Happenings

Stuff is happening.

A Proactive Groom

Ok, ‘proactive’ may be a little strong, but with the arrival of the Easter Holidays comes a teacher fiance who is finally ready to put some thought to the wedding. He’s ‘present’, shall we say. A little more open to discussing wedding-related s**t than he is during term time. As he keeps reminding me, he has a ton of coursework to mark and therefore cannot dedicate his fortnight purely to Operation Amazing Wedding (as much as I’d like him to), but he hasn’t thrown away the To-Do List I keep casually leaving for him every morning… yet.

He Has A Suit!

A month or so ago I managed to drag him to Bluewater to try on a few suits, and there was only one real contender for me; a charcoal grey three-piece number from Moss. We went back on Friday with best man, Alex, and after much deliberation involving most of the shop staff, a clash of opinions between myself and said best man, and a last-minute Ted Baker contender, the Italian-clothed-Tom-Ford-esque suit that we’d originally seen was purchased.

Not, however, before I’d made an absolute hash of channeling my inner Justin Preston and attempting to get a free tie thrown in. I tried being funny, I tried flirting, I tried playing hardball… but the manager wasn’t having any of it. He knew we were gonna buy it regardless, the bastard. (I realised we should have walked away- to save my pride at least- but we’d been in there an hour. I just wanted the goddamn suit.)

Just the shirt, shoes, tie and pocket square to go now. Speaking of which, any recommendations for a top quality men’s white shirt??

The Ceremony Nitty Gritty

On a roll, I also managed to get Paul to talk briefly about the ceremony, and the possibility of us personalising our vows. I’ve been tip-toeing around this subject for months now as even the faintest mention of the ‘I do’s’ has brought him out in hives previously. But with time against us now, and a happier Paul all-round due to being on school holidays, I timed it well and broached the subject on Sunday night.

My dilemma was this:

• The Kent Ceremony script options were bland and simplistic, and I knew I wanted to add something to make it more meaningful
• Paul felt quite the opposite and wanted to use the simplest and shortest script options given and not embellish the ceremony any further.
• Stalemate.
• I had found a poem (‘The Vow’ by Wendy Cope) that I’d kind of fallen in love with and wanted to use somehow in the ceremony, preferably as my ‘vow’ to him…
• …However, this would mean he had to say something similar back to me, which he was having none of.
• I needed to find a reading for my step-sisters that a) suited them, b) suited us, and c) hadn’t been done a million times before.
• I didn’t want one of them reading ‘The Vow’ as I didn’t feel it would be given justice as ‘a reading’.  They were words I wanted to say to Paul as they resonated so strongly with me.

The solution came to me whilst I was washing up, and after nearly tipping the bowl over with excitement, I pitched my idea to Paul and- thankfully, finally!- he agreed it was a good compromise.

I don’t want to give too much away before the wedding, but there will be some short personal promises to follow on after the ‘I take you to be my wedded wife’ line (not written yet but we will say the same thing I expect), my step-sisters will read together, and the Wendy Cope poem will be used… in some form.

Art Attack

The final part of the Bank Holiday Weekend Wedding Extravaganza was a trip down to my Mum’s for lunch and sign painting. Months ago I’d rescued an old wooden pallet from an untimely end and the planks had been in my garage since, waiting to be cleaned, sanded and made pretty.

Myself, Paul, my Mum aka Deputy Wedding Planner and my step-sister Charlotte took on a sign each, and voila!

We were pretty pleased with ourselves.

Lots more to come over the next week or so, folks. Stay tuned…

Sama xxx