Hello fellow Hitchers!
Long time no write hence why I thought to do an update - when you read, you'll understand why I haven't been around much... Hello as well to the newer hitchers i have noticed since my last post...
So - after a relatively stress-free planning for 18 months, we got to 7 weeks to go and lots of things started going wrong...
It started with the cake...It is being made by a former colleague who used to work with me about 8 years ago and who is a qualified cake maker and has done hundreds of cakes for birthdays, weddings etc... She is an older lady and has no internet at home, so when I rang her to ask her if she'd do my cake, and she agreed, she said to send her pictures of what I wanted through the post and tell her in the letter how many tiers I was looking at and what flavours. She was then suppossed to ring me with a quote. As my OH still hasn't found another job, the budget had been virtually wiped out so I didn't tell her what my cake budget was but had max £150 in mind after looking at various cake shops online and IRL. Long story short - she hasn't been in touch so i rang her again, and she confirmed she got the letter and was going to ring me to say it would be better for me to come to her house one day so we could discuss and then she could give me a price. I am waiting this weekend for her to ring me as she had the grandkids at her house for the school half-term... I really need to know how much it's gonna be!! A mutual friend said maybe she intends to do it for free for me as a favour for a friend but I doubt it! Even then she should say so as i need to know how much money I DO need!
Then the wedding rings arrived. We have identical rings and my OH's ring fit perfectly but to my horror mine was 2 sizes too small (I measured myself with a plastic ring sizer to make sure when I couldn't get the ring on!) They made me an N and I am a P! However, they asked me to send it back and not only made me a brand new ring, they also refunded my Special Delivery postage costs AND cleaned my engagement ring (which you get for free anyway if you buy the wedding rings from them)! They got so emotional when i said my humble ring wasn't worthy of the treatment because, "you see, we couldn't afford a "proper" engagement ring, so my OH bought me this little sterling silver and cubic zirconia ring..." They texted me back: "Does it mean the world to you though?" I said of course it does. "Then it does to us too" they said and offered to also rhodium-plate the ER too so that it lasts longer in a more polished condition! Aww bless, brilliant service!
Then came the Bridesmaids who got carried away with planning my surprise Hen Do forgetting my precarious financial situation (OH lost job months ago and not been able to find anything else) and with 6 weeks to go to hen do they tell me I MUST wear a dress and I need £50 on me for the actual day. Now I have lost 24 lbs (11 kg) since May and although it's quite a lot, I am not yet able to get back into my various lovely evening dresses as they are all 10-12! So cue me going on ebay and spending £30 on a new dress but I am a lot happier than with what they wanted me to wear because this really fits me nicely, is of really high quality I didn't expect for the price and is pretty:
**TMI ALERT*** Then came the painful hysteroscopy I had to have "live" - I was suffering with a lot of bleeding in between periods etc and eventually after a lot of tests and smear tests and other stuff, they referred me to hospital for a hysteroscopy (where they put a thin telescope with a camera inside your womb to look around and also take a biopsy if needed, which they did. They had to give me an injection in the cervix as they couldn't put the telescope through without 9they tried) so it wasn't the most pleasant thing and a procedure I may have to repeat even though i don't want to, because they found a polyp in the womb, very small but they said it needs to be directly biopsied and taken out as it may stop me from getting pregnant (I told them we want to try for a baby after the wedding) so now I have to wait til 29 Nov to find out the results of the biopsy.
When I thought that would be all, came the confirmation from OH's dad and stepmum that they had not changed their minds about not coming to the wedding (for the newer hitchers who don't know the story, he was coming to start with, and his wife was to be one of the witnesses but then when he realised that my OH's Nan - his mother - wasn't invited as my OH has fallen out with her and not spoken to her for 10 years, he said he could no longer come as it will look as if he's condoning the secrecy and the not inviting Nan!) - He said he will still honour his promise to pay for the reception and the wedding night in the hotel for us but despite our tears and pleading he will not come. OH is really upset as he really wanted his Dad there and he always considered his Stepmum as his Mum because neither he nor his sister have spoken to their biological mother for years. Now neither his Dad nor anyone from his side of the family are coming as "if we came and Nan found out we came when she wasn't invited, she'd be very hurt". Nan had found out about the wedding and his dad lied to her that he didn't know anything about the date of the wedding etc now she's saying she wouldn't come even if she was invited...
Cherry on the cake - the venue has now extended the Xmas Festival over our date when initially it was them who convinced us to move the date from 16 Dec which we wanted to 23rd as by then the festival would be finished and the estate closed to the public so we could have exclusive use. At least they had the grace to apologise profusely and offer a redress we couldn't refuse: an upgrade to get married and have the wedding breakfast in the House iteself rather than the more basic Courtyard venue we had booked. The new location (still on same estate but within this huge and beautiful Stately Home, one of the Treasure Houses of England) would mean a historical setting, full or beautiful art masterpieces and history and also ours will be the last ever wedding apart from the owning family's weddings to take place there as they are now stopping events in the House to protect the art Collections and the house in general. They also offerred to pay any costs we may incur as a result of changing the plans - for example we would have to give notice again as it's a different licenced room for ceremony than initially (separate building, although on same estate), and sent out postcard-style notices to guests that location is changing.
So I am absolutely exhausted and stressed and the only happy news was that when I went for my first fitting, my dress needs taking in 2 sizes!
Before - zip wouldn't even do all the way up(April 2011):
Now it's falling off even though zip is done all the way up - I know it doesn't look it in this pic:
Well, thanks for reading so far and ..."That's it, folks!" xxx
