Potential ceremony reading?

I know it's a little unusual, but everytime I read A Lovely Lovestory by Edward Monkton I think of me and Mike (he is the moody dinosaur and I am the shopaholic dinosaur!!) For the ceremony we are having one religious reading and two non-religious ones, and we're thinking of using this as one of the non-religious ones. Its meaningful without being too soppy and over-sentimental, which isn't very "us". What do you think??

" The fierce Dinosaur was trapped inside his cage of ice. Although it was cold he was happy in there. It was, after all, his cage.

Then along came the Lovely Other Dinosaur.
The Lovely Other Dinosaur melted the Dinosaur’s cage with kind words and loving thoughts.

I like this Dinosaur thought the Lovely Other Dinosaur.
Although he is fierce he is also tender and he is funny.
He is also quite clever though I will not tell him this for now.

I like this Lovely Other Dinosaur, thought the Dinosaur. She is beautiful and she is different and she smells so nice.
She is also a free spirit which is a quality I much admire in a dinosaur.

But he can be so distant and so peculiar at times, thought the Lovely Other Dinosaur.
He is also overly fond of things.
Are all Dinosaurs so overly fond of things?

But her mind skips from here to there so quickly thought the Dinosaur. She is also uncommonly keen on shopping.
Are all Lovely Other Dinosaurs so uncommonly keen on shopping?

I will forgive his peculiarity and his concern for things, thought the Lovely Other Dinosaur. For they are part of what makes him a richly charactered individual.

I will forgive her skipping mind and her fondness for shopping, thought the Dinosaur. For she fills our life with beautiful thoughts and wonderful surprises. Besides, I am not unkeen on shopping either.

Now the Dinosaur and the Lovely Other Dinosaur are old.
Look at them.
Together they stand on the hill telling each other stories and feeling the warmth of the sun on their backs.

And that, my friends, is how it is with love.
Let us all be Dinosaurs and Lovely Other Dinosaurs together.
For the sun is warm.
And the world is a beautiful place."

Mad as a hatter!!

The first decision I made when we got engaged was that I wanted a veil: i've always dreamed of one, floating ethereally behind me, whilst I pretend to be demure. To me it isn't the big white dress or the designer shoes or the bouquet of flowers that make you a bride: it's the tulle or lace flowing behind you, trailing from your hair. I can't imagine getting married without a veil, really.

But you can't wear a veil all the night long, and after the ceremony and the formal photos I will take it off. I think I want to replace it with this hat from seamstress of avalon:
Mike is wearing top hat and tails (his choice, suprisingly, rather than mine, and I think he will look perfectly dapper!) I was planning to make a 10/6 card to slip into the brim of his hat. Now i'm definitely going to make him one, and we will make quite the pair in our matching hats! Love it!

Love, Tor xx

Minimising the social impact of our wedding

Confetti.co.uk have just gone into administration, and the Daily Mail has reported that brides across the nation are in dismay/panic/(insert your favourite daily fail word here) because of the money they will lose on their wedding stationary. I couldn't help but feel a tiny bit smug, because of course we have made all of our stationary ourselves. That got me thinking about our ethical attitude towards our whole wedding, and I thought it would be nice to share:

There are some corporations that you cant avoid when it comes to planning a wedding; my bridesmaids dresses are from Debenhams, I want to wear make up from Chanel and Dior. Mike's suit will probably be hired from Moss Bros. And i'mnot going to pretend that's a problem for me: I love to shop, I love to consume, I love Debenhams! But the wedding industry is a big business, and there are lots of small companies taking part in it that are struggling to survive. I knew I didn't want to give money to the "big boys" of the billion pound wedding industry, so Mike and I made the decision that whereever possible we would only use small independent vendors, and if possible they would be Norwich based, to give something back to the community that means so much to us.

Our venue only offers locally sourced Norfolk food: it won't have to travel far, keeping its carbon footprint minimal. We're using the little florists at the end of the street we used to live on. Our photographer is both independant, and Norfolk based (low carbon footprint there too!!) The stationary has been homemade, right down to the place cards. The stamps for the stationary were handmade by a woman on etsy. Also made by hand will be the favours, gifts for the hen night, most of the decorations, my bouquet (using vintage brooches sourced from carboot sales and second hand shops) even the gifts for our wedding party will be homemade: i'm making them myself from some organic cotton I bought from a local haberdasher. Our tables will be littered with vintage tea cups and saucers mum and nan have been collecting for us. Our cake will be made by an independant Norfolk baker. Last week we brought our wedding rings from a small jewellers in the centre of Norwich: are you sensing a pattern here!?

We're doing everything we can to support independant and local businesses and to minimise the carbon footprint of our vendors. Do I feel smug about the low social impact of my wedding? A little bit. Then I think of all the driving to and from Norwich were doing, the travelling all our guests will have to do just so they can attend, and the big black carbon footprint our honeymoon will be leaving behind, and I realise i'm not doing anything at all. But at least we're trying!

Love, Tor xx

DIY Make-up

Because of all the events I go to, i'm forever having my make up done, and I always hate the way it looks when someone else does it. So I will be doing my own make up for the wedding. But I won't be using my own everyday make up: because this is my wedding day I will be investing in some premium products for a flawless look. (Actually, lovely mum will be investing, as she's going to buy them for me for Christmas!) That means we get the fun of going to all the make up counters and trying all their yummy products before putting together the perfect package for the big day. Yesterday we tried Dior:

I love how flawless my skin looks (their colour correction base is great) the long long lashes are gorgeous, and I know I want the old-school glamour of red lips (with matching red nails) But I think the eyes are just a little too much: too dramatic for the wedding when teamed with the red lips. However i'm viewing this as a good thing: I have now learnt I don't want the smokey eyes as well, and would rather go for a subtle slick of liner, and lashings and lashings of lengthening mascara. A bit more natural on the eye front next time!

The face lasted all day, and even the lipstick survived the munching of pizza and soft drinks. I''ve definitely found a couple of products i'd like to get: next weekend we're trying Chanel (I have high hopes for their lipstick!)

Love, Tor xx

Dessert buffet table decorations

The one thing that won't happen to anyone at our wedding is that they go home hungry. Mike and I are big foodies, and we knew that we wanted to make sure everyone was full and happy. When it boiled down to it, in the choice between free bar and plenty of food, we hated the idea of people being drunk and starving! People will be greeted with canapes and champagne, then sit down to a three course dinner. Then in the evening there will be a big BBQ, and everyone will take home big chunks of wedding cake. (My nan is buying us the cake as a wedding gift, and she likes everyone to be full too, so we'll have far more than we need!) But alongside the BBQ is the part of the food that i'm most excited about: the sweet and cupcake buffet!

My sister will be making some of her famously delicious cupcakes (which she's designing to match the theme of the wedding and then putting on gorgeous cake stands) Then i'll be filling jars, sugar bowls, tea pots and anything else I can get my hands on, with old fashioned sweets. It's going to look visually amazing, and taste wonderful too. And it will look even more wonderful with the addition of these mad hatter-style stacks:

Aren't these great!? Hand crafted by my very talented mum! They look so higgaldy piggaldy, just like a stack of crockery left over after a mad party. And they have buttons and brooches spilling out of them: i'm thinking of putting sweets on each of the plates too! The brown teapot in the stand at the back was the gift my godfather gave my parents on their wedding day. I think these will look amazing sat on either side of the dessert buffet table, but I think it's even more amazing that my mum made them for us, and they actually mean something: who knew this wedding would turn me into such a sentimental old goat?!

Love, Tor xx

We've booked our honeymoon!

On July 17th 2011, this will be the view from our hotel window. Yup, window view, right on the beach (although there are also 5 separate pools if we get tired of the beach!) Everytime I google pictures of our resort I want to squeal! We have booked our honey moon and will be spending two weeks in a five star resort in Sharm el Sheik. We're going to snorkel, go on a desert safari, and of course spend days in Luxor and Cairo. There will also be much eating, drinking, and merriment: We're both so excited! I brought us guide books (they're buy one get one free in WHSmith at the minute) and i've already read both from cover to cover. I'm always like this when I go anywhere; I want to immerse myself in the culture and the history and know everything! Only 11 and a half months to wait!

Love, Tor xx

Yet more stationary pictures!

So, if we could have a small drum roll please, I can now finally show you the save the date cards:

My stationary mission for this week is to make the place cards (minus the names of course, which I won't be able to write until later!) I really want everything to match the Alice in Wonderland theme. These are really simple, so they won't take too long to do: I just add my mad hatter stamp and then use my water colour crayons (a sentence I never thought i'd say!) to paint the hat and bow tie.

I've also made about 30% of my thank you cards: finishing those is next weeks mission. Which just leaves the biggy: designing and making the very intricate invitations complete with maps, inserts, and rsvp cards. I'm feeling pretty good about the stage we are at with the wedding planning right now: and we booked the honeymoon at the weekend too!! That will be getting its own whole post of loveliness tomorrow.

Love, Tor xx