Craig has worked his magic again, Olly is ready for our big day

Craig has been working on Olly over the weekend to get her ready for our wedding. Only 12 days to go, OMG less than 2 weeks! Craig says he has an addition to his wedding Usher outfit which will make him look the part while driving Olly on our wedding day, What could that be? I'll update you when I find out what he has and post a picture if it's not too rude.

The break pads have been changed so we're safe in an emergency stop For example groom runs in front of the car and shouts stop the weddings off! We have our new mascot which has been fitted to the bonnet which makes it look very regal and there is now a fixing for the wedding car ribbon. Craig has done a temporary fix on the near side rear tyre. Ideally some new tyres would be good but we will have to sort that out after the wedding as money is haemorrhaging from our bank at the moment. It's now under 2 months till The Windy 500 and I'm starting to think have we bitten off more than we can chew? Wedding and huge Rally across europe a few weeks apart. One without the other is a challenge. We are having a few days away after the wedding to relax together in The Lake District at The Old English Inn at Lake Windermere. We'll be staring out at the lake and dreaming of european adventures.

Craig is fantastic sorting out the car mechanics although he isn't a trained mechanic, I am sure that their are not many lads with these skills anymore as cars now are too technical. Craig said it helps with Olly as she is 24 years old, the same age as him. Olly is easier to work on Craig says as she has a simple engine and no computers. I think it also helps because Craig spent his early years in his Dads garage fixing his Banger racing car which he raced as soon as he was allowed to get behind the wheels at Standlake Banger Racing. Craig also loves motor sport so like us The Windy 500 was an opportunity we all couldn't miss.

Looking at this you can see what kept his attention in Motorsport even after his childhood Banger racing days ended.

Donation's to our chosen charities are coming in slowly. So please help us to donate as much as we can, we know times are tuff but a pound from everyone who reads our blog would be fantastic.

How about trying to guess which countries we'll be traveling to? If you are up for a challenge what order do you think we'll travel through them?

The publicity has started for Team Newlywed 27

We have recently had a story in The Banbury Guardian, our local newspaper raising awareness in our home town of what Team Newlywed are doing for their bonkers honeymoon. On Monday Nik appeared on Radio Oxford. We are looking for people to help us raise the profile of the Charities we are supporting and any donation's towards things to get our car round the 23 countries in 23 days. e.g tyres, window wipers, fuel etc. Our car, Olly is 24 years old and is a Limo to go with our Honeymoon theme but need's and MOT before we go. Following the radio plea for help we have already had a garage offer a free MOT to get Olly road legal as the MOT runs out in May! The more help we have the more fundraising we can do. If companies can give some donation's we will add some advertising for them to Olly our car. Individual donations towards our chosen charities will be very appreciated too. Donation's towards getting Olly round her journey to raise funds or direct donation's to the charities would be very much appreciated.

Craig is in his usual spot under the hood! It's all down to Craig to get us our way, no pressure Craig!

Donation's towards getting Olly round her journey to raise funds or direct donation's to the charities would be very much appreciated.

Our pre wedding photo shoot at The Heritage Motor Museum, at Gaydon Warwickshire

We had our our pre wedding photo shoot at The Heritage Motor Museum at Gaydon with our wedding photographer Rob Wheal.

Please take a look at Rob's blog


http://www.robwhealphotography.com/blog/?p=358

http://www.robwhealphotography.com/

I've been trying to take my own pictures of our wedding preparation's so this is Rob at work. To pinch some of his top tips I even did a photography course with Rob. I'm learning but I'm glad Rob is shooting our wedding, it's one thing we can trust will be fantastic.

It was a great morning on our pre wedding shoot at The motor museum surrounded by amazing vehicles in a much better condition than our old Olly. Remember Olly is 24 years old but then most of the vehicles in the museum are much older. Olly would look fantastic in the museum after she makes it round the Rally. I'm being very confident and nailing my colours to the mast as I believe we and Olly will make the course. Well, Craig and Nik are not saying otherwise. With the wedding 2 weeks away Olly is up on ramps with no wheels so I am hoping she will be in good order for her and our big day.


Rob has taken some amazing pictures from our pre wedding shoot and gave us a tough choice in the picture we would like taken to our wedding reception for friends and family to sign. We'll have to have one of the shots of us with the Jaguar F1 car as it's close to our hearts as we have an original engine cover from the 2001 car on our dining room wall amongst lots of other Motor sport memorabilia. Motor sport really is in our veins and this is why The Windy 500 was the perfect choice for our our honeymoon adventure.

Preparing Olly and us for the big day

With our wedding only 4 Saturday's away it was time to start getting Olly in tip top shape. After sitting on the drive all winter (still feels like winter although some may say it's now Spring) she needed a good overhaul. Craig started with the mechanics and she needs some front pads and other things I (Gem) don't really understand. Craig is the "under the bonnet " part of Team Newlywed which is a good job as it's not Nik's or my strong point. 

My brother came to work on the aesthetics of Olly giving the inside a thorough valet and making Olly look almost brand new on the outside. After hours working on her she looks fit for her big day, I almost didn't recognise her. You can see your reflection in her now. My brother is a genius and it's the best wedding present he could give us, his skills and talent are invaluable to us. Thank you Bean! Olly will have some more prep done over the next couple of weeks and the day before the wedding to make sure she looks her finest. She can then have all her Windy500 stickers put on and anyone who would like to sponsor a tyre, some fuel, a window wiper...............can have their company logo added too. 

Nik and I got to do something amazing when we made our own wedding rings last weekend. We thought we would only get to do a small part of the process but we did everything. Nik made my ring and I his. It was very special. Some calm amongst the chaos of wedding organising. 

Not long to go now, eek!

The ritual of The Hen & Stag weekends

So our friends kept the destination and details top secret and revealed them as the weekends went along  as each activity happened......

The girls..............
Well Gem first, a total surprise planned by The unofficial bridesmaid Lindz. 
First stop some much needed R&R at Whittlebury Hall Spa. Laughs. floating and great chill axing enjoyed to the max.

Then Hen part 2, Birmingham for a Grease style weekend where we learnt the theme song dance moves. All the girls got into the spirit and loads of girlie giggles were heard. The night however, led to hysterical laughing and gasps of deep breath. All I can say is they took me to see "The Pleasure Boys".  Not only did I see them but I joined them on stage. Stallion by name and by nature!

A later surprise and treat from the girls at work, more Whittlebury Hall action but this time and overnighter with full use of the facilities and a fantastic meal. I highly recommend it.

And the boys........

Thanks to the Best Men Aaron Taylor and Barry Newbery the boys had a day at Top Golf and then a weekend away in Edinburgh. So ..........golf, drinking, comedy club, drinking, bunk room, drinking, Clay pigeon shooting, drinking, strip club, drinking, drinking, drinking........................throwing up!

The Stag in pose

The Stag crew with guns is tow

As usual "what goes on on tour stays on tour"!!!!!!!!!!!!

Team Newlywed become famous

Our local paper The Banbury Guardian has printed an article on our Honeymoon adventure. We're hoping some of the people living in our local area will get behind us to support us in our fund raising efforts. We've started our Just giving pages so that those who would like to can donate to our chosen charities. We have chosen Julia's House Hospice in Dorset which is the nominated charity from The Windy 500. We have also chosen the Thames Valley Air Ambulance. Gem has a lot to thank them for and knowing that they provide their life saving services funded by charitable donations this was our own personal way of giving something back.

The Just Giving link pages below will take you to a quick and easy way of donating to our charities.


Our just giving page - Julia's House Hospice

Our just giving 2nd page - Air Ambulance



As Nik is a DJ and we have our own business- Lets Go Disco,  we are planning to run some charity fund raising events so look out for some events coming up, we will post updates on our blog.

Please click on the link to ;  Lets Go Disco

Things are picking up pace now as our wedding is only 6 weeks away. Olly has been off the road since November but is going to have a spring clean and overhaul as she is needed in top shape to take Gem to the Church on our Wedding day. Craig will have his head under the bonnet making sure she runs smoothly and Usher and Gem's brother will be putting his car body prep skills into place to make Olly look her best. 

Team 38 and Team 6 from the Windy 500 are joining us for our evening reception so Olly may not be the only Windy 500 car at our wedding. To check out Team 38 and Team 6 you can head to the Windy 500 website via the link below.

The Windy 500

There are still places left for teams to take part or for individuals to join teams for the 2013 Windy 500.

Any ideas on what to do with the interior???????

I'm starting to think of the interior of Olly. My little brother Barney works for Auto Glym so he 
has the exterior in hand, he will make Olly look like a gleaming Ferrari on a bright summers
day. Or he will at least try to. As we're using Olly as our wedding car he'll have to scrub up!


I was getting a little worried in November when the flooding arrived and the water around us 
was rising fast. While packing sand bags and lifting precious items to high ground my 
thoughts switched to Olly. Sod the precious photos, wedding invites, computers etc I 
launched into protecting Olly mode. I was sure Olly wouldn't be good at swimming and didn't 
wan't our old buddy floating down the road so took him to higher ground. Our friends returned 
home from work wondering why an old limo was sat on their drive way prompting "how long 
will it be here?" My thoughts, until it's safe for him to return home!


The floods played havoc across the country and we had our own share, our neighbour a few 
doors down ended up on the local news after her kitchen flooded. Real community spirit 
kicked in and although it was frightening a little bit of the Blitz spirit pulled us through and 
that felt good! 

This is behind my house and is where I usually walk our dog. There is a bench and waist high railings in the middle but they are nowhere to be seen. It looks like a lake!


As we've already found out , Olly is not as water tight as we may may have expected. So the 
rain and snow have not been kind to him. An internal overhaul is now essential. It's not just a 
cocktail bar that's essential for our road trip but some dry and not smelly or mouldy seats that 
have become more important. 

So any ideas to give Olly an internal make-over would be welcome. Maybe, pimp my ride or DIY SOS..............................................