Recent Updates

We're three weeks (or so) since I tried the dresses on.  Have I saved any money?  No.  Have I lost any weight?  4lbs.  Hmmmm.

So, what else is new?  I have two posts for you to come in the next couple of days (I hope!!), one on shoes and the other on the bunting I'm making.

Firstly, I saw this in BHS the other day and decided I might just buy it for Scarlett - it was £50, so I'll just buy her an age 4 and hope for the best.  It had like a satiny body with a tulle skirt, with heart shaped fabric petals.  And the colour was spot on.

Fleur Dress - £50 - BHS

What do you think?

Also, the big news today is that our Save the Date magnets arrived.  Designed by the multi talented Viola Wang, who works at the Uni with me (but obviously in the much cooler design office...!)  Plus, I found this cool little video of her....

Here's the finished product, printed courtesy of Vista Print....

Sorry for totally awful photo taken on my iPhone!

Magnets courtesy of Habitat - the only thing that was worth buying when I went in to witness their demise....!

That's the main bit of updating for now, as I said, I have a shoe post, a bunting post and a fair post for you in the next couple of days.  In the meantime, I am super tired, have to get the bus to work tomorrow, and so, I'm off to snuggle in bed!

Howdy if you've come via the Bonfire Night Bride blog which I was featured on earlier!

Dress shopping

I had my first foray into dress shopping last Friday.  I was scared, I'll be honest.  I'm a size 24 and so I knew, KNEW, there would be nothing in there that would fit and that I would probably leave feeling dejected about having been so crap at dieting for the last 6 months (3 years!)

I had a rough idea of what I wanted, dreaming endlessly about a frothy, polka dot tulle Candy Anthony number. I knew that Candy Anthony was way out of my budget.  Now, let me set it straight, my budget is TINY!  And it's even tinier given the fact that I'm saddled with huge debts from my uni days and have zilch left each month to save (get those violins out for my poor ass!)  So when my mum told me that a friend of hers had bought a Pronovias copy from China for £200, I entered, '£200' into my spreadsheet and carried on my merry way!

So I reluctantly booked an appointment to try some on 'just to see what was out there'.  I chose Cloud 9 Bridalwear in Cheam Village.  I have two bridal shops within a 5 minute drive of home, the first one I tried, well, despite leaving a voicemail message and an email, failed to get back to me - oh well, you won't get my 'business' (I use quotes because as I said, I had already ruled out being able to afford anything in these shops!!).

Cloud 9 it was, and I'm really glad I chose them.  I was greeted by Tracey into the tiny Tudor house, packed literally to the rafters with yards of Tulle, silk, satin, lace and taffeta, all stitched into some gorgeous (and some not so gorgeous!) dresses.  The first dress Tracey whipped out was the Chanticleer Babilee, as I said it was one I had seen on the website and that I wanted a 50s tea length look:

Chanticleer Babilee - Source

It was nice, but, obviously it didn't fit and because I'm already short and fat it made my look even shorter and fatter.  Fail.

So, next, onto a full length gown.  Tried a couple on, neither really inspired me although they did fit so my mum instantly thought I should buy them but quite frankly, they were horrid and I hated every minute in them.  They were too fussy, too bustled up for me.  I felt too trapped and constrained in them and really, I wanted something laid back and funky, not traditional and naff (no offence...!)  Cue awful pictures of me in the long dresses:

Hahaha, and look at my awful tan lines!

'Scuse the bra!  You can see I just look pissed off in that dress!

The last one I tried on (I did attempt a couple of others but I couldn't even get through the openings to be pinned in so we'll move on!) was the Chanticleer Monteverdi.

Chanticleer Monteverdi - Source

Chanticleer Monteverdi - Source

Chanticleer Monteverdi - Source

And now for the awful pictures of me in it!!

With a pretend halterneck strap (detached from the Babilee)

Bodice detail

Well, what can I say!  It had the huge tulle A-Line skirt I was after.  Gorgeous lace and beading, sweetheart neck bodice and being floor length it meant I didn't make me look too short (although, if I lost some weight, I may still get it made tea length.)  It comes with an ivory satin sash but the shop lady fetched a purple sash for me and I quite liked the look of it.

Looking back at the pictures, I know it really is the one I want.  The only problem is that because it was a size 14 the boob 'holes' are in the wrong place so it looks a bit odd, but you get the idea right?!

I'll definitely go and try on some more but ah, will any live up to the Monteverdi?  The only one I didn't try on which I'd like to is the Chanticleer Aurora:

Chanticleer Aurora- Source

Having seen Lou from Met My Match in hers last weekend it looked gorgeous on her (probably look crap on Hobbit sized me!) but it is one I'd like to see.

Now to either find someone to make me a copy or start saving up.  The problem is, we're so poor most of the time, that spending a months wages on a dress for one day is quite frankly just way too eye watering to consider.  Conundrum!

Be interested to know what other brides have done when faced with this decision (without prejudice, we're all friends here!)

P.S. It's taken some guts for me to post these pictures of myself - be kind!

Huge Mega Update Part 1: Wedding purchases

So I officially made my first wedding related purchase at the weekend.  We were at the Bijou Bride Vintage Wedding Fair at the Fleetville Vintage Emporium (I swear, if you're ever up near St Albans, do stop by, this place is an absolute MAZE stuffed full of really reasonably priced treasures!) and on my many many walks around the place (there was some interesting entertainment which I won't go into details about but lets just say I had to get as far away from it as possible!) I stumbled across a set of green glass bowls.  There were 5 small bowls and one large bowl.  They were really quite striking and I kinda though, well for £12.50, its not a bad price and we can use them on our sweetie table.  So, we carried on looking, Lex found an amazing green poison bottle for £2.00 which I was well jealous about and we took our bits to the till.

We got chatting to the owners and I carried on looking around, in the window I found another 5 small bowls and a medium bowl.  No price.  I figured it wouldn't be a lot.  The lady asked for £6 which actually seemed reasonable, and meant that 10 small bowls, a medium and a large came to £18.50, which is probably a little over the odds but still not a bad price!

They may not look like much, but they're lovely in person...

This is just a small selection of them!

What else?  So, we decided we needed to send out Save the Dates pretty soonish so people could book hotels/B&B's and just generally not book a holiday around then!  But there was a conundrum, what the heck to send?!

We had decided on a music theme a while ago and had toyed with the idea of making backstage passes for the Save the Dates.  But we couldn't agree on a design and we couldn't do one ourselves (despite the really best efforts and intentions of my wonderful sister Lex) so it all came to nought lastnight.

Then I remembered I had asked a designer friend at work to try and make us her own take on a design we'd seen when we first got engaged.  She's tweaked it so it looks different to the original but I will probably still only post teeny tiny pictures of them because I don't want to get in trouble (but people must copy stuff they've seen on websites all the time right?!)

So we're getting them printed onto magnets with Vista Print, which is working out to be really a lot cheaper than getting them done elsewhere.  I'll let you know when they arrive!

I'll post the rest of my huge update later/tomorrow, it's an exciting one, it's about dresses and includes some truly horrifying pics of my shoehorned into size 14 dresses with the aid of a satin panel and pins!!  Too funny to miss!!

Swing for Skin: What a blur!

So, it was nearly a week ago and I'm only just getting round to doing this.  My manage is going to walk in any minute I swear and say, "Show me what you've done today...."

Aside from work politics!  Swing for Skin was last weekend and it went swimmingly!  We've raised just over £1,000 for DebRA which is just amazing and would not have been possible without all the people who attended and bought raffle tickets, thank you so much to everyone!  I knew it would all come right in the end (aside from some minor hiccups with the raffle, I'll come to that!)

So I wore a dress from an online catalogue for the larger lady which was sourced for me by the fantastic Miss Matilda of Able Grable.  It was a nice dress, but not what I had hoped I would wear, but that serves me right for A: Not sticking with going as a nurse with my mum and sis and B: For being too overweight to buy anything vintage!

Andy and I, post 2 glasses of wine.....

Managed to get my hair done by Lipstick & Curls, well, one of their helpers, she was lovely.  Still haven't mastered Victory Rolls.

Ma and Lex dressed as nurses - and looking infintely the best dressed there, dammit!

The evening went in a bit of a blur if I'm honest, I used my two drinks tickets on wine which went right to my head and I ended up acting like a dozy cow for the rest of the night!  I did try and take some arty shots of the lovely afternoon tea we had (brioche rolls with smoked salmon, egg or ham with mini scones, brownies and sponge - NOM!) but I think the boat must have been swaying as they were all blurry....

Entertainment for the evening was provided by the super Polka Dot Dolls who were just fabulous (my mum wants to hire them for my wedding, she hasn't stopped going on about them since!!)

The Polka Dot Dolls

What else happened?!  Honestly, I'm really gutted because I don't really remember any of it, I really was that smashed!  And I'm gutted because there were so many girls I wanted to meet: Gemma from Retrochick, Landgirl1980 (you can tell I didn't meet this lady, I don't even know her name!!), Perdita's Pursuits (although, we did meet, briefly at the Rockabetty Party in April!) and, the one girl I really really wanted to meet, Annie.  I was gutted not to have met her as I heard she looked stunning!  Hopefully we'll have some kind of mini reunion at Christmas or something in aid of DebRA and I'll try to not get pissed so quick and actually have conversations with people!! 

So, at around 10pm, it was time for the big raffle announcement!  I took to the mic and in my best Bridget Jones impression, announced Commander Grant (who was a hit with the ladies.... ahem....) who took centre stage with the Polka Dot Dolls drawing the tickets for us!  This is where it fell apart a bit, we knew the big prizes, the Pashley, the Gin, the Able Grable and Rockabetty Studios vouchers, but all the other bits, which people had so lovingly donated, fell straight out of our heads and me and Lex and Andy were left a bit stuck and it was excruciatingly embarrassing!  But we got there, and I don't think too many people noticed.  It was a shame though because most of the winners weren't aboard and I think that left some people a bit deflated (yes, I saw your faces, I know how annoyed you were....)

 

And after that, I spent time 'out back' helping the lovely Kim (Melissa's mummy!) with the last few raffle prizes, Lex took to the mic again for the Silent Auction and I managed a rather drunked attempt at the basic Charleston stroll whilst the Polka Dot Dolls sang a beautiful rendition of Sing, Sing, Sing!

Here's some more photos from the night:

The Mums!

Easy tiger!

Fooooood!

Our amazing Captain for the evening - Melissa!

We have a winner (Finally!) This lady won the Rockabetty Studios package and was VERY excited!

This sums up the night for Lex

A few dancers left whilst Johnny Vercoutre played some tunes for us

The fabulous Auntie Maureen, who saved the day and was the most genuinely lovely down to earth vintage gal I've met so far!!

Melissa in her gorgeous custom Able Grable - it looks almost electric blue, amazing!  And, check the red shoes!!

So that's pretty much it, over, for another year!  We're planning next year's all ready - dust off your circle skirts and petticoats, we're heading for the 50s and have some really super surprises lined up already!  Stay tuned for more vintage fundraising action!!

Music: Help required!

Sorry for the lack of wedding related postings (and for the random ramblings about things!  Also sorry to anyone I might have offended, not my intention, I'm only jealous I can't wear vintage!)

So, what to tell you about the wedding related movements lately?  Well, not a lot.  But I can tell you that I recently started a a notebook stuffed full of clippings from magazines and stuff.

The hot topic of late has been our theme.  My mum probably reads this but I'm just going to say it, she's driven me nuts!!  At first it was, "Are you not having a vintage wedding?"  Well, to be perfectly honest, No!  Firstly, Andy 'hates' vintage.  I'll say no more on that because I don't really understand what he means, he's a modern snob.  And secondly, there are so many other things I wanted to incorporate into the day, OUR day, that it felt ridiculous to say, "We're having a vintage wedding", exclude all the other things we wanted and ostracise my own fiancé by having a wedding theme that he's not interested in!

Now I realise I did blog about this a while ago and we've sort of settled on a Music theme, regardless of what anyone else thinks, because really, to me, and to Andy too, but mainly me, Music is like such a huge driver for me.  To the point where numerous times I have considered signing up for a Research Degree in Anthropology or something because I'm fascinated by how music shapes us as human beings - but that's for a separate rant!

So, to my appeal!  Having a 'Music' theme, it seems daft to not actually feature some live music.  Our sticking point is that we don't actually have a budget for a band!  It's just not something we can stretch to £1k for!  So, if anyone knows of any bands - covers, swing, jazz, indie (no heavy metal please!) who would like to get some exposure at our wedding then get in touch.

We're willing to pay travel costs and fee of up to £500 in total.  We're looking for 2, 1 hour sets, and we'll provide the music in between (because I am DYING to create the ultimate playlist!) and all the booze you can stomach!  The venue is in West Sussex, which I apologise for as I know it's a mission for not a lot of money but I'm really hoping a good natured band out there wants to get in touch and play an intimate gig for me and my nearest and dearest.

If anyone is interested, please email, hiorns.wedding@gmail.com

Off Topic: Vintage (WARNING: Contains rambling)

This is really just a musing of mine.  I was watching If Walls Could Talk on BBC Four last night, it was quite interesting but I went to bed just after 9:30 as I really was pooped.  But on my way to bed it got me thinking.  Why do most people dress from roughly the 1940's onwards?

I've posed that question wrong I know but hear me out.  People who class themselves vintage profess their undying love to a range of era's.  When I think Vintage, I think 1940s and 1950s.  But, having said that, I have a deep love for things from the 60s and 70s too.  And even the 80s had some touches of genius (Though there were few and far between!) but most people are pretty die hard to their chosen era.

We recently attended some vintage fairs and they were classed as Vintage despite including everything up to the 1980s, which I wouldn't call Vintage but others would.  This whole debate blew up last summer after the inaugural Vintage at Goodwood (which, as we all know is this year twice the price, held at Southbank in London and being called, Vintage by Hemingway, because of course that baldy fool invented Vintage it would seem....)

The debate was, how dare people dressing in afro's class themselves as Vintage?  People were having fun, they weren't being violent, they weren't directly offending you or shitting in your face or anything, so just yknow, chillax, go with the flow and let people enjoy themselves.  At the end of the day, afro's were sort of a part of the 70s as were fluorescent flairs and platforms, the 1970s was like 40 years ago, so yeah, I'd say that's Vintage these days!

My other point (not that any of these points hang together, these are merely a collection of thoughts), Vintage is different to everyone.  One person might think it's the 1940s and not much else, others might think it's the 60s, the 70s or even the 80s.  Just because you've made an effort to be true to your era, doesn't mean others can't mix it up, or get in on the fun in an afro wig in a camper van!

I suppose the question is What is Vintage?  Well, who can say, no one person can define Vintage as it means different things to different people, and that's what makes it great, everyone can get involved.  So really, I might start dressing like I'm from the 1980s (as, quite frankly with this body shape I don't stand a cat in hell's chance of fitting into anything pre-1980s!) and say I'm Vintage and be done with it.  I really might, you watch me!

But, my original musing last night was, you don't see many people dress in everyday gear from the 1920s or even the 1800s.  Is it because before a certain point (20s/30s) everything was still a bit too heavy and corseted for modern people?

This post, like I say, doesn't have a point, I'm not here to piss people off or say people are shit for having different styles or whatever.  I wish we lived in a society where really anything did go, but people are too judgmental and closed minded in this world these days to allow freedom of dress, even when people go out in 1940s dress they get stared at so heaven knows what would happen if someone went out wearing a Victorian dress with a full crinoline/bustle combo!

And there's a lovely girl who works in our student shop and she totally rocks the Victory Rolls and circle skirts, and she does it with aplomb and I fucking applaud her, because all the sheep that go to this uni must stare and snicker and take the piss out of her, but she pulls it off every day.  So it must take balls to dress vintage, balls I clearly don't have.  But then, having some vintage clothing might help! I have two cheap Chinese VoH copies *whisper it, sorry Viv, I cannot afford or fit into one of yours!* but I can't exactly rock up to work in a swing dress and petticoats!

So, anyway, I don't have a point really, what are your thoughts on the whole, What is Vintage? debate?

Easy Come, Easy Go

That's how it is with money at the minute.  Literally, by 1am the day after payday, I was flat broke.

I paid the £300 deposit for the caterer on Thursday and well, let's just say, we hadn't budgeted for it and now we're in big trouble with money.  BIG trouble.  Which is nice and depressing on this lovely sunny day.

I sometimes kinda think, "Hmmm, maybe we just won't get married," because honestly, I just don't see how we're going to afford ANY of it!  Just no idea.  We can't even pay a £300 deposit for the caterer without feeling the proper giant pinch for the rest of the month.

And then I get the whole, "Why did you pay her?!" business from Andy and it's like, well duh, because she was getting other people asking about that date and it was rude to keep her hanging.  She was the one we wanted, she had it all figured out, she knew what she was talking about, she was the one!  So it seemed pointless to then turn around after weeks of saying, yeah yeah, you're the one to then say, erm, no, you're not the one because we can't afford it.  I dunno, I'm sure we could've worked something out but at the end of the day, I felt I should just pay her.

So I did.  And now we have like 3 weeks until I get paid again.  SOOOO depressing!

Sorry y'all, this is a super depressing post, I just can't help it.  I get depressed very easily!