Happy Mid-Week!
I can’t believe today is the last day of June, where is the year going?!
This week my Wedding Wednesday goes to the very talented Sara Thomas
Sara is a photographer based near Ipswich in Suffolk.
Not only does Sara’s portfolio include wedding and engagement shoots, but also maternity and newborn, trash the dress, and portraits shoots
If you like what you see visit Sara’s website for more galleries and information
Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous!
You really have to check out the rest of this wedding…
Visit Missy Photography for more pictures of this absolutely stunning New York Wedding.
Yesterday I did the Race for Life.
So many people have kindly sponsored me and for that I am extremely grateful. After seeing yesterday how many people’s lives have been affected by this awful disease the money really will be going to a worthwhile cause.
I did the race with my Mom and a group of ladies from her work. My Mom works at a medical practice and together I believe the surgery have raised over £1000!
We dressed ourselves in pink, slapped on the sun cream and headed of to Malvern Park in Solihull.
I knew why I was doing it, I knew I was raising money for Cancer Research. A few of my close family members have battled cancer so I understood the importance of trying to find a cure, but it couldn’t help be feel completely overwhelmed by the number of people who had had their lives affected by this disease. I started to feel really moved and I really had to struggle to hold back the tears.
I walked around the sea of pink ladies reading the pieces of paper on their backs stating who they were racing for. I saw a little girl who had “Me, I’m a survivor. Aged 10″
We chose to walk the course having never done it before. The runners went first, then the joggers then it was our time to start our Race for Life
All the way around I read the pieces of paper.
People had come out to cheer us on, clapping and shouting words of encouragement. I couldn’t help but feel I wasn’t actually doing very much. The walk for me wasn’t very difficult the hardest part was dealing with the emotional side to it. It was such as eye opener, you can see from the photos how many people had joined in the race and this was just one of hundreds that go on up and down the country.
I found the last part of the race the hardest. We walked from the park and out into the street where more spectators had come to cheer us on. An elderly blind man was sat in a chair on the side of the road clapping and shouting “Well done girls, you can do it!”
As we approached the finish line I noticed the clock read 58.47. I looked at Mom and said “Come on, let’s do it under the hour!” We sped up and finished the race at 59.29
I felt a huge sense of achievement for completing the race. I was on a high, a complete adrenaline rush. It was such a great feeling.
I will definitely be doing it again next year.
Happy Friday Lovelies – we’ve made it through another week, how was it for you?
We’re in London today seeing Pearl Jam at Hyde Park, tomorrow we’re seeing Ozzy in the Town Hall in Birmingham – Can’t get enough live music!
Sunday I’m doing the Race for Life, I’ve already raised £60 to go towards Cancer Research, if you want to get involved you can sponsor me via this website.
Wishing you all a lovely sunny and happy weekend! x
Back on track..
I lost 2lbs
I’m now back to where I started before I went to the Download Festival. I’ve found getting back on to the diet a little tricky and I know some days I wasn’t exactly good, but I’ve upped my exercise. I’ve been spending at least 20 minutes on the Wii Fit most nights this week so I think that has helped.
We’ve got just over 4 months to go so I need to step up my gain if I want to reach my target before D day!
Not that it makes me an expert in the field of wedding planning, but I have been engaged for nearly a year and a half and plans pretty much started straight away. I spend at least half my day reading wedding blogs, eye-balling photographers pictures and getting involved in forums, so I’d like to think that over the course of my time as a bride to be I’ve picked up a few handy tips that I can pass on to any newly engaged couples.
I don’t by any means have all the answers and I’m very much still learning as I go along, but I thought I’d share with you what I have learnt so far.
As soon as Has and I had a rough idea of numbers for our wedding day we booked appointments with a number of wedding venues and photographers. These were the two things we were going to be spending the most money on, and things we had heard get booked up pretty far in advance.
By booking early we secured 2009 prices for our 2010 wedding. We also found out last month that our photographer no longer includes engagement shoots in her packages and now charges extra for them. We have saved ourselves at least 10% on our venue too – it doesn’t sound a lot but anything you can save when you’re on a budget makes a huge difference.
Of course when you first get engaged you are beyond excited, walking on air and look like you’ve slept with a coat hanger in your mouth. It’s very, very easy to get carried away. I definitely did! Within the first few months I had ordered 50 magnets for our save the dates. I now how around 30 magnets sitting in a box that I have absolutely no use for!
You will change your mind on things too. I bought a lovely pair of ivory/white heels to wear on my wedding day, although they were a steal at £22 in the sale I’m now desperate for a pair of purple shoes to walk down the aisle in.
I was so excited to start planning and started buying things early, but you have to use your judgement. I have things that haven’t changed in price that have been sitting in boxes and spare bedrooms just collecting dust all because I was desperate to buy something for the wedding. Of course I’ve bought items that I considered to be a bargain and they were worth buying there and then, others… !
A great example of this for me was wedding dress shopping. I started really early because I was so excited and had visions of prancing around in gorgeous dresses like the lead sweetheart in a film. If you’ve read this blog from the beginning then you’ll know my experience of dress shopping was a little short of sparkle. I had expected to love dress shopping and I’m sure most brides to be do. I just wasn’t one of them. I felt awful because I wasn’t enjoying the experience of taking my best friends and Mom shopping. It wasn’t until I spoke to another friend of mine, who was then on the verge of getting married herself, that I started to feel better. She hadn’t enjoyed dress shopping either, she felt the same as me.
If you don’t enjoy dress shopping, then it’s ok! It really is ok! Or maybe you feel like you should be doing your invitations/table plan – insert DIY project here – because everyone on the forums/in magazines/on blogs seems to be but you haven’t made anything yourself since the days of watching Blue Peter and collecting egg cartons or empty loo rolls. Then don’t!! Don’t feel like you have to do or enjoy anything just because you think most other brides do.
This sort of goes hand in hand with the point above. Just because tradition says you should do it a certain way doesn’t mean you have to. Hundreds of couples are making their day their way. Who says you need to wear a white dress a veil or hold a bouquet of flowers?
The options for weddings these days are endless, if you can imagine it then you can create it. Just look at these amazing bouquets.
Pretty knob bouquet, Button bouquet, pom pom bouquet
I joined Twitter ages ago with little clue as to what to do, now I can’t stop tweeting! I’m a tweet-a-holic! I follow hundreds of suppliers, wedding gurus and other brides. You can learn so much from people on Twitter, plus loads of companies offer fabulous competitions to their followers. Get involved!
The same goes for wedding blogs. They offer huge amounts of inspiration and have usually been within the wedding industry for a while so know what they are talking about. (I’m not including myself in this category, I’m totally winging it!) If like me you start to follow more blogs than you can keep up with, get yourself logged in to Google Reader, best thing I ever did!
Planning a wedding is a big job! Don’t be too proud to take help when it’s offered or to ask for it. Juggling life along with planning your big deal is going to be overwhelming, if your bridesmaids are as wonderful as mine then you won’t even need to ask for help, they’ll be there as soon as you need them. Family members and close friends may be itching to help out too, so extend the invitation to anyone who is willing. Huge daunting tasks can be finished over a cup of tea and a gossip with your closest friends.
My invitations have called for a number of nights of me and the girls sitting around sticking, cutting and embossing. Something that would have taken me ages to complete on my own. With the help of my best friends they’ve been finished in no time!
The same goes for your fiancé too, whilst choosing flowers or deciding on bridesmaid’s dress may not be his thing, it’s his day as well. He should have some involvement. Our honeymoon has been researched, planned and booked all by Has. He’s spent hours working out the best schedule for the honeymoon of our dreams. There is no way I could have done it!
It makes sense right? I had a game trying to find my pocketfold envelopes for our invitations and very nearly gave up on the idea as it was looking like it may be too expensive. I searched numerous websites and even contemplated buying from America, that was until I came across PDA Card and Craft and got a great deal.
I fell in love with my bridesmaids dress, their price… not so much! I contacted a few other local stockists and went back to the original shop where they were able to match the price of another. I bought my dress from a shop a week before they were due to display at the National Wedding Show. I knew that they offered very good discounts and incentives at the show, so I asked if they could do anything for me. Hey, if you don’t ask you don’t get right!? They gave me 10% off the cost of my dress and £100 to spend in store on accessories.
I’m sure most of these points will seem obvious to most people, but they weren’t to me when I started!
My last tip is, enjoy it! Enjoy the planning, not just your wedding day, but for your marriage – the rest of your life with that one special person, after all that is what it’s all about!
We now only have 1 more hotel to book after making a decision on Oahu last night.
We’ve been torn as to whether to stay in the bustling resort of Waikiki or the more quieter remote resort of Kahuku in the North of the island.
So… we decided to stay in both!
We will be spending 3 nights in Waikiki so we can do the more “touristy” attractions like Pearl Harbour and hiking Diamond Head, before moving on to the more relaxing north.
In Waikiki we will be staying at the Moana Surfrider, our first choice hotel
We’ve booked a Banyan Classic Ocean room
We did want a room with a balcony, but we’ve saved on this hotel to splurge on our Kahuku hotel… The Turtle Bay Resort. Have you ever seen Forgetting Sarah Marshall? It’s the hotel in that film!
We’ve treated ourselves and booked a beach side cottage, so we can wake up in the morning and have breakfast on our lanai and look out to the ocean.
I’m pretty sure we’re not going to want to leave!
Happy mid-week Wednesday!
Anyone else stopping work at 3pm to watch England play? We’re going to be crowding around a monitor in the office later this afternoon to hopefully watch England qualify for the next round.
My recommendation for this weeks Wedding Wednesday is…
The vintage scene is HUGE right now so if you’re looking for gorgeous vintage inspired jewellery and accessories then hop on over to Flo & Percy.
Suzie had her evening headpiece from Flo & Percy bought as a surprise gift from her mom. She had the Clarice headband and it was stunning, a truly beautiful piece that she will treasure and maybe even pass on to her own daughter one day.
Unfortunately we didn’t really get a photo that shows off her Clarice headband, (Except maybe the photo on this post…! ) but trust me when I saw it looks gorgeous.
As well as head pieces Flo & Percy also offer a range of bracelets, cuffs, necklaces and earrings.
On Friday night Suzie sought refuge at our house to escape the football mania happening at her flat – not that she got it – my Mom, Dad and neighbour were all shouting abuse at the T.V!
She helped me roughly cut out 88 Chrysler Building shaped Order of Services’.
The more fiddly bits need smaller scissors to get into the tiny corners so we cut around as best as we could until we’re able to tackle them again with craft or nail scissors.
It’s going to be a tedious job and I have to apologise to Suzie for the bruise she discovered the next morning for snipping too much! I’ll compensate you in haribo, tea and hugs next time 
I have to admit, they’re looking rather good and I’m pleased I stayed with my original idea, despite it being a pain in the bum to do!
In less than 2 weeks we have our engagement shoot… What do I wear?!
I have also run out of weekends to go shopping, so it’s online all the way for me. I think Has is working late a few nights this week so a dash around the bullring may be in order.
I have my eye on a few outfits, so I’ll be heading to those shops to try them on.
These are a few outfits I’ve seen and may consider
Dress, belt, necklace & bracelet – Oasis. Shoes – Topshop. Cardigan - New Look
Summer girl casual, or something a little smarter
Top & bangles – Oasis. Shoes & city chorts – New Look.
What do you think?