I'm not I'm not I'm not

But in case anyone was wondering how I want to NOT celebrate NOT moving into the early (shh, whisper) 30s this weekend...

It would start with this...
and with warmer toes...then playing with my kind'a toys ...(don't ask but I really really want/need one)
and doing some important research ...

and finishing with some treats for ears and heart...


Please.

Thanks

via 1. This is Glamorous 2. via Need a Present 3 & 4. via Amazon 5. wish I could remember - sorry!

Absence makes the heart grow fonder*

*and that includes you sunshine!

OK, so I took some unplanned leave from the world of web but I am back now and full of good blogging intentions! Promise!

But we haven't been slacking on the actual wedding organising at all - though an awful lot of it is logistical or official stuff which is maybe why I have been away from the blog for so long. I balked at trying to make signing forms and paying bills sound romantic or exciting.

Having said that - it suddenly does feel rather exciting. We did our Marriage Care course (obligatory but actually recommended); we've had several meetings with Father John from our parish church (he's nice); we filled in all kinds of paperwork and dug out everything that documented our past (birth, baptism, communion, 25m swimming); we met with a solicitor friend to sign our "Declaration of Freedom" (best pronounced in a Braveheart warble I think); we registered a wedding list (although choosing any gifts is as yet too daunting); we created a very homemade website (actually just a blog in disguise); we researched and contacted every hotel in a 10k radius for our guests; we been keeping track on a super spreadsheet all the messages from friends and family about who was arriving and when. And lots lots more stuff, and as we did these little tasks and chores the magical far off unreal feeling about getting married lessened and the real, practical, solid feeling increased - exciting in a whole new way!

And also ... a bit terrifying. Because it seems that with every task we complete another ten pop up in their place. And thrilled though I am about how many of our wonderful loved ones have booked their flights and hotels I'm getting not infrequent anxiety dreams about them all showing up and there being no food, or pissing rain/hail/snow (it could happen, even in Italy!) or the priest being really horrible (we haven't met the one in Italy yet - eek!) or a power-cut, or or or, I get a HUGE spot! (I have a huge spot - grr)

OK - deep breath - it'll be fine - we're in wine country and our friends are ace - surely a recipe for guaranteed fun., yes?

Yeah, most of the time I do take a deep breath, I read this post on APW, and I smile and look forward to hazy fragrant summer days. And dancing ... and dancing ... and dancing ... with my husband....

Shh, don't tell anyone, but we've been learning to dance - it is soooo much fun - yup, it's not all been paperwork and panic attacks; we've done loads of fun stuff too. More of that to come shortly.

photos via Lanalou and A Foxy Wedding (I think)

Winter Wonderland

So this wedding on Style me Pretty is pretty much as different from the wedding we have planned as it is possible to be but it's somehow given me brand new hankering for a snowy winter wedding. Impossible - we'd either have to be married next month or wait another year (nooo!), where could we have guaranteed snow? plus I hate the cold and don't want to be so formal but ..

for a day dream wedding ... ahhhhh, so romantic!

Weird Dreams

Every now and again I have strange wedding dreams - usually slightly anxious ones where something weird happens that seems like a huge crisis in my sleepy world. Last night however was a little different. It was my wedding day or the day before. As happens in dreams, I was somewhere that was supposed to be the house in Italy but sort of wasn't. We had everything still to organise and everything was very home made. Little sister was collecting an assortment of plates and anything you could sit on for the dinner (up turned buckets, a tree log.) Meanwhile I was writing a long list of things we still needed on a post-it for Papa who was about to go on a shopping trip to the local co-op. On the list were place cards and suddenly it occurred to me that the post-its would do perfectly. I remember wondering why I hadn’t thought of this before!
Mama and Papa were picking wild weeds and branches and sunflowers that were growing everywhere. Everything was very calm. I was a little worried that I didn't have a chuppah yet, but we just took a sheet from the house and decorated it with the branches and wild flowers and it looked perfect.

[image left via Arum Fleuriste, image right via nvhurr designs]

Weird, because although I am very interested in the Jewish faith and their pragmatic approach to life's celebrations and hurdles, I'm a Roman candle and have never even been to a proper Jewish wedding - maybe it was the long chat I had had earlier that day with a Belgian work-friend about her Passover celebrations that lingered in my brain. Anyway, when I woke up it slowly dawned on me that I couldn't really have a chuppah in a church and a vague feeling of disappointment followed me around all day.

[image via Bloomsbury]

I did like the scheme of the flowers being natural and simple, like bunches of wildflowers. Mmmm, save that one up for the idea’s board! (vetoing the post-its though – however colourful!)

[image via David Gunter on Flickr]