Here we are at my last pre wedding blog post, which is a very surreal thing to be writing. When Al convinced me to apply to be a RMW Real Bride and I wrote my first post it seemed like there was still such a long way to go and so much to do.
Now in just six weeks’ time, and after a three and half year long engagement, I will finally get to become Mrs G!
It’s true what everyone says – the closer you get the faster the time seems to disappear. So much has happened since last time that I’m going to struggle to get it all in!
Otter-ing About
It already feels like ages ago, but back at the beginning of March Al and I met up with our lovely photographer Beki Young for our ever so slightly belated engagement shoot.
Beki met us at our flat, where we showed her some of our wedding ideas and had a cuppa and good catch-up. We then all headed off together to the New Forest Wildlife Park, which is one of my favourite places as it’s home to two of my favourite animals – otters and owls! Al first took me there for my birthday not long after we started going out, and we’ve visited a couple of times since then as well, so it was the ideal place for us to have our shoot.
I can’t really speak for Al, but I’m not the biggest fan of having my photo taken. I know everyone has hang-ups about getting snapped with a funny expression, but posing for photos really does make me quite uncomfortable – like the episode of Friends where Chandler can’t smile without grimacing! Anyway, what can I say? Beki really is a genius as most of the time I didn’t even notice I was being photographed. I was just out with Al having a great time (especially when we were climbing all over the adventure play ground!).
Later in the afternoon the sun came out (it was still bloomin’ cold, mind!) and looked beautiful in the trees. Although we did have a major problem with the park’s nibbliest deer, who insisted on photo-bombing us and trying to get in every shot when it wasn’t distracted by eating Beki’s coat and camera strap!
When we first started looking into our wedding photography I have to confess an engagement shoot wasn’t up on the list of priorities and I can’t say I really understood the point of them. If we hadn’t had one included in our package with Beki we probably wouldn’t have had one, but I am so so glad that we did. Not only was it really fun, but it was great to ‘practice’ being in front of the camera and getting to know Beki before the wedding. I know I’m going to be a lot less nervous about having my photo taken now, which for me is going to be a whole heap of stress removed from our wedding day.
We love the photos, and are so happy that we now have some lovely shots of us together – as we’re really bad at taking photos and don’t have anywhere near enough! Hopefully this will be the kick up the backside we need to remind us to get photos to look back on when we’re old and wrinkled.
Total Transformation
March was also the month of my hair and make-up trial. Trial being the operative word here, as my appointment looked set to be a complete nightmare with various tribulations popping up to ensure I was looking as haggard as possible!
These include such utterly unglamorous disasters as our washer dryer deciding to die and leaving the biggest backlog of washing you can imagine. Add to that a virus that saw me sweating one minute and shivering the next, a horrendous break out of spots and a particularly sickly looking clammy sheen and you’ve got one very miserable Kitty. Oh, and a pipe in our bathroom burst on the morning of my appointment, so to say I was stressed out would be a bit of an understatement!
Thank goodness for Annabel Hornsby though! She first of all made the mother of all cups of tea (hadn’t had one that morning due to water having to be turned off!) and then proceeded to disguise all evidence of illness and stress related dark circles!
She really is a miracle worker – getting my misbehaving hair to stay put in a beautifully elegant up do and giving my face a lovely healthy glow. I’m looking forward to having her and her team arrive at the hotel in the morning, although I’m hoping next time will be disaster free!
I’ve also recently discovered the wonder products from Elemis to try and get my skin in tip top condition and make Annabel’s job a little easier, and after just one week I’m already seeing a massive difference. My dark circles are much much less visible, my pores have tightened and the natural oils in my skin are much more balanced. The products I’m using include: Melting Cleansing Gel, Soothing Apricot Toner, Papaya Enzyme Peel (which is an exfoliator great for sensitive skin as there are no beads, plus it smells fantastic), Visible Brilliance Serum and Pro Collagen Marine Cream. I know they’re not the cheapest products out there, but I’ve never had such great results from skincare products before so will be using all of these religiously over the next six weeks and probably beyond!
To-do List
I feel bad that I’ve not been able to cram everything that we’ve been doing in to this post, as there’s just so much! We’ve paid bills, we’ve had final consultations, we’ve begun shopping for clothes for our honeymoon… the list goes on!
But, there is still an awful lot to do in the next six weeks. Despite this, I can’t end my last post without telling you all how excited I am to be marrying my best friend and seeing all of our friends and family together for us on our day.
Wedding planning has certainly had it’s ups and downs and is definitely not all fun and games. There will be things that you want that you can’t afford, last minute RSVPs that you need to chase, things that go wrong and times when you might just want to sack it all off and run away to say your vows to each other on a tropical island somewhere. But in spite of all the slightly stressful stuff and the ever-so-slightly boring stuff, this has without doubt been the most exciting time of my life so far.
Thank you to everyone who’s been following my (not always) wedding related ramblings. If I’ve managed to point at least one person in the direction of the wonderful suppliers we’ve found or said at least one thing that’s been useful to someone then I will be a very happy lady indeed!
Lots of ‘I can’t wait to be Mrs G’ love,
Kitty x