#foodporn

As modern, up-to-date, blogg-y girls (these are official terms), there are some recent trends we did not like - but we kept silent, and now we're kind of okay with them. Kind of.

Like Hello Kitty

Crazy nail art

Giant glittery 4 year old child phone cases

Duck lips (okay, we haven't really kept quiet or become okay with that unattractive trend, but you get our drift)

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But thanks to an awesome blog post by Adventures in Mediocrity, we've decided to speak out about one that has really REALLY been bothering us.

#foodporn

We, along with Meghan (and hopefully you'll join and we'll all start a revolution!) want to stop people on Instagram (yes, thats us, you and everyone we know) using #foodporn.

We all know at least one person who photographs their food (hey, we do that too, that's not the issue!) and always hashtags food porn. Maybe its baking. Or breakfast. Or a before and after plate photo (we've seen them! Trust us, we know what happens to food. We don't need a photo of the aftermath). But all of this is most definitely not porn.

This is #foodporn

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This is not.

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#food makes us think 'mmmmm, get in my belly'

#porn makes us think 'how has this account not been blocked yet?'

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#foodporn makes us think 'is that hygenic?'

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It's simple.

Lesson over. As homework, please pop over to Adventures in Mediocrity to read Meghan's views on the subject, and IMPORTANT: Watch the video. All the way through. And imagine two of the people on your Instagram feed who always #foodporn as the two people in the video.

It's not pleasant, but nor is any shock therapy. Trust us, you'll never #foodporn again!

Join the #notfoodporn revolution today!!

UK vs USA Wedding Differences!

Weddings!

As you know, Laura and I are a USA/UK partnership - over the past couple of years our different upbringings have seemed to have less and less impact on our daily lives. What we eat, do and say are becoming more and more alike. This time last year we even did a post on our language differences - something we are still working on :)

As we are now at the start of wedding planning we are noticing that this important event is done differently on both sides of the Atlantic. The fundamentals remain the same; a wedding is a joining of two people who are in love and want to make a public and legal commitment to each other till death do they part. The details however are more different than we'd have thought!

We have checked our understandings with friends to make sure we aren't making things up or confusing our limited wedding experiences with episodes of 'Four Weddings' or 'My Fair Wedding' or any number of wedding shows we have recorded.

So what differences are we talking about?

Lets start at the very beginning as it turns out that there are differences on how weddings are organised! For instance, the Bridesmaids - in the UK bridesmaids dresses are paid for along with shoes and accessories. I understand that generally, this is NOT the case in the USA. When it comes to pulling their weight/doing their duty as a Bridesmaid, American Bridesmaids also tend to step up more to offer help with DIY and are significantly involved in the planning. British bridesmaids are not greatly involved until the day of - it's a walk in the park in comparison :)

Language difference alert: BACHELORETTE vs HEN party. In essence they are one and the same, except for a few details, such as that in the US they don't have 'L plates' for the brides. Laura does not want us having a Hen Party. I have conceded on this one as we will be having our party in the USA and I'm not sure explaining that we are a 'Hen Party' will work at every venue. We will share our plans on what the Bachelorette party will be when we have it confirmed.

Attire - dress-wise we will both be wearing wedding dresses, so that's not the issue - but when it comes to the guests that's where things start to change. In the UK, as guests we wear hats to weddings, or more recently fascinators! It's common for all most all the ladies to be modelling some sort of head gear - though that's not as much the case in America!

Royal wedding fascinators!

To the wedding ceremony, when do bridesmaids walk - before or after the bride? In the USA bridesmaids lead the bride, they pass down the aisle and make their way to the front where they remain standing for the ceremony. In the UK the bride leads and the bridesmaids tend to follow and help with the train if necessary. They then sit on the front row.

Best Bridesmaids ever

In fact, being a bridesmaid in the UK seems a WHOLE lot easier - they don't pay for much, their responsibility is mainly on the day, in the USA they really work for the title!

In the UK the groom (not relevant in our case but still a point to note) must remain facing forwards until his bride arrives at the front - how difficult would that be! One of us will be at the front and there is NO way we'll have our back to the congregation, we want to see and enjoy it all.

At British weddings we have a wedding 'breakfast' regardless of the time! It is held after the wedding ceremony. According to Wikipedia the reason is:

'The name is claimed to have arisen from the fact that in pre-Reformation times the wedding service was usually a Eucharistic Mass and that the bride and bridegroom would therefore have been fasting before the wedding in order to be eligible to receive the sacrament of Holy Communion. After the wedding ceremony was complete, the priest would bless and distribute some wine, cakes, and sweetmeats, which were then handed round to the company, including the bride and groom. This distribution of food and drink was therefore a literal “break fast” for the bride and groom'. 

We will not be having a wedding breakfast, we are doing the American version and will have a wedding meal/dinner! At the meal, our first entrance as a married couple will be in the USA style, that  is accompanied with an announcement, applause and the band. In the UK a polite round of applause suffices but we want to start the meal as a celebration!

At dinner there is also the difference with the top table - in the USA the table tends to seat the bridal party - in the UK it tends to be the Bride/Grooms family. We will be going for something that isn't US or UK! Stay tuned!!

Oh and then there's who comes to the wedding meal. That may seem obvious but its not so. In the UK we  have two separate celebrations, we have the formal part with the ceremony and the meal, then we invite additional evening guests. Laura explained that doesn't happen in the USA, everyone invited comes to the whole day. As we are having a destination wedding it makes sense that everyone will come to the whole day.

Now something we both found weird was in the USA people apparently hit the dance floor between courses! We both love to dance but pre-dinner!?! We will therefore be doing the British way of serving all our courses THEN dancing. That way everyone will have the energy to dance into the night.

Then there's the cake - traditionally, wedding cake has been a fruit cake in the UK (though we know brides are moving away from this tradition!) and displayed using pillars between layers where as in the USA the cake tends to be stacked and made of something delicious! We will be going for the delicious cake but the design is yet to be finalised! We know it will be red velvet and we know it will taste SO GOOD as we've already chosen our baker!

As you can see we have quite a few things to discuss and as with the rest of our life it will be a fantastic fusion of USA/UK! Just wait 'till we get started on the food :) I think there may be a sizable amount of Dairy Milk chocolate coming with us!

We're Planning A Wedding!!

FINALLY we are going to do a wedding post!! Yay!!

Do you like the banner? We made it for our wedding website, and similar things will appear throughout our big day!

We are so excited to be planning our wedding, even through all the ups and downs that have been going on.

We are getting hitched in Laura's home state of Idaho (woohoo!) on the last weekend of June next year!

Laura's beautiful hometown

First of all, we got ourselves the most wonderful wedding planner - Brandi from Soiree Weddings & Events! We are so thrilled that she is going to help us plan our big day. We thought it was very important to have a professional help us make our day everything we dreamed about because it would be so difficult to plan everything from a different country. We are so excited to work with her!

Because we are super awesome planners, when we were at home in December, we checked out two wedding venues!

Riverside Lodge in Garden Valley, Idaho

We almost didn't make it to this viewing! Garden Valley is about 1.5 hours from Laura's house, but we had to pick up the keys at the office in nearby Crouch (attractive town name, right?). When we got there, we couldn't find the office, so we parked where the Sat Nav told us it would be, and called the letting company. The woman told us we had 'gone too far' and to come back where we came from. So we drove back through the town, and called again. We were told that we were in fact 9 miles away and had to go into Garden Valley. ....Okay.... so we drove. And drove. And drove. Finally, our poor pregnant wedding planner called the woman again. To our surprise, the woman said we misunderstood - that she was telling us where the cabin was, and that we did need to get the keys from her in Crouch. As you can imagine, hotheaded Laura & her dad were seething at this point. They were SO annoyed, and Sarah & Laura's mum were trying to calm them down. L was worried we wouldn't see the lodge before the sun went down - complete disaster in the countryside where there are no lights! When we finally got back to the office in Crouch, she waved us down. The office was - no joke - 100 feet from where we first called her from. So the whole fiasco was because instead of 'you've gone too far' which implied we were far away, she should have said 'oh, you're right here!' Seriously. So Laura & Bob successfully got through the conversation with her without being unpleasant (besides their kick-ass dagger eyes, of course) and we headed off to the venue. It was, thankfully, still light outside once we got there, so all was forgiven :)

We also visited the Roseberry Barn in McCall, Idaho

The barn was beautiful, but we absolutely fell in love with the lodge. Once we arrived, there was just no question. It is in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by mountains and a river, and just absolutely beautiful. The best thing is that because it's so secluded, it can just be one big celebration for a whole weekend!

Beautiful view from the back of our venue

So we booked it! Venue = sorted!

We have chosen our bridesmaids, but as we haven't asked all of them yet we will do a post dedicated to them when we have!! We will say we are so lucky to have so many wonderful ladies around us, and will do as we become Mrs. & Mrs.!

We had a wonderful photographer, Sara Byrne, contact us on Twitter a few weeks ago now. We'd been looking for an awesome Boise based photographer, and we immediately spent hours pouring through her wedding photos - and loved them. We had to book her only a week later to secure the date , and am excited to be her first 2014 booking, and first lesbian wedding! (Though that's not surprising in Idaho, we expect to be a lot of people's firsts!) Also, her fiance and co-photographer has incredible facial hair - and we only work with men with good facial hair (please refer to our mustaches post).

Phew! We've been engaged for 2 months today (the time is FLYING, we are still constantly staring at our rings!) and feel like we've got a lot done already.

Oooh when we were in Birmingham a few weeks ago to see our lovely friends Lauren & Sarah, they took some stunning close-ups of our engagement rings - we thought we'd share with you! They are so beautiful, and we love that they aren't yet scratched haha!

Sarah's ring - it says 'Past, Present, Future' on the inside with a few diamonds - as they say, it's all in the details!

Laura's!

Happy planning!

What We Love Wednesday - Date Nights!

I love Laura. Have I made that obvious yet?! The thing about love is it has to endure the good times and the bad and right now we are are pulling together to get over the bad news from my parents. Laura couldn't have planned this date at a better time.

I was told on Monday that we were heading out on a date on Tuesday but that I wasn't allowed to ask anything about it. I spent all day Tuesday feeling like we were newly dating - I had butterflies, I got giggly when people asked if I had heard anything about the date but most of all I was so excited that clock watching made the afternoon drag.

At exactly 6pm I bounded out the door and headed to my destination - Green Park! I was a little confused as Green Park on a Tuesday night doesn't seem like a great date location. As soon as I spotted Laura on the other side I bounded across the road, it felt like we were first dating and I loved it!

As soon as we were together Laura marched us off in the direction of Piccadilly Circus, and I was still completely in the dark about what was in store! The closer to Piccadilly we got the more Laura was checking her phone for directions. Eventually I recognised that we were near Carnaby Street and after a few more turns we were in Kingly Court and outside the Marshmallow Apothecary.

We had spotted the pop-up store on Instagram and Laura had looked into it for date night. The idea behind the store is that you are prescribed various marshmallows depending on your symptoms. There was a list on the counter explaining what was on offer and the 'Doctors' let you try a selection. We were prescribed some for a cold, for a pick me up and for anti-rabies (well after Thailand we thought we'd play it safe).

Within the pop-up store there were more marshmallow shaped seats, cushions and tables than you'd ever need! We made the most of it by getting comfortable to enjoy our prescription!

After our health fix we headed for dinner at TGI Fridays and enjoyed the French Canadian Burger - Laura's favourite - and copious amounts of Jack Daniels Sauce on my chicken and shrimp! So good!!!

Once dinner was finished we strolled through Leicester Square to Covent Garden and to check out a potential venue for our joint engagement/ 30th party. On arrival at the venue we met the manager and got a tour of the available spaces, we fell in love with 2 rooms so plan to head back on a Friday night to check out the atmosphere! The free drinks we were given definitely helped us enjoy the visit. Oh and the fact that we accidentally walked into an Indian speed-dating event, it was like a scene from New Girl!!

We love Covent Garden, there's always something going on and plenty of photo opportunities - it's such a nice place to head on a date. We also discovered that there is a Wholefoods invasion happening in London. We first discovered the joy of Wholefoods in Boise so to say Laura was happy to find it here is an understatement! We are sure that there will be more a few paycheques spent here - or as Wholefoods tweeted us to tell us we can head to Kensington and visit the biggest store they have so it may be spent there!


I was so grateful to Laura for organising the evening, the time together was much needed and it allowed us to focus on just being us and as us we're great! I forget how funny Laura is but last night we spent a lot of time laughing and really enjoying each others' company. I have an endless list of reasons I'm marrying my beautiful Laura including the fact that she knows just how to pick me up when I need it.