Hair

Again, found inspiration for this from various places but the main one was Rock My Wedding again!  That blog is a godsend!

These are the images I found online when looking for hair style inspiration...

I want something quite loose but mostly up as my hair tends to go frizzy at the slightest hint of heat or damp!

Love this one from RMW! 

Also from RMW

Also RMW - I LOVE the top left one, wouldn't work with my frizz prone hair though :(

Luckily my wonderful hairdresser, Jane at Houston Lindsay in Glasgow, knows my hair as she's been my hairdresser since I moved to Glasgow 3 years ago.  She was recommended by Claire, my downstairs neighbour and bridesmaid.  I trust her completely to do my hair and my bridesmaids and Mum.  I have no idea what I want for the girls so she's just going to do something different to suit each of their hair types/lengths.  Not only is she lovely and great with my hair, but she even offered to do all our hair for free in exchange for me taking some photos of her dogs!!!  I was totally surprised as it came right out of the blue one day as she washed my hair, but of course I accepted such a fab deal!  I will post the pictures on here when I do them.  I haven't done pets before so that will be a new challenge for me.

I have chosen a lovely hair accessory too but keeping that secret until after the big day so Nik doesn't see it on here!  ;)

Post Wedding Update:

Homework

It's been a particularly busy time since last week, particularly for parcel delivery companies!  Firstly, the bags have arrived for the party packs and children's favours, lots of different green tissue papers arrived for me to make into poms, the floating candles arrived, I bought the tealight holders from Ikea,  had dinner with Sarah, dropped off the fabric at the bridesmaid dress maker, the dragonflies arrived, Matt sent us a sneaky peak at our engagement shoot photos and I finally finished wiring all the pebbles tonight!!!

We have also finally completed our Humanist Homework!  We were set this task waaaay back in October after meeting our celebrant, Tim.  Unfortunately, Nik had finals pending so we set it aside until he was finished.  He finished in March!  Three months of nagging later, he had done his homework and we could move on to the next stage.  Oh and he passed the finals, yay!  :)

Here is the process Tim suggests:

Separately, using one side of the paper only, and no conferring, I want you to

1. Write the story of you – from when you first met and everything that’s happened since. Remember it doesn't have to be War and Peace. Keep it simple, keep it truthful, and use your own voice. 

2. Write down ten things about your partner that made you not just fall in love, (which as it says in Captain Corelli's Mandolin, 'any fool can do'), but that made you decide that you want to spend the rest of your lives together.

3. Finally, I want you to write down ten things that marriage means to you or that you want to achieve in your marriage. 

BTW, ten is an arbitrary number. If you can only think of four great reasons, that will do. If you can only think of four hundred and four, that'll do too, but bear in mind we're aiming for a ceremony that lasts around thirty minutes and that brevity is the soul of wit... 

We then sat down across the table after dinner last night, opened the bottle of fizz his brother and his girlfriend gave us for our engagement and read to each other what we had written.  I won't tell you what we said as this exercise is more for us and our celebrant to know truly what this is all about for us and to help us write our ceremony and vows.  I will say that I was pleasantly surprised and impressed by what Nik wrote, I've always wondered about certain things which, when asked, he just responded "Just because, I dunno" in typical bloke fashion!  Last night he made me laugh and get a bit teary, which is just the kind of response we hope for at our ceremony and reiterates one of his points about my "excitement and emotions" which thankfully was in the things he loves about me part!  We really did have a wonderful night, as promised by Tim!

I even found a heart shaped crouton in my Caesar salad :)

Tim has already sent us some ceremonies and readings he feels reflect us, for some inspiration to turn our homework into our own ceremony and vows.  We can include as much or as little as we want from what we have written so far and I hope to include most of it.  It helps us keep our wedding personal and unique and will hopefully make for an interesting, funny, heartfelt and thoughtful ceremony our guests will enjoy just as much as us!

Post Wedding Update:

We loved our ceremony and so did our guests, some of them still talk about it!  :)

The following pictures are screen grabs from our wedding highlights film:

Sneaky Peek :)

Me: I  don't suppose there's any chance of just one wee sneaky peak image to keep me going?  Pleeeeeeeeease? :)


Matt: Just one for now ;)

Love it!!!!  This was one of the first pictures he took of us that day when we got to Milarrochy Bay on the East coast of Loch Lomond.  Our wee board says "3.7.11 Can't wait! x"

Sore fingers!

This is the reason I have had very sore fingertips since Sunday...

I have been working on our centre pieces which will all hopefully be revealed soon...  I'm just awaiting permission from the photographers to show you where my inspiration came from!  

These are the pebbles we collected when on our engagement shoot (photos hopefully coming soon!) at Loch Lomond, one of our favourite places.  I have been spending my spare time wrapping them with this green wire (did start with silver but it didn't show up enough for my liking, I want it to be a feature) and leaving free ends for the florist to work with.  Very simple but time consuming and sore on the fingers!

DIY ingredients ;)

The first ones before I bought the green wire

The results so far - 30 down, 12 to go!

Dragonflies!!

The dragonflies for the cake I was telling you about have arrived!!

Major excitement about this parcel - so I recorded it all as I opened it to pass on the joy of parcel opening through my blog (although I'm not sure it's quite as exciting in blog-land or even for anyone other than myself for that matter!)

Love it when big boxes arrive at work!

lots of little boxes inside!

They sent Me a thank you card!  :)

Such lovely packaging!

All safely wrapped up

And here they all are!!

With Flash to show the colours better :)

I'm absolutely thrilled with them and can't wait to see them on the cake!  The girls, Christy and Deb, did a fab job and kept me informed the whole time.  They even sent me extra ones and managed to make me some smaller ones - adapted from butterflies (as they only had one size template for the dragonflies) by cutting the bottom wings off - they worked really well!  The colours are great too, they managed to match them to my swatches but also made a mixture of shades and styles as I asked for with some glitter accents too!  Here are some close ups of my favourite ones!

Post Wedding Update: Here they are on the cake!

Glasgow Survival Packs

I can't remember at the moment what inspired this idea (I will no doubt update this when I do remember as most of my ideas were born of something similar I've seen somewhere (probably a forum or blog) - I'm not imaginative enough to just come up with them completely out of the blue unfortunately!)

Basically the idea was initially to give each of our guests a welcome letter, thanking them for coming to the wedding and making it a great day for sharing it with us.  I thought  it would be a nice touch to get the hotel to distribute them to the rooms during the wedding so they would find them before going to bed.  This idea then evolved to a Glasgow Survival Pack with a welcome letter when they arrive at the hotel (logistically easier and the hotel has agreed to put them in the rooms as they are made up for our guests, although they think they are still just letters for now!).

Included in the bags they will find;

Packet of sugar-free chewing gum

Can of Irn Bru (labelled - Scottish hangover cure!)
A Tunnock's Tea Cake

Toothbrush 
Earplugs (reviews of the hotel have mentioned the city noise in the early hours!)

Sachet of Resolve (for any hangovers the day after)

Bottle of water (see above)
Tunnock's Teacake

Translation sheet of Glasgow Slang

Glasgow Tourist Guide (home-made and featuring my own photos of Glasgow taken on the May bank holiday weekend - also prove we do get blue skies up here in case the weather isn't kind in July!)

Leaflet with tourist discount vouchers (found in a station and swiped!)
Welcome letter :)


The tourist guide idea came from something Nik's Dad mentioned about the reputation Glasgow tends to have to people who have never visited before - it seems it's more famous for it's teenage pregnancies, junkies (Trainspotting anyone) and stabbings than it's amazing architecture, shopping(!!!), museums and many, many parks.  We have put together a list of our favourite attractions and parks in Glasgow with a small spiel about each one and one of my pictures.  The Glasgow Slang is just for fun and who doesn't want to try Irn Bru in it's homeland!?  (NOT me actually, can't stand the stuff!)


Here are some of my favourite pictures of the places...

Our Menu

I'm not sure you can read it so here it is...

Starters

Tandoori Lamb Chops

Puchka Bhel

Thai Sesame Chicken

Fish Amritsari

Aloo Pudina Tikki

Dips and Chutneys

Mains

Butter Chicken

Lamb Rogan Josh

 King Prawn Karahi

Shahi Paneer

Aloo Gobi Muttar

Daal Makhani

Pilau Rice

Garlic & Coriander Naan

Plain Naan

Salad, Raita, Chutney & Pickles

Jugs of Mango Lassi

Assiette  of  Desserts

Chocolate Brownie

Lemon Posset

Vanilla Crème Brulee

Cheese Course

(Served downstairs in the Clifford Hall)

Selection of Cheeses, biscuits, bread and chutney

Tea and Coffee

Delicious home-made Scottish Tablet from George

Evening Buffet

Scottish Lamb Stovies served with Crusty Bread and Butter

Vegetarian Haggis, Neeps and Tatties

Wedding Cake

Post Wedding Update:

Photo by Uncle Alan

Caterer Shenanigans!

The caterer has been a surprisingly stressful thing for us to organise, mostly down to choosing the wrong caterer to start with.  We actually only booked it with just 2 months to go until the big day!!

We always knew we wanted Indian food for our wedding (although with a non-Indian dessert) and we found a caterer who was on the list of recommended suppliers from our venue and looked great on their website!  We arranged a meeting and although at first they seemed difficult to get hold of, we set a time when our parents would be able to join us as they were all visiting for our engagement party.

Doesn't everyone love a good curry!?
(Image from Indus website)

Our first impressions weren't great as we waited a rather long cold time outside the warehouse door and were then led up the corridor walking on an aisle of bubble wrap!!  We were all (5 of us) led into the office while he fetched more seats and we settled down for a chat.  It all seemed a little un-organised  but after a chat, we felt much more confident in the company.  They said they were able to accommodate everything we asked for and showed us pictures of what they could do and made some good suggestions regarding menu, service, etc.  We left quite happy that if the food was good we would probably book them.  

It then took 2 months to be able to get an appointment for tasting, this appointment was then changed a couple of times after checking with the chef/working around actual catering of events, fair enough.  When we finally got to try the food though, we were both very impressed!  Having had our fair share of bad Indian food, we wanted to avoid the greasy/tasteless/too spicy/sloppy curries but this was really yummy!  The set up was again a little odd eating with the boss in his office at his desk and the presentation wasn't great but we worked around this by deciding to have the starters served like canapés during the champagne reception.  We also didn't love the crockery but figured this was a minor detail and we really shouldn't be so fussy - at least it wasn't multi-coloured, just plain cream but with an embossed pattern on the edge although we would have rather had plain white plates.  So we were told to expect a quote within 1-2 weeks as we had now settled on the menu and were delighted with the way the food tasted.  

My favourite - Tandoori Lamb Chops!
(Image from Indus website)

After 3 weeks, I emailed asking for the quote so we could pay a deposit as I wanted to get it booked.  After a month, I tried ringing only to get no reply and no call back.  I checked the website which wasn't working and was seriously starting to think they had closed down!!  Eventually I got hold of someone who seemed very clued up and apologised that they were very much in business but had some problems with emails going astray and so were rebooting their website (slightly suspicious but was assured the quote would be sent out the next day).  We finally received the quote another week later with a rather pathetic sounding voicemail - it was now 3 months since the tasting and only 4 months to the wedding!  By this time I had started to look for other Asian caterers and was booked to go to an Asian wedding show the next day!  Our caterer was there but either did not notice me or recognise me.  I did find another company that impressed me, seemed very organised and asked if they could quote for us - so I gave him our details and explained the situation we were in.

Indus saved the day!

Unfortunately the new company was just expanding up here from Essex and had not finished building their kitchens yet so we couldn't arrange a tasting for a few weeks.  However, their website was also very impressive and they seemed so organised, we waited patiently and I'm glad we did!  In the meantime we did get asked for a deposit from the previous company who then wanted a meeting when we wanted to change and confirm a couple of details first (the dessert/buffet option from elsewhere was going to be too expensive so we wanted to add this in) - this meeting was changed 4 times by them and then changed again 1 hour before(!!!) and had to be postponed until the week after!  By now we had decided that they really didn't seem to want our business but until we tried the other food, we felt stuck as we didn't want to end up left with no caterer with so little time before the wedding!

2 months before the wedding, we had our tasting with Indus - they have always phoned/emailed when they say they will (give or take a day) and always answer or ring back the same day when I call.  AND.... the food was EVEN better than the first tasting we had!  It was amazing, I ate so much I thought I might burst!!  The presentation was amazing, they had set up a lovely white room with gorgeous black and white wallpaper at one end with a large LCD TV playing a Bollywood movie (nice touch I thought!) and 3 tables set out like for a wedding with table cloths and flower arrangements, etc.  The waiting staff had lovely smart black Asian style uniforms and the food came on nice simple white crockery, just what we were after!  After that, it was a no-brainer!  We still haven't heard back from the previous company with a full quote including dessert and have already paid our deposit to Indus with our new, even better menu in place (more on that next time).  The price is pretty much the same too!  :)

I totally agree!

They've even worked with Gordon Ramsey so they must be doing something right as we all know how picky he is about good food!  :)

Working with GR for Comic Relief (Image from their facebook page)

More Wedding Stress

The only wedding stress we have really had has been related to our guest list.  We love our venue and wouldn't change it for the world, we're super lucky to have somewhere so close to our home with such character, everything we need and lets us bring in everything including our choice of caterer and drinks and it's in our local park!  However, we have had to be a bit selective in who we can invite to the full day.  As I said before, our families are really rather large and we have had to say no to some people bringing partners we haven't met, we really have squeezed in as many as we feel we can (and are already pushing it with the venue who are trying to make us change to banqueting tables - both of us really want to avoid that) and have a total of 139 guests in a venue designed for 120.  We have been told by one of the caretakers that it has been done before and we can comfortably sit everyone, and we have even moved the top table on to the stage to make more space!

All I will say about the latest stress is that it is related to two emails I received recently regarding our choices on who we invited/couldn't invite/couldn't invite to the whole day.  We already felt guilty for disappointing people and really didn't feel we deserved to be made to feel even worse by receiving such emails.  This link to a BBC article shown to me by a friend would have made the perfect reply but as my rather more level-headed fiancé pointed out, it would only illicit another response and no doubt stress me out all over again!  We have left it alone and made no replies.

We are both really disappointed with the reaction we received from this small minority and are trying hard not to let it mar the experience for us.  However, it is difficult to receive such negative feeling when trying to arrange the best day of our lives.  We just need to try and remember that's what it is, the best day in our lives, for everyone else it's hopefully going to be a great day to remember but it won't be their best day so we will continue to concentrate on making it ours and doing it our way as much as we can!  After all our wedding is about celebrating our love for each other, not anyone else's.

Us loved up on our first holiday together :)

Yo! Bridezilla addict!

Yep, that's me!  (Beware this is a loooong post, and shows my true craziness, but it has a happy ending.)

I have been super busy the last couple of weeks or so, hence lack of posts - and I have so much to write about!!  As you could not have missed, there was the Royal Wedding and I was very excited to watch it and see the fashion, ideas and if/how Kate managed to get her own ideas into the day.  (Totally LOVED the trees in the Abbey!  Brilliant idea!!)  I wasn't disappointed and thoroughly enjoyed watching the whole thing, even more than I thought I would.

Now, to explain the Yo! part of my title, about 3 days before the wedding, I received an email from Yo! Sushi informing me about their special, limited edition Royal Wedding Hand Roll and Plate.  They were raising funds for Help For Heroes for William and Kate's wedding charity gift list and selling new smoked salmon, cream cheese and cucumber hand rolls on these specially designed plates for a mere £2.50.

How CUTE!!!??

AND, if you buy the plate on the actual wedding day you get to keep it!!!  Cue, VERY excited Bex!!  Totally perfect souvenir of the excitement of the RW for me given that we're getting married the same year and I HATE all the tacky china plates for sale in the shops!  I was already trying to think of a way to use it in our wedding day - maybe for our pudding!  Just the fact they were giving away a Yo! plate was exciting enough for me!  I properly love Yo! Sushi, we even have the recipe book and all the kit to make it at home!!

We went to try them out at Silverburn the day before the wedding, we chanced our arm but they wouldn't let us keep them even though it was closing time - we had to ask! ;)  So after the wedding (and balcony kisses, awwww), I raced to the House of Fraser (my closest) branch to get one only to be told they had sold out already as they gave them away the day before!!!!  Unfortunately by the time I got to Silverburn, they had literally just sold their last one!  Gutted is an understatement!  I couldn't believe it!  I wished I had recorded the wedding and gone earlier, I even waited in case the guy who ordered the last one just wanted the roll and didn't take the plate home, but he did :(  I even considered driving to Edinburgh but figured they'd be sold out too!  I was properly devastated - probably a bit too much, I actually cried, although I'd like to think this was more a channelling of all the week's stresses as even at the time I knew I was being silly!  Anyhooooo...

A couple of days later when recounting the tale to my bridesmaid in front of her hubby (he already knows I'm nuts anyway!) he suggested writing to the marketing manager and even found the email address on the website for me!  They suggested making my story a bit funny by explaining how obsessed I am with Yo! Sushi and how I wanted it for my wedding which is also this year.  So, here is the correspondence...

Subject: Yo! Bridezilla Plea

I'm really, really hoping you can help me!  I absolutely had my heart set on one of your special Royal Wedding Plates as my fiancé and I absolutely love YO! Sushi and eat there all the time!  In fact he was the one who took me there the first time when I was a bit apprehensive to try it but have been hooked ever since!  Anyway, the plate means so much to me as we are also getting married this year and I had planned to surprise him with a sushi brunch served on the plate before our wedding in July!  (2 months today in fact!)

So, having chanced my arm in case they let us keep them when we went to Silverburn enjoy the last :( Blue Thursday in April and being told we couldn't keep them until the actual wedding day, I raced into my closest branch in House of Fraser in Glasgow after the wedding to get one, only to be told they had sold out already as they had given them away the day before!  Unfortunately by the time I got to the Silverburn restaurant, they had literally just sold the last one!  Despite me hanging around in case the person who ordered it didn't keep the plate - he did - I was unable to get one.  I even considered driving to Edinburgh but decided this was just a bit too crazy even for me!

So, anyway, to get to my point - do you have any spare Royal Wedding Plates lying around or lost in the bottom of a box somewhere in an office and if so, would there be any chance you could please send one to me?  It would make me the happiest bride so I can surprise my hubby-to-be with it and I would gladly make another donation to Help For Heroes!

Yours hopefully,

Bex Wilson,

Glasgow Bridezilla and Yo! Addict!

 Dear Bex,

Thanks for getting in touch and am so pleased you love YO! Sushi and our RW plate!

Unfortunately we only produced a small quantity and they really are completely gone, I even need more for our own purposes but alas we don’t have any more.

Really sorry about this, we are still hunting around and obviously if there is a spare one going that miraculously appears, I will be sure to send it to you.

In the meantime, although I know it’s not the same, I’d be happy to send you one of our normal restaurant plates.

Let me know if that will go to some way in helping you out.

All the best for the wedding this year, your soon-to-be husbands sounds like a very clever young man ... he must be if he introduced you to YO! Sushi ;)

Kind regards,

Now this email came just 10 minutes after I sent mine and immediately cheered me up!!  Any Yo! plate would be so cool and I would totally love a green one to go with our wedding colour scheme and my green obsession of course!  Before I had a chance to reply though, this happened...

Dear Bex,

News alert – we have just found two spare RW plates for you!

My colleague will get in touch with you to get your address and post one out to you.

Perhaps you could send me a photo of you and your hubby eating sushi off our RW plate?

All the best for the wedding.

No Way!!!  Thank you SO much My!!!  I am so grateful and will certainly send you a picture of us eating off it - will ask someone to save some sushi to bring to the wedding with the plate so we can get one of us together with our full wedding gear on while eating it!  :)

I was about to reply to your earlier email to say thank you for replying so quickly, I got it just before I headed back to work and didn't get a chance to say I really appreciate that you even took the time to write back and that any Yo! plate is better than none, (was going to ask for a green one since that's our wedding colour scheme!)  

Then I just got home from work and found this!  I can't thank you enough and will certainly make another donation to the charity by way of thanks!

You have made me very happy!

Thanks again, 

Bex

No problems at all Bex! Hope the wedding goes well and you enjoy eating your sushi breakfast off our Royal Wedding plates – we will put them in the post today for you.

Look forward to seeing the pics ;)

All the best,

I was expecting one Royal Wedding plate and very excited about it!  The very next day a special delivery package arrived for me - I was totally clueless as to what it could be as I wasn't expecting the plate to arrive so quickly, plus it was a rather large jiffy bag!  Inside I found TWO packages wrapped in brown paper - one labelled RW plates and one labelled lime green plates!!! Inside which I found TWO of each plate!!!

My very special plates :)

And this lovely note saying... 

Dear Bex, Enjoy your Royal Wedding breakfast brunch Yo! Sushi style!  All the best for the big day.

Unbelievable and so sweet of them, they really went above and beyond and I am THRILLED with my plates!  We went to Yo! that night to celebrate and  I have already recruited a friend (another bridesmaid's lovely husband) to bring me a Yo! Maki box on the morning of our wedding as they don't open until 11.30am by which time we will all be in full getting ready mode!  (Lucky Nik will be in the hotel just round the corner from Yo! so I can order some to be delivered to him for his plate!)  I have also made my extra donation to Help for Heroes - an easy promise to keep  :)

We weren't even finished yet!