Yes its time for a new Wedding Outfit post ....

If you have looked at some of my old posts you will know that 2013/14 has been very busy Wedding wise for me and the hubby. Well we have been very fortunate to receive another 3 invites :) two evening receptions and another whole day invite. Unfortunately we can only go to one of the evening receptions are the other is the weekend we are having our own second southern reception.

To keep with tradition here is my latest What to Wear for a Wedding!!

First a quick recap, since July 2013 we've been guests at 3 weddings necessitating several wedding guest outfits and hair pieces: 

Ampleforth July 2013: purple Hobbs dress styled up with a few accessories. Grey pin stripe suit, lilac shirt and silver paisley tie.

Lumley Castle September 2013: nude Warehouse dress and accessories from Outfit. Grey, 3 piece pinstripe suit, blue shirt with contrast white collar and gold/blue stripe tie.

St Cuthberts Church/Durham Castle January 2014: Purple Hobbs dress, White linen Warehouse blazer and black leather knee high boots for in the church and walk to the castle. Grey three piece suite, lilac shirt with contract white collar and burgundy bow tie.

Following this there was obviously our own wedding in May:

Couldn't resist posting another picture, it was such an amazing day. 

The first evening reception is for some friends of the family at the local Chiltern County Pub and Hotel.

Hubby is in white granddad shirt H&M, tweed style waistcoat Primark, burgundy cords Burton and tan brogues TKMAXX

I wore blue chiffon dress Primark, cream cardigan Dorothy Perkins, cream sandals Dorothy Perkins, silver clutch and turquoise earrings New Look. 

Teamed this with smokey brown eyes and a bright red lip for a pop of colour. 

The next do is for our good friends from Leeds who got engaged just after us, they have just booked their wedding and we were thrilled to receive a save the date for next May. YEY!! I was going to just wear one of the outfits from the above but then I went up to Boundary Mill with my mum and sister last weekend and saw this gorgeous Kaliko dress. If you follow me on Instagram you will have seen the sneak peak of the print I posted the other day.

Kaliko dress, New Look handbag, Cream.Nude heels.

I know its a long way off but when choosing special occasion outfits you have to start looking early incase the 'in' style isn't what you were wanting or what suits you plus new season stuff comes in quite early and you don't want to miss out. So when I saw this dress set up on the mannequin, I just had to try it on. I am thinking of styling it similar to how they had it in the store, blue Alex & Co jacket my cream court shoes and maybe either this silver clutch or my blue satin Monsoon clutch. Also this dress was a real bargain, £120 down to £40!! I got the jacket from Boundary Mill about 7 years ago now when I had to go to St James' Palace to collect my Gold Duke of Edinburgh's Award then wore it again 3 years ago to my mums wedding with an all blue floral Kaliko dress (also from Boundary Mill).

Blue Alex & Co linen jacket, love the extra pop of colour and the frill on this jacket it really nice adds some detail when the jacket is closed. 

What do you think? Are any of you going to a wedding or other event in the next year. 

xXx

Adding that homey touch ...

On Tuesday I told you about the decorating we are planning on doing in the house and promised I would show you some of the little bits and pieces we have been picking up little pieces for the house. 

We have picked stuff up as and when we saw it, with a lot of the pieces being on sale at the time. We didn't want everything all matchy matchy, more naturally accumulated. This lot is all from Sainsburys, mainly because its the closest shop to us and with the hubby working there we go in a lot. They have had some really nice home-ware in recently. 

Hand painted serving bowl, 2 finger bowls & 4 side plates on sale. Love the colour and unique look.  

Hand blown water jug. We wanted a nice water jug for when we have guests and this one is very unique. 

Shaped vase,  I like the narrow neck for flowers, wide necks make flowers flop apart. 

Statement vase, I loved the shape of this one and its quite tall so will look nice with flowers or stones in. 

These were on sale at £10 for a 12 piece set, we liked the simple pattern and our everyday plates have had it. They are 4 years old and obviously get used everyday so needed replaced. Though some of the nicer ones are being repurposed as student supplies for my nephew when he goes to uni next year.

These are our dinner party service, we saw them on sale and loved the silver geometric pattern. This set will be kept for when we have guests and special occasions. 

I will post more pics of bits we pick up. I am sure there will be lots of little pieces of the next few months as we try to put our stamp on the new house. 

xXx

Wedding Planning ... Part 4 ...

So in Part One  I covered the basics, Part Two I covered the Venue, Part 3 was the registrar, music and readings. 

Following the list of my must haves I gave you all in the first post, this one is going to be abou

THE DRESS!!! 

Above anything else my biggest tip for finding the right dress is to have FUN!! you are only supposed to do this once so when you go to try on dresses have fun. 

Top Tips: 

Do your research. I keep saying it but you are spending a lot of money on this one day so you need to do the research and planning to get the best day for you. 

Know your body shape. Look at dresses you already own what sort of shapes have suited you in the past? look online at bridal sites, Pornovias, Maggie Sottero and Agnes Bridal have loads of different shapes and styles you can look at to see if anything inspires you. They also list stockists so if you like a particular dress then you can see if a local shop has it. 

Make sure you try on all sorts of different styles as what looks nice on a hanger or model might look awful on you and vice versa. 

Tell the shop assistant you are not sure why style you suit. Even if you know what you think you want if you say you don't then you can try anything on and ask what they think will suit you. These women have been doing this a long time and have seen all the dresses on so they might have a hidden gem that you would overlook. 

Make sure it is you! the last thing you want to do is look back in 10 years and think OMG what on earth was I thinking. Some styles of dress will age that is inevitable but so long as the dress is you and when you look back you think yes it suited me then who cares. 

Take appropriate underwear! best choice would probably be a nice strapless nude bra that way it will not interfere with any style of bodice you try on. 

Take appropriate shoes! if you dont have yours take some form of heel height that might be similar to what you are planning to wear. Not all shops might have your size you could borrow. We hold our bodies different when we have heels on and it makes for a more complete experience. 

Now the fun part: 

Silhouette 

Neckline 

Sleeve 

Bodice 

Train

Fabric 

Silhouette:  

Your main contenders are: Ballgown, A line, slim/modified A line, trumpet, mermaid, sheath, tea length and mini. 

Ballgown is your typical fillet bodice then a skirt that flares from the hip dramatically. This is a big style so can be overwhelming and really would suit a big venue. This is your princess dress ... make sure you try at least one of these on even just to give you and the girls a laugh. 

A line again fitted bodice but this slopes away in an A shape from the hip more naturally then a ballgown. There is a lot less volume on the skirt its really more of a gentle slope then the flare of a ballgown. Beautiful style that will suit a majority of body shapes. 

Modified/slim A line: as above its a gentle slope out but this style would be from more mid thigh its somewhere between a A line and a trumpet/mermaid. This will suit a lot of body types but be careful if you don't like your bum. This would give more balance to a girl who is not very busty then a mermaid. 

Trumpet: fitted bodice then fits over the hip and thigh to just above the knee. From there it flares out to the floor with an underskirt. As above be careful if you dont like your bum or your  a pear shape, because of the flare you need to balance bust and hips. 

Mermaid: this is the extreme version of the mermaid usually very fitted all the way from bodice to just blow the knee then flares out. Very tricky style to pull off due to the tight fit, make sure you get on the squats to make that bum look fab. I tried this and its not good if you have a small chest as it will definitely emphasise the hips. Try one of the above if your not well endowed in the chest dept.  

Sheath: very difficult to pull off as there is no structure under the dress. This is your typical grecian style that drops straight to the floor from the empire line. Probably best on your straight up and down girls, I found this style often came in light flowy fabrics like satin or chiffon. This is a very unforgiving style as you cannot hide anything under it.  Although it can look stunning Bella Swan from Twilights dress was this sort of style and looking fab on Kirsten Stewart.

Tea Length: this is also known as prom dress style. Generally this is fitted bodice that flares out from the natural waist with a net underskirt. This is a lovely quirky style though obviously you need a good set of pins and no train.

Mini: Im not a big fan of this style its generally a short dress where the hem ends above the knee, less flared than the above and definitely not your typical wedding dress. I didnt see many of this style if any in the shops I went to.

Neckline.

You obviously have straps and strapless then its your normal neckline styles. This depends on how covered up you want to be and what sort of bust size you have. Most of the above silhouettes come with all of your general necklines it just depends on what shop of designer you are looking at.

Your genreal necklines are:
V neck, square, sweetheart, halter, scoop, high neck, bateau, sheer (this is a panel of sheer material between the bust and shoulders), off the shoulder, strapless styles include straight and sweetheart.

Sleeve: 

This is really up to you obviously to you, they come in your standard range of lengths cap, short, elbow, bracelet and full length. If you are not a fan of dresses with sleeves there is always the option to wear a jacket. I had a little bolero with cap sleeves in large over my dress as it was strapless and we felt it looked nicer for the ceremony with something over the shoulders. It originally had full sleeves but they were too old for me. Sleeves can come in any fabric on either the dress or a jacket. You can get thing chiffon/net sleeves that are nearly see through or lace ones even full fabric if thats what you want again it depends on the dresses and shops you are looking in. 

Bodice: 

This has two elements the general style and fastening. The main fastenings are buttons, zips and laced. I had a hidden zip with illusion buttons but my mum and sister went for lacing. Lacing is great if you are a big bigger in the body as you can tighten and loosen it off, also it allows you to great a more natural hourglass then a fixed zip. In short its a little more forgiving. I could have had a lace back but if you have a narrow back it probably wont have as much impact as it will be quite narrow. 

General styles are fitted with a defined waist or fitted with a hidden waist. This is where the bodice merges into the skirt with no defined edge. The bodice tends to depend on your silhouette and fabric. If you want to be nipped in look for dresses with quite a bit of structure to the bodice so this will involve boning and a heavier fabric. Your bodice can be a simple or detailed as you like, some have draping, pleats, folds, applique's anything really. A structured bodice with some draping on an A line dress can mask a pouchy tummy. Or a flat bodice accentuated with a belt can draw the eye in to give an illusion hourglass on someone with a straight waist. Really this is up to the dress you like and what suits your body type. 

Train: 

You tend not to get these on ballgowns, mermaids or sheaths. They come in a variety of lengths and can also depend on your fabric, as in you can have a top layer of thin net or lace that flows out into a train when the heavier under skirt doesn't. Personally I think your train depends on your venue, if its a big venue with a long aisle you can get away with more train. Remember with a train you will have to think about bustling : this is where you hoist the fabric up so you can walk around and dance without it getting in the way. 

Your style of train can also depend on what style of train you want. Some extend from the hem whilst others extend from the waist so are fuller through the back of the dress and along the floor. This will depend on your silhouette. I personally like a puddle train with a big of something in the back that falls into a puddle on the floor. 

Your main lengths are: 

Brush, this is where the back of the dress from the hem is slightly longer then the front and it brushes the floor behind you. 

Court: This is a bit longer then the brush and will probably extend about 3 feet from the waist line. 

Chapel: another waistline one that goes to a puddle but about 5 feet from the waist. 

Cathedral: this is your full train anything over about 6 feet. This has a lot of impact but needs a long aisle and a good bustle so you don't trip people over at the reception. 

Fabric: 

Wedding dresses come in all sorts of different fabrics everything from light weight chiffon to a full weight heavy satin. Some are also multi layered, mine has a top layer of lace with 2 under skirts to add structure and weight. All of the silhouettes will come in most fabrics and it just depends on what you feel like. Your main fabrics will be: charmeuse, chiffon, lace, organza, rayon, silk, satin, taffeta and tulle. These obviously have different weights and textures so can be used in a variety of ways depending on the overall style of the dress. 

You don't have to worry too much about this in advance, only things you need to think about is lace or no lace shiny or more matte. Once you get in a shop and get to feel the fabric, see how it drapes or hangs then you can will know if its for you. Only other thing to bear in mind is that some satin or taffeta fabrics can crease or wrinkle so if you are travelling by car then you might have some wrinkle in the back and across the hips where you have been sat. 

That is really all there is to say about dresses as its a very personal decision and very dependant on what you try on. You might have your heart set on a brilliant white satin sheath and find actually you look amazing in an ivory tulle ballgown. 

I will however close by repeating my top two tips of have FUN and do your research. Try on as many dresses as you need to, you will know the one when you see yourself in it. 

Bit of a long wordy one this one ... oops. 

xXx 

Throw Back Thursday ..... What I was wearing..

As Thursdays are for throw backs and I have a stash of outfit pics from my blogging break I thought I would start to share a few of them. 

Starting top left: 

1: Night out: black skinnies Next, black leather shoe boots Deichman, grey vest Primark statement silver nacklace Primark 

2: work, theme floral: chambray shirt Matalan, circle skirt Tesco sale, scarf  & pumps TU at Sainsburys

3: work, tonal blues: denim shirt H&M, striped sleeveless vest TU at Sainsburys, white blue skinnies H&M, floral headscarf Monsoon

4: chambray shirt Matalan, grey crop jumper Soul Cal, dark pink skinnies Primark, grey plimsols H&M, statement necklace Moonsoon

5: print dress/top NewLook, grey skinnies Primark, grey plimsols H&M, black cardigan Primark

6: casual work, navy loose vest dress H&M, black leggings TU & Sainsburys, brown chelsea boots Tesco, hubbys denim shirt for that oversized look 

7: Nephews birthday, mustard crop jumper Soul Cal, pink leapard pencil skirt Matalan, Dunlop original canvas shoes Sports Direct, statement necklace Topshop

8: purple crossover front pencil dress G21 at Asda, maroon suede heeled boots Primark

9: casual work, grey crop Soul Cal jumper, light blue Primark skinnies, Dunlop originals, H&M leather belt

I think my favourites from here are probably 7 and 8. I love that dress from G21 its a really nice fit and the colour is nice on too. Also you can dress it up or down depending on your accessories, I also like the vintage vibe it has. As for 7 I love a pencil skirt, I find them really flattering on my body type and this one is really comfortable. Ive bought a few from Matalan recently they did a really nice range of stretch jersey midi pencil skirts thats are really comfortable and come in some great colours. If you are looking to try one out I would suggest looking in Matalan they are only about £10 which is really reasonable. 

Making a house a home ...

So me and the hubby have just bought our first house :D We are a little bit excited as this will be our chance to settle down and plant roots. Thus far we have been renting flats which are nice, but you dont get much opportunity to personalise them.

Here is our baby:

Kitchen & dining room, lounge, downstairs loo, utility room, bathroom, 2 spare bedrooms, master bedroom with en-suite and a garage and garden. Its a new build so we got to pick the kitchen, carpets & flooring. Now with only 3 weeks to go we are starting to get down to the nitty gritty, packing, organising transport and decorating!!!

So the bit we are most looking forward to is decorating and adding our own stamp to the house, with that in mind we have decided to have a feature wall in each of the main rooms.

In our bedroom behind the bed opposite the window we are going for this silver tree print paper from Homebase, we have white wardrobes and a silver bed frame so we are trying to keep it nice and light to open up the space. 

This green willow print paper is going to go behind the bed in the spare bedroom. Not sure what else is going in this room at the minute as we need to get in and see what our furniture looks like in the space. 

This fun grey teal and green starburst print from B&Q we are thinking about for in the dining area of the kitchen to brighten it up. 

We are not too sure what to have in the living room, we have seen this lovely leaf print from Homebase that comes in a few different colours. 

This is the silver which is nice and bright. 

I think this one looks nice but would need to see a sample next to our existing furniture. 

This is the taupe version, it looks lighter in person but seeing it on the website made me wonder if a whole wall would be a bit dark. We want to keep the living room light an neutral. At the minute we have mainly beech furniture and cream accents with a little bit of orange. 

I absolutely love this version with the green and teal but it would clash with my recently covered chair and Im not sure if we might get fed up of it quite quickly. 

Im not sure what to do with the kitchen and living room walls, I think will we get a better idea once we get into the house and we can put the samples up on the walls to see what we think. 

Up next time a few of the little pieces we have bought so far

xXx

What I've been wearing ... Mixing it up

So this week I have been trying to mix it up with my outfits. I sometimes get into a bit of a rut and wear the same stuff over and over, mainly because I know I like that outfit and otherwise its half an hour in front of a packed wardrobe insisting I have nothing to wear ... heheh.

With the weather looking a little bit more positive then it has been I decided to move into a more spring/summer themed wardrobe (as it write this the heavens have opened and it is now persisting it down ... oh well glorious British summer and all that)

Here are a few of my favourite looks from last week:

Black sheer shirt, statement necklace, rolled up  slim boyfriend jeans, waterfall cardigan and burnt orange sandals. Matalan, Primark & T K MAXX. Hair spin pined into a messy bun. 

Lace detail sheer shirt, rolled up green chinos, oatmeal slip on brogues, waterfall cardigan.
Nearly all Primark except the shoes which are Sainsburys and necklace which I cant remember. 

I don't usually wear this necklace or chinos but I quite like them like this. 

My favourite outfit: Light blue denim shirt rolled sleeves, blue and white strip elbow sleeve jumper, cream loose rolled chino and tan brogues. Statement necklace.
Matalan shirt, New Sainsburys jumper with the altered necklace, New Look chinos. 

I posted a couple of Instagram pics about the jumper above, its the only new item and I love it, found it half price in Sainsbury's, the necklace was clipped on to the shoulders but I altered it to wear as a separate. I like the mix of cream blue and tan in this look with a pop of yellow from the necklace. 

Black back detail vest tucked in behind the belt, slim fit boyfriend jean with roll up & my statement necklace. Keeping it simple. New Look, T K Maxx & Primark sandals. 

Casual pub look. all Primark again. Grey loose fit vest, studded slim belt, black jersey maxi skirt and eyelet detail black ballet pumps. You cant make them out but I added a pair of New Look statement earrings. 

Nearly all of these pieces I already had in my wardrobe from a few months to a few years ago but I decided to pull them out and mix it up trying them in new ways. I am liking a rolled leg on a loose fitting trouser at the minute to add a casual detail. Also I'm a huge fan of statement jewellery, in winter it was bling now for summer I am liking plain silver with lots of chains or bright stones.

If your feeling stuck in a rut why not try having a look on Instagram for OOTD posts or fashion bloggers so see if you can get some inspiration. 

xXx 

Crafty Thank You cards ...

As you will have read I recently got married .. yey... and with a wedding come wedding gifts. When we sent out our invites we weren't really sure where we would be living or what we would be doing, it was very likely that we would still be renting and as we have lived together renting for 4 years now we have all of our stuff for the flat. So we decided that the best option for us was to ask for donations towards a house and honeymoon fund.

As it turns out we have actually bought a house and started the process before the wedding but we still have the majority of the stuff we need that could go on a gift list, only things we needed were larger expensive items a washing machine, dishwasher and lawn mower. Our friends and family were really generous and thanks to their kind gifts we have been able to afford to buy all of the above and more for our lovely new house (which we move into in 3 weeks).

We wanted to say a Thank You to all of our guests for joining us on the day and for their gifts so we decided to send them all thank you cards. We had a look online and looked around in shops but even small cards are so expensive then you have to think about postage. So in the end we decided to carry on our DIY theme from the wedding and I made our cards.

I bought the cards pre cut and folded with envelopes from a local haberdashery, wedding & craft supplier called Dainty Toys. I have used them for loads of crafty projects before and my mum uses them if she needs fabric for anything. A pack of 50 4x4inch square cards with envelopes cost £6.50 so I bought 2 packs. Then I had to decide what to put on and in the card. In the end I went for a simple black and white picture of me and the hubby from our day and a little thank you message inside. I decided to keep the picture small as I didn't want it to be too 'look at us' more of a memento from the day especially as this was to say thank you to our guests for celebrating with us.

Interiors and exteriors ready to cut! 

53 insides all cut and ready to be stuck!

The finished article. Added a little green as it was our colour. 

Making these up took a little bit of time but at the end of the day I know they are really personal to us and our day which is what I wanted. 

If your not overly crafty why not try writing personal thank you messages in store bought cards, there are loads of great ideas on what to say online. Plus if you have a gift list its easy to thank people individually for what they bought you. 

xXx

#marriedmay

So as anyone who follows me on Instagram will know I recently got married to my amazing boy. We celebrated our wedding on 04/05/14 and coincidentally there was a photo a day challenge running on Instagram (set up by @phoebewedding) called #marriedmay so I decided to join in and share my day.

Here is the line up:

Here are my entries:

Running left to right on each row, I didn't do 18 as I didnt really read any wedding blogs I mainly looked at Pinterest but I had already covered that, also I did 3 pics for day 22 stationary as we had a lot of elements.   

I had so much fun going over all the little elements of our day and sharing them. Your big day goes by in such a blur of smiles, happiness and photographs so it was really nice to specifically look at the little elements that made up the day. The little things are the bits that can get lost in such a big day but when you are planning they are the pieces that bring the whole day together for you at that stage.

Well I hope you enjoyed looking at the different elements of my big day and for any readers planning their own big day I hope your day is as magical as mine was and that maybe this has given you some ideas.

xXx

I love spin pins!

So in preparation for the wedding I was growing my hair out so that I had lots of locks for the hairdresser to play with. This included growing out my fringe and layers so that they would tie back. As a result I have been experiencing a very love hate relationship with my hair. As any girl who has grown out her hair knows you get to that stage where you have no idea what to do with it, its too long for your old styles and still too short for what you are growing it towards .. thus you have to start getting creative. This can be a bit of a chore it you are also having to get ready for work and dont have much time to get ready. This is usually where I would just tie my hair back into a pony tail or fake bun where you don't pull your hair all the way through the last loop. 

Well recently I have surpassed this stage and got VERY bored of my hair so started to try a few new styles. One of these was using a hair doughnut, my hair wasn't quite long enough to tie all of it up because of the layers but I found a solution. After putting the doughnut in place and securing my hair with a bobble I tied a short scarf loosely round the base of the doughnut leaving a little bow either on top or below the bun. 

As my hair got a bit longer I was able to start tying my hair higher up. As for my fringe a bit of hair spray held most of it back and as I usually wear this style quite neat it stayed pulled back quite well once sprayed. 

This style is all well and good but its very neat and sometimes you want a bit more life in your hair. Mine is quite curly when it dries naturally but unfortunately they fall out easily and go a bit fuzzy as the day wears on so I don't tend to leave it down like this. So I was trying to play around with messy buns but just couldn't get it to work very well not sure if my hair is still too short or if I was doing it wrong but it wasn't having any of it. 

That was until I found these spin pins. I had seen them in places like Boots or Superdrug but wasn't overly convinced as to how they were supposed to hold your hair in place. Then I saw them in Poundland of all places and thought hey for a pound Im not exactly getting robbed am I. So I picked some up and had a quick google on how to use them,  they had instructions but its was nice to see a video of someone using them. 

Since then I am officially in LOVE. They are so quick and easy to use once you get the hang of them. Of course sometimes I still get annoyed as I cant get my hair to play ball but for the most part they go in first time. Some sites say to just twirl your hair up and put in the pins but I have found its just as easy to loosely pull your hair back into a pony tail then twist and secure with the pins. I have also found that with my shorter hair 3 or 4 work a bit better then just 2.

I have even started to play around putting my hair up a bit higher almost in a top knot. Once you have put the pins in you can scrunch the bun so that some of the hair loosens and it looks more messy. They really do do the job of 20 hair grips. Plus with them just spinning in, if your hair starts to fall out its a lot quicker to just untwist one and put it back in then with lots of pins or trying to tuck bits into a bobble.

I would definitely recommend any one who likes a messy bun or wants to try one pops to Poundland and picks some up. 

xXx