I do - my wedding blog

I now realise why so many wedding blogs disappear so soon after the wedding. Suddenly my time and inclination seemed to vanish, not exactly sure why. Anyway, getting back to putting together my day for you, I get to my outfit. My dress was made by my mum, which was so special. It meant that it was completely unique and exactly what I wanted. We had had it specially designed by a friend of a friend who was studying fashion design. This, for me, was the most fun part. I had been to try on other dresses ( 1 , 2 , 3 ) so I had a good idea what I was looking for. We then had the drawing made into a pattern by a professional pattern cutter - this bit wasn't cheap. If we had been a bit clever we could probably have utilised an existing pattern as I wasn't having anything that out of the ordinary. Once we had the finished toile and pattern we set about chopping up the actual fabric and lining etc. I helped cut out some bits, but I left most of this to my mum who is much more ex

I just wanted to post a pic of the present J got me on our wedding day Image from Rob Ryan

It has been nearly a month, I'm stuck right back into work, my name is changed on some things, but people are still talking about the wedding when they see us. Back to the story... As the evening guests started to arrive and we has our coffee and homemade tablet , the men did the speeches. Starting with my dad, who can be a bit of a loose cannon when it comes to public speaking, especially I thought, when he was a bit emotional. But it was suitably funny, soppy and full of advice (lists was the key thing). He managed to embarrass me by mentioning my secret shame from when I was 11 (I failed my cycling proficiency test!) while also make me feel like his special little girl. J's speech was very funny, and I have the scrap of paper he made his notes on in my box of wedding bits. But it was also poignant as he raised a glass to absent friends. The best men did a double act which worked perfectly with one doing the funny stuff and the other playing the straight man. They eve

After our mad bus trip from the church to the venue - which got a lot of waves and a few bus geek photographers (who knows how they found out about it!)  - we arrived to a round of applause from museum patrons, and were handed yummy peach bellinis. We then got the photos out of the way, largely painless, and even had a group photo of everyone. The photographer made everyone shout "sex!" instead of cheese. My shock will probably be evident on my face in the photo. J and I were then taken off for a few minutes to do some shots of us, including by the walrus and the totem pole. The sun was shining and the drinks were flowing. I was pleased with my mingling skills! We had canapes (kudos to the staff who always made sure J and I got them first). Everyone was then invited to sit for dinner by our toastmaster aka one of our friends from Uni. On our way to our seats we cut our croquembouche using the toastmaster's Sgian Dubh. I had been so looking forward to our food s

I have read a lot of magazines, websites and particularly blogs as I have gone through these last 20 or so months. Some of the blogs have come and gone, but some I have stuck with. I thought I would share: A Practical Wedding - if you want straight talking this is where to go. Keeps everything in perspective. This one is staying in my Google reader for the future. Craft my bride - this is the blog of a soon to be bride who is diying her wedding. Rock My Wedding - It is great to see a British wedding blog flourishing like this one. Temple of Groom - a groom's blog With this ring - pretty stuff and good ideas. Always quick to link to interesting things! Project wedding blog - whole host of diy stuff Ruffled - nice vintage weddings iDIY - more diy snippet and ink - inspiring inspiration boards Wiley Valentine - invites and pretty stuff 100 Layer Cake - more pretties Lucky me - inspiration boards and pretty stuff Once Wed blog - a good mixture of different type

We arrived at the church slightly early so parked up the road a bit and Dad jumped out to go and check everything was hunky-dory. This was the first moment when I was really nervous, and as always when I'm nervous I needed the loo. The same had happened on Friday evening as we pulled up to the church so my bridesmaids had thought it was very funny to buy me some incontinence pads. Anyway, everything was fine, and the men were told to go and take their seats in the front row. We pulled the bus forward, and had a couple of minutes to grab some photos with the buses, like a traditional father-daughter photo plus one of me on the back of the Routemaster (one of the key ones on my list for the day). Then it was time to go. Mum said a quick prayer before we walked up towards the church to be met by the vicar,and then she headed inside. I had managed to get my shoe stuck between paving slabs on the path but this was a minor hitch, it did relieve my nerves somewhat as we all laughed.