Making Invites

Continuing the wedding theme, we recently completed a marathon invitation making session! So much more fun than having them printed: I bought the silver cards and envelopes and then designed and printed inserts, with a formal photo of us on the front, and some little silver snowflakes as accents! Fun!

More from Denbies

And some more Photos from Denbies, the gorgeous Farmhouse B&B where we will spend our first night as Mr & Mrs! My lovely Mum! And some detail shots from the little farm shop and garden centre! So cute!

Our Wedding Venue

I took my Mum to see our wedding venue this week in the sunshine! It look so beautiful! Denbies Wine Estate in Surrey has the largest vineyard in England with 265 acres under vines, representing over 10% of the plantings in the whole of the United Kingdom. It’s visitors' centre attracts over 300,000 visitors a year. The estate is named for early owner John Denby. Originally a farmhouse, in the mid 18th century it was rebuilt as a gentleman's residence and in 1984 the Estate was purchased by a local businessman, who had the south facing slopes planted with vines. These cover 265 acres of the 627-acre estate, the remainder of which is woodland and pasture. Denbies is situated on the North Downs, a range of chalk hills, with a fertile loam topsoil. The average yield is 400,000 bottles of wine per year. The visitors' centre features a working winery, wine cellars, 360° cinema, art gallery, lecture room, two restaurants and a shop. The estate also runs Denbies Guest House in one its farmhouses and a kitchen garden centre. Around 65% of Denbies' wine is sold at the visitors' centre, with the remainder being sold to supermarkets, wholesalers and mail order. It's such a tranquil and beautiful place and I can only hope we have a wonderful sunny day like this for our wedding in October!

Chiltern Open Air Museum

I remember the Chiltern Open Air Museum from several and I mean LOADS of school trips when I was younger, I guess it helps that it was only a 15 min drive from my first school, but we went there ALOT! I hadn't been back in years and was excited to see it again, and for once it's just the same as I remembered - well there are plenty more exhibits but the energy and atmosphere is just the same. It's basically a collection of all kinds of different types of buildings humans have built and lived in, everything from Iron Age huts to Toll booths and barns and everything in between. It's set in acres of fields, with horses and goats grazing and is just idyllic. Some of the huge trees must be hundreds of years old, with trunks about 7 feet in diameter. It's staffed entirely by volunteers who are so proud of their museum and happy that you are there that it's a real pleasure to stop and talk to them. We were there as part of a car club exhibiting at a Vintage Car Show, and so we got free entry (and a free cup of tea - cute!) and the volunteers were so glad we had made it as we brought loads of visitors in, that we got treated a bit like mini royalty on top of their usual friendly welcome. It was one of those quintessentially English (with a capital E!) summer days, sunshine, tea, eccentric people dressed up in period costume attempting to ride old bicycles, ice cream, old cars and meadows of flowers, perfection!

Sunny sunny sunny days!

Finally we get some sunny weather here in the UK and the excitement is tangible :) We spent a sunny Sunday at a car show at The Chiltern Open Air Museum in the sleepy village of Chalfont St Peter, and it was idyllic! A really lovely atmosphere, everyone was out enjoying the British countryside in the hot weather and looking at some classic cars, drinking pop and eating ice cream - it was Old Skool and a great relaxing day! More on the actual Museum tomorrow! :)

Some Friday Strangeness!

I had my camera on a long shutter speed by accident while trying to snap an ad hoc photo of my Sweetie, so the camera caught the window reflection in the mirrored wardrobe before he walked in front of it, making it look like he has some kind of funky plasma screen shirt on! Spooky huh? Have a great weekend, I personally am knackered and can't wait for a lie in tomorrow!!

Luxury flapjacks - yum!

Last weekend we were planning to go to a car show, which in the end got rained off as the field was literally under about 4 inches of water! So in preparation I made these little beauties! Usual flapjack recipe, but with dark brown sugar as well as golden syrup AND peanut butter, AND when cold drizzled hazelnut chocolate and then white chocolate on top! Mmmmmmmm seriously good, but seriously bad that we got left with the whole pan between us to eat!! This week it's all about salads... :)

Lastly, on Lavender..

The farm shop and café was full of lavender infused goodness in both biscuits and cakes, as well as soaps, creams and balms. You could buy your own to take home and grow as well. But we had more than enough from just one bag of “pick your own”. I brought it home and bundled it up to hang upside down in the airing cupboard to dry, once dry it will last years in a dark and dry place and there was still plenty left over to put in saucers and in bunches around the house. Mmmmmm it smells gorgeous!