The year in review ... 2014!

2014

New year is a time for reflection so I have been having a think about my 2014 experience. It has been an amazing year and will be a pretty hard one to top to be fair. 

January

We kickstarted the new year as we meant go on by attending our good friends wedding at Durham Castle, it was a wonderful day and the bride was simply stunning. January was also quite special for me as I reconnected with a good friend … life is too short to loose good friends.

February & March

February was quite quiet, we were continuing with the wedding planning and hitting the gym hard! March was pretty much the same as February, there was a lot of time at the gym as we hit 6 weeks to the wedding. I went for my wedding hair trial with my cousin … only took 102 hair grips hehe mum was also well underway with the alterations to my dress.

Beast mode at the gym

102!!

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

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 

#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

Wedding Planning ... Part 3

So in Part One  I covered the basics of getting ready to start planning a wedding then gave you my list of important items I thought we needed for our wedding, in Part Two I covered the Venue. Going logically this post is going to cover the next important aspect you need to sort out early on ... registrar. 

Registrar. 

I wont spend long on how to go about this part as your venue should give you the contact details for which registry office you need to speak to about booking a registrar for your venue. I am not entirely sure what you need to do with a church as we didn't get married at church but I am sure its the same principle that the Vicar will tell you who you need to speak to about arranging the legal side. 

When we called our local office it was months before we could get an appointment and my sister had issues with when the appointments were in relation to her and her husbands working patterns. Once you go to see them they should give you a pack of information for you to organise your ceremony. We then had another meeting a few weeks before hand to go over our choices and make sure every thing was ok. 

There are two important sub items you will need to consider with both a church or civil ceremony Music and Readings. For a civil ceremony these both have to be non religious. 

Music. 

For a Civil Service you need a few pieces: 

Guests entering the room
Processional (brides entry)
Signing the Register
and your exit as Man and Wife 

As the now hubby is a big music nut he took control of this area and chose everything but my entry music which obviously I decided. 

Guest entrance - Jack Johnson Better Together & Michael Buble Everything

Processional - I edited a version of Cannon on D so I came in at the peak then it would fade out as I reached the front. 

Signing of the register - Danny Elfman Ice Dance (hubbys fav), What a Wonderful Word from Meet Joe Black, Fredric Chopin Nocturn in E-Flat 

Exit - string quartet version of Foo Fighters Everlong (because we love the Foos)  

For church you have a lot more choice as far as music is concerned as you get to throw Hymns into the mix, at the two church weddings we have been too in the last year the choice of Hymns has been lovely and its really nice to have a bit sing song. (I also love the Homliy, both we heard were given by people who knew the couple personally so they were really lovely) 

Readings.

For church these would usually be your favourite passages that suit a wedding. 

For a Civil Service this bit can be easy and difficult obviously you cant use scripture as its religious but its also really hard to pick readings that you think are appropriate. I ended up using the almighty Google, but the registry office will also give you a selection of about 20 or so approved readings. This is a good starting point but you might have heard them before or what something a little different, Google is really good I found a lot of different sites with loads of choices. I ended up filling all three reading spots as I wanted our ceremony to be as personal as the set up would allow. 

We went for: 

Our Great Adventure 

We are today still dizzy with the astonishment of love.
We are surrounded by affection - by smiles and kindliness,

by flowers and music and gifts and celebration.
Yet they enclose a silence where we are close with one another.
My eyes see only you.

I hear nothing but the words we speak to one another
This is the day we start our life together.
This is our new beginning

On Your Wedding Day 

Today is a day you will always remember
The greatest in anyone's life
You'll start off the day just two people in love
And end it as Husband and Wife

It's a brand new beginning the start of a journey
With moments to cherish and treasure
And although there'll be times when you both disagree
These will surely be outweighed by pleasure

You'll have heard many words of advice in the past
When the secrets of marriage were spoken
But you know that the answers lie hidden inside
Where the bond of true love lies unbroken

So live happy forever as lovers and friends
It's the dawn of a new life for you
As you stand there together with love in your eyes
From the moment you whisper 'I do'

And with luck, all your hopes, and your dreams can be real
May success find its way to your hearts
Tomorrow can bring you the greatest of joys
But today is the day it all starts

If You Can Always Be As Close

If you can always be as close,

And as happy as today,

Yet be secure enough to grow

And change along the way.

If you can keep for you alone

Your love as man and wife,

Yet find the time to share your joy

With others in your life.

If you can be as one

And walk through marriage hand in hand,

Yet still support the goals and dreams

That each of you have planned.

If you can dare to always go

Your separate ways together,

Then all the wonder of today

Will stay with you forever

After you decide on readings the next part is picking who you are going to get to read. This part we found really difficult, obviously you don't want to make people feel awkward who don't like reading so instead of outright asking I asked if people would like to give a reading. That way if they weren't comfortable it wasn't like we were imposing. 

In the end we decided we wanted a mix of people to represent the different groups of people we had invited. First up was my bridesmaid, she's a friend from uni and I wanted to include her as my other friend was already acting as witness and giving a speech, she also represented the wedding party. Next up was a friend from postgrad who's wedding we went to in July, she has amazing diction and represented the married world we were entering. Last up was hubby's sister to represent our two families. 

I think the different readings fit each of them quite well too, S a friend from Uni which is also a big adventure, A a married friend talking about a wedding day, then V a family member talking about being close and essentially becoming your own subfamily. 

That being said my top tips for picking your readings and readers are: 

Pick the readings first, make sure you have a good look around don't just settle for the readings offered by the Register Office. Go for readings that suit your day and you as a couple, these are the only way to really personalise a civil ceremony the rest is fairly formal. 

Think about who you are inviting, is there anyone close you would like to give a special role to but who isn't in the wedding party? Who do you want to represent with your readers ... family ... friends ... can you mix and match? Does anyone have a nice speaking voice, someone who is good at injecting a bit of umph into a simple verse? hey if all else fails pick a name out of a hat and run with it hehe 

Anyway thats all from me on Registrars. Our celebrant was amazing, he had a brilliant air about him, he didn't just read out passages from a book he spoke freely about the different parts of the ceremony and really made it very personal. Our readers were amazing they all did a fabulous job, even the celebrant commented that the readings and readers were all excellent. I might be biased as he said I was the most elegant bride he had seen in many years :D 

Our service was beautiful .... I saw 3 people after I entered the room my godfather stood right ahead of me, my friend A on the other side of the aisle ... then I looked to the front and from that moment it sounds cheesy but all I saw was J. I will never forget that look on his face in that moment.  

xXx

More ink ...

So if you are new to the blog you might want to take a look at my previous tattoo post, you see I am a bit of an ink addict. This would be find except in the profession I want to go into its best not to be covered in tattoos, so I tend to have to keep them discreet. Im doing ok though my running total is 8!!

Here is my latest one:

Me and the hubby got co-ordinating tattoos to celebrate our recent wedding. I had a few ideas in mind but ended up drawing this one up recently and it was the fav. The symbol is a forwards and backwards ornate S to celebrate our new double barrel double S surname. I like that it almost looks like a heart as well, something our tattooist pointed out.

As its quite ornate and girly I wasn't sure about how we could do it for the hubby, it was actually the tattooist who suggested that J got bold large numerals and the pattern lighter behind the date. That way the focus is our wedding date for him. For me I got it a little smaller and my numerals are thinner more feminine.

My only problem now is that I'm stick addicted but I have run out of discreet body locations :s think I might get one or two of my older ones updated and upgraded.

Ooh hubby also has another relatively new piece - he got a breast cancer ribbon on the inside of his right bicep with Great North Run 2013 £1120 (how much he raised) to mark his completion of the GNR in September and celebrate how much he raised for Breast Cancer Care. The writing is in Norse Runes and Roman Numerals thanks to a couple of medievalist friends of ours.

Thats all my tattoo updates for now, I doubt it will be the last ink I get. I just love it too much hehe

xXx

Wedding Planning .... part 2

So you have your budget all sorted and you have decided on a colour scheme. Now its time to get to real meat of the planning starting with the VENUE!

This is really important because a) its where you be getting married and b) its the most expensive part of your day. I started by looking at places we liked and made some lists, then narrowed it down by looking at the websites and comparing details.

The websites are really helpful because they can give you the main headlines for a venues wedding options without having someone try and push you to book. Its also helpful to have some information before you go to look at a place so you don't get too overwhelmed by the 'helpful' sales people. The main things you need to consider when picking a venue are:

Location:

How will people get there? If you are having two locations ie a church then reception how will guests get from one to another? I know it seems daft as its your day so people who love you will come no matter what ... but its a little bit selfish not to have some consideration of guests travel arrangements. This also includes their overnight accommodation, if they are travelling a long way guests will need to stay before the wedding and the night of.

I put this information on an "important information" sheet I sent with the invitations. I listed the top 5 nearest hotels and the venues address for those using SAT NAV, this also stops people having to contact you to check about hotels. Don't forget a lot of guests wont know the area as well as you do so may not know that the hotel they picked is actually way out of the way for the venue. 

You might find that your venue offers a discount for guests, Lumley Castle offer 10% to wedding guests when you call up and quote the name of the wedding so info like this can be put on the sheet as well that way you don't have to remember to tell people when you see them. 

Capacity: 

All the venues should have lists of how many people they can fit in each room and for which part of the day. Our venue Lumley Castle has 2 rooms licensed for ceremonies and a few more for wedding breakfasts and evening functions. Its important to look at the capacity as some places might be able to hold more people for a wedding breakfast and evening do then they can for a ceremony. 

We're quite lucky in that both rooms licensed for the ceremony could hold 80 people but when we visited I decided I wanted the bigger room as I thought 80 would be too crowded in the smaller one. Also I have been to a few weddings in that room so wanted different pictures for my own.

Price:

This is very tricky. A lot of places separate out the different sections of the package you need to pay for then have hidden costs you don't realise till you turn up and start asking questions. 

The main areas you need to look out for are:
* price of food per person
* are any drinks included in that or do you need a drinks package
* what each room costs to hire
* does room hire include decoration

The last one might sound odd but I found a venue I loved then went to visit with my mam and we found out that nothing was included. They had an "extras" package! we had gone to an open day where the venue is set up for a wedding and you can get an idea of the feel of the room. They looked stunning then we picked up this little booklet and found that everything was extra that was on view. 

I do mean everything in the ceremony room you needed  to pay for the chair covers, then any chair ties, the lovely candles in the feature fire place were extra, the foliage on the two columns even the standing candles at the ends of the aisle were extra. Then into the main room, as this venue was a stately home the room had been a large conservatory type room with lovely windows and columns. So in here the draping behind the top table that stopped you having a blank white wall was around 200, all the ivy up the columns making them look nice extra, again chair covers and chair ties needed to be provided, the centre pieces were extra they didn't have a basic option you got for free, any top table accessories all extra. We worked out for the £2000 room hire you were basically getting the rooms ready for a conference: plain chairs and table cloth's that was it they also had strange rules about the chair decorations, if you hired this out you would have to buy enough for both rooms as the venue staff wouldn't move them across but if you hired theirs you only needed one lot that could move from ceremony to wedding breakfast. It was going to cost around £800 to make the rooms feel wedding suitable. By the time you added in the food this venue priced its self out of the running.

Of course you might want a blank venue to decorate yourself  but at the end of the day no one wants to pay though the nose so getting all your prices lined up first is the best way to get your monies worth.

Last but not least the Visit:
This is the most important aspect of picking your venue for the obvious reason that pictures are not the real deal. When you do visit make sure you ask lots of questions so you can get all the information you want, if you dont ask they might not tell you. Its also good to have a general look around to get a feel for the place see if it really fits your style and idea of the day. Are there lots of places you can get pictures even if its bad weather, will your area be suitably sectioned off from any public areas (don't want random people eating your canapes etc) is getting around the venue going to be easy. If you have any guests with mobility issues does the venue have a lift or other access they could use. Lumley have a wheelchair lift which could access our room but another suite they have for receptions has a staircase between the bar and room so would not be suitable for wheelchairs or older relatives who have issues with stairs.

Once you have picked your final venue its time to have some fun. Decorations!!

xXx

What to wear for another wedding ....

This is a sort of follow up to my previous posts about wedding attire, you see this year I am fortunate enough to have been invited to 3 weddings! The first was the other week in Ampleforth, the second is at Lumley in a few weeks then the last is at Durham Castle in January.

This of course requires wedding outfits, for the first I chose a gorgeous purple Hobbs dress with Laura Ashley cardigan and pashmina and an Accesorise handbag. The day its self was gorgeous, Ampleforth College is a stunning venue as was Byland Abbey for the reception, the bride was an absolute vision and the groom was very handsome. One of the best parts of the day for me was seeing the look on the grooms face when he looked at his bride, the only way to describe it is utter joy.

Before I start on outfit two, here are a few pics of our outfits from wedding one.

Me and my handsome Fiancé. 

Decided to keep my hair simple, down with the side pinned & fascinator.

At the gorgeous Byland Abbey.

Now after a quick round of that wedding outfit on to the next. The next wedding is at Lumley Castle in a few weeks, I was just going to wear my purple dress but then I found a nice dress in Laura Ashley that matched my pashmina. It was in the sale so I bought it, but after getting it home decided that actually it wasn't really me so I returned it. Mum said we could go up to Boundary Mill where I got the Hobbs dress to have a look but then she found a sale in our local Outfit. Outfit is new to our local retail park, its one unit but has Warehouse, Miss Selfridge, Topshop, Dorothy Perkins and Wallace in for the girls then Burton and Topman for the boys. Basically the different shops that make up part of the arcadia group its really good, the different sections are about as big as you would find in a Debenhams but still have loads of things in and you can look at all of them in one shop. 

Anyway mum went in and found they had a sale on, there were a few dresses she liked so I met her after work and we had a look. I think I ended up trying on about 6 different dresses, most of them were really nice but just weren't quite right. You know how it is when you are looking for a specific outfit when you try it on something clicks and you think yes this is it. So we ended up with it down to 2, one from the normal collection and one from the sale. In the end I have gone with the sale dress, not because its in the sale but because its the one that said yes. The other dress was really nice but part of me felt it was a little to work wear, I could see my self wearing it to an interview etc. 

So here is my outfit for wedding two. I first saw this dress in the Warehouse in Selfridges Manchester and the first thought in my head was that it would make an excellent wedding guest outfit. 

Here is a breakdown of my new outfit: 

Dress - Warehouse - Organza Embroidered Tulip - £75 down to £45 

Cardigan - Dorothy Perkins - Petite Stone Diasy Mesh - £16

Heels - Dorothy Perkins - Hilda Nude Gem Sandals - £40 down to £22

Pumps - Nude Gem Bow - £23 

£106 down from £154, not as much saved as before but still a good saving. I'm sure the pumps should have had money off but I think it was a one day thing so no point taking them back. 

Also bought new earrings from BHS for £2.50 and already had my fascinator £1.80 (customised).

I love the lace detail on the dress and the see through organza neck line is really nice on. The heels are for day time and pumps for evening incase my feet are tired. I love how it all tones in together and it looks great with my current tan hehe 

Here is me in my new outfit ready for another wedding: 

These are my new earrings, cute and sparkly so they will tone in with the rest of my clothes and tie in to the shoes. 

Think I'm going to go with my little cream bag from Acessorise. 

What do we think? 

xXx

Wedding Planning ... part one

As anyone who knows me or has happened to read my blog will know I am getting married next year!!! To be more precise I am getting married in 8 1/2 months. As such I thought I would do a series of posts about my experiences wedding planning. 

The first place to start is BUDGET!  

After you get engaged you will be full of ideas and dreams, the problem is that those ideas don't yet have a price tag and believe me the minute you put wedding in front of anything the price racks up. So the best thing to do after you get engaged, before you start thinking venue or date is find out what your budget is. 

No use planning a wedding for a years time if you cant afford to pay for everything in that time frame. So have a sit down with the parents or your partner and work out what your end budget is. 

For us we have a total of £15,000 to play with. From here I went a step further and would recommend you do the same. Start looking online at venues that you like and see if you can find a local wedding fair, best to do this at the same time as you can go look at a venue and visit a wedding fair all in one go. Whilst at the fair pick up as many leaflets and brochures as you can, I know this sounds odd but it will make sense. 

Once you have all your brochures and have an idea of some venues its time to start costing your wedding. By this I mean taking your total budget and breaking it down to see how much you are going to spend on each item. Now I'm a big fan of a spreadsheet so for my budget I have a sheet with loads of different columns each showing a different calculation but you can just keep a list in a notebook. You want your total at the top then down the side you need a list of the different items you will need. Here is an idea of my list: 

Venue 

Registrar 

Dress 

Suits 

Bouquet 

Cake 

Flowers 

(bouquets, buttonholes, corsages)

Room Decorations 

(centre pieces, chair ties)

Rings 

Photographer

Invitations, Save the Dates etc 

Postage

Wedding shoes 

Favours 

Gifts 

Once you have the list you need to start breaking up your budget across the elements you want. First place to start is to look at those venues and see what sort of price they offer. Here you might hit a snag as lots of venues do food per head so use a guestimate of how many guests you will be having, as a rough guide 80 people is a decent number for a large wedding, gives each side 40 guests so you can get all the family and friends involved for your ceremony then probably under 150 for evening. Evening includes the day time people so with 150 would give you an extra 70 people. We have around 85 (including us) for the day and 120 for the evening. 

Once you have your estimate numbers price up the venues you have looked at and find an overall estimate for what you are willing to spend on a venue. 

Next its time to do something similar with the rest of your list, have a look at the leaflets you picked up and think how much you want to spend on each item on your list. I know this sounds a bit long winded and not very fun but it will help you a lot in the long run. You now have a guide to go off when speaking to vendors and you also have the starts of your To Do List. From here you can either jump straight into the fun stuff or speak with your family so see if they have any ideas about your budget. 

Before jumping in though be aware you need to keep track of what you are actually spending in comparison with your budget, you might think something is a great deal but in the long run it might not be, so stick to your budget as much as you can and do your research. 

If you are jumping into the fun stuff like I did then there are several places you can go from here and a lot of them can be done at the same time. For me I started doing more research on my venues, thought of a rough date, picked a colour scheme and started thinking of the guest list. The first two I will cover in the next post. As for the other two the colour scheme is important as you don't want to clash with your venue and guest list well... This is where families start to get involved so its a good idea to have a think on your own before you start getting told who you NEED to invite.

COLOUR SCHEME 

Have fun and embrace the internet. I found google really useful just typed in X colour wedding ideas then looked at the pictures that came up. This way your not just looking at one element in  a colour but pages of different ones. 

I am super organised when it comes to events so once I picked my colour I decided to make a sort of mood board of the images I have seen so I could show people instead of just saying the colour. Here is my mood board for our lime green wedding: 

I love how bright and fresh this green is and all the different ways people have decided to use it. 

Another really good site to start using at this point is Pinterest! it is a wealth of ideas and you can pin them all to a wedding board to look at later or show who ever is helping you. 

You will see as I do more of these posts I am a bit fan of keeping things organised and putting my ideas down into different documents which might not be your style but believe me its a good idea, planning a wedding is a big job and you will want all the help you can get. 

A little bit ... MIA ....

The last couple weeks have been a little bit busy ... I know I've been missing for a couple weeks and all will become clear as this post goes on. 

First we had the trip down to visit the fiancé's family which lasted a week and a day, then on the way back had an incident with our band new car. A caravan up ahead of us lost a wheel and the metal part ended up in our lane and then under our car. Now to cut a long story short we forgot to get the guys details in all the shock and when we took the car to the garage it had £1200 worth of damage to the underside. The piece hit 3 separate parts under the car and damaged them all :( I called the police but no one had reported an incident so we are fresh out of luck. Thankfully my mum has been really nice and paid for the repairs so it doesn't sky rocket my already high insurance - Im not a new driver but this is only my second insurance policy in my own name so its still mega high. 

Anyway with all that happening last week tuesday through thursday was a bit of a right off, we ended up just trying to get the holiday stuff all washed and sorted while not getting too annoyed by the car. One really good thing was that we had our friends to stay friday through to sunday morning then I had a bridal shower sunday lunch time. Both of which were great, unfortunately for fiancé he had to work which annoyed him as he wanted to spend more time with our friends. 

As for this week Monday night we were at the gym then next thing we knew it was dinner time then bed time. Tuesday we ended up stuck in mega traffic coming back from J's training session so after that we just chilled for the rest of the night. 

This weekend is another busy one as we are attending the our first wedding of the year!! I'm really excited, I hope the weather stays nice for her as every bride deserves the wedding of her dreams. Anyway I will hopefully start working through all the posts I have up my sleeve in the near future. 

xXx

What to wear for a wedding mark III

So in my last post I talked about finding my outfit for my friends wedding. I also mentioned borrowing a fascinator from my mam as it was white ... well since then I came across some alternatives. 

I found these three clips that can be used as a pin or clipped into your hair, I thought they would look really cute and negate the need for a headband. When I bought them the two with brooches in the centre had rather tacky giant diamantes in that looked really cheap so I removed them and used some embellishments I had instead. I bought these from a company called the handcrafted card company where I bought the brooches for my wedding bouquet. 

Now the problem is that I am not sure which one to wear.

I really like the spiral one with the 3 feathers but again I like the other 2 as well. Hmm might have to wait until I decide what to do with my hair then I can see which one will fit best.

What do you think? Which one is your favourite? Ps what do we think of the red lipstick I'm trying something new.

xXx

Training update ...

After posting about my new gym gear thought I would also pop in a quick update on my gym progress.

Running is not going as well as I had hoped which has me nervous with Race For Life being just round the corner. Think it's time for a massive push for the finish line. 

Aside from that its going quite well, my arms are starting to look more defined and I can almost make a muscle which had fiancé in giggles as his arms are huge! 

Shoulders are looking really good from found the pull down which will be good as my wedding dress is strapless. 

Still working on my thighs and legs, calves looking better not as wobbly lol my thighs need more work, think I need to go back to squats and barre plies to get lean toned thighs. 

Here is a quick post work out tummy pic from the other day. If I keep at it hopefully it will look like this all the time. 

Motivation. Hard work gets results. 

xXx

What to wear for a wedding ... Mark II ...

So the other day I wrote a post about what I was going to wear for a wedding. Well I have since completed my outfit, with the help of my mother.

I have two options:

A silk pashmina and a floral cardigan for if it is slightly cooler.

So my mum spotted both of these on a trip to Laura Ashley and after Whatsapping me pictures told me I had to go down to check them out. She had also sent me a pic of a edge to edge blazer style jacket in light pink which was really nice but looked the wrong shape on me. 

Mini Laura Ashley Haul!

First up the cardigan. 

Bracelet length sleeves, covered buttons and a round neck. The pattern is really nice, dark purple and bright pink flowers on a white back ground, so it tones in really well with my dress whilst still adding a pop of colour. Its also really soft and not too thin so will be excellent if its a bit cool. 

This is in store at the minute for £65 but I took advantage of a 30% off deal so got it for £45.50!! Bargain. I also liked this cardigan as well because I can wear it again, with this dress or a different outfit and it doesn't look too Wedding. 

Second up is the Pashmina, this is Laura Ashley again. Floral pattern but more muted lilacs and pinks with a hint of green. I likes this one because its quite big so I can wear it as a wrap around my shoulders  and tops of my arms for in church, but still be cool if its a really warm day.

Again this will tone in really well with other outfits, and as I am a lover of pashminas will add to my collection as a nice summer addition.

This is in store at the minute for £27 but I got it the same day as the cardigan so got 30% off and bought it for £19.60! another bargain.

After securing a cardigan and pashmina that last piece of my outfit was a bag! Cue a trip to the Metrocentre and a look in Accessorise.

I usually love this shop as I am a bit of  a magpie when it comes to jewellery as fiancé will definitely attest to hehe

So initially I just wanted to have a look at a cute little envelope clutch I had seen online, it was cream with yellow down the sides. I didn't know how light it would be so thought it could tone in quite well with the white cardigan, and yellow is complimentary to purple so there we go. Unfortunately when I got in the shop it wasn't quite as bright yellow as I was hoping so decided against it. As we were looking fiancé spotted this little lilac number in the same bag.

As you can see its the same envelop style but in light lilac with cream sides. It also has an over the shoulder handle which is really handy. I thought this would tone in really well with my dress and cardigan/pashmina. 

So I had already picked this one up but an assistant had heard us talking and asked if we were ok, I told her we were going to a wedding and described my outfit. She said they also had a really nice light cream art deco style clutch in the back which I might like to look at. When she got it out the back I was really torn ... 

As you can see they are both gorgeous and will both look lovely with my outfit ... what to do. Step in fiancé who suggests I just get both I can decide closer to the date which one I want to use for the Ampleforth wedding and keep the other for another wedding or event ... I knew there was a reason I was marrying him hehe. 

So as you can see this one is a slightly smaller clutch, but a litte wider and has a lovely folded art deco design. It also has an over the shoulder handle, I prefer when bags do as its nice to have the option, I have sewn one in on a bag before because its easier when you are out to have 2 hands at times. 

Both of these are from Accessorise, the first is on the site atm but the second isn't, lilac was £27 and cream was £30.

Due to the fact my cardigan now has a white base I think I am going to swap out the cream/nude court shoes and go for a silver pair of Mode in Pelle shoes I have had for ages. They are really comfy, I have worn them to 2 evening events so know I can last in them and dance. 

As for a fascinator my mum has a really light almost white one which is really nice that I think I will use. Not too sure what I will be doing with my hair yet but hey I have the best part of 2 months to decide that. 

Totting it all up I've made quite a saving :D 

Dress:           Hobbs       RRP £179       Bought £89         Saving £90

Cardigan:     LA             RRP £65         Bought £45.50    Saving £19.50

Pashmina:    LA             RRP £27         Bought £19.60    Saving £7.40 

Handbags:   Accessorise Bought retail £30 and £27, Only going to use 1 at a time so call it £30 

Shoes, fascinator and jewellery I already own. 

Total outfit: 

Retail                    £301.00  (including both cardigan and pashmina) 

Spend:                  £184.10 

Saving:                 £116.90 

Thats 63.5% saved, awesome!!! 

I cant wait to go to this wedding I think its going to be a great weekend. 

xXx