Christmas Bleatings

Ah the joys of trying to combine wedding planning and the Christmas countdown - it's causing my head to hurt!

I've spent the last couple of weeks trying to sort out the music for my wedding and select the readings - every time I feel like I've got close to making some key decisions, I get distracted by the pull to also get some festive planning underway.

Christmas is so in your face now it's impossible to ignore the fact that time is racing by and we'll be at December 25th before you know it. Singing Sleeps to Santa every morning means the festive countdown is underlined before the sun even comes up, and I now have 'present buyers block' which means I am completely clueless as to what to get anyone.

On the wedding front - my shoes have finally arrived. I had them made for me, simply because I couldn't find the style or heel height I wanted. The website I used just asks you to select a style, a heel height and the colour and 8 weeks later you have the shoes you want. Mine are the simplest shoes in the world and are actually a copy of a pair that I got from New Look for £12! Perfect.

I've also managed to locate some head-dresses for my bridesmaids. One has long hair, the other mega short hair, so it was proving tricky. Finally found some in Dorothy Perkins of all places, so delighted, as they were cost effective too!

Must dash, I've just realised I have to order some food for Christmas...

November Rain

Mmm I've not been very good at keeping this blog updated, have I? Apologies, it's been a busy few months with work and squeezing in the odd bit of wedding planning here and there.

I've now finalised a lot of the details with my venue, who have been lovely. There were a couple of issues surrounding numbers and food tasting, but they seem to have been sorted now, so I'm feeling a bit more confident than I was.

My Bridesmaid dresses have arrived and I spent a fun day with one of the maids yesterday sorting a fitting and then celebrating with tea and coffee and walnut cake. Yum. My own dress has now turned up, and is being held safe by the owner of the shop until it's time to have some fittings of my own.

I can't believe how much I've done, but also how many little details there are still to finalise. When I first got engaged one of my friends told me that planning a wedding was like having a second job - I'm beginning to see her point...

Leaves and Lists

Seriously now, where has the time gone? Last time I glanced up from my keyboard it was Summer and now, judging by the leaves falling from the trees, we are now officially in Autumn.

Since I got engaged almost nine months ago (Nine!?) it feels as though each week has flown by at double speed. The more I need to do, the less time I seem to have. However, there has been progress since I last updated this blog.

I've now ordered my bridesmaid's dress, and may have thrown a spanner in the works by asking one of my best friends to also be a maid. This may mean a secondary order and my mum is already stressing that the dresses may come from a different batch of material and won't be a precise match. The reason I left it so late to ask my friend is because there is a second friend that I would have also liked to ask, but she is having a difficult time at the moment, and it's not practical to ask her to take on the role on top of everything else. I didn't want to ask Friend 1 without asking Friend 2 and vice versa. Then I felt bad that Friend 1 might miss out simply because of Friend 2's circumstances, so there was much sighing and contemplation before I asked F1 to do the deed. She still has to see if she can get childcare on our wedding day, so we could still be down to one bridesmaid and 2 flower girls. Are we keeping up at the back?!

I'm now also able to cross Organist and Choir off my 'to do' list as I've booked both. Thing is, I now need to decide on the music and hymns, which is proving very tricky. I used to be a chorister when I was a kid, so there are plenty of things that mean something to me. Too many. I actually feel a little paralysed by the choice.

There's still plenty of time to sort out everything else, but the way that time is galloping by 2010 will be here in no time at all!

Oh happy day!

It's a miracle - I have finally found some bridemaid dresses in the colour I want! This may seem a trivial matter, but it's taken about 6 months of searching to get to this point. Even better, there are some in the style I want too, so it's a massive relief.

In other news I ordered my wedding shoes today. I'm having them made for me as I struggled to get the style and heel height I wanted. If I found one, then the other was wrong. Can you see a theme developing?!

I've booked the fiance in for an appointment with a tailor this coming weekend, so it feels like we're really making headway with the outfits for the big day.

Just my mum to help out now...

Maid in Heaven?

If there's one thing giving me a headache in this whole planning malarkey, it's the issue of Bridemaids.

I have asked my sister-in-law to be my Matron of Honour and my two nieces will be my flower girls. However, I have been Bridesmaid for two of my best friends, and would love to ask them to return the favour, but it's something of a logistical nightmare. One of them lives in Essex and the other one is in London and they both have two kids, which means they have commitments on the weekends.

The next thing is the fact that I can't find adult bridesmaid dresses that I like. Many of them are in hideous fabrics, most of them are not available in the colour I want, and some of them are both. So even if my mates could find the time to be my bridesmaid, I'm not entirely certain I could find them something to wear!

Morn on the 4th of July

Hallelujah! After a good 6 months of internet searching, glossy magazine purchases, and some trying on sessions at various bridal shops, I finally bought my wedding dress!

The weekend before last, I woke up ridiculously early on the Saturday morning, and my mum and dad took me into town, where I met my sister-in-law Marie, who is also my chief Bridesmaid. My dad went off to Tesco (he's not one for clothes shopping, despite being asked to come along lots of times) and my mum and Marie stood outside a bridal shop waiting for it to open up.

The shop-owner had actually shut the shop for the day as she was planning a visit to London to purchase more wedding dresses, but when I rang her she offered to open the shop at 8am so she could see me and still fit in her buying trip.

We were going back to the shop to look at only one dress, it was one that I tried on back in February and after various other trips and more searching online, I still hadn't found anything I liked as much. My mum felt exactly the same way, and that was a sign that it was 'the one.'

Two weeks ago we'd had a second trip to Cheltenham (we were shopping there as it was midway between Herefordshire where mum and dad are, and me in Swindon) and had spent a lovely afternoon with a fabulous bridal store owner who showed me lots of lovely dresses, and also explained how they could be adapted for me. It was a fabulous shop and the gowns were gorgeous, but I still couldn't shake off the dress that I finally chose - just nothing else came close in fit or design.

So last weekend I tried it on again with some headwear. Both my mum and Marie assured me it looked lovely, and I still felt great in it, and so we bought it! It's such a relief to have got such a major purchase out of the way, and I think taking my time was the right thing to do. You need to allow up to 9 months ordering time for a lot of dresses, so in some ways it still feels early to be making this purchase, as I normally leave everything to the last minute. For once though, I think it might be better to be organised!

Jez, my co-host and radio husband has speculated that I will be getting married wearing white dungarees and trainers - is he right? Like my fiance, you'll have to wait and see...

Dress it Up

I had a blissful afternoon with Mum and Dad in Cheltenham yesterday, we had lunch and then Dad went to mooch around town while Mum and I went and looked at some wedding dresses.

We were looked after by a lovely lady called Jo, but despite trying on about ten dresses, only one really hit the spot, and even that didn't feel 100% right. Part of the problem is that I just don't feel comfortable showing off a lot of flesh, and 99% of wedding dresses are either strapless or very strappy.

I'm a curvy girl, so I imagined most of my problem would be finding a dress that didn't make me look like the marquee - but actually my figure looks OK in a lot of the corset style designs. My waist being pulled in gives me a kind of 40's style figure which actually suits a lot of the gowns which is a nice surprise.

Sadly though even if the 'body' of the dress is OK, the top is usually not. Plunging necklines and fine straps make me desperately exposed - I realise I can't wear a polo neck on my big day, but I just can't stand not being covered up. I'm blaming the dresses - but I'm beginning to get the feeling it might be more to do with me.

I have never been the kind of girl who wears figure hugging or low-cut clothes mainly through a lack of confidence. I simply feel ridiculous in that kind of outfit, and yet I love the look on other people. My mum says I'm too hard on myself, I secretly think she's bigging me up because I'm her daughter - but what if she's right?

In my day to day life I still dress the same way I did as a student: jeans, T-shirt and trainers, maybe it's time to embrace being a grown-up and make some changes. Perhaps then, I can consider some of the dresses I'm turning my back on because they feel out of my comfort zone.

Rev-ing it Up

There's nothing like seeing a vicar fill in some official paperwork to remind you that you are really getting married. Really. Getting. Married.

I don't mind admitting to you that my tummy did some serious somersaults as I saw it all go down in black and white. While I'm really excited about becoming Damian's wife - there's also some terror mixed in there too. I really do need to take up yoga in a bid to calm myself down before the big day, I may be the first bride to say her vows with her leg behind her ear...

Our vicar also booked us in to do a questionnaire next time we meet up, this will apparently work out how compatible our thoughts are about marriage. He then went on to tell us about a couple whose results were so massively different - they split up. Ouch.

Anyway, moving swiftly on, I've managed to get some other jobs sorted out - including importing some table decorations from the States. I discovered I could save loads of money doing it that way, even with the postal charges. They arrived intact and are every bit as lovely as they looked on the website, so everyone's happy.

I'm struggling to find bridesmaid dresses in both the style and colour I'd envisaged, but I'll have to get my dress first before I can make any firm decisions about that, so I'm trying not to stress. The hunt is still on for a hairdresser for the big day, and I'm resigned to having to have my shoes made to get both the style and heel height that I want. It's more than I want to spend, but actually less than a lot of the 'off the peg' bridal shoes, and at least they will be EXACTLY what I want.

Every time I get one thing sorted, another one pops up - anyone else feeling like this?!

On the move...

Wedding plans have taken a back seat over the last month as I've been sorting out moving in with my fiance. As someone who has moved nearly 20 times since I left home to go to university - it is something I loathe doing. I have a deep-seated hatred of trying to cram my belongings into boxes and bubble-wrap, and then having to unpack it all at the other end. I end up hating myself for having any stuff at all, but it does concentrate the mind on what's important. Someone once told me that you should only keep things that are either beautiful or useful which is all very well in theory, but I'm really sentimental and keep things because of the memories attached to them.

Moving in with Damian has brought home to me how much my life has changed. When I moved into my last place I was single and really unhappy. I had come to the realisation that I was lying to other people and myself when I said I didn't want to get married. While I could cope with single life, and I genuinely would rather be alone than with the wrong person, deep down I wanted to be in a stable relationship, so I could at least mull over the option of having children. Maybe that's terribly old-fashioned, but I just didn't feel I could even consider it until someone had made a commitment to me - I'd be too scared to do it alone!

Living with my housemate Simon really cheered me up after years of solo living and made me realise I could live in the same space as someone else. I quickly felt more confident about myself and plunged myself into internet dating. Damian was the first person I went on a date with, and the rest as they say is history...

So it was with a tear in the eye that I handed the keys back to my old place this week - that house saw me change from sad singleton to a happy engaged girl. The red sofa there was where we ended up on our first date (watching the final of the X Factor), and on our second date I opened the door to find Damian there with a gorgeous orchid in his arms. So many memories...

I'm typing this blog sat on the sofa in my new home - downstairs Damian is cooking up a steak stir fry (yes, the man can cook, lucky me!) and I'm skilfully avoiding unpacking the boxes that remain in the spare room. Ah domestic bliss...

Credit Crunching

I am actually quite shocked at just how much I've enjoyed planning the wedding so far. I've never been the most organised of people, so I believed it would actually be more stress than fun. While I appreciate I have a way to go and there may be more turbulent times ahead, it's still proving to be a positive experience.

One of the key things I've enjoyed is saving money. This will come as a surprise to anyone that knows me, because while I'm not an extravagant person, I am notoriously rubbish with money. I once went on a trip to EuroDisney with my friend Mel, and despite spending EXACTLY the same on lunches and drinks - I still managed to come away with significantly less cash. Even to this day, I couldn't tell you how I did it, I just did! When I met my fiance I explained I was pants with cash and he was very firm with me, and made it clear that he believed I COULD save money if I wanted to. I still spend too much money on glossy magazines, toiletries and coffees out, but trust me, I am a gazillion times better than I was before.

The really weird thing is, I've discovered I like getting a bargain, as much as I like spending. I'm suddenly using coupons I see in magazines and get from my advantage cards. I will wait until Clinique have a Bonus Time so at least I get some benefits from buying expensive skincare. All little stuff, but it's having a great effect on my bank balance. I have seen the power of researching on the internet to save money, and I get a kick out of paying less. Fabulously all of this is paying off with my wedding planning.

While I don't want my special day to be ALL about compromise, I can see how by cutting corners on some stuff, we can put money into other things that really matter to us. My first bargain for our wedding was a cake stand for our wedding cake - thanks to ebay I saved about £70 off the retail price and £20 off the hire price, plus I can sell it on after the big day.

Today I popped into Swindon town centre with my mum and we looked in a few shops. Fabulously a dress for our flower girl had been reduced to £33, so we snapped it up, knowing full well we'd spent around half what we'd budgeted for, AND it was the nicest one we'd seen.

The buzz from saving money is actually infectious - and I'm hoping to bolster funds even more with some ebaying action. I'm moving in with my fiance soon and I need to get rid of some bits and pieces, and I think it would be great if we could make a bit of money from our unwanted items. I'm hoping this selling lark will be just as addicitive as saving - as trust me I have a lot of clutter, and my husband-to-be has a tidy streak that would put Monica from Friends to shame. Now what I am I bid for this lunchbox with Ewan McGregor and Renee Zellweger on it...?

Manic March

Blimey, where is the time going? It's now three months since I got engaged and my feet have barely touched the ground since it happened.

I seem to spend every spare minute searching for various bits and pieces on the internet, and then phoning my mum and explaining what I've found. She's coming to see me this weekend, so we'll be able to actually have a face to face chat and sort some stuff out.

My mum is a staggeringly creative woman. She is Chair of the village Flower Club, and does more crafts than you can shake a stick at. Mercifully we see eye to eye on the sort of flowers and foliage we want to use in the church, so that's taken care of - she's also sorted me out with someone to make my bouquet as that's something she won't tackle herself.

Currently we're deciding what to do for table centres. Yes, three and a bit months ago my life chugged along quite nicely without centrepieces for receptions ever troubling me - but now it seems to dominate quite a lot of my private thinking time. As we're having a winter wedding, flowers will be a bit thin on the ground, and those that get imported will be quite expensive. Also we are only allowed access to our venue at midday on the day we get married - which leaves us with very little setting-up time. We have to think of something we can make up in advance and then have plonked on the tables in record time.

I have now booked a photographer - many thanks to Glenn who posted some advice on this blog which really helped firm up that decision. It's funny how satisfying it is to cross things off your list - even for someone as disorganised as me.

What's surprised me about this whole planning process, is the fact that the wedding you had in your head before you were proposed to, bears very little resemblance to the one that you actually start planning. Or is that just me? When getting married was an abstract thing, the big day was just that - big. It was a crazy mish mash of ideas that was something between the stylish affairs of my friends and that of Alexis Colby Carrington Dexter's third marriage on Dynasty. As it stands right now the day will be quite low key and simple - much as I loved Alexis, those lavish weddings didn't lead to lasting love...

The choice of reason...

I am currently in decision-making hell, and it's causing me so much grief, that I'm now even questioning previous decisions I was happy with.

I hold my hand up and admit I have a bit of a problem with 'over-thinking,' but when you end up wailing to your co-host: 'I'm going to have a rubbish wedding...nothing's going to be OK...sob...I'll probably end up looking like Baldrick in a dress....sob...' It's probably time to take a step back.

Let me start at the very beginning (which as Dame Julie insists, 'is a very good place to start.'), I went home to see my parents this weekend and met with two photographers. One was a fabulous man for whom nothing was too much trouble. Damian and I both liked him and his pictures. We then went and met another man, whose photos are more expensive, but some of them hit the spot with me. We liked him, but maybe not as much as the first man. I now can't decide which photographer to have, and this indecision is now infectious.

Then my housemate (and newsreader on the show) let me see some pictures of a gorgeous wedding he'd been to at the weekend. The venue was stunning, the bride was stunning, the dress was stunning, the table were stu...look, you get the general idea. Suddenly I was completely overwhelmed with how fabulous everything was, and sobbed like a baby. Cue my co-host Jez to run over and put his arm around me as I started babbling about Baldrick.

You see that stunning wedding made me realise that my slightly haphazard approach to planning is going to result in a less than polished result. I am now questioning everything from my venue choice, to my invitations. I really don't feel up to the job - is this normal?!

Face Off

My co-host Jez has been trying to help me with my wedding planning. Despite (by his own admission) barely doing a thing for his own nuptials apart from turning up, he seems to want to get involved in mine.

He badgered me constantly about getting a wedding planner - and now I have the folder, he wants to know how much I've written in it. He's also had thoughts on the following:-

Wedding cars
Food at the reception
Drink at the reception
Budgets
Wedding hair

Yes, you read it correctly WEDDING HAIR. I mentioned in passing to Jez that I was thinking of cutting my hair short, and he remarked that I shouldn't have the chop as I have a 'chubby face.' Now if I'd heard this from anyone else I might have been deeply offended - but this is Jez. Love him, tact is not his strong point and he was trying to be helpful. He prefers women with long hair, and thinks only women with cheekbones that you can grate cheese on, should even consider going short - and let's be honest here, he'd still advise those women to keep their long locks.

We debated the topic on the show this morning, and most of the advice seemed to back Jez's opinion. While there were lots of women who loved their hair shorter, there were also lots more who regretted getting a crop, and one bride-to-be had even postponed her wedding by a year to let her hair grow out!

To be honest I was more confused by the end of the show, than when we started discussing it. Then I received a text from my fiance which read:-

Cut your hair off if that's what you want, will love you either way! xxxx

And that's why I can't wait to be his wife...

Made-up

I am a self-confessed scruff. If I'm going out then I'll make the effort with hair and make-up, but for day to day life (with 4.30 starts) it's a bare face, tousled hair with jeans and T-shirt.

When I started planning my wedding, I knew this would have to be addressed. Yes I can do a passable blow-dry, and yes my make-up application is OK, but I know I've lots to learn. Forget the wedding, I really want to make an effort for my fiance - he's gorgeous and he deserves a bit more effort from me. While he's got no problem with me looking like a scruffy student, I know he loves it when I make a bit of an effort.

I told my beauty therapist that I was thinking of doing my wedding make-up myself, and once she'd picked herself off the floor, she made me promise I wouldn't. She has done more for my personal grooming than anyone else, but she knows my limits, and apparently wedding make-up IS the limit. So now I'm on the hunt for a make-up artist, close to where my family live.

I need a make-up artist who can make me look like myself. But better. What I don't need is anything frosted within a 5 mile radius of my face, or to have enough eye make-up to get me into drag-queen school. Is this possible?

Busy, busy busy...

Relief all 'round this weekend when my vicar arrived back from his post-Christmas holiday and confirmed he can marry us. Phew! The ceremony will take place in the same church that my parents got married in, and is the one where I was baptised, confirmed and spent many years singing in the choir - so it was quite important that we got the green light.

Damian and I also went back to the place we're having our reception for a second look - and we loved it just as much, so that was great. My mum, along with my aunt and uncle came too, and we talked table plans and decorations. It feels very surreal to be talking about this stuff so early in the planning stage, but the venue is really popular over the summer and so we won't be able to see it again for months.

The highlight of the weekend though was going to my first bridal shops with mum, and looking at wedding dresses. Despite my fears we would find nothing, there were a few options and so that was a real relief. We visited a gorgeous and very friendly shop a few miles from my family home, and I actually tried a few on. Mum seems to understand what I'm after, which is a relief, as I'd hate for us to disagree on such an important outfit. I've waited years to do this trip and thought it might be quite emotional, but actually it was just lots of fun, and my mum was really encouraging about how I looked - which is just what a girl needs when she's feeling low on confidence!

Decisions, decisions...

Who'd have thought wedding invitations would involve so many decisions?

I had never really considered just how many options there were until leaflets started dropping out of wedding magazines with more design ideas than I've had hot dinners.

Luckily Damian's sister is helping us design our invitations and will then make them for us, which is a real relief as I haven't a clue when it comes to arts and crafts. Despite her knowledge on the topic, I still can't make up my mind exactly what I want, so we're off to an exhibition to see what's what in a few weekends time.

Next time an invitation drops through my letter box I'll have a new appreciation of the hours that went into deciding what kind of paper/design/envelope size.

Hold it! Flash bang wallop - what a picture!

Damian and I had loads of fun having pics taken in this passport style booth at the wedding fair. It was just like the ones you got in Woolies years ago, where the flash goes off for each pic.

This was the only set where I had my eyes open for each shot - my excuse is I don't get a lot of sleep, so I get it when I can!!

Thanks to Dave from groovybooth for sending these on to me, much appreciated!

A-dressing the issue.

The bonus about being newly engaged is the sheer amount of advice that comes your way, which puts you on the right path about so many issues.

Some subjects seem to divide opinion though. 'The dress' being the one where I feel really confused. As I'm planning a winter wedding I didn't think I'd need to start looking at gowns until the summer at the earliest - some people agree, others are rolling their eyes and pointing out that you might not find 'the one' straight away, and it also takes a while for some dresses to arrive after you've ordered them.

I'm hoping to lose a bit of weight before my big day (a stone at the very least - especially after Jez compared me to Rik Waller - the cheeky monkey!), and so to me it seems a bit mad to look for a dress before I'm closer to my goal size, but again opinion seems to divided on this.

As for the dress itself - I've flicked through some bridal magazines and I've been shocked to see that 99.9% of dresses are strapless. I love that style of dress on other people, but it really isn't a style that looks good on me, as I've got strapping shoulders and so I want a wedding gown with some sleeves. Wearing a shrug or small jacket with a strapless dress won't cut it either, as I want the security of knowing the dress will stay up without me tugging at it.

I'm hoping that because it's winter right now, all the dresses I'm looking at are for Spring and Summer - maybe in the heat of July and August these magazines will feature big bridal coats with thermal lining!

Fair Lady

Ooooh I LOVE wedding fairs. A sweeping statement maybe, but after my first one, I am smitten.

I spent Saturday morning at the Menzies Hotel in Swindon where all things matrimonial were all in one glorious place. A place where it was OK to swoon over fancy dresses and discuss the option of having a harpist (yes really) with like-minded souls. For someone who is still finds being engaged a huge novelty, it was enormous fun.

I spent time chatting to some great exhibitors (special mentions to Jane and Lis for their fab advice) and then also got top tips from some of the other couples who are planning their big day. Debs and Duncan had LOADS of great advice, in fact Debs has shared some of it on the comments section of my first post (Here Comes the...Clueless), thank you for that lovely lady, you are very kind. Jez, my co-host has been on at me for some time to get a wedding folder - Debs was carrying one that was as gorgeous as it was practical, so I shall be making my way to the shops this week and purchasing one.

I took Damian along with me, and despite my concerns he would be bored, he really got involved and had opinions on everything we saw. I've heard so many horror stories from girlfriends of grooms who did nothing apart from pick a suit, so it's lovely that he's keen to share some of the decision making.

If you came along to the fair, let me know what you thought, and what you managed to get organised - and keep those top tips coming!

Ring ring...

I have a soreness in my neck which I can only put down to one thing: ring whiplash! Since I got engaged, I seem to have spent a ridiculous amount of time staring at the sparkler on my left hand.

Is this condition a common phenomenon amongst brides-to-be, or is it just me? In my defence I have never worn much jewellery. I have a silver bangle that my dad bought me, (which is identical to the one worn by my mum) which I wear every day, but that's it. No earrings (despite having my ears pierced), not even a watch, but now I have this extraordinary ring that I can't take my eyes off. Part of it is the magpie in me - I love anything pretty and sparkly - and part of it is still the shock of being engaged after waiting for soooo long.

I sometimes forget I have this gorgeous thing on my finger and I'll be driving and see it out of the corner of my eye - and I'll whip my head around to clock it.

Of course the irony of all this, is that I have spent much of my adult life telling my mum that I probably wouldn't bother with an engagement ring if I got proposed to, as I'd never seen one I really liked, and it was an unnecessary expense. I'm glad I changed my mind - not only is a beautiful thing to behold, but every time I look it I'm reminded how lovely it is to be loved, after so many years thinking this would never happen.

Bride Wars

I went to the cinema last night to see the chick flick 'Bride Wars' with Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson. This may have been a mistake.

I understand it's a fictional account of weddings, but it made me very afraid. I'd forgotten that some women do become 'Bridezillas' once they start planning their big day - controlling every aspect of their day, mainly through the medium of shouting. As I am the least organised woman on the planet, I'm hoping it won't happen to me - but you can never tell.

Whilst most of my friends have been very laid back about their preparations I have a former friend (notice the word former) who became a living nightmare the second she was engaged. She had wanted to get married for a long time, and so I assumed it would be fun planning her wedding - how wrong I was! Phone calls were joyless affairs listing all of her responsibilities, and complaining that even shopping for her dress wasn't fun. The moment I realised I didn't really 'get' her anymore was when she revealed she'd even made the Best Man RSVP his wedding invitation - despite the fact his key role on the day indicated there was a pretty good chance of him turning up...

Another part of the film that struck me, was how fabulous the brides looked. They were groomed to within an inch of their life, and as a lifelong scruff it's given me a wake-up call. I'm going to have to devote some time to looking after myself and ensuring I look a bit more 'together.' I may even have to think about make-up lessons...

Here comes the...clueless

Despite having been a bridesmaid eight times (Yes - EIGHT), I have to confess I actually know very little about the art of organising weddings. Many of my friends have got married over the last decade and yet I've not taken much notice of the preparations going on around me. When mates first started tying the knot, I felt I was too young to even think about it, and then as time went on, I began to feel like I'd missed the boat and it would never happen. I now realise this lack of attention was an error - but more of that later.

My switch from long-term singleton to bride-in-waiting took place in the early hours of Christmas day. I went home to Herefordshire, to see my family with my boyfriend Damian in tow, and we decided to up the festive feeling by going to Midnight Mass. After the service we made our way to the Christmas tree and he ended up on one knee proposing to me while holding open a box which contained the most glittery ring I've ever seen. I accepted, but was completely in shock. Dazed, I made my way home and my mum cracked open some champagne to toast the moment. My dad was poorly in bed with flu and congratulated me with exactly the same words that he's used for everything from passing my Cycling Proficiency test to getting my degree: 'Well done.'

I spent Christmas day gazing at my left hand, and feeling like an imposter in fiancee world. It would not sink in that my boyfriend had decided he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me. Gradually as time's gone on, it's started to hit home that it's real and not a joke - and it's a great feeling. However, people seem to think I must have been thinking about this for some time, and want to know times, dates, themes, locations and all kinds of stuff that has never crossed my mind before.

So welcome to a wedding blog which features a bride-to-be who hasn't much of a clue about what's going on, but is looking forward to finding out all about how to plan the big day.