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...
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
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!
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!
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
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!
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!
Friday, February 13, 2009
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!!!
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!!!
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
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!
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!
Monday, February 9, 2009
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!
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!
Friday, February 6, 2009
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.!
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.!
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
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!
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!
Monday, February 2, 2009
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!
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!
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