Wedding diaries #3 bit over due!!

I've been really busy planning my wedding. In my last post I said I didn't really have much to do until a bit more time passes, clearly that was a lie!! I've done loads!!! So what have I been up to? I feel like I have loads ticked of my list. With what I thought was going to be really hard planning a wedding in Cyprus and liasing with company's 2000 miles away, has actually been quite easy.

I have booked hair and make up appointments. I did a lot of research worrying who would be up to the standards of our brand and found a salon that seems very efficient, won awards and has experience in doing brides that do hair for a profession, you know, us fussy ones! 

http://annashairsalon.com/

Booked the photographer and videographer. I fell in love with this ladies work, I think it's the thing I'm most excited about the wedding. She is professional and such a nice woman.  Each time I watch one of her videos I'm always sniffling!

http://www.lovenlight.photography/

Bought my flowers and a couple of table decorations.  Ive decided on artificial flowers, firstly to cut costs and secondly coz I knew exactly what I wanted and dare not take the risk once I got over there, I'm pretty sure their flowers are stunning but they needed to be perfect. My mum and I made up 7 bridesmaids bouquets and my own. I picked these up from country baskets they had the exact colour I wanted, bonus. So the flowers are waiting to be shipped to Cyprus this summer, to get them out of the way and in storage. 

I Bought my dress!!!!!!  Oopppps, It kind of happened by accident I went for a browse and fell in love, it's currently at home sat nicely waiting for the big day. I got an absolute steal and still think it's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. 

Sweating the small stuff

No matter how much organisation we put into our wedding, there will always be something that causes a mini meltdown on the morning, resulting in the bridal party rushing around like headless chickens, stressed and flustered before the ceremony even begins. After my best friends wedding, that by the way was organised to perfection Miss Trunchbull would of been proud! I got thinking about how to eliminate the crappy things that you just don't need, making you late or flustered.

1. Take tags off everything the night before, even stickers off shoes. Have scissors to hand for any sneaky ones you've not noticed. 

2. Wet wipes, have a pack handy for before you put on your wedding gear, just check everywhere. Hands for foundation, hairspray stuck to your back or like I did shirt fluff stuck to my 'slightly' perspired armpits!! 

3. Give enough time for hair and makeup that's the last thing you want, for it to look bad, because there wasn't enough time and you were at the end of the queue. (your stylist should have all this under control, but they would appriciate a helping hand to keep everyone stuck to timings).

4. Wear a top that can easily be unbuttoned after hair and makeup.

5. Practice before how the dresses fasten up, especially if it's a lace up back. This took the longest for us as we didn't expect it too. Watch how the brides dress fastens at her fittings. 

6. Lay out everyone's shoes, handbags and flowers so easily accessible to grab at last minute.

7. Somebody look after the brides phone and lipgloss and take some tissues to the ceremony with you. Slip a tissue down your bra if you have to.

8. Moral of the story is, spend a bit of time doing the little jobs you always think "yeah I'll do that tomorrow it will take two seconds" well those 2 seconds add up, causing stress that's not needed because you've been waiting 10 minutes for a pair of scissors!! 

Wedding diarys #2

The wedding is booked!!!!!!!

I finally did it, I took the plunge, I stopped messing about trying to choose somewhere perfect and it's booked!!!! You may notice and will continue to see I'm using the word I rather than we. That would be because, my partner is so easy, he just is happy to do whatever and have me organise it, and pipes up every so often when he feels his input is necessary. So I believe I just have paperwork to fill out for now and pay the second half of my deposit and that's kind of it for now, then just to crack on saving.

It's quite strange kind of not having anything to do but save, I can't go dress shopping because I feel it's too early and I run the risk of changing my mind. Flights and hotels haven't released there dates yet so apart from giving out my save the date cards (purchased for 0.99p from home bargains!!!) I have to just sit tight and obsess over Pinterest! 

Wedding diarys #1

And so it begins...

After four years of been engaged and ten years after meeting, we have finally got our act together and starting planning a wedding!!!

 I must say I haven't even booked a venue yet and it is so stressful. All you brides to be who plan a wedding for the year after getting engaged, well I think your superheroes!!

 I've played a part in so many weddings making the bridal party glamorous, calming their nerves, even down to dressing the bride and fastening rings to ring pillows. 

I thrive on it in fact I adore it. With that in mind I expected planning my wedding to be a breeze, but so far I have found making the simplest choices very difficult. 

We have decided on going away to tie the knot simply because we thought it could be cheaper and less hassle. Although you can get so carried away with all the add ons especially at a more expensive hotel and it could work out more money than a UK wedding. 

I would defiantly advise you spend time looking into who you want to plan your wedding, it may be a tour operator or a individual wedding planner or if your clever enough and speak the lingo do it 100% your self. I've found a brilliant company called Aphrodite wedding services and they have been amazing helping me with my enquires.

 I think I have found my venue and have my (accountant) friend making me comparison cost spreadsheets!!! Now can you see why I make hard work for my self! 

 I do intend to keep up with my wedding 

diarys, as a journal to look back on after the wedding, I think that would be really nice for my children to read too.

Overdue catch up!

It's been ages since I did my last blog, I've been rubbish and neglected it, but with good reason may I add, so here's what I have been upto since then. 

    Jax is now 12 months , he started walking 6 weeks ago (10m 3weeks) he is into everything, talk about needing eyes in the back of your head! We celebrated his birthday last week with a party on the weekend and a tea party on his actual birthday, he was miserable I was stressed but everyone else said they had a fantastic time. 

Exciting times ahead for business, started back working in April, I decided self employment would be better suited for me at this time and so far I'm enjoying my new venture. The best part is we have finally got our jadetuesday wedding and events page set up.

Looking back on the past year I have done so many things I am proud off, things that I will never forget and things I can only build up to be stronger better things. 

I really love blogging so hopefully I can blog more stuff in between business and baby, Im writing this on my well deserved first family holiday where I can finally look back over the past year and be proud of what I've achieved.

Brides listen up!

If your ever in doubt about a hair trial before your big day, here's 7 pieces of my advice.

1, Speak to a few stylists about prices, date and location of your wedding. See who you feel most comfortable with, you want to trust them and feel at ease.

2, Book a trial! Book in with a few different stylists to see who's style you prefer, or book a couple with the same stylist to try different looks if you are unsure.

You may only feel you need one, that's fine, but if your going to worry about your hair and make up then have several.

3, Spend about 15-20 mins explaining your ideas, showing pictures and describing your everyday state of hair to your stylist before you begin the trial. I love spending this time with brides as I can ask lots of questions, gather information and start forming an image in my head. 

* Questions I am likely to ask and why. 

 What does your dress look like? 

    I would always try and complement the dress with the hair, For example If the dress has beautiful neck detail, I would urge the you to wear your hair pinned up rather than down, as wearing it down would cover the best feature on the dress.

How do you wear your hair day to day and how do you wear your hair on a night out? 

    You want to look amazing but at the same time wouldn't want not to recognise yourself. The pictures are lurking around for life and most importantly, a woman needs to feel comfortable to feel her best.

Is there a theme to the wedding or just a traditional good old fashion knees up?

   Us stylist would never know theses details unless we asked, if a you showed me a picture of 20s look but your wedding style was a very 50s genre then it would look out of place. I would like to add the final touches to the theme by incorporating this into hair and make up.

Back to the list now.......

4, Sometimes the stylist will ask questions throughout like would you like more volume in this top bit or less? We are more than happy to spend time working to achieve a perfect style, but there is nothing worse than a you saying yes that's fine, that's fine, all the way through till the finish look is reveled, for then you want the volume to be more or less. Obviously next time we can tweak or change, but a hair up is like architecture, all built into each other and to mess the structure at the end the will bring the whole thing down 

5. If you plan on using a veil or any other hair accessory, tell the stylist at the start as this could completly change the look. If you can lend an old veil from a friend or a shop then do. It really does tie the whole look together, any problems in this department can be resolved there and then instead of last minute on the wedding day! 

6. Get your stylist to Take pictures of your all your styles from all angles then if you are unsure or want to remind your self, you can look back on your camera and see what everyone else is going to see on the day. 

7. Dos and donts

- DO alert your stylist if you are having added hair this needs to be prepped and ready before the day and extra time will be needed to encorperate the hair into the style 

- DO, book out enough time if you want to try a few different looks. The stylist needs to know to book out her day and price accordingly.

-DO Find out if the stylist wants your hair washed the day before or the morning of the wedding.

-DONT try out radically different hair colours, you will regret it on your wedding photos and who's to say it will go exactly how you imagined. Leave that added stress till after the wedding day.

-DONT have more hair cut off after your trial, the look could completly change by any layers or a fringe you have cut or make it more difficult for the stylist to recreate the trial look. Ask your wedding stylist what you should have done for your pre wedding cut. 

*pictures I used as inspiration from Pinterest. 

Anthony Michael

British fashion illustrator and designer Antony Michael certainly has a talent worth shouting about. 

When Anthony started his Instagram account back in 2013 I bet he never expected the big things that followed. His illustrations started by designing for our old friends the Disney princesses and boy are they stunning. It's no secret of mine that I adore Disney, seeing your favourite characters with another life, rocking different looks and keeping up with current fashion trends, surly is every Disney fans dream.

Anthony spread out his work and did designs for the one and only Barbie, giveing her several different looks each of them equally fabulous. When Anthony started to illustrate celebrities such as Jenifer Lopez, Beyoncé, Rihanna, and Kim K, was when things really went wild. He now has over 10k followers, including Jenifer Lopez, Naomi Campbell, designer Charbel Zoe and beauty/fashion blogger Carli Bybel.

He has received regrams from Tyra  Banks, Jlo and likes from Nicki Minaj. He's getting a popular guy ey???!!

Antony has worked on his own but also been Privelidged to collaberate with well known fashion illustrators Ponyy_Boyy and Yigit Ozcakmak. His ultimate goal is to have his own fashion line and boutiques I feel like we can help him on his journey and achieve his dreams. Disney will be choosing one illustrators design to make Cinderella a dress.  The winner will be picked from the top ten people that has the most likes and re-blogs on tumblr.

Cinders NEEDS to be in a one off classical Anthony Michael piece, so lets get working to make this happen.

http://cinderellamovieuk.tumblr.com/post/113868657224/cinderella-by-anthony-michael-visit-cinderella