Auld Lang Syne

2012 has been an amazing year, and the ups have far outweighed the downs. I learnt how to Lindy Hop, we've been to Spain, I got an A* in my GCSE Spanish, I had a Charleston hen do, we got married, had a fabulous honeymoon in Italy, redecorated the living room, have been on some fantastic walks with our dog, Levi, and have finished it by adopting a lovely new dog called Jess. I have spent time with family and friends, made new friends, and danced. And danced. Oh, and danced some more.

As the world didn't come to an end on any of the numerous predicted world-ending dates, I think it's time to sit and have a think about what my New Year's Resolutions for 2013 are going to be to help it be (almost) as good.

A Complimentary Culture
In a time when people seem quick to complain about things, I'm going to make an effort to be quick to compliment. If a salesperson is particularly helpful, or a product I buy is particularly good, or an event I go to is particularly good, I'm going to be writing a very friendly letter.

Shop Local
When I first thought about this one, I thought about trying to avoid tax avoiders. Places like Starbucks and Ikea are pretty easy to find alternatives for, but when you think about trying to avoid Google, it starts getting harder. A friend pointed out that all these companies are doing is paying the least amount of tax that they are legally obliged to, and whilst I think that there is some truth in that, I also believe that there is something ethically wrong about it. The blame should, however, rest with the government for allowing the loopholes in the first place and, unfortunately, we definitely can't avoid them without moving somewhere with different (or worse) problems than the UK. Maybe if Scotland goes, the Rileys will go too...
Anyway, in the meantime, I decided that as we live in Sheffield, which is approaching some kind of foodie haven, with a bit of foresight and planning we can reduce what we spend in big supermarkets and make the most of local produce and local suppliers. I have even bought myself an old lady wheeled shopping trolley in preparation!  Our milk will be from Our Cow Molly, our meat from the local butcher, our eggs from my egg lady, and we will make use of Sheffield's craft and vintage fayres for presents, along with the Nichols Building and Sheffield Antiques Quarter. Any suggestions for other local suppliers will be gratefully received!

Debt Reduction
So, with a wedding and two fabulous holidays this year and previously a good while of living slightly above our means has led me to announce that 2013 will be the year to pay stuff off. We will only be buying things that we can afford to pay for, and I intend to have made a sizeable dent in our debt... the first aim is to get us out of Riley Recession and have two consecutive quarters where our debt has reduced instead of increased. If we can't afford to buy something, we don't buy it. Nothing is to go on credit cards.

The Normal Shit
Every single year I say "Lose Weight, Exercise More, Keep the House Tidy". These are standing resolutions and I'm making them again. Fortunately I've eaten a fucking shit load since the wedding, so am at my heaviest that I've been for a while, therefore losing weight should be easy (if that can't be called cheating!), I definitely want to get back to cycling to work again this year, and I have already signed up for the Lincoln 10k and the Sheffield Half Marathon so am dusting my running shoes off. We've also got a nice new living room that I'm DETERMINED to keep tidy and presentable, so maybe, just maybe, in a year's time, as I reflect over 2013, I'll be able to say that I actually managed these three!

Photography Challenge
We bought a Nikon d3100 earlier in the year, and I haven't had it off the auto settings yet, so I have signed up to 365 Project to kick me into learning a bit more about my camera. My username is MrsWickie (of course).

Now all that's left to do today is to reflect on the good and bad from 2012, to celebrate the coming in of 2013 and to look forward to what the new year will bring. I hope it is a lucky one for everyone, that people can appreciate the good stuff and can find a way to cope with the bad.

And there’s a hand, my trusty fiere !
and gie's a hand o’ thine !
And we’ll tak a right gude-willy waught,
for auld lang syne.

Becoming Mrs. Riley

On the 25th of August, 2012, I became Mrs. Riley, and I couldn't let the opportunity pass to write about my wonderful wedding. After all, no-one else is going to do it.

Mr. Riley and I got engaged on New Year's Eve 2010/11, and quickly got the important things booked. Several years previously, before I had even met Mr. Riley, I went to a leaving party at Wood Lane Countryside Centre and thought to myself "this would be a lovely venue for a wedding". At the time, however, they didn't have a licence to perform marriage ceremonies there. You can imagine my excitement when I discovered that by 2011 this had changed and that we could have our whole day at this beautiful house. We went to visit it and booked there and then. I then got in touch with Sheffield Register Office to pre-book our registrar, and we also asked the very lovely Blanche and Richard from Coco Catering to do our food (I know Blanche through Seven Hills Women's Institute). So, we had a venue, a registrar and a caterer, which meant that we could have a wedding. No further planning happened for at least another year.

During the first couple of months of our engagement I looked at one wedding magazine (I can't remember which one, but if you go and buy any other bridal mag it will no doubt have the same articles, the same adverts and the same ideas) and I went to a grand total of two wedding fayres (one local, and the other at the NEC in Birmingham). What this told me was that 'weddingy' weddings bored me. All the stuff looked the same, all the dresses looked the same, nothing showed any personality at all. I did look at a few wedding blogs to begin with and definitely got inspiration from some of those, but I ended up making the decision to stop looking at blogs too. I had the opposite problem with the them... too many beautiful ideas that we had neither the money nor the style to be able to pull off ourselves! We wanted something that would still feel very much like a wedding, but with lots of our own personalities in there too. Oh, and it needed to be at least half of the national average cost of a wedding.

What a wonderful day it turned out to be. Did everything go entirely to plan? No. Did it matter in the slightest? No. Mr. Riley stayed with one of his Best Men the night before and I woke up at home with the dog and the sound of people stirring. I had planned my perfect wedding breakfast... croissants, smoked salmon, cream cheese and champagne, which I think my mum and aunt were quite tickled by. Champagne at breakfast? Can I not do that every day?? I then had a leisurely bath with a Lush bath bomb while my mum and aunt potted up the Busy Lizzies I had bought from a local garden centre. The rest of my family arrived at about 10.30, along with our photographer (another SHWI friend and writer of Real Ale Women Eat Pie) and there was much giddyness and excitement all round. Oh, and a little bit of sherry!

I had booked The Vintage Salon to come and do mine and my sister's hair and make-up. Their stylist, Kia, arrived bang on time to the sound of an over-excited dog. Fortunately he calmed down reasonably quickly and we could get on with the styling. Kia and I had a quick chat about what I wanted and we chose a style for me that would work with my bespoke Imogen's Imagination fascinator, made by the very talented and equally lovely Sophie Cooke. My sister and I had our hair and make-up done while my younger bridesmaids were getting ready upstairs.

After that it was time to get dressed. The girls in their lovely yellow dresses from Next, my sister in the beautiful, full length, pure silk dress THAT SHE MADE HERSELF the clever thing, and me in my Vivien of Holloway 50s Circle Dress. I felt AMAZING. The Dress had been something of an issue for me. I had realised quite early on that I don't really like wedding dresses. They are so expensive for something that you will only realistically wear once, they're not entirely suitable for garden-based weddings, and they're certainly too long for the arrival that I wanted to make. Those early blog readings had introduced me to Vivien of Holloway and I knew that I would love their dresses. My sister and I took a day trip to London in April to go to the shop, and it is such a beautiful place. The rails are full of stunning dresses, tops and trousers made from wonderful fabrics. The girls are so helpful and look so perfect. I could have bought the whole shop if I had the money! As soon as I tried on my dress I knew what everybody meant when they said that you just know that it's the right one. And for less than £200 I got the dress, the petticoat and a belt to complete the outfit.

More photos and whatnot after the jump...