WARNING: This post may be very photo heavy!

On 20th May 2017, our wedding day finally arrived!

After 2 whole years of planning, it was finally time to say I do.

Being the control freak that I am, I was determined that nothing would go wrong.

But as everyone had told me, something always does!

We made the decision to flee the country and get married in Central Park, New York.

Planning and paying for a wedding in the UK was getting too stressful and every man and his dog wanted a say in how the day should be.

And let's face it, the photo opportunities!

We headed out to New York on Wednesday 17th May to give us plenty time to get everything organised and deal with last minute admin things out in NY.

You also need to attend the City Clerk's office to get your marriage licence, then wait 24 hours from its issue for your ceremony to take place, so if you plan on having a NY wedding, make sure you get there a few days before!

The first few days we were in NY, it was super hot! Like 32 degrees and baking sunshine! So you can imagine my upset when on the morning of the wedding I woke up and it was raining! Thankfully the rain stayed away for the rest of the day but it remained overcast. This was probably good for my photos because I'm terrible for squinting in sunlight!

Mum and I had booked in to the Mac make up studio on the morning of the wedding so we were up bright and early and on the subway to Lexington Avenue. I honestly spent days in the run up to the wedding looking for MUAs in New York. I just so happened to mention this to a lovely girl on the Chanel counter in Harvey Nichols Edinburgh, when buying foundation and she recommended I try the Mac Studio. They were absolutely amazing on the day. My make up was perfect from morning until I went to bed and everyone commented on how good it was. It even survived the disaster that was yet to come!

After getting ready in the apartment with my family and bridesmaids, the cars arrived to take us to the ceremony. All was going well until we hit a MASSIVE traffic jam in the midtown tunnel. I could see the driver's SatNav was saying we'd get to the venue at 4.05pm. My wedding was meant to be at 3pm! This obviously set me off shouting, crying and panicing! My bridesmaids were having to make a few calls to Mikey in the back of the car and we somehow managed to pull some strings and get the wedding moved to 4.30! It was honestly the most stressful moment of my life. I thought I was going to pass out haha!

We arrived at Central Park and made our way up to Belvedere Castle for the ceremony, which was short and sweet - just how we wanted it!
We were pronounced man & wife to great cheers from our family and friends!

After the ceremony and group photographs, everyone headed down to the Tavern on the Green for a drink whilst our photographer did a shoot with just us. Our photographer was the amazing Ricky at Yodog Media. I found him on Thumbtack - I'd highly recommend him!

We then headed over to Central Park South to Sarabeth's - A celebrity haunt (there were none in on our day though). We had booked the garden room for our event. We had a private bar and our own toilets. The room was perfect for our group size. And oh my word, the food! We got to put together a menu from their event menu and I have to say, we did well. Most people had filet mignon for main and my dad said it was the best steak he's ever had - and he loves his steak!

After many a drink (we had a free bar until 10.30!) we headed to Times Square because I wanted photos on the red steps ha ha! This led to a rendition of Flower of Scotland by the wedding party which was filmed by a lot of tourists! I was secretly quite sad we didn't go viral ha ha! We then moved on to an Irish bar called Playwrights to finish the night!

It really is true what they say. Your wedding is the best day of your life. And to get married in New York made it even more special for us! We had the time of our lives and we'll definitely be going back soon (hopefully for our first anniversary haha)!

Life Lately | I'm back!

Well hello, long time no blog. Actually very long time, no blog.

So what have I been doing for the last 16 months?

Well mostly working and wedding planning and sleeping off stress at weekends!

My job is pretty full on and coupled with wedding planning, I had no time to do the things I used to enjoy.

But I'm back now and ready to give this blog my attention again!

So here is a little round up of what has happened since my last post in May 2016!

In September 2016, we lost our beautiful cat Smudge after a short illness. We are still not 100% sure what happened but we suspect it was a brain tumour. I couldn't bear the thought of him undergoing a post mortem so we'll never be 100% sure. After 13 years of purrs and cuddles, it broke my heart to lose him. I'm ready to get another cat now but we are waiting until we have bought our own place (we live on a busy main road just now so I would be too scared to let a cat out!)

Over the last 14 months, I've been on a fitness & diet campaign (known at the time as the wedding shred!) I've actually got really into my running and I'm planning to start running in proper organised events soon. I joined slimming world and lost a total of 3 stone from March 2016 to May 2017. My diet has been pretty poor since but I've managed to maintain my weight! I'll write a proper post about this soon!

 

Easter weekend was very busy! My hen do was on Easter Saturday. You might not be able to tell from this photo but I was so unwell all weekend. Long story for another post! On Easter Sunday, I finally got to see Ed Sheeran when he played the SSE Hydro in Glasgow. Best gig ever!

On 17th May, we headed to New York!

Oh, and on 20th May, we got married!

I'll do some posts on our wedding day and our time in New York and Mexico soon!

It's true what people say, it really is the best day of your life!

So that's pretty much all I've got to report from the last 14 months! Probably seems like I've not really been up to much ha ha!

But it's good to be back :)

xx

Concrete jungle where dreams are made...

Okay, so for the last 18 months I have been saving like mad for my very special holiday to New York! As some of you may know, I turned 21 in 2013 and I always said I wanted to go for my birthday. Circumstances meant I didn't quite get away in Summer but on 2nd January 2014 I set off on my travels with my lovely man! 

The trip started with disaster of course! I woke up at 5am, all excited, only to find out our flight had been cancelled due to a snow storm in New York! Cue lots of screaming, crying and moaning about how unfair it is! Of course I refused to take no for an answer. I headed to the airport anyway and managed to get booked on a later flight with no hassle at all! (Thanks, British Airways!) 

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="650"] My favourite photo from our trip! Central Park in the snow![/caption]

Anyway, the main point of this post is the shopping! OMG the shops are just sooooo good! Of course I was there during the January sales so everything was sooo cheap! 

1. NYPD Hoodie: I just had to have this. I love a baggy hoodie for lounging about in.
2. I love NY t-shirt: No trip to NY would be complete without one of these obviously! 
3. Cat print leggings (Forever 21): These are actually PJ's but they are far too pretty to wear to bed so I use them as leggings! 
4. PJ Set (Forever 21): I also wear the Meow top as a normal top just with a plain cami under it as its a bit see through! 
5. Sparkle leggings (American Eagle): I love sparkles and these were so unusual. I've not seen anything like them in the UK!

 

1. Both Checked Shirts (American Eagle): I couldn't decide between the 2 colours and they were in the sale so I just got both! 
2. Burgundy cable knit jumper (American Eagle)
3. Popcorn knit cream jumper (Aeropostale): This will look so cute in spring with skinny jeans! 
4. Beige Cable Knit Jumper (American Eagle)
5. Pink Juicy Jumper (Juicy Couture): Only $25 in the sale! I've had this on loads and it looks really good! I love baby pink at the moment! 

 

I really needed some new tops for uni so the above is a selection of what I picked up! The white cat one is my favourite! A bargain at $10 from Forever 21! 

 

More hoodies! They are just so cheap in America and I wear them all the time at uni! 

So there we go, a selection of the items I picked up in New York! 

Hope you enjoyed this post! I certainly enjoyed the shopping for it!