Claire August 23rd, 2007
Really wanted to post today and try and work myself out a little bit. In exactly one years’ time I will be getting married to David. Now that may not seem like a big thing to a lot of people, but the planning and organization stuff is scaring the pants off me. Aargh! It isn’t the thought of marrying David – I was over the moon when he asked me although his timing was a bid odd. He was due to move to London to help his firm relocate, and the night before he left for London he asked me, after taking me out for a meal. We were sat in a quiet pub having a drink when he asked me to marry him. Looking back I now know why he was like a cat on hot bricks leading up to this – he was more fidgety than usual and I remember just feeling sad that he was moving away for a while. I cried in the pub (great) and 5 minutes after he asked me some guys decided to have a massive row with each other, including breaking each others’ mobile phones, right next to us (such is living in Nottingham…). We have been together for 3 1/2 years now and he still manages to give me butterflies every time I see him – thought it would have worn off by now, but whilst it hasn’t I appreciate it. He also, no matter what manages to make me smile, and luckily we share the same twisted sense of humour. I’m looking forward to being married.
This is the church we will be getting married in
It’s an Ballintoy, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. David, my fiancee grew up around there, and his fathers side of the family are farmers in and around the village. We chose here to get married as although we met and live in Nottingham, this is the church where David was baptised, and I am more than happy to have the wedding in Ireland as we have spent many happy holidays there. Since my parents died I have felt like I have had no real base. I grew up in Hull, East Yorkshire, but the only link I had there when I moved away to go to University was my mother, and after she died I never went back again. David’s family, like my friend and housemate Rachel’s family have made me feel so welcome, they are like surrogate families to me, so I have been very lucky.
If you haven’t been to Northern Ireland before, I would recommend it as a holiday. Please don’t expect the best weather ever – it won’t happen, or at least not that often! But it’s very pretty on this stretch of coast. Ballintoy is not very far away from the Giant’s Causeway. The village is tiny and in English standards, remote
as you can see, but very pretty. We will be having a relatively small wedding in Ireland, and when we get back to Nottingham we can have a big party here. I have planned my dress – 50′s style with a corset top half (made by my friend Lisa who is amazing at doing things like that) and a full, ballerina length skirt. Most people I have spoken to have told me that I will regret having a shorter length dress, and it should be full length, but I am happy with what I have chosen. Rach my friend suggested it in the first place – anyone who knows me is aware how clumsy I am and have tripped up and fallen more times than I can care to remember – my knees are damaged from the extent of my trips! So a full length dress would be an ideal trip hazard (risk assessing a wedding dress eh? I need to get a life!). I also wanted to make my dress, and for it to be personal to me. David’s granny (what she doesn’t know about crafts is not worth knowing quite simply) showed me how to make the Irish crochet flowers I have been using to decorate my pin cushions I showed you yesterday, and I would like her to make some (lots) that I can applique onto my dress as I think that would be a lovely touch, especially as I plan on using Nottingham lace on my dress – kind of combining the 2 sides in one dress.
Will definately keep posting about the progress of the wedding. I don’t want to turn into a Bride-Zilla – I have seen too many people get like that when they are getting married, and I want to enjoy the process. Just seems to be getting closer and nothing is getting booked. We have the church booked, I have commissioned my friend for the corset, I am losing weight to fit said corset (and to feel good about myself in photos), bridemaids have been asked. And that’s about it! We will be having a trip over to Northern Ireland soon ish to have a look at reception venues and guest houses so we and others can book what they need to. I have a feeling that there is tons more I should be doing at this point, but I have noodle brain when I try and work it out. Any suggestions will be appreciated!
365 days and counting….. x
D’ya know that with all the planning and stress and effort that went into the wedding, I hadn’t actually thought about what the heck we’d be doing afterwards…. Daft I know, so it’s a good job that I left pretty much all of it up to David for the honeymoon. David lived in Dublin for a year and so knew what he was doing when he booked the accommodation – I left it all up to him. I just wanted to chill for a week, which is what we did.
The only “touristy” thing we didn’t do was the Guinness factory – I don’t drink Guinness so walking round a brewery isn’t my greatest idea of fun, although the view from the bar was supposed to be great. However the weather wasn’t…. it didn’t rain, but wasn’t really clear enough to get a good view of the city, so we didn’t bother. Christ Church Cathedral was gorgeous and I loved it in there.
The Ha’penny bridge was about 5 minutes walk from our apartment and was crossed several times a day going pootling around.
And you have to have your pic taken with Phil Lynnot… there was another one taken late at night after several rounds of Magners and a couple of whiskies, that I won’t share with you…
