1st wedding countdown

The wedding countdown has begun and with only 4 weeks to go as I write this, preparations are well underway. Obviously I can not divulge too many details but I can give you a flavour of what's been happening @ number 6.
Last weekend if you remember was gorgeous and I reminded David that he had a wedding arch to build out of old wooden ladders. I was starting to get a little worried about how this was going to work in term of 'trimming it up' and was very keen to get it sorted. He started on Friday, dismantling the extending ladder we had got on ebay and rummaging behind our shed for an old one we had there, laying them out on the garden to get height and width.

The end result was brilliant ( you'll have to wait for pictures!) It was everything and more that I had hoped for. Becky was really taken back when she saw it half finished on Saturday and when she and Tom called in on Sunday they were able to see it in all it's glory and give their input into how it was to be trimmed up.
My galvanised buckets that I bought a month ago and planted up with bedding plants are really looking lovely - I just hope they'll be as good in 4 weeks! I wasn't sure where we would use them when I planted them up but have a couple of ideas now.

As Becky had asked me to make her bouquet and those of the bridesmaids plus all the button holes I thought it might be useful to start to practice as I have never made a bouquet in my life. We went down to Morrisons and bought some flowers.

All I can say is I'm glad I have time for a couple more practices, it wasn't bad for a first try but not good enough for 'the day'. It was amazing how far those few flowers went, we put some together that would go on the register signing table and some in pots and tins to see what they would look like, so all in all about 50% of the way the flowers will be is now sorted. 

I must just finish by telling you about the advice we had on how to clean the wedding dress which is a little grubby round the bottom. We had gone to the dressmaker to see about the alterations and were asking about getting it cleaned. Pauline (the dressmaker) had a look at it and the labels and said 'Wash it'. Well you can imagine our faces - 'Wash it' 'Yes' she said 'The under slip could go in the washer and you can wash the dress by putting it in the bath. Just put lukewarm water in and some washing liquid, swish the dress around, rinse and hang out' She suggested we took the under slip home and wash it whilst she altered the wedding dress and then we could take the dress and wash it whilst she altered the slip. So we did, I put the slip in a pillowcase, fastening it with nappy pins ( do you remember those?) and washed it. The result - a perfectly clean and fresh smelling slip!! Will let you know how the dress wash goes, so till the next time have a lovely weekend xx

Elderflower cordial

The other week I noticed how the trees were full of elderflowers,so time to get cracking to make cordial. I made it last year but by the time I got going the flowers were getting passed their best so this year I wanted to get on top of it. I got obsessed looking for the best place to collect from which had easy parking and in the end chose a layby about 2-3 minutes drive away which had a tree in it and with more across the road. Having parked it became obvious I wouldn't need to go across the road and within 5 minutes I had collected 50 flower heads to use in this recipe. I follow it apart from not putting in limes, mainly because I didn't have any the first time I made it. It is soooo easy to make, below are the ingredients

and here is the process, dissolve the sugar in the water and bring to the boil

and the elderflowers

 add the sliced fruit and citric acid

stir and leave covered for 24 hours ( I don't worry if it's a day longer) and then bottle in sterilised bottles

It keeps in the fridge for a couple of months (if it lasts that long) and will freeze. We like it let down with sparkling water or even better prosecco! 

The elderflowers are getting passed their best but I have made another batch over the weekend which tasted just as delicious - give it a go whilst you have chance. L Anne xx