After the MANY work leaving drinks we faced the epic task of packing up our lives in to  boxes and piling in to a van to decamp from our London flat to my parents’ house in Suffolk. We had a few nervous moments with the packing; a sofa wedged in the front door and the cleaning company failing to arrive, but all was sorted and our tenants are now resident in our flat. It was a little sad to be leaving the first home we have owned together, but it was the start of many more happy times.

As owners rather than tenants there are a few things to consider if you are thinking of doing the same as us:

• Mortgage – you will need to apply for the right to let and, unfortunately, this will increase your mortgage repayments
• Management company – we didn’t want to be called for any reason so we went with a full management service, again this increases the costs but also peace of mind (we hope)
• Storage – we have been very lucky that my parents have space for our stuff, but it was still a bit of a headache figuring out where to put everything, even with letting our flat furnished. We also sold a few items to provide some extra funds (Thanks Becky)
• Packing – We started early and still ended up throwing stuff in bin liners and shopping bags last minute. Start early and have more boxes than you think you need.
• Admin – We are still finding stuff we have forgotten to change the address on and we are chasing up final bills so having a bit of time in the UK after we moved out has been very useful
• Space – We had far more stuff than we realised, do not under estimate the amount of storage you need, or the size of the van you need. We had to upgrade the van we had rented last minute to get all our stuff in. I was very confident I had booked a big enough van, but Caro was right and I caved to her better judgement and got the bigger one… it was still a squeeze
• Time – leave lots of it, it has taken us longer to pack and do the admin than we ever expected but the stress has definitely been lessened by starting early and tackling everything in sections.

So after the epic effort of moving out of our flat, and flat packing ourselves in to my parents’, we got on to the wedding preparations.

This was an insane week filled with glue guns, cable ties, quick dry cement and much champagne. Carolyn had decided she did not want flowers as centrepieces so undertook the task of building her own with her mum and uncle Jon. Anyone who knows the Aldridge family would have expected this and, I think you will all agree, the outcome was spectacular.

Our wedding day was fantastic day with all our family and friends joining us to celebrate /party at Elms Barn in Norfolk. Even the weather held after a biblical downpour as we were setting up. The whole event flew past, but we had the most amazing day which we will remember for the rest of our lives.

Our extended honeymoon had felt a long way off up to this point with so much going on beforehand but we are now well and truly gearing up for the off and we cannot wait.