You spend all that time researching, spell-chequeing [sic], and crossing fingers only to discover that the boss’ son got it and not only did you not get an interview, but they never even acknowledged your application in a two line ‘thanks-but-no-thanks’ email.

Grrr…

However, for a brief period of time I feel the shoe is on the other foot.

All of a sudden Babs and I are presented with thousands of options, for even the tiniest aspect of our day; What type of chairs would you like? should the chairs have arms? how many chairs? what colour chairs? do we need chair covers? what colour chair covers? do they need a bow? (before you start calling me saying I’m mad, have no fear – there will not be a chair cover in sight!!! No way are we shelling out three figures for something that people will sit on and therefore not see for most of the day!!! You’ll sit on what you’re given :p).

However, when it comes to choosing caterers, bands, photographers et al you’ll find that many of them will travel a great distance to be with you, so the choice can be from anyone in the South of England – quite a wide choice.

I’ve found myself cruising through hundreds of websites and plenty of those wedding magazines we borrowed looking up different people, and it’s amazing how quickly you form an opinion. I really do feel that within seconds I’m judging their service, what the people behind it think about their marketing/presentation, the photos/food they pick for their website/ad and what it says about them, etc. I find myself moving on after 15 seconds… “that’s not for me” I’ll say to myself, and carry on down the google list. A dismissal can be that quick – I’ve barely given them a chance, really.

I’ve become that unforgiving employer who is tough to please but knows what he likes. My dismissals come down to little more than a gut instinct… but I suppose that’s the only way to whittle down every photographer in the south of England down to a short list that my brain and wallet can handle.

When you’re making tough choices between different services it’s the small things that you look to. For example, I was very impressed when a photographer I recently emailed for a price list had taken the time to look at the blog before sending their info through (must have seen the domain name in my email) and had personalised their email accordingly. A sweet touch, and one that (for me, at least) has sent an already good possibility to the very top of my wish list.

On the one hand it has reminded me that with these wedding services we’re not only buying into their service e.g. their cooking, but we’re buying into their personality and approach to their job, and more often than not we’ll get on well with people who share our outlook on the whole thing.

It’s also reminded me how it’s the small things that can really make people stop, think and smile. My resolution for this week is to try to pass that feeling onto somebody else…

Matty

I personally simply wasn’t expecting all of the enourmously sweet cards, and even some very generous presents. I have been totally bowled over, and thanks to everybody that has gone out of their way for us – it means a lot.

However, as I stared at the engagment cards that Babs has hung around the flat, and the large pile of borrowed wedding magazines a thought came to us – we really ought to get on with sorting this thing out!

… and it’s only then that you realise quite how big this wedding beast can be.

I wish I could give you a figure for the number of venues that we have looked at. Hours spent staring at screens and then plenty more hitting the road looking round different places. We’ve met some really nice people and seem some absolutely gorgeous places.

For a lot of the time we equated it to searching for a flat or house – just hoping that, at any moment, we would walk through the door and just go ‘yep, that’s the one’. I think the problem is that we didn’t expect that to happen to us on more than one… but it did. We’ve spent the last few weeks being really torn between a few different venues. The ones that we ended up narrowing it down to couldn’t have been more different, and ranged from the local village hall through to quite a swanky hotel that would let us have the whole thing for a good few thousand pounds.

We’re coming close to narrowing the choice down, but I certainly feel that having had fun riding the wave we’re now getting down to the ‘work’…

Me and Barbara are going to get married.

I can’t wait, and it’s very exciting. I realise that there is a lot to do, and I hope that we can use this blog to keep people in touch with what we are doing, the reasons behind out decisions, and most importantly enjoy counting down the days with us.

One thing that Barbara said to me is that she doesn’t want us to mention the venue. That’s cool – there’s some funny people out there (takes one to know one). However, what we will do is keep you in touch with as much of the other bits and bobs that we can. I fully expect there to be lots of different things that will have to come together as we count down to the day.

We’ll keep in touch and hope you’ll join us for the journey

Matty & Babs

… They don’t play the national anthem after gigs any more – what a shame.