Monday Morning Coffee Break

I must be in a bit of a philosophical mood this morning…It’s first thing Monday morning (well not exactly first thing as before this I have changed and fed lily, tweeted, checked out the Rock and Roll Bride’s party report and sent my dad a link to the new Vivienne Westwood shoe range as a BIG hint for christmas!) and I am enjoying a coffee break (its a very weak latte with two sugars btw).

It may seem a bit strange that I am blogging about my coffee but this early morning coffee break is something that really effects the whole day I have ahead of me – for example at the moment I’m sitting in a little coffee shop and art gallery near Tower Bridge typing and looking out at the sunshine, Lily is chilling out playing with some stacking cups, and the waiter gave us free biscuits so this coffee break makes me feel ready for the day and puts me in a great mood for the day ahead 🙂

Rewind to this time last week and I was at home with a teething, temperamental baby who screamed every time I put her down, my coffee was too strong and it was cold by the time I got to drink it – so of course I spent most of the rest of that day feeling pretty down and that fifteen minutes affected my whole day!

So why, you ask, is a post about coffee breaks being featured on a bridal blog? Well I meet so many brides who don’t make time for a coffee break and that is really not good. Planning a wedding is so stressful, there is so much that seems to get heaped up on your shoulders when you have a million decisions to make and a list as long as your arm of tasks that still need to be finished. And so I think that everyone should understand the importance of the coffee break.

Before we were engaged and had Lily, me and Mr I spent a lot of our time relaxing, talking and just enjoying each other’s company in a coffee shop. Sometimes we would have books with us to read, or we’d share a slab of cake, othertimes it’d be a quick pitstop in starbucks whilst perusing our way around Oxford Street. Sometimes it wouldn’t even be a break for coffee, just a break, sitting in the park enjoying the sun, talking and laughing and taking photos. The point is that daily life sometimes gets in the way of living – and a break is a chance to reconnect with your partner or just with yourself.

And so the coffee break is of great importance – try making the time to sit down and take a break at least once a week, enjoy a leisurely walk, sip a latte, share some cake, read a book… whatever you do for your coffee break make the most of just relaxing. It really does make a hell of a difference 🙂

xxx

Planning – the BIG decisions :-)

There are a few BIG decisions that will have a profound effect on your whole wedding – it is important to make your minds up about these before you book things or start spreading the good news.

One of the biggest ones is a combination of your overall wedding ‘vision’, as well as the time of year (and thus length of engagement), feel of wedding (formal/non-traditional/relaxed?) and so much more. For example, when you picture your wedding what do you see: a cool, refreshing summer’s day with strawberries and cream, bunting and the palest of pink peonies? Or do your dreams centre more along the lines of roaring log fires, deep red roses and sparkly icicles? Clearly setting the date is one of the first BIG decisions that you need to make. The season you choose to get married in will not only have an effect on the style of your wedding say but also on the budget and what is available. Summer (the months of June, July and August) are the most popular times of year to get married and as such many venues are able to have higher summer prices, some venues even get booked up years in advance for these popular dates! You may find that you have to be willing to be flexible to get your dream venue on your realistic budget.

The venue will have just as much of an effect on the overall feel of your wedding (and more of an effect on your wedding budget) as the season. When it comes to finding a venue don’t taunt yourself by visiting places that you know are going to be over your budget, instead focus on exploring all the possibilities within your budget – you may be surprised at what you find. If you have a low budget look into local halls (many churches and villages have lovely halls), restaurants and interesting buildings (such as a victorian school building or warehouse space) – some of these can look fantastic with very little effort on your behalf.

The venue may also have an effect on what type of ceremony you have. For example you may want a religious ceremony in a church, chapel or synagogue or prefer a civil wedding ceremony or a ceremony outside. If your venue does not have one of these options on site then you have to consider the fact that guests will need transportation between the two venues. Also if the venue you choose is far away from where many of your friends and family live then think about the fact that you and your guests will need to pay for overnight accomodation which can be very pricey.

Another BIG decision is your guest list and this will ultimately effect every aspect of your wedding. When in this intermediate stage you don’t need to have a finalised guest list but by working out a rough number of family and friends you want to invite you can work out the implications on your other choices. For example you may want to have a sit down meal at your local hotel but if their function room only fits 80 people you aren’t going to be able to have those 200 people on your guest list. Or you may have decided on a gorgeous venue where the price per head for the meal is £35.00 – this is fine if you have a budget of £3,500 and 100 guests but what if your catering budget is half of that?  Mr.I and I decided that we would rather have less guests and a better wedding than try to accomodate hundreds of guests and have to serve substandard food or scrimp on our other priorities. Some people have weddings with less than 30 people, others decided that it is important to them to have 300, whatever you decide you need to be realistic and stick to it!

Once you have made the big decisions you can get down to the fun part – to be honest its these big decisions that can prove extra stressful, particularly when you have family members ‘helpfully’ giving their opinions and subtle reminders that you ‘really should invite great uncle gregg’s cousin twice removed’ – just remember that it is YOUR wedding and you should have the wedding of your dreams whether or not it is what other people want!

xxx

Rock and Roll Bride party!

I was lucky enough to get one of the 200 tickets for the ‘Rock and Roll Bride party’ aka ‘Party of the Year!’, and I mean LUCKY as there were over 500 people applying for the tickets!

Now for those of you who don’t know who Kat of Rock and Roll Bride is (those of you who have been living under a rock in the dessert perhaps?) she is the amazing pink haired *well rainbow haired for the party* alternative wedding blogger – the byline for her blog says it all ‘Your Big Day, the Rock and Roll Way’ and boy is she one hell of a party hostess!

This is Kat and she is fantastic 🙂 (Picture borrowed from the Rock and Roll Bride site and taken by Jayne of Sacco and Sacco Photography)^^)

So on the 14th April I ironed my jeans – you know its something special when I willingly do the ironing! – put on some cute red vintage pumps and a navy blazer, packed up my masquerade ball mask (more on that later) and headed off to Graphic Bar in London’s Golden Square. I have to admit that I was sooo nervous to finally meet Kat – she is such an inspiration to me on a daily basis and it’s always a little intimidating to meet someone you admire online in the flesh!

I arrived at the bar at 6:45 after getting lost and chatted up by some builders working nearby – go me! Was still super nervous which was not helped by big baldy bouncer who couldn’t find my name on his list, I practically snatched his clipboard off of him and found it myself oops :-s 

The first person I saw as I stepped through the door and headed towards the bar was none other than Kat herself who was even more amazing in real life – she gave me a big hug, allowed me to admire her gorgeous Fur Coat No Knickers dress and we had a little chat before I wandered off to get myself a Rock and Roll Bride paint tin cocktail! I think even if I had needed to leave right then I would have gone home a very happy bunny 🙂 but of course I didn’t have to leave and so I got stuck in meeting so many great new people – from photographers and bloggers to the likes of make up artist Elbie who styles Kat’s makeup and is a real Rock and Roll Bride herself *her wedding is stunning* and she was very sweet.

A few gin based cocktails later and I was posing in the photobooth (with my red sparkly masquerade balll mask of course) with two of the other guests and heading over to check out the out of this world cupcakes by Restoration Cake and eventually set the ball rolling by being the first guest to take one out of the display – I chose the red velvet cake and have literally never tasted anything like it – I could easily sit here and eat them for dinner, followed by the peanut butter ones for dessert!

I was having so much fun that I didn’t even think to take any photographs *bad alex* but there will be plenty on the Rock and Roll Bride site tomorrow so do check in 🙂

Highlights of the night:

• Fashion = Annabel of Love My Dress Blog looked ah-mazing in a custom made dress by Dana Bolton, she was simply stunning!
• People = It’s strange to meet so many people who you stalk follow online but my favourite meets of the night were (aside from Kat!) were Sassy of Assassynation who will hopefully be our wedding photographer (she is great!), Alice of Alice in Weddingland fame (the RandR Bride Intern) and Joanne Fleming who is a fantastic Brighton based dress maker and is also wonderful!
• Photobooth – Just watching other people posing was enough entertainment in itself – some hilarious pictures…

The event was a great chance to meet so many wonderful people from the wedding industry as well as plenty of brides to be like myself , the room was buzzing with wonderful creative people and I can’t wait for the next one, which will be bigger and better I’m sure! Thanks Kat 🙂

xxx

Baby Shower Inspiration!

So, those of you who read the blog regularly will know that I am in the process of planning my best friend’s baby shower which is very exciting. She is expecting a baby boy and we have taken the inspiration for her baby shower from two adorable outfits that she has bought – one is a blue and white striped onesie decorated with a faded Mickey Mouse figure and the other is a white sleepsuit with a bouncing Tigger on the front. The mummy to be has always loved Tigger and Mickey Mouse so these are the perfect inspiration for her baby shower. Not to mention the pale blue looks fantastic when combined with crisp white and popping orange 🙂

Here is some of the images I am using for inspiration whilst designing her shower…

 I can’t wait to set the date and start buying up the bits and pieces to make it fab!

xxx

30 Days of Lists – part 2

So I continue on with my lists – I did all of my lists last month so I could upload them all here in chunks – much easier than posting one seperately each day 🙂

List Six: A few words you do and don’t like…

Like  – Love… Mummy… Cake… Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious…

Dislike – Diet… Cancer… Squelch (it just sounds nasty)…

List Seven: A Few goals for your blog…

I hope to get more readers… more comments… some more blog lovvage and lots of lovely real weddings!

List Eight: Whats in your bag…

OMG too much stuff… erm let me see… I actually have two bags (when your a mummy you get serious arm workouts daily!) so here goes…

Bag One- Filofax…vaseline aloe vera…12 black pens.. a permanent marker… a notepad… post it notes… an apple… my digital camera… my purse… a copy of Stephen kings ‘needful things’… a mini sewing kit… pritt stick… a pen knife… a packet of paracetamol… a bottle of coco madamoiselle chanel…

Bag Two – a spare t-shirt… a pair of socks… a wedding magasine… a purse (I have two!)… a picture of Lily… my best friend’s scan photo… a copy of ‘A thousand splendid suns’ by Khaled Hosseini… a notepad… two pens… my mobile phone… some letters that I keep forgetting to post… a selection of pictures printed off of the computer for ‘inspiration’… more post it notes and a copy of the a-z of London.

That is a hell of a lot of stuff – I only carry big bags… and that’s without Lily’s changing bag too… oops 🙂

xxx