Sista..... Stand Up!

Typical!! The one time in my life I have the chance to buy a dream pair of shoes and I still cant find any to wear with my wedding dress!! The other vintage beauties I bought will now be worn in the evening with my other gorgeous number. No, I don’t want shite, boring white satin court shoes!! No, I don’t want footballers wife style bling sling backs (anyway their quality is pants and they are over priced!!) Where are you shoes!!!! Where are you!!! Come to me!!! I even went to Christian Louboutin… the King of Sexy shoes!!! Did he dish up? Did he Shit! Serves me right for discarding Dorothy like some old dish rag!! ( see previous shoe rants).. OK…. This is a sign!! Dorothy must be trying to tell me something… I never did get to the new shop and maybe its time to give Dotty her props and give me what I have been looking for… Dorothy! Look for me I’ll be on the yellow brick road soon to find you and my shoes!!!

As a result of my love for the clothing, film and music of this era, I want to have an accept of the era at the wedding. At first I thought about incorporating a 50’s dress code but then I had a horrifying dream where all my guest turned up looking like ‘The pink Ladies’ and not the elegant Hollywood glamour we all love. I shouldn’t assume that it is possible for everyone to do 50’s glamour and to be honest; I don’t really need people to do this in order to create the atmosphere I want. So…. The dress code will just be black tie to ensure that everyone feels glamorous and comfortable in their choice of clothing. I have so many other ideas about how to create the vibe I want, it will still be just lovely!!

I never thought people could charge so much money just to print a few words on some card! When I started researching stuff for the wedding nearly 2 years ago I remember reading that weddings are such big business and to be careful where you use the W word as it seems to magically add and extra few pounds on the top!! This is really annoying for the bargain hunter I am so I have taken to doing a lot of the creative stuff myself.

I just spent a bit of money to get some good quality card, envelopes and ribbon, not eBay this time!! I bought these before I got the bug!! But it is gorgeous and I cant wait to send them out to you all!! I won’t tell you too much about them cause you will have no surprises for the wedding if I tell all on here but we now have some simple elegant invites, made with my own fair hands which would give the Wren press a run for their money.

Keep an eye in your post boxes for early June!!

Now that home is starting to look more livable the reality of the time ticking by is starting to kick in…. I only have 4 months to sort everything before the big day and on top of that I have to re budget our money to account for extra expense of the move!!! This week I have been sorting out all the paperwork and will be updating all my Microsoft money stuff so I can see exactly where we are and its panic stations!!! I have to remain calm and get organized!!! The good thing is that we both have been sleeping much better in this new place so I don’t feel half as knackered as I used to. I seem to be squeezing every minute of the day into seeing what I can tick off my to do list which went straight out of the window 6 weeks ago when we got our matching orders on the flat….. Even the journey to work is used for updating my organizer with mind spinning thoughts and ideas that sometimes have stopped me getting to sleep… I now sleep with a pad and pencil beside the bed so I can write stuff down if I wake up in the night then transfer it to my organizer on the train in the mornings…. Lunch times recently are spent on the phone or on the web making appointments and writing the vows ( I won’t be obeying any man!!!) Next week I’ll be getting stuck into the invitations…. As soon as I get home, the coat is off and its dinner in the oven and the organization continues….. Work has been really stress ful at the moment too and sometimes I wish I could have secret office with a secret email address and phone number so I would not get 50 million demand a day…. Its one things after another and I have also been recruiting for 2 new team members and training so it has been very demanding at work as well as at home…. its completely mad at the moment but I must try to schedule some June time. I have some details on a weekend meditation retreat so maybe I will do that otherwise I will be crawling up the isle from exhaustion and I will not enjoy what should be the happiest day of my life…..

The Special Delivery card for my dress arrived on Wednesday but the post collection office closed at 12.30 so would not be able to pick it up till Saturday!!!! I Raced down to the post office for 8am on Saturday, nearly hitting a lamp post while parking the Mini in my excitement!!! I still had to wait in queue and when I finally got to the front the man took ages searching for the parcel… I could see him going through the pile over and over and I started to fill with dread that maybe someone had stolen it!! I told him that it would be quite a large package and then he found the large box under a table!!! Phew!!! I was now grinning like a cat as I placed it beside me in the Mini and drove home screeching merrily at the top of my voice to the Carpenters as I thought about unwrapping my prize…

Back at home I carefully sliced the box open to reveal mountains of tissue paper, which added to the excitement. There was a beautiful card from the seller wishing me the best (told her it was my vintage wedding) and revealing she had put an extra ‘gift’ inside!!!

I opened the tissue paper and the dress was exquisite…. Considering its age (50’s) it was in immaculate condition and the pictures on eBay did not do it justice.. I held it up against me and it was perfect…. (still not going to tell you what its like!!! You have to wait!!) I was eager to see what this gift was so delved around in the tissue paper at the bottom to reveal a neat black box tied up with ribbon. Inside were beautiful diamante jewels to match the dress…. Earrings, bracelet and necklace… I was so overwhelmed by this beautiful gesture and was now blubbering like a fool. This wonderful stranger who adores vintage clothing clearly loved this dress and had just made the whole thing of buying the outfit a magical experience for me… I sent her a warm thank you email and promised to send photos to which she was delighted!! The other amazing thing is that the dress goes perfectly with the vintage shoes I bought previously so I am a very….. happy….sista……. ahhhh life is sweet when your getting married!!

I could hardly contain my self last week when i came across the most amazing dress on ebay. it was an original 50's vintage gem that was so delicious I had to have it to wear in the evening of the wedding. I would not bid straight away but decided to watch it and see how things went. Every day as I checked on it, I knew I just had to have it. I hadn't felt like this about an item of clothing for some time but I knew it was already mine! I Called Miranda (the eBay queen) last Friday evening to discuss tactics. She gave me some great advice about what to watch for and an idea of how much it could sell for in the last minute of the auction. At 5.05 Sunday night I logged on to prepare for eBay battle when the auction would end at five thirty five. I was a little annoyed at a few of the bidders who had not quite grasped the concept of getting a bargain by bidding to early and pushing up the price rather than bidding in the last few seconds in order to get the sale. I refreshed the screen every few minuets, my heart was pumping faster and harder.. Although I felt the dress was already mine I had to bid at the right time at the right price to make sure I would get the dress. I turned off my phone to make sure i was not interrupted and closed the living room door to shut out the TV from upstairs so I could concentrate. At 5.34 I could hardly contain myself as I entered my bid. The next few seconds were hell as I refreshed the screen about 1 million times to see if I had the winning bid screen!!! Hoorah!!!!! its mine!!!!! yippeeeeee..... i am so happy!!! I grabbed the phone and called Miranda straight away as I would not have got it had it not been down to her eBay wisdom!!! I knew she was at work so I left a message. within 2 minutes of leaving message and before she had even listened to it I got a text from her to find out what happened... I called her screaming down the phone that I had got it... I’m not going to describe the dress!! You will have to wait till the big day!! Ladies... NEVER take your close girlfriends for granted! Great ones are hard to come by and will always be there when you least expect it.........