My Wedding Blog - part 4

I have got a few things done since the last blog and I suppose when you think about it they are quite major milestones. Fisrt off, I got my dress!!! eeeekkk!

I know, very exciting, I think....I must admit I got a little bored dress shopping or perhaps a better word is confused. I know that must sound so bad but it's true. There were so many dresses in all shapes and styles. I'm not actually sure I even like wedding dresses. I know with a statement like that I could be made into a voodoo doll for ladies who have dreamt about 'the dress' from the day they were born but I hope not. How does someone actually pick 'the one'? And realistically, it is a crazy amount of money for something that you can't 'get another go out off'.

Anyway my mother, mother in law to be and bridesmaids were of little use on the hunt (no disrespect intended) as they thought almost every dress was lovely. They were probably just being nice but I decided to take the bull by the horns and make the decision myself. I tried on a dress in Blush on the Lisburn Road which I pranced about in for longer than the others so I started to get the feeling it might be 'the one'. When the ladies from Blush called me a week later to see if I had made a decision I just decided to go for it and say I would take it!

I am confident that it is very elegant and pretty but I did take a little wobble when I felt it was necessary to warn the 'Fancy' even at this early stage that if there is any element of the 'Bridal' look that he doesn't like- under no circumstances should it come out of his mouth or be evident on his face in any way. I have gone so far as saying that if he feels so obliged to comment negatively he should leave it until at least after our second anniversary if he even dares hehe...

We have also got the wedding guest list sorted. What a chore! When going away I suppose it is a choice between asking just immediate family or making it a bigger event and inviting friends and relations. We decided we wanted our friends and family to be there if they could make it. We were going on the principle that it is easy to say no to a wedding abroad so everyone who decides to go actually wants to be part of our day. Our benchmark was that the Church holds around 100 people- in theory this sounds like a huge amount of people. In reality it is around 25 couples on each side. This makes it impossible to invite everyone you want but what the whole experience has made me realise is we should appreciate every wedding we are invited to- it can take a lot to actually make the list!

We thought quite a bit about how we wanted to communicate to our guests and decided that a wedding abroad didn't really merit traditional invitations. We also need to have an idea of numbers much sooner than if we were having a wedding at home. We settled on a 'Save the Date' asking people to provisionally reply to give us a rough idea of who was interested in going. The 'Fancy' is quite savvy on the whole technical side of things so he has made a website with all the wedding details so people can check out the flight options and find out about Tavira etc. I designed a little, personal 'Save the Date' postcard along the lines of a 'wish you were here' card. We got them out last week and we have already started getting replies...how exciting!

There has also been progress on the Portuguese side. Paula from Algarve Wedding Planners is like a whirlwind - she was down in Tavira last week block booking the morning with an English speaking hairdresser for guests. Oh to be that organised! The search is on at the moment for a villa to stay in and host our wind down pool party the day after the wedding so hopefully we will get that sorted in the next couple of weeks.

All in all, I think we are quite relaxed about things at the moment but when I actually think that I can no longer say we are getting married next year and it is only eight months to the wedding...the words panic attack spring to mind!

Next time...

Planning steps up a gear as guests start booking their Tavira trips, I float the idea to the 'Fancy' if he wants to write about his wedding planning experience and honeymoon ideas are on the horizon....

> Read part 3 . . .