Save the Date!

Since we now had a date and it was less than a year to go already, the wedding frenzy truly started!  I began buying wedding magazines and discovering blogs online!  I am still doing both of these things and loving every minute of inspiration and general wedding-ness!  Got to make the most of it while I can!

I began cutting out lots of pictures of the things I truly loved from the stationery to the dresses!  My Mum actually makes hand made cards for a hobby and had always planned on making my invitations for me whenever I got married (more on those later!) but one of the ideas that stood out to Nik and I for the save the date cards was a very simple minimalist idea of having a blank front page with just 'tying the' typed across the middle with a ribbon tied onto the card in a knot - so 'tying the knot'.  The ribbon also gave us the chance to hint at our colour scheme without giving too much away at such an early stage.

Inspiration

The initial theme idea was always going to be green!  I am frankly obsessed with green, I love it!  I have make-up in green and a lot of clothes, I have decorated with it and generally try and have as much green around as possible.  With this in mind and the slightly annoying factor that 3 recent weddings we had been to in the last 2-3 years (we seem to be at that age where all of our friends are suddenly getting hitched) all had green bridesmaids!  Luckily none of them were quite my perfect green - olive/moss green.  I swiftly made my way to Hobbycraft to try and find my perfect colour of ribbon (35p per meter)...

Ribbon - with and without flash to show colour

My Mum being the crafter that she is had the perfect punch with 2 little dashes like this one...

Long reach 2 hole punch

We then chose our font and practiced our printing and punching to make sure we got it all in the right place and in the center.

Practice on paper template (made by Nik)

We decided to keep the front and inside very plain and simple with most of the details on the back.  We also by this point had discovered our guest list was rather larger than initially anticipated so asked people to RSVP now if they could as we figured most of them would know already if they were able to come or not.  This would allow us to invite some more people important to us if we found we had some guests decline, since we physically could not fit any more guests in!  (See future post for the full story!)

We bought the plain white square cards from Hobbycraft for £4.95 per pack of 50 cards with envelopes.  Nik printed all the text, we all punched the holes and I tied the majority of the knots with a little help from Mum!  The final result looked like this...

Save the Date Card

Inside Save the Date

All for the bargain price of £13.83 for 100 and the satisfaction of having made them ourselves :)

Bargain save the date cards!

The Venue!

Soon after our engagement and finding the ring (the next day in fact!) we began the search for somewhere to get married.  We decided we really wanted to get married the following summer, mainly due to the fact that Nik is currently a medical student and graduating next summer so will be working from August with very little holiday allowance and we want an amazing honeymoon!
We had already decided we wanted to get married here in Glasgow as this is the first place we have lived together, we love it here and it's just easier all round!  After doing some basic research online, we booked an appointment to go and see Pollok House in Pollok Park.  We also considered the Barony, St. Andrews in the Square and Glasgow University along with House for an Art Lover (immediately ruled out as the Rennie Mackintosh style - although beautiful - limited us too much theme-wise) and Pollokshields Burgh Hall.

Pollok House

By the time we went along to our appointment we had decided we wanted an Indian Feast for our Wedding Breakfast and not the traditional style of wedding fare.  This immediately limited our choices as the majority of places insist you use their own catering and we have had a few bad experiences of poorly made Indian food even in Indian restaurants.  As these wedding venues generally do not offer that type of food, we felt they would most likely not do the best job of it.   This then ruled out everywhere on our short list except Pollokshields Burgh Hall.  We went along to our appointment anyway to get an idea what else was available and prices.  The house is beautiful  and offered many good photo opportunities but unfortunately was unable to accommodate our estimate of 110 guests without hiring a marquee for a ridiculous fee!  This also kinda defeats the purpose of hiring the house if you ask me.

Pollokshields Burgh Hall is 0.6 miles from our flat and is situated in Maxwell Park which we have often had lovely walks in.  On our way back, on the off chance we popped into the Burgh Hall to have a look and were shown around by the lovely and very helpful George (one of the caretakers).  It had just been set up for a wedding that afternoon and as soon as we walked in, we both thought wow!  It has a beautiful entrance archway with old ornate doors and a tiled floor.

Pollokshields Burgh Hall

Entrance and Turret

The main hall, Maxwell Hall has stunning stained glass windows so is as pretty inside as a church without being religious - something we didn't want as Nik is technically Hindu and I technically Christian but neither of us are particularly religious in any way.   From the outside it looks like a miniature romantic castle made from red sandstone.

Maxwell Hall Stage

The Loggia downstairs is equally lovely with big glass windows/doors to the private outdoor area at the back, a slate floor and a huge mirror on the wall at the bottom of the stairs, perfect for setting up the table with champagne (and peach bellinis in our case!  Yum!) in front.

Loggia 

It also has a smaller hall upstairs called the Stirling room with a gorgeous big fireplace which is an ideal room for setting up the bar and an extra large hall downstairs for overflow during the champagne reception if the Glasgow weather isn't kind enough to let our guests mingle outside in the private garden area bordering Maxwell Park.

Stirling Hall

Not only does it provide all of the above and exclusive use of the whole building, but it is also a bargain price and allows you to bring in all of your own suppliers including the caterer and the bar!  All in all, we were pretty much hooked!  We called immediately to speak to the boss lady (who is just lovely) and provisionally reserved one of the few remaining weekend dates left next summer (now this summer, eek!).  We nabbed the last Sunday left after Nik was finished his course but long enough before he started work to enable a nice long honeymoon ( most likely our last chance for a long holiday for a looong time!)  So Sunday the 3rd of July it was.  We didn't even visit any more venues!
The first thing we did was to contact the Humanist Celebrant (please see future post) we hoped to have perform our ceremony and our Photographer friends we had in mind from the start to photograph our special day to check their availability along with our parents of course to make sure they hadn't any holidays or other engagements booked!  Everyone was free!  We had 2 weeks to check other important people/details we wanted were also available and confirmed the following week!

Not only have we hired a stunning venue close to our home in our favourite local park, but they are so lovely we even received a Christmas Card from them with a snowy picture of the venue on the front!  Totally cheered me up during the awful snowy December we had!

PBH Christmas Card

Post Wedding Update:

We loved our venue, it was perfect for our day and would definitely choose it again!  The only sad thing was that all the flower beds in the park were empty that summer so our photos in the park weren't as pretty and colourful as we hoped.

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

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

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

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

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

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

A wee DIY project!

I was planning on my next post being about our venue but I am all excited after finishing a wee task of finishing touches to our cake topper!

We decided to have little lego people on top of our cake as we both grew up with lego and loved playing with it when we were little.  (I still have my brother's old set in our attic!)

Lego Nik & Bex (Or close enough!)

The great thing about the wee lego people is that you can pretty much get a match for hair and clothing with customised stickers added to the figures, you can even get them in kilts!  (I bought our set on ebay) and you can chose the colours of the flowers the bride holds.  Unfortunately my theme is olive green and the 2 greens on offer were more pastelly green.

I have, however, thought of a way to fix it to match much better!  I had originally thought I might cover them with some of the bridesmaid fabric but wasn't sure how easy that would be on such  a small scale, or how good it would look.  Then I thought of using my olive green nail varnish and some glitter glue I found in Hobbycraft to add my colours.

Adding glitter glue to white flowers

I used the glitter glue to hide the green stems in the middle of the flower and add some all important sparkle!  On the green flowers, I painted them using a skewer to keep the hole open and keep them still!

Painting the flowers with my nail varnish

Before and After flowers

Finished result

:)

Post Wedding Update:

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

The ring search...

So, the big search for 'the ring' - which actually turned out to not be a big job at all!  First one we tried in fact!

We planned to head to the place to shop for rings in Glasgow - Argyle Arcade.  First Nik booked us a nice lunch in a sweet wee Italian in town.  When we got there they had an amazing lunch deal on so we went for that and the included glass of wine with starter and another glass with main AND a liqueur with dessert.  However, Nik didn't want a liqueur so they insisted on bringing me two!

Cue, happy drunk diamond shopping :)

We walked through first to soak up the atmosphere and get excited!  Also to spot the security men in top hats!

Argyle Arcade

In the first shop, we explained that we were after something a bit different and that I liked emerald cut shape but maybe with a bit more sparkle and I liked baguettes on either side.  The lovely shop assistant brought over a few random choices just to get an idea of what we like and the first one she produced was a beautiful oval cut with tapered baguettes.  We both loved it and any we tried after that were 'not as nice as the first one'.  The way she asked if we wanted to buy it was 'shall I open the champagne?'  How posh!  We said we had to look around first as we had literally just started and wanted to have the fun and just make sure it was the one (I still wanted to try on an emerald cut).

We only went in one other shop (to try the emerald shapes but decided they weren't as nice as the first one either) and had another walk through, looking in the windows this time, but didn't see anything else that caught our attention.  So off we went back to the first one to get our free (with a very expensive purchase!) champagne.  Luckily it was half price so just within budget too :) and we do love a bargain!

Champers!

We then carried on the celebrations across the road with a Yo Sushi (my favourite!) dinner with a bottle of champagne Nik had asked them to put on ice :)

Post Wedding Update:

My gorgeous ring :)

How the frenzy began...

I had planned on starting a blog much earlier after discovering some very inspirational online wedding blogs.  However, planning our wedding while still carrying on with everyday life and work has been keeping me rather busy!

I have decided I really need to get on with it as I want to have it like a diary to look back on and remember all the fun, ideas and trials as I am enjoying it so much (most of the time!)  I will also include some of my photography from time to time as I love to share my pictures!

So, what have I managed to do so far...

The main things for the wedding are booked - venue, celebrant, photographer, band, videographer, flowers, honeymoon flights, make-up, hairdresser, hotel.  And THE dress is bought and paid for.  (Caterer almost sorted!)

But I think I should start my story with the proposal :)

I was very lucky to be asked the BIG question while on the most amazing holiday in August 2010 with my boyfriend.  He had just been away in India working for his medical elective in Hyderabad.  We then met in Sri Lanka after 4 weeks apart!  We had booked a tour round the island over the next 13 days to see as much as possible and had great fun exploring the temples, ruins and caves.  Not to mention seeing the elephants at Pinnawela and markets in Kandy!  Amazing!

Pinnawela Orphanage

This was then followed by a relaxing week of diving and sunbathing in Eriyadu in the Maldives!!  Such a beautiful place with the most wonderful diving available right on our doorstep all day (and one night dive) long!  After 3 1/2 years together (2 of which living in our Glasgow flat), I admit I had been wondering if a proposal might be on the cards.  However, by the last night following a lovely sunset, romantic cocktails and starlit stroll along the jetty before bed it still hadn't happened and I gave up hoping.

The next day, as we sat on the jetty at 3pm waiting for the imminent arrival of the boat to take us to the airport, Nik produced a present from India he had been teasing me with since I arrived - a funny shaped small package wrapped in brown paper.  Just at this moment another guest decided to start walking up the long jetty towards us, typical!  But by now, he was kinda out of time to do it on the holiday, (he had been planning on doing earlier but was waiting for me to put my camera down!  Oops!!!) so he went ahead and asked me to marry him while we were sat on the chair swing over the reef!  And I of course said yes and opened my package to reveal the cutest wooden carved turtle!

After kisses and hugs, Nik then took the paper off me - which turned out to be a paper bag and looked down into it and passed it back to me...thank god I hadn't ripped it open as there was a stunning diamond flower pendant inside!  He had bought it while in Hyderabad and wanted to propose during a sunset but I refused to leave my camera in our room for fear of missing that perfect sunset picture!  Ah well, at least he knows of my photography obsession before we get married! ;)  Example below...

Dive Center at Sunset

We then made use of the random guest who interrupted our romantic moment to take our picture!

Engaged on the jetty!

Cue much happiness and expensive phone-calls home!  Our lovely diving friends we met on the island then appeared on the jetty to say goodbye and were very excited for us and took more photos before waving us off when the boat arrived late (thankfully we had time for all this before being swept back off to the airport island).

Pic by Steve and Jan

When we got back and were filling in all our friends and family, some of them commented I actually sounded more excited about this next bit than the engagement...when we checked in, purely by chance as I still had no ring and we made no mention of our news to the staff, we were given a free upgrade to business class!!!  It was amazing, we were given champagne before take off and even had our own little ceramic salt and pepper pots each with our fancy dinners!  :)

Perfect end to a perfect holiday :D  Ever since then, he has kept telling me I'm in a wedding frenzy, hence the title.

Next up, the ring search.....