Two Months To Go!

Today is exactly 2 months until Liam and I get married - 2nd July 2011, I can't wait! Although we still have sooo much to do -

• haven't even thought about flowers yet! 17/05 Booked one of Mum's colleagues, who also works in a florist shop, to make bouquets/button holes etc night before, and then decorate venue morning of wedding
• going to phone bakery tomorrow that I came across at Exeter Food Festival to see if they're free to make our wedding cupcakes (do have a back-up option if not) 03/05/11 - phoned bakery and they're free to make cakes, yey! Going to see them on Friday (06/05) to discuss in more detail 06/05 Cakes all sorted, very pleased! :)
• also need to phone hairdresser to discuss details and about her possibly her also doing my make-up (trial run of hair booked for next week - tick!)  Had hair trial (details here, although not 100% happy yet) and make-up trial booked for 28/05 so will also discuss hair again then
• going to registrars tomorrow to give notice for our marriage 03/05/11 - met with registrar, although do need to go back again 2-3 weeks before wedding to finalise ceremony details
• need to find, agree on and buy shoes for bride/bridesmaid (a big issue - I have really tricky feet to buy shoes for, and little sister and I have different opinions on heel height for bridesmaid shoes!!) 07/05 - have bought my shoes, still got to agree on some for little sister! 16/05 - mine and sister's shoes sorted...phew!
• still need to sort out male outfits - Liam's got his suit but needs shirt, tie and shoes, and ordered baby page boy outfit today but will need to check it, and get shoes 27/06 bought Liam's shirt, shoes etc last week and baby tried on his outfit yesterday so Mum's friend can turn trousers up...nothing like leaving it until the last minute!!
• meeting with caterer on Saturday but hopefully food is more or less sorted 06/05 met with caterer and discussed food, she's even going to experiment with quinoa to make quinoa salad! :)
• need to research and book a hotel to stay in for our wedding night 08/05 Mum has booked a room for us that my Grandma is paying for as our wedding gift, thank you both!
• lots of little bits like book for guest to sign, cushion to tie rings onto for baby to carry down aisle etc
• plus probably zillions of other things I've forgotten!
• ... some of which are:
• Buy wedding rings 20/06 Ordered wedding rings a few weeks ago and picked them up today, phew!
• Get my engagement & eternity rings adjusted (too big at the moment so constantly swivelling round on my finger!)  14/06 Got my rings back today, yey, I missed having them on my finger!!
• Make and send out invites (Liam in middle of doing this at moment) 09/05 - invites sent out - post here
• Choose songs & readings for ceremony, plus song for first dance - 03/05/11 - asked sister & Liam's sister, but not chosen which readings yet! 13/06 Readings chosen and we confirmed them with registrar today.
• Sort out table plan once RSVPs are back (stressful!!) - 03/05/11 - was awake at 4am worrying about this (!!) so have now provisionally planned all the tables, although will obviously have to adjust if some guests can't make the wedding 27/06 We are still waiting on a couple of RSVPs so haven't been able to do table plan yet...stress!!

EDIT 03/05/11: I thought of some more things to add to the list during the night, so I've added them to then end. I will probably keep updating this list, crossing things through as I go along, to use as a working list to help keep me vaguely on track! 

We have at least got our honeymoon booked (the weight loss challenge did not happen in the end due to lack of motivation time if you do read that post!) and we've also got the venue, photographer and DJ sorted...we got the big things done early, but loads of smaller things still to do!

As if all the above wasn't enough, today we had a dress(es) change of heart! I tried my dress on today for the first time since the middle of November, and eek, you can tell I've gained weight!! I just checked back and I was just over half a stone lighter then than I am now, and unfortunately all the extra weight seems to have settled back on my tummy :( I can, luckily, still fit into my dress but I struggle to breathe!! That's ok - healthy eating mission back on track, I can lose half a stone or so in 2 months if I focus. There are also a few adjustments I want to make to the dress, so Mum is going to phone the local dressmaker tomorrow. Can't give details at the moment unfortunately as Liam reads this blog and don't want to ruin the surprise, but I'm really happy with how I think my dress is going to turn out :)

The more costly issue is the bridesmaid dresses - turns out our daughter's flower girl dress (ivory with purple sash & other details) is a completely different "ivory" to my dress! And my little sister's dress, which is all purple but from the same range as daughter's, has never been one we were 100% happy with as it's a bit too formal/structured. It's nice, but not perfect. I did recently come across a dress I love for my sister though...

(source)

More the floaty look we were hoping for. So, new plan is to order the Coast dress; if it suits her and we all like it etc then we will send both the original dresses back and buy daughter a new dress in the right shade of ivory and accessorise it ourselves with purple sash etc. Phew, think my Mum is feeling the stress more than I am - not sure how much more her nerves can take!!!

Ok, wedding stuff over for now. Food! Looking at today's meals, you wouldn't know I was trying to lose weight!! Although, in my defence, a) I only ate twice due to getting up later/being super busy during the day, and b) I'd already bought dinner before I tried on the dress and truly realised how urgent the weight loss issue is!!

So first meal of the day, after the children miraculously gave us a nice lie-in - brunch - I ate this about 10.30am so, with all the running around to supermarket, dress trying on etc, this counted as lunch too. As it was a bank holiday, daughter had requested pancakes which worked perfectly as we were completely out of frozen fruits and bananas for smoothies/porridge (horror!! hence the need for supermarket trip!) American-style chocolate chip pancakes (recipe I followed here) topped with PB&Co Dark Chocolate Dreams and lots of maple syrup...

Mmm, so good. I had two huge pancakes, although I felt full after only one! I kept going though, sharing some of my second one with baby (who'd already had most of a pancake of his own! His little belly was solid afterwards but he doesn't seem to know when to stop - I thought babies only ate when hungry/stopped when full??) and finished it all...maybe I need to change my "must eat everything on my plate" mentality?! After this I felt a bit bloated and overly full, whoops.

Next up was a trip to Waitrose to pick up lots of fresh and frozen fruit & veggies. We waited for baby to have a nap first, so by the time we got back from the shop it was about 2.30pm, no one had had lunch and I was meant to be at my Mum's to try on my wedding dress! I decided that as I still felt full from the pancakes, I would have lunch later, but by the time we were done it was 5.30pm so I figured I could wait until dinner.

Dinner was a good one. On Saturday at the food festival, I'd eaten a Pie Minister pie which was delicious, so I kept an eye out for them at Waitrose. No luck. But then I was checking out the reduced section at the end and spotted a Pie Minister Matador Pie - beef steak, chorizo - perfect for Liam! I was just about to go off to re-hunt for the rest of the range when I spotted a reduced Heidi Pie too - result!

Liam ate his for "lunch" while I was at Mum's, and then he and the children had tuna sweetcorn pasta mayo for dinner - quick & easy! I had my Heidi Pie with some broccoli for dinner - sweet potato, goat's cheese, spinach, pastry - what's not to love?! Although at 608 calories just for the little (to me!) pie, it's a good thing I bought this before I tried on the dress!!

I love this. I'm not always a fan of pastry, but this one is great. I also love the texture of the sweet potatoes, and adore the strong goat's cheese flavour...

when I came across a big chunk of goat's cheese I couldn't resist taking a (badly lit) photo!

Mmmm, so good. It was delicious at the food festival, but even better at home - fresh out of the oven, on a plate instead of in a cardboard box (!) and with some green veg on the side, delish. Plus, despite the (to my eyes) small size of the pie, this was super filling so has kept me going all evening. I'll have to remember that tasty, slightly higher calorie food, is usually a better bet than bland, low calorie food. Hopefully for the next 2 months (and beyond!) I can discover lots of equally tasty foods that are a little lower in calories though...a happy medium!

I also need to start exercising again - remind me/tweet me/give me an occasional kick up the bum please? I have gym membership so it seems silly not to make use of it. The membership also includes use of the local pool. I used to go semi-regularly in the evenings, once the children were in bed, but got put off by having to walk home with wet hair in the cold & dark. Now the evenings are lighter again, I must re-start this...exercise that I enjoy is rare so I should really stick with it!!