Wedding Dress Shopping: Mark 1

This is a bit of a throwback to November when I went on my first dress shopping trip, how can it have been that long ago!

I was feeling pretty nervous and excited, I went with my mum to a shop near where she lives to try and get an idea of what I wanted.

I'd done quite a lot of looking at dresses in advance and I thought I knew the style I wanted, but why not go crazy and try on everything the shop has to offer.

Which is exactly what I did, I think I ended up trying on about 7 dresses!

Being a size 6-8 in the UK and 5ft, I was pretty sceptical about how they were going to make a dress that's size 12-14 fit me in anyway.

A little later when I was clipped and pinned into a dress, I could see what a fantastic job they could do! However due to the amount of clips on the backs of the dresses, I can never get a proper idea of what that'll look like.

The style of dresses I thought I wanted was exactly right, I tried on some of the big poofy ones, but looked totally ridiculous being so small.

Overall it was good, I didn't get any sort of 'wow' feeling, but we did some ground work!

Keep an eye out for the next installment of my Wedding Dress Shopping!

Wedding Dress Shopping: An Uphill Struggle

So would've thought that shopping for a Wedding dress would be SO STRESSFUL.

In my head it's all lovely, lunches out, floating into lovely shops where they give you glasses of fizz (or at least a cup of tea), coming out of the changing room to gasps of delight and swirling around in beautiful dresses.

The reality, lunches out cause me to eat too much and give me a tummy ache during the appointment, the shops all seem to run late and so you run out of time. I'm too small for all the dresses, so I have to be clipped, pegged and pinned into them, meaning I can't bend down to pick up the dress. And as I'm so short, the dresses are all far to long. Cue me tripping out of a changing room and stumbling into a block to make me look taller.

Galmorous!

All in all, that makes it sound a lot worse than it is, it is very fun (as long as you don't mind standing in your underwear in front of a total stranger!)

What I'm running the real stress and struggle is finding the right dress, and then once I've found a dress to try on finding somewhere that stocks that dress!

I've been on 2 trips, spanning 2 months and I haven't found the dress, I haven't had the wow moment. I'm not even sure I'll have that moment.

Everyone had a bigger and better reaction (bridesmaids, my mum and the ladies in the shop) than me to all the dresses I tried on.

I feel like I'm striving to find some perfection that isn't there, to find a better dress that won't exist. Because how would I find the dress that has everything perfect and within a budget?

I currently have 4 different spreadsheets open, all with multiple tabs, I've sent nearly 30 emails to dress shops in the last day and a half about designers, dresses and appointments.

To try on the dresses I want to I'm going to have to travel miles to try on just one dress. Then miles to somewhere else to try on one more dress.

Should I give up on that and settle for one I've found?

And meanwhile I've got the wedding timeline in my mind - must buy dress by 8 months.

I'm at 10 months now, that only gives me another 2 months to get this in the bag!
But my bridesmaids aren't free for another month, the dress shops are booked up for a month and a half.

How do I do this?
Why is it such a difficult task?

Am I the only one that has so much trouble?

I'm feeling so confused, stressed and overwhelmed by this.
I just don't know what to do next.

Photo Friday #9

A sneak peak at the florist I've booked for my wedding!

[Blush Floral Design]

A John Lewis Filofax Adventure!

So on Sunday I happened to be in John Lewis with my wonderful fiance (we'll call him T), as T has seen a fantastic deal on a dishwasher the day before - £700 down to £250 for no apparent reason!

Long story short we bought the dishwasher (yay, no more washing up!) and my mum will have to store it for the next year, haha.

But whilst we were getting the sale in place I spotted the stationary section and a sign on the wall that said 'Filofax', I pointed it out to T (who rolled his eye, he has no understanding) and went over while he sorted out the money!

The section was only small, but it was like my own personal dreamland! I got to look at all the planner's I've looked at online, open them and touch them! I'm wondering now whether I should've smelt the Malden, but would I have looked just a bit weird.

To my delight they had Ochre Maldens, my dream, in most sizes, so I got to pick up, feel and look at both the personal and the A5. I can tell you I want both.

I also good to look at personal sized Originals and Finsburys, but the Malden still wins! They had some A5 dominos as well, which would definitely be my choice or work planner should I ever need one (please one day!).

In my excitement I took no photos of this wonderful Filofax oasis, but I can tell you, it's made me want a Malden even more. And wish I had a job where I could justify a planner.

Oh to dream!

Blink and you'll miss it...my Pocket Finsbury

I was VERY naughty and on an impulse purchased a pocket Finsbury in Raspberry from Staples last Tuesday.

In my defence it was a bargain and I did go on about my hankering for a new Filo!

I need a new purse, my old one is rather worn and maybe too chunky for my bag.

I really want the Malden Large Zipped Purse, as it looks perfect and would give me my very own slice of the Ochre Malden pie! But it'd probably still be too chucky...and it's £53.00 I can't spend.

So when this Finsbury popped up I figured that I should take the plunge. It arrived on Wednesday, what service?!

I was thrilled, I unboxed it and it's truely beautiful, I love it, the colour, how soft it is. But last night I sat down to look at a purse set up, and realised that it just would never work for me.

And that I had no other need for it, as I've now set up my old Paperchase planner with some wedding info (more on that soon). It felt like a waste, and the money guilt set it.

So now it's up for sale.

I'm wanting around £25-30 for it, so if you're interested, let me know.

Here are some pictures of the beauty, I'll be sad to see her go. But I can't keep her just for the sake of it.

Planning with Moleskine

Once I ditched my filofax/Paperchase planner I realised that I was still  no good at planning electronically, I still needed something paper to write things down. The physical act of writing something seems to help me to remember it much better.

I delved into my shelves at home and found a Moleskine Weekly Notebook diary that I got for the bargain price of £3 in 2013 during the Amazon Black Friday deals.

I'd started using it then, but I didn't have the best pens and lasted for the grand total of about 4 weeks...which was mainly me writing in what days I had off over Christmas (priorities!).

I picked it up again in the last week of October and used it solidly throughout the rest of the year. I've even number all the unused pages and made it into a notebook/list book that I can carry around. It was super helpful at Christmas with lists of To Dos and recipes.

I bought myself a Dodo Pad for 2015 in the hope that I would be happy to plan in it, to be a little messy and get everything done for the Wedding and flat move. I started putting in things through December, but when it came to finally using it in January I just wasn't happy. I missed my moleskine.

It didn't feel so professional, it didn't have a ribbon page marker, the notes pages weren't lined, there was no back pocket and no elastic closure, it just didn't measure up.

After umming and ahhing for a few days and looking at the price of getting a new Molkeskine for the year (£13.99!) I found exactly what I was looking for at Ryman's for half price!

Without thinking I grabbed it and ran for the till.

I'm now the proud owner of a 2014-15 black, soft cover, weekly notebook diary. Perfect, as I love the extra pages at the beginning for notes and lists. I also love the notes pages to write down my To Dos.

For now I've reached planner peace.