My Wedding Day Details.

On your wedding day, what they say really is true, it goes so quickly that everything is kind of a blur. Saying that sometimes it's the little things that really make the day special, they're little reminders of moments throughout the day. I wanted to share a few of my wedding day details that I loved about my day and what made it special for me. Those things that everyone else probably didn't notice but I absolutely loved.

Before I start I'd like to mention that the photography in this post is by my amazing wedding photographers Pour Toujours Photography. I could never have taken such amazing photos myself, so huge shout out to them!

10 Thoughts I've Had Since Getting Married.

Getting married was one of the happiest days of my life, I married my best friend in the entire world, the one person I want to spend the rest of my life with, go on adventures with and who I want by my side when life gets hard. Although we've only been married for 2 weeks now, there have been plenty of new and strange thoughts to process and I thought I'd share some of them with you, like the true blogger I am!

We're Married!!!

As I'm sure some of you know, last weekend Nick and I finally tied the knot. We're officially husband and wife, yes that does feel weird to say and no, I don't think I'll get used to it anytime soon!



Everything they say about your wedding day going super fast is true, I can't believe it's been almost a week already, where the hell does time go? It's probably because ever since the morning after, flu hit me like a brick in the face and it's been a-bit of a daze since.

The ceremony venue was so lovely, all the flowers were hanging down and making this gorgeous little archway that framed us perfectly. All the windows let in so much light and it was all so pretty, I can't wait to see the photos!

Then the reception at The Chimney House in Sheffield was perfect, we trusted them completely with decorating the place and I honestly couldn't have imagined anything more perfect. I wouldn't have changed a thing. The food was incredible, we had pulled pork pie with mash and peas and it was probably one of the tastiest things I've ever eaten. Everything was candle lit and it made it so romantic and pretty. Doesn't it just look so dreamy?

We've been away for a couple of days to just relax and enjoy each others company until returning back to 'normal' life and it was so so lovely to spend some time alone. We rented a gorgeous little cottage near Bakewell so we went for nice pub lunches, little walks and relaxed watching copious amounts of TV and films.



I really want to write more about everything but until I've collected all my thoughts together for a post I just wanted to share a couple of my favourite images with you so far. I can't wait to get the images back from the photographers and share them with everyone!

It's been a wonderful and magical week and I can't wait to share some more of it with you.
I'm planning on going over the little details and bits that made it ours, like the shoes I wore, the perfume I chose and all the little bits and pieces that bring the whole day together.

I'm really looking forward to getting back into blogging now I have lots more free time!
Speak to you all soon,

Life Lately: A Little Update.

I'm not really sure where I'm going with this post but I've been feeling a little shitty about a few things recently and writing a post feels very therapeutic sometimes, so that's what i'm going to do.




I've felt really stressed out and 'on edge' recently, I've never been to the doctors or really thought I suffer with anxiety but recently I've been feeling really on edge, like I'm balancing on the edge of something that some days feels too much and other days I can just about cope with.

The main focus of my stress is money, I've spoken a little about our money situation in this post about living on a budget, we are getting married at the end of October this year and it's quite literally taking all of our money to pay for it. At least twice a week I go over everything for our budget and nothing ever changes, it's costing a fortune and sometimes I honestly believe we won't afford it. The stress of worrying over every single little thing that comes out of the bank and thinking about everything that could go wrong between now and October pretty much takes up all of my head space. We're both just exhausted from worrying, worrying about money, worrying about not being able to afford it and some of the time it takes over so much that we just think 'what are we doing?'.

This makes me sad, I can't wait to marry Nick, I really can't but sometimes the stress of everything just tops that excitement and fear and panic takes over instead. There have been times when we've honestly just thought about forgetting all about it and running off and getting married on our own but then the logic returns and we change our minds all over again, of course we want our parents and friends there.

I have to admit one of the things that are getting me through is Christmas, I love Christmas and the thought of us having money again and being able to buy each other presents and eat amazing food really helps me. We've even discussed finally getting a puppy! I know people reading this will be like 'surely getting married to the love of your life will make it all worth it?!' and yes, 100% of course it will be, but when all of your stress revolves around wedding thoughts, sometimes it's nice to have things to look forward to that aren't about the wedding.

Last month I had the contraceptive implant, I'm going to write a post about this at some point, but basically I was always forgetting to take my pill and I certainly don't want children any time soon. However I think it's also playing havoc with my hormones which certainly doesn't help when I'm trying not to lose my shit constantly. I've been having some serious back and chest acne appear out of no-where, which I think is stress related but this just adds to the worry of 'how will my wedding dress look' and 'will people notice' and bleerge.

I guess this post is basically just me telling myself that it's totally okay to be stressed out about everything to do with weddings. So many people think it's all fairy lights and cake and pretty dresses and you know what, it is, but it's also laced with panic and worries about self consciousness and ultimately what makes you, as a couple, happy. I have no doubt in my mind about marrying Nick, but being able to talk about all the things that terrify me helps.

I'm terrified of having our photograph taken all day, I'm terrified of all the attention being on us, as we are both very introverted people. I'm terrified about my make-up, my hair, my dress, what if on the day I feel like shit and will be captured in photographs this way forever more. I'm terrified of speaking my vows in front of people because I basically have word dyslexia and always mess up something. I know all of these fears are irrational and I'm sure on the day none of that stuff will matter but it's all there swimming around in my brain waiting to seep out when I'm feeling low.

But then on other days I push that all to the back of my mind and know that I'm excited, I'm excited about celebrating with all our friends and family and to drink and dance and have fun and those days are the days that I'm trying to cling onto at the minute. And that in 3 and a half months time it'll all be done and we'll be looking over the photos, laughing and smiling and reading cards of love and congratulations.

Well, that escalated quickly didn't it? ha! I guess I just needed to get some things off my chest. Hopefully I'm not the only one out there that feels this way sometimes and maybe now I've let it out, my mind can rest a little and relax.

I really hope that when it comes to my next wedding update post I have a few of these things sorted and not plaguing my mind.

Thanks for listening,

Wedding Update: 4 Months To Go!

It's almost 4 months till the wedding and everything seems to be going really slowly and quite quickly at the same time.

If I'm honest it's still very much a 50/50 split on nerves and excitement, I think once I have things like my dress finished that'll take some nerves off, but I'm excited that everything is coming together!

Whilst out in Cyprus we finally got my engagement ring re sized. Basically Nick and I got engaged out there last year and thought it would be sweet to buy our ring out there as a memento. We found the perfect heart shaped diamond ring but it was too big for my teeny tiny fingers and due to lack of time, we were assured that it wouldn't be a problem having it re sized back in the UK. We visited multiple places and everyone thought the resizing was too risky because of the 5-6 down sizes. So almost a year later we took it back to the same place in Cyprus and got it re sized down to fit perfectly. It definitely feels like a weight has lifted off my shoulder finally, it's scary not knowing if your engagement ring will actually fit on your wedding day! But now we can hunt for the perfect wedding ring to sit with it!

A few other things have been coming along nicely too, my bridesmaids and I decided on a dress that suited everyone and fits well! Which means the next stage is picking out some accessories to bring some glamour to each outfit! I think I'm going to let the ladies pick something to suit their own styles, so everyone doesn't look the same, I think having some personality showing is nicer than all looking the same.

I also went and got fitted for my wedding dress!! Which is very very exciting. I'm having my wedding dress made my amazing friend Gemma. I've known Gemma for many years and know how amazing her work is, so when I knew I didn't want to buy something off the rack she was the first person I thought of. I can't wait to see it start coming together when we go buy fabrics at the end of this month. It will happen quite quickly once the ball has started rolling and I'm so excited to try it on properly!

Our invites are almost ready to send out. We've picked out which food we'd like for the buffet and I got my flower banquets one Saturday very expectantly when I came across some amazing fake flowers in a shop, I picked them up immediately because they were such a bargain. I also have my make up trial this month so I'm looking forward to that, I think I'm going to go for something quite natural and feminine.

Next on the list of things to do;

Book a hair trial

Finalise music for ceremony and reception
Decide on my own accessories, shoes, jewellery, belt
Book the hotel for wedding night
Decide on where to go for our mini moon break

Although I'm sure there are lots of little things to do, the main thing for us at the minute is keeping on top of finances so we can pay for things when the time comes! It's a little stressful worrying about every little purchase but it'll all be worth it in the end!

I can't believe that the next update will be probably around the 3 months to go mark! It will come around so quickly! If you want to see the story from the beginning you can read my 6 months to go update or The Venues or The Beginnings to get a much better understanding!

As always I'd love to hear from you in the comments! If you think i've missed out something glaringly obvious or you want to join in the fun wedding chats then please leave me a comment!

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Living on a Budget: Where to start?

I ran a poll over on twitter about what post people would like me to write next and 'Living on a budget' won by a smidgen. So in this post I'm going to talk about why I live on a small budget at the minute, learning to make your money go further and what I've learnt through the on-going process, so lets start at the very beginning, it's usually a good place to start.

For those that haven't followed the blog over the past year, Nick and I got engaged and bought our first home last year and this year decided to finally tie the knot, so it's been a very heavy year or two on the bank balance. Along with that comes some very heavy adulting and deciding on whats the best way to do things.

Before figuring out the money side of things, we had to have the very adult conversation of decided how this is going to work, which resulted in us having a joint bank account to share all of our money. This was something we were both very against in conversations previously in last 3 years however we felt we could both get what we've wanted much quicker if we worked together. Once this conversation was had and the decision was made, I took the following steps towards some major budgeting.

Wedding Update: 6 Months To Go Till The Big Day.

It's less than 6 months to go till the big day now and as the date gets closer and closer, things seem to be coming together quite nicely.

Since the last wedding post where I told you about picking our venues we've got a lot sorted, I'm feeling more excited than overwhelmed (finally!), so I thought I'd give you all a little update on what's been happening these past 4 months.

I thought B&W looked more romantic! 

 

Wedding Planning: The Venues.

When starting the process of wedding planning, the first major thing I wanted to think about was the venues. We are not religious, so we didn't want a big church wedding and thus the hunt for an alternative venue ensued.

The first idea was to have a barn or country style manor house set in the rolling hills of Yorkshire which was a great idea to start with, however the more places I saw online the more I realised that the venues were nice from the outside but quite dated on the inside. Not only was this not something I enjoyed but it usually means you can't decorate the interior either, due to the age of the buildings. So although it sounded great having somewhere that looked amazing from the outside, we'd be spending most of our time inside... so it didn't really make sense.

The next thing I did was hit up the Google search with 'alternative wedding venues' which came up with a couple of interesting options. I saw one couple had gotten married in a theatre in Sheffield and even in a museum however one that did peak my interest was the Millennium Gallery in Sheffield, it was central, different and quite modern. However the problem I had with this, is the exact opposite...it was so clean on the inside, so white...it almost had no character to it and I didn't want to spend a fortune decorating it.

I was starting to lose hope after hours and hours trawling the internet, when I looked back at a ceremony venue I had looked at before but spent a little more time studying the webpage, I had previously only looked at the barn hire for Wentworth Castle but I also noticed a 'Conservatory'. This sounded different and cool, I have a love for pretty flowers and the glass sounded like a good idea for plenty of sunlight. I then Google image searched my little heart out....it was beautiful. A beautiful newly renovated Victorian Conservatory set in the grounds of a beautiful stately home, with beautiful flowers and glass details on the inside, its in nice countryside and within Yorkshire...so I searched for the dreaded cost ...

Except it was the exact opposite of what I expected, it was cheap and you got to use the entire grounds for your photographs...SIGN ME UP. So I piled together some links and showed hubs to be fully expecting him to hate it...but he liked it. Hours of trawling through blogs, threads, websites, magazines and we'd finally found something very unique, pretty, cheap, local-ish and we both liked. winner.

Then came the task of doing it all again for reception options. As much as I liked our venue, after seeing the cost of hiring a marque, then with food costs on top, it was spiralling out of control with the budget and I wanted a cheaper separate venue.

As you can probably guess, my Google search went hours and hours deep and was unsuccessful for quite a while. I ended up crawling through Google images instead and came across this amazing building with a chimney and a married couple outside. I put my detective skills on (saved the image and scrolled in on the building text..ha!) and found the venue called The Chimney House. As soon as I saw the interior I was sold...it just happened to hold the right amount of guests, was cheap, very local oh and did I mention super cool?



So the next step was to contact both of the venues and see what dates they had available...guess what? They had exactly the dates we wanted. So we immediately booked appointments to go see the venues, because hey, I'm one of those crazy planner people that needs it all done and sorted ASAP so I can stop freaking out k?! k.

As I've been rambling for a lot longer than I thought I would.. I might split this post into 2 and talk about all the questions we asked when visiting the venues, as we were stumped really, because hey, I've never planned a wedding before!?

I hope this was interesting to some of you and gave you a little insight to behind the scene goings on. I literally had never even thought about a wedding until it actually started happening, so I had no real clue what I wanted, so this is all happening not that long before I'm telling you about it!

Watch out for part 2! or for those interested in my first wedding post, please click here :)

Wedding Bells: The Beginnings.

This post series is starting much sooner than I anticipated but I am totally okay with that, because due to recent chats with family, it's looking like 2016 will be the year we get married and I become a wifey.

Of course I want to blog about it, why wouldn't I want to blog about possibly one of the most exciting things that have happened to me and I'm sure loads of you want a nosey, amiright? I wanted a place to write my thoughts and ideas and share some photo's.

Firstly I want you all to know that we really are not traditional people. We will not be getting married in a church, which was the first hurdle of trying to find interesting venues for the ceremony and the reception. We also want a very small and intimate wedding, I'm not a fan of big weddings. Then lastly for us having an autumn wedding was something we both wanted, I don't see the point of spending twice as much for the potential of sunshine in the summer, every single day has the chance of rain in the UK so why waste the £££. The one thing I do want to keep traditional though is bridesmaids, I need my besties around for my 'big day'.



Another thing I know I really wanted is Polaroid photography as part of my wedding day, it's just something I am super passionate about and I couldn't imagine not having it as part of our day. So I've been on the search for a photographer and I finally found one I liked, so I've already messaged them. Yep, not even official yet but I've already found a photographer, go me.

So, I know this is quite a ramble post, but I'm so excited and needed to get out all my thoughts and whatnot. I am seriously so excited. I can't wait to set the actual date and send out my save the dates/invites.

Things we've done so far are:

* Picked a date and location
*Organised all meetings to officially book and pay deposits

* Made a guest list
*Written all the 'Save the Dates' which are ready to send out when it's 'Official'.

* Bought Nicks suit.

* Decided on bridesmaids and best man/girl

* Decided on a photographer

We've already hit our first hurdle, we had plans to go earlier this week to pay the deposit for the ceremony venue however the lady was off sick and we're waiting on a call to re-arrange. It's very frustrating as we need to secure the place so we can confirm the reception & photographer. Hopefully this will get sorted ASAP so we can start the ball rolling properly!

I'll be sure to get back to you when the date is set and what things I need to start getting my bum into gear and sort out! I think I'm going to try and do an update every month.