Spit

I want the food at our wedding reception to tap into the charms of the West Country. When you combine the American love of beef with the fact that Somerset has more cows than any other county in England, the beef vibe seems like a no brainer. But I don't think it's very weddingy.

So that leaves us with one word, shirelings: pig.

I love the simple wildness of a pole shoved up the ass and out of the mouth of a wild animal. So I went ahead and booked a hog roast. Can you believe they give you the option of having the head or not having the head. I chose having the head. Obviously.

So that's the big three done: church, venue, catering. This means I can move onto something a bit more fun: what to wear. I'm a skinny man. Ergo: I look a bit of a twat in a wedding suit with tales.

Not so funny story: on the morning of my twin brother's wedding I discover that my suit is already a bit too big for me. Then the two-sizes bigger than me groom says that he'd like to swap suits so he can look more defined. It's his wedding, obviously, so I take one for the team and end up looking like Tom Hanks at the end of Philadelphia. 

All this to say that I'm exploring suit options. I like the idea of a bow tie. Below is an option from Topman. No rush, plenty of time to decide.

Quantock Lodge

We've just booked our reception venue. 

About ten miles away from the church there is a range of hills called the Quantocks. They're gorgeous. Coleridge and Wordsworth hung out there back in the day and created the whole romantic movement. It was the first place in England to be labelled an 'area of outstanding natural beauty'. I was the second. Laughter.

The venue is called Quantock Lodge and it looks like this:

Abby has a lot of ideas for decorations. The Friday before the wedding day will be a day of crafting and making the whole venue look something similar to her whimsy page on Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/alyndsay/whimsy/  

We'd love for the front of the Lodge to look like this Tim Walker image:

Every good hero needs a sidekick. I'm not the only one planning this wedding. This is my older sister, Steph:

Back in August, Steph was diagnosed with a brain tumour and underwent surgery for 5 1/2 hours to remove it. 5 months later, she's helping me plan my wedding. 

Bit awkward really, because she thinks she's helping me run for President. Keep smiling...

Right, church and venue: booked. Next stop: catering...

The Save The Dates

So our first major decision was where to have the wedding ceremony. What would normally be a fairly stress-free decision has proven to be a rather complicated one due to us being from two different countries. 

We want to do a ceremony in both places for anyone who can't make it over and for anyone who wants to fly over and celebrate with us. But, which one first? To cut a VERY long visa/lawyer/immigration story short, our main ceremony will be in England first and then a smaller blessing in LA 7 weeks later. If you're from the UK, you're more than welcome to come along. Go on, buy a flight - it's the perfect excuse for a holiday!

The UK service will take place at St George's Church, Wembdon, Somerset. It looks like this:

I was Christened in this church. Cool.

So, we've confirmed the date(s) and we've booked the church. I guess now we need to book a venue for the reception. That's the next job. We've got an idea on that already, so, in typical Arsene Wenger-transfer rhetoric there 'should be some news soon'. Until then, take a look at a couple of Save the Date prototypes I got my brother to make. These aren't the final ones - those bad boys have been sent to the printers and will be in the post soon.

Thanks to Ed Powell for the design and Daley Hake for the pictures: daleyhake.com

Don't Tell The Bride

Christmas 2012 brought with it a betrothal, young shirelings. After years of wandering, the boy from the shire finally found his elven princess and proposed to her high atop the mountains of... Burbank, Los Angeles.

A third airport goodbye took place two weeks later and, just like in all good trilogies, the third installment was more brutal than the previous.

There's a TV show in England called Don't Tell The Bride. The basic gist is that the groom has to plan the wedding and the bride has no idea what is going on until the big day. Yes, it IS the greatest show ever. Due to an unknown twist in our X&Y chromosomes, it turns out that the groom is way more excited about planning the wedding than the bride.

So, seeing as we're having the main ceremony in England first, we've decided to split the tasks right down the middle: bride takes care of visa and future housing (she's American and we're planning on living there first); groom takes care of the wedding.

This is, I feel, prime blogging material, so I will be documenting the planning of our wedding for the next few months.

First off, tea with the vicar and then a trip to the doctor's, because I think I have tonsillitis. Or 'strep throat' to you Yanks...