My, my, my ... dahlia!

I'm pretty clueless about flowers.

I've killed all but one plant I've ever owned, and that's only because it actually thrives when I forget to water it (most of the time).

But, in the same way I'm building skills in becoming a master wedding planner, ha ha, I'm also getting to know a reasonable amount about wedding flowers.

After lots of reading wedding blogs, and nearly 30 Pinterest pins later, and I think I've worked out what I'd like – namely, a hand-tied bouquet of dahlias, peonies and roses, in beach, blush and coral shades. Something similar to this, but a bit more blush rather than yellow tones (and maybe a bit less greenery):

For someone who, six months ago, wouldn't have known a ranunculus from a radish, I'm feeling pretty proud of myself!  

Edit: Oops, clearly I don't know as much as I thought, since I was sure there were peonies in the above piccie, but I've since been reliably informed that they are in fact ranunculuses (ranunculi?). So perhaps I don't know a ranunculus from a radish after all! (Though thankfully we're paying someone to know all that for us!)

That said, my new appreciation for all things floral has meant we've had to increase our flower spend a little. I've decided on a bouquet for me, smaller ones in ivory/white for the four bridesmaids and our flowergirl, plus buttonholes for H2B and his groomsmen. 

Our original pencilled-in 'how much are flowers anyway?' budget of £100 has now more than doubled – eek! But we've found a fantastic florist who came highly recommended, and hopefully the flowers will be worth every penny, for the amazing piccies if nothing else.

Say 'cheese'!

Speaking of pics, we confirmed our photographer last week, and I'm just as excited about that. She's a very clever young lady who does photography in her spare time alongside her day job of being a talented photo editor. 

We didn't want the usual traditional, dare I say cheesy photos for our wedding (and certainly nothing like these beauties) – rather mainly reportage-style pictures of those magical moments.

Lucky for us, I knew just the girl for the job. She is an amazing photographer, who's photographed oodles of cool musicians, and the odd actor and supermodel. (Wow, just wow.) I can't wait to see how our pictures turn out.

The dreaded D words

Are you there reader? It's me, panicked bride...

It's been a while since my last confession. Christmas happened, of course, so that proved a slight distraction. And January has been flying by. Time for a little update.

The big issues of the moment are Diet and Dress stress. I'd get a cup of tea if I were you. This may take a while....

A bit less jiggle in my wiggle
Like many brides-to-be blessed with some junk in the trunk, my wedding diet has had some ups and downs.

Christmas was a killer, as always. My good intentions abandoned me entirely, and I didn't come back to my senses until seven (seven!!!) pounds later. New year's day, I headed back onto the righteous path of healthy eating and haven't stopped since. Three weeks later, I've just about clawed myself back to the same weight I was pre-Christmas (20 pounds lost in total - woo hoo!) but that hasn't stopped plenty of panicking about the fact that I'm way behind my original goal of losing a total of three to four stone by the end of May.

In fact, up to now I've been too scared to work out what my new weight target should realistically be. Right, time to be brave, so here goes....

Ha! If only... (assuming that's pounds not kilos!)

Okay ... *brings up Calculator and Calendar apps*  ... from today I have just over 18 weeks until I get married. Based on an optimistic-but-not-impossible 1.5 pounds a week, that's 25 pounds. A total of 45 pounds lost would be 3.2 stone.

Actually, that's not as bad as I thought! I know 1.5 pounds a week will be hard going, though. It's been my average weekly weight loss so far while dieting, but I can imagine there'll be times when my body, brain and/or chocolate cravings refuse to co-operate. Still, better to try and fail than not try at all!

The big dress dilemma (part 2)

Ok, so I wrote back in July about my worries about The Dress. My budget is small, and so I quickly ruled out the traditional bridal shop experience. I decided my choices were either ordering from the States to try and get a designer dress for around half the price, or order from a UK eBay seller that I could (hopefully) trust.

Both options had the same risk, more or less: buying a dress I'd never tried on. I showed pics of both dresses to lots of people, and overall the eBay one seemed like the best bet. After checking with previous customers, getting swatches and so on, I put the order in, and two months later my dress arrived.

It looked lovely: exactly what I'd asked for. I tried it on, knowing it wouldn't fit – I'd ordered the thing two dress sizes smaller. However, even with that in mind, I quickly realised that it might not fit me even if I hit my weight loss goals. I have quite a long torso, and the bodice on the dress just didn't sit right around my arms and bust, even allowing for the extra curves at the time! I even got my size 8 sister to try it on and it sat funny on her as well.

That said, I'm sure it's not completely impossible to take the dress to a dressmaker once I'm a bit closer to my slimming goal and get them to work their magic on it. I'm not sure how they can lengthen the straps, but I do have some spare material (from the awful bolero jacket I asked the eBay seller to make, to match the dress – it didn't turn out well).

That's not my main problem, however. Since I bought the dress, our Mad Men/1960s theme has really taken shape. There's the bridesmaid dresses, which I've linked to before:

I've designed our stationery using typefaces used during the period, and I've booked The Vintage Salon in Birmingham to create '60s-inspired styles for me and the bridesmaids. The men will be wearing smart, modern grey suits, and overall it should look pretty darn cool.

By comparison, I fear the dress will look a bit, well, crap. It's light champagne in colour, in beaded lace. And the shape, while definitely classic, couldn't really be called 1960s. It's still a lovely dress. But I'm worried I won't feel as special as all the other details I've spent so much time over.

So what to do? Well, I have a plan. I'm going to keep on my dieting path and try on the dress in March to see how it's fitting and whether I'm happier with it. It not, well then it's onto Plan B.

And what's Plan B? Well, it's to order the exact opposite kind of dress I thought I wanted. Crazy, huh?

You see, being in my mid-30s, one of my first thoughts as an engaged lady was that I didn't want to go too OTT bridal. In fact, I'm sure I rambled on about that in one of my first posts.

Well, since then I've kind of had a rethink: namely, you only do this once (I truly hope!) so why not embrace it? That thought coincided with me spotting this dress:

Okay, so it's not 100% 1960s in style (I don't have the ankles for a proper Audrey Hepburn number). But it's definitely more in keeping with the era, and I think it could look lovely next to my bridesmaids' dresses. Assuming, of course, it looks lovely on me... And – bonus – even with import taxes it'll be under £200.

The bad news is that it's the same old gamble: buying a dress I've never tried on. In fact, I've never worn a dress that looks anything like this. So I've decided to do the bridal shop experience after all, if only to see if I would feel comfortable in such a bridal-y wedding dress – and to make sure I don't look like a toilet roll dolly. Assuming that goes well, I guess I'll take the gamble – again. At least I won't be too much out of pocket, whatever the outcome.

On that note, I think that's enough rambling for one update. I'll try to get back to more regular transmissions from now on. Only 18 weeks to go!!