2018

Hello Readers!

Anyone still there? I know I've been terrible at writing here in recent years and yet this blog still gets regular views. Exciting news: after two years without a functioning laptop, I have just been given a second hand laptop and will be able to write and blog and work again freely. I am really excited to be able to work and write again and have sufficient tools to do so. I work a lot better with a laptop because I need to be able to move around and get comfortable. I am currently curled up on the sofa, with both of my puppies snuggled up asleep by my side. Heaven! So I am hoping to be writing here more and writing more in general. I have recently started working on a new book and am turning my attention to the New Year and all the things I'm hoping to achieve in that time.

Hello!

Hello Readers,

Since my wedding, I've not really posted much here. I wanted to say that I've been working on a full write up of my wedding day, with all the little details, so that I can capture all the memories. I'm looking to publish it once we get our wedding photos back because it takes a billion years to get your wedding photos nowadays. Once I've got photos that I can integrate into the blog post, I'll finish it up and post the full thing. So far I've only written up to the end of the ceremony and she's one looooong blog post. I have, however, just posted the playlist we used for our wedding breakfast and shortly I will post our evening wedding playlist.

In the meantime, how cute is this photo? Hannah and I, smooching away.
From left to right: Han's Best Man Jason, my Maid of Honour Bethany, me, Hannah, then bridesman Jamie and bridesmaid Julia. Those are some very important people.

Our Wedding Breakfast Playlist...

 So movies have always been important for Hannah and I throughout our lives and our relationship. When we started dating, we would go on cinema dates together and sneak in whisky to drink in the back row. I spent years working in a cinema, where I would cover late shifts and Hannah would greet me when I came home after midnight. We curl up and watch films together in our home with our various pets. We decided that we wanted to incorporate our love of film in our big day therefore I put together a wedding breakfast playlist predominantly utilising songs from movies (or covers of songs from movies on piano where the original song might be a bit cheesy or not fit the mood)

I thought this would be fun because it would also act as an ice breaker. People would stop and say "Oh, what is this song? It's from a movie... Oh Gosh, from where do I know this song?" and we thought it'd prompt people into conversation.

We walked into the dining hall to the opening theme from the Buffy The Vampire Slayer musical episode, Once More With Feeling. If anyone from my wedding party recognised this song, you are awesome. It was immediately followed by a strings and piano version of I Giorni which we had walked down the aisle to at the start of our ceremony. The playlist features songs from films and TV shows that Hannah and I have both watched and enjoyed together. In the playlist there are songs from films like Amelie, The Princess Bride, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Pearl Harbour, Gladiator, The Lion King, The Great Gatsby, Brokeback Mountain, Game of Thrones (although I almost put in music from The Red Wedding episode and promptly removed it - that would've felt like a bad omen!), Edward Scissorhands, Down With Love, About Time, Stranger Things, The Book of Life, Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence, Big Fish and The Phantom of the Opera to name a few...  

We even snuck in a few songs from The Sims just to see if anyone of our age range noticed!
The majority of the songs chosen were instrumental only and had to fit the vibe of the day (nothing too dramatic or intense!) and we spent ages putting this playlist together and I treasure it fondly. I have some great pictures of my bridesmaids jamming out to the music.

Please find our wedding breakfast playlist below:

She Keeps Me Warm

....Aaaand for my third scheduled post of the day, please find the song we'll be doing our first dance to some time around the time this post goes up. As soon as we heard this song, we knew it was the one for our first dance on our wedding day.

On the line "Do you like kissing girls?" my partner (wait, now my WIFE!) and I always shout "YES!!!!"

No Matter Where You Are

Following my last post, this is another automated post.
On this day, our wedding day, we should have/should be about to walk back down the aisle.

We will be walking back down the aisle to this song: No Matter Where You Are by Us The Duo.

As soon as we heard this song, around the time of the release of the film The Book Of Life, we knew this would be the one. Way before we were engaged we knew we wanted this song on our wedding day to play once we were finally married. It seemed like the perfect way to end our wedding on a real high! This song was actually written by the band, Us The Duo, who are a husband and wife duo and they wrote and performed this song for the first time on their wedding day so it is incredibly special to them and now to us also. 

I'm married!

I Giorni

So today is the day!

It's 13:00.
I've scheduled this post to go up just as my fiancee and I are about to walk down the aisle.
We've chosen to walk down to I Giorni by Ludovico Einaudi.

Hopefully, as this automatic post is updated, I'm finally being reunited with my partner at the end of the aisle ready to finally, after 8 years, get married.

How To Put Together A Great Wedding Playlist!

So I am now a few weeks away from my wedding and everything is going full speed! Ours is a wedding made up of things my partner and I love. One of my biggest pieces of advice for any couple getting married is to be selfish. It's usually your money paying for the day - and it is your day. There are plenty of things we've done in our wedding that may appear unconventional. For one, we are not hiring a DJ. I used to be a DJ and I honestly cannot stand going to events and finding it has a cheesy DJ playing the same cheesy tracks he cracks out at every event. If I have to listen to Come On Eileen by Dexy's Midnight Runners, I'll be the one running...to the bar.

On our wedding day, I decided I didn't want cheesy tunes. I used to be a DJ myself and there was no way I was going to let some stranger pick songs that just don't suit the mood. I decided I would DJ my own wedding. Now of course I want to be able to lie back and enjoy the day so I put together a playlist and a friend is overseeing the equipment, will bring it to the venue and set everything up and oversee the evening. I went through my guest list and asked people for their song recommendations. What song would be guaranteed to get them up and dancing? Then I added those songs into the playlist to make sure there were songs in our playlist sure to get different people there on the day up and dancing. I then peppered these songs throughout all the songs that I had personally chosen for the wedding day: songs that represent my partner and I, songs that hold memories with various friends or family members, feel good songs that have framed my life.

Initially, I tried so hard to please everyone and didn't keep track of timings and somehow made an 11 hour and 45 minute playlist for a 5 hour evening disco and then had the perilous task of going through and cutting songs out. It was like Sophie's Choice but I stuck to my guns and didn't delete any David Bowie songs from the playlist.

We made our playlist on Spotify and our friend will be using his equipment to play it for us free of charge. This saves us money but also our ear drums - I don't think I could stand a DJ cranking up some Justin Bieber on the most magical day of my life....

Shortly I'll post our full wedding playlist for those seeking inspiration.

2 Months To Go!

I am getting married this year on the 23rd of July which means that, as of tomorrow, I am two months away from the Big Day which, in wedding terms, is about 10 minutes....

According to my wedding planning app I'm 70% planned for the big day. A lot of the outstanding tasks relate to things like booking the honeymoon, purchasing decorations, sending a day-of list to the vendors closer to the event, buying wedding shoes.

This week I am currently focusing on the actual content of the ceremony so looking at vows, readings, ceremony wording, the bridal procession.... It's a lot. Also, no one had mentioned any kind of deadline to me, but apparently we were supposed to submit this stuff about 2 weeks ago. Oops.

So over the next day or so I'm sat at home finalising the most important part of our wedding day. Ideally, we would like four readings. Two from my side of the family and two from my fiancee's side of the family. We've found two readings so I am sat in our study just staring at our book collection in search of answers. It's just a shame we own so much horror and sci fi that is free from romance. So I will hopefully get everything picked out today and sent over to the registrar tomorrow.

After that, it's all the little decorative bits we still need to sort out. We also need to book our honeymoon and (hopefully, if all goes to plan) our hen party in Paris!

Now that we're down to the wire, I'll try to post more. Honestly, these past few months have just flown by. I have the rest of the week off and the Bank Holiday Monday next week solely for wedding planning so I'm hoping to get a lot of the important stuff out of the way this week so that in June we can book the honeymoon, focus on getting our ducks in a row and then I'm hoping to just enjoy July as I prepare myself for marriage....

Wedding Planning

So I am now only a few short months away from my wedding day. Do I have a dress yet? No. No I don't. Am I concerned about that? Yes, yes I am. However I thought I'd scribble a little something to continue documenting my wedding planning process and wanted to discuss the tools I've been using to plan my wedding beyond wedding specific Whatsapp groups and Facebook pages/bridal forums. Everyone always said to me that wedding planning was going to be so stressful but thus far, I've remained stress free... 

Notebook

I've been carrying a notebook around with me everywhere which is now totally full of wedding budget planning and matrimonial note taking. If a thought about the wedding crosses my mind whilst I'm on the go, best to jot it down and not forget it. I also like to write notes in my 2018 Diary and allocate tasks to myself each week to ensure planning is on track and that we are making progress each week.

WedHappy

I've been using an app on my phone called WedHappy and so far it has been brilliant. The app takes some basic data from you starting with your wedding date and whether both parties in the marriage are wearing a suit/dress and then sets about creating tasks. It sets out basic tasks for you and spreads them out between the time you sign up and your wedding date. You can add your own tasks as well if there are any specific things you want to do for your big day. You can invite your spouse or bridal party to plan with you and everyone can access the task board. I really like that it sends you push notifications to remind you to get certain tasks done and really keeps you on track. My favourite feature is that it shows you, in percentage format, what % of your wedding is planned so with each completed task you can see/visualise how everything is falling into place.

The Knot

The Knot offers you the ability to set up your own wedding website free of charge. This allows you to create a space for FAQs for your guests, post menu choices, provide details of local hotels for your guests, share important information and guests can even use it to RSVP! It just gives people a place to visit in the run up to the big day. I've just updated mine and RSVPs are now coming in!

The B430 List

So I turned 26 last month. If you know me, or have read this blog before, you may know that I wrote up a list of things that I wanted to achieve before I was 25. Some I achieved, some I tried, some I totally didn't get around to.

I have decided to write another list. This is a list of things that I want to achieve before I'm 30. Some are going to be really big things, some little things. I really enjoyed having a list of aspirations and looking back over it years later to see how much I had actually achieved. In reflecting, I saw how much more I got around to doing. So here we go, some things that I, as a 25 year old, want to achieve in the next few years ahead of turning 30. Once I'm 30, you can bet your ass there will be a new list.

Here we go.....

• I want to slim down and lose weight - especially before I have kids

• I started drafting this list when I was 25, about a year ago, and then forgot about it. This bullet point stated I wanted to buy a house. Well, within a year, my partner and I actually bought our first house! So now, I guess I want to make it feel more like a home. I want to throw on some coats of paints, buy the perfect sofa and really claim this space. We're almost there already. 

• Have a child (at least just the first one, but once I'm married)

• Go to New Zealand

• Get another book published - I don't mind if it's poetry, a graphic novel, fiction, non fiction. I just want to get another book out there...

• Try veganism for a month

• Get married... just a few months to go!

• Try to learn how to make sushi

• Take up bellydancing

• Learn to drive and buy a car

• Once I have a car - road trip. Anywhere. Doesn't matter where. I just want to go for it. 

• I want to write and record some music and put it out there. It doesn't have to be a serious musical pursuit. I just want to put some music out into this noisy world. 

• I want to write something for film or television - some kind of screenplay. I'm more used to writing novels or poetry. It might be nice to write something different.

• Go to a gay pride event

• I'd like to be an extra in a film or TV show.

• From now on, I want to plant a tree for every year I've been alive. So, I have already planted a few trees in my lifetime, but I think this year I will try to plant 26 trees and I will plant another tree every year - perhaps it's something I will continue to do until I die. It seems a nice way to give back to the earth. 

• Take up meditation

• I'd like to be a voice actor in something. It seems like a really fun line of work to be in and it's a dream of mine to be the voice of a character in a Disney animated film. Even if it's not Disney, it's something I would like to achieve.

• Study a language. Even if I pick up one I've studied before or pick up something new, either way is good.

• Try yoga

• Go zorbing/zorballing

• Get a tattoo

• I want to see baby turtles hatch. I've always wanted to see that moment. I've even considered volunteering as part of a turtle conservation project. So I'm adding it to the list. I'd love to see tiny turtles hatch and flock towards the open ocean.
• I want to find a job I'm satisfied with that I can sink my teeth into for years to come. A job that I can be proud of when I'm talking about what I do.
• I would like to visit at least five countries I've never been to before. Between now and then that works out to one a year, so it's absolutely possible. For example, at present, I'm already planning on New Zealand, Ireland, Denmark and Japan. If I can visit those countries then that covers four out of five new destinations. 

• Visit Ireland

• I want to take a trip abroad on my own. I just like the idea of vanishing for a weekend somewhere without anyone else. I've seen a lot of people say it can be a daunting prospect but a liberating experience and I've always been very independent. 

• Visit Copenhagen

• I want to see the Northern Lights

If I think of anything else, I will add it as I go along. I have four years to do all of this so fingers crossed I can get it done :) 

Say Yes To A Dress... Literally ANY DRESS

Within the last 48 hours, I have purchased two bridal magazines. One is my favourite, Rock and Roll Bride, a magazine that almost makes me wish that my wedding was ages away because I will be sad when I no longer have a reason to buy this glorious publication. The other is Unveiled which I have never read but I spotted it in my local corner shop and honestly, I only have so long left to really enjoy and indulge in all things bridal.

I am now less than five months away from my wedding, a thought which hit me like a ton of bricks when I woke up today and panic texted my mother. I live in Yorkshire. My mother lives in Essex. My sister is in Gloucestershire. Trying to get all three of us into the same room so that I can do the classic trying-on-dresses-with-your-family thing is a little bit difficult. I am now five months away from my wedding and I have yet to try on a single wedding dress. 

The fact that I've not even tried a wedding dress on seems to be a serious thing in the wedding industry. Bridal shop sales people will instantly start chirping about how you need to get your orders in now, by the time you buy you're not going to have time for fittings, blah blah blah....

Now, with about five months left to go, I've had my first twinge of concern. I'm still not even 100% set on a particular style. Whilst I'm learning more towards a laid back, boho gown there is a part of me that may be tempted to a white, A Line number. It all remains to be seen so watch this space and hopefully I won't be walking down the aisle to my partner in a dress made of stapled-together white Kleenex sheets
....