Diary Entry 2: Food and Drink

Once our venue was booked one of the next important things for us was to think about and plan the food and drink that we wanted on our big day. The beauty of our venue (Utopia ,Broughton Hall) is that there is total flexibility for us in deciding our food and drink.

Utopia Claire and Toms wedding venue........we are putting a marquee at the back to keep the wedding breakfast and dancing area seperate.

Having been to lots of weddings we felt that we had a good idea of what we would like for our wedding and we didn’t want to be restricted by a hotel menu that didn’t give us the options that we wanted. When we met with GFS catering we were so happy that they could be so accommodating to our ideas and we really feel that they have provided us with a great package.

We know that one of the best times at a wedding is that time after the ceremony when everyone has their first glass of bubbly and mingles freely. We also know that this is the time when guests are probably a bit peckish and so lots of canapés are a definite for us!

Conscious that it is these little extras that increase food costs we decided that it might be a good idea to remove the starter from the menu. We think that if people have enough canapés they won’t be as bothered about the starter! This also fits well with the gourmet barbeque that we have chosen for our main course. When we talked through the main course ideas with GFS we thought that the barbeque sounded amazing and we think that it is something a little bit different that will be interactive and fun for the guests.

Gourmet Yorkshire Barbeque
 Locally-Reared Peppered Sirloin Steaks, Halloumi & Roast Vegetable Kebabs (v)
 Nidderdale Lamb Koftas, 7oz Locally-Reared Steak Burgers
Variety of ‘Lishmans’ Award Winning Sausages, ‘Sykes House Farm’ Venison Burgers
Cajun Spiced Organic Salmon Fillets, Chilli Jam King Prawn Skewers
Lemon & Herb ‘Kilnsey’ Rainbow Trout Fillets, Spicy Homemade Bean Burgers (v)
Chicken and Mediterranean Vegetable Skewers

Salads
 New Potato and Chive Salad, Moroccan Spiced Couscous,
 Italian Pasta and Fresh Mozzarella Salad, Homemade Rustic Coleslaw
Tomato and Basil Salad, Oven Cooked Jacket Potatoes
Buttered Corn on the Cob, Dressed French Leaf & Herb Salad
Rocket and Parmesan Salad

Being a big dessert fan myself it was too difficult to pick one dessert but fortunately GFS are going to provide a selection of desserts and so everyone will get 3 mini desserts each!

 Assiette of Desserts
A delightful selection of our favourite desserts
 Crème Brulee, Tarte au Citron and Rich Chocolate Torte

• In the evening we are going to have lots of cakes which we are going to ask friends and relatives to bring with them

• We are also going to have cheese and biscuits on offer for those with a more savoury tooth.

• Later on GFS will be providing sausage and bacon butties which they will lay informally on rustic platters throughout the room.

As for the drinks, we are paying for a standard drinks package that comprises of 2 glasses of prosecco before the meal, half a bottle of wine at the table and a glass of prosseco for the toast. There will also be a cash bar open all day which will provide a selection of wines, beers and spirits.

We’re really happy with the food and drink we have chosen and hope that our guests will enjoy it too!

* FOOD TIP 1, as Claire says to cut down on cost instead of servicing canapes and a starter, just serve a good quantity of canapes, these can act as a starter as well.

*FOOD TIP 2 bring in your own cake/dessert table by asking your guests to contribute! Your guests will love getting involved and helping out, you could even put on a cake making competition for them

*FOOD TIP 3 when catering for an evening reception with things like bacon butties, never cater for every guest, only about 70% of your guests will eat the evening food, if that!

Photo credits:
Canepes: Focaccia Canapes,  Breakfast canapes,  Parmesan cups ,  Bacon Lettuce and Grape ,  Crab Salad

Cake Table: Yellow cake table,  Dessert Bar, vintage tables and cake plates,   White draws,  Pastle cake table

Cheese: Top left,  Top right,  Bottom left,  Bottom middle,  Bottom right

Now Emma is back, not as a nervous bride to be but a happily married women, and here is what she has to say about her very wonderful wedding day.

Grettings from the married side

Well, the big day has been and gone, and after 3 weeks of happily married life I can safely say I made it through unscathed! It feels weird that after 2 years of planning, preparation and spending my entire wages on wedding magazines, I no longer have to worry about whether the napkins will match the tablecloths. In fact, it all seems a bit of a dream now. Even on the morning of the day as I was cursing my eyeliner for not going on straight, I still felt like I was getting ready for a good night out and not the biggest day of my life. I mean, I’m not sure how I was supposed to feel really- nervous, excited, petrified, delirious… I guess I was a little of all of them. My bridesmaids  were all scurrying around me, false eyelashes being brandished and stomachs being sucked in, and I was sitting quite calmly sipping on my Bucks Fizz. Dad was cleaning the bathroom, mum was panicking over whether the bread rolls at the venue would be too big or too small and I just wanted to get there, say my vows and relax!

Needless to say, we had a couple of hiccups but if I could give two piece’s of advice to any bride to be it’s these… 1) get someone to carry a small spray on deodorant!! I was so hot in my dress, hugging people all day, traipsing around for photo’s… I needed to re-spray! And 2) Keeping on the perspiring theme… don’t sweat the small stuff as it really doesn’t matter. I had planned out my entrance down to the last swish of my dress but the photographer mistakenly sent my bridesmaids and groomsmen down the
aisle prematurely and minus music whilst I was having a pre-ceremony wee!  Poor things had to come back and do it all over again but in all honestly it broke the ice, everyone relaxed and the girls got to have their moments twice! My dad’s cravat was a different shade of red to the rest of the bridal party (no one noticed), my mother in law wore a dress the same colour as mine (I didn’t care) and some guests decided that appropriate wedding attire was jeans and a t shirt. It’s really not worth letting these
things spoil the day you have paid so much money and waited an eternity for.

Then if you’re as lucky as we were, you’ll be straight off on your honeymoon the next day where you can sit back, relax with a cocktail or three and giggle every time you refer to yourselves as husband and wife!

Thank you all for reading my diary, I hope it’s been an interesting read! Good luck with your wedding and be sure to follow my blog on
www.emmalouisewrites.blogspot.com

Stressed……it’s all in the Jaw for me

The final countdown has officially begun, two days and two sleepless nights to go until the big day! As I’m sure most bride-to-be’s would agree, the mixture of excitement, nerves, anticipation and downright fear can be completely overwhelming, causing even the most emotionally stable of women to turn in to a jibbering wreck.

I thought I was holding it together quite well, no random meltdowns in the florist, no surviving on grass to be able to squeeze in to my dress and not even one argument with my fiance! My jaw, however, tells a different story. I have been suffering with undiagnosable toothache for the last 18 months, pain down the right hand side of my jaw that never, ever lets up and is completely baffling the 8 dentists I have been to see. No one can find anything wrong, my teeth are fine, and I have taken so many different types of medication I would be arrested if I tried to leave the country.

Running the risk of becoming known in any local dentistry as the crazy,panda-eyed sobbing woman, I decided to turn to alternative therapy and booked myself up for a week of Acupuncture. Apparently, my stress levels are so high that my nervous system is at breaking point and the nerve in my face is feeling the brunt of it. Cue a horrendous massage which felt like I was being kneeded by a meat cleaver, 15 mini needles jabbed in to my cheek, ears, feet and hands and electric currents passed through my face! Not to mention the absolutely vile concoction of herbs, twigs and leaves that I have to brew up and drink twice daily…

They say stress manifests itself in many different ways and despite my protests at not feeling remotely stressed out, my sub-conscious is telling me otherwise! I shall persevere for one more day and hope that the minute I say “I do” the jaw will relax and I’ll be able to munch happily my wedding breakfast! Although I must say, the latest weather forecast for the weekend is making me smile… predictions of a surprise warm weekend for the whole of the UK!! Come on Mr Blue Sky….

That’s it for me ladies as a single woman…. At 12:30 on Sunday I’ll leave behind Miss Linder and step across in to the unfamiliar territory known as marriage… see you on the other side!!!

I’d like to take this opportunity to wish Emma the best of luck for Saturday, I’m sure she will have an amazing day! I’ve really enjoyed having her write for me and I hope you have as well.
To find out more about Emmas journey as a bride to be go to: Emmas Blog
Come back in a few weeks to hear all about how the day went……and have a sneaky peak at some of the photos.

Be brave… be Boudoir

Last year, a friend of mine introduced me to the hottest new bridal craze, the Boudoir photoshoot. If you’ve never heard of this, try and visualize a present that would get your man practically dancing down the aisle as he thinks he’s about to marry the next Cindy Crawford. It’s a photo-shoot designed to make you look your absolute best…in your absolute skimpiest.

one of the fabulous images created by www.myboudoir.co.uk to make you look and feel amazing!

I booked my shoot about 9 months ago through the amazing and award winning Nicola Grimshaw Mitchell of Bury, Lancashire and spent at least 8 of those months stressing about my bingo wings and doing bicep curls with tins of baked beans. Despite the reassuring words on the website and the unbelievable before and after photo gallery, I just couldn’t stop worrying that my rapidly growing eye bags and expanding cellulite was going to be too much for the airbrush to handle…

The night before my 9 am shoot I literally couldn’t sleep a wink. Having furtively sneaked £100 worth of new La Senza lingerie in to my car, I drove to Nicola’s in the most terrifying state of the day- minus make up. On arrival, Nicola greeted me with a huge heart warming smile and instantly made me feel like this might be something I’d be able to do. The talented Michelle Sisson took control of my hair and make up- taking note of the fact I wanted a vintage glam look, she completed the look with false eyelashes and red hot lippy.
Make up done, it was time to get in to my stockings and suspenders. Believe me, at 10am on a rainy Manchester morning, the thought of baring all seemed less appealing by the minute! Nicola helped me with those pesky back suspender clips and we were ready to go! Spending the time positioning me to eradicate double chins and directing me like a pro, Nicola had me relaxed and posing away in no time. We got through three outfit changes and I didn’t even flinch when she suggested the last few shots would be better in the nude!

I spent a couple of hours in Nicola’s cosy home and loved every minute of it. The hardest part however was yet to come… the 7 – 10 day wait to see the pics! After checking my blackberry manically for a week, the much anticipated email popped in to my inbox containing the link to my very own online gallery. I don’t think I could have logged on any quicker if a date with David Beckham depended on it. When the gallery loaded and the first picture came up, I almost had to do a double take. I honestly couldn’t believe it; it looked like me but with flawless skin, no trace of dimply thighs and hair that could star in its own shampoo advert. I am so proud of them; I emailed all my girlfriends the link immediately and revelled in their gasps of amazement.
The hard book copy arrived last week and it’s taken all my reserve not to thrust it under my fiancés nose as he sits and play’s games on his phone. But I’ll wait… it’s going to be the best wedding present he could ever hope for… and one that I can look back on in 20 years and realise how hot I was!

Check out the website www.myboudoir.co.uk and believe me, you’ll be booking yourself in and digging out your smalls before you know it!

And here are a couple of images from the shoot that Emma has been kind enough to share with us. I’m sure you will agree with me when I say she looks totally FABULOUS, these pictures are totally stunning. Emma’s soon to be Husband is in for a real treet!!

image courtesy of www.myboudoir.co.uk

image courtesy of www.myboudoir.co.uk

To find out more about Emmas journey as a bride to be go to: Emmas Blog
Come back in a couple of weeks for Emma’s last feature before her big day!

Some Brides do ‘Ave ‘Em…

You know people say that getting married is one of the most stressful things you can ever do? So far for us, there have been no arguments with the suppliers, no huge extravagances that have blown the budget and very few Bridezilla moments (everyone is allowed one or two though right?!) So up until a couple of weeks ago, my fiancé and I were starting to worry we must have done something wrong as neither of us were feeling this supposed stress. With 9 weeks to go however, the mother’s have started to prune their feathers and get ready to parade around the venue, proudly marking their individual territory as the next most important person present.

It all started with a clash of dress choice. One outfit was deemed to be too similar to the other and despite our best efforts to control the situation and point out that the majority of people will be wearing dress and jacket combinations, it escalated in to a huge bubbling mixture of pride, tears and ridiculousness. Cue lots of ego feeding to each mum, driving home the point of accessorising and reminding each one they will of course, be the person everyone is looking at (not). They are now matching each other pound for pound on cost, despite being several rungs apart on the financial ladder. My fiancé and I are the unfortunate victims of not-so-discreet questioning, being directly asked how much the other diva has spent on the outfit. In actual fact, they have both spent much more on their outfits than I have! Not sure yet if I should feel annoyed at that…

Now one of them has decided they are wearing a hat, even though it was something they both said they wouldn’t do. Of course, this drastic development in millinery acquisition has resulted in the other one demanding the dimensions, colour and style of said hat in order not to be overshadowed in the photo’s. Shoes, bags and jewellery have all come under scrutiny, corsages have been ordered exactly the same so as to avoid jealously and favouritism. Keeping up appearances has never seemed so important, it’s almost as if they are vying for prime position on a red carpet, never mind the leading lady not actually being either of them.

I’m more than aware of how proud they both are of us and know that they just want to feel their very best but it’s rapidly becoming an ugly popularity contest and I wouldn’t like to guess the winner. On the day, it remains to be seen if there will be handbags at dawn or whether they will actually leave the ego’s at home, stop comparing who’s lip gloss cost the most and realise that this is our time to shine!

Come back for more of Emma’s stories in a couple of weeks.
To read more of Emma’s wedding plans, along with her trials and tribulations leading up to her big day go to:
emmalouisewrites.blogspot.com

Chapter 1: Planning the Hen Do

For me, in less than 2 months its time for the biggest, most anticipated, (sometimes dreaded), night of a woman’s life. My hen do.
Now, please don’t get me wrong, of course I’m looking forward to it, its just I’m wondering whether the fact I’m likely to end up chaperoning a herd of lustful ladies on champagne around Dublin is a) appealing to me as at least I can post the pictures on Facebook before they do, or b) worse than a centrally positioned boil on your nose on THE big day.
After much deliberation over how to attempt a recession-proof hen do that will prove more exciting than a night in devising our own potent cocktails, I plumped for a day and night in the Emerald Isle. Cheap flights (as long as you only take hand luggage – cue arguments over who’s taking the GHD’s) and a twin bedded hotel rooms make the whole process come in for less than £60 per person. So far, so good. Now I’m left with the challenging task of dreaming up sufficient entertainment to please my wide variety of hens. From fussy eaters to man hunters, police officers to cabin crew, I’ve got my hands full!

I’d love to be the type of bride who can happily leave her ladies to arrange the L plates, cringe-worthy t-shirts and plenty of phallic shaped objects… but I just can’t. My mothers’ obsessive compulsive streak has clawed its way to the surface and I need to be in control! Being the centre of attention terrifies me somewhat, and combined with the ready made pressure that comes with being the bride on a hen do, I can feel my sanity starting to slip by the bridal wayside.
If this is my big send off in to marital bliss, kissing goodbye to those days of single-dom deserves some proper preparation and I’m going for gold when it comes to outdoing the rest. I’d evaporate in a cloud of embarrassment at a stripper, clear the room if made to go on karaoke and instantaneously gag if I had to even sniff Absinth.
So far the plans include blindfolded wheel-barrow racing, Thai food and frozen vodkas; a possible hilarious time or several emergency trips to A & E? Hmmmm.
Follow my fortnightly updates on Boho Events to see if I manage to organise the classy, organised do that I desire… or end up pictured on every social networking website slumped behind a juke box cradling a pint of Guiness…

To keep up to date with Emmas planning stories pop back to the blog every 2 weeks, or you can have a look at Emmas Blog at Emma Louise Writes