Planning my wedding: Update 1

My Planning updates will be dedicated to all recent news; wedding and blog related.

They will be updated as and when I can or when things have happened of importance or significance, otherwise this blog could get really boring! In between my planning blogs will be posts about reviews, real brides, inspiration and budget wedding ideas, so please do bookmark me for future reference!

Right so now I have a general idea of things that we like and what we want at our wedding, we still have no clue about venues though. If you are reading this and know any venues in Staffordshire around the £2,000 mark please post a comment!

We're really struggling to find one that we both go 'wow' to, maybe we are setting our heights too high for £2,000 but it is all we can afford to save in two years - we are aiming to get married in 2014. Our entire budget will be about £4,000 I reckon, so we need to get everything else with £2,000 and I am slowly finding out that 'everything else' costs a fortune. This is why I am determined to stick to a budget and find me some bargains, which I will also share with you as and when I find them.

So some big news is that I have actually bought my dream dress now!

If you remember from my wedding dress try on's I absolutely adored the Phil Collins 'Rose' PC1925 dress? Well 2 weekends ago I bought it. We were walking back from a meal one night past the shop that I saw it in. I looked in the window and there it was! My sister noticed it first and then looked over at me, I knew straight away that it was my dream dress. And then I saw a sale tag. I tell you, my reaction was somewhat bizarre because apparently I turned grey, but trying to keep in a squeal that was bursting out of me and trying to keep all of my emotions resulted in an inward glass case of emotion meltdown. My face was a bit like this apparently!!:

Best. Photo. Ever.

The very next day, we went down to buy the dress. It was £975 back in April but the tag said £525, it was also a size 12 but with it being a lace up we could get away with some alterations. I am a 10 so it was only one size too big. The ladies in there are really lovely and talked me through everything.

I asked to try on the dress again just to be 100% sure and as soon as I did I just knew. 

I took some more photos of me in it.

Here they are:

The Photo's just don't do it justice, it sparkles from head to toe but without being too much bling. I am wearing heels in the above photo so I would have to have it taken in a bit at the bottom as I was planning on wearing flats. My fiance is about 3 inches taller than me, so I don't want to make him look short! bless. 

Here it is from the back, the train is stunning. She showed me how it would bustle up for the evening and it was just wow (my sister didn't take a photo of it though, doh). 

This is the dress without heels (below), I forgot to ask her how much it costs to have alterations so I'm budgeting about £100. It is an area I will have to look into in more detail a bit nearer the time, as I can have it altered up to 2 months before the wedding. 

This was me the first time I tried it on:

And this one without the jacket:

My mum and dad kindly offered to put £400 toward my dress that they had been saving up which was just amazingly generous, which meant I only had to spend £125 on my dress, if I account that into my budget, considering I was planning on spending a bit more than that - I've saved quite a bit already!

What else have I been doing/planning...

I have currently been emailing some companies to start my 'Review' section up on this blog. The reason I chose to review products is because I thought 'how are we supposed to know what products to buy for the biggest moment of our lives when there are so many to choose from? How can we afford to know which products are the best in terms of value and in results without spending a small fortune trying these products?' 

So with my marketing hat on, I thought what if I be a guinea pig and try all of these products out and then Review it from a 'real bride's perspective'?

You benefit, I benefit and if you like the look of their products, then the company benefits. It felt like a bit of a no-brainer to do this actually.

The difference between my blog reviews and others you may have read is that I find a lot of reviews tend to sound like Mark's & Spencer's adverts "This isn't just any ordinary pencil, this is a Mark's and Spencer's HB pencil" - yes you know the ones. I will tell you what I think honestly, but tactfully. After all, I have hand-picked all of the companies I have chosen to review because I liked something about them. 

Plus I get to really girl out and try loads of amazing creams and lotions and share my experience with you ladies :D

I have to say, I don't think I have ever been this girly in my life, but as of late I have become fascinated with make up and creams. The only makeup I ever wear is eye liner and mascara and on the odd occasions that I go out (we're saving for a Wedding now after all), I put on my 'smokey eye' makeup, so I have never really experimented all that much with it. 

And another thing, which some of you might think is quite shocking, I have never had a manicure or a pedicure or a facial in my life.

When I was a young girl I used to enjoy climbing trees and making dens, I loved animals and would regularly talk to worms and snails (true story), I loved learning about computers and technology. I spent more time outdoors than inside, until I discovered Xbox.  I am a female gamer, and I mean the good games, COD, GOW, Fallout 3/new vegas. Are you building up a picture of me yet?

But lately, I have really enjoyed trying all of this girl stuff out. So you're not going to have me talking about the enzymes or cucumber extracts or PH's etc (I will refer you to their website for that information). I don't understand about all of that. All I, and most likely, YOU care about is if it smells good, feels good, looks good, tastes good (if edible) and in ordinary, every day, normal, descriptive words. 

So, the first company I have contacted called Thea Skincare have gotten back to me and I am being sent some samples of their products. Once I've tested them I will write a review of what I thought of them. Keep checking back for updates on that or subscribe to my blog (link on right hand navigation bar). Let me know if you can suggest any companies you think I should try - here are the categories I have chosen: Reviews.

I will post any more bargains I find as I go along.

We can do this ladies!