“Smile please...”

We took a trip over to Market Harborough tonight to meet up with Nigel Ord-Smith, wedding photographer. Jo & Janet used him for their civil ceremony - and Kelmarsh Hall had him on their approved list too.

What we liked about him was his relaxed manner and the creative side to his work. Take a look at his Galleries HERE. He also does a nice line in Wedding Albums too – very different from the norm!

Having spent about an hour-and-a-half with him, looking at a full range of his past work, we’re certain that he’ll be a great choice for our special day.

...and another two

After meticulously working out the wedding guest list on Sunday, and then double-checking and then triple-checking it, we arrived at a total of 91 (plus us). We looked at it again tonight and arrived at...

93 (plus us) !!!!!

...I’m not going to look at it anymore because based on this, and with around 440ish days still to go, we’ll be up to 700 by December 2011!

     

Table Planning

My first foray into creating the table plan for the Wedding today! To say it was ‘tricky’ would be an understatement – I hadn’t realise how complex the task would be!

Seating friends together, keeping certain  people apart and making it all fit into the space certainly stimulated the grey-matter. Fortunately, I cheated (slightly) by using a piece of software that takes a lot of the strain out of the task! it’s called Perfect Table Plan and it does exactly what it says on the tin – and some!

- Simply enter the names of all your guests (or import it from something like Excel)
- Tell the software who’s related to who (so they end up sitting next to each other – or not!)
- Choose the size and type of table – and how many
- Place the tables where you want them
- Drag and drop your guests into their seats – or if you’re feeling lazy, use the auto-assign
   button and it’ll use the ‘relationships’ you’ve input, and a few seconds later, you have your
   table plan, with everyone ‘in the right place’
- Now fine-tune it manually if you wish for the perfect result!

Once you are happy with your plan, you have the option of printing table-cards, table plans, guests lists by table and/or name – cool!!!

The Numbers Game…

We’ve had another look at the guest list… and another look… and another look! Finally, we’ve agreed that it’ll be 91 guests plus us two.

Phew! Deciding who to include, and who not to, was a lot harder than we thought!!!!

We’ve also re-thought the idea of Ushers – and we think that we WILL probably have some - to assist the Best Man and the Toast-Master and make their life a lot easier! Now we just need to decide who!

"Smile please..."

I sent an email to the photographer - Nigel - today. He did Jo and Janet's event and the pictures were superb!!

His web-site is HERE

Update: We're seeing Nigel next Wednesday at 7.30pm to go through options

‘The Family Way’

Today, the phoning  began – I rang round the rest of family to break the news.

• Mum: speechless and emotional in equal measure. Said she had a sudden premonition an hour earlier where I ‘suddenly came into her mind’ – spooky!!!
• Roger + Jane: ‘totally delighted!’
• Bev: voicemail – no doubt, she’ll call later
• Neil + Debbie: ‘Congratulations – we’re really pleased!’
• Lee: ‘Absolutely fantastic – congratulations’

Phew!

“Yes...”

19:57. Denis rang to let me know he’d received my letter seeking permission to marry Ann. He was clearly in a slight state of shock!

Initially speechless, when he did manage to get the words out, he said he was delighted and the answer was, of course, ‘yes’ – Mae couldn’t stop talking!!!

Well, that’s the first box ticked!!

"Food for Thought..."

It pays to plan ahead! I rang the two preferred Caterers today to try and set up a meeting to go through the details. Our preference was to meet them on a Saturday, but I guess for obvious reasons, that day is out because – you guessed it – they’re doing Weddings!!

So, it looks as if it’ll have to be a weekday, towards the end of the day - and because of our busy diaries, trying to find a date that suits them and us is going to be tricky.
Lucky the wedding is in 2011 and not 2010 then!!!

Update 10th August: Hooray!! I've sorted out dates with both Lemon Zest and Cloverdale. We're going to see them both in October

Magician confirmed

We've decided to go for Will. We'll be sending the deposit off in the next week or so and he's given us permission to use anything from his website when we come to design the 'welcome pack'

“Foody Friday!”

We’ve now had sample menus in from a number of local caterers. As expected, prices vary, and so does the range of food on offer.

One supplier has so much small print to read before we proceed that it may take until the wedding to get through it all! We probably won’t use them simply because of that!!

So, in the next few weeks we’ll be taking a trip to those that are left and making the decision.

“Please Mr Postman…”

As the song goes: “Deliver the letter, the sooner the better…”

I sent Denis the letter this morning asking permission to marry Ann – the thud you’ll hear, will be his jaw hitting the floor!

Seeking Permission...

I plan to write to Denis this week to ask his permission to marry Ann. I suppose I don’t have to, but it feels like the right thing to do.

I could ring him, but he’s a little deaf these days and I have visions of having to shout down the phone, and him replying: “you want to carry my water...what!”

Invitation Draft 1

We’re going to send out a note to all invitees in their Christmas Cards this year. They’ll all get the formal invitation nearer the time, but this is an opportunity to let everyone know, so they can put it in their diary.

It’s in the shared folder named invite_1.doc HERE.