3 months today, I will be a married man. To put this into perspective of how close this is, 3 months ago I was eating mince pies and preparing for Christmas. Eek!

Since my last blog, we have made lots of progress with our wedding plans. On Saturday, Claire and I went into town to collect the rings we ordered ages ago. I was well prepared when it came to trying on my ring, and held out the correct finger on the left hand. Our beautiful looking rings are engraved with our initials and wedding date. I was tempted to joke that the date was wrong, but thought this would give either the Jeweller or Claire a heart attack.

I must have tried my ring on ten times since taking it home. Claire has probably tried hers on even more. I should really stop this and put them somewhere safe until the day of the wedding, but at the moment I’m holding onto it tight. When the big day arrives in June, I will probably be found in the corner of a room, clutching the ring, eating a raw fish, while muttering “my precious”.

This morning, we went to the church to meet The Reverend, who will be marrying us. He was very nice, made us feel special and came across as excited about the wedding as we are! Forms have now been completed and it is official – the ceremony is booked and confirmed. Our wedding is really happening and it is just 3 months away!

It has been another busy weekend of wedding planning. Claire and I went into town yesterday morning, to purchase one of the most important parts of the wedding and the marriage – the rings. We had already decided upon the design, so it was simply a case of discussing the engraving, establishing my ring size (I’m an ‘S’), before parting with a lot of money to pay for them. The order has now been sent to the ring gnomes, who will build it with love, fairy-dust and white gold, before sending them back to the jeweller for us to collect.

This afternoon, we returned to Limpley Stoke Hotel for the second week in a row. Last Sunday we met with our wedding planner. Today, the hotel held a wedding fayre. We have attended lots of similar events over the past 18 months, which were an excellent opportunity to meet suppliers and discuss ideas. Lots of what we need has already been organised, but today gave us the opportunity to see our wedding venue in all its glory and visit the bedrooms where we will spend our first night as a married couple. As you will see, they look very luxurious and are surrounded with breath taking countryside. The bandstand was really nice and will provide some excellent photo opportunities.

After visiting the hotel, we returned to Claire’s parents, where we wrote wedding invitations. If you are coming to our big day, you will shortly be receiving one of these in the post…

Well my plan to blog every day of the year didn’t last long. In reality, it was never going to happen. Given the fact I’m getting married this year and having a honeymoon, I was hardly going to be able to update this site all the time. I can see it now – it’ll be my wedding day and I’d be late at the church, simply because I had been blogging about the fact I found a spider in my shoe. On the honeymoon, instead of taking an excursion to one of the wonders of the world, I’ll be in my bedroom, blogging. I would miss witnessing The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, but at least I would have told my followers (all 2 of them) about that bacon roll I ate for breakfast.

Yesterday was full of wedding related things. In the morning we went to the church, where we will marry, for Sunday Service. It is a beautiful, traditional-looking church, which is hundreds of years old, in a picturesque location within Weston Village, Bath. We couldn’t have found a nicer place.

Claire and I have been planning the wedding for over 18 months, but it is finally starting to feel real. In fact, it is just five months tomorrow that we will tie the knot.

In the evening, we visited the hotel, which will host our Wedding Breakfast and evening reception. I have finally learnt wedding etiquette. Well some of it. At the start of our wedding plans, I thought the ‘Breakfast’ was a meal held before the church ceremony, where the bride and groom would sit around eating a greasy fry up. How wrong I was. For those as uneducated as I was, it is a full course meal, which you eat AFTER the wedding. In fact, we will be eating ours mid-afternoon. The last time I ate breakfast at that time, I was a student.

I was advised by our wedding planner that I should be beginning to write my speech. I have to write a speech. A speech – with words and stuff! How on earth am I going to do that? I was advised that speeches are traditionally 10 minutes in length and not to make it too long. I laughed. There is absolutely ZERO danger of my speech being too long! I am going to struggle to fill a couple of minutes. “Hello, everyone. Thank you all for coming. I hope you have a good day.” I’ll probably just look on Sikipedia for some highly offensive jokes, to alarm any children and adults of a sensitive disposition that may be in attendance. OK, OK, I won’t do that. Probably. Anyone know any Rolf Harris gags?