PROUD MOMENT : MY BLOG GOT PUBLISHED IN HUFFPOST 'How to get married in the 21st century'!!!

Finally after 18 months of working at AOL I have finally written something and sent across to HuffPost UK Blogs and they only went and published it. Yikes!

Here's the link to it on the site, click below just so you can see it in the flesh, but just in case you don't want to you can read below (ps a blog on the whole proposal to follow at some point)!

How to get married in the 21st century.

Once you’ve had at least five prosecco engagement celebrations and you’ve received too many cards to fit in your ridiculously over-priced studio flat in the outskirts of London, it’s time to get serious and get a plan together. So here’s seven points to help you out.

1.) WHERE

Sit down with your fiancé and think about when and where you want to get married. Summer, winter, this year, next year, UK or abroad or maybe you just want to hop on the nearest flight to Vegas and get married in a Vegas chapel or the romantic side of you fancies eloping to Gretna Green?

2.) BUDGET, RESEARCH, NEGOTIATE

Once the date (ish) is decided, do your research on budgeting, sites like; Cosmo, Conde Nast Brides and Harper's Bazaar can offer guidelines on how much you might spend. Then you can figure out whether you are able to save enough in time for your ideal date. You may even be lucky enough that your family would like to help you out and want to pay for certain things.

Once you have a total actual and REALISTIC budget, it’s time to do actual research. This takes time, so make sure you don’t rush, making any rash decisions, remember this is a day you will remember for the rest of your life. Contact at least three people/companies per thing e.g. dress, cake, venue etc. This is where the master spreadsheet comes in – document everything. This spreadsheet will be your baby, it should outline a breakdown of all the expected costs and then you can start to fill in your own costs once you get quotes and the price you eventually pay. You could also have a tab per item, highlighting costs, comments, whether you’ve managed to negotiate etc. Also ask around, recommendations are a no brainer, you’re not trusting a webpage and ‘so-called’ reviews, you’re trusting people you know, so why wouldn’t you.

Think about whether you actually need everything that Cosmo has on their essential list, do you need a string quartet or to have Cinderella’s horse and carriage? Final point on this is NEGOTIATE, never ever settle for the first price that’s offered to you. Push, push and push some more and when you’re happy, you can accept it but if you aren’t happy, move on and continue to research. Also, remember, the more you can get below your budgeted cost, the better – more dollar for splashing out on honeymoon.

3.) BE CREATIVE

A sure fire way to save your precious pennies is to get as creative as possible; this doesn’t mean you need to have an A in GCSE in Art, just think outside the box. This is where Pinterest comes in, PINTEREST IS GOD. 5 minutes of a quick browse for a couple of ideas for groomsmen buttonhole flowers, can very quickly turn into a 2 hour sesh where you’ve planned you’re whole wedding, right down to cool things you can put in the bathroom for guests (dry hair shampoo, deodorant, make-up remover you name it). It gives you cost effective ways to do things that look great and it’s also a great way of getting your wedding party involved e.g. collecting jars and buying some glow-in-the-dark paint, painting the jar, filling with water and putting outside – great for a summer wedding!

Utilise what you already have – your brother’s girlfriend’s cousin is a mobile hairdresser, hell yes! You’re mate makes a cracking birthday cake, get them on your wedding cake, plenty of time for practice and not to mention all that tasting. Amateur florist in the family could offer you those insider tips that will cut costs down to the minimal! Seriously though, take advantage, people more often than not will be keen to help – people love love.

4.) DON’T COMPARE YOURSELF TO OTHERS

The worst thing you can do is compare your wedding to others, no one has the same budget, the same amount of contacts, or even the same ideas so why would you bother trying, you’ll just end up disappointed. Your wedding will be AMAZING; you’ll be surrounded by all your favourite people celebrating life, so just try to remember that. This brings me onto my next point.

5.) DON’T BE A PUPPET

It is your day. Sometimes this can be forgotten when lots of people are offering to help you out and you want to try and please everyone but it’s just not possible, there will always be someone disappointed, but they will need to understand it’s your day. Always have in your mind what kind of wedding you want, do want you want and remember (hopefully) it only happens once!

6.) DARE TO BE DIFFERENT 

Don’t be afraid to step away from the norm and ignore some traditions. We’re in the 21st century, so it’s kind of expected! If you want your husband-to-be to see your dress, then why not, they are probably the person that knows your better than anyone, so it makes sense. Don’t want to cut the cake or even have a cake, so what! By the time the cake comes out, everyone is way more interested in shots anyway! Your mum is a feminist and wants to be in on the walking you down the aisle shenanigans, why not have both your parents. It doesn’t matter what you do, it’s your choice and whatever makes you feel comfortable on your day is the best choice.

7.) ENJOY IT

Final point is ENJOY IT! Don’t allow it to become a chore, get your bridesmaids, groomsmen, family and others involved in as many things as possible, that’s what they are there for anyway! Also to look fabulous in all their wedding attire on the day. You only get this day once, go embrace everything, take pictures of everything and take it all and saviour all the memories!

#AOLtakes3Peaks

On Friday the day we'd all been waiting for finally arrived for us to take on the 3 Peaks Challenge.

It was an early start for us, all making our separate ways to Gatwick Airport to meet at 7.30am before boarding our flight to Glasgow.

After arriving in Glasgow, our coach picked us up and took us north-east towards Ben Nevis but first we had to make a pit stop at Tesco to pick us up the fuel for our challenge.

The views during our journey were amazing but in between taking photos we did manage to get a few Zzs. 

Finally around 3.30pm we arrived at Ben Nevis and we had time to prepare, carb load, stretch, warm up and have a few  last minute panics.

Before it was time for us to start our ascent and we were lucky to have pretty clear views the majority of the way up! 

Then we spotted a few patches of snow and we guess we were doomed from there as the further we climbed the more the fog/mist came in and the spottings of snow became one just mass of snow and we felt like we were at a ski resort minus the skis with only dodgy poles, to help us trudge to the top.

The actually top with the marker was impossible to find and after bumping into some others we found out we were at the top anyway. With time being of the essence, we had minimal time for photos so a couple of selfies on the go had to work.

For me and others in the group the descent was harder, with our knees struggling to take the pressure so we weren't as quick we I thought we'd be. However we still managed to make good time with just over 5 hours, after a quick wet wipe down, a toilet break and change into comfy clothes we were on route to peak numero 2; Scafell Pike.

After a quick snack we all crashed and tried our best to get as much sleep as possible and it appeared that our coach driver decided to take advantage of that by taking a pretty hefty break of his on. Despite the fact that he and the company he worked for were fully aware of our strict time deadline. Meaning that we arrived at our next point way behind schedule. But our bad luck didn't stop there, we also came across another obstacle, due to thin, country roads running to the base of Scafell we had pre-booked 2 mini buses for the transfer and surprise surprise only 1 turned up! And the journey from our coach to the base and back from around 45 minutes. Talk about nightmare. So we had to work with what we had. We decided the slower group should go first because the faster group had the chance to catch up. Hindsight is always a great thing, so in hindsight we probably should have had the faster bunch go up first as we were have had more of a chance of completing it. 

So unfortunately due to time restrictions (yet again) we didn't have the time to complete Scafell Pike but we found out afterwards that (the faster group) we were only 30 minutes from the top, but as I'm sure you'll understand it was pretty frustrating. Congratulations to our fabulous bus company, chin chin! 

Because of the early start, it felt like I'd done a day's work by the time we got to the bottom and the worst thing, by the time we eventually got back to coach we found out that the rest of the group had had a bacon sandwich!! After living on a diet consisting of cereal bars, grapes and cookies I think you can understand how were were feeling unless of course you're veggie! 

Back on the bus it was key for us to get some more sleep before our 3rd and final peak; Snowdon. Here's our final group shot. 

Forgetting the snow on Ben Nevis I actually think Snowdon might have been the toughest. We picked the shorter, steeper route for time and some parts were particularly steep, meaning we literally had to climb and it was also the busiest so we sometimes had to go a bit of the beaten path. And the further we ascended the foggier it got so when we got to the top our view was a little less than spectacular.

After taking a few too many selfies it quickly became pretty cold but we had to wait for the rest of the team to reach the summit. Finally luck was on our side and there appeared to be a cafe with 'panoramic' views (not that we could see anything). We stopped for a quick hot drink before preparing ourself for a speedy retreat. 

Haha oh dear, but it just wasn't that easy. After serious lack of sleep, no proper meals and achey legs we were bound to take a wrong turn at some point and it would be now. A few of us (8) headed off in the wrong direction but we didn't realise until 15 minutes down and after one of the group properly hurt her knee. We found out that we were going down the miner's route a.k.a the longest and almost flat route. Great for those with injuries. We tried to get in contact with the rest of the group but to no avail, we'd just have to meet them at the bottom. 

Oh and it was pretty freezing...

And then finally the sun came out and we got to see some cracking views.

We then reached a cafe and decided to try and make contact with the group and it also made a perfect picture opportunity, captioned 'lost ramblers'. What we didn't realise was that the others didn't have signal but they rang us through the pay phone. 

We were at the bottom apparently but an epic 7 miles away from the others so we got a taxi to join them. Finally we made it, only an hour and a half after the others. It was time for some well-earned beverages, some dodgy bus songs and an extremely long journey home! 

Honestly it was an amazing experience and I 100% want to do it again. Maybe in hindsight it was slightly overly ambitious to bring 24 people so recommendations would be; I reckon max. 12 people and drive yourself don't rely on others and take it leisurely. 

I write this on route Valencia, so keep posted for my next post... 

Xoxo