Wedding progress

I love planning.

I write 3 or 4 lists before my “final” list just for the weekly food shop, so I absolutely love planning our wedding already! We have changed our mind so many times, do we want a big wedding in England, do we want to run away and get married in Barbados, do we want a smaller wedding in Italy? There are so many options it is so hard to decide, neither of us thought we would get married before we met each other so we don’t know what we want. Well we didn’t…

The Venue

Shortly after we got engaged we started looking at venues, we looked at barns, stately homes, marquees, private hotels, town halls, barns with marquees, chain hotels honestly we must have looked at 40 venues. When we didn’t get the “yes this is the one” feeling we started exploring the option of getting married abroad, a castle in Germany, a beach in Barbados or similar, a chateau in France or a villa in Italy were all on our list! Then we went to look at one more venue last week, one that hadn’t really caught our eye at first but we thought we would go and look. As soon as we drove up to the venue we fell in love, looking around the grounds and inside the venue I looked at Tim and he said “we’re getting married here aren’t we?” This was the feeling we had been waiting for! Our date is booked, 6th June 2019. The venue is a secret for the foreseeable future, definitely until invitations go out- we really want our guests to have the same “wow” factor as we did!

Wedding Party

From my last post you all know who my maid of honour is, secondary school bestie, Ellen

 

Richmond, the sausage dog shaped ring bearer…

Bridesmaid- childhood bestie, Amber (proper throwback photo)

Ushers- Tim’s gin buddy, James

My cousin and life long jäeger drinker, Alan

My little brother, Mike

And our witnesses…

Nicola, someone who has been there right from the start, through the drama, the tears and the happy ending- also someone I know will make sure we get our money’s worth from the Photo Booth!

Tim and James’ female gin buddy, fellow norfolk bird, Maya

 

I cannot wait to be able to blog more about the wedding, but for now it is very much under wraps! We have an exciting year coming up with friend’s weddings and such like over the summer (and into November) so I am very excited to see all of their planning and hard work fall into place. Might even get some ideas for our wedding!

Sarah xo

 

 

 

 

 

YOOHOO HQ

I think I died and went to Heaven over night, whilst scrolling through Facebook I came across an add for YooHoo Mail which is a company that offers monthly subscription boxes- amongst other things. SO many businesses now offer subscription boxes that include candles, pens that you will never use, a wax melt and not much else for £15-£20!

Then comes YooHoo…. A stationary box which costs a mere 10 British Pounds, that is a steal in my book! I have opted to subscribe for 3 months, costing £30 but if February’s box is anything to by I am so looking forward to the next two!

Below are some photos of the bits included- Birthday cards, blank cards, moving house card, little note pad, some cute stickers to seal the envelopes down and some postcards and prints ready for frames.

I honestly think this is such a good value box, it comes so beautifully presented and is in a “letter box friendly” box so you don’t have to worry about not being home to sign for it! I also have a tendency to forget when a birthday is coming up and having to rush to the shop to get a card- usually costing £2.50/£3.00 so thats only three and a bit cards a month and you may as well get a YooHoo box!

Anyway, I will leave you with the photos below and hope to see you all uploading photos of your March boxes!!

Wrapped like a present, a gift to me, love me

2016 is off to a sparkling start…

Over Christmas and New Year I was grateful to have some time off work, having worked 6 days a week for the majority of December I was well and truly ready for a break. What better end to the break than getting engaged? Tim proposed on January 2nd and it was perfect, I think I would have died of embarrassment if he had proposed in a busy restaurant or a busy pod on the London Eye. We were at home and it was a lovely surprise, the ring is spot on and it even came with a wedding band, 2 for the price of 1 which is Tim’s favourite. 

The ring…

The worst part about being engaged and working in the catering industry is the rule of “no jewellery except a plain wedding band”, obviously for hygiene reasons but I want to wear my sparkly ring all day every day, the search for a non-catering job is on!!

We have looked at a couple of venues, set a date, sorted the budget (probably going to spend more than we’ve set…) and I am going to ask my bestie to be my Maid of Honour. We have been friends since we were 11 and been through all of the trials and tribulations that secondary school, college and university could have thrown at us. I’ve also asked her because I think we need some new photos together, they’re all drunken poses or photos from prom, like the one below from 2008…

Whilst I could have sent a text, asked her over the phone or even sent a strip-o-gram to her workplace- probably wouldn’t have thanked me for that one… I have decided to use a ‘bridesmaid box’, a box full of little bits and pieces and a card to ask her. There were lots of sentimental cards to choose from but this one sums our friendship up perfectly, the amount of times we’ve had to help each other out on a night out in the toilets is unreal, I can’t wait for her to have to help me one last time! I have also got her a bridesmaid planner, I’ve even written in ideas for my hen do so she has lots to choose from! Theres a photo frame in there, a keepsake on for her to put a photo of us from the wedding, a candle, fluffy socks, a mini bottle of wine and a candle- because who doesn’t love a candle!! I can’t wait to see her face on Monday when I give it to her- it might seem harsh but I have deleted her on Facebook so she doesn’t see this blog update!

If anyone has any wedding tips, hints or tricks then throw them my way! I think the next blog could be a Slimming World related one, 1 week back on it and I’m 3.5lb down, wedding diet is in full swing!!

Sarah xo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Festive Fun

It really is the most wonderful time of the year, christmas films, twinkling lights everywhere and people spreading festive cheer! What more could you want?

A lot has gone on this year and I know some people aren’t too keen on christmas but I have never been so excited. Mostly because I have time off over Christmas for the first time in 5 years- the joys of working in catering! But also because it is our first christmas in our new house and with Richmond, I’m sure people will read this and think “he’s just a dog” but he gets so excited by wrapping paper and things on the floor he won’t know what to do with himself when the big day rolls around. Of course, he has been spoilt rotten and already has an idea of which presents are his… 

Last Christmas we spent a weekend in Belgium at the Christmas Market, a gin filled night in Canterbury with some of Tim’s old colleagues and Christmas eve and Christmas day with mine and Tim’s families respectively. To say it was busy was an understatement, we were both working and not really sure if we were coming or going. This year however- with the exception of me working 11 days straight before christmas- we don’t really have any plans. Lovely.

The house was decorated (partly) last weekend, we still haven’t located all of the decorations but I physically can’t spend any more time hunting in the garage without driving it all to the tip getting, rid of it and starting again.

Lots of our decorations this year at from small & local businesses, part of our bid to shop within the community, mainly because of seeing this quote back in September…  When you buy from a local business you are not helping a CEO buy a third holiday home. You are helping a little girl get dance lessons, a little boy get his team jersey, a mum or dad put food on the table, a family pay a mortgage or a student pay for university. When I saw this something just clicked and I started hunting local shops and small businesses online. Much easier living in Norfolk and having lots of local, independent businesses to choose from!

 

Whilst shopping locally I have put a lot more effort into peoples gifts this year, without giving away too much as nobody knows what they have yet we have managed to get lots of individual and personal presents. All wrapped to match of course. Nothing says Christmas like a giant hessian bow!

It is impossible (probably possible but I haven’t had the time) to get everything from local businesses, some finds I have made in our local Sainsbury’s have made our house feel really festive, I love winter wonderland. A giant wreath that was too pretty to hang outside is therefore hanging on our lounge wall, something I think goes really well  so I may keep it up all year around, we bought this whilst it was reduced to £18. I have been looking on Pinterest to find a table centre piece that I could make after foraging in the woods, however when I saw my rota for December I’ve decided to buy one. Cue this gem from Sainsbury’s again, reduced to £9 and matches our wreath, perfect.

 

Also reduced to £4.50 was this Christmas blackboard set back in a photo frame, I haven’t written on it yet as we don’t need to countdown how many sleeps until Christmas but I love the snowy trees and house in the forefront! Not sure if you’ve got the hint by now but I love a bargain.

Christmas is lovely for the decorations, the food & drink and presents however my favourite part has always been spending time with Family and Friends. I can’t wait for two days with Tim followed by some time back in Kent with friends and family, especially with three new babies and two puppies to meet!

About

Having recently swapped our hectic, work filled lives in the fast paced garden of England for a quiet, country life in rural Norfolk I am finding myself at a loose end a couple of times a week. I am like any other 23 year old girl, love shopping, experimenting with make up, trying to lose weight and drinking too much prosecco…

Rather than boring Tim (I hate the term boyfriend, but he hasn’t proposed yet so I guess thats what he is) and Richmond (our sausage dog- who you will all get to know I am sure) I thought I would bore anyone with enough time on their commute to read this. I will be rabbiting on about decorating, house improvements, sausage dogs, shopping finds, make up discoveries, holidays, christmas and hopefully one day a proposal and a wedding..

 

Since moving to Norfolk 3 months ago we have spent A LOT of time decorating, ripping out kitchens, stripping tiles and putting our new kitchen in. It has been a dusty and dirty 12 weeks but the end is in sight! The bare, undecorated walls have christmas decorations pinned on them to make them look less unappealing however when January rolls around we will have to do something about them, for now though I am enjoying the festive decorations.

I have secured myself a job and I am enjoying earning money again- more like I am enjoying spending my money on pay day weekend but lets not go there… Speaking of spending all my money at once, I am going to upgrade my layout on payday but thats money thats gone on christmas presents and a benefit selection box, merry christmas to me!

I hope you enjoy reading about our life, my purchases and anything else exciting that happens along the way, stick with it, I have a feeling 2016 is going to be a good’un.