Successful Saturday!

Last Saturday we had another productive wedding day but I'm only just getting round to writing about it now!

We started off at Bowdens on Easter Road, where Graham ordered his kilt. He has chosen to order the hunting modern version of his surname's tartan, with the Prince Charlie jacket. The tartan has a dark green base which is hard to see in the images but will look great made up into a kilt. Bowdens are really helpful and we have been in a couple of times when Graham has hired kilts so we knew we wanted to go back there to buy it. They do an offer for a full kilt package including the kilt, jacket & vest, ghillie brogues, dress sporran, hoses, flashes, sgian dubh & kilt pin. Graham already has a kilt pin and a sgian dubh, so they let him substitute them for a dress shirt and bow tie instead and adjusted the price down slightly which was very good of them.

Graham was measured while we were there then we just had to pay a 25% deposit, with the remainder due when we pick the kilt up. Luckily Graham will get plenty of use out of his kilt which makes buying it much better value than hiring one every time you need it {unlike my dress which cost considerably more and I will only wear once!} They hope to get the tartan cloth in from the mill in the next couple of weeks so we can pop in and have a look at it before they make up the kilt. Its so hard to tell what it will be like from the small sample books you have to choose from since you cant see the full pattern repeat. Then the kilt should be ready before Christmas.

L-R: Tartan Swatch; Tartan Image

Then we headed to the Jewellers, Macintyres, so we could order our wedding rings. Last time we were there, I got them to price two different ring options for me. I decided to go with the ring that I had designed myself from images of different rings I liked, rather than the full band of diamonds {as they could only do that in 4mm which I felt was too wide}. This way I have an individual ring & exactly what I wanted which is a 3mm band with 6 princess cut diamonds in platinum, the same as my engagement ring.

My ring!

Graham went for a plain 5mm band in palladium. They should both arrive in 4-6 weeks and by then we will have decided what we would like engraved on them so that that can be done in January. I cant wait to actually see my ring made up since I have only shown them the picture of what I want! On Saturday we just had to pay the deposit, and although we don't know the exact cost of the rings, since the price of the metal keeps changing slightly, we know the rough price and we paid approximately 20%.

We finished off by going to John Lewis to set up our Gift List. We will go back in January to actually choose our items as the list wont open until 6 weeks before our wedding, on the 20th February. As we already have all the basics in our flat, we will use our list to get some key items that we can keep for a long time, like a dinner service to replace our cheap Ikea plates. One of the reasons we went to John Lewis is that vouchers {with no expiry date} can also be added to the list and since we plan to move sometime next year, they would come in very handy then! Another reason we went there was that I used to work there and always saw loads of couples walking around with the scanners picking things to add to their lists and I always said I would go there when I was getting married!

Later on, I emailed a couple of coach companies to get some quotes for wedding day transport. We are going to provide a coach to get our guests from the church to the reception and then back into Edinburgh / Haddington at the end of the evening and I think that the coaches are the only thing we have left to book.