Our Joint Stag & Hen Night

Last night we celebrated our Blues Brothers themed Joint Stag & Hen Do, and we had such a good time. I literally had to race home from work, jump in the shower and squeeze into my little black dress. I teamed it with a fedora hat, stockings, heels and a red and white garter. Hubby wore a black suit with white shirt and a fedora hat.

Not everyone managed to dress up, but it was good to have everyone there - even my brother and his wife came out, and I've never been out with him before! We started out at a bar in town, and moved to a club at 11pm, staying there until 3am. It's a good thing I booked the day off work today!

It was such a fun night though, and great to see everyone again. Most of the people that came worked with us at the pub that closed down in November, and it's been hard to find time to meet up recently, so it was good to catch up too.

Anyway, I thought I'd post a few photos of our fantastic night:

My Cousin Gets Hitched!

I went to my cousin's wedding yesterday, and it was great. I had such a good day. I've been pretty stressed out for the past couple of weeks, so it was really nice to be able to forget everything for a day and just enjoy myself. Hubby wasn't able to come along, so as always I look as if I'm a lone spinster amongst lots of happy couples. But people are used to it now; Hubby works; he doesn't play. I think my extended family have met him a grand total of three times in the 8 years we've been together, and only my grandmother and 2 aunts have met him from my family on the continent.

Anyway; back to the wedding. Here's a shapshot of the happy couple; my cousin and his new wife:
The wedding was in Kent, which is about 2 hours drive for us. It was a long day, but we were never bored. They said their vows in the grounds of a gorgeous country estate, and although it was a little cold, it was really nice. The ceremony was followed by a four course wedding breakfast in the main building, before retiring to the pavilion for the evening reception.

They'd hired a singer/guitarist for the early evening, and then a DJ for the disco afterwards. But something I particularly liked was that they also had a "Chill Out Room", where you could get away from the music if you don't fancy dancing all night. I don't know about you, but I don't do dancing. Not because I don't like it; because I love dancing. I just can't dance in front of people... unless I'm really drunk; but getting really drunk isn't something I'm prepared to do at a family wedding!

The cutting of the cake, the evening buffet (which I was too stuffed to eat), the chocolate fountain (which I found space for), and even the Pick & Mix was all in the Chill Out Room, so I was pretty happy for the evening!

Hubby, being a chef, and being obsessed with food hygiene, has banned me from having a chocolate fountain at our wedding. I wasn't really bothered, as I've never really been part of the craze. But this chocolate fountain may have changed my mind forever. Now, I know that they add oil to help the chocolate flow, and I know that the constant tepidity of the chocolate encourages bacteria growth, but it's still chocolate! This fountain setup was incredible. I always assumed they only used strawberries and marshmallows, but no! They also had melon, banana, profiteroles, Belgian waffle, fudge, and so much more. And being on Weight Watchers, I had the strawberries. If only! I actually made a point of avoiding the strawberries, and instead had the waffle, marshmallow and profiteroles. When I come off the diet, I do it properly!

The only downer to the wedding was that I fell head over heels (literally) down a flight of stairs! I've since been asked whether I was drunk or wearing high heels, but unfortunately I can't use either of those excuses; I had been drinking water, and I was wearing flats! I'm now avoiding all the bruises on my elbow, leg, knee, back, hip, and head! They had to be the stairs with the metal edges. Luckily it was only my brother that saw, so I was able to regain my pride by the time I got back to my family.

I'm not sure how you feel about weddings; I know some people hate them, or think they're tedious and a bore. My little brother, who's just turned 14, thinks that; and I used to think like that too. But when I was growing up, we didn't get invited to many weddings, and if we did, we would only be invited to the reception, so there was none of this sitting through ceremonies to worry about. I don't think my parents' divorce helped either, because from then on, I thought marriage was a waste of time. I probably wouldn't have been a good person to have around at a wedding ceremony!

But now I'm older, and probably because I'm in a relationship myself, I absolutely love going to weddings. It's such a cliche, but I love watching a couple get married, because you see how much they love each other, and you're lucky enough to be able to witness that moment that they're joined in marriage - a lifelong commitment; and they chose you to be there with them.

On top of all that, I'm planning my own wedding at the moment; a wedding which I never envisaged happening because of my view of marriage when I was growing up; and my friends are also starting to get married, so I'm being invited to a few, and I get to see their different interpretations of their "Big Day".

I knew from the start that my cousin's wedding would be much grander than ours; because both my aunt, and my cousin (the groom's sister) are organisers for wedding shows, so they have great contacts, and most probably great discounts to go with them. Because of this, there was actually a lot of discussion leading up to this wedding, as we tried to guess what would be in store for us, but at the end of it; it was nothing short of brilliant. It was grand, yet stylish. Nothing was overdone, nothing was showy. It was very tasteful; a wedding to be proud of.

People asked why I haven't asked them for similar discounts, but I'd started planning our wedding before realising that they were involved in this business, and we already had our ideas sketched out. Our wedding will be very different, and I think it will be interesting to have such different weddings in the period of ten weeks.

Are you getting excited? - I must have been asked that question about ten times yesterday. Of course I'm excited; I can't wait to marry Hubby, and start the rest of our lives together. I think about standing opposite him and looking into his eyes as I say my vows, realising that I have everything I want in him. But of course there are stresses too, and sometimes (or quite often at the moment), I find it hard to see through the chaos and remember why we're doing this. But I do remember, and I'm really looking forward to when it's our turn; in 69 days!

Happy St George's Day!

A happy St George's day to you all! I don't care if you're not English, or not descended from English stock; have a cup of tea (or a glass of Pimms) and a scone and sit back and enjoy the sunshine. It's sunny here today; apparently the warmest April in 30 years! Despite landing at 1:30pm yesterday, by the time I went to bed last night I was still in holiday mode, and so when I woke up this morning and turned on GMTV (morning television) to learn that it was St George's Day, I actually groaned. Don't get me wrong; I absolutely love this day, but it meant I had to root around for something red and white to wear to work; despite having chaos all around me from unpacking our suitcase!


Anyway, find some clothes I did, and I'm now at work wearing a white top, a red skirt that is now too big for me (the joys of losing weight!), and white ballerina pumps - beautiful!

As I made my way in to work today, I have to admit, I was a little disappointed that I didn't see anyone else wearing the national colours, or waving a flag or anything. Not that that wouldn't have been weird. It's a pity more English people don't celebrate our patron saint day. Everyone's happy to celebrate St Patrick's day, but nobody even cares when it's St George's day. This is what it's come down to: A couple of events in London, followed by haters yelling at them because they're offending the non-English members of our communities.

I don't want to seem rude, but if immigrants come to England, surely they are expecting to be thrown into an English society; all stiff upper lipped, non church-going, non saying hello in the street style. If I go to China I don't expect them to greet me with a cup of tea and a shortbread biscuit. Last year the government were actually telling people not to wear or display the flag of St George for fear of making foreigners feel unwelcome. My own mother is foreign, and even she thinks the country has become too obsessed with keeping her sweet. Political correctness gone mad.

Anyway; my mini rant out of the way - My trip to Hubby's Homeland went better than I expected. Hubby's grandfather, though not well, was better than we thought he would be. He's getting radiotherapy, so hopefully it will help him a little. While we were the weather was amazing; not a single cloud in the sky for the duration of our stay. We went fishing, went to the new casino, ate out, and caught up with Hubby's Best Man and his wife, as well as other friends.

One of our friends is taking part in the local version of "Strictly Come Dancing" or "Dancing With The Stars" for those of you in the US. We went to see the opening night while they were filming it for TV, and we had a great time. The six couples danced either the Waltz or the Cha Cha Cha. Although we can't see the televised shows here in the UK, we're asking them to keep us updated on our friend's progress in the contest.

I ate so much while I was there though, and I feel like such a porker, so as of today, I'm back on Weight Watchers with a vengeance. We went for breakfast, and Hubby had toast with garlic and olive oil (yum!). We also took the opportunity to have lots of fried food, a Burger King, a KFC and a whole bag of Jelly Babies...

The importance of today is three-fold for me though; because my little brother celebrates his birthday on 23rd April, and my grandfather also died on this day. So as well as celebrating being English (not British), I give my brother a call to wish him a happy birthday, and take a moment to think of my grandfather.

In other news, and possibly the most important of all; Hubby and I have agreed that it's time to think about getting on the housing ladder in his home country. So I've said that once 2010 comes around, he can scout around for a job there, and if he finds one with a decent salary; he'll accept it and we'll be emigrating.

Now, for those of you who don't know; Hubby grew up abroad, and I moved back there with him in 2004, but moved back to the UK when I was offered double bubble as a store manager. He has always wanted his children to have the same upbringing as he did, and Hubby's Homeland is the safest, friendliest place we know. So once we married we would try for kids, and move abroad once we found out we were expecting.

BUT things never really work as easily as you think they will. There is a housing list you need to go on for government housing, and you can only go on it once you've been living there for a year. But we can't live with his parents with a screaming newborn, so we've realised we're going to have to plan things a little better.

So here's the deal; if Hubby can find a decent job over there, we can get a mortgage (stupidly affordable over there), I can then focus on finding a job that doesn't need any fluency of Spanish (even though the official language is English, this is harder than you'd think). We can then try for a family, I will be able to raise the kids, learn Spanish, and we'll live happily ever after. I'm not sure about the last part, but that's the plan at least!