The perfect wedding?

Weddings have always been big business but in my day, you choose a dress and maybe some favours for the table, invites and perhaps a colour theme; flowers and bridesmaids dresses to match. I got married to my sweetheart in 1999, I was 25 years old. From engagement to wedding there were just 8 months; I can still remember being told on my first wedding dress shopping excursion that a made-to-measure dress took at least six months and there just was not time to get it all done! I had some firm ideas about our wedding - I wanted it to be winter, I wanted twinkly candlelight, I wanted sumptuousness.

via 100 Layer Cake

The venue where we wed has now gone stratospheric in price compared to then. It was around the time when British stately homes were cottoning on to the idea of becoming a wedding venue, so we got it for a pinch of what it would cost now. Goodwood House. I wanted to get married in a place that would still be standing in 50 years time, or maybe even 100...

via 100 Layer Cake

I now browse these 'impossibly' perfect wedding blogs like the beautiful 100 Layer Cake and my mind boggles at the number of choices and decisions there are. I mentioned this to my new and lovely blog friend Rhiannon who is getting married soon. She commented that there were just so many options, it was sometimes too much to behold. I am, in a way, pleased that on our big day things were pretty straight-forward. When I look at the photos, which were before the digital age, so we only have an old-fashioned leather-bound album, there is an old charm about them! We were just so young....like this couple - and that wallpaper, may I just say, is to die for...

via 100 Layer Cake

The thing is - for all the wedding beauty on the big day, there is still a marriage that follows. I sometimes muse about these fantastical weddings that are featured; how many of them make happy marriages? I really do hope many, many do. To start from such beauty can only be a good thing. Sometimes keeping it simple works the best; the un-engineered...just a kiss and off you go...

Him. And Me. And them. Us.

My husband (Mr Lou as he has been named) and I have been together since I was 18 years old and he was 22. He and I grew up on the same street; he lived at number 4 and I lived at number 5. We have been married for over ten years now, together for eighteen. I have so few adult memories that he was not a part of. We got together the first term I spent at University. But he lived in our home town and I travelled back and forth and we did the long distance thing for a few years.

A best friend, L, who was my bridesmaid and who has known us both since our first unplanned date told me to read back on this post about our two children, a girl and a boy and their characteristics. It was to see how much it actually described my husband and I.

I wrote this without any thought - it's what struck me first when I thought him and me:

Him

Sturdy build, dependable, strong.
Smells like freshly washed cotton.
At a party, always always the last to go home.
The first to invite everyone and anyone back to our house - Mr Hospitality.
Spontaneous.
Fit, muscular, did I mention strong?
Charming, funny, sharp-witted.
Outrageous - I worry who gets seated next to him at dinner parties, as he offends!
Honest.
Full of integrity.
Fearless.
Confident.
Responsible (most of the time!).
Messy, mucky.
Sport-watcher, sport-player, all things sport.

Me

Gangly, long-limbed.
Smells like Diptique Fig perfume.
Early to bed. Bed lover.
Obsessive planner.
Dry wit.
Big on etiquette.
Erudite, intellectual, well-read.
Sentimental, nostalgic.
Tidy.
Glass is half empty.
Stalwart friend.
Deep and meaningful.
Worrier.
Shopper.
Trashy TV watcher.

I thought, surely not, I am sure it does not bear a close resemblance. Does the apple really fall that far from the tree? Have we created two new 'mini-me's'? And for us, do opposites always attract?!

1950's family frolicks...

Sunday night insomnia, Mr and Mrs and piscean indecision...

This was what met me early this morning; the view from my kitchen window as I made my cup of earl grey...the most lovely frosty sunrise.


This is the view from upstairs in my house - that's ground water laying in the field - which contributed to the insomnia I had last night while I lay wondering - if my house flooded what would I save? I got as far as (in no particular order) the Mac, my Eric Ward paintings, wedding photos, jewellery, shoes and of course husband, kids and cat...

The other contributing factor to my Sunday night insomnia was the fact that my husband and I bickered most of the weekend like an old married couple, despite our recent enforced absence (absence makes the heart grow stronger surely?). I took this picture of ducks in the rain a week ago, I love the waddle, the 'Mr and Mrs' quality of it...she goes slightly ahead, he follows after with his fancy green head feathers gleaming. Its as if if she is saying 'come on, hurry up, stick to my pace, places to go, people to see...'


Did I mention that my husband and I renewed our wedding vows in Las Vegas a couple of years back? I always wanted to go to a Vegas wedding so we had our own. It was very entertaining, along with our little congregation we danced in the aisle as the Elvis impersonator sang 'Viva Las Vegas'. And this is me (my beloved took the picture) walking back to our stretch limo afterwards. I have this thing for photos of people (or ducks) walking away...


Just while we are on Vegas...I know I have posted alot about that place lately but let's just have a Monday appreciation for Brad and George in Ocean's Eleven. YUM. Raybans never looked so good...

Anyway, I digress...back to the insomnia. It wasn't even useful insomnia, wrestling with important issues, oh no. It was the mind-full-of nothing-important indecisive kind of insomnia. Shall I get up and have some milk? Shall I stay in bed and keep trying to sleep? Will I be over-tired in the morning? Is this because I was already hungover on Sunday from too many margaritas at a dinner party on Saturday? Are the kid's bags packed for school? Mental note: must make dentist appointments. And, and, and...

So after the lovely sunrise and a cup of tea, I logged onto Blogger for my daily fix and saw the inspiring post over at The Refocused Life which reminded me i) its 1st March today, ii) its my birthday month iii) lots of nice things ahead. Oh and iv) I am piscean; two fish swimming in different directions - I am in a constant state of indecision! No wonder I couldn't sleep...