Last week I finally managed to drag Chris along to my bridal dress shop to have his wedding ring fitted.

We learned two things from this experience - firstly, I have particularly slim fingers. Secondly Chris does not.

Thanks to my engagement ring, I already knew my size alphabet-wise. But since the fittings are being done in-house there was a new, not very tricky, method to comprehend; swapping letters for numbers.

So out came the six or so size cards - likened by my husband-to-be to a spaghetti measure - each punched with five holes each. And unsurprisingly I was the smallest, an eight.

That done, it was over to the groom. Knowing Chris has got what I affectionately refer to as ham hands, I knew he was going to be needing the cards towards the very back of the pile.

What I did not anticipate was that none of the samples would fit. And quite incredibly they went up to a size 24.

That left us with no choice but to order him a size 26 in a white gold flat band, and the female equivalent for me but in the curved design.

While I resorted to childishly hiding my giggles, Chris was not fazed one bit by that potentially embarrassing episode.

I am assuming this is down to his decision not to wear his wedding band anyway - apparently jewellery is not his thing.

That said it is obviously important to make sure it's clear he is off the market once we are married, so I'm taking steps to come up with some other ways to brand him.

This weekend Chris and I decided to draw up an official guest list.

Before my friends/family/wedding organiser start to panic, we had of course already written down who would be getting an invite. But since this is a weekend affair and arrivals will be spread over 3 days, I thought it would be only sensible to decide exactly which people would be coming when.

And in theory it was a great idea. Sitting down to actually do it? Not so much.

We wanted around 70 people to join us for the ceremony and the breakfast, and around 120 for the reception.

Imagine our horror when we totted up our provisional 'day and night' list and realised we were about 40 people over. Ten extra guests, you can get away with. Anything much more than that, and some serious re-evaluating needs to happen.

So there we are on a Sunday afternoon and facing some really tough decisions - ones that we didn't always agree on.

In the end we walked away. It was too hard and horrible. But it did raise the question - where do you draw the line with plus ones?

We have the room for everyone to come to the reception, but not for the sit-down meal. And I am not sure how politically correct it is to invite one half of a couple and ask the other to join us later.

But if we don't do that we put ourselves in the absurd position of swapping out our real friends and family to make room for people we just don't know.

I guess this is my first experience of the dark 'political' side of weddings, and it really is not fun. All we can do is keep our fingers crossed that those affected will understand, it is after all a matter of space - renovations just aren't included in our wedding package.

Chris and I have been for our first ever wedding meeting at Bickleigh Castle... finally!

We were, of course, not alone. My in-laws came along for the ride - well actually they provided it - and Alex and Sabrina met us there.

I had been so excited, and admittedly a little nervous, about the get-together. After waiting so long to visit, I had no idea at what stage planning-wise I should be at with nine months to go before the big day.

And so I did my usual trick of worrying about pretty much everything - unnecessarily as it turned out.

The million and one problems running through my mind as we pulled up in Tiverton soon dissipated thanks to my fantastic wedding co-ordinator.

Sharon really is one in a million. There is no way Chris and I could pull this wedding off without her and we both feel very lucky to have her on our team!

Aside from being super-organised - her checklist is the stuff people like me can only dream of - she put me immediately at ease. It really didn't feel like only the third time I had met her or owner Sarah, who had thoughtfully teamed up with Sharon to give me a belated birthday cake!

And as it turned out, Chris and I haven't been doing too badly! Focus points for us right now are the photographer and sorting out the reception music - all very do-able.

Everything else seems to come down to the six-week meeting, at which point I hope Chris will have a better idea of what type of cutlery he would like. Yes, this was a subject that was briefly broached but one look at the groom's face and Sharon wisely anticipated this might be a bit much for him at this point.

I could get really carried away with this blog there is so much to share. But in order to do it all justice I will save some for next time.

There is just one more wedding-related piece of news.

Thank you so much to lovely Sabs who has very kindly offered to help design our wedding invites and other stationary.

Her beautiful handmade birthday cards not only put me to shame but are more than enough to convince me she is the perfect lady for the job. Just another perk to becoming a Strong I guess!