We did it!

We did it!

As of around 2.40pm on 9th August 2008, we are officially Mr and Mrs Banks.

We'll write more about the wedding here separately, once we've collected all of the photos. Suffice to say it was a memorable, beautiful day and we're really grateful to everyone who came.

For now, we thought you'd like to see some photos from our honeymoon in Malaysia.

We had a wonderful time, and were made to feel like royalty every step of the way.

It's been a while...

Just when you thought we'd forgotten about our poor old Wedlog...

I didn't realise we haven't posted a single thing since January 2007. Shocking. And yet it only seems like a few months ago that I wrote that last piece about booking our wedding venue and looking for a flat. Anyway, a lot has happened since then. I'll pick up where we left off.

We found a flat! Feels like old news now, of course, because it is. We bought a flat in Brockley, South East London in May 2007. It's a gorgeous place and we're really happy there. For the last few months it was wrapped in scaffolding while the wise people of Lewisham stuck a new roof on it and put in some new windows. But now that's all done, the sun has come out and it really feels like home.

Enough of that, though...on to the wedding. There are 24 days to go, if my calculations are correct, and I'm a pretty mixed bag of emotions. Generally, I'm pretty calm and excited about the whole affair - it's been a long time in the making so I've gotten used to the idea. I'm looking forward to it; it's looking like a beautiful day. At moments, though, the actual significance of it all dawns on me and I become a bit of a wreck. Hopefully, come the day, you'll catch me feeling somewhere in the middle: nervous, but ecstatic.

Preparation-wise, everything is pretty much sorted. We've been able to call on favours from all over the place, which has made me realise what an amazing and talented bunch of friends and family we have. I won't ruin any of the detail for those of you who are coming, suffice to say we hope you'll find the day feels relaxed, summery and informal. I'm reliably informed that Kingston Country Courtyard is looking better than ever, with new outbuildings ready and awaiting guests. They've even been working on Corfe Castle (yup, more scaffolding) this year, but that's all finished now., so you'll be able to see the castle in all its glory from the venue.

Other than that, it's all go. DJs primed, caterers booked, outfits reserved, photographers briefed, registrar...er... registered. One hen weekend down, one stag do to come. Gulp.

We Get Married Next Year!

Can you believe it's been six months already? We can't, and evidence of this is how little planning we've done so far. But at least we can now say that next year we're getting married. Yay!

So what have we been doing since June in that case? Well, we've chosen a date and picked a venue. Two pretty big decisions, I suppose.

Our big day will be August 9th 2008, and the venue is a beautiful barn near Corfe Castle called Kingston Country Courtyard. It's really special to us as from the gardens you can see the exact spot where we got engaged. Not only that, but the reason we knew the place existed in the first place is that we happened to stay there on our first anniversary almost 6 years ago. So history is repeating itself rather nicely.

We do have a reason for being slack and not blogging much since starting this up...our attention over the past few months has been largely focussed on trying to buy a house/bungalow/flat/box in London. The latter is starting to seem more likely. Ho hum. We're finding it pretty scary; house hunting is a nightmare and competition's fierce to say the least. Fingers crossed 2007 will bring us a home.

So Happy New Year...we'll try to make it a resolution to blog more often (along with the usual 'drink less, join gym' stuff...)

Have a good one...
x

Decisions, decisions...

We're on holiday right now, and as funds are low (hurry up and get paid, Liz) we're sunning it up in Bournemouth and the New Forest with our folks. It's gorgeous down here, and we love coming back home - London feels like a whole other continent. Plenty of country roads to explore. And, of course, wedding venues to check out...

With two weeks off, we decided to get the ball rolling before it grows large and immovable. So we've been to a few places; some we've fallen in love with, some we've fallen out of love with. More about that later when we've seen a few more and Ricky makes his mind up and admits that Liz was right all along. So that's the "Where" side of things underway, sort of.

We've also been thinking a lot about the "When". This one was slighty more complicated for various reasons, but we reckon we've settled on a year: 2008, and a month: August. The exact date depends on the venue, but we'd love to do it on the Bank Holiday weekend. We'll more than likely be getting married down South, so those of you that need to travel can make a proper weekend of it and nurse your hangovers on the Monday.

The main reason we're not getting married next year is so that we'll have time to save for our honeymoon. Sounds extravagant, right? Well, it is. Kind of. But we won't be spending two weeks in a posh hotel in the Maldives. Instead, we'll probably be living out of a backpack and staying in tents as we trek around the globe for as long as possible (we're aiming for a year). We're not sure where we're going yet, so recommendations from seasoned travellers would be welcome (Tess, can we have the abridged list, please?)

So, 2008 it is. Just over two years. That should give us time to choose the colour of the napkins. Better get cracking, Liz...

Parklife

Us again
Originally uploaded by rickyjbanks.

Thanks to everyone that joined us in Greenwich on Saturday. It was a great day, and was lovely to see you all. The cloudy dorset cider may have dulled my senses towards the end of the day, but I think I remember everything except getting to bed.

Liz and I were very impressed by your collective gingerbread man design skills. The photos are all on Flickr now; I'll let you pick the winner (if anyone has any gingerbread photos which I'm lacking, send them over!).

I'm completely sold on London parks now. It's not hard to grasp what Damon Albarn was singing about all those years ago when you take a look around Greenwich park on a Saturday afternoon. Didn't see many pigeons or sparrows, though. Shame.

Liz and I have moved now, and so far we're loving the new, smaller flat. Our 2nd floor windows look out across leafy East London, and there's so much sun in our little homestead right now that electricity is but a distant memory x

Back In London...

...and it still hasn't sunk in.

For the last couple of mornings, I've enjoyed that indescribable experience in which you wake up before your mind has a chance to slot into place the events of the past day or two. Thus I'm treated to a few seconds of normality before the onrush of euphoria. It's a great way to wake up.

After much deliberating, we got the train back to London last night. We'd been down in our sunny hometown for a long weekend, but Liz has to go back to work. I don't envy her; at least when I go back into the office I won't have to explain to 30 five year olds what the shiny rocks on my finger signify. I had planned to stay down with my folks for a few more days but the prospect of putting Liz on a train back to the capital on her own felt pretty terrible. Anyone who's read His Dark Materials will know what I mean when I say it felt rather like Lyra and Pantalaimon parting.

But we're back, and now that Liz has gone to work, our flat feels really big. We've been coming round to the conclusion that we don't need a flat this size for the past few months, and as I sit here on the 'puter it just feels cavernous. Very glad we're moving into a cosy little one bed soon.

On Top Of The World...

That's how we're feeling right now. And that's pretty much where we were yesterday, when Ricky popped the question - atop the biggest hill in Corfe Castle, overlooking Poole Harbour and the old town. As Blur once said, It windy there, but the view's so nice...

It was a really beautiful moment; we'd just been for a walk around the castle. Ricky would have proposed there, but a flock of pesky German tourists put paid to that plan.

As it happens, Lizzie has a thing about the next hill along (be sure to ask her about the Sound Of Music moment she had there a while ago). So we climbed right to the top, exhausting though it was, and the rest is history. Actually, the rest is the future, if you see what we mean...

Ricky got down on both knees (not so much out of choice, you understand, I sort of collapsed under the weight of the ring, Frodo style). Lizzie said "yes, of course I will". Which was a relief xx