WITH our wedding in just over four months all the major planning has begun.

The colour theme has been decided (my decision) as Cadbury’s purple and bright orange – I really wanted it to be bright.

With all the talk of the Royal wedding in full flow the jokes have started too with mainly my mum and uncle saying: “Which wedding will I attend?”

It’s full steam ahead now. My sister-in-law-to-be (and very close friend) Hannah has been making the evening invitations and they look fantastic. We all had a girly evening to finish them off – we made 100! It took a while and with a very good production team we finished with the help of sausage sandwiches, chips and lots of gossiping.

We had a meeting with Libby, our florist from Myrtle and Mint. I expained our colour scheme and she had such fantastic ideas. She knew exactly what I was looking for and how it would fit. We are going for roses as our main flower. My grandad used to have roses in the garden and I thought it would be fiting. Libby put together brilliant idas for the centre pices and bouquets, just as I pictured them.

One the same day we also went to Coes for James’ and the groom’s party’s suits. Coes always give such a personal service and today was no different. We explained our colour scheme and they set about getting James suited and booted The ladies were so helpful and within an hour we had everything sorted.

To end a very busy day we met with James from Wedding Creative to look at the room dressing. He was able to bring his lap top with him so we could see some of their previous work. We were lucky that Lorraine from Ufford Park was able to let us walk around the room with James to discuss our plans. It’s wonderful to meet so many people through this competition and everybody has been brilliant. James had some excellent ideas to make the room look perfect.

The next step was the bridesmaids. I had already picked them but they needed dresses. I was having my hair cut in Felixstowe and decided to pop into The Jewellery Box to take a look. They were really helpful and were able to show me lots of dresses and styles and, most importantly, in the colours I wanted. I was able to pick a style very quickly. To be honest, it was the first one I looked at.

We had a meeting with Nicola, our vicar. She truly is one amazing lady. We spent time (in front of her coal fire) chatting through all the wedding informations and she was getting to know us and all the impottant details – this was so nice and we knew would be that special touch to our wedding.

The invitations arrived! Natalie from Lemon Pie Design kindly delivered them to us and it was really excting to see them. We had already started a guest list so were ready to go.

The invitations are just fantastic. They look so good and it really did mark the start of our wedding.

We met Jean from Amazing Cakes. I won’t give too much away about the cake but we have gone for a classic idea and it’s safe to say that Jean’s designs were certainly amazing.

We feel so lucky and privileged to have won the competition. Everyone has been so helpful and full of ideas. It’s really made everything so much easier.  It’s n0w getting so close to Christmas. The invitations are out and the replies are coming in.