I do...

Jennifer Helsby

So our day came and went. 

It just doesn't feel right to leave this page without a final entry. 

I want to fill this page with lots of pictures and general happiness. 

Dan is currently watching the last few episodes of Breaking Bad, and I hope will write his own version of this in time. 

Just want to let everyone know that Thank You cards will be sent out soon. I just can't find any I like! 

Hopefully we have said all of our thank you's either in person or through the speeches. But there are a few thank you's I didn't get to make. 

Ma n Pa

Just a quick one as they won't see this. But the people that made it possible. My parents. And they kept me from jumping off a bridge throughout the planning. 

Much appreciated. 

The in-laws

The craftier set of parents. The idea makers. The planners. So much stuff would not have gotten done if it wasn't for this power couple. Also, I lost count how many times Dan said 'my dad's mate'. Which, may I say, has been so brilliant!

The Men

*left to right*

Calum 

Coming all the way from Liverpool! It's never easy to get Saturdays off when you work in retail near Christmas. Thank you for making sure you could come spend the day with us.

Joe 

 You have been a constant for Dan. You started a business! It was obvious you were going to be a Groomsman, and thank you from me for accepting the offer. No one could have replaced you in the party.   

Matt 

 It's such a lot of pressure to be a best man. There was no one else who could have done it but you.  You  made a lovely speech. One that I'm sure both Dan and I won't forget. :)

Rob 

 Big brother I know you don't like your picture being taken, or people talking to you, or people looking at you. But you did super well and I have the photos to prove it! Thank you for not  hiding from the camera in true Milligan fashion. Genuinely proud. 

James 

 Scotland! You came from Scotland! Thank you so much! That must have been a treck and a half. Was lovely to have you there, there would have been a James (and Fiona!!) shaped hole  if you weren't. 

The Women

 

*left to right*

Emma 

 Late night trips to the Range, all the palava with the dresses, the nails (oh god the nails!!) It's been such a laugh. Thank you for putting up with me and ferrying me around. Can't believe you trusted me to direct us to Merry Hill and back!!

Isabella

The darling little girl, and her two brothers, were so well behaved and gorgeous.  Isabella made all the heads turn. Just beautiful. 

Lianne 

Every tear that I nearly shed was sent over for you to cry, thanks as I don't think my mascara was waterproof. There was a reason I picked you to do a reading. Thank you for doing that for me.   

Rosie 

Oh my God, the Hen do. Thank you thank you thank you. The effort you went to. The amount of people you added on Facebook so they would talk to you. That responsibility sort of just fell on you and you handled it beautifully. Thank you. 

Polly 

I know the dress wasn't your first choice. Or the heels. But thank you for respecting my choices and doing so with such grace and dignity. You looked beautiful. I couldn't have asked for more. You are a superstar.  

The Husband

Daniel David Helsby. 

You got to do your speech, well now it's my turn. 

Thank you for marrying me! It sounds super silly but I don't think I've properly said thank you yet. 

I think I've been far too busy reveling in my own good fortune- I mean look at the man that I've married. Just look at him!

Look at his lovely face!!!

I am one lucky wife. 

I've never met such a beautiful person inside and out. And I am genuinely amazed that you have stuck with me for so long. I do not deserve you. 

But I've got you forever now!

You're stuck with me. 

RIP team Millsby

GO team Helsby...

It's been a while, hasn't it?

Well, we aren’t very good at keeping up a regular blog, are we? 

Our bad. 

Sorry 

L

Anyway, lots and lots to fill you all in on!! 

Some of you will have received your invites in the last week.  They were all handmade with love (awwww!)

Dan may have gone into a strop when he failed at sticking the inside of the invite into the card...

It. Was. Hilarious.

(Dan: Dan does not DO CRAFTS.)

Dan and I are both eagerly awaiting your replies and your menu choices. I know it’s still early days but I’m hoping the more I can organise now the more time I have later on if something goes wrong!!

 All ready to get sent off! We were sat in Costa Coffee preparing ourselves for posting them.

There’s still the evening invites left to send, but they’ll be closer to December. (yes, I do have them ready to write up). I happened to find some Christmas cards in the right colours and just had to get them!!

All of the bridesmaids are sorted now, their shoes and dresses are all bought. Just have to wait till December to buy a dress and shoes for my little niece. (CANNOT WAIT TO DO THAT) She’s going to be the cutest little bridesmaid EVER. My 4 fully grown bridesmaids all look absolutely stunning in their dresses; two in teal and two in purple.

I’m actually quite surprised I’ve managed to get them all sorted so quick. With how spread out we all are I thought it would take a lot longer! But shopping trips in Merry Hill, Leicester and Leeds have lead to 4 happy ladies and one happy Jen.

My lovely Groom- to- be(!!!) has made a startling decision; he wants an interesting coloured suit. Not one of these black, grey or navy boring ones. Something more like....purple or teal.

(In all fairness we have seen some LOVELY suits in both colours.)

So I may have encouraged this strange idea. As long as those Ted Baker shoes look good with the suit I’ll be alright. J

The centre-pieces have changed a slight bit, but Dan’s fabulous Aunt and her equally fabulous  husband are helping us out with them. Luckily the new ideas have given me some inspiration and I’m drawing up new designs and can’t wait to get started on making some stuff! They are going to look more like the picture from the last post. :D

The bouquets are slowly (very slowly) taking shape. Making some music note flowers to make sure Dan gets his musical tastes involved.

(Fun fact: all of the music note flowers are made from The Nutcracker Suite sheet music; because it’s Christmas-y and because it’s Dan’s favourite classical piece)

In February we went to a jewellers and got THE RINGS. It took us a while to pick...well...it took me a while to pick. (In the end I went for a shiny one) Dan was a classic man about it and picked the first one he saw. They are now sitting in their bags and I want to open them soooo bad!

BIG ASS MASSIVE NEWS!

I have a dress.

Jen’s Wedding Dress Debacle:

I visited a bridal shop and tried on some dresses like this...

I loved them on the hanger and had had my heart set on that style for a while. But when I tried them on I felt absolutely ridiculous. I was uncomfortable and just hated them. They did not suit me.

I was convinced that the wedding was off.

Then I tried on a few simple dresses.

I was happier in this style; understated and then I could blend into the background. I was happy but my mum was clearly unconvinced. She literally begged me to try on a few more in different styles. I wasn’t having any of it, until I saw a dress in a window...

I think that’s everything...

We promise we won’t leave it as long next time.

And next time, it’s Dan’s turn to write a post. :-P

That’s all till next time! Love Millsby. XX

Pictures from weddingdressesmall.co.uk and Debenhams.com

This is the year.

So it’s been a while, but we are back. And we are definitely still getting married! I think it’s been about 6 months since our last post and there is a fair amount to fill you in on.

Before getting onto the wedding stuff just a quick personal update; we have now moved in together at long last! Jen has got a job in Leicester and is working much harder than Dan. (Dan: her words, not mine.)

Now back to business.

So what have we been doing? Well, I (Dan) have been working really very, very hard. I’ve (and by I, I mean we, clearly) ordered the awesome cufflinks for my groomsmen, decided on the colours of my suit (nearly), and made a note of the processional song, and what has to be the last song of the reception.

Jen meanwhile has done barely anything. She’s ordered half of the bridesmaids shoes, started picking out bridesmaids dresses, has been making a lot of flowers for her brooch bouquets, has been looking hard for wedding dresses, designing place settings for all of the day time guests, designed the centrepieces for the dinner tables, bought her wedding shoes (and then changed her mind and sorted those out too!), made all of the invites by hand (with some lovely helpers!) and a dozen or so other things that I can’t remember off the top of my head. 

So really, she’s not done much.

So everything is coming along quite nicely at the moment, and now that it is 2014, we can no longer say that we are getting married ‘next year’. The year is upon us, and there is still a lot to go.

So...thank you Dan for being really vague.

The date has changed would be my first thing to mention. After some arguing it is now set as Saturday 20^th December 2014. Eeeep.   

The venue has been chosen and the date has been provisionally booked with...OAK FARM HOTEL *fanfare please, thank you*

Nice warm fire place for a cold winters night.

Dan’s section wasn’t completely useless, he was right in saying that I am brilliant and have done a lot.

Invites: check.

(Need to thank my dear mother and mother-in-law to be for their help in making almost 50 of these bad boys!)

Started on the flowers: check.

                             Mmmm! Glittery goodness!

Decent brooch collection: check.

Table plan design and the provisional plan: check.

Sorry, no picture for this one!!

Centre piece design: check.

(this isn’t it...but it’ll be very similar. Imagine it rounder J )

Shoes: check

(PHOOOOOOAAAAARRRR!!)

Wedding diet: ...bugger. 

errmm...we'll just skip over this one for now...

So...yeah...getting there even though there is a lot left to do.

I’ve also chosen Dan’s wedding shoes (both pairs- what a diva!!)

So now that things are moving forwards we will try to keep you updated a bit more often...try ;) 

Thanks!

That’s all till next time! Love Millsby. XX

Here, there and everywhere.

It has probably been well over a month since the first post; our bad! Dan has left me to apologise for and explain our absence. We had every intention of writing a new post every two weeks but two major incidents sent me into hysterics and Dan was left with his poor head spinning.

It would be rude of me to not share these incidents with you, so here goes…

-          The date: SPOLIER ALERT we want the wedding on 22^nd December 2014. So far we’ve had a mixture of responses but the number of negative feelings towards the date was too much for me to take. For about a week I was refusing to have the wedding in December and refused to talk weddings at all.

How Dan fixed it: I have no idea how he did it, but he fixed it. He calmed me down and convinced me that the complaints just don’t matter. Truth be told I’m still a little unsure even now.   But I imagine if I have the same minor meltdown again then he will sort it out…he’s good like that. (Note from Dan: Chocolate and hugs are useful. She makes it sound worse than she really was… honest… Drama Queen.)

-          The venue: Okay, the list of places we’ve seen/seriously looked at online goes like this:   Patshull Park, Park Hall Hotel, Pendrell Hall, The Racecourse, The Britannia, Blakelands, The Dudley Arms, Himley Country Hotel, Somerford Hall and Oak Farm Hotel. That’s the order we saw/found them. By the time we got to Himley House I was despairing. Dan liked most of them and was perfectly happy to get married in them. I was not. I did not like them and I felt like I was being too picky and generally really annoying. But then we saw the last two and things changed. LOVED THEM. It has been narrowed down the last two and we even have a sneaking suspicion of which one will win.

How Dan fixed the many problems: He refused to get married in a place that I didn’t like, bless him; even though I was being an utter pain. He carried on searching…and even though I was the one that found the (potential) winning venue he was the one that got me to continue the search.   

I’m not sure if I’m even allowed to, but at the end of the blog post I’ll post one or few of our favourite pictures from the venues we’ve seen.

What else has happened? We went to a wedding fayre, that was fun. We met the slimiest photographer ever who apparently was trying to look down my top the entire time. We saw some of the cheapest looking wedding dresses ever. We also met the snootiest baker ever; who I have no intention of asking to bake the wedding cake but I will be stealing their ideas when I send my design for a cake to a nicer baker.

OH YES! SHOES! Yes, shoes! I may have brought my wedding shoes while I still had a discount at Schuh. But recently I saw some other ones I like and dragged Dan to Schuh to watch me try them on. He was really helpful even though I was expecting him to whinge and complain the entire time. I’ve also decided on the bridesmaids shoes. God I love shoes. Shoes, shoes, shoes! (Note from Dan: I do not like shoes. Or shoe shopping. SHOES!!!)

Patshull Park

We saw Patshull while it was being set up for a wedding. This is a feature they offer and it covers a very large wall and I think it would look lovely at night!

This is only half the space, there’s a partition comes away and for the breakfast and stays down for the rest of the time.

Love the beams! It could look so cosy at Christmas.

Park Hall Hotel

There are Swarovski crystals embedded in the wallpaper and curtains! Dear Lord it was amazing.

I don’t know why, I love a good stair case. This was a good staircase.

Oh yeah, enjoy that bad boy.

(Note from Dan: Stairs are helpful for getting upstairs.)

Pendrell Hall

Initially this was my favourite, but it isn’t finished yet. Use some imagination.

Such amazing fireplaces in this place!

Nice and cosy! Just look at those arches! *Swoon*

Oak Farm Hotel

Gorgeous! Those beams are stunning. It’s very simple and the low ceiling will be lovely at Christmas.

But there’s a modern twist with all the glass alongside the wooden beams.

Not the best picture, but you see what I mean.

Somerford Hall

Drool.

Look at those stairs!

(Note from Dan: Stairs are helpful for getting upstairs. I do not understand the attraction!)

It’s a tad on the small side, but when it looks like that, who cares?

As we’ve said, we think we know which one we like the most, though I don’t think you’ll be able to guess which! Once we’ve got it all booked in and arranged, we’ll let you know.

Well, that’s all till next time! Love Millsby. XX

Popped the Question.

Well hello there, lovely reader. As you guys who are reading this may well be people who know us, you’ll be aware that Jen and I are engaged! And well, that’s pretty awesome.

Greetings from 'Millsby'

We decided that we wanted to make a bit of a blog as a keepsake for ourselves, to chart our progress through the mire of wedding planning; mainly because I’m soppy and Jen has a terrible memory. We’ll keep all of our friends and family up to date with our plans and everything! 

Here's Dan making the blog. I was too busy playing with the camera.

At the moment we’re not really sure what this blog is going to contain, I’m new to this, and Jen hates all things internet…she says as she browses wedding blogs, but now we’re engaged she’s starting less fights with me and was happy for us to put this together. 

FYI, Jen knows what this blog will contain…Jen knows everything. J (Dan: I’m not sure about this!) (Jen: I am.)

This opening post is to show off the fact that we’re engaged, with a few pictures of us just lounging as a
couple, enjoying engaged life.

This is Dan remembering that we're meant to be spending time together. -->







We’ll both be chiming in from time to time, either with longer posts, or just quick updates about things we’re enjoying at that moment! And lots of wedding planning fun!! 

Get used to these faces displaying various degrees of attractiveness.













Here’s a picture of the ring that lightened my wallet and sealed the deal:

Lastly, the scene of the crime. The bridge where I popped the big question:

That's all till next time! Love, Millsby xx