Our Wedding Journey…

Weddings

Right, let’s take you back to where it all began…. Quite a few years ago.

I’ll start with the proposal…

It was the 16th February 2014…

It was our 4 year anniversary so decided to go away for a weekend away to celebrate  to Suffolk, we headed off in the morning and had a wonder around the area, walked along the prom, went in the arcades and at this point it was getting late and we were thinking about getting food.

Tom asked if we could walk along the beach before we headed back and I agreed, then that’s where I turned around and saw him get down on one knee and ask me the question.  It was perfect. On the beach over looking the sea with the sun setting in the background. I cried and immediately said YES!

I rang my family, a few friends and they were all so happy for us.

We had talked about getting married but we had agreed to wait too as we were still both living at home and wanted to get a place of our own first.

Our Engagement Party 13th April 2013 – Tidbury Green Golf Club

There was no rush for a party but we set a date for a few months later after our engagement.  We looked around at some local venues with the help of my dad, we didn’t want anything too fancy just something we could decorate ourselves and celebrate with our close family and friends.

Then, eventually a few years later we started planning our big day…

Our Wedding Day – Henley Golf & Country Club

We  I, chose the year of 2017 to get married, it was a big year, as I turned 30, my dad was turning 70 and it was my parents ruby wedding anniversary so wanted to make it a year to remember for everyone.

All I knew was that I wanted a summer wedding.  We started by looking at venues and eventually after months of looking at various places we decided on Henley Golf & Country Club.

It was a beautiful setting for our big day, I just fell in love with it.

We set our date for Saturday 22nd July 2017, booked the venue, registrar and a few other essentials back in 2016 and sent the save the dates out.  Then in November I went to the doctors and found out I was pregnant, 9 weeks pregnant and due 2 weeks before the wedding.  I didn’t want to cancel the wedding so we then had to re think the whole wedding day and we decided to change the date to October 28th 2017, just a few months after the original date so we could settle into parenthood before our big day.

We had a lot to do between then and our baby been born and then after baby was born before the big day, but with the help of my parents it was all achieved.

I choose to go for the colour scheme of turquoise as it was bright and pretty and went well with the original summer planned wedding.

Wedding Stationery

I decided to designed and make my own wedding invitations.  They took me approximately 4 months from start to finish which I think was excellent.  I got so many amazing comments on them.

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Me & my bridesmaids

Starting from left to right: I chose my cousin Natalie, sister in law Rachel, my best friend Zoe (Maid Of Honour) and school friend Alexandra.  The dresses were from a shop called R&Z Dress World where you could mix and match any style with any colour.

The Groom, Best Men & Usher

Tom had his Brother Simon (Left) as best man and his brother in law Graham (Right) for his usher.  We hired the suits from a shop called  David Aitchison in Knowle.

The dress

I didn’t have a clue about the sort of dress I wanted, I had looked online at design and styles but nothing jumped out at me.  I went and visited several dress shops and tried on so many different styles, designs and colours of dresses.  The dress I finally chose was perfect, the detail on it was incredible.  There was diamontes all around the top of the dress to add a bit of sparkle and zip and buttons all up the back.  I bought my dress from Platinum Brides and my experience was perfect from start to finish, the attention to detail was amazing and nothing was too much trouble, the did all the alterations on site.

Image may contain: one or more people, wedding and indoor

Image may contain: one or more people

And finally…

The Rings

I knew and pictured the exact wedding ring I wanted in my head, nothing big something simple that would fit with my engagement ring and which had a bit of sparkle.  It took us a few weeks after looking around and trying on to decide which we preferred.  We didn’t choose the most expensive or the cheapest but found something we like and took advice from the shops on recommendations and we came away with these.

Image may contain: one or more people and ring

We never had a honeymoon as we had a 3 month old baby at the time so we have saved the money for a holiday of a lifetime in a few years time when Freddie is a little older as we would both love to travel to Australia or California.

Our day was amazing and everything I could of wished for and more, I just wished we could do it all over again as it just went far too quickly.

We will have been married for 2 years this year in October.

Would love to hear your wedding journeys

Freddie’s Two Year Update

Personal, Pregnancy, Babies & Kids

Firstly let me apologies this is a little bit late, Life has just been so busy.

We now have a two-year-old boy. Two going on 22 sometimes, I swear.
Not sure where the last two years have gone. However, it has been a mixture of ups and downs but wouldn’t change it for the world.

We celebrated his 2nd Birthday the beginning of July and had a BBQ at home with friends and family, we all had a wonderful time, and he got genuinely spoilt rotten.

Freddie has a powerful personality, he’s cute, cuddly, whinge and has tantrums, and all this can happen in the space of a short time too and sometimes all over silly things.

Here’s Mr Grumpy

Since turning two he has suddenly gone from a baby to a little boy, his speech and the words he can say are amazing things like Koala, his name Freddie, cheetah, some words which I didn’t expect him to say until he was older, it has amazed us.   He knows what he wanted even if not all the time we can understand what he is trying to tell us.

His favorite things to do are play with his cars, toys, read his books or playing in the garden with his footballs and net, water/sand tray and slide. He loves being in the garden, and if you need him to come in, it usually takes bribery to work.

Freddie loves watching television too, usually when he’s tired he will curl up on the sofa and ask to view it. His favorite programs are: In the Night Garden, Teletubbies, Bing and Raa Raa the noisy lion.

He goes to nursery 3.5 days a week, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday Mornings till 1 pm and loves it.  He has made a few friends and has some of the nursery nurses wrapped around his fingers. He has Wednesday’s & Friday afternoons at my parents which he loves.

I will try to do a yearly update on Freddie going forward and you can then see how much he has changed.

Parklife #MySundaySnapshot

Linkies

Happy 1st September, we are off on our holidays this week so I won’t be joining in with this for a couple of weeks.  As soon as I return normal schedules will resume.

We took a trip to the park round the corner from us as the weather was decent, little man was loving life going up and down, round and round.  We spent a good hour there and he cried when we had to go home.

Do your kids love the park?

Happy Sunday!

Meal Planning Monday 26/08/19

Food & Drink, Linkies

Happy Bank Holiday Monday!

This time next week I will on a plane flying off on my holidays for 10 days.  Can’t wait.  I will try and not make you jealous by posting to many photos on Instagram and Facebook.

Last weeks meal plan was a bit hit and miss and I still never went food shopping and we had takeaway pizza from dominoes on Wednesday night.

We had a lovely but busy weekend as the husband was working then out at a friends birthday, I had my hair done so sent Freddie to my  parents.  Then Sunday I went for afternoon tea with my mum, my best friend and her mum.  Perfect bank holiday.

This week we are having:

Fake away Chinese food

Garlic & lemon salmon with salad (me) & burgers (husband)

Chicken curry, rice/chips, naan and poppodums

Meatballs & spaghetti

Beef stir fry with egg noodles and vegetables

Tuna pasta bake

Takeaway

I won’t be posting a meal plan for two weeks after this week and I will be back on the 16th September.

Hope you all have a great bank holiday whatever your up to.  

Cosy Bedtime #MySundaySnapshot

Linkies

Freddie turned 2 in July and his room can get quite cold but was nervous about getting him a quilt and pillow because he’s such a fidget bum.

So last weekend we finally brought Freddie a quilt and pillow set from Mothercare.

Just look how cute he looks cuddled up to his teddy.

What age did you give your little one a quilt and pillow set?

Meal Planning Monday 19/08/19

Food & Drink, Linkies

This week started off with some exciting new of me becoming an Auntie again, my sister in law had a little baby girl called Elizabeth on Sunday night, to go with her 3 boys.

Last week was OK, bit up in airs as went food shopping Monday afternoon but they had hardly anything I needed so made the most of what I’ve got as we go on holiday soon so don’t want to be doing a big food shop.

This week we are doing:

Tuna Pasta Bake

Chicken breast wrapped in bacon with gravy and vegetables

Quiche, rice and salad

Chicken enchiladas

Garlic & herb lamb steaks with crushed new potatoes, gravy and vegetables

Spaghetti Bolognese

Full roast dinner with all the trimmings

What’s on your meal plan this week?

Hill’s Science Plan Active Longevity Mature Dog Food with Chicken

Pets

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We all want to make sure our pets are happy and healthy all of the time and make sure they are being fed the best diet possible. There are so many varieties of dog foods out there to choose from it makes it hard to decide, not to mention the prices of some brands. We have teamed up with Hill Science plan to try their Mature adult 7+ food with our dog, Carly.

As a previously trainee veterinary nurse, I have learned a fair amount of the dos and donts of pets diets and the extras you can feed them that are good for them. Not to mention maybe allergies that can be encountered along the way too. There is no right or wrong food to feed your dog.

When changing your dog’s food, it should be done over the course of a period such as a week by gradually adding the new product into their existing diet to prevent any upset stomach happening and to make sure there are no allergic reactions.

We have a seven-year old Rottweiler called Carly, who eats us out of house and home daily. She is very spoilt and along with her everyday dog food she has treats such as ham, chicken, and tuna and is also partial to a bit of fruit such as strawberries and blueberries.

Carly has two meals a day, breakfast about 7.30am and tea about 5.30pm, plus treats in the day when we are at home.

You can purchase Hills Science Plan dog food from this link here plus your local pet store.

  • We were sent a 3 kg bag of dog food to try out and have been paid for writing about our experience. This has not influenced our opinion in any way .

Meal Planning Monday 12/08/19

Food & Drink, Linkies

Last week disappeared in no time again.  I’ve got about 3 weeks till our holiday starts and that will be bliss, no cooking or cleaning for 10 whole days, can’t wait.

Last week we ended up having takeaway Indian on Saturday for the MIL birthday instead of what we had planned but just swapped it for another day.

The weather was also hit and miss last week, just want us to have a proper summer now.

This week I must go shopping as we don’t really have much in to cook.

This week I will be doing

Lamb shanks in red wine sauce with creamy mash and vegetables

Southern fried chicken wraps

Crispy duck and an assortment of Chinese food

Shepherds Pie

Enchiladas

Burgers & Chips (I’m out for a meal with friends)

Roast dinner all the trimmings

What are your meals for this week

Engraved Cutlery – ByHappyMe | Review

Collaborative Posts, Product Reviews

*AD – GIFTED

Freddie has been fairly good at feeding himself for the last 12 months plus.  He’s been very independent from quite an early age to the point where he would refuse to eat unless he fed himself.

He’s growing up far too quickly and now at the age of 2 he is outgrowing his “baby” set of cutlery that we brought plus, we now no longer have a matching set after we left them in his hand luggage on the way home from holiday back in May and his knife got confiscated.

So, when Byhappyme got in contact about a collaboration on their products I said yes immediately.

I chose the engraved animal cutlery for Freddie as he turns too very soon I thought would be a great time to get him new cutlery.  You can choose from category’s such  animals or teddy bears and I chose the animals as Freddie loves nature.  How cute are they?  Freddie loves naming each animal on the cutlery and telling us what they are each time he uses them.

It came beautifully packaged with ribbon and sticker which I loved as they have taken pride in making sure their products are presented perfectly so customers come back.

If you wish to purchase these, you can from here and they are prices at £27.50.  When ordering you can choose from 3 different font types.

Byhappyme don’t just do cutlery they also do dummy’s, name tags, and gifts.  I will say, I do think they are a little on the expensive side for the products and wouldn’t willingly spend almost £30 on a cutlery set.  They would make a lovely gift christening gift or first birthday present and keepsake gift.

The cutlery fits perfectly the small hands and their size makes it easy for the child to manipulate them during the meal.  The cutlery can be washed in the dishwasher and made from stainless steel.

  • I was sent this product free of charge for the purpose of this review.  However, all thoughts and opinions are my own.