Some royals, a couple of fridges, a dress and lots of signwriting

So Bank Holiday Number Two was a very successful weekend on the Wedmin front. We crammed a heck of a lot in.

Friday was mostly spent absorbing every minute detail of the Royal wedding. Obviously it was doubly fascinating because of our collective interest in weddings at the moment, but I couldn't believe how glued to it we all were. I watched all the way from 9am til 1.30pm, then we all carried on watching the re-runs and repeats. We must have clocked up a good 12 hours of coverage.

But in between cooing & commenting over Kates frock/lovely skin/calmness/unpleasant looking tiny bridesmaid, and drawing comparisons ('that'll be you next' etc etc etc) we did tick off a few tasks.

First up, we tested our sign writing skills. An A3 blackboard I'd ordered to display the menu had arrived, complete with special blackboard pen, which gave us many minutes of fun. What is it about writing on chalkboards that's so much fun?? I am SO keeping it to play with post-wedding.

In fact, it was so joyous to play with write on, a small scrap ensued between my fiance and I over who was going to actually write it. I argued that my writing was better, and I was concerned about his copywriting skills after reading his first draft:

But his typographical/designer skills over-ruled, so while he did that, I set about making our pub sign for the bar. While in the Lakes last year, we visited the famous Honsiter Slate Mine and found the ideal piece of slate on which to write the words The Three Kings. The idea being, this would be our handmade pub sign to prop against the bar in our marquee, to recreate the pub where we first met in Clerkenwell. Altogether now ahhhh.

Next up was a sign to stand at the end of the country lane where our church and venue are, to guide our guests in the right direction. Otherwise, there's a very real danger people could end up in a random farmer's field amidst some rather disgruntled cows. So Rob found an old wooden chest, Josh painted it and I set to work with a marker pen:

Finally on the sign writing front, I made a sign to direct people to park in Bernard's front yard. And Best Girl Emma's test bunting came in useful for disguising the fact it was actually made from a wardrobe door:

In other news, before we arrived for the weekend, Mom and Rob had been on a small mission to collect some wine coolers borrowed from the electrical shop where Rob worked for many years. (as this wedding has proved, it's not what you know....)

Now, I know they are just fridges, but still, I thought they were rather exciting! How nice would it be to have a massive kitchen to house them and a wine collection big enough to require it's own refrigeration??! Still, we can enjoy that luxury for one day at least. Here's Rob, shortly after he wedged them both into the launderette: (apparently you can set them warm up reds too!! Like a wine oven!! Wonder if anyone will notice if I pinch one?)

But, far more importantly than fridges and blackboards, we attended evensong at Morville Church, to chat about the order of service with our vicar. We had noticed in the parish newsletter we had been congratulated on our marriage - three weeks early. But a local told me they are always too early with all announcements. He said, "They thanked the people who had fitted the new cattle grid in the church car park before they'd even done it." So we were in good company.

To my huge relief the Rev was anticipating our visit, and didn't say anything like "oh I thought I married you both last week?" or anything. And I noticed he had updated his Sainsbury's carrier bag filing system to a Next carrier bag (good handles). During the service he mentioned our upcoming wedding to the congregation and joked about us having trees in the church like Kate and William. Which was sweet, and also reassured us that he was on the ball with things. Phew.

After the service he sat us down for the 'vicar chat' about the importance of marriage and christianity and so forth. Then suddenly he said, "Do you actually like each other? It's ok to love each other but are you friends aswell?"

A stunned silence followed the bluntness of the question. How do you answer that? What if one of us had said, "Oh shit Rev actually, no! I can't stand this person! Cancel everthing, I'm off! See ya!"

Luckily neither of us did say that. Instead, we both giggled nervously and said yes we were best friends. (After my fiance jokingly said "well she's alright I suppose?". At least I hope he was joking.)

We then scheduled in the rehearsal, and the Rev asked about readings. We said we'd like a verse from the song of Solomon. "Woo! thats a bit racy, practically x-rated some of it!" he chortled.

I was stunned – is a vicar allowed to refer to a part of the bible as being x-rated??
I assured him we'd skip the porno bits and focus on the verse about togetherness. (and then back at home I double checked to make sure the reading didn't sound like a script for a top shelf movie. It didn't thank goodness. That could have been embarrassing for Aunty Dy to read out eh?)

Back at Mom's house, we were really touched by the behind-the-scenes work that's been keeping my stepfather Rob busy for the last few weeks. His greenhouse is full of little plants and hanging baskets that he's bringing on to decorate the outside of the house for the wedding. It's all going to look so pretty! He'd even found a lovely little flowering plant that had the pinks and greens of our invites in it - how thoughtful is that? We are so lucky to have Mom and Rob helping us out backstage to pull it all together. I'll never be able to thank them enough for all their hard work.

They even very kindly offered to chauffeur us to and from the local pub in Much Wenlock for a much needed breather from the wedding preparations. It had been a full on week at work and we were a bit tense about planning everything. So we decided to stop, but down the lists and sign writing equipment and take a moment to remember what it was all about. And then get rather drunk on Prosecco. So thanks to Rob for being a taxi service while we did that. Here we are, getting on it:

And next day, we couldn't resist a walk up to our church to picture the scene that would unfold here in just two weeks. TWO WEEKS!!!

Here's Toby admiring the view from behind our church - isn't it wonderful!

I also managed to get my dress back from Joan the poorly dress fitter. Big phew. And considering she'd been so ill, she had done an amazing job. It's now the perfect length and looks just lovely. It fits absolutely perfectly too so there's no way I can gain even half a pound before the day. Not too much pressure! Just lettuce and icecubes for me for the next couple of weeks then...

Joan made me laugh a lot as I tried my frock on too, because she's the sort of person who says exactly what she thinks - and as we chatted about the Royal Wedding and how lovely it all was, she said "Didn't Prince Andrew's daughters look a right pair of buggers! And who was that little bridesmaid at the front? She was an ugly bugger too!" I was partly tempted to invite her along on the day to give her own running commentary on how my guests looked, just for comedy value.

So there we go. Two bank holidays later and we are in the final countdown. I can't believe it's May. And I can't believe we've reached this point in proceedings. As I write there are just 10 days to go. Oh. My. Word.

I need to take lots of deep breaths and do my best to just wallow in this final bit of build up. After all, these are my last remaining days as a spinster of the parish!