Our Venues

When we marry in a year we will do so at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Edinburgh. Weather permitting we will be under the redwood trees (above) but if it is raining (I hope not) we will be in Caledonian Hall (below).

We will have our drinks reception in Caledonian Hall which is used by the Botanics as an events space.

The Botanics is so picturesque and has so many beautiful buildings which will form a beautiful backdrop for our wedding photographs.

After we marry in the Botanics and have our drinks reception we will be transported to Howies Restaurant in Edinburgh city centre. We will take over the restaurant for the whole day of our wedding. Their food is amazing and I can't wait to celebrate our wedding here!

The outside of Howies.

The main room in Howies. We are sadly restricted by how many people we can have for the sit down meal part of our day but we intend to have evening guests as well as our day guests.

Howies roof can be seen in the bottom left of the photo. Just above Howies is Calton Hill which is very iconic to Edinburgh's skyline.

It was my intention to do this today but I will have to postpone to tomorrow (and hopefully the weather stays nice) but I am going to go to the Botanics and to Howies and Calton Hill and do drawings to be used (if they work out) as part of our Save the Dates and Wedding Stationary. 

I am keen to be as creative as possible with our wedding and to add as many personal home made touches as possible. So watch this space! 

365 days to go!

This weekend Nathan is away in Barcelona for a 7's tournament with 22 other guys, some of whom I know well enough to know that there will be more drinking done than playing. I am missing him but know he will be having lots of fun.

I wanted to do a special wee post today as it is exactly a year till Nathan and I marry. This time in a year we will be having our drinks reception and will be Mr and Mrs Pike... eeek! I am so excited. 

I can't wait to be Nathan's wife and share our life together. Now that is a YEAH story if ever there was one!

The Zealley family

I had booked 3 days off from work at the end of this month. Sadly due to work commitments I  had to cancel today, Friday as a holiday. I still managed to keep yesterday in the calendar as I had planned to go and visit Kate and her boys. 

I got the bus up from Edinburgh and Kate picked me up at Perth. We had a couple of hours in the morning just us and baby Tom, who is now 2 months old and filling out. We got to sit and have a cup of tea and talk something that is near impossible when there are 2 small boys running round. Then Kate picked up the boys from nursery and we went for lunch to Pizza Express.

Kate and the boys watching their pizzas being made. This was a very popular past time. We also went into their kitchen and saw where they cleaned the glasses and dishes... more curious than cats!

Charlie and his babycinno.

Back at Kate and Ian's house we went and played in the garden. I played pirates with the older boys and Charlie rescued me from the evil pirate (Alexander) -even though we didn't know he was evil. Sadly I did eventually have to walk the plank and the giant octopus got me but the boys survived as giant octopus don't eat boys only ladies!

Alexander, Me, Tom and Charlie.

We tried to take some nice photos in the garden but they didn't really work too well. Alexander wasn't happy about getting his photo taken and then Tom wanted feed. Ah well.... Charlie was always smiling!

Back in the house the boys got hold of my camera and were snap happy taking shots of each other. Some of them were quite funny with them making faces!

Charlie having his afternoon smoothie.

The remains of Charlie's biscuit!

Alexander doing funny poses.

Alexander taking a photo of Charlie.

Kate and Tom in their kitchen. 

I had such a lovely day and it was a great break from work. A good reminder to me of what life is really about. Having fun and enjoying the company of good friends.

SATC 2

I can't wait to see the new SATC movie... See the official trailer here.

SATC Accies Girls Evening

On Tuesday 25th it was Loreen's turn to host the Accies girls evening. With SATC 2 just around the corner we decided to watch the first movie and enjoy some cosmopolotian cocktails. Paul, Loreen's other half even bought us the Cosmo Magazine. We induldged... and I ended up having to leave my poor bike there... actually it is still there!! I was thankfully okay the next day and had no cocktail hangover to speak of!

Vicki, Alex and Loreen with her funky new fringe.

Cocktails, magazines and the movie.

Wendy, Leona, Sarah and Zara.

Lorna, Me and Emily. 

Emily and Wendy were drinking water or virgin cosmo cocktails. Loreen went to lots of effort with her cocktails and everyone had a fun evening!

Holly and Jon Orgill

Back in November when we were in Jacksonville spending Thanksgiving with my wonderful host family from my time in the States we were happy to be able to see Holly, the Stansbury's youngest daughter when she was on a trip home from out West. 

Holly was like my little sister when I lived there and it really took my breath away to see her and hear her talk of her job and responsibilities. She works as a councilor to young troubled teens.

When we went round the table and talked of what we were thankful of and also later on at dinner when she was telling us about the lovely guy she was dating it became evident that this was more than just some guy- this was THE guy! 

Back in February we were delighted to hear that the guy she talked of so fondly, Jon had asked her to marry him and she had said yes. See their cute proposal story here.

I couldn't quite believe the beauty of their engagement photos, taken by Rebecca Westover...  oooh! if I could fly her over to the UK for an engagement and wedding shoot I would! 

I love these photo. See all the engagement shots here on Rebekah's blog. The top photo was enclosed with our invitation but sadly we were unable to attend due to saving for our own wedding and our work commitments. We would have loved to have been there. 

Then their bridal shots came out and again they were stunning. I guess it helps when you are so clearly in love... like head over heels in love... and that you are as good looking as these too.... I love the photos where Holly is laughing... seeing her laugh I can immediately imagine the sound of it... (it's so distinctive- like all the Stansbury girls- they have their own brilliant laugh!) It carries me back to a time over 12 years ago when we were all under one roof.... great warm fuzzy memories!

Holly and her bridesmaids including Hillary on the left of her and Heidi on the right- looking good girls!

The Stansbury family. Vicki and Steve with their 3 girls their husbands and children. What a wonderful family.

See their beautiful wedding video at http://vimeo.com/12000211 I watched it this morning at work when I got in and had a wee tear roll down my cheek... Congratulations to Holly and Jon Orgill!! HOORAY!

..... now I need to get myself organized and actually mail out their wedding gift!! oops!

Daily Long Cylce- 10 miles

 I am trying to cycle 10 miles a day to and from work.