20th July 2009-A married woman writes...

Well, hasn't it been a while? So much has changed in the past month-my name for a start!



We eased ourselves gently back into normal life last week so i thought it only fair that i now get around to up-dating my blog and filling you all in on how our long-awaited wedding day actually went.



In a word: 'BRILLIANT'!



The whole day was fantastic, a dream come true! It all went perfectly and was totally worth all the months of planning that went into it! There is so much to tell that i could probably write quite a lengthy novel just about the day itself but instead i will keep it short and give you the main high-lights of our magical day!



Enjoy!



Firstly, Positano is beautiful. We spent a week there, staying in the hotel Bougainville on the main street with various family and friends. There was a lovely atmosphere and we had 5 days in Pos before the wedding day, during which time we visited Capri, Ravello and Pompeii as well as exploring the winding lanes of Positano itself.
The evening before the big day most of our guests were in Positano and we all went out for dinner to celebrate and so that everyone could get to know one another. We chose L’Incanto on the sea front as we had had a great night there earlier in the week. However, on this particular night it seemed very quiet and there wasn’t the fun atmosphere we had previously experienced, plus, nerves were beginning to kick in for me and I found it hard to eat! Not to worry though, we soon moved on up the hill to La Zagara for a few drinks and everyone had a great time taking snaps and reminiscing! I had planned an early night but what with all the catching up it was more like 1am when mum and I made it up to bed. H2B had been made to move into his own room for the night in keeping with tradition and I spent the night having the typical emotional chat with my mother! We were so tired from a day spent sight-seeing in Pompeii though, that we did fall asleep without any problem!
So I woke on the day of my wedding to a view of the sun rising and lighting up all the pretty white houses on the hill-side and in perfect eye-line,-the town hall- where later that day I would be married! I’ll never forget it!
We got up and dressed and headed out for breakfast-making sure to text H2B to let him know where I was going to avoid bumping in to him! The plan was to go to a florist that I had seen up in the upper part of town near the town hall and choose some fresh stems to carry instead of a bouquet. So after what we could stomach of breakfast we made our way up the 550 steps and met the florist-Aldo of Flora Garden- who had also been recommended to me. I told him what I wanted and he suggested a hand-made bouquet which he would make and have delivered to my hotel later that day to keep them fresh. Not knowing what to expect I said yes and we headed back down the hill to start getting ready.
It was a beautiful hot day so at 11, when a pre-booked manicurist arrived at the hotel-myself and several of the girls sat out on my balcony drinking Prosecco and having our nails done! Pure bliss! And I have to say the pampering was really relaxing. After a shower one of my friends did my hair for me and that too was lovely. During this time my bouquet was delivered and I can’t tell you how thrilled I was with it! It was utterly perfect, in white and yellow which would also match perfectly with the flowers I had ordered for the reception in white’s and lemon’s! Then everyone was off to get ready themselves, H2B was across the road having a pint with the boys and he seemed calm enough. I stayed really calm, did all I had to do and eventually I was ready!I then helped mum to get ready and we waited eagerly for the wedding car to arrive-everyone else had already gone by mini-bus.
With no sign of the car coming we decided we’d better walk down and wait in reception. It was as I made my way, in my dress, down the flight of steps that the emotion of the whole thing finally hit me and I started to cry! Well, it was more like hyperventilating to be honest! The young man at reception told us the car was there and had been waiting for some time and then saw how emotional I was and looked as if he was going to cry himself! He told me I looked beautiful and that I had chosen the most beautiful place on earth to get married and I couldn’t have agreed with that more!
In the car I cried some more, so much so that mum was worried I’d changed my mind! But after a few minutes looking out at the beautiful view as we drove to the town hall I slowly calmed down and as we pulled up at the steps I was perfectly calm and couldn’t wait to see my H2B!
Some ‘before’ shots with Massimo, our photographer and I was ready! Everyone says take a minute to try and take everything in and I did. I remember it all so clearly. We played Take That’s Greatest day as mum and I walked through the town hall out to the terrace where everyone was waiting, Massimo snapping away and me smiling! H2B had his back to me, afraid to turn around, but when I reached him he kissed me and we took our seats at the lovely table and I felt so comfortable and it all seemed so right! No more nerves!
The ceremony was really lovely! Performed by Silvana from the town hall and Rosa, our translator together they had incorporated all the legal stuff with our own words and readings. They made it interesting and funny, even the serious bits, and we had 2 lovely witnesses who read our readings-‘Love’ by Roy Croft and ‘A lovely Love Story’ by Edward Monkton-the second of which had everyone in tears of laughter and both meant so much to us!
The sun shone for the whole ceremony and afterwards we were presented with various gifts including a beautiful wedding tile and parchment from the town hall, and a printed copy of our ceremony from Rosa. Just as we were finishing, the heavens opened and there was a quick shower-but we had hoped for this because in Italy they say –a wet wife-a happy life!
We all ran inside where we had pre-arranged, with bar international around the corner, a champagne toast for everyone! This was a great way to end the ceremony which everyone said was really personal and special.
After that some group pictures before our transport took us out to a local viewing spot to get more pictures of everyone. We had a great laugh as lots of Japanese tourist tried to get in the shots! Then the guests were whisked away to mamma Agata’s to start the cocktail reception while we went with our photographer to various parts of Positano to have some great pictures taken! We really felt like film stars! It was so much fun!
After that our lovely driver Carmine of Amalfi-Drive took us out to meet the guests at Mamma’s. He was so nice, telling us all about the sights as we passed and we were on a complete high at this point although starving!
Arriving at mamma’s we were thrilled! The place looked wonderful, the table set up with our flowers and Lemon sweet favours with some lovely extra touches from Chiara! Our theme was lemons as they are so traditional in this part of the world and our floral arrangements actually had lemons in them, and there were candles and jewels strewn all over with other little favours from Chiara! The plates were the traditional ones of the area, all different and unusual designs which we loved! Out on the garden everyone was enjoying the food and Prosecco! So much food we couldn’t believe! All being freshly made and delivered to the table by Mario, Chiara’s lovely little boy! He was a huge hit with the guests! Pizza, deep fried vegetables, breads, cheeses, ham’s and much, much more kept on coming and coming! Everyone was amazed!
Then, when we decided we were ready, Chiara called us all to the table to begin the sit-down meal. The views from here were out of this world and it was perfect to sit and watch the sun set on the beautiful Coast! The first of the wines were served and they really were very good wines! Chiara explained as we began, where they were from and why we had chosen them, which was a lovely touch. Starters were huge and everyone loved them-deep fried zucchini flower and eggplant parmasiana! We all did our best but knew we had to leave room as there was more to come! They even brought around seconds!
After the starters we decided to have a couple of speeches. As it was an informal wedding we had no best man as such and we had decided we would speak ourselves! I went first! Needless to say it was very emotional! We presented our mothers with some gifts then H2B (or should I say Husband now?!)) spoke. Again, very emotional!
The pasta course we had chosen had local sausage on the side-delicious! Then came Mamma’s Lemon Chicken and a change of wines. It was so simple yet beautifully flavoured and the taste of the Amalfi lemon’s made it scrummy! Rosemary potatoes and salad accompanied and everyone loved it! Again Chiara explained the choice of wine and this wine was truly divine! We were given a bottle to bring home and we plan to get a case of it shipped over!
Between courses everyone was up chatting and taking pictures, the atmosphere was wonderful. Chiara came out and chatted with different guests and made everyone feel at home. She really looked after everyone and there was never an empty glass or need of anything!
Then came the traditional cutting of the cake and champagne toast!We had chosen to have mamma’s famous fabulous lemon cake as our wedding cake and it was brought out beautifully decorated with flowers and petals! It was now dark as we cut the cake and we were surrounded by glittering candle light, with everyone standing around clapping and snapping and then we toasted with a glass of delicious sweet pink champagne which was everyone’s favourite! After the champagne they then served limoncello to everyone too with the cake which was a nice traditional touch. Chiara also presented us with a lovely keep-sake! We then talked and danced and laughed the night away and everyone had a ball until like Cinderella the buses returned and it was time for the Amalfi Drive home! It did take ages to say all of our good-byes first though!
The only down-side was that on the journey home, with so much food and drink inside them, some of our guests suffered travel sickness and had to stop! But none of them minded. As it was after midnight when we got back to Positano most of our guests decided to call it a night (some had to go on further to Sorrento!) so six of us headed off to Music on the Rocks to dance until dawn! I was a bit of a spectacle in my wedding dress on the dance floor of the gorgeous night-club, but so many people came over to wish us well it was very nice!
Then we walked back through town to the hotel with lots more well-wishing and opened another bottle of Prosecco on our balcony! It was shortly after this that I gave up and called it a night, so, leaving the rest to chat I curled up on our bed still in my dress and fell happily off to sleep!
What a fantastic day! So special! Positano will always hold a special place in our hearts, not only because it is the place where we got married, but also because we were treated so brilliantly by all of the Italians who shared our day with us!
I can’t recommend getting married on the Amalfi Coast enough-in particular warm and pretty Positano! And we just can’t wait to go back and spend our first anniversary there too!

And now it's all just a perfect memory. Good luck to all of you planning your weddings, i hope your day is as special as ours was. Keep in touch...

18th June 2009-time to say goodbye, x.

Well, this is it! This will be my last post before i become Mrs. SWSRN! I'm in work but my mind is elsewhere and my feet are itching to get going! What a wonderful time a wedding is! Although it's been a mad week preparing to head off, it has also been fantastic, with everyday bringing new well wishers and lovely gifts! We are so overwhelmed! Honestly, we've sat down every night this week after H2B has arrived home after working mad hours at work opening cards and presents together, not believing how generous and thoughtful so many people have been. It's just lovely!

I have had calls at work from people i hardly know to wish me luck, hugs from all my gym ladies and flowers from a gentleman i chat to sometimes! Not to mention calls from friends and people calling in to say good luck! I can't imagine any other time in our lives which could be quite like this!

And that's not even mentioning those who have helped out or offered their help should we need it-particularly the mother of the bride! She's been so patient, helping to get the house tidy for going and even packing my case for me! She will have loads to do on the day-carrying all my bits, getting me into my dress etc, and i have so much to thank her for. She's even going to give me away! And i am very aware that this is not just a special day for me and H2B but also for her (i actually think she is more excited than i am!) and my soon-to-be in-laws aswell! Let's hope we all have a wonderful time!

So everyone, i'm going to say goodbye to you all and to this chapter of my life, and will be back soon with the start of a new one...See you soon! x.

15th June 2009-No thanks Mark!

Well brilliant as they were, i decided in the end not to ditch HWSRN in favour of the wonderful Mr. Owen-i'm just getting to used to what my new sirname will be when i get married and Mrs. Owen just doesn't sound right to me any more (though it has for so many years!)!!!
The gig was fab! And a brilliant way to lead up to the excitement of this week. It's all celebrations from here on in (well, except for the bits where i'm in work)...

We had a gorge sunny day in Dublin and 4 of us went for dinner in a very packed Temple Bar. We began the celebrations with a few glasses of wine before toasting the day with a cocktail! What made it even better was that i finally got my colour done after months of growing it out (i know, don't ask?) so i was blonde, it was sunny, we had cocktails and i got to see my favourite band EVER!!!! Brilliant! I sang and screamed all night (i'm sure the voice will be back before i have to say those two important words). They were fantastic!

So i'm on a high now! I began to pack last night and got a wee bit stressed at the amount of things i MUST NOT leave the country without (there are no shops in Italy you know?) but i am trying to remain calm as i still have 4 days to remember everything (not easy when your brain is knackered!)

The weather in Italy is VERY hot right now and i'm sure to melt in the dress on the day! But who cares? I just can't wait to get there! Only 3 more days to go!!!! Nervous? Me? Never!!!

12th June 2009-Come fly with me...

One week to go before take off! Yippee! 12 days to go before i become a Mrs.! Woohoo! 16 days before we jet off to paradise! Yay! 5 miserable days left in work!!! Boohoo!



Well, one of them is nearly half over by now, and in fairness, i'm not exactly rushed off my feet (would be better if i was though to 'take my mind off things', as mothers do like to say), just sittin' here dreaming about sunshine (as i look at the rain outside the window!) and happytimes! We're about to have 3 brilliant weeks and they can't come soon enough.



All of the little finishing touches are just about done. This week it's all about finances, organising money for this, that and the other and making sure it all add's up to an amount we actually have! Too late at this stage if it doesn't though ay? And certainly too late to worry about it!!! (Should have told myself that at bedtime last night)!



Everyone is asking if i'm nervous yet, as if it's a sure thing that i am going to be at some stage soon and they just want to know if it has kicked in yet. Strangely i'm not!!! Not yet anyway, but i just don't think i will be. I have checked and triple checked with all of my vendors that they will do their jobs on the day and have no reason to worry that they won't-so i'm not nervous that something in the planning will go wrong. Obviously this is why we put so much time and effort into planning the big day so that we don't have to be nervous that things will go wrong. Also, the Amalfi road has now re-opened as of this week so i'm no longer worried about the journey taking for ever or anything! Unless, of course it breaks, down on the way, and what would be the point of worrying about that in advance???

I'm certainly not nervous about saying my vows or walking down the aisle! I'm sure on the day i will hate speaking in front of everyone and my voice will crack as i mumble 'i do' as my legs collapse beneath me but it's all part and parcel of the fun and possibly one of the only times in my life i will get to stand up in front of people and be centre of attention (unless my second marriage is to Barak Obama) so why not just enjoy it?

Am i nervous about getting married? About who i'm marrying? Absolutely not! Any nerves on that score at this stage would surely tell me i'm not 100% certain and therefore i'm doing the wrong thing! So no, absolutley no nerves on that score. I am sure i am ready to get married, and i am certain that i've picked the right groom (unless Mark Owen gets in touch with me tomorrow...)8 years of getting to know him has taught me that. So, there's nothing else for me to be nervous about is there? Why don't you ask me again in 11 days..........

9th June 2009-New groom perhaps?

Well my exam is over thank goodness, so now i am free to talk, think and 'do' weddings 24/7 without the feeling of guilt i was experiencing when i should have been using my time more productively! Of course i'm sure i could still be using my time more productively but with only 2 weeks to go i might as well make the most of it! Plenty of time to be productive when it's all over eh?

Lots of things are getting sorted now so i gradually feel less stressed by the day and begin to look forward more and more to getting on the flight to Italy. The 'hair-trial' at the weekend with my friend went really well! She was able to do the style i'd had in mind quite easily and without causing anything more than a minor head wound (just kidding!) so has agreed that so long as i provide her with plenty of champagne while she does it, she will be my stylist for the day! I'm pretty sure that can be arranged!

Knowing what your hair and make-up will be like makes wearing the dress seem more appropriate and everything feels a tiny bit more real. I also treated my self to some nice bits of make-up for the big day and of course had a practise. It's such hard work being a bride...

The final bits of paperwork are now sorted out too (i hope) as we emailed copies of passports and witness details to Rosa who will take care of it all for us. She has saved us huge trouble when we arrive, even paying for the ceremony in advance for us so that we don't have to worry about it when we get there. All we need to do is go and see Mamma Agata's where our reception is being held and pay for dinner. We can't wait to see what it looks like 'in the flesh'!

We have booked our flights to London to start our honeymoon to the Maldives too! That's another thing off the list (as the list gets shorter my smile gets bigger!) and something else to look forward too. We have decided to spend a night there before we leave and another three when we get back to round off the holiday and do some sight-seeing. It should ease us gently back into the rubbish weather and normal life after Italy and the Maldives!

This weekend i am going with some friends to see Take That in concert and the excitement of that has just hit me too! Everyone is in celebratory mood so it should be a fun way to launch myself into party mood! My last day out as a single girl! I remember when i was 14 and imagined what my wedding day might be like-at the time it was little Mark Owen who stood waiting for me at the top of the altar!

So here goes, "Mark, if you're reading this, times running out for you mate! This is your last chance! See you Saturday..."!

5th June 2009-It feels like Christmas eve!

Just a quickie!

It has happened at last and i wanted to tell everyone! I am suddenly REALLY REALLY excited! I could hardly sleep last night and have been hyper-active all day today! It suddenly just feels real now. My exam will be over by this time tomorrow so i think i've just stopped being stressed about that (realising that it's just too late to worry) and without the worry of that there's nothing to stop me being excited any longer!

In 2 weeks time we'll be there, in Positano, and we can finally relax and enjoy it all! It's been a long time coming but we're nearing the finish line. Or is it just the start...?

3rd June 2009-3 weeks today!!!!

I must appolgise for my recent absence! Let's just say life is pretty hectic right now and i have been trying to make use of my 'spare' time by getting coursework and study done because i have my massage therapy exam this Saturday! Let's hear a collective AGH!!! Thanks!



Yes, bad timing on my part i know! An exam so very close to my wedding! Mad idea-stupid! But lets just cast our minds back 12 months to when this was still the most stress-free wedding on the planet-no i can't remember either! Sure an exam 2 weeks before would have been a breeze at that stage! But of course life never turns out quite how you plan it (never ever ever!!) and i should have realised that at the time of signing up for said course, but that would just have been too darn clever wouldn't it?



So here i am, getting married in 3 weeks but unable to allow myself to think about it too much, let alone write about it, because i need to focus on my forthcoming exam. Oh, the stress of it!! I feel like i am storing up a lot of hysteria which is certain to be released the moment i finish writing the answer to the last question on the exam paper...a moment i look forward to with huge anticipation!



Then i'll crack open the champagne and start the celebrations won't i? Er, well, perhaps i might after i have decided what i will do with my hair on the day (cue girlie night in with friend and curling tongs), compiled the wedding music (enough to go on playing virtually un-noticed in the back-ground while we eat dinner for approximately 5 hours!), sorted out what we'll do when we arrive back in London at 9 o'clock at night after our honeymoon and many, many minute and ridiculous other things i still need to work out! The champagne (or perhaps it will have to be Prosecco by the time i get it?) might have to stay on ice a while longer!

Normal life seems to get somehow put on hold in the build-up towards a wedding. Perhaps this is due to the expectation of a new start in life-a new beginning, as i guess it used to be back in the day (not so much now a new start as the finishing touch to most couples who, like us, have already commited to bills, mortgages and in many cases children). I wonder what will 'start' after the wedding? I was kinda hopin' just for some more of the same!

Anyway, now that i've caught up a wee bit i'd better get the nose back in the books, after all, if i manage to pass my exam that might be the 'start' of the next new chapter for me and h2b... and at the very least we can get some use from it on the honeymoon...:)

20th May 2009-Where are we getting married again?

I have just realized that most of my recent blogs have been concerned with such 'wedding' matters as drinking cocktails and the Maldives, so caught up have i been in getting organised (and drinking cocktails) and so today i thought i might bring it back to the real reason for the blog in the first place-BELLA ITALIA!

Yes, as the grey days here in Ireland pass me by in the blink of an eye (it's lashing outside as i write) and our wedding day on the Amalfi Coast gets ever-nearer, i have again begun to imagine what it will be like when we arrive there and how we will make the most of such a relatively short time on the Amalfi Coast with so much to do. I check the local weather daily and i am delighted to say they are experiencing beautiful days just now, with temperatures of 28 degrees being about the norm! I am keeping everything crossed that this agreeable weather remains for their entire summer (i am thinking not just of us but the happy Italians and other summer brides too). Oh how i wish i could be there now...

I whett my appetite by reading various travel articles and local blogs on the area (well, on Italy in general to be honest) and keep up to date with what is happening over there, such is my desire to be a 'local' one day! There i see pictures posted from those who have relocated to the area and choose to tell the world all about it (let's face it, why wouldn't you?), and the beauty of the place blows me away every time! Can it actually be that wonderful in real life? I guess only time will tell. The colours of the local flowers and the blue of the sea seem to be so bright and extreme it's hard to compare with what i see when i gaze out of my window here at the grey buildings and eternally grey sky.

Of course i am not naive enough to be fooled into thinking there will be no grey buildings or rain in Italy-i have seen the outskirts of Rome and the graffiti'd train stations-but somehow when you mix that with a culture so ancient and a joy of life so impressive that they don't need to get stressed about the 'little' things, it is easier to digest.

Instead of grey monstrosities they look out on terracotta and burnt yellows-pieces of history all- the bright blue skies are of course much more frequent and much more 'blue', even their dinner table is brightened with the varied assortment of reds, greens and yellows, all fresh and natural, obviously. Maybe it's just the romantic in me colouring my judgement, but having experienced the Italian way twice now i think not! Having dreamed of going to Italy for many years, when i eventually arrived in Rome for the first time i remember feeling that this was one dream which had lived up to my expectations and added fuel to the fire inside me. Being in Rome is like living in history, never could life more resemble a film set. Florence showed me the cultured side of Italy, it's richness and the way it fits seamlessly into everyday life there. In the countryside of Greve and the hills of Fiesole i saw what i had always pictured Italy to look like-reams of lush green countryside, crumbling orange villas dotted here and there and a thick blanket of the beloved olive tree sown like patchwork all around,- and i imagined myself transported into the pages of the many books i have read on Tuscany. I was consciously aware of lapping up every last detail, 'this is my dream come true' i told myself, commit it all to memory! After all, who knows what tomorrows there will be?

And now there will be more to memorise. Positano, a place so photographed it is recognisable to anyone, and with obvious good reason. Will i have time in this short stay to walk the 'path of the Gods'? Or will i have to leave that for my next trip? Will we get a chance to sail out to Capri or the smaller islands? What about seeing the ruined city of Pompeii, yet another piece of history preserved in Italy? Ravello, 'citta della musica' as it is known in Italy, 'city of music'! Already i have fallen in love again! It's beauty and views are the reason for the 'difficult' bus journey on the wedding day and when i think of being there already i can feel the warmth of sun on my skin.

But there will not just be Italy to remember this time, there will be a wedding day to commit to memory too, and hopefully some joyous days with family and friends thrown in for good measure! But as my brain has become slow and addled with all the planning and talk about this impending wedding being crammed inside i had better make sure i have the camera fully charged!

11th May 2009-Still standing!

Well, i managed to stay standing on my incredibly high shoes and in fact my hen night was a wonderful success!

Any nerves i had were soon washed away with my first glass of pimm's and then positively drowned when i moved on to a sea breeze! I won't go on to list in full all the drinks i had because i don't think this pc carries that much memory, but suffice it to say that the list included such things as several Mojito's, sambuca's, something called a 'stiffy' and of course, with a 'Sex and the city' theme, a cosmo! But i have to tell you all i was very well behaved and awoke sober and smiling the following morning to cook breakfast for the remaining hens! How very unlike me!

The evening started early (well in the afternoon really!) with a couple of unexpectedly early arrivals, but i was prepared well in advance and it was great to start catching up straight away. Everyone looked gorgeous in their glam outfits! By 8 o'clock we were all drinking, eating and laughing like old friends and the real fun began! I was presented with the obligatory 'bride to be' sash while the most embarassing pictures of me in existence were passed around the room! Hen party badges were donned while i had my 'L' plate firmly stuck in place! Then the quiz began! What a surprise! In the absence of my pre-mentioned unofficial bridesmaid i had not really expected any 'shenanigans' as i hadn't done the usual thing of asking someone to take charge of the night. But a very special friend stepped up and had planned the whole thing-making sure we all had a bit of craic and made fun of the bride! I was delighted and it turned out to be great fun!

We headed out for a meal although after eating my house dry of nibbles and snacks no one was really hungry! But for a table full of girls who all hardly knew each other the craic was 'mighty' and the evening flu by! After desserts and shots kindly supplied by the restaurant we headed into a cocktail bar where a few more cocktails were taken and then as planned we all went back to mine to finish off what we had started! I remember there was singing (not me), and pizza (what? more food!) and a good time had by all (so i'm told) and then a few hours sleep before breakfast!

I stayed standing in my shoes, and managed to remain relatively sober! I didn't do anything embarassing in front of my lovely MIL2B who raised a very lovely toast to me, and everyone loved everyone else! Brilliant! Now the count-down has really begun and we're having a great time! We even received our first wedding gifts on Saturday which was a great surprise and felt really special! Why did we not do this sooner...?

6th May 2009-Pimm's Anyone?

As if the fact that i will wake up 7 weeks today on my wedding day doesn't fill me with excitement enough, we have just booked our dream honeymoon and neither of us knows which we are looking forward to more!

Yes, as you have read on these pages, it took us quite a long time to decide on where we should spend our honeymoon. We have both spent weeks looking at every beach resort and luxury hotel we could find, having discarded early on the place we had always thought we would go-the Maldives-due to the uncertainty of the July weather. Nothing was really 'doing it' for us and we just kept coming back to how we just wished the Maldives didn't have their 'rainey season' during our summer-time. That's what comes of having a wedding abroad you see, you want to be able to do it outside and make the most of the summer sunshine in Europe, but the rest of the world is not keeping up with you and would prefer you to visit them at Christmastime when their sun is shining!
Then we started to read a bit more, ask people who'd been there during these 'wet' months what it was really like and all we could conclude is that the Maldives, no matter what the weather is like, is, as a well-travelled French masseur once told me, 'paradise on earth', and besides, it might not rain at all, and almost certainly won't rain the whole time no matter what.

Now, it's not like me to take a chance on the sunshine. Getting a tan and lazing all day in the sun are two of my very top holiday priorities! But somehow, a romantic private villa on the edge of a picture-perfect Island, in the middle of the Indian Ocean sounds ideal for a honeymoon no matter what the weather is doing outside, and thus we have made a decision! So, the Maldives it is! 8 days of pure luxury and the very best room we could afford! I cannot wait to experience the outdoor bathroom! Especially if the weather doesn't hold! Nor can i wait to see the baby sharks and rays, along with the Islands resident turtle, which will be living a stone's throw from our 'front door'. How will i sleep for the next 8 weeks with dreams of midnight fishing trips and dinner on the beach, not to mention our wedding and week in Italy?! It's such a special time.

But for this week at least i have something else to occupy my thoughts...Saturday is my hen night! And for a hen who has been really quite reluctant all along i am now looking forward to what will esentially be a night out with the girls. I have a house full of cocktails ready to be mixed (glass of pimm's anyone?), the highest and most gorgeous pair of shoes i have dared to wear in a long time (well, i am almost a married woman you know?), and group of girl-friends that i can't wait to have a natter and a giggle with. My only disappointment is that my unofficial bridesmaid (she who MADE me have a hen night in the first place and was to fly over from the UK) has recently had some wonderful news of her own and is unable to make it over for the hen now. She will definately be missed but i know i will see her soon when she arrives in Italy to be at my wedding, and that will be another thing i have to look forward to.

And so, on Saturday night i will have a drink to her, to all the other friends who i will celebrate my last weeks of singledom with, and i might even have a sneaky one to me! And i will try not to fall off my shoes before the end of the night!

27th April 2009-it is a girls perogative to change her mind!

Well, i spoke about my dress 'wobbles' a few weeks ago, and about how i had realized it was simply a case of comparing the one i had with the several million others also available-'too many dishes on the menu'-you might say (and yes, i experience the same difficulty when trying to decide what to order in a restaurant).

I thought i had it sorted, had stopped thinking about it, after all i am 'chilled out bride' no need to get stressed! Then my wobble turned into an all out body-shake when i saw a dress in a bridal magazine (these things are a huge mistake if you have already planned any part of your wedding-be warned!) and it screamed out of the pages at me 'I AM YOUR DRESS, BUY ME!'

Suddenly, and at last, i had seen a dress i REALLY loved and realised that i just 'sort of liked' the one i had. From that moment i just couldn't feel the same about it. And so, to cut what is an excruciatingly long and complicated story down to the bare bones, i now have a new dress-not as it turns out, the particular one which caused the damage and screamed at me, but a different dress all the same. AND I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now i'm excited! I wake up extra early each morning and my first thought is my dress! And so is the MoB who had never seen her little girl look like such a 'girl' in all these years. I think she was almost as excited as me when she saw me in it, a reaction neither of us experienced with dress number one and one i am glad neither of us had to miss. So in a way i can justify the ridiculous expense and waste....!

Yes girls, take my advice, try on dresses, lots of dresses, before you decide which wedding dress you think you want. Don't limit yourself with the 'style' you think you will suit, or 'theme' you want to create, because once you put on the dress you are meant to get the inner 5 year old that has been trapped inside since you were, well...5 years old will find her way to the surface and decide for you! You see, it isn't really up to you which dress you choose, the dress itself will do the deciding for you and believe me girls no matter how hard and fast you run, you cannot get away from it, it will hunt you down and make you wear it!!!! But it'll be worth it in the end. Now, anybody want to buy an un-worn wedding dress...?

And speaking of wedding dresses, anyone seen Denise Van Outen's dress from her secret marriage to the gorgeous Lee Mead? It's stunning! She looks beautiful. It's a dress i would have loved myself had i Denise's long legs and slender hips! But she looks so relaxed and happy i think she would have been gorgeous in a bin bag!

16th April 2009-the ladies love to shop!

The day out shopping for outfits for the two 'mothers' went brilliantly and, much like i did when i went to choose a wedding dress, both women got 'sorted' in record time! Hurrah!



Thankfully we got gorgeous weather for our jaunt to the 'big' city and all of us were in the mood for a girlie day together! I'm grateful that my mother and MIL2B get on very well (probably comes from the fact that HWSRN and i have been together forever by now!) and we are all very comfortable and relaxed in each others company. This will also help no-end i'm certain when we all head off for a week in Italy together!



Both ladies had vague ideas in their heads of what they did or did not want. This being a 'destination' wedding in a warm country, everyone invited seems a bit panicked about what is 'suitable'-as if it should be different from what you might wear to a wedding here on a hot day? - they knew they wanted dressy but cool and comfortable. And nothing too over-the-top.



In the very first shop we tried MIL2B saw something she liked. It caught her eye immediately and she couldn't wait to try it on! We looked around for alternatives (it was a big shop) but nothing seemed as nice. So try it on she did, and it was lovely on her! All three of us agreed that the colour and style were perfect for her and that was that! 'No need to look any further', she declared, 'this is the one'. So within minutes MIL2B had her outfit wrapped and bagged and was pleased as punch with her purchase! She is not a woman to mess around!



Although my mother wasn't quite as easy (this is, after all , her one and only time being mother-of-the-bride and she wanted to get it right) she too made her purchase in record time after trying several dresses several times, and picked something fabulous which i can't wait to borrow! She has gone for a beautiful, bold colour which will look stunning against the sunny back-drop, and looks gorgeous on her, and being a proper girl she is all excited now about picking out matching accessories!



Both women chose lovely outfits and i can't wait to see them all dressed up on the day-i just hope they don't outshine the bride!



More importantly than the outfits the three of us enjoyed a really nice day. Having gotten the shopping over with rather quickly and painlessly we enjoyed a long lunch and some wine before strolling around having a look at shoes etc. Then, before heading home again, we stopped at a lovely hotel and chatted about the big day over another glass of wine (well, there is lots to discuss you know!) plenty of practise for Italy!

During the day i also collected my wedding ring which i really love! I tried it on again when i got home and didn't want to take it off...and there was i thinking it would be difficult to get used to!It's very simple and not all that expensive but unusual and pretty and perfect with my engagement ring! Another thing ticked off the list too!

So all in all a great weekend. I also had a friend visit on Good Friday who listened to me go on and on about honeymoons and hair-do's without complaint! She is excited as i am about going to Italy! Yippee!

This week i have been researching hair and make-up for the day. I plan to start practising both so i will know exactly what i am doing. My hair is being trimmed this weekend in preparation for the big cut and colour-it won't know what's happening to it when it see's the scissors coming towards it as i have been growing it for what seems, at this moment, like forever! Roll on the day it gets properly coloured and styled, i have been waiting for so long! I hope it will be worth it.

Still no honeymoon news! But i remain stress-free! Did i mention i shall board my flight to Italy in only 9 weeks......?

Thursday 9th April-Tragedy in Italy on our minds.

It's only 10 weeks tomorrow until we fly to our wedding destination and i'm getting SO excited! In one sense it still seems such a long time away, but when you say '10 weeks' out loud it sounds like nothing and i know it will be here in the blink of an eye!! Before i know it i will have a new name and will be considered an 'old married woman', I can't wait!



The more i think about the wedding the more i imagine what it will be like-a small, relaxed, private affair is how i see it, celebrating with those closest to us, and a day we can both enjoy and remember forever. Never once have we regretted our choice not to have a big wedding, or a wedding here at home, in fact the more i think about it the more terrifying a prospect that would be!



I've nothing against the traditional big, white wedding. I can see why people would want that, after all it is the bride and grooms one day to be centre of attention and why not make the most of that? I like the idea of all the little things you can plan and choose for a big day of that sort-there would be much more scope for getting the details right and having things in a particular sort of way, colour-schemes, themes, extra little touches. Things that i haven't really put much thought into because Italy has done it all on my behalf!
Mind you, there is also plenty of scope to stress yourself out! As i've talked about in an earlier post-you can decide to stress as much or as little as you want to! But i suppose i feel that kind of wedding just wouldn't suit us-much as i love to be the centre of attention! I do prefer a smaller audience when all comes to all! And HWSRN would most certainly hate it!



At this point i feel so chilled out that i worry i am missing some massively important detail! I am telling myself that i was just ultra-organised from the beginning and in fairness i did get everything done pretty early with a view to being stress-free when the time came. Of course the list of things to do seems to get bigger each time i visualise it but nothing sitting on it is life-threatening so i refuse to worry!

Last week HWSRN and i spent a night away together to get away from all the plans and the stress and saving (any excuse!) and had a lovely time. We looked at wedding rings (i have chosen mine, it's quite simple but a little bit unusual) and he decided he actually quite liked the weight of it and might even wear one! We'll see! We talked to some travel agents about honeymoon ideas although we still didn't decide anything! We looked at some shirts to see what might look good with his suit and we enjoyed the whole thing. This weekend i am spending a day shopping with the two mother's. Again we plan to take it easy and relax. Have a girlie day trying on dresses and stopping to reflect over a glass of wine...or three! All these things are what make the build-up to the wedding an exciting time! And with all the organising done by internet it's nice to have ways of involving others in the 'big day'.

While away for our 'romantic' weekend we ate lunch in 'Carluccio's' Italian cafe (i am a big fan! He's a grandfather-like Italian celebrity chef who opened a place in Dublin last year) and eveything was soooooo Italian it made me even more excited about going back there for the third year in a row! The coffee's we're a touch stronger, the olive oil on the pasta deliciously aromatic and even the relaxed atmosphere induced my such good food and wine made me long for my second home (one day!!!here's hoping). It really got me thinking more about Italy! If that's possible i hear you cry!

Another reason i've been thinking about Italy this week is the terrible earthquake which struck L'Aquila on Monday! I have been watching those poor people on the news all week and my heart goes out to them all. So many are now homeless and have lost their families and neighbours-it makes you wonder how small villages like Onna,-which has lost a fifth of it's residents,-will ever get over such a thing, and seems especially hard to believe because it has occurred in such a beautiful part of the world, and so close to us. My thoughts are with them all.

2nd April 2009-No road? No worries!

Well, we are actually under the twelve week mark which is pretty exciting!!! Given that it was six months to go on Christmas eve, and that it seemed scarily close then, having less than three months to go now is just weird!

I must admit that i am more excited now than anything. The sun is out, the days are longer and brighter and it seeems that we are finally getting there. It's a great feeling. For now, any stress i had seems to have dissipated, and we are both just looking forward to a lovely holiday and getting married to boot!

I know i am stress free (for now anyway) because i heard news this week that the road we will use to travel between our wedding ceremony and the reception is currently under-going some major works and is closed for the majority of the day (every day)! This work is expected to go on until August. Perhaps it is because there still seems to be quite a long time to go (even though there isn't) but my heart barely skipped a beat as i imagined us and our smartly dressed wedding guests tramping along the side of one of the busiest and most nerve-wracking roads in the world. Well that, or sitting impatiently in traffic for hours on end, desperate for a cool and much-deserved glass of champagne.

It was a tough enough decision when we decided to travel between the towns of Positano and Ravello on our wedding day, adding about an hour on a mini-bus to the proceedings. But we chose the venues for the ceremony and reception because we love them and just didn't want to make do with what was more convenient. Besides, i understand that the 'Amalfi Drive' is quite spectacular and many people pay to be taken along it on their trips to this part of the world, so we thought it might be nice if our guests got a 'mini-trip' included in the day! The views will be something for us all to remember-providing we don't have to sit in the one spot for too long! Maybe we could have some speeces then, save time later?

So, 'It's out of my control' i thought to myself-'no point worrying'.

Anyone who knows me will understand that this is not the usual and expected response. I did the sensible thing, emailed a few people in the know, told myself 'what will be will be' and stayed calm. 'Don't worry about it' they tell me in Italy 'It will be sorted sooner than expected, all will be well', and i am reassured by their lack of concern. It's part of the reason i love the place, this relaxed attitude and refusal to get stressed about the unimportant stuff! They have their priorities in the right order. What's the worst that can happen? It's not as if Italy is going to run out of food, or wine, or worse still, sunshine, when we are there, so i am certain all will be well.

There are always hitches, i am led to believe, with any wedding, so it is comforting to think that something as simple as this might be mine. Don't worry, i am touching wood again and not fool enough to believe that might be true!

We are still on the honeymoon trail. A new option rears it's head daily but still no decision has been made. It had been on the back-burner while the actual wedding took precedence for so long that it is hard now to cocentrate! Going to Italy was always more important.
We are also deciding what to do about a party back home. Should we? or shouldn't we? Our major problem is where? This is why we wanted to get married in Italy in the first place, we couldn't find anywhere here that would be as special for us! But as i said, no stressing, we will decide in time. It seems we will never be finished making these decisions...

There will be loads to do over the coming weeks and life is busy, busy, busy! But it's fun and exciting too and as long as i remember that i 'don't do' stress anymore i'm sure i'll handle it just fine!

24th March 2009-Where in the world...?

Hello there fellow brides and wedding fanatics! Sorry it's been a while, truth is it's all pretty quiet just now on the wedding front and i didn't want to bore you.

Yes, be assured that somewhere in the midst of all the panic and mayhem which is the lead up to a wedding, will come a period of time when there isn't much going on at all! And let me tell you it's pretty nice to be able to relax for a bit before you enter into the final, mad furlong.

As always though the subject of weddings is never far away from our thoughts and our current topic of wedding deliberation and confusion is one of the few that all brides and grooms must decide together. One of the rare wedding decisions that the groom actually wants to have some in-put into (i lie of course as groomy is happy to go along with any of my decisions until he doesn't actually like one of them and then he sticks his oar in! on this basis i am informed, all decisions must be classed as joint), and inevitably there for, one of the most important.

Of course i'm talking about where to go for the honeymoon.

It's harder than i thought choosing one single place in the WORLD to go! After all the world is a BIG place and i could probably choose several hundred holiday destinations i'd love to see given an adequate budget and the time! But alas, neither budget, nor time is on our side here and a decision must be made. I know we are getting a week in Italy anyway (which would always be top of my very long list obviously), but i'm told that a honeymoon is pretty special and not to be missed for the memories and of course the romance element. So a further destination is required.

We started with high hopes of far-flung desitinations. Hawaii was up there for a while, quickly replaced by the Maldives. Then wedding stress began to kick in and the idea of travelling for more than an couple of hours to reach relaxation nirvana seemed a step too far. Perhaps another week in Italy then, or one of it's islands not too far away? But do we want a beach holiday, or a luxury countryside hotel? Will we be up to some sight-seeing or will a tan and a facial be the order of the day? And to throw another difficulty into the mix-should we book now or wait until the last minute in the hopes of a credit crunch holiday bargain? Decisions, decisions...

Currently we are googling. The world is a big place but i think i've viewed most of it's hotels at this point (not quite as many as there are wedding dresses but still quite a few)! And still we are not a step closer to making our decision. I guess it isn't too awful a choice to have to make and it's certainly more fun than some other parts involved in organising this wedding! And looking at pictures of all the places we may or may not end up is making me long to get to the warmth of the Amalfi Coast. I believe the weather is lovely there just now...

I'll let you know if we ever make a choice!

13th March 2009-the hens they are a-clucking!

The hens are clucking and plans are in full swing! Against my better judgement obviously!

A hen party is one of those wedding traditions that just comes as part and parcel of the planning and cannot (i am reliably informed) be avoided. With visions of 'L' plates pinned to my best dress and chocolate willy straws i resisted for a long time, but eventually was forced to give in after much pressure from some over-exuberant hens.

And i'm glad i did because planning a night with all the girls in my life is actually loads of fun and it's another thing to look forward to in the run up to the wedding. We have a theme (i'm told this is the thing to do) and plenty to organise (might even take my mind off the wedding for a while!) and it's amazing how girls can bond over a bit of list writing and making plans!

Now, because i am getting married abroad i have found that this impacts quite heavily on what i can and can't do for my hen night. For example, the craze of the moment is to organise a hen party abroad. It isn't unusual to find girls heading away for a clubbing weekend in Newcastle or even a whole week of partying in Spain, but it's not easy to ask this of your hens when they are already forking out for a holiday in Italy to come and watch you swap vows. Especially in the midst of an (whisper) economic crisis.
What makes it even more comlicated for me is that i'm from the UK but live in Ireland, so where's the best place to have it? Who do i ask to fly? Do i go there/ do they come here? You can see the predicament!

So i've kept it simple. No big plans, no mass exodus to the costa's or such-like. Just a good-old fashioned girly night out. I'm fortunate enough that those who really count can make it, even though it will mean more flights and expense to them! I don't under estimate the effort made.

And to show my gratitude i will make absolutely sure that the cocktails are potent and the glasses kept always full, and i will do exactly as i am told on the night (within reason).

It's a while away yet so i'll keep you posted on the plans. But there will definately be cocktails involved...

In other news this week has seen a mass rush of flight bookings and i think pretty much all of those coming to the wedding have booked! It's a great feeling to know who will be there now, makes it really exciting. We can stop stressing and start making plans for what we hope will be a fantastic week!

6th March-Wedding wobbles!

There is a phenomenon that exists among brides about which i was completely unaware until very recently, and even when it happened to me i thought that i must be the only one and it was all a result of me being mad!

It's something that none of us hear much about until we actually go through it because many brides deem it to be too shameful to speak of and therefore it is kept under wraps like some sordid little secret.

But i have vowed to be honest in this blog, and talk about what i'm really going through as a bride, to help others who find themselves in the same situations, and i think it is important to get this thing out in the open now, so that other brides, future brides, those who are reading this and going through the same thing, know that they are normal and they don't have to suffer in silence.

The name of this strange phenomenon? The Wedding Wobbles!

Yes, dear brides, since beginning with the planning of this wedding i have had more wobbles than i care to mention, and i don't mean of the thigh variety (although there is that too).
Now i want to be clear, i am not talking about the 'am i marrying the right bloke?' wobble. I have never once asked myself that, and i think if that's the kind of wobble you're having then i am the wrong person to offer advice.

No, i'm talking about the slightly less 'wobbly' wobbles like the one i have been going through all week, the 'did i choose the right dress?' wobble!

I won't lie. This week alone i have googled 1,236,525 wedding dresses. (Okay, a possible exaggeration, but some of them do come in a variety of colours from pearl to coffee so it's a ball-park figure). As i mentioned earlier in the week i was worried that because my dress isn't a 'wedding' dress i might be missing out on some kind of once-in-a-life-time experience (yet another wedding phenomenon). I thought it was just me, that i had been driven crazy by looking at white for so long, but it turns out i'm not alone.

Infact, after carrying out some major scientific research (amongst friends, past brides and various other women) i have discovered that this actually happens to most people! Some even go out and buy a second dress in the run up to the wedding because they have fallen out of love with the one they originally 'loved' the second they tried it on. Finding out that this was 'normal' (i use the term loosely-we are afterall, talking about brides here), i felt better, but began to wonder why this happens? I think the answer is staring us in the face. There is too bloody much to choose from!

How could we possibly be happy with the dress we have chosen when there are about ten million others out there? All this rubbish about finding 'the' dress can't be real, can it? When the odd's are that at least a couple of hundred of them have to look pretty good on you-if you had the time to try them all on that is!

So i've decided the answer is to simply stop looking! I have a dress i love. Of course if i keep comparing it to others i'm bound to find something better and more beautiful but i can only wear one on the day, and this one is 'me',... i think?!

So girls, my advice, should you want it, is to look at dresses (a good selection but perhaps not all of them)for a while, then pick one, then absolutely DO NOT look at another wedding dress again! Ever! It's just too confusing!

And it isn't just the dress you will wobble about, there are many, many other decisions over the course of time from booking to saying 'i do' which you will question. One of my first wobbles came shortly after booking when i began to wonder if marriage was a good idea at all! Did i really need to sign a piece of paper...blah, blah, blah! Loads of people don't bother getting married these days-what actually is the point? It lasted about a week until i realised that if anything 'bad' was to happen to me i wanted to be this man's wife first and i might as well do it now than 'last minute' and that sorted that one.

There are other things you will wobble about. Some brides i've heard about decided they hated their colour scheme weeks before the wedding, others change from big weddings to small, then sometimes big again! Just remember we're all going through it, it's 'normal' (again, loose).

I don't think i ever really took on board in the beginning how 'big' all this wedding stuff really is. I was blase about keeping it simple, not wanting a fuss, not getting swept along. But as time goes on, and even though i still want to keep it nice and relaxed and simple on the day, i am learning that it is a pretty big day in your life. Some take it more seriously than others-go all out and probably go through hell while planning it-but i have found out that it is a bigger thing than i perhaps thought it was. The decisions we make now will be ones that we look back on forever. We're creating memories right here and we want them to be good ones!

So remember girls, wedding wobbles are normal, just go with it and be confident in your own choices.

And remember, it'll all be over in a few months! Phew!

3rd March 2009-Bad times! Good times!

The weather has gone miserable again and my Italian sunshine still seems such a long way away! Between saving and dieting and our ever-depressing ecomony there seems little to smile about!
But i tell myself that i have so much to look forward to and even though it's hard to keep saving sometimes i also wonder how i'd feel if there was nothing to aim for? It's a pretty bad year to be getting married unless you're one of the mega-rich, but at the same time isn't it great to have something lovely taking place on what could otherwise be one of the worst years ever?
We worry about those who will attend the wedding-their finances are stretched to the limit in order to share our special day-and those who may no longer be able to because their financial situations have changed.
But we keep focused, glad to have something to aim towards, glad to know there is much to look forward to, and we know that when we look back on this period of our lives we will not think of 2009 as the year things went bad finacially, but as the year we got married instead, and that's pretty special isn't it?

I've heard friends talk about the time after their weddings when it seemed that all the effort they had spent in the planning was suddenly over, and there was no more to look forward to, and i wonder how that time will feel. I hope there will be some other adventure to begin, another plan to put into action, that will take up an equal amount of interest and energy. I suppose i'll just have to wait and see. One adventure at a time is more than enough for now!

I tried on my dress last weekend for the first time since buying it and i love it still, although i can't help but worry that i might feel i missed out on even trying a 'wedding dress', or even cheated my mother out of seeing me in one. Plus, having lost a bit of weight since then it is loose and hangs differently. I now have to decide which is more important-for the dress to fit perfectly, or to be thinner? I think i already know!!!! Afterall, the dress can always be taken in can't it?

26th February 2009- Some venue ideas while all is quiet on the western front.

Okay, so all of you budding brides out there will be relieved to hear that there comes a point in the organising stages when you have literally done all you can and life reverts to it's 'normal' peace and tranquility once more. I'm touching wood as i say this, just in case!



At the moment i feel as if i'm fairly well organised-or perhaps i've just reached a point where i no longer care...i'm not sure! But whatever it is i'm no longer worried/panicking and am really starting to get excited about a.) going on holiday to Italy! and b.) getting married (not in that particular order of course)!



So seeing as what's happening with the wedding at the moment isn't particulary exciting to read about-i.e, dieting (i don't eat, drink or have fun), waiting for rsvp's (i'm sure they will all be last minute), growing my hair (you can see my point here)- i have decided to include a bit of info on some of the other lovely venue's we considered for our Amalfi Coast wedding before we settled on Mamma Agata's because i know there's loads of brides reading this who don't feel Mamma's is exactly right for them and are looking for as much information as possible.



I spent months looking at venue's so i might as well put all of that stored info to some good use and it might help someone else out so here goes:



In Positano:



Le Terrazzo http://www.musicontherocks.it/terrazze/index.php



A restaurant on the cliffside in Positano, where you can hire a private area of terrace to hold your wedding dinner, and it also has Music on the Rocks underneath it. This is really popular as it's Positano's only nightclub and loads of couples choose to have the wedding here as they can go dancing until the early hours afterwards. Saves on booking music if you want some dancing after the wedding. They do a nice menu and the view is stunning of course!



Palazzo Murat http://www.palazzomurat.it/index.php



A beautiful palazzo hotel in the centre of Positano with a stunning 'enchanted' garden for your wedding meal! You can have music at this venue and the menu is gorgeous! The only thing that stopped us was that the garden, lovely though it looks, doesn't have sea views. Pity.



La Tagliata http://www.latagliata.com/

This is a really popular local restaurant way up above Positano in the hils of Montepertuso. It is more 'cheap and cheerful' but apparently serve great local food and the prices are very reasonable. They do cater for wedding parties but consider this for a more 'informal' wedding only. Looks lovely though and i'm dying to try it! By the way, they also will send a car down for you free of charge so no transport worries either!



There are loads of other restaurants in Positano and i think i looked at them all! But these were the three we really considered.



In Ravello:



Villa Eva http://www.villa-eva.it/description.aspx



A lovely hotel which is very well known and popular for weddings. They have a lovely garden over-looking the sea where you can have the wedding dinner. Music can be arranged here too. The pictures are stunning. Prices are not too bad compared to some other venues in Ravello. They have a sister hotel villa Maria, where smaller weddings can be hosted. Both also offer accommodation for guests.



Villa Cimbrone http://www.villacimbrone.com/en/



This is the no-expense spared luxury option! It's a stunning venue with a luxury menu and beautiful outdoor garden and cloisters for the wedding dinner. You can also hold your symbolic ceremony here in the garden-a dream setting for the pictures. You can actually pay to go in and just have pictures taken if you like-it's not bad if you really want those beautiful back-drops!



And of course theres Mamma Agata's http://www.mammaagata.com/

This is the place we chose just because it was perfect for us. It's a small private villa that can accommodate only 20 guests in case of rain (the indoor area is much smaller), with stunning views of the sea below. Dinner is traditional and is served on the garden terrace, everything is grown by the family in their garden. I'll be able to tell you more once we've been!

So that's a bit of an over view of what's available. There are loads of other little towns on the Amalfi coast to choose from, including Amalfi itself. Some of the less well known villages would be perfect for a really quiet wedding. It just depends what you want.

Hope this helps those of you struggling for ideas. It's pretty easy really once you know what you're looking for. As for me, i'm glad all of the hard work is done! The time from booking to now has flown and the wedding will be here in no time! Good job i'm a laid-back bride and not one of those bridezilla types you hear about...

20th February 2009-off the wagon!!!!

Well, the so-called 'wedding holiday' didn't really work! In fact, it was more stressful trying to do nothing for a while than it is actually organising things and getting stuff done! Not really sure what that says about me-perhaps i'm a control freak! All i know is i'm happier when i'm making things happen than hanging around doing nothing at all.

During this 'wedding holiday' i managed to confirm our choice for dinner menu with Chiara at Mamma Agata's, write out names and addresses on the invitations (which still haven't been posted but i'm getting there!) book a wedding car and talk to several bride-to-be's who wanted to know about my venue and stuff like that! So not much of a 'holiday' i think you'll all agree, but i certainly feel much better knowing that my plan to take over the world...i mean...get married in Italy, is all coming together. Ehem.

I keep telling myself there can't be much more to do. Surely? And then i manage to fine another 'detail' that just needs to be sorted out in order to make our lives easier. I say 'our' lives. I think HWSRN must think that getting married is the easiest thing in the world to organise because he will pretty much just turn up on the day (all going well of course) and say 'i do' and be none the wiser as regard to the months and months of hard slog that has gone into the organising, except for the constant up-dates he receives from me where i tell him what i've booked or what 'we' have chosen. I say 'hard slog', but actually i'm not really sure if you can call typing out emails or 'choosing' things all that difficult! Ah well, gotta make it sound like it was hard anyway!

And i can totally understand why they always say brides lose weight without even trying before their weddings! I wouldn't have believed it but i think it might be true! I am so full of this weird kind of nervous energy at the moment that i feel pretty sure i could survive on a huge tin of Minature Heroes a day and still lose weight! I don't know how long this will last, and i am not going to attempt to try out my theory, but i will keep you posted as to how long i remain standing up!

17th February 2009-Bridezilla? Moi?

I have to admit it-weddings take over your life!

I didn't want it to happen, i swore it wouldn't happen, i mocked others when they told me it would end up like this! But it has happened and it seems there's nothing i can do to prevent it.

How can a small wedding take so much planning and absorb so much of my time? Especially when it's supposed to be a relaxed, laid-back affair! What was it i said way back when i had free time to think about other things? No stress, no fuss! Pah! I tell myself that the only way to have a stress-free day is to put the time and effort in with the planning, make sure every tiny thing is organised to the nth degree before hand, but is one stress-free day really worth a whole year of stress?
And believe me-i am no Bridezilla! I am not fussy about whether the place cards match the invitations, i have not imposed a dress code on our guests to make sure some kind of 'tone' is set for the photographs, i will NOT get in a strop if a gust of wind blows my hair askew or the bus breaks down (i promise!!!), so why then, am i spending so much time making sure every detail is planned to perfection?

The honest answer? I haven't got a clue! It's seems that some sort of wave has swept me along and i am unable to stop myself. I have heard tell that it happens to all brides-to-be though i was adamant it would never happen to me. There is always something else to do, another detail to be dealt with. It's truly amazing!

Perhaps, in a way, i'm actually enjoying it. After all, how often do we get free reign to plan the perfect day? Only in our dreams and on our wedding day i suppose. So why not just go with it? In a way i actually think we create the stress ourselves-just to have something to worry about, something to over-come.

So i've taken a few days off. No plans will be made, no emails sent, i have even decided to hold off only for a day or two with writing out the invitations, just to breathe for a moment and think about something other than this wedding-which is still over four months away!!!

But i'm itching to get going again so i suppose i have to be careful. I'm dangerously close to becoming that Bridezilla i've avoided for so long! Agh!!! And in four months time, when it's all over, i'm not sure i'll know what to do with myself!

13th February 2009-You are cordially invited to...

I mentioned a few posts back that i had ordered a sample wedding invitation from a website i'd found that allowed you to design and order your own cards for any occasion. Within 2 days i had received the sample and i was really happy with it (except i felt it was a bit small) so went on to order the invitations in the same design but making them a little bigger. Another 2 days and i was surprised to receive the actual invitations! We're so pleased with them, they're really simple but totally what we wanted and i can't recommend the website;

http://www.poobies.com/

enough! So the excitment is mounting because now we have the invitations we can finally send them out. It feels a little early to me but i'm reading about some brides who have their invitations for weddings abroad sent a good 6 months or more before the wedding and then i start to panic a bit! But now feels like the right time to get them out there, giving people time to make bookings etc, and us time to organise the food and transport and all that sort of thing, once we have exact numbers.

It's kinda nerve-wracking to actually be sending them out, although we already sent out save-the-date cards which was much worse, because that's when people found out about the date and where it was going to be and we worried that people might not be able to travel or get that particular time off work etc, but they were received well. So thank goodness that part is over with and the official invitation isn't going to hold any more surprises for our guests.

Check out the website, you can use the design's they provide or upload any photo's or pictures of your own. I had a lovely picture i found of Positano in Pastel colours and also some wedding stuff off the internet and put them together and i'm pretty happy with how it looks. Now it's time to get the felt-tips out and get them in the post! I'll let you know how long it takes before we get all of our replies!!!!

We're also in the process of finalising our wedding dinner menu at the moment. Chiara has given us choices of about five or six things for each course, all of which are traditional Italian fayre and not your typical wedding food. This is exactly what we wanted, having already tried and loved local Italian food, and also having attended a beautiful wedding in Rome a couple of years ago at which the traditional food was spectacular! But i do worry that our guests may feel a bit let down! I hope not, as Mamma Agata has after all cooked for the likes of Robert de Niro in the past and therefore has got to be good, surely! But still, it won't be what you'd normally expect at a wedding. It's so hard to choose as everything sounds lovely to us, but we'll try and pick something that will appeal to all pallets and keep everyone happy. It sounds like there's going to be plenty of it anyway, so i'm pretty sure none of us will starve, whatever happens!

By the way, i want to say Happy Valentines Day to all you loved-up brides-to-be out there for tomorrow! This is my last year as a 'Fiancee' so next year we'll be going for the 'husband' and 'Wife' cards!!!! Oh, how old will i sound then? Have a good one!!!

11th February 2009-Mamma's doing dinner!

I've just realised how little i've told you all about the place we're holding the wedding reception, and as this is one of the most important aspects of the day i decided it's time to give it a bit of a mention. After all, this is where all the real celebrating will take place.

As i've mentioned before, i searched for months to find somewhere that we really felt was right. In the end, choosing the place (as in, the Amalfi Coast) came down to the beautiful area and the out door wedding terrace at the town hall. I thought after that finding a venue would be easy. There are so many to choose from. I spent months talking to wedding planners and other brides about places that are popular for holding weddings and it's true to say they were all lovely! Almost every restaurant and hotel has a sea-view and can serve a delicious dinner on an outside terrace. The choice was endless.

But what struck me as i rifled through menus and photos was that most of these places serve 'typical' restaurant food in similar settings to those we could all have for our weddings at home. And it seemed silly to travel all the way to Italy to have the wedding we could have at home. The alternative was to book a table in a small local restaurant and eat real Italian food, but without any sort of special 'wedding' treatment. This too seemed a bit of a let-down after going all that way.

So what was the answer? We wanted to get married in Italy, and we wanted something a bit special and different, and above all, Italian-did such a place exist in an area that has essentially become a wedding mecca for Uk and Irish brides over the last few years?

It took a while but eventually i started to hear about this place in Ravello (a town close to Positano, which i had already fallen in love with) called Mamma Agata's. It's actually a cookery school and is run by a family who have all been involved in either the wedding or cooking industry for many years. I spotted a couple of reviews about weddings that had been held there and they sounded amazing! Pretty much exactly what we had been searching for!

When we saw the pictures on the website we both fell in love all over again! The views are wow! and everything is so simply but beautifully done. It's the family's own home-a villa right on the cliff-side-and they grow many of their own fruit and veg, even making their own wine and limoncello! Everyone in the family has a role and together they create this whole wedding experience and it all sounds perfect to me!

Dinner is all made up of really Italian local dishes, and their home-produced wine is matched to your menu selection, this is all served out on their garden terrace which looks down onto the sea. They serve cocktails over on the garden and produce a beautiful Italian wedding cake! Most of all the whole place is privately ours for the day and they will make sure everyone is looked after and treated well. It's exactly what we both hoped for and we can't wait to get over there and visit!

When i imagined in my head what i wanted the wedding to be like, this is exactly what i saw, so i'm thrilled that such a place really exists! Then perhaps in years to come we'll be able to go back again and learn to cook on Mamma's cookery course, while celebrating some special anniversary back in the place where we married!

9th February 2009-Sex and the City and great friends!

I've had a wonderful, girlie, wedding-y weekend and i'm loving how excited everyone is! My friends are probably even more excited about this wedding than i am and it's so lovely to have friends like that!

One really good girlfriend-who is definitely coming to the wedding-came and spent the night on Saturday and we had a great time drinking wine (Italian of course), watching Sex and the City the Movie (a must for all lovers of friendship, romance and shoes!) and of course talking dresses, shoes and more! She tells me she's not fed up listening to me yet, so i'm making the most of that while it lasts!

Then another friend (my unofficial bridesmaid, in fact) got in touch to discuss the all important hen-party! It was really touching to know that they're both not only excited for me, but looking forward to making a holiday out of the whole thing themselves so that makes the whole thing a win-win for everyone! And i have to say it's lovely knowing that even though times are tough for all of us, they still want to spend their hard-earned cash coming to Italy with us!

It's funny because i never saw myself as an excitable bride! Certainly no bridezilla! But the buzz it creates among those that care about you can't fail to get you involved! And that's what wedding's are all about really aren't they? HWSRN and i know how we feel about each other so in some ways the big day isn't going to hold any surprises for us on that front! But it's getting to share such joy with the other important people in your life that makes a wedding special, and i guess i hadn't realised that before. Having said that, i'm always a hopeless sop at the wedding's of friends, and cried more than the bride when my best friend got married, having to try and hold my breathe so as not to ruin the beautiful music with my sobbing, because i was so happy for her!

So i've decided to just enjoy the closeness a wedding can afford you when it comes to friends and family, and make the most of such a special time. Just like christmas, the build-up is as important as the big day! I am going to relish the girlie lunches and telephone chats discussing flowers and hair-do's, and days out with mother's and mothers-in-law buying outfits. I will even force myself to admit that i CAN see the point of a hen-night and look forward to being ridiculed in whatever way my friends see fit! Because as i'm finding out, this wedding isn't only about celebrating the love between my other half and i, it's also about celebrating all the other relationships we have, with our friends, our families, everyone who cares about us! And i don't need to be asked twice to join in a celebration!

6th February 2009-Stop being miserable!

Well, after the serious tone of my previous post i thought it might be a perfect time for some good news-i have got my motivation and found my mojo, i have at last begun to lose weight!

In a healthy and positive way-not a silly crash diet or pills or anything mad like that. It's just that since buying the most beautiful dress in the world (TM) last weekend i have suddenly discovered a new found addiction to the gym. And it's true what they say-all you really need is motivation! I'm there whenever i have a spare moment right now so it's also helping me to stop spending money on things i don't really need by keeping me out of the shops! Plus, if i go at lunch time i have less time to eat a big lunch-all pluses, you see?

I already feel great! Loads of energy and a much more positive outlook. I'd recommend it!
I'm not going to try the dress on again until the end of this month just to see how it looks and i'm trying not to keep un-zipping the bag and sneak a peak!

Also, i've ordered a sample wedding invitation of my own designing on a website i found which is actually cheaper than buying ready-made ones or making your own, so when it comes i'll let you all know how it turned out and give you website details.

It's lovely to have my first follower by the way! Glad to know someone is enjoying reading. Thanks Mrs. H.!

4th February 2009-the Big R Word!

Okay, so i've avoided mentioning it thus far, but today i think i need to talk about the dreaded (whisper) R-word, and how it is affecting not only my wedding (and presumably many others) but all of our lives in general.
The Recession-there, i've said it!- is a BIG issue for most of us right now and just can't be ignored any longer. Don't worry, i'm not going to keep harping on about it, but this is supposed to be a wedding diary and the current economic situation (to coin a phrase i hear used on at least a daily basis) is something which plays on my mind throughout this whole stage of planning and preparing. Every decision we make right now-and in particular the one we made to actually go ahead and get married at all- is affected by this terribly unsteady economy we're all living in, and i can't deny that changes have been made because of it.
When we decided to get married in 2009 last year we felt we were not only finally ready (after 7 years together) to make the huge commitment of marriage, but also finacially able to manage it, and do it as we wanted to. We're a bit saver and a bit splurger but not massive earners and like to try and enjoy life as much as possible, so made the concious decision to get our heads down and save more this year, feeling that we already had a little bit of a start towards it and things wouldn't be too tough.

So we had a nice holiday last year and then booked the dream wedding in Italy for this year. It was always the plan to get married abroad. I'm not big into weddings and neither of us feels the need to declare our love to a crowd of people who don't really know, or care about us-just the ones that do. And taking into account my 'Italy disease' and our love of sunshine! It all seemed perfect.
Then the Credit crunch began to hit.
We started to worry that this would affect our guests and that they may not be able to afford the flights etc, or would not want to waste their valuable holidays coming to Italy for our benefit. It still wasn't affecting us really, although because i work in an estate agengy there has always been a worry that i might, at some stage, be out of a job.
Being a person who likes to try and grab life rather than wait for it to thump me, we decided to just take a chance and book it, which we did.
Then came the 'it seems we don't actually have the money we thought we did', situation. This happened just a few weeks before christmas when we discovered that some of our savings-which we had thought would cover most of the cost of the wedding-were no longer available due to the declining market (i won't bore you with details but basically we had money-then we didn't, through no fault of our own). This was the major blow which forced us to consider cancelling.
It was a horrible time just before christmas when the gloss and shine of planning our dream wedding was tarnished, and we really thought long and hard about how sensible it was to go ahead with the wedding, but in the end we told ourselves that things could be a lot worse and that we were fortunate to still have jobs and health and should go ahead and get married while we were able.
So we put our heads down a began to save, making some changes to our life-style.
And that's where we are at right now! No more shopping in Marks and Spencer, no more lunches out or trips to the cinema for us. We now do things like paint the house or cook nice dinners at home and watch Dvd's and it's going to be that way for at least the next six months. But we don't mind because, it's fun to have a goal and find new ways to occupy ourselves without spending dollars! And things could-as i have said before-be much worse, and are, i know for so many people.
We worry abour our jobs, (HWSRN has recently found out he has to take a pay-cut to cover the cost of the governments mistakes, and i am still hanging on to my job) and whether our friends will be able to make it what with redundancies abounding among them, but we hope that it will be worth it all in the end, and we say constant thanks that we are in the fortunate position that we are.
I heard today that things are looking very bad for poor reality TV star Jade Goody and i thought to myself how sad her situation is. I was, at the time, very angry about said other half's paycut, but hearing her story i reminded myself that at the end of the day that it's only money we're worrying about. Poor Jade may never get the chance to marry her partner Jack, so in the end money makes little difference to our lives and our true happiness, and i'm thankful that i am able to save the money- tough as it may seem- and even get married all.
Everything that we are faced with poses us with a new opportunity, and i am looking at my current situation that way. I have always loved writing and now have both the extra time, and the inclination to explore what i can do with it. Starting with this diary and being able to plan my wedding well. I am more determined to make a success of myself, and am hearing stories all the time of people who have recently been made redundant setting up their own businesses, and i think this is great!
We have to try and put a positive spin on every negative situation, and get our priorities in order.
So, without wishing to preach for a moment longer, i want to say good luck to all you credit crunch brides out there! I hope you're not finding it too tough. But try and remember that buying ready-made invitations instead of designing your own, or not arriving at the church in a horse-drawn carriage isn't the end of the world. Just feel lucky that you have found someone you love enough to marry, and that's the most important thing of all!

2nd February 2009-The perfect dress!

I got it! I can't believe it! I actually found and bought a dress which i love and i think is perfect!

Without giving too much away...forget everything i said in my previous entry! The dress i decided on was totally different to what i had expected to end up with and i don't care! It's not even something i would usually try on and it isn't a traditional wedding dress, but it is perfect for where we are getting married, and for me, so i'm really happy.

I must admit i didn't really look in many bridal shops but my experience of those i did try wasn't great. I got the impression that they just don't want to get off their seat for you unless there's a guarantee that you'll be handing over your cold hard cash at the end of it! And i really didn't like anything i saw! I guess a 'wedding' dress just wasn't for me and i'm so glad because i can't tolerate bad service and it would have driven me mad to have to deal with rude, snooty shop assistants! I worked in retail myself for years and i understand how frustrating it is to spend time with a customer who doesn't end up buying from you, but thats just the way it goes isn't it. And the way i see it, if you're rude in the first place you've got absolutely no chance!

Anyway, on to happier things. The dress has spurned me on with my diet (trust me-only thin will do!) and i have already been to the gym twice today! I'm going to try not to keep looking at it so that each time i do it will still seem fresh and i won't get too bored before the big day! I'll just try it on every now and again when i feel like i'm loosing weight! There's nothing like knowing that a crowd of people are going to be looking right at the back of you for a considerable period of time to create incentive!

29th January 2009-Dress excitement mounting!

Okay, so the excitement over going dress shopping is mounting! And even though i'm trying not to get too carried away with myself because a.) i'm looking for something less weddingy than your average bride, and b.)i know i'm not going to find the dress i'm looking for, it's still exciting to think that i will have an excuse to try on anything i like because 'i'm getting married'.

No bridal or designer shop employee can look at me and say 'sorry, no messers allowed' because i am actually a bona fide bride to be and therefore it is my right to try on! I'm going to make the most of it because how many times in a girls life can she claim to have that excuse? (Well, just the one time i hope)!

I am stealing myself for disappointment though because i sort of vaugely know what i'm looking for but have no idea where to look. Most of the bridal websites i have traweled are full of beautiful but heavey and long wedding gowns which i just cannot see myself wearing (or wanting to heave around the Amalfi Coast in baking heat) and the odd one throws in one shorter style for good measure. But what they show on their websites and what they carry in their store, i'm clever enough to realise, are probably two different things! And i really don't want to wear the 'token' short dress. It's still my wedding day and i want something special. A good friend suggested a dress of a different colour and i admit, it could be an option for some. Why not? It's our wedding day and we can do whatever we choose!
But i am quite traditional at heart (in some ways) and love the idea of wearing white. Infact it has to be white for me. Not Ivory, or cappucino, or even champagne! No i really have my heart set on white. So wish me luck, i've a feeling i might find i'm being too picky!

Saturday is the big day so i'll keep you posted on how i get on.

In other wedding news we are still trying to choose a wedding car to take me to the town hall and then both of us (my husband and i!!!!) off to have photos taken in and around Positano before we head off to meet our guests in Ravello. I had really really really hoped to hire a vintage Italian car, something really old and quirky. But it is not to be. They just cannot be got unless you have them transported from Rome and want to pay extra for a driver.
So it looks like it's going to be a mercedes which is fine i guess, but not the statement i was hoping for! HWSRN is thrilled though cos he loves a really nice Merc!

I'm also going to have a scout around for invitation ideas over the next few days. I refuse to pay hundreds or thousands for them as i know some do, because i guess it just isn't that important to me. We made our own Save the date cards which were lovely, and i hope to do the same with our invites and keep the same theme (we found a lovely hand-painted pastel picture of Positano and used it as a back ground) so i'll see what i can come up with!

27th January 2009-You can't please them all...

Whoever said having a small wedding would be simple? Er, that would be me i think!
Way back when all i knew of it were the beautiful close-ups i'd seen of two smiling models posing as a bride a groom-tanned and authentic-looking in their stunning white emsembles-on wedding-based websites and in holiday brochures.
The reality is they're not quite so simple. It seems not everyone shares our idylic dream of the warm Italian sun draped across the med as the perfect wedding day. Especially not those with children. I guess the idea of dragging three of lifes most energetic creations to such a gorgeous location-which just happens to be hundreds of miles from such things as a convenient baby-sitter-is, for some, too much to bear.
And so it has begun. Some of our guests can't come to the wedding because nobody will look after the children for more than a day or two.

We considered the issue of kids for a long time before we settled on the venue for our wedding-a tiny villa which hosts private functions on the hill-side of Ravello. They can accomodate no more than 20 people on their picturesque sea-view terrace and including children in our guest-list would have meant leaving out too many adults. Or raising the numbers to such high proportions that half of us would have to sit outside!
And to my mind this is not a wedding for kids anyway. No running around in circles on the dance floor pretending to be superman here! There'll be no dancing. Just sitting, talking and eating. Something most people under the age of 12 seem unlikely to want to do for more than a few minutes.
So because our hearts literally skipped a beat when we came across this place-and because we had never planned to get married at a kids party-we decided to include in our SAVE THE DATE cards a note which said that children-unfortunately-were not included in the invite. This was ages ago, and although we had fretted ourselves silly that no one would come, the reaction turned out to be positive.
They were all only too delighted to have a romantic break and leave the kids at home!
So all was well. Or so it seemed.
Now it has gotten to the time of booking flights and making arrangements, and our first drop-outs have presented themselves. 'Please can we just bring a couple of them?' they enquired but we have to stick to guns (it says this in all the wedding advice pages!) because if we allow one couple to come, kids and all they'll all want to. And before we know it the guest list will be 29 and the menu will include 9 orders of sausages and chips!

I can't say it isn't disappointing when people say they can't come-after all when you can only invite 20 guests you make sure they're the 20 you absolutely want to come-but we surely have to be allowed the wedding day we want, just as they were. And that's life isn't it? You can't please all the people all of the time. I just hope the one's who make the effort feel it was all worth it. Everything's looking so beautiful I'm feeling sure they will.

Plans are going great guns now! I've just ordered the most beautiful floral arrangements to decorate the table and chairs. They include lemons which are typical of the region and so unusual i knew they would be perfect. How easy it is to get carried along....

The ceremony is written and Rosa has approved it. She is a star and isn't even charging us any extra money to do the add-on of officiating the symbolic part of the ceremony. The actual ceremony is very official and un-romantic and would be awful on it's own i think so we are having an extra bit with readings and exchange of rings which she will do for us.
It's such great fun to pick out all the things you like and arrange a whole day exactly as you want it, and think that's what is so special about a wedding. It's a day of celebration of your own designing and i think our wedding day is going to be a true reflection of us and what we want in life!

21st January 2009-We're going to Italy!!!

At last all of you lucky people who know you have been invited to our beautiful Italian Wedding(TM) can breathe a sigh of relief and start googling the various low-cost airlines pronto! For we, the bride and groom (along with our mixed bag of parents) have booked our flights! It is official! There shall be no refund! We have no choice now but to go (or lose a heck of a lot of money) so you can all stop worrying and go ahead and book!

I know what it's like-'oh yeah, we're getting married abroad. You're invited. It's all booked. Oh, except for the all-important flight which will carry us to said foreign country!'
Cue sniggers and uncertainty about the legitimacy of this wedding. 'Better wait until they commit' you think to yourself, 'don't want to lose my money if they change their mind'!

I know, i've been there. And it can turn into a game of cat and mouse while you try to get the best deals but refuse to book anything until it's all 'official'. So you can all rest assured that HWSRN and i ARE committed and as they say 'in for a penny...'

It's so exciting! I know, i keep on saying that but every extra step is another step towards the big week (yes my friends, not content with only a single day, a wedding abroad affords you a whole week of celebration!) and the thoughts of being basked in sunshine and treated like a very special princess (in the words of any 5-year-old girl) are really starting to kick in!

Oh yes, of course there's all that 'beginning a new life together' stuff aswell but to be honest, unless this new life is going to involve lots of extra cash, then i'm pretty happy with the one i've got! So i suppose we're just using the excuse to celebrate that fact in a beautiful place with all the people we love. Which in my book is as good a reason to get married as any!

16th January 2009- the right words to say.

Have you ever noticed how difficult it can be to find the right words? I always presumed that if i couldn't think of what to say, someone else would be able to. I thought that every thought or feeling must have been expressed by someone at some time throughout history. Just think of all those lengthy tomes written throughout the years. But it turns out this is not a fact!
Finding the right words to use as our wedding vows and readings is turning out to be absolutley impossible! Everything i have read is either very cold and lacking the feelings i hope to express, or too mushy and sloppy and not exactly the tone i want for the Big day!

I have found one reading that i love and do intend to use but it's quite childish and funny and all of the other readings i'm drawn to are equally as childish (i'm sensing a theme about my personality here) and i worry that having two childish readings is a bit silly! Perhaps though, that in itself would create a 'theme' for the day which as we have already discovered might be fitting for me at least! The groom is not so impressed however!

As for actual vows! Wow, how hard is that? I want words which mean something, but i don't want all of our family and friends to burst out laughing if they're too 'flowery' or 'wet'. Ugh, this is possibly the hardest part (so far).

I thought choosing the reception venue was difficult. I spent months doing research on the hundreds of 'weddings in Italy' websites but mainly on Trip Advisor which was really brilliant for getting ideas and advice from people who live in the area or have already married there!

Eventually, after looking at loads of really 'nice' but somehow not quite perfect places we came across a place called Mamma Agata's (i know, i just love the name) in Ravello. It's a small cookery school which now also lends itself as a wedding venue. It's run by a family. The mother (Agata) is a cook who has spent years cooking for the likes of Robert De Niro and the daughter has been a wedding organiser in some of the worlds top hotels. They grow most of their own produce so what you are eating is growing around you and they even make the wine to go with the food. That just sounds like heaven to me and as soon as we saw pictures of the views we'll have from our dinner table on the terrace we knew it was THE place!
It's only drawback is that it holds only 20 people so we knew we had to keep the numbers small. That was always our plan but i'm finding that when you actually come down to inviting people it's really hard to keep numbers that small! Anyhow, we managed to choose our 'exclusive' guest list and immediately posted out 'save the date' cards, to make sure people saved up their holidays to come over to Italy. And we had to tell people they couldn't bring their kids! I was so worried about this cos i thought all of our mammy and daddy friends would go mental. But it turns most mammies and daddies are delighted with any excuse to go away without their kids so all is well on that front!

I can't wait to see Mamma Agata's! I've a feeling i'll never want to leave. And to see those views in 'real-life'...well, that really will be something special!