Going to the chapel

Last Friday, we went to England for a few days for the first wedding in my family since the bride's own parents got married way back when. My cousin married her Italian sweetheart in London in front of her friends and family, and Didier and I were there to share in their joy, dance til the wee small hours and lets be honest, to take notes for our own upcoming wedding. Oh yes that's right, you might have forgotten since I haven't mentioned it for a while, but come September, it will be my turn to walk down the aisle in front of my own friends and family and boy do we have a lot left to do before then!

When we initially got engaged in New York last October we ummed and ah-ed about when to get married. We both wanted to get married this year as lets face it, we've been together forever anyway so it was about time to make things legal and get those rings on our fingers. Naively I assumed a wedding was something that could be planned pretty quickly and with a minimum of fuss, but as it turns out, and as I'm sure every bride who's gone before me knows, it is actually one of the most complicated and stressful things I've ever done in my life and lets not forget I live in France, the country that invented red tape!

We've now settled for a date in September on the basis that it will hopefully still be sunny in Nice by then but not so hot the English side melt away, and perhaps it will be a little cheaper than a traditional high summer wedding, because boy is wedding planning expensive! As soon as you utter the 'W' word (or the 'M' word in Nice) you open yourself  up to a whole world of expense, the likes of which you've previously reserved in your mind for buying a yacht or spending a summer in St Tropez with P Diddy and Joan Collins. Wedding dresses go for up to 10 000 Euros a pop and once you've got the dress you mustn't forget the veil, the shoes, the bag and all the other stuff that no bride can live without. (Please be assured that I will not be spending 10 000 Euros, or indeed any amount of Euros in the thousands on my dress, because quite simply I need that money for my future yacht)

We've decided to do as much of the organizing and planning as we can ourselves and we have had lots of offers of help from kind friends and family so hopefully it will be a team effort to get us ready for the big day. The church is booked and we've managed to find ourselves a place to hold the reception, but that's about it for the minute, so it looks like I'll be spending the next 3 months planning, reserving and wishin' and hopin'! Keep your fingers crossed for me, because the way things are going I'll be walking down the aisle in shorts and flip flops and the guests will be feasting on pizza and beer afterwards, although now I come to think of it, that does sound like a pretty awesome bash.......