Well hello there, thanks for the warm welcome! Before I start I'd like to say a massive thank you to everyone that voted for us. It really was a surprise to read that we'd been short-listed and then that we were one of the final four, how awesome! Also thanks to our lovely friends and family who sent some very thoughtful (amusing) cards and gifts on our engagement.

So here we are. Post one. I suppose I should start with a bit about us just so you know who you're dealing with for the next 12 months...

Here's us in a nutshell. I'm Paddy, I have a regular day job but at the weekends I'm mostly found guiding a raft down a river at The National White Water Centre in Bala - it's popular with stag parties so if you know anyone coming up this way give me a shout. Debs works for a charity as a Fundraising Manager and moved in with me last year. Some of Deb's mates crashed out first date, and our second come to think of it. We've got an awesome dog called Spud and an unhealthy amount of prosecco in the fridge. We're mostly found kicking around the lakes with the dog or climbing (indoor as we're rookies) or in the pub drinking cider. That's pretty much us, not too rock and roll, just bimbling around.

Right, down to business. Wedding preparations...

Debs organises events a lot with work so isn't fazed by big projects and I go along with most decisions "we" make. We had the date in mind, we want a relaxed wedding (probably because we're a bit rubbish at making decisions and get distracted easily) with a few friends and family. We genuinely thought that this would be an easy-ish thing to arrange. Simple, right? Wrong. So very wrong.

We really are blessed living in north Wales. We're surrounded by the most beautiful everything; amazing food and drink suppliers, artists, jewellery makers, views, old buildings and farms, the list goes on. So finding a venue that had that oh-so-popular rustic charm, where we could cater ourselves and that was close to accommodation for those travelling, we thought, would be easy...Nope. Not so.

We had a venue pencilled early on but had the budget versus number of guests dilemma, which I'm sure everyone goes through at some point. We were looking at being crippled by corkage and tied into the venue's catering that wasn't exactly what we wanted - but we both loved the setting and we wanted our guests from outside the area to see what Wales is like, other than the A55 of course! A quick rethink and a phone call to the local registry office and we *think* that we have a winner...we'll be excited to tell you all about it soon enough, but at the time of writing this we don't want to jinx anything. For couples who are in north Wales and looking for something similar to us, well, you're in for a treat! (There's a sneak peak above...)

The next stage is to get our friends and family together for an engagement 'party' of some description so we've booked a picnic and white water rafting at our centre in Bala and we should probably introduce our parents at some point in the near future too! So that's where we're at...

(Enter Debs...)

So, it's not quite that simple to be honest. While Patrick has been helping on the venue hunt and arranging an engagement party I've also been busy, well, as busy as a Bride-to-be is. I've never been a 'girly girl', I've never really thought I'd end up getting married and I'm not really fussed about the detail in anything outside of work. But then we got engaged and that all changed. I've found my inner crafter, developed an unhealthy interest in 'stuff' that I've never needed before and generally just become a bit more girly.

Accidentally I've prioritised learning to make things that every DIY bride *needs* over the venue and the guest list. My accountabilibuddy (Kirsty) and I went to an amazing craft warehouse and missed out on dress shopping as a result (not so accountable it turns out, eh, Cooper?), but we did find some dual coloured card to make pin wheels out of. I don't have a clue what to do with pin wheels and forgot to put a bead on the back so they don't spin so I'm *delighted* with how they turned out. I've also bought some kit for making photo props which I'm sure I'll play with when I've had too many mojitos at Christmas and an old photo frame. All in all, I'm doing well...

Then, last week I was reading over the blogs from Real Brides of the recent past and found some of the most helpful advice, but something that made me actually say out loud "errr, what? WHAT???" That advice was simply: don't forget to book the registrar for the date you want. Now, I'm sure that there's a manual somewhere that tells you this, or a class I missed at school but we didn't know we should have done this ASAP. The boy paints a nice picture because it ended well, but actually we had a bit of a panic because there was only one slot left for the date we wanted - so we're in at 11am.

Anyhow, by next time we can fill you in with the venue (hopefully), how my dress shopping is going (which is much more fun than I thought it would be), whether the boys are happy with what they'll be dressed in and whether I've managed to Mod Podge my hands together again. Seriously, Spiderman had nothing on me...

Much love xx