Cheerfulness!

Lucy and Mark were given a booklet from Granny called “Wedding Etiquette” published long before Granny and Grandpa’s wedding 52 years ago. It is full of handy hints from the late 1950’s relating to the BIG DAY. Much blog fodder I think.

While I wade through what to do and not do – here is an extract which had me smiling..

Entitled, “Cheerfulness” it reads...

Cheerfulness is of vital importance in domestic life as it helps you meet with good temper the little irritations and worries which are inevitable in running a household. The man does not always realise the anxieties and responsibilities with which his wife has to contend, and to look attractive and interesting after a harrassing day of domestic chores requires more than tactfulness, but men also have the responsibility, and the worry that goes with it, of being the provider, and a true woman proves herself the loved companion and wife when she combines sympathy, forebearance and tact without which her husband can never hope to succeed in his career.

That clearly explains a lot !!

Lucy has a theory that if you just wear the clothes the creases will drop out themselves, so no need to ever iron anything! Recently, Mark was ironing his shirts for work at our house. Lucy said she’d support Mark in his task by watching him, she soon announced that she was bored and disappeared leaving Mark to finish his shirt. Later over lunch I apologised to Mark that Lucy wasn’t very domesticated! Before he had chance to reply, Lucy piped up “ Well I may not be able to iron or cook, but I do know all the words to every Abba , Girls Aloud and Beyonce song” . Generally though, I'd say that Lucy is a cheerful soul, and so Mark's career is sorted!!

My Birthday Princess - cake anyone?

My beautiful baby girl turned 24 today. How on earth did that happen? In a blink of the eye, Lucy went from a screaming, colicky baby to the blushing bride to be.

Over the last 24 years my super Mum, Lucy’s Granny has made all 23 birthday cakes. Lucy’s first birthday cake was a teddy, the second a butterfly and then since then we have had all sorts of wonderful creations including a Robin Hood Story Book, marble cake with marble icing and a pink cake, pink icing and a pink beetle car ( Herbie) on top.

Lucy's 18th birthday cake 

Lucy's 2nd birthday cake

This got me thinking about the background to the history of birthday cakes. I discovered that the birthday cake has been part of birthday celebrations in Western European countries since the middle of the 19th century. 

In classical Roman culture “cakes” were made as flat rounds, made with flour containing nuts, leavened with yeast, sweetened with honey were occasionally served at special birthdays, but more often at weddings in Ancient Greece.

Coincidentally, today also happens to be my Mum and Dad’s 52^nd wedding anniversary! So the cake my Mum made for Lucy’s 24^th birthday today also included a silver wedding shoe from their wedding cake.  See image below - the rich tapestry of life eh? 

During the 17th century, the birthday cake appeared in its contemporary form. However, these elaborate cakes, which possessed many aspects of contemporary cakes (such as multiple layers, icing and decorations) were only available to the very wealthy!

The tradition of adding candles onto a birthday cake is attributed to early Greeks who used to place lit candles on cakes to make them glow like the moon. It was also believed that candles were placed on the cake because people believed that the smoke of the candle carried their prayers to gods. Others believe that the custom originated in Germany where people used to place a large candle in the centre of the cake to symbolize ‘the light of life’.

Lucy’s name - Lucy Sarah means light princess – and she really is the light of my life.

So that links me nicely from birthday cake to wedding cakes.

Mark and Lucy’s wedding cake will be made with love by my Mum and Richard. The plan is to have several tiers of sponge and a fruit cake too,  Granny’s quick reccie for a shopping list of approximately 20 eggs, about 3lbs flour,  2 ½ lbs sugar and 2 ½ lbs butter for the sponges alone! The plan involves borrowing Anne’s large cake tin, and the icing still to be confirmed. Then there’s also quantities of currents, sultanas, raisins, cherries, mixed spice, almonds, treacle, flour, butter, brown sugar, eggs and a snifter of brandy for the traditional fruit cake layer! 

Maybe we will pop a little candle on the wedding cake somewhere, like the early Greeks, to carry a prayer for a long and happy marriage for the Bride and Groom.

MOTB outfit – Top down or bottom up?

My lovely friend Barbara told me a good story recently on her flying visit to the North East from Muscat, which gave me food for thought. It was about one of her friends whose daughter got married last year. When the MOTB first went looking for an outfit – she found her perfect hat in Norma James boutique in Corbridge. It was exactly what she wanted, so she bought it. And as unlikely as it seems, she then worked her whole outfit very successfully to match the hat.

In my case, given my funny feet ( !!)  I know I will have to wear very comfortable shoes or else I will be in agony. So as the Spring season catalogue for Hotter Shoes “with comfort built in” recently plopped on the door mat, I think I may have found the shoes which would be the start of my outfit!

"Rumba" as seen above may just enable me to glide through the day, then boogie on down all night!

So the question is – if it works top down i.e. hat first – will it also work bottom up - shoes first?

Suits you Sir .... and a Roman soldier!

The main men in the Bridal party have now all been for the initial fittings for their suits. They will look so very smart. Here is a funny coincidence for MOTB to report.

When Lucy and Mark sent me the link for Greenwoods suit hire ( and just to clarify - this photo below is not the suit they will be wearing as “we” are keeping this a secret till the day) imagine my delight at discovering that the male model showing off the men’s suits was the lovely Adam - who long, long ago did some work for me at Hadrian’s Wall.

Here's the story..

Adam became a bit of a local legend as we used him in our controversial marketing campaigns to break the mould of all former marketing of the ancient World Heritage Site. 

Hadrian's Wall had previously been marketed with classic postcard views of the ancient stone Wall, whereas Adam the Roman Soldier as we called him...was put in full roman costume into a number of different contemporary settings to illustrate the range and breadth of activities visitors could do in and around Hadrian’s Wall. There was always a link to Roman times, so we'd show heated bathing, eating al fresco or enjoying fine wines – our creative genius at that time Antonio set up these scenes at venues in the Hadrian’s Wall area and the resultant photography was very memorable!!!

In the evaluation of the campaigns, we proved to be very effective – as they did exactly as intended – made all visitors really notice the adverts and brochure. The publications became collectors’ items. And we even turned some of the photos into very creative corporate Christmas cards, which colleagues told me they kept stuck on their office walls throughout the year.

So to indulge myself in nostalgia, I have dug out a few photos to share.

Who chose this chariot!

This photo below is one of the mouse mat my friend Sarah organised when I left Hadrian’s Wall. I had special memories of attending this actual photo shoot as it was the first time I met Adam. I had parked in the middle of nowhere ( middle of very rural Hadrian’s Wall Country) , walked up and down the ancient monument, heading towards what I could see in the distance a gathering of people and masses of photography equipment under a temporary white gazebo. When I got there, slightly out of breath with a ruddy complexion and very windblown hair – Adam was spread out on the picnic blanket looking drop dead gorgeous. As I was the client, I was introduced to him and his first words to me were “All right pet”. Adam was a true Geordie, a really nice guy and consummate professional. And he never seemed to mind whatever strange situations he was asked to pose in his roman soldier outfit!

Almost everyone in the Hadrian’s Wall Tourism Partnership team office and our marketing partners Wall wide envied me having to attend these photo shoots! We used to joke that we had launched Adam’s career – he went on to model for Storey’s carpet, Officers Club, Rene Lizard, Haven, Circ shampoo to name but a few and now Greenwoods wedding suits – but in truth, I suspect Hadrian’s Wall was a sideways deviation in his otherwise very successful modelling career.

The Bride’s dress. Tick.

We may have been diminished in numbers for the posse but we were not diminished of enthusiasm as we headed again to look at wedding dresses on Friday. Using Neil’s car with sat nav, I didn’t need my goole maps with street view this time. However, after the experience of the last trip looking at dresses, both Granny and I had packed flasks, sandwiches etc “just in case”.

The first point of call was to AJBridal Wear in Newburn. We were met by A and J, in their temporary home an old Warmseal unit on a small industrial estate. Well at least we knew we would be warm...

First thing A and J said, after introductions, was – “Would you like a tea or a coffee?”. Lovely jubbly...

Second conversation was rather amusing. While starting to view the dresses, Lucy was telling A and J that her and Mark’s wedding would take place in Hexham Abbey. Both A and J were most impressed, not just the historic venue but it would be a “proper wedding!” as these days  the majority of weddings are civil services where everything is held in one venue . Then they added , “Don’t tell us you still live at home!!”; when Lucy replied that yes she did, A and J were both delighted. Lucy was the FIRST bride they had ever had (after a year in business) who lived at home and was having a church wedding...they then added quickly, “ You haven’t got a baby have you? “ NO....they were both stunned and further delight.

The tea and coffee arrived on a tray with some shortbread biscuits  - and we were off. The next two hours were a real joy! Alison and Julie were so friendly, helpful , amusing and very enthusiastic. And we had top ups of tea and coffee, AND there was a toilet...( see previous wedding dress shopping blog post for relevance of this!)

Lucy was expertly fitted into 5 or 6 dresses, getting a clearer idea of what she really liked and didn’t like with each one. Half way through, she found one which “just felt right”. Lucy swooshed around  very princess like, and we all agreed this was a real contender. Ohhh exciting...

Granny and I were constantly amused by the chatter from behind the silver silk screen. Julie “ I’m going underneath now...”; Lucy “ We’re in, we’re in....”’ Julie again, “Sorry Lus, I have to stick this in by your boobs...”

We heard about A and J's temporary relocation due to the terrible floods in Newburn when the North East of England was suffering the typhoon weather last year. We heard discreet tales of other brides, and about a seamstress called Tay-Yan in Milton Keynes who is something of a miracle worker. We heard about their passion for John Barrowman, pictures of him all over the office walls, and how they go and watch his shows all over the world.

Anyhow, there is an expression – “When you love what you do, you never have to work again” – and that was certainly true of A and J.

So we departed to head to our  next appointment, little did we know how different an experience we were going to have. We were all buzzing in the car at finding a “contender”, on route to the next bridal wear shop in Newcastle. We snatched a quick drink and sandwich in the car. I had to make a couple of telephone calls, so Lucy and Granny went in first. ( I am not going to name the shop as the experience was so poor!) I went into the shop about 5 minutes later, and as I joined the group – I heard one of the ladies saying to Lucy, “So, I don’t really know what to show you....” I gathered that Lucy had told her what she liked and they had in stock one of the styles Lucy had favoured. We were the shortest appointment they had ever had! We must have been there no more than 10 minutes. No tea, no trying on...no enthusiasm, NO nothing!

We went back into the car, all totally bemused, none of us really sure what had happened in there. SO we headed back towards town...Lucy soon declaring that she really loved the one dress back with A and J. Well at some point you have to make the decision. And with a lead time of ordering a wedding dress between 6 to 8 months, it was getting close to decision time. So Lucy rang them and asked if we could call back in on our way back west so that she could try the contender on again.

Lucy rang Mark en route to tell him the exciting news, his reply.. “Well that’s another thing ticked off the list”. We know what he means...

Back in Newburn Industrial Estate we were greeted like old friends, more tea and coffee was produced ( I swear they had the kettle boiled ready since Lucy’s call) Lucy was helped into THE dress; Tay-Yan already contacted for a couple of queries regarding sewing miracles. So Lucy made the decision, yes this was the dress . She looked stunning..

We did the paperwork with John Barrowman smiling down on us.

As this decision sinks in, this was another of those memorable moments when another part of the jigsaw fell into place. You can start visualising the walk down the aisle, the receptions, the evening dancing with Lucy in this dress with Mark beside her. Tick!

The pleasure of your company! No strangers here...

In one of the early conversations about the wedding “we” discussed having a unique logo or design for stationery. Both the Bride and Groom were keen on the idea and gave me permission to approach my colleague and friend, Mike to help with design and print.  Once we had initial design proofs, we all knew that we were on the way to creating a very special set of stationery.

Mark did a really thorough job in compiling an additional information sheet. It covers everything you need to know about the day.  It has a spot of history and scene setting with details of the venues, directions, accommodation, dietary requirements and more.

Mike kindly arranged all the design and then sourced and dealt with the printers to ensure that everything was absolutely spot on! The Bride took delivery of the invitations and information sheets last week, and then as MOTB (Mother of the Bride – not to be dyslexic-ly confused with MOTD Match of the Day) I was asked if I’d like to write all the envelopes and invitations from Mark and Lucy’s spreadsheet lists. I’d love to – being a completer/finisher I just wanted to get them all written and posted out!

The process of writing the invitations was thought provoking. As I addressed each one, in my best joined up handwriting; an expression my Dad favours for social gatherings came to mind. “There are no strangers here, only friends you haven’t met”. The list of our family and Lucy’s close friends along with Mark’s family and friends made me think of the rich tapestry of life being woven for a date in the future; the day of the wedding when all these people will join together with us in Hexham Abbey or at Close House. I loved writing the names of many people we haven’t met yet, and anticipate greatly meeting them, putting names to faces and most of all sharing in the special day.

The canny chap who served me in the Newcastle’s main Post Office in Newcastle , who I always try to have  a chat with, told me a funny story when  I presented him the large ish pile of silver envelopes out of my “Keep calm I’m the Mother of the Bride” bag. I couldn’t help myself, and told him they were my daughter and her fiancé’ s wedding invitations. Other than Auntie Muriel in Canada, Babs and Mister David in Bahrain and Marks Cousin in Luxembourg, the invitations all had stamps on already.  I asked if he could check that I had the correct UK postage on – as how awful would it be to post them all out without checking. He told me that nightmare had indeed happened when a family sent out over 200 invitations, without checking the size or weight of the envelope. The wedding invitations design included buttons which meant that they didn’t fit through the standard sized Post Office measure gadget. So each person invited had to go to collect their invitations and pay the 70 or 80p to retrieve it! A few guests must have informed the family, and so they in turn then contacted all 200 to apologise and told them they would refund them at the wedding! Oops...

Most of the day time invitations have all been posted now so I can reveal the design. The same design will be applied to all printed materials for the big day – and afterwards. So we still have the name place cards, order of service, table plans and thank you cards to produce. Exciting times...

World of envelopes..

Who’d have thought- a whole website full of envelopes?

“We” were looking for some special ones to post out the wedding invitations. Mike my colleague and friend advised me of World of Envelopes website. http://www.worldofenvelopes.com

How amazing, hundreds and thousands of colours, styles, sizes, padded, jiffy, anti static, gold lined, grip seal, gusset......( really!)

And as Mike replied when I said it was a whole new world, “That’s where they all live!”

“We” ordered one day and they came the very next day. Now the Bride and Groom just have to address them all!! Ha...