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

Wedding | Here Comes Bridezilla...

Aloha! I can't quite believe that today marks 1 year since Mikey and I got engaged! It's gone so bloody fast and it feels like we've hardly got anywhere with the wedding planning!

I'm trying not to be a bridezilla. It's not a pretty attitude to have really. But sometimes it feels like no one understands what I/we really want from my/our big day.

We said when we got engaged that we weren't going to rush into the wedding and if we were engaged for 4 years then it didn't matter! However, I soon started buying wedding magazine after wedding magazine and the date was about to be set as October 2017. We started looking at venues and that's when people really started sticking their oars in. 

I wanted a nice, small DIY wedding which would (hopefully) allow us to cut some costs. I was going to bake our wedding cake and put my new stand mixer to good use! It was all going to be great. Until people started saying 'oh no, I don't like that venue', 'oh you can't possibly do a DIY wedding' etc etc etc.

So I threw a major bridezilla tantrum and told everyone we were eloping and they weren't invited.

It started out as a bit of a joke, but the more I thought about it, the more I wanted it.

And that's when Mikey suggested New York.

So on 20th May 2017 we will be getting married, on the terrace at Belvedere Castle, Central Park, NYC.

We've decided against going solo though and we will be inviting close family and friends and then having a big party back here a few weeks later for those who can't make it.

Now I just need to keep the bridezilla at bay whilst I deal with all the other planning details!

There's really not enough hours in the day!

Judging by how fast the last year has gone, I'm sure our wedding will be here in no time at all!

xxx

BudgetBride // 1

Did you know that the average UK wedding costs about £20,000!? I mean seriously, who even has that kind of money to spare! Call me selfish, but I'd rather spend a couple of thousand on a nice celebration, then bugger off to the Caribbean for a month! And that's pretty much exactly what I'm planning on doing!

I've decided to start this little feature on my blog to document my budget wedding planning and share some tips I'm learning along the way of how to save money. Expect mucho DIY decor posts!

But for now, I'm going to have a little rant about venue costs! 

Of course, not having a £20k budget means we're very limited when it comes to choosing a venue. There's hardly anywhere out there that is willing to let you have venue hire and feed your 100 guests for less than £6000. So it won't surprise you to know we still don't have a venue lined up, although we have viewed 2 and are in the process of negotiating the best price!

I've got an image in my head of what I want from a venue. Ideally, I'd love a relaxed, barn style venue which is a bit of a blank canvas so I can get creative and make it totally personal! Of course, barn venues are trendy now so they don't come cheap. We've viewed 2 different venues which are the same idea, but they are budget friendly. 

The first venue we viewed was a community hall with a difference. It was up in Perthshire, about 50 miles from our home. It wasn't your typical community hall though, it was like a cross between a barn and a giant shed, hence the name The Big Shed. As wedding venues go, the price is extremely cheap. The only issue we have with it is the capacity. It can only hold 60 in the main hall, so that's something we have to seriously consider. 

Our second venue viewing was actually a country house which a family member has recently purchased. It has an old coachhouse in the grounds which is currently being converted into a wedding reception venue. It looks to be a pretty amazing place once its ready, and we think it will be big enough! Now we need to see whether it is going to be within our price range. 

So a couple of tips if you are currently looking for a budget wedding venue: 

1. Have a look at places you wouldn't normally look at. For example village halls tend to have cheaper hire costs and with a bit of love and attention, they can be decorated to look like they cost a million pounds!

2. Don't be afraid to ask around if anyone in your family or group of friends knows someone with a potential venue. That's how we found out about one of our potential venues!

3. Keep an open mind. Some venues might have poor websites, or very little information available. Just email or give them a call for further info. You never know, you might love the place once you get there!

So that's the first of my BudgetBride posts! Hope you enjoyed it and do let me know if you have any tips for me in my search for an affordable venue!

xxx

Well I know this little chapel, on the boulevard...

Vintage dress, £50 / Adrianna Papell shift dress, £170 / Coast mini dress, £135 / Coast wrap dress, £65 / Wallis shift dress, £38

So wedding season is upon us once again, and for a change I've got an invite to one! I'm currently on the hunt for a pretty dress to wear! The wedding we are going to isn't until september and it's wayyyy up on an island in the highlands of Scotland so I need something that will also keep me warm (and keep the famous scottish midges at bay). I'm really drawn to floral prints just now, and these 2 floral dresses are absolute bargains. However I can see me opting for the more formal looking, lacy, chiffon style dresses as I think they might be slightly more suited to the occassion (it's a rather posh wedding). 

Are you going to a wedding this year? What are you planning on wearing?