Karen and I decided to use a company called The Gift Registry for our wedding gift list. The idea was that you could have gifts from a selection of shops on your list, rather than being stuck with the selection from a single shop. The idea was great, the execution was appalling.
To start with we had to go round all the shops and write down what items we wanted, giving the price, shop specific code and a short description. It would have been much easier to have a hand scanner and wander round one store zapping things.
However, we eventually settled on the contents of our list and they put them all up on a website for our wedding guests to have a look at. It was during this period that things first started to go wrong, as a number of our wedding guest were able to buy things that had already been bought.
A few phone calls to try and sort this out resulted in them saying that it wouldn't be a problem; they'd credit us when the list finished and we could put the credit towards something else. Karen also stopped receiving emails when guests had purchased items, so we no longer had any idea of who was buying what.
Eventually we got them to send us hard copies of the list showing who had bought what, but it was a major annoyance as they seemed incapable of just sending us a print out every week; Karen kept on having to demand a new one.
When we got back from our honeymoon we rang them up to find out what happened next. They were to send us some form which we were to fill out and it would all go from there. Unsurprisingly they send the wrong forms to Karen via email; they were supposed to send hard copies with a print out of the entire list.
A few heated phone calls later we discovered that they were claiming that we had a non-changeable list, where we thought we had a changeable one. They also hadn't removed the duplicate items from the list, so we were going to end up with seven of things when we'd only put four on the original list.
They eventually relented and agreed that we had a changeable list, which meant that we could move a few things around to make sure we got all the crockery. We than had to write out all the things that we were adding and removing on a set of forms, why this couldn't have been done online I have no idea. After a night of much gnashing of teeth we eventually had the filled out form ready to send back. We thought that all there was left to do was sit back and wait for a delivery.
We were given a date for the delivery of our list and we both cleared the Saturday of things to do so we could be there for when it arrived. Karen had been trying to get someone to tell us when the delivery would be, was it going to be morning or afternoon. As it turned out it was first thing in the morning, but the delivery man only dropped off two boxes.
Upon opening the main box we found a letter informing us that we were only getting part of the list as the rest was either out of stock, discontinued ort hadn't been sourced yet. This came as a bit of a shock considering that Karen had been on the phone to them the day before and they hadn't mentioned us not getting the entire list.
To say we were both majorly pissed off is an understatement, as not only had they sent a tiny fraction of the list, some of the items were wrong and incomplete. A quick phone call didn't clear anything up as they android at the other end of the phone couldn't do anything and we'd have to wait until Monday.
So I phoned on the Monday and had a bit of a rant and demanded to know the status of each item on the list; they'd get back to me I was told. I phoned again on the Thursday demanding to know why no one had bothered to get back to me and was told that they'd look into it and get back to us. You're beginning to see a picture here...
The long and the short of it resulted in Karen finding out that Debenhams and BHS were out of gift vouchers, so they couldn't send us those for the gifts that had been bought fro those stores. Somehow I doubt big department stores run out of vouchers. We also found out that they were ordering everything online, but not all stores but all their stock onto their websites so they were claiming that things were out of stock of discontinued if they couldn't find them on the websites.
The final insult came yesterday when my wee brother phoned me after watching Watchdog on the telly. Do you know they've gone bust he said, oh shit I said. According to their website they went into administration on Friday, amazing how they didn't mention to Karen on Friday that this was happening as they told her they were putting a personal shopper on the case to go and buy everything.
So now we find ourselves in the position where we have a few gifts from our wedding guests, but the vast majority are going to have to go back to their card companies and get a refund. This all leaves us in the slightly embarrassing position of having sent out the majority of our thank you cards to people whose gifts we haven't got.
The Gift Registry have completely and utterly fucked us over during the last few weeks and both Karen and I are deeply upset and annoyed that this has happened. We are now looking into our rights to see what can be done.
Gone on our Honeymoon, back in three weeks…
P.S. Thanks to everyone who made our Wedding day so special, we both hope you had as good a time as we did.
One week to go and everything is sorted apart from the beer, which I'm working on as we speak. Starting to get a bit nervous I suppose, but only when I think about it. Can't wait for the honeymoon...
Our wedding rings arrived from the jewellers today, they look very nice. I think mine might be a bit on the big side, so I'll need to be really careful on the honeymoon that I don't loose it. The only downside is that it looks like they may have charged us twice for one of the rings, I'll need to investigate...
I've made a flying trip back to Scotland this weekend to purchase our wedding rings. I know a man who has this card see... So this morning I was up bright and early and caught the train from Inverkeithing to Edinburgh and hot footed it to the jewellers to buy two platinum wedding bands. In three to four weeks time we should be the recipients of a shipment. One more thing ticked off the list of things to do.
My brother and I went to have our kilts fitted this morning at Stuart on Chesterton Road. They look very nice and only need minor modification, so we should have them soon. It was also a final chance to decide on what accessories to get, so I finally had to make up my mind on what sporran and belt buckle I wanted.
The biggest surprise was the size of the shoes, I'd ordered a pair of size 7 wide, but they were too big! So it looks like I'll be getting a pair of size 6˝ wide instead. I know my feet are small, but they're not that small...
Just had a phone call from the kilt man again. Evidently the mill are really sorry, but they've found the missing cloth, so we will be able to get our kilts in the heavy weight tartan after all. So that's a bit of a relief...
Had a phone call from the kilt man today to let me know that the mill have cocked up and they don't actually have the cloth that we're after. When Ian and I were in getting fitted up for our kilts, we decided to go for the 16oz heavy weight cloth; it should last longer and be more durable etc.
So the mill were contacted and they said they had loads of it, so no problems there. The kilt man gave them a phone to chase up the order only to be told that they couldn't find the cloth. They put it down to a computer fault, claiming that the 300m that appeared on the computer was obviously a glitch.
So now Ian and I need to decide to either go for the lighter weight cloth in the same tartan, or to try and source it from some where else. Neither of us is particularly amused with the mill...
Went to the Doctors earlier today to see the Nurse and enquire about what jabs we needed to our honeymoon. They recommend Hepatitis A, Tetanus and Typhoid for trips to Malaysia and also Malaria prophylactics for certain jungle areas. Karen and I had discussed what jabs we though we might have and those we though there was no point in having, so this trip was really to find out if our decisions were correct.
The Nurse was very good and stressed that all the jabs were just recommendations and we were under no obligation to have them if we didn't want them. She also agreed that if we were going to a Malaria area for only one day, not getting bitten was better than taking tablets.
So in the end we both opted for Hep A and a combined Diphtheria/Tetanus jab, as they wont give you Tetanus on it's own these days. Karen took a bad turn shortly after getting her jabs and had to lie down on the examination table for a few minutes to recover. I don't get affected like that, but the jabs have given us both dead arms and I'm having really trouble typing with my left hand as my arm feels like it's gone fifteen round with Mike Tyson.
So we still have to decide if we're going to get Typhoid or not, evidently you can catch it from shell fish and I'm probably going to be eating some of that, so I'm going to have to do some research. Other wise I'm now covered for Hep A and Tetanus for another ten years, which is quite nice to know.
My wee brother came up to visit at the weekend, as we needed to be fitted for kilts. So Saturday morning it was down to Stuart at 169, Chesterton Rd in Cambridge to see what was what. We're both going for the Ancient Lindsey tartan with all the trimmings, so my Brother, Father and myself will all be in matching kilts come the wedding. The kits are on order, so we now just need to make up our minds about what sporrans, buckles, Sgian Dubh's etc...
Karen and I have been planning to go to Borneo for our honeymoon, but we've been getting conflicting process and itineraries from differing travel agencies. I took matters into our own hands the other day and phoned the tour operator directly to try and find out what the trip was supposed to cost. Having got everything sorted they gave me a reference number so that I could book the holiday through my bank and get a 10% discount.
I phoned my bank's travel service this morning and even with the reference number they still came back with a different price! Luckily for me I'd enquired about everything with the tour operator, so I was able to query the extra costs and have them removed. With everything hunky dory, I flashed the switch card and paid for it in full.
I'm now totally excited as this is what we're going to do:
- Day 1: Fly from Heathrow to Singapore via Kuala Lumpur
- Day 2 to Day 4: Singapore, staying at the Pan Pacific hotel
- Day 5: Singapore to Kuching, staying at the Holiday Inn
- Day 6: Kuching to Lemanak River, staying in a "traditional" longhouse
- Day 7: Lemanak River to Damai, staying in the Holiday Inn
- Day 8: Damai beach
- Day 9: Kuching to Kota Kinabalu, staying in the Shangrila Rasa Ria resort
- Day 10 to Day 12: Kota Kinabalu, go to the Orang Utan sanctuary
- Day 13 to Day 14: Kota Kinbalu to Kuala Lumpur, staying at the Pan Pacific hotel
- Day 15 to Day 21: Pangkor Laut resort
- Day 23: Kuala Lumpar to Heathrow
I totally can't wait to go, it's going to an amazing trip.
Karen and I went to the office of Births, Marriages and Deaths today to give notice of our impending marriage. We had to answer a few questions about each other and yes, of course I got Karen's age wrong, what a plonker. The upside is that we've got them booked for the 16th of July next year so we can go back an make a definite booking for Chilford Hall. Now I just need to sort out a band and a photographer and Karen will be happy.
Went to see two possible venues for the wedding reception this evening, Chilford Hall and The Mill at Stow cum Quy. To get to Chilford Hall on time I had to leave work a bit early and then race all the way through town and out the other side. It's quite a nice drive though, as you end up in the fields away from any habitation, so it's quite a nice location for a wedding.
We met Karen's parents there and were then given a tour of the two rooms that would be used, one for the ceremony and one for the wedding breakfast. Both are quite big, long thin rooms that will hold rather more people than we can afford to invite. They have character, being mainly wooden cladded and with the setting, it's a really nice venue.
After seeing Chilford Hall and discussing all the ins and outs we headed off to The Mill at Quy. It was like chalk and cheese and I think we'd all made up our minds after walking into the place that we weren't going to have the reception there. The waterwheel room, where the ceremony is held, is quite nice as you can see the wheel through a big glass window. However, it's a tiny space with a low ceiling and just felt all cramped and they didn't even have all the tables out, so I hate to think what it would look like for a wedding.
I think the problem with The Mill, is that it's a small location, the wheel room is small, the room for the reception is small, I couldn't see us having a Ceilidh there, as there just wouldn't be enough room. After discussing various bits with the wedding advisor, we retired outside for a quick pint and a chat about what we were going to do next.
After about 30 seconds of talking it was clear that Chilford Hall was the preferred venue and as long as the registrars have the date we want free, then that's where it's going to be. So the next step is going to see the registrar on the 28th of August and then booking Chilford Hall later the same day.
We got a cal from Karen's Parents the other night saying that we should also go and see the University Centre in Cambridge as one of the venues. So over lunch time Karen, her Mum and myself all went out to have a look. I don't think any of us we're really that impressed by the place, although the rooms were of an okay size. Personally I though it looked a bit old and tacky with all the visible concrete, it looks like a throw back to the 1970's or there abouts. Also considering what we would be paying for wouldn't include the ceremony and other stuff, it scores really low in my book. So this evening we're off to Chilford Hall and The Mill at Quy, hopefully they'll both be better.
Went out to see Karen's Parents this morning to discuss the engagement and the embryonic wedding plans. In the last week Karen's sent off for a load of brochures for venues and had sort of been leaning towards The Mill at Stow cum Quy. Karen's Parents had also sent off for brochures and we're leaning towards The Officers Mess at Duxford, I must admit that the brochure made the place look really good.
After a lively discussion we ended up with a short list of three venues to go and look at, The Mill at Quy, the Officers Mess at Duxford and Chilford Hall. Unfortunately the Officers Mess at Duxford isn't taking books for after March next year, due to renovations, so we're not even sure we'll be able to book it for when we want anyway.
Lost of things were discussed and brought up, mainly the subject of better wine, I'm not bothered as long as I get a cask or two of real ale! So after all the discussion a few glasses of champagne for everyone and a raspberry wheat beer for me, we had to be off. Luckily for use The Mill at Quy is on the way home so we popped in to make an appointment for later in the week.
While we were there we had a quick drink so we could have a quick look around. The main thing we learned from the odd glance here and there is that it's not very big. What we took to be the dance floor area certainly wouldn't be big enough for a Ceilidh. So were going to have to aks when we go to see them properly on Tuesday evening.
I proposed to Karen yesterday and she said yes! :-)
Congratulations Bobs!! All the best for the future mate!!
Posted by STEVEN MURRAY at August 5, 2003 09:26 AM
Gosh!
Well done - here's wishing you both a very long and happy future together. If you remember a previous comment of mine - I hope the brakes on the car work for you on the big day!
Excellent!
Best Wishes. Malcolm
Posted by Malcolm Holt at August 7, 2003 01:48 PM
Many congratulations!!!
from myself and the rest of us in the old Consulting group.
Simon
Posted by Simon White at August 5, 2003 12:29 AM