The real ins and outs of planning a wedding ; The Gossip!

I thought with it being Valentines Day this month it might be nice for Laura to do something a bit different with her guest post this month! Rather than updating about her wedding planning, instead she has answered a few questions regarding hers and Rob's relationship. It's quite refreshing to hear the answers to these questions from real couple :)

1. How did you and Rob meet?
We met in a club through mutual friends but didn't get together for a while after that. We met up as friends in the first instance which progressed to more later on.

2. How did Rob propose?
We were on a short break in Yorkshire, and we went on a walk to Highforce waterfall (it's beautiful if you ever fancy a trip there! He kept trying to get me to go down onto the rocks (I wasn't having any of it - I had my good shoes on!). As we decided to leave, he got down on one knee in front of the waterfall and proposed. He later told me he wanted to do it on the rocks... felt a bit guilty after that!

3. What is it you love the most about Rob?
What I love most about Rob is that he accepts me for ME. He knows I'm grouchy, occasionally clingy, a bit insecure but he still puts up with it! He's also everything I'm not... patient, relaxed. We make a good team.
(Amen to that, that's real love! Sometimes it's not about massive romantic gestures but just finding someone who accepts you for who you really are!)

4. You say you're not a particularly romantic couple but aside from proposing, what would you say has been the sweetest/most romantic/nicest thing he's done for you and you've done for him?
I'm not romantic in the slighest, but I'd say that the nicest thing I've done for him is buy him an Xbox. It was a totally extravagent gift that we really couldn't afford, so I saved for a year and he got it as a birthday pressie. Perhaps not romantic for some, but he was very surpised! He does lots of lovely things for me, I couldn't choose just one. He's very good at buying diamonds for gifts, I have quite a collection now. He gets lovely thoughtful charms for my bracelet too - each one tells a story. Obviously the proposal is the most romantic thing ever though.

5. What does romance mean to you?
Romance is a tough one to describe... I'm quite happy with a mini break where we can spend quality time together without distractions of the 'real' world...

6. When did you realize that you wanted to spend the rest of your life with Rob?
I knew from early on that I loved him and didn't want to be without him. Although marriage has never been a big issue for me, when I had to leave to go and finish my final semester at university it made me realise that I didn't want to have to do it again.

7. How lucky do you feel that you have found the right person?
You hear stories and see the heartbreak of people whose relationships don't work out and you feel incredibly lucky that you've managed to find the right person. We have our downs... but we have more ups and long may it continue!

8. Do you have a list and if so who's on it? (Aka a list of 5 celebs Rob would allow you to sleep with if you ever met them :P)
No, no lists! I don't like to tempt fate... besides, he's too honest I don't think he could go through with it!

9. After the wedding, what do you think the next step will be of yours and Rob's relationship?
After the wedding we plan to go on as many holidays as we can afford and spend our time how we want to - travelling, progressing our careers, spending time together. If children happen, they happen but it's not in our plans at the moment... we like our lazy days too much!

10. When was the first time you said the L word to each other?
 It was me who said the L word first! We were still not really dating properly - we had a 'courtship' period of about 6 months where we didn't want to / weren't ready to commit to a relationship but didn't want to be apart from each other. Rob said it back though, phew!

 The real ins and outs of planning a wedding by the future Mrs Burke

The real ins and outs of planning a wedding ; Save The Date!

By our guest blogger Laura Lowe



You know what? Pictures speak a thousand words, so I'm going to show, rather then tell you, what we've been up to recently. You can decide for yourselves whether it has been successful!


This is our attempt at 'Save The Date' cards on a budget...

...back to the drawing board I think!

The real ins and outs of planning a wedding by the future Mrs Burke

The real ins and outs of planning a wedding ; Themes

By our guest blogger Laura Lowe


I was wondering what to write about this week, as things have been quiet on the planning-front. I did realise, however, I haven’t yet told you about our nightmare choosing a theme. The theme, according to my bible, is the key to showing your ‘unique personalities’ and ‘set the tone’ for the wedding. 

I’ll admit, I immediately thought: what kind of rubbish is this?! 

Number 1. I’ve already been forced, by crazy tradition, to invite Great Aunty Edna who I haven’t seen for 15 years.

Number 2. I’m going to have to pay thousands for this privilege.

Number 3. It appears I’m now going to be coerced into showcasing how ‘unique’ we are as a couple by spending more money on ridiculous trappings that I know Aunty Edna won’t even notice!

I read a bit further and consulted Rob on the subject. All we had to do, was pick a theme that represented our couple-ness, then match all the rest of the wedding stuff to it. Should we go for what would be easy to source, such as doves? Should we go for a colour we both like? Should we try to be original? 

We initially felt doves would be fitting – classic, simple and easy to get hold of. After designing the save the date cards with lovely doves and elegant writing we had an epiphany. What on earth were we thinking? Doves?! No way... FOOD seems much more fitting!

Next week? Cake!

The real ins and outs of planning a wedding by the future Mrs Burke

The real ins and outs of planning a wedding ; Flowers

By our guest blogger Laura Lowe

They cost a fortune. They make you feel uncomfortable even though they look beautiful. They’re a must have for any occasion... no, I’m not talking about shoes, I’m talking about flowers.

Until you need flowers for an important occasion, you don’t realise what a huge business it is. There are a number of these prescribed occasions where flowers are not only a necessity, but expected: births, deaths, your great aunty Etna’s birthday and weddings.

There is a whole different world of flower lore – with meanings and a history of its own. With a single cut flower, you can give someone a message; by eating the leaves of a flower, you can ease the pain of childbirth. It seems befitting, therefore, that brides give such huge consideration to their flower choice at the wedding. So how does someone like myself go about choosing which flowers to have?

The wedding fayres have albums of the most beautiful bouquets and arrangements, corsages and buttonholes. The florists are so knowledgeable and helpful, you want to sound equally as knowledgeable as you nod along to their explanations of the ‘Muff Bouquet’ (no, don’t be crass, it’s apparently perfect for the winter wedding!) or the ‘Kissing Ball’ which seems apt.

So, I started looking into this whole ‘bouquets for weddings’ stuff – did you know that chrysanthemums are associated with funerals in Malta? That you can use a tulip bulb as a substitute for an onion? Neither of these seem like the ideal wedding flower! I always imagined having roses, until I saw that the rose family also includes apples, peaches and plums. Why would I want a flower with a plum as a relative at my wedding? After further research I came across a disturbing fact that put me off my quest altogether: did you know that one flower, the ‘titan arum’, smells like rotting flesh?!

I have spent a long time considering my flower arrangements for the wedding, so I hope you’ll forgive me readers, for not coming to a definitive conclusion this week. If you have any advice, please, contact me asap!

The real ins and outs of planning a wedding by the future Mrs Burke

The real ins and outs of planning a wedding ; Moving House

By our guest blogger Laura Lowe

We moved house this week, always a test of your relationship, even if it is only 2.4 miles down the road.

I know you’re wondering what this has to do with our wedding, but it occurred to me, during one of our many mini-domestics this week, that this is just a practice run for the big day.  The amount you have to organise is cataclysmic – change of addresses, direct debits, key collection, key drop-off, taxes and bills, gas readings etc etc. Somehow, I ended up paying all the bills by direct debit which resulted in me spending 20 minutes per company changing addresses and trying to remember passwords I set up 2 years ago. During all this of course, Rob sits there watching with a satisfied smile on his face and says “there’s no point getting angry!”.

On top of the packing and throwing away and the trips to the recycling centre and the buying of new furniture, was the delicate task of handling family involvement. I shouldn’t complain, because my family are wonderful and have helped us an awful lot... but do they really need to have an opinion on everything?  “You need black voiles, Laura!”, “No, go for white, black make the room look small.” “Do you really need to keep this many shoes? You don’t have the room!” If they’re like this now, I can only imagine what they’re going to be like about all the minutiae decisions needed to plan a wedding.

The icing on the cake was after all of the stress was over, we’re in, we’re unpacked and we’re settled down in our lovely little flat. I have a spare few minutes and to decide to peruse my wedding scrapbook one evening. I ask Rob where it is. I get the following answer, “Don’t know what you’re on about, what does it look like?”. Dread fills my bones. Another mini-domestic later we establish that Rob does indeed know what I’m talking about, and he has in fact remembered where it is... IN THE BIN.

I’ll leave you to imagine how the rest of the evening pans out, but the happy ending is that if we can handle moving house, we can definitely handling wedding planning!

The real ins and outs of planning a wedding by the future Mrs Burke

The real ins and outs of planning a wedding ; Shopping for Bridesmaids Dresses

By our guest blogger Laura Lowe

If I’m honest, this was the part of the planning I was really looking forward to... bridesmaid dress shopping with my best mate, plenty of coffee and cake stops, and a chinwag. I have spoken a little about Laura before, but words don’t really do her justice... she’ll hate me for this, but I’ll put a picture up so you can see for yourself...

It is probably worthy to note here, my fellow Brides, that my plan of attack was – in hindsight – probably not the best way of going about the choosing of dresses. Due to my highly organised professional life, I think I’m starting to take after my mother and be totally the opposite at home. See below.

10.07am: 7 minutes late (due to *ahem* unpredictable traffic). Pick Laura up, have a gossip with her and her mum (who I’ve known for years) and put the world to rights.

11am: Arrive in town. It’s packed... saturday shoppers, mothers and their damn pushchairs, schoolkids. Nightmare.  Decide it’s too much to handle, go for coffee and midmorning snack (Starbucks cappuccino and double choc chip cookie). Note to self: STOP EATING!

11.30: Feeling refreshed.  Take one look at queue in Debenhams, head to M+S. Try on some ballgowns in a lurid green colour. Hate them. Move on.

11.50: Fight through the crowd at Beatties and try on some hugely expensive dresses. Looks lovely – but then, Laura would look good in most things, lucky cow! Decide it’s too expensive. Definitely move on!

12.13: Debenhams. Lovely dresses. Great style. Fit beautifully. Wrong colour. Move on.

12.25: Head out of town towards the independent wedding shops. Get sidetracked at Frankie and Benny’s.  Drink wine and eat pizza. Not to self: STOP EATING!

13.15: Independent wedding shop in Telford. Ask to try something on, get a snotty reply about booking an appointment. I point out that there’s no one in the shop. Get a withering look. Try on some dresses. Love them. Laura loves them. Send pic to Rob, he loves them. Get presented with a booklet of 150 colour combinations and lengths. Get very confused.

14.00: Still in the wedding shop. Annoy the assistants with our indecisiveness so take the booklet without ordering anything. Get more snotty looks.

14.15: Head to another shop. Discover that you really do need an appointment. Leave without booking an appointment. Note to self: MAKE AN APPOINTMENT!

So, our day of dress hunting, out of wedding season and with no organisation, wasn’t very fruitful. However, I’m sure you’ll all agree that catching up with your best mate is always a winner and we had a fabulous day! 

The real ins and outs of planning a wedding by the future Mrs Burke

The real ins and outs of planning a wedding ; What's Next

By our guest blogger Laura Lowe

So now we have our venue and our church and our date, the real work begins. How on earth do you go about deciding which of the million tasks you have to do is a priority? Even the wedding bible seems to go into spasms just contemplating it!

After many cups of tea, the next thing we decided to tackle was the outfits for our bridal and groom parties. There are 7 people, plus us, who we need to clothe, so it seemed like a mammoth task. Luckily, I had kept the information from the various wedding fayres we had been to, including the huge one at the NEC in Birmingham, so we spent a weekend visiting and ringing up the various places for quotes and to have a look round, starting with the men’s.

I was shocked at how expensive these places were, I know weddings are a big business, but this really was catastrophic to a small-town girl. We tried some of the big names, Peter Posh and Moss Bros to name a couple, who all quoted about 60 quid per suit (including the waistcoat and cravate) with the groom being free. If you’re good at maths, you’ll realise this totals the cost of a holiday to Europe. Rob, not usually a fan of being centre of attention, seemed especially excited, and it dawned on me that for the groom, this is the equivalent of my wedding dress. After choosing from an extraordinary range of suites, styles, cuts and colours, he decided on the Prince Edward suit with a waistcoat to later be decided depending on the colour of the bridesmaid dresses. 

After much deliberation, we also decided that we simply could not afford to clothe the groomsmen in hired suits, so they will wear their own black jacket and trousers, and we will hire the waistcoats and cravate’s for them. 

I wasn’t expecting choosing a suit would take a good month of our time, but we are happy with the company we chose – a small shop in Shropshire who have a good reputation and extremely flexible about fittings / dates / decisions etc, and Rob is pleased he is sorted.

I have a feeling the bridesmaid dresses will be much more of a challenge...!

The real ins and outs of planning a wedding by the future Mrs Burke

The real ins and outs of planning a wedding ; Finalizing the Venue

By our guest blogger Laura Lowe


Little Wenlock Village Hall... go on, google it, you know you want to!

This is the place that we went to see for our venue. Not the first, might I remind you, but one of many that we made the trek back to Shropshire for. I must be honest and say that I wasn’t expecting much, as the village is very small and in the middle of nowhere, quite literally at the bottom of the Wrekin and in the heart of the fields. It was also found by Rob, who isn’t known for his treasure hunting skills!

Being the nosey type, we arrived early to have the chance to explore. You can’t describe the outside of the place as beautiful, but it’s surrounded by countryside and has abundant car parking. With some fairy lights and some tall pedestals of flowers, I think it will look lovely. The inside is what makes it great. Nice entrance hall, one huge large main hall and a smaller reception room. A large well equipped kitchen and clean toilets. Rob was taken immediately, but I wasn’t sure.

Imagine girls, that you walk into what is essentially a posh sports hall, complete with the wooden flooring and large curtains. Wouldn’t your heart sink slightly? However, remembering that we can’t afford a castle, my logical brain kicked in: the place is large enough, local to the church (hard to find in the middle of the countryside!) and the price was very tempting. I consulted my bible which said that as long as the place ticked the boxes, you can change what the place looks like with lots of flowers and decoration. I agreed, and spent the next hour – much to the annoyance of Rob and the grounds manager – taking photos and trying to decide what we could do to hide the ugly yellow curtains.

So, now we have put a deposit down on our venue, what is next on the huge ‘to-do’ list? Ah yes... the invites!

The real ins and outs of planning a wedding by the future Mrs Burke

The real ins and outs of planning a wedding ; Faith

By our guest blogger Laura Lowe


Faithfulness. A contentious word in many relationships. Definitely a contentious word in ours... although, perhaps not in the way you may first think.

Let us take a step back for a moment. How bizarre is the whole ‘getting married’ thing? Think about it... you spend a large portion of your life looking for ‘The One’, then randomly, out of the billions of people in the world you find said person. Hopefully, that all goes rather well, you fall in love, you get engaged. What are the chances?!

However, sometimes not all goes to plan, as we well know. Imagine bringing the love of your life home to meet your parents, and he passes the million searching, personal questions they demand of him. Then, as you’re leaving, you get pulled aside by your mother and she asks that fatal question: “So, is he Christian?”

Unfortunately, as it turned out, Rob wasn’t as ‘faithful’ as my family would have liked. They’re not manically religious, but they do prefer that my chosen husband is part of the church and has some belief in the faith. So thus presents a problem... to marry or not to marry?

Of course, you know my answer!

Luckily, this particular man is wonderfully flexible, and after some discussion, agreed to solve the problem by getting baptised. The event took place on Sunday, at the church we’re going to be married in. To give you a little taster: the vicar started off in the more traditional way of... “right, let’s keep this short, the football is on!”

So, Rob is now a repented sinner and embracing life as a Christian... starting off wonderfully by stubbing his toe and swearing like a trooper as we walked in the house. Ok, perhaps some work is needed then!

Next week: (after keeping you in suspense!) the decision on our venue!

The real ins and outs of planning a wedding by the future Mrs Burke 

The real ins and outs of planning a wedding ; Choosing a venue continued

By our guest blogger Laura Lowe


Venues. Bain of my life.

We have spent the last few weeks looking for a reception venue, but where do you start?! There are so many people to please, with the food, drink, location, size etc etc. Now I know why bride’s get so stressed! And I’m not even close to the wedding!

I look to the three fountains of knowledge in my life: the wedding bible which says to create a budget and stick to it. My mother who says that to pay anything over £5,000 (the cost of hers 20 years ago!) for a wedding is an absolute crime. My vicar who says to not worry about the cost as it is the act that is important. So out of all of these pieces of advice, which do we listen to?

The answer to that, is none.

Armed with the brochures from the wedding fayres, and a long list of contact details compiled over an evening of Chinese and a (few) bottle(s) of wine, we spent an afternoon ringing venues for prices and information, and consequently, crossing them off the list one-by-one.

Our Criteria:

1. Close to the church
2. Car parking and accommodation close by
3. Cheap
4. Pretty
5. Accessible

  

This seems like an impossible task.

I gave up.

Rob however, being the trooper that he is, kept searching and we, or should I say he, eventually found a little village hall at the bottom of the Wrekin. Seems to tick all of the boxes, so good so far! We weren’t really envisioning a village hall as the venue, but I’m open to suggestions, and the cheaper the wedding, the better the honeymoon!

        

Check back next time to see what we thought of the venue!

The real ins and outs of planning a wedding by the future Mrs Burke

The real ins and outs of planning a wedding ; Wedding Fayres

By our guest blogger Laura Lowe

Let’s talk about the things in life that really matter: free food, free wine and FREEBIES! If you, dear reader, are like myself and enjoy a taste of the freebies, take yourself (and your other half if you really want to share) off to a wedding fayre.


I must admit that I was hesitant at first. Why should I spend my valuable, and often, scarce, free Sunday afternoon trawling around what is essentially a marketplace, being haggled with? Let me tell you that I’m so glad I let my, usually placid, fiancé bully me into it. He didn’t give much away, but when we drove down the long, sprawling, tree-lined drive in the countryside, I was impressed. Add to it a large stately home, wine and free cake, I was sold.


Other than being accosted at the front door for your name, bank details and family medical history, you’re left to wonder around these sumptuous places and enjoy a few minutes of the high life at the expensive bar or in the ballroom. Being me, I get chatting to the nice ladies who want my money for decorations, cakes, favours, invites, table linen.... they’re all extremely helpful, but you can’t help thinking they have an ulterior motive.


After a happy couple of hours sitting in the wonderful classic cars, looking through pictures of beautiful cupcakes and tiered masterpieces and being congratulated just for being the wonderful couple we are, we left with information overload but feeling strangely satisfied. Why doesn’t my wedding bible mention the wedding fayres?! Of course, I rebelled and completely forgot to ask those all important ‘key questions’ the bible insists I answer to have the perfect wedding, but you know what...? Who cares!

The one question still remains, however.... when’s the next wedding fayre?!!!

The real ins and outs of planning a wedding by the future Mrs Burke

The real ins and outs of planning a wedding ; Choosing A Venue

By our guest blogger Laura Lowe

Armed with my wedding bible, my best friend, the internet and some cupcakes, my (or should I say, “our”) next task was finding a venue for our wedding, and ultimately picking a date. If I’m honest, this was the bit I was really looking forward to! Perhaps not so much the actual picking, but more about being nosey and going to view all these beautiful buildings you read about in the magazines and getting to drink free champagne.

The venue. Easy peasy, right? You pick a place to get married, you pick a place for the party, you put down a deposit and job done.

Er, actually, no. This very decision takes up THREE CHAPTERS in my wedding manual. Three! The ceremony, the suppliers, the reception, one after the other, all with endless questions and decisions to be made. I ate two cupcakes before I had even finished reading the first chapter!

So, first things first, the ceremony.

1. Do you want a religious wedding? Yes, we are both in agreement about this.

2. Is a religious ceremony what you want? Well, yes, I’ve just answered this question!

3. Can you personalise the ceremony? I definitely need to ring the vicar...

After consultation with my intended, we rang up the church in the town where my family is from. Mum was married there and I was christened there, so it seemed fitting. However, after 3 ignored emails I finally got a reply from the vicar who put it in no uncertain terms that I was bothering him and to get back in touch closer to the time. What a grump! Then again, he doesn’t wear shoes, what do you expect?!

After much further deliberation, countless hours trawling the internet to find the rules for marrying outside the home parish, and several road trips round the country looking for a pretty, I had an epiphany. When visiting Mum, I dragged Rob to see the tiny church in the village where I spent my teenage years, not far from where my family lives now. It is very small, seating only 90 people and really in the middle of the countryside. It was only by co-incidence that we met the vicar there who knows me, and we got chatting about the wedding. Long story short, Rob loved the church, the vicar is happy to marry us there, and the date is set for 4th Aug 2012.

Are you impressed by our efficiency?!

Buildwas Church, Shropshire

The real ins and outs of planning a wedding by the future Mrs Burke

The real ins and outs of planning a wedding ; Choosing the Bridal Party and Best Man

By our guest blogger Laura Lowe

When it came down to the nitty gritty, choosing who I wanted as my bridesmaid was actually fairly simple. Laura, who I have known for nearly 7 years, is a little bit crazy and that’s what I love about her. She’s always been my confidante: the one who I spent our frees at college with embattled in those all important blackjack and poker games, sneaking off to town at lunch time to avoid the horrible school dinners and choosing dresses for prom. Then the frolics at Uni where we spent the 4 years getting far too drunk on strangely coloured apple sours and peach schnapps, eating too much all-you-can-eat Chinese and spending way too much of our overdraft on pretty handbags. More recently, and probably because we’re getting old, we enjoy demure cups of coffee and spend a pleasant afternoon dunking custard creams. Mum has dubbed us the “WI”, and Rob knows that our intense texting session just has to last the exact amount of time the footy is on.


One of the reasons why I love Laura so much (other than our mutual love of cake) is because of how she reacted when we said I was getting married. Not the usual “Eeeeeee OH. MY. GOD!” but a “Even if we had been friends for 50 years I will not wear a horrible dress!” That’s my girl! Even better, is that she is incredibly indecisive, which is brilliant as I am the total opposite.


Rob’s decision was, apparently, ‘easy’ and ‘manly’. He decided to ask Shaun to be his best man, as they have known each other for 16 years and are still great friends despite living over 50 miles apart. Every time we visit, I hear stories from years past, most of which are not repeatable, but some of which I’m sure he will share in the most embarrassing way possible on the Wedding Day.


My bible says that I must choose a ‘bridal party’ (even though Laura is the party!), but I guessed that we would need more than just the four of us. It was the obvious choice to include my brothers and Rob’s brother, and we have asked Rob’s sister to be my second bridesmaid. This wedding business is turning out to be expensive!  

The real ins and outs of planning a wedding by the future Mrs Burke

The real ins and outs of planning a wedding ; And so, it starts!

By our guest blogger Laura Lowe


And so, it starts!


So it has been two weeks, 3 wedding fayres and numerous expensive bridal magazines since we last met. Doesn’t time fly when you’re wedding planning?!


After announcing our engagement, the first thing I dragged myself out to do, is buy one of those planning books / bibles / novels essential for the perfect day. After much deliberation, a mini domestic and a half hour consultation with the poor employee unlucky enough to ask us whether we needed any help, we bought “The Wedding Planner” by You&Your Wedding (ISBN 978-0-572-03345-3). I felt this was a positive start: this is not just a wedding planner it is the wedding planner! So, armed with my new tool to success and the perfectly planned wedding, I headed straight to Starbucks, a caramel latte, and double choc chip muffin.


Re-fuelled and raring to plan, we opened the bible to:

Chapter 1: First Things First. Good so far!
Answer these questions and your perfect wedding is just around the corner. Even better, off we go!

Question 1: what is your dream? Ok, forget the damn book, we’re hiring a real wedding planner!

After stropping for a while and blaming all and sundry for my lack of wedding know-how, I manned up, flicked through the rest of the book, and gleaned that the first thing to do is to make a list: a list of important things, not-so important things, and not-important-at-all things. Easy peasy. Another caramel latte, double choc chip muffin (I’m going to get so fat!) and mini domestic later, my creation, with help from my bible, was complete.


The list now scares me.


Why does nobody tell you that there is so much choice?! Buffet, or 3 course meal. Hotel or a village hall. Registrar, or a church. Welcome drinks, or cocktail hour.


So, armed with the list which tells me the first thing to do is choose the bridal party and groomsmen, Rob and I set out to do the impossible: signal out our best friends from our not so best friends. How on earth do we do this?!

The real ins and outs of planning a wedding by the future Mrs Burke

The real ins and outs of planning a wedding ; The Aftermath

By our guest blogger Laura Lowe 

They say the apple never falls far from the tree, and in my case, the proverb was right. My Mum has been a single mother for years, and has done a brilliant job, probably due to her personality: she’s ballsy, opinionated, extremely feminist and believes that no woman needs a man. Something ringing a bell here?

So with my whole family wondering what the hell was making me so uncharacteristically subdued, we broke the news as gently as we could: primarily by shoving my sparkly ring under their noses and waiting to see what they said. Perhaps not the wisest idea in hindsight, but after picking their chins up from the floor, and looking at Rob like he’s a madman, they were very happy for us.

However, this was just the beginning... did I mention our families are both Irish Catholic?!

My parents, his parents, my grandparents, his grandparents, aunties, uncles, friends... I won’t go into the details, but this process involved a few bottles of wine and an expensive phone bill. For all those thinking what a wonderful, smiley time this was for us, don’t get romantic: me, being me, invariably forgot someone and panic ensued. The best bit of this whole messy, emotional scenario? Definitely the presents!

Girls, if you ever need to go through the hellish process of telling hundreds of friends and family the joyous news, perhaps take the precaution of writing a list first, just to make sure you don’t miss out Great Auntie Ethel?!

Step 1: the proposal... done and dusted.

Step 2: telling the parents... survived. Just.

Step 3: let the planning commence!

The real ins and outs of planning a wedding by the future Mrs Burke

Say hello to our first guest blogger!

Yes, despite the fact that this blog is still rather new, we do have a guest blogger (because obviously you can't put up with listening to my boring rambles all the time!)

So, her name is Laura Lowe and her blog/feature is called 'The real ins and outs of planning a wedding ; as told by the future Mrs Burke'. If you want to read about a real bride and hear about the nitty gritty truth of planning a wedding step by step then this blog is for you! Laura isn't your typical bride as she didn't even want to get married until, well, recently obviously but her upbeat writing manner means you won't be able to stop reading as you find out what its really like! You can read her feature in two ways.

One, would be by clicking the link to the right of this page, beneath where it says 'Other Pages'. On this page you will find her own personal profile page which won't be posted on here, so I would head on over now if I were you to have a gander! All her blogs will also be archived there.

Each blog she writes will also be posted here on the homepage as it is written.

So to conclude, you can read her profile/blog archive here The real ins and outs of planning a wedding ; as told by the future Mrs Burke or by clicking on the link on the sidebar down the right hand side of the blog.


And this is her first post. Enjoy!

Notes from a reluctant bride

Have you ever met those women who say that they have had their dream wedding planned in the minutest detail from when they were just girls? They gush about the proposal and the engagement party, then Vera Wang dress, the white roses, the string quartet...

I was never one of those girls.

In actual fact, I never thought I would get married. I always assumed I would end up a cat lady; old, grizzled and yelling at the kids who came to rescue the football from the front garden. It seems, however, that this was not to be.

I spent a good portion of my teens looking for “The One”, and inevitably failing. After a couple of disasters, after which I promised myself I would forget about men entirely, Rob appeared on the scene. Let me describe the bizarre coupling that the outside world must see: Me, an independent, individual woman who is bossy, domineering and very fragile, meets Rob, a soft, gentle man who is calm, quiet and extremely caring. My mum couldn’t believe it when he didn’t run away screaming.

When Rob proposed in Sept. 2010, I am happy to admit that I was shocked. This rather handsome, albeit perhaps foolish, man was on one knee, at the bottom of a waterfall, asking me to be his forever. Romantic? Yes. A moment we shall recount for many years? Yes. Crazy? Absolutely!

Once I’d pulled myself out of the stunned silence, I said yes. And then I waited expectantly. This is the moment where most of those little girls imagine the huge diamond to be produced with a flourish, and I must admit, I threw him a questioning look at this point, wondering what was going to seal the deal. It transpired, after hastily getting up from the mud, that he didn’t want to pick a ring because he chickened out of buying a ring in case I didn’t like it. A wise decision. I spent the next four hours wondering around the city, visiting the jewellers and forgetting which rings were sold where. I did eventually choose – much to the relief of my very patient fiancé, and then proudly wearing my shiny new ring, we retired to the bar to discuss how best to break this momentous news to our parents...

Coming next: the aftermath.