Mini Moon 1

When we chose – were given – our July date we knew that we wouldn’t be going on honeymoon straightaway. O is a gardener and just couldn’t take a lot of time off in the height of the summer (ha! what summer?). I also knew that I take a long time to wind down after periods of stress. Plus O thought planning our honeymoon after the wedding would give me something to do and look forward to.

We were, however still determined to have a few days away and enjoy some luxury straight after the wedding. As is always the way we had so much choice of where to go it was very difficult to narrow down where to actually go. After lots of "I don’t mind", "I'll go anywhere" and "that looks ok" but no firm opinions given I was ready to tear my hair out. Thankfully around the time when I was really losing the plot Cee told me of a trip she was taking to the Lake District – more specifically to the Drunken Duck. She had a great stay and we thought it looked fab so to save having to look any further we decided on the Duck!

Tuesday after the wedding we threw stuff in the car and made our way South. Unfortunately we got stuck in a huge traffic jam because of a particularly nasty accident. By the time we got to the Lake District it was quite late in the afternoon. We stopped by at Castlerigg Stone Circle – but not for very long. Once we got to the Duck we were offered afternoon tea but chose against it not wanting to spoil our appetite. It is very important not to spoil your appetite because the food is AMAZING! So so delicious I could have eaten everything on the menu. You need to book a table well in advance because they were fully booked even during the week.

We were a little disappointed by our room it wasn’t huge – although the bed was. The problem being that the bed was huge because it was two beds pushed together and there was a tendency to fall down the gap in the middle.

Wednesday morning was a bit drizzly so we decided to go to the spa to which you get free access to. We enjoyed leisurely swims, time in the jacuzzi and a bake in the sauna and the steam room – I wasn’t brave enough to try the ice shower.  Once the weather had brightened up a bit we stopped in Ambleside to buy some lunch and headed to Coniston to hire a rowing boat – how romantic?! Until I turned into a complete wreck. I have no idea why or where the fear came from but I panicked that we were going to fall in the water, that all of our belongings were going to be ruined (camera, phones, car keys) and that we wouldn’t make it to shore. O being incredibly confident on the water thought this was hilarious and tried to show me how safe we were by rocking the boat. He stopped as soon as I burst into tears! I still don’t understand why I was such a wreck, I’m an ok swimmer and I'd have been able to swim to safety, there were lots of people out on the water so a passing boat would have helped. Once we were back on dry land I felt really bad because it should have been such a lovely jaunt out on the water with O playing the strong guy doing the rowing and I’d ruined it with my completely irrational hysterics. 

After I’d disgraced myself we headed back to the Duck for afternoon tea. We lazed about watching the tv and I had a long bath before dressing for dinner, there have been very few occasions in my life where I have felt the need to dress for dinner, that is of course unless I’m not already wearing clothes! We had another wonderful meal and fell asleep stuffed and a little fuzzy round the edges.

In planning our trip we'd had a look round to see what was on in the area and came across Ambleside Sports and that is where we headed on Thursday morning after checking out. I’ve never been to a Highland Games of anything like it and Ambleside Sports seemed to be the English equivalent. There was fell racing, grass track cycling, Cumberland wrestling (with costume competition) and hound trailing, which we'd never heard of. They scent a path using aniseed and then let a pack of hounds loose to follow the trail. The first hound back wins the race – this was the only event where there was bets being placed. I wasn't aware that you were allowed to let packs of dogs loose in the countryside.

After a long day of fresh air and some sunshine we began the long journey across country to Leeds where we were had a free nights accommodation courtesy of my parent's house. Then on Friday morning we headed back up to Scotland. 

Details: Thank you Gifts

Thank you gifts were tough to decide on and I spent a long time trawling the internet. 

My Mum: We didn't give my Mum a gift the weekend of the wedding instead we promised to make her a photo album once we gathered the photos together. We have kept that promise and sent her a photobook made by BobBooks - which she seems to love.

My Dad: We got him a bottle of Macallan whisky - it is his favourite whisky and we hope he will enjoy it.

O's Mum and Dad: We bought them a bottle of brandy - sourced by my brother-in-law handy having a wine merchant in the family.

O's sister: For playing the fiddle while we signed the register and as a New House gift we bought her and her husband a Le Creuset pan.

O#s brother: For being our piper and for his New Home gift we bought him and his girlfriend a Le Creuset pan too.

Debenhams had a sale on Le Creuset at the time.

#1 and #2: We bought them jewellery from here

Niece: We bought her an initial necklace from here and a clothes hanger from here (please note that Anna warns that it takes 8 weeks and it really does.)

Nephew: We bought his scrabble cuff links in his initials - as he informed us he doesn't have any shirt that requires cuff links but hopefully once he is older he'll need them.

Cee: As a thank you for reading during our ceremony we bought her a notebook for her blog ideas (need to do a post on this soon).

Recaps: Married Day 1

After getting a few hours sleep – funny how it was completely different to the few hours sleep I had the night before – we woke and dressed for breakfast. I’d forgotten a sweater and O had forgotten his shoes (remember to pack for the next day too). Was quite tempted to put my dress back on but don’t think it’d have gone with the dragged back hair and clean face. We went down to the dining room for breakfast taking with us the thank-you gifts that we’d bought. We sat there for quite a while chatting with different family members drifting in and out as they came for breakfast or left to finish packing.

#1 and her family had to leave early to catch their flight and so the goodbyes began. After a while when everyone had at least started their breakfast we went back upstairs to start our own packing. The venue staff had gathered together a lot of the bits and pieces, table slates, table plan, left over order of services so that made things easier. All the vases of flowers had been placed in a back room so we invited guests to take as many of the flowers as they wanted and after taking plenty for ourselves left the rest at the venue for them to decorate their tables with during the week. If you are having flowers it is worth thinking about what to do with them afterwards – we didn’t.

Everyone was finally packed and putting bags into their cars so we said our final goodbyes and headed back to our flat. We’d let friends stay in our flat so caught up with them for a while. Finally it was just the two of us and we sat slightly dazed still surrounded by wedding stuff.

Details: Table Names

We named our tables after Scottish islands that we'd visited. 


The top table was named after the island where O proposed.


We were worried that we were going to have to name a table Mull. Our holiday to Mull was not the greatest. The moment we got off the ferry there was an almighty hail storm and things did not get much better after that. 


Luckily we remembered another island that we'd been to.


Our table names we displayed on roof slates with the names written on in chalk pen. 


Are you planning on naming your tables? (We came very close to just numbering them - because really it is just another bit of DIY to do.)
What did you name your tables after? 

Details: Jewellery

Jewellery was a real struggle for me. The wedding magazines seem to have a clear view of what 'wedding' jewellery is supposed to look like. Pearls and diamanté are just not me. They are also very expensive. I wasn't prepared to spend a large amount of money on a necklace that I knew I was only going to wear once. 

I finally decided to narrow it down to two options. The necklace that Rebecca kindly let me borrow and a necklace that my Mum lent me that I eventually, 2 days before the wedding, decided to wear. 

My something borrowed was this marcasite necklace that my Mum got for £5 from a car boot sale. I'm not sure if I've broken the 'something borrowed' rules but my Mum has now given me the necklace to keep (yay). I was bought a marcasite watch for my 16th birthday so I wore that too. Unfortunately I noticed too late that the battery had died - so I have no idea if I actually got to the ceremony on time. I hate not knowing what time it is so after the meal I changed to a working watch. 

Details: Internet friends are amazing

Not only did Rebecca from Daydreams in Lace make me this amazing hair slide

She also gave me a hanky embroidered with my name

and allowed me to keep hold of her beautiful pearl necklace while I hummed and hawed for MONTHS about what jewellery to wear and then I didn't even wear it!

(photo by Rebecca I presume

hope you don't mind me posting it)

Rebecca has less than a month to go until her wedding. I'm so excited for her and James and seeing all their details come together. I just wish I was able to repay her kindness.


scheduled post

Recaps: Almost done

So I think I might be almost done with the recaps*.


There are still a few details that I've to tell you about but on Tuesday we head off on holiday to Gozo - not sure why I'm not comfortable with calling it our honeymoon. Perhaps because we're planning on having more than one and we're not going for a single trip of a lifetime but several amazing trips. Technically it is just our first holiday as husband and wife. 


I cannot wait to laze by the pool, run sand through my fingers, read lots of good books, go snorkelling and eat a lot of food. 


When I get back** I've still to tell you about my jewellery, our table names and the mini moon. 


But what have I forgotten? Is there anything that you want to know about? Ask me questions.


*really I'm looking forward to write about something other than the wedding but I promised myself I'd get the recaps out of the way first. 
**unless I get chance to schedule some posts before we leave in which case you can read all about it while we are away. 

Recaps: Why does it have to end?

The rest of the evening went past in a blur of dancing and chatting. I completely lost track of time at one point I looked at my watch and wondered where the buffet was and why had we not been fed yet (all I could eat was cake). Only to realise that there was still an hour to go before the buffet was due to be served. Then after the buffet had been served the band seemed to immediately announce the last dance and I couldn’t believe that time had passed so quickly.

We have a great photo of the two of us, looking hideously sweaty and dishevelled (no I’m not going to post it!) – I love this photo because it highlights what I wanted the wedding to be all about, dancing and laughing and everyone having a good time.

Then it was last orders at the bar and people started drifting into taxis or up the stairs to their rooms. Finally, we decided, while O’s uncles were trying to persuade the barman to reopen the bar that it was time for us to retire. It was bliss to unlace the dress, unpin my hair and stand under the shower letting the emotions of the day wash over me.

I finally crawled into bed with my husband! Unfortunately the bar staff decided to have their own wee party and we could hear them chatting well into the small hours. We’d thought it was our guests until we realised that we couldn’t recognise any of the voices. However in reality we couldn’t sleep, we just kept saying “we’re married”, “did you speak to so and so?”, “did you dance with so and so”, “so and so said this”, “what a great day”, “do you think everyone enjoyed themselves”, “we’re married”, “we’re married”.

Recaps: Our first dance

One day, after having not been engaged for very long I randomly suggested this as our first dance song. O agreed and so the decision was made. It had been one of the songs that was on the mix CD that O made for me when we first got together. I did question it a couple of times (the reference to brothers and sisters especially) but seeing as I couldn’t come up with anything better I stopped trying. We decided that we’d dance for about 60 seconds (a verse and a chorus) on our own and then have the rest of the bridal party come and join us. Those 60 seconds were the longest of all time!

Get off my toes!

John Martyn - May you never

Recaps/Details: Favours/Place names

For favours we had lots of ideas that surrounded plants or flowers (O is a gardener). 


Remember this post?


Well Rebecca left a very interesting comment on that post about seed paper and combining the favour with the place names! 


So that is what we did.


We bought seed paper and twine from here
We printed names on one side and planting instructions on the other side
We cut them out into a luggage tag shape, punched a hole in them and tied some twine through them to make them look more like luggage tags (we also folded the paper in half so it was twice as thick).

(can't get this photo to turn round)

Simples!

I think people liked them, although O's Mum has complained that she hasn't had any flowers. I'd love to blame her gardening skills but seeing as most of the food we eat when we visit they have grown themselves I don't think there is anything wrong with her gardening skills.