He Put A Ring on it...In New York !

So. There we were...in NEW YORK baby !! I'd be lying if I said I didn't have a slight inkling that the boyfriend might pull out a sparkler (of the diamond rather than firework variety) at the top of the Empire State building. After all we'd been together 3 years, finally just moved in together after a patience testing long-distance relationship and I'd already tried on a couple of rings back home...although none had 'floated my boat' I have to say. I thought it might have just been me being fussy but I wanted the wow factor when I tried on the piece of jewellery that I'd be looking at every day for the rest of my life. Anyway. New York. It had to be ! But then I started to doubt it was going to happen. Now ladies, I think I know my man pretty well. We all do, right ? I'd packed our suitcase (it's quicker and neater that way you know what I'm saying), we had no hand luggage and he had no pockets...so unless he was a magician on the quiet where was he to hide the ring ?! So by day two, when we had been to the top of the Empire State and down again, I was really starting to believe that my fairytale proposal dream had been shattered. And then it happened. No not 'it' but something almost as exciting ! Walking along 5th Avenue hand in hand not talking about anything in particular we just stopped. "Do you wanna take a look ?" the boyfriend asked indicating the jewellery store we had simultaneously halted at. Now I don't know if you believe in that fate stuff but I could have sworn there was a giant magnetic force pulling us through the doors ! We instinctively entered and after a cursory glance through the glass display cabinets my initial thought was that it wasn't my style. But then the boyfriend beckoned me over and there it was. The most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. When the oh-so-friendly New York saleswoman came over and we had a bizarre conversation about her recent visit to her sister in the UK who, it turned out, lived about 20 minutes from my house in Kent I knew it was meant to be. Oh that and the fact that I had tears in my eyes when I tried the ring on. So THAT'S the feeling ! It had to be re-sized but that was perfect. The boyfriend would collect it from the store the next day and the proposal was going to happen ! We'd been lucky enough to go to New York together before, 3 months into our relationship. What was my favourite experience from that trip ? A horse and carriage ride around Central Park. Truly magical. And I found myself there again. As we stepped out the yellow cab at the side of the park, there must have been at least 20 carriages eagerly awaiting the next enthusiastic tourist to step inside. Dizzy with anticipation I was slightly overwhelmed by choice. The boyfriend however was clearly a lot more focused on the mission ahead. Either that or he's got a weird sixth sense. "There's the guy who took us round before". What ?! That was nearly 3 years ago I thought and how can he possibly remember. But sure enough as we approached his carriage he turned to face us and I remembered. A very tall, rather imposing man with a big hat. His strong Irish accent beckoning us aboard confirmed it. It was him ! This was surely meant to be. As the horse clip-clopped into Central Park, I grabbed the boyfriend's rather clammy hand and I felt like royalty. Rather amusingly I think we'd both forgotten how much our newly reacquainted guide liked to talk (he's Irish after all !) and the poor nervous boyfriend couldn't get a word in edgeways let alone utter those four immortal ones I was itching to hear ! I gave his hand a re-assuring squeeze and the ride was over before we knew it. The boyfriend disembarked from the carriage and just as I was about to follow suit, slightly disappointed that it still hadn't happened, he turned and produced that beautiful ring all sparkly in the sunlight. I'm sure he said some lovely words but I can't really remember because I burst into tears ! I know he said 'Will you marry me ?' though and I definitely said yes because the sparkler was on my finger. 'The boyfriend' had finally become 'the fiance'. And that was my fireworks. Right there.
(As told by Michelle)

Sick Of This Dress Business...Already.

So here is the thing...I have been engaged for 5 months and I will be getting married in 13 months and I am about to admit to you that I have already bought two dresses. Not one. Two.

I actually, most certainly believe that I am most probably a bit stupid. Something happened to me the minute that shiny, silver, beaut slipped onto my pointer - I turned into an obsessed, wedding dress fanatic. Like most people I have a 'smart' phone (how on earth they received that title I will never know, the damn thing never seems to work properly) well, I developed this need, this desire (a bit like a psycho on a man hunt) to purchase the dress of my dreams (although on a very tight budget) as soon as he said yes and having my useless Blackberry to hand I was able to literally scan Google Images in an instant without coming up for air.

Googling - Vintage Wedding Dresses, Unique Wedding Dresses, Wedding Dresses, Ivory Wedding Dresses, Retro Wedding Dresses, Any Bloody Wedding Dresses...and so it went on until the space behind my eyes began to throb. Why do we do this, why do we get so obsessed? And when I say 'we' I am not pigeon holing every women here, just ones like myself. I can't be the only one to have done this can I?

About 3 days later there I am, still on my Blackberry, still scrolling through wedding dress after wedding dress and I find myself on Ebay. Ebay?! Really? Can I really get my wedding dress off Ebay?. Well I did. I found the dress of my dreams...HA, yeah right! I am trying to sell the bloody thing now. Look don't get me wrong it's stunning.1930's vintage - PERFECT, sleek - PERFECT, ivory - PERFECT,  gorgeous brocade fabric - PERFECT, cheap - PERFECT, made me look thin - PERFECT, long sleeves - PERF...hang on...what date are we getting married? August....August being summer?...Summer being hot?...fan'bloody'tastic!

My sister said "Won't you be hot in that?", "No" I said, "I love...being...hot" trying really hard to sound like I enjoy sweating my bit's off. Surely I can't admit that she is in fact right can I?! That would be preposterous...surely. Ok, so she was right. I know what you might be thinking, England. Rain. Yes, this could be the case BUT on the off chance it is hot which probably would happen because it probably just would, I would most certainly be extremely toasty and I already suffer with the heat, I have not been on holiday since I was 15 and my legs are what you could call 'fridge white?'. There was a long running joke when I was studying at Uni that I was the same colour as our halls of residence, rather large white fridge.So much so a couple of my housemates found it utterly hilarious to take pictures of me next to it and laugh hysterically at the similarity in colour. It's ok. I admit it. I am a bit pale. Anyhow...I had screwed up. I didn't wait, I didn't take my time - even though it felt like I did. Not to mention that our theme was going to be based on the 50's...1930's dress, Hello?! I really did not think this through at all did I.

I said I had two dresses and that would be right...I came across a vintage designer online, I say came across because I wasn't hunting this time...sort of. I thought it might be fun to take a 3 hour trip to her studio in Twickenham via train and tube, in the blistering heat. My bridesmaids slowly pondering over the idea of why they even considered being my bridesmaids in the first place. I had already seen the picture on her webpage and I was excited although part of me thought "I am in serious trouble if this dress is hideous". We finally found the studio after using Google map to find our way on foot. By this point I just wanted a jack Daniels and a roll up. I don't smoke unless I drink, a nasty habit but at this moment in time I was craving both of those things in a nice cool beer garden. We knocked, we entered, we made polite chit chat whilst I was combusting on the inside with the need to see it and then...out came the dress.

This dress looked completely and utterly...beautiful, maybe even stunning. I popped my legs in and pulled it up. (I must point out that I can't go into to much detail in fear of my fiance reading this.) I had heard that you get this weird feeling when you try on THE dress. A feeling like butterfly's fluttering around  in your belly. A warm fuzzy feeling. A bit like when you meet the guy you're going to marry, I suppose. I expect for some, the dress is almost as important. Well I don't know if that is true but I felt something and it was big enough for me to make a commitment to this dress. The dress that I was gazing at in the mirror in front of me had to be mine. OK so your probably thinking, really? You made this commitment once already, but no - this was most definitely different. My belly told me so and so did my bridesmaids. In fact they even shed a small tear. That was my own personal mission there, if I saw tears things were a good'en!

Are you looking for your 'Dream' dress or have you already found it and was the adventure as ridiculous as mine? We would love to hear it, it makes me look less stupid anyway.

Do me a favour...

Finding unique wedding favours can be a bit tricky but we have done our best to find a few that we think could capture that unique style you are looking for. So much so that one of us is actually having one of these ideas at our own wedding, but that's a surprise ;-)

Fortune Cookies...You could hide some really lovely messages to your guests inside or maybe a short sweet 'Thank you' would do. Whatever you choose this is a funky, fun wedding favour that we are sure your guests would love!

We have even found a recipe...http://allrecipes.com/recipe/fortune-cookies-i/

Badges...A cool way to have a personalised wedding favour. There are plenty of companies online that can make these for you and for a good price. You could have the date of your wedding so no one will ever forget, a photo of the happy couple, your favorite saying (Love Peace & Music) or maybe if you have your own badge making contraption you could have personalised name badges for every guest

 Mini Bubblegum Machines...THIS is a really fun, retro wedding favour and the kids would go mad for these too! 

We are guessing that something like this would be much more expensive than a favour like the badge for instance, but if you have the budget then it's probably worth it!

 Glasses, Lips and Mustaches On Sticks...We love this idea as a wedding favour, very easy, very simple and lots of fun. You could make these beauty's yourself or you can find them online to buy (we have even seen them on EBAY). A brilliant way of adding something extra to those wedding photos and something fun for the big kid's.

Vintage Key Tags...These would really add something to that vintage inspired wedding. There is something very cute and romantic to this wedding favour. You could also use them as place settings and have the guests names written on each tag. A lovely keepsake although finding this amount of keys might be difficult.

            Mix - Tape...Retro, fun, personal and something very cool for the musical couple's wedding. You could have your favourite songs made into a mix-tape for each guest BUT do remember that (unfortunately) the tape player is becoming extinct :-( You could do it on a CD instead or this tape idea could just be a keepsake and not actually functional, it would still look good.

So here are some ideas that we think work very well as wedding favours, if you are looking for something a little different. 

Please leave comments about any other ideas that you think people might like...we want to know what else is out there!

The Proposal

I proposed. I did the thing you don't dream of doing when you’re a little girl. When you imagine that some guy (by some guy, I mean THE guy of your dreams) rides in on a horse, jumps off with ease on to one knee, pulls out a very large diamond and utters those 4 words you can't wait to hear, "Will you marry me?". You explode from the inside out, YES!

On the day of the Leap Year 2012 I was enjoying a coffee whilst watching 'This Morning' - as you do - and something came over me, so much so I had to text a friend just to check I had not lost the plot. I had a sudden urge to propose to my boyfriend of nearly 2 years. Everyone was obviously talking about the women proposing on this day, but i never thought that I would have been one of them! We live together and have a cracking baby boy so it seemed like a done deal. With complete excitement and joy,  you know like the feeling you get when you can finally fit back into those favourite pair of jeans, after losing that 5lb you have been fighting to get rid of for months, I scooped my son into the buggy and scurried into town after shouting up the stairs "Just popping into town babe, won’t be long. He (the guy this was all about) was working from home today. Anyway, out the door we flew. Right, I had a plan! The walk gave me time to figure out how the hell I was going to pop the question. Both of us being songwriters, this had to be a factor SO I found some luggage tags. £1.00 - spot on, thank you Wilkinsons. I then bought a fancy fountain pen. I had not used one of those since school but thought I best make the effort if I want him to say yes. We hiked up the hill home, sweating with this nervous feeling building in the pit of my belly. We got back and we sat, my little man just looking at me wandering why I was acting so skittish. "Right mate, here we go" I said. I wrote a 5 part poem on to 5 luggage tags which included 5 clues of where to find the next. I crept around the house, as fast as possible. He could come down at any minute to make a coffee and then the whole thing could have been blown. I decided it was only right for our little cracker to be involved in some way so he was going to have the last tag and we were going wait in his bedroom for Daddy to find us.

It was done, my mission was complete and upstairs working away he had no idea what was to happen. By this time I felt sick, sick as a dog. I had performed on stage countless times, I had been in some nerve racking situations - but this, this was up there, top of the list. I slowly walked to the top of the stairs and stopped. "WHAT the hell am I doing?" I thought to myself, I was shaking. "Jesus - if this is how they feel having to propose, I feel for them, I really do, never again"... well that being the plan anyway… obviously. I knocked on the door, "Babe?" I said in an overly pleasant tone. "Yeah?" he said. Walking into his office I am convinced I looked red faced, I felt clammy as hell "Um... what you doing?" Obviously I knew what he was doing, working! What did I say that for?! "Babe, I am working" he replies like ‘what you think I am doing’. "oh ok...I am bored" - I mean god,  I sounded like a child, brilliant he was bound to say yes. How the hell was I going to get him to go down stairs? Suddenly, out of my mouth poured, "Look, I have done something...it's something downstairs like a game, go...go and see it". What a stumbling idiot I had become. I literally couldn't believe what I was doing and for that moment I wanted to run out of the room and rip to shreds every single tag in an instant because he was going to think I was proper stupid. Never so desperately had I wanted to stop something from happening like i did this. He looked at me, "Ok, that's weird but, oh ok". OH NO! He was not happy; he knew exactly what was going on. I could see it on his face, he was horrified! That's what I was thinking anyway. What could I do? What could I do?! My little one was looking at me like I had gone mad and for that moment I probably had a bit. I dived into our little ones’ room with him in my arms. I could hear him downstairs, finding each and every clue thinking holy crap! My heart was literally pounding and I thought I was going to be sick, right there on the bedroom floor. Monkey had the last tag - brilliant it was in his mouth! Slightly chewed up, ink running down his chin. Then at that moment he entered the room. "HELP" I screamed from inside, although what I said is, in a sheepish voice "surprise" (imagine jazz hands at this point, it was cringe). He read the last tag which said something like... Daddy, will you marry Mummy? Damn it, I said surprise too early, I thought but anyhow... "Yes" - Sorry what did he just say? "Yes, I will marry you". Really? Bloody hell, he just said yes and he looks like he genuinely means it, I think i looked stunned. - Jesus, I am engaged, we are engaged I thought to myself. I was shaking in my socks by this point. Wow, thinking about it now that was probably the most horrendous experience of my life, BUT the most brilliant outcome of course.

He seemed really chuffed, to the point where he opened a bottle of champagne we had been saving for something that would probably never happen. He called his family and they seemed equally as happy. Yay, I did it! I think one of the things I was most worried about was that he was going to feel like less of a 'bloke' because I, the female had proposed, but actually, he didn't. I think he was happy I had saved him the job and yeah, now I know why! 

This was the beginning of my adventure, how did it start out for you?