fill your wedding for free - part two

since last weeks post I have spotted another four abandoned chairs, bringing the new total needed to just 138...

but if you've read last weeks blog you will also realise that this proposal has been nixed.

table decorations on the other hand tho.....

now the areas where we agree on what we want for our wedding are very few... to my fiancé's (nearly 8 months later and I think I'm getting used to that now) annoyance, I am what is know in this modern world as 'a groom with a view', I am a husband-to-be that actually cares about my wedding, and not just from a financial perspective, but with my eye for aesthetics and a creative passion that runs through my family, I also care what our wedding looks like.

somewhere amongst the many times when she has made up her mind, only to change it again later, and often without warning, we agreed on something like a homely, shabby-chic style look for our wedding... except it won't be one of those twee shabby-chic weddings that are everywhere right now because the twee shabby-chic look is in, I don't want a wedding look that is 'in' or 'on-trend', I want a wedding that will reflect us.... and what reflects us better than her tendency to be drawn to pretty patterns and details, and my tendency to want to save as much money as possible and get creative at the same time?!?

somewhere amongst the many times when she has made up her mind, only to change it again later, and often without warning, she asked some friends and family to save their empty jars for us.... within a sub-two week period we were inundated with empty jars of differing shapes and sizes and had to ask friends and family to stop saving their jars for us...

we have paid out for the venue, the caterers, the photographer...  none of them were cheap and all of them I have agreed to because I have faith in them and I believe they will be worth it.

but in terms of my own creativity, I was down with this whole 'up-cycling' and 'repurposing' before it was even a thing... and so I spent last Saturday trying out a few different techniques and ideas on a small selection of donated jars, using leftover paints, free wallpaper samples... and my trusty mod-podge.

with 365 days until our wedding, I posted a status on facebook saying that in a years time everyone will be complementing the bride on how beautiful she looks, and complementing me on some interesting tables decorations

Her mum wanted to know what that meant (about the table decorations, obviously), but with a combination of donated jars, beads from a thrown out hanging door curtain, charity shop purchases and a Russian doll/pirate that was another street find all sitting on our dining table serving as somewhat of a dry-run, I think I should fall plenty short of the estimated (and frankly, quite slender) budget we have allowed for table displays....

fill your wedding for free - part one

Why stop at the home and garden?!?

With the average cost of UK weddings clocking in at around the 21 thousand pound mark, and with me currently lined up to have two weddings next year (an English ceremony and a Hindu ceremony, same person... don't worry) I thought it perhaps wise to apply the same principles by which I live my home life to my impending nuptials.

There are, of course, stumbling blocks.

And our most prominent stumbling block is numbers... y'know I mentioned a Hindu ceremony... yep, Indian family... by Indian wedding standards our wedding will be small, in terms of finding a freebie venue and convincing guests to each bring a dish, it was a bit of a no-go (not that I was actually brave enough to ask)

In our horribly post-modern world that is despicably tainted by celebrity culture, the ideal of the fairy tale dream wedding is rammed down your throat, leaving the bitter taste of huge over-inflated cost in your mouth as you struggle not to choke.

But keeping costs down is where it counts, if you're as financially savvy and creatively inclined as I am it is not only rewarding on the pocket, it is also a personal reward in itself as you peruse the 'accepted' versions of weddings and the inherent cost of them and realise that a) you don't really need all that stuff, and b) you can put your own personal stamp on proceedings for a fraction of the advertised costs

Obviously, there are two people in a relationship, and quite often a few more people that are looking to voice their opinions and have their own say on your wedding, so agreement is key

Currently we don't agree on chair covers

She wants them, and has rather admirably negotiated them into the cost of the caterer (Go Team Super-Scrimper!!)

I, on the other hand, agree that if we are using the venue's chairs then they will definitely need covering, however I have suggested an alternative seating arrangement.

Our front room is home to a number of abandoned chairs, previously I have visually logged a catalogue of discarded chairs, and certainly, since wedding plans have begun I have spotted a number of cast-out chairs that would be warmly welcomed by myself at the wedding

By my current count, I would only have needed to find another 142 chairs before next April to fill the required quota, but of course, this would also have meant finding storage for a rather hefty amount of chairs, and I've got barely any more room at home already for free stuff, let alone some 160 chairs!!

So I have relented on this idea (begrudgingly)... 

table decorations however...

the rebirth of Hunchbakk

in a way I suppose at least.

I offer my apologies for the barren month that has passed, but it was not without good reason.

life decided to intervene and in the time since me and my blog last conversed, I have witnessed marriages, a funeral, birthday celebrations and a holiday.


i am also adapting to a new way of life, a thoroughly 21st century way of life as this brief outing is brought to you courtesy of my new gizmo, one of those fancy little touch screen doo-dahs that a company named after a fruit seem extremely proud of, and not the smaller doo-dah, the bigger one, with more room for my girlfriend to squiggle on when she is playing 'draw something' on facebook.

But my gizmo was not bought for facebook (although i do tend to tweet from it somewhat) and it was not bought for angry birds and doodle jumps and cutting ropes and running temples and all that other rubbish.

my gizmo is a powerful (and wonderful) little machine that is capable of so much more than these frivolous endevours, and so I intend to put it to use getting creative musically, and have just spent a week away toying with Garage Band and a couple of other little musical gadgets, and how very apt that on Easter Sunday I chose to download Propellerhead's Rebirth and have since been playing around with an 808.

now I do hope these little musical experiments shall be worthy of listening to in the near future.....

interesting times indeed

it's the geeking weekend!

not that weekend's hold any real importance to me at all, i shall still have to be in work tomorrow morning for what will be my 6th day working in a row, having juggled days off around so that i can go to my girlfriend's cousin's wedding sangi dance on sunday and to a cricket match on monday

so how do we roll on a friday night?

we flick through the ikea catalogue before watching the rest of the Harry Potter film she fell asleep during on sunday, we then quickly pay a credit card bill and discuss home insurance before sticking on another Harry Potter film that she promptly falls asleep during.

leaving me to finish off reading the last couple of issues of Battle For The Cowl instead of having to watch the same film twice over

i'm not quite sure if i'll get the chance to complete a geeky trinity of Harry Potter, Batman and Doctor Who this weekend, as i've been informed that a friend is coming over for dinner and is insisting that we watch Sex and The City

so i have been given permission to hide away in the bedroom and read comics and i shall have to play ketchup after this Bank Holiday weekend's excitement, and for those that have missed it so far, there is a little web-exclusive prequel to the returning Doctor Who knocking around, which i shall stick

right

about

here



and no matter how emotional the mid-season finale or this prequel may be - i still can't help but wanna laugh out loud everytime i read that:

The Doctor will return in

Let's Kill Hitler

my list

there are a number of things in my life that i would like to do

occasionally i find it useful to make a list of the certain things that i want to achieve, and i know other people live their lives by constantly listing, i think i particularly find it fulfilling to cross through my list and slowly whittle it down to a short number og goals that have so far remained unobtainable

ok, so i know i bitch everytime NME decides to publish a list in it's magazine and that my last post was over a week ago, inching ever nearer to that two week mark, but those lazy gits actually get paid for bumping their heads together and sticking a bunch of things in numerical order, i merely try and jot down ever may be going through my mind, writing and updating in whatever free time my hectic life allows me

you've probably missed out on some real gems of blog posts that never were, simply cos i just wasn't able to get near a computer for long enough to communicate my ruminations..

which reminds me of something else i should probably add to the list..

this is what i want to do:

• actually get my Riot Music EP completed
• grow a proper beard
• find a decent modern-looking blue sofa-bed for the spare bedroom
• buy some frames and the blinds for the spare room
• remember to actually properly look at the items on the pages of the ikea catalogue that i folded over so that i wouldn't forget
• write up reviews/articles for the new EPs from Getaway and Twisted Hearts
• try and blag my way into reviewing the autumn Crystal Fighters tour
• and work on keeping Desperately Seeking Susan Boyle a little bit more frequently updated

of course there are tons more things i'll have to do, since i went to my cousins wedding last week instead of having time off for myself the upstairs floors need sweeping, but that was possibly getting far too mundane and pedantic to keep listing, oh and i should bring the wheely bins back up the drive this evening, but that would be stupid to give you each and every task and chore

i just wanted to let people know that i am still here

i am still writing (when i get the chance)

and i am still trying to get my house in order and inch slowly closer to having a complete looking (or at least updated) decor throughout

i'll refrain from using my blog as a noticeboard in the future

credit where it's due:

artwork 'Today's Youth' by DangerDog

toothpaste, cucumber, lettuce

once upon a time, the charts actually mattered to me.

it was of the utmost importance to me to know who had got to number one and what new entries there were.

now i don't know if it is just because i am getting older, or if music actually is getting worse, but i just don't care for chart placings anymore and i'm not even fond of listening to the radio, with most stations opting for depressingly un-inspired playlists that irritatingly have a very short turnaround, leaving you tiresomely bored and verging on homicidal tendencies at hearing the opening bars of even the tracks that you once loved, yet now loathe after having heard it played twelvety times a day!!!??

it all just seems so stagnant.

yet this week i can quite honestly say that i am a huge fan of the song that went straight into the top of the charts!


no, it is not the meteoric rise or shock ascension of an underground artist, i thought i might buck the trend of cooler-than-thou music blogs and profess my love of the latest single from Cheryl Cole.

Cheryl Cole - Promise This stream only


i don't mince my words when it comes to expressing opinions on music, frankly, everything Cheryl Cole has released since going solo had been hugely disappointing, of course relentless radio play meant that each single soon grew on me, but Fight For This Love, 3 Little Words and Parachute were all pretty dire, particularly taken on the merit of their lyrical content and in comparison to Girls Aloud's phenomenal track record for delivering solid nuggets of pop gold

from the first time i heard Promise This, not even knowing that it was Cheryl's latest offering, i was intrigued and quite quickly hooked into it.  to be fair, the lyrics may be a load of codswallop yet again, and i'd be quite surprised if they weren't, but the bizarre little repetition of something or other in french that kicks off the whole thing and returns in the chorus is some strange sort of genius and the up-tempo, driven track is a glimmering pop masterpiece that kicks serious arse, while every other RnB star on the planet is running after David Guetta hoping he will polish their turds and produce another bland 'dance' hybrid destined for chart success.

i certainly won't be in any kind of a rush to shell out for the new album, which has so far recieved  reviews ranging from 'mixed' to luke warm, and quite possibly tepid, even though Cheryl Cole is enough of a star to have a change of hair colour become front page news and even though she is fated to one day be my wife, i still wouldn't hang much hope on 'Messy Little Raindrops', instead i think her 2011 calender would be a much wiser investment.

bride and groom

it has been a wonderful weekend.

how much of my personal and private life bleeds into my blog is questionable in my own mind, i like to keep it almost anonymous, so that those that know i write my blog can quite clearly see the real me in my writing but to the rest of the world i could be anyone, but also giving enough little tidbits and insights to keep any voyeuers happy.

and so this post continues, with the regailing of my cousin's wedding in a converted and rather beautiful barn in Ongar.


family weddings are such life affirming times, i'm hardly close to my family so these types of gatherings are enjoyable and equally a little bit uncomfortable.

but it's always nice to hear family tell tales that you either had never heard before, or that you had forgotten or that you hear all the time but never tire of. life keeps rushing by and for an afternoon you take it all in and take a look back and be reminded that you was little once, those long forgetten times...

and then the eating and then the drinking and then the dancing.... and it seems as if i have discovered a way to not get completely drunk... it is called single measures, they just don't do it for me, and the amount i had was definetely not enough to make me feel relaxed on the dance floor (not that i'd let it stop me either)


Sunday was another glorious day, spent in summer clothes and sunglasses and with a picnic in Hyde Park with my girlfriend followed by my first ever attempt at rowing a boat as we ventured out onto the Serpentine (as the queue for row boats was considerably shorter than the queue for peddalloes).

and of course the fact that the sun was out means that i now have my traditional t-shirt suntan that will hang around for the rest of the year and i will never be able to even out no matter how hard i try and no matter how much time i spend in sleeveless shirts

so, after two days out of the real world life will inevitably carry on as normal, but what a majestic couple of days

and congratulations to my cousin and his beautiful new bride

how romantic...

for some bizzarre reason that is unknown to me (probably because i'm male) my girlfriend takes great delight in looking at diamond rings and pictures of wedding dresses, and, erm, wedding hair, so i know this post will thrill her...

because nothing says 'i love you' quite like a star wars themed wedding!



but what is most impressive about this geeky display of affection is just how spectacular the whole thing looks, it had the potential to be a real shambolic sham full of geeks and weirdos, but even when the bride is wearing a dress based on a stormtrooper uniform the whole thing is executed with class and comes across as unique, rather than freak.



quite how classy a star wars themed wedding reception that includes Las Vegas style entertainment for the guests and dancing stormtroopers can only be answered with a little bit of imagination, tho there are afew photos of that too.

but on the whole, the wedding photographs strike a beautiful balance between the weird and the wonderful and are a wonderful reminder of a union between two people that is likely to stay with you, whether you attended the wedding or not



credit where it's due, i first read about this over at great white snark

and all the photos can be viewed on the website of patdy photography