Rock My Wedding on BBC News

Just alerting everyone to my favouritest blog ever being on BBC News channel live at 8.15pm tomorrow (Thurs night).  It's highly unlikely that anyone reading this doesn't already read RMW as I'm pretty sure my only readers have either come from there (Hi Kirsty! *waves*) or are my bridesmaids and Mum (Hi girls! *waving again*).  But anyway, I will be watching and cheering Charlotte on - can't wait to see what she does end up wearing and hearing what she has to say about the big Royal Wedding.  Which incidentally I also can't wait to spend my Friday ogling at to see what everyone, especially Kate, is wearing!!  :)

It's here!

We chose the Shakespeare quote "Now join your hands and with your hands, your hearts" as we will be having a hand-fasting ceremony and want our celebrant to say this as we are tied together after exchanging rings.  The hand-fasting is not only a Celtic tradition but is also used in Hindu rituals so lets us include both the Scottish and Indian cultures in our ceremony.

Post Wedding Update:

Mmmmm cake!

Oh, the cake - I reminded myself yesterday about the cake so here is the (long-winded, sorry) story!

Just 2 months after being engaged was the big wedding show at the SECC.  I was told to be prepared to book things on the day as you can get great discounts and went prepared with flat shoes for a day of wandering round!  I was also informed about all the cake available to taste on the day, bonus!!  I was really hoping Mum would be able to come to a wedding show with me but she was due to leave (she lives in Saudi Arabia) before the big one at the SECC.  Luckily, thanks to the Glasgow Girl's Wedding Guide, I found another one in Glasgow during her 2 week visit that September.  However, when I went to book it for us all (Nik's Mum was going to come along as well as it was the same weekend as our engagement party) the event had been postponed until January!!  Mum wouldn't be back until June 2011 a month before the wedding for my hen night!  I was gutted that I wouldn't get to share the experience with my Mum.  I had already tried to cram as many dress appointments around my job into the 2 weeks as possible.

On the night before our engagement party, Mum and Rohi (MIL2B) and I were in the kitchen chatting and Mum asked if her and Rohi could come to the big wedding show with me.  I was utterly baffled and said it would be a bit of a long trip for her as it was 3 weeks away!  She the revealed she had changed her flights before coming and was staying for an extra 4 weeks to get to join in with more wedding planning with me!!!  I was so excited!  She had already arranged with Rohi for her to come up the weekend of the wedding show and they all kept it a secret from me to surprise me!  Best surprise ever!!  : D

So 3 weeks later, off we all went to the wedding show - Nik in tow in case we wanted to book anything!  He was allowed to leave after lunch as we went off for the fashion show.

We all had a great time getting ideas and trying all the yummy cakes and other treats to be found!  The best of which - and I think Rohi was the one who kept nipping back past for another bite - was the Truly Scrumptious cake!  Oh my god, it is so yummy and moist!  We tried the toffee, chocolate and lemon.  All of which have a ganache layer, chocolate on the chocolate, white choc on the lemon and caramel on the toffee.  Deeelish!  However, they are definitely not the cheapest.  When explaining the design I was after it was going to cost an extra £150 on top of the cost of a basic cake!  However, this wasn't a huge amount more than any of the other places were quoting for what I wanted - sugar craft green dragonflies, similar to this butterfly design I found in a wedding magazine...

Please excuse the poor quality, it's a photo of the magazine page!

I wanted a round 3 tiered cake with a trail of green dragonflies going around it similar to this one.  Unfortunately I wasn't willing to pay £150 for it!  We didn't book the cake that day despite both mothers trying to talk me into it (although they deny this) but they kept going on about the free cutting cake you get if you book the basic plain decorated cake on the day.  A very good deal but I was determined to have my dragonflies!  In the end I had a thought about what other designs I might like over the next few weeks and found these ideas online (unfortunately can't remember where I downloaded them from now as it was so long ago!)

First I found this one and thought it would be nice in greens.

Then I found this one which is also nice and in my colours.

Neither of these had the impact of the dragonfly design I had in my head though.  I really did want to try and get the cake to fit in with the theme as much as possible.  I decided I would try making the dragonflies myself as I had plenty of time to practice and would just have to get someone to stick them to the plain cake on the day.  Rohi then came to the rescue as she found these and these on ebay!!  They will make them to order in any colour.

Luckily, again due to the Glasgow Girl's Wedding Guide, I got a free ticket for the next SECC show where Truly Scrumptious were exhibiting again so I went back to book the cake having decided theirs was definitely our favourite!  This time I went with my friend Ashleigh who was visiting from Arbroath who was not only great fun to go with but also helped me to avoid shoulder ache from all the brochures we were handed as we took her daughter Lola in her pram with its handy big tray underneath ;)  This time the offer was 10% off which works out about the same by the time we added on the cutting cake which we needed to have enough for all our guests.  The best thing is, the chef explained that their basic range comes with the decoration as is OR you can provide them with your own decoration and they are happy to put it on for you :)

We went for a large tier of Lemon, then Toffee, then Chocolate with an extra Chocolate cutting cake with dark ganache as a certain Mr Nik is a major chocaholic!  Speaking of which, I have just finished making these Hummingbird cupcakes for his 30th birthday tomorrow!  Happy Birthday Love!!

Dark ones are chocolate butter icing, lighter ones are chocolate cream cheese icing!  Yum!

Post Wedding Update:

Wine

Ahh, some wedding planning jobs are just so tough ;)  We love wine and drink probably just a little much at home so we relished in this job.  

Having had a delicious Chablis once before when it was on offer at Tesco (love those wine offers and the clubcard points helped us on our way to Honeymoon too via BA miles!)  We do love a bargain!  So this was the first wine chosen and purchased currently being stored in our attic.

Château de Ligny Chablis

"This clean and fresh white has a bouquet of apple and citrus fruits and combines the appetizing minerality of 

Chablis with hints of richness beneath."

The next wine we chose was actually found by Nik's parents as they bought the Champagne to bring up when they come for the wedding.  They managed to get some Lanson Black Label Champagne for a good price.

Lanson Black Label Champagne

Hints of spring flowers with a touch of toast and honey.

This is followed by strong fruit and balancing citrus flavours.

We finally chose a red wine and this was the only one I really wanted to be a Merlot as this has always been one of my favourites and one I believe is very easy drinking and most people like it.  We chose this one we drink fairly regularly for the same reasons.

Turner Road Reserve Merlot

Our Reserve Merlot has vibrant, jammy aromas of plums and red cherries and a soft, lingering finish.

Ripe fruit flavors complemented by just a hint of sweet, toasty oak.

We still have to chose a Prosecco as I really want to serve Peach Bellinis (my 2nd favourite cocktail after French Martinis!) along with the Champagne during the Champagne reception after the ceremony.  I'll update this post when we have chosen that one!

Today we headed to Majestic wine to order the wines and beers for our BBQ the day before.  We chose Majestic as they provide cooling buckets and offer sale or return so if we don't drink it all, we can return what's leftover.

We chose a Lager and an Ale to give people a choice but also because both our Dad's love Ales.  We went for Miller and Deuchars and some bottles of water and juice for the kids/those not drinking.

We went with the recommendations of the staff member regarding wines - just gave him an idea of our budget and he suggested a couple of wines he felt were ideal for accompanying BBQ food.  The first one definitely gets my vote as I simply LOVE the label - for obvious reasons, not only is it my favourite shade of green but it has a starfish!!  ;)

Starborough Sauvignon Blanc 2009 Marlborough

A quintessential Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc sourced from a number of growers in the region. The grapes are de-stemmed and lightly pressed for a lighter wine, and cool fermented for 30 days. Light and approachable in style it represents excellent value for money with layers of ripe citrus and tropical fruit flavour, and subtle green herbal notes. Enjoyable on its own as a refreshing springtime wine, this would also partner with a rice dish or prawn salad.

Oxford Landing Estates Cabernet Shiraz 2010 Yalumba

Easy drinking, but with lashings of plummy fruit flavours and spicy aromas which make this wine perfect for Sunday roast. Medium bodied with excellent balance.

We bought one extra of each for us to try first and make sure we like them - just tried the Sauvignon Blanc while cooking tonight's Monkfish with Chorizo and it's lovely!  :)

OMIGOD!!! Our celebrity venue!

I've just been alerted to this by MIL to be!!  Kiera Knightly's brother got married in our venue yesterday and she was a bridesmaid.  Not only that, but their menu was very similar to ours (you can actually read it from one of the pictures!) by our would be caterer although we haven't officially booked them yet as we are STILL waiting to hear back with a final quote so we can pay our deposit!

AND they hired a white taxi as a wedding car (we have actually gone for a silver one but from the same company!)

Methinks they have found all my lists!!  At least the style and colour theme is completely different although I do LOVE the colour of those BM dresses!  :)

The Scotsman even mentions the Pilates classes in the 'humble community hall' - I do those classes too!! :)

Post Wedding Update:

So glad we ended up booking a difference caterer (I heard they weren't overly impressed with the organisation on the day so happy we avoided that!)

The taxi was great but would have been better if they removed all the business cards from above the windows!!

We even did the obligatory cheesy hailing the cab pose after our ceremony!

Nailing it

OK, I have to admit that this title was totally inspired - OK nicked, but I added the 'ing' - from the wonderful Sophie's blog which is much more inspiring than mine given everything she is going through and my biggest worry is that I can't decide which nail polish to wear and the fact we STILL haven't booked a caterer with just 68 days to go!  Very minor in comparison to having all your hair fall out and fighting for your life!  She is dealing with it all in such an admirable way.

So, anyway, back to my insignificant (in the grand scheme of things, but actually they really are important to me at the moment and that's what matters while I am lucky enough to have my health and my wedding to look forward to) ramblings about wedding nail plans!

At the last wedding show I went to - purely to go back and book the cake (omigod the cake I haven't blogged about that amazing deliciousness yet!) to get their 'show only' price after seeing/tasting them at the first wedding show I went to but not being aware enough at that point to actually book!  Anyway I digress again, while there wandering round to just see what might be new since the last big one at the SECC, I found Filthy Gorgeous.  Available exclusively at Debenhams online and in Glasgow and London, they have a great range of colours which I just love!  I immediately spotted this amazing glittery green colour called Rock Star, which they explained had 8 different sizes of glitter to give it a truly sparkling liquid type effect.  This is what I plan to have on my and my BMs' toes!  Definitely getting a picture of our feet with all of our toes sparkling green : D

It's actually described as antique gold sparkle but it definitely looks green to me and everyone else who I've shown it to and a couple of blogs I've just found it reviewed on!  It especially works layered over one of my other green polishes!  I actually bought one of the box sets as it was another bargain at £25 for 4 compared to £9 each.  Although they are currently down to £12.50 in the sale!!  Double bargain!  I also love the rock chick style packaging!

Box set containing Black, my glitter green, bright red and a gunmetal grey glitter (also gorgeous!)

So, that's the toes sorted!  Unfortunately I am completely stuck on the finger nails!  I had originally thought I would stick with the classic French Manicure for the wedding day as it's always going to be in style and is nice and simple but effective.  Then I found this Champagne colour from Models Own (not the bright orange one but the middle row far right!)

Picture from the Models Own blog

I love this colour and wear it often but not sure if it would be too much.  The other option is for my BMs to wear the Champagne colour while I stick with the classic French Manicure?  Please let me know what you think in the comments below as I really can't decide!

Post Wedding Update:

I went for classic nails in the end.

Wedding Photos

Other than the amazing photos I'm sure we'll be getting thanks to Matt, we have asked all of our married guests to send us a photo of them on their wedding day to try and include them in the romance of our day.  I have arranged a collage of the pictures to be displayed on our wedding day to hopefully bring back romantic memories of their own wedding days while enjoying ours.  We were also hoping for some interesting old pictures and potentially some funny fashion too but other than my Aunt's 80's frizz (see top right, of which I had similar as an 8 year old bridesmaid on her day - she took the liberty of sending that pic too!) and my Dad's flares and dodgy 'tache they were actually not too bad!  We plan to display our parent's pictures in their own individual frames.

We had a pretty good response and a lot of guests have sent us pictures - we've ended up with a nice mixture of older and more recent images as well as traditional English, Scottish and Indian style weddings adding to our fusion theme.  I have stuck them all to a magnetic pinboard with blu-tak and then added some of my magnetic dragonflies.  This is the first draft but unless we get any more pictures this will be the board displayed on the day, next to our guest book.

Post Wedding Update:

We got quite a few photos sent much later so I didn't have time to do anything with them so close to the wedding but we managed to get them hung on a green ribbon over the table.

I particularly love the really old ones of our grandparents!

Table Names

Our table names were something else we wanted to use to tell our guests a bit about us.  We decided on using the names of our favourite dive sites we have dived together.  I was also hoping to incorporate some of my own pictures into the day somewhere and this seemed an ideal way, so we chose 15 of my best underwater images and I photo-shopped the table names and numbers onto them...

www.bexphoto.com to see more!  ;)

We found a great bargain in IKEA to display them in for a bargain £1.01each!

These fab super cheap frames are perfect as they can be seen from both sides and have no unsightly backs for the people sitting on the other side - so I've just printed 2 of each picture to have it showing on the back and front.  I think they'll look great on the tables and add a real pop of colour amongst all the green!  ;)

Update: First print of the table names was a slight fail!  The wording and numbers were right on the edge and cut off on all of the pictures by the edge of the frames :(  I also decided that number 8 didn't show up the table number well enough as the background was yellow so I changed that to another Clown fish picture.

However, after re-photo-shopping (another hour spent) and re-printing they now look FAB!  I love them : D

Post Wedding Update:

Props!

There are many props for our wedding - might have something to do with my wedding obsession and shopaholic-ism - but most of them are for the 'Photo Corner'.  Our wonderful photographer and friend Matt suggested that, as he is travelling up from Manchester and therefore staying all night anyway, we could set up a 'photo booth' for the evening and he will take some photos of our guests with various props and have some fun pictures for our guest book!  (More on the design of that later.)  I am delighted he wants to do this as I love seeing fun photos from actual booths that can be hired for hundreds of pounds and from other photographers who have done similar things.  It seems to be something that's getting more and more popular for weddings in this country.  It's also fun entertainment for our guests and I think silly props can help them feel more comfortable having pictures taken.

I have been having great fun thinking about the design of our 'Photo Corner' and what props to include.  Luckily I already have a pretty good collection of items due to my love of Halloween and fancy dress parties.  So far we have....

2 pairs of jumbo metallic green (of course!) heart shaped glasses
2 heart shaped chalk boards for messages (one of which we used in our engagement shoot)
4 pairs of 'geek' glasses
2 Venetian masks
Fimo Moustaches on sticks I have yet to make
Fimo Smiles - as above!
Various hats I have used for Halloween parties over the years
A very funky baroque style frame from a mirror I found in TK Maxx
I'm sure there will be more by the time the wedding comes!

We are also planning on having a backdrop for the photo corner and I had planned on trying to DIY a wall such as this one I found on RMW...

Photo via Rock My Wedding (I can't find the link to this actual picture but this was another one!)
Just found it!!  Here!

We're now thinking of making a backdrop out of fabric as it will much easier to transport to the venue and hang up on some kind of rail (perhaps from Ikea if I can find one tall enough).

Post Wedding Update:

I did get some fabric from Ikea for a backdrop but wasn't quite sure how to hang it.  In the end, our wonderful on the day coordinator, Rebecca, ended up using that on the cheese table as she thought it was a table cloth - it looked great!  She came up with her own idea for our backdrop using our photo bunting and paper poms in the fireplace by the bar - ideal!

Our Backdrop

Screen grab from our wonderful wedding highlights film by Cherry Tree Films

We got some little indoor sparklers for people to use in the photo booth too but they all disappeared before dinner!