Tomorrow's the big day....

Phew! It's been far too long! I'm on my teaching practice at the moment which has meant barely time to breathe let alone blog. However I'm back though maybe sporadically for a while.
Anyway, it's the Royal Wedding tomorrow and I've been so excited about it this week. Every programme about Royal Weddings or Kate and Wills long romance has been watched on TV, every article in the newspaper we read about the preparations has been read, and everytime anything about the Royal Wedding has come up on the news I've grabbed the remote to turn the volume up. Tomorrow I will be with a small group drinking bucks fizz out of commemorative (and very cheesy) paper cups, eating home made jam tarts, watching coverage of the wedding from 8 a.m. in the morning tilllate in the afternoon and no doubt shedding a tear or two.

Taken from MamaPop

My (slight) obsession with the Wedding is to the annoyance of my poor hubby who is so unexcited about the prospect of the Wedding has escaped to Scotland on a walking holiday with another male friend. I'm sure there are many like him but the country, and it seems the world with two billion watchers estimated to be tuning in, are ready to party. The flags are up in London, street parties have been organised across the country and the bank holiday has now started! The British Royal family despite much bad press in recent years are still loved by many, and after all we all love a good wedding to shed a tear over and raise a smile. The country is still realing from the recession, some say this is precisely why we should not be bothered about the wedding tomorrow as it's a drain on tax payers money. However, it's a good excuse for a knees up and if it brings a smile across the country tomorrow I say cheers to Wills and Kate! I just wonder why my invite got lost in the post....

Our wedding- the reception

Final part of our wedding at long last...drumrolls please!

All the table names were named after places that were special to us as a couple.

 This isn't the best picture but this was a board that I put together of me and my new hubby growing up which was in the entrance. The little box on the table was for people to write a postcard (rather than in a guest book) and pop it in the box.

 My best man's speech. My face says it all!

 This time, my hubby's best man speech- again the face says it all!

 My best man and I dancing 'Beyonce' stylee!

Our wedding- country photo shoot

After the service, my husband and I chose to go for some photos in a field situated at the back of the village where we'd got married. Having grown up in the village, I'd been for many a walk through this field (including since I'd been seeing by husband many a romantic stroll) and it was also on my running route, so for me it was a very much a place of significance. And this is the result....

Just some more of the reception to come in a few days!

Our wedding- preparation and the service

Well it's nearly two months since we got married, and I promised some pictures. So this is how our wedding went...

My bouquet-made up of peonies and sweet peas, whilst my bridesmaids had bunches of sweet peas, and the men had Cezanne Rose buttonholes.

My beautiful bridesmaids and very handsome and unconventional best man!

Yey! We're married!

My best man, Sam, made these beautiful cupcakes which we had along with a traditional fruit cake straight after the service rather than later at the service. This meant that people who'd come to the service but weren't coming to the reception got some nice refreshment for their effort to come to see us get hitched!

Mother-of-the-groom shedding a tear or two.

More pictures to come soon!

Ode to an Aunt

More indulgence with my temporary internet. I thought I would use the occassion to point to my very clever Auntie who has been the source for my love of sewing. She is super creative, and not only is highly skilled at all forms of sewing from dressmaking to curtain making to embroidery, but can also paint and draw very well, and furthermore is very good at interior design. Here's a little taster of her creative flair from our wedding. First of all she made the beautiful bridesmaid dresses for my wedding. Let me reassure you all, they were NOT easy to make and I felt very guilty at times for asking her to make them, especially as they were boned and one of the bridesmaids kept losing a little bit of weight.

Aren't they gorgeous dresses (and bridesmaids)?!? The next thing she made for our wedding was a surpise gift, and even my new hubby (who is not easily impressed) was bowled over at how delicate and beautiful it was, and here it is....

It's a beautiful ring cushion. The photo does not give it justice as to how delicate it is.

Finally, here is the talented woman herself in her homemade dress which she made for our wedding, dancing with her lovely hubby.

Hurrah for my lovely Aunt, Val!

Be back soon.....

Sorry I've been away for a while but I've been off getting married/being on honeymoon and I may be gone a while longer till we get internet in our new flat, so for now will give you a preview of our big day...

A beautiful end to single life

So in just over three weeks my single life ends, and I go from being a Miss to a Mrs. On the 3rd of July I get to celebrate the becoming a Mrs, but last weekend I got to celebrate how much fun life as a single gal has been. The day was so wonderful I felt I had to do it justice by blogging about it.

To fill you in the whole day was a complete surprise for me. All I was told was that I needed to be ready by 11.20 a.m. and I should dress 'Sex and the City' stylee.

So we started off the day with a gorgeous champagne bruch at a gorgeous restaurant called The Walnut Club. The food was so beautifully presented, and it tasted as delicious as it looked.

We then a some time before the next part of my hen (which I still had no idea about), so we ventured into Sheffield's Botanical Gardens which in the warm summer sunshine, looked gorgeous. We spent the whole afternoon bathing in the sun, looking round the greenhouses, drinking beautiful white wine and chatting. My 'hens' had also bought me some lovely little gifts including some treats for my honeymoon :) and some herb labels (eek I'm becoming a housewife before I know it! Ha ha!)

The main treat of the day was to come next at the most amazing little shop that I had never heard about (and it's perhaps a good job I hadn't for my bridal diet's sake) called Fancie. My hen's had arranged a champagne afternoon tea and cupcake decorating....talk about being in heaven! The shop was decked in cute china, ornaments and trinkets which I could have spent all my savings on if anyone had let me. The tables were also decorated to perfection with vintage looking china, Cath Kidston tablecloths, cake stands of cupcakes ready to decorate and to top it off, little Babysham glasses, which were so uncool and retro they became quaint and oh so cool (especially when filled with champagne). So we spent the next 3 hours supping champagne, decorating cupcakes, and eating cupcakes, sandwiches with the crusts cut off and scones with jam and cream! Bliss! To top it all off this was with the company of some of my oldest and closest friends and family, who made me feel so special.

Next comes the less quaint part of the night which all started with a quiz which was sent to my fiance first, for me to then guess his answers. This left me rather rosy cheeked at times in front of my mother. I was then presented with a naughty nurses outfit to wear for the rest of the evening which I dutifully did, and apparently absolutely pulled off! With our tummys full of champagne and delicious treats we headed back to The Walnut Club which at night was terribly glamarous and chic, and ridiculously fabulous with Cosmolitans galore and the most fantastic live jazz band.

Needless to say I went home very merry, and woke up the next day beaming.

If any of my hens read this, thank you for what I can only describe as a perfect day.

This week I....

Well it's all been a bit of a whirlwind this week, with the good and the bad. However, perhaps it's a bit of a copy of other people, but I've seen how lovely other bloggers often write a list of what they've done with an acknowledgement that they're all good things, and things to be thankful for. Since I've been very good at moaning recently, I thought it'd be good for me to make such a list, with a picture or two to illustrate the lovely week I've had.

So this week I've...

Had a gorgeous barbeque with good family friends which included yummy delights such a grilled salmon and white chocolate and apricot bread and butter pudding

Picked this peony from the garden as it was hidden amongst other plants (what a waste) and enjoyed having it round the house all week.

Had my first wedding dress fitting and got to see my dress for the first time since November...how exciting!

Spent a day with my lovely friend Jenny, whom despite knowing her for so long, I've had few chances to spend some quality time with her.

Had a two day working week, bliss!

Cooked the nicest Thai prawn curry I've ever cooked, and I got to share it with my bridesmaid Katie over a glass of Pimms.

Photo from Flickr by London looks

Spent a day shopping with my bridesmaid Katie for honeymoon goodies and bought a beautiful maxi dress(along with half the other stuff in the shops).

Had the most gorgeous hen party (for any Americans who by some small chance might be reading this, that's a bridal shower to you) I could have wished for, and enjoyed the privilege of having my closest friends around me spoiling me rotten. There will be more details and photos of this as it was so beautiful it is worth at least one or two posts by itself.

Had my first two comments on my blog, which I was ridiculously excited about.

An ingenious solutuion....

For those who are reading my blog for the first time, you won't know that I'm getting married. One problem I've been trying to solve for a while is a stylish but relatively cheap way of displaying the table names/numbers for the wedding breakfast. Although in the big picture of things paying £3 per table to a clip of some sort wasn't a massive cost, by sheer stubborness, I felt it wrong to pay £36 for things which simply give some elevation to a table name. Therefore I thought and I researched as much as I could, until by chance a brilliant website called All About You had an idea for Mother's Day of homemade photo stand which is also perfect for my needs. So here is my attempt......

If you fancy having a go yourself, they are really simple. The instructions are as follows;

1) Cut 2 x 75cm lengths of 2mm-thick aluminium wire.
2) Bend the wire around a chunky knitting needle or pen to make a circle in the centre of each piece.
3) Put the pieces together and bend into a heart shape. Twist the wires together for about 4-5cm.
4) Trim the ends and then spread the ends out and curl each end around a knitting kneedle or pen to finsh the base off.

Cheers!

I just had to share the wonderful present that was given to a friend of mine for their wedding by a mutual friend. The mutual friend has a talent for beer brewing and last year brewed all the beer for my university college's ball. For my friend's wedding, he then went and brewed a personalised ale for the bride and groom which you could have a bottle of at the reception. He even put homemade labels on the bottles and made the below posters with a witty description of the two ales! How very original and talented of him!

Sea of cards

Well I'll begin my blogging adventure by sharing a bit of my wedding excitement with you. Hubby-to-be and I are on a tight budget hence I'm doing as much as I can DIY stylee. One of the biggest tasks with this has been to create all the stationary for the wedding. I wanted a theme which was tasteful, original but reflected the country, shabby chic theme of the wedding and came up with these beauties. I lieterally spent hours on these, and they were incredibly fiddly but I've had lots of positive response so I'm happy!