Theme: Part 2

Isn't it just the way, "I'll be back later with Part 2" and it just never happens!

Not sure what else I had to say about our theme apart from mention a few of the little touches we were thinking of.  We might not go for the whole record invite thing, we've still to decide that, plus we'd seen these:

Credit: Hello Lucky

But given the church we've seen, I'm not sure if we'll go for it, I don't know if we should get something more fitting.

The other thing I had seen that I rather like (and will attempt to make at the weekend is this:

Credit: Kaboodle

Also, we'd like to make some little bowls out of 7" records and we'd also really love to get new labels printed for them but no idea where to start on that one!

I think we'll name each table after a different band, The Beatles (Top Table!), The Cure, Blur, Genesis.... hahaha!

And I liked the idea of us dressing up as different musical couples and having our photos taken.  So far I've got, Sid and Nancy, Kurt and Courtney, Sonny and Cher, John and Yoko and erm, Elton John and Kiki Dee.  Yeah, okay, I need to think a bit harder about this.  Also, I can only think of couples who ultimately had grisly ends...!   

Robert Smith and his wife Mary, I know Andy would kill to dress up as his idol!!

For our music, we figured that unless a nice family member wants to hire a band for us, it's pretty much off the menu as it's just going to be way out of our budget.  So we were just going to hire the equipment from the guy who owns the barn and buy ourselves a nice iPod to use on the day (do iPad's have the same iPod capabilities?!)  Either that, or I need to sweet talk an old friend of mine into coming along and helping out with the musical side of things.  But, we wanted to more or less plan the playlist ourselves, moving through the decades (our first thought, this might not work in practice!)

So, what do you think?  Just our first musings on it!

Theme: Mission in Progress, Part 1

So I had a literal epiphany on Tuesday morning, I was in the shower, thinking about the venue, thinking about how we could decorate and stuff, when suddenly, literally, a thunderbolt hit my head, and I realised, the perfect theme for Andy and I is.... (and if you know me, this will come as no surprise) MUSIC!

As I said, anyone who knows me will know I'm a teensy bit fanatical about music.  I made Andy stay up until about midnight on Monday playing him one of my Spotify playlists.  He sent me an email on Tuesday morning to say I did have a rather impressive knowledge of music (which made my day, how sad!).  Now, whilst I don't know everything, and I'm not claiming too, there are a lot of tunes stored in this tiny brain of mine and I know how to use them!

I think music has always been a passion for both Andy and I, to different degrees though I think.  His parents are a generation removed from mine and as such he grew up with Jazz (his dad) and Buddy Holly (his mum).  My parents were in their twenties in the 80s and as such I grew up listening to Genesis and Pink Floyd (my dad) and the Beatles (my mum, okay, so the Beatles are 80s, but my dad HATES the Beatles, which I struggle to understand how anyone can hate the Beatles, don't get me started!!)

Andy spent his teenage years listening to The Cure (with whom my only recollection was of seeing the video for Friday I'm In Love on TOTP, or Top Of The Pops for you younger followers who sadly missed out on that great British institution in it's heyday.  My parents had a date to see TOTP be recorded, my mum spends every Saturday watching TOTP 2 on UK Gold just to see if their episode comes up, much in the same way I watch Top Gear on Dave to spot myself, aged 18 in a white hoody being obscured by Johnny Vegas, this ruining my 5 minutes of TV air time!  I digest....)

So where was I?  Oh yes, Andy liked The Cure and Nirvana and Oasis (yuk!) whilst I spent my time listening to Blur, The Prodigy and Ministry of Sound Annuals.

I think our teenage relationships formed our musical taste, The Cure for Andy and for me, large doses of Drum and Bass, UK Garage and House (my teenage friends and boyfriend were all 'DJs', they all had the decks, the vinyl, the big headphones).  I also used to listen to old stuff; Pink Floyd, The Who, The Clash.  So I swing from UK Garage to The Who and back to The Prodigy.

So anyway, I'm rambling, my iMac is crashing every 5 minutes so I'm going to adjourn to apply my make up, pop to Worcester Park, pick up some old records from the DebRA charity shop and come back for Part 2 of my explanation on our theme!!

Venue: Mission Complete

So I've been trying to post for 4 days now to show you some photos of the venue....

Yes, I totally did take pictures of the toilets, and the mirror ball!  Look at the pretty lights in these last two shots. These are hanging on the wall in the smaller part of the barn where we may have our ceremony.  I saw may, because we visited my aunt after the barn who lives in Boxgrove and is a regular at Boxgrove Priory.  We took a stroll over to the church and, wow, it's amazing.  I think I might have to put in a few 3 hour round trips between now and the wedding to secure us a wedding there.  It was stunning, we both said to each other how amazing it would be.  Here's a small picture of it.

Lush.

That is all for now.  Will write again to tell you about the perfect idea I had for our theme!!

Whirlwind

Hello!

I was meant to blog yesterday and tell you all about our weekend trip to visit two venues in West Sussex.  Which I suppose, as if I was telling a story, I could still do in cronological order and the reason for my cryptic-ness will become clear....

So we got up early on Sunday morning, one of our rare mornings off as Scarlett was in Bromley and we headed down to the beautiful countryside in Sussex.  We headed first to Fitzleroi Farm Barn and were met by Mark.  The venue was lovely, everything I had hoped it would be.  But, there were a few things we weren't so keen on - no permanent dancefloor, carpeted floor, one door = quite dark in there and one side of the courtyard was their family home.  It did have things going for it, slightly cheaper, big kitchens.  It was nice and Mark was very helpful and gave us a few insider tips which was nice.

We left there at 11:00 and had an hour to kill before heading to Grittenham Barn.  We passed a little church on a hill, All Hallows, Tillington which looked lovely.  However, we knew it was only going to be necessary if we used Fitzleroi as they didn't have a wedding licence and had stated quite clearly that they had no intention of doing so.

Carried on to Midhurst where we glugged down a cup of tea in a little cafe and headed back to Grittenham.  I think I knew almost as soon as we pulled up and I saw the huge mirrorball suspended from the ceiling that this may be, 'The One'.  We were met by Paul who was really lovely and down to earth.  He seemed really quite enthusiastic about weddings in general. 

The barn itself is over two levels, a large main part and a smaller lower part.  He told us how the lower part can be used as a chillout area in the evening (like the sound of that) with the provision of sofas and chairs.  The view from the barn was gorgeous, you could see the lake and gardens and the South Downs.  Windows on both sides meant it was so light in there, with the sun streaming in one side.  I was innapropriately dressed to see the lake where we can have a drinks reception so I think we will be making another visit down there.

The kitchen was small although we were assured that there are other kitchens the caterers can access via a back door.  Curtains can be pulled at various parts of the barn to allow a band to set up, ready for a big reveal in the evening!  You can decorate how you like.  Paul can provide lights and a sound system meaning that we could save money on a DJ by just having an iPod plugged into it.  I tell you, you have to check out his website, he has a lighting company and they do such amazing things - parties in lit up woods and projections on marquees!  I can't find his website, I've left all our Grittenham details at home, but I'll post it later!

So basically, we came to a decision pretty quickly that it was The One.  Although it's a bit more than Fitzleroi and we have to take extra things into consideration; no tables or chairs (which we can get from the caterer) and extra for the Registrar (which we would've had to do for Fitzleroi anyway, plus a venue if not a church....) we could just really see ourselves getting married and having a great time there.

One problem.  Deposit.  Chatted it over with my parents, none of us have a grand lying around.  Mum mentioned it to my Grandparents and they've offered to lend us the money for our deposit!  Am so pleased and made up and EXCITED!!!  So anyway, I'm off to give them a call.  I'll list some websites later so you can see what this place looks like.

Name change

As you may, or probably may not, have noticed, I've changed the name of my blog.  Reflection of Me was a bit emo for my liking and well, there's nothing wrong with a bit of French and a revamp for the New Year.

I'm yet to find a really cool blog skin to really change the blog and keep it more in line with the new theme (wedding!) but I think the font is the colour scheme for the wedding anyway.

So, I had lots of things to tell you all about over the weekend, and now it's Monday morning and I'm at work I've completely forgotten all of it!

Mainly it was to say that we're viewing our first venue on Sunday, the Fitzleroi Farm Barn.  I have no idea what to expect, but at £3k it's the top of our budget for venue alone.  Whilst we could hire somewhere else for about that the bonus of Fitzleroi is that they don't insist you use their caterers (they prefer you to but don't charge if you do use someone else) and they are opposed to corkage.  So that ticks both of our main boxes. 

I think our only bugbear is that it's about an hour away from here.  There are some lovely hotels in the area, and its near to Chichester and Arundel.  It's just where to get married as they're no licensed for civil ceremonies, so we might take a quick look at the churches in the area too.

Here's a picture of the interior.  It seems to be just what we want.  We'll wait and see, my only worry is that people are going to turn round and say "You can't book the first place you look at," which is fair enough.  It's not like we can book it anyway as we have zero for a deposit!  We'll try and line some other places up perhaps, wondering if we can also look at Grittenham Barn on Sunday afternoon as mum has Scarlett for the day.

Anyway, Happy Monday to anyone who drops by!

My first wedding mood board - what a geek!!

Don't Stop the Rock!