94 days...

Hi guys!

I feel like this is a trend for the opening of my blogs… sorry it’s been so long! Life has been manic – it’s crazy enough planning a wedding, let alone doing it alongside two full time jobs, settling into a new flat and trying to maintain some semblance of a life! I don’t have anything specific to write about in this blog, but I’m conscious that it’s been a while; so much has happened but nothing has happened at the same time. So here is your fair warning, this will probably be a bit of a ramble.

 

Last time I posted, we’d just bought our flat. I’m happy to announce that it’s now fully decorated, almost fully furnished, and definitely feeling more like home. It’s also a massive relief to be able to think about the wedding again; during the whole flat-buying process, it definitely took a backseat. I’ve genuinely loved every second of wedding planning, and I missed it while we were fighting with solicitors!

Fairly soon after buying the flat, I knew that it was time to get round to sorting invitations; it’s all well and good planning an amazing wedding, but if no one is there then it’s not quite the same! We did some shopping around on google, at wedding fayre’s, Pinterest etc. The invitations were one of the only things that I had a clear picture in my head of how they should look, and I couldn’t find anywhere that would do what I wanted for less than £10 per head; as much as I love the people invited, £1000 for invites seemed a bit extravagant! So we made the “great decision” to make our own.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m glad that we did it and we did save a shedload of money! But to anyone else thinking about making your own invites, my main piece of advice would be to do them early. To make roughly 100 took me about 3 months! They are a phenomenal amount of effort, but now that they’re all finished, they are 100% worth it – they’re exactly what I pictured in my head.


The next update is the amazing weekend that we had at the start of October. We decided to have a major wedding planning weekend, to include a trip to the church we’re marrying in, cake tasting and menu tasting (we really like food). Firstly, it was really reassuring for me how much more comfortable I felt going to church.

At this stage, I feel like Fr Danny deserves a shout-out; he is the priest at our local church in Knebworth, and I’ve never met anyone who’s been more welcoming or made me feel more comfortable than Fr Danny has. He’s such a lovely man, and I love the fact that he’ll be the priest for our new marital family. I’ll probably do a whole other blog post about marrying into Catholicism, but it’s something that with time I’ve really gotten proud of.

Enough deep stuff, onto the food! So as I’ve mentioned before, Anthony’s mum is making the cake. Even though I know she’s an amazing cook, I had minor reservations; would she still enjoy the day? Would the cake be as amazing as it is in my head? Would she be able to get all the flavours that I want? Well, having tried the cake, the answer to that is a resounding YES. It was PHENOMENAL. I’m not going to add photos because a) we agreed it needs a few small (tiny!) tweaks, and b) I don’t want to ruin the surprise for people on the day. The photo that I will attach from that section of the day is our rings, because you’ve seen them in blogs before and they’re just so beautiful! We chose to keep them at Anthony’s parents’ house mainly because that’s where they’ll need to be on the day, but also because I can’t stop looking at them/trying them on!

So, the menu tasting – it was amazing. Every single bite of food was a delight, but it was more the service and the treatment that we received that blew my mind. We had prosecco on arrival, a private room with a view of the beautiful grounds. As if that wasn’t enough, we also had canapés and starters, even though we said we’re not having either for the wedding. And the house wine included wasn’t too bad either… it’s a good job Anthony was sober enough to speak to the head chef cos I was definitely in a euphoric food/wine/happiness buzz!

We also had our engagement shoot; this led to very mixed emotions. Neither of us are particularly comfortable in front of a camera, nor are we particularly photogenic. The shoot itself was fun; we had it at Wytham woods which is really pretty, and I think both of us miss living in the country. Our photographer is also lovely, and it was really easy to talk to him on the way around. At the end of the shoot, we just felt odd. Neither of us could put our finger on why, I still can’t really; I think it was just unfamiliar. However, the majority of photos were really beautiful. Some of the posed ones surprised us – we’ve never really managed to take a nice photo of us when we knew it was being taken!  But the best ones were the more natural ones. We’re keeping most of them private but here’s a few sneak peaks for you!

We’ve also had Anthony’s birthday which was a lot of fun; I took him to Cardiff for a few days, during which we took a day trip to Barry Island. It was so much fun, and Gavin and Stacey was one of the first shows that we watched as a couple. It may have rained but it didn’t dampen our spirits!

Overall, we’ve done a lot over the last couple of months, but it hasn’t always been plain-sailing. To take on a new flat, a wedding, seeing family and friends, working for 40 hours a week (plus the commute) is a lot; I think that we under-estimated how much work it would be! But I feel that all it’s done is solidify our relationship. Every day, I get more and more nervous about the wedding and everything that needs doing, but all I feel about marrying Anthony is excitement. And love – overwhelming, heart-bursting love. I don’t believe in soulmates, but I do 100% believe that Anthony is my other half, my better half. He’s the spoon to my Ben and Jerry’s, the dip to my pizza, the onesie to my winter evening; he is the thing in my life that makes everything better. And on that sickening note, I’ll leave you all to enjoy your day! Thanks for reading, and I’ll update you when I can.

See ya!

x