We decided to do a first look because we thought we'd have enough emotion during the ceremony without seeing each other for the first time then, so wanted to have a private moment together to see each other in our wedding dresses beforehand. And boy are we glad we did, because we were less nervous for the ceremony, and enjoyed the whole day more!
Also, this dock was just begging for a first look!
Waiting....
Here she comes!
Love Sarah's face in this one!
Always looking out for me ♥
Aren't the surroundings INCREDIBLE?
♥ True love ♥
We really recommend doing a first look - it was amazing to have a few moments to stop and be by ourselves in a day that rushes by so quickly!
One of the things we are most proud of are how many personal touches there were in our wedding - amazing talent from Laura's mum and from bridesmaid Julia - support for an LGBT charity, beautiful things, we can't WAIT to show you them all on Thursday (20th November!)!
If you haven't yet seen it, click here to see our getting ready photos!
We are ecstatic to finally be able to share our professional wedding photos with you!
It's so much fun reliving our day - can't believe we've already been married for over four months!
It was a no-brainer for us to wake up together and get ready (mostly) together on our wedding day. As we were getting married at 5pm, we felt like if we were separate, we would have missed each other all day, and on what was to be our best day, it made more sense to have our very best friend (each other) by our sides. Also, as our bridesmaids were 'joint', we didn't really have girls who would naturally stay with one of us.
The above is Riverside Lodge - our venue, and where half of our abroad guests stayed for the three days we were up there. You'll see more of it in our 'details' post!
When we woke up the morning of our wedding and looked outside, it was drizzling slightly, and we thought we had come all the way to the other side of the world to escape a rainy England wedding, and... ended up with a rainy England wedding! That would have been alright of course, but we were really relieved when the clouds broke up and the sun peaked through - the weather we had hoped for!
Aren't the Idaho mountains incredible?
Funnily enough, Laura ended up getting in trouble on our wedding day - she went off with her mum to help put up the gorgeous signs her mum made, some bonding time, and ended up being away for over an hour! She arrived back to a stormy faced Sarah - who had even sent a bridesmaid to look for Laura! Luckily a kiss and all was forgiven.
We did hair and makeup with mimosas served in our Westminster seal champagne glasses we were given at our legal wedding in March, and spent time with our mums and bridesmaids - it was so fun and relaxed!
Afterwards, we ate some lunch, and our mums had their hair and makeup done. Then came the gifts - we gave our girls their thank you's, and Sarah's mum gave her a token of good luck.
Love this one of our florist seeing our wedding day looks!
The girls got ready, and helped us get into our dresses. This is where we separated - we didn't see each other from when we put on our dresses/accessories/veils until our first look.
Sarah went first!
She's free!
Then Sarah was sent outside to the docks where we would have our first look, and it was Laura's turn.
Then, we were ready for the great unveiling!
Next post, on Tuesday 18th November - our First Look!
Attack of the Christmas ads, maybe I should rephrase that it didn't sound very Christmassy - welcome the Christmas ads!
Here is how pretty much every meeting I had today went:
Them: 'How are you?'
Me: 'Good - you?'
Them: 'Good - can't believe it's almost Christmas - have you seen xxxxxx (insert any of the below here) advert?'
Me: 'Ah yes I awwwwed, wiped a tear, felt a longing for a white Christmas and then consoled myself with the fact that the amount of food coming my way will make up for a lack of snow - NOT'.
So anyway for those of you who haven't quite had the time to sit back and enjoy the festive ads on offer in the UK let us offer you a whistle stop tour.
Firstly John Lewis:
Awwww isn't it sweet, or as my Dad point out - highly unrealistic as penguins are from the South Pole and therefore nothing to do with Christmas! In fact it is kinda sweet in a cuddly toy way but it is a shame there wasn't a bit more equal love shared and it's not just us who think so:
(From the Evening Standard)
But the popularity of penguins must be at all time high if the sold out range and craziness to get some penguin themed clothes in store today was anything to go by.
Then there is Sainsbury's:
Maybe I should have mentioned a tissue may be required. Based on a story that war stopped on Christmas day for a game of football you can't help but appreciated the message in this poignant clip.
Aldi kept to a food theme:
So does Waitrose:
Marks and Spencers went with this:
Erm okay.......
I think I prefer this one:
I am counting down the day till we get to unpack ours, we are even attempting lights this year - cue much excited, fear and OMG this could be AMAZING or TERRIBLE! Lets hope for the former!
But nothing beats good olde Coca-Cola for that Christmas feeling:
It’s rare that I feel compelled to write about something
almost immediately after it happened but after seeing Made in Dagenham last
night I wanted to get this post written before I forgot things I wanted to say.
To start at the beginning, I had no idea what to expect in
terms of story or show, I had heard of Dagenham but only as a place in Essex
and this made me somewhat nervous – neither L nor I are ‘Only Way Is Essex’
fans, what if the whole show was about living in Essex?! – it wasn't!
We actually ended up at the show because of a lovely Twitter
friend we made a couple of years ago, as we work in London she lets us know if
any tickets become available as we can attend on short notice. And that’s what
we did. And we are so glad we did.
This show pulls you in from the start with catchy songs and
a true-to-life feel that just about anyone could relate to. Essentially it is a
feminist story but that doesn't become obvious until the plot gets moving. It
starts in a typical suburban house in the 60’s. Both parents work in a car
factory – the wife sewing seat covers, the husband in the manufacturing plant. On
top of the day job, the wife cooks, cleans and looks after the kids - after all, it’s ‘her
role’.
The play is based on real life events, the
story really happened, it was dramatised in a 2010 film and for this production
songs were added for musical flair but at the heart is a true story. Not
only that, the situations, the events, the views of women's roles in society have not moved on significantly
since 1968 so the story could just as well be happening today – it's really clever. As the tag-line states, it is about showing ‘how
ordinary people can do extraordinary things when they stand together’ and
this show did just that.
I won’t give the story away completely but a few of the key
issues that it brought to light were:
Equal rights
Fair pay
Women’s rights
Society’s view of women
The issues are just as relevant today as they would have
been then. On the way to work yesterday, we heard on the news ‘essentially the
pay divide means women are working for free for the rest of year compared to
men being paid to do the same job’. Can you imagine!!!! Laura and I are lucky
enough to work for companies that do not have ‘pay gaps’ dependent on sex so
are not experiencing this, but plenty are! Thankfully this has changed since the
60’s in most roles because of the Equal Pay Act of the 1970’s– no doubt in part
because of the women at the heart of this story.
‘Women
are half as likely as men to be in a job paying more than £50,000 a year. While full-time female workers earn on average £28,000, men earn
£33,000. This is a difference of £5,000, or 16 per cent. Perhaps most upsettingly, it means that women are effectively
working for free from today until Christmas. Yes, for free. Just giving our
time, energy and talent away like it’s worthless.’
From: MadeInDagenhamthemusical.com
Besides the pay gap debate that is still raging on, the other
topic that struck a chord was equality. Again, the world has moved on since the
1960’s but when they said the line ‘If not now, then when’ – it wasn't just
L&I that looked at each other and whispered ‘Didn't Emma Watson say that in
her UN speech, just weeks ago! (HERE)’ In fact, weren't these the very words that
launched the ‘#heforshe’ campaign?
Much like Emma’s point that feminism isn't just a woman’s
issue, this play highlighted the role that men can play; in fact, the result of
the play would have been very different if men weren't involved. It was just
eye-opening to see how a society so focused on established rules literally saw
their world collapse when one group of women pointed out that fair pay was
fair. It was as if no-one had ever thought about it.
The actor playing Harold Wilson, the then Prime Minister, even
came out with the line ‘well why are women working when the war is over?!’ it
was the 60’s – women worked – how could such an out of touch leader have dealt
with a society that he was clearly clueless about? Another point that is oh so
relevant in the UK today!
Putting aside the wonderful subject matter and important message, this is a top musical - the singing is flawless, acting is realistic and not cheesy (often difficult to do in a musical!) and the jokes are funny and well executed.
So if you are in London, go see this musical! We will definitely be making a second trip!
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