Today is exactly 5 months until our wedding. OMG. I can’t believe how quickly the last month has gone. The days are slowly disappearing before my eyes and I still can’t believe i’m actually getting married! Focus Alex.

Introducing our Wedding Coordinator

Little did we know when we booked our wedding, we would be getting our very own wedding coordinator. WHAT. A .RELIEF. We recently met up with her at the venue to discuss our plans, and I was quite surprised with how much we got through. We literally discussed the whole schedule, from where and when I start getting ready, to how late the bar stays open! She made notes on every possible detail. This was amazingly helpful. My head is all over the place at the moment. I work 3 days as week as a fashion designer, which can be quite full on. I write the blog with Vicky, stay active on social media, plan the wedding, and spend time working on a new project I have up my sleeve. Not to mention looking after Little Lamb, who has recently decided his bedtime isn’t until 9pm, so my evenings are pretty much over by the time I can get the laptop out.

A few days after the meeting we were sent our schedule by email, giving me a full breakdown of the day, and a list of what still needs to be organised, giving us plenty of time to make any changes if we want to. I can’t stress enough how much this has helped us. Not only did the meeting clear my head, it also gave Joe a well needed boost of confidence.

You have to feel sorry for the Groom. They have a lot of pressure to stay calm throughout the whole day, and in my opinion have a lot more responsibility than the Bride. To begin with they have to greet the guests as they arrive for the ceremony, while the Bride hides away being pampered. They then have to stand in a room full of emotional guests waiting patiently for the Bride to arrive (who is, of course, fashionably late). They then have to say their vows in front of their closest friends and family (obviously trying not to cry), and spill their heart out once again during their speech. While all this is going on the Bride sits their enjoying the attention and compliments (don’t worry i’m not complaining!) And finally, as if they haven’t done enough, they then have to get through the first dance without ruining the Brides Jimmy Choo’s (in my dreams). So when Joe doesn’t want to talk about the wedding, or make any decisions about food, I need to remind myself how much he is already doing for our special day, and be thankful he hasn’t cancelled the whole thing.

The Next Sale Haul

The one thing I had planned in my head since the day we decided to get married was buying the suits. I knew that I was going to try my very best to buy suits for Joe and his ushers in the Next sale. I worked in Next when I was at University, so I know the shop very well and they offer a great range of suits and occasionwear. There was no way that Joe was going to dress up in traditional wedding attire, even if he wanted to I wouldn’t let him! I absolutely hate those shiny cream waistcoats with gold detailing (no offence to anyone who has hired them for their wedding, it’s just not my taste).

I have been asking Joe for months to find out the sizes of all of his ushers, so I could be fully prepared the hit the Next sale at 5am and grab everything we needed. Obviously it didn’t go as smoothly as I had hoped. We found out the date of the sale about a week before, and of course, I didn’t have anyones sizes! So panic texts went out urging the boys to get to Next asap and try on a suit.

Armed with my list of suit sizes I hit the Next sale at 7am (2 hours late I know, but I wasn’t that commited 😉 ) and to my horror I could only find 2 jackets and 4 shirts! I needed 5! The next stop was online, where I found another 2 jackets. Then off I went to our town centre in the hope they would miraculously have the rest of the items on my list… I think you can guess where this is going.

It took 7 stores, in 4 towns, and 5 online orders and I finally found all 5 suits in the correct sizes! (I think). Unfortunately the online orders are going to take up to 4 weeks to arrive, so if for any reason we need to return the suits, I won’t be able to get my money back from the in-store purchases, as Next only offer 15 days to return sales items (it was 28 days when I worked there). But with a saving of over £400 it’s totally worth it. If we only get credit for the suits, that’s fine. Little Lamb is always going to need new clothes (and so is mummy!) And thinking about it, I still need to find Lamb his suit for the wedding (I am so excited about this!) So if I end up with store credit, I can use it on Lambs suit!

A lot has happened since my 6 month countdown post (which you can read here). I now have a proper schedule for the wedding, I have decided on the meal options for our wedding breakfast (which I recently learned is called a ‘breakfast’ because it’s your first meal as a married couple – makes sense I suppose…) I have an almost complete guest list (a little bit bigger that we first anticipated), we have picked a song for our first dance (sooooo difficult as all we listen to is the Frozen soundtrack!) And, of course, we have 5 suits! (Once my 5 separate orders arrive!) I think I deserve a little praise for the effort I put into buying the suits (shopping from 7am until 5pm with a 16 month old isn’t the easiest of tasks), or maybe I deserve a new designer handbag (I did save us over £400 after all 😉 )

Alex x

P.S I forgot to mention, a very important little person also got an outfit for the wedding. Auntie Alex is very excited to give it to her when she is ready to arrive. 🙂