I'm forever explaining the story of how we met cos it sounds so sordid when I say he was my husbands friend!

I got married at 19 and it was a pretty terrible marriage (read abusive). He went from job to job never wanting to stay and then decided to try Uni. He met a friend at uni and invited him out with us and our mates. We hit it off and got along great, he helped me decorate a house (that my dear hubby couldn't be bothered doing) but there was never anything more as I was married and he had a girlfriend.

When the lovely blokey moved home after uni he split with his other half and came to stay with us for a holiday, we still got on great. A year down the line my husband cheated on me and I went to stay with some of my family. Lovely bloke also lived there, offered to pick me up at the airport and that very night we kissed! We kept it low key and a distance thing for 6 months but then decided to make it official and I moved to be near him. It's happily ever after (well 4 years down the line) and we are getting married next year. He is the most wonderful man I have ever met :-) I'm still surprised he liked me because I used to daydream of having someone as lovely as him!

Hi guys and gals,

We are doing a destination wedding and having just our immediate family and two friends come to South Africa with us. So that the rest of our friends and family don't miss out we are throwing a bash when we get home. Actually, more acurately, we are throwing two bashes. We live on an island of the coast of mainland UK and my family are in England so we are having a party with my FH's family and our friends from here and a party with my family and our friends from England.

We are very lucky in that my FH's folks have offered to pay for a wedding breakfast, buffet, venue and music where we live. My FH is an only child and they are happy to do this. However, my parents cannot afford to do the same (nor would we expect them too) so the party in England will be a little more low key. I want it to feel tied to the wedding though so we were thinking of doing an African food buffet as we cannot give people a sit down meal. This is where we run into a sticking point as I haven't a clue what to include in the buffet.

I am really not bothered whether the food is South African as long as it is from the continent of Africa. So, I was hoping I could turn to you wonderful people for inspiration and ideas. Anything is welcome, thanks in advance you great bunch of people!

We are currently looking at photographer options. We had one in mind that was suggested by the venue as their preferred photographer-we are doing a destination wedding, I thought this was a great idea but now I realise the difficulties of it! The person we originally hoped to go with turns out to be awful at communicating so I have looked at others.

We have found one that seems to have a great package, you get two photographers and they are willing to traval to various locations both on the day (which some people won't do as it is quite a bit of travel) as well as going to the desired locations one year in advance to check out the seasonal backdrop. They will send us photographs of areas they think look good and we can chose our favourite locations to go to on the day.

However, the sticking point is that they offer everything we want EXCEPT they do not do a storybook photograph option. So my question is has anyone taken pictures from a dvd and made them into a storybook album online? The prices seem reasonable for doing this but I really want one that looks professional and I don't know if this is possible if we are making our own from home.

Thanks everyone in advance, I know you are all great at this stuff! :-)

I'm practicing this whole idea of cutting and providing pics etc behind a cut but I'm not doing well so here goes the practice!

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So,

Last week my fella proposed, it was spectacular - but I wouldn't expect any less from the man of my dreams! I had already joked some time ago that I would only get married if someone proved that they knew me well enough to ask in the perfect way. I know that this puts lots of pressure on the man but you have to know that they are up to the strain of a marriage ;-)

The actual proposal did not go the way he planned but it was amazing anyway. About 6 weeks ago he told me not to plan anything for Sunday 18th May. We would be visiting my folks in the North of England and he knows I always plan lots to fit everyone in and keep us busy. It absolutely killed me not knowing what we would be doing but he was adamant that it was a surprise and all I knew was that I needed an outdoor coat and a swimming costume :-s

I drove him insane for the next 6 weeks trying to guess what we were doing and asking him lots of questions but he kept schtum- great for him but frustrating as hell for me as I lurve to be in control!

Anyway the weekend away was hectic as ever and the night we got there (Friday) I went to a fundraiser with my mum and some ex-colleagues and Jon (the other half) took my dad to the pub :-) the saturday was mental too and then, before i knew it, it was time for the surprise.

We drove to a surprise location, with me having my eyes closed once we got near there. I had to look at the floor as we walked from the car to the surprise and all I could see were kids (which didn't entirely instill me with confidence that it was going to be great) and concrete. Then, I looked up and saw we were at Blue Planet Aquarium at Ellesmere Port. I was stoked as I love big aquariums!

So Jon said "Do you know why you had to bring your costume?"
I replied "Do I get to swim with the fishes?"
Only to hear "No..............you get to swim with the sharks!!!"

He apologised that we weren't in South Africa and it wasn't Great Whites but I was so unbelievably overwhelmed that he would arrange this for me that I cried and told him it was better than South Africa cos there is no cage and I am guaranteed to see the sharks and rays and everything!!! It is what I have wanted to do since I was little so it was the best thing he could ever have arranged.

We spent the day at the aquarium watching the sharks feed and stroking the rays before spending an hour being taught what we needed to learn about the scuba gear and getting half an hour in the tank with the sharks. There were loads of different fish and you could interact with some and pour sand on them which made them change colour. A woman from the aquarium took photos for us and it was just unbelievable.


Then when we leave, I am so happy and pleased that we each bought a necklace to remember the day. Jon says he just has one more thing to do and gets down on one knee and asks me to marry him!
Of course I said yes :-)

Well actually I said "How can I say no after that?!" which didn't go down too well! What I meant was that he had proved he knew me well enough to give me the perfect proposal!

He later told me he had planned to have a photo laminated of him with the ring and the words "will you marry me?" that he could show me in the tank. However, the ring only came on Wednesday evening as we left for England on the Friday so he did not have the time. He then planned to write it on an underwater chalk board but we had to wear webbed gloves and they were fussy about any foreign objects being in the tank so he couldn't do that either!

It was still amazing though and I am sooooooooooooooooooo happy right now!