Three years

Wasn't that just yesterday? Also, hasn't it been like, a million years? 

*photo by Elemental Weddings

cables, ties.

Did I ever tell you that my first engagement ring was a cable tie? It was.

Black, plastic, B&Q.

These rings by Ambre France are stirring up all sorts of nostalgia.

{Photograph by Chloe Garrick, via Shetland Arts}

*'first' as in 'the first ring that cemented my engagement to The Boy'. Not 'first' as in 'the first of my many, many engagements.'

Heavenly Delights {reposted}

The following conversation was observed on my aunt's flickr page a few weeks after our wedding....

Aunt A: If you look closely you can see the red shoes peeking out under her wedding dress. She wasn't going to buy them because they were really expensive but I told her they were an investment, like a sculpture. I'm so glad she listened to her Auntie A.

Unidentified Flikr Friend: What a good influence you are!

Aunt A: No pockets in a shroud, as Granny Peonies used to say

Unidentified Flickr Friend: Your granny a fan of the old Monolos was she?

The Joys of Wedding Videos {reposted}

-

Boy: "I'm making eyebrows at people. Do I do that a lot?"

Girl: "Yes, you've got very expressive eyebrows."

Boy: "hmmm."



a few moments later.....



Girl:"Do I really sound like that?"

Boy: "sure do Pix*"

Girl: "What, exactly like that?"

Boy: "Yup."




Girl: "Weird....... I sound sexier in my head.

Boy: "Me too."

Boy and Girl. By me.

pancakes

Hello chickens. Thank you for all your anniversary wishes, you're sweetie pies. P&P has now been a married blog for longer than it was an engaged blog so I'm thinking it's definitely not a wedding blog any more. Which confuses my head a little bit.

One year ago today I was eating a lot of cake, leftover lasagne, drinking homemade booze and watching Ratatouille with my recently acquired husband. It was a bloody brilliant day. Oh and that was when we had our wee day after, Make the Dress A Bit Muddy photo date. I don't think I ever told you about that, or showed you more than these two pictures. It was fun. I'll share more one day.

Yesterday was quiet. We thought about grand plans, we even tried to make grand plans but in the end it was just me and him and the things that we do on our favourite days, like go to the cinema, eat yummy food, make pancakes and give presents. Well, he gave presents. I kind of flunked on the presents thing. I have no excuse other than the fact that I'm a Bad Wife. I went to get something that I'd been thinking about for ages but the damn thing was gone and it's taken a little while for my brain to switch over to plan B. I would like to say that I felt really really bad about it when he presented me with a Kitchenaid Mixer that he'd been saving for for a year but bugger me if I wasn't altogether too busy with the stroking of the mixer and the rubbing of the mixer and the "ohmygod, you got me a KITCHENAID MIXER"ing.


In case you missed that, The Boy bought me a kitchenaid. A shiny one. An Almond one. One that he'd been saving for for a year because he wanted to buy me it as a wedding gift but a year ago we'd spent every penny we had on cake stands and gourmet cheese. So he saved his pennies for a whole year (Just in case you were in any doubt about how goddamn cute he is.)

And then (AND THEN) he made me pancakes with it. He bought me a kitchenaid mixer and then he made me pancakes. I bought him sunflowers and took him to the cinema. I think he wins.

Which brings me back to what I was going to say. We thought about big days, about health spas and luxury camping and nights in hotels and jazz on boats and dancing til dawn but in the end we did the things that we love to do, the things that we've done a lot over our first year of married life, the things that we've done to cheer ourselves up when things have been hard, to reward ourselves when we've done something clever, to find some time together when time is hard to find. We did those things but we did them better.

Instead of the big shiny cinema that smells of hotdog and synthetic cheese we went to the independent one, the one with the velvet seat and the curtain with stars on that hangs over the screen, the one that's 70 years old and doesn't mind if the audience bring their own cucumber sandwiches. And we watched two films. In a row. We NEVER watch two films in a row. We watch one film and say 'wouldn't it be fun to watch another? We better not though, that would be naughty.'

Instead of one the only two restaurants we ever go to (the vegan ones that do cheapies on a Monday) we went to a proper restaurant. One with silver cutlery and floral tableclothes and food served on mismatched granny china. One with real cheese!

And then we came home and asked the boy if it was weird that I had barely thought about our wedding once all day. And he said no, that an anniversary isn't about thinking about the wedding, it's about thinking about the marriage and each other and the time we've spent together and the time we have yet to spend together. We did that. And it was lovely.


The photos have little to nothing to do with our anniversary, they're just breakfast, but better.

One year.

one very short year later....


(taken by the boy. the day after)

White Dresses and Small Regrets...

I don't really hold with regrets (I could pretend it's a philosophical approach to life but really I'm just too lazy and my attention span isn't long enough) but every time I see a short white dress I feel most uncomfortable that I succumbed to long, lacy, over-priced wedding dress. I like this one from French Connection. It makes me want to do the wedding again. (better)

I did like my dress, I loved it in fact. And our wedding was pretty good too. But I can't help but think that if we were planning it now it would be a very different and much more relaxed affair.

Is that bollocks though? Is it only looking back from the safe distance of eight months that makes wedding planning seem really not. that. difficult? That it really doesn't need to be that stressful, that organised, that efficient. That it could be pulled off in a matter of weeks with a matter of pennies and it would still be wonderful, better even?

A word to the wise....

Think carefully before you post those fuzzy, yellow tinged pictures your friends and family took on your blog. You might think that it's a quick way to share the first trickles of wedding porn you have, that your blogging buddies deserve a little something for all the support and interest they showed through the dark days of planning and that you can post some more beautiful pictures when you have the time to delete your eye bags but beware, you might come back from holiday and find your un-edited self all over the bloody internet.

(Not that it didn't give me quite the thrill to be mentioned on some of my favourite blogs; Frolic, A Practical Wedding and Smitten to name but a mere few. And I've got to tell you, Smitten made my mum squawk rather too. Only because she's heard of Glamour, the wedding blog world? Not so much.)


While we're handing out advise I would also like to caution you against the advisability of reading what perusers of blogs other than your own have to say about you and your wedding. While your own dear readers may leave only the loveliest of comments in their wake, unfortunately the same can't be said for everyone else's.


Which makes me oh so grateful lovely ones, that you are kind enough (read: have the manners) to keep any disgust you may or may not feel for my choice of outfit/what I 'allow' by boy to wear/my body to yourself. It's much appreciated.


(Just to make it clear, absolutely none of the readers of the afore mentioned were anything but lovely, the betrothed community know only too well that no good can come from criticising the choices of a bride once it's too late to go back. And they're just too damn nice to say mean things about a girl's scrawny physique. For which, once again, I'm grateful.)


(Image by Lillian and Leonard Wedding Photography)

August 16th

Saturday August 16
Aquarian Lunar Eclipse

[This] evening as the moon rises a glorious eclipse will take place. Even those who miss the spectacle will feel the influence. It will liberate something, end something, challenge and revive some hunger for adventure in your heart. If solar eclipses invite us all to rethink our idea about what's possible, lunar eclipses enable us all, in different ways, to overcome fears and negative emotions that have been holding us back. Over the coming weeks we will all go through experiences that allow us to move on.

August 16th, 1am. An Aquarian girl just got married.


Words by Jonathan Cainer and via Secrets of a Butterfly.

Tweet tweet...

I finally finished them! And they looked quite dapper. The Best Man stood staring at them intently for a few moments then turned to The Boy,

"She looks just like Cara. It's the eyes, something in the eyes...." before turning back to stare intently at them again. It was rather late in the day and I think he'd been getting stuck into the homemade champagne.



Photo by me.

Sheer deliciousness...

I've been fantasising about these since the moment the last one was eaten.

Deliciousness indeed.


Photo by me, the day after the wedding. When I gathered up all the little details that were missed on the day and photographed the bejeebus out of them. It's funny, but photographing food before you eat it makes it taste better. I swear.

Procrastinating

Hey there loyal readers who are still dutifully coming back every day to check if I've broken my wedding silence. And phooey to the rest of you, who are abandoning me like scared guests from a wedding where the bride has had one too many signature drinks and the groom was caught ogling the bridesmaids leading to a full on brawl on the dance floor.

A huge huge thank you to all of you for your lovely comments, emails and posts over the last two weeks, they have really meant the world to me and each and every one of you has made me smile so very much. I know you are all itching to hear about the wedding and I am itching to find the words to describe what was a truly wonderful week with some really hideous bits. Because unfortunately, due to a rather horrible experience with our venue on the day of the wedding which has left me distinctly traumatised, the traditional if slightly unimaginative 'It was perfect!!' just won't suffice when it comes to a brief but informative recap.

(Oooh, exciting aside - the phone just ran and I called The Boy 'my husband' for the first time! Shame it had to be to the police.)

I'm also completely overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of photos we have of the wedding, 2270 to be exact and we're still waiting for the professional ones. I just need to look at them and my brain threatens to explode.

So instead I'm going to distract you with my two new favourite wedding blogs.

Baby, Picture This is the blog of an English girl with lovely taste, a Jenny Packham dress and a flair for gorgeous photography.

Baby, Picture This's maid of honour's dress.
Photo by Baby, Picture This

The second is I Hate Planning My Wedding, a hilarious blog written anonymously by a woman whose family seem to be doing their very best to drive her completely mad and for whom wedding planning is a horribly battle pushing her further and further down the road to alcoholism. A woman after my own heart in other words. She truly cracks me up and satisfies that part of me that is really really pissed off with weddings and wedding venues in particular.


Not that I didn't have a wonderful time and the wedding wasn't utterly wonderful. I did, and it was. It's just that the venue let us down so spectacularly, behaved it such a shitty way to us, our friends and our families that when I think of the wedding those wonderful memories that include moments where I was happier than I could ever have imagined I would be are competing with memories that make me really, really fucking angry.


So, give me a little time. I will find the words, I will figure out the photos, I will share with you the delights and horrors of getting married. I just need a little longer. Thank you for your patience.


Oh, and the police have nothing to do with the wedding, the venue wasn't that bad. We woke up to discover our poor little car had been broken into. Glass everywhere, glove compartment rummaged though, embarrassing medications scattered all over the passenger seat for our distinctly unfriendly neighbours to giggle at. There was nothing worth stealing in it though, we have the crappiest car in the street. It's the only one that looks like instead of an alarm going off if you breath near it, the driver's door might fall off. Removing the need to bother yourself with smashing the window.

Married...

photo by The Boy