Fifteen weeks and counting….
wowzers, nearly at the 100 day mark. Very exciting!
Been a very busy bee.
Made it down to Cornwall last week to finalise lots of items….
Stayed in the lovely Cornwall Hotel, Neil and I stayed there when we got engaged two years ago so it was nice to re-visit. Had a lovely time aside from the getting locked outside with the puppy at 3:30 in the morning and having to climb across the front of the hotel onto our balcony and knock on the window! Not even joking!
On the Tuesday I had my first real dress fitting! It was ace, my mum was there and I loved it. It was just the outer shell of the dress, in the most beautiful duchess satin and already it looked lovely. I was worried that as the dress has only existed in my mind (until now!) that I wouldn’t like the finished product or the style, but it is perfect and made me feel all fluttery inside. My next fitting is the big one, when it will be majorly assembled and will look most like the finished product, it’s in 6/7 weeks time! Even more exciting! My dress-maker is an absolute bloody genius! I have given the poor women the tiniest piece of lace 90cm in total and asked her to make me a top for my dress, she has come up with the most ingenious solution that I’ll be able to show you in full after the big day! Sorry!
After the fitting we were able to take my parents (first-timers to Cornwall!) to see the site of the Reception Marquee. Thankfully the sun was shining and my parents were able to see why we had chosen such a spectacular location. I was also reminded about how blustery it can get up on the North Coast of Cornwall! Might need to remind my guests too! Then it was on to our Ceremony Venue – Schooners, to meet with our very laid back venue manager. We sorted out the food and logistics for the day, the plan for the venue is to keep it simple with candles and white linen bunting. I’m also planning to ask one of my bridesmaids (who is dab hand at illustrations) if she can do some work on the chalkboards around the venue. When we showed my parents around I think they were able to understand why we had chosen a little beach bar as our Ceremony venue – the views are spectacular – uninterrupted coastal views! Then it was off to Chapel Porth for a Hedgehog ice-cream – basically a coronary heart attack in a cone – ice-cream cone, vanilla ice-cream slathered in clotted cream, rolled in broken up flapjack! Bliss!
Day two in Cornwall was just as busy! Sorted out a wedding band for Neil – we returned to the jewellers where we bought my engagement ring. It’s a tiny jewellers on Cathedral Lane, Truro. I’ll be polite and say that the lady behind the counter was a little cold in her response to our enquiry, luckily her friendlier husband stepped in before we walked out. So we have ordered and paid for Neil’s wedding band. I have decided to get mine from elsewhere but more on that later. Then it was onto looking at suits, Neil has decided hire is best for him so we went to Moss Bros, Truro. Found a lovely blue tails, with matching trousers, a cream waistcoat and purple tie for Neil, the Dad’s and the Best Man. Then Neil threw in a curve ball…..he thinks he might want to wear a Cornish Tartan kilt! Cue a mini-meltdown and then the realisation that this is Neil’s wedding too, we’re only doing this once, so if he want Cornish tartan, he can have Cornish tartan. That said have you seen it?! Mustard yellow, black, red and cornflower blue check! Doesn’t actually go with my carefully planned colour scheme of fuchsia, turquoise and purple! Last week I was stressed by this, now I am accepting! (Just)
Later that day we had Jamie of Beetham Foods our fabulous caterer came over to Neil’s parents and cooked for six of us the wedding menu to taste. We had bought along some wines – recommended by Majestic Wine Truro – who were very helpful and have offered us sale or return on any wine bought! We were worried that our simple BBQ style menu wouldn’t be special enough, we were wrong! Jamie is a genius and has worked wonders with our simple menu to create something really special, I can’t wait to taste it again soon – in 104 days time!
What else?
On Friday I visited Rust Jewellery to try on a wedding band that I had seen online – I can’t even remember how I came across them but they are beautiful. I had wanted to buy my ring from the same jewellers as my engagement ring but the one I have found and it is another small independent jeweller that I am supporting so I don’t feel too bad. I’m so excited about it!
So much more has happened in the past week, but it is late and I think this post is long enough for now!
“The couple who’s ring fell down the hole”…
So we headed off into Truro, Cornwall to buy an engagement ring…not toothbrushes (see my previous post for further explanation!).
I thought I knew what I wanted, something very sparkly and in Platinum. The platinum stayed, I don’t suit gold jewellery, but all the rings that I picked out that I thought I liked, when I tried them on, didn’t suit. We had been to all of the jewellery shops in Truro, chains and independents and had found nothing.
There was one jeweller’s called Cathedral Jewellers, Cathedral Lane, Truro that I really liked, it was a tiny little independent jewellers. We went back a few times and looked in the window but I saw nothing that I liked. We went in and asked about commissioning the ring, Clive the owner and jeweller explained that yes they did and asked what I wanted, I explained that I thought I knew but that everything I’d tried on I hadn’t liked. He suggested that I try on all the different rings and pick out the bits I liked, so I did. As I was trying on all the different ring I tried on a ring that I’d seen in the window but hadn’t given a second thought. It was a simple platinum ring with a diamond solitaire. I tried it one, it was very simple, I couldn’t help but smile when I put it one, I said “Can I have this one please?!” The boy said we should go away to have a think about it, so as it was a beautiful sunny day, we decided to go away, have an ice-cream and a little think about it. We asked if they would put the ring aside, they said yes, we went away, had an ice-cream on Lemon Quay, I decided that I had fallen in love with the ring.
We went back, and this is where the fun began. As they were taking the ring out from its little hiding place it fell from its stand and down a small hole in the window….my beautiful engagement ring was stuck underneath a bay window…. after about half an hour of digging out the ring using a long piece of wire, the ring was retrieved, I tried it on, it was too big but Clive offered to resize it there and then. The boy paid, we left to go wandering round Truro until the ring was resized.
A few hours later we received a phone call, the ring was ready for collection! Yay! We went back in to collect the ring, when we got there the cutest thing happened…. in all the commotion of the ring falling behind the window they had forgotten to take down our names, and so on the little envelope that contained my ring was written “The couple who’s ring fell down the hole”!
My ring fitted beautifully and we have a fabulous little story as well….
Do you have a story regarding your engagement ring? I’d love to hear all about it ….
Easy Living Digest
OK, so a guilty pleasure, Easy Living Magazine.
I don’t know why I feel guilty reading it, I guess because I feel it’s like I’m not quite in its demographic yet. It feels like its aimed at people with their lives together, families and careers. I guess I have a career but I still feel like just a kid reading a grown ups magazine. I aspire to have the lovely looking house, the glamourous dinner parties, the fabulous wardrobes, I feel like I am not quite grown up enough yet. I feel like a pretender!
Oh well, I love reading it, I always find a million things in there that I like, often I think “I could make that‘, infact ‘I could make that‘ is what I say whenever I go to any of those cute crafty shops, craft markets/shows exhibitions etc. I’ve been known to jot or sketch my ideas down in my Moleskine notebook, sometimes I’ve even been known to buy the bots needed to start a project but more often than not it stops there, trapped in my craft cupboard or Moleskine notebook.
One of my aims for this year (I hate to call it a New Year Resolution) is to actually craft more, to go through the whole process. I don’t know what it is that stops me at the materials/notebook stage, I know I have the skills (I’ve made plenty of successful things in the past), I have the time and the means (I used to use my old job as a convenient excuse, but with my new job that excuse no longer exists), then it was settling into a new house (that’s done), my fiance being home (he works away a lot, in fact he’s away for 2 months at the minute, so I can’t use that excuse at the minute), so what I am getting at is that there is nothing stopping me from making all the lovely things I want to make. But before that I should probably get on with the aim of the post!
Vintage Jewellery at Flo & Percy…
Flo and Percy, named after the couple who were married for a record-breaking 80 years, where you can find vintage jewellery for your wedding. They even do bespoke items but are already fully booked for 2011!
Beautiful pieces.
You can still buy ready-made pieces here: http://www.floandpercy.com/index.html
\Turtle Love Co.
http://www.turtleloveco.com/Tiny_Hammered_Silver_Wedding_Ring_p/mg-thb-0.htm
http://www.turtleloveco.com/Lovebirds_Necklace_p/fg-fam-n.htm
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