A non-guidey guide from a 'Soon to be Bride': Part Two

Happy Autumn everyone!

Today marks 247 days until our big day and I am already starting to have moments of panic! I seem to be procrastinating quite a lot all of a sudden, things like; I haven’t booked to give notice or sent out our invites yet, but on the flip size, I feel like I could tell you every honeymoon destination possible, hot and cold, even though we have agreed not to book our honeymoon until after the wedding!

I have no reason to be anxious about anything yet as everything is going to plan, but I've already started having dreams about turning up to my wedding in my PJ’s or none of our guests turning up! Who knows what I will be like the week before the wedding! I have lists upon lists to try and feel more organised, but I think the root of this feeling comes from being so over excited at the start and constantly ticking things off the list, so now it makes me anxious when I have a few weeks where it feels like I haven’t achieved anything. Wedding planning is almost addictive! I have to keep reminding myself that it is OK to have a break from the wedding plans sometimes.

Having said that, I have ticked a few big things off the list recently like bridesmaid dress shopping, which I must admit has actually been the easiest part of the whole process! It is something that I am very thankful for and admittedly am a little bit smug about! I had no idea how dress shopping would go for either myself or the bridesmaids, but bridesmaid dress shopping was so much fun!

When you have a great group of girls who are laid back and supportive it makes the whole process so much easier. All of my bridesmaids are completely different in almost every way and yet the first dress in the first shop ended up being the one, and under budget too! We couldn’t believe our luck, so we spent a few hours more trying on other dresses, all knowing in the back of our minds we had already found them but just wanting to make sure. Even with stopping for lunch, a round of crazy golf and hosting a worst dressed bridesmaid competition, we still had loads of time spare so I got them to work helping me make my name place cards, which I called ‘bridesmaid bonding time’! Adding in a few bottles of prosecco, good old fish and chips and a game of Rapidough (if you don’t know what this is, take a look online and order yourselves one! I highly recommend you get it, it's so much fun!) we had the best time!

My dress shopping went almost as smoothly as the bridesmaid shopping went, in fact it was almost an accident as I popped along to an open day at a bridal shop (which I would recommend to any bridal shop to host and would definitely recommend to any brides to attend if you see them!). They had prosecco, nibbles and local hair and make up artists to glam you up for free and show off what they can do. If you’re anything like me, you haven’t had a lot of experience in having these things done professionally so it was rather special.

Despite being warned I could well find ‘the one’ I didn’t believe anyone as I am so indecisive and would never be described as a girly girl so didn’t think I would have ‘that’ moment. However, 5 dresses in, in my first shop, there i was blubbering with my Mum, Sister, Nan and Auntie at how perfect this dress was. After a quick pint and a bite to eat, I was back in the shop with as many bridesmaids as I could get together at short notice, plus my future mother in law to make them a blubbering mess too and pay my deposit! I can’t give any advice or tips on how to achieve this, just go with an open mind and a positive attitude, with people who are going to lift you up and whose opinion matters more to you than anyone else.

In the coming weeks we are attending our last wedding before our own, as my future brother and sister-in-law are getting married. I'm hoping that attending a wedding whilst we're planning ours will make me see everything in a whole different way, which I am sure I will tell you all about next month!