Lego Love

One would think that since all the wedding planning is behind me now that I'm a Mrs, that I would have lost interest in all things wedding related. If anything my interest has peaked and now that my own wedding day has passed by, I enjoy perusing forums and offering help, which definitely puts the fun back into wedding planning, crafts, DIY ideas and everything in between!

As one half of a nerdy couple chez Ree, we're big fans of all things Lego (off the top of my head, we have Creationary, a wall of Lego made by our wedding guests, Lego Marvel Superheroes, a big Legoman torch, the list goes on..)

Our happy Lego wedding couple - Zombified!

So you can only imagine how inspired I got by creative couples making their own wedding cake toppers out of Lego. The only limitation is your imagination. Here's a few ideas to get you thinking:

Create your doppelgangers out of Lego

Team it with a ruby red love heart?

Why not team Mrs & Mr Pacman (not pictured) with Lego?

And that's just ideas for Lego fans, there are plenty of creative options which I've written about that might work for you. Check out my top wedding cake toppers here.

I am a Mrs!

After the years of plotting, planning and Googling, I am now officially married.

Everyone had warned us how quickly time would fly by on the day and it was so true! The morning preparations went by in a blur. It was an absolute hive of activity. There was a make up artist, photographer, florist, neighbours, bridesmaids, family and friends fluttering around the place!

The night before, I (along with one of the other bridesmaids) slept a grand total of three hours. I was so excited and wondering how the day would unveil. I ended up getting up at 5am and pottering about til the rest of the house woke up. My Dad had organised for hot breakfast food to be brought to the house whilst we were at the hairdressers getting our 'dos done.

In the middle of all the madness, I even made time to vote! On the way back from the hairdressers with my veil fastened to my head, I trotted to the local voting centre with my Chief Bridesmaid in tow to help keep my veil off the ground. Got a few strange looks, but it was my constitutional duty, wedding day or no!

Before I knew it, we were all heading to the venue which was an hours drive away. It was only then the nerves started to hit! We chose a Chrysler 300c from Blue Ribbon, which was one of the most comfortable cars I've ever traveled in (even better when there's a Champagne accompaniment, but more about that later!)

The lovely wedding car

The running joke for most weddings is how late the Bride is going to be. I was ready to get wed at 1pm, on schedule. By the time we got pics taken and the Piper (Yes! There was a Piper, and he was awesome! It was a huge surprise and made the day even more special. I'm half Scottish, so it was very important for me to have my heritage play a part on the day) had played a few tunes to signal my impending arrival, we were ready and waiting to go into the ceremony room.

The Piper playing us into the Reception

I was a little weepy when I saw our Page boy decked out in his kilt, but I kept it together. (Surprisingly!) Here's a little secret about me. I am a softie. An out and out softie. I cry at Disney movies, soppy TV ads, a moving song, and weddings. I bawl at them all! So there was a lot of  people waiting in the room for my waterworks moment.

And it didn't happen!

I didn't cry during the ceremony at all. Little misty eyed yes, but no tears!

Instead it was my lovely new husband that got emotional. And I'm dying to see all the photos!

The Sylvanian Family wedding on the ceremony table

Our Zombie wedding couple, also on the ceremony table!

The Bridal party walked into Hoppípola, one of our favourite songs. It was only when I heard the opening bars of the song that it really hit that this was real and happening right now! We had opted for a Spiritualist ceremony and everyone came up to us afterwards and said it was absolutely beautiful. Our solemniser, Miriam did such a beautiful job in creating the ceremony and letting our personalities shine through, including a spontaneous high 5, a reading about dinosaurs and Sylvanian families and Lego decor.

Spontaneous High 5 FTW!

Little snap of our ring cushion

 After meeting up and chatting with our guests, we headed to the Japanese Gardens to get our photos taken with the Wedding party. We also had a fingerprint tree, a Lego wall, mulled cider and lots of mini scones and biscuits for our guests to enjoy whilst we were out gallivanting.Thankfully the weather seemed to work in our favour for the most part, so we made the most of it! On the way back, my new husband and I were ferried back to the hotel with champagne in the car before getting showered with confetti by our excited family and friends!

Confetti! All over the place!

The Lego Wall.. No naughty words on these ones!

By then, we were famished and ready to eat! We were escorted into the room by the Piper and after some kickass speeches from our Best Man Lady, both Dads, Mr. Ree and myself, the manging commenced! The food went down really well and there was lots of empty plates heading back to the kitchen, which is the best compliment in my book!

Wedding cake noms!

My talented sister-in-law made our cake for us, which was an array of champagne and strawberry cupcakes with a beautiful sponge cake on top. She had also created our wedding favours which were origami cranes, each holding a card with a poem she had written about the day and forget me not seeds for our guests to bring home and plant. It was such a lovely touch, and something which we hope everyone enjoyed.

One of the beautiful cranes

After all the dining and chatting, we all gathered in the lobby and bar, grabbing our inflatable Batman who had dutifully waited at the Reception desk for his big moment. After all the meeting and greeting, it was only fair that he should partake in some of the fun!

Batman on the dancefloor. He lost his head 5 times but still kept going! The trooper.

Mr. Ree's sisters (My new sisters-in-law) ushered us into the room where we had a surprise waiting for us! They had secretly put together a sweet table and even more nerdy cupcakes! The table was heaving with jars filled with fizzy saucers, jellies, marshmallows and so many more yummy treats! It went down a storm with the kids, and big kids alike! Later on we had lots of tea and coffee served with traditional Scottish shortbread. Needless to say, our guests were on a total sugar high!

Two big kids attacking the sweet table!

Just two of the wedding cupcakes on the sweet table - More pics as we get them!

A last minute purchase was some inflatable musical instruments. I found a company on eBay which were wonderful to deal with so we ordered some guitars, saxophones, banjos and microphones. Everybody had so much fun with them, which was great to see! There was a mix of kids with saxophones, grown men hopping around with guitars and karaoke fans warbling into the microphones. A must have for parties and weddings alike methinks.

The one element of the day that everyone was absolutely blown away by, was the band, Full Moon Boogie Band. They. Were. AWESOME! From the moment they started playing to their encore, the dance floor was never empty! When Batman was airborne and being danced with, they even broke out this tune, much to everyone's amusement. How can you not "Na-na-na-naaah!" along with it?

There was dancing til the wee hours, before whoever was still standing headed to the resident's bar for a traditional sing-song. By that point, shoes had been kicked off, cupcakes had been stashed in handbags and jackets had been discarded. By that point, I'd almost been awake for 24 hours, so it wasn't long before I could hear bed calling me!

A blurry pic of some musical instruments enthusiasts

All in all, we had an absolute ball! You hear Brides and Grooms look back on their wedding day and say it was the best day of their lives. So I won't say that. But it was definitely the best day of our lives so far! Mere days after our wonderful wedding day, we went Honeymooning with Mickey Mouse. But more on that next time!

I've planned a wedding, alongside my new husband. Will I stop looking at wedding things online and sniffling over wedding TV shows? Probably not. Watch this space!

Invites, Envelopes and Stamps, oh my!

Time is officially racing by at warp speed! We are mere weeks away from the wedding and this is quite possibly they busiest September of our lives!

This month alone, we have our engagement photoshoot, meeting with our solemniser to plan our wedding ceremony, Hens and Stags, Fittings, Hair and Make up trials and probably lots more besides!

A few months back I wrote a blog about wedding invitations. So it's only fair that I show you a little sneak preview of what we sent out to our guests. Ta-da!

Photo shamelessly nicked from Sue Fitzpatrick

We didn't want to go down the traditional wedding stamp route as the one for this year just made me cringe. The couple just look so awkward.

You're fooling no one, lads!

I know that most people probably wouldn't even look at the stamp, but you become completely enraptured in the little details for your wedding day. With this in mind, we scouted the An Post website trying to find something a little more 'us'. We then popped into the GPO to see what was available. Because we're such literary fans and enjoy films, including horror, how could we resist these bad boys?

 

We had been warned by couples who had trotted down the wedding planning route that in time, we would argue about something wedding related. Never in a million years did I think it would be over envelopes.

ENVELOPES!

I don't think I'd ever looked twice at most envelopes. But in my mind, only cream ones would do. Mr. Ree pointed out my previous opinion on envelopes, but now I had a colour scheme to erm.. defend? In the middle of our argument I stopped mid-sentence and said "We are fighting over envelopes." It was at that point, I knew that the wedding planning had taken over.

We laughed about it, now referred to as 'Envelopegate' and got it sorted. But it will go down in history as the most ridiculous argument we've ever had!

So what's next Chez Ree? We've to sort out our wedding ceremony next and finalise choices across the board. No-one ever said planning a wedding was easy!

Public vs Private proposals

This week, the internet has been alight with the story of the New Orleans rose being proposed to on the Rose of Tralee. The general feeling was absolute mortification for Molly Molloy Gambel, who has made history after being the first rose to be proposed to live on the show.

For anyone who hasn't seen the clip, don't say I'm not good to you!


So after saying "No!" a couple of times, and even a "please don't" for good measure, she eventually went onto say yes and they are now happily engaged.

What I noticed was the backlash that public proposals got in the land of social media. There were tweets such as "I'd kill him!" and "I'm mortified for her!" But let's face it. While it wasn't the most traditional proposal, it was certainly memorable!

Even if public proposals aren't for you, it takes guts to go out in front of a crowd and put yourself on the line whilst asking someone to spend their life with you. So I think anyone who does that should be commended.

We've all seen videos on Youtube of proposals going wrong with cringey aftermaths. Proposals are becoming more and more creative, detailed and shared. What could be a private moment between a couple can now be shared with friends and family worldwide with just a few clicks.

The way I see it, the way in which someone asks you to be their husband, wife, significant other or Zombie killing partner, shouldn't be the most important thing. The fact that they have asked you to be with them and to stand up in front of your nearest and dearest to say "This is us. We love each other and want to share our happiness with you" is far more important.

Whether your proposal was private between the two of you, in front of friends at a party or at a stadium filled with thousands of people. The most important thing should be that you've found someone that you want to spend your life with, through the bad times, good times and great times! That feel good factor trumps a red faced moment any day!

Excited face!

Make and do inspiration

I have the greatest of respect for brides and grooms who inject creativity into their wedding day with DIY projects. So you can only imagine my excitement when I came across this project on Offbeat Bride 

Shaving Cream lanterns. I couldn't believe my eyes! I'm not the most competent DIY and craft enthusiast, but I could definitely give it a bash! All you need is shaving foam and food colouring. Swirl it up and then dip whatever you want to tie dye into it. Easy peasy.. I think!

For the full list of pics from this particular bride's project, click here.

Here's a tutorial I found online. It's about using shaving foam to decorate Easter Eggs, but it can be used on all sorts of textiles and surfaces.

Will I be able to use it for something to do with the wedding? Watch this space!

Honeymoon happiness

It's official. We are almost into the final stretch!

Invites are being designed, dresses have been ordered, menu tastings are planned and decor ideas are being signed off.

When we started planning our wedding day, the one thing I didn't expect was how encompassing wedding planning can become. It quickly becomes a common ground topic to discuss with most people, so you find yourself talking about it, looking up ideas, even dreaming about it! (I've even had a few wedding nightmares, madness!)

It's easy to get caught up in all the excitement.

Yet in all this excitement, I sort of forgot that we get to go away on Honeymoon.

We had a look at different Honeymoon packages including desert island getaways to luxurious cruises and everything in between! So many beautiful locations with lots of different budgets.

For us, what we really wanted was to cut loose. We already acted like big kids, why not bring that joviality on our Honeymoon?

With that in mind, we quickly decided on a Honeymoon in Disneyland. We love the Disney films, love the songs and are basically big kids with bank accounts. Mr Ree quickly discovered that for the full month of October, Adventureland will be decorated for Halloween. As this is his favourite holiday, this got a huge thumbs up from us! The park isn't far from Paris either so if we wanted to indulge in delicious French cuisine or have a goo around the city of lurrve, then we were close to the heart of things.

Spooky Disney?! Oh HELL YES!

The flights have been booked, the hotel has been paid for and passports have been checked. All we have to do is wait just a few more weeks and we'll be leaving on a jetplane! (OK, not a spaceship, but the tune is damn catchy!)

I personally cannot WAIT to release my inner child and enjoy the whole Disney experience with my new husband. Rocking the Mickey Mouse ears of course..

When else will we be able to rock these bad boys? WANT!

Trash the Dress Inspiration

I've often wondered what I'm going to do with my wedding dress after the 'Big Day'. Do I keep it in a box so my kids can look at it and probably prance around in it at some point? Craft it lovingly into a Christening gown to become a family heirloom? (Not too sure we'd get much use out of it, as we're not planning to baptise any of our children)

Recently I've become really interested in 'Trash the Dress' shoots as you'll be giving your dress a whole new lease of life and getting some fun pictures out of it with your partner.

You can only imagine my excitement when I came across these pics from WeddingsOnline (Full link here)

Can you guess what's going to happen next?

Deep breath!

Paint + Wedding attire = Colourful, fun chaos it seems. Personally I think it would be a lot more fun to get crafty with my wedding dress rather than stashing it in a box. Chances are we'll have a naming ceremony for any future Mini Rees, what kid wouldn't enjoy rocking a multicoloured robe for the day? Think it's a no brainer really!

Colour, Confetti and Craic