Bridesmaids' dresses

It's been ages since we've updated - very lax. I guess we've both just been really really busy. So I've sorted the bridesmaid's dresses which is good - I seem to have squeaked in at the last minute in terms of ordering in time! Well, for the dress I've ordered anyway. I had a lovely time trawling round Colchester with one of my bridesmaids, Jo, and found loads of dresses, some of which were frightening prom looking things, and some of which were really really lovely. In some shops, it was like entering a whole other bizarrely coloured world of sparkly weird dresses for 16 year old girls waiting to go to the prom.... very scary! Still, there were some really nice shops and I got a really good idea of what suits and what kind of thing to go for.

So I returned to the lovely 'Abigail's Collection,' because the people there have been so helpful. They recommended a really nice, elegant dress for my bridesmaids which I just loved, so I ordered it. It was in just the right colour too. I won't describe it too much cos I don't want to give away all my secrets! Sadly, I couldn't choose the dresses with my bridesmaids because Rachel and Avril are both in Scotland, and the shop had so few available appointments - Jo couldn't make the only time they had. I hope it all works out all-right. I'm sure they will all look stunning.

Now on to buy accessories! I have to decide to tiara or not to tiara. Can I resist the small girl inside me's desire to look like a Barbie doll princess? Hmmm...

Seriously, having bought four pairs of shoes for my wedding dress already, none of which are quite right, I'm looking forward to going on a shoe hunt with Rachel and Avril, both of whom I hope to meet up with in April. My mum recommended Dr Martins would be more 'me' and I tend to agree.... bright pink ones I think!



We'll post sooner next time!

Lyn x

Casino

So...I've finally managed to convince Lyn to let me have casino tables at the wedding. Jacqui and Andy had them at their wedding and, although I was delirious with the flu at the time, they were great fun. 


The big question is: which two tables should I get? My choices are stud poker, roulette, blackjack, chuck-a-luck, craps and Texas Hold'em (my favourite). I'm reliably informed that poker isn't a great idea as the turnover is really low, meaning that not everyone gets a go. Apparently chuck-a-luck and roulette are pretty much the same experience.. Craps sound interesting, but the rules are complicated (doesn't usually equate with fun).

Chuck-a-luck

That leaves me with roulette and blackjack (big fan :)). Or chuck-a-luck (for the novelty value). Or Texas Hold'em (my favourite). Or craps (dice games would be something new). Or stud poker (old classic).


Nuts. Back to square one.


Mike

Wedding Dress Shopping

So lots has happened since the last time we posted, which was far too long ago! I have mostly ben obsessing about dresses, and am now starting to get a bit panicy about how soon I need to order it. Apparantly some of them need 8 months to arrive, which is scary because it means I need to choose basically now, instead of just dreamily looking through magazines.

So I visited about 5 different shops, mostly in Colchester, which seems to be the home of Wedding Dress shops. It's quite nice them all being in the same place. I've tried on what feels like a million dresses, with Mike's mum very patiently waiting to give me advice about what looks best! Though I have discovered that anything too big looks ridiculous, and that corsets are my friends. And that there are some fantastically pink, sparkly and fluffy dresses out there. Nancy's been brilliant at helping me pick out dresses that will suit. Some of the shops I've been in are just lovely - wine and chocolates, my own private consultant and everything, and my own plinth to stand on.... I'd post pics but I need to keep some secrets! Still, I need to order it.

I guess the next step will be choosing accessories to suit the dress. Though there's nothing I like more than shopping for shoes. Except Mike, of course.

I'm looking forward to going shopping with Jo, one of my bridesmaids for those dresses too sometime next month :) It's fun being totally girly for once! Wonder if Mike'll run a mile if I wear Doc Martins going up the aisle?

Lyn :)

Colours

Mike won't let me put any pictures of him at the Modern Bride show - shame :) It's my goal to finally get some piccies of him on the blog, though I fear they might be sabotaged and removed before publication....

So I've decided upon the colour scheme, I think, either green dresses and white daisies or blue and bright yellow. Something cheerful I think for summer! I'll probably change my mind again by the time I have to make a proper decision... although pinks been banned :( It's a shame - no fuchsia dresses for my bridesmaids! I'm determined to make something in the wedding pink, even if it's just my shoes. Or my hair. Mike might have a small heart attack at the altar if I did that though!

Cheers,

Lyn :)

The Wedding Show

So off we went to the Wedding Show in London - Lyn thought it'd be nice to go to one and get some exciting ideas before we've booked everything up. There were many stalls there, ranging from chocolate fountains to wedding dresses to close-up magicians to psychedelic lighting displays.

They even had a champagne bar were you could sip champagne whilst contemplating your wedding plans (although we elected not to do this at £10/glass or £35/half bottle).

I'd love to share some of the things that we saw on our nice trip to the wedding show but, three pictures in, I was stopped by event security and asked to desist from photography. Here are those three pictures:

Bah.

Anyway, lovely, lovely day.

No new ideas though.

Hope everyone's happy and healthy :)

Mike

Wedding planning at halloween

So we had our first meeting with the wedding planner today, who is a lovely lady called Rachael. When we got there, there was a Christmas wedding shoot going on for a magazine. Christmas is getting earlier and earlier! The meeting mostly consisted of her asking if we'd booked stuff and us saying no! (or yes, if it is the photographer as that's about it so far, in terms of us booking people). Oh, and going through all the options for the day and letting them know the names of various people involved. So it all seems very organised which is good, and we'll get a preliminary list of what'll happen on the day. Now on to book the rest of the suppliers :)

After our meeting, we went for a walk around the grounds, which are much bigger than I remember from our last visit. Excitingly, the woods were spookily decorated with appropriately scary halloweeny things, as part of their 'Haunted Hedingham' activities. There were lots of fake corpses hanging from trees, speakers in the trees to play creepy noises and hands sticking out of graves! I'm glad it was day time - I'd have been terrified if it was in the dark, and if I was six. Though I'd have loved it too! Proper exploring. Here's some piccies:

Happy Halloween!
Lyn

P.S. that's not my normal face....

Beginning of the blog

Hey chaps! As many of you are aware, I am now engaged to the lovely Lyn (I know - she said yes!). We're currently planning our wedding as I write this (or, at least, Lyn is planning it while I muck around setting this up!) and we're beginning to realise that both of our respective families are scattered all over the world (though Lyn can't quite match Guam).

We talked it over and thought it'd be nice if we started a short blog, just to keep everyone in the loop - especially those family members who might not make it due to ill health or distance.

So far, we've booked our venue - Hedingham Castle - as you can see from the back drop. It was built in 1140 and there are other historical facts about it, probably. Anyway, there are nice pictures (and facts) at this website. We were lucky enough to get it on a Saturday in August next year (13/08/2011)! And that's about all we've managed to get done so far.

Anyway, enough babbling!

Hope everyone is hale, hearty and happy!

Mike