Most Organised Bride Award Goes To...

Me, apparently!

5 months to go and everything is under control so far.  All that is left to do is find my dress (which I've already picked, but may need made for me), Michael's suit and choose our wedding rings (which will need made also).  I also need to find someone who can do my makeup - something I keep forgetting about. The rest is all little bits and pieces and tying up loose ends.  It's getting increasingly harder to blog without giving too much away - I began writing this blog as something just for Michael and I to look back on some day. I haven't really shared it that much, the link is on my Instagram page and that's about it, but with over 2000 views I know someone out there is reading (and I can guarantee it isn't Michael!!)

I have an appointment at a bridal shop tomorrow with my Mum and my sister Laura to try on some dresses.  I don't really expect to be able to find the style of dress I would like in a bridal shop, but it will be a fun day out with the girls.  I know I'll be expected to try on ridiculous dresses for fun - I have palpitations just thinking about it!  I think it's also a rite of passage for a Mum to bring her daughter to try on wedding dresses, so that's what we intend to do!  I'm starting to feel bad for not having my Mum there for the ceremony so I want to make sure that I can honour all the other Mother-of-the-Bride traditions that I can.

I moved back home with my lovely Motherbear for the "12th weekend" as it's known in Northern Ireland so that I didn't have to be near any bonfires or other related ridiculousness and we had a really nice weekend.  We took ourselves off on a stress-free shopping trip for wedding bits and pieces and ended up getting lots of the most perfect items for the Reception.  We were able to come home and spend a few hours experimenting with different decoration and had all the items laid out as they would be on the day.  Both of us were so happy with our choices - it was such a thrill to finally see our ideas become reality!

A few days later I went for dinner and dress shopping with my other bridesmaid Megan and just as what happened with Laura, we ended up buying the first dress she tried on. Both dresses are similar shape, length and colour but each dress is quite different and suited perfectly to each of the girls.  I'm really happy with their choices - they're going to look great!

This weekend Michael and I spent Sunday morning at St Georges Market in Belfast in the hope of finding some more bits and bobs for the Reception. As it turned out, we ended up leaving with our stomach's full and our hands empty (not such a bad thing) and ended up going to Rushmere for a nosey afterwards. Unfortunately, a quick visit to Pets at Home resulted in us getting majorly distracted by a small ball of grey fluff which we just had to have.  The rest of the day was a write off wedding-wise as we focused on helping our new baby bunny settle in.  This is one of the reasons I love Michael so much - he feels the same as I do about small fluffy creatures. We now have 3 small furry friends named Shadow, Charlotte and Sheldon - we're entirely bonkers but they make our home a very happy one!

We've also picked our invitations which we absolutely love.  The work that has gone into them has had my head turned for months now.  We'll likely be sending them out in October/November and hope to have all the RSVP's back in early December so we can have everything wrapped up before we leave for the States.  Fittingly, our invitations are being printed by a company in New York and I know they'll do an excellent job with them.  We won't be having a gift list per se but a Bucket List instead.  You'll see what I mean when you get the invitation :)

I also attended my second Hen Party this year for my lovely friend Amy who is getting married to Michael's friend Richard in the Galgorm in 4 weeks time!  We went to Jungle NI for an adventure weekend and it was the most fun - we did so many activities like Zorbing, Shooting, Archery (which I was fab at, much to Mr Archer's delight) and got to relax in a huge hot tub afterwards.  It was a great bonding weekend for Amy and all her friends and it made me excited (and nervous) about mine in November. Megan and my friend Lucy have taken over the plans and I haven't a clue about what's going on.  Which is both exciting and terrifying in equal measures and also quite hard for me being the total control freak that I am!  But I'm really looking forward to it too. I love all my girls and I'm so excited that so many of them have agreed to come along, especially as it's so close to Christmas.

Michael would need to get his Stag sorted ASAP if he wants to get away!  He's been putting it off I think out of nervousness.  He's going to Richard's Stag do next weekend though so hopefully it will make him relax about it - or possibly make him even more nervous about it!  Stag's are a lot worse than Hen's though aren't they?  Maybe...

 

Other than that there isn't too much to update on.  The two of us are putting the majority of our energy into work and make sure we save as much as we can each month.  Michael is putting in every hour of overtime that he can sign up for and I'm so proud of him.  He's so exhausted that he's nodding off on the sofa every night and we're barely able to spend as much time together as we usually would.  It just makes our time together more special and if he does happen upon a free weekend we like to make sure that we spend it wisely, doing all of the things we like to do. (eating, drinking and purchasing animals apparently...)

6 Months.

 

 

So here we are - it's the 24th of June which means that it's been exactly 6 months since our Engagement and exactly 6 months left to go until we're married!

 

It's been a whirlwind 6 months and we've both loved our first few months of being an engaged couple. Everyone has been so supportive and helpful and I genuinely believe we've grown closer as a couple these last few months.  It's a funny thing, deciding to make a commitment to someone - it puts everything in your relationship into perspective.  We no longer sweat the small stuff. Being able to look into the future and make plans together is the greatest feeling.  Knowing that we will have a partner and a live-in best friend for life makes us happier than we've ever been. And I think it shows.

 

Believe me, we're not living in cloud cuckoo land.  We know it won't always be easy and things may change and get harder as we go along.  Coming from the families that we do, we know marriage isn't all sunshine and flowers and sometimes it doesn't work out.  But we're feeling confident - we're so happy together.  Isn't that the most important thing?  And we've worked so hard in getting where we are today, and that's not going to stop.

 

This summer we'll celebrate our 5 year anniversary from the day we met at a music festival in August 2010.  We had our first official date on Halloween night 2010 (Michael Archer, ever the slow mover) before I took off travelling for 8 long months in January 2011.  We were in contact almost every day while I was away through whatever way we could including postcards, hand written letters and ridiculously expensive telephone calls (for Michael...I was a skint backpacker...) When I returned home the following August we went out on our first date in months and have been inseparable ever since. 

 

We've made two very happy homes together and adopted two furry friends.  We've seen each other through some of the hardest times in our lives so far and come out stronger at the end. We've gone on so many adventures together including Dublin, Paris, Barcelona, Portugal, Spain and now onto New York and Las Vegas - we're so lucky to be living the life that we are, together.  We have 5 years of amazing memories and we can't wait for the years ahead and the adventures to follow.

 

We're buzzing with excitement about New York and Vegas! We've been concentrating on the NYC plans recently and we've our whole day planned as much as we can - much of it will need decided upon during our 3 days in New York prior to Christmas Eve.  We're leaving much of it to fate, embracing the spontaneity of it all and trusting our lovely and ever-helpful photographer Amber to give us the best advice.

 

In 6 months time...

 

We'll be waking up in our room in the Sheraton Tribeca where we've requested an executive king room with a view so fingers crossed that works out. I've booked myself in for an early morning blow dry (or blow out, as the New Yorkers call it!) at the Dry Bar in Tribeca just a couple of blocks from our hotel.  I've been getting some pretty ridiculous quotes for make up (most in the region of $600) so I'll likely do my own make up and invest in some really nice products or nip into the MAC store in Tribeca and see if I can book an appointment, which,  Amber tells me would cost around $60.  Much more affordable!

 

We'll likely have our ceremony around midday (around 4/5pm back home).  We can't wait to meet Amber and Marley, our Photographer and Officiant.  I've been following their blogs and they are such a cool couple with bucket loads of talent for photography and writing and all those lovely things. Amber lists on her bio her appreciation of a good "that's what she said" joke (like me!) and Marley lists 'Ill Communication' as his favourite Beastie Boys album (like Michael!) so I think we'll get on swimmingly!  It's good to know that we have 2 New-York-Know-All's to call upon with any questions.  And the fact that they're engaged and very much in love too makes it all the more special.

 

We're still hoping to be able to use the terrace in our hotel for our ceremony, but I'm worried that it will be closed for the season.  I'm hoping we'll be able to sort something out, but if plan A fails I know that Amber and Marley will whisk us off somewhere even better.  We're keen to have a skyline backdrop and we don't mind if it's freezing cold outside and we have to get married in our coats.  Prepare for red cheeks and red noses in our photographs! I'm super nervous about the photographs and I know Michael is too - we're not photogenic whatsoever but hopefully Amber will be able to make models out of us - she has her work cut out!  I can't wait to see what ideas Amber has for locations :)

 

After the ceremony and photographs we'll likely go back to the hotel to get changed - we have to wear our dress/suit again at our Reception so it's best to limit their wear, especially when food and drink will be involved.  I may even throw on another white dress, sense of occasion and all that. Americans love a good costume change.  We'll then either hop into a taxi or onto the subway to Rockefeller Centre, which will be hiving as it's Christmas Eve.  You just have to visit 'The Tree' on Christmas Eve, don't you?  Very Kevin McCallister. 

 

We'll probably book a table at a restaurant nearby and have a quick lunch before popping into Magnolia Bakery on Rockefeller (even though the best one is on Bleeker) for some wedding cake.  I love this idea.  You have to have cake after your wedding!  We have booked tickets to the Christmas Spectacular in Radio City Music Hall for the 4.30 showing and we're so, so excited about it.  It looks fantastic.  I have a few friends who highly recommended it to us so we thought it would be a fun thing to do the evening of our wedding.  It's important to keep the energy going, too, seeing as it's just the two of us.

 

After the show, we'll probably go to a bar or restaurant.  Probably somewhere we can grab some dinner with an amazing view of the city.  We've stumbled across a bar called SixtyFive which is a rooftop cocktail lounge which looks pretty great.  Everywhere is going to be so busy but we'll try to get reservations booked well in advance.  But if the crowds are too much, heading back to the hotel bar seems like a good option too.

 

It'll be amazing to wake up on Christmas Day in New York as husband and wife - ahh!  The plan for Christmas Day is to order breakfast in bed and have a lazy morning watching Home Alone: Lost In New York (has to be done!) and then bundling up and heading to Central Park for a long, Christmassy walk.  We are going to look into The Plaza Hotel for Christmas Lunch/Dinner.  When in Rome etc...

 

It's all very exciting.  Lots to look forward to! So the countdown has begun - no doubt it will fly in as quickly as these 6 months have!

 

Here Come The Girls!

13th - 15th November 2015
Edinburgh, Scotland

Hen Weekend is officially sorted - flights and apartment booked! Thank you to all my lovely friends for confirming so easily and for making the whole process pretty pain-free.  I'm so happy with my brood of hens  - I know we're going to have a fab weekend!

The Hen Party.

It's hard to believe that this time 2 weeks ago I was just arriving home from Heather's Hen Party in Magaluf - a shadow of my former self, standing in the rain waiting to be collected from the airport by my Mum who arrived with a hot flask of tea and some warm sausage rolls (one of my life's top 5 highlights to date). It was a fantastic weekend, filled with non-stop laughter (and non-stop drinking!) We had an absolute blast and Heather couldn't have had a better send off.  

Naturally, this got me thinking about my own Hen Party.  Heather's was the first I'd ever been on and up until that point I kind of dreaded the idea of having one, but now I can see how great it is to have your girls partake in a bit of celebrating to see you on your way to married life.  At this age, it's hard enough to get all the girls together and it's only going to get harder as more of us get married and have kids.  So I thought it would be a great excuse to gather some of my closest chums and head away for a weekend, nothing crazy, just the girls together letting our hair down somewhere away from home.  

We'd touched on the subject of heading to Edinburgh before - we all agreed that we love the city and it's close enough that it's a really cheap option. We've provisionally chosen November as the month to go, and the flights from Belfast City are yet to be released but we think it'll likely be the 13th-15th November.  Luckily, I have already agreed a group of 12 of my favourite girls to go and we've booked a couple of cheap-as-chips luxury apartments to choose from - the prices of our flights being the deciding factor on which one we choose!  

Megan and I have discussed having a pajama party on the first night which I love - lots of wine, movies, music and munchies and then a big night out on the Saturday night. Can't wait to get it booked! I'd like to have a dinner at home too for those who can't come and for our Mum's to come along to.  I'd like to go into Belfast and go to Zen, but a night in would be just as great too. Glad that the ball is rolling on another aspect of the wedding!

Flowers, Decor & Pizza.

On Thursday night I had an "appointment" with my florist/mother for flower talk, wedding talk, girl talk, wine and pizza.  Which, lets be honest, are the best kinds of appointments. I'd hoped to be joined by both of my "bridesmaids" (yep, we're still using the air quotations) but Megan wasn't able to make it so it was just Mum, Laura and I this time. 

How lucky am I that my Mum is in the wedding business! Laura and I have watched our Mum hold countless appointments with excited brides since we were little girls. As kids we knew the importance of keeping the TV low because "Mum has a bride in", we expected our teenage Saturday morning lie-ins to be ruined by a shrieking bride downstairs and having our family dinners interrupted by a Bride-zilla who placed her wedding flowers in higher regard than Mum's need to eat was considered normal. We spent our sick-days off school in churches watching Mum decorate alters (we've both boked in many a church hall), we've spent hours standing in the kitchen while Mum used our heads as dummies for shaping flower girl headbands, we've been dressed up in bridesmaids dresses and marched down catwalks at Bridal Shows and been shouted at on numerous occasions for playing with the glue gun... 

Laura and I lived and breathed weddings all our lives, without really even noticing it. Weddings were just a normal part of our lives growing up and it isn't until we look back that we realise just how much we picked up on.  As a result, my sister and I are hyper-critical over wedding details and, in some way, have been trained to pick up on details no one else would likely notice.  It's likely the reason the both of us aren't really into the traditional wedding - having seen hundreds of weddings over the years, they all pretty much look the same - and is probably why I've been so keen to do something a little different.  The three of us keep using the phrase "but would anyone else notice that?" when one of us picks up on a ridiculous little detail that our floristry superpowers have noticed.

Prior to our "appointment" I had sent Mum a couple photographs of floral styles that I like, and in typical Wendy style she had some centerpieces made up for me to look at. I can't tell if she's delighted or disappointed that I've chosen something really simple and minimal for my Reception (probably a bit of both?!) but I'm really, really pleased with her ideas. Based on our numbers at the moment I think we'll have 10 tables, 5 of which I would like Mum to create centerpieces for.  We will have various other tables dotted around the room that will have Wendy creations too and the table for our main meal will have flowers on too.  I'm toying with the idea of wearing a wrist corsage,getting Laura and Megan to wear one too and getting Michael to wear a button hole.  

I'm still battling with making the reception "too wedding-y" as, lets be honest, Michael and I will be 2 weeks married by this point and we're worried it will feel a bit strange.  It's a post-wedding party after all, and it's easy to get carried away and treat it like a normal wedding reception. I just want the room to look nice and the bottom line is that I want our guests to feel like they're celebrating our marriage, not just a random party.  It's been a strange thing to plan and I'm glad Mum and Laura have been so honest and good at keeping me grounded so far.  On Thursday they helped me change my mind about a few things and make some cut backs.  It's sometimes hard not to feel a bit deflated, but after a couple days considering their advice it's clear that they're right and it spurs me on again.

I think we're pretty  much decided on our flowers and decor now - just a little bit more shopping to do for bits and pieces but I'm really happy with how it's all working out. I know Michael loves the ideas too - I've run a couple past him that he hasn't really liked, so those will be scrapped but apart from that we're pretty much on the same page.  He's just raging he didn't get to have pizza on Thursday....Thanks Mum and Lo for all your help :)

Malone Lodge Hotel: Open Day

The Malone Lodge Hotel has regular Open Days and I am a bit obsessed with calling down and having a nosy as often as I can.  Every time we go, we just fall in love with the place all over again. I think it's really important to see your hotel as much as possible because if you're anything like me, you get over-excited with plans and it isn't until you see the location again that you realise that your ideas might not actually work as you'd thought.
 
It's just nice to call in, just the two of us, and have a walk around the suite and plan where everything is going to go and how it's going to look.  We always go for a coffee in the residents bar - the coffee is to die for - or a meal in the restaurant while we're there to chill out and discuss some of our plans.  It's always good to make sure we're both on the same page.  I've been guilty of running on ahead and forgetting to tell Michael what my ideas are, and somehow just expect him to know what I'm talking about!

We got speaking to wedding coordinator Jenna who gave us both a much welcomed glass of Prosecco and some canapés and showed us around the suite and restaurant and answered all our questions.  We talked over our food options, and I think we've more or less picked what we're going to have served.  All very free and easy and no fuss. She also brought us upstairs to view the Bridal Suite - which was so much nicer than we expected.  Very big, luxurious and we're so pleased with how lovely it is.  We also got to nosey at the Presidential Suite which is huge, and the double rooms which are also much bigger and much nicer than expected.  The whole hotel is such a surprise - everything is perfect.  They did again stress that rooms for January are booking up very fast, so I would remind any of our guests hoping to book one do so ASAP.  Booking.com seem to have the best rates, and you don't have to pay until the day.  Worth reserving just in case.

The Reception area is lovely too with big comfortable chairs and sofas. There is a residents bar there which serves drinks up to 3am (and beyond, depending on how the night is going) for anyone staying in the hotel. They have a great outside area at the front with gorgeous old glass street lamps which will look fab in the January night light, but hopefully the January cold will stop too many of our guests congregating out there!  The Knife and Fork Restaurant is fab too and we'll be having our immediate-family-only dinner there for our parents, brothers and sisters before the Reception itself begins.

We just love the décor in the hotel, it suits our colour scheme perfectly. They have the most amazing black and white photographs and posters around the hotel corridors that just suit our theme down to a tee - we couldn't have found a better match for what we were looking for. As we're getting married in New York, we wanted a theme to reflect this, so we've chosen a very classic black and white theme - think old New York - all very glossy and chic. We love the floors, all black and white high-shine tiles with lots of mirrors on the walls and candles lighting up any dark corners.  I have made an appointment (with my own mother!) to discuss wedding flowers and décor this week - we've pretty much chosen exactly what we would like.  We're pretty organised with everything, and now that we're all booked and deposits paid, it's onto the fun stuff!

We're two very happy bunnies :)

19 Weeks down & 32 Weeks to go.

It's all been a bit quiet on the blogging front...

Everything has been a bit crazy here.  We've both had our birthdays (another year older, not one bit wiser) and we've been throwing ourselves into work.  Michael is working all the overtime he can get his hands on which is mostly night shifts and everything in my office has sped up and taken off - there's lots to keep up with and I find myself at my desk earlier and earlier each day. 

Now that we have all the important things booked and deposits paid, we've been taking a bit more of a relaxed attitude to the wedding planning.  We can finally focus on the fun stuff - the décor, the outfits, the cake... which all happen to be the most over-whelming!  As everyone knows, when the "w" word is mentioned, they add another zero or two onto the end of prices and I'm really struggling to understand why anyone would charge, let alone pay, £500 for a simple, plain white cake. 

The most interesting part is the discussions you have with people who are also getting married.  Everyone's attitude to weddings are so different.  Some of my friends wouldn't bat an eyelid at paying £500 for a cake, "it's the most important day of your life", but I think that mentality is a wee bit mad. I imagine we'll probably club our female family members together and bake our cake ourselves.  It would be so easy to get carried away with the planning of the Reception party but as a couple, we both want to focus our finances on our trip.  The idea of spending thousands of pounds on just one day gives us both palpitations so it makes much more sense for us to put the same amount of our savings into a 2-week trip instead. 

Saying that, it's been more difficult than we thought to save money on the lead up to New York - life goes on, and every single month there has been something whether it's unexpected veterinary bills, a birthday, a holiday we booked before we were engaged...it's honestly been one thing after the other.  We have some friends that are also getting married this year, so that's been costly too.  We're burrowing every bit of spare cash away in our money pots (quite often stumbling into the house after drunken nights out and throwing in far more than we can afford) and we've been gifted some US dollars too which is so great.  I'm off to Mallorca on a friend's Hen party this week and once I'm home I hope to really buckle down and get back on track with saving as this month has been a bit of a write-off. 

It's so hard to believe that 5 months have passed already.  It's been interesting looking back and seeing how our plans are changing as we go along. If I could rewind a bit and change anything I think I would have given us a little bit more time to save.  But at the same time, it just can't come quick enough - we genuinely cannot wait to get married!  We get such big smiles on our faces when we talk about it.  Michael is really interested in getting more involved with the plans - we talk about it a lot and spend evenings pouring over invitation samples and gift lists and I'm quickly learning to back off when his eyes start glazing over and he's stifling yawns...

The funny thing is, I've generally been finding it really difficult to talk about.  I'm a complete Awkward Annie when anyone asks me questions about the wedding. The only people I really feel comfortable talking about it with are my family and my friends that are planning weddings too.  I think this comes from being cripplingly self-aware (Laura will understand this!) and I know that wedding talk is mind-numbingly boring to most who are likely only asking out of politeness.  I tend to just direct people to my blog for updates if they're interested - with over 1600 views, I know that someone out there is tuning in (Hi Mum!).

We've booked a couple fun surprises for the Reception which we're really excited about.  We're still so delighted with our choice of venue and music and I think we're close to picking our food option too.  We want everything to be free and easy and comfortable for everyone there, we just want to throw a huge party and celebrate properly. I'm beyond grateful at how many people are traveling from England etc for the night - it's going to be a bit of a reunion with some of my friends I met while traveling and I'm almost more excited to see them than I am about getting married...ha!  Thanks to those who have booked their hotel room already - showing some real commitment, guys!

We'll hopefully pick our invitations some day soon (hardest job in the world by the way...) and have them sent out in the Summer and we'll get our gift list launched too. That's something we're having a lot of fun working on as it's a little bit different from the standard wedding gift list (and completely optional, of course, we don't need anything apart from your attendance!) There's also my very own Hen Party to plan - a terrifying thought.  There are plenty of little activities buzzing away in the background, just not that much to blog about without giving everything away.  I like to check in every now and again and write a little about where we're at with the planning - it might make for fun reading for us one day when it's all a distant memory.  What a fun thing to be able to show your daughter or daughter-in-law one day.  
Oh how they'll cringe...