James and Rox got engaged in January 2010. He’s a 6ft 3in Brummie, and she’s a Yorkshire lass who tops out at 5ft 2in on a good day. They were together for seven whole years before James proposed, so either Rox has the patience of a saint, or he was well worth the wait. Sadly, it’s the former. James will be representing the boys every week up until the big day in August.
A few weeks ago Rox tried her bespoke wedding dress on for the first time. Last weekend it was my turn to feel like a princess – er, I mean prince – for the day. It was the grand unveiling of my made-to-measure suit from Alexandre Savile Row, and the first real test of whether or not my Spartan-like exercise regime was working. A quick reminder – I instructed my tailor to make it purposefully smaller than my actual size at the time as an incentive to trim down to my fighting weight.
So on Saturday I discovered whether or not this had been another of my not-so-bright ideas. I wasn’t too nervous because I’ve still got a few months until the Big day. But being a modern, sensitive, metrosexual male, frankly I needed the confidence booster. I’ve been training really hard, and I even gave up my favourite things for Lent: bread, crisps, and chocolate.
Life without chocolate is pretty dull. Scratch that – life without chocolate is meaningless. But Galaxy Caramels are the Devil in a ridiculously tasty disguise, so they had to go. As a result I’ve been dehydrated recently because every time I think about that luscious, chocolaty heaven I start salivating uncontrollably.
I seem to have gone off the point. What was I talking about? Oh yes, the suit. Great news – no crowbars were required to get me into it, so I was over the moon. In fact, it was slightly too big for me, so it’ll need a little nip and tuck.
Dave, the very nice tailor, suggested that I might like to wait until four weeks before the wedding to make the final alterations, “Just on the very small off-chance that you accidentally put a few pounds back on between now and then”. He chose his words very carefully so as not to offend, but I couldn’t help thinking, “Ye of little faith Dave!” It was actually good advice though, so my suit will be stored in a humidor (I wish) until the beginning of July when I’ll return for my final fitting.
Rox and I thought this was definitely cause for celebration, so we hit the nearest beer garden to take advantage of that rarest of events in this country – sunshine. Inevitably our thoughts turned to the royal wedding, and we started planning how we were going to celebrate it. Rather optimistically for the end of April, we’ve decided to have a barbecue. Of course that meant we’d have to actually buy a barbecue. So we did. And then we thought, why not buy the booze as well? So we did. Caught up in the royal moment, we bought some Adnams’ Royal Wedding Ale – little casks of ale specially brewed for the occasion, each holding about eight pints. Half a cask and I’ll be on my back.
W Day: 123 days and counting
Catch up on James’ 24th week of wedding planning (and links to earlier weeks) here.
