A quick post for you today to introduce my wedding photographer Katie Drouet. I'm very lucky to have so many talented friends and Katie is no exception. Naturally, she was the first person I thought of for our wedding photos and I was so chuffed to find that she was available - a happy result of getting married in early April.

I think she'll have her work cut out for her - a large number of the guests at the ceremony are terribly camera shy, the groom included. We're meeting up soon so I can brief her on my ideas (and generally have a good catch up and gossip) and to fill her in on the difficulties she might face, my Dad can spot a camera from 50 paces and slide from view in a nano second! But I'm more than confident that she'll do a marvelous job, she has the ability to capture those little moments that make the day special, her candid shots are amazing. I just love, love, love them.

I'm feeling terribly blessed at the moment. Everyone seems so excited. I had no idea that planning a wedding would mean so much to so many people and offer up so many opportunities to get together and build stronger bonds with one and other. I'm going to treasure these moments. I keep thinking that if the build up is this good, I'm going to be utterly blown away by the wedding itself.

I haven't spoken about my running on the blog for a while due to the horribly lacklustre nature of it. But new year, renewed focus and all that! My trainers were looking very sorry for themselves and I'd planned a cheeky new purchase in the sales but, as luck would have it, I was offered a pair of Mizuno running shoes just before Christmas by Millet Sports. To me new trainers are like new shoes - they make me want to get out there and strut my stuff. I can't say there has been much strutting - more enthusiastic jogging, interspersed with some breathless walking, but I'm getting out there none-the-less.


The trainers I picked were the Mizuno Wave Sayonara 2 Ladies Running Shoe. I liked the pattern and colour combination, but most of all I liked that they are light weight and allow feet to breathe. I hate clunky feeling trainers and hot feet more than anything.


They feel light when running (and I use the word running in the loosest sense of the word) but they have good grip too. I run on uneven ground a lot of the time and have been known to slip but these felt really safe (I'm not saying I'm not going to fall over again, because I will). I wouldn't say that these are trail trainers but they feel pretty steady underfoot. The breathable material means that they aren't waterproof, so icy cold puddles can feel pretty, erm, refreshing, but I'd take this over hot feet any day.

The above photos are the fresh out of the box shots, they look rather more 'rural' now. Having been running in them a few times, I can say I'm really pleased with them. Since July I'd been running in Nike trainers, but I think I prefer these Mizunos for fit and for the terrain I run on.


Mizuno isn't a brand that immediately springs to mind when I think of running shoes but I'll definitely give them another look when I need a new pair. What shoes do you run in? Any favourite brands?

Thank you to Millet Sports for sending me these items to review. All opinions are my own.

Yesterday I took part in A Photo An Hour with Louisa at Duck in a Dress, it was a rather uneventful day really. I had planned to go wedding dress shopping with my bridesmaid but I found my dress when shopping with Mum a last week (eeeeep!). It would've made for a much more interesting post, but it's just as well as I woke up with a stinker of a headache (an actual headache not a hangover).


6.45am
So I made myself a cuppa and went back to bed.

7.45am
I stayed there a while as I had the cutest of company.

8.45am
Once I was reluctantly out of bed and feeling a little better I hopped in the bath for some soaking and a hydrating face mask. Seriously, this weather is not doing my face any favours at all!

9.45am
I then decided to try some new make up products. I went a little bonkers in Boots last week and have loads of new things to try. I got two of the Bourjois Rouge Edition Velvet lip stains. They're lovely (and currently on offer - buy one, get one half price) and they totally live up to the hype. Above I'm wearing 02 Frambourjoise, a lovely pinky daytime red. I picked up 07 Nude-ist too but it's way more pink than nude but still very pretty.


10.45am
In an attempt to spend the morning 'unplugged', on account of the headache, I sorted through some clothes for a carboot sale that I'll have at some unknown point in the future (probably). Tink decided it needed thorough investigation. Open a draw they want in, open a magazine they'll sit on it, open a suitcase and they're there in a flash. Give them a cat bed - not in the slightest bit interested.

11.45am
An hour later I found her in a sun spot and irritated her by taking way too many photos.

12.45pm
Lunch. Bit of a random lunch. I had planned for scrambled eggs and smoked salmon but the kitchen was to flippin' cold to be standing about in it. I opted for salmon on bread with olives and grapes. I have a weird thing with salmon in that I can't eat it in and sandwich. I have to put salmon on bread and then eat it with a knife and fork. Can't eat it any other way. Also I get to a point were I simply can't eat another bite of it. It doesn't happen with any other food (unless I've eaten waaaay too much of it). I got about a third of the way through the second slice of bread and just though 'no, that's enough'. Do you have any weird food habits? I can't eat a pork pie unless it's cut into pieces and I can only eat bananas if they're at room temperature. Human beings are odd.

1.45pm
I discovered that the new Next catalogue had been delivered. So, with another cuppa in hand I spent some time mentally picking out an outfit for my Mum's wedding. Did I mention that she got engaged just before Christmas? No? Well, she did. She has been with her fella for 10 years now and he's been proposing for the last seven of them (how different her life is from mine!), this time she relented and said yes. They're planning a June wedding (having insisted that we set our date first). So exciting!


2.45pm
I updated my Shopping of 2015 spreadsheet after succumbing to the lure of the sales during the week, got some great bargains though - the boots were £19.50, how could I not?? Having read about Char's year long spending ban I'd wondered if I could do the same. Apparently not.

3.45pm
I'm still slowly adding to my patchwork quilt and spent a good chunk of time on it yesterday. I don't think I'm going to get it finished before March 1st but I have to try. I might surprise myself...

4.45pm
More patchwork. One of my favourite things is working out which material to use next, I'm a bit obsessed with not having the same material too close together and I have to have an even spread of colour and pattern, light and dark.

5.45pm
Fire. Cats. Blanket. Happy.


6.45pm
Wine o'clock. Not one of my best ideas, as it seems to trigger another headache (I hope this isn't a permanent thing!!)

7.45pm
More fire, more cats and lots of wedding talk with Andy. We've got a guest list sorted and now I need to get a wriggle on and design the invitations.

8.45pm
The return of the headache sent me to my bed early to be stalked by a boy cat.

9.45pm
Having been entertained by Socks I turned in. How rock and roll was my Saturday night?

What did you get up to?

It's not lost on me that if I don't want my blog to become nothing but weddings, and I'm doing weekly wedding posts, I need to post more than once a week! In my defence it has been a rather busy week. It was my first week properly back at work after Christmas. I've been trying dresses again, we've been visiting venues, organising registrars and the like. I've met excited friends for coffee and had countless conversations about flowers and cars. Not to mention completing my tax return.

When it came to organising the wedding two things were an absolute no-brainer for me - the cake and the photographer. I'll get to the photographer another time, today I'm going to talk cake, specifically the cakes by Amelie's Kitchen.

Amelie's Kitchen was founded and run by my very lovely friend Helen Ward. We used to work together many moons ago, she's since left the world of graphic design and turned her creative flair to creating the most stunning wedding cakes. And I'm not just saying that, her talents made her The Best Wedding Cake Designer in the East of England in the 2015 Wedding Industry Awards!

I had the pleasure of seeing Helen when I visited The Easton Grange wedding fayre last year, and ate more than my fair share of her samples! She was the first person I contacted when the wedding prep started, luckily for me* April isn't the most popular of months to get married so she was free to make our cake. The only problem is that I can't decide what to have. We're meeting next week so she can translate my rambling ideas into something tangible.

*should I be saying 'us' as it is our wedding and not just mine?

Here are some photos I took when I saw Helen at Easton Grange.











Andy isn't keen on the whole cake cutting thing so I was wondered if we should opt for a cupcake tower but these wedding cakes are just to beautiful not to have one, and I have to admit I really want one. Maybe we can get away with not cutting the cake, I'm sure no one will notice...?

You can check out her website here or you can have a peek at her Facebook page for more images.

Be sure to have a look at the menu page on Helen's website too - 'Light madagascan vanilla sponge filled with a vanilla buttercream & a choice of raspberry or strawberry conserve.' I'm dribbling...

I'll leave you with these delectable images, I'm off to make myself a cup of tea and to devour the last remaining morsels of our Christmas cake.

I've decided to limit my wedding posts to Wednesdays to save my entire blog becoming nothing but nuptials. I won't be revealing many of the finer details until after the big day, but you can be sure of some serious wedding porn in the following weeks.

Today we're visiting our most preferred venue and looking at possible dates for spring / summer 2015, once this is set we (mostly I) can focus on everything else. I'm under no illusion that 'everything else' will included a multitude of things that have yet to cross my mind. We haven't got a lot of time to plan and get everything done, but I do enjoy a tight deadline (it's the designer in me), I work better under pressure - it focuses my mind - and with many offers of help I'm so excited to start cementing plans for our wedding day.

I've been pinning and surfing for ideas since the day Andy proposed - who am I kidding I've been mentally planning this for ages - but I'm starting to get a pretty clear idea of how I want the day to be.

Whilst all of that is forming I've been trying on wedding dresses. Yup, it took no time at all for me to get my butt into those bridal boutiques, to be clamped (literally) into dress after dress. It's so much fun. I had an idea about the sort of dress I wanted but, on the recommendation of more than one shop assistant, I've tried on a few that I would've dismissed and been very surprised by how much I've liked them.

I haven't been allowed to take any photos wearing the dresses (boo!) and I still have a few boutiques to visit but here are a few similar to ones I've tried and few more that I just like the look of.









Any advice on planning a wedding? Anything you wish you'd been told when planning yours?

For the third year running I kept a tally of my spending on clothes, shoes and accessories. My goal for 2014 was to get my annual spend under £1,000, and I'm pleased to say that I did and by some margin too.


I bought 76 items in total, 46% of these where pre-loved items which is less than last year (58%) but I still have a higher percentage of these still in my wardrobe. Last year I found that a lot of the pre-loved items I bought had been discarded by the end of the year - showing that I wasn't being very selective in my choices. This year I bought 35 items second hand, last year that figure was 75, so I'm chalking that up as a win. Also, of the 41 new items purchased only three have been discarded (given to charity, given away to a friend, taken to a clothes swap).

I do still have a number of not yet worn items. Looking at why the reasons vary from having no occasion to wear them (which begs the question why did I buy them in the first place?), they need altering, I have nothing to wear them with, or I bought them for an occasion and then changed my mind.


One such outfit was for a wedding in September. I'd won a French Connection dress on ebay for £18.04. I then had to buy a lace vest top to wear underneath to protect my modesty (I find French Connection very low cut), a pair of wedges so I could wear them all day and be comfortable and a clutch bag as I had nothing else that worked with the rest of the outfit. All in all this came to £49.52, which would've been bit of a bargain for an entire outfit, if I'd worn it. But I didn't.


I tried it on a few days before the wedding and decided that I didn't like it. I loved the dress, just not on me, so in a panic I ordered four dresses from ASOS. Thankfully I found one that I loved for £42.00. It was perfect - it fitted well, was a nice length, just wedding-y enough and not only that I could accessorise with items I already had. But what a waste of nearly £50 on the first outfit! Maybe I'll get the opportunity to wear the dress another day when I'm feeling less body conscious.


My most expensive purchase at £64.00 was my very first pair of Irregular Choice shoes for a (different) wedding, I subsequently wore these when dressed as a fairy. I love these and think they're worth every last penny.


My most expensive pre-loved item was a French Connection maxi dress, £45.00, for a ball in May. When this first arrived I put it on and loved it and knew exactly what I'd be pairing it with. On the night of the ball I put it on and felt really uncomfortable. I made us late by faffing and fussing trying to make it 'work'. After a couple of glasses of wine and a G&T or two I didn't care about what I looked like and was dancing like no one was watching but boy! did I feel self conscious when I walked in. I don't know if I'll ever wear it again...


My favourite item is a top I picked up in the New Look sale for £9 and a pair of Tommy Hilfiger jeans (by far the most worn of the year) that I got from a clothes swap - I see these as free as no money exchanged hands :) Of course I have many favourites from this year but it's seems to be the ones that didn't work that stand out in my mind. I guess clothes that make you feel good are easy to wear and you can just forget about them and get on with things. Which is exactly how it should be.


For 2015 I want to reduce the overall spend again. I want to only buy things when I need them and be absolutely sure that I like it! I'm going to ban myself from buying anymore scarves or PJs and I want to end 2015 with nothing unworn in my wardrobe. If it's unworn by the end of the year, it goes.

I think I did pretty well overall. Most of the decline in spending, I think, has something to do with working from home and not feeling the need to 'dress up' everyday. I'm also chuffed that having seen how much I discarded of 2013's pre-loved items, I was more aware this year and more selective. Last year the total of items discarded was £240, this year it was £91.47 - you can't argue with those figures (although still room for improvement).

Do you keep track or have a monthly clothing budget?

When it comes to resolutions I find that by mid February I've pretty much forgotten all about them, but I always make them none-the-less, hoping that this year will be the year they stick.

Last year I tried to do different things to the normal eat better / move more type of thing. I think they were more successful but this could have everything to do with the fact that they were about enjoying things rather than eating celery.

Do something cultural once a month
I was inspired by Harriet for this resolution and I think I did pretty well, although I didn't manage it every month. My most memorable are as follows...

In February I spent an age gazing at a photographic exhibition 1,000 Faces and went with a car full of bloggers to the Harry Potter Studio Tour. I think this could've been my favourite trip of them all, I'm hoping to go back very soon!

I had a very enjoyable time at The Eden Project in September (my friends got married there but we did have some time to explore the next day) and took to the skies on the SkyWire.

In October saw two exhibitions at the V&A - Horst: Photographer of Style and Wedding Dress 1775 - 2014. Photography wasn't permitted in the wedding dress exhibition and I was too much of a chicken to try and take a sneaky one but it was really lovely. Horst was great too - proof that it's possible to take a stunning photograph without all the retouching!

In early November Andy and I hopped on a train for a flying visit to see the poppies. It was beautiful and thought provoking and very humbling.

My last cultural excursion was to see The Play That Goes Wrong with Andy at The Duchess Theatre, London. Very funny, especially when you run out of time for food and go straight to the bar instead!

Make more of an effort
This idea came from Jenny (I had no original resolution ideas of my own last year). I'd like to say that I did this everyday but sometimes I just wanted to pull on a pair of jeans, pop my hair in a ponytail and go bare faced. So that's exactly what I did. However, thanks to a mild beauty obsession over the summer I found that I was trying more products and wearing make up more often, which I kinda liked, I feel so much better when I don't look in the mirror and think 'urgh!'.

Do nice things
This was about doing something once a month that took me away from everyday stuff, if only for a few hours.

First up I decided to take myself off to the cinema one afternoon to see Philomena. I also spent a morning painting pots, spent a number of afternoons crafting with Mum and we went on a little girlie road trip to the NEC to go to the Craft Show.

I've found this one a little hard to record as anything from lunch and a movie with a friend to spending an afternoon pottering I see as a 'nice thing'.

Don't just pin, do
This was to put to good use some of the hundreds of pins I've amassed on Pinterest. I think I did pretty well.




Learn a new skill
Early on in the year I took a short course in patchwork quilting and I'm still working on a king size quilt.

And what of 2015?
I already have my Wonderful Winter list of things to do and a list of things I want to do before my next birthday so I'm not going to make many new resolutions. I would like to get fit (and there's nothing like an upcoming wedding to get you motivated!), see more of my friends and family and do something every month to improve the house, even if it's just something simple like hang a mirror.

I'd like to learn a new skill, try something I've never done before and cook from scratch more often. And I'm going to try not to become a wedding bore, but I do spend an awful lot of time thinking about it, doing research and just generally day dreaming... slap me if it all gets a bit much.

How are you? I hope you had fun over Christmas and saw in the new year in style. I had a wonderful Christmas, I'd go so far to say that it's been the best ever. Why? Because Andy proposed and I said 'yes'.

I foresee a busy year ahead!