Big speakers and big hair

It all gets a bit Glastonbury in the mother-in-law's back garden. All that's missing is the beer tent.

April's a great month this year. With two four day weekends on the trot thanks to Easter and the Royal wedding, we have the luxury of spending our last weekends before the big day chilling out with our families in the countryside, and having extra bit of time to tie up loose ends and finalise details.

So last weekend we were up in Yorkshire with the Mother-In-Law-To-Be (MILTB), enjoying the sunshine, pootling around the countryside and stopping every five minutes for a beer in a proper country pub.

And we managed to get a few things ticked off that eternal list of things to do. Which somehow never seems to get any shorter.

But thankfully two big things were ticked off - hair and sound. MILTB Pauline very kindly trimmed my ends then did a dress rehearsal for the styling. Once again it was a miracle. The velcro rollers created just the right amount of oomph for my 'do' and exactly as I wanted, it looked natural and professional without being over-styled/looking like a wig. So thank goodness for Pauline, cos I would have never have been able to twiddle my cobweb-fine hair into that look all on my own. If I had, it would have probably ended up looking like I'd styled it with my feet.

And while us girls were titivating my barnet, the men folk were twiddling knobs and playing with jacks and microphones. Pauline's partner Lloyd had very kindly offered to lend us his PA system for our music. (Lucky for us, he used to be in a band many moons ago and still had all his equipment!)

You see our mate who is DJ-ing, is putting together playlists on his laptop, and using some sort of fancy mixing programme so that it sounds like he's physically slipping the record on with his own bare hands. (The magic of computers eh?) And by plugging all that into Lloyd's big speakers and box of buttons (I'm a girl I dunno what the technical names are) we can recreate a real 'disco' and properly belt out all those cheesy tunes requested by our guests. So all the fun of a 'real' DJ without the cheesy commentary, stacks of coloured lights and Oops Upside Your Head. Thank the lord.

So once again, I found myself realising just how incredibly lucky we are to have friends and family who can offer up their various services, skills and equipment.

And apologies to the residents of Haxby, York for shattering the bank holiday Monday peace and quiet when Lloyd and my Fiance blasted out the Kings of Leon as they tested the equipment. Not sure the farmer in the field next door fully appreciated what we were doing and I was mildly worried he was going to put his hoe to an altogether new use. But thankfully, the tests didn't require the playing of the entire album.

So bouncy hair with natural styling - tick.
Big speakers for a professional looking and sounding disco - tick.

This picture sums it up - Lloyd's in the foreground tinkering with his speakers and in the background you can see how the conservatory has been temporarily transformed into a hair salon!

Next weekend we are back in Shropshire for the viewing of the Royal Wedding in HD on Mom's big telly, a trip to the garden centre for some bits and bobs, a meeting with the vicar and (drum roll) the final dress fitting. I hope anyway - am mildly nervous as this was meant to happen two weeks ago, but Joan the dress-fitting lady was ill with shingles, which delayed progress. At the time of writing, Joan is much better, but still working on the frock. Yikes. However she has assured us it will be ready for Saturday. I might quietly weep if it isn't.

I will also weep if I can't get in it, I got rather carried away with chocolate eggs and hot cross buns at the weekend. Not sure poor Joan would be too chuffed if she had to sew an extra 'back fat' panel in to it after all her hard work! Looks like its lettuce and fresh air only for me this week...