Weddings...

[kerrensimmonds]

OOh Amy.. sounds Very Grand! We'll all be looking it up on the internet, and then camping at the gates to get a glimpse of the B and G as they drive in from Itchingfield Church (or.. ermm... perhaps we'll camp out there instead?). Anyone else up for holding up a HUGE banner about Amy's membership of the Forum...?
Perhaps not.
Only joking.
Wouldn't spoil your Big Day!
Sounds as if you are beginning to get excited about it all. Have you and the BF decided on your (secret) honeymoon venue, yet? The son of one of my OB friends went on an exotic African safari for his honeymoon, and signed up the wedding guests to the company he was travelling with, so that we could contribute to the cost of the honeymoon, rather than buy them a 'gift' which they thought was unnecessary since they had shared a house for so many years and had everything they wanted. Seemed like a good idea. I think that almost the whole honeymoon was paid for by the wedding guests...

[blondie95]

thanks,

honeymoon is yet to be decided.... on the short list Hawai, Mexico and Las Vegas! just somewhere warm in October

As for wedding list im using it as chance to get some nice good quality stuff for the house such as bed linen, pans and dinner sets as we have quite a mix of half sets thatme and the bf have gathered over the year!

[Great Plum]

Looks like a lovely place Amy...

A wedding list is always good, it now means that we have proper bed linen and decent crockery!!

[blondie95]

Looks like a lovely place Amy...

A wedding list is always good, it now means that we have proper bed linen and decent crockery!!

exactly, i know we already have the stuff but its the chance to get lots of really nice stuff at once rather than say nice pans 1 year then the next year some nice bed linen! John Lewis here i come..............

[englishangel]

When we got married (very young) we made out a number of postcards with gifts of all prices on them and if someone asked what we wanted we sent them one of the postcards. We knew the specific crockery and cutlery patterns we wanted. Many of my relatives lived miles from a shopping centre (this WAS 1975) and just gave us the money. For the three months after our wedding(before starting my nursing training) I worked in the House of Fraser store in Birmingham during the pre-Christmas sale and bought exactly the stuff we wanted in the sale with a staff discount so got far more than my rellies would have been able to buy. We are still using the dinner service and the cutlery.

[blondie95]

just have to say that the internet is such a wonderful thing for planning a wedding-all sorts of ideas etc

[blondie95]

I do belive that today is the day of our own Ruthiebaby's wedding...i hope it all goes fantastically

[englishangel]

There was a column in yesterday's Mail on sunday with "things you don't know about getting married".

Most of them didn't apply as I made my own dress and we got married on a shoestring, but a couple I will pass on.

If you have a wedding list at a big store (John Lewis?) and people get you lots of little things, you can send them all back afterwards and swop them for that leather sofa (king-size bed) you have set your heart on.

Don't go off on your honeymoon the same evening as your wedding. Everyone you leave behind goes on to have a great time and when you come back drop snippets about it to you, but you never get the whole story. Stay an extra day and be part of the whole story.

Very few people have sex on their wedding night, they are too tired/low/high/hungry. That is what honeymoons are for.

[blondie95]

If you have a wedding list at a big store (John Lewis?) and people get you lots of little things, you can send them all back afterwards and swop them for that leather sofa (king-size bed) you have set your heart on.

Don't go off on your honeymoon the same evening as your wedding. Everyone you leave behind goes on to have a great time and when you come back drop snippets about it to you, but you never get the whole story. Stay an extra day and be part of the whole story.

Very few people have sex on their wedding night, they are too tired/low/high/hungry. That is what honeymoons are for.

I like the wedding list one....we were thinking baout gettin a new sofa-i may just wait! Im thinking of putting my sister in charge of the wedding list but we then run the risk of their being handbags and shoes on it too...for her!

As for when to go on honeymoon-i wouldnt want to miss the end of my party... i would like to go on the monday which gives us a day after wedding to recover and get things sorted.

[englishangel]

The writer of the column did say you might be in trouble if Auntie Flo came round and asked if you were still using the crockery she had bought you.

[blondie95]

The writer of the column did say you might be in trouble if Auntie Flo came round and asked if you were still using the crockery she had bought you.

true...althogh something like crockery could easily have been broken!!!

I must admit though i have already started writing things down i want on the list-things that we cant afford to buy good qaulity etc. Such as a really nice good quality crocekry set, champagne glasses and bed linen (superking size bed linen is quite dear and harder to find!)

[Jo]

I believe John Lewis do all of their range also in superking size, if that's any help?

[blondie95]

thanks i had notcied but it may break my bank

[gma]

You could try www.tdtextiles.co.uk/bed_linen - bizarrely they also sell through Amazon! Egyptian cotton thread counts are usually 200 on these sites - www.thewhitecompany.com carry SKS altho', as the name would lead you to believe, the colour choices are fairly limited....!

[Angela Woodford]

Arrangements are really swinging into action now...

I still haven't chosen my MOB dress. In John Lewis I tried on every hat, but they all were too big and rested on my head with brim below ear level. "A fascinator!" you say! I have found one that suited me, but it's horribly similar to the choice of the mother of the groom...

It was really very exciting going to Yorkshire to choose Susannah's wedding dress. I had imagined a Bridal Dress Salon called, say, "Madame Alexandrina", but, my own clothing for the occasion having been critically vetted for suitability by the bride, I was steered through the door of a place called something fairly similar to "Oopsy Whoopsy". Inside, what a revelation! The ground floor was frothing round the edges with tulle, with lace, satin, sparkle, silk, enchantingly beaded bodices and meringue skirts in every shade of white. There were floor-to-ceiling mirrors. There were little ornate gilded chairs for the mothers, and tiny tables loaded with Kleenex ready for weeping moments

A bride was being adjusted into a dress that spoke to me of Tom Jones' Sophia Weston. Three expert ladies fluttered around arranging her train, tightening the corset effect and draping the skirt. Ooh! Ooh!

I have to say that weddings have never been - er - my thing. However, I could feel myself adjusting to the excitement, the glamour, the dressiness, the veils, the glittering tiaras, the whole experience!

Susannah had had about fifteen dresses put to one side in a changing room, into which she retired with Babs, one of the lovely ladies. By now the MOG and I were sitting at a tiny table, being brought delicious coffee, and having our identities confirmed.

"And who's t' Mother of the Bride? I can tell, luv, two peas in a pod; do you reckon Daphne?"

"I do, Crystelle. Two peas in a pod!"

I basked in the reflected glamour of my beautiful daughter. Meanwhile, a Wedding Dress Designer in a frock coat, + his acolytes, brought us Buck's Fizz, and reminded us that any of his designs, selected that day, would be at a very, very special discount...

Meanwhile there was a rustling from the changing room, and out came Susannah in dress no 1, with Babs fluttering in her wake, draping, cinching adjusting! We all gasped. The dress was very very splendid! How gorgeous she looked! It was an affecting moment and Crystelle thoughtfully patted me and placed the tissues at my elbow.

"She looks so - lovely!" I sniffed. "My baby - ooh - " Daphne and Crystelle made reassuring noises. How kind they were!

Dress after dress came out. I rather took to a dress with the feathery extravagence of an entire production of Swan Lake. The MOG and I were really getting into the swing of it by now. Did we like the Swarowski crystal motif on the train? The beading on the bodice? Earnestly we agreed on the exact fit of a lace shrug... The ladies applied their expertise with practised guidance, encouragement and anecdote.

"We did have a bride in - tried on everything - very particular, weren't she Daphne?"

"Ooh, that she were, Crystelle. But - when I asked her when were t' wedding, she didn't know! Eee, luv, she didn't even have a boyfriend. She just wanted to get organised for when she did get proposed to; to have her dress all ready in t' wardrobe... spent thousands!" I thought what a shock that might be for an earmarked male. Poor thing!

Babs emerged from the changing room, a little flushed from her exertions. Babs thought that this dress might be The One!

"When a bride can't bear to take off the dress, we know that's the right choice" Daphne murmured sotto voce.

"Remember the bride last week, Crystelle?" Babs confided. "She couldn't bear to take off her dress. We were still here an hour after closing time trying to get her unzipped. A bride holds herself different when she's in t' right dress... and then we know..."

The curtain swished open, and there was Miss Susannah, even more beautiful. Ravishing! Exquisite! "That's the one!" we all cried. I reached for the tissues all over again. Even the three ladies were brimming a bit, and Susannah's lovely future mother-in-law was in agreement! Susannah couldn't bear to take off the dress.

The choice was made!

I had to be dragged out of Oopsy Whoopsy. By then I was trying on the tiaras. Why shouldn't the MOB wear a tiara?

*some names have been changed...