Our Love Story

Having so much free time in England with Peter has allowed me to balance our time together with my wedding planning while he is at work. I can easily spend hours going through websites and blogs, photos and videos while jotting down ideas and saving tons of pictures that inspire what I want our day to be. I realize now, that by surrounding yourself in this kind of stuff can easily drown you and cause you to forget what the day is all about.

Even though I am a fairly organized person, I am doing my very best to let the plans sort of "fall into place," without rushing or stressing over them, and I'm happy to say that I quite enjoy this route, as haphazard or untraditional as it might be. I know a wedding is a big deal to plan, and most things must be booked and organized in a timely fashion. But, since our wedding is going to be small enough (about 50 people), and since it will be during the day, I'm having fun brainstorming DIY ideas, and emailing certain people to help us. I trust that with the help of my friends and family, everything from my handmade invitations, to the decorations, photography, and cake will be perfect, fun, and everything I've envisioned.

As I am sure most of you know, Peter and I have entered a video of 'Our Love Story' into a free wedding photography giveaway! I had a few ideas of what I wanted the video to look like, and after we each shot our version of the story, everything kind of fit right into place as I put it together! If you haven't watched it yet, please do! And if you haven't voted for us--it's a must, to help us win! One vote is allowed per day (per computer) every day, until Sunday February 20th! 

Vote for us here:
http://freewedding.heatherpepin.com/

Voting started yesterday, and after sending a mass email and a few postings on facebook, Peter and I got home last night after seeing The Wizard of Oz in London--to find that all of my friends and family helped us spread the word! It really amazes me to see how everyone comes together to help and support us! I have the best friends & family a girl could ask for!


I was also challenged by another competition (that we didn't end up getting into the top 3 for) to make a storyboard with wedding pictures that have inspired us. Since collecting so many pictures, I actually really enjoyed this and it came together fairly quickly and easily! They represent the simplicity I hope for in our day. I plan to do our flower arrangements myself, so these kind of show what I want them to look like. Also, here is a picture of my dress! Simply click the image to enlarge :-)

Last but not least are pictures of my gorgeous rings! My engagement ring was one of those things where we just "knew right from the start." (Kind of like us!)
So it didn't take much looking around after we saw it :-) However, it wasn't quite the same with the band. We went to a few shops in town, but I wasn't really madly in love with any of them. I don't really like the small gap between the two rings, so I was on a hunt to find one I loved, with the least amount of gap. Here they are!

LOVE. Life.

Since being in England, I have seen everything from the large city of London, to the smaller cities like Canterbury, to even smaller villages like Lyminge, to the lush green countryside. The variety is amazing and I love the closeness of it all. Peter's parents have been giving us a few books with great walks in them and are very encouraging to try them out. Sometimes while Peter is at work, he'll get emails of maps or routes from his dad with nice walks, runs, or even bike rides. So this weekend we finally tried one of the walks. It was supposed to work out perfectly, as we would be walking from Canterbury to Lyminge (about 13 miles on main roads) where his parents live, and they would give us a ride back. The walk guided us away from the main roads, making it completely picturesque, but also more roundabout than straightforward. We weren't looking for a direct route or anything, and very much enjoyed the adventure. But after about 5 hours into the walk, we'd taken a couple detours, missed a few signs, and were nearly fed up of the strong winds, light drizzle, and feeling like "we should have been there by now" when we were still miiiles away. We also didn't start until about 11am, so by 4 o' clock we'd be starting to lose daylight quickly. So when we finally made our way out through one of the forests we'd got lost in...we walked on until we had cell phone reception and were picked up by his mum. She took us back for a warm cup of tea which was much needed, and after chatting for a bit, were on our way back to Canterbury for dinner with the guys at 7:30. Aside from our frustration towards the end, it was a gorgeous walk with amazing sights of churches, estates, countryside and wildlife--oh! And Shetland ponies :-)

Scotland Avalanche

This video has been saved under my bookmarks tab for a few months now, but when we first saw it on the BBC, both of us had to re-watch it a few times because it's so funny!!

Click to watch!

Today

We love him! When I came to England last summer, we saw this CD at Peter's parents computer. I asked if I could bring it with us for our drive to Belgium, since I recognized his name. I can't tell you how many times we've listened to that CD since then! So I came across this website--Josh sings to Ellen for her birthday, and of course I love this song too!

Josh sings for Ellen