Our Day by Design

As we originally found our photographers at the SECC wedding fair, they had an offer for a free 16” x 12” framed print. We chose the image they had put on our mini album covers which is one of the black & white images of us in amongst the trees. (Image by Craig & Eva Sanders ) The print looks fantastic in its black frame with the white mount and it will look even better when it’s finally up on the wall {hint hint G!} Our names and wedding date are on the mount as well. They also gave us a 10” x 8” print of one of favourite photos which looks lovely in the black slate photo frame we were given as a wedding gift. We have loads of other photos on display, including square black & white ones of us in the car and during the first dance; a square one of me & the girls laughing; one of us in amongst the daffodils, the full bridal party photo and the one of us against the wall. I have loads more printed out in square format that I’m planning to put in the purple frames we used ...

The photography package we chose included a 16” x 12” landscape album with 40 pages / 20 spreads, by Bellissimo. We had looked at some album examples when we met them in the February before the wedding and decided to change it to a 12” x 12” square album with 50 pages / 25 spreads. Rather than having the photo cover, which was included, we opted for the engraved aluminium cover. It cost us an additional £70 and we were able to use some of the money we had received as a wedding gift. Eva created a first draft of an album design to get us started back in May last year. Once we had received our CD of images, I swapped some around and made some changes to the layout before the design was finalised. This process did take a while and in the end we went through to their studio so I could see each page once the changes had been made. After deciding on the last spread we had two options for, we were finally happy and ready to order it by the end of July. The album & prints we had ordered...

Woo hoo, I have reached my 200th post and on my blog anniversary too! It all started with this post a year ago and I am really glad I have managed to keep writing. Thank you all for the lovely comments too, it really makes it all worthwhile! I wonder if I can keep it up for another year but I certainly have loads of recaps to keep me busy for the next few weeks. I will leave you with one of my favourite photos from the wedding {we just got our DVD of photos today so I can start the recaps soon!} (All images by Craig & Eva Sanders )

So we should have arrived back in Edinburgh today after flying to London yesterday but our flight was cancelled and we are stuck on honeymoon in the Maldives! There were no flights from here today either but thankfully our tour operator, Kuoni, are paying for us to stay here for I guess as long as we have too! Apart from that we have had a brilliant time and apart from the fact I can't start my new job tomorrow like I was supposed too, we cant really complain! {I have called and emailed my work to tell them!} Our fantastic photographers, Craig & Eva Sanders , did all of our photos really quickly and we were sent the link to them last Tuesday. They all look wonderful and I cant wait to look at them all properly. In the meantime, we have been blogged on their blog, so please go and take a look here and let me know what you think. Here is one of the photos from their blog: (Image from here )

On Thursday last week, we went through to Kilmarnock to to meet our photographers . We ran through what times they are going to arrive and when we would take the group photos as well as the order we will do them in and which ones we would get taken. It was lovely to see them again, and it was great to get the order of the day sorted out a bit more as well. On the way home we popped in to the large Hobbycraft at the Glasgow Fort so that I could pick up 9 of the square wooden frames that I'm planning to paint then use to put the table names in since we are having tall centrepieces on each table. I had got one in the Hobbycraft near us last week and once I had decided they were the correct size, I wanted to make sure I could get them. Once we got home, I had an email from our venue coordinator with the additional menu price attached. Lets just say it was way more than we were willing to pay and following a bit of back and forward emailing, it turns out they had put the wrong main co...

Lots going on this weekend again! After managing to have a long lie on Saturday morning we headed into town to get Grahams watch, which is his wedding gift from me. They didn't have it in stock but they ordered it for us and it should be in a week or so. We looked in a few other jewellers for bridesmaids jewellery but i decided that I would just go with my original choice from an Etsy seller {which I ordered on Sunday} as I couldn't find anything suitable that was sterling silver. Graham was heading out with his best man in the evening so I headed round to mums to start working on the order of service layout by copying out the words of the hymns. We met the minister back on Wednesday evening and he was really happy with our hymn choices and we went through when they should come in the service and the order of the rest of the ceremony. We made a couple of drafts and now I'm going to start printing them out to check the size and layout works ok on the page. Mum decided which ...

When we booked our photographers back in March last year they mentioned that they were going to be photographing another wedding at our reception venue in October. I have been keeping an eye on their blog and they posted the pics last Friday . I love the pictures and hope that the sun is also shining in April! The bride had also chosen the same bridesmaids dresses as we have, although in a different colour. (Both images from here )

I often stalk our photographers blog as I like to see any other weddings and its good to get an idea of the type of shots they do. I really like the one below that I found today and since I'm also going to have a full length veil {only 1 layer though, not 2}, I hope we can get a shot like this: (Image from here ) Here are another couple of veil images from their blog {& one of more cool letters which we definitely need}: (Image from here ) (Image from here ) (Image from here )

So with the church and venue booked, the wedding planning took a back seat as I was in the middle of my professional exams to become an Architect. It wasn't until after my exams were over in March that we started to think properly about other things. Saying that, we did go to 4 different wedding fairs during February; Dedicated to Weddings Exhibition, Assembly Rooms (31.01.09); Scottish Wedding Show, Ingliston (08.02.09); Scottish Wedding Show, SECC (21.02.09) & the one at Norton House (22.02.09). Despite his protests, Graham did come to 3 of the fairs and only managed to miss the biggest one at the SECC which I went to with my bridesmaid, Helen, who is also planning her own wedding (trying to explain to each supplier that, yes, we were both getting married but also both each others bridesmaids was fun!). At each fair, we mainly concentrated on photographers & cars, since they were next on the list. O f course we did sample plenty bits of cake, saw all the fashion shows, lo...