Give a man a job – Table seating plan SORTED!

One of the reasons Lucy and Mark wanted to send out the invitations so well in advance of the day was to have an early RSVP to give plenty of time for the table planning malarkey!  Many couples they know have said that this has been one of the most stressful parts to the wedding planning. So with some trepidation last weekend, the subject of table seating planning came up.

Being MOTB , and relishing in this type of task,  I organised two sheets of A3 paper ( one spare in case of emergencies) and then typed out all guests names , printed off and cut them up – so we had approximately 90 pieces of paper with everyone’s names on. We had a slight panic when Andrew E disappeared off the kitchen table. Andrew was nowhere to be seen. I reassured the Bride and Groom that he couldn’t have gone far, as I knew I had cut him up earlier.

Anyhow Mark took charge and armed with pencils, ruler, blu-tak and a tin of spaghetti hoops ( well they are round table at Close House!) he made a start. He pretty much insisted at sitting on the top table, so Lucy agreed! They were joking...I think.

After half an hour, Lucy and I had to go out to our regular Sunday aquafit class – so we left Mark with the pile of names, still no Andrew E and instructions not to blu- tak anyone until “we”  I mean Lucy (!!) was back to check it over. So as we splashed and bobbed in the pool – Mark took on the challenge.

We returned an hour later, and he’d finished! We were most relieved to discover that Andrew E had been found - he had got stuck under his girlfriend, one of the bridesmaids the lovely Sarah – so all was well.

“We” had to admit that Mark had got it pretty much perfect. A very neat table plan lay before us. Mark hadn’t even needed the spare sheet of paper!

Once again, I found that looking at all the names of people coming to the day time does makes me smile in anticipation. 

Tiara for Princess Lucy

Lucy’s Chief Bridesmaid, the lovely Rachel now signs all her texts and messages as “Rachel, Chief Bridesmaid to Princess Lucy”. 

And my Lucy Sarah is a Princess...her wedding dress (obviously the design is a closely guarded secret) is a real princess dress. So to accessorise for that is easy, you have to go Royal!

Lucy asked my Mum and I to accompany her to view some tiaras in Debenhams. Got to love the 30% off days....

Lucy is a natural with sparkly headwear of course, and tried on quite a few – all of which were truly beautiful. And she was equally delighted when she just knew that the one she tried on first – absolutely was the one. So “we” bought it!

How lucky am I to have Princess Lucy as my daughter, and my best friend.

“Very lucky indeed” she tells me.

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!