We’re taking an early trip to the sun this year, heading to the Canary island of Lanzarote next week. Going with good old Budget Travel.

The rest of the year will be so hectic with house and wedding plans that we figured this would be the best time to get away for a break. Hopefully get some sunshine and warmth, away from the miserable weather we’re having at the moment. According to the BBC weather forecast for Lanzarote it’s around 24 to 25 degress most days which sounds good. Hopefully we’ll come back tanned and the weather here at home will have improved by then!

We did our pre-marriage course on Saturday last in All Hallows college here in Dublin.  Wasn’t as bad as we were afraid it would be and judging by reports of other courses it might be one of the best there is. Presented by a couple, who ran through some slides on different aspects of relationships and marriage and in between each couple answered little quizzes and compared answers with each other. No group work, no standing up in front of the group and speaking, nothing embarrasing really and it was all over in one day. Well Marian was embarassed being in my old 97 car in a car park full of 07 mercs and jeeps but aside from that it was fine

Here’s a link to the course webpage if any one needs it

Hi Everyone,

At last we seem to be making some progress on the house. We have nominated a timber frame company from Cork called Cygnum who will make and erect the house frame and we hope to have a builder in the next couple of weeks too. Its a slow process which is proving to be frustrating for a control freak like me. Our site is currently filled with lovely little lambs so their mammies are keeping the grass down for us at the moment. I hope that they realise that there beautiful home is only temporary!

We are heading to Lanzarote in 3.5 weeks for a week of rest and relaxation………….can’t wait

We finally sorted the honeymoon this week and we’ve decided to go with the Carribean islands of St. Lucia and Antigua. Booked with CaribbeanCollection who seem to be Ireland’s main Caribbean tour operator. We’ll be spending a week on each island, soaking up the sun, relaxing and enjoying some good food hopefully. A nice spot to escape to from the January weather in Ireland.

With most of the wedding plans under control, besides the honeymoon, our focus for the next few months is going to be on the house build. We really want a modern highly energy efficent house and to that extent we’re looking at using SIP (Structural Insulated Panels) for the structure. The insulation is part of the structure and the idea is that you end up with an airtight house. There appear to be two main suppliers of the system in Ireland: Kingspan TEK from Kingspan-Century Homes and Sip-Energy in Galway. There are differences between the two but the basis is the same.

We’ve veered away from Dubai and the Maldives and are now looking at the Carribean for the honeymoon. The Maldives are very expensive and it looks like  we can  have just as  good  a holiday on some  of the  Carribean  islands for half the money.

We’re looking at the island of Aruba in particular and also St. Lucia. Could maybe combine them with a few days in New York or Miami, although New York might be pretty nippy at that time of year.

We still have a few weeks to wait anyway before booking, apparently you can’t book flights any more than 330 days in advance.

We were delighted to hear on Thursday last that we have provisionally been granted planning permission to build our house in Cullohill, Laois. We have to wait another 4 weeks before we get full permission as this time is to allow for people in the area to appeal the decision. There have been no objections to date so hopefully it will be a clear run from here. Luckily the majority of the wedding is organised at this stage, ( just a few minor details like a wedding dress and a honeymoon to organise) so we will be able to concentrate most of our efforts on the house.

 And so begins the stress of 2008…………………….!

We’re currently trying to decide on our honeymoon location, although because we won’t be departing till January 09 we can’t actually book anything until February or March. We’ve been mostly looking at South Africa, Mauritius, Maldives, Dubai, Sri Lanka. We had thought of South America initally but dismissed as a bit too much of a trek and there’s also the option of the Carribean at that time of year but it might be a bit too much of a beach holiday.

Hopefully we can keep you regularly update with the fun and frolics involved in organizing the wedding via this blog. It should serve as news and information to our family and friends and maybe even work at providing help to other couples on the marriage path.

We got the domain name, MarianAndLarry.com, registered and the site started on December 10th 2007 so come next christmas when the wedding is about to start we should have a year’s worth of information here!

We’ve decided to register our own domain and manage our own website mainly because it’s easy for me (Larry) to do so seeing as I work in this business,  however there are loads of web companies out there who’ll do most of the work for you if you don’t want that hassle.

Hope ye all enjoy it and don’t forget to subscribe to the blog if you want to keep updated.