Sunday 19 June 2011

Wedding outfits - minor disasters

For our wedding ceremony, Nik will be wearing a traditional Indian Sherwani Suit in grey.  He has chosen a lovely one from Anjali's Boutique in Glasgow with some elaborate embroidery and beading in black and silver, although not too much sparkle!  We asked his brother who lives in London (and therefore has a huge choice in Southall) to order a plain grey suit with embroidery around the collar and edging only so as not to be as fancy as the Groom's.

Something like these...(but in grey)...




This is the hideous shiny monstrosity he was presented with when he went to pick it up yesterday...


Obviously he complained immediately that it wasn't what he ordered, is very short, shiny and has a horrible pattern all over it!  Sherwani suits are rather expensive, despite being made in India and shipped over, this one was to cost £315 and he had paid a £200 deposit.  He was told he could have £15 off since it wasn't what he ordered.  Not satisfied with this, after discussing it with myself and Nik and sending us the above image, we said it wasn't what we ordered and we don't want it.  They would not be able to make another one and have it shipped in time as it's now just two weeks to go and grey ones are not available off the peg as it's an unusual colour (they are usually ivory or black).  They refused to give him his deposit back, despite it being nothing like what he ordered and just said if he didn't buy it, that was tough and he could take them to court!!!  (Luckily for us, Ishan was so angry about it all, he says he will chase it up himself as he doesn't want them to get away with this so at least we don't have to worry about that when we return from honeymoon!)

All of this was going on while I was trying to leave for my hair trial appointment and we had to make the decision while he was still in the shop of what to do.  It didn't take us long to decide that we would be better off without £200 and the awful jacket rather than paying the remaining £115 and still hating it on the day!  If we couldn't find a replacement in time, we would rather he wore a kilt like the ushers or just a plain grey suit.

Luckily, Anjali's Boutique seems to have saved the day as although it's still too late for them to have a Sherwani made and they only have ivory or black ones in stock, they did have a grey Kurta Pyjama, which is a similar traditional style but much more lightweight and not a suit style but over the head tunic style outfit.   It still has some embroidery and beading around the neck and although it's more like linen than silk, it's definitely the closest we'll get at such short notice!

Similar to these...


The other minor outfit disaster this weekend was the bridesmaids dresses!  We had the second fitting so got to see what the final dress would look like.  Unfortunately, despite choosing an empire line design which I thought would flatter all their shapes, it really wasn't flattering on either of the girls (Vikki was at her brother's wedding this weekend) as the dressmaker had had to put gathers under the empire line to allow enough fabric to flow at the bottom.  None of us said anything at the time, me fearing upsetting the girls by saying they looked bad in the dresses, them for not wanting to upset or worry me with 2 weeks to go and none of us for fear of what the dress lady would say!  I wasn't sure what could be done as we are making them at such short notice due to various pregnancies.  Luckily, after speaking to Claire she agreed that she thought the dress made her look overweight, despite her having lost and impressive three stone since her pregnancy last year!!! The last thing I want is for my girls to feel self conscious in the dresses and lack confidence on the day, so I emailed Margaret.  She called me the next day to decide what to do and was lovely, explaining that is what fittings are for and that we can change the gathers to tucks which can be ironed flat and should therefore skim the tummy rather than accentuate it as the gathers were doing.  She will also deepen the empire line band to make it more flattering down to the waist as in the original dress which should also help!

So, although it's been a very busy and stressful weekend, we seem to have some reasonable solutions; I have dropped off all the vases at the florist (so can see at least half of my hall again!); Nik, Mum and I have been busy making poms (more on them later) in between everything else; we've finalised the menu and running of the day after a great meeting with Indus; Mum and I have been busy with my buttons which I refuse to explain since it's driving everyone at work nuts since I won't tell them what all the buttons are for that kept arriving in parcels! (hee hee); my hair trial went well with my customised (thanks to Mum's crafty skills) tiara; we've decided on the table plan display and begun production of that; I made a mini bouquet for my cheese mouse (more on them later); chosen all the songs for our wedding video; finished off the kids' favour bags with their place names; made more poms and have started writing our order of day!!!

I think I could use another day week off work!




Wednesday 8 June 2011

My Super Duper Hen Night!!!

I could NOT wish for better bridesmaids! Really!  If I had organised the day myself I wouldn't have changed a thing, my bridesmaids are absolute stars!  The three of them did such an amazing job and put so much thought and effort into it, I was truly impressed and touched!



Anyway, here's what we did...

The day started off at my flat in Glasgow (which incidentally was also the venue for my bridesmaid Sarah's Hen Night when she lived here!!) – I was banished to the nail salon getting my colour pop coral nails done while they transformed the flat with amazing decorations, food, mini Cava bottles and some cheeky straws!  Claire managed to find dragonflies and butterflies along with cocktail themed fluffy bunting and balloons from Bonnypack, Flowerscene, TK Maxx and Hobbycraft.  She found the bargainous waterproof table cloth from the Cotton Print Factory where they just cut off how many meters you need for £8.95/meter.









After munching on all the delicious sweets, cakes and home-made canapés I was led to my decorated 'throne' in the living room where they had organised a surprise video interview with my fiancé earlier in the week!  I had to guess his answers and for each one I got wrong, Sarah blew on her special whistle and had a forfeit for me!  Unfortunately I ended up doing all but 2 of the dares for which I still blame Nik!  My future mother-in-law is still speaking to me though, luckily!!









They had also organised with all the girls to write a story about me or some wedding advice on a green piece of card they sent out with the invites and had made up a gorgeous photo album full of pictures of all the girls and what they had written about me - such a lovely thought and something I will treasure forever and keep adding to - especially the hen night pictures!  Vikki had also made a PowerPoint presentation of photos of me as a child and student which showed some surprising parallels!





After the flat, we headed to Abode hotel where we had a cocktail mixology class which went down very well - the whistle came with Sarah and more hilarity ensued as I was now rather tipsy so the dares were even funnier for everyone!  Me singing screeching 'Like a Virgin' while the bar man mixed up cocktails being one example!!!  We then had a delicious dinner in our private function room before heading out dancing (and more dares in the club!  Oh dear!)



 




I will absolutely never forget it and could not have wished for more thoughtful bridesmaids!  Sorry if I’ve rambled on too long!  Here are some pictures from the club...





Mum and MIL to be finding something amusing!


Me and 'The Mums!'







All I can say is thank you to all my girls for making it the best, most memorable day/night ever!!!  :D

Friday 3 June 2011

Tonsils and Fashion and 30 days!!!

I have had tonsillitis this week  (Warning Gruesome pics at the end of this post - you have plenty of time to avert your eyes from minging graphic tonsil pictures!!  They impress me so I had to put them up but if you really hate disgusting infected flesh - don't look!)

Needless to say I am behind in blogging!  I have had ideas of what I want to blog about but not had the energy to actually get up and do anything, even type!!  Being ill is not good for me, I am not a get on with it kind of multi-tasking girl who can be feverish and still full of get up and get on with it!  I am PATHETIC!  I HATE the shivery feeling that comes with a fever and it just makes me cry and feel sorry for myself.  Neither of which, I realise, are attractive qualities.  And yet he still loves me, brings me milk and drugs and gives me cuddles when I'm shivering.  So thank you to Nik who has been wonderful at looking after me (and my Mum who arrived on Monday from Saudi Arabia to join in the last stretch of wedding planning fun and my hen night which is TOMORROW!!!!)

So, my plan for bank holiday Monday had been to go shopping for my hen night dress, then pick up Mum at the airport.  Instead I spent it dying in bed with tonsils growing bigger by the second!  (Seriously, I thought I had had tonsillitis before - no, this was proper agony!!)  Luckily, Nik has now finished all his final uni hospital prep stuff so was free to collect Mum for me and buy me more painkillers.  I went to the doctor on Tuesday as I was worsening rather than improving, had no cough and very sore and swollen lymph nodes (something my newly qualified Doc tells me means it could actually be one of the 20% bacterial cases rather than viral).  The very lovely Dr P was very understanding when I walked in and promptly burst into tears (I'm not usually so pathetic I promise!) and explained the problem and that my Hen Night was this Saturday.  She had a look in my throat and immediately said she could tell why I was so fed up and that my tonsils looked very nasty and pussy so I could have antibiotics.  And Thank Goodness!  The very next day I already noticed a HUGE difference, although still in considerable pain, I generally felt much better and found the painkillers actually relieving the pain more!  All I can say is, I'm glad it happened now and not in a month's time!!

Luckily I am now almost back to normal and Dr P says I can still partake in the cocktails from our class but to 'go easy' as I don't want a relapse!  Last night, Mum, Nik and I went off to Silverburn to find my Hen Night dress - I did consider wearing one of my older ones but I really did want a new one for my Hen and had already spotted a couple of potentials in Monsoon and Coast online!  (What else is there to do when slowly healing from Giant Tonsil Disease!?)

In the end it was an easy choice (despite Mum not being keen on the online picture although strangely it doesn't look too flattering on the model) when I tried it on, we all agreed it was stunning and fun and fitted me perfectly!  So this is my final outfit for tomorrow (which at their 1st dress fitting tonight the girls were all winding me up about as there are a few surprises apparently!!), I can't wait!!!

'Mitzy' Dress from Coast

Which I was going to pair with these SUPER comfy wedges I bought for the honeymoon from Aldo although it looked a bit too casual...

'Taneja' wedge from Aldo

SO, I will probably buy these which I had my eye on recently as I actually realised I do not own a classic, sexy but comfy black shoe!!  (Scandalous!)


'Amy' shoe from Kurt Geiger

Although I also like the 'Betty'

And because I simply couldn't resist when I saw it on Etsy, this stunning handmade ring which is soooo cute perfect for the tea party in the afternoon!!!

'Tea-time' ring from Etsy
I will be adding my usual pop of colour in the form of bright nail varnish although I am currently debating over coral or turquoise so decided to blog instead!!  :)  Right, now I really to need to paint those toes before bed!

Oh and P.S. It's ONE MONTH TODAY!!!!!













Don't say I didn't warn you!  Day 1, 2 and 3 - I was starting to worry it might close up altogether!!

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