Spreadsheet Challenge

Roger called me and observed that the food-choice spreadsheet, emailed to you all last week, is a little tricky to print because of the number of pages – it’s certainly not going to sit neatly in your DJ pocket!

I think the work-around is to go into ‘print preview’, then ‘setup’ and then faff around with the ‘scaling’ setting. I adjusted mine from 100% to 50%, widened the margins and got it down to seven pages (from the original 20-something).

Hope this helps!

If anyone else is struggling and can’t resolve it, let me know and I’ll try and help.

Bills, Bills, Bills!

Less than two weeks to go and the reality of the event kicked-in yesterday as we paid most of the outstanding bills!

That certainly took some of the romance out of it – still, it’s only money!!!!

Wedding Rehearsal + Hen Night + Stag Night

Today was our wedding rehearsal at Kelmarsh Hall. All the key players were there. Wow! what an event. The singing brought a tear to the eye and musicians were just fantastic! A real worthwhile exercise overall, and it really helped to iron out the nitty-gritty. Thanks Jill, Thanks Emma for your advice..and your patience!

Hen Night:

Ann had her Hen Night at Rushden Hall…or was it Rushton Hall. Whichever one it was, as Ralph and I were the surprise guests to run the ‘Hen Quiz’, I managed to drive us to the wrong one! Doh!!!!

On arrival, just 45 minutes late, the girls were clearly in the mood for competition :) and we proceeded to run our ‘Love and Marriage’ Quiz. Yeeks! I thought blokes were competitive, but pitch a group of girls against each other and wait for the fireworks! Lucky it was only for fun!!!!

After announcing the winners, Ralph and I stayed on briefly, before tearing back to home, for a quick change of clothes ready for my Stag Night.

 

Stag Night:

My Stag Night was at The Raj in Kettering. Thanks to some superb organisation by Paul, we managed to conjure up enough cars to get there without needing a taxi. The Raj was already busy when got there, and after some drinks upstairs in the piano bar we were ushered to a separate room for main meal.

In a true and highly predictable nature of a Stag Night, it wasn’t long before some of the team were scheming! Drinks were flowing freely – a bit too freely in my direction – and I slowed down my intake considerably, if only to make it until the end of the night!

The meal was good and everyone seemed to enjoy it. Next up, back to the piano bar but not before the scheming played out in full and I was introduced to Belinda who together with her 34 friends were celebrating her 50th birthday via 35 bottles of wine and 15 bottles of champagne. In other circumstances, this was a young man’s dream come true, enhanced by the advice from our side that they’d apparently determined that Belinda wasn’t wearing any underwear!

My encounter with Belinda was short-lived – I wished her happy birthday, she wished me well for the wedding and i was soon following the boys back the piano bar. Clearly I wasn’t her type!

My glass only ever got to being half empty before some helpful soul (???) topped it up. I think all-in-all I only got through a couple of pints and a glass of red. My head was telling me otherwise though, and on reflection, I think some of my guests may have ‘topped up’ my beverage with other spirits. or maybe I just can’t hold my drink anymore??? – could I ever???

Twenty minutes later, the waitress let me know that ‘36 women were about to join us’. It was Belinda’s group. Soon we were outnumbered 2:1…and it actually felt quite intimidating. Thirty-six feisty women in search of (and determined to) have a good time was a site not to be missed as they gradually took over the bar. Drinking gave way to slightly slurred speeches from Belinda’s group. Not to be outdone, Tom jumped up on stage and proceeded to ‘big me up’ in front of the girls as a great dancer (err, no!) and one of the best at spinning on my head (err, no!). Luckily for me, there wasn’t much encouragement for me to follow it through – clearly, the girls could see my potential as a dancer, just by looking at me! Phew!!!

I lasted until around 11pm, when the alcohol was winning and my duvet was calling me. I agreed to exit with a few others leaving Tom, Paul, Bev, Trevor and John propping up the Bar. It was probably wise to leave when I did as I learned on Sunday that Tom got home around 4.30am.

A night to remember (as all Stag’s should be), and I retired to bed just before midnight with a very, very, VERY heavy head and no recollection of being hand-cuffed to a lamp-post!

Thanks for sorting it all out Tom – I’ll try and return the favour some time!!!!

:)

The Stags:

Bev R

Chris A

David A - Usher

David L

Ian McL - Usher

John C

John W

Paul J

Paul R

Ralph G - Best Man

Roger G - Usher

Roy C

Stefan B

Steve P

Steve S

Tommy T

Trevor L

Rings

We dropped into George Tarratt’s in Leicester this afternoon to pick-up the wedding rings. They’re a bespoke design, a matching pair in white gold with diamonds on the front face.

…and they look FANTASTIC!

Ring Ring!!

I'm meeting Ann in Leicester and then we're off to the jewellers to pick up the rings!

Photographs

We dropped into Nigel’s Studio tonight to talk through the ‘must-get’ wedding photographs.

Hen Quiz

Ralph and I spent some time today, working out how we'll run the Hen Quiz (ssshhhhh! - the girls don't know we're the Quiz Masters!)

David and Rosi

David and Rosi got together yesterday to practise their duet in a slightly larger environment.

Steve and Ann get a Title

No, not that sort of title!

I picked up the bespoke drawing of Kelmarsh Hall today from Joy, the Calligrapher. She has added some suitable wording at the top in grey ink - and in a font that closely matches the one used for the invitations.

Nice job Joy!!!

We’ll bring it along to the Rehearsal.

Thank you for the Music

Something for discussion when meet on the 26th is the management of guest-selected music. Ralph has done a grand job of compiling all the tunes and the result is 4.6 hours of classics from the 80s.

The challenge is, how we try and ensure that it all gets played? We haven’t promised the guests that they’ll DEFINITELY hear their tune, but it would nice if they did!

Thinking caps on for the 26th please…

Here is the list so you can practise your karaoke:
:)

Addicted to Love - Robert Palmer
All Cried Out - Alison Moyet
All Night Long - Joe WaIsh
And The Beat Goes On - The Whispers
Anything For You - Gloria Estefan
Being with You - Smokey Robinson and the Miracles
Careless whisper - George Michael
Centrefold - J. Geils Band
Come on Eileen - Dexy‘s Midnight Runners
Dancing In The Dark - Bruce Springsteen
Do That To Me One More Time
- Captain & TennilIe
Don't You (Forget About Me) - Simple Minds
Don't You Want Me—Human League
Faith - George Michael
Flashdance…  What a Feeling - Irene Cara
Hello - Lionel Richie and The Commodores
Hold Me Now - Thompson Twins
I Got You Babe - UB40
If You Leave Me Now - Chicago
Into The Mystic - Van Morrison
It's raining men - The Weather Girls
Karma Chameleon - Culture C|ub
Let's Hear It for the Boy - Deniece Williams
Like a Prayer - Madonna 
Like a Virgin - Madonna
Love Action (I Believe In Love) - Human League
Love Letters - Alison M0yet
Money For Nothing - Dire Straits
Moving On Up - M People
Mr. Blue Sky - ELO
Ocean Rain - Echo and the Bunnymen
On the Wings of Love - Jeffrey Osbome
Owner Of A Lonely Heart - Yes
Perfect Day - Lou Reed
Piano in the Dark - Brenda Russell
Relax - Frankie Goes to Ho|lywo0d
Rio - Duran Duran
Sailing - Christopher Cross
Sexual Healing - Marvin Gaye
Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves - Eurythmics
Slow Hand - Pointer Sisters
Somebody Else's Guy - Jocelyn Brown
Stand and Deliver - Adam and the Ants
Tainted Love - Soft Cell
Take A Chance On Me - Abba
Take On Me - Aha
That's Amore - Dean Martin
The Look Of Love (Part 1) - ABC
The Power of Love - Frankie Goes to Hollywood
The Power of Love - Jennifer Rush
Thunder In My Heart - Leo Sayer
Too Much Too Young - The Specials
True - Spandau Ballet
Uptown Girl – Billy Joel
Valerie - Steve Winwood
Video Killed The Radio Star - Buggles
Vienna - Ultravox
Wake Me up Before You Go Go - Wham!
We Built This City - Starship
Wherever] Lay My Hat (That's My Home) - Paul Young
Wild Boys - Duran Duran
Wired For Sound - Cliff Richard
Woman in Love - Barbara Streisand
Working My Way Back to You Forgive Me Girl - The Spinners
You Are My World - Communards
You Can't Hurry Love - Phil Collins
You Make Me Feel Brand New - The Stylistics
You're in My Heart - Rod Stewart