It's a piece of cake

There are two reasons why I want to make my own wedding cake:

• It will be great to have something that I have personally made at our wedding. As I'm no flower arranger or tailor and will be a little too busy to cook for seventy or eighty people, it needs to be something prepared in advance
• It's one way of saving a bit of money so it can be spent on a more important aspect of the day

To be honest, the idea was originally shot down in flames. Diana thought it was an appalling idea. So I stopped mentioning it (and started planning quietly instead).

Diana seems to have changed her mind.

There were three clues:

• The cake decorating book she bought me for Christmas
• The spatula that can be used for cake decorating that she bought me for Christmas
• The fact that she said "I want to help"

Small clues perhaps but I think it's the green light.

Save the last dance for me

There's a website for nearly everything these days. So, I shouldn't be surprised that there are plenty of websites providing suggestions for the first dance at weddings.

At my brother's wedding, some 10 years and four months ago he had his first dance to 'Dance the night away' by the Mavericks. It worked well and really set the mood for the evening. I think it helps to be a little be different, unexpected perhaps, it also helps to make it personal.

Some of the suggestions provided by websites (see the links at the end of this post) are, however, rather odd to say the least. I wouldn't even darken my record/CD/mp3 player with most of the songs. This wont be a shock to anyone who knows me as they will understand my musical snobbery.

I do have several songs in mind for our first dance next October and they're mostly the same songs I've had in mind since we got engaged a year ago. And no, I'm not going to share them just yet.

But I am interested in the views of anyone who happens to be out there and reading this (just in case it is more than five, including us). I'm interested to know what was, or what would be the song you had/will have your first dance to. If I get more replies that I can comfortably count on one hand then I'll start to reveal my thoughts.

I should be safe then.

For some suggestions, follow the links below. And there are some fantastic suggestions. "Let's stay together" by the Reverend Al Green is one of the great songs of all time. But it's not for me.

I'm surprised I didn't see "(You're love keeps lifting me) Higher and higher" by Jackie Wilson which may well be the greatest song of all time (although Rolling Stone only put it at number 246)

Looking at the lists provided, it says a lot for the power of postmodern audiences that anyone can consider a song about stalking to be romantic and yet "Every breath you take" by the Police seems to make all the lists. The same goes for heroin and Lou Reed's "Perfect day".

It's hard to be too critical even though 96.4% of the songs on these lists are not to my taste. It's unfair to label as pap the sincere choices of others.

Not everyone will will like the decisions we make. Possibly not even Diana.

First wedding dance
50 first dance songs, You & Your Wedding magazine
Popular first dance songs in Northern Ireland

This is becoming a habit

On Monday I'm going to talk to the nice people at Pembroke Lodge to talk about possible menus and plans for the day (and the cost but it seems a bit unseemly to mention that here).
I'm also going to pop into some of the hotels that neighbour Richmond Park to find out how much rooms the night before and the night of the wedding will be.
I'm starting to worry that come February or March we'll have everything organised. Shouldn't there be some sort of mild panic late on? Perhaps I'll deliberately forget to do something, just so there is a touch of wedding drama.
Anyway, hotels in and around Richmond:
Petersham Hotel
Richmond Hill Hotel
The Richmond Gate Hotel
Richmond Park Hotel
Riverside Hotel
There are plenty of other options too. The examples above range from reasonably priced to a bit less reasonably priced, although for London, not too disastrously.
Should anyone be incredibly organised and efficient, they could do worse than look at Late Rooms.
You probably wont be able to check out prices for next October just yet. However, it will let you search for local hotels.

• Select hotels for London
• Look for the 'Tubes' option
• Select Richmond from the drop down menu

The following link includes most the hotels listed above but should also take you to some more reasonable options:
Richmond Upon Thames, hotels, B&Bs and apartments
Of course, you could always crash at ours (assuming the weather's fine and you don't mind sleeping in a tent in the garden).

Orders now being taken

Planning on attending a wedding in London on 24 October 2009?
Flying over from the States for a few days?
Want to experience a little bit of home away from home?
Then why not roll up to Wembley Stadium on 25 October 2009 to watch New England and Tampa Bay battle it out?
If you're really keen, I'm sure I can find a proper football match for you to attend as well but the less said about that cultural distinction the better.

It's going well. Almost too well.

There's less than a year to go. Just a little under 11 months in fact.
I've checked through the list of things to do and we're well ahead.

• Venue and catering. Booked
• Registrar. Booked
• DJ. Booked
• Wedding dress. Bought
• Florist. Booked
• Bride's car. Booked
• Photographer. We thought we had one but it turns out his great rate is only on weekdays. We'll look again

If that's is not enough for you, well then, the nice people at the venue have been in touch to see if we want to pay in installments and from doing the sums, it seems it will actually save us money. It will even save us more money than we'd earn in interest if we put it all in the bank.
I'm going to talk to some local hoteliers next week to find out about rates.
It really is going too well...

What's left?
Well, little things like rings and cake.
Readings and music, seat covers and speeches.
Playlists, outfits, seating plans and menus.
The nuts and bolts, the finer points.
The things that make it different. The things that make it us.

Our New Home- 17 Oliver Road, Ascot

Love knows no boundaries

Love overcomes all barriers. Apparently. That includes the Home Office Border Agency.

There was a time when obtaining permission to get married meant appeasing parents.

More recently it alluded to convincing priests that you really had been going to church all this time, not just at Christmas and Easter if at all. Now getting a certificate of approval is required for all non-British people who dare to marry someone from these shores.

There will be those who say that it will stop marriages of convenience. But charging £295 and requiring a couple of photographs is hardly the way to do it. It’s not a measure to stop illegal immigration; it’s a method of raising revenue. Just like the £500 it cost for Diana’s Leave to Remain (and the £500 is cost last year too). Now doubt, once we’re married Diana’s visa will need to be altered to reflect her right to remain here indefinitely. That’s the big one at £795.

Marriage will not get Diana her ‘indefinite leave to remain straight away’. Marriage will give Diana another two years on her visa. After a further two years she will get resident status.

There are many conflicts here. First is the desire amongst our politicians to promote the family as the means of fixing an apparently broken society. Second is the desire amongst our politicians to promote strict immigration controls as a means of preventing our society becoming ever more broken. Third comes the promise to keep taxes low, direct income tax that is. Well, taxing foreigners who want to come here, or who are already here is hardly going to be unpopular as it helps to reinforce the fears stoked by numbers one and two.

And so marriage becomes a political football. Except for those involved. So forgive us if we don’t have a brass band at our wedding in October 2009, if we try and pass off the wedding cake as dessert or if we don’t have the finest champagne. Just remember the £1100 we’ve had to pay the government and enjoy the party we have managed to put on.

Change of Plans

We'll be spending Christmas in Silver instead of Denver...

Easter 2009

That's right. You read the title of this post correctly- Easter 2009. We've come up with a plan and it involves you...or some of you, we hope!

Part I:
Our next trip to the States is Christmas 2008; we're excited to be going to Mark, Tona, Jadyn, and Baby Detterick's in Colorado. However, we won't get to see everyone we would normally see in a NM trip as we won't be going to Silver City.

Part II:
We realize that not everyone who would like to come to our wedding will be able to do so...and we want to see you!

Therefore...

We've decided to come to the States in April of 2009!

Tentative plans are:
Saturday 4th April- fly from London to Nashville
Couple of days- visit with the Wolthers in Nashville (and anyone else in the southeast who wants to meet up in Nashville....)
Fly from Nashville to Albuquerque - drive up to Las Vegas to visit with Grandma D and company for a couple of days
Drive down to Silver City to spend Easter with the Dettericks/Hensleys/ friends
Return to London around 15th April or so.

We hope to see you! ( More details to follow of course...)

Er, is this thing on?

Just in case anyone really wanted a fish update. We are short at least one. I don't want to suggest for a moment that Diana has been neglecting her fish duties but there has been a reduction in the number of fish and not for the purpose of cooking.
An investigation has been launched.
By the way, the wedding previously referred to was of my friend Lisa and her, now, husband Martin. Lisa and I taught together from September 2002 until April 2005 but we've both changed a lot in the three years since then. I know that doesn't sound like a long time but it's amazing what can happen in that time. Sadly, I was ill the night before the wedding and although I managed to get through the day, we left before the party really got started.
Anyway, their wedding got me thinking about the friends of mine who are married. All of them are so perfectly matched with their partners that they provide a reminder of why the day and the life that follows, are so important.

Save the date...

Well, this weekend we went to a wedding. On our drive back from Birmingham (about 2 hours) we talked about two things: my parents upcoming visit (hooray!) and our wedding (time to get in gear!). The next thing we need to do is send save the date cards/magnets/coasters/bookmarks whatever we decide on. My job is to convince Andrew that yes, we do need to send cards to people that live in London and no, he can't just send them a text! :) If you get bored, google save the date cards and be prepared to be overwhelmed with the choices!

Just for Larry

A friend of mine commented that there had not been a new post on here as of late, so I thought I better update everyone. The good news is...we're still getting married! There is no bad news. We've just been busy with putting our flat on the market, finding a new job (Diana) and finding a new place to let in west London. We should be moving on 5th April and Di starts her new job as Assistant Head of English at Herschel Grammar School on 21st April if all goes according to plan.

One of our favourite parts of the new home is our back yard (or back garden as they say here)...Andrew says Di is in charge of the pond and its fish!

The venue is booked!

It's official...we received the booking confirmation today from Pembroke Lodge! If you haven't marked your calendars yet, make sure you do now:

Andrew and Diana get married
24th October 2009
Pembroke Lodge
London

We think we've found it!

Here's where we want to get married...Pembroke Lodge in Richmond Park (west London). I think it's a pretty setting and really like that everything (ceremony, dinner, dancing) can happen in one place. Just hoping that our date will still be free once we have the funds to book it!

Honour or honor?

Yesterday I asked Angela to be my maid of honour and she said yes!

The Venue Hunt begins

Today we took the train over to south west London (Twickenham) to see York House...some guy named Lord Clarendon lived here in the 1600s. The grounds are gorgeous and if we were marrying in a city without rain on a summer day, I would book it instantly! Our verdict? It's a starting point...

I'd just like to add...

Well I wanted to add that this website wasn't my idea and that I'm totally against this sort of public display of affection and tweeness. Sadly, this was my idea so any suggestions to the contrary will not only get me a kick in the North Pole at Christmas (i.e. in a place where 'the sun don't shine') but will also be actionable in several courts.

At least this is free.

The advantage of a long engagement by the way is that it will give me enough time to select appropriate songs for the reception from the first dance to the last. I've started a list. I may share it. I may wait until it's on the fifteenth draft (i.e. next Tuesday). Diana may get some say in the list but as I wont even attempt to interfere in certain key elements I think I can have this one to myself. Well, I can hope.

The Engagement Story...

Andrew started scheming in August when he booked tickets for the Eurostar and made Jon, Kristen, Angela and Colin promise not to make plans with me on the weekend of December 8th. He also asked them to come to Christmas dinner the next weekend. I was aware of the Christmas dinner plans and, surprised that he was planning Christmas dinner already, assumed that he would propose then!

Well, the weekend before the engagement I tried to make plans with Angela for the weekend of the 8th and she was acting really strange! So strange that I called Andrew up to ask if we had plans already and found out that we did have plans! Hmmmm....but that's all he would tell me!

Throughout the week I found out that we would be going out of town beginning on Saturday morning, that I would need my passport and other little clues. On Friday morning I was shown the Eurostar tickets and Friday night I was told we would be going to Lille, France. The suspense was building!

Well, I was pretty sure that Andrew would be popping the question, and I didn't help matters by saying things on Saturday like, "Isn't this romantic?" at various times during the day. Lille is beautiful and we enjoyed the Christmas market, yummy pastries, shopping and just generally walking around.

After ordering dinner and opening the wine, I looked across the table at Andrew and the following conversation ensued:
D: Isn't this romantic?
A: Let me reach into my pocket and get a tissue...
Diana looks across the table and sees that Andrew is holding a pretty ring. Diana looks up as Andrew says
A: Well, is this what you've been waiting for?!
D: Yes!
A: How about we spend the rest of our lives together?
D: Yes!