Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow

Hearing our banns being read on Sunday 19th December in St Mary's Buckden was a really special moment for me and Tom.  It was very strange and surreal, weird and wonderful to hear our names being read out and for them to say a little prayer for us as we prepare for marriage.  I'm not too sure how but it took the 'realness' to another level again.

It's now just over two months until the wedding and it really is coming up quickly.  Things have really quietened down now until January, when the final planning will start.

We had a lovely weekend with our mums and dads and mums and dads - to be!  Despite being the snowiest day of the year (and maybe the coldest too!) Mum and Dad drove up to stay with Tom's mum and dad, they came up to see South Farm, visit some of mum's family, spend some time with Tom's mum and dad and then to hear our banns on the Sunday.

I'm sure that mum and dad loved South Farm, it feels very familiar and homely to me and Tom now and it was good to show them round so that they know where they are on the wedding day and can help direct people if they need help.  A wedding was taking place that afternoon so we got to see it set up again for another wedding which is always useful.  Here are some pictures of our gorgeous venue in the snow!

In the evening, Ann had cooked us all a delicious roast pork dinner, and we'd taken up the weddings wines for everyone to try as well.  It was quite a nice moment for me to see our families eating together and we chatted about lots of different things - wedding and non wedding related.

On Sunday we all headed out in the snow to St Mary's - it looks stunningly beautiful in the snow and everyone was so welcoming to us being the visitors.  I got to light the advent candles and our banns were so special.  Mum was crying and I felt very emotional hearing them.  Goodness knows what we're going to be like on the actual day! 

So now my thoughts turn to Christmas and the New Year.  We've got mum and dad coming to ours on Christmas Eve and then Victoria and family coming over in the afternoon.  We'll all go to Rachael's on Boxing Day.  I really can't wait to have a bit of a break, spend some time relaxing and enjoying my families company.

There are a few bits that we're planning to do over the break, we've got to sort out the music for the reception and coffee drinks, go through our engagement photo shoot to decide which images we'd like to use.  Finally we have to pay South Farm - so a very merry Christmas from them!!

January sees us enter into the final stages of planning and I can't wait!

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas - Here's to the most fabulous 2011!

Mrs Elliott to Be!

xxxxxx

Ho Ho Ho!

It's been a fairly quiet couple of weeks wedding wise for us as we're kind of now in that limbo stage between the big things all being booked and we're not quite ready to do the detailed sections as we're waiting for things like numbers.

It looks like we're going to be able to have a nice non-wedding related Christmas which is what I'd hoped for, mum and dad are coming to our house and we're cooking for the first time on Christmas day.  It's the first year that Tom is not going to be with his family this year and it's going to be quite strange with just mum, dad and us two - but we're starting our own traditions as we're going to be a new family of two next year, so it will be really nice to do it this way this year.

Wedding wise - we're just sorting out final payments which is very scary but will be nice to get it out of the way.  We're also really enjoying all the RSVP's coming in - it's so exciting to hear that people are looking forward to coming!  Other things that we've got to sort out before the end of the year is men's suits, finalise all the wedding wine and Champagne (which we've VERY much enjoyed doing and almost there with!)  We're also going to spend some time over Christmas sorting out music, table plans and guest book.

We've also set up a little gift list for those of you that might want to contribute instead of giving us money.

Click below

Helen and Tom's Gift List - 30527

In other news, my passport arrived on the weekend and it was quite a surreal, yet special moment for me - despite the most hideous picture (may give Tom second thoughts it's that bad!!) seeing my new name in print and all official was just another thing that makes this lovely journey even more real for me and Mrs Helen Carissa Elliott is getting closer and closer.

Come January it will be all go again I think as we'll then be starting to come onto our supplier's radars and we can get the fiddlly bits finalised.

Under 11 weeks to go now, we'll soon be on the 10 week countdown!

Love

Mrs Elliott to be

xx

Just back from the Post Office...

Invitations - Done!

Please come everyone...

xxx

Kissing and Tasting

We had a gorgeous wedding filled Saturday which started with an early Macdonalds breakfast (note to self: This will not help you looked toned and beautiful in your wedding dress!) and then drove, in the absolutely freeeezing weather to Hampton Court Palace for our Engagement photo shoot with our Best Main: Iain and his photograph buddy Greg.

 

Iain is an extremely good photographer, he has all the kit and has done lots of photographic work for a variety of different clients.  He'd never done this before and him and Greg are looking into doing weddings professionally so we were more than happy to be guinea pigs.

 

We chose Hampton Court Palace as it's a beautiful location and it's also somewhere we went to fairly early on in our relationship with Mum and Dad.  Tom's mum and dad used to bring him there lots as a child and I'm really interested in Kings and Queens of England - so it was the perfect location for us. 

 

I'll give you photos later but suffice to say that it was so much fun!  We took several changes of clothing and just messed around.  I was quite nervous at first as it's a strange feeling to have a camera pointing at you the whole time and kissing and hugging in front of it - but it didn't take too long to relax and start to enjoy the experience (kissing and hugging Tom for hours isn't too much of a chore actually!)

 

Iain and Greg did a GREAT job - we've had a sneak peak at some of the photos and they are amazing, I'm really happy with them and it will be so lovely to keep them for the future.

 

In the evening Iain and Jenny and our neighbours Rob and Heather came over for a wedding wine tasting evening.  At our tasting night, we bought a selection of their reds and bubbly so that we can decide on what to drink for the meal, reception and toasting drinks.  We'd also bought a selection from various supermarkets so that we could decide if we wanted to pay corkage and bring in our own choices.

 

The results were really surprising and we've now decided on our bubbly selection - the reds need a little bit more trialing but I don't think that will be too difficult for us at all!   I think we're almost there with the whites too so that's another tick on my list.

 

Helen xx

 

 

Three months and counting!

Friday 19th November in the afternoon was spend with a large mug of tea and Lettie - one of the South Farm wedding planners and we went through all the little details about our big day - from the napkin choice to canapes to arrival times to disco details.  It was a really excellent opportunity for me and Tom to visualise our day, think about how things will work in terms of timings and feel reassured that we're on the right track and really getting there in terms of our plans.  We had one of our last sneak peaks inside the barn which is still so beautiful and then headed back to Ann and Tony's in the seriously foggy weather.

 

We left feeling really confident, happy that the South Farm team know what they are doing and on the day, we can leave all the worrying to them (and prob a bit for Iain too!)   We then had a bit of a break from Wedding Planning for the rest of the weekend and spent some lovely time together watching Harry Potter at the movies, enjoying some cheese and wine with Ann and Tony's wine club (A rock and rock finish at 2am!) and Chinese take away with a film on the Saturday night.   Here is me at Harry Potter with a VERY large tub of popcorn and drink!

 

I think that the planning meeting has put me into a bit of a detail frenzy as now I'm really thinking about the finer details like what to take on the day, what needs to be done the days before in the run up, what info we need to give to our bridesmaids and groomsmen and just thinking about the whole day as a whole, rather than each little bit in isolation, I'm really enjoying this bit as it makes me hugely excited to think what we'll be doing in the hours and days beforehand.

 

Invites going out before the end of November and I THINK that Tom's booked the honeymoon today - yay, yay, yay!

 

Other bits to now start thinking about are, table centres and decorations, other stationary items, My new 'Mrs Elliott' Passport (loving my new signature!)  timetables for the day and then a lot can be left until January - when we really get to the nitty gritty!

 

Love

 

Mrs Elliott to be

xx

My Very Original, Last Single Lady Birthday

It's 100 days to go today!

This time 100 days ago we were just getting home from our holiday where we got engaged. so we are half way though our engagement. I can't believe that in the same amount of time again we will be Mr and Mrs Elliott, it's quite scary, I'm feeling more and more excited as the days tick by and also have a strange nervous, excited and ohmygodimgettingmarried feeling in my tummy every time I think about the big day.

It was my birthday on Saturday, and what a gastronomic experience it was!  It was our menu tasting at South Farm, so a really original celebration for me this year.  Tom's lovely mum and dad drove us to the venue, we'd never seen the venue in the dark before, driving up the drive, the trees were all lit up with little sparkly fairy lights, it just looked beautiful.  We entered to Elderlini's and Canapes and sat down to talk to two other couples, lots to discuss, compare and contrast and the night started well.

We then moved on to the barn where it was all set up as if it was a real wedding.  It looked so welcoming, warm and friendly and we sat down to the first course.  The way that the evening worked was that each couple were given two tasting plates, each with four mini dishes on them, coupled with a glass of wine with each tasting plate.  At the back of the room were demonstration plates so that you could see how each dish would look in a full portion size.  So all in all, me and Tom sampled 8 different starters, 8 different mains, 4 different wines (as well as house wines on offer all night) and 8 different desserts.  As well as two buffet tables set up with lots of other bits and bobs so that you could see how a buffet table would look!

It was such a feast and some of the dishes were absolutely gorgeous, others were surprising and not what we would have thought or anticipated.  There were some that were not our thing (mainly the fish for Tom) and others that we loved but maybe were not right for a wedding party.  It probably gave us more questions than answers but in a really good way.    We have our planning meeting on Friday which should sort out a lot of our queries and we can nail down the finer details

We had a nice chat with a couple of the people round our table and really tried to get lots of people's opinions on the dishes, rather than just our own.  I had a couple of 'moments' being in the barn really made me think about our special day; the next time that we'll be doing that - I'll be married - scary stuff!  It was really lovely to spend the evening with Tom, we had such a laugh and mostly agreed on everything, which was helpful.  We bought a few of the potential wines at half price so that we can sample them later, we need to make a decision on wines and Champagnes: whether we get them from the venue, or source them ourselves and pay corkage - I don't think that will be too much of a chore!

Here is a picture of me; the birthday girl with my yummy cake, made by my mother-in-law to be!  My last birthday as a single lady.

Until next week 

Helen xx 

Another week ticks by

Happy Tuesday!

We had a lovely birthday weekend for Tom, which involved lots of family and friends, burst tires, 70th birthday celebrations, cheese and port, a fab Nigella recipe, a killer 31st hangover for Tom and two exhausted people by Sunday evening!

It also involved a little bit of wedding stuff as well (surprise surprise)  We bought Tom's wedding band, its a very simple palladium court ring.  It's a timeless, classic ring and I think it's beautiful.  I also bought Tom a very special wedding gift, which I can't talk too much about on here, but suffice to say that I really hope he likes it - I've been saving for a very long time to be able to get it for him and hopefully it will make up for all the gorgeous gifts that he's given me.

Our Invitations, Order of Service, Menus and Thank you Cards are currently with a fantastic printers that I know will do a great job.  They have been designed for us by Stu, who did our logo as well (his work is still not done but that's another story!)  Hopefully they will arrive in the next few weeks so that we can send them out to all you lovely people - then there really will be a wedding!

It's my birthday on Saturday and it's going to be one like no other that I've ever had.  Tinged with a touch of sadness as it will be my last one as Miss Helen Amos.  We've got the tasting evening to attend, where we get to see the venue set up for a wedding, see the Front of House staff in action, and taste all the yummy food and wine that we can choose from.  The venue have told us to arrive hungry as it's going to be a feast!

Next on the list to get ticked off is Honeymoon, sending out the invites, confirming final guest list and evening guest list, and then I think we might have to start thinking about Christmas - which we are hosting this year for Mum and Dad.  I don't want our wedding to spoil our Christmas celebrations and hopefully we'll have been very organised and up to speed with everything so that we can take a week off to relax and enjoy Santa.

Love Mrs Elliott to be
xx