It's Not A Comeback

It’s been a while since I posted, and whenever I’ve gotten bogged down in the past and struggled to find time to post, I’ve always just given up. But when I first started this blog, I really wanted to make a go of it, and still do. I so enjoyed getting back to writing, but I felt that if I couldn’t be super dedicated and stick to a certain number of posts each week like I could see the “proper” bloggers were doing, then there was no point in doing it.

However, rather than give up, I’ve accepted that having a full time job, running a home and planning a wedding doesn’t always lend its time to spending hours writing and editing on a strict timetable. But that doesn’t mean that I can’t still post when I have the time and something to write about. Maybe I’ll find time to post twice this week and not post again for another month, but that’s okay. Over the last few weeks I’ve realised that rather than be embarrassed of what people may think about my gaps in posting, I should stop worrying about being judged. Everyone understands that life can get a bit hectic and keeping up with hobbies is, unfortunately, often the first thing to be forgotten about.

The last six months or so have flown by, with surviving Christmas as a Sales Support Admin Assistant at House of Fraser, to changing jobs to a position that, unfortunately, has not lived up to what I’d hoped it would be. But my dissatisfaction with my new job has made me realise I need to make the effort to do things which I find fulfilling outside of work.

And with this year being the year to start putting wedding plans into action, I will definitely have things to write about. From my wedding dress appointments to arranging a sit down with the stationary designers I’ve had my eye on, I will have plenty going on.

Who else out there has struggled to get back to their blog after a hectic few months? Did any of you let the fear of being judged put you off posting for even longer?

The Future Mrs Love xx

The City of Love

One of the things we can’t really afford to do while we’re saving for the wedding is travelling. However I was lucky enough this year to find a cheap trip to Paris which my lovely dad offered to cover for my 21^st. It wasn’t my first time in Paris; we’d taken a day out from Disneyland when I was 10, and my fiancé and I went together in June 2013. There had been a few things we hadn’t had time to see so I was excited to fit some new things in, as well as revisit some of my favourite places. Personally the art museums have never held much interest for me, and I am a sucker for the romance of the Eiffel Tower, however clichéd some people may find it. Unfortunately the last time we’d been to Paris it had rained during the whole trip and we could barely see a thing from the top of the Eiffel Tower.

Well, this time was a completely different story. I can definitely say I won’t be visiting Paris in the middle of August again. 34 degree temperatures are fantastic for lying by the pool, not so great for cramming as much sightseeing into four days as possible. I also hadn’t considered that August is school holidays which meant all the queues were much longer than when we’d been in June.

That said, we had a lovely time, and so here are my favourite places to visit in Paris.

1. My absolute favourite place in Paris actually shocked me. I’d planned everything the first time we went, to make use of our time as efficiently as possible. The Sacre Coeur Basilica wasn’t something I’d put on the list, but one afternoon we found we ourselves with a  few unscheduled hours and decided we’d take a quick visit. I’m not religious or spiritual in the least, but I fell in love with the place. Sat on top of the hilly streets of Montmartre it’s beautiful to look at, and the inside is incredible. But what I fell in love with was the amazing feeling of calm and contentment I felt while I was in there. I was in awe of this amazing place and I actually felt quite humbled by how small but completely safe it made me feel. This year we went back, of course, but this time we also climbed the 300 spiral steps to the views from the top of the dome. It was a killer on the legs but it was worth it.
   
   
   
2. Unsurprisingly, the Eiffel Tower makes it into my favourite Paris attractions. Our first view of it back in 2013 was from the metro. As we emerged from an over ground metro station there it was suddenly in all it’s glory. This year we approached from another direction and we could just see the top poking out above the trees. It’s such an iconic site, I couldn’t help but get that excitement every time I caught a glimpse of it. I think everyone is so used to seeing it in films and television, but it still doesn’t compare to standing there and seeing it looming over you. Not only that but the view from the top (on a clear day) is amazing. This year I felt I was able to recognise more landmarks than before since it was our second visit.
   
   
   
3. This next one was somewhere new that we visited this time around. Again this was somewhere I was surprised I loved so much since it has religious links, but Sainte Chapelle is definitely worth a visit. My fiancé preferred Notre Dame but for me nothing inside Notre Dame compared to the stained glass windows of Sainte Chapelle. For me Notre Dame was a little threatening, which I suppose is to be expected with its gothic appearance, but Sainte Chapelle was this amazing combination of gothic and light. You emerge from a little spiral staircase and you’re encased in light flooding in from the tall stained glass windows lining the room.
   
   
4. Unfortunately, the Pont des Arts started to collapse under the weight of the hundreds  (possibly thousands) of Love Locks padlocked to it, and they’ve now all been removed and it’s been boarded over. However attaching our Love Lock to the Pont des Arts and dropping the keys into the Seine was one of the highlights of our Paris trips. As I said, I have quite a weakness for romance.
   
   
   
5. The Jardin des Tuileries are the gardens than go from The Louvre to Place de la Concorde and one of my favourite moments in Paris was walking through them in the sunshine with my fiancé. They’re so pretty and there are little cafe stands with wrought iron tables tucked into the trees lining the path.
   
   
   
   
   
   Obviously everyone has different tastes and some people could be happy spending their whole trip exploring the museums, but for me these were my favourite places that I’ve visited in Paris.  If you’ve been to Paris, what did you enjoy the most? Or if you haven’t visited Paris, what would you love to include in your trip?
   
   The Future Mrs Love xx

Nightmare On Nuptial Street

I will admit now, I can be a bit of a control freak, and I do like things to be perfect. Who doesn’t want their wedding day to go smoothly and just like they’ve been imagining throughout all that planning? But I’m not naïve enough to believe that as long as I’m super organised, there won’t be any hiccups. It’s inevitable, from what I can tell every wedding faces at least one or two bumps; I’m just hoping none of them are too bad.

With Halloween approaching, here are ten wedding horror stories  that I’ve been told about.

1. While my mum was training for her Sugar Craft qualification, a woman in her group had a friend who dropped an entire wedding cake. While taking it out to her car. On the morning of the wedding. Unsurprisingly, it wasn’t just a case of a last minute touch up to a few flowers. She had to call the bride, and explain they would not be getting a wedding cake. I’m not sure who it sounded more stressful for, the bride or the cake maker!
   
2. My fiancé’s colleague got married this summer in Greece, around the time when travellers were being advised to take cash with them rather than rely on the banks. They followed this advice and ordered £2000 worth of Euros on a trusted currency exchange site. Which then got lost (or stolen) in the post two weeks before the wedding. It was covered by the insurance, but it would take at least three weeks to get sorted. Thankfully, friends and family came to the rescue and loaned them enough to change over in time for the wedding.
3. I think one of the most important things to any bride is being happy with how you look on the big day. When my mum married my dad she trialled her makeup with her makeup artist and they got a look that she was happy with for the wedding. Somehow, the end result on the day wasn’t quite the same. Her words to me were “you couldn’t actually tell that my face was under there somewhere”. There was even a moment of her scrubbing at her face with kitchen roll less than an hour before the ceremony.
4. Another make up crisis comes from Practical Ever After, a blog that I follow, which I definitely recommend heading over to. She found out the day before her wedding that the make up she’d booked to have done at Smashbox the morning of her wedding hadn’t been booked in. Here’s the link to their blog for you to read more about the disaster! http://www.practicaleverafter.co.uk/
5. This next one comes from the wedding I posted about in The Colour of Love. Remember the ice cream trike? Well that wasn’t all smooth sailing. Two days before the wedding, the one that they had originally booked was written off while being transported. They got a full refund, but had less than 48 hours to replace the one they had booked. I turned up at the bride’s house at 2pm the day before the wedding just as she had managed to confirm a new one. Needless to say she was a little stressed.
   
   
   
6. One risk that comes with having little ones as bridesmaids is sticky fingers. Or in my case, clumsy fingers. I was three years old when I was my mum’s bridesmaid at her and my dad’s wedding. Once the ceremony was over and everyone was getting drinks, I spilt my whole glass of Diet Coke down my dress. Despite being soaked through I insisted on keeping my dress on.
7. There always seems to be some degree of potential family drama at weddings. A manager at my work went to an evening reception where the family drama spiralled a little out of control. At 10pm the DJ put out an announcement that the venue staff had asked all of the wedding guests to vacant the party early. It turned out that the brother of the bride and the brother of the groom had gotten into a punch up, which understandably the venue management weren’t particularly amused about.
8. Another colleague at work recently told me about the mix up she had with her wedding cake days before the wedding. She didn’t like the traditional cake shapes and had opted for star shaped tiers. When her and her fiancé went to pick the cake up the week of the wedding they were greeted with a round cake. Apparently the cake maker had another order in the same colour scheme and very similar decorations which had been ordered as a round cake. That bride had been sent the star shaped cake days previously so my colleague ended up accepting the round cake and, unsurprisingly, a partial refund.
9. When the bride walks down the aisle all eyes are on her and the dress she’s chosen to wear. So what you don’t want are wardrobe malfunctions right before the ceremony. Unfortunately for one bride, a major wardrobe malfunction was faced when her sister stepped on the train of her dress as she was walking, and tore it. I will definitely be spending the morning walking behind everyone else.
10. This last one is actually a post wedding disaster which has fed into my need for a very professional and trustworthy photographer. My fiancé’s cousin asked an old colleague who was coming as a guest if he minded doing the photography.  He spent the day snapping away, taking them outside into the hotel grounds and setting up some lovely group photos. However in the weeks that followed the wedding, they heard nothing from him and weren’t able to get in contact with him. To this day they have never received the professional photos that he took on their wedding day, and have had to ask friends and family to send them any photos that they took.

So there are some of the biggest wedding glitches I’ve heard about. Did you have any problems leading up to the big day? Or have you heard any horror stories about wedding planning gone awry?

The Future Mrs Love xx

670 Days to Mrs Love

After all the excitement of getting engaged had calmed down, we realised we had some important decisions to make. I was well prepared, I’d picked up one of nearly every wedding magazine available in WHSmiths and they all agreed on where to start. We had to set our budget, agree on our priorities and decide how much of the budget we were willing to allocate to each part of the day. When it came down to making a list of everything the budget needed to cover, the list just seemed to keep growing! There was the photographer, florist, music, rings, outfits for ourselves and the wedding party, and lots of little things you don’t even consider until they’re taking a chunk out of the budget for the big day.

And of course there was only a slim chance we were going to agree on what our priorities were. I think for anyone, the venue will always come pretty highly on that list. It’s the place your entire day will be set in, so it’s always important it’s somewhere you love. I might be wrong, but I’m assuming for most couples the venue is where a large chunk of the budget tends to go, unless you’re lucky enough to a have friends or family with somewhere beautiful to hold the reception!

So once we’d quite quickly and easily agreed that the venue was important to us both, the rest then had to be prioritised. When we started out with planning, my fiancé really didn’t realise just how much had to be considered and factored into the budget. As I listed things he sat there saying “Oh I wouldn’t have even thought of that” at almost every other item I wrote down.

For me, the photographer was hugely important. I’m the sort of person who will take photos of everything on a day out or holiday, through fear of forgetting any little details. One of my favourite things to do is look back through my photo albums, so a good photographer was probably my top priority after the venue.

My fiancé had slightly different views. He was keen on a chocolate fountain, a DJ with expensive, flashy lighting and set up, and hiring a projector for our own PowerPoint presentation. I’m sure you won’t be surprised to hear he likes his gadgets! On the one hand, the fact that we agreed we would rather have a DJ rather than a band was great. On the other hand, a flashy set up and strobe lighting effects were not something I was fussed about. In the end we agreed that while we both felt it was important that the DJ was good, the way their set up looked was not crucial.  Thankfully for me, he did agree that it was important to have beautiful photos to remember the day by in the years to come, and so the photographer took top priority.

Something he had strong opinions on which really surprised me was the flowers. It wasn’t the type of flower that he knew he wanted at our wedding, but the style of the arrangements. I wasn’t expecting the flowers to be one of the things he already had ideas about so early on but he wanted tall martini vase arrangements for the centrepieces. Of course they need more flowers to fill them than smaller vases, so we agreed to keep a good portion of the budget aside for the flowers.

 In the end we didn’t struggle too much with prioritising, and it probably could have been much more of a headache than we found it. So tell me, which aspects are/were most important to you? How easily did you and your fiancé find it to agree on them?

The Future Mrs Love xx

The Colour of Love

At the start of this month I got to attend a wedding which I was really touched to be invited to. The mum of my best friend of ten years was getting married, and what made me feel special was despite wanting to keep it small, I was still invited to both the wedding and the hen do the night before.

The wedding was held at Salmestone Grange in Margate, which used to be a monastery. More recently built onto the venue were two surprisingly spacious cottages; the perfect setting for our hen night in. It really did feel like we were scoffing pizza and chocolate in someone’s living room. The only difference to a cosy Friday night in (well different to mine anyway!) was the steady flow of champagne. 

I don’t know how she did it but she organised this wedding in less than a year, on top of her busy work life. But she still managed to include so many coordinated details and surprises for the guests. One thing which surprised me was how difficult she’d found it to gather these little details to match their theme; colour. Personally, I don’t feel that a multi coloured theme for a wedding is one of the most “out there” themes around, but she really struggled. So many suppliers were geared towards catering for the big white wedding that she had to source most of her decorations online from American companies.

But wow did she do well. There was colour everywhere you looked. In the form of chair sashes, table crystals, candles for the candelabras, balloons, cupcakes (made by my wonderful mum, might I add). Even her dress broke tradition, having opted for a colourful Per Una dress to wear for her big day. In fact, the only dress code requirement for guests was that they wear something with a splash of colour. Now I will admit, as a 21 year old planning my own wedding, I am a big fan of the traditional white wedding. But seeing so much colour and mismatch at a wedding was actually really refreshing.

 On top of all this well planned detail and coordination, there were a few surprises for the guests, and even one for the groom. There was a chocolate fountain in the evening, as well as an ice cream tricycle and sweetie table (as well as all the cupcakes piled high in the reception room). And at 6 o’clock she led everyone to the small chapel in the grange, to reveal an eight lane, fifteen foot Scalextric track for her petrol head groom. I’ll admit, if I set up a PC gaming room at our wedding, I’d be pretty worried about not seeing my fiancé for the rest of the evening. But to his credit he still spent most of the evening dancing and laughing with his bride. What can say true love more than that?

I’d love to hear about some of the unusually themed weddings you’ve been to. Or maybe a wedding with a few unexpected surprises throughout the day?

The Future Mrs Love xx

691 Days to Mrs Love

Out there somewhere are about four or five blogs I’ve started and never stuck to, and I’ve decided to take one last shot at throwing myself into keeping a semi-regular blog.

First things first are introductions. I’m Amy, and I’m currently fulfilling my lifelong dream of working as a retail sales admin assistant (said no one ever, trust me). Truthfully, I’d always wanted to be some kind of published writer, but as a short sighted 17 year old I decided I couldn’t cope with one more year of A Level English. So here I am, flexing my slightly rusty writing skills.

In case it wasn’t obvious, in 691 days (not long at all...) I will become Mrs Love. Like any girl, I love weddings. What isn’t to love? Even if you’re not a fan of marriage, a day filled with champagne, music and cake surely can’t be seen as a bad day. But if I’m honest, just the word “wedding” stirs up bubbles of excitement for me, regardless of whose it is.

So I’ve decided to start a blog about all things weddings. Some will be relating to my own wedding planning experiences, but I also want to explore the careers available in the wedding industry, and  the various dilemmas and minefields you can face when planning a wedding (there are FAR more than I’d have imagined).

If nothing else, hopefully my posts will cause a couple of giggles while I stumble through planning our wedding. Even if you’re more laughing at me than with me. And of course any advice would be a huge bonus!

The Future Mrs Love

xx