Brides Been Busy Bee

So, as a fee have noticed I have been pretty absent, well nearly dead to the world in the eyes of my blog!

This is due to actually being a good little bride and actually organising the wedding.

The last few months of being an absentee has seen the following being achieved:
Wedding Dress ordered
Grooms suit and groomsmen suit ordered
Stationary ordered
Flowers in progress
Honeymoon decided and nearly booked
Canapés / Menu / Cocktails / Wine chosen
Chair cover samples arriving
Added Church extras done
Make up artist and amazing Emily (hairdresser) booked

I am sure there is much more we have done it seems we are breathing and sleeping wedding ATM (not that I am moaning it's exciting)

People used to say make the most of university as it will fly by... This last year has passed us by at a thousand miles an hour. It's crazy to think its nearly 6 months to the day or more simply 196 days!

As we speak we are off to Jamie's sister's wedding in which of course I am on the hunt to steal tips and ideas! It will be so exciting to see a wedding and be involved ahead of our own where we are the main attraction..

I will endeavour to write again soon...

B. x

The Kitchen Is Where You’ll Find My Man

Gone are the days of men being in the pub all night drinking the hours of work away through pints of beer.  In 2012 the place you will mostly see men after their work day is in the Kitchen… well it is within my group of friends anyway.

I have to look no further than my very close to perfection Fiancé, Jamie Oliver… well of course his real surname is Rogerson but his culinary skills bring him much closer to the star.

When we were dating I used my very own culinary skills to impress, I would say I am above an average cook and actually love cooking and baking. The issue is I never have the time to fulfil this passion of mine. After my wowing was done and Jamie and I realised we were on the road to living together and now being engaged and getting married next year – being practical and using our time most efficiently has taken over.

This is something I have seen mirrored in many couples I know and often this has resulted in the man being the chef of the household.

Jamie and I are very sharing in the household chores, as in his chef duties does relieve him of all cleaning duties. I am very particular over the cleaning and I would rather I handle this chore 100% as I know I do  it right, well right in my mind.

The skills of his cooking has really come naturally and I really am grateful that the man I fell in love with can cook more than beans on toast. Anything from curries from scratch to amazing Mexican food I am literally taken around the world each week in meals.

As said this mainly occurred due to me working long hours and our evening would be taken up with me making the evening meal rather than spending quality time together. Whereas, if Jamie makes the food we have an evening to spend time together as well as do every day boring tasks such as put washing on (totally non exciting activities)

Jamie and I feel this works for us and I of course love all the dinners I get and he loves how tidy the house is and we both love our evenings together. However I do know that some men out there would not like this structure and still have the thoughts of yester year that the Kitchen is a women’s place and that’s that.

I wonder if in years to come this will not even be an issue and every man will be as cultinary as the next or is the yester year stigma of the cooking being a women job still around to come… not in my household.

Bride Needs A Kick Up The Bum

Since buying our house it seems that every spare second of time Jamie and I have had has been spent on the house. From painting, decorating, putting pictures up, pulling out trees/bushes/other gross plant/flowery things, putting furniture together, nailing down floors ... the list is endless.

It seems it has taken over our existence ... even though it may sound like I am moaning… I have actually really enjoyed it!

I have seen my creative side come out with making my own pictures, using Pinterest to come up with vintage decor ideas, arranging and painting letters and much more. It really has been another avenue to execute my creativeness.

This has meant a lot of things have been affected ... for instance my gym routine has vanished, the membership team must be rubbing their hands together as the £40 goes out of my bank, with no visits what so ever for 2 months now. This really annoys me to write this to know I have wasted £80 but to un-join I would then pay more than that in rejoining fee's so they basically have me!

Also other things such as big drinking nights out, meeting friends more than once a week and actually chilling out of an evening has disappeared.

However I am really pleased to say by September Jamie and I will be free ... YAY!

Well as my dad and brother has warned me you are never free there is always something to do… which I can see as being true.

This means as ever the wedding is yet to set off at full speed.. something that does play on my mind when I get into bed and run over everything I/we are yet to do.

I do feel though there is certain pressure from all the media out there that it takes 1 year to plan a wedding. Maybe I will be thinking differently if our wedding is a mess but I feel you can plan a wedding in a shorter amount of time.

So once again this week I am going to give myself a kick up the bum and get on with planning the wedding.

As cheesy as it sounds... when all you really care about is marrying your best friend and the love of your life it is hard to get excited about flowers....well for me it is.

I am once again trying on dresses this weekend and I am bringing my 2 out of my 3 beautiful bridesmaids along to try on dresses too. This sounds very fun to me and we have 3 appointments so it should be lots of fun. Of course I will post again about the day as it unfolds… once again I am checking my nude underwear is out of the wash and ready to look totally unsexy in.

 I will get into wedding mode, I will, I will…. Well I can’t promise but will try my best!

Working 9 to 5 the only way to make a living?

Workin 9 to 5

What a way to make a livin
Barely gettin by
Its all takin
And no givin
They just use your mind
And they never give you credit
It’s enough to drive you
Crazy if you let it

Dolly Parton gained phenomenal success from this single having wrote it herself, she must have been smiling all the way to the bank. However I am sure Dolly never worked a 9 to 5 again… (did she even in the first place?)

 Growing up everyone seemed to work 9 to 5 it was the norm, and standard practice when you grew up that’s what you did, it was the only option available to the masses.

As the years have gone by some employers have realised the total restrictions on a person working these hours, 5 days a week, and the miracle of Flexi-time was created. This was like gold dust and people actually hunted for companies with this offering. However still to the masses this genius idea is not available.

It honestly never really bothered me until I became a proper grown up with bank accounts, things to post, a car and now more importantly a house. Since being a home owner working 9 to 5 is as Dolly says “Enough to drive you crazy if you let it”

The stress of house buying is enough to make even the most chilled out person a little red faced, however trying to do this around a 9 to 5 job with hardly any holiday time left is a total nightmare!

Moving your whole life’s possessions in one weekend and then trying to be fit for work at 9am on a Monday is pretty hard going. Let alone trying to get moving vans available on a weekend is near impossible.

Then when you are finally settled, all your furniture deliveries, phone calls or visits to banks and mortgage brokers are only really possible between your working hours. Thank god for family and their kind hearts who come and save the day and wait in for you, go to the post office and pay things into the bank.

In 2012 when nearly everything is possible or someone in a lab somewhere is working very hard for it to be possible, surely working the hours of 9 to 5 is totally out of date.

If you complete your contracted hours by the end of the week and you are not asking to do these hours through the night, surely most employers wouldn’t mind. Or for my sanity shouldn’t by law mind!!

I feel that to be as modern as the world around us 9 to 5 needs to be put in the bin, alongside all other total failures such as the mullet and shell suits!

Ladies...Size Does Really Matter!

It is something that pretty much every single women on earth will need every day of their lives come rain or shine, it supports them through thick and thin and even adapts at times to help them out… sounds like a best friend to me … I am talking about your bra.

I am sure every woman can remember that awkward moment of your very first bra try on and working out what size you were. For me this was aged 11, I can remember moaning about how my boobs wobbled up and down when I was having my horse riding lesson and that was it the following weekend my mum whisked me off to get my bra. The process was slightly clinical yet did the trick and I walked away with my very first bra, a significant part of turning from a child into a young women.


This for many women is the only ever time in their lives they will have their bra measured, something that baffles me completely. It came up in conversation for me in a recent hen do that 4 of the girls have never been measured, they just guessed their size and have worn it ever since.


With being quite openly opinionated, I clearly stated this was madness and they should get measured as soon as possible on our return to royal Britannia.
People would not guess their shoe size I said to which many replied that it would hurt your feet to wear small shoes or be hard to walk in too big ones.


However, just because this does not instantly cause a problem there can be long term health problems ladies!

Wrong bra sizes can give you neck, back and shoulder ache, with your bra not being supportive enough all your muscles are doing the hard work to compensate.
Wearing the wrong bra size can also mean the wires of the bra sit on your breast tissue. The wires should encase and support your boobs and should not be on the breast tissue as this causes unnecessary pressure.


To put it into numbers 80 -85% of women are not wearing the correct size, something that is pretty shocking!


I also thought many of my friends over the years have gained and lost weight and one in particular that yo-yo diets.. are they still wearing the same size throughout?
I know that when women lose weight they instantly celebrate with new smaller size clothes but do they remember their bra … the figures suggest not!


Another point to consider is with all the fantastic bra options now out there from balcony to t-shirt to plunge to push up to strapless to halter your size in each can vary. So you maybe a 32C in one and a 32D in another.

Not to sound too motherly but for goodness sake ladies get yourself to your local Marks and Spencer (my fav) and get yourself measured!


Believe you me it can’t be any worse than when I last got measured, I went into the changing room and awaited the lady to come and measure me… in walks my friends mum which equated in a long awkward process.


Be brave ladies and get those beautiful baps of yours measured.. it is about time! 

Fizz = Fun Fun Fun

As you know I posted previously about the dream of drinking Fizz and being treated like a total princess was slightly ruined. However that dream was remade today on my next hunt for the perfect wedding dress.
My very faithful to the cause mother and I set of early again today to a Bridal shop further a field.... well 20 mins away.
We walked in and was instanly greated with smiles and hellos - and the first thing said was "Can we get you some bubbly?" of course I beamed and said YES... well yes to Bucks Fizz, it was 11am! The feeling of being the only bride in the world was in the air!

The shop was the best laid out I have seen, a real bride paradise, one I could kick my shoes off and remain in for several hours no problem!
The very very petite girl called Kelly... as in she must of been a size 6 and 4ft 11. I say this with confidence as later on when she was whizzing dresses over my head she said "I do struggle with larger women and heavy dresses only being 4ft 11, but its better than my sister who is 4ft 6 (I suddenly got a picture of a little pixie or fairy in my head... god knows why!)

Kelly then gave me 5 red silk hearts and told my to place these onto the hangers of the dresses I liked and wanted to try on... Again a really nice touch which made everything feel that bit more special. So mother and I began and waded our way through the beautiful dresses infront of us.
We choose the 5 dresses and 2 more (I have to of course be greedy!) and we started the try ons.
MASSIVE BRIDE SECRET - I never knew that you can easily wear a hoop on your wedding day - this is literally a genius idea and one I will not be leaving out on my day! It really pushes the dress out and gives it great shape as well as more importantly keeping the dress away from your legs. This makes it cooler FAR easier to walk and all in all comfier! So brides to be ask for a hoop when you next try on and you will see the benefits!!
Another fabtastic bit of this bridal shop was they had a special area where the brides come out and stand.. this is central to the shop and really is like the stage of this mini theatre. There are perfectly placed mirrors on this stage in which you can see the dress in all its glory. This stage even has a little raised block in which you stand - something that once again made this experience so great. My mum looked on proudly and gave the ancient greek thumbs up or down to which the dress was either written down for a second try or doomed to its death back on its hanger.

All in all I selected 2 dresses that I loved, both quite different but equally as beautiful. Kelly also clearly pointed out they can easily change aspects of the dress so removing the hated bling or adding buttons down the back or even making a straight top into a sweatheart - so basically you can create your very own unique dress -something that really impressed me.

They also had a great selection of bridesmaid dresses to which I spotted a few I liked, again these could come in long or short - bonus!
I really did rate this bridal shop and we are going back on 18th August for second try ons, more bubbly and more bodies, as I am bringing the bridesmaids in. They will be asked to take their seat on the judging panel before the roles are reversed and they try on for me. This will give me an idea of styles I like on them and of course more reason to drink more champers!
Great shop and a great Saturday morning!

Random Ramblings....

So as I said in my title you would hear some random rambles from time to time and now you will be so lucky to hear these every week.

I also write a blog weekly for a website called handbagfairy.co.uk which is a really cool site and has a blog talking about everything from fashion to fellas.

Because I learnt to share when I was very young, I am going to share my weekly blogs I do for them with you.

So here is the first one for you... are you sitting comfortably?

Act your age not your shoe size?

So as young girls you dream of wearing your own heels… but for now your mothers will do, walking round the bedroom with them gaping around your ankles, you feel like a women or what a young girl thinks a women should feel like. You normally adorn lipstick smudged all over your little face too - it adds to the look.

As the years pass you by so will your shoes sizes and you are nearing that age when the first pair of heels will be yours. When your mother thinks you are old enough or when you sneakily do, you go and purchase that very first pair of heels. Normally you walk around like a duck until you wear them in and realise you can walk the walk and talk the talk in those amazing heels.

As you prance your way through your twenties the height of you heel is pretty well guaranteed to be high, this is due to fashion, all your friends do and the fact you actually can at this age.

When you hit the thirties, fourties, fifties will your heel size decrease as the years increase?

 It seems a common fact when you are a normal women (when I mean normal, I mean non celebrity) you will over the years revert from sky high heels to ones that don’t even deserve the label ‘kitten’. Look around you, your mother will be a great example, you will have seen over the years the heels getting thrown out to only be replaced by lower and lower heels until she lands into flat, very practical, very ugly mules or even worse Crocs!

 It is like the years growing up to get into that all important heel  is now reversing and you are on the road down to flat town.

The only women who seem to be adverse to this are our celebrities, who whatever the weather, whatever the occasion, whatever their age is, will still be seen in fantastic high heels.

They seem to have signed up for life at the school of heels and will endeavour to wear them until their feet will literally not allow them to slip on.

Do I think as the years pass me by so will my love for wearing my beautiful heels?

The sad fact is, I think it will.  As my twenties seem to fly pass me, I feel myself looking at shoes in the window and thinking “I couldn’t possibly wear them!”  “Why don’t they do them in a lower more practical heel” As I write this I feel I should wash my mouth out, sorry fashion, sorry heels!

Luckily for those sky high heels there are plenty of first time buyers ecstatic to give them a loving new home!