If the Suit Fits!

I have opted for a traditional tail suit (and I am told I look mighty fine in one! I'll leave that to your judgement... the image to the left showing Dad & I in tails at my cousin Jeremy's wedding)......

I spotted a waistcoat at The Newmarket Wedding Show last year that has proven to be difficult to find (having forgotten to jot down which formal hire company stand I spotted it on)... thankfully I found them! The only "issue" is location... Goldings is in Newmarket which will be difficult for several of my wedding party to get to for suit fittings, so I am splitting the hire between two shops... Goldings will be supplying the Waistcoats & Cravats, and Tissimans (Bishops Stortford, being a far easier location for everyone to get to for measuring up) the suits & shirts. I think it was a bit unfair seeing as Emma came with me for the suit fitting and help decide on the waistcoat and cravat combination and I don't get to see her ensemble, but seeing as I am colourblind (excessively!)... it was probably the "safe option"!

So... Dad, Dad (in-law to be), Scott, Ben & Tel... you boys need to find a spare 5 minutes to pop into Tissimans to get yourselves measured!

Shooooooooooooooooooooooes!

Oh my, I simply can't contain my excitement... AND the urge to go and pop on "The Dress" is killing me... I collected my shoes from Hetty Rose today!!!!

So, I've taken a few pics to wet the appetite without giving anything away...



They're devine... Hetty has made them beautifully, and even though they're quite high (hopefully making me 5ft 7 on the day!) they are sooooo comfy (I've wearing them right now!)!

They're a one-off and include details of my dress which is pure genius on Hetty's part! I'm so pleased I met Hetty (I can't recommend her high enough) and can't wait to be able to show them in their full glory!

By all accounts, my shoes will be playing their own starring role in their very own photoshoot with Hayley Ruth... I think she is actually as excited about them as I am!

It Fits! It Fits!

Well, the past week has been rather exciting... and LOTS of ticks added to the "Wedding To Do List"! But for me, the absolute pinnacle of the week has to be my first dress fitting!!!

I was a bundle of nervous excitement all morning, counting down the hours before I could head off for my first Dress Fitting! We had a little wait when we first arrived at Fleur de Lys... another bride-to-be was in for her 3rd attempt at finding THE DRESS, she was quite obviously struggling and pretty much everything she put on looked amazing! This made me even more nervous and I dreaded seeing her walk out of a changing room in MY dress... thankfully it didn't happen!

 

What seemed like hours later and shaking (I think with nerves more than excitement) by that point Kim (the shop owner) helped me into my dress... to my complete and utter shock, it actually fit... pretty much perfectly! I could here my mum's and Tracey's nervous chatter outside the changing room... until "ta da"... big smiles (and watery eyes)...

 

A few minor tweaks are required (in the boobie region) but apart from that, it's ready (GULP)! One little dilemma at the moment... veil... Yes or No? I had been quite adamant that I didn't want one... (I automatically think of Church Weddings when I think of a veil, do you?)... until I tried several on.

 

There were some immediate "Yuck, no way" comments, some "ooooo yeah" comments, a few "ermmmm" ones, and a resounding "YES"... So at the moment, as you can no doubt tell, I'm undecided (thankfully, veils only take a matter of weeks to arrive, so I could leave the final decision quite late)... If I do go for one, it will compliment my dress beautifully... Oh gosh, decisions decisions!

Veil lengths... what would you opt for?

My dress is now safely tucked away at home (hidden from Evie and locked away from Ed), and so far I've managed to  restrain from the urge of popping it on and prancing around the house... I haven't even taken another peek at it (YET!).

A Tasty Tasting!

One word... SCRUMPTIOUS!

Pleasing Ed is not always easy when it comes to food... watching him eat out often reminds me of John Torode & Greg Wallace... dissection of the food, expressions on his face as he tastes what he's eating... but thankfully, no criticism this time (phew)!

The caterers are supplying the first two courses of our wedding breakfast, and Ed will be conjuring up a selection of his favourite desserts for guests to share (the part of the meal I am most looking forward to).

Living with a Chef obviously has it's bonuses... although few and far between as we rarely have the opportunity to cook and eat at home together...

The menu will be sent out with the invitations allowing our guests to pre-order. I guess we need to choose the wine to accompany the meal now... oooooooo wine tasting here we come!

We'll share some more information about our caterers at a later date!

Robes for the entourage...

Entourage is probably the wrong choice of word... I have one Bridesmaid, Tracey (or "Old Dame" as she calls herself) and Evie is my Flower Girl... which sounds odd calling her that so I'll be giving her a more fitting "title"... (this will be her 4th appearance as a Flower Girl... so she certainly knows what she's doing now!!!).


1st appearance (Age 3) as a Flower Girl for Louise & Andrew in July 2009

2nd appearance (Age 4) - for Aunty Lisa & Uncle Simon August 2010

(We havent got the photos through for the 3rd appearance at the Wedding of James & Leeann

on New Years Eve 2010... so pictures to follow!)

Having only 1 Adult bridesmaid makes the dress search far easier! We only had to worry about finding something that suited Tracey rather than struggling with a mixture of different shapes and sizes... AND, not wanting Evie to look like a mini-version of Tracey or I (unlike the popular choice on a certain "type" of Wedding related program at the moment... "tut tut tut" **shaking head**) meant that the world was her oyster for dress options (well almost).

I didn't feel the need to wander around endless shops looking for the right dresses... we simply popped back to Fleur de Lys (where I bought my dress) as they have a great collection of high quality bridesmaid dresses (including: Jasmine, Veromia, Kelsey Rose & Mark Lesley).

Choosing Tracey's style of dress was easy... her only stipulation was that she wanted something long... and my only stipulation was finding something "in-keeping" with the style of my dress... we quickly whittled the dresses down to a choice of 2. The final choice to be made based on what colours each were available in.

Choosing Evie's dress was actually far harder that I had imagined... we picked out 3 for her to try... and all 3 created "tear-jerk" moments... she looked so beautiful in every dress... so in the end, I let her choose! I would not be at all surprised, if on the day of our wedding, Evie is the cause of "not a dry eye in the house"... as we walk down the ailse the attention will most likely be on her (and not me...), which would actually be a bit of a blessing, I'm not comfortable with the thought of everyone watching me (especially as I'll no doubt be fighting back the tears!)...

Colours... oh heck... the difficult bit!

Without giving away too much detail... we haven't got a structured colour scheme for our wedding... it's more of a collection of tones that suit the style of the day. So, the tone of colour we were looking for ruled out far more options than I had originally anticipated... we must have spent a good hour flicking through the colour options for both styles of dress we had whittled it down to for Tracey. I was being drawn to one colour in particular, so decided to go for that, got the paperwork done and signed off... then came the ill-fated mistake... Tracey had to try on another dress for size. The style of the dress didn't suit the style of the day... but, oh the colour... it looked fabulous on her! Pushing it out of my mind (the colour had been chosen) we left the shop.

The rest of the day, the colour played on my mind... Ed returned from work, we talked it through, I phoned the shop, drove back and changed the colour (which meant I had to opt for a different fabric)... phew... and left... much happier!

Now all we have to do is wait for the dresses to arrive... and source accessories!

N.B. If I had more than one adult bridesmaid.... I would have chosen dresses and colours to suit each individual... I like things to be in order, but I'm not afraid of a little "mix and match"... at the end of the day, your attendants need to be as comfortable in (and in love with) their attire as you are in yours...

It's all about the shoes!

I had an idea of the style of shoes I was looking and with the help of my "Shoe Guru" friend Claire Dobinson of The Bombshell Academy I found some stunning Louboutin's and D&G shoes... but they weren't perfect... they were missing that special little touch. So imagine, to my delight, finding a shoe designer that made bespoke shoes! I first met Hetty (Hetty Rose Handmade Shoes) on Twitter... and found out she was exhibiting at The Designer Wedding Show, so dragging Hayley Ruth (kicking and screaming.... pah) we set off to meet her (and lots of other lovely wedding suppliers that we chat to on twitter). A few weeks later, and I'm at Hetty's Studio (in Chelmsford... an added benefit of her being based so locally to me!), having my feet measured & drawn around (god that tickled!) and chatting about design ideas.

Between October and January Hetty has been busy working away on my shoes! She's one very clever lady and has been replicating parts of my dress for added detail!... I seriously can't wait to show them off. I've had 2 fittings so far, at the last one (December 2010) I got to try on my part made shoes... no sole, no heel, but "oh" so Divine!!!!

Hetty sends me little updates of how my shoes are coming along... and by all accounts all that's left to do now is add the heel! But we can't do that until I've had my dress fitting (Eeeek... this wednesday!!!!!)... and then I get to try on my completed shoes!!!!!!!

A selection from the Kimono Collection by Hetty Rose Shoes

Make sure you check out Hetty's website... her Kimono Collection are amazing... AND take a look at the little video that shows a pair of shoes coming together... pure genius!

Another 4-months down the line...

Whoops! It would appear that we're a little behind with our wedding blogging... SORRY!!! I'm not sure where the last 4-months have gone!!!! But what I can tell you is we've been VERY BUSY little bee's **buzz buzz buzz**... so, the here's a quick run down of what's been happening since our last blog post!

For the wedding...

Shoe Hunting (blog post to follow)... Sheffield Road Trip (yes! my bestie and I went of to Sheffield, met up with a supplier & Laura from Little White Book... a very drunken but extremely fun night!)... Wedding Rings (blog post to follow)... Invitation Designing (YES! They're almost ready... actually printing as I type! We hope to be sending them out in March)... Venue Decor (the plan is pretty much sorted for this... so lots of sourcing of "bits" has been going on!)... Bridesmaid/Flower Girl Dress Shopping (blog post to follow!)... Menu's (You'd have thought this would have been easy for a chef... NOPE! We've just got back from our tasing... another blog post to follow)

Personal adventures...

The Cork House (Ed's new place of work - which I have frequented erm, quite a bit...)... Ed's Birthday (Linkin Park Concert - A.MAZ.ING - and a mooch around the Master Chef Live Show)... Day Trip to Amsterdam (with the "day job" girlies... which was great fun until we thought we weren't going to be flying home after a bird decided to go head-to-head with the plane... stupid bird... long delays... running around the airport after being told the flight had been cancelled, and then finding out it was bording...)... Jeremy (Ed's Cousin) & Kate's Wedding (FABULOUS weekend, beautiful winter wedding, sorry, very few photos... I was a bit lame with my camera that weekend, and didnt actually get any photos of the Bride & Groom!!!!)... Christmas (which was spent... on my own on Christmas Eve **sobbing**... Evie was at her Dad's and Ed was working :( - Christmas Day we headed off to Ed's Aunts, lots of fun and hours of entertainment playing Farm-Opoly! - Boxing Day, headed home picking Evie up from her Dad's on the way and had our 2nd Christmas Dinner with my parents... well and truly stuffed!)... James & Leeann's Rehearsal Dinner... In true "Feed Me Dining Style" Ed put together a fabulous meal for James & Leeann.. it was a great evening and built the excitement for their wedding a few days later... New Year's Eve - James (My Cousin) & Leeann's Wedding (mixing a bit of business with pleasure... AWESOME!!! although quite upset that Julie & Derek from Melting Chocolate Moments didn't dress up at Willy Wonka & an Umpa-Lumpa!!!!)... Essex Road Trip/Essex Tweet-Up (Laura from Little White Book made the return journey! Which ended up taking her a little longer than planned after taking herself on a few unplanned "detoures" around the Essex Countryside! I think she may have been a little upset that parts of Essex are not quite as she had imagined... the words "Shuuuuut uuuuuuuup" weren't used very often, nor were the sights of "tangoed" ladies - 'THAT' TV program has alot to answer for!!! We headed out to the Cork House for a mini tweet-up with Tracey and some of my favorite local tweeting chums Hayley Ruth, Kim Taylor, Lucie from Wonderland Bakery, Kate Fletcher. Now, this evening was supposed to be a "light one" seeing as we were heading off to the Wedding Ideas Awards the next day... but erm, no... 3.30am... whoops!)... More Awards in London (I headed back into London the week after the Wedding Ideas Awards for a "day job" related set of awards... which we didnt win... pah... I made the mistake of sitting next to one our Operations Managers who CAN DRINK! Being hammered by 2pm is not good... staggering out of the hotel and stumbling into a taxi at 4.45pm is not good... having to read the platform numbers with one eye open to focus... is really NO GOOD... and tweeting while drunk (and hiccupping on the train)... is even worse! But, probably quite entertaining to others...)

My Business (A Bespoke Design Ltd)...

Exhibting at Wedding Fayres (the Autumn season)... a record number of Consultations (YAY)... completion of a record number of Orders (BIG YAY)... re-design of my Website  with (SEO King) Steve of UK Wedding SEO (which will be going live soon... I've been saying that for ages, but, seriously... it's almost ready!)... Wedding Ideas Magazine Awards (mixing business with pleasure... SOOOOOO much fun meeting so many fabulous Tweeting Chums... too many to mention!... More Wedding Fayres & Open Days (the start of the "Spring Season")...

 

So basically... we havent had time to breathe let alone Blog... but fingers crossed... during the remaining countdown of 144 days (gulp... will not pass too quickly) we will be sharing info on a more frequent basis!