Sail away with me...

A while back James talked about how we have some things that we just pass on to Future Catherine and Future James (first mentioned in this post in February!). It turns out now is when we become those future versions of ourselves...


We've talked and talked and talked about where we wanted to go for our honeymoon. To be honest, we have kind of been putting it off as it is such a big decision and big old chunk of cash to be paying out. But we finally did it! We booked the time off work, and have even paid for the drinks package!


We are heading to Orlando, Florida for a few days and then jumping on to one of these beauties!

Yes we are going on a Caribbean Cruise (SQWEEEEEEE!). The excitement is actually killing me! Days lounging by the pool, waking up somewhere different everyday, getting dressed up for fancy dinners and chilling out at the outdoor movie nights, it is the holiday dreams are made of!


As you all know, our wedding is on the 9^th of October but we have decided to wait a few weeks after weddign to head off for two reasons

1. October is Hurricane season and there are absolutely no cruises anywhere we wanted to go around that time.
   
2. And we want a bit of time to chill out in married bliss, so many people have told us of the anticlimax after a wedding and honeymoon, that everything is done and you have a bit of a lull. At least this way we can chill out and start focusing on the honeymoon adventure!
   

On the Cruise we leave from Port Canaveral and stop off in places like Cozumel in Mexico and Nassau in the Bahamas! How exciting!




Now we need your help! Have you been to any of these places? Are your an internet tour guide? We want to know what we should do at Cozumel and Nassau! We are definitely considering the Mayan Temple tour but we are open to ideas. In Nassau we'd love to swim with Dolphins, but are you better going to the Water park resort or the blue lagoon to swim with them?



You can comment below, email us on howgeeksgetmarried@gmail.com or grab us on twitter on @Cittiecait or @Jamesdoon85

In other news - Some Lovely People have nominated us for a Cosmo Blog Award for Best Wedding Blog, and it would be amazing if you'd like to nominate us too!
Just click on the image below and fill out the form selecting us for Best Wedding Blog.

Imagine That...

This weekend Catherine introduced me for the first time to one of her bridesmaids the wonderful Cathy Campbell. To be honest it had got to the point where I started to believe that Cathy was a figment of Catherine’s imagination, her imaginary friend.

Thinking about it, it does seem quite strange that I have never met her ‘soon to be’ bridesmaid, but when I thought it out it was completely natural. Catherine’ other two ladies currently reside in England and Cathy is a Paediatric Registrar in Craigavon while living in Belfast. Working the crazy hours of a doctor and living in the city that I do not frequently travel it seems unless we made the effort to go out of our way we wouldn’t be meeting until the day of the wedding.

Catherine and Cathy have an arrangement that even with their conflicting schedules and busy lives they meet up at least once a month for diner or coffee for a good catch up. Catherine has said to me many times that “if we (Cathy and her) didn’t see each other for 10 years, we would meet up and it would be exactly like they had met every day, nothing would be different.”

Catherine had set the date for us all to meet weeks ago and since then it has been wild teasing. I have been jokingly informed that “if Cathy doesn’t approve the whole things off”. We met up for diner in Omagh, I can confirm that Cathy Campbell is not Catherines imaginary friend, she is in fact real!!!

We all had a lovely evening and the time flew past; there were a lot of stories and catching up. A lot of wedding plans discussed and secret plans shared. A good laugh was had by all. The main thing to come out of the evening was that Cathy does approve and the wedding goes ahead as planned.

The "F" Word

So there is a word that has become more used since James and I got engaged, and I am just not all that comfortable with it. Every time I hear it, I just get a bit, I don't know, awkward and think there has to be a better way to getting the message across.

 That word is…

 Fiancé 


or is it Fiancee - who is whom in these titles, it completely confuses me!
It may be because I was absolutely terrible at French in school (sorry Mrs Cassidy). I just do not like the word. I predominately refer to James as either "my James", "the fella" or "the other half".

James on the other hand has numerous names for me depending on who he is speaking to (all of them lovely of course!). At work, I believe, I am referred to as "the wife" or "the hen". I am fine with all these titles but fiancé just doesn't work.

 James and I talked about this the other night and released we both feel the same abut it. I reckon it's because a Fiancé is a title you will only keep for a small amount of time, you can be boyfriend/girlfriend or husband/wife for ever, but you will only be a Fiancé for the time between these titles (or in the case of Rory McIrloy and Caroline Wozniacki until the wedding invites go out :s).

 I find it very difficult to call James my fiancé/fiancee to other people as it can feel like I am showing off that someone loves me enough to put a ring on it… but I guess thats what it is.

 Anyway I will either have to get used to it or just wait out the next 140 days (oh my!) until I can officially call him my husband!

Making a house our home...

As you know from Catherine’s last post, we had an amazing time at our photo shoot with Jonathan Ryder Photography at the Titanic Dock andPump House. It was slightly awkward to begin with but all credit to Jonathan he was able to get some great pictures of us.

With the big day looming (under 5 months to go) we decided that there was no better time to redecorate the house (the living room anyway). It goes hand in hand when there is a wedding that the happy couple begin to receive visitors quite regularly.

Simply by rearranging some furniture and getting rid of an armchair that didn’t match the room we created more space, next step was to create focal wall. This wall would consist mainly of engagement presents and a few other nik naks.

Using the Jonathan Ryder photos we were able to fill out a photo album and also fill up some picture frames.

We moved our TV to the other side of the room and wall mounted it. We added a couple of bookcases so we could display as much as possible. Lastly we got a fantastic wall sticker to bring the whole feature wall together.

 



Experiencing it like it was the first time...

So it is finally time! I am so excited to share the video I've made of the amazing photos from the shoot we won with Jonathan Ryder photography!
I may have gotten a little misty eyed when James got down on one knee… He may have gotten a little misty eyed when he was allowed to put on his Doctor Who Scarf (which he made himself!)

Thanks again to the Northern Ireland Science Park and the Titanic Dock and Pump house for letting us shoot there!

An old Dog...

So we did it. We passed. Catherine and I took part in our pre marriage course on Saturday past. What can I say about it...

I mentioned in my last post about my apprehension about the course and that I would find it difficult to not hold myself back from speaking my mind. I did indeed find it very difficult. But thankfully Catherine and I have the ability to do almost telepathic conversations between us. Mostly they went like.

James mind : “ Did you hear what they just said!!!”

Catherines mind: “Yes... i know”

James mind: “I have to say something”

Catherines mind: “Bite your tongue it’s almost time for the break”

To be completely honest I do understand the need for the course in some circumstances. But if you really truly needed it, you shouldn’t be getting married in the first place. They did cover a lot of material, and they were very open and honest about their own experiences and feelings. As part of the course you have a book to fill in about personal feeling and thoughts about the future. Mostly I had fun with these comparing how we matched our answers for all the exercises. In a way it seemed the exercises were designed to cause conflict between couples. This naturally had no effect on us.

At the end of the course I came away with a few conclusions:

Firstly it would have been more beneficial to the course to have had a married male perspective; the opinions of 2 married women became a little one-sided, bordering on sexist.

Secondly the course may be designed in such a way that you never want to do it again – so stay married forever or live in fear of doing the course again.

Lastly, the stage Catherine and I are at in our relationship there was nothing new to us. I would see the benefit for such a course of a very young immature couple that need to be shocked out of married life. But from what I could tell looking around at all the couples there it was like teaching your granny how to suck eggs.

The best piece of advice I got from the day was from Catherine,

“Go in with a positive attitude, and if you come away with one positive thing it will all be worthwhile.”

I did come away with one positive thing, but I had it before I went in... My wonderful fiancé.

Coming soon...

Going to keep this one short! We've mentioned this a few times, but we've just heard that we will soon be able to share our wonderful photoshoot soon! To keep you in the loop check out some of the pictures I took from the day itself! I reckon James could be looking at a new career!

^{Powered by Taggled}

Thanks so much to the Northern Ireland Science Park and the Titanic Dock and Pumphouse for allowing us to shoot at this amazing location! Did you know you can even have your wedding reception here??
I really can't wait to share the pictures! Jonathan was an absolute dream to work with! Check out some of his amazing work over on his site!

On par of the course...

The past few weeks I have found that we have put wedding planning stuff on hold. Not by choice but between business trips and personal trips away we have had very little time to spend concentrating on getting things booked or bought. We do not rush into any decision and if we don’t have the time to consider all the outcomes the decision is put off until such times as we have.

 

 

This weekend sees Catherine and I attending our mandatory wedding course, this course is a requirement for any couple looking to get married in the Catholic Church. We are attending the course in Omagh, not far from home at all, we pretty much go to Omagh every weekend. Oddly enough I would be quite apprehensive about the whole thing. Catherine says she is not worried about it at all, only worried about me.

Allow me to explain. I am very argumentative (Note from Catherine: He isn't argumentative – he is just assertive in his view, and always gives others a chance to share their views.). There is nothing that gets me more agitated than somebody telling me how to do something or that I’m not doing something right. Especially if I believe I am right. Normally I would voice my opinion, that is why I am not looking forward to biting my tongue for 8 hours (another note from Catherine – He has got himself tangled in a knot for this, it won't be as bad as he thinks!).

Hopefully this wedding course will get us back into insane planning wedding mode. You never know I might learn something new or get kicked out of the course, we will see. I will write a post about my experience next week.

Bride on a Budget

So every bride will be on some sort of budget external to the big day itself. All your money seems to go towards the small bits a pieces to get things done, whether that be table centres or a 100 piece brass band walking you through your home town (just kidding... or am I...)


I love to do a bit of online shopping, especially if its just for me, I love my wee treats coming through the post. I occasionally (perhaps all the time) ask if there are any parcels for me before I even ask James how his day has been (I really do come off badly in these blogs don't I?). I love sites like Everything 5 pounds, because who doesn't love a bargain? I have got some of the most amazing shoes from there (I have a problem with my shoe collection – every step on our stairs have a pair on them and there are some in the cupboard too :s). I have also got some gorgeous clothing items there that I wear all the time. 9 times out of ten they are end of season items that brands are trying to get rid of. I got a gorgeous denim floaty skirt for £5 that still had its £35 New Look tag on it!!!


But this has had to slow down in the build up to the wedding. The majority of post that does arrive is bits and pieces for the big day. But with the change in weather and the fact that my workwear wardrobe contains items that should really be used for painting, I decided it was time to sort it out!


I set myself a budget of £100 to get as many pieces as possible! I also spotted someone talking on twitter about some of the fab items on sale on the Tesco's F&F site. I am also a massive New Look fan and decided to grab a few piece from there too!

F&F:


F&F True Dark Wash Plus Size Jeggings
F&F Checked Zip Top

F&F Jacquard Geometric Print Skater Dress

F&F Floral Print Scarf Tunic
I also got some new underwear to wear underneath it all, I think you should do a clear out of your underwear drawer on a regular basis, your underwear is the foundations of your outfit, and you dont want saggy foundations do you?


F&F Total: £57.00 (I also got £10 discount for my first purchase there so ended up being £47.00)


New Look


Purple and turquioise colour block cut out peep toe heels
Wide fit tan strappy open toe cork heels
Blue bow alice band
Black contrast snakeskin panel phone case


I'm not massively into accessories and find it hard to find a purse that I love. I am very lucky that James's mum knows my taste better than I do and got me a gorgeous one last Christmas that I have been using since, but I have a habit of keeping all my receipts and then it ends up being more bulging storage container rather than a purse. I grabbed the phone case from new look on a whim/because I didn’t want to have to pay postage and was £3 off free p&p. I absolutely love it! Its actually more purse than phone case but its a wee beaut!! Unfortunately its totally sold out, but really hope it comes back in stock as i'd love to get it as a gift for family!


New Look Total:
£45.97


New work wardrobe total: £92.97!!!




I have to admit I am so chuffed with my buys, and I might even do a haul video to show it all off!