RSVP's Are In and Now The Joy Of The Table Planning.

Hello Everyone,

I am a bad blogger, I am not blogging as much as I should be! But Were now on the 4 month count down or 115 days, so we are constantly busy! When were not busy doing wedding stuff we are doing things in the house, for an example I started stripping our table yesterday and am now sporting a beautiful red tan!

So our RSVP cut off date was the 30th May, and did everyone RSVP on time? NO!

So my poor dad spent his bank holiday calling people, while we chased people on Facebook and via txt, it is pretty frustrating. We often felt that people we were not taking this serious and we did feel messed about, you can't not simple due to the nature of the occasion. I have been talking to a friend who is getting married before I and she feels the same, she agreed that people don't realize the emotion that's on it. The worse being that half the people we chased are married, so know what were going through, but the rejects are the worse and trust me we've had some amazing replies as to why they can't come, we've laughed at a lot of them and thought come on you can lie better than that. But the worse has to be people who don't give you a reason and i'm sorry we do take it personal! As she said;

"When we decided to get married I never thought that the planning of it would make me realise how some members of the family I deemed as close just arent & are to consumed in their own little lives to join us on our special day! Thankfully I have a large family and the majority of you are coming." 

But it is the friends who aren't coming the most, that hurts because with family they don't attend you just go ok, see you at Nan's at some point but with friends you feel a sense of, "Oh that's how much our friendship means to you" and you feel angry that possible they didn't even want to bother, but in these cases we Bride's are allowed to feel like that!

So onto the next joy, arranging the seating for the tables. Well I hear it's great fun and the reason most people argue, well it is true in the past 3 days, we've argued twice! So how have we approached it? Well there is a lot of website's out there giving you advice, which if you can be bothered to read is fine, us on the other hand with this wedding, we are doing it as we think it should be done! For better or worse.

So we printed off 10 tables with 8 chairs on it, with a trusty pack of post it notes we have started.

So we'll see how we get along shall we? At the moment we think we have an idea but the problem with is the poor people who are coming to the wedding get nitpicked. You analyse your family like never before, you sit there going "Oh no there personality will clash with there's" and other silly things like "There child needs to be here" or "Them two will fight due to personality difference and we don't have security!". It's all great joy!

You can if you feel confident in your family do the throw caution to the wind and tell people "To pick a seat, not a side". Load of B***S***! Only in the normal world where everyone is perfect, come from the same class and have not a single divorce between them. If we did that certain people wouldn't talk to others, my M-i-L would have all her groupies on the top table, it would be horrible! 

But now my life is spent making to do lists, along with who we need to pay and everything else. So for now I shall leave you to it and get back to planning this wedding. And update you when I can.

Lots Of Love
xxxx

Bridal Shower and Hen Party

Hi Everyone,

Yet again I'm very sorry for the lack of blogging recently, been really busy doing things around the house and working full time! 

So I decided to have a Bridal Shower and a Hen Party, why? Because my Aunties and Mum did not like the idea of going clubbing not there thing!

No I was very clear about both, that I did not want any fake willies, I'm sorry I find them really vulgar, if you like it that's fine but not my thing! If you don't like them be clear about it, no one wants an unhappy Bride!

For the Bridal Shower, my mum treated me before and took me for a pamper session. So after having my nails done, back rub and to top it off I had my hair trial! 

What do we think?

Yes that is my mum, she also had her hair done, but was not as happy as I was!

So we went to the beautiful teashop in Stoke-on-Trent called Blondies Twisted Tearoom. http://www.blondiestwistedtearoom.org/party.html

It was beyond perfect, we had an afternoon, with a wide selection of cake and plenty of cocktail teapots!

Here is the crazy lot! They could not do enough for us! I recommend more than I can say!

Now for the Hen Party, we lived it up in Liverpool! It's where Mike and I met, so it only felt right and oh yes this had a theme too! 1980's!

He is a snap shot  of the dress I made! Yes I made an actual wedding dress from a vintage 1980's pattern.

And here's proof I actually made it! It was a crazy night, but it was made even more crazy as during the day time we went for a game of Crazy Golf. It was such a fun weekend and I'm glad I followed my heart and did both!

One bit of advice I have, It's your Hen! It is easy when around a bunch of people for there wants to take over but remember its your night and don't be afraid to say No I want to do this, or go here!

Speak to you soon

xxxx

1,006 Readers

Hello Everyone!

I wanted to say a huge THANK YOU!

What a wonderful gift to come home too! I've hit over 1,000 readers of my little blog (therapy session!)

Thank you all my wonderful readers, I can't wait to hit the next 1,000!

Time to celebrate with some Jelly Babies and Cider!

Love you all

xxxx

Chocolate Fudge Brownies Recipe

Hi Guys,

The other day it was not only my 25th birthday, but on the 6th April my darling Mike turned 26, and it was my chance to bake and fatten up his work colleagues. I did make some Marshmallow muffins and Oatmeal and Raisin Cookies (what the recipes, just ask) but I also made these little guys, which I think http://theicingonourcake.blogspot.co.uk/ would love!

Ingredients

          85g Butter, plus extra for greasing,

200g Low-fat Cream Cheese,

1tsp Vanilla Essence,

225g Caster Sugar,

2 Eggs,

3 tbsp Cocoa Powder,

100g Self-raising Flour,

50g Pecan Nuts (chopped) I replaced this with Marshmallow due to Mike not liking nuts!

Fudge Icing

4tbsp Butter,

1tbsp Milk,

75g Icing Sugar,

2tbsp Cocoa Powder,

Pecan Nuts ( again I used Marshmallow)

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 C/ Gas Mark 4. Lightly grease and line your tray!

Beat together the Cream Cheese, Vanilla Essence and 5 teaspoons of Caster Sugar until smooth. Set Aside

Beat the Eggs and remaining Caster Sugar together until light and fluffy.

I brought Eggs from the local produce store across the road from work, the shells were blue which scared me a little. I loved the richness of the yolks!

 Place the Butter and Cocoa Powder in a small pan and heat gently, stirring until the Butter melts and the mixture combines.

I have to admit it smelt so good I could have eaten this! I almost ate butter!

 Then stir into the Egg mixture, fold in the Flour and Marshmallows.

Pour half of the cake batter into the prepared pan and smooth on top. 

Carefully spread the Cheese mixture over it, then cover it with the remaining cake batter ( I used a slightly bigger tray so I had to double everything!). Bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes. 

Leave in the Pan to cool, it may seem burnt on top but that's the Marshmallows that were in the mixture.

To make the icing, melt the Butter in the Milk. Stir in the Icing Sugar and Cocoa Powder. Spread the Icing over the Brownies and decorate with the Marshmallows.

Cut into whatever shape you fancy and serve, or in my case send off to work in a tin wondering how it will survive for.

 It's so simple, and easy to enjoy apparently! (I got to taste non!).

Bye

xxx

10 Things I've Discovered Planning A Wedding 6 Month Count Down Review

Hello There,

So as I promised when we hit the 6 months count down I would review this blog and tell you what I have learnt 7 months later! So I've kept the original post in purple and my up-dated thoughts in red. So here we go. Sorry I've neglected to blog for a while I had my hen party at the weekend which I will discuss with you!

1. It's Your Day! LIES! BIG FAT LIES!

Anyone who says this phrase to you is lying through their teeth, it's the biggest contradiction I keep hearing again and again, EVERYONE has an opinion.

This is still true! In fact at the moment I am in a deep battle with my mother in law who get this, is concerned that we will be disappointed in the party as there will be a lack of younger people at the party! So she said she will pay for some evening guests so we don't feel deflated. We got so excited but here's the catch the evening guests are HER friends!  So at them moment she already has 3 friends invited and wants to invite an extra 14 people! It is quickly becoming not our wedding but her sons, and its all about me, me, me! This is a battle I AM going to win! Big rant I know, but as I have discovered while talking to others than I am not alone and venting this to you guys! You in the same situation? 

2. Everyone Has An Opinion

No matter who they are, they will tell you what would be good! I love my family dearly, but everyone and I mean everyone has something to say about what your doing, how it should be and what they think you should have! Their opinion MUST be considered. And before you ask 1 is different from 2, because with 2 if their paying you have to bow down to their request. This applies to my fiancee, I wanted a full band diamond wedding ring, i'm getting a half :-(

This has died off now, pretty much everything is planned and pre-paid for.  Plus informing everyone that this wedding is making us skint keeps people off our backs! 

3. Family Involvement!

They might not be paying a penny to the wedding but they WILL make you feel bad in not giving them what they want and you WILL feel guilty that them purely attending is going to cost them money. Resulting in tears and arguments.

This again has died off a little, now i'm battling grandparents who want to pay for there food, crazy right!  Our family have now hit the excitement part so there not so much concentrated on that, but our families have a wonderful faith our hotel will be empty even though we keep saying that last time we spoke to them in February it only had 6 rooms left.

4. The Tears and Arguments!

You can never be prepared for this rollar coaster! Everyone in your wedding party will be subjected to this and if you haven't, your next!

Yeah, this is still happening, I have moments where I am going YAY i'm getting married then moments of I can't be bothered any more, why am I doing this?

5. Being Emotional Crushed!

I was even more unprepared for this......Last night I accidentally cut an invitation!!!! I'm FINE - but I just can't talk about it...............

No comment!

6. Making It Yourself!

This is a wonderful process but so time consuming and emotional, yet soul crushing at the same time, especially when it goes horribly wrong.

Yet again I still can't comment on this, I've still got to make more invites, the seating chart, menus, place cards and wedding favors! God help me!

7. Your Family Must Secretly Hate You!

Why is it the moment you plan a wedding your family gets even stranger! I swear every time I visit or talk to someone I get, I'm not talking to them, Don't sit them near me, I'm not having my photograph taken with them, just to list a few of many! Is it too much for world peace for one day? For us? Our families are going to clash, no matter what due to different backgrounds, so it could go either way....everything will be magically fine or arguments and amazement if no one gets kicked out. Might replace my dad's suit with a ref's outfit.

I love my family dearly, we shall see what happens at the wedding! But my Bridal Shower was perfect!

8. Everyone Has An Uncle K**b Head or 5!

The guest list, my god! Inviting people you are embarrassed by or just don't want near you, well tough because you can't invite them with out them, and they won't come if there not coming........ This discovery is supported by point 1 and 2. I have no comment.

Still invited and most still have not RSVP'd! 

9. Diet! HA!

Everyone at work keeps hearing me say ooohhh I need to diet before the wedding, well HAHAHAHAHAHA! Yeah no one who has actually said the words I need to loose a bit of weight before the wedding has generally began or attempted. I've given myself 6 months before the wedding as my diet cut off and lets face it, it's only half a stone. No motivation here, too much cake and meals to enjoy!!!!

Well Mike and I were serious about going on a diet 2 months ago, this has still not happened! Trying to eat healthy, but the unhealthy food is the best! Mike has lost a stone but I've not lost or gained! 

10. On The Verge!!

Pretty much when I discuss or plan the wedding i'm dancing on that fine line of a mental/emotional break down or becoming Bridezilla. This is mostly tested when trying to arrange everyone getting together.

I am not a Bridezilla, but I have a Mother-in-lawzilla! Maybe closer the time I might become one, but I'm trying to learn to let things go, well some things, I'm trying to be diplomatic!

So what do we think? It's all go, my next 3 blogs are about my Hen, Chocolate Fudge Brownies, and meeting the vicar!

Bye 
xxxx

Making Handmade Pocket Invitations For Half The Price Of Professionals Part 3

Hello Everyone,

I'm so sorry for only just doing part 3, I've had this awful flu that's been going around and slept for about 24 hours solid, but I still can't shift it. But to make the cherry on top my computer decided to hate me, but making my profile corrupt, I didn't even know that could happen! If I could afford a new laptop I would never have a Dell Inspiration again, I've had Dell out to fix 7 times in 4 years, the mother board has died 3 times and it just generally doesn't like life! But i'm getting off topic, so lets look into the assembly of these invites!

I previously mentioned the construction of the pocket envelope (I hope I did), if not it's pretty simple with the use of double sided tape. I also mentioned how I worded the invite section but remember its your invite write it how you like!

To go with our invite we chose to do 4 side information points with, Accommodation, Directions, RSVP and General Information.

We're quite lucky with our venue Crewe Hall, as it literally down the road from the train station which means it is surrounded by hotels. Of course our top hotel was the wedding venue in which our guest get 10%, but we also included a selection of well known branded hotels, such a Holiday Inn, Premier Inn and we included the web address and phone number, but I did not include the price as this is constantly changing. I think accommodation is pretty much your choice most people do put it out there, as it stops every single guest contacting you for hotel information so it just saves you a lot of phone calls, emails and text messages.

For the Directions a simple map which you can steal from Google maps is needed, but most places with give you simple instructions, we have included the post code for Sat Nav users, but we also included instructions, we tested a few times and got double checked by my dad, just remember not everyone uses Sat Nav and not everyone will use the internet to search some family members will pull out a map!

Our RSVP, has a very typical yes or no, but word it nice I know its easy to be flippant about people not coming to your wedding, so we worded it the best we could think of and for the returning address we put my parents down. Because it is an invite addressed from them, the RSVP's should be sent back to them, but we have put down an email address, for those who do not want to send through the post. But don't be surprise if you get an RSVP through Facebook and text.

We have included Dietary/Allergy requirements on the RSVP and it has in some way worked, but were shocked that some family members who we know are Vegetarian haven't declared it. In an ideal world I would serve them meat and say well you didn't specify but that's not productive and slightly Bridezilla like! I am also shocked people I know who are diabetic haven't said so use your logic with it some people don't say they assume you'll know. We've also had problems with people not RSVPing because they think we wanted it on the 30th May because we stated that was to be the latest date. The joys of wedding planning.

You will notice that our RSVP is in 2 halfs, why you ask well its the same with our Directions because my printer also hates me and wouldn't print perfect back to back, so I made it simple and printed individual and stuck together.

General Information, well this is more a personal choice than a necessity. We have chosen to registrar with 2 different places for gifts simply because we did not want half a million picture frames, or 2 toasters so we wanted to have more control and choice on what we had. So we are typically registered with John Lewis (but you can go with Debenhams, House of Fraser, Selfridges, any larger department store). But we also went with Wedgewood, so a nice mix all the this information needed to be visible and accessible so the starter for our card. We also included my dad's mobile number, simply because if you need to get in touch with someone, because your guests are lost, running late anything you can think of i'm definitely not answering my phone and i'd be surprised, no it would be a miracle if mike answered his phone. Plus who knows my home town better than my dad right?

Once these have all been cut, they should fit nicely into the pocket and I think look nice and professional.  Now that the inside of the card is finished its just the outside design, which can be as simple and as complicated as you like.

 We opted for a ribbon design, with a sliver mesh background then a teal (peacock according to Ebay) on top, once again double sided sellotape is your best friend!

To close the invite we used round velcro dots, really easy to use as they are self adhesive. I found it easier to apply the dot on the ribbon first and then place the matching dot on top of the current one to make it stick perfect.

Like so!

To decorate the front, I cropped a small piece of the flock wall paper to create a stylish opener, you'll have to tell me what you think!

We thought it look very effect and just gave it that nice finishing touch!

So here it is after 3 blogs, the finished invitation, for half the cost and just as professional looking! I hope you agree, all our friends and family couldn't tell the difference.

Let me know how it works out for you guys.

Bye

XXXX 

Making Handmade Pocket Invitations For Half The Price Of Professionals Part 2

Hello Everyone,

Right are we ready to actually make the invites? Well lets get started!

Making the Outer Pocket is really easy and simple, as it is just an A4 piece of card folded

 into 3! For this we used the White Ice Diamond Lustre Card, as well as for the Inner Pocket. You will notice I am using Windows Microsoft Publisher, which I used for everything but the flock pattern, but well will get to that! Here is a useful hint for this part, because you don't want these lines to be obvious use a grey line then when you print, print as a draft you'll be saving ink at the same time.

On publisher it will look like this!

To this when it is folded! So good so far!

So for the Inner Pocket, for this bit you will have to start cutting, if you can cut a straight line with a pair of scissors, give yourself a pat on the back! If your like me and can't cut a straight line save your life your going to need a paper trimmer, or the cheap options, an old chopping board, a Stanley knife and ruler. Remember always cut away from yourself, if your the Bride you need to be alive for your wedding if your the wedding party, "What are you doing adding more stress to the time? Come on be sensible!" If your like me make sure someone else is in the house who can drive and knows where the nearest A&E is and first aid box!

It's a bit more complicated due to the folding, but remember our advise from the previous pocket and here it is the Publisher image and when it is folded! Simple right?

Now put a layer of Double sided on the flaps and stick the the right side of the Outer Pocket and you have completed your pocket for 25p each! Take that Hobby Craft and Ebay! These are prices all our price aware Grooms will love! If you want to argue this point look at the prices I pointed out in part 1 http://disneygirlgrowsup.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/making-handmade-pocket-invitations-for.html

Now this is the stage where you need to concentrate a bit more, as this is the pretty side of the design. I used Adobe Photoshop CS3, as I had it during my Photography A-Level and I swear by it! If you want this design aspect desperately and don't want anything simple then ask your friends if they have it or see if you can get hold of a demo and be cheeky, but I only used this to create a small section then I created an A4 sheet on Publisher!

Google Flock Pattern and look at all the designs you get! 

So I selected my favorite pattern and placed it in the center of an A4 page, this will make it easier for me to draw over using the Pen Tool. The reason I did this was because the picture quality is poor and I only want the white pattern not the black background! 

This is how the design will look once I drew over it and with the color I liked remember it does look different when printed to how it looks on the screen, if your clever enough to buy your ribbon before hand (unlike me) you can scan a piece of that in and take the color from that unfortunately I just landed lucky.

To be honest the next step is simple. Save the image as a jpeg at the highest level you can, the higher quality the better, then open in publisher copy and paste until you fill a whole page then group together and save as a jpeg again! I'm not going show you how to do that again, as i'm guessing your considering to make your own you know the basics of publisher.

For the Invite, we used the "Three Sheet" White Card .This is a bit where you need to discuss what is going to be written, there is wedding invitation politics at play here. Remember this, who is the invite from? Your parents, the Brides parents, you? Are your parents divorced and re-married it's all out there! But there are plenty of websites that will tell you what is best to write and how to write it!

We went with the Classic Invite writing! 

Our invites read as:

Mr and Mrs Dads Name and Sure Name

request the honor of the presence of

..................................................

at the wedding of their daughter 

Rebecca Ellen (yes middle names for this bit!)

to 

Michael full name Bowley 

on Date

at Time

at

Place (if this is at a church state that!)

with a Reception following at

RSVP (EXTREMELY IMPORTANT)

and we put a by date!

I created this easily on Publisher by creating a shape box in size I needed, putting my flock behind it, cropping to the right size, putting a white box on top giving it a 1 cm boarder and then a text box on top!

I wrote all the names of our guest before I stuck the insert in as I didn't want to indent the Outer Pocket and if you make a mistake its easier to amend this way!

Then stick it in the middle section and were half way there!

In the next blog we'll look at the individual inserts and finalizing! 

See you soon! xx