N.B: I don't know how much you know about English weddings, but if you don't want to marry in a church (I'm not religious), and you don't have stacks of cash, it's really only the local register office you can use. And since my dad's offered his house for the reception, it was the register office in his city that we are using.
We were pleased to find out that: • They’ve re-decorated and the scary turquoise doors have gone (which clashed with the seats, I may add).
• The waiting room is much more swish.
• Where the couple used to face the registrar and a white wall, they now face a beautiful stained glass window (pictured). It does look out onto a car park, but you can’t have everything!
• There’s much more light in the room, thanks to the window.
• And most importantly (in my opinion), there is now a proper aisle for me to walk down. In the old layout, the bride came through the door, walked 2 metres and she was there. She didn’t even get to pass the guests on her way in. But now, you come in through the same door, but the registrar and groom are at the other end, meaning you have about 6 metres of aisle, which means my chapel train gown will seen – hooray!
We also discussed a lot of wedding things with my dad and stepmum, taking advantage of the fact that Hubby was with me. We have a lot of family coming from abroad, and we can only offer 10 people accommodation, which meant we had to make our decisions based on languages spoken (eg having Spanish speakers with other Spanish speakers), as well as giving the oldies somewhere easily accessible to sleep. we even discussed photo opportunities around the city, which has been a stress of mine since Christmas. The register office doesn't have any grass or trees nearby, and the reception venue will be taken up by a big marquee, meaning we had to look elsewhere. We've found a number of places, but haven't got permission for any of them. So in case we're caught, I shall have to practise sprinting in my wedding dress...
All in all, we got a lot agreed, which makes me feel a lot better about things.
This Saturday I’m off to Kingston to sort out our gift list. I’m looking forward to having one of those hand-held barcode scanners where you just zap everything you fancy. I’ve only ever seen them in “27 Dresses”, but this Saturday I get my own. It’s the simple things…
Work, thankfully, is less busy this week. I’m relishing being able to sit at my desk and plod through my emails, as I normally do. We had a meeting recently about our pay, and if all goes smoothly and is accepted by the unions, I may be in for a £900 lump sum payment in October. I can’t wait, but fingers crossed the unions agree, otherwise it’s back to the drawing board for the fourth time. Hmm…
And lastly, Hubby has a Sous Chef! He ended up hiring an old colleague of his who recently came back into town. Hubby knows him, and knows how he works. He’s not about to do a bunk. What a relief, except, this guy was invited to our wedding, and it now means he’s not able to come because he’ll be working in Hubby’s place...
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