Sista..... Stand Up!

As you can see from the title, the guy from the Wedding network site never did get my site sorted out so I was not happy! After looking around on the web i found another gorgeous one that I could pay £25 for but then I found another free one!!!! and I love a bargain!THis one does not have all the sections to write about how we met but it is very stylish and has all the details for our guests! I have registered, but now have the painstaking job of entering all the guest lists etc so it can do all my table plans etc!!! I love computers!!! I will email all the guests mid Jan so they will be ablew to see eveything. I am glad that I did keep most of the details that were on the site si U have updated it and posted it on this site so you can still see how we met, proposal etc... the only downside is that I have lost the lovely message people left on their.... anyway moving forward now.... to many other things to stress about!! Later! x

The big question was asked during a trip to St Lucia.... I remember being full of doubt about the relationship before we went on trip and I was very anxious about whether we were both singing off the same hymn sheet.... we were both free spirits but I still needed to feel secure within a fully committed relationship. Especially if we had any plans to have babies. I never thought I would meet any one I was sure I wanted to commit too but Rene change all that.... After the first night in St Lucia with some friends we sat down to breakfast and after returning from a second round of waffles there was a strange look on Rene’s face and he launched into a speech about how much I meant to him etc. I, of course said yes and sobbed like a woosy girl!!!!....

Rene and I used to work for a phone company and I remember all the girls on our floor always looking forward to seeing him during break times.... I remember thinking what all the fuss was about and he better not be thinking he can come an chat to me just cause I was a Sista…. I was always polite but I never got chatty cause I wasn't going to make it easy for him to get near me and anyway... I was just thinking he was like a lot of other smooth, watless brothers! There used to be a common room at work and one day we just got talking and I confided in him about an old boyfriend.... I remember thinking how kind he was and his gravely voice was so gentle and reassuring.... I remember another time when he appeared at my desk with a book of his favourite Caribbean poetry.... We talked and he took time to show me which ones he liked...... The poetry planted the secret seed whether I liked it or not....
My previous relationship had ended some time ago now and Rene and I had become good friends when he asked me to go to Saint Lucia... He assured me that all would be ok and we would separate rooms etc.... yeah right I thought.... St Lucia was a BLAST!!!..... It was the BEST holiday I ever had… everything and much more... We went to the Jazz Festival and watched EnVogue Lauren Hill, & Smokey Robinson under the open sky. We ate lots of fresh food, danced and laughed a lot… it was the first time in my life that I really felt free to be myself without any pressure and I fell in love without realising...... I never did get my separate room but we cuddled every night. His warm presence made me feel so safe..... On my return to England I missed him terribly and I remember how scared I was about getting involved but it was too late.... my heart already belonged to him....

There are so many wonderful things I can say about the groom and anyone who knows Rene will agree that he is a generous loving soul ( as long as he gets his rice ‘n’ peas and chicken of course!) I never thought I would meet someone so beautiful (forgiving the nose and chicken legs!) and I am honoured that he has chosen me to spend his life with. The wedding day for me was never really about the dress, the venue or the shoes (errmmm...maybe a little bit the shoes...) but also about celebrating my commitment to enjoy as much of life as possible with someone I adore...... When I was a little rebel daughter, I knew I would marry much older than my sisters and always dreamed that my partner would be a free spirited, creative bohemian type (like me) as well as all the tender, loving kind traits we all want from our partners. To my delight, if I had written a delicious list of all the things I want in a man, Rene would have ticked every box and a thousand more!! The main reason I have chosen to marry Rene is because he has set me free to be who I really am without judgement, warts ‘n’ all. Just hearing his name makes me smile…….

I have sent alot of time talking about what is happening on the day and i just want to say a few words to my parents. Mum and Dad, I know that you have both often worried about me and the choices I have made growing up and want to thank you both for all the love and wisdom you have given me over the years. There aren't many people who can honestly say that their parents are still happily married after forties years and it makes me proud and happy that I have such a great role model to build my future life with Rene on.

You have both been an inspiration to me and I respect you both as parents but most of all for the warm loving generous people you are. Your accepting others peoples children into your home has taught me how not to be selfish and your devotion to each other has taught me how to be selfless within my own relationship. You have taught me the value of hard work as well as the need for compassion. Now it is time for me to begin my own family, I am grateful that you have provided me with the tools I will need to be a wonderful wife and mother. I love you both dearly…. Thank you…

Last weekend I sent out a lot of our Christmas cards with a ‘save the date’ letter so our guests can book the dates off work and plan if they are traveling overseas. We then got a phone call that one of our friends could not get into the wedding site. I investigated earlier this week and found I could not get in either from a link I had saved in my favorites! I called the wedding network and they announced that they had re-launched the website and unfortunately had to make the decision to risk loosing their customer’s personal wedding sites! I was not impressed as I had spent weeks writing up the details and was more upset because some of our guests had already left messages in the guest book! The guy was very sympathetic and said that he would see if he could retrieve any info. A couple of days later he was still unable to get any info but confessed he was the director of the company and had spend £100 to link my original domain name to the newly registered one on the new site! I was still a little disappointed but was nice to see he had done his best to rectify what he could. He also offered us Virgin discounts and free access to the first class lounge on any Virgin flights we book for our honeymoon!!! Very Nice!! At lease the guests also will be able to use the link I had put in the Christmas letters. I will be checking the link Later on today to make sure it works!

For the last few years I have always sense that my body was not performing to its optimum performance considering I do yoga, weights and spinning, hardly drink and don’t do drugs! There had to be something wrong and I knew deep down I had to find out before I caused any major damage to my body long term. I suspected that it might be Gluten, Wheat and Dairy as mum also has some food intolerance but I wanted categorical proof why and what was happening with my body so I stop feeling the way I do. The results came through this week and I am gob smacked with the results! The analysis came in three separate columns which say that the foods within the green column showed no reaction in my blood so I could eat all of these. The amber column showed slight reactions and I would have to rotate these foods every 4 days. These were rice! Yes RICE! Pea’s, coconuts. And the red column showed all the foods that were causing problems and could make me very sick long term if I don’t stop eating them. They were, wheat, gluten, cows milk, eggs, yeast, maize, Crustacean fish (crab, prawn, lobster etc), cashew, brazil and peanut!!!! I am totally shocked but also relived that this huge list of foods has become something that I now have to illuminate from my diet. I was already getting fed up with having to explain to people but now that this list has got longer I will have to start brining my own foods if we eat at other peoples houses and holidays will be very difficult! I am relived as well as I least I know now what I have to do and I am looking forward to feeling much better within myself! I am planning a huge clean out of the food cupboards and a strict Detox after Christmas! This will strengthen my body and mind in preparation for just generally performing better on a daily basis and also in preparation for having a family at a later date….

I am well behind the times but I have only just starting buying things from eBay and it is totally fabulous! I have found crystals form my dress on their and have just recently bought some really only camptastic albums I have been looking for! Abba gold, Grace Jones and I was looking for Wham and Barry Manilow today! Yes, I can hear you all saying what is she on but anyone who really knows me will understand my camptastic obsessions! The fab thing is that that once I have uploaded the albums on my ipod I can put them back on eBay to be resold. I have not sorted my account to sell anything on their yet once I do it should be good as I have so much stuff to sell and I am sure Rene is getting fed up with all the stuff I have around the house that I have saved for the car boot sale I just have not got round to doing! I’ll have to bug Randa to help me as she’s been an eBay fan for ages. Ohh also forgot to mention that I found a fabulous pair of Christian Louboutin shoes on ebay RRP £600 eBay so far £175! I had bid at £100 but some chav from up north is desperate for them and still has the current highest bid! I am not prepared to pay any more when I can go and get another nice pair from a shop and have a crisp till receipt if anything goes wrong with them! If any of my friends are getting married remember eBay and the fabulous bargains!!!

Having spent hours trawling through hundreds of websites looking for invitations and illustration ideas, I have come full circle and settled for a clean classic color and design. Don’t want to give too much away in my diary cause I want you all to have some surprises when you get the invite so you will have to wait! One of the frustrating things about organizing this wedding is making the final decisions. There are so many magazines and stuff on the internet with so much choice that you can get overwhelmed by it all and end up not making any decisions for ages cause you are humming and ahhhing over stupid details. Like everything else in my life, I am making all the wedding choices based on my instinct. Once I knew I wanted a vintage feel it was much easier to make choices and now I just have to remember to keep it simple and chic…. I have ordered the card and envelopes and must remember to order the ink as I will be printing all the invitation on the home printer over Christmas. I am also going to try a little calligraphy but my handwriting is pretty shite so I will have to practice! I am hoping to send them to everyone in the spring next year.