On Vacation!

Just a quick post to say I'm going on holiday for two weeks tomorrow so won't be posting for a while. I'm off for a chilled out beach holiday in Mexico with my lovely fiancé and can't wait to do nothing for two whole weeks! Look forward to reading all your posts when I get back!

Karen xx

Adventures in Dress Shopping

*** Wedding Dress Spoiler Alert!***

I finally ordered my beautiful Maggie Sottero gown last week and booked in my first fitting for September next year! So exciting! It took a few dresses though until I found 'the one' so I thought I'd do a recap of all the options.

I didn't go to one salon and try on a selection of dresses and chose my favourite, I had a look through a number of designers online and picked out my favourites and then tracked them down to different dress shops. The first dress I fell in love with was Chelsea by Ronald Joyce:

Chelsea - Ronald Joyce

I particularly liked the little jacket that came with this as I didn't really want a strapless dress. However, when I tried it on I didn't like the detail in the beading, a lot of it was moonstone and it wasn't really what I wanted. I also tried on some other dresses in the shop including a gorgeous princess dress that had sequins all over the top that went down into the skirt, beautiful but not me, I knew I wanted something a little more A-line.

I think out of all of these I liked the middle one best but wasn't so sure about the detail going all the way down the side. After thinking about it quite a lot I decided that none of the dresses I tried on were quite what I wanted. So I found another dress I liked and went to try it on:

Alfred Angelo 2181

Sadly this one did nothing for my figure! So I decided to have a look at what designers the wedding dress shop that is just down the road from me sold and that is when I came across Maggie Sottero. I had a look at the website and saw two dresses that I liked and to my amazement my local shop stocked samples of them both! The first was Asha:

Maggie Sottero - Asha

This dress was absolutely beautiful but it wasn't very weddingy if you know what I mean! I think it would have been wonderful for a destination wedding but didn't think it was quite right for mine. But then I tried on Mona and new instantly that she was the one!

Maggie Sottero - Mona

The fit of the dress was absolutely amazing, it made me look two sizes smaller and if it was made for my body shape! I never thought I would end up with a one shoulder gown but I love it, it looks so elegant. I also always wanted satin but this is chiffon but it hangs so beautifully, I'm so pleased with it. Sadly I don't have any photos of me in it but here's a close up of the hip detail that I took:

I'm hoping to make a matching cuff, will let you know how I get on! So what do you think of my choice?

Feeling Better :)

So I've had a few days to get over loosing my chief bridesmaid and I'm feeling a whole lot better about things. It's been such a busy week and so much has happened wedding wise!

On Tuesday I went to have my boudoir photo shoot that I won. I have to say I was quite nervous but the girls at For Your Eyes Only Portraits were amazing and I would thoroughly recommend them if you are thinking about having something like this done. I had to do my make-up as if I was going on a night out and take a variety of items with me like jewellery, heels, boots, underwear and negligee. When I got there I was whisked into the make-up room and one of their make-up artists then made me 'camera ready' by adding more make-up to what I had done myself. I was then taken in to the studio where I had to lay out all of my items and the photographer went through what she was going to ask me to do. I was in there for about an hour and she put me in all different poses and in all of the different things that I brought. I could hardly move the next day my muscles ached so much! The idea was that they got you looking your absolute best by the angle they shot you at and the position you were in so there was a lot of back arching to stretch the stomach flat and things like that. It really did work as the photos were amazing, I barely recognise myself! I guess it's just so different to see myself in that context though. I get one free picture from the shoot and it has been really difficult to chose but hopefully my fiancé will love it and I think it will make a great grooms gift!

On Wednesday I finally ordered my wedding dress but I'm going to save all the details of this for my next post as I think it deserves one to itself! I also won tickets to the Luxury Wedding Show in London on 23rd October which I'm super excited about! I doubt I'll be able to afford anything there but it will be nice to go and I'm taking my Mom so it will be a nice day out for us.

Today my fiancé and I have been to a local wedding show which has been very productive. I wanted to go to see a lady whose cakes I have been admiring for a while. What really attracted me to her were her flavours; lemon drizzle with limoncello buttercream, chocolate orange with cointreau swirl, cherry and amaretto are a few examples! We got to try the lemon and a chocolate and cherry cake with chocolate and rum frosting and they were absolutely delicious! I know it's probably all kinds of wrong to have alcohol infused cakes but we both love this idea so it works well that we are only having adults at the wedding! Here are a few examples of her work:

Elite Cake Designs

I think it's going to be really hard to chose a design, I love the alternate hearts and stripes, think this is really fun but I also love the simplicity of the cake decorated with ribbons and diamantés. We've booked an appointment for a cake tasting in October, can't wait!

We also might have found a videographer and a florist at the fair too! The videographer was offering a 25% discount and her prices seemed very reasonable so we are waiting for more information from her and the florist. Feels like everything is coming together slowly!

So quite a productive week which is good as we are going on vacation for two weeks on Tuesday so will be having a break from all the planning. Hope you are having a good weekend!

Football Cupcakes

And in other news... It was my soon to be brother-in-law's Birthday yesterday and I made him some cupcakes based on his favourite football team, Liverpool. It was a great chance for me to try out my grass nozzle that I had bought a few months ago but hadn't had the opportunity to use. I was really pleased with the result.

The Downs of Planning a Wedding...

I've been a bit quiet for the last few days as I had a bit of bad news last week that made me need to get out of the wedding-verse for a little bit. I had planned weeks ago to take my chief bridesmaid (maid of honour) to see my wedding dress as only my parents had seen me in it so far. I was also going to be measured so I could order it as I've only put down a deposit. I had been looking forward to this trip for ages and was so excited for her to see it and we had planned to go shopping and see a movie too and make a girly day out of it.

She came round to my house before we were due to go and told me that she was pregnant and was pulling out of the wedding. Whilst I am really pleased for her as she has been trying for over a year I was so upset because I just couldn't imagine my wedding day without her walking down the aisle with me. I've known since I asked her nearly a year and a half ago that this could be a possibility but she always said she would only pull out if she was going to be heavily pregnant at the time of the wedding. She is due at the beginning of March, seven and a half months before the wedding and said that she was pulling out because she would still be feeding by then. I don't know if I'm being harsh but I don't really understand why she still couldn't be my bridesmaid, ok if she didn't want the responsibility of being chief bridesmaid I could totally understand that but, at the end of the day, I just wanted her to be there with me and would have been quite happy with her having no responsibility at all other than walking down the aisle with me. However, this never came into the conversation as she had already made up her mind and was telling me rather than discussing it with me.

The other thing that really upset me was that she chose to tell me all this on a day that I had been looking forward to for ages and on the day I was supposed to be ordering my dress. She had known for weeks that she was pregnant and had probably made up her mind a while ago that she was pulling out. So I had to spend the whole day putting on a brave face and trying not to cry and being happy for her news. I made it through the shopping and movie but couldn't face going to order my dress so I'm going to go on my own to order it tomorrow as my Mom is away and I now don't have any bridesmaids!!

I don't know who I'm going to ask to be my chief bridesmaid as I've been debating who I was going to chose as my other bridesmaid for ages so now I'm in a total state of indecision! I know that I'll figure it out in the end though and I'll get over losing my best friend from the wedding party but I just wish it didn't hurt so much.

Have you had problems choosing your maids or any wedding issues that have brought you to tears?

Fabric Flowers Bouquet

I love fresh flowers but I have been finding so many great alternatives that I would love to have a go at making myself that the lure of DIY bouquets, buttonholes and centrepieces may be too much to resist! I've already talked about my love of feather bouquets now is the turn of the fabric bouquet. I found these lovelies on Etsy the other day:

Ljubezenbrew via Etsy

Autumn Art via Etsy

This is a funky felt one (I had to include something that was purple!)

Miss Jennifer Rae via Etsy

I even found a fabric flower pattern and tutorial that you can buy for just $6 and a fabric bridal bouquet tutorial for $12. I'm very tempted! I thought even if I didn't go all the way with bouquets I could maybe make single flowers as brooch/hair accessory favours for the ladies.

Handmade Classics via Etsy

ffflowers via Etsy

Time to get the sewing machine out!!

Bridal Shower Cupcakes

Happy Tuesday! Hope you are all having a good week and had a good holiday weekend if you are in the States! I'm having another busy week, was down in London Sunday/Monday catching up with friends and catching up on work today! I spent most of Saturday baking cupcakes for a friend of a friend's bridal shower and thought I would share them with you. A few weeks ago I attempted my first cupcake bouquet and this weekend I made three more! These were vanilla cupcakes with vanilla icing and a splash of edible glitter :)

Yum! The bride-to-be was really pleased with them thankfully!

Happy September!

Ahh the 1st September how happy I am to see you! I know many people will be mourning the loss of the high summer months and dreading the oncoming winter and the inevitable rapid arrival of the holiday season but for me September to December is my favourite time of year. I love Autumn and the changing of the leaves, the wrapping up in cosy hats, scarves and boots, the anticipation of the festivities that lie ahead and all the decorations that go with it. Autumn is definitely my favourite season and that's part of the reason why I chose to get married in it. That and the fact that my fiancé and I got together in Autumn which is a very happy coincidence!

Via Free Extras

This Autumn is going to be a very busy and exciting one for me and my lovely other half. We are off on holiday for two weeks to Mexico at the end of September which has been booked since January and has felt such a long time coming! I am literally counting down the days now until we go and dreaming of beaches and pina coladas and trying to forget that it's probably not the best time to go with it being hurricane season! I know we will have the best time though despite any weather that is thrown at us because it will be just the two of us chilling out for two whole weeks. Bliss! It's also going to be my Birthday while we are there so I'm really looking forward to that.

Via The Best Beaches

When we come back we are going to be moving into our new house that we've bought together, we've been living together for three years but this will be the first place that is actually ours :) I'm also going to be leaving my job and starting my PhD so it really is going to be all change! Amidst all that I'm going to make sure we celebrate our 4th anniversary and the official one year to the wedding mark by doing something special, perhaps dinner at our wedding venue?

Via Barcelo Walton Hall

We've also got a couple of wedding fairs to go to including the National Wedding Show which should be really good. I'm taking my Mom and bridesmaid to that so it will be a nice girlie outing and of course I will report back on all my finds!

So yeah bring on Autumn, so much to look forward to! I am a very lucky girl I know. What are your plans for the season?