Our Day by Design

Its only 94 days until the wedding today! (Image from the knot ) Since I missed the 100 day mark {which was on Christmas eve}, I thought I should try to resume normal posting with an update on how soon the wedding is. I cant believe we are now down to double figures! Hope you all had a fabulous Christmas and I wish you all a Happy New Year for tomorrow. Its not long until I can say that I'm getting married this year! ps. I know I said here that normal posting would resume soon but we have been very busy up to and over Christmas and I also haven't been feeling myself at all. I'm slowly getting better and will have lots to post about in the next few weeks when I can also hopefully get back to commenting on all of my favourite blogs!

We had a fabulous holiday in Florida and just got back on Saturday. I went back to work on Monday so I'm definitely still feeling the effects of the jet lag! We still haven't managed to finish putting our tree up yet since our heating decided to pack in on Sunday. Thankfully its fixed now so the flat is all cosy again! I have lots to share in the next week or so {when I get a chance to write some posts!} about both our recent holidays, my nephews christening and all of the wedding purchases we managed to make in Florida. Although I do have a busy week ahead seeing friends and family before my office Christmas do on Friday. Will be back to normal posting soon!

Eeeeeek! Now we have only 4 months to go, its coming so quick! We had a really busy month in November! Our G & G letters arrived and we bought purple and grey paint for them. I went to meet the florist, got an idea of the flowers then paid the deposit. I also started guest blogging on Little Miss Wedding. We ordered our wedding rings, Grahams kilt & set up our gift list at John Lewis and we finally got some wedding insurance. I also started making the day invites, booked & paid the deposit for a coach for our guests and spoke to the minister at the church. Since we have been in Florida I have also bought a few more things including an edge punch for the table names or table plan; a corner punch for the order of service’, menus or placecards; purple beverage napkins for the welcome drinks or cake and I also ordered mini gable boxes for the favours which should arrive tomorrow. So next month {as well as still being on holiday for the next 9 days} I want to get the rest of the

Today we are at Epcot as I was able to get in free to a Disney park on my Birthday. Although Magic Kingdom is probably my favourite theme park, we are already going on Tuesday for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party , so we decided to go to Epcot today, as it’s also a fabulous park! Hopefully just now we are flying high on Soarin' , helping launch a shuttle on Mission Space or buying a Christmas decoration from each country in the World Showcase! I think this is a great way to spend my 28th Birthday and certainly beats my 27th when I was in the middle of sitting a 3 day exam! ps. Another reason I love our wedding date, and what will make it easy to remember, is that its also the 3rd like my Birthday!

Hope you all have a lovely weekend! We are off to Florida tomorrow morning and I'm currently trying to decide how many pairs of shoes & handbags to take with me! I'm so looking forward to a lovely couple of weeks in the sun and we have plenty things planned to do while we are there {including lots of shopping!} Although we will have computer access, there wont be many posts over the next couple of weeks but I'm hoping I can keep up with all my other blogs in my google reader!

My 2nd post went up on Little Miss Wedding today. Hope you enjoy!

I paid the deposit for the final item we had to book today! I'm really pleased we managed to get everything sorted before going on holiday. We booked a 70 seater coach, from Prentice Coaches in Haddington, to take our guests from the church to the reception venue and it will return to Haddington after the reception. Not all of our guests will need the coach as many of our family and bridal party are staying over at the hotel but it should be big enough for the rest. It will also mean our evening guests from Haddington will be able to get the bus home! It was only £40 more to get the bigger coach, rather than a 57 seater, so we just booked it as we can always change to a smaller one later if required. Once I had received a quote or response from all of the 7 companies I contacted, the 3 quotes we received were roughly within the same price bracket. We booked the cheapest one since the company is actually based where we are getting married and we have heard good reports about them.

I mentioned here that I wanted to get some 70mm purple satin ribbon, the same colour as the bridesmaids dresses, to use as a sash on the flowergirls dress. That way she will tie in with other bridesmaids. I thought that Berisfords would have a similar colour, as they have a massive range, so I had a look in Hobbycraft and bought 1m of their Liberty colour, which turned out to be too bright against the dark purple. I managed to find a ribbon swatch card from Berisfords at Jaycotts , for the tiny sum of 45p, which I ordered then received a couple of weeks ago. It is great for matching up colours and samples but unfortunately, none of the colours are really suitable. Although the Blackberry colour may work if we cant find anything else {see below}, its not quite right! So my next plan is to carry on looking for dark purple ribbon and if that fails, attempt to get the original sash dyed to the same colour as the other bridesmaids. Otherwise, here is a quick update of what else we have b

We finally got round to purchasing some wedding insurance tonight! This was definitely the most unexciting purchase we have made so far, but it was something we felt we should get since we have now paid deposits for almost everything. Most of the larger deposits / payments have been made using a credit card {a Tesco one as we are collecting clubcard points to turn into Airmiles}, which gives us additional protection, but some have been paid in cash or by cheque so the insurance gives us some piece of mind in the current climate. We opted for a policy from Weddingplan as it was quite reasonably priced but also covered the items we wanted. We did make sure that the policy covered all deposits we have paid prior to purchasing the insurance and that we would be covered if any of our suppliers goes into liquidation. Lets hope its the only thing we buy that we don't have to use!

Last Monday I went to meet the florist, Val Hamilton , at her studio in Linlithgow. Graham didn't come with me as he isn't really that bothered about the flowers and the florist had suggested that it would be better as we could properly discuss my dress as well. I quickly put together a couple of pages of pictures to take with me showing the types & colours of flowers I liked as well as another couple of pages showing my dress since I don't have a fabric swatch yet. I had some ideas about the type of flowers I wanted including orchids and tulips but I wasn't sure what else would tie in. Val was really helpful and together we went through lots of different ideas and looked at what would be in season. As we had thought, the sweet peas that both my mum and granny had in their bouquets, are not available in April so I wont be having any in my bouquet. Val suggested she could get fake ones if I really wanted them but I only want fresh flowers, which she was happy about a

Last Sunday we made the trip to our nearest B&Q {a DIY superstore} to get some paint for our G & G letters. As I mentioned when they arrived , I hoped that we would be able to find shades that would match, or at least be similar, from their large range. There were a couple of colours that we thought would match but the sales assistant offered to scan my pieces of purple and grey card so that we could get an exact match mixed up. We got a tester pot of each and since they are 250ml, it should be plenty to do the 3 letters and means we will have loads left if we can think of any other projects to paint! Each tester pot was only £2.48 so it was really cheap to get the exact colour we wanted, even though no one else is really going to notice. I didn't bother telling the assistant that we only wanted the paint for wooden letters as I think she thought it was really important that we get an exact match! So now we just need to paint them but I don't think we will get a chanc

...another 1.5lbs lost! Current Weight [14.11.09] - 9st 12lbs Total Loss = 36.5lbs I went to our WW meeting again yesterday with mum, just to check my maintenance plan is working. I had lost a bit more, even though I wasn't really trying too, which will help when we are in Florida! After the meeting we went to have a first look at some mother of the bride outfits then we went back to the kilt shop to see Graham's tartan properly since it had come in from the mill already. We then had lunch with my parents before Graham bought me some lovely new boots and I got some shoes to take on holiday. We finished off the day by having dinner with Graham's parents then went out for my bridesmaid Helen's birthday at night. Today we had a lovely lunch with Grahams parents, aunt & uncle and grandparents before heading home to catch up with X Factor.

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 pic

As I mentioned before, I'm going to be a guest bridal blogger on Little Miss Wedding in the coming months leading up to the wedding. My first post went up today which is very exciting! I hope you enjoy reading and would love to hear your thoughts.

Another lovely blog award that I got from two different people, whose blogs I have just started following. Thank you Stacy from Thoughts of the All Consumed Bride & Kristy from I'm Gonna Marry You Someday . Its good that the award has now hopped over the pond too! The award, in Portuguese, translates as "Your blog is Super Cute!" The "rules" for this award are: 1. Give the award to 10 other bloggers and let them all know. 2. Leave a message to the person that gave you the award. I am going to pass it on to 10 other lovely blogs that I follow: anna and the ring Seven Weddings My Spare Thoughts Conversation Pieces Peacock Feathers & Diamond Rings My Life in Transition Wife in the City blushingjoy Pink Argyle Heather Drive ps. I still have so much stuff to blog about following our hols, the christening and last weekends wedding planning but I haven't had the time to complete my posts. Hopefully I can rectify that this week.

...another 0.5lb lost which means I'm just under my goal and have now lost 2 and a half stone! Current Weight [07.11.09] - 9st 13.5lbs Total Loss = 35lbs Today was our first week back at WW after missing 3 weeks when we were in the Cotswolds and then getting the bridesmaids measured. I'm really glad that I seem to be maintaining my goal weight, especially after the holiday and the christening weekend. As a Gold Member I don't need to pay to attend meetings anymore but it will be good to go occasionally to check my maintenance plan is working. This afternoon we are off to try and get the last things for the wedding ordered {Grahams kilt & the rings}.

I'm very excited to get this award from the lovely R at My Spare Thoughts , thank you R for thinking of me. So I have to tell everyone 10 interesting facts about myself and pass the award onto 10 other lovely bloggers. Here goes: 1. I love Christmas and we have a massive tree for our flat which, come the middle of December, will be covered in mostly individual decorations. I try and buy a new tree decoration in every place we go as a souvenir which I love as it means almost all of our decorations mean something to us. Just after Graham proposed in New York, I bought one of Santa on the empire state building and I plan to buy loads more in Florida. 2. Im hoping that Graham is going to buy me a Coach bag for my birthday, which is the 3rd of Dec, when we are in Florida. 3. We are spending my birthday in Epcot at Disney World; in 2009, Disney have the year of celebrations which allows everyone to get in free on their birthday. Makes a change from last year when I was in the middle of a

...and I love them! On the way to the airport this morning, we went to the post office {in time for it opening at the ridiculous time of 6.30am} to pick up my package that couldn't be delivered yesterday. As I thought, it was the G & G letters I ordered back in October. They had been sent from the US on the 14th, so I think they must have got caught up in the postal strikes over here. I think they are going to look great on the cake or guest book table, so now we just need to get some paint to match the purple and dark grey card on the invites and get painting! I'm hoping we will be able to find shades that match from the Dulux Tailor Made Colour range and then we can just buy sample pots of the mixed colour which should be large enough for the letters. We used the same system to try out which red we wanted on our living room wall that you can see behind the letters above!

Now we have only 5 months to go, and with holidays & Christmas just around the corner, its going to be January before we know it! October was probably our most productive month for a while, with lots going on and the last of our main suppliers booked. As well as our week in the Cotswolds and my nephews christening, I got to my goal weight at WW. We booked the florist, the cake and the chair covers at our venue's wedding fair. I made an invite mock-up, ordered all the supplies for the invitations and started making them while we were away. We also started thinking about the hymns for our ceremony. Both myself and the bridesmaids got measured for our dresses and I bought a dress for our flowergirl! Next month, we are definitely going to order Grahams kilt and the wedding rings, as well as hopefully getting most of the invites made before we go to Florida. Which also means we need to decide on where our gift list will be so we can include it! I'm meeting the florist next week

We had a really busy and lovely weekend full of family, friends and babies! We started by getting the bridesmaids measured for their dresses on Saturday morning at Rachel Scott. Ashleigh wasn't there when the other girls went to see the dress and try it on so as we arrived first, with mum & baby Enzo too, she got a chance to try it. The sample almost fitted her perfectly and looked lovely {even though she only had a baby 5 weeks ago!}, so we were able to properly see how the dress will look. Then her measurements were taken and we reviewed the size chart to see what size Ashleigh wanted to order since she hopes to have lost most of her baby weight by April. Lucy did the same and they both ordered a realistic size, since dresses are so much easier to take in, rather than out and I didn't want them to feel any pressure at all since they will both look gorgeous as they are. Then Helen and Karen-Louise were measured which meant all the sizes to be ordered have been decided, sin

Since all of the invite supplies I ordered arrived before we left for the Cotswolds, I managed to make some progress on the first bits of our invitations. Invite supplies as they arrived I started by folding then sticking all of the pre-cut and pre-scored pocketfolds, with some help from my dad {note how the rest of the family managed to find other things to do like holding the baby or watching TV while we were busy!} Before we started I had counted the pocketfolds and discovered that instead of the 60 I ordered, there were only 43! Everything else had been correct so it must have just been a small oversight from the company. I called and they were really sorry and got the rest made really quickly. We were only around an hour and a half from the shop so we just went to pick them up as I really wanted to get them done that week. Once they were complete, I also folded the gatefolds for the evening invites. In total we did 62 of the pocketfolds and 35 of the gatefolds, which should be m

Following our lovely week in the Cotswolds we returned home on Saturday evening. I spent the rest of the evening with bridesmaids Lucy and Karen-Louise then we went to the wedding fair at our reception venue yesterday. We went with very specific objectives in mind which were to book the florist, the chair covers and look at cakes. We had a very productive hour and managed to accomplish each item which was great and it takes care of the major remaining items on our list. The florist we booked is Val Hamilton , whose arrangements we had previously seen at the last wedding fair and open day we attended at Norton House and really liked, especially the tall table centres. The arrangements she was showing yesterday were also really nice and she had plenty of examples of bouquets to look at as well. As she doesn't have a shop, and only concentrates on wedding flowers, she is able to keep her prices reasonable and it means that any appointments can also be made at weekends or in the evenin

Another quick post before I disappear for week. How cool is this Acrylic Diamond Ring from byAMT . (Image from here ) I first saw it on Conversation Pieces and thought it was a great alternative. It would also be good if you were going somewhere you couldn't or didn't want to take your actual engagement ring. I am a big fan of acrylic / clear things and when we moved into our flat a couple of years ago I managed to persuade Graham to get the acrylic nest of tables from Habitat which I loved and still do.

All of the card & envelopes I ordered for our invitations on Monday night arrived at my work yesterday and I'm really pleased with it all. It came in a massive box which I should have taken a picture of but totally forgot. I will remember to take pictures of all the supplies before I start making them up. All we are waiting for is the ribbon which had to be ordered from the manufacturer. The pocketfolds are pre-cut and pre-scored, so I just need to fold and stick the pockets and the gatefolds for the evening invites just need to be folded. Then I will cut out the different sizes of white paper I need for the invite & inserts before I can start the printing and assembling. I am taking my paper trimmer, cutting mat & glue tape away with me as I think I should have time in the evenings to make some progress! While the backing for the main invite is pre-cut already, I also need to trim the backing for the RSVP cards as they didn't quite have the square size I wanted. T

I mentioned before that I loved Lego growing up so when I saw this real wedding on With This Ring , I had to share. The groom was involved with all of the wedding planning and managed to include Lego since its one of his favourite things. More images can be seen on the photographers blog here . (All images from Caroline Tran via With This Ring ) The Lego cufflinks are just like the ones I got for Graham and my Dad for a novelty gift. I never thought about adding Lego figures to them but how funny would that be, even if completely impractical. Don't really think they would go with the jackets that all the men are wearing with their kilts but they could be a funny gift for the best man and ushers to wear some other time!

Start Weight [17.01.09] - 12st 6.5lbs Weeks 1 to 12 - Total Loss = 15.5lbs: W1 [24.01.09] -3.5lbs W2 [31.01.09] -4lbs W3 [07.02.09] No Weigh In (A winter wedding) W4 [14.02.09] -2lbs {5% goal} W5 [21.02.09] No WI (SECC Wedding Show) W6 [28.02.09] -3lbs W7 [07.03.09] -1.5lbs W8 [14.03.09] -0.5lbs W9 [21.03.09] -1lb W10 [28.03.09] No WI (Visiting sister in London) W11 [04.04.09] No WI (Stay at reception venue, 1 year to go!) W12 [11.04.09] No WI (Easter weekend in Wales) Weeks 13 to 24 - Total Loss = 9.5lbs: W13 [18.04.09] -1lb W14 [25.04.09] No WI (Wedding dress shopping) W15 [02.05.09] No WI (Wedding dress shopping) W16 [09.05.09] -5lbs {10% goal} W17 [16.05.09] -0.5lbs W18 [23.05.09] +1.5lbs (aaaagh first gain!) W19 [30.05.09] -2lbs W20 [06.06.09] -0.5lb W21 [13.06.09] No WI (Ordered my dress) W22 [20.06.09] -1.5lbs W23 [27.06.09] No WI (Visiting sister in London to celebrate engagement) W24 [04.07.09] -0.5lb Weeks 25 to 36 - Total Loss = 8.5lbs: W25 [11.07.09] -1.5lbs W26 [18.

After church today we had coffee with my aunt and some of my parents friends before going to my flowergirl, Georgia's, house, to let her try on the dress I bought her. It fits really well, the length is perfect and there is still a little bit of room in case she grows any more before April. Both Georgia and her mum really liked the dress as well. Although I mentioned replacing the sash with purple ribbon, we are also going to try dying the sash {minus the flowers} purple, to see how it turns out. If its not suitable we will just stick to the ribbon plan. Its good to have another item off the list! I also finally made a mock-up of the main part of our invitations on Friday night. They turned out as planned and I really like them so now I'm going to order all of the supplies we need. There are few bits of wording that need changed but other than than I'm really happy with them. On our way back home this afternoon I popped in to Hobbycraft to check the colour and buy 1m of th

...another 1lb lost to make it to goal! Current Weight [10.10.09] - 10st Total Loss = 34.5lbs Yippee, I'm so happy I finally managed to get to my goal weight of 10st! Perfect timing since I got measured for my dress on Thursday. I am now officially a Weight Watchers Gold Member and I got my gold key and certificate from my leader, who was also super excited that I had reached my target. She said she had almost wrote out the certificate last night as she was sure I would do it but thought it might jinx it! Being a gold member means I don't have to pay to attend meetings anymore {which I will continue to do with mum}, as long as I don't put any more than 5lbs back on! There is a maintenance plan in my gold member pack which explains how you can maintain your weight but I think I'm going to continue to follow my normal plan for a while longer, mainly to make sure I stay the same, but it also will give me more flexibility, especially with all the holidays coming up until Ch

We had a wonderful time at the wedding of my friends Stacey & Andrew last Friday. I work with both of them so I knew both the bride and groom and I had met lots of Stacey's family and friends at her hen night back in September. The bride had made all of the bridesmaids dresses and the stationery herself which definitely kept her busy right up until the night before the big day but was a lovely personal touch. Her Granddad had also made the cake. All of the men were in kilts, which is common for a Scottish wedding and most of the male guests were also in kilts, including Graham, which I always think looks so smart. I was glad to see they had a mixture of tartans within the bridal party as that it is also what Graham is planning to do. I liked that the bridesmaids, while they wore the same dresses and carried the same flowers, had different hair styles, depending on what they preferred and suited them. I'm definitely going to let my bridesmaids decide what they would like t

I bought a dress for my flowergirl, Georgia tonight! After my appointment at the dress shop, me & mum went along to John Lewis to have a quick look at the bridesmaids dresses they had. I had seen a dress I really liked there a while ago and kept meaning to get round to going back to have a look, before they disappeared. We couldn't see any at first but then noticed the reduced to clear rack at the back with only a few left on it! Luckily they had some of the one I liked and it was reduced to half price, only £30! I wasn't entirely sure what size to go for as she is only 10, but quite tall. Turns out they only had 10-11 or 12-13 left anyway. I thought the 10-11 would be too small for her height at the moment so decided just to get the bigger size. Hopefully it does fit her, but if it doesn't, we could either get it altered or return it. It seemed stupid not to get it at such a good price, in case they sold out soon, and at least with John Lewis, even sale items are retu

I went to get measured for my wedding dress today. Although I had already decided on the dress and paid for half, I opted to wait until I had lost the weight I wanted, before I got measured! Since I'm only 1lb away from my original goal, I pretty much managed it which was fab! It didn't take long, then we had a look at the designers size chart to see which size I should get. I was right in the middle of 2 main sizes but luckily the designer, Sassi Holfold, is a British designer who makes all her dresses at her studio in England, so I am able to get the odd size in between! I did consider going for the smaller size as it was only really an inch and a bit tight in the waist and hips, but didn't want to feel pressured to lose much more weight since I'm happy at the moment. The shop owner did point out that with the style of the dress {dont want to give too much away}, I will definitely want it to fit perfectly, without looking like its too tight! Obviously it will need to

I ordered even more samples from PDA last week! Although I did say I had ordered enough samples & was ready to start the invites, or at least the mock-ups, I had been toying with the idea of a backing patterned paper or card for a while. I couldn't find any patterned paper which looked right with the other colours so I decided I needed a plain backing card in a different colour, preferably grey. I was able to use the swatch pack I ordered last time to decide which colours to try and I ordered two different greys in different sizes to see what would look best with the pocketfolds & gatefolds. PDA Colorplan Card - Col29 Dark Grey {the one I prefer on the left} & Col50 Smoke in front of Col25 Amethyst I think I prefer the darker grey in the larger size so I'm definitely going to start the mock-ups soon so I can get everything ordered. Dark grey backing card inside the amethyst gatefold I also got another gatefold card sample, this time a square, as another option for

I made this card for my friends whose wedding we were at on Friday. I wasn't really sure where I was going with it when I started it but quite like how it turned out and loved the splash of colour from the pink!