Getting the party started

Out of action... for a while at least

2009-07-13T11:10:00.003+05:30

Travels are well and truely underway and weddingness has taken a back seat (in fact, is being totally ignored). I haven't even thought about weddings for ages (and I just had a quick wizz through at least 5 blogging weddings I've missed - my goodness what a beautiful bunch of brides you all are!)

Not that I mean to ignore all those emails I get from The Knot telling me to book a caterer, a coordinator etc etc.... but it's kind of tricky whn you're backpacking through Pakistan to even engage in the options, let alone go about picking one.

I think we need a wedding planner that I can outsource all this shit to.... but T is not really coming round to that idea (regardless of my increasingly unsubtle hints). I spoke to Mum last night, who is panicking that all the local caterers are booked. Really? All of them?

Anyway, I just wanted to say a HUGE congratulations to Krista, Rachel, Shonagh, Marie... your weddings look amazing.

Shonagh - how did your wedding planner work out? You're near Manchester, right? Maybe I could pinch her (now she has all that free time!)? And caterer? Anyone else I can pinch....? Did have a marquee?? :)

(I'm kind of stressed about the caterer thing. The two local companies want 60 quid a head for canapes, dinner and something in the evening. We're not getting salaries again until Christmas. Incompatible).

A final thing: a know a couple of you mentioned you were interested in reading about travels. On the off chance this wasn't just a demonstration of British-style over-politeness, here's the link: fromdelhitolondon.blogspot.com
One caveat: The travel blog is mainly used by friends and family. It uses real names etc. The wedding blog is other brides don't know me in in non-cyber life. It's kind of secret. T doesn't know it exists. I'd be very happy if the two worlds were never to mix (if family started looking at this blog it would be kind of awful, and I'd have to go through and delete lots of back posts). I certainly don't want T reading about our fights in a blog. He'd go mad (hmmm... maybe I just shouln't have written about them.) Anyway, if you'd like to read the travel blog, obviously go for it. But please don't mention the W word, or this blog, in comments. I know you're sensible ladies, you know what I mean.... (it's worth checking out just to cringe at my Dad's humour. You will figure out very quickly why I'm worried about his speech!)

Really?

2009-05-15T23:12:00.001+05:30

No more Danny...
...and Jon and Kate both had affairs.

What a terrible day in the (Star) world of reality TV.

DAMNIT

2009-05-13T19:04:00.003+05:30

Now neither T nor I are huge ones for what we consider unnecessary formality. But I feel pretty strongly that you shouldn’t get someone’s name wrong on the invitation. If a girl has got married, you should make the effort to find out if they’ve changed their name or not (and looking on Facebook doesn’t count as checking – that site is REALLY tough to make changes on).

Yesterday I posted all the Save the Dates. Today I realized that all my Miss friends from uni are now Dr friends. They’ve all qualified. And all have new titles. And I got it wrong :-(

I know they won’t care, but I’m mad with myself. ANNOYING.

So here's the thing about the recession

2009-05-13T18:57:00.005+05:30

We're not going to get the economy back on track sitting at home eating dahl every night, now are we?

(I need some justification for the ludicrous level of spendiness we appear to be going through at the moment. I'm buying expensive Indian tat like it's going out of fashion (was it ever in fashion?!). And on Monday we're going to the Maldives. Ouch.)

Holiday time

2009-05-13T18:31:00.004+05:30

Since finishing work, we have been using up all our frequent flier miles we've earnt over the last 2 years and seeing the bits of India we haven't seen yet.

Last week was spent trekking the Singalila Ridge, which goes along the India/Nepal border. We should probably have realised that at some point the trail would venture into Nepal, but o no... off we trotted without our passports. Which wasn't really a problem until we got to the hostel we were supposed to by sleeping in...

O yes. That is us... at the end of a 24K day, discovering that our hostel for that night is in another country. And we don't have our passports. Nice.

Luckily the Indian border guards seemed REALLY bored, and after we'd entertained them with our pigeon Hindi for 10 minutes ("We live in Delhi. We are Indian. Honest") they just chuckled and let us past. Easy really.

And once learnt the trick, all border guards were easily passed. Which is a good job, becuase we got to places like this:

I especially like what my hair is doing in this photo. Less sex in a cornfield and more just bits of an actual cornfield attached to my head. Pleasant.

The first day

2009-05-01T11:42:00.002+05:30

Yesterday was my last day at work. Today is the first day of our six months off. WHOOP.

I was going to spend it doing all kinds of fun, not-working kind of things.

Unfortunately, the hangover is raging and I am lying on the couch watching American Idol and Beauty and the Geek feeling sorry for myself.

And the fact it's 46 degrees outside is not encouraging me to leave my air conditioned haven.

Brain not evening functioning enough to type. Urggh.

Saving the Date

2009-04-23T17:40:00.001+05:30

Saving the Date

So you know how a couple of weeks ago I was all like 'Save the Dates are done la-di-da'? What I actually meant was, 'Save the Dates are designed, now let me try and get them printed.'

What I should have done is sent the design to moo.com or vistaprint or some other pay-very-little-get-super-postcards type site.

What I actually did was think that seeing as I live in india, the land of cheap labour, cheap shopping etc, I should get them done here.

Having lived here for over 2 years I'm not exactly green at this stuff, but I always forget how hard it is to actually get stuff done. Typing the whole story will just make me mad again, but it went something like this:

- printer 1 - good thick card. No lamination machine.
- printer 2 - only thin card
- printer 1 - forget the lamination, just go with matt. No green ink.
- back to printer 2 to persuade us to bring card from elsewhere
- printer 1 to buy the card, but they have now run out.
- two day break while I gear myself up to try again
- printer 3. No thick card.
- back to printer 1. Purchase card, which they now have in.
- printer 2. Boss man is there who decides we can't use card from elsewhere.
- sit in a coffee shop until the boss leaves
- get them printed at printer 2
- discard approx 30% due to grubby finger prints, cutting not straight etc
- take to printer 1 to laminate the front.
- get the first batch of 10, which are laminated on both sides. As they're postcards, this means they now can't be written on.
- explain the one-sided lamination bit again
- finally (whoop) get a stack of 83 decent postcards. With only one having to be discarded for what I'm sure was a bogie on the back. Gross.

So yes they were cheap (1200 total, which is about 15 quid), but IT WAS FRIGGIN PAINFUL.

Vistaprint, I will never snub you again.

Couple crush

2009-04-18T09:40:00.003+05:30

I posted one picture from this wedding last week. But I keep going back and looking at it. I want to be in this wedding. Or at least be invited.

I thought I was getting over my obsession until I found their videos. Just watch. And love.

Groom style

2009-04-18T09:09:00.006+05:30

Yesterday I sent T this link http://men.style.com/gq/features/slideshow/v/051407WED as I thought it had a couple of looks in that he might like. When he got home from work, he announced that I could stop suggesting outfits for him as he already knew what he was going to wear. HUH?! Mr No Interest in anything wedding related knows what he's going to wear? OK. So that's me told.

He presented me with this photo of director Wes Anderson:

Then after a bit of intense googling I found a better shot of the suit itself:

And I do actually quite like it. And if it makes T happy, then I REALLY like it!

Now we just need to find a greeny-colour suit. I don't even know what colour you'd call it. Olive? Chartreuse?

The Outnet

2009-04-16T14:33:00.001+05:30

From the same people as net-a-porter.... fresh in my inbox this morning:

http://www.theoutnet.com

amazing (although no heels in my bigfoot shoe size at a height i could actually walk in...)

It's the final countdown

2009-04-16T07:18:00.002+05:30

It turns out that I have a few vacation days that I have to take before April 30th, so I'm taking them next week. And that means I only have seven more working days until we finish. WHOOOP.

That's seven more working days between now and Novemeber 1st. SO EXCITING!

I am so done with working. I am trying hard not to be one of those annoying people who leaves tasks half done before they leave a job, but needless to say I am failing pretty miserably.

In other news, I fractured my toe. Which is proving both highly inconvenient (no heels, no gym) and pretty painful (who knew your fourth toe was so essential to walking?) It is kind of black and swollen.

And in other other news three of my friends in Delhi are pregnant. Which is obviously super-exciting but leaves me as the only babyless member of the gang. It's funny - here I am the last one to get married, start a family etc - I feel like we're the furthest behind in life, if you like. But back in the UK I am the only one of my friends who is engaged... the rest aren't even contemplating it. Same with buying a house - we will buy when we get back to London, when most of my friends are still in shared rented places.

T's friends are a bit older and more settled (he's 5 years older than me). They all seem to be having babies too. T is definitely getting broody, but I'm not so sure yet. A few more years of the life we're leading, thank you, and some quality married time for just us. Then maybe we could start trying.

A bride who knows how to have fun

2009-04-13T23:43:00.004+05:30

via Wedding Cabaret.

Easter weekend safari trip

2009-04-13T21:33:00.005+05:30

Just back home. And here are the best shots:

other cool blogging stuff

2009-04-09T22:06:00.002+05:30

Now I have successfully figured out how do do this from my bby, does anyone know how to see who is looking at your blog? Figure out how many hits you're getting? Even better, where in the world those people are?

Now that would be AMAZING.

and with pictures?

2009-04-09T22:03:00.002+05:30

we can use my new favourite Save the Date as a test...

Now can we make mobile blogging work

2009-04-09T22:01:00.002+05:30

If this works, I will be amazed. And it will be COOL!

My problem with Bluefly.com

2009-04-04T10:44:00.010+05:30

This morning I woke up and had an email from Bluefly saying they had 40% of Christian Louboutin shoes for 10 hours only. Wowza. I have been on the lookout for some bright blue CLs to wear as my Something Blue since pretty much the second I got engaged (although at 5ft 11 the heel can be 3 inch MAX, and preferably 1 or 2 inches) with no luck at all. Zilch.

So I go on the site and OMYGODTHEYHAVESOME. In the sale. In my size. One pair only. So obviously I put them in my shopping bag. Only they don't ship to the UK. Or India. No problemo... I have a friend in the US who can take delivery for me and post them on. Try to buy again and they won't take foreign credit cards. Except if you're from Canada, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, South Korea or Switzerland. WTF?! Where's the UK on the list? Surely our credit cards are trustworthy? (although having thought about it, maybe not so much at the moment).

Anyway, by the time I had figured out who in the US I knew well enough to ask to just buy them for me, the 10 hour sale period was over. And at $500 I'm not sure I love them enough. (At $300 I totally did!)
Here are the offending items:

And here are some others I am currently lusting after (although all are either way too high or not blue or both):

Maybe I just just forget the blue shoe thing. Or the CL thing. Or go and live in South Korea.

The Big Trip

2009-04-03T20:35:00.003+05:30

So as I have metioned before, we are leaving India in 2 short months to head back to Blighty. We both asked for and have been given 6 months unpaid leave from our jobs (yay the downturn!) so we are planning to leave Delhi and head back to the UK overland.

Sex and the Central Asian Visa.

Wow there are some countries that just don't seem to want tourists. But we're getting there. So we are now proud owners of tourist visas for Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. We have applied for Tajikistan and are expecting it this week. China should be easy, but is valid from the second they put it in your passport. Pakistan required 3 visits to the embassy on sequential days, so no chance until work is finished. Then there's just Iran and Turkmeinistan to worry about. Iran we're on some kind of waiting clearance list, and expect an answer sometime towards the end of April. TM is tricky tricky and we may have to pay for a guided tour or suchlike.

And then we have a plan - YAY! And even though I may well sound like a wanky traveller type, I'm going to share it with you anyway.

April 30th - finish work. WOOHOO

May - keep the flat in Delhi but go on lots of trips. Probably a trekking trip in the Himalayas and maybe a few days in the Maldives. Maybe even a quick trip back to the UK to deposit my engagement ring (not entirely sure the Stans, as I've come to lovingly know them through the visa application process, are the safest place for an uninsured diamond)

June - set off for home. The route will go India-Pakistan-China-Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan-Uzbekistan-Turkmenistan-Iran-Turkey-side trip into Georgia for T's birthday-back to Turkey-Greece.... I'm not sure how far into Europe you get before you start seeing 'Waterloo' as a destination on trains... I guess we'll spend some time island hopping, I fancy Croatia, he has a friend in Italy, I guess France, then we're home!

October - arrive home. Giving us one month to choose somewhere in London to live, buy a house and Get Sorted. Easy.

Nov 1 - start back at work.

Crikey that's a long trip!

Save the Dates - check!

2009-04-03T16:43:00.004+05:30

We are done! Well not exactly done, but the decision is made! And we agreed! Woo!

This is the design we're getting:

from etsy shop ellothere. Not too 'weddingy' (T's criteria), cute and whimsical (mine). And I think sets the tone for the sort of wedding we will have. Love it.

Jonathan is going to send me the digital design and then I'll get them printed out somewhere local onto postcards. We're going back to the UK for a few days next month, so I'll post them while we're there.

I want to put a website address on the back, which means we need to get one. So I'm off to research how to register a domain and all that jazz.

After we get married, I want to live in a house with love heart smoke coming out of the chimney.

Going AWOL

2009-04-02T20:47:00.004+05:30

So first I got busy Having A Good Time. It was Holi (amazing) and I got all colourful

(and don't remember much of it - this is my confused look!)

Oops.

Then we jetted off to Goa for the weekend for some R&R. We are in our last 2 months in India, so clearly making the most of it.

And life was lovely.

Then I was having a bit of a wobble* and didn't sign in for a couple of weeks. There's another girl at work getting married and we got each other in a tiz. An invitation, font, dress and videographer - induced tiz. Then I did sign in today and my goodness the world's a better place again.

First the lovely Marie gave me awards: http://wifeinthecity.blogspot.com/2009/03/choose-your-own-award.html (which I ignored til now - sorry sorry)

Then I checked out the posts I had missed and it turns out everyone else is wobbling to. Although they're all being a lot more sassy about it than I have been about anything! (I subscribe to the 'hide and it might go away' school of thought). So thank you Meg, East Side and all the other inspirational posts this week. PERFECT.

So... here we go - back into it (with a healthly dose of bhang (only joking) and common sense).

*For wobble, read Crisis that I was going to have an inferior wedding and I didn't really care that much. It's in a field and it will probably rain. My friends will binge drink and his will all have crying babies. I will be lucky to coax T to arrive in a sober state.

I love my hippy Mum

2009-03-18T22:27:00.002+05:30

Really I do. I love that she was a real life hippy in the 60s; she had long long hair and burnt her bra. And that is cool.

But I really wish she'd immunised me against stuff. Like mumps, and measels. And I wish she'd had my tonsils taken out when, aged 10, I used to get tonsillitis every few months. Because now I'm 27 and I still get it every year it's no fun. And they won't take them out now. I was looking for a picture of what my tonsils currently look like on Google images, and would seriously advise against it.

Anyway... any babies I am blessed with in the future will be on the receiving end of any medical advances doctors want to throw in their direction.

(PS - she's no longer a hippy, but don't even get me started on how difficult it is going to be to find a 'non-stuffy' wedding outfit)

Save the Dates

2009-03-18T18:46:00.007+05:30

I refuse to call them STDs. I smirk every time I read that like a 12-year-old. Then I smirk some more at how juvenile I am.

Anyway... we are about to send out our Save the Dates. The wedding is May bank holiday weekend next year, so I figure we should send them out before the holiday weekend this year, in case people make recurring plans. (T informs me we are probably talking about 1% of our guestlist, but I ain't taking no chances).

So we need to agree on a design.

Option 1: the photos of ourselves. This is my favourite, but T thinks it's too try-hard.

Option 2: very plain text, printed out on nice card. This is T's favourite. But isn't it just a bit grown up? And I'm slightly worried it sets the tone for an elegant sophisticated affair, which as much as part of me would love our wedding to be I don't think it will be anywhere close. More drunken shenanigans in a field.

Option 3: funky badges. This is another one of my favourites. T hates it.

Option 4: Fancy personalised postcard, with either our pictures or a destination close by to home. LOVE LOVE LOVE. Possible with Powerpoint and clipart? I think not.

Option 5: Buy a bunch of pretty postcards and handwrite a note to everyone on the back. Could be a lot of work, but would be nice to get a personal letter rather than a printed card (I think). Would probably only take a couple of hours. I think.

Hmmm. Decisions. Any thoughts?

(I am a bad blogger and had all these pictures saved on my hard drive without sources. Sorry. The second one is from Hello Lucky)

The wedding war

2009-03-09T17:56:00.002+05:30

This weekend T and I had our first wedding fight. It was awful, just awful. There were tears, screaming, shouting. Glasses were broken. Then I went to bed in floods of tears and he sat up for hours drinking whisky and being angry. Awful.

And the subject of the war? Obviously something serious enough to cause the worst fight we've had since we got together: which band should play at the wedding. O yes, that all-important, most significant of decisions we are going to have to make over the next year.

To be honest, the band subject is more significant than you would think... I am a musical person, I sometimes sing with a band, and I sing along to whatever is playing most of the time. A very close friend of mine from university sings in a band. The lead guitarist is the fiancé of another very close friend of mine. They will both be at the wedding anyway and have offered to play for just the expenses of the other band members. I LOVE this idea. I love that people I love will be such a big part of the wedding. I know they'd do a great job (even if they're not the best band in the world, they always get the room dancing). They have improved 300% since they gave up trying to write their own (admittedly slightly dodgy) songs, and now just rock the covers.

T hates the idea. As a starting point, he never wanted to get married… but he proposed because he knew how happy it would make me. But now it’s gone too far… In his mind, this would be the last straw in making the wedding all about me. It is already in my Granny's garden (wtf - HIS idea!)… unfortunately, my family outnumber his about 4:1 (NOT my fault!) and my family tend to be noisy and take over situations, whereas his are quiet and go along with things. So anyway, having my university friends play in the band would apparently make him feel like a guest at his own wedding. Not ideal.

I tried compromising (Let’s discuss how your friends/family could play a bigger role) but it turned into a “You never listen to me blah blah blah” type screaming match. (This was at 2am Saturday night after a particularly drunken dinner party). And now if I bring it up it gets met with a “Why are you pushing this when you know how unhappy it would make me” type response.

So that’s that. My lovely vision of my best friend fronting the band, me maybe getting up on stage to sing a number or two, and all our friends and family dancing along is not going to happen. No way. Nada.

And however unhappy that makes me, it’s OK. Really it is. Because IT’S ONLY THE FRIGGIN WEDDING BAND! We still get to get married. We still get to have a big party. And buy a house. And live together and have babies (I hope!) And if it makes T enjoy the wedding as much as I know I will, then it’s a sacrifice I need to make.

(But I’m still a little bit grumpy!)

I could make these.

2009-03-05T22:03:00.002+05:30

http://mycoinpurse.blogspot.com/2009/03/diy-thread-led-tealight-cover.html

via $2000 wedding.

very nice!

Dancing dress

2009-03-05T16:54:00.002+05:30

Maybe maybe... very pretty although at £250 more than I would want to spend. eBay alert dutifully set...

PS

2009-03-04T23:36:00.001+05:30

Whilst we're on the topic of incomprehension... what is a groom's cake??

Meh

2009-03-04T23:16:00.002+05:30

I don't even know what a gokko is.

feeling v incompetent after today's postings.

OUR THEME

2009-03-01T22:31:00.002+05:30

The Knot just sent me an automated email.... with 15 moths to go, I should be deciding on a theme. That is my big 'to do' this month.

Right.

My theme is Getting Married to T. Which I hope will make for a pretty good wedding. No?

Crikey now I feel all insecure that I'm not going to have a cool theme. What do they even mean? Tarts and vicars? surely not?!

Taking stock

2009-03-01T09:28:00.006+05:30

We have pretty much decided that we will be leaving India in a couple of months and heading back to Blighty. Yes, we'll be sad, but we've been away for over two years now and we both feel like it's time to go home.

Work are being great and have given us 6 months unpaid leave between leaving the India office and starting back in the London office, meaning that we will be embarking on a big overland adventure... setting off from Delhi and aiming to arrive back in London months later.

The big news for wedding planning is that:
1. Anything I haven't planned before May, will not get planned until October at least (I can't imagine trawling through vendors from an internet cafe in Khazakstan!)
2. Anything we're planning on getting done in India needs doing in the next 2 months.

So we need to make a list.

On the first point, things I have done already:
1. Dress
2. Photographer
3. Decided on Granny's garden as a reception venue
4. Booked the church
Crikey that's a short list.

Things that I'm pretty sure we need to do soon (i.e. not leave until only 6 months before the wedding):
1. Send out Save the Dates (it's a holiday weekend; I don't want our friends getting booked up)
2. Block book hotels (ditto explanation above)
3. Book a marquee? Maybe?

Other things that could go on this list would be a caterer and a band.... but I can't really believe we need to book those now. OK we might not get the exactly perfect caterer if we leave it until 6 months before, but I'm sure there'll be someone who can feed us!

Then the only other thing is anything we should be getting sorted in India before we leave. I think the only thing that fits in that list is getting invitations done. Printing here in Delhi, I imagine, is MUCH cheaper than getting stuff done in London.

I'm quite a fan of designing my own invitations, then getting them printed. We could wait and print out at home when we're back in London, but that will involve buying a printer, and I think ink etc will be super expensive. And do normal home printers take thick enough card for wedding invitations? I think maybe getting them done here will be easier.

Which brings us on to designs. Major area of confict.

I love love love beautiful floral designs. Like this:

from Momental Designs.

T HATES it. He says is fussy, girly, blah blah blah. Hmph.

He likes plain white, boring type.

The only style we both quite like is something like this:

Which apparently is not weddingy enough for him to oppose, and fun enough to keep me entertained.

He is also dead set against me designing them myself. I think he's worried I will design something, he will hate it and I'll get upset.

So maybe next weekend we'll go check out an invitation shop here in Delhi, just to see what they can do. EXCITING!

I didn't bid on it...

2009-02-25T20:45:00.001+05:30

...yet.

Aren't I a restrained individual?

Dress wobble

2009-02-24T18:57:00.005+05:30

The dress I nearly nearly chose, but decided was a bit too much like a nightie is on eBay... for £75. EEEK. SO CHEAP. Reduced from £1800 for a shop sample. Love love love.

But I HAVE A DRESS. AND IT'S FAB. And this one would be no good for dancing either. But O O O I LOVE IT.

Better start concentrating on that 'become an Oscar winning actress and get to wear one every year' plan then.

Oscar dresses

2009-02-23T09:41:00.003+05:30

Maybe after the wedding I will turn my attentions to becoming an oscar winning actress. Then I could wear a big white princess dress every year....

Show me the way

2009-02-21T10:26:00.002+05:30

I want this so bad. I can't remember where i found the picture (Offbeat bride?) but she was holding a balloon. Just have to convince T...

Back to it

2009-02-21T09:56:00.005+05:30

I haven't had time to post for ages and ages... mainly because work went a bit mad (leaving no time for weddingness or blogging) and secondly because google reader broke, and i can't get it working again, so i don't have it open in the office reading all my favourite wedding blogs.

Anyway, enough of the whining... best news this week is that we booked a photographer... the super lovely and amazingly talented Julie Kim. YAY!

I have also been scouring the internet for a dancing dress.... my actual dress in BIG and not good to dance in. I really want to get changed into something a bit swingy and floaty and show off the bright blue, kitten heeled Louboutins (come Christian, put some in the Spring collection!) I could be wearing, and dance the night away.... it's proving a bit tricky though. Everything is either too swingy, too structured, too weddingy or not weddingy enough. If I could find a lovely picture I would at least know what I was looking for...

This is the exact right idea, but the dress isn't exactly right for me. Hmmmmm.

6 inches of snow in London!?

2009-02-02T20:09:00.000+05:30

Really? W O W !

I miss home.

I'm it!

2009-02-01T17:08:00.003+05:30

I was tagged by London Bride, back in Blighty... meaning I'm supposed to share 10 random facts about myself. So here goes....
1. I can balance a teaspoon on my nose.
2. I was off school with mumps the week that my reception class were taught to tie their shoelaces. When I got back to school, I took the 'well I don't WANT to be able to do it' attitude, so didn't bother learning. 25 years on, I still buy velcro trainers and slip-ons when possible.
3. The thing I like the best about living in India is having staff. Having a 24/7 driver is life-changing. Having someone who picks up your dirty clothes off the floor and washes them is better. I am not looking forward to the 'do your own houseowrk' bit of moving back to England.
4. Every time I go back to England I buy prawn cocktail flavour snackajacks, pickled onion monster much and a new pair of shoes. Then I use the shoebox to stop the crisps getting squished in my suitcase on the way home.
5. I drive a silver Ambassador Grand.
6. I am a teensy bit worried about my job, given what's going on in the world. But not too worried.
7. I love planning the wedding. I love planning most things. T is not a planner.
8. I drink red wine in nightclubs.
9. I would eat oysters for every meal if I could.
10. This past year, I've got a bit addicted to getting French manicures. When they only cost £2 a go, it's not a bad addiction to have.

Ta-da! Done. So I tag...
Eli and me
Sexy Red Frame
Peonies
The Cwtch
Miss English (nee Trini)

Back home

2009-02-01T13:54:00.003+05:30

I've been off in Los Angeles for work the last couple of weeks (and then lying about complaining about jetlag since then). LA was fab - beautiful weather, lovely food and wine, great to catch up with old friends and make new ones.

I did very little weddingness (didn't even go and try on funky birdcage veils), mainly as during the time I had off I was totally distracted by the Sales. Now I know things are bad in the West, but O MY GOD THEY'RE GIVING THINGS AWAY. Jimmy Choos for $80? Yes please. Manolos for $90? O go on then. Yikes my suitcase was full coming back.

I also trotted off up to Beverly Hills to the Christian Louboutin boutique. Yummmmm. And I accidently bought pretty much the only thing in America that wasn't one sale. But they're beautiful.

(I'm not really obsessed with shoes - I just get a bit excited in a country with all these shops they don't have here, with all the sizes (big ones!) I can't buy in India.)

So now I'm back to it, back to work, and the next few weeks are looking pretty tough. This morning we got the internet fixed at home, so this afternoon has been designated Wedding Planning Time. T can hardly hide his excitement.

Indian inspiration #2

2009-01-09T18:28:00.002+05:30

Thanks for the comments on saris; I will have a look in the market at the weekend and see what I can find :)

Thinking back to Nidhi's wedding made me remember the absolute best thing about it.... a couple of days before the wedding is the Sangeet, which seems to be nothing more than a big party to get everyone in the mood. There's lots of dancing and lots of food & booze. There are two things about the Sangeet that would be awesome at our wedding:
1. I really want to have a 'getting everyone in the mood' party. How much fun?
2. During the party, the friends, family and finally the couple themselves tell the story of their relationship through a series of seriously fun choreographed and rehearsed Bollywood dances. So all the brides school friends did a dance, then the cousins, the groom's siblings etc etc. None of them lasted more than a couple of minutes, but they had all rehearsed them and it was AMAZING. Everyone dancing and singing (or lip-synching!) together. So much love in that room!
Now all I have to do is convince all our cynical London friends that they want to express their happiness in our wedding through the medium of dance. Hmmmm.

Indian inspriation

2009-01-08T13:52:00.002+05:30

My friend Nidhi who got married here in Delhi in December just sent me the snaps from her wedding:

Enough with the white dresses.... that's what I call a wedding outfit! (She's the one in pink in the middle; I'm the one in gold who doesn't look Indian!) I wonder if there's any way of using the colours. I read somewhere about someone using saris as table cloths. Not sure how that would work, but could be worth considering.

I'm cold

2009-01-07T21:37:00.005+05:30

There are many lovely, lovely things about living in India. For 10 months of the year it is warmer than London. In fact, for 12 months of the year it is warmer than London. But for 2 months, which is now, it is almost as cold, and houses in India have marble floors and no central heating. And I'm cold.

Something blue...

2009-01-06T20:39:00.003+05:30

I wish. Unfortunately I am already abnormally tall. (with an abnormally large head, apparently).

Christian Louboutin Moustique.

Veils

2009-01-06T20:03:00.008+05:30

Converstaion with my Mum over Christmas...

Me - I think I want something like this on my head

Mum - mmmmm

Me - I think it is stylish and beaultiful and funky (and all those other things I want to be)

Mum - but darling, you are very tall already and have an abnormally large head. This will accentuate both.

THANKS MUM.

(For the record, my head is a little bit big. And I am tall. Anyway, I am going to LA next week for work, and am going to look at trendy American wedding things, and I don't care if I have an ABNORMALLY LARGE HEAD. Maybe it will make it look smaller.)

(Veil from http://castlebride.com/)

Christmas wedding-ness 3: The photographer

2009-01-06T18:32:00.004+05:30

The morning after our one night out with friends in London, a very hungover, slightly nauseous, grumpy T and I met someone who I’m hoping very much will be our photographer. I have been photographer stalking by internet for the last few months, and had finally bullied T into looking the week before we went home. She was the only one of our shortlisted top-3 who could meet us on the one day we had free in London. And O my goodness she was lovely. So down-to-earth. Beautiful photos. Lovely person. Getting married herself and almost perfectly matched with us in how excited and incredulous we are about the whole thing. And she takes picture like this:

Beautiful. Amazing. I want to be a wedding photographer when I grow up. And I want my Mum to look like the Mum in the pink hat.

But then we started talking about cost...

She is not cheap. We don't have a budget... we just talk about if things are a 'sensible price'. This means that it's not three times the price it is worth due to the addition of the word 'wedding'. So I can't say that she's over our budget. And is she 'sensibly' priced? If we can look as beautiful in her photos as the weddings she showed us, then I think she might be. (I think that makes me an awful shallow person, but I'm not sure I really care....)

Christmas wedding-ness: 2. The dress

2008-12-30T13:05:00.004+05:30

O yay this was fun. Fun fun fun.

The dress hunt started back in October when I was back in the UK for a friend's wedding. My sister and I went to a couple of dress shops and I tried on maybe 30 dresses. The very first one I tried on was the best by far from the whole day. Lovely. And the shop I tried it on in was selling the sample: reduced from £2K+ to £650. So the business-minded part of me thought I should go ahead and buy it. So I did. Eek. Worst case I find a better one and can sell it second hand. Best case I've got my dress for a bargainous price.

So back in the UK last week I did two full days dress shopping. First was a day in London with a friend (a brutally honest friend, it turns out!) I guess I am lucky; I am 5ft 11 and reasonably slim, so I fit the samples and most dresses look good. The best one with her was a lovely Alan Hannah number (the picture doesn't do it justice), but it was a pretty standard white meringue (although with a cool diamante embellishment on the hip):

There was also a slinky David Feilding thing, which was AMAZING, but I guess the front just didn't look special enough (and I can't find a picture of it).

Then I did a full day with my Mum in the North. First up was a shop that stocks the dress I've already bought. So tried it on for her. I still love it (phew!) but I'm not sure it does wonders for my bum. Link to the picture is here (I'm posting as a link in case T peeks). It's ever so fitted down over my hips, and I think I end up looking a bit big from the side. But I love the neckline, love the skirt... and could always spend the day doing that funny hunched over pose the models do....

Then we went and tried on a buch of Jenny Packhams. WOW. But Mum wasn't sure: What would Granny say? What would the vicar say? I can see your belly button. I can see you nipples (for the record, you couldn't!)

I loved them.... especially Tamsin:

The third favourite of the day, which we both agreed on, was a lacy thing from Pronovias. Very different and makes me look Spanish:

But I almost felt a bit too grown up in it. More beautiful and sophisticated than fun.

So I'm happy with what I've got (I think). But need to somehow reduce the size of my hips. Although I do have ages to go, so maybe this won't be a problem. The sample I've bought is a UK 14, and I'm more of a UK 10-12... but Mum seems to think it will be easy to take in. Over a size? Will that be OK?

Around 90% of all the dresses in the shops were strapless. I am the only British Bride with an ugly podgy chest? Only straps for me.

Christmas wedding-ness: 1. The venue

2008-12-29T19:07:00.008+05:30

I'm back in Delhi after a week long trip back to the UK for Christmas. So much of wedding chat. Trying to pack into a few days anything that might need planning before this time next year.

First off.... venues. T and I both went North to my parents' place when we arrived in the UK and spent a day driving round looking at venues. Granny's garden still wins. And Granny appears to be coming round to the idea. So we had a marquee man come visit, who drove up in a batmobile. He quoted extortionate amounts of money for a marquee (and the car fund, clearly) and left us disappointed. Luckily Mum came good with a cheaper local alternative. It may not look quite as classy, but I cannot believe that a straight (rather than pleated) lining, some funky spotlights and a bar are worth £4K extra. No sir.

I haven't actually got his final quote yet, but it's expected in the inbox any day. I want my marquee to look like this...

Not sure that's compatible with using the budget local company, but it would be beautiful!

The bad points about hosting at Granny's are that there are really any nice really local hotels (wedding night in the Travel Lodge anyone?!) so we'll have to drive maybe half an hour at the end of the night. Is that too much?

Second place on the venue shortlist goes to a National Trust property about 45 minutes drive away, which I think is just a bit too far from the church. Hmmmm.

Enough with the attitude

2008-12-17T09:21:00.002+05:30

So it turns out I can fly back to the UK for Christmas on Friday, not Saturday. Which means Saturday becomes a Shopping Day. Yay!

I thought I'd call a couple of dress shops and see if I could try on some big white numbers. (I actually already have a dress, but that's another story for another day - I am still looking!) I just called my first shop. Conversation went something like this:

Me – I know it’s a long shot, but do you have any appointments free to try on dresses this Saturday?

Them – when is your wedding?

Me – May 2010

Them – well it’s too early for you to have an appointment

Me – but I don’t live in the UK, so I am back for Christmas and then not again until late 2009

Them – well by then it will be too late to order a dress for May 2010

Me – I know. Which is why I was hoping to get an appointment this Saturday; I have a free day in London I didn’t know I was going to have… and so I was hoping to try some dresses

Them – do you really expect to be able to pick a dress in one day?

Me – erm, maybe

Them – that would be very unusual.

Me – So do you have any appointments?

Them – no.

Erm, hello... I would like to come and try on dresses in your shop and potentially spend thousands of pounds. If you are too busy, could you at least be polite when you tell me that. I mean, seriously!

More evening dresses

2008-12-16T11:24:00.005+05:30

A friend in Delhi suggested I look at a designer friend of her's in the UK for an evening dress after the big white affair gets too hot and too tight. And O my goodness, they're beautiful.

Gowns by Sarah Arnett

Unfortunately she is based in Brighton, and I'm guessing costs WAY more than I would want to pay for a second dress. But - WOW.

Project Cake (part 2)

2008-12-15T13:18:00.005+05:30

So the Christmas (practice wedding, but don't tell T) cake is ready. The things that worked well:
- Fruit cakes are easy to bake.
- They are also surprisingly easy to stack. You just put them on boards, push dowelling through the cake and balace them on top. Simple.
- Ribbon looks nice tied round a white cake.
- I actually made a couple of 'individual size' cakes as well and these look really really good. Maybe I could do a bunch of stacked mini cakes on a cake stand with bigger ones on top. Could be an easier way of doing it....

Things that didn't go so well:
- Both marzipan and fondant icing are not easy to make from scratch. This actually isn't so important, and the wedding will be in England, so I can buy it easily.
- It's really hard to get a totally flat and even top to the cake. I'm not sure how they manage it. Maybe it would be help if I cut the top off the cake before icing it. Mine is kind of bumpy and this makes it look really amateur. In fact, this is the one things that would make a huge difference.
- Paper roses do not look classy. I don't know why I thought they would when I made them out of coffee filters (!) These have now been abandoned.

So all in all I'm quite pleased with myself. I can make a pretty looking cake, and a total cost of less than £50. Yay!

Updated with photos:

So here's the big one... a 9 inch and an 8 inch cake with a very bumpy top (but we now know how to fix that thanks Eliandme!) and a Christmas star on the top to keep up the pretence to T that I am not obsessing about the wedding with 18 months still to go...

And these are the small ones I might actually stack into a cool pile of mini cakes....

Ta da!

Double trouble

2008-12-11T08:59:00.003+05:30

I think I want two dresses. Is that obscene? I want a big puffy princess dress for walking down the aisle, then I want to dance without tripping over my train and overheating (I have a tendency to adopt the sweaty, hair-stuck-to-face look when I go dancing)... so I want a floaty tea-length thing for the evening.

I saw these (from Unique Vintage) and think a shortened version of one could be perfect for the evening, but I'm not sure about ordering over the net.

I have to go to LA for work in January, and Google maps informs me that their store is not far. I wonder if I could fit a trip in....

Project cake (Part 1b)

2008-12-10T16:33:00.001+05:30

Things I have learnt this afternoon:

1. Delia does not always get it right.
2. When faced with a bowl of wallpaper paste, when you were promised marzipan, adding more icing sugar does not rescue the situation.
3. Ground almonds ground in a food processor do not make excellent marzipan.
4. Regular tasting of wallpaper paste whilst trying to make it into marzipan makes me feel ill.
5. An afternoon of marzipan tasting prior to cocktails with the girls might make me actually ill.

Can't wait for tomorrow's update then.

Project Cake (part 1)

2008-12-10T09:20:00.001+05:30

As I mentioned, we have having a stacked Christmas cake this year, solely so I can practice baking and icing and stacking. I like the idea of making our own wedding cake...
- It will be fun making it together
- I can't imagine any cake tastes good enough to be worth £1000. I mean, seriously.
- If it's rubbish, I can through it in the dustbin and buy one from M&S. This is why it's important that I make it and not my sister (who has offered) or another relative or friend.

So back to the practice (disguised from T, who thinks I am mad thinking about the wedding already, as just an over-elaborate Christmas cake)... Baking went fine (although I lost interest after two tiers. But I figure if I can do two I can certainly do three) and the cakes have been sitting in the kitchen for a couple of weeks now while I pour brandy in every couple of days, just like Delia tells you to.

I don't really like marzipan, but T loves it and it makes the icing look nice. Unfortunately, it is proving impossible to buy in India, so I decided to make my own. It turns out the motor in the blender is not powerful enough to grind almonds. So now we need a new blender. Great.

That is today's mission: buy blender, grind almonds, make marzipan, cover cakes. Here I go...

Here we go

2008-12-09T16:18:00.001+05:30

So I was going to start a blog about wedding planning. I love it... I love the excitement of planning the day when I get to marry T. I love the pretty things, the quirky ideas, all of it. But I wasn't sure anyone else would want to read all about it, so I reconsidered. I have never blogged before... my diary as a child was a big secret, with a lock on it. And now anyone gets to read.

Then I remembered I need somewhere to keep all my thoughts. Much of 2009 is going to be spent without a fixed base or computer, and May 2010 will be the wedding. So wedding porn may well be limited to internet cafes, if anything. So when I do find a time to look, I will need somewhere to store my ideas... and this seems as good as any.

So here we go. Wedding thoughts Take One.

Decisions we have made so far:
1. We are aiming for May 29th, 2010. This is the last bank holiday weekend, so will allow guests from out of town to make a long weekend of it. Excellent, we thought. Making it easy for everyone. Unfortunately, other couples appear to have had the same idea. One photographer I contacted a couple of weeks ago had already had three enquiries for that day. THREE. For a Saturday in May 2010. Mmmm.

2. The wedding will be in England. We live in India, and much as I would love a Bollywood extravaganza a la Liz Hurley, it's important to us both that our friends and family are there, and I'm pretty sure we wouldn't get everyone to India. We are planning on finishing up here in March 2009, taking 6 months off work, then starting back in London in October 2009, which will then leave us 7 months to plan for real. I know this is not long.

3. Venue of choice is my Granny's garden. She has a tennis lawn that we can put a marquee on and it is walkable from the church. Unfortunately, Granny hasn't quite bought into this yet.

Things I have discovered so far:
1. Weddings are expensive. Really expensive. I know there are many beautiful and special weddings in which costs have been kept super low, but if you want a church ceremony, in a big white dress, followed by bubbles and canapes, a sit-down wedding breakfast and a band for dancing, it's really expensive.

2. I like thinking about the wedding about 50 times more than T does. He thinks it's a big fuss and I'm mad for starting to plan something that is over 18 months away. He would like something small and casual.

3. T's preferences do not exactly match mine.

4. I like the idea of DIY-ing and I am enjoying practicing. We are having a three tier Christmas cake this year. Pieces of paper that are left lying around tend to become roses (well, they're supposed to be roses).

5. I get bored of the same DIY project if it's not quick enough. Six paper roses are my limit. I was thinking about doing our own invitations, but not sure I have the patience.