Wellies and Vogue

wedding prep

2010-07-28T21:02:00.000+01:00

so I am officially... EXCITED!

weeks been good, work wise and wedding wise. making some big decisions and things are finally ticked off.. ekkkk so excited about the final week and all my lovely friends coming a playing weddings with us! ordered lot's of lovely things this week to make the marquee look beautiful and have some great ideas that will require some work but will hopefully be worth it.. I can't wait to show you what i've been up to and where i'm going wedding wise.. but with only 16 days left not long to wait now!

had a wedding to photograph with dad on saturday.. a cousins, one of the many.. I popped over to check out the location and to see how all the preparations were going.. had a lovely time especially as i got to play with my beautiful goddaughter who will be appearing at the wedding as a flower fairy!

will also share the wedding with you once I've found time to play around with some of the images. may of taken a few to many.. got a little snap happy but i was having such fun and there's sooooo much pressure to capture the day!

woop woop hope your having a good week as well....

our invite...

2010-07-27T17:57:00.000+01:00

so after months of promising.. I've finally found time to photograph our invite! Ta Da..

I screen printed them all on my course and am so pleased with the outcome. I don't think I slept for 2 nights before I was so worried! typically I had left it till my last day to print them all - 200 in total. Anyway with a bit of help from the lovely James at St Barnabus press we finally got them all done in around 5 hours! It was epic but with the outcome sooo worth it!

design wise we went very modern, clean and chic. I think because we've got such a natural, country setting we wanted to do something that showed the other side of our personalities. The hearts are something that will feature in our wedding decoration and were our starting point so we've used them both on the invite and on the info card that we had printed.

materials wise we found a fantastic 700 gsm card in a lovely grey and decided to use a shocking pink with it - always a great colour combo. below are some pictures I took whilst making them.. ekkkk I hope you like them they've had great feed back from friends and family.

practice makes perfect

2010-07-25T17:42:00.002+01:00

here's a few images from today.. have had a weekend of taking photos as had a cousins wedding yesterday and dad and I were once again on photography duty.. I've had a quick flick through and think we did OK - will obviously share a few with you as soon as I can! was such a lovely day even though felt a little lost without my Boy who's been in Ireland this weekend playing geeks..

hey ho - got to spend a bit more time with the family and finally had time to take ourselves up to the church where we were playing weddings and trying to decide what to do, where to stand and generally making these decisions that now have to be made. As there has been NO rain for weeks/months it's looking a little barren but we're all agreed once there's people, straw bales and a few other bits and bobs will all look fine. dad and i had a practice walking up the isle with my brother as the groom and the dogs as the guests.. ekkkk it's all so close and exciting now! just wish I was a little less stressed. I think a good week at work and a sort out at home will make me feel a lot better!

hope you all had a fun weekend and congratulations to R & O who played weddings for real! dum dum de dum!can't wait to read all about it.

please can I have this one..

2010-07-21T23:30:00.001+01:00

Andy & Reagan :: Reception Highlights from FocalPoint Cinematic Weddings on Vimeo.

So wedding is getting very close and exciting now.. i've had a horrid week with everything going wrong. the boy has done is back in and has been flat on the sofa all week.. doing as much as he can on the laptop but with so many little days left and a lot of work to do the timing couldn't be worse. wasn't helped by cretins in bridal shop who insisted on me traveling 2 hours to pick up my dress as they had it written down as a fitting and not a collection. I had called and asked them before I left, for a second time, whether it was necessary to try on the dress as NO alterations had taken place to be told it was and I had to try it on. To then arrive 3 hours later and be told the dress had been pressed and was all ready to collect and not to be tried on did not go down well! in fact I did my best at angry and then cried. I am too busy and my time is too precious to be traveling for 5 hours to pick up a dress when my mum was there anyway. Was also told that I couldn't collect it on a saturday either - guess that wasn't relevant either.

sorry to rant but when you run your own company you can never really rest. we have been so lucky this year and have really started to grow and get some great jobs. But with these comes a lot of work and we REALLY want to be able to enjoy our wedding and take a little time off so every day counts.. hey ho as I always say worse things happen at sea..

saw this video today via Style me Pretty.. has been the one thing that cheered me up and has made me really excited about the day.

ekkkkkkk i AM getting married!

look whats here

2010-07-13T19:15:00.000+01:00

Dahlias!

ekkkkk after picking the plants up from granddad in April we have had our first couple come to bud! So exciting and as we've only got 31 days till I do it's good news. For those that don't know we've decided to grow our own wedding flowers and granddad's Dahlias were the perfect choice. he's given us lot's to grow and he himself will also be brings as many as he can along.. it made it interesting talking to my cousin the florist who, quite rightly, asked what colours they were going to be.. in which mum and I looked at each other and shrugged.. we have no idea! as we want multi coloured it's going to be all good and it's exciting not knowing! these dahlias have had some love and attention over the past couple of months.. we've had a few snail issues so poor mum and dad have been having to sneak around at night and pick the off. We've also been growing a very special one.. granddad has names a new variety in my honour - "Norfolk Bride".. I'm white and spiky (i think!).. I think there's only 5 of me living and we have one of the plants. this has been given every protection possible, security gates, extra water, pride of place so all can see! can't wait to see what I look like.

I've got a few in my garden but as we've had a crazy year it's about the only thing I've had time to plant.. hey ho I can walk around mum's and dads and enjoy there's instead.. we've been doing some beautiful arrangements which is definitely the look and feel of how we want the wedding flowers to be.. wild and rustic..

it's all getting so exciting!

heres some more images from mums garden.. was playing round with dads new camera which I love.. so small and light.. a big difference to our clunky Nikon - which I love with all my heart but sometimes you don't want to carry around something so heavy.. but still want good pictures! anyway.. should finally get to show you the invites tomorrow.. sorry I'm so far behind busy bee at the moment!

summer love

2010-07-12T13:01:00.001+01:00

so in love with summer again.. beautiful weekend spent in warm haze..

as you know dress fitting went well in London and as all my time at the moment is spent in the country it was strangely nice to have that hot summer city feel.. coffee's and lunch outside, city walking and I have to admit taxis! thought the tube might kill my hot city loving..! evening was spent in country bliss with friends, bbq, procecco and more tipis.. beautiful friend Vintage Deli really does have the life!

sunday was church to hear our banns being read then garden flower picking and arranging with mum, F1 with dad and then home for a little gardening of my own and some sun bathing, reading, sleeping time.. still no trips to the coast have been made.. we'll get there.

hope you had fun where ever you were..

dave enjoying the breeze on the way home.. have a video as well with I want to upload - there is a strong resemblance to dumbo!

i love it

2010-07-11T17:40:00.002+01:00

so so so so happy.. dress fitting went really well.

a million times better than I remember and so thankful and happy.

dress on my mind

2010-07-08T19:35:00.000+01:00

anxiously waiting for saturday when I will be popping down to london with my beautiful mum to try on my wedding dress.

have not seen or tried on the dress since february and I am so nervous.. I can remember loving it at the time, i cried, it was all good signs but it seemed so long ago. i'm a bit annoyed as the dress was meant to be in store at the begging of june and after calling throughout the whole of it there was still no sign of the dress. finally got good news at the beginning of july but as we've only got 36 days till i do I recon it's cutting it a bit fine!

least everyone else has there outfits sorted.. Boy has found very cool suit, bridesmaids dresses are all but made and looking amazing, mum is a hat embellishing away from being sorted, and my dad actually has a suit that fits and looks so smart.. can't believe its all finally coming together. I think once I've seen myself in the dress I can relax a little bit more.. ekkkkkkkk crazy crazy!

saw this dress today and got a little envious.. love the soft dove grey and the beautiful ruffles. so pretty. shame the boy hates chiffon otherwise I imagine I would of been tempted to walk down the aisle as a giant pom pom!

photos by: Max Wanger

via: Green Wedding Shoes

Shhhhhh

2010-07-07T12:00:00.001+01:00

A little inside info: Lovely UK boutique Anna is having a Sale preview today and tomorrow. 30% off everything in store and 40% off for the lucky few who have the inside info! Have a look online and enter in SALE in the comments box to receive your discount. Honeymoon outfits anyone..?

*Please note you will not see deduction on order or order confirmation. You will receive an email after the order has been placed. Limited stock available.

www.shopatanna.com also click here to see their blog thats just started.. will be a few giveaways in the future so keep your eyes pealed!

feet up

2010-07-01T12:43:00.001+01:00

so for the first time in a long while I had to put my feet up and have a day off work..

may of given myself food poisoning on saturday and spent the hottest day of the year on sunday with a high temperature in bed instead of planned day of celebrating recent engagement with oldest friend by pool! hey ho it is what it is!

still felt poorly on monday had a day at home sick from work. was slightly excited by the prospect of reliving student days and watching day time tele to be very disappointed about how dull it is.. even This Morning no longer lived up to past fond memories.. did have wimbledon though which was a relief got me through from lunch time till the boy came home.

all good now.. back at work and feeling all good. so many wedding things to share. any other brides finding that things are suddenly just getting done! so exciting!

back soon x x x

no surprise..

2010-06-24T19:42:00.001+01:00

as to what I've been doing today!

Apple iPhone 4 out.. the boy and I went off and got... who would of thought!

all looking good so far apart from the fact I can't use it to call people.. moving from O2 to Vodafone and have to wait for it all to switch across.. gutted as for the past 2 years I haven't been able to make calls to my friends at home unless phone is balanced on a certain place on the arm of sofa.. then my headphones stopped working with it so leaning over shouting on speaker phone really didn't cut the mustard! overall though it's a lot quicker, slicker and crisper.. for me this will take a little getting used to and I like things slightly fussy! but from a geek point of view very clever pixel work! cameras sooooooo much better which as a snap-a-holic is a really good thing. only played around on it for a couple of seconds but thought I'd show you! of course Dave is mainly featured even though he is rubbish at posing!

anyway...

on other news... which i'm sure your more interested in! invites will be a posted tomorrow... envelopes need to be written tonight and website finished! iPhone jolly in norwich did not help with this.. but hey once it's done it's done and apple were very accommodating with water, coffee and cookies so can't complain!

Can't wait to show you what I've been up to and talk weddings.. also have to catch up with all yours.. oh how i do miss blogging world! back soon x x

chicks camping 2

2010-06-20T22:34:00.000+01:00

as promised here's the rest of the hen..

so days activity was a beautiful 5 mile bike ride, the camel trail to Padstow.. something everyone should do.. by passed the fish and chips and found a hill with a wonderful view to picnic on.

clever girls then made a yummy dinner.. I have no idea how they did with the most basic BBQ.. but some how we had crushed new potatoes, lentil salad and an elderflower cocktail which the wonderfully talented Georgina had created especially for me.. amazing.

then went to a pub and behaved like we'd just finished our GSCE's.. very funny and poor cornwall.. I don't think they new what hit them!

hen has now made wedding seem oh so more real.. had a horrid week last week.. but it's all ended well and i'm ready to start enjoying this again! have so many exciting things to share...

54 days left.. and back on track.

stayed here.. please everyone go.. camping has never been so much fun!

chicks camping 1

2010-06-18T14:41:00.000+01:00

hello.. oh so long since I've been able to play on here.. I have a good feeling that after this week things might start to get back to normal and once again I'll be able to breathe.

i've been so busy i didn't even get a chance to tell you i was off on my hen.. rubbish! i had no idea what the plan was or where i was going so when i turned up to london on thursday with my suitcase, sleeping bag and wellies i was a little nervous a tent might be involved.

friday morning we departed in car with the whole of the supermarket in the boot and drove to cornwall and arrived at the most picturesque camp sight ever.. fears of tent was not needed as there was the most luxurious yurt and tipis with sheltered area of cooking and a wooden hut with roll top baths and showers that got hot water through a little fire behind.. took an hour to heat up but I was very impressed with the results and got thoroughly clean.. something I didn't expect would happen when we arrived!

as always it's easier to show you the lovelyness than to tell you. but i have to thank my amazing girls especially 1, 2 and 3 who put together the most original and memorable couple of days.. i felt very special and hugely thankful.

so day 1: traveling down, woodland walk to the pup, cider, walk back from pup and collect wild flowers, campfire, a LOT of prosecco, head dresses, pasta, a little music and then bed...

I'll add day two later x x

update

2010-06-09T11:29:00.000+01:00

so invites are designed. woop woop.. but won't be ready to send till the 18th June. booo

this is good as it gives us time to sort out our website which will also be our online gift list and RSVP manager.. therefor needs to be ready by then.

i can't wait for this to be done as once they're out we can breathe a big sigh of relief.. it's been kinda fun but finding time at the moment is a nightmare. I'm not sure if this is because of bride brain or work.. umm maybe both. I'm really excited about seeing the outcome and hopefully it will start to pull our wedding together. fingers crossed it turns out the way we want!

who knows..

right back to work!

tick tock..

2010-06-03T18:30:00.000+01:00

so time is flying yet my life is this.. just seems to be work..

i have so much to do my head is a whirl. invites are the most pressing.. everyday we design from briefs for people and yet with an open canvas we can't seem to find the time or the idea to do anything! the design must be done by tomorrow.. time has simply run out.

wish us luck!

Jacob

2010-06-01T10:57:00.000+01:00

Wellies is an aunty!

little nephew Jacob was born yesterday at 11.32. Mummy was amazing and popped him out in a very quick time. We're all so proud and excited to have him in our lives and all came together for a cuddle and some bubbles.

news just in...

2010-05-27T16:09:00.002+01:00

oh my goodness look whats just arrived.

sooooooooooo long we have waited but finally it comes, and a day early! woop woop.. let's just hope this bad boy's worth the wait!

dad got a little distracted when the camera was on him and started practicing his wedding face... umm not quite there yet me thinks.. but his resemblance to a old harry potter is uncanny!

cosmic love

2010-05-25T14:32:00.000+01:00

Florence + The Machine - Cosmic Love video

this was created by our clever friend Petra and i'd heard a little about the video but only just seen the outcome. i think it's come out beautifully.. what do you think..

enjoy.

good news..

2010-05-21T18:30:00.000+01:00

so I have been quiet on the wedding front.. don't worry it's all still a go back stage i'm just finding it tricky juggling wedding, work and life at the moment! there's so much going on it's hard to write about one aspect! I think i may be a little bit behind on some bits and the list is definitely growing everyday rather than srinking but i'm still on the positive side..

the best news is though that I can get legally married in my ruin.. yay! for a while we were unsure whether we needed a special licence from the archbishop as it's not often used and doesn't have a roof. we always new the church was consecrated and i was christened there which helps in church eyes.. but the problem was it's not an everyday church and doesn't have it's own registrar book - or so we thought.. turns out the church's name is on the registrar stored in the everyday local church with roof.. therefor we can get married legally there!

big sigh of relief! even though we would of still of held the service there we might of had to run down to the church down the road and do it all again.. hassle! so this is really really good news as I can now have my wedding on top of the hill.. well if it's not torrential rain.. but we'll deal with that if it comes!

I love this ruin so much.. from the age of 5 i have lived on the farm and have grown up with the ruin being a place of play, a sanctuary and a symbol of home. i'm so lucky to have a place like this and even more lucky to be able to hold the most important day there..

so next on the list... invites!

once in a life time...

2010-05-20T15:42:00.002+01:00

where would you go?

answers below would be appreciated.. i'm all in a honeymoon whirl! departing end september early october.. can't wait to hear your thoughts.. x

while we're a working..

2010-05-19T11:26:00.001+01:00

Dave's a ratting...

oh to spend all day staring a pipes instead of working.. but to do that I'd have to be a dog!.. umm pleased someones having fun though.. I think he had been staring at these pipes for a good couple of hours just in case something came out.. better ratting than bunny hunting..

baby shower

2010-05-17T22:16:00.001+01:00

so this how dave and i spent our sunday.. surrounded by lot's of lovely ladies eating yummy food playing games and taking photos of babies.. this was all in honor of my sister in law who is due to have her first baby on the 7th June.. getting so close now and bets are on as to what it will be.. woop woop aunty wellies here i come!

jelly babies...

david had a lovely time with the babies.. he adores them.. I think because they're more his size.. very cute..

recap

2010-05-17T16:29:00.001+01:00

thank you all so much for your lovely anniversery messages.. I love that photo of us - to be fair it's one of the only ones I've got - we'd just brought and moved into our new house and were so happy at the time.. the boy hates it but as it's my blog I get to pick the pictures I want to use..

I have to say I was a little brief on our meeting story.. there was also a lot of stalking that went on on my behalf.. constant coffee's in the uni bar.. walks vaguely around where I'd seen him before.. but hey ho it played off. what I find mostly spooky about us getting together was a year before we'd meet, spoken or even knew his name I'd seen him in the uni bar (with his then girlfriend) and had casually giggled to my friend that that was the man I was going to marry.. crazy huh!

anyway we had a lovely evening eating yummy fish here even though it was touch and go if we got there or not as our car's bonnet decided it wasn't going to shut after a bit of water fillage.. hey ho.. got there in the end and had a lovely time.. just had to find a different car!

so busy busy.. last week was an endless nightmare of work work work. have got a couple of things to show for it which i'll tell you more about later on in the week.. I also had a lovely and very productive weekend of gardening, baking and hosting a baby shower.. gardening was nothing but painful.. I took on some very large bramble hedges and think I just about won.. even though my arms and wrists tell a different story.. hey ho my own fault for letting the farm next door creep and dominate our unloved hedge to the point of no return.. for the baby shower I went down a grown up tea party theme with pink and blue food colouring playing a large role.. I wanted to take lovely food blog photo's with step to step process but as always was running crazy late and instead of being in baking bliss was in a crazy race against time. managed to get a few snaps and have some more of the party to show you later.

ps.. macaroons are as hard as they say to make.. lost my first batch of pink ones due to under cooking.. even though the results are YUM so are definitely worth a go! if not quite as refined as they were meant to be!

7 years...

2010-05-10T15:07:00.000+01:00

so 7 years ago i went out on my first date with the boy.. I arrived an hour early - called to see what time we were meeting and sheepishly went back home.. when we did meet he talked and I was silent.. he asked me out at the bus stop we kissed and the rest as they say is history.

reading and writing..

2010-05-07T20:41:00.001+01:00

well as you may of noticed I suffer with dyslexia.. i have to say you've all been very kind and not said anything about my shocking writing, grammar and spelling.. even though my mother and family do occasionally. it's alright i'm used to laughing at myself and spelling.. trophy will always be know as troffie in my family.. and besides they're all just as bad!

anyway it is rubbish and it is a big pain.. i can't see the mistakes, even when i read through it twenty times.. which I do.. I just can't seem to catch them. it means that writing wise i'm pretty screwed especially when trying to write professionally to clients.. my broken english and dot dot dot's don't cut the mustard. i've always know I've had it and my friends have always lovingly referred to it as "wellies* english" and say it's cute which is very sweet of them besides so many other people suffer from it i've never felt stupid because of it. at school there was always the fuss buss club (please tell me someone else had this..?) which were amazing blue animals books.. i wasn't good enough to do the ladybird and red hat or whatever it was.. my mum can always remember picking me and some other friends up from school.. they were going on about what books they were reading and i just quietly said that I could tie my shoelaces which non of them could.. you see always look on the bright side! anyway rambling... reading and writing.. it was cool.. I had my extra time in exams and my test's that told me at the age of 18 I had the reading age of a 11 year old - great! but I got through and did good.. besides I always had my art, sport and drama.. who needs maths and english!

the one thing that my dyslexia did hold me back on however was reading.. i never did it.. we would be reading in class a paragraph or a chapter and everyone was so quick.. they would be finished and I wasn't even halfway through! so i just didn't bother.. i would say i'd done it and that was that.. because of this I always asumed that I didn't like reading.. but I was so wrong.. i love it.

i only started when i was 20 and heading into work everyday on the tube.. i would read trashy £1 celebrity mags everyday and found myself getting a little board. the first book i read was by a norfolk novelist and diary based which was perfect as it had short chapters that weren't intimidating.. then i read the da vinci code recommended by a friend.. and I haven't stopped since! every night and morning I have a little read.. i am slow.. but I get there in the end and enjoy it all the way which I suppose what matters!

I'm currently reading Jane Eyre.. i've been stuck in a Georgette Hayer rut (please don't be mean about her.. I love her and her novels!) so am coming out of it with a similar, and superior classical theme.. to be honest it was the only thing on the book shelf that I hadn't read.. our book shelf is not vast! but i'm loving it and can't put it down.. i also love reading the classics as I feel i've got so much to catch up on!

so yes i pledge to read the printed word.. but just a little more slowly than other people.

please if you have any great, must read books you can suggest to me I'd love to know.. and thanks again for not pulling me up on my writing.. i know a lot of you have got keen eyes and often correct your comments because of it..

* real name normally used.. but even though I tell you everything.. somehow like the hidden name identity!