We’re just over half-way through planning our wedding and under 2 months to go! We booked a cancellation at Easter and although we were actually quite scared to commit to such a large and expensive project in such a short space of time – we were confident that we could get it sorted in time! On one hand, it’s made us be really decisive as we don’t have any time to procrastinate over stuff!
We’ve made some more big bookings such as our talented photographer Tasha from Ikonworks. Her photographs capture the subtleties of the atmosphere at Weddings which tell stories without needing any words. We’ve also booked an awesome Wedding band – this was the trickiest thing so far as most were already booked so it took weeks of searching! When making bookings so close to the W-day you can often negotiate a better rate as they’re less likely to get booked up so soon to a date.
If you didn’t catch the first two posts on the 4 month Wedding count-down, just visit Planning a Wedding in 4 months and Getting Wedding dress ready with Withings activite pop. Last weekend it was one year since we got engaged and we celebrated by having a weekend break in Hampshire at the Bourne Valley Inn and Bombay Sapphire Distillery. I feel it’s so important to still take some time-out when Wedding planning otherwise it can all get a little too crazy!
Big news – I have the dress!! There was no time to get a dress ordered from a boutique and I was looking at sample dresses – but was really disappointed at the quality I was finding. Paying £1,500 for a sample dress in polyester seemed ridiculous – and I started looking at alternative options…
Not only is the dress I found really stunning, but it also has a bit of a story behind it too…
I was on a train to work looking at various Wedding dress designers on Instagram and came across Stewart Parvin. Such stunningly timeless dresses – very understated and beautiful which really reflects my personal style. I then saw that he designed Zara Philips’ Wedding dress and designs many of the Queen’s fabulous outfits. So I closed down instagram and opened my emails instead, an SP dress was going to be waaay out of my budget : (
I immediately opened up an email from my Mum who’d found a beautiful silk Wedding dress on eBay at a fraction of the original cost of £4,000… it was a custom-made Stewart Parvin dress! The coincidence was so weird – I hadn’t even heard of the designer before that train journey! The dress looked so beautiful and was just a little smaller than my size. I spent the day thinking about this dress and by the time I was travelling home, it had dropped further in price on eBay to £400… my Mum ordered it straight away! When the dress arrived, it was stunning – but much smaller than the size it was supposed to be. Luckily for me, my Mum is a fantastic seamstress and she’s working on giving me an extra inch, but I need to lose an extra inch too! This is what I’m most nervous about… of course I can’t show you the dress before the big day ; )
A couple of shopping trips to Bicester Village ticked loads of our list too. We picked up a beautiful Huge Boss suit for 60% off, silk groomsmen ties from Jaeger reduced from £60 to £15, bridal shoes from LK Bennett at 50% off plus we bought my wedding ring at a diamond shop that had a closing down sale! I’ve started getting bits of new makeup too as my friend is going to do it for me. I’m ok with makeup, but by no means an expert so going to shops like The Cosmetics Company Store in Bicester Village is great as they can advise you on what’s best from a variety of top brands… all discounted too!
If anyone has any dieting tips – please let me know : )
Natalia xo
Featured image is courtesy of NGDPhotoworks
