Diary of a Secret Wedding Part two

Here is Part Two of the Secret Wedding diary – turns out it’s a three parter.
I’m not even sorry.
Part One can be found here.

Tuesday 6th Feb.

Today we gave notice and we have a date!

We almost didn’t make the appointment – as you can imagine, I was flapping.
We couldn’t find anywhere to park because Leeds wasn’t designed with actual traffic in mind. I was very aware that if we were late not only would we lose our appointment, we’d have to pay the £70 fee AGAIN to make a new appointment!

Screw that!

I had to do a small trot and was ‘glowing’ but we made it with seconds to spare – obviously the lady we were meeting was running late…..

We had to answer a few questions about each other, I was pretty sure we looked suspicious.
Luckily we passed and so we are getting married on Thursday 29th March at 3.30pm.
7 weeks and 2 days away!

I can’t stop smilling.
My face hurts.

I have told Rachel, as I’ve asked her to be my witness.
She said yes and is all aboard the bridal train.

Our to do list for the whole affair has like 10 items on.
That is the most doable to do list ever!

Thursday 8th Feb

After the school run we went to Rachel’s to “Google the shit out of this wedding” – her words.

As brilliant as it is doing all of this in secret, it really is great having someone on board for this side of it.

Rory is great, really he is, but he doesn’t see things quite the same way as I do.

I showed him a most beautiful wedding dress the other day.
It was stunning. His response?

“That’s shiny”

That’s shiny??
REALLY!?!

By lunchtime, Rachel and I had emailed four photographers for quotes, made an appointment at a bridal shop for Saturday and planned a trip to a ‘bridal warehouse’ on Sunday.

WINNING AT WEDDINGS!

Friday 9th Feb. 

Rory has ordered his suit. Just like that.
He wanted something a bit different as he often has to wear a suit for work.
As it’s OUR wedding, not just mine as I sometimes accidentally call it, he deserves to feel pretty too.

We found a lovely check skinny suit with a £150 off which made it seem even more lovely.
It’s kind of grey and red and check, I’m rubbish at describing but it looks lovely.

So, the groom has his outfit sorted before I’ve even looked at dresses…

Saturday 10th Feb.

I’m going to put it out there, I am really nervous about trying on dresses, I actually feel sick.

Being a ‘lady of larger proportions’ I’m partly worried there will be nothing in my size and partly worried I just won’t look or feel pretty in anything.
Your wedding dress is meant to make you feel the most special you’ve ever felt.
He is meant to see me enter the room and melt into a useless pile on the floor because I look so amazing.

I can’t see any of that happening.

Rory suggested we go shopping to ‘look for wedding stuff’.
This may sound like a very ordinary suggestion given that we are getting married and do indeed need to buy stuff but in our house this is a big bloody deal.

This ACTUALLY means he is excited!
Rory doesn’t do shopping by choice.
EVER.

We almost certainly chose our wedding rings and found some shoes for Aoife – success.
The shoes have small heel on, Aoife is over the moon with them even if they make her walk like Bambi on ice!
She thinks they’re for a party *sneaky laugh*.

Later

I ONLY WENT AND FOUND THE PERFECT DRESS.

We went to this beautiful boutique place – so fancy that we had to take our shoes off!

The woman asked what I was looking for and my budget.
We hadn’t discussed budget, in fact when I first started looking at dresses I was looking at high street stores and they were all about £100…

I told her I wanted a tea length dress and I had a budget of £500.
I didn’t know what a ‘good’ budget was but the look on her face told me that £500 wasn’t it and I probably couldn’t afford to be here – apparently the average wedding dress costs £1900!

*SHOCKED FACE*

She went off for AGES, I was swiftly losing hope.
Eventually she returned with a long, flowing, lace and chiffon sample dress.
It so wasn’t me.
Rachel and I looked at each other and I was a bit ready to leave but being truly British I made my way to the changing room instead.

I tried the dress on, the woman tweaked this, pinned that and added t’other and it was frickin’ beautiful.
I had a waist and boobs!
This dress would be entirely altered for me, be totally original and beautiful.

There was only one problem, I had to pay today……

I told the woman I needed to talk to Rory, I had 3 hours to get home, decide and get back to pay.

Rachel, being the voice of reason, said we should look at more than one dress so we went to the bridal warehouse place to check I’d not just been swept up in a moment.

I don’t know if you’ve ever been to a bridal warehouse but, take it from me, it was AWFUL.

It was the wedding dress equivalent of Sports Direct with dresses made of net curtain and static that cost as much as the one from the boutique would cost.
We beat a hasty retreat and I practised my puppy dog eyes on the way home.

It turned out that my actual eyes were good enough and Rory drove me back to the shop to pay.
HUZZAH.

The dress is more than we originally thought BUT we don’t have engagement rings, elaborate matching wedding rings,  masses of flowers, lots of people to feed, fancy cars to drive so we’re actually saving compared to some weddings…
Besides, it gives me a RIGHT rack.

This is going to be the BEST wedding ever – in your face Harry and Meghan!

Sunday 11th Feb

I can’t believe I am going to have such a beautiful dress.
We’re getting married in little over six weeks, I really should get planking and doing push ups or some such thing.

We have chosen our wedding songs.
Yes, the secret wedding has secret wedding songs!

I am going to walk down the aisle/into the room to ‘Here Comes the Sun’ – That’s what everyone thinks when they see me coming…Obviously.

We’ve also chosen First Day of my Life, Marry You,  The You and Me song and Can’t Stop the Feeling (for the kids of course)  – just for the signing the register bit to avoid awkward silence in a near empty room.

For some reason I’ve found myself becoming obsessed with looking at wedding underwear.
As far as I can see, wedding underwear is pretty much normal underwear but it matches and costs more.
Interestingly, you can purchase VERY similar items from the exact same place but without ‘bridal’ in the title for about £15 less.

As I said before, it’s a licence to print money this wedding lark!

Wednesday 14th Feb

We’ve received a few photographer quotes, a couple of very reasonable ones and some that are clearly from pranksters – £1000 for an hour and a half? That’ll be a no from us!

We decided to go with Tux and Tales, as they’re the only photographers we found who actually offer a package designed for a wedding as small as ours – therefore they are geniuses!
I spoke to Jaye today, she has a lovely West Country (or maybe American – accents aren’t my forte) accent and made me feel really at ease, I think we’ve made the right choice.

This afternoon I ordered a tweed suit for Seth and a floor length ivory dress with red waist band and hem for Aoife.
She is going to LOVE it.
I hope.
If she doesn’t I’m sure she’ll let me know.
Oh God she better like it! I don’t want her chirruping in my ear as I try to get married!

Later

BALLS.
I had my eye on these beautiful Irregular Choice shoes in the Schuh sale. I kept meaning to order them and kept putting it off. Now they don’t have my size!
GAH.
I’m so cross with myself for not just ordering them – I’m such an idiot.
I have spent the evening trawling the internet looking for the perfect shoes, so far I’m failing.

I WILL NOT CRY.

Click HERE for the conclusion!