I am writing this blog from the beautiful hills of Sorrento, on the last reccie trip to make sure everything is in place for our celebrations. As you can imagine with the Icelandic volcano I have been lucky to dodge the ash and make it here at all. The scenery in Sorrento is so beautiful we are overlooking the Bay of Naples and we can see Mount Vesuvius in the distance, just keeping our fingers crossed its one volcano that is not planning on waking up anytime soon, otherwise we would have to elope to Vegas!

Everything is almost in place for our wedding, firstly this weekend we had the opportnity to meet with the priest again in Positano to firm up the cermony. What a beautiful setting, also known as ‘The jewel of the Amalfi Coast’, the scenery is nothing short of breathtaking. I learned today that Flavio Gioia, the inventor of the compass, was from Positano! After the cermony it is traditional to walk the pretty cobble stone streets in celebration. The Priest has been most welcoming and the cermony is very similar to that at home. All that is left to do is mass booklet making fun at home, I will round up the bridesmaids to do some folding and stapling!

Our local wedding planners in Sorrento have been brilliant in helping us getting everything organised. We are using Sorrento Wedding in Style, two lovely ladies Emilia and Raeffaella, they have been most pleasant and helpful to deal with and have made me feel that no part of our planning has been to much (and trust me being an event manager I have tendancies towards being fussy!). We saw so many different venue options they have great knowledge of the area. I will have to encourage them to sign up as a supplier on Mrs2be.ie!

Our reception venue should look very tasteful when all set up. We got to see it prepared for a wedding today. Included in the menu we have welcome cocktails and a starter buffet with lots of nibbles including some Italian specials. That should keep the guests happy till dinner time. We have chair covers, table flower arrangements, outdoor flowers and our wedding cake all included in the price so it is a good deal all round. I want the day to be here already! Maybe I will load some photos afterwards

That is about all I can manage for now, there is a glass of prosecco on the balcony calling me ….Arriveferci!

Welcome back to my blog, you will have to excuse my absence as I was travelling to Las Vegas for my job (it’s a hard life for some of us). The plus side of this was I managed to pick up my wedding shoes in one of Vegas’s many super outlet shops. Really happy with my strappy sandals

Believe it or not, this time tomorrow 8 weeks I will be a married woman! I can hardly believe it is coming around so fast. I still have a lot of preparations to do!! I will be in Sorrento for all the last minute planning the weekend of 23rd April so I am really looking forward to that now. We will be making final decisions on how our tables are going to be laid out in the restaurant, picking out some nice spots along the Amalfi Coast where we can take some wedding photos and of course the all important food and wine tasting. 

As I mentioned before, our wedding reception is in an Italian restaurant down by the sea. The menu will have some typical Italian dishes – probably Potato Gnocchetti made in the Sorrento style for the first course, and of course a bit of a regular main course to keep all our guests happy.  We are still waiting to hear back from one or two guests so cannot finalise our table plan just yet – I guess we will be still messing around with that a few days before the wedding.

At the moment I am trying to think of some nifty ideas of how to keep the guests amused at the tables while the meal is being served. All I can come up with so far is a card called “What tree did you fall from?”. I am planning on printing on these as cards for the tables – its just something small for the guests to read and start chatting about.

I’m open to ideas here, given the fact we are in Italy our resources a little more limited. I haven’t even got around to thinking of table names yet!  What are you fellow brides doing? If anyone has any funky suggestions please let me know.

I’ve been checking out the Martha Stewart website also – she has some great ideas for favours and table settings etc.  I am doing without favours (wedding budget is big enough already!). I’m hoping to home-make the name cards and menu cards myself something like this. Blue Peter watch out! (I’m all for saving a few pennies that we can then spend on our 4 week honeymoon in the US of A!

In my last blog entry I told you I had started the women’s only FITT Bootcamp.  What an eye opener as to how unfit I was! We did a series of 4 weeks, 3 classes a week. This was a combination of 2 indoor classes and an outdoor class on Saturdays in the Phoenix Park. The 1 hour class was a combination of warm up running, press ups (half press ups for us weakling ladies), squats, lunges, burbpies (if don’t know what this is trust me you don’t want to), abs workout, arms workout. I couldn’t move my arms or legs after. It’s a really good class, some of the exercises are quite difficult if you are a beginner but you know what they say about plenty of practice. I’m just sorry its over for me . I will have to resort to doing my very own bootcamp in the field!

Well that’s it from me for today – plan on and stay stress free missies

We had to postpone meeting the local priest for our pre-nuptial enquiry due to the disappearance of my confirmation cert. But all is in order now and we will be meeting hopefully by the end of this week to finalise all of the paperwork.  As you know we are tying the knot in Italy – the good news on this front is I got word back from the Department of Foreign Affairs that all documentation regarding our Nulla Osta has been sent to the Embassy in Rome and everything will be ready for the big day. Wohoo – at least that is a bit of relief!  I don’t know about you guys, but I am always slightly panicking about the paperwork (I have had visions of walking up the aisle and getting stopped by the priest telling me we are missing something and so he can’t perform the ceremony….aaahhhh!).

Last weekend, I rounded up the bridesmaids for a blitz of town, hoping to find suitable dresses that we could buy off the rail. With the temperature hopefully around 20 degrees in Sorrento we will need dresses a bit lighter than the regular bridesmaid dresses.  I would really love to find something that the ladies will wear again in the future.   I am a little worried that if we buy something off the high street, one of our guests could turn up the in the same dress. But then that will be their worry, not mine, right!? There wasn’t an excessive amount of choice in the shops (we even hightailed it from Dublin city to Dundrum during the day to check out more options). We found a fabulous Maxi dress that looks like it could be front runner – I’m going to try to scour the Internet over the next few days to see if I can find a more budget-friendly alternative. If not then maybe we will have a winner.  My three bridesmaids are brunette and the dress we all loved was a beautiful green/teal colour that suits them all, and looked quite glam too.  Perfect for a reception beside the sea.

The girls are still being mischievous about my hen night planned for April, but I’m not worried (I swear!).  Plans on the Groom’s side are moving along over the last week too, even Mr. M and the Grooms party have started to plan the stag. He is having a double stag with a friend who is also getting married about two months after us – shared friends, so they are trying to economise for everyone involved. The lads are planning 2 nights away from Dublin, taking in a football match too I would say at a guess. As long as Mr. M comes back intact (including eyebrows), and of course I don’t hear of any lap-dances then it is all good!

Items on the agenda for this week are to go hunting for the Grooms suits. I already have some prices jotted down from a few of the regular suit hire companies in town, however, I am wondering if it would be just as handy to buy the suits? We will need a lighter alternative to the typical suit for an Irish wedding, as well as having them rented for nearly a week – maybe we could find an alternative off the rail.  Any fellow destination brides out there that would like to share any insights into suits for weddings overseas please pm me [I'm Slightly Bonkers on mrs2be] and let me know your plans. I’m not as excited about looking for the suits as I was for my dress or the bridesmaids!

Plan on and stay stress free missies…

We completed our pre-marriage course last week – the PREP course with All Hallows in Drumcondra. It was a full day Saturday from 09.30 – 5.00 but to be honest it was not half as bad as I was expecting. I have heard a few stories of group role play etc, but thankfully all discussions were amongst ourselves as a couple – no divulging our “dark and twisties” to the whole room (Grey’s Anatomy fans will get me on this one).

The course was given by a married couple, with a Priest coming in for the last hour to run through the requirements for the Church etc.

They covered weddings in Ireland and abroad too so that provided a bit more relief that we are ticking all of the right boxes on the legal side.  The Priest was very down to earth and had a good understanding of his audience (mainly rare mass-goers). He didn’t try to pretend he understood the ins and outs of relationships so I appreciated that considering his celibacy and all! 

By 4 o’clock our eyeballs were glued to the door (a flashback to school days) – we had our fill of questionnaires on how we resolve arguments, budgeting, children etc.  The course might open eyes for a couple who have just met, but for those of us co-habiting a few years there were no major revelations (thankfully). The best part was some funny video clips showing American couples with dodgy mullets arguing!

At least that is one more item checked off the to-do list.

We are meeting our local priest this week too for our pre-nuptial enquiry. How do I convince him he has seen us sitting in the front pew every day for the last 5 years!? I will be glad when I get to the end of the paperwork.

On a more exciting note, my Bridesmaids have started to organise my hen night. Because we are going away for our wedding I think it is only fair we stay home for the hen – so Dublin city watch out, Slightly Bonkers is about!  They are planning on starting early afternoon – all I have heard mention of is cocktails, they are sparing me the gory details for now. As long as there is no spandex or leotards involved everything will be fine….

As well as that this week is crunch time for the Bridesmaid dresses – myself and the ladies are planning a blitz of town this weekend.  With our Church and reception venue beside the sea I am hoping to go for blues or greens – fingers crossed for a successful day shopping.

Plan on and stay stress free missies….

So after 5 years together, Mr.M popped the question in December 2008 – a romantic Christmas day proposal, ring and all! (also scored a bonus by telling my parents on Christmas eve and asking my girlfriends’ advice on the ring!)

We’re getting married in Italy – a religious cermony in the picturesque setting of Santa Maria Assunta church in Positano, followed by a reception in a sea front restaurant in Sorrento. We really can’t wait for the big day, it’s going to be amazing!

So far we have about 60 guests making the trip over. We’re keeping the invite list to close family and friends which will help in making it really special and intimate. With 16 weeks to the wedding now I can’t believe how quick the last year of our engagement has gone, perhaps I should have everything fully organised by now but I’m not there just yet!

Mr. M is getting a pretty easy ride on the wedding prep (consulted on all major decisions except on things where his opinion would be futile like what kind of flowers and colour scheme to decide on, oh and all things dress related!). Excitedly (and relivedly so) the dress has been ordered and is due in April for fittings. I bet you are thinking “hello January Sales!” in the bridal shops – I cut it a bit tight didn’t I?! You are right. I was entering nervously late territory desperatly trying to shed a few more pounds before finding THE dress!

But all is now in order, I’ve picked a Maggie Sottero gown and I absolutely love it! To be honest I wasn’t sure if I would have that ‘eureka’ moment when searching for the dress, but it happened eventually and all bridesmaids and my mother instantly loved too! I just can’t wait to wear it now (please help me go easy on the carbs between now and May!).

How and ever, I’m still undecided on other major items like the bridesmaid dresses, menus, first dance song, church music and a few other items! I don’t think anyone really understands the amount of work involved in planning a wedding until you get to do it (and I’m lucky to have some local help in Italy too).

We have our prewedding course next week so I’m curious and a tad nervous of what that will be like – group therapy has never been my forté!  Although the lady taking the bookings has assured me it won’t be that bad! That’s just another €150 onto the ever increasing wedding budget. But what the hell – its a big celebration and I’ll hopefully only do it once! Check back here for updates on how the course goes!

I hope you guys are getting as excited as I am with all your wedding plans! Stay tuned to my wedding journey here on Mrs2be.ie….  EDIT: READ MY NEXT DIARY ENTRY HERE

Slightly Blonkers