It’s been a while since I’ve blogged, hasn’t it? Well, hopefully as the wedding draws nearer, the more things there will be to write about!

In the mean time, I have plenty of photos stored up to show you, just follow the link below to have a look!

It’s been a year now that we’ve been engaged and quite a lot of things have happened! Many things are sorted now, most noticeably the venue – which we have my grandparents to thank for. The hotel looks amazing, the staff there seem really nice and on the day there will hopefully be a gorgeous view of the sea while we have a BBQ!

Some congratulations are in order today. Over the last year four couples we know very well have also become engaged! So congratulations to:

• Bernadette and Matt, friends of ours through Scouts, who got engaged on Christmas Day 2006
• Holly and Gareth, friends of ours through school and Scouts, who got engaged during Spring 2007
• Simone and Christian, friends of ours through school and Uni, who got engaged during Summer 2007
• Becca and David, friends of ours through SSAGO and Scouts, who got engaged during December 2007

So, here’s to a splendid 2008, full of fun and excitement!

Last Sunday, Benjie and I went to Gosport to visit my family and also to attend the Wedding Fayre held at the Alverbank Hotel. The Wedding Fayre was quite enjoyable; despite there being many sales people we weren’t pressured into buying anything on the day. We made quite a few contacts and gathered a few ideas for flowers and table decorations and posh, old cars. Mostly the prices were really reasonable too, nothing like the figures I’ve run into before! There were a couple of vouchers and samples given out, and these will be used to full advantage!

Back at home, my grandparents came round to see us. They came bearing a birthday present too. It turned out to be a polaroid camera! Something I hadn’t seen for a long time, and something that I wanted for the wedding day. I think it’ll be a nice idea to take polaroid photos of all the guests and for them to write a message on the bottom of the photo. It’s much more personal than a guestbook message, I think. What do you think?

Today Benjie and I finished making the Save the Date cards. Addressed, stamped and sent: they’re in the post ready for you!

On the back you’ll find your name and a number written in pencil. This is your username and password for the forum. The name is the username - containing only letters and possibly an underscore ( _ ), the password contains only numbers. If you’re not happy with your username then please e-mail me at jem AT jemjie DOT com.

We still have some cards we haven’t sent out - mostly friends. That’s because we still don’t have some addresses, we’ll be trying to contact you to find out what it is.

For everyone else, this is an exciting time for us and we hope that you’ll join us on the forums!

Click the link below for more photos of today’s events.

We’ve been busy making the save the date cards! They’re magnetic and so you’re able to put them on your fridge as a reminder to keep 2nd August 2008 free. They’ve got all the important information on them, including the venue. They’re nearly all made, we’ve got about 20 more to go. All we need now are everyone’s addresses. I think it’s mainly friends addresses we need, so please email jem AT jemjie DOT com if you haven’t already to let us know where you live.

Look out for one arriving in your post by the end of October!

Benjie and I have had a very exciting weekend, which culminated in the booking of the AlverBank Hotel, Gosport, for our wedding next year in August. The venue includes the ceremony, the reception, stunning scenes for photography, catering and a lovely woman who will guide us through all the decisions and legal procedures we will be making. The hotel will be available for wedding guests to stay in over night at a reasonable rate, or there is the option of having a small cottage for 6 (?) people to stay in. Of course, there are options to stay with various members of my family too…

Any way, on to the photos. The hotel’s website can be found here but it hasn’t got many photos. So we decided to take it upon ourselves to scan in a couple of the leaflets to show the place off:

This is the outside of the hotel, as you can see it’s quite grand!

This one is of the "marquee suite" in which the ceremony and reception will take place. The walls and ceiling are covered in drapes and on the ceiling are lovely twinkling lights. The building opens out into a grassed terrace with a view of the beach. While the staff set out the tables we will have opportunities for photographs on the terrace, on the beach and in Stanley Park next door. It just looks fantastic!

I’m currently a very excited girl! It seems that it all feels real all of a sudden. This place is lovely, and I can only thank my Grandad for suggesting it!

Jem

Many of you don’t know Jamie Foster, but he is my best friend, and is likely to be the best man at the wedding. I thought you might like to see a video of him…

The guy is a legend. Need I say more?

[Just so as you know, he has put a french banger in a bin and then watched it. Fool. ]

I have now just about finished the forums, and have done 50% of the to-do lists, and am about to start work on the photo albums. So all these features (and more) will be coming very soon! Hopefully by the end of next weekend.

I am also planning on writing some form of chat room, so that users on the site can chat with each other just through their web browsers. For those who are technically minded among you, I will be using AJAX as the communications method, which is supported natively by all modern visual browsers. This means that there will be no need to install plugins or load confusing software.

Hope you all like the site so far, feel free to comment on features you would like to have added, or things we should change to make the site better.

Benjie.

Ian Stuart is probably my most favourite brial wear designer. His site is full of wonderful images, and his dresses seem to feature regularly in wedding magazines. His full website can be found at www.IanStuart-Bride.com but I really don’t mind showing you some of his work before you go and have a look.

This is the dress I originally fell in love with and, although it is most definately out of my higest budget estimates, it is still the one I love the most. I found it in a Wedding Ideas magazine and at two inches high the photo didn’t do it any justice. The photo on the  website is much bigger and detailed and worth a look!

It’s worth mentioning that he now has a new collection up called "Watercolour". This collection, like the previous ("Straw Play") which contained the dress I like, has dresses which use tonnes of material and drapes and gathers and … oh it’s lovely!

Click comments below to tell me what you think.

Dear all,



Seconds before midnight on the evening of December 31st 2006, Benjie asked my hand in marriage. I accepted, just after midnight, and therefore took a year to reply!



Wow! Now that’s said, I can be all excited! And with the making of this site, I can tell everyone!



Benjie and I first met in April 1999, can you believe it’s been so long?! In February 2000 Benjie asked me to go out with him (With the quote from Ames, "Where will we go? The post office?!") and… well, it would be lying to say that we’ve been together ever since. However, we’ve always felt just right together, and at the end of the year this culminated in Benjie asking me to marry him. Here’s a couple of photos (to come), a recent photo of Benjie and I at Christmas, and one of the beautiful ring Benjie presented me with.



We haven’t properly sat down and thought about anything yet. If you ask us if we have a date, then the answer is "after Jem graduates" (July 2008), but that’s only next year and suddenly sounds very close. If you ask what my mum did "Will you have a purple dress?" my answer is just a squeal of delight! I’m getting married to my Benjie!



Well, that’s about it. I’d love to hear from you.

Jem

A copy of the e-mail (with amendments) sent on 01/01/07 from Jem to pretty much everyone.