What a difference a year makes...

It has been a while since I last made a post to this blog, I have to admit, I have been procrastinating considerably on all things 'Wedding' related but the past few months have been moving in the right direction, we have made considerable progress as I will detail below. I say procrastinating, but there have been a few obstacles that I have had to overcome this year, I don't feel like my heart has been in it because of these factors. I've not only been poorly, I've also had a cancer scare (Cervical cancer). Thankfully after months of tests and an awful colcoscopy exam I was given the all clear late last year. However, on Friday 13th December (of all days) I woke up extremely dizzy but it didn't pass, in fact, it got worse throughout the day. The following morning I went to the emergency doctors and after a few weeks of diagnosis, I was diagnosed with Labrythinitis with severe vertigo. If you have never had it then it is quite a trial to say the least. It is a constant dizzy feeling to the point where it makes you nauseous, a little bit like when you have had too much to drink (the bad part of being drunk) and the doctors say there is not much they can do other than wait for the tablets to take effect. I am now on week seven and there has been little improvement so I am quite frustrated with my body at the moment. What can you do! Life gives you lemons like that sometimes and you just have to make the best of the situations that you are put in. 

Since I last updated (nearly a year ago, wow, time has flown!), we have chosen, booked and fully paid for the venue! We were also able to select a date that we really wanted, we chose Friday 10th October 2014 at 1.30pm. This is our actual anniversary anyway and as by the time we get married we would have been together for seven years, it seemed appropriate to keep it as our special day. 

So early October last year (2013), we went to a little venue called 'Slaters Country Inn' in Staffordshire and it was the first and only venue we saw. As soon as me and my fiance walked in, we decided it was the perfect fit for us and really did not feel the need to look elsewhere.

The venue itself is so intimate, warm and inviting. It is in the countryside overlooking fields with horses and has wooden, rustic beams throughout the main reception area. There is a roaring fire that would be lit for us, as it would be October weather I am anticipating it will be cold! 

We decided that we would have a very small guest list with between 25-30 guests in total for both the evening and the day. I'm quite shy and don't really fancy all eyes on me, I think I initially had in my head about 50 people, but we talked about it and decided that we just wanted the most important people in the world to us there on the day (i.e. immediate family and close friends), so this suits me just fine. It also makes the day feel that much more intimate and having the most important people there to us is the only thing we both wanted (that obviously amounts to 25-30 people in our 'circle of trust!'). 

We have also selected a theme, confirmed the colour scheme and have been so busy making little DIY projects, my head is full to the brim of ideas, the only thing holding me back from doing them all would be if the funds run out (it's a possibility!) but I am going to stay positive about that and try to do everything as cost-effective as possible. I'll show you all the tricks of the trade I have learnt over the past year, ladies. Watch this space as this will probably be spaced across a number of different posts (they will be linked to the bullet points below as soon as I write them, so keep checking back!).

So here is a brief summary of what we have been doing;

• Booked the venue.

• Chosen our Photographer.

• Chosen the Colour Scheme:

Burgundy, pink and ivory

• Made 'Save the Dates'.
• Made some 'prototype invites'.
• Made my own cascading Bridal bouquet from fake flowers (I know, I have changed my entire opinion about artificial flowers, as I prefer to call them now, a lot has happened in a year! They are actually amazing flowers though and look quite effective I think - more on this later, I will even show you how I made it so you can think about doing your own - if I can do it, so can you, I literally knew nothing, zilch, about flower-arranging).

• We have booked a sweet cart for our Wedding!

• Put down a deposit for a videographer.