This Monday was the 14^th November 11, a full year since Rob asked me to be his wife. Bearing in mind we were in Sydney at the time I wanted to (try) and some way incorporate Oz in recognition of the day. Strangely there are only 3 Australian restaurants in the UK (that appear on the first few pages of Google anyway), 1 up north and 2 inLondon. One of which is a café that closes at 6pm and the other, which was perfect, doesn’t serve dinner on a Monday night. Typical. Deciding to make more of a joke of it and staying closer to home the only option was good ol’ Walkabout in Reading. We went after work looking forward to a few drinks, bit of food and some reminiscing – as well as some much needed Wedding talk!

The Walkabout website tells you everything you need to know about the various venues, opening hours, locations, DJs, menus… What it doesn’t tell you is that they also don’t serve food on a Monday. Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!! Regardless, we stayed and had a few drinks in an Australian atmosphere – well, as much as you can in the centre of Reading! We grabbed a takeaway on the way home and enjoyed it with a chilled bottle of champers. The next morning feeling all sentimental (or hung-over, cant decide) I watched the engagement DVD again. At the time I remember being horrified that it had been recorded, but now I love the fact that I can re-live the moment over and over. It scares me when I think we’ve been engaged a year and how little I’ve actually done in preparation. Spreadsheets and collages aside we still haven’t actually booked anything!! I’m down to 8 months and I really need to pull my finger out! A lot of things have been started, if not everything which is good and actually the only area I haven’t actually touched is the entertainment – but Rob was keen to have a role so that’s his job. Under my supervision; Obviously! So maybe it’t not all bad.

We’ve chosen our wedding favours and more importantly the company supplying them. I went to my first bridal shop last week with my mum, just to have a look, but to my surprise did actually find some I liked. We’re going back next week to try them on so I’ll be sure to update you on my experience. I’m almost 100% sure on our caterers but want to do a tasting before I commit and that cant take place until the beginning of next year. I’ve found a company for the dance floors and additional bar furniture (as mentioned in previous post) and have also decided on my bouquet which I’ve started buying bits for. Clearly not your traditional floral one. As we’re allowed to provide our own wine, champagne etc with no corkage charge I’m hoping we can take advantage of the New Years sales to grab a few bargains – same goes for the sweetie stall goodies! I could go on with little bits and pieces but  there’s no big news!

We did however visit the venue again last weekend. We took with us Amy, my Maid of Honour, her hubby and son. It was the first time Amy had seen the venue (other than online!) and she genuinely seemed to love it which meant a lot to me. It also gave me a real lift emotionally and kick started me back into action. Top of my list… the bloody invitation design!!!