Round numbers like 100, 50 etc. get too much publicity if you ask me. Instead, today let us celebrate the fact that there are now just 34 days to go until the wedding.

That’s actually quite a scarily low number. OK, so we’re a lot more prepared than we were a month - or perhaps 34 days - ago, but it still sounds like rather a short amount of time in which to ensure everything comes together nicely for the big day.

As the event approaches and we slot in ideas to give our lovely guests more fun and excitement, we keep having to bite our virtual lips on this dlog, so as not to spoil any of the surprises we’ve lined up for your delectation on the day. The unfortunate side-effect of this is that it may appear to our readers that we’re actually even less actively arranging things now than when this site first launched, but rest assured that this is very far from the truth!

So, what is there that I can tell you about? Well, for a start my suit is now back in the capable hands of its creators, either for an alteration or for a re-make, to give rather more breathing space for my unfortunate stomach. The General Manager whom we saw yesterday was very sympathetic and helpful, but most importantly very reassuring and insistent that the newly sized suit would definitely be ready in plenty of time for the wedding. Fortunately I’d seen the possibility of sending the suit away coming, so had made sure to buy a shirt to go with it during this past week while I still had the suit to compare with it.

I’ve also started thinking about my Bridegroom’s Speech, with the help of some useful resources. Some web sites have some helpful pointers, and Edith, what with being a librarian and all, has got some appropriate books out of the library to give me advice. The one we were looking at last night was, by and large, pretty awful. I think you know you’re in trouble when a book starts quoting Bob Monkhouse for advice on comedy.

One thing the book suggested was looking back through history on the date of your wedding, to see what happened then, as a good way to keep your guests’ interest. I therefore visited the BBC’s On This Day web site for 3 September, and I’m afraid I’m not sure it was such a good idea. You see, it seems we have picked a rather macabre date for our happy day.

One year prior to our wedding day, more than 200 people were killed when the Beslan school siege in Russia came to an horrific end. Not pleasant, but if we go back a bit further to 1998 we find a further 229 untimely deaths in a large plane crash near Nova Scotia. So that’s human and mechanical causes, but how about a natural disaster? In 1984, 14 years before the plane came down, ‘the worst storm in living memory’ hit the Philippines, killing over 1,300. A death toll approaching 2,000 on our wedding pre-anniversaries would be quite sad enough, but as a final straw it also seems that 3 September 1939 was the day on which World War II began, setting the scene for the deaths of 55-57 million people. All things considered, I don’t think I’ll be adopting the ‘on this day’ approach to my speech after all.

On another matter entirely, would anyone be particularly devastated if we supplied little pots of bubbles to be used in place of confetti? We believe that confetti is not allowed in the zoo because of the risk of it getting into the animals’ enclosures, but just wondered whether anyone would be upset by not being able to chuck paper at us? Any thoughts?

In a further change of topic (I must work on this ‘linking things together’ business before my speech; Bob Monkhouse and friends would not be impressed), we’ve more or less sorted out the table plans now, with basically two different table plans depending on whether our current ‘don’t know’s can make it or not. To allow time to prepare our printed plans and so forth this means we’re going to have to set some kind of deadline for letting us know one way or another before too long, so watch out for that. Ooh, that’s something I can put in the newsletter next week, perhaps - hurrah, it won’t be a blank page!

Finally, a quick teaser for the Top Secret plans for our guests’ enjoyment at the reception, which are coming along nicely: let’s just say don’t forget your animal astuteness and mammalian mastery… :)

Way back on 14 May, I was, as you may recall, measured for my purple suit at Anthony Formalwear in Billericay, Essex.

Well, this week, the great day finally arrived when I paid them my balance and received my finished suit. I’ve lost about half a stone in weight since 14 May, so I was expecting to be pleasantly surprised by the fit.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t. The trousers are a good fit - not loose as I was expecting, but not tight either; over all, perfect. The jacket, on the other hand, is rather a different matter. The sleeves are good, the length is right, the buttons are nice, the lining is lovely… but the waist is unlikely to fit me any time this year at my current rate of weight loss.

Quite how they have managed to produce a tailor-made suit jacket that is too tight for someone who has lost half a stone since being measured, we’re not sure. We’re going back to the shop first thing on Saturday (it must be serious, we’re leaving home at 9am on a Saturday) to see what they can do about it.

The worrying thing is that I seem to recall them mentioning in passing at some point that their suit factory has a summer closure throughout August each year, so if this is cause for a major reworking I’m not quite sure how they’re going to manage to organise that between 30 July and 3 September. All will be revealed on Saturday, I suppose. *gulp*

Lots of progress has been made on my aforementioned list of things to do. For example, I ordered my Yexley Designs tiara, which arrived safely last week. I shan’t give a description on here beyond saying that it’s silver and sparkly! We’ve also ordered our flowers (bouquet and some buttonholes) from Four Seasons Flowers of Crayford (no web presence), following good advice from Rosy and the florist when choosing blooms and colours. You can tell I’m trying not to give too much away, can’t you? :)

The main thing we’ve been working on recently is the ceremony itself. I did a lot of the ground work, but then Paul did the actual writing of the ceremony and vows, basing it loosely on one of the sample ceremonies given to us by the Westminster registrars. We chose the readings and music together, then sent a document detailing the whole lot to the registrar so they could approve it as suitable and non-religious. After a slightly nervous wait, they confirmed that it was fine! Paul has now designed a unique order of service (you’ll understand what I mean when you see it), and I feel much happier knowing that the basics of the day are all pretty much arranged.

Despite all this, there’s still plenty to be getting on with, including getting a music playlist sorted out for the evening (thanks for your suggestions so far - it’s not too late to suggest more!) and sorting out Paul’s outfit. His suit is nearly ready, and is getting sent to us after some minor adjustments are made, so soon it should just be a matter of finding a shirt that goes with his garish suit and tie ;)

We’re still looking for more video-camera volunteers by the way (see our July newsletter [PDF]), so if you’re handy with a tripod please get in touch.

The main zoolyweds site will be down for much of today while I undertake some major upgrade work to the server. Apologies for the inevitable inconvenience caused.

Some real posts coming soon, by the way - there’s quite a lot to update you on actually. Perhaps I can persuade Edith to post while I’m up to my eyes in installation wizards :)

Thanks very much to all those who’ve been in touch to check we’re OK.

Edith’s the commuter so she was in Central London when this all kicked off, but she doesn’t use the Tube or buses, and her mainline station and workplace are on the more fortunate side of the city, so she was unscathed. In fact ironically she didn’t even hear about the explosions until after I had (I heard the very first breaking news report of ‘an explosion’ of some sort on Radio 5 Live on my way to work), from the relative safety of outermost London, in Bexleyheath.

She made it home successfully too, having cautiously investigated Charing Cross to find just a single train, waiting to leave in one minute’s time, and destined for Crayford - a coincidence that was too good to pass up on, despite alternative plans for a Thames boat ride or a long walk and taxi.

So yes, we are both fine, thanks, after a pretty astonishing pair of days for London. Hopefully the same can be said for everyone we know, and everyone you know.

Yesterday I took delivery of a rather special parcel. In it was a note from Victoria Richards, she who designs Jon Snow’s ties, which read:

Dear Paul,
Please find enclosed 3x silk ties for you to look at. If you are happy with them, please choose your favourite and return the rest with [quite a sum of money]! Enjoy your big day.
Best wishes, Victoria

And sure enough, alongside the note there were indeed three fabulous silk ties.

The ‘If’ in her message was hardly worth bothering with - the ties are great. The blue is a perfect match for Edith’s dress, the purple looks like it will go well with my suit, whenever that finally materialises (no pun intended), the silver is, well, silver, and the yellow is bold, striking and - being yellow - gloriously attractive. I win.

I know one or two people commented about buying these ties before, so if anyone is actually interested in getting one of these ties, Victoria Richards’ web site is at the logical address of victoriarichards.com, so you can have a browse there (or if you’re after a unique slice of zoolyweds memorabilia, just contact her and ask for a Paul Speller zoolyweds special ;)).

Anyone wearing a zoolyweds tie to the wedding in an attempt to upstage the groom will be fed to the bears outside the ceremony venue, though.

Meanwhile, the number of available coach seats has entered single figures (nine, to be precise), so we’re on course for a fun journey. And London’s got the Olympics against all the odds! Life - as electronics company Lucky-Goldstar insist on pretending their initials stand for - ’s good.

Hello all, and sorry for not posting here for such a long time! I have been keeping busy with wedding preparations, but until recently there’s been little to show for my efforts.

Firstly, I would highly recommend Your Wedding, Your Way by Sophie Vincenzi if there’s anyone out there planning to get hitched. I got it from my local library recently, and it’s proving extremely useful (and not as scary and bridezilla-like as the title would have you think!) Thanks to the book and some web research, I now have a vague idea of our order of service (including possible music and readings), and was inspired to make a list of things we still need to do. It was three A5 pages long. I am daunted.

On the positive side, I have had two dress fittings, and now have my freshly-altered dress home again with newly-attached straps, thanks to the seamstress at the local dry-cleaners. I was a bit scared of letting a virtual stranger do things to my dress, but she’s done a lovely job and I’m really pleased. On Thursday we also made progress with choosing flowers for the wedding party from one of the three florists in Crayford, and a tiara for me. Rosy and her boyfriend Jezz came along to give us third and fourth opinions, which was very helpful. I think I’ll probably order a tiara online from Yexley Designs, as the one I wore in the shop was lovely, but also cost over £70! Once I’ve got that, my outfit for the day will be pretty much complete, so it’ll just be Paul left to worry about!

The honeymoon plans are going well too - we’re going to Paris for a week, and now have the Eurostar tickets, accommodation and insurance sorted out. I’m really looking forward to having a relaxing time to recover from all this planning :)

By the way, we’ve just published our second newsletter (PDF), which will be winging its way by email to invited guests imminently. Hope you enjoy reading it!