Paris & Joe: It’s All In The Detail

I cannot believe that it has been three months since I last blogged, the time seems to have flown by!

The past three months have been packed full of busy, exciting things. One of the biggest things is that we sent our invites out and have now received our RSVPs back (with some gentle reminders to those guests who didn’t clock the “Kindly respond by 3^rd May” part of the invite). I was completely over the moon with the finished result. In the end I found a warm teal green and textured ribbon which I glue gunned into a makeshift belly band and tied twine around with a little tag to hold the various cards together. My favourite part has to be the RSVP card, which is double sided and designed from scratch by me, Joe and Helen (the graphic designer). I loved having a song choice and wine choice – because how many times have you been at a wedding and seen the unwanted bottle of red lingering on the tables until you’re drunk enough to give it a go?

Invites!

We have 92 guests coming plus ourselves and 4 suppliers which brings us neatly under the 100 we were hoping to cater for. Thankfully the entire world didn’t opt for lobster as a main course, the worry of which had caused many a sleepless night, so I am pleased to say that we haven’t had to remortgage just to feed our families and friends on the big day. Phew.

The second biggest thing is that I have had my hen do! And it was just spectacular. Nine of my pals from school and I jetted off to Iceland for two nights of pure shenanigans. With an average 3 hours sleep per night we spent most of the weekend in delirious, sleep-deprived laughter. It never got fully dark while we were there so leaving a bar at 4am and putting on your sunglasses was pretty bizarre! The Blue Lagoon was a welcome break from sitting at a desk and the constant flow of cocktails, prosecco, double macchiatos and fab food helped to ease all of the stress from the last 18 months. It’s amazing what a weekend laughing with your friends can do for your stress levels!

My girls.

Having booked all the big essential wedding things very early on (venue, photographer etc), I think I had become a bit complacent about all the other bits and bobs. It always felt too early to start crafting or I thought I would have too much time to change my mind if I started to buy decorations. So when we hit the 4 month mark it was inevitable really that there would be a panic.

I have mentioned before that a couple of my friends are engaged at the moment and planning their own weddings. I was visiting one of them at the time and she is getting married in mid-November. She started showing me her veil, bridesmaid head pieces, dresses, flower girl dress, centre pieces… the list goes on. And every item I thought, “oh yeah, I need to do that soon”, until a knot of dread started to form in my stomach. As big and full as my Pinterest wedding boards are (yes, boards plural), I hadn’t purchased a single decorative thing. Or bridesmaid thing. Or groom thing.

It’s not that I hadn’t looked. Many an evening has been spent researching, showing Joe things on the internet and essentially agreeing on all the things we would like. But it is always followed by, “Oh, but we don’t need to buy those now”. Well actually, we do!

So now I am going to bore you with pictures of some of the bits and pieces that I panic bought at 6:30am one Saturday morning while Joe scuttled off to gym, sensing that this was not something he wanted to witness…

There was no rhyme or reason to the purchases as it was all very impulsive but once they started to arrive in the post I felt back on top of the wedmin and all was right again. I am particularly fond of the mint green chevron straws and they are the first thing I show people when they visit – nobody seems quite as enthused about them as I am.

The best thing though is the faux-coral cake topper. I love it more than anything and cannot wait to have it in our bathroom after the wedding as a lovely reminder of our cake! While on the subject of cake, the cake is being made by Joe’s cousins (one of which is his best man) and the inspiration is below, provided by Pinterest of course. They are going to jazz it up with some meringue kisses and he sent me a picture of the practice run for these recently which is beyond exciting. Joe is most opinionated on the cake and declared that we will have a passionfruit and mango layer, white chocolate and raspberry layer and a coconut and lime layer. I don’t mind as long as I get to be chief cake tester.

Bridesmaid dresses from No 1 Jenny Packham at Debenhams- unfortunately no longer available!

I have also bought bridesmaid dresses. By which I mean, my mum found them, ordered them and begged me to get my bridesmaids’ opinions before I made her take them back. The bridesmaids loved them and now they are staying. I had originally bought pleated cream skirts and was looking for a structured, embellished cream top to go with them to which my mum told me I might as well give them frilly socks and have a Grease themed wedding… Cheers mum! All in all, I weighed up the free dresses, which my bridesmaids and my mum love, against saying no out of principle and decided it just wasn’t worth the hassle. And annoyingly, I have since grown to love them.

So that is my 3 month round up! Have or did any of you leave it late to sort out the finer details? Surely I can’t be the only one…!

Paris x

Paris & Joe: Photos, Food & Invites

My oh my it has been a busy few months in our household. From engagement photos, food tastings, invite designing, calligraphy classes, Hen Do bombshells and being a bridesmaid it has felt like I have had hardly any time to sit down and write. So I call this my January to March roundup…

From the moment that we got engaged and started taking horrendous selfies to capture our newly-engaged happiness, I knew that I wanted to do an engagement shoot. Generally it takes me a good 10 shots before I look like a normal sane human being in a selfie, and sometimes even then it does not happen (apologies to Joe for the 11 consecutive selfies taken outside the Colloseum in Rome, zero of which feature me with both eyes open, looking at the camera and not appearing to be on the verge of some kind of seizure). I wanted something that looked a bit more natural where we could just do our coupley thang.

So in January we headed over to Ramsgate beach with our lovely photographer Rebecca Douglas. We spent a good hour and a half walking and chatting and doing a few natural poses. It was absolutely painless and we ended up with some really fab pictures – although I am laughing like an idiot in 99.9% of them. Still, an upgrade on the Colloseum shots, eh?

Beautiful images by Rebecca Douglas Photography

At the end of January we went to a tasting at the Lobster Shack, which was great fun. We were served mini portions of all the starters, mains and desserts, as well as helping ourselves from big bowls of the salads and pastas that come as part of the BBQ, hog roast and buffet options. They had laid out how all the dishes would be presented on the day and served a heap of yummy canapés. My personal low point was pretending not to have already tried the duck and mango filo pastries, twice, in order to have another portion.

The food was completely delicious, particularly the seafood options. Crisp, fluffy batter, homemade mayonnaises, fresh local fish. The highlight of my night was Joe trying a Bloody Mary oyster shot – his first ever oyster and immediately chased down with a good glug of beer. His expression kept me amused all evening.

Prior to the tasting we had pretty much decided on an old school boxed option of fish, lobster, sausage or stuffed pepper ‘n’ chips. Possibly a starter, possibly not. And a HUGE dessert table filled with cakes and donuts. Basically, a mountain of comfort food.  With only 7 months to go until the wedding, there is no longer room for big movement in the budget. Which is where the food dilemma begins. We started to ask ourselves: can we have a BBQ? Will Grandma really want to queue up for a burger? Could we have the boxed option and starters? Do we really like the starters? Could we serve plated fish and chips and not have the lobster as an option? Should we not have canapés? I feel like we came away with more questions than answers!

Eventually we decided on a two course plated option with oyster canapés. The cake and donut dessert table would just have to wait until the evening to make its appearance. My mum was disappointed enough with our lack of starter option that she offered to pay for the upgrade, and we weren’t going to turn down an offer like that! So three courses and oyster canapés it is.

The final week of January brought a Brighton Hen Do for my lovely friend and bridesmaid, Sophie, in which we were taught the Beyonce Single Ladies routine and I discovered my inner Sascha Fierce, strutting around with serious sass… at least in my head. Her wedding two weeks later was just brilliant, featuring ten bridesmaids in floor length black gowns and some seriously chic décor. Did I mention she planned it all in four months?

And finally, for the past three months we have been designing our invites, which have now been sent off to print! Yay! I am so grateful that we were introduced to Sophie’s sister who is a graphic designer and has managed to turn our stationery dreams into reality for a fraction of the prices we had previously been quoted. Unlike our bold and bright save the dates, I have gone for much more neutral colours for the invites, and of course they feature a fitting seaside stripe and our lobster logo. The only thing to do now is decide on the perfect shade of green for the twine or ribbon to tie them together. Having already spent more than an acceptable amount of lunch breaks in the local haberdashery, it may not be as easy as it looks. Teal, turquoise, emerald… too many greens!

In usual Drew-Wooldridge time keeping, I had hoped and failed to get the invites sent out on the 6 month count down. The new mental deadline is the 3^rd April but I am not holding my breath. AND YES, WE HAVE PASSED THE 6 MONTH COUNT DOWN! Where has eighteen months of engagement gone?! I hope the last 6 months do not go quite as quickly as I am starting to worry that I could run out of time… does anyone else feel this disorganised??

Paris x

Paris & Joe: To Videographer or Not To Videographer?

The past month has been seriously productive and we have now booked videographers and a band! We had many a deliberation on whether or not to have a videographer. The cons were the cost and that Joe thought our wedding would end up having more “paparazzi” than guests. (Not one to be dramatic, clearly.) I loved the idea of being able to re-live the day in movement rather than just through stills, and I also loved the thought of having some guest messages captured a few beers in when the party was in full swing. Many a friend told us that not having a videographer was their biggest regret but we still sat on the fence. It was so hard to find wedding videos that didn’t make me cringe – be it the music or the cheesy couple shots – so we actually only found two that we loved. We eventually bit the bullet and met with Ignite Films at a Café Nero and immediately hit it off, chatting about our jobs, relationship and wedding plans. Just like the photographer, we left the meeting without a doubt in our minds that these were the chaps for us. And I say chaps because there are two of them! Which is great because I will get a peek at Joe’s pre-wedding prep, which I already imagine will consist of booze, booze and more booze. God help the registrar.

We booked the band through Alive Network which I would completely recommend doing. Not only do you know instantly which bands are available on your date, you also get a handy quote based on your date and location so a quick search allows you to find something perfect for your budget. Plus, most of the bands do a video introducing themselves and the music that they play which lets you get a feel for who they are. After a week on Alive Network I think I have heard enough renditions of Mr Brightside to last a lifetime! But we finally whittled it down to Teenage Kicks – a three piece from Brighton who couldn’t have designed a better playlist for us if they tried. They provide a free DJ service between sets and learn your choice of first dance song so I am pretty pleased with our choice.

In general wedding planning news, I am realllllllllly struggling to choose a colour scheme. The mezzanine level where we will actually get married is simple and I have decided to have all white/cream with possibly a hint of gold. I’m picturing paper lanterns, festoon lighting and a beautiful floral arch built from all kinds of white and cream flowers – I recently found out that my front running flower, the anemone, wont be in season which I was super gutted about. But downstairs where all the good stuff happens I want a frenzy of colour with a proper party feel. It really boils down to two schemes – reds, oranges and pinks, or turquoises, purples and blues. I am feeling slightly more swayed toward the former because the flowers in those colours are just amazing, but I am sure this battle will rumble on for a good few months. I am already planning cream bridesmaid dresses so that I don’t have to commit to a colour scheme until the last minute – some good forward thinking if you ask me!

The perfect arch, and a gratuitous shot of our awesome venue.

Spicy vs tropical brights?!

So there you have it, a few more things crossed off the list and I am starting to see what our wedding day will look like. Let me know if any of you also deliberated over a videographer and what decision you eventually came to. And any opinions on the colour scheme would be great too!

Paris x