Saving for something big - 7 top tips.

I always think it's very unfair how your mid-twenties are normally the time you need to buy your 'biggest' things. Getting married and buying your first home require big savings and unless you have money tucked away somewhere, this means saving for a long time. Not just saving here and there, big HEAVY saving.

Tom and I have been putting money aside each month properly for about a year now, but it's only when we got engaged it all became very real and we fully realised how much money we needed. I have set us a pretty small budget for our wedding. Humongous when you think how much is going on one day, but pitiful in the wedding world. If we already had our own house then I imagine it would be different and obviously we still want to have an amazing day and not look back with regret, but we feel uncomfortable throwing all our savings on one day, then heading back to our rented house and starting from scratch on a deposit. It would be so easy to spend £20-30k though and still not even have gone that mad.

But saving IS hard, when you're already paying so much on rent and bills it hurts to put all the rest into your savings account. I'm 24, I want to go on holiday to Bali and buy a Mulberry handbag from Selfridges and buy ALL the Jo Malone candles. But I want a house more, because those things in this house would be wasted. The feeling of knowing we're renting our house drives me mad, I can't cope with how temporary it feels. I want to get stuck in and make my own home and that is impossible when it's someone else's house. It's just uncomfortable all the time.

It's Monday, but it's okay!

Happy Monday! 

I had a lovely weekend of not doing much in particular, which is just what I needed. Carbonara, dog walks, mini eggs and Gardeners World are what weekends at home were made for really.

I spent last week totally stressing about wedding planning and have had nightmares every night about something going wrong. I forgot to buy a dress, I forgot to tell Tom the date of the wedding and he didn't show up, the BBQ dramatically blew up and we had no food etc etc. It's been very easy to get overwhelmed by it all, especially as I've made the super clever decision that I want to do everything myself because a wedding venue wouldn't do it right (good one). I spent a whole 2 days frantically trying to source gold cutlery. I think I must have contacted at least 10 suppliers, which are surprisingly difficult to find. About 20 types of silver cutlery, but no gold. I mean, who WOULDN'T want gold cutlery at their event? Apparently everyone. Tom's asked if this is a necessity and if I need to be obsessing about it this much seeing as we still have 16 months until the wedding and we haven't even decided which venue we're going to book yet. But I was adamant, there would be no wedding without them, tears were shed - WITHOUT GOLD KNIVES AND FORKS THE DAY WILL BE RUINED. I've calmed down now (only because I've found and booked some) but I've also realised that maybe I can slow down a bit and there will still be a wedding at the end of it.

My wedding spreadsheet is now obscenely extensive, there's currently 7 sheets on it and counting. But I've done a to-do list and even though it's scarily long (and I've only ticked one thing off on it, and I only put that on it so I could tick it off) it feels much better and manageable to see exactly what needs to be done.

Crazy control-freak that I am, with my spreadsheet in hand (literally in hand - I have it on my phone so I can check it whenever the mood strikes) I am ready and ON IT. But also, I just drank a huge mug of coffee so maybe that's helped as well.

What helps you feel in control and Beyonce-ish? Or am I alone in my madness?

Happy Monday all! (Lies, I hate Mondays).

Gemma

xXx

Religious vs. Civil Ceremony

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When it comes to arranging your wedding, the most important part should really be the actual getting married bit.

That's the whole point of it all apparently.

When I was younger I had always assumed I would get married in our local church. The village I grew up in is very pretty, with the River Chater running right next to the church and it's where my Mum and Dad got married. I went to the Church of England Primary School in the village as well and it was where the teachers would take us for bank holidays and special services.

Boys. Yak!

I'm going to talk about a boy. Ewie.

How to perfect an all-white wedding.

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Colours make a huge different to the setting of any event, but especially a wedding.

Whilst I'd personally never set a theme, I think it's important to pick a colour or set of colours to work around. If not you can get a bit carried away and lost, picking one simple idea and sticking with it creates a much bigger impact than a jumble because you couldn't decide.

I'm currently toying with a few colours to go with, the first of which is all white.
It can seem a bit cold, but you can create a variety of looks; from minimalist and simple to fairy tale-esque and whimsical. Personally I would go for floaty and dreamy fabrics it creates a fresh and light look perfect for the big day!

e is for...

Engagement!

(I swear I didn't plan that).

I'm engaged! Well I guess we're engaged because you know, Tom apparently also has to be involved.

We woke up to our disgusting 06.45am alarms as usual on Christmas Eve because we both still had work, to Harvey barking for a wee. Tom went down to let him out and I could hear him rummaging around in the lounge. I was still in bed and the puppy came running upstairs and did his adorable little morning routine of jumping on my head, pulling my hair and biting my face. It was as I was trying to prise my abandoned bedsocks out of his mouth that I noticed a note wrapped around his collar. It said that a christmas elf had been and to come downstairs quick for an early christmas present. We went downstairs and Tom was sat under the tree with a present for me. I probably should have been really suspicious, but it was still only 06.55 by then, and it was quite a big box so I just thought it was going to be something weird and silly. I opened it and there was a huge card inside, I had pointed this one out to him when we were doing last minute christmas shopping the weekend before, pretending to moan why he never got me christmas cards that say 'to my dearest, the love of my life on'. I looked up and he was on one knee and talking to me. I'm not too sure what he was saying but I finally got the jist of what was happening. All that was going through my head was; "But wears the ring? Why is it so damn early? I don't think I looked in the mirror on the way downstairs so he's waited 7 years to do this when I probably have make up under my eyes and my plait is all falling out." But yay! Out loud I obviously said yes!

Yay 2015!

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Happy New Year! 

I know it's super late, but it's January so it still counts.

We moved house mid November and the Sky engineer guy has just installed our internet today. After 8 weeks of me shouting and wailing down the phone to them ("how are we supposed to live like this?!?") it turns out they've been trying to connect the line to the wrong house. Good one Sky. Today's engineer was totally baffled as it has literally been a 5 minute job.

It looks like this year is going to be a busy one for us now. We got engaged on Christmas Eve (eeep!) and this has now forced us to think about plans further ahead than next weeks dinner schedule.