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.