I went to look for my wedding outfit on Saturday. I want an outfit that will tone in with the theme, be smart and not get lost among the beautiful bridesmaids and stunning bride. At first i thought of purple, but I would end up getting lost among everyone else, being a bit vertically challenged. So as long as it didn’t clash went with no particular idea of colour.
I called in at The Collection, in Workington, just to see what they had and had a lovely experience! The two ladies there had a chat, and found lot of different styles for me to try on. I am a bit limited in that I am a size 8 and quite a small size 8, and collections for older ladies seem to be more aimed at larger sizes. However there were still about 6 different outfits for me to try in my size.

There was a lovely pink floaty outfit with a corset style top and a jacket, but I felt that was a bit informal. I tried a Chanel style outfit but to me it looked a bit dated, rather Queen Motherish. Then there was a grey silk dress with a floaty stole that looked elegant except it showed up the only plump part about me – my stomach.
By this time I had the two ladies in the shop commenting and adding accessories, pinning this in, draping that. Other customers were getting involved and telling me how it looked. I was tottering around on stunning silver heels, other half was taking photos, coffee was brought out to keep his spirits up as he had to go and keep re- parking the car.
Eventually I settled on a grey silk suit, and I was sat down with a cup of tea while we negotiated the price. It isn’t cheap, but it is being altered slightly, the buttons moved to make the Audrey Hepburn style jacket a better fit and the top straps altered. I am also hiring a stunning fascinator which will be boxed up for me a week before the wedding.
I had excellent personal service, and was never pressurised . It was helpful when the other customer gave her opinion, as she agreed with us! I won’t look like Audrey Hepburn (my style icon) but hopefully I will look smart leading Sadie down the aisle.

Well my folks have been in France for the past fortnight and have been trying out lots of wines and champagnes for the wedding breakfast. It is traditional to call it the wedding breakfast but in reality it will probably be around 5pm after the ceremony and most of the photographs.

The wedding breakfast will be the time we have a bit of a laugh with speeches and toasts and lovely food and alcohol. We’ve been lucky to get corckage on the alcohol so we are choosing our own wines and buying them in bulk over in France where you can get a better quality wine for half the price.

My Mum has been taking her role of wine tasting very seriously whilst she has been in France and even taken the wines up to the bar for second opinions from the locals.We now have the champagne and red wine sorted and my folks drove back yesterday with a boot full of alcohol.

Looking forward to tasting the wines and champers but think we’ll have to wait till the wedding.

I have been discussing this with other brides to be and they seem to have similar experiences although not all are boxing related. Some loose their partners every weekend for football and others Rugby or other sports. I thik I know the reason the peak of the wedding season is the end of the football season as many wives to be can’t get their menfolk to commit to any date that may mean they miss a match.

I suppose I am lucky that Luke is only really interested in Boxing so I only loose him at nights. Check out the photography on Box Pro as I have to admit people hitting each other in the face do make some amazing shots!

My first task ,after booking the venue, is to find some excellent wines and champagnes for the reception. We are planning a trip to France, where we have a mobile home, and I intend to test as much of the champagne as I can. We have a couple of bottles of Veuve Clicquot which we can taste before we go, but I have absoulutely no idea what other champagnes there are available.We are expecting to have to buy quite a few bottles, about half a bottle per guest, so bringing it back from France, the home of Champagne, seems the cheapest option. we are going at Easter, so think of me, trawling the vineyards, testing Champagne. It’s a hard job, but I have to do it, as John will be driving.

When I have sorted the Champagne, I’ll have to start on the red wine. The things I do for my daughter.