The Hen Party is Nearly Here!!!!!

So my first of two hen parties is this Saturday and I have to say that I am very much looking forward to it! Well… so long as the mysterious pains are kept at bay. I’m sure a healthy dose of champagne will help me forget all about them even if I am suffering that night. Our plan is a boat trip followed by dinner and then some very silly dancing and general falling over later in the evening. I’m having an 80s theme and I’ve just managed to get my costume put together – there will be neon colours, legwarmers, shoulder pads and big big hair involved but you’ll have to wait for the next blog to see it in all it’s technicolour glory!

I’ve had quite a lot of fun putting together party bags for everyone that’s coming. My favourite thing of all has to be the jelly shots I made up to include in the bags. They are a secret recipe (mostly because I was a little tipsy at the time of making and I can’t actually remember everything I put in!) and I had lots of fun getting them just right and testing them once they were set – with many thanks to the lovely Anabeee who came and helped (and no! of course we aren't drunk in that photo!).

I do have to say I’m a teeny tiny bit worried about the whole hen party thing as I have heard rumours of a party bag that’s being made just for me. I don’t quite know exactly how keen I am to see the contents as it's my darling sister and my best mate putting them together and I know they are likely to go a little OTT! Ah well… humiliation beckons. These things happen, but I would like to be able to show my face out and about in Belfast again!

The Past Few Weeks

I’ve not been on here a lot this month. I had a glorious 2 weeks of work as our office closed for the 12th July holidays. Unfortunately I spent one week in agony and I’m still suffering from mysterious abdominal pains. The lovely doctors in A&E ruled out appendicitis thank goodness but they had no idea what was causing the pain so I had the option of staying in the hospital stuffed full of painkillers where they could keep a bit of an eye on me or I could go home with loads of painkillers and at least be miserable in the comfort of my own home. I chose the latter and I’ve been holed up in my parents’ house feeling rather sorry for myself.

I suspect the major culprit is stress. I may have mentioned once or twice before that I’m quite a stressed person in general but with all the doings that need done in the run up to the wedding I feel like I’m turning into a time bomb that will explode at any minute. Thank gawd I have some very understanding friends and family and a very very very patient husband to be!

I’ve had my first dress fitting and all went well – I just need about 6 or 7 inches lopped off the bottom of the dress to stop myself from tripping head over heels as I try to walk anywhere in it! My next fitting is in a couple of weeks time and I’m very excited to see how it’s coming along. There will be one more fitting after that to make sure that everything is perfect and then I get to take it home. I will have to leave it safely in my friend’s house away from prying eyes and cigarette smoke and also to stop me from being tempted to try it on every 5 minutes and parade around the house in it!

The bridesmaids have now all been for their fittings too. 2 out of 3 need absolutely nothing done to their dresses and the third needs hers taken in (the bitch!!!!!). Hahaha… she will know who she is when she reads this and she knows I love her really! I’ve been told by my own dressmaker that I’m not allowed to loose any more weight or my dress won’t fit around the bust and it would be a nightmare (not to mention rather expensive) to take in in time for the wedding. Ho hum… I will just have to keep up the arm toning exercises and cut down on the aerobics.

Fandabbydosie :)

All day invitations have now gone out. They were posted on Friday 20th and I know for sure that they have arrived with some lucky people! Now I’m eagarly awaiting the RSVPs, I have received 1 so far – yay!

I got a handful of evening invites sent out last week too. I had a few wrangles with my Dad about what they should say so that they would be grammatically correct, but eventually we more or less agreed on what should be written. I got them all printed off and sent out to friends that we were unable to invite to the main meal and ceremony section of the day; and I was happy. Oooh, it all seemed too easy and of course it was! I managed to send out 2 dozen invites that told everyone where to be, for what reason and at what time. I just managed to leave off the date of the actual wedding – DOH!!! So I have been inundated with emails and text messages and phone calls over the weekend trying to figure out when we’re getting married.

I’m obviously a bit less stressed than I was as my reaction was to laugh about it and not go on a psychotic rampage. I’ve been trying to exercise a bit more rather than stuff my face full of chocolate to get the endorphin rush that allows me to cope with life and it seems to be working! I had a great weekend of things to take my mind off wedding talk too. On Saturday I was enlisted to help out with the Lord Mayor’s Carnival in Belfast. All dressed in a fab costume from the people at Whirligigg I became a flag for a few hours and got to dance around the streets near the front of the parade. I don’t think I’ve ever smiled so much in all my life – it was a great experience and I’m so pleased I got to be a part of it all!

On Sunday I got a very unexpected visitor. A friend from school who I’ve not seen for 8 years showed up on my doorstep! She lives in Manchester and was over for a family wedding. I know her brother too and he was the one who brought her round to see me. What a great surprise! We spent a very lovely few hours in the pub round the corner from my house catching up and reminiscing about people we knew and the things we got up to. It was definitely a successful weekend!

Unfortunately all the reminiscing and drinking was cut short as I had an appointment to see the hotel where we’re having the wedding. Final details needed to be arranged, so now we have sorted out the menus, what people are drinking, when we’ll be eating, when the band with get there and the layout of the room. All minor things but getting them organised now will help the day run more smoothly and it’ll be much more enjoyable for everyone – hooray!

Another day closer

Phew… another day closer and another day of waiting for the rest of my invitation stuff to arrive. What a bummer – I’d have liked to be ready to post them by now.

Oh well… I am much cheered up after a fab cocktail night with my two bestest girlies ever. For two lightweight drinkers they certainly gave me a run for my money! We lasted 10 hours and got through a lot of booze – certainly more than 3 people have any right to drink in one sitting. I’m sure we got through our weekly recommended units allowance 3 times over in just the one evening!

All the cake and booze consumed over the weekend have done nothing to help my waistline or general feeling of well being. I feel a bit like the Michelin Man at the minute which is very bad with only 10 weeks to go before the big day! So now I’m planning a regime of daily walks and aerobics 2 or 3 times a week to try and keep me trim on the run up to the wedding. I know if I was left to my own devices I’d end up as big as a horse because I comfort eat when I’m stressed – cake and lovely sweet coffee or cheese and wine… oooohhh… the possibilities are endless! So. Yes. Definitely. Walks with the dog and my wee hand weights to help tone up my arms, some aerobics and a lot less cake.

I can feel myself becoming more motivated as I type!!!

(yeah, right!)

Not another f*cking flower….

I went the way of the cheapskate (ahem... shouldn't I really be saying artistic creative???) with the invitations and thought I would make them myself. I do have to admit that they are rather lovely but so very, very time consuming! All together we have approximately 70 invitations to send out for the day time part of our wedding i.e. the ceremony and the meal and an as yet unknown quantity of evening invitations. We’re using gorgeous textured Indian cotton which rather likes to jam in the printer so I have to feed each sheet through individually – not too bad, a bit boring but do-able. That was the easy part, next there are 3 beautiful but rather fragile flowers to be stuck to each day time invitation and one on each evening invitation! Out come the tweezers and the glue dots. Glue dots are fabulous things, one tiny little glue dot sticks a flower to the invitation and there the flower stays. Forever!

Therein lies the problem; the glue dots are just a little too sticky…

Out come the tweezers to lift the glue dots from the roll but it’s a very delicate operation, pull too hard and the glue dot comes away from the roll but snaps back in on itself and becomes useless or rips, pull too softly and the blimmin things won’t come away from the roll at all. Then if you don’t stick it to the page just right there is no taking the glue dot off without ripping a swathe out of the page. Thank goodness Indian cotton paper is a bit rough looking anyway!

So far I am winning but I’ve had to order more supplies and can’t get everything finished just yet. I failed to factor in losses due to breakages, printer problems and the fact that it just wasn’t as easy to get everything right first time as I had anticipated! Oh, and never mind the fact that all the envelopes I ordered have no sticky bit to close them so I’ve had to order in a load of envelope seals as well!

I’m hoping that at least by posting this someone will read about my mistakes and they maybe won’t make them too! Oh well, maybe I’ll get the invitations out by the end of next week instead! Keep your fingers crossed for me!!!

On a last aside I’m feeling a bit less stressed now I have something productive to do, I think sitting around waiting and waiting and knowing that there’s nothing more I can do but wait has been driving me a little bonkers. Only 2 months and 14 days to go now, somehow that makes the fact that it’s Friday the 13th today (eek!) a little better!

NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have officially put all the weight I lost at the start of the year back on again. Arse…

It Fits!

Well, sort of…

I had my first dress “fitting” on Saturday. I say fitting - what I really mean is going to the dress shop; seeing my dress for the first time since January and trying it on then getting the assistant to phone their dressmaker and arranging me another appointment in July! Ho hum… I could have just sent them a cheque – which I nearly had to do since I left my cheque book on my kitchen table at home. Thank goodness for my sister saving the day. The dress is now all mine!

Anyway it's gorgeous and very flattering on so I am quite happy. I have to say I’m not much looking forward to more faffing about going to fittings but if I don’t I’ll be tripping over an extra 7 spare inches of dress and then I wouldn’t be the rather elegant bride I’d like to be! Hahaha, actually I doubt the elegance will last much past my second glass of wine but we’ll see!

After the “fitting” I went into town with all my bridesmaids in search of accessories. 2 of my 3 bridesmaids have now successfully purchased beautiful shoes & bags to wear on the day. 1 more to get sorted but she has an idea now of what she wants so fingers crossed she’ll find lovely shoes in the right colour (but we’re going with silver so it shouldn’t be too hard!)

I was supposed to go out on Saturday night to check out the bar I’d like to have my hen party in but things went a bit belly up and we never actually made it to the bar in question. I think I’m going to chance it and go there anyway. We’re having an 80s theme and a cheesy night of 70s, 80s & 90s disco is just what the doctor ordered. I think I’m a bit more excited about that than my impending nuptials – I love any excuse to get all dressed up and have a bit of a boogie, plus the fact that my costume is ACE. You’ll just have to wait for the hen party blog post to see!

This week’s task is putting the invitations together and sending them out early next week. It’s quite early to send them but I think I would rather get everything over & done with asap! The more that’s done the less I have to worry about – I think that’s my new mantra!

P.S. 2 months & 17 days to go now!!

2 Months & 21 Days

So there are now 2 months and 21 days until I get married and start my whole new life as a married woman. Even typing that makes me feel a bit aprehensive. I’ve got to the point where we’ve been engaged for so long and I’ve been going over every little detail so comprehensively that I just can’t be bothered with it any more! I think I now realise how my hubby-to-be has been feeling since the start. We’ve both reached the stage where we’d like to be married but the idea of the 2 of us in a registry office and then down the pub afterwards seems like a much more appealing option!

I have my first dress fitting tomorrow. I’ve not seen it since I ordered it in January so I’m quite excited about that but there’s a little demon on my shoulder whispering “you’ve put on wieght since then”; “it won’t be as nice as you remember”; “you’ll need loads of re-sizing and it will cost a fortune” and other such poisonous statements. The worst thing is that I realise this demon is myself and if all of the above is true then I have no-one to blame but myself and somehow that makes it even harder.

I am easily stressed (I think I’ve inherited that from my father!) so dealing with impending nuptials is sending me a bit over the edge but I know I’m making the right decision and now it’s just a matter of finding a coping solution. I hope that this blog will help a little with that, but only time will tell!