For Your Eyes Only

Earlier this year I was lucky enough to win a fantastic prize from the great site that is Weddings In Surrey that is run by the lovely Pamela. I won a shoot with FYEO Portraits, and I can't tell you how excited I was to have won, but I was also extremely nervous! Being a woman with a lot more curves than usual made me worry about getting into some underwear infront of others and having photos taken. I put it off for as long as I could and came close to not going but I pushed myself to go and experience my prize.

The FYEO Portraits website gives you a members area as soon as you are booked in and their is a helpful area of 'what to bring'. I picked a few different sets of underwear, a long silk robe, a black feather fan and one of Rob's shirts. So off I went on a October Thursday morning to their High Wycombe studio, which is gorgeous in itself! I was greeted with a coffee whilst I waited for my shoot, and also tried to calm myself down! I opted for a couple of extras that were available to me so that I made the most of the shoot. I was whisked down to make up for a camera worthy look and then shown into the room where I was having my shoot.

The room is dark, maybe not as dark as I thought, but comfortable enough. My lovely photographer, Gemma, came and greeted me and suggested what outfit to get started with. So once I was all sorted we began!

Gemma warned me that the poses feel quite odd, and I can honestly say it's quite a workout! Every shot was in a different pose or position and because I was concentrating on them, my nerves just vanished. Also, Gemma was one of the loveliest people I've ever met. Her constant encouragement and great sense of humour is just what a woman like me needed to relax and enjoy.

When the shoot was over I was buzzing (and aching) and I just couldn't wait to see my pictures. I did get nervous that I would be disappointed, however at 5.15pm the next day I missed a call from Gemma and recieved an email to say that my pictures were ready!

I am very happy with my pictures, and as Rob recieved an album of the images for his Christmas present, I think he is pretty happy with them too! I've lost over 4 stone since my photos were taken but I can still look at them and be proud of my body.

Heres a little peek....

A Future Wife Finds

I just had to write a quick post about one of my recent 'finds' whilst browsing the wedding world.

Struggling to find a stylish card box for your big day? You can't get much more adorable than this.


Find this at Door County Woodrworks on Etsy

Do It Yourself : Wedding Bags

I wanted to share with you something I have done for my bridesmaids and let you know how I did it so that you can make your very own! Nice aren't I?

I have made my bridesmaids (and myself) their very own personalised canvas bag. It doesn't cost the earth but it's a nice little touch. My girls have been given theirs so that they can store their sparkly shoes in them, but I imagine in the run up to the wedding they will get plenty of use!

How to:
- You will need to purchase canvas bags of your colour choice, and some iron on transfer paper. I found mine on Ebay.
- Next you need to get on your computer and open up Word, or something more fancy if you are a mac user! You can add whatever words and pictures you like. I added the name of the bridesmaid, their wedding title and the date of the wedding. I think that covers most bases. I also made them in our wedding colours.
- Next you need to print out onto your transfer paper. Make sure you read the instructions and you may need to alter your printer settings.
- Next iron on your design and you are all done! How quick was that?!

Why not give it a go?

My Carriage Awaits...

A bride's choice of carriage for her wedding has, for many years, not been much of a choice. For most, the choice would be a classic vintage car, that everyone would expect a bride and her party to arrive in. Now please don't get me wrong, I adore classic vintage cars, but I think it's important that a Bride can choose something suitable for her to transport her on the big day.

Apart from the classic vintage car, you obviously have the lovely tradition of horse and cart. Perfect for classic fairytale brides getting married in quiant little villages, that's my vision anyway!

Nowadays for the lads you have great transport, such as, the A-Team Van. Or of course the trotters van.

( Please excuse of of Rob's best men in the pic! The Trotter Van is avaliable here)

If you fancy a twist on a classic vintage care, how about going American with a classic Cadillac?

For me, there was only ever one carriage I wanted to take me to my wedding ceremony.... a VW Camper Van!!! However wanting one, and finding one is a different matter. Around Surrey you are very limited compared to other areas of the country. Then I stumbled across Pushka owned by the lovely Nathalie at Buttercup Bus VW Campers.

I drove over to Croydon and jumped into Pushka for a test ride around the block, she was perfect and I booked up straight away. I understand that arriving at your wedding in a camper van can just be more of a 'ccol' statement to some but for me it was the only choice as I am more than a little obssessed with campers. Maybe one day I will let you see the shelf that is full of camper van's and my canvas prints that adorn my walls, but for now you will have to take my word for it.

So Brides, when choosing your carriage pick what you want and not what tradition informs you that you must choose. Explore the web and find your dream!

Honeymoon!

On Saturday we took the plunge and finally booked our honeymoon. We had been certain of what we wanted for quite a while but spending that much on a holiday sent a few shivers down my spine! But, as countless people have told me, this is a once in a lifetime. We are never likely to be able to spend this kind of money on a holiday again, so we decided to GO FOR IT!

Where are we going?

I can’t say our destination is the normal honeymoon destination for most couples but Stockholm is perfect for us. Beach holidays, we have found, don’t float our boat so we wanted somewhere worth exploring.

We both love a few things Swedish 1) Swedish music aka ABBA! Ok so this is more my OH’s thing, but I don’t mind a bit of ABBA. 2) Swedish Literature and Film. We are both big fans of ‘the girl’ trilogy and the OH also loves Let The Right One In. So we are already eager to go on the ABBA tour and ‘the girl’ tour.

There are also so many amazing museums are we are trying to whittle down which ones we want to visit. We will also be visiting during their national day, which is supposed to be a much celebrated event with Swedish flags everywhere!

Stockholm looks like an amazing city, with so many things to explore. We can’t wait!

Where are we staying?

Ladies and gents, let me introduce you to The Hotel Rival.

This masterpiece is owned by Benny from ABBA and is the first boutique hotel in Stockholm. You get your very own teddy bear and ABBA cd’s in your room...easily pleased...me? And what other hotel is there, that has their own song?! Yes that’s right...

Anyone interested in reading about Stockholm can read the blog of the concierge for Hotel Rival at The Stockholm Tourist

Fingerprint Guestbooks!

Bluedetoi at Etsy

This week we purchased our guestbook, it wasn't planned or on my to do list, but I was taking a wander through Offbeat Bride and found something right.

I fell in love with the idea of our guests leaving their fingerprint to create something that would look great on our wall after the wedding day. I didn't think it would be my grooms first choice so I just tweeted it! Turns out my groom loved the idea! We did have a chat about how we wouldn't have anywhere for guests to leave messages, but that's what cards are for right?

We also found another idea that we loved...



Fingerprint People Guestbook

How amazing is this idea? Your guests can leave their fingerprint and make it a little person! Ok, we loved it! However having something for our wall was important.

Then I was lucky enough to find a great UK supplier of fingerprint guestbook trees. Claire from Fingerprint Tree was so helpful with my questions and extra requests, and all at 9pm!



Hand Drawn Tree Kit

This is what we have chosen for our guest book. We have requested some extra inks so we can have our own style and we can't wait to see the finished look at the end of our wedding day.



I Can Hear The Bells

The music for our wedding day is important to us, and I am sure it's important to a lot of other bride & grooms. We've got all of our ceremony music sorted, and Rob is still working on the playlist for the wedding breakfast. What I thought I would blog today is the music we have picked to have playing to our guests before the ceremony begins. Hopefully it will get them in the mood for a mushy but fun day ahead!

Song 1

We have a love for Hairspray the film and we can both sing all of the songs! This has to be our favourite though. I especially love how the curvy girl gets the man of her dreams!


Song 2

We both like a bit of cheese and this is a perfect duet for us!

Song 3



Have you seen the film? Rob has made me watch it!

Song 4



Again we love the mush value of this song and have sung it many many times!

Song 5



To me this song is perfect because it will be our 'one  fine day'.


Song 6

I think all of our guests will know this song, and I can already Rob standing at the front doing a little dance for everyone to see :-) At least it should help his nerves!

So what do you think to our choices? Do you have a favourite? I am thinking of making a CD of these songs so that I can listen to them on the way to our ceremony. I would love to hear your thoughts.