Festive Weddings

Best of luck to all those blushing brides out there. I hope your Christmas wedding is everything you dream of!

I heard some lovely stories over the last few weeks about brides being rescued for their wedding ceremony by lads in JCB's and 4x4's and all sorts of things - if Bono and the lads have to resort to - loike, OMG Public Transport?! The dorsh - then who cares how the bride gets to the ceremony once the groom gets there too! That's all you need - well, legally you also need a witness or two and a celebrant but the rest is just icing right?!

Last January when the last big snow happened in Dublin and the canal was so beautifully frozen, we saw a wedding. One which was not planned for such a cold day!  What I loved most was not just how lovely they looked in magical surroundings - they stopped to take a snap in front of a magnificently snowy St Stephen's Green - but how even though her beautiful bridesmaids were shivvering and trying to chase her with a blanket to keep warm, the bride looked as though she hadn't even noticed the snow, she was just so happy.  Her happy glow was literally keeping her cosy and warm!  So sweet. That's what your wedding day is all about.

I know it's probably not the wedding you've planned if you're getting married this week or next in Ireland, but the photos will be simply magical and your memories even better.  Best of luck to the winter brides out there!  And warm wishes for your future together as husband & wife :o)

Advice

For the peeps who have got engaged recently, some tips!

1. Get yourself a good Wedding Planner Book.  A nice succinct one - some are over the top, some read like a magazine. This one here has really straightforward worksheets and reminders lists for what you should have done 12, 9, 6, 3, 2 and 1 month before the event itself. Check it over, tick stuff off, bob's your mother's brother.

2. Consider beautiful sillk flowers. Surprisingly inexpensive - same price as the real thing - and so much prettier for so much longer. I have dried my bouquet and it just doesn't look as good as these pretty samples I received some months ago...

3. Be organised and remember to thank the people who put so much into your special day - write lists of what people do for you in the run up, so that you can thank them in the personal cards after the event. It makes it so much nicer for people to receive, they really appreciate it!

4. When you get back from honeymoon, don't forget to send away for your marriage cert!  You will need to prove you are married if you are availing of tax benefits, applying for a new driving licence if you are changing your name - everything.  Plus, it's just nice to have ;)  Legally bound to another forever, woo. 

5. Enjoy your honeymoon, don't forget to take pictures!!  We took so few it's hilarious, the pair of us usually take bajillions of photos everywhere we go, but we were so relaxed just taking it all in that I only have some phone pictures to share!

And then we came home...

And it has been so lovely since we got home. The past three months have been blissful. Not just because we're in "The Honeymoon Zone" - after all we were Living in Sin(!) beforehand.  But because we have time to spend with friends, or just working in our little house, making it nice again after all the wedding madness.  Back to reality?  Back to normality more like.

And.

I.

Love it.

More thank you card ideas

Post wedding laziness really is a wonderful thing. Getting married earlier this summer was a good idea, considering we've had a good few weeks of lovely sunshine to get us back into the swing of things. At work it feels like an extremely long time ago that we were away on Lune de Miel but it's still less than 3 months. Mad!

So I have expanded the list of Really Cool Websites where you can get thank you cards and other such delightful things to personalise with your fabaroonie photos.

Shakespeare Photo Books 'n' things have nice templates and are reasonably good value!  I love the look of the little books, a friend who just had a baby might be getting one of these books for Christmas in fact...

You've all seen the ads for the pigs from the moon card company, they actually have some fun designs to check out for wedding thank you cards...

More moo's from these guys (seriously, what have cows got to do with greetings? I feel a bit dim but I don't get it...) - more lovely designs and another easy-to-use website.

I think these ones from Photocard Creations are the absolute business - if budget was no object I would have been there with these guys in a flash!  They are a good bit more expensive than the rest but the cards themselves are just so classy.

I'm sure everybody knows about these guys but Vista Print are very good.  My only concern is the quality but for the price...what's that line?  You get what you pay for... These are practially free...

Lastly the one I'd go for is...drum roll please... Photo Box.  They fit my bill in terms of sweet little designs and value for money. Win. Don't forget to make sure envelopes come with your cards or are included...that'd be a fine mess.  50 cards all carefully written and nothing to write the address on...

Thank you!

Thank you cards

Thank You

The most important thing on our post-wedding to-do list is...  Thanking people!  It's been overwhelming the amount of kindness and generosity we have witnessed in the middle of this recession and we don't want to wait too long to thank everyone.  Since we had a private ceremony we figured it might be nice to put a photo of us actually getting married on the card itself. 

There are so many options - a friend recommended Thank You Cards Dot Eye Ee which looks like it will do what it says on the tin...

One of the nicest places to get your invitations if you have the cash is Love Letters - we couldn't afford it (we did a DIY job together, fun & games as you can imagine!) - but they have the usual gorgeous list of designs and options to choose from if you have the Thank You Card budget!

From the day job (helping people figure out ways of running (or just starting!) a small business more efficiently) I'm aware of VistaPrint - it allows you to upload your own design if you wish, or use their templates and add your own photo.  Also a winner for invites if you want a really personal touch on a budget.  Their wedding designs can be found here - have fun with it!  The quality may not last forever but it's perfect in the short term I think. 

Thank You

Thank You

Thank You

he hee heeeeee

Logging Off...

So we're getting close now and my time is a little... under pressure... 

Sorry if I haven't been engaging much on the comments side these past few weeks. It's been manic. 

Guests have started arriving - literally landing in from overseas.  Planes Trains & Automobiles here we go. 

Thanks for listening/reading... Good luck to any B2B's out there; I hope you experience goes well!

See you on the other side...

Breakout

The hair is all over the place.

The skin is breaking out.

After all the weight loss followed by all the stress I think I piled on a few pounds.

The shoes I ordered haven't arrived in time.

The music person we arranged has had a bereavement and cannot make it to the wedding.  Then something happened the backup.  Don't ask.

The fun socks 'n' cufflinks I ordered for the dads and things will not arrive in time. 

My godfather isn't making it to the wedding now for some unknown reason.  Worrisome. 

The special underwear ordered never materialised, if you pardon the pun. 

All we need now is the ash cloud to come back and cancel the honeymoon.

This may sound bitter and evil but I hope they all feel very guilty for making me go through this.  Guilt made me do it.  It's time it bounced back on them.  Coz it's so not worth it.