Pre Wedding Party ♥

We have booked our one year pre-wedding party! It may be a little unusual to do, but that's us all over really. One of our favourite restaurants is called 'Syriana' in Birmingham. It's not one that would probably spring to mind to go to as it's a little out the way and it is Syrian and Lebanese food which I would of never tried before. One day we just ended up going, and I expected it to be spicy (even though I love spicy food), and I can be fairly picky, although I'm open to try new things.

The restaurant inside is long and narrow, with pretty multicoloured lights and fabric drapes, really traditional for that side of the globe. The food however, is AMAZEBALLS! We go every one to two weeks we love it that much, and it's about £17.95 a head for a big mezze to start, with flatbreads and loads of different dips, then you choose your main, I have marinated chicken and rice, then you have sweet pastries called Bakalava's (or however you may spell it) to finish. 

The staff there are so hospitable, and we always have a good old chat with the owner and manager, as I think we are their most frequent and loyal customers! So we thought what better than to have it there. We have the whole second floor hired to ourselves, with the three courses per head for about 40 people. We are having it Aladdin themed to go with the look of the restaurant, and giving the people coming the option to dress up! We are having a belly dancer too so she can give us all some lessons, and having the jingly jangly belts to dance to their groovy choons! (Cheese!)

Being the bride, I'm opting for a white outfit! Here's what I'm thinking.

I am by NO means having my belly out - LOL - but I shall probably have a plain white long sleeved top with Bride to Be in diamantes on it. These are harem pants and are only £6.99 from Ebay. I'm not too sure if the jingly jangly belt comes with it though, but that's only about £2.80 on it's own anywho.

So it's something very different to do a year before the wedding, I can't wait! It will actually be 2 days less than a year because of it being on the Saturday - of course I'm not counting too much.

I'll keep you updated on that! 

Tilly xXx

Operation Wedding Dress #5 ♥

I haven't done a proper Operation Wedding Dress update since the 29th of August! Can you believe that? Slapped wrists pour moi! So I briefly mentioned in the last but one post that I had lost about 2 stone now, and in my last Operation Wedding Dress post I weighed 13st 6lbs, I am now 12st 6.5lbs so almost another stone since the last time we had a chinwag about it. I have lost 30.5lbs in total, or 2st 2.5lbs, and have gone from a size 18 - 20 to a comfortable 14. Obviously, we are on the brink of Christmas and it's going to be quite difficult to be as strict, and I am finding that already - bit of choccy here and there - but I feel like I can see a size 12 on the horizon, and that was something I could of never dreamed of before I started this.

My ultimate goal weight is 11st 1lb according to weight watchers. I think this next stone will be the hardest to shift, but I know in the new year I'm really going to try for it. My current goal in the meetings is 12st. We now have a dog, so we try and go for walks that are about 40 minutes long and I hope to build that up, and increase the pace to a jog, then a run, but we will see how that goes!

My BMI has lowered from my heaviest weight being 34.57, to now 28.09. Don't really know what it all does but I'm glad I'm now in the 20's at least. 2lb a week loss from now until Christmas would be really nice to achieve my 12st goal by then but who knows. It's nice to think hopefully this time next year I will have my wedding dress and it's all hunky dory.

Just thought I'd show you this brooch. It's from Primark and was £4.00, and I bought it to go in my hair for a ball I went to last weekend. I just think it's so pretty, and if your are looking for brooch's for a sparkly bouquet, this might be a good one without breaking the bank. I just attached it to my side bun with a load of grips.

Just another quickie, I have found a great website called Final Stitch through a lady that tweeted me it. It's a great forum for brides to be, where you can pop on photos, details about how you and your other half met, and a great site to get plenty of inspiration! My username is 'wicktilleth' if you fancy a scout round, I have a few pics on, and will keep updating as the next 17 months whizz by. I'm doing two posts today, I have more things to write about!!

Ooo Oooo and....the sweet cart and DJ are now Booked! I didn't think we were going to have a sweet cart, but it's a really tall one and fits great with the vintage theme. I can dress it up however I want, and we have chosen 12 different sweets that are unlimited all night. I also cheekily asked the company to throw in the candyfloss machine for an hour to which they have agreed! You don't ask, you don't get. So the deposit is down on that too, just got to think of all the songs we want the DJ to play over the next year as well! 

Tilly xXx

A Visit Up North ♥

This weekend we went up to the venue with Ed's sister and boyfriend, and went 'Glamping' while we were there. We stayed in these wooden Octolodges, which were really cute and cosy. It was all heated with plug sockets and a T.V., only downside was the toilet and shower block was a walk down a hill but that's what it's all about. Ed was walking down to it with me in his PJ's and decided it would be more fun to get to them by falling and sliding down the hill! I turned round and he was covered in mud, so the one positive about that, it gave us a right laugh. 

Here was a view from the lodge at about 8am. It was stunning with mist off the hills, and snow on the mountains, you forget that sights like this exist in England!

This was the view in the day. This is about 20 miles away from our venue.

If we ever go up to Kendal I always make sure I have a quick mooch in the charity shops, they seem to have bags more goodies than we do. I just go in with an open mind and see what I come out with. With the help of Ed's sister, we found this gorgeous vintage hand mirror, with an ivory sequined back. I'm not sure how old it is, but it's quite heavy and I think it is brass. I just thought it would look gorgeous as a little vintage prop somewhere in the room, and the design of it is very wedding like. A whole £2.00 it cost! Definite bargain.(Sorry for the rubbish pictures, I was in a rush!)

I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but I've been after two vintage suitcases for the wedding. One for the table plan (I'll explain how when I do it!) and one to put any cards we receive in. I've looked on Ebay and they are all around £50.00, or too far away to pick up, and they are so popular now as a shabby chic home accessory. We walked into this charity shop and there it was. Perfect. Dark brown, rectangular, tatty, with somebody's initals on. It's also great because I found it in Kendal, so just another little sentimental point to it. I had the whole shop trying to help me get into the thing though, it was so tightly shut no one could open it! I just thought I would risk it and have it anyway for £15.00. 

When I got home we sprayed some WD40 on the clasps and it popped open like magic. It's in decent condition inside, but it'll look great when it's newly lined with floral fabric etc! Just one more to find now.

Tilly xXx

Oh Hey Stranger! ♥

Well haven't I neglected this blog for a good old while? Both of them have gone down the pan really, sorry if anyone does read it! We have moved house and we are pretty busy at the moment, always something going on. We also get our new dog on Tuesday, a six year old Springer Spaniel called Milo, who we are taking in from our friends as they are also on the move. He's a big ball of fun and I can't wait to have him around, he will also be an asset to my weight loss I hope with all the walking.

Talking of weight loss, I have hit about 2 stone loss now. It hasn't even really felt too much of a struggle. Although some weeks it is tough as we are getting into these cold winter months. There's nothing better than sitting in front of the T.V. with Ed, doing a bit of crochet, and eating copious amounts of snacks. I love it, and this week it seems to have overtaken me a little. I hope to get back on track once I have Milo, and get this weekend over as we are Glamping and visiting the wedding venue.

At my heaviest, before I skydived, I was a horrendous 15st 4lbs and I can't believe I'm typing that really. I joined weight watchers at 14st 9lbs, as I lost a little bit for the skydive. I am now at 12st 9lbs and feel better already. After this bit of a bad patch I am hoping I'll get back on track, and if this picture is anything to go by, it should give me all the incentive I need.

March 2011            October 2012

So we are going up to Kendal this weekend to pay off another chunk of the cost. We are slowly but surely getting there. We are staying at a farm, in something called an Octolodge, like a luxury wooden hut with heating and a T.V. and everything. I'm looking forward to escaping for a couple of days, although I doubt it's going to do wonders for the diet living on crisps and pot noodles. 

Anywho, just a quick update, and I'll get back to the wedding posts when I have returned from Kendal!

Tilly xXx