A day shall come soon when I will cease posting about weddings and revert to my usual rambles about lipstick and shoes. Today, my friends, is not that day. With a week to go before the wedding, I'm more gripped by bridal fever than ever before, especially after receiving our delightful pre-wedding photos.

Choosing our wedding photographer was a task I wholeheartedly embraced - in fact I grasped it with all the selfishness I could muster and banned Jon from any sort of input. This was my calling, my justification for reading Rock My Wedding and Love My Dress with voracious abandon over the span of five years, under the guise of "research". I stumbled across Sara Dalrymple's work in the spring and kept her website on a tab in my phone, where it sat for months while we searched for a wedding venue - every time I browsed the web on my phone it would blink at me, patiently waiting for the opportune moment. That moment presented itself within seconds of booking our date - without hesitation or doubt I tapped out a message and prayed for availability. Happily, my wish was granted and we booked Sara to document our wedding.

I think engagement shoots are fairly commonplace now, as they're recommended to couples as a sort of test run before the big day itself - for both the couple and the photographer! Now I am no stranger to having my picture taken - countless photos of my mug on this blog are testament to that - but the idea of being photographed was somewhat of an obstacle for Jon. Luckily, Sara is so warm and friendly that any uncertainties were quickly dispelled and we soon relaxed into the shoot - I think these pictures convey how relaxed we were! It was such a lovely evening, wandering hand in hand around St Pauls and the riverbank - the busyness of London melted away before us. One thing that really stood out for me when choosing our photographer was Sara's ability to capture tiny moments that really represent a couple and their personalities - the fact so many of these photos show Jon and I making each other laugh means we were pretty much photographed in our natural state! We may have waited quite some time to have our engagement photos taken, no thanks to the British summer providing us with very few opportunities for a sunny evening shoot... but they were more than worth the wait.




















Flicking through these brings such a huge smile to my face, I can hardly wait for the day itself!

Love Dani
xoxo

 ~ All images by Sara Dalrymple Photography ~

I feel like I am part of a host of anxious August brides, peering nervously out of windows and checking the weather forecast every five minutes in the hope the sun will make more a lasting appearance as the month moves on. Grey skies and chilly winds do not make for a particularly comfortable summer, let alone the dream wedding weather everyone hopes for! My Sundays pass curled up in bed, with a mug of hot tea, a good book and Parks and Recreation on an endless loop - more reminiscent of autumn mornings than summer days. I wrap myself in layers and wish for balcony breakfasts and afternoons in the shade of a tree, escaping the heat in idleness.

It's no secret I have been stressed out recently and my little coping methods are waning as the days pass by, so the arrival of this beautiful bouquet from Blossoming Gifts was a welcome light in my personal darkness. This particular posy of loveliness is named the Summer Garden - a heady mix of lilies, germini and the most beautiful pink-orange roses - it was an absolute delight to unwrap!

Not content with cheering me up alone, Blossoming Gifts have kindly offered me a lovely discount code to share with my readers - if you'd like to treat a friend or relative, or even treat yourself if you've been having a tough time, simply use the code BGIFTS33 to order any bouquet (with the exception of flowers by post, it's valid for any flowers across the site). They even have a beautiful selection of bouquets under £20 - so you can brighten up anyone's day on a budget!

I'm so happy with my bouquet, and although the flowers were sent to me for review, I found Hannah from their online team to be so friendly and helpful that I'm already planning a purchase of my own! It's so important to help out small businesses that have just started up and the service from Blossoming Gifts was so lovely and personal, it beats picking up a bunch of flowers from M&S on the way home any day!

Needless to say, the flowers completely boosted my mood and also provided me with the perfect opportunity to test out a couple of my DIY vase centrepieces for the wedding. The large jar was formerly known as a Sainsbury's stir-fry sauce and the bottles are a combination of ex-J2O and Schloer - isn't it lovely how a quick coat of spray paint can transform such mundane pieces? I've found this to be such a cheap yet effective way of gathering decorations for our marquee - I've only had to buy spray paint and have a sort through our recycling box! The flowers on the day will look slightly different to the ones shown here, but it was fun to do a little practice run in the lead up to the wedding - hopefully it will all come together on the day!


Love Dani
xoxo


* bouquet provided for review, but as always all thoughts and opinions are my own!

 Remember four months ago, when I blogged in blissful ignorance about not feeling stressed about the wedding?

How naive I was. I want to shake past-Dani and ask her why on earth she wasn't more stressed, because instead of spreading the stress out over several months, she decided to save it all for the last three weeks before the wedding. Well done past-Dani. Good job. Thanks.

Honesty is a big thing for me - I could sit here and bang out a happy post about some wedding DIYS, or my hen parties, all jolly and cheerful and whee it's only 19 days away now, woo! But it would be false and I think there are more than enough articles on wedding positivity out there. So let's be honest - it's cold and grey outside, time is skipping by and I'm more than a little low.

The last couple of weeks I have been knocked for six by a wave of anxiety, along with a few of life's nasty little surprises, and I'm feeling more than a little overwhelmed by all the niggling little details. Thankfully I'm lucky enough to have lovely family and friends pitching in and helping me with everything, but I'm so stressed, even the concept of delegating jobs is getting to me! How are we going to transport the cake without destroying it? Who's going to hand out the wedding bubbles? Who will help clear up the marquee after the wedding? How am I actually getting to the wedding? Where am I going to put my family? When is the sun going to come out so we can have our engagement shoot? When is my cripplingly low self-esteem going to be slightly less crippling? How can I stop comfort-eating? Why have the ends of my hair turned black instead of sepia brown as promised by the box of hair dye? Why have I developed patches of eczema on my arms? Why does everyone keep asking me questions? Why can't I stop worrying about things beyond my control?

To combat this I've booked a hair appointment for some pampering, stuffing myself with supplements and forcing myself to get the yoga mat out more often. Most of all I'm trying my best to focus on nice things, like being able to call Jon my husband every time anyone speaks to me after 3pm on our wedding day, eating bacon butties and dancing with my friends, and most of all soaking in the amazing bathtub above in our wedding cottage. But right now, I just want to sleep for a week and get someone else to sort all the last minute bits and bobs for me while I pretend everything is ok. It's not ok. I'm not immune to stress and I am not a top-notch organiser. In fact, last weekend I had so much planned and so much to achieve, and instead spent the whole two days in bed with Netflix whilst battling my anxiety with every shred of energy left in me. I'm exhausted.

How do you deal with stress? Any tips for me??

Love Dani
xoxo

Six years ago, you walked out a glass door on a sunny day and into my life - you filled a space I didn't even know was empty. You made me laugh, you gave me butterflies, you stole my sunglasses. I danced around campus with a bottle in hand, you tried to make a ridiculously complicated drink and failed, you put your arm around me for photos and every part of me glowed.

Our first year was late night phone calls, novel-esque text messages, the steady blinking of MSN Messenger, counting down days, hours, seconds until we saw each other again.

Our second year was visiting homes, snuggling on sofas, tasting every dish on a Wagamama menu, wishing away weekdays and deploring Sunday nights. We giggled at jewellers and discussed dreams until you pulled a fake ring out of a chocolate egg and asked me to be your wife and the dreams began to come true.

Our third year we adjusted to work, to adulthood, to living together in your tiny childhood bedroom, cuddles under a baseball collection, becoming best friends.

Our fourth year we were awestruck by the Olympics, dazzled at Disney, utterly blindsided by the purchase of our first home together - another dream becoming real before our eyes.

Our fifth year, we struggled, we lost, we suffered, we cried - together, always together. Every time you broke down, every time I sobbed myself to sleep, every time it felt like the world was conspiring to suffocate us with sadness, we held each other close and promised it would get better, somehow.

Our sixth year... here we are. Three weeks from now I will walk down the aisle to you and promise to be the best version of myself for you. You make me a better person every day just through your unwavering love and support. I struggled to write my vows without sinking in clichés, but it's the truth - my world is better now that you're in it, and I am so happy and excited to become your wife.

To infinity...

Dani
xoxo

 When it comes to my relationship, I'm not usually the one for big romantic gestures - that accolade goes to Jon, he of the surprise-visit-to-my-home fame, along with romantic-treasure-hunt-proposal and secret-trip-to-see-Wicked. We have both long accepted that he will always trump me when it comes to effort, thought and surprise, so when his birthday rolls around I usually stick to a tried and tested formula of his favourite chocolate and a bevvy of games or movies.

Not this year.

Jon is a bit of a Star Wars fan - our spare room is filled with replica light sabers, Han Solo bookends, a Stormtrooper helmet - he even used to work on the Star Tours ride at Walt Disney World. It has already been established that we will be attending a midnight viewing of Episode 7 when it eventually gets released. Essentially Jon likes Star Wars approximately as much as I like Harry Potter (a lot). So when Secret Cinema announced their showing of The Empire Strikes Back, I cut back on my regular ASOS orders, stopped buying lipstick, and made damn sure I saved up the £160-odd sum required to attend.
Crucially, I did not inform Jon of this. Or rather, I kind of did, but gave him the impression tickets were way over budget and not achievable in the lead up to our wedding, when the money could just as easily be spent on lawn games or favours. This, coupled with vague hints about a birthday surprise at his football club, meant we travelled into London one Sunday afternoon without him so much as suspecting our actual destination. My plan almost crumbled when a host of costumed fellow attendees got on the Jubilee line with us, but thanks to  the Hyper Japan expo taking place that same weekend, Jon happily assumed the costumes were for another reason entirely.
His reaction when we alighted at Canada Water and I started pulling costumes out of my bag was utterly priceless - I even filmed it! We pulled on our respective garments, and armed with props, followed the crowd to the secret location.

For those unfamiliar with the concept of Secret Cinema, the premise is as follows: once you've bought your ticket, you will receive regular updates from Rebel X in the run up to your viewing. You're encouraged to log on and receive your "character" - happily both Jon and I were part of the Creative Council, so we were basically Jedi! - and then you're given tips on putting together a costume and what props you'll need to enhance your experience. You can of course go as your normal self, but where's the fun in that? Every faction has a designated scarf colour, and even if you wear nothing else in terms of costume I would encourage you to go with the scarf, as it's an essential part of the whole build up! On the night we attended, I would say 99% of people dressed up - some people made so much effort, it was amazing! Unfortunately, photographs inside the venue are not allowed, nor is revealing the location - it is secret after all! We were made to put our phones in sealed bags upon arrival - they're not taken away from you, but the no-photo-rule is enforced throughout the location. I took these snaps before we went in!

Money-wise, it is a lot when compared to your average garden cinema experience, but the thing to remember here is that it's much more than a film showing. The aim is to immerse yourself completely in the world and atmosphere pertaining to the film you're going to see - so if you imagine a few key Star Wars locations transposed into east London, you're pretty much there! You're guided by actors who help create the feeling of having been plucked out of London and thrown into a galaxy far far away - you're also encouraged to act out your part when interacting with other people, actors or viewers. There is also plenty of food and drink on offer - we had the most amazing pork dumplings and fried halloumi, yum! Do bring a credit or debit card though as the event is cash-free... Our event began at around half five and we were on the tube home by about half past ten, so you do get about five hours' worth of entertainment for your money.

Was it worth it? I'm not a massive Star Wars fan - I watched the films of course but it's never grabbed me the way Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings did - and even I would say 100% yes. I really, really enjoyed myself and Jon, well, Jon was in his element. His only regret was not knowing about it prior to the day as he would have gone all out with his costume! (He reviewed the night on his own blog here if you fancy a peek.) If I could compare Secret Cinema to anything I'd say it's akin to going to Disney - you feel a bit like you're in a bubble, everyone is enjoying themselves too much to feel self-conscious and it's so easy to get swept up in the fun!

Tickets are still available all the way up to the 27th September - if you're a fan (even if you're not!) I would definitely recommend it for a fun night out!

Love Dani
xoxo