What a day!!

What a completely fantastic day we had!! The sun shone, there was much laughter and everything went without a hitch (unless you count confusing the Charlies!!) So many people were involved and were complete stars, giving time, help and money and much, much more - far too many to thank here but I'll be scribbling thank you notes for a few days yet!

Here are some photos to be getting on with. When the official ones come through I'll add a link to them so keep checking back.

Who's coming?

As there will be guests coming from various parts of the world and periods of our lives, it might be helpful to know who is coming and when (particularly those coming from far away)

Mike and Amanda - Flying in from Hong Kong!! (and it's his birthday on the 9/10/10!) staying at Dairy Barns

Jean bebe with Catherine and the brood from Belgium - Friday to Monday - staying at Dairy Barns.

Hugh and Nell - should be in the UK anyway, over from cloggy land.

Lawny and Sally - not sure where they are staying - hopefully Dairy Barns again!

Shane and Maria - managed to get time off and coming down from the far north.

Richard Mortimer - he's coming but where he's staying and when is unknown!

Shirley and Peter - Thursday to some time in the following week. Hopefully Shirley is going to be here all week staying with.......Elaine and Vito, John and Molly, Carol and Mark - Saturday to Saturday in the Piggery and Forge.

Lucy, Jody, Joan, Fiona and Simon, Julie and Colin all coming. Lucy, Jody and Joan all in the Forge. And possibly Pat and Jim will be staying there too.

Bob and Bernie representing the Aberford contingent. With Sylvie and Brenda representing other parts of that end of the A1! Bob and Bern staying at the Saracens Head at Erpingham.

My mum and Ken, Grandma, Marian all staying over in Dereham. John, Zoe and Charlie and Lucy at Dairy Barns.

Norfolk crowd. Peter and Lesley, Jenny and Steve with George and Eleanor, Sally and Colin and Emily and Laura, Capt Winter and Marilyn, Sarah and Andy, Suzie Wells, John and Joan Hellewell, Caz (Caroline) and Caz (Roger) and Sarah, John and Scoop and a few others from the village - Diana Hood and Fabian, Mick and Pauline, Dorothy and Fred, Bill and Jan, Mike and new lady, Sue and Rob Andrews. Plus a vet if anyone falls ill - Hilary with her husband Iain. Friend Rachel and hairdresser Damien and neighbours Sam and Lee and Des and Caroline with assorted offspring. Other neighbours - Stuart and Gill, Cecil and Muriel, Victor, Jane and Edward and hopefully their boys, Janet and Tony, Norman with Bev joining us later. Think the hog roast staff will be staying too as they are friends! Penel Malby coming in joint roles of photographer and guest! And hooray for the Hardimans coming too!

John, Zoe, Charlie and Lucy - Sat night at Dairy Barns.

Hunting crowd - Anne Green, Helen and Thomas, Emily and Tony, Sandra and Hugh, Maggie and John, Paul and Anne, Fiona Black.

Gems - I guess just the one night? Staying with Ma in Aylsham.

If I have forgotten anyone, apologies. Others may be added as they confirm.

Contact details

If this blog hasn't answered any questions you need answered, please get in touch.

Gothic Cottage
Mill Lane
East Ruston
Norfolk NR12 9HS

Tel: 01692 650083
Mob: (Sue) 077 6666 5684

email: sueallen.secretarialservices@virgin.net or
dermot.allen@virgin.net

If you want to comment on a post click on the 'Links to this post' at the bottom of the post.

Welcome to the wedding blog!

Welcome (or welcome back) to the wedding blog! Less than 3 weeks to go! Three months ago when I started it, it was at silly o'clock am. Now I am updating it at more silly o'clock, this time pm. Maybe I'm not as efficient as I'd like to think I am!

So I hope you can find most of what you need to know on here about where, when, why and how and don't forget to come back for another look after the event for the photos.

We started off planning to keep the whole thing local and low key. Very low key. And it's pretty much stayed that way - hoorah! No big white frou frou dress (not even for Derm!), no mis-matched bridesmaids in pastel shades, no top tables, no wedding favours, no chocolate fountain (hm, well maybe.....), no stag do (though there's still time!), no penguin suits, NO deafening disco and nooooooo stress! Scrap that very last bit!

What there will be .....
Lots of our favourite friends and family coming together for a bit of a party to celebrate with us.
A simple ceremony in a rural converted barn in Hickling
Party in the village hall
There's a pony and trap in there somewhere (weather dependent!)

A vintage Rolls Royce, probably being polished as I type (by a friend in the village who is also the chauffer on the day!)
A photographer friend, who came along last week to look at the venues

A hog roast is provided by a local company

Lots of salads and lovely puds provided by friends and family.
Drinkies galore.
The tunes had a bit of a blip when my laptop crashed but WILL be sorted!!
The hay bales and bunting and fairy lights are stacked up ready for the creative types to get cracking on the Saturday and an artist friend has been wonderful in working on some designs.

The ethos is local and inclusive, we love it!

The date - why a Sunday?

Quite apart from the fabulous symmetry of 10/10/10, we chose it because it is a date in the one week of the year that both the holiday cottages are booked by family. That might sound like rather a prosaic reason to choose a wedding date but Derm's family is rather extensive and the fact that up to 16 of them would already have accommodation was a major factor!

Couldn't make it a Saturday as that is changeover day and they would either be arriving after 4pm on the first Saturday or leaving by 10am on the last Saturday as there are bookings either side of this week. And (ok, I know, I know, grammar pedants - get used to it!) whilst many of our friends are not conventionally employed (in fact quite a lot of them aren't employed at all!), an equal number are slaves to a wage so choosing a Sunday meant that they wouldn't have to take the day off work for us. Choosing a Sunday also meant that the registrar is way more expensive but hey ho. So now you know why we chose a Sunday. Oh, and the village hall was available then too.

(and I am rather hoping to go hunting on the Saturday ....... really couldn't swing that if the wedding was on a Saturday!! Big thanks to the hunt lady field masters for sorting a local meet!)

The ceremony venue

For those of you invited to the ceremony it will be at the wonderful Dairy Barns at Hickling. http://www.dairybarns.co.uk/ 2pm kick off with photos, bubbles and canapes afterwards.

The lovely Hannah Deane is just a joy to deal with and the venue is really suitable. It's about 15 minutes from our house (well actually it's 17 minutes but that makes me sound a bit obsessive) and probably about the same from the village hall. They also can provide bed and breakfast accommodation so definitely somewhere to consider staying if you need to find somewhere. Quite a few people staying there already - sure they will love it! Only the ceremony (and some drinkies and canapes and photos afterwards!) will be held there. Hannah only holds so many wedding each year to avoid annoying the neighbours!

The party venue

The post wedding party venue is at the glamourous and nationally famous...East Ruston village hall (with a marquee!) Actually forget the 'glamourous' and 'nationally famous' bit but it is substantial and well known in the village! So please don't expect anything special. We'll dress it up best we can but it will be on a tight budget so we'll mostly be raiding the hedgerows and fields for materials! There will be a hog roast provided by local butcher with rolls and roast spuds (we are surrounded by potato fields so there won't be a lot of cous cous!) plenty of salads and a vegetarian option. We were considering using one of our own pigs for the hog roast which would have really fitted in with the keeping it local theme but all ours this year are boars and by the time the wedding comes they will be old enough to possibly have boar taint so it's not worth the risk. We'll leave it to James to provide us a pong-free pig!

We're planning on serving up around 6pm so if you're coming to the party bit, pitch up a bit before to get a drinkie in and a seat (no seating plan, first come, first served or you'll end up on an Uncle's lap!).

Obviously there will be a bar of sorts and some tunes, courtesy of my newly acquired ipod. Just easy stuff. Possibly a toast or two though could be a bit tricky to shut all 130 of you up!

Parking will be very limited. Only a small amount of gravel parking round the village hall and then on some grass on the edge of the playing field. Let's pray for dry weather! And if you could car share/walk/taxi/cycle to reduce the traffic that would be just soooper! We're looking at ways of ferrying people about to reduce cars - will keep you posted.