The BIG one

So the day itself...

has come and gone, and what a little cracker of a day it was!



Every girl's wedding day is supposed to be the 'Best Day of Her Life' and absolutely perfect and everything, so there was the usual expectation and pressure but moreover curiosity about how I was actually going to feel about the day and how it was going to pan out. Do not forget I have been organising and planning this since December 25th 2008, ( I was not to be rushed!) so I've had more than enough time getting it right, and well, I am pretty easy going about such things. I've been told if I was any more laid back I'd be horizontal in the past which sounds like I am a idle or sluggish  - which I am not, I just don't panic too much or torment myself with worry.

Having said that I had nada, zilch, zero amount of sleep the night before. I get anxiety attacks occasionally which generally occur as night terrors, which my friend Helen and I call affectionately "The Fear" My last one happened before I flew out to Rwanda on a volunteer trip. I guess it was only right that I should have one the night before the BIG day. It wasn't because I had doubts about marrying my man or worried about supposedly spending the rest of my life with 'the one' (although that is a scary notion in itself generally), no, it was because the wedding was imminent, it was upon me, like NOW. Shit! There wasn't another day to punch heart garlands or fluff tissue paper pom poms. This was happening, this was real. Face it. EVERYONE WILL BE WATCHING YOU!

Happily the next day I felt a lot better even though a blanket of dark cloud had engulfed the blues skies of yesterday. It wasn't volcanic ash, just typically unpredictable, crappy English weather (yes I know, it's been beautiful for weeks!) and my eyes hurt and felt as tiny as fly poo. My mood was greatly improved by Demelza's (chief bridesmaid, who remained a sleeping beauty all night sans small child) knowing grin, as a recently married gal, and a cuppa brought up by my Step-Mum Mimi and Aunty Lulu singing Here Comes the Bride, tra la la. I chuckled and breathed a sigh of tired relief.

It then proceeded to rain and rain whilst we scurried around the marquee with rosemary place names, adding the final touches to the tables and whatever we needed to do before we got ourselves ready..

    Wellie boots, future father-in-law and rain

Malou my fantastic photographer for the day did a wonderful job capturing special moments throughout the day, along with her assistant Debbie. Do check out her site for a lot more lovely pics.

The hastily put together Bridesmaid Boudoir was to be my step-mother's painting studio, because according to Malou, the light was good. We tentatively perched between easels and oil paints, still life canvases of lemons and cherries and strangely a stuffed stoat. What commenced was a commotion of

 hair tong curling,  

 flower clip fastening, 

hues of blue pashmina choosing, 

nail polishing, rose bud nudging 

and cleavage stuffing.

 

 

Lovely, lovely Lily, Flower Girl.

 

The sun did come out...eventually...TBC

The Build up

 Since my engagement in Dec 08, I have been attempting to make all sorts of odd things like pom poms and heart garlands, been obsessed (which turned into jealously) with many a wedding blog, and chit chatting, I am sure rather boringly, to anyone who will listen about my impending wedding.

The pom poms went wrong, very, and so I ordered (rather hastily, a week before BIG day) some dreamy, properly made ones from the US.

                                © pom love

Aren't these adorable, and there are plenty more where they came from http://pomloveonetsy.blogspot.com/ in every colour you need.

The vats of bubbling chilli jam for the favours were a better success, as I am already in tune with the hot sticky stuff, although I possibly burnt a few bits and bobs through lack of stirring every 10 minutes, oops. I even made my own labels for the individual pots. I do sell my chilli jam and have a little site - www.jammypodgers.com which is basically one page, but I'd just like to say, I'd be delighted to sell you a jar of my produce!

    © Malou

And I had the romantic idea of stringing up heart garlands made from the pages of Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy - this took up several evenings and became less romantic after getting through 2 editions and 3 rolls of garden twine, it just became a bore BUT I think it was worth it for all the lovely compliments on the day.

    © Malou

However, I did enjoy writing out the place names (all 130 odd) with my favourite Lamy pen, being a complete stationery nerd - one doesn't get to use a pen much these days, unless they write letters, which most don't, including lazy me. I bought thousands of luggage tags on ebay, and merrily wrote out names in my best calligraphy which isn't very good, and made lots of mistakes.

                              © Malou

and my friend and chief bridesmaid Demelza had lots fun tying them to rosemary! 

Sorry Demelza!

It wasn't long (like a few days) after my engagement, before I knew what flowers I wanted, I've probably banged on about it here. But I'll just mention again peonies, sweet peas, cow parsley, corn flowers, ranunculus and roses, oh yeah! And these were to be languishing rather haphazardly, or certainly not in neat and perfect arrangements in lots of ribbony jam jars on the tables. 

All sorts of glass jars were collected (interestingly mine mainly consisted of peanut butter shaped ones) over the months and tea lights, their holders and paper lanterns were ordered.

I also bought (and Stitch consumed) a huge amount of old fashioned penny sweets for the tables

We, the Bride and Groom DO NOT LIKE, in any form or fashion, suet, currants, raisins (ok, if hidden in flapjacks etc) or sultanas so...... no wedding cake please (or Christmas or Christening). 

Instead, lets make cupcakes!!

These large brown phallic iced affairs are Stitch's - I think they depict typical man-made structures, although nicely set off with pink sparkles.

Mine were turquoise and pink with girly hearts, edible butterflies and shiny ball balls.


As well as cupcakes, a cake of cheese was also on the menu, a present from my brother Jools, who used to work for the Fine Cheese Company.

Now this excited me! Large slabs of delicious British cheeses - a fine Montgomery cheddar, a creamy blue Stilton and a ripened, deliciously squidgy Brie de Meux. Yum.

My silly brother making me laugh with the cheddar wrapper on his head a la our Uncle Johnny.



Exciting.....

A March visit to the wedding venue

Stitch and I needed to sort some wedding stuff out, namely the flowers and catering. We met Rachel from Green and Gorgeous flowers on a blustery, showery day - the sun would burst through the clouds for two minutes, only to be cast in shadow again as the rain fell and then suddenly stopped, and out she shone again, this went on all day - a perfect day for rainbows, as you will see...

Wow, Green and Gorgeous flowers is a fantastic place with 6 acres of land with all manner of flowers and veg. Everything has been rather slow this year, have you noticed?? So there wasn't much to show except for some lovely tulips and delightful poppies. Big fat semi feral cats (which were the friendliest feral pusses I've ever met, as Rachel bottle fed them when they were wee mites and knocking on death's door) came over for a stroke while the whippets jumped up and down excitedly.

© Green and Gorgeous flowers

We were shown into Rachel's little 'potting' shed for a cuppa and wedding flower discussion. As it poured down outside we ooooed and aaaaahed about Cornflowers and Peonies and ate buttery biscuits.

It was agreed that sweet peas would definitely play a major part in the jam jars on the tables as well asr anunculus and anemones, cow parsley swiped from the hedgerows, wax flowers and alchemilla mollis

At some point, we had to stop blathering on about flowers as we were due to see the caterer, and our minds turned to food as we waved good bye to Rachel, the dogs and the cats. I looked forward to our return in May, hoping that Mother Nature finally pulls her finger out and remembers it's Spring, and she should concentrate on helping these flowers grow.

















I have no visual aids for the food talk but it made my tummy rumble and my mouth water somewhat....canapes of mini roast beef and yorkshire puds (Dad's plea), devils on horseback, smoked salmon blinis - the usual delicious stuff, followed by rustic pies, one fish with a creamy rosti leek and potato topping and one lamb with a crusty pastry top..And then just to kill us off, a trio of puddings consisting of chocolate, syllabub and merengue, BUT I am not so interested in that. I'll be hankering after the Cheese cake, by that, I don't mean "cheesecake", I mean 3 big lovely rounds of British cheeses, yum.

Anyway here are some pics - the house has discarded her scaffolding at last and is looking pretty damn good. The garden is following closely behind....get the roses in the ground!

Here is the aforementioned rainbow astride the house

Some spring daffs

The lovely hound



The daft Grecia and the boy. It's hard to put your shoes on with a dog's tongue in your ear!

The amazing sky on our way to our friend's house too see my youngest Godson

Alfie!