How much is the wedding costing you?

Is it me or is it rude to ask some one that?

From the very first thing we booked, people have asked "So how much is that costing you?"  The first time this happened I was a little taken aback but told them a figure.  "Oh!  When my friend got married she paid a lot less than that!"

How am I meant to take that?  Are you implying I am being over extravagant with my wedding plans?  That I have been conned into spending too much?  Or I should I not want the best for my wedding day?  The comment upset and angered me a little because it's not really anyone's business how much our wedding is costing us.

I've learnt since that first encounter to never discuss figures with people.

I'm not even sure why they ask?  I would never dream of asking someone how much their wedding day or particular elements have set them back, it's nosey!
I can appreciate the question coming from someone who is genuinely interested because they are in a similar situation.  I wouldn't mind sharing information with a friend - in fact Suzie and I used to regularly share how much we've spent on things, as a way to ensure we were getting the best deals.  But to ask out of pure noseyness is just rude in my opinion.

I was asked again very recently how much something was going to cost.  I declined to answer, but I was polite.  I said I wasn't sure because I hadn't worked it, but it was pushed and I was asked again.  I'm really bad in these sorts of situations because I don't like to be rude and I could never say "Mind your own business nosey parker!" no matter how much I was screaming it inside my head!

I guess it's just another one of those things you have to take in your stride as you plan a wedding, along with "When I/my friend/sister/daughter/etc got married....(fill in the blank)", "I would have done it this way" and "Oh are you not inviting my sisters, son's, daughter's boyfriend?"

And so not to end this post on a rant, here is a cute picture of a kitten, because you know what they say about curiosity... ;)

Source

P.S I would never hurt the kitty!

The ways of the wife…

I asked Suzie if she would mind doing a little update on how she's finding married life.  It's nice to hear what it's like on the other side.

Over to Suzie...

We’ll hasn’t time flown by! Rob and I have now been married just over 2 months, I really can’t believe that it’s been 2 months since I wore that amazing dress and married that amazing man. All of my married friends warned me that the post-wedding blues would kick in and it was normal to feel sad about the end of the planning and wedding related chat.

I don’t think I really suffered with the post-wedding blues, don’t get me wrong I miss it all and had the most amazing day of my life but THANK GOODNESS it’s all over!

I think both Rob and I suffered more with the post honeymoon blues! We had such a fabulous time in Thailand, the food was amazing and the weather was great it was quite a crash back to earth returning to our cold flat! But all in all I haven’t suffered greatly.

Soooooo have things changed since marriage I hear you ask?

Well not really to be honest, Rob and I have lived together for over 5 years so we are quite used to the home life. We knew long before we got married all of each others little annoying habits like the way Rob always leaves pull-off lid from the new milk on the side and never puts it in the bin or always leaving the lid of the toothpaste and the way I leave undies on the bathroom floor and cover the bathroom in hair dye!! These little niggles are nothing new to us, we are more than aware that neither of us is perfect but we see each other imperfections perfectly which is what’s important.

I can imagine that couples that have wed in the traditional way (however rare this might be these days) have a bit of a shocker when they move in together after they are married. It is only when you live with your partner you are truly exposed to all their little habits….. So be warned – if your having a nice relaxing bubble bath and he needs to go – be under no illusion he will come in and go either get used to it have engage in some bathroom chatter or get a good lock on the door!

Enough about bad habits – what about the good stuff….

I ♥ living with Rob even more so now we are husband and wife, I can see that we are both making more of an effort around the house, sharing the chores and the workload. We love nothing more that to snuggle up on our super comfy Elephant Beanbag and watch some TV.

Last week I surprised Rob by blitzing the flat top to bottom so we wouldn’t have to do chores over the weekend and he surprised me with a meal out.

For my Hen party the girls put together a perfect housewife kit – I’ve used most of the things in it – the oven cleaner is yet to see the light of day but im sure it will one day!  They have all helped me to be a good wife, to conclude i’ve been married 2 wonderful months so far – so until next time, Cheerio!

If you need any hints and tips on being the perfect wife try this website! The Perfect House Wife

Wedding Discounts

One of the first things I did after getting engaged (and continue to do so) is sign up to every wedding related newsletter I can find.

Gail's List - White Wedding Pages is specifically for brides and grooms in West Midlands.  She lets me know about any local fayres and today I received these offers and thought someone may find them useful.

If you then please quote Gail's List Wedding Discount Vouchers when calling.

Magician - 2 hours of close-up magic - normally £350 now just £295. Russ Stokes 07773 803933

Transport - 25% discount, free bottle of bubbly and the quote inc all mileage. Beetlebugs 07565 426381

Photography - £125 off my photography package price until July 2010. Jon Thorne 07734 459 708

Videoography - £100 off any package – call by 31/03/10 to get this offer. Lucid Moments 01384 821381

Bridesmaids Dress - £100 off, when having your bridal gown made. Greensleeves 01386 446242

Please note I am not affiliated with Gail's List or any of the companies offering discounts.  I'm just being nice and passing along the offers!

Spare Change

We're terrible with spare change. Has hates carrying any thing lower than a 50 pence piece as it bulks out his wallet and I always put my "twos and ones" in a pot by my desk for the same reason.

I bought us a small wooden bowl to keep our spare change in but that didn't seem to contain it.  We would still end up with a sock drawer full of "coppers."  We also started to keep it in large pint glasses in a cupboard, until they started to over flow.  It was around this time last year that we took 3 pint glasses full of small change to Tesco to use their coin machines.  It takes a small fee but we found that depositing nothing larger than a 20 pence piece we had over £60 in change.

At Christmas, Has' Mom Sue bought us a large jar with an electronic coin counter on the top.  So now when ever we see a rouge 5p lying around it goes straight in the jar.  Our aim is to fill it and change it into dollars for a treat on our honeymoon.

Since Christmas we've managed to save over £50 in small change. We never put anything above 20p in the jar (we have a separate pot for 50p's, £1 and £2 coins) it feels good to see our change grow, and to know it has a purpose instead of just sitting around with our socks!

Happy Easter

Happy Easter x

Worry Bears

I may have mentioned this before but Has' Mom Sue is very creative.  She regularly sells her work at craft fairs which I help out at.  We've finally gotten round to setting her up with a Folksy account, where she is selling her Worry Bears.

These little guys are available now from her Folksy shop

I'd be a rubbish daughter in law to be if I didn't mention it!

Bringing back the Bling!

I love my engagement ring, seriously love it but every now and again it loses it's sparkle.  The first time I noticed I used some jewellery cleaner my Nan had spare.  It did a wonderful job and my ring was super sparkly again.

Since Has gave me my ring in September 2008 I've only needed to clean it 3 times.  I noticed last week that it's sparkle was fading so tried to find some jewellery cleaner at the weekend.  Not having any luck I turned to the Internet to see if there was a cheaper and easier way to clean my engagement ring.

Of course the Internet came up trumps and I found out that toothpaste does just a good a job as jewellery cleaner!

So last night armed with a soft bristle toothbrush and a tube of Colgate, I plugged up the sink (I can't even bare to think about a ring down plug hole situation!) and brushed the diamond carefully with a tiny bit of toothpaste.  Sparkle!!  My ring looks as good as new!

It's nice to know that something as simple as toothpaste can have my ring back to bling in no time!

from here

Happy Pancake Day!

Have you had pancakes today?

We did and it also sparked the question, what do you have on your pancakes?  Growing up I would always have sugar, jam or nutella.  Where as Has would have lemon and or sugar.  What do you have?

Spreadsheet Heaven

For a spreadsheet geek like me the news that Style Me Pretty and Google have created new Google Docs Wedding Templates is rather exciting!

I'm a list girl, I like things organised and feel I can't really do a good job unless I have lists to help me, so the new templates are ideal for people like me.  I'm using one at the moment which allows people to update their address and contact details which I'm sure will make it easier for us to send out our invitations.

There are loads to choose from including templates for budgeting, guest list, table plans and timings on the day.  So if you're in need of some organisation help, check them out!

Happy Valentine's Day

from here

Hope you have a lovely loved up Valentine's day with your sweetheart.

Big smooches! ♥

Poster List Love

From The Poster List.  Seriously considering getting a few posters for our future nest.  Loving the new spin on the "Keep Calm and Carry On" craze!

The Places We Have Been

I love travelling, I love collecting travel guides and I love framing my favourite photos from our favourite places.  I love looking at the photos and remembering the fantastic places we've visited.

One of my favourite photos was taken when we were in New York with our friends.  Our friend Ian took the photo whilst we were resting on a Central Park bench. I happened to peek round Has to look at Ian.  In that split second he took our photo.  That photo has now gone on to be used on our Save the Date magnets.

Looking at that photo, tonnes of memories and "you had to be there" giggles hit me and make me smile.  When ever I'm feeling a little blue I look at my photos and I'm instantly cheered up.

For a while now I've been thinking about buying or making our very own "Places We've Been Map"
A map to hang on our wall and place pins in when we've travelled somewhere new together.  Similar to this

This one is from Getting Personal.  Personally I like the vintage looking maps and I wouldn't want it that big!  All the vintage maps I've seen are huge and could possibly look a little boastful.  I would want ours to be small and discreet.

Another alternative is to pay for a stock photo and print it out myself.  I'd mount it on a nice pin board and use little pins to mark our holiday locations.  It looks as though I would have to spend around £25 to complete this project, a little cheaper buying one ready made.  I shall let you know how I get on.

I was thinking how cute this idea would be to give as a wedding gift.  A map to mark past and future vacations together and at £25 handmade it's affordable too!

My Feet Hate Me

I live in flat shoes, the reason for this is that I can barely stand in anything over an inch high let alone walk.  To rectify this situation I have bought a pair of medium height, chunky heels to wear to work.
I need to get used to wearing some sort of heel before Suzie's and my own wedding else I'm going to be limping down the aisle!

I bought these ruffle heels from New Look yesterday, for a bargain £10

Ruffle Heels

...and today?  Today my feet are screaming at me!  I did do quite a bit of walking at lunch today but my little toes are so sore!  Looks like Operation Get Used To Heels is going to be a long and painful one!

If I had a room like this...

 from here

I would be crafty all the time!

Love Prints

How gorgeous are these!?  Handmade rustic love prints from Coulson Macleod

What's in Hayley's Head?

I haven't had a wedding related dream in ages and I think I know why...

Hayley is having them for me!

"To start with Natalie wouldn't wear her bridesmaid dress and wore a hoody! We walked down the stairs and there was already a wedding going on and another one waiting at the top of the stairs to come in.

Anyway the wedding before yours starting doing this dance with all the bridesmaids which was slightly wierd. Then your wedding started and you and Has started doing this ballet routine going down the aisle! haha

We will all listening to you make your vows, then the other wedding party came down the stairs and had this dragon type themed wedding. they were making loads of noise. So I shouted "Oi! they are trying to get married here and don't want you talking in the background" then the groom started squaring up to me, so I punched him in the face!  This did shut him up, but his bride came up to me then. I did the same to her because she was giving me all attitude and kept singing loudly on purpose through your vows......then I woke up!"

I do worry about you Hayley!  x

Don't Tell The Bride

Don't think I could do it!

Whilst I do think Has would do an amazing job, I love planning and organising our wedding.

So many people are involved in the planning too.  It isn't just me who would lose out.  My Mom, Has' Mom, my bridesmaids, grandparents, god parents... the list is endless!

Still, I know if Has had only 3 weeks to plan our wedding I'm pretty sure he would arrange a beautiful wedding. I showed Has a wedding magazine with a 6 page spread on wedding dresses and asked him to pick his favourite from each page.  (Very dangerous I know!) But do you know what?  We chose the exact same dresses.  We have very similar opinions on most things to do with this wedding.

What I don't understand is how some of the brides and grooms behave on this program.  I don't know if it's stress but most of the brides act like spoilt little girls, can you be a bridezilla if you're not planning the wedding? "I'm not wearing the dress if it doesn't have sparkles on it"  and some of the grooms go in with the opinion of "I'm organising this wedding, so I'll do it my way"

I think that is what I'm enjoying most of all.  Planning the wedding with Has.  Our little chats in the car on the way to work about what music we should have, or what we fancy doing on our honeymoon.  With only 366 days I'm going to miss this.  (Although I'm sure being married will feel 100 times better!)

Time Frames

I love this idea, I'm definitely going to do this for our home.

from here

I'm just having a look round now for photos of a "5" an "11" and a "10".  Not as easy as it sounds!

For Has

from here

Only 18 days to go x

Wedding Dreams

I've had a few... none of them have really made any sense!  The one dream I had Tom Chambers from last years Strictly Come Dancing gave Has and I a wedding gift and I fell over my phone charger wire when I walked down the aisle!

It's one thing for the Bride to Be to have wedding dreams... but what about the Bridesmaids?

Hayley has just told me her dream from last night.

"I had one wierd dream about your wedding last night. You came running down the aisle, instead of nice normal working you ran down the aisle throwing cake in peoples faces?!

Then everyone was rushing me and my hair was still wet and I didnt have any make up on. I was stressing that I didnt have any jewellery on!"

Eating cheese before bedtime Hayley? xxx