My oh my, what a busy four weeks I've had! As always I feel like it has flown by, but last weekend I came to quite a stark realisation that we have lots to do, but we're running out of time. More on this later, but firstly, I need to make an introduction.

Let me introduce to you the newest member of our household...Lucky the Puppy, named so as a result of a taxi ride to the airport in Vegas AFTER JAMES WON BIG PLAYING POKER. WAHOO! He is a 10-week-old chocolate sprocker (a cross of springer and cocker spaniel) with gorgeous eyes, a lovely temperament and a taste for mischief!!

He is absolutely adorable (I defy you not to think he is the cutest thing ever), but since we got him almost two weeks ago he has certainly tested my patience on quite a few occasions! He loves anything he can chew or bite which he's not supposed to; taking a particular liking to footwear and newspaper. We can't take him out for walks yet as he's not fully vaccinated, so his boundless energy is...interesting...at times, but he makes up for it with his general amazing puppy-ness.

Aside from all the adorable puppies, I have picked my Bridesmaid dresses. I have five bridesmaids, whom you have all been introduced to, and I always thought that finding dresses that suited and fitted all of them would be difficult, as I'm sure you can appreciate with different heights and shapes. As it happens, we got it done pretty much in an afternoon - but that afternoon was a bit of a rollercoaster! The girls all came to Birmingham (we are scattered a bit, from London to Sheffield), and we went to The Dressing Rooms in Halesowen where I bought my dress.

We had a fun hour and a half or so of trying on different dresses, and I thought I found a colour that I liked and suited them all - a gorgeous sage green - and they also all looked great in a grecian one-shouldered floor length dress, something I had always envisaged. However, I was allowed to put my dress on again *squeeaaaal*, and the style of my dress and the Bridesmaids just didn't quite match, there was no flow and a traditional floaty Bridesmaids dress with my fairly sleek and chic dress didn't quite work. I hadn't even thought this would be an issue, so needless to say I left the shop feeling a little down. I realised something from the High Street might work better, but struggled to see how I would find something at this time of year when the shops are full of jewel tones and winter dresses.

Fortunately, I have an excellent set of maids who gave me a bit of a pep talk and off we headed to the Bull Ring in Birmingham to have a look. Now don't get me wrong, I love Christmas and everything that glitters, but everything in the shops at the moment is geared up towards the Christmas party season - obviously not right for a wedding at the height of summer! I was getting more and more 'PJC', feeling downhearted and was painfully aware that I needed to get the dresses sorted because they would 'unlock' everything and help me start on the colour scheme. The girls leapt to it, with continuous jusshing and contingency planning (see why they're my bridesmaids?!) as I got more and more gloomy.

And then, lo and behold, we decided to try Monsoon as I'd heard they do a great range of party dresses. And there it was. Was it full length? No. Was it sage green? Definitely not. Was it perfect? Yes. I fell in love with a gorgeous, vintage, blingy Christmas party dress. It is light enough to wear even if it's a boiling hot day summer and fits perfectly with the style of my dress. I don't want to show a picture of the full dress as I want to keep it a bit of a secret till The Big Day, but I can show you parts of it and similar styles. Eek I just love them!!

I have to say, I was hugely impressed by Monsoon's range - and it was a real eye-opener as it would not have necessarily been where I would have looked for a bridesmaid dress at this time of year! It's such an elegant and classy design, and will flatter all five of them - plus I love that they will be able to wear them again (although not at the same time, that could be really awkward)!

I also have to say Monsoon offered really fantastic customer service. But I especially enjoyed everyone's reactions to the dresses; when one tried it on she said it made her 'feel like a Princess', and it's very important to me that my girls feel just as special as I do on the day! I hope I get to share it with all of you at some point, because it is truly lovely. I am almost more excited for these dresses than I am for my own!!

Now we have our Bridesmaids sorted, all things wedding-related are starting to pick up a gear, mainly because we've realised how much we have to do!! Next on the list is the colour scheme and florists. Oh, where to start. I feel like the venue, then dresses, were the first pieces of the puzzle and will be easy to work around. But, I'm not the creative type, so I am at a bit of a loss what to do now...!!

I have lots of ideas, such as I know I don't want 'traditional' flowers (e.g. I love the idea of feather centrepieces), but I can't quite yet piece them all together as one big vision - particularly because every decision we've made so far has been completely unexpected! I feel like there are a lot of balls up in the air and I'm not quite sure how they're all going to fit together.

Between us we don't have huge amounts of spare time - particularly with the added pressure of The Furball - so I've now called out The Big Guns (Hi Mum) for a bit of background digging for a florist who could perhaps create something a little unusual and special for us. How has everyone else gone about their colour scheme/flowers? Is this something you've had a clear vision of what you wanted, or made it up as you've gone along?!

I'll leave it here for now, as you can tell I'm entering a phase of '????', so any anecdotes you can share on how you managed to make everything fit together would be much appreciated!

Lauren xx