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

Birthing partners

Wow what a week it has been, from saying goodbye to a friend going to travel the world, to another friend loosing her dog to a diabetic battle, then to my best friends baby finally arriving. I've cried and I've laughed, I've hugged in joy and I've hugged in sympathy. I am soooo tired, and my face looks like I'm the one that has given birth, but this week has made me look at all the most beautiful things about life.

About 2/3rds way through my pregnancy, my best friend Tuesday, gave me the news that she also was expecting, I was over joyed that with only months in between baby's we can take this journey together. 

These past 6 months have seemed to drag waiting for her little one to make an appearance, I'm too excited and my little Jax desperately needs a friend! 

After the midwife started things moving on the Tuesday, by Thursday she was well into active labour. I arrived at her house to give some kind of (just been through it) motherly support, I realised she needed to be thinking about making that awful car journey to the hospital. Every contraction I held her hand. rubbed her back or just tried to crack some jokes before the pain got that constant and unbearable that we would be getting shouted at!

From 4cm to 7cm we gave her words of comfort each contraction, passed the gas and air, and just simply tried to keep her going, she was doing great. From 7cm onwards was when the mood changed we all realised shit was about to get real and this baby was close to making his grand entrance.  As someone's birthing partner this is where you are mentally tested and it's not for the weak hearted. As Tuesday struggled on through, no words could comfort her and there is nothing you can do to help, personally I found this one of the most difficult things I've done to stand by utterly helpless while somebody you love to pieces is in horrific pain. Each contraction her body tensed, it shook and she screamed in complete agony. I wished I could of shared the pain just to make it easier for her. 

As soon as she started holding the top of her bottom I knew it wouldn't be long to go now, this seems to be a crucial piece of information for the midwife, that any minute mum is going to start pushing! 

Once the midwife could feel baby's head very low down, it was time for the last hurdle, I felt so overwhelmed with emotions, I had to turn away and control my self, after all it wasn't me in pain!

As the head started to crown with each push I started pacing the floor. I wanted to hold a leg and shout push like they do on the TV just to feel helpful. 

Seeing the head emerge from what seems like a magic trick was truly magnificent. The things our body's can do to create another life is crazy, I think god must of had too much wine the day he sketched out childbirth!  Once the head is out I looked her in the eye and whispered I can see him, his head his out, any moment and you will see your baby.  Within seconds he was out and being layed on his mummy's chest. The transformation of emotions in a mothers face goes from pain, to exhaustion, to relief, to love to amazement, to even more love in 0.5 seconds  it's overwhelming to watch. We were all hugging and crying, kissing and laughing, we weren't too far away from popping open the champayne but we settled for a mug of tea instead, and kept our excitement down in consideration for a mother and baby that had been on a tiring journey. 

Seeing somebody give birth and giving birth your self are total opposites, even though the pain in labour is one that's indescribable, making you feel like you could quite be getting ready to follow the angel and walk into the bright light! I did think enough times during, that maybe, just maybe watching somebody else do it is worse than doing it your self. I truely and utterly loved the whole experience and it's certainly one I will never forget ever, to share such an intimate moment with a friend is beautiful. 

I adore this baby even more than I thought I possible could, the feeling that I was there to help guiding him into this world and I will continue to help guide him through life. 

If you have chance and are lucky enough to share somebody's special moment and be a birthing partner then do, it's amazing and makes you realise what life is really about.

Big love to my best friend Tuesday and congratulations, you will be great just like you was in labour.