Hi everyone,

Dave reminded me today that I haven't updated the blog for a while so I thought I would let you in on recent developments.

We are still waiting on the Botleigh to finalise their 2009 offering and get the new brochure and contracts in order. In the mean time, we have been looking at other venues, two more contenders have come to the fore, but the Botleigh is still the favourite.  The other venues are a golf club and a sort of stately home.  The financial saving is not huge but worth investigating and the menus look good.  So that will be a task for tomorrow evening I expect.

In other news we went to church for the first time on Sunday.  My Mum and Dad came along too and it was nice to see how another church operates.  It is all quite high church there, with the Bible being carried and lots of singing.  The vicar delivered an interesting sermon, although I have to say I didn't understand what he was on about for about the first 10 mins.  It was all very ominous when just as we started singing the first hymn there was a massive clap of Thunder and lightning.  I said to Dave "Do you think God if trying to tell us something!!"

But it was a nice service and we stayed around after to chat to a few people and Dave has volunteered to help with the public access computers they have upstairs on a Thursday evening.  They said they needed soemone with a basic knowledge of IT, I would say Dave meets the criteria!

The car I want for the day is free, so I need to book that, and other than that we are just waiting on the venue.  Hopefully I will call them tomorrow and they will have everything sorted!

In other news, invitiations to our engagement party are printing as I speak so keep an eye on your mailboxes!

Love to all

C

So for those who didn'y know already the final usher has been asked and has accepted the responibility.  Dave's friend Neil Chapman from Bristol will be taking control.  He is well experienced at weddings having acted as a best man before and preparing to be one again for another friend. Neil and Dave met when they were both at St Brendan's sixth form college and have been firm firends ever since.

So we have a complete wedding party. 

Next we need to book the reception and finalise that and then we are not going to do anything for the wedding for a couple of months.  We both have put a lot of effort in over the last few weeks and want/need a bit of a break.

Oh, one last thing, we will be having an engagement party in the summer, we will let you know the date ASAP. 

I should have updated the blog yesterday or on Thursday night but I have been out and about all over the show.  We went to All saints on Thursday night and booked our wedding.  The administrator Bev was lovely and explained all the requirements and options available (we can have a choir and bell ringers if we wish).  We have paid our deposit so the time and date are ours.  4th July 2009 at 12:30. 

We were both blown away by how pretty the church is, it has just had some major building work completed and had a really nice additional wing added on, but the church itself is very beautiful.

The banns will be read the 3 weeks before the wedding I think (Dave has the dates) and we have to attend two wedding preparation classes, one to know what happens at the wedding and to meet the other people getting married on the same day to discuss flowers etc.  The other will be a bit about what marriadge really means and some talks from different people about different experiences throughout mariage.  Both of these will be in Feb/March next year.  

We now also have to contact our parish church to advise them we are getting married in Botley and our banns have to be read there as well as at All saints. 
I now really feel like we are getting married and it is real.  Dave spent a alot of time thinkign about a church wedding and if it was what he wanted and it is, so its all good!

Breaking News - Dave called the church and they have been able to provisionally book us in for the 4th July 2009 at 12:30pm. All Saints in Botley in case you wondered.  As we are not in their parish (we are just outside) we have to attend for 6 months and then we can get married there, so Sunday mornings will be busy for a while.  I am very excited and sooooooooo pleased. 
We have to go on Thursday and fill in forms and pay a deposit and actually see inside the church!  Its looks lovely from the outside!

Hello all, I thought I would give blogging from my Blackberry a go. Hopefully this will work as well as anything else. So progress is being made, we met with the wedding co-ordinators at both the Chilworth Manor and the Botleigh grange yesterday and then went home to do a cost comparison. On going back to both venues I have to say Botleigh makes me feel more comfortable but I still like Chilworth. My main concern with Botleigh is that the hotel has recently changed hands they have not finalised details of their wedding offering so its all a bit up in the air. However we asked the lady there lots of questions and Dave has some more to ask her today, so hopefully we can come to an arrangement. The chilworth is Cheaper by quite a large sum, but its not a large sum when you take in account the amount we will be spending. I am only just having the heart attack that Dave had when we first got engaged, about how we are going to fund this event! But we seem both agreed that Botleigh is the one if we can get some clarification of a few points. Dave is also going to ring the church today, we couldn't go on Sunday as we were looking at venue's so hopefully he will get hold of the administrator today and see if it is even free on the right day. More to follow.