Wedding Photos - At The Church

This week our wedding was featured on Love My Dress, which I was very excited about!  If you want an overview of our whole day go take a look over there, but of course I will be recalling it all in minute detail over then next few posts here!

When I left you last I was walking to the church and Chris was driving over along with his ushers in Pip.  And finally, the big moment had nearly arrived!

We got married in All Saints Church in Martin. I kept the order of service simple and typed out and printed them off myself at home.

The boys were obviously in the church well ahead of us to greet the our guests, and they would also be providing some music. Here's some nice pictures of a few of the boys before the service got underway.

There was a slight mishap before I arrived.  We had given my brother-in-law-to-be, Alfie, the very important job of signalling to the best man when I had arrived, so that they could start playing my entrance music. Unfortunately he got it slightly wrong and actually signalled to them when my mum arrived with the bridesmaids. Apparently much hilarity ensued, and my Mum still thinks she nearly married Alfie!  Since I didn't get to see it myself, I think the picture below captures the moment terrifically, Alfie's face is a picture!

We gave Best Man Ollie a rather tricky job when I decided that I'd like Elbow's 'One Day Like This' to be my entrance music, and I wanted him to play violin! He had some serious multi-tasking to do, but he did a fantastic job.

I must admit, I did get rather teary walking down the aisle. Partly because of my Dad setting me off, but also it was quite overwhelming walking into a room with so many of your friends and family, some of whom you haven't seen for a while, and of course, I was about to get married!

I was quite nervous about the service itself, I didn't really know what to expect. Luckily our vicar was amazing, he told lots of jokes and made the whole service really chilled out. In fact, I think Chris and I spent the entire service giggling away like school children!

As I got the the alter I realised I still had my engagement ring on! I had to pass it to my Dad in a bit of a panic and I don't think he had a clue what was going on since we hadn't rehearsed that bit!! So remember that ladies, maybe even take it off the day before if you can!

During the service my now Sister-In-Law Rosie read us A Lovely Love Story by Edward Monkton.  We picked it because it is a bit silly like us, but still has a really sweet sentiment.  My Uncle Danny also did a reading for us which was lovely. I really wanted to get him involved in the day as he and his family live in Canada, so we don't get to see them as often as we'd like at all.

During the signing of the register the band played, Africa by Toto, and Everywhere by Fleetwood Mac.

At the end of the service the band followed the procession out whilst playing which a lot of the guests commented on.  Then we had them sang 'the confetti song' in order to get the guests to pick up some confetti on their way out. It was basically them singing 'come on and get some confetti' to the tune of The Conga.  Meanwhile Chris and I nipped round the back of the Church and went in the back door, so that we could re emerge through the front for everyone to cover us in confetti!

Everyone said what a great service it was, so we were really pleased about that. I am so glad we decided to have lots of live musicians play though out the service, I think it really made a difference.

Laura xXx

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Secret Cinema - Back to The Future

By now you have probably heard of Secret Cinema and their amazing film showing of Back To The Future, complete with recreation of the entire town of Hill Valley!  I decided that this was something we HAD to go to, and booked tickets to surprise Chris.

If you haven't heard of Secret Cinema, they describe themselves as an 'immersive film-experience company'. Their events are pretty frequent, but you have to be on their mailing list to get an invite to their shows. The Back To The Future showing has been the biggest one they have done yet, and it was slightly different in that you could get tickets even if you weren't on their mailing list. I know that in the past they have also based events on Alien, One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest, and The Grand Budapest Hotel to name a few.

It was all very elaborate, we were sent new identities and professions as well as printable business cards with all of our details including a phone number on!  I was now Miranda Conway and I worked for the Hill Valley Stationers. Chris worked at the Sherwin-Williams Paint Company. We were also told to dress the part in 50's attire, so of course we abliged!

Before we went in we had to hand over any cameras or phones. Obviously because they want to keep the whole thing as secret as possible, they didn't want people instantly posting pictures all over Facebook and Instagram. But also, I think it was to really get people into the spirit of the 1950's, and modern technology would have ruined that somewhat. I think it was a really good idea. They did ,however, sell disposable cameras inside, and I made sure to snap one up quick before they sold out.

The other day I FINALLY got those photos back, so I thought I'd share them with you.

There were so many shops and companies that you could visit, all with different things going on inside.   There were lots of actors and actresses scattered around, some of them characters from the film. On our way to the venue we ran into Biff's friends and Chris got bullied by the guy who wears the 3D glasses. What a meanie!

There was a great fun fair, but there was just so much to do we didn't get a chance to go on any of the rides.

There was a little school advertising the Enchantment Under The Sea Dance, which you will remember from the film. In the school hall the dance was happening, and there was an amazing band playing, which we thought were so good we have now put them up on The Band Boutique here.

There was a male vocal harmony trio performing intermittently called the Texatones, they also worked for the garage, hence the outfits! They were great!

There were houses of all the main characters from the film that you could have a look in. Here I am posing outside one of them with a pram!

And here I am at George McFly's House!

The film was projected onto the front of the clock tower, and there were actors performing all the main parts of the movie alongside it.  We saw Marty catch a ride with his skateboard on a van, with Biff and the gang chasing him. We saw the Delorean emerge in a cloud of smoke, and Doc brown risking his life hanging from the clock tower in the finale! It was all very dramatic!

Really, there was too much going on to mention it all, but I did come home with a few souvenirs.  The postcards and the newspaper were free to pick up, and I bought a Town Fair flag for £1.50. I also bought myself a T-Shirt.

It really was an amazing experience. You could tell that everyone there had totally bought into it, nearly everyone was dressed up in 50's clothes. It was a blast. I would definitely recommend signing up to their mailing list, as any future events are sure to be awesome too! You can register for future events here.

Did you go? If you did what did you enjoy most?

Laura xXx

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Wedding Photos - The Boys Get Ready

I've shown you the girls getting ready, now its the boys turn! Chris, his best man and ushers, all stayed at his parents house the night before, which was about an hour away from the church and venue. They had strict instructions to leave no later than 9am, as they had very important jobs to do at the marquee, such as sorting out the table placements. I was pretty nervous about leaving this up to chris, but I arranged each table in a very organised envelope so that he wouldn't get too confused, and he did a great job! Phew!

Here is best man Ollie fixing Chris's tie for him, and Usher Tim capturing video footage of the all important moment! These boys really did work hard for us, we were very lucky to have them all!

My Mum made all of the button holes from succulents and some other pretty twiddly bits of flowers (no idea what they were!) The ties came from Swagger and Swoon.

The boys all play in an awesome wedding band called Mister Kanish, so not only did I have the music for the night sorted, but they also came ready with suits! We didn't want to spend silly money on new suits when they all had perfectly good ones already.

If you're interested here's a clip of them playing in their vintage style band below, they really are very good. (Not biased at all!). Take a look and if you like them you can hire them from The Band Boutique here. If you didn't already know Chris and I run a function band agency, of course Mister Kanish are our top band!

At this point it was probably chucking it down with rain, but the skies managed to clear enough for them to get a quick pic in front of our little Tipi.

And here's Chris driving to the Church in Pip! Ooooh, next time I'll be showing you the ceremony, which really was one of my favourite bits of the whole day!

Laura xXx


All photos were taken by my wonderful photographers Peach and Jo Photography!

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August movie reviews - Guardians of The Galaxy and The Inbetweeners 2

Guardians of the Galaxy

Wowzers, this film was SO good!  I had heard good things about it, but on the basis of the trailer I wasn't overly convinced that this was going to be anything special, but I couldn't have been more wrong! As it happens the trailer actually contained a lot of footage and voiceover that wasn't in the final cut of the film at all!

I love comic book movies, but I've never actually read a comic, so this team of superheroes was completely new to me. When I see something as good as this though it really makes me want to start reading them!

The main thing that I loved about this film was the sound track. Throughout we are treated to a selection of songs from the 70s. We learn early on that these songs are all on a mix tape which Quill's mother gave to him before her death, and his subsequent abduction by aliens. The choice of songs, in my opinion, is absolutely perfect and really sets a unique tone for this as a Marvel movie. Some of my favourites are Hooked on a Feeling by Blue Swede, Escape (The Pina Colada song) by Rupert Holmes, and O-O-H Child by The Five Stairsteps.

A lot of time and effort went into picking the songs. Apparently James Gunn (director and writer) originally compiled a list of 500 songs, and eventually narrowed it down to the 12 we hear in the movie. Time well spent I think!

A film that I think it would be fair to compare it to is Fifth element.  Stylistically it is similar in the use of bright colours, its based in a similar futuristic scenario, and it's got a great sense of humour. If you liked Fifth Element I'm certain you will like this, but to be honest I can't imagine many people not liking it!

I must also mention how excited I was to see Ophelia Lovibond playing the collectors assistant Carina! I actually went to university with Ophelia, so it is great to see her doing so well! My friends and I had noticed her in the post-credits scene of Thor-The Dark World, but we assumed it was a hint to the next Avengers film, so it was rather a surprise to see her pop up in this!

All of the characters are super likeable, its very tricky for me to pick a favourite. Chris's favourite was Drax the Destroyer, who is a super buff blue dude who takes EVERYTHING literally! Many funny jokes ensue!  My mate Jess's favourite is Groot, a tree-like being who only has a very limited vocabulary, and can only say 'I am Groot' in varying tones of voice, yet has the most winning personality. Star Lord/Peter Quill is the main protagonist, and again, he is so likeable from the start. A bit of a cheeky chappy, but also pretty hard-core. He has been likened with Marty Mcfly and Indiana Jones.  There is also Rocket Raccoon, voiced by Bradley Cooper, who did a great job, and again, another fantastic character.  Finally Gamora played by Zoe Saldana, probably my least favourite of the heroes, but still, she's pretty cool.

Definitely my favourite film of the year so far! Just go and see it while its still at the cinema!

The Inbetweeners 2

While this film was funny in places, I don't think it compared to the original. I couldn't quite put my finger on what was missing about it, why was it not as good as the first?  That was until I spoke to one of my friends (a guy) who had noticed that there were no decent female characters in it!  And he was totally right! There are only 2 female characters, one a bunny boiler and the other, shall we say is 'rather loose'. Not exactly the best female characters for us ladies to relate to!  In the first film there were 4 girls who seem to be fairly decent people at least, and you are kind of rooting for the relationships to work out. No such luck in this one.

Still, it was nice to see the characters in a new situation. To be honest though, I don't think it really needs to be seen at the cinema. Its one for watching on the TV on a rainy sunday evening if you ask me.

Next month I'll be talking about Sin City and any other films we end up seeing. Suggestions welcome!

Laura xXx

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