Venue Decisions

Before I launch into how and why we chose where to get married, I thought it might be worth adding a little back story.

Mr C and I met in Devon, at University. I am from Wiltshire and the boy is Cardiff born and bred. I moved up to Cardiff (after spending a couple of years apart) 4 years ago. On a weekend break in Bath, he proposed.

When deciding on where we would get married, we first needed to pin it down to a location to look in.

Overseas? Well this was never really an option, I wanted to be able to have as many people there as we could reasonably afford.

Cardiff? It felt like cheating on the West Country

Devon? Surprisingly, didnt find an awful lot of places that floated my boat and if they did they didnt make sense as they weren't anywhere near where we used to live.

Brides Home town? Having not lived there for most of my adult life, it didnt really seem like the place to get married.

So where then?

Well we want it to be not too far from either parents but maybe with some kind of attachment?

So we started to look for venues in Bath, where we had got engaged. Not too far from Cardiff, not too far from home.

Oh my, we could get married in a Cinema!

Oh my, we could get married in the Roman Baths!

Oh my, we could have an Italian Restuarant reception! (if I had less guests, this would have been it - it was so lovely)

And then we sat down and thought about what we wanted:
Some outdoor space, just in case the sunshines
A pretty ceremony space
A BBQ (was always on the top of the list)

So we started to look for what we really really wanted and we found Wick Farm

Wick Farm, Farleigh Hungerford
Source: www.wickfarmbath.co.uk/photo-gallery

And I cannot wait to marry Mr C there next June


PS Mr C referred to some of the places we visited as: 'The one that smelt of feet', 'The one that smelt of poo' and 'The one that smelt of semolina'.
Wick Farm was pleasantly odourless.

Real Bride Competition

After entering the real bride competition on Rock My Wedding* I realised how much I enjoyed writing and putting my wedding ideas down on to paper and also designing (a few) mood boards.

So this is partly why I decided to write this blog, so that I could have a place to keep these ideas.

So although I didnt get to become a RMW Real Bride (sad face), I have still got my own little space to jot down my thoughts and ideas and who knows, one day I might actually let people know about this little online diary.



*I am addicted to this site... literally... I think I look at it more than I smoke....

Get an actual bargain....

Now if you know me... you know that I was very very hesitant about spending (what I consider) to be a lot of money on the wedding dress.

Then I tried on a dress that was completely and utterly out of my budget. (This is a stupid thing to do, but honestly I had no idea about the price differences between dress before hand... no clue...who knew the price difference? Not me)

So did I move and pretend I didnt like this dress? No....I tried this dress on 3 times.
It has been at the back of my mind while I look into other much more reasonable options and with 11 months to go my thinking was that have plenty of time to find something else I like as much or at least like nearly as much but can afford.

But then I found out that this dress that I really liked was in a sample sale so I hotfooted it down to the designers shop this saturday just gone, and I found the dress for over 60% less than it was and only fractionally more than my orginal 'pre-bridal shop discovery' budget.

I love an actual bargain i.e. getting want you want at a price you can (reasonably) afford.

Getting Muddy

So I have been in Glastonbury for 5 days.... and now back to normality which is kind of weird.

On Monday I was scared of traffic....

Yesterday, the telephone at work gave me the heebie-jeebies

Today I am back to (some kind) of normality.

Mr C didn't come with me as (and I quote) 'its too big' for him. So, although I had a fab time, I really missed him.

He picked me up from the bus station and I was so please to see him I had a little cry. *shhhh don't tell anyone,

The festival got me thinking about the wedding and the amazing ideas you can take from a festival and incorporate into the big day

Prior to getting engaged, I really liked the idea of an outdoor ceremony and 'festival' esque theme. A friend of mines' boy wants to have a 3 day Wedfest. And I must admit the idea is amazing.

But bloody expensive... and also (and you do have to ask this in the UK) what happens if it rains?

So although we are getting married inside....it is in a barn.... it is on a farm*, in somerset.... and Prince will be playing at ours**


*Wick not Worthy
** live via the DJ ;o)

Being Us….

A lot of people have ideas about their wedding day before they get engaged, and I must admit I had too.

As we had been together for 8 years when we got engaged, certain ideas had already crossed my mind and there has been one area which Mr C and I have discussed probably for about 4/5 years (out of 8 years together).

We talk about it most days.

For me, one of the most important parts of the day (oh after ceremony of course… maybe)… so much so that my dress decisions are being affected by it.

First Dance…..

Now I would quite like to learn some actual 'dance moves' Maybe Rock ‘n’ Roll classes, maybe Rumba, maybe Tango….

He had mentioned previously thay maybe we could go to a dance class
(I took this as YES WE CAN) but now he has changed his mind

And the other VERY IMPORTANT question is:
What will we have has as our first dance? (Also Ceremony Music has recently fallen into this discussion – apparently I am not allowed MJ here either…. Grrr)

Now 90% of the time the songs Mr C mentions are a joke, 10% actual real suggestions. Mr C has a habit of doing this where you have to work out 'what is Sarcasm, what is geniune'... I love this about him... and now I can nearly tell most of the time.... but some of the 10% actual real suggestions sometimes seem like a joke.

We spend hours playing on spotify, pick a song, dance around the room to it and then change our mind.

And I absolutely love this! It is currently my favourite time... sat there together in the evening, drinking wine, singing and dancing to songs that bring back all kinds of memories from the past 8 years.

Despite having quite different music tastes (in general) BUT you having been together for quite a while, there is definately more than ONE song….

And so, the more we play on spotify, the more the list grows, and so I think we may have music covered for most of the day. (yes it is a whole year away, I know, not very important to some this is what staying in does...can't go out to party? do it indoors)

Yet still no budging on the dance class or MJ for entrance/music.....

(NB. We met whilst doing a Theatre and Performance degree… just in case you weren’t sure)

Nicknames….

My ‘nickname’ came about after a friend made me a birthday card and replaced GaGas head with mine… plus what with my surname starting with Har…it just stuck.

Mr C makes up new nicknames for us, oh probably about once a week… at one point we were Sergeant Elbows and Agent Side-hawk (still for the life of me, I have no idea why).

Last Sunday whilst sat in bed, he turns to me and says ‘your new nickname is Grinder’, he then prompted me…. So I called him Laurence Llewellyn Bowen … or LLB for short….

This week we are Burner and Gooch

God only knows what names he’ll come up with next week.

So of course conversations have arisen whereby we both change our names to something ridiculous before we get married, but not tell anyone until the ceremony… and then the registrar will have to be all solemn and serious and read:
‘do you Lady HarHar take Sergeant Elbows’

And then I would be Mrs Lady HarHar Elbows.... erm too much?? Maybe

Which leads me on to the real issue at heart.... What is my name going to be this time next year? I am yet to make a firm decision on whether I take his name, keep mine or make a double barrelled option. He doesnt want to take mine and have a double-barrelled name...he thinks it sounds too posh (he may have a point), but there is no expectation from HIM to take his name (expectation from others though, of course)...

But still, I will miss being miss lady harhar