Our Day by Design

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...