We are getting some guests

All invitations where sent a couple of weeks ago, and now are the responses on their way. At the moment are we about 30 people, that is about the half of what we are expecting. We invited a bit more than 70 people but as always are there people who can't come.

All the planning is landing now as well. We have the menu ready and the drinks. We have a back-up if my flower project isn't successful. The DJ is booked and confirmed, the photographer is booked, just need to confirm as well as the car needs to be confirmed.
We have got confirmation about the priest and the cantor and will hopefully meet them next weekend. That weekend we will also meet with the hairdresser and the boarding kennel which will look after Jatsie during the wedding day. We will also meet with the pastry chef who will make our wedding cake. Ohhh I'm looking forward to that!! =)
Maybe we will be able to have a look at the ring as well.

The only thing that we don't have under control is my dress. I need to call the shop and ask when they expect it to arrive.

Invitations and Hens party

The planning is in full speed and we have quite a few things to put in place. We really need to send the invitations but to be able to do that there are a lot of things that has to be done first!
You need to have all the information about the wedding including
* Travel instructions
* Where people can stay overnight
* Toastmadame/master and their contact details (sorry that we phoned a hundred times to clear things out!) =)
* Wedding registry
* Wedding webpage (if you have one)

And that is not it, you also have to create the invitations or send them off to have them made for you. Gosh, we are fully booked this week. Hopefully we will be able to send the invitations early next week.

The wedding date is coming closer and we are really busy with others weddings and my birthday and stuff. I'm thinking a bit about the hen’s night. I know... I shouldn't do that =) but since I'm not so in favor of the 'go out and dance your shoes off' or eating on a fancy restaurant I would like to take the opportunity to hint my fellow readers about some activities I would enjoy ;)
You know, I have been thinking a lot about this and here are some, for me, nice things. I'm sorry if they do not count as the hippest things you can do.

* Yoga class (for beginners)
* Digital photographing class (flowers, landscape, animals)
* Go to a nice plant shop (for example Hörnsjöns Plantskola, Tuijas Växter or Ljungsleds plantskola) and shop up all the money reserved for the wedding.

Planning

Another small step towards the big day. We now have the florist booked and they will deliver the flowers to the site. It is just the bouquet and the corsage; all other flowers will be grown and arranged by us. The bouquet will look like a mix of these.




We also visited the gold smith and decided to start creating my ring. They will start with the gold ring and then I'll fit it and after that adding the stones. The ring will be a more petit version of this ring.



The underwear shopping was no big success. It ended with that I ordered my underwear at Asos and is now waiting for them to arrive. A wonder bra and spandex power panties =) Not the most wonderful to have under, but hopefully comfy.

We are also having discussions around the honeymoon. At the same time that we plan the wedding, we also renovate the kitchen. This renovation now threatening our budget for the wedding... it is not the wedding that is overrunning budget, but the kitchen! There for the honeymoon is under discussion. When is the big question and the other one is Where? And for How long?
Are we going for just a short trip this autumn or are we saving and going for a longer, but not too long or fancy trip in spring?? Well, we don't have to decide yet. Let’s see what the kitchen ends on first and then we can plan more seriously. We will know in a couple of weeks.

Tubers on their way

The Dahlia tubers I have ordered from Rose Cottage Plants are on their way to Sweden. I found a lovely white Dahlia with a bit of lilac in the center. I think that will look really nice with the color theme.


Eveline

I have also ordered a pure white and a couple of orange-gold Dahlias.


David Howard

More tubers and seeds will soon follow. It is exciting to try to grow your own wedding flowers =)

Plans for the weekend

We are going to the crime scene this weekend. So now we are booking different people to visit. First we will visit the florist and talk about the bouquet. I have printed at lot of images and have written down what I like and what I expect and what I don't like. I have written down colors and flower types. I think I have all covered =)

After that are we going to visit the gold smith and at last order my wedding ring. I'm excited and can't wait to try it on, even though that will be a couple of months in the future...

We where trying to book a visit at the cake-factory =) as well, but they only accept visitors on weekdays, so we have to plan going there another time. I think we have rather good view of what the cake will taste like, but the look of the cake is another matter...

We will also go looking for underwear for me. Something that is comfy under the wedding dress.

Well, the weekend is fully planned.
We haven't broken the budget yet and plans is going easy.
Wonder when something out of the blue will hit us? Maybe when we get the price suggestion for the honeymoon I'm planning... that will for sure break the budget!
And we actually have a problem. My work will force me to take three weeks’ vacation when I don't want to, which means that I don't have enough days to cover the honeymoon *sigh* we can't afford to go on unpaid vacation and I would hate to limit the honeymoon!
This means that we might postpone the honeymoon to next spring...

Happy Valentinesday

14th of February, half a meter with snow and -4 degrees Celsius. Do you know that it is just 6 months!! to our wedding? Just half a year, time flies. I hope the weather is a bit (or much) warmer in August and the snow is exchanged with lot of flowers instead!

I wonder if we still are on track with the wedding plans... let see

Eight months before
• Book the photographer - Check
• Book entertainment - Check, DJ booked
• Register - Hm, I think in Sweden this has to be done no sooner than 3 month before the wedding
• Purchase a dress - I'll go measuring on Tuesday and order it after that. Exciting!
• Start meeting caterers - We have met with Husby Säteri and they will fix most things for us, but we'll still have to decide on a menu and how much flowers they should help us with.
• Reserve block of hotel rooms for guests - Check
• Launch a wedding website - We have started one, but it isn't launched yet. We want to wait until we are ready to send the invitations.

Six to seven months before
• Purchase invitations and hire a calligrapher - We will make our invitations ourselves. But I haven't ordered the paper for this yet... guess it is time to get started!
• Plan your honeymoon - Check, we have more or less decided, waiting for travel agency to come back with price suggestion and availability.
• Meet with the officiant - This have to wait a couple of more months. We hope to be able to meet him (yes, it will be a guy, not the officiant I was talking about in another post. She was on vacation when our wedding is to be) in May or something like that.
• Send save-the-date cards - Check, done a long time ago ;)
• Book a florist - Not done yet, but we will visit one within a couple of weeks.
• Procure transportation - We have our plans ready, just need to contact them and say which time he is needed.
• Start composing a day-of timeline - This isn't on paper yet, but I think we will have to start doing this soon =)

I also need to add that it is high time to start looking around for seeds and bulbs for the wedding flowers. Even though it doesn't look like spring outside my window it is high time to start sowing!
Off I am to look in seed catalogs =)

Fabric flowers

Oh, I found some really nice fabric flowers when I was surfing around for inspiration today. It'll take some time making a bunch, but I'll at least try with one =) If it turns out nice, then it might comes more...



You will find the tutorial for them here: Fabric Flowers.

I haven't forgotten about you!

No, not at all, it is just that there are so much going on at the moment and I'm absolutely not in wedding planning mode. Anyway, a few things have happened since my last note (well.. shame if it hasn't it's sooo long since last time).

I have decided upon a ring =) and the goldsmith have come up with a price that is in our liking! So both a good looking, sparkling little thing and within our budget. It'll look something like this, but with much smaller stones and much more petit.



My engagement ring will be adapted so they will fit together.


We have also been looking and deciding cloths for the man to be. He looks gorgeous! Just look at this





Don't ask me what he is looking for =)


A close up of the details in the waistcoat.



The cravat is made from the same fabric that will be used in my wedding dress. The lilac color is not showing very good on photo :/

Yesterday we created a webpage about our wedding and started with the gift list, but none of this is public yet.

We have also been discussing about the honeymoon. Our first thought was to go on safari, but when we have discussed and looked at proposed routes it doesn't feel 100%. So I proposed that we should go to China instead, much since I liked it very much the first (and only) time I've been there, and my fiancé agreed that it could be nice, so we have been to a travel agency and collected some brochures. We might change our minds again, but at the moment I think both of us are rather excited about it. Doesn't this look inviting?




Hainan, China

DJ booked

Finally we got an answer from the DJ we have contacted regarding playing at our wedding. He was free the night of our wedding, but he is no more =)
We got the recommendation from Husby and after a look at his web page we decided to contact him. I think he will be a good choice who can play varied music at the party. And he fit into our budget as well! =)

Otherwise we are laying low with the wedding plans at the moment. We have been in contact with the goldsmith and her suggestion is within our budget. The only 'problem' as I see it is that she will turn my engagement ring into the wedding ring. I have been thinking about this and I think I would like two rings after all... I have some drawings of what it might be able to look like, so we will present them for her and see what she thinks. But it'll have to wait until next time we are there.

Sometimes it is not so fun to do the planning at a distance. Especially not if you want to do something NOW!

Husby Säteri

We also visited the 'castle' where we will have the reception. Susy showed us around and answered all our questions. Susy liked our choice of colors for the wedding and she had some great suggestions for the flowers and the table setting.
The castle was very nice inside and I hope we will have a wonderful reception here. Some pictures:

From the outside with all snowy glory



And some from the inside



Wall paintings in the entrance hall





We will be able to accommodate all guests in the houses around the castle so they don't come inside before the wedding. We will also have the whole castle to ourselves during the weekend.
Now we have to decide upon a menu for the reception... any suggestions??

Church

While in the area we took the chance to visit the church to see if it was open and we were lucky this time. It had fallen a lot of snow and the short trip by car to the church went through a fairytale landscape. The church was covered in a blanket of snow and looked so serene.



On the inside it was small and cozy, the perfect size for our wedding. Here are some pictures:



We also looked at the place where the wedding photos probably will be taken.


We talked to the photographer the other day and he was really nice and will be able to take the photos I'm wishing. He had a couple of albums with photos he had taken that he showed us and they all looked really nice. He was also open for suggestions and our ideas, just as important since we want to not go too traditional.

Shoes found

Yipee! I have found shoes for my wedding!! If you have followed my blog, you will know about my shoe-problems. Well, they seem to be solved now. As I mentioned in the previous post my fiancé and I was visiting his parents over the Christmas Holidays and we had time to do some shopping. It was really easy, we found them in the first shop we looked at, and they were on show in the shop-window.

Do you want to see some pictures? =) I thought so...





The heel is straight, so I'll be able to bling it... I'll also be able to tye a ribbon around the ankle if I want to.

And here is a close-up picture of the toe:




And here is the shoe together with the lilac color on the dress:



And do you know what is best of all?
They only cost about $30 =)

Ring.. reception.. and flowers!

Yes, a lot has been done in just a couple of days. We are visiting my fiancé's parents and we have visit Husby, the castle where the reception will be, we have also visit the goldsmith and been to the florist.

The florist didn't have time for us =( not to book a time before Christmas either, so we need to find another weekend when they can talk to us. I'm a bit disappointed, I had hoped for a better welcome and more interest from their side, so we might go looking for another florist. We haven't decided yet though...

The welcome at Husby, the castle where we will have the reception, was very warm. I liked our contact very much and she was really helpful. The castle was very beautiful (some pictures will be shown here after Christmas) and we will have the whole place for ourselves the whole weekend. Very nice!
We have some suggestions for the menu from Husby, but we are not satisfied with them so we will sit down and create a menue ourselves which was absolutely ok with them. We also got two bottles of wine to try!

The goldsmith was a really nice girl, she made a couple of drawings of what could be done with the engagement ring that I have (see picture here). We liked one of her designs very much and she will give us a price for it before Christmas. I hope it isn't too much... our budget for the ring isn't that big.... and I liked what she showed us a lot. In the design she didn't create one more ring, but adds on my engagement ring, so I need to give it to her a couple of weeks and can't wear it until the wedding. Hm. I might have to get a new engagement ring ;)

Tomorrow will we go looking for a frockcoat to my fiancé and maybe find shoes to me as well...

No shoes...

Now I don't have any shoes at all. The company did not send any pictures of heels that fitted the description, so I had to return the shoes and get my money back.
So now I have to find a replacement... not an easy task as I've mentioned before. The ones I like are no longer in production and the orange ones I found a while ago can't be found now! Really irritating!

I think I have looked at every bridal shoe shop on the internet and on all dance shoe once as well. I have also looked at places such as ASOS, Debenhams and others.

I have a picture of what I want, so I don't think it should be so hard, but it seems impossible to find anything like it.
These are my criteria:
The shoe should not be white, so Black, orange, purple etc.
The shoe should not have any big flower on the toes
The shoe should have a ankle strap and preferably a covered heel.
The toe should be rounded, covered or open.
If possible the heel should be straight and lower than 4" (10 cm) but higher then 2,5" (6 cm)

My fiancé and I is going to a bigger city tomorrow, and I'll hopefully have some time to look for shoes. We are also going to his parents over Christmas and maybe there will be some time for shopping there as well.

Cake topper

My father called the other day and told me that he had fixed the cake topper. Hm, I wasn't aware that he was responsible for that! =)

Anyway, he has a very good friend, Kjell Engman, who is working at Kosta Boda making all sorts of glass sculptures and other glass pieces. Apparently he has made a bridal couple whom my father thinks should be on the wedding cake.
The couple is pretty nice in black and white glass.



I'm a bit worried though... the glass sculpture is 15 cm high and probably pretty heavy... will the cake cope with that?
Otherwise we will have to stand it on the side of the cake, but on the same table.