Suiting Up.

We finally ticked off the final big item on our "to do" list this weekend - getting Michael his wedding suit! And thankfully, it was as plain sailing as everything else so far and done in one day and after visiting just 2 shops. I actually love him even more now after how easy he made the whole process - we had both been putting it off because Michael is notoriously difficult to please when it comes to clothes shopping! (Just ask Megan about the major operation that it was to find Michael a pair of shorts for our 2013 holiday in Spain...)  We'd casually looked at suits in Next and M&S previously but nothing really jumped out at us.
 
So, after a bit of a lazy Saturday morning of TV and Kindle we eventually got up, had breakfast and headed into Belfast.  We parked at the Hilton and wandered over to Bogart Menswear on Ann Street which seemed as good a place as any to start. You know that feeling when you walk into a shop and the vibe is just all wrong, like you know you're never going to find what you want there?  That's how Bogart's felt.  A bit claustrophobic and awkward.  I think we were in there for about 2 minutes before scuttling right back out again.  We had spotted a wedding-specific suit shop next to City Hall on our drive through town so we began making our way there, passing through the huge designer shopping complex that is Victoria Square.  Victoria Square was bunged - there was a fashion show on, Sketchers were launching their new store and Kelly Brook was there at the launch, drawing in huge crowds.
 
As we walked though the square, Michael's eye was drawn to the window display in the Remus Uomo store and made a bee-line for it. The sale guys were so friendly and helpful and we ended up in the changing room within minutes with hangers of suits and shirts and shoes for Michael to try on. The first suit he picked was a black suit with tiny ivory dots all over it, including a matching waistcoat and trousers.  He really liked this suit, and we both liked how different it was, but it was a three-piece which meant we couldn't get the sizing right at all.  When the jacket was perfect, the accompanying trousers were too tight and too short and visa versa.  With Michael's 6'4 height and slim frame we knew in order to get the best sizes for him we'd have to find a suit that could be bought as separate items.
 
I was a little concerned that the style of suits that Michael was trying on weren't really going to compliment our "theme" or the style of my wedding dress - I kept looking at a photograph of my dress and trying to imagine it next to each suit but something wasn't quite right. I was so aware that this was Michael's day and the suit should be completely his choice but I couldn't help but nudge him in the direction I personally thought he should be going in (cringe!) With my dress being Audrey Hepburn inspired, it made sense to me that Michael would have a cool, black dinner suit - very Rat Pack - to match.  The two styles seem so classic New York, so I quietly sneaked a black dinner suit with a sheer lapel into his pile. It was a hit, thankfully!  But we still had the issue of the three-pieces not quite matching.  This suit wasn't as tailored at the waist as Michael likes and although he liked the style, he wasn't sure that this suit was quite right. 
 

The sales man disappeared upstairs and eventually brought out a similar dinner suit, in black, with waistcoat, that was available in separates. The lapel was a little different than the traditional dinner suit which Michael really liked and the jacket was fitted also.  He didn't look too convinced at first, I think it takes some getting used to seeing yourself in a full suit, but after a while of stalking the changing room and checking himself out in all the mirrors he fell in love with it and said YES to the....suit (doesn't quite have the same ring to it unfortunately...)  Michael also wanted the sleeves taken up a little bit on his jacket so it's been sent for alterations, he likes a bit of shirt showing at the cuffs but his jacket is currently too long for that. The credit card took another fatal wound to the leg, but it's a special suit, isn't it?  He looks great in it. And you can expect to see it making an appearance at all weddings, funerals and special occasions for the next 10 years or so...

In classic Michael style, we went to Nandos for lunch afterwards (he's still obsessed with it somehow) and rolled ourselves home for a relaxing Saturday night in with a couple of drinks and some Alan Partridge episodes. It's all very rock and roll in our house.  It feels so good to have all the big items bought and sorted - now it's just details like shoes left. It's great to be so organised at this stage with just niggly decisions to make.  This time in 3 months it'll all be over and we'll be on a plane out to Vegas for our honeymoon!

3 Months to go!

There are now only 13 weeks, 91 days, 2184 hours, 131,040 minutes or 7,862,400 seconds until we're saying our vows in New York City. That makes it 15 weeks and 2 days until our wedding reception in the Malone Lodge Hotel - yay!

It's almost time to dust off our suitcases and start packing (light, hopefully - we are going to one of the world's shopping capitals after all...)  It's almost time to apply for our marriage license and it's almost time to start making a nuisance of myself at Perfect Day demanding to know when my dress is due to arrive. Almost, but not quite. There are already Christmas cards and selection boxes creeping into the shops and once Halloween is over, we'll be thrust straight into the Holidays and that is when it will get scary. 

I have compacted all of our planning into one handy ring binder (just a small one...I told myself that if I reach Lever Arch capacity I've gone too far) which includes dividers for Hen Party, New York, New York Wedding, Las Vegas & Reception.  I have printed out photographs of everything I've already bought for the Reception and pictures of what I still need to get, and I've been scouring the internet for everything that I need.  It's been important to keep photos as a point of reference so that I don't veer too far from our general style/theme when buying decorations and other bits.  I've gone into quite a lot of detail, again, I'm going to blame being brought up by a Florist for that!

This week, we got a call to say that our Wedding Co-Ordinator at the Malone Lodge Hotel was leaving to go to a new job and that our plans will be handed over to another girl called Jenna.  We've already met Jenna a couple times now, so that should be grand - I'm just a little nervous that all the agreements have been passed over. We don't want to get into the situation where our old Co-Ordinator agreed to let us have/do something, that the new one knows nothing about and maybe disagrees with, or will charge us for!  We'll have to get down to the hotel for another meeting very soon - and some dinner! Yum!

Michael has pretty much been zero help (as expected) in the Reception planning - his interest at this point being very minimal.  "I'm focusing on New York", says he.  His lack of interest frustrates me most of the time - I'd hoped we'd do this as a team - but I'd rather just get on with it than sit and watch him stifle a yawn every time I drag him up to the spare room to look at a photo frame I've bought (who could blame him though...) I do of course keep him up-to-date on everything I've done, always seeking his approval, but when I hand him the ring binder to look through you can guarantee that he has one eye on the football while he's flicking through it. I hear that this is pretty much the norm when it comes to the male species and wedding planning, though, this week we sat at the dining room table together and put all our invitations in envelopes and addressed them as a little team of two. Yay!

When I first started planning I wanted, like everyone else these days, a gorgeous handmade vintage wedding reception.  I had visions of my friends and family coming round to stitch bunting and glue fabric to jam jars and hoped that these would make great bonding opportunities for the females in both our families. However, now that we've gone more vintage "glam" than "rustic" there hasn't been much "making" to be done just yet.  Closer to the time there will be more opportunities for people to help out, but so far it's all been a one person job (well, Mum has of course helped me along the way). I have an idea which I would love to ask various family members to contribute to and I'll be making contact with everyone soon to see if they'd like to help :)

I feel bad that this year has flown in so quickly and we've been so busy that we haven't had much time to spend with various family members on the run up to the Big Day.  In October we plan to rectify this as we have no plans and we really want to take it easy and save some extra money this month, so lots of tea, coffee and chats with our parents, please!  We'll be sending the first batch of invitations out this week to those who live further afield so that they have time to book flights etc. if they want to come over. We've been blown away by the amount of people making the effort to travel over to celebrate with us - we're so excited to see everyone again - it'll be such a fun night!

Speaking of fun nights, last weekend we had the pleasure of attending the wedding of one of my oldest and best friends Heather and her lovely new husband Darren.  The whole day was hosted by the gorgeous Slieve Russell hotel in Co. Cavan and everything went perfectly. Heather and Darren had Humanist Celebrant Joe Armstrong perform their very personal ceremony and he was fantastic - he made everyone feel very relaxed and involved and spoke some beautiful words about Heather and Darren and friendship and love and relationships and happiness. They had a ring warming, a ceremony of light and a hand fasting ritual - it was all very interesting, personal and just...lovely.  I looked at Michael during the hand fasting and said "are you sure we're making enough of a fuss about our wedding?" and he quickly said "Yes -  don't be getting any ideas." ha-ha!  On my birthday two years ago Heather asked me to read a passage about Friendship at her ceremony and it was an absolute honour to do so.  You can read the passage here (or just ask me, I know it off by heart by now!)  Heather was the most stunning bride, her dress was unbelievably beautiful and I won't pretend that I didn't cry on more than one occasion! 

An aspect of Heather's wedding that we really enjoyed was the speeches.  Heather's Dad had me running to the bathroom to fix my eye makeup - it was just so lovely to hear declarations of pride and love between families.  After the meal we retired to our room for a break (and a sneaky cocktail) and Michael piped up that he'd like to incorporate speeches into our evening Reception.  Blown away that he actually made a suggestion, I was all for it.  Take your idea and run with it, my love! So that could be happening.  We'll have to wait and see!

So, three months to go and plans are still evolving. Here's to a relaxing October....

Wedding Dreams

Friends on Comedy Central is never off in our house and this week featured the episode where Monica & Chandler get engaged. The same day, Monica cracks out The Wedding Book and reveals that she's been planning her wedding since she was a little girl. I know lots of ladies who are much the same, forever dreaming about their big day and literally quaking with excitement at the thought of walking down the aisle in a poufy dress. 

This was never me.  I never played "weddings" with my Barbie's and when we played dress up in old dresses Mum had knocking about from Bridal Shows I was always the Bridesmaid, never the Bride. My official line has always been "I hate being centre of attention" though if anyone saw the videos of myself as a child this would come across as the biggest lie ever! Much to our discredit, my sister and I would flick through the tonnes of wedding photographs Mum had taken of her clients and make fun of them instead of gushing over how pretty the Bridal party was.  If we ever spotted a dress we liked we'd comment on how we would like "something like that" for our own wedding, but in the same breath would say "but I'm never having a wedding, so..."

It honestly wasn't until I met Michael that I began to show a bit more of an interest in getting married.  I could suddenly envision it.  I remember the very first time that I walked past a bridal shop and actually took notice of what was in the window.  I was working in Premier People on Bridge Street in Lisburn and used to walk past Reflections Bridal Studio every morning and afternoon.  It was there that I spotted the very first dress that ever caught my eye, so much so, that I actually took a photograph of it and sent it to my Mum and sister.  They were probably just as shocked as I was at this sudden change of heart!  Michael and I later visited the Seaforde Butterfly House in Co. Down where I actually said the words "this would be a gorgeous place to have a wedding" and I remember feeling quite shocked at myself for verbalising such things, let alone thinking them! 

I worked with a girl in Premier People who was planning her wedding at the time and I mentioned the Butterfly House to her one afternoon. She encouraged me to email them to see if they hosted weddings and to get a quote.  I got swept up in the moment of it all and sent them a quick email with a string of questions - and this was all when I was over a year away from even being engaged!  I felt a little foolish after that, jumping ahead of myself and allowing myself to be swept up so easily, but I found that the most interesting part was that I wasn't so adverse to the idea of getting married anymore. 

Over the following year, Michael and I began to talk more and more about our future - we'd gotten ourselves past a pretty tricky phase in our lives - both of us had lost our jobs and it was stress city for a long, long time.  It was a disaster year of epic proportions from start to finish. We spent the majority of the year struggling to find work, which wasn't easy (I count 7 different employers between us in 2013) and after a while things finally started to move in the right direction and we eventually snowballed our way into a really happy place.  If we could get through 2013 together, we could get through anything.  2013 made us stronger as a couple and the year that followed was our happiest year together - 2014 was amazing, and we rounded it off perfectly with our Engagement.  The evening we got engaged we had a group hug with the cat and the rabbit which ended with a (rather untraditional) high five in our dining room - we'd made it - and we did as a family.

The funny thing was, as soon as the ring was on my finger, the Butterfly House wedding never even came into my head.  I think it was maybe because I didn't want to wait until the spring or summer next year before we could get married.  Michael and I pretty much spent 2014 with the knowledge that we wanted to marry each other - it was suddenly no longer a matter of "if" but a matter of "when". I believe that it was the tragic and sudden death of Michael's friend's partner that spurred him to buy a ring and he carried it around for a month or two waiting for the perfect moment.  Just a few weeks before, in November, I went to dinner with my friend Heather and she asked me what my ideal wedding plans would be. I remember telling her how we planned to spend Christmas 2015 in New York and I how I would secretly just love to get married while we're out there.  I don't remember telling Michael this plan, but when we did get engaged just a few weeks later it seemed he had the exact same idea in mind, so it was very quickly agreed that a wedding in New York was what we were going to do!  And the rest is history, so it would seem.

Weddings and marriages aren't for everyone. But I do believe, that when you meet the right person and you live with them and survive a few years with them, then it becomes the natural progression and doesn't seem so scary anymore.  I was recently looking through some old emails from when we first met (MSN Messenger anyone?) and when we used to send each other huge essays while I was in Australia and the new Facebook "memories" feature has brought up some rather cringe worthy posts from when we were getting to know each other.  It's so funny to look back and see how far you've come together.

We can't wait to be The Archers. The wedding stuff is just a small part of a big future :)

100 Days

Double digits from tomorrow :)

The Rings

Today, Michael and I went shopping for wedding bands - finally! We both had a day free so thought we'd have a long lazy morning and spend the afternoon trying our luck at a few different jewellery stores before Michael had to go to work again in the evening.  This being the case, we started in the Lisburn area before heading into Belfast if we didn't find anything that we liked.

We had a discussion about what budget we should stick to and had considered getting cheaper bands to save some money and replace them later down the line, for example, when our first child is born or when I turn 30 - whichever comes first!

Our first stop was C.R. Lowry's Jewellers where we both tried on a few different rings and I actually found one straight away that looked pretty great with my engagement ring, albeit a bit blingier than I was comfortable with.  I knew it would likely be a bit of a challenge to find a band to suit my engagement ring with it being such an unusual shape and was fully prepared to have my ring moulded and ship it off to have my wedding band custom made to suit.  My engagement ring is 18 carat white gold and I was pretty sure that I wanted my wedding band should be the same metal.  After a bit of hmming and haaaing over some men's rings too I could sense that we weren't really clicking with anything there so we moved on.

Across the road to Shannons Jewellers, where we were slightly more interested in the smell of freshly baked scones than the wedding bands! Again, spent about 20 minutes trying on a bunch of different rings and not seeing anything that suited us.  They had a wide range of shaped wedding bands but absolutely nothing close to the shape of my engagement ring.  The bands they were showing Michael were ultra-modern in different colours (one was actually white), patterns and diamonds (yes, diamonds) so we eventually gave up and walked out.

The next jewellers we tried was on a bit of a whim, Margaret Forbes, where we didn't expect to see anything we liked as it's a bit of a Lisburn institution (it's been there longer than we've been alive) and is famed for its old, vintage style jewellery.  From the second we were buzzed in we were pounced on by a very straight-talking sales woman who basically rubbished my idea of wanting a band to suit the shape of my engagement ring, making me try on straight edged bands instead. Her theory was that a shaped ring would take away from the unusual shape of my engagement ring and I'd never be able to wear my wedding band on its own without it looking strange. I did start to see what she meant, and after trying on a few straight edged (very sparkly) bands she handed me one that had a slight curve to it and when I tried it on it just sat nicely, kind of nestling closely to the curve of my engagement ring like a small hug (I embarassingly said out loud). It was a palladium band with 6 diamonds spaced out in clusters of three, like my engagement ring so it complimented it well.

And then, out of nowhere she handed me a similar shaped ring in a super ornate 1930's/Art Deco vintage setting, also palladium with a ring of small, perfect diamonds around the whole front of the band.  When I put it on all three of us went "ooh!" at the same time - it was gorgeous! It sat well with my engagement ring and gave off the right amount of bling without being overkill. I loved how different it was, how much detail was in it and how easy it was to wear and something just clicked in my head that this was the wedding band that I wanted.  I did continue to try on some other bands but kept going back to the vintage band. I also liked how the Art Deco style matches our invitations - happy coinsidence. I plucked up the courage to ask how much it was going to be - it was a little over budget...okay maybe it was a couple hundred more than we were hoping to spend...but I gave Michael the same eyes that I give him when I see a small animal that I want to take home and he let me have it. Result! I am in love.

Then it was Michael's turn to look at their mens rings. He decided that his band should also be palladium because of the nature of his job means that he needs the metal to be hard wearing.  He close a classic court style band which matches the colour of mine and it looked really well (as well as really strange!) on his hand. The hardest part for Michael will be getting used to wearing a ring but he simply swells with pride when he wears it.  His ring will be made especially for him and we'll collect it in a few weeks - I was lucky that my ring fitted me otherwise I would have had to get mine made too.

So, like everything else so far, ring shopping was fairly painless and done in one day. We dandered down to The Cardan for some lunch (and a celebratory glass of something for me) before going home and ticking "wedding bands" off our to-do list. We can't wait to give them to eachother in just over 14 weeks time :)

The Bits & Bobs

We're suddenly into September, right at the very beginning of Autumn.  Autumn and Winter are my absolute favourite seasons.  There is nothing that I don't love about wrapping up warm in big coats and long scarves, relaxing by the fire, dark nights and cold but sunny mornings.  The days are all-of-a-sudden beginning to look closer to how they'll look when we're getting married.

Once Halloween is over us we'll be launched straight into Christmas and I reckon that's when the nerves really will begin to kick in. I have decided to partake in Sober October for Macmillan Cancer Support this year (you can sponsor me here) in an effort to give something back to a good cause seeing as this year has been a pretty selfish one.  I'll be donating October's drinking money to Macmillan and encouraging friends and family to do the same, so please, dig deep for a good cause - it won't be easy for me to give up 4 weekends worth of Prosecco!

Once October is through we'll be onto my Hen Weekend in Edinburgh on 13th November and Michael's Stag Weekend on the 5th December at Todd's Leap.  Please cross your fingers/say a prayer/light a candle that Michael won't break any limbs that will stop us from going to New York - Bubble wrap at the ready! I'm getting slightly nervous about my Hen as it's been taken out of my control-freak hands by my friends.  They've told me that they've booked activities and have all sorts of bits and pieces sorted and it kills me to not be involved, but at the same time I'm really excited about it all!  They're all subtle as bricks though, sneaking around with their private "No Rachel Allowed" WhatsApp groups which they casually type in while I'm sitting right beside them (as someone who doesn't miss anything, if they think for one second that I'm not being equally as sneaky by reading over their shoulders then they're sadly mistaken haha!)

At this stage of the planning everything is broken down into little bits and pieces.  We don't have anything else to do with regards to our trip except packing and applying for our VISA waivers etc. I imagine we'll probably be in contact with Amber & Marley at some stage to firm up plans, even though it may well be very spur of the moment when we're there.  Right now my concern is getting everything we'll need over to New York.  We may end up with 2 large suitcases and 2 small ones which will be a pain to have to lug with us to Vegas too.  If there was such a thing as storage lockers in Newark Airport it would be ideal to store some of our stuff in until we get back from Vegas.  Little details like that need to be researched.

Most of our concentration right now is on the Reception.  Our box room is gradually turning into a wedding factory/storage area. I'm spending my lunch breaks scouring the internet for various items I have on my to-buy list and I'm spending far too much on all the fun little details.  It's addictive. I've spent more than I like to admit on photo frames from M&S and Next that I just had to have to go with our theme.  I've been super ambitious with some aspects, especially because we have such little time between arriving home from our trip and the Reception day but we have so many friends and family members offering to help us out - yay!  We'll need all the help we can get to pull this off.

Wedding planning for every bride alive right now is all about Pinterest.  Discussions with friends that are also getting married have uncovered  that we've all "pinned" many of the same ideas on our boards and we are going with very similar details, but thankfully quite different in their own ways. I guess similarities are just something we'll have to expect from each Pinterest inspired wedding, but I'm just so glad that Michael and I are going down a completely different route altogether than anyone else we know.  I think our plans are all just a lot more relaxed than most weddings.  We aren't fussing with a Top Table or seating plans, everyone can sit where they like and feel free to move around as they want.  We want our food to be simple and easy-going and our DJ's to take requests and to play lots of different genres (whilst steering away from Rock the Boat at all costs...)  The one thing that I do want is for people to arrive on time - we only have 6 hours in our Suite to party!

We're looking forward to heading back to the Malone Lodge Hotel closer to Christmas to firm up some of our details. Our wedding coordinator Lisa Marie has been so helpful, she can't do enough for us which is great to know that they're as keen to make our evening as special as possible even though we're not having a full wedding.  Nothing is too much trouble and we've discovered some really fab money-saving tips on décor, for example, instead of paying for a design company to supply and fit the fairy lights we wanted in the windows, the hotel have agreed to keep their fairy lights from Christmas in their windows free of charge - fab!  If you're ever passing nip in for a glass of wine or a cup of coffee, it's really a lovely hotel (and their coffee is to die for).

We'll likely send out our invitations at the end of October, though we have considered sending our invitations to those travelling from England a bit sooner so they can make any outstanding arrangements in good time.  We're finally going ring shopping this weekend and we'll hopefully get Michael sorted with a suit at some stage too.  We're getting there bit by bit...