If the shoe fits...

Here's my recent Bridalwave post about my fabulous wedding shoes:

Once my dress was all sorted, my thoughts turned to what I was most excited about: wedding shoes. I knew I wanted ones I could wear again, so that ruled out anything remotely bridal or made of satin.

So, the following Saturday I hot-footed it down to Selfridges shoe department to go shopping! First port of call was Gina, where I found the most amazing pair of sparkly shoes ever, which I instantly fell in love with and didn't want to take off. Thinking I couldn't find a pair I liked more than those, I then looked at Jimmy Choo, and found the less sparkly, but no less amazing classic gold slingbacks.

I was struck with indecision as they were both my dream shoes. How would I chose? In the end, after taking advice from three shop assistants, a random couple and both my parents, I opted for the gold slingbacks as they will look better with my dress. If you can afford them, the Gina shoes would look amazing with a really simple wedding dress. However, as my dad pointed out, I'd always wanted to wear Jimmy Choos when I got married.

So my wedding shoes are now nestled in tissue paper in their lovely pink bag, which has taken up temporary residence on top of our wardrobe until September. I must admit I'm finding it very hard to leave them there, and have tried them on and walked around our flat a few times...to break them in, honestly!

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It's a Bridal wave...

So I'm getting married...think I mentioned that before, right? ;-)

Anyway, I'm also blogging about my wedding planning on Bridalwave, the Shiny Media wedding blog. In the run-up to September, I'll be writing all about dresses, cakes, venues, shoes, rings...and so on.

Here's my first post: Gill''s Wedding Countdown Begins

I'll always remember the breakfast my boyfriend Alex made me on the morning of Saturday, February 14th this year. The food itself was lovely, but the most memorable thing was that shortly afterwards he proposed, I said yes, and he became my husband-to-be.

Even now I still can't stop looking at the amazing ring he picked for me! Being engaged is exciting and very, very lovely. I spent most of my early twenties unconsciously attempting to be as much like Bridget Jones as possible, and until Alex and I got together about two years ago I'd never really thought much about getting married; yet a few months into our relationship it was difficult to think of anything but.

However, I was never destined to be a typical bride-to-be. I've not had my perfect day planned since I was five, I shudder at the thought of anything approaching even a hint of a meringue dress, and I think the idea of putting so much time and effort into perfecting a single day is a bit extreme - let alone expensive! I'm most looking forward to us making a commitment to each other in front of our friends and family, and starting the rest of our lives together as a married couple... and obviously, attempting to look lovely at the same time :-)

So once I'd stopped crying, we'd phoned everyone we knew and updated our Facebook statuses, we started thinking about when we were going to get married. Apparently the typical wedding takes 18 months to 2 years to plan. We knew we didn't want to want to wait anywhere near that long, so decided on September of this year. And as for the rest - it can't be that hard to organise...right?

February...

So the best thing that happened in February - more exciting than snow, more snow, pancakes, or most things in my life so far - was Valentine’s Day, when my lovely boyfriend Alex made me breakfast (eggs benedict) and then asked me to marry him.

He proposed by giving me an ‘I heart Balham’ mug with the beautiful ring he picked out all by himself inside. Needless to say, I cried and cried, and said yes :-).

Being engaged is fabulous, and I can’t wait to get married (I’m getting married! End of September – about six months…). Here’s Alex’s slightly sci-fi take on it here.