Food, glorious food!

Who'd have thought that it costs more to hire caterers per head than to take your guests to a top restaurant, certainly not me. If you're having a small intimate wedding, then you might want to think about hiring out a private room at a restaurant, this could work out better value.

We've chosen to have our reception in a Church hall, leaving us free to choose our own caterers. It's really hard knowing who to go for unless you have a recommendation, although budget's going to play a part in your decision. In the end we've chosen a local restaurant Miltons to cater for us, because we've really enjoyed the quality of their food and what you get for your pound compares well with others. It's a husband and wife team that run the restaurant and catering business. Sarah is really well orgainsed and accommodating and has made some excellent suggestions without forcing her point of view.

Neither of us like formal sit down dinners at weddings, so platters are going to be served to each table, which should get guests chatting. Sarah and her husband are real foodies and clearly love coming up with suggestions for dishes, so there have been no shortage of options. I'm particularly looking forward to the tower of desserts that each table will be served, definitely going to be the highlight for me!

If you're looking into getting a caterer and live within the M25, here are the contact details for Miltons:
020 8979 5662
5 Ashley Road, Station Approach, Hampton, TW12 2HY

I'll be able to let you know just how yummy the food is after I've eaten it on Saturday!

THE Shoes

I've steered clear of the traditional white dress, so the usual wedding shoes are definitely not for me. Trying to find the right shoes has taken me ages and I've been all over London and browsed online. Part of the problem is that I've been looking for a pair of summer shoes in the right shade of green, which is quite a challenge (had I realised that summer was going to have an uncanny resemblance to winter I would have had a greater choice). Add to this the fact that I'd like a mid-height heel rather than a 6 inch monster and the choice gets even more limited. If you're searching for some original footwear I'd recommend taking a look at the footwear designer Tracey Neuls. Unfortunately my feet are too narrow for her designs, otherwise I'd definitely have picked up a pair.

In the end I decided custom made was the way to go and set about trying to find someone suitable online. Wow handmade shoes are expensive, they seem to start at about £1000 for your first pair, ouch! Eventually I came across Karmen Accessories who stocks made-to-measure shoes by designer Hetty Rose. These shoes are made to fit your feet and are covered in the kimono fabric of your choice. Fortunately when I contacted Karmen, Hetty was on a buying trip in Japan and was able to pick up some beautiful kimono fabric from a textile market to match the colours of my dress.

My experience of organising this wedding has been made so much more enjoyable because of the excellent customer care shown by the independant businesses that I have dealt with. Karmen at Karmen Accessories has kept me up to date with the progress of my shoes and Hetty the shoe designer has been very helpful. It makes such a difference, especially when compared to the sloppy rude service I normally encounter in London. After the wedding I'll upload some photos of the shoes and dress....

THE Dress

I really didn't want a traditional wedding dress, it just wouldn't fit with the whole relaxed vibe of the day, and there's no way that I'm prepared to spend a small fortune on a dress that I'm never going to be able to wear again. So I decided to ditch the white dress and go for something completely original and much more 'me'. I'm not going quite as far as a friend of mine who had a fancy dress theme at her wedding and hired her outfit from the costume shop (she had a fab day)!

I trawled around all of the major department stores and scoured various boutiques with no luck. Fortunately I eventually wandered into Michelle Oberdieck's shop in the Oxo Tower. Michelle is a textile designer and among other things she works with a dress maker (Lilly) to create stunning garments. Having already tried on a lot of different styles and had a dress fitting in a bridal shop, I knew roughly the style of the dress I was after, but was clueless about colour. It turns out that there's not a lot a textile designer doesn't know about shade and colour, and we were able to settle on blue and green silk for the dress. This is the first (and probably only) piece of clothing I've ever had made just for me, and it has been a really exciting and rewarding experience working with Michelle and the Lilly. Many fittings later my blue and green dress is almost finshed and looks fabulous, it's exactly what I wanted my wedding dress to be.

Coming up.... shoe shopping.....

THE Ring

A friend of mine doesn't have an engagement ring, instead she has a beautiful titanium engraved wedding band that she and her husband chose in the Netherlands. I've never seen anything like it in the UK, it's certainly more original and personal than the majority of them. But my engagement has lasted a year, and there's no way I could hold off getting a gorgeous ring that long. Being a huge jewellery fan and regular at Dazzle, I was really keen to find a contemporary craftsperson, so my HTB and I went along to Gabriel's Wharf on the Southbank in London. We bought a beautiful handmade 18ct yellow gold ring with brown diamond from Mikala Djorup. It's so refreshing to deal with someone that's friendly and helpful, customer service in London is often woefully poor. In fact we've been so pleased with the ring that Mikala has also made our wedding bands, can't recommend her highly enough!

Civil or not?

Well we're going for a civil ceremony because there's no way my HTB will enter a Church. Coming from Kiwi land where they have celebrants who will marry you just about anywhere, he had some fab ideas for locations for holding the ceremony. Sadly your options in England are somewhat more limited and therefore expensive (but of course).

Actually we have just discovered that we could have had a civil ceremony at our local registry office (the legal bit) and then had a humanist carry out a personal service of our design anywhere we fancied. If this sounds like your cup of tea, check out the British Humanist Association.

Giving Notice

So you've sorted out the documentation and got your certificate of approval (if you need it), what's next? It's time to give notice to your local designated register office, if you've no idea where this is, here's a link to the general register office with a handy search box. Obviously you need to have a date in mind for the wedding at this point, so get that diary out! Your notice will be on display for 15 days and is valid for 1 year. So many facts to impart and so little time! I've no idea how often requirements change, so it's best to check, my tips will one day be out of date.

Beau's not British

There are all sorts of complications involved in tying the knot in England, especially if like me you don't fancy the traditional approach and would prefer something a little more individual. Add to this the fact that my husband to be (HTB) is a Kiwi and you can just feel a headache coming on. So what do you need to do? Well my HTB has an ancestry visa, so he just needed to get a Home Office certificate of approval. It costs approx £295, here's a link to the information on the Home Office's website. Until we had this we couldn't do anything else, so sit back and relax for the 4 weeks it takes to arrive!