The Review Part 2

The week after the wedding I flew out to Dallas and New Orleans for 2 weeks with work. It meant that it's taking me a lot longer than penned to get around to writing on here, sending out thank you cards and sorting through wedding photos. But on the plus side I got to spend some time in the New Orleans French Quarter drinking hurricanes and eating a lot of spiced alligator stew. It's a tough job.

On with the wedding review...

 The Band
The music choice was more Chris' domain as I didn't have a particular preference. I went onto the DG Music website, the management company for bands and musicians in Rutland and the surrounding counties. There you can do a search based on genre, budget and location of your event venue to find your ideal matches, and that's how we came across The Atlantics.  They played all the music we love, like the Kings of Leon, Strokes, Libertines and Biffy Clyro's Many of Horror for our first dance. They were also really good at interacting with the crowd and getting everyone back on the dance floor for the second set when energy levels were waning. A nice bunch, talented, fun, and they gave uncle Phil a good soundtrack to throw some moves.


Cakes
We had two wedding cakes to deliver two of my favourite foods - chocolate and cheese. Both delicious, both a bargain, both from M&S. We had the ribbon cake (£249) for dessert after our Hog Roast dinner with tea and coffee, which went down a treat. The sweet white chocolate outer contrasted beautifully with the rich, fudgy, milk chocolate ganache inside. The box says it serves 110 which I think is quite accurate. Everyone got a good sized slice with their tea and we were still able to salvage the top tier to take home and eat the week after at our spa hotel minimoon.

 

The cheese tower (£155) came out for the band's remission and was served with breads, crackers and chutneys. We had an absolute ton left over to take home, even with everyone taking a bash at it (and the band gave it a good go as well), we barely made a dent. I'd seen other cheese tower cakes that were slightly smaller elsewhere, but they were much pricier. The benefit of this immense portion was that no one went hungry and we had enough to take away with us and share with guests as thank you gifts. I was making cheesy pasta bakes and quiches for weeks after, the blacksticks blue makes an amazing addition to any white sauce.

What was really great about getting my cakes from M&S is the service. I was able to order the cakes to be delivered to my parent's local store in Stamford, and we went and collected them the day before the wedding. A store clerk brought them out on a wheely gurney and helped me load them carefully into the car. I was nervous driving around Rutland's bumpy and windy roads to the hotel but I needn't worry - the chocolate cake (which comes readily assembled) was in a perfect plastic mould of itself to ensure it remained perfectly intact.

 

 

The tableplan

Chris found this beautiful but rather neglected old typewriter on Ebay. We cleaned it up with some baking soda and I printed off a plan that looked like it could have been typed out. Total cost around £30 plus a tenner for the paper rose garland, also off ebay. Job done.

 

 

Now that the wedding is over I am experiencing a few creative relapses of the leftover energy.  So I'm now turning that energy to making homemade Xmas baubles. I will make time for Uni work, house renovations and other things at some point, hopefully. But those chores aren't as fun, nor can you acceptably drink mulled wine whilst doing them.