Wedding

The importance of a canapé: food issues

Advice, food, Wedding

So having been a wedding guest a few hundred times, kidding, I know how important it is to feed your guests! A happy guest is a happy wedding.

Pretty sure the number one complaint from your wedding guests are that they are hungry, cold or thirsty! They are basic things that should always be covered. Everything else is just about timing.

For us

We are getting married outside whether is rains or not! So when it comes to our guests they will wrap up accordingly. When it comes to our bridal party we need to look after them!

The weather we don’t have any control over but drink and food we do! Weddings in the UK are usually at lunch time which means that you may have a big breakfast but from then to the wedding breakfast is normally a good 5 hours. I have been know to put a few snacks in my hand bag.

Now I have had amazing canapés ( friggin steak which melted in the mouth) quails eggs dipped in Bloody Mary salt! I still dream about those canapés and I have had weird ones, as well as no canapés.

When you are hungry and waiting it is so important to feed your guests and keep them happy. Like a nice glass of pimms and a cold beer! Lovely!

Because we are hiring a food truck we don’t really have the option for canapés so we still need to feed our guests without filling them up.

Cold food is going to be the easiest choice but deciding on that has been tricky.

I refuse not to serve canapés and Gav agrees. I hate it when you sit down and they is a tiny bit delicious warm roll and you devour it before your starter comes.

Speeches drag if you don’t have happy guests.

Getting the right balance is hard! You want them with a drink in their hand but not drunk! You want them to have rated something but not full.

You want happy guests who can focus on enjoying the day without complaining that they are hungry or tired or dying for drink!

The legal side of getting married, giving notice

Wedding

If you are having a humanist ceromoniy which we are, then it is not a legal marriage. Which means you have to get married legally, either in a registry office or in a church by someone who is legallay able to marry you. In an place that has a perminant roof before 6 Oclock.

These are the laws.

They suck

I have said it many times before.

In Scotland it is totally legal to get married outside and probably by the time you read this they would have changed the laws in England too.

So we had to go to the registry office and declare our love is real and that our marriage will be lawful.

The registry office

There aren’t many forms but you have to go an have a meeting and apparently all the Saturday meetings are booked up till Christmas.

You have to bring two forms of ID? Two, because a passport isn’t good enough. Me and Gav think this is silly. If you are a UK citizen with a valid driver license or passport why do you need two?

You have to answer questions about what your partner does, what his father does for a job etc.

Ensue an mini argument

Gav isn’t happy that I don’t know what his job is. He works in IT testing… seriously he doesn’t talk about his job much. I know a little but apparently not enough and he got really annoyed at me.

I didn’t know exactly where he worked and his job tittle. Pretty sure if you work in IT then no one has an idea about what you do anyway. They just nod and know it’s fairly dull work.

No offence.

So we are all booked in for our meeting and this is the message Gavin sends me. He is so funny not sure we would be allowed to get married.

The day

So we booked the morning off and went to see the registra. We had to have all the information and ID and had a quick chat asking some simple questions.

Gaynor was warm and friendly and for some reason I was nervous. Nervously excited maybe. Perhaps it is because this is the first actual step in getting married.

This is the legal bit. The official bit. It was also in a really pretty place on a lovely day!

We still have to legally get married then have our actual wedding.

But this was the first proper step.

The legal side of getting married and giving notice is done.

One more thing of a very long list of jobs to do!

Next we have to get our rings!

Wedding update: unconventional organisation

Personal Experience, Planning, Wedding

Okay so not long to go now and I am freaking out at the time.

Or no time. Did any one else feel like this?

Me and gav had a sit down and went through the things we need to do and things that are a waste of time!

Lots of our original plans were a little ambitious and a waste of time and money. As time is getting closer and money is getting tighter it’s happening.

The wedding is happening.

Update

We also got a few more bit done

We finally booked our cake tasting with Konditor and Cook! I am so happy and thinking of my curly wurst wedding cake. We want to try a few other flavours so that there is choice for our guests and I can’t wait for this.

This will be a proper wedding thing that we have done as so far every thing we have done has been in a different order.

Food

We ate at a restaurant and then asked if they did weddings! That’s how we landed our caterer. And we are so happy we did because they are so busy now that if we had asked even a month later I don’t think we would have got them and their food is divine.

All the bridesmaids dresses have been ordered. They are using there own shoes but I am worried about rain and wondering if I should by them wellies… I guess I can leave it last minute!

Gardening

From now until for ever I will grow Dahlias they are amazing. Every time I go into the garden they present me with the most insane blooms. I picked peaches and pinks with some dark purples to play with. It’s like the perfect bouquet everyday! I love them. The way they are blooming I won’t be having any for the wedding but I don’t mind.

My cafe au laits haven’t bloomed yet so I may get my favourite flower!

Charlotte is coming with me to check out the venue so we can start planning flowers and the set up. I can’t wait!

Panic stations

Actually I can. I can wait I know I have said it before but seriously it is coming around too quickly. I need more time but I am working 6 days a week and filling my weeknights with crafting.

It will get done but I am trying to get it done before the end of August so that September is not about creating but curating.

We are really excited to become husband and wife.

Thank you for joining us on our journey!

Oh Madrid, flamenco and the Danettes: Day 1

Travel, Wedding

So last weekend I was in the most incredible people with the best bunch of girls any one could ask for. A few of my friends couldn’t make it but honestly the girls were amazing especially my best friend Becky.

Hen do do do da do

We arrived about 11.00am Spanish time went straight to our gorgeous hotel and hit the roof top bar.

Madrid is full of amazing bars and restaurants and our hotel was awesome it also had a tiny pool that we took advantage of after a short but alcohol fuelled flight!

We drank a really nice white wine which was ice cold and perfect. Did I tell you it was 38 degrees and super super hot.

Hence our mini dip in the pool. We had to wait for a lot of posers to take their photos before we could go in ourselves!

We all gave ourselves time to get ready. This was my hen do, and I wanted to look really nice. The girls had a flamenco lesson organised for me so I offered them dress options and they chose my black swishy dress.

Apparently non of them thought it was black because it had a tropical print on it!

they should really know that I don’t really do black clothes as I find it drains me! And

Dyspraxia and dancing

I love to dance, you put a song I love on and I rarely leave the dance floor. At Weddings I am the guest who will dance with your grandma or distant cousins if I love the beat.

But I can’t sequence. Learning dance routine I find so difficult. Remembering how things go is so tricky I stay away from a lot of routine aerobics. This is a part of dyspraxia I have had to deal with my whole life. So I was freaking out when I was told it would be flamenco dancing.

Flamenco is about your whole body especially your hands and feet. We didn’t do to bandly if I do say so my self. I really really loved it and so did the girls. Our tutor was exceptional and really chilled. I red

Reading about Madrid

I read Victoria Hislops The Return which is about Spain and the Ramirez family who are caught up in Francos civil war. The youngest is a flamenco dancer who dances so much her shoes are transparent. Franco banned dancing and Flamenco. I had this vivid image in my head of flamenco dancing and it totally lived up to it.

So flamenco dancing left me feeling an even deeper connection with Spain then I had before. I really do love Madrid and I have been to a lot of places but this city is spectacular.

Dinner and drinks

After Flamenco we went upstairs to watch a flamenco show as well as eat really good food.

We were starving and had just exercised and it was still 35 degrees at this point. The Sangria was flowing and the food kept coming and I was getting really drunk so I had to slow down.

We decided to head back to the bar in the gardens which was near my hotel. As I was a bit tidly me and half the group decided to walk.

Half an hour into the walk I had sobered up a bit and was now tired. It was a long walk in the heat. So we popped in a cab and headed to another roof top bar this time in the middle of the gardens.

It was so beautiful up there!

On the way out we discovered there was a club underneath so the dancing commenced.

Unfortunately I may have drunk too much!

Far too much but I had the best day ever with a great bunch of friends!

Darling Dahlias how does your wedding bouquet grow?

Flowers, Wedding, Wedding Budget

In April I started planting my dahlia tubers with the intention that these beauties would actually end up in my bouquet. I find that cafe au lait Dahlia are far superior to peonies in looks, just not smell.

This summer is a Dahlias dream with hot sunny days and me watering the pots like a crazy person.

Gardeners are crazy

We have to be. I watched the weather like a hawk. I studied the frost repost like it would determine how my day would go. Well it did, if it was going to frost then I would evacuate my growing bulbs into the spare bedroom

Luckily I never had to.

No frost

Our bathroom over looks the garden so I got to watch my baby’s grow. I already told you I was a crazy plant lady.

I looked over them, made sure that they we happy squeezed when they started to grow and felt bad for the ones that never got to make it.

These are my first,

little pom pom jewels. To me they are perfect but it’s evident that even if I cut them to encourage regrowth they still won’t be flowering in two months.

I can’t be sad about it though as these are beautiful flower that make me so happy!

Saving pennies

They will make it to the wedding though, I am drying the petals and turning them into confetti. So nothing will be waisted. I still have my peonie petals from June splurge.

Confetti isn’t massively expensive but myself and the venue only want biodegradable confetti. To me this should be rule everywhere. I don’t buy that many flowers but I will be using my stocks, and all my flower petals for the wedding.

The cherry blossom petals went a bit brown so I am looking at perhaps dying them. I am going to do some research and see what was best. This will also save me money.

Dahlia hopes

I still have a hope that Dahlias that I have grown will make it into my bouquets but if they don’t I won’t be too disappointed. They still may be in my bouquet but just shop bought ones!

This is my harvest from today and I think they are pretty perfect. I hated cutting them but I know they won’t grow if I don’t.

I am a novice gardener but I will definitely be growing Dahlias next year and the year after!

It’s two months to go and still so much to do

Organising, Planning, Wedding, Wedding Budget

These past two years have flown by. I thought we were having a long engagement but I still think I would benefit from another year.

I could wait to get married now I feel like I need way more time.

It so strange how you feel. We are on top of pretty much everything there are just a lot of little jobs to do.

  • Buy wedding rings
  • Give notice ( this is booked we just need to do it)
  • Cut table clothes up
  • Dye the last batch of napkins
  • Plan the table plan
  • Make the table plan
    organise table decorations
    Sort out canapés
    Desert
    Cheese
    Welcome sign and order of service
    Loose a few pounds

I need to get these all ticked off as soon as possible. There isn’t a lot of time left and I am trying to complete everything this month so it’s not a rush in August.

Oh well we will see!

I just read a terrible blog on the cons of wearing glasses on your wedding day! Here is my two cents

Beauty, Wedding

Seriously, this is what they wrote:

Con : you will be bespectacled forever

Con : it may be awkward when you kiss

Con: light reflection

.

Let’s break it down shall we!

This blog was obviously written on the bus to work! Ha ha little dig at myself there. By a moron, not me, who has never worn glasses in their perfect vision life.

So the first con

You will be bespectacled for ever! I have worn glasses since I was 10. Pretty sure every photo that has ever been taken of me was wearing glasses bar a few. So the day when I am surrounded by friends and family and the wedding of my dreams ( blood, sweat and tears) hell yes I am wearing glasses.

They are me.

It maybe awkward when you have the first kiss.

Seriously

Seriously someone wrote this. In all my glasses wearing years I have never, not once had an issue kissing with my glasses on. I mean, who is this person. Is Gavin going to suspend me upside down and kiss me because yes! Then there may be an issue with gravity and my face! My glasses may fall off!

But most other scenarios unless my niece high kicks me in the face it ain’t happening.

Pretty sure I can managed a kiss not a groping snog I front of my family without sideswiping the glasses from my face.

A clash of my head against Gavs is not going to happen!

Oh god what if my eyeballs fell out as well, that is more bloody likely.

Light reflection

Okay this one isn’t so bad. Except the fact that I have a million pictures of me wearing glasses without having weird light reflections and that not even with a special coatings my glasses. I chose this pic on purpose because I think the light actually looks cool!

But seriously, seriously.

Maybe not as many brides get married in there glasses but a million grooms do. I bet none of this vapid advice was suggested to any grooms getting married.

In conclusion

I am not saying you have to get married in your glasses because you wear them all the time. I am just saying that I want to look like me on my wedding day.

A pretty glasses wearing version of myself!

Without all these none existent, Glasses clashing nonsense.

My advise to you. Do what you want it’s your head and face and your body for that matter.

But don’t be put off by idiots who need to get a quick blog out without any thoughts in their none glasses wearing heads!