Winnie the Pooh

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