And a good day was had by all

The notices for this week

At church yesterday our pastor decided to dedicate a page of the notice sheet to our wedding ;-)

To quote Len Goodman...

* Len Goodman is a judge on Strictly Come Dancing who has an exuberant way of saying "seven"!

My kind of afternoon

I had a lovely hen do on Saturday organised by Jenny, with lots of my friends there.

It didn't involve excessive alcohol or silly clothes (with the exception of these beautifully stylish glasses...) - instead Jenny took me to Mitchells in Sutton Coldfield. It's essentially a posh shopping centre, with little shops throughout an old farm complex and a lovely café - sorry - bistro.

We started off with a meal in the Farmhouse Bistro, then we went to Cafe Ceramica to do some pottery painting. It was very relaxing and we spent a couple of hours in there choosing what to paint and playing with designs.

After we'd finished the painting we had to leave the pottery to be fired and glazed - Jenny will collect it and distribute it at the wedding - and then we had a mooch around the shops for a bit.

Some of my friends had travelled a way to be at the afternoon, so they had to get back. The rest of us (me, Jenny, sister-in-law and Jenny's sister) went back to Jenny's to eat Chinese takeaway and watch In the Night Garden (! while Jenny's niece and nephew got ready for bed) and then Coyote Ugly.

It was a lovely day and definitely my kind of afternoon.

Mitchells
Weeford Rd, Sutton Coldfield, B75 6NA
w: www.mitchellsshopping.com

Farmhouse Bistro
e: info@farmhousebistro.co.uk
t: 0121 323 3658
w: www.farmhousebistro.co.uk

Cafe Ceramica
e: julie@cafeceramica.com
t: 0121 308 3984
w: www.cafeceramica.com

Coming closer

Getting the fit right

I should have posted this a couple of weeks ago, but I have my dress! Trisha's called up in the middle of October to let me know it had arrived, so I went to collect it and brought it home.

I'm not having it altered at Trisha's though. There's a lady who I've known for years, and who knew my dad when he was a teenager, whose name is Pat. She is incredibly talented at dressmaking and she offered to do all the alterations we needed as a present to us.

When I got my dress home I took it to Pat and tried it on. It fits perfectly at the top, but is rather too long, so she's taking it up for me. I've got another fitting tomorrow evening, and then probably one more before the wedding.

Pat has been sorting out my big bridesmaids as well. They both needed turning up and having the straps sewn in properly, and Jenny's dress needed the back panel that goes underneath the lacing sorting out as well, because it wasn't covering the hole well enough and she was showing off her pants!

We have Homer Simpson playing at our wedding...

Dad got an email from the ceilidh band which will be playing at our reception over the weekend. They were asking him to confirm that they'll be fed and watered during the evening, so he wrote back, telling them they would be able to have the hog roast with the guests, and that soft drinks, tea and coffee will be provided. The church centre isn't licensed so he told them what we're telling all the guests - you're welcome to bring your own alcohol, but we're not providing any for the evening.

They wrote back to say "no, we want beer and you have to provide it because it's in the contract".

Dad looked at the contract and it does say that the band should be provided with fruit juice or beer as requested. However he was a bit miffed because this means that the band is effectively asking for better treatment than the guests if they get alcohol supplied and everyone else has to bring their own.

He asked them why they wanted beer and was told "it's the same with all musicians". Dad restrained himself from writing back to tell them that there are three musicians in his imediate family (me, Mom and little brother), and we all manage to play fine without alcohol.

Actually I'm doing the band a disservice - apparently the drummer doesn't drink alcohol and will be happy with tap water. The rest will get beer as requested, but it will be beer that's been left over from various visits, not especially bought beer. Can't have the band having special treatment, and it's not like we're not paying them enough to cover a couple of cans of beer each...