We Apologise For The Break In Transmission

It’s been a while since our last post, the main reason for this, there hasn’t been any wedding news. However it is now time for an update.

Firstly, last Sunday we stopped at Boarhunt Flowermill on our way back from a lovely holiday on Devon. Boarhunt Flowermill is a shop that specialises in silk flowers of all types and was where Julie purchased her main part of her bouquet earlier this year. On this particular visit we were able to find a button hole to finish of my own ensemble.

Secondly, and more importantly, last Tuesday Julie collected her wedding dress. We had a call at then end of our week away to say that the dress was in, what a perfect ending to what had already been a wonderful holiday.

Times; They Are a Changing

A short while ago I received a bombshell of a phone call from P&O’s Weddings at Sea Department, this took the form of a phone call telling me that the cruise our wedding was booked on had been cancelled! I received the unwelcome news in the morning while at work and the rest of that day is a bit of a haze. The first thing I needed to do was break the bad news to Julie, who was also at work. We talked about it and spent the rest of the afternoon and the evening (Julie was working late) discussing it either over the phone or by text. Eventually by the next morning we had come up with a new plan and phoned P&O back to make a new booking.

We will still be getting married on the MV Arcadia but on the cruise that was to sail before ours. This means a completely new set of destinations and even a different duration. We sail from the 19th June to the 4th July (15 nights) and travel to Belgium and The Netherlands before our wedding on the 22nd June, then continuing on to Norway and Iceland for our honeymoon. We are even happier with this cruise than the one we originally booked (the only reason we hadn’t booked this one in the first place was that felt we couldn’t afford it but the kind people at Weddings at Sea offered to honour our original booking price). We are both very excited about seeing Iceland and the chance to see the midnight sun.

Suits You

Further development on my wedding suit. We discovered how much it would cost to hire an Edward suit for two weeks, it wasn’t cheap and of course it was even more expensive to have one made. So, in a drastic rethink, I have decided to wear a lounge suit instead, and picked a very nice one up in M&S last weekend. So I now have my outfit for the wedding. Hurrah!!

Things Are Happening Again

We are both still celebrating the booking of our wedding cruise, but wanted to take the time to post details of our progress since Wednesday.

Our wedding is now no longer in its 14 day courtesy holding period and now as far as the wedding on the ship goes, we have nothing more to do until around March next year. However, that doesn’t mean there still aren’t things for us to do in the interim.

Firstly, and maybe a little early, we have started looking at the excursion for the cruise. Given the number of ports that we’ll be visiting and how many excursions there are at some of those ports, the list forms a book in its own right.

The next thing we have on the cards is for this Monday, we will be visiting the first of our possible venues for the reception party.

Meanwhile, don’t forget, Julie starts her wedding dress hunt in just over 2 week’s time.

It’s Booked!

A very pleased Scott and Julie here. We are happy to announce that we have completed the first stage of booking our wedding. Our cruise is booked and the deposit paid and our wedding date has been reserved. We simply have to wait for P&O to call us back in a couple of days time to collect our wedding deposit.

So, now for the details... Our wedding day will be the 7th July 2010 at 2 pm local time (1 pm here in Britain), we will be setting sail from Southampton on board the Arcadia on the 4th July 2010 and heading off to the Baltic for two weeks.

We are currently very excited, and can’t stop smiling. When we have calmed down, and know more, we will post further details.

The Wait Is Almost Over

We’ve been a bit quiet with the posts lately, and the main reason for that is that there hasn’t been any news for a couple of weeks. We’ve done everything we can until booking day. Well, booking day is tomorrow so our waiting is nearly done. We have mixed emotions of excitement and apprehension. Words cannot describe how crushed we would feel if it turns out that we cannot book our dream wedding. So please, wish us luck.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

Let me start by recapping where we were one week ago. Our wish was to get married onboard the Oceana, the very ship we got engaged on, a ship of special meaning to us. Our hope for a destination was northern Europe (neither of us cope well in the heat so the Mediterranean during the summer wasn’t an option) and ideally Norway, but with backup choices of the Baltic, the southern side of the Channel and North Sea (Germany, Holland and Belgium) or even a rather appealing cruise that stopped at Falmouth, Dublin and France. We had gleaned all these itineraries from the last three years worth of cruise brochures and were hopeful that between that little lot we would have about 10 shots at our dream wedding cruise.

We were wrong... Yesterday we went from the elation of finally seeing the 2010 itineraries to the low feeling of the carpet being pulled out from under us when we discovered that the Oceana will be spending that summer entirely in the Mediterranean! Crestfallen would put it mildly. However, there was one glimmer of hope, we had already picked out a backup choice of cruise ship, the Arcadia (I’ve already been on the Arcadia once before and personally think she is a fine ship). Looking at her itineraries, there wasn’t much choice and we are pretty much limited to one option but being a 14 night cruise (we’ll have to pull our belts in for a bit) there is more of a chance of getting our wedding. We’ve been doing a lot of hurried phoning around and do have a plan of action that we are very happy with. Not wanting to jinx things I am not going to say the date of the cruise just yet, or even the destination. You’ll have to wait until the 22nd April to find out, then we should know if we can have our cruise wedding or not and we will most certainly be posting to hopefully give you all the good news.

Two Steps Nearer

Finally, P&O have release the date that they will start taking bookings for next year. We now know that on the 22nd April we will be able to try and book our wedding cruise. So, we will be taking the day off of work; to sit by the phone and attempt to reach P&O's Weddings at Sea department at 8:55. Please keep everything crossed and hope for the best for us, we need all the good luck we can get.

Now we are waiting for the itineraries to be published, so that we can draw up our short list of cruises that we would like to get married on.

Stay tuned for more news soon.

On The Other Foot

Ok, I couldn’t resist staying with the shoe pun titles. Julie wasn’t the only one to make a wedding purchase while we were on holiday. The day before Julie found her wedding shoes in Winchester, I found my wedding shoes in Hedge End. Ok, I’m a bloke so what can I say about my new shoes, well they are black and they are shinny, enough said. However, one thing I will add is my surprise at Marks & Spencer’s measurements, I’m a size 9 sometimes a 9 ½, so I was a little put out when I found my best fit was size 8! Has anyone else noticed that I’m shrinking?

On a different note, with regards getting our wedding booked, we are still waiting for P&O to pull their finger out. It seems they are more interested in their new super liner the Azura to be doing a little thing like releasing booking dates and itineraries for their other ships. So we continue to wait.

If The Shoe Fits

Well, in reference to my earlier post, I said I was leaving all wedding stuff alone whilst on holiday, unless any footwear caught my attention while passing a shoe shop. Well, my attention was caught.

I was wandering with Scott up Winchester high street and we happened to be passing a Clarkes, so we popped in on the off chance and there they were, sitting on the shelf calling out to me. They were the perfect pair of satin cream sandals, they were just right in every way. Then a further miracle occurred, they had them in my size and they fitted like a glove. On top of all that, they were well within budget range too. So that is now one more thing to cross off of the to do list.

Bad Timing

A non wedding post today.

Julie has already mentioned that we are off on our hols on Monday, and very much looking forward to it we are too. Err, did I sound a bit like Yoda there? So, we are all set, as packed as much as we can be this far in advance, all destinations plotted on the sat nav... and then bang, my sat nav (which is also my phone) decides to die on Friday afternoon! I tried ordering a replacement, the website said it would come today but alas they sent it via the wrong service and we can expect it to arrive on Monday. Quite simply, if it doesn’t arrive at 8 in the morning, I won’t have time to set it up before we go away. So it’s back to the old fashioned method of map reading for us this week, it is times like this I am glad that I am cautious and had already printed out directions for each of our destinations. So, wish us luck as we try to find our way around the rural parts of Hampshire. See you on the flip side.

Wedding Fair

It has continued to be a quiet week for the wedding, with little more than a week until we hopefully find out what date P&O start taking bookings for 2010, it very much feels like the calm before the storm (I’m sure you all know that eerie quiet and calmness that you feel inside when you are waiting for something important).

In the meantime, we have one event to keep us occupied and that is a wedding fair at the Avisford Park Hotel (those of you reading this should know it) this coming Sunday. Obviously there are plenty of things that we don’t need to worry about looking at (given our chosen wedding venue), but with 40 stalls there should be a few odds and ends of interest, most importantly the things we need to make our reception party a memorable event.

Taking a Small Break

It’s been quiet this week on the search for wedding stuff, however it’s been both busy and a bit stressful at work so felt I could not really cope with any more on my plate this week. I’m finding this wedding stuff a bit stressful at times too, I expect I am no different from most other brides to be. Thankfully I have Scott to help relax and reassure me that everything will turn out alright in the end (I’d be lost without him he is my rock), just wish P&O would hurry up with their release of dates etc.

On a brighter note it won’t be long until our holiday and our Rural Retreats cottage getaway. The only wedding stuff I intend to do is looking for a pair of shoes and that will only be if I am passing any decent shoe shops. I have decided it’s best to have the shoes before I try on any wedding dresses (I aim to try and make an appointment in May for that) this may seem early to some but the dresses I have my eyes on are in a collection that changes in July and they don’t stock back dated catalogue dresses, so don’t want to miss out.

Magazines and Fashion

As Julie has mentioned, I’ve been looking through the wedding magazines too. This is for the most part an attempt to get some ideas for some of the finer details of the wedding, and also to give me a better understanding of what we need to do in preparation for the wedding. I say attempt, I’ve found that the magazines are very much targeted at the bride and have very little content for the groom. I’m sure they are missing a trick; there must be plenty of grooms that would like help and advice about their big day.

Fortunately, the one thing I no longer need help with is my suit. As I’ve said before, I’ve settled on an Edward jacket. I’ve now chosen the colour and material (to be revealed) but most importantly I’ve found my tailor for supplying the suit, and that is Andrew McDowall in Chichester (I didn’t like the suits in the shop next to my office). I’m very pleased with finding this tailor, they have the exact style I want for the wedding day and they were very friendly and courteous, nothing was too much trouble for them, despite my only going in on a simple fact finding mission.

A little at a time, the pieces of our wedding are starting to fall in to place.

Wedding Ideas, The Search Continues

My flat is now beginning to look a bit like a newsagents, with countless numbers of wedding magazines lying around the place. We have been scouring the magazines (yes even Scott, never thought I’d see the day) for ideas on all the odds and ends that won’t be arranged by P&O, such as dresses, flowers, etc. Talking of the flowers, I’m considering taking the silk path, this seems to us to make the most sense, neither of us like the idea of having to care for a bouquet of fresh flowers in our cabin for over a day, not to mention getting them safely on board with all our other luggage to carry.

A Step Nearer

There have been some developments at P&O... On Sunday Julie spotted that P&O have set up a new Weddings at Sea website and have also published a new weddings brochure. Needless to say we have been pouring over the brochure to get any new information we can.

Next add the discovery that around the 16th March, P&O should be announcing the dates in April that they’ll start taking bookings for 2010; we are bouncing up and down with excitement! It finally feels like things are happening and our wedding is getting nearer.

The Waiting Game

The two questions we get asked most often are: “when’s the wedding?” and “any news on the wedding?”

One friend who shall remain anonymous, you know how you are, advises that we get a couple of badges printed with the date of the wedding and the location of the honeymoon on it, and then we should wear the badges all the time. I like the sentiment, but we don’t know when the wedding is yet. Therein lays our problem...

When we tell people that we don’t yet know when our wedding is going to be other than we hope 2010, we quite often get funny looks. The thing is we are playing a waiting game; in fact we are on the first of several waiting games that we must play.

P&O Cruises, the cruise line that owns the ship we wish to get married on, do not publish the summer 2010 cruise itineraries until some unspecified date during the last two weeks of March. So, first we must wait until the second half of March and then start scouring the cruise blogs for news on the itinerary release. However, we still will not be able to book. P&O will not start taking bookings on the summer 2010 cruises until late April, the exact date will be announced when the itineraries are released. So we will have approximately a month to choose which cruise we want for our wedding and pick a couple of backup choices as well. Then it will be action stations for us, we will call P&O’s Weddings at Sea department as soon as their lines open on the day that we can book, they will make a reservation for us and ask us to fill out a form and get back to them within 14 days (we will be sending it next day delivery on the date we make our reservation). Then we’ll have to wait again, this time we’ll be waiting to find out if we have managed to get the wedding we want. This is where I ask all of you to please keep everything crossed for us, as it will be devastating for both of us if we are told that all our choices have gone to other couples.

The reason for this uncertainty, for why it might not go our way... There just aren’t that many weddings that they can perform onboard our chosen ship going to our chosen location. We have possibly limited ourselves quite a lot by choosing the MV Oceana and a destination of Norway, she only goes there about 3 times in the summer, each time for just a week. With weddings only being performed on sea days, but not the last day of the cruise and only 2 weddings a day, that means we have only 6 possible chances at our dream wedding.

Unfortunately, for now, there is nothing we can do but wait, and hope.

Wedding Clothes

So, my first proper post on my blog (I’m not counting the welcome message), and I’m afraid it is going to be about clothes! You may wish to skip this post.

While we fill time, waiting until we can actually book our wedding (more on that in a later post), we have been individually trying to find out what we can and choose what we will be wearing for our wedding. Poor Julie has the worst job, so many different styles of wedding dresses and she can’t show them to me for my opinion. My job is a little easier, just…

So, I’m going to wear a suit. That seems straight forward, and before we had decided on a cruise wedding, I had pretty much decided on the traditional morning tails. All I needed to know was Julie’s choice of colour scheme for my waistcoat and cravat. The wedding cruise kind of put a new light on things, traditional morning tails just wouldn’t look right for wandering around a ship. I would look more than a little out of place. So, the research starts, what other kind of suits are there, what kind of coats or jackets will look right? I can tell you, I now know more about wedding suits and jackets than I thought possible. However, I eventually, with Julie’s help, have finally settled on an Edward jacket.

It doesn’t end there. What, you thought it would? I had hoped to buy my suit rather than hire it (price permitting of course) but nowhere sells them, hire only. Which is a shame, I had hoped to wear the same suit for our party after we get back. But with hire periods of 10 days, I’m pretty much going to be picking up the suit the day before we set off and returning it as soon as we get back… I don’t want to think about what we’ll have to do if we can only get a cruise that’s longer than a week!

What is good news, my office is two doors down from a wedding hire shop! As soon as the weather improves I’ll be popping in to make my enquiries with them. It’ll certainly make collection of the suit easy for me.

Welcome to Scott & Julie’s Wedding Blog

Welcome to our wedding blog.

We’ll be posting pretty much anything we can think of to do with our wedding, be it news about our big day, thoughts about the preparation for the event, or just plain simple quirky observations about what is involved.