Oh how excited am I this afternoon? It's time to introduce you to the newest member of the Bride Diaries girls. The super lovely Beth and her beau Andrew, who are getting hitched in November 2016. You only need to check out that pinterest board of hers to see just how stylish their day is set to be. Today we hear all about that meeting and proposal. YAY xo Lou

Hi!

My name's Beth and I am super excited to be blogging for WWW!

My fiancé and I are currently living in Northern Ireland but we're planning a wedding across the pond in Liverpool (it's our favourite city and where we met). For the last 3 months I've been interning at an Irish wedding magazine so I'm currently planning 15 different weddings. Well not quite, but it is so difficult to make up my mind when faced with millions of spectacular weddings!

In the end we've decided to go with what we originally wanted- a relaxed and cosy winter wedding, bathed in candles and fairy lights with heaps of glitter detail. Well the glitter may be more my idea than Andrew's, but even so.

We've set the date for November 5th 2016 (remember, remember the 5th November!) and have booked the amazing Liver Building for our ceremony and a cute, little event space called Oh Me Oh My for the reception.

I'm having 5 bridesmaids (eek!) and am thinking of ways to include my late mum, with a bouquet for her. Our main priority is getting all of our friends and family together and having a jolly good party with lots of yummy food and drink- we're hoping our venue will approve our pie and mash idea.

Last week I booked the talented Harriet from Weddings Vintage to photograph our day - she combines stunning documentary style photography with vintage editing and is just perfect.

That's all we've confirmed so far, think I need to take a breather at 17 months out, but I look forward to sharing our wedding with the lovely readers of WWW including my slightly inappropriate obsession with tulle!

I first met my fiancé Andrew in a house share of all places! The day I moved in I was suffering slightly from the 2, okay maybe 4 glasses of wine I'd had the night before in an attempt to break the ice with my new house mates. Andrew was the only flatmate I had left to meet and he interrupted me trying and failing to set up my wardrobe. He asked repeatedly if I wanted a cup of tea, I don't drink tea (don't hate me) until it got a bit awkward and we had a bit of a natter. I told him how I was planning to go travelling the following year and he remarked how he'd never seen the appeal. Sorry, what? I instantly decided we probably wouldn't be friends.

Two weeks later Andrew announced plans for a birthday party which included a herd of boys taking over the living room and as a single girl living in a new city my ear pricked up! So I did what any single girl would do and invited myself plus the rest of our house mates. I'm sure he thought I was really cool....

Turns out none of the party goers were the eligible bachelors I had imagined and surprisingly (to me especially) I ended up sharing a cheeky kiss with the birthday boy. 10 months later, after a torturous friendship and much heartache, I love you's were exchanged and we made it official.

The question of my travelling was still hanging in the balance, as I'd already booked and paid for a year in Thailand and Australia. My friend who was meant to accompany me pulled out due to family circumstances and I was able to put the trip back a few months to see where Andrew and I were going.

Six months later Andrew boarded the plane with me.

We had the best year of our lives in Australia and when the twelve months were up we reluctantly handed back our visas and caught a flight to New Zealand. For three wonderful months we lived and worked in the amazing city that is Auckland. We were saving up to go travelling in the summer when one Monday night I received a call from my Dad telling me that my dear Mum had suffered a cardiac arrest. The next day we packed our bags, quit our jobs, rented our apartment and by Thursday lunchtime we were back in Belfast.

Unfortunately, my mum didn't make it and that was an incredibly difficult time in my life. I honestly am not sure how I would have coped without Andrew there with me. Around a month after her death, fuelled by the gin that we'd been drinking I told Andrew that I'd realised how much family means and that I had decided I wanted my own sooner rather than later. To my absolute surprise he agreed and we concluded that we would be engaged within the next year.

I didn't have to wait that long though as in January, Andrew had a restless night's sleep (I didn't think anything of it at the time) and dragged me out of bed at the crack of dawn to run errands. I was a bit disgruntled, wondering why we were up so early and although it pains me to admit it - slightly stroppy! After breakfast in a local café, a haircut for Andrew and even a trip to the betting shop so Andrew could put on a football accumulator he announced we had to head to the shopping centre to buy some coffee.

On the way there we passed a church, my family church to be exact and he asked me to go in and have a look around with him. Once outside he dropped to one knee and said some lovely things, presenting me with a beautiful ruby and diamond halo. To be honest the whole thing's a bit of a blur but I think I mostly squealed.

At the time I didn't understand the significance of where we were but afterwards he told me that he'd picked it as most of my family had married there, and he knew we wouldn't so he wanted to include it in our marriage somehow. Also, the last time that we had been there was at my Mum's funeral and he liked the idea of her watching over us making happier memories. Because it was January and as a consequence, sub-zero temperatures we didn't really have any choice but to carry on to the shops.

So this is the story of how I found myself one freezing January afternoon, sitting on a bench in my local shopping centre staring transfixed at my left hand. And yes we did get the coffee, but we also got some champagne too!

Beth xxx