Packing and Posting

Is it just me or when you're tidying a room it actually gets messier before it gets tidier?

Due to the foot being out of order and consequently me walking on crutches I haven't been able to clean my house properly but since I have been able to get up and about a little more this week I was determined to clean my house a little bit in preperation for moving back to my mums... and eventually to my new house with Adam.

But I found that the only way I could clean my house was to actually make it messier, move things around put things in boxes. My usual philosophy, one I have lived by since I was little and have taken from mum is 'Start in one corner and work your way around' but today I seemed to have started in the middle and made a whirlwind around the living room; after an hour it began to look more like a living room and less like a bombsite.

One more thing puzzling my mind recently is; I am moving to Newcastle/Washington - North and by that time I shall be neither a Bridezilla nor shall I be Bradfordian but rather some sort of hybrid thing, I don't want this blog to disappear into the blogosphere of oblivion but rather I want to keep it but I don't know how I shall keepsake it... should I print it off? What should I do with it? Any ideas would be extremely helpful. Also, my other thought was... what should I call my new blog? I have Grace's Globe but I kind of feel that one has outdated me now so I should grow and move on just as a lot of blogs do... or should I go back to that one after missing approximately 7 months of my life? Again any ideas let me know.

I'm still on the knitting but yesterday, as one does, I got 'slightly' bored of knitting diagonal squares... like yay... :\ so I decided to search the web for '1 ball of wool knitting patterns' and I came across a little heart, and I mean little... it's tiny. So I decided to try one yesterday and it went really well to say it took me a little while to understand the abbreviations but none the less I have a knitted heart I just need to make it a heart and less of a piece of knitted something or another. I shall keep people updated.

Tomorrow is d-day, as in the day I actually tell my mum what is going on with wedding planning and how much I have got so far and where I have got to so far. Fun fun.

It has been a bit harder to post recently because my wireless at my house has been a bit stupid and it's been a bit cold so instead of sitting downstairs watching tv I've been curled up in bed upstairs watching films.

Sitting and Waiting

That's what I am doing pretty much right now because there is not much I can do or buy until my wage comes in. Once I do that its all systems go. I mean sure I could pack to move home but its too cold so I'm sat in bed watching a film.

Once I see mum on Thursday we will be a little more organised and I will feel a little less like I am sat here just waiting.

I have to get started on packing tomorrow and then cleaning and then into a warm house yay! Where I need to do more cleaning just to get everything ready.

Seems almost unbelievable to think in 4 months and 2 days I shall be married. I am hoping to coerce the new husband into getting kittens straight away, we have talked about having two and I am sure that we'd eventually get around to it but maybe I'll ask him to get me the kitties as a wedding present. I asked if we could have two and he said yes as long as they were black and white (no surprise there though).

We still haven't finished doing up his house yet and a lot of the things that need doing to it are cosmetic but even so 4 months can go pretty quick. We'll be together 8 months on the 13th, Friday 13th... Surprising how your life can change in a day and not really the 'luckiest' day in the world either.

I'm posting this via my phone because my wireless is on the blink and as we all know I am chilling in bed; its on my list of things to do tomorrow - ring virgin. They're not a very good company by the way but who is these days.

I hope you've liked my Bridezilla page on Facebook I only remembered to make it yesterday, another reminder - 13 days until my birthday!

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Patches

My mum said apparently in the pioneer times when a young woman was to be married she should have made 8 blankets in her life, well I haven't even finished one or let alone started one... silly pioneer traditions.

However, if they counted for scarves I would be well in, since I think I have made about 3/4 by now. Oh, I'm talking about knitting by the way. It's quite strange because as mum reminded me the other day this time last year I didn't really know how to knit at all. I was knitting in straight lines and in the past 365 days I have made a couple of hats a few patches for a blanket a couple of scarves and that's about it really. I've been a very busy girl.

Not my knitting

Mum is coming over on Thursday to specifically help me make some 'booties' or more commonly known as baby boots. I think it will end in disaster but you never know.

Not much done in the way of wedding planning today, but I suppose knitting is marriage planning in the eventual future when I have pitter pattering feet everywhere (not to mention the screaming all the time).

I haven't seen this in my Calender yet

Something else I am doing in the way of marriage planning is 'syncing' mine and Adam's calenders with this funky one that we bought just a little while before Christmas as it was on sale and made me laugh. That's right a 'HIS & HERS' calender. The month of January it says "Derek had treated himself to a new home cinema with plasma screen, DVD writer, internet connection, record and playback facility and surround sound" then underneath it has a speech bubble coming from the woman saying "If only you could switch it on..." at least Adam isn't that bad.

I just started writing in all the weekends Adam will be here; the weekends I am up there; when his beloved Newcastle United have home matches; my birthday; Emily's birthday; Bethany's birthday; the two weddings we are going to before our own (March & April); when we have to go to the registrars office, I just have to remember to take the calender with me when I move... at the end of this month and let me tell you, my house is in no fit state to be moved. Haha this next four months... is going to be fun.

The Secret Wedding Weapon

I'm trying to decide whether these next few months are going to go fast or slow?

On the one hand the wedding is just over 4 months away; by the time we get married we'll have been engaged 7 months so technically, we're not even half way there yet to the wedding. But, on the other hand the first three months flew by (and it did help that most days kinda merged into one with me being off work).

Not my calender

I am starting to think about the million and one things that I need to get sorted, on the one hand I feel slightly over-whelmed. I mean try planning a wedding pretty much by yourself (I like to have control, just because I want it to go right) but when I look at my diary; at all the information; the bits and pieces of stuff we have going on here and there; the list of things that need to be paid and when they need to be paid, I can see that I have pretty much everything covered. I mean there isn't anything I have left out and yet my brain still goes on a barny... weird.

'It' being the wedding, not sofas.

Pre-wedding is covered, ceremony is covered, photography is covered, reception is covered, after-math is covered so its all covered. Maybe not all yet planned and finito but it is all covered we have ideas and numbers and names etc. just need the gusto to get and go. That'll come at the end of January but with these next weekends very busy what with my birthday on the 23rd and the move home on the 28/29th and going to the registrar on the 4th there isn't really much time for anything else. This is why I have a secret weapon. It is called...

Mum. She won't realise until she reads this but once I hopefully go back to work full time on Wednesday (fingers crossed) I am going to leave all the phone call making and stuff finding to my mum. I mean that is what she is there for and I think with me going back to work it's time for me to use that horrible word that all control freaks hate to use... that word is DELEGATE. I couldn't possibly delegate but I have no choice because I will be at work through the normal working hours, when things are open, and actual lunch breaks are far and few between at the office; so I can't call anyone there. Thus, rendering the bride completely useless for at least, oh I don't know, 10 hours of the day. So, yeah...

Does this sound like a freak out to you? Sounds like a freak out to me. If I keep telling myself it is fine I will hopefully eventually actually believe it is fine. This 'fine' feeling will occur once I am sat at the Reception of our wedding and I am looking out at all the wonderful people who have come to share mine and Adam's big day.

And breath.

Mrs United

Have I told you that I am not actually marrying just Adam anymore?

No?

I am marrying Adam plus another 28 men. Their names are:

Shola Ameobi, Demba Ba, Hatem Ben Arfa, Leon Best, Yohan Cabaye, Fabricio Colloccini, Rob Elliot, Danny Guthrie, Jonas Gutierrez, Steve Harper, Tim Krul, Peter Lovenkrands, Sylvian Marveaux, Gabriel Obertan, James Perch, Danny Simpson, Alan Smith, Steven Taylor, Ryan Taylor, Cheik Tiote, Mike Williamson... and a few others.

Cabaye, Gutierrez, Ben Arfa, One of the Taylor's

These names may look familiar to some people and others may not have a clue, so let me fill you in. These are the names of the players on the first team that play for NEWCASTLE UNITED. Adam is as you all know (or may not know) from Newcastle, and because of this he loves NEWCASTLE UNITED. There is no way of getting away from it.

Those of you who know and have know me a while know that I love football this much ->   |--|  <-

Meaning a very tiny amount, so it may come as a shock to you to know that MY OWN fiancee has a season ticket to Newcastle United AND we actually, honestly, plan our weekends around his home football matches. Trust me, it was much better for us that way, or rather much better for me not to argue and actually LET it be that way.

Hatem Ben Arfa

I haven't quite decided what my last name will be yet when we get married. It is one of two options: either it is going to be:

Grace Louise Bell

OR

Grace Louise Ameobi -Ba - Ben Arfa - Best - Cabaye - Coloccini - Elliot - Guthrie - Gutierres - Harper - Krul - Lovenkrands - Marveaux - Obertan - Perch - Simpson - Smith - Taylor - Taylor - Tiote - Williamson .... Bell

How does that sound? Try sticking that one on a cheque...

Hmmm, I didn't think so. I think I'll just stick with Mrs Newcastle United.

Buy Adam anything with this on it and he will love it

It has actually gotten so bad, this Newcastle United fever of mine, that I can actually tell you at least 12 of the first team players names just by sight. Adam got a new calender for Christmas and I could name 2 of the people on the front and at least 10 of the player's names on the inside.

It's not all bad though, it means Adam gets some free time to spend with his friends and so do I (not that I have very many) and he can go shouting his guts off which means when he comes home he could quite possibly have a sore throat from shouting so much and therefore is quiet (hehe), On the other hand it means I have to keep a very close check on all the football games that Newcastle play so I can gauge Adam's mood for when he comes home. If he's happy and they have won a game I might risk it with a joke or two about the players and the match... if he's not that I give him a hug and let him play FIFA for a while so he can play as Newcastle United and actually win the game they just lost in real life.

If I had to choose any one of them though, I'd choose to marry Cabaye ;)

Yohan Cabaye

Funnily enough last night whilst Adam and I were leaving ASDA in Bradford a sort of chavish looking guy was stood outside with a few other people being kind of loud and chav-ish and as we were walking past he must have noticed Adam's coat (Newcastle United coat) and said:

" 'Ere that guy is a Newcastle supporter... LEGEND MATE!! They beat Man Utd 3 - 0... LEGEND"

Interesting. Ciao for now.

The Other Parts

Meaning the bridesmaid dresses.

I'll have to post a picture up later this evening because I forgot to post earlier and by the time Adam and I get back to Bradford it'll be too late to post (on the right day at least).

The dress is full length, available in the sizes I want and the staff from the site have already replied to two of my emails in two days; which is more than any other site I've seen.

I've checked lots of different websites to see if the one I'm buying the dresses from is legitimate and there are no disgruntled customers that I can find.

I'm getting 5% discount on dresses and 5% off the delivery which is good considering the delivery is worth nearly two dresses! The website is pay via paypal or other secure payment and THERE IS NO HAVING TO PROVE THE DRESS IS WRONG; a lot of other dress sites had this.

The dress has straps which we will amend ourselves into sleeves or we will get shrugs and the latest delivery time for them is 8-10 weeks and not one dress has ever been late. I know what you're thinking... Sounds too good to be true - well I blummin hope not.

http://www.bestbridalprices.com/images/davinci/bm/large/9051.html - a link for the dress until I get home.

Watch this likkel space for a picture of the dress later

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Men's Suits

Sorry for posting so late this evening I had to get the go ahead from the fiancee before posting these pictures (as they are special special ones).

Adam's mum and I went into town today with one specific aim in mind: to put 8 names down on a suit hire list. We had one place to go to because that was the place where they had the cravats in the colours I liked. This place was:

However, we didn't end up doing that but what we did accidentally do is pick out the men's suits. Adam's mum, Jen informed me that Adam doesn't have a clue about fashion sense which to be honest I quite agree with, not that he doesn't look good in what he is wearing but sometimes he lacks, but I am working on that.

I knew which colours I had in mind but couldn't find the cravats (which are actually called something else in the suit hiring world) that I wanted, so I chose something similar to what I liked and hoped it would look good. Another surprise was that Adam really liked a patterned waistcoat but I really wasn't so sure because it was bright and a bit TOO patterned, but apparently these things really work for weddings because when we added the cravat we liked with the waistcoat that Adam liked we came up with this:

The colour is called claret apparently, and looks more like a red wine to me than anything else but I really love the colour of it which isn't satin (the satin one actually looked awful) and the rustic look seemed much better.

Whilst we were there we thought we owed it to the other men in the wedding party to really help them out and find their suit too so Jen asked me what colour the other bridesmaids would be wearing, I said a sort of green colour. We looked for the green cravat (which remember is actually called something else in the formal hire world) and decided on a very nice sage green colour which to me doesn't look very sage at all. Then the poor man in the store ran around finding all the waistcoats that went with it the green one looked awful, but then I noticed one on the end of the pile which kinda looked green and he told me it was mint. Jen wasn't too sure because who would think that mint and sage go together besides in food? But look at what we came up with:

So all in all, I think a very productive day, and I'll even let you in on a little secret which I shall reveal the picture of tomorrow... I FINALLY decided on a bridesmaid dress... all because I was looking for claret and sage/moss colours. They are amazing and unless we have any lumps and bumps I should be ordering them soon. FINGERS CROSSED. The dress comes in claret and moss; who said deciding to get your suits first was a bad idea!?

Uhm... me actually. Nevermind

Can I just say an extra kudos to the staff at Slaters they were friendly, relaxed, informative, helpful and non stressing which is exactly what you need for your wedding day. They didn't give us gaspful or shocked looks when I told them the wedding was May all they said was, "Yep we can do that for you" (In a Geordie accent... hmmm)

Wifey Prep

I haven't done much in the way of wedding planning today because I've been out and about trying to walk on my foot. But the more I walk on it the more it hurts so now I need more painkillers yay : | Well I am off to the A&E Review clinic on Tuesday so we shall see what they have to say then.

Why do these places look so delightful in sunlight?

Anyway, wifey - prep.

All the cook books I shall procure

I got a cook-book from my sister Emily, (thanks for that) so it means I need to start preparing to be able to cook meals for Adam and I, you know be the adourning wife for when the hard working man comes back from a busy stressful day at work and blah blah blah. Just kidding, I like cooking I just don't do it for more than one person a lot of the time and I can't really afford to cook anything expensive at the moment (anything expensive means anything with more than 4 ingrediants), so at least when I move in with Adam we'll be able to afford some food and less money on petrol.

So I have that book at home with lots of interesting recipes in it and I also bought whilst out today a cook book called "I (heart) sugar" it was in Marks & Sparks, it lookd cute and I had a quick flick through it liked most of the pictures and decided to buy it. It was only when I got this lovely book back to the house that I had a proper scout through and to my loving surprise 80% of the recipes are dead easy and some only even have 5 ingrediants thus not making me raid the bank for any money and still being able to bake my own food, nom nom.

Another wifey - prep thing I did was (or two rather):

Made sure that the Debenhams gift list stuff isn't sent to my mum's address 3 weeks after the wedding but rather to my married address where it will be deemed far more useful.

Booked an appointment at the registry office in Bradford oohhh yeaaaahhh... go me. If any of you object I shall hunt you down and... [insert own horrifying experience here].

Bradford & Keighley Registry Office

Couple of things marriage hopefuls need to know about a registry office:

If you and your partner (fiancee, future hubby/wife to be) are from the same place, WOOHOO go you... to the same registry office.

However, if you and your partner are NOT from the same place like for example Adam and I, you must go to the registry office that your household (in which you are currently living) pays council tax too. So, I will go to Bradford (the lovely photo above) and Adam will go to the one that he pays council tax to. You need give at least 15 days (I think) notice to the registry office between the time you go in and say 'I'm getting married' and the time you are actually getting married, THIS IS A MUST. It will cost you a whole £33.50, each. When you ring up to book your appointment they will tell you on the phone which identification you will need to bring with you.

Saturday 4th February I am officiating the rolling ball of wedding-ness... or something.

January

The focus for January and January's pay (after I thankfully move home) will be:

Invitations

Tables

Wedding Licence

Bridesmaid dresses

We are going for a matte red for the invites with a lemon background on the invite and pearl card for the little bits inside (which people will see when they get them). The guest list is finished and the invites will be sent out early Feb (or as soon as they are finished).
 

Matte red invites 9 x 4 inches

May I recommend to anyone this website for anyone who wants to buy any wallet invitations:

http://www.pocketfoldinvites.co.uk/index.asp

They are amazing. Every email I have sent they have replied almost immediately with very helpful and useful information. The website provides templates for wallets of five different sizes and have lots of colours to choose from.

 I am hoping to order some circle tables for the reception as well table cloths to go with and I have a few options in mind as to where I am going to hire them from. The only problem with hiring is that they drop off (fine) and they pick up (fine) but they have to pick up at specific times and the chapel won't hold 14 rather large circle tables overnight and won't do any picking up of tables (i.e. business) on a Sunday. Failing all the tries for the circle tables I will just go with rectangle (but I really do not want to do that) the circle tables will feel more intimate and friendly.

Won't be like this on the day

I have spoken to the people at the Registrar office in Bradford and still need to make an appointment with them, I rang them quite a few times today but they seemed rather busy so I emailed instead; just going to try and ring the again tomorrow. Adam needs to go to his registrar office up here where he lives which is annoying so we'll have to do it on a weekend that I am here which won't be until February now. But we will manage.

The bridesmaid dresses are an ongoing chaos but its far too long a moan and groan to say online but we are working on it and we should have some results end of Jan beginning of Feb.

So just a little insight into what we are focussing on this month, if I focus on anything else slap me or tell me off or just tell me to get on with it.