Part of the problem is definitely wedding fatigue;

Bored Bride

it’s felt like such a frenzy trying to get all the important bits sorted, but now all the key items are booked, it all the rest of it now seems a little less urgent.

As a blogger, I’m also rather shamed to admit that I was getting a little tired of the sound of my own voice. I do try to pepper the old blog with wedding themed stories from around the world, but I was starting to feel pretty sure that some people might be getting a bit bored of me droning on and on.

But now I’m determined to get back on the waggon, and refocus my efforts on both the blog, and the wedding plans.

My credentials as a blogging bride-to-be depend on it!

If the weather is anything like it is today in one year’s time, it is going to be truly gorgeous!

Jordan and Peter's fairy tale carriage

From fairy tale carriages, to wedding thrones, to lion tamers, live butterfly boxes and Westlife crooning at the reception, these celebrities seem to have it all,

But is it also cruel of me to suggest that the longevity of the marriage sits in direct proportion to the amount of cash the celebrity has splurged on said nuptials?

It doesn’t appear that many celebrity marriages seem to last much longer than the silk spun toilet paper they undoubtedly wipe their pampered peaches on (Jordan and poor Peter a perfect case in point) and those that do seem destined for a mixture of unfailing glumness and anorexia throughout most of their married life (Posh and Becks, Cheryl and Ashley, further illustrations…)

Posh and Becks - happy marriage?

I guess it can’t be easy to look past the glass slippers and fountains of Cristal to picture a time when Mrs Ashley Cole has simply done a bit too much pouting for one day to feel like getting her leg over, or Mr Katie Price has perhaps had one curry too many and is starting to get a little bit paunchy and the rosy glow starts fading from the paparazzo’s lens.

It’s called real life for you and I, and is part of being a couple and learning to love people for who they are, not just their appearances (primary school stuff, yes I know). But for our celebs, for whom image is everything, the realities of marriage must start to become quite a drag.

All brides worry about looking fabulous in their wedding dresses, but as Claire’s experience proved, some definitely face bigger challenges than others. Her determination was very impressive, working out from four and then to six times a week, cutting out junk food and keeping her calories to a minimum. Of course, she exceeded expectations for her big day and managed to squeeze in to a size 10 and looked stunning.

It definitely helped me to put my own weight loss/weight maintenance struggles into perspective. I’m fortunate enough to already fit the dress that I love, so I just need to ensure I keep stable for, oh yes, just the next year at least (god!). It’s doable though, and as Claire’s experience proved to me, it certainly could be much worse.

H2B and I will be sticking to a reasonably traditional script – we’re not really into big showy displays of public affection so we’ll be keeping it pretty straight.

Some of the ideas from Scott Mills phone-in though were nothing short of hilarious!

• One couple apparently used the lyrics from the Baywatch theme, so think along the lines of ‘I’m always ready, I won’t let you out of my sight.’

• Another said ‘give me the dignity to be humble when I’m wrong and gracious when I’m right.’

• And the best, and perhaps the most outrageous, the groom said ‘I love you because you know when to stop eating.’

Priceless!!

Apparently it’s quite a new phenomenon, but frankly I don’t know how couples used to do without it. With the average wedding costing anything from £10,000 to £20,000, it’s an awful lot of money to be spending without any protection against something going wrong.

You just need the bride to get a bit of food poisoning, or torrential rain to cause some flooding in the wrong places, and all of a sudden, the wedding you’ve shelled out your hard-earned on just can’t go ahead. Or most likely, in these horrible economic times, a supplier you are counting on to provide catering, or music, or a venue, goes bust – then, what do you do?

There’s a myriad of wedding insurance products out there – some with clever modular policies that help you adjust the cover depending on what you’ve spent on different elements of the wedding. Let’s face it, no two weddings will be the same, and there’s no point having huge amounts of cover on areas that perhaps you haven’t prioritised.

It’s H2B’s responsibility to get the wedding insurance sorted, let’s face it he needs to have at least one job! Anyway, he’s pretty good at sorting things like insurance, he just needs reminding to get them done!

Wow. That’s incisive journalism. As much a shock to me as I’m sure it was to you!

I don’t personally think that the recession actually stops people doing what they really want to do. Our wedding is not going to be more expensive simply because we are planning it within a recession. In fact, we might even be lucky enough to get cheaper deals as suppliers struggle to secure our business.

I think it’s very easy to use the recession as an excuse for not doing particular things, when in actual fact you should perhaps just be saving money on that area of your life anyway. It’s not because you’ve got any more of a pressing need to do it now, just because ‘we’re in a recession’, than you had before.

It doesn’t make a blind bit of sense to start your married life ‘deep in debt‘ as the article states, so don’t be wasteful where a little tasteful restraint will actually do you more favours in the long run.

It is a very important and momentous day, but it is still only one day after all and not worth breaking the bank over.

I’ve been getting receipts back from our bookings recently, for the registrar, the boat, and the ceremony, and now I’m starting to see how things are coming together.

Particularly exciting was to get the details of the afternoon tea at the Leander Club. (Is it really bad that I get so excited about food?)

• Selection of finger sandwiches, to include smoked salmon and watercress; roast beef and horseradish; cream cheese and cucumber
• Freshly made scones, with clotted cream and strawberry jam
• Strawberry tartlets
• Mini eclairs
• Tea

Yum-my!

Note to self – don’t drip jam down dress, you’ll have new guests to greet at the reception!

I think it would be a great idea to get married on an aeroplane, but to be honest with you easyJet really wouldn’t be my first choice. They would probably charge you £20 for the privilege of wearing a wedding dress, and if you didn’t arrive at least 20 minutes before the plane was due to depart, well that’s it, game over. No point even considering the tradition of the bride arriving late!

10k has been my most ‘regular’ distance over the last five years and I’ve always had aspirations to achieve a 50min time – H2B always told me I was capable of it, but the best I’d managed was 54mins 10secs at last year’s Wargrave 10k.

So I was thrilled at last Monday’s Shinfield 10k to achieve a time of 51mins 10secs! It was a reasonably fast, flat course but I was still amazed that I’d suddenly been able to take that much off my time – again, I really don’t know what had got into me.

Buoyed beyond belief by Monday’s success, I took on all 13.1 miles of the Richmond Half Marathon today. It was a good early start (8.30am) but still managed to be roasting hot by about 9am. I was also desperate for the loo when we arrived (mainly from nerves building up over the journey) but we hadn’t anticipated the length of the walk to the start line so I didn’t have time to go! So I was worried about having to do a ‘Paula’ before the day was out, but nevertheless pushed on.

My first four miles worried me a little bit – each sub-nine minutes – could I possibly sustain the pace? Well it turns out, with slight variations, that I reasonably could, although I did feel like I was going to have to throw in the towel on more than one occasion!

I’m most proud of the fact that I didn’t stop and walk once, despite the huge temptation. I’ve only done one other half marathon before (Reading) so that instantly made this run an improvement. But it  turns out I did even better than that, and was a whisper away from cracking the two hour mark – two hours and 51 seconds! Phew!!

Runs for the rest of the month…the first of this summer’s Woodland 5 series and the terrible Turbo X Trail!!!!