The Bride Diaries. Holly's Pre Wedding Post & Hen Do - Whimsical...

The Bride Diaries. Holly's Pre Wedding Post & Hen Do - Whimsical...

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Our lovely resident real bride Holly is now a MRS!! Ekk. But this afternoon I have her final blog post before I share her lovely nuptials with you. It's both exciting and really fascinating to see an insight into those last planning moments. I am sure there are many of you going through the exact same feelings right now. Thanks Holly xo Lou

Image by Julie Michaelsen

Gosh, I don't really know how to start this - my last pre-wedding blog post. Happily, A LOT has happened since my last update, so I'll try and fill in a few gaps...

We did finally send out our invitations! Boy, did that feel like a battle. In hindsight, it would have been much easier and simpler to have outsourced the invites - just gotten something printed and done much sooner, but our guests are being very lovely and polite and telling us all the hard work was worth it.

I think they help set the tone for the day - a relaxed, informal and handmade affair. I'd heard tales of woe from other brides that all the real trouble kicks off once the invitations have been sent but I'll just say this... We're very lucky to have lots of wonderful people in our lives, both friends, family and work colleagues, and if we could have everyone we loved at the wedding that would be wonderful. But like most couples, we're constrained by a finite budget and a finite venue capacity. If you're reading this as a disgruntled non-invitee (to anyone's wedding, not just ours), don't take it personally. I can't speak for all engaged couples, but we certainly agonised over our guest list and it wasn't easy. It's not a favouritism contest and it's certainly not elitist - we just did the best we could with the space and budget available. And that's all you can do, isn't it?

There's also been a scurry of activity around wedding day outfits. I have my dress! It's all altered and perfect and pristine and beautiful. I was going to store it at my Mum's house ready for the day and away from potential prying Groom eyes, but after a recent incident where the four year old girl they are fostering got hold of a pair of scissors and cut all her own hair off, my Mum was somewhat nervous about having the dress there - just in case it became the next scissor victim! So it's currently hanging in my wardrobe and Jim's under strict instructions not to peek. I know he won't. Mainly because he probably isn't even that interested in what I'll be wearing! Although, I have to confess to storing it safely overnight at my bridesmaid's house the night of Jim's stag do - just in case he was drunkenly peer-pressured into taking a peek or someone had an accident with red wine.

Jim's got two suits for the day - a custom made 'Persian Plum' coloured suit by Rupert the Tailor which was one of my many competition wins and a gorgeous wool-blend waistcoat and jacket combination from Debenhams. He'll wear one for our legal ceremony in the morning and the other for our main event in the afternoon. Annoyingly, his nice waistcoat and jacket didn't come with matching trousers so we spent a very stressful afternoon trying to find a pair of trousers that fitted and looked like it matched. Jim's not a big fan of clothes shopping full stop but he especially hates trouser shopping so it was all a bit traumatic. Thankfully, Marks & Spencer came to the rescue.

As our wedding is in a village hall, I've focused much of my wedding thoughts on the décor. Being able to have a blank canvas to make our own was one of the main attractions of the hall, as well as being able to do our own catering, so I feel a strange responsibility to make it look really good! Annoyingly, as much as I love the idea of putting décor together, I'm not sure I'm that good at it so I'm keeping my expectations fairly low for what the overall look will be! I also did A LOT of googling of other wedding photos that had taken place at Hatton to get ideas and to see what we liked and didn't like. As a village hall venue, I can see that the majority of couples seem to opt for bunting but we felt that took away from the wonderful height of the hall - it has the most amazing arched ceiling and anything draped across just cuts it in half. We very quickly decided we wanted all our decorations to 'be on the vertical' - so we've got trees, streaming ribbons and balloons! Luckily, I work at a pretty big theatre company that has a HUGE stockpile of props, so I did spend a wonderful morning having a look through there to see what bits and pieces we might be able to borrow to help flesh out the room décor!

In the midst of a seemingly never-ending to-do list which I'm starting to feel very guilty about not starting sooner... we've also been treated to some absolutely amazing experiences. March really has been full of once-in-a-lifetime treats.

Firstly, I had the most wonderful hen do. My maid of honour outdid herself. As I'm the first of my University friends to get married, I wasn't really sure what to expect from my hen party - especially as it was planned in secret and I was kept completely out of the loop (not a comfortable feeling for me, as a self-confessed control freak!) but she worked pure magic to give me the most wonderful of weekends. I'm sure it was a tame weekend in comparison to other hen parties but for me - that was perfect. We stayed in a self-catered converted barn set in the middle of the countryside which was beautiful, had a fun day of It's a Knockout inflatable fun followed by an evening of Murder Mystery fun! I love Murder Mysteries so this was an absolute GEM of an idea. It was even a bachelorette themed game where the bachelorette (played by yours truly) was also a wedding dress designer - which meant a lot of normal 'hen-party' type games could be incorporated into the Murder Mystery too including a round of Mr & Mrs and a make-a-wedding-dress-out-of-toilet-roll competition. It was just lovely to spend some quality time with some of my favourite girls and realise that no matter how loved up and complete I feel with Jim, I still need these gorgeous women in my life just as much.

We also spent a night at the incredible Belmond Le Manoir hotel, which included a 5 course dinner at Raymond Blanc's two-Michelin star restaurant! Somehow I managed to bag this incredible prize from Brides Magazine as it's not something we could either afford for ourselves. I'm not sure I can put into words how special it was - it was like living someone else's life for 24 hours. Not only was the food out of this world, but the place was beautiful! Our room was in a turret that used to be a dovecote and split across two floors with the most romantic domed ceiling draped with beautiful fabric. As not the most refined of couples, I think Jim and I both felt a little bit out of our depth. We tried to hide our dirty, battered 52 Reg car round the back of the car park, away from the posh brand new sparkling clean cars but our plan was thwarted when moments after parking, a member of staff came and opened the car door for us and offered to get our bags from the car. I shall never arrive at a hotel again without vacuuming the car first! Also, does anyone know which way up are you meant to use a fish knife? I still have no idea.

With less than two weeks to go, I'm excited for the flurry of activity that is still yet to come. I hope to be able to squeeze as many handmade touches into the day as I can, as well as enjoying time with my family and friends in the lead up. There are still some major things still to sort out - we still haven't written our wedding ceremony and still need to source the food, but we'll get there and we've got the most amazing support team to help us. Let's do this!

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