Our Minimoon - The Crazy Bear - Stadhampton

As we're currently in the process of buying a house, we decided to postpone the honeymoon and go on a minimoon instead. We chose to go to the Crazy Bear in Stadhampton and opted to go for an upgrade and booked a suite (best decision). It's completely different to the Beconsfield venue, it's situated in a quaint village on a farm, the perfect escape from town life!

Once we had unpacked the car we headed in via the carpark/back entrance. We noticed a bright red London transport bus, but admittedly missed the reception sign on it and walked straight passed it, only to realise that it actually is the reception! 

Once inside the bus, we were greeted by 2 glasses of Tasarine champagne and guided to our suite, by a friendly receptionist. Our suite was located down the road in one of the cute cottages. 

The suite was amazing! I love how quirky the Crazy Bear is and the rooms most definitely lives up to expectations created by others! 

Excuse Nick lying on the bed, I couldn't take one quick enough! 

My favourite part of our room had to be the wet room, which compromised of a shower and infinity bath! I've never even heard of an infinity bath before, but I now want one in our house, it's pure luxury I didn't want to get out! 

As we were staying the night we booked the Thai restaurant located in the main building. The service was inpecable, when we arrived we were greeted by a friendly front of house gentleman, who guided us to our table. The dining area was insane! All padded walls, large eccentric tables and dimley lit. Obviously I had to go for a pornstar martini for pre drinks the best cocktail! The food was to die for, both myself and Nick love Thai food and have been for many a meal and this hands down had to be the best! For starters we had soft shell crab and tempura prawns (the portions are large!) and for mains I chose chicken green Thai curry and Nick had venison, both of which melted in your mouth and were cooked to perfection. 

Both of us felt suitably full after dinner so not suprisingly we gave desert a miss and retired back to our room to pass out in a food coma! 

It was a struggle getting up the next day as the bed was so comfortable. Needless to say the breakfast was calling us, a quick stroll down the road was well worth the reward at the end! I've never seen so much food before, it ranged from cereals, crossaints, doughnuts and cooked breakfast. Too many decisions to make first thing in the morning! We both opted for the cooked breakfast, which we didn't regret it was the perfect start to the day. 

We spent a little time after checkout at the Crazy Bear farm, which is a short walk, 2 minutes to be precise! The shop is worth a visit, it offers a wide range of locally sourced produce along with a lovely atmosphere. I do love a good farm shop! 

I loved having a little wander around the farm after, the little piglets are too cute I wanted to take them home with me! 

In conclusion, we both enjoyed our stay at The Crazy Bear and will most definitely be back. Thank you to all the staff that made or minimoon a special experience. 

Wedding - The Dress, Makeup, Hair & Nails - The Essentials!

Seeing as I've written about the wedding suppliers and venue. I figured it would be nice to follow on with the wedding prep!

My dress - Jasmine Couture - Brides of Berkhamsted

It stills brings a tear to my eye when I think about the day I found it! I loved my dress so much, it's true what they say you know when you've found 'the dress'. Brides of Berkhamsted stock a wide section of gorgeous dresses all of which vary in price I believe from around £750-£2000. Lucy and her mum that own the shop are lovely, If you're looking for great service and a friendly atmosphere then look no further. I was made to feel welcome as soon as I walked in the door and offered a cheeky glass of Buck's Fizz! As well as a wide range of dresses, they also have a great selection of headpieces and veils (mine pictured below both chosen by Lucy). The Jasmine Couture dress I chose was made up of double layered chantilly lace, with the smallest amount of beading around the middle. I truly felt like a princess in it, the veil I chose was delicate with tiny little crystals dotted on the edges. The head piece was made up of crystals, pearls and beads, it was perfect with my dress :) 

I can't thank both Lucy and her mum enough, your service was amazing. I wish you did more than just wedding and bridesmaid dresses, just so I could come and shop with you again! You really made the dress shopping experience a fantastic one. I will most definitely recommend anyone getting married to visit the shop! 

Bridesmaid dresses - Jenny Packham - Debenhams - £150 

I really struggled with my colour theme initially, which made it a tad bit of a problem when trying to find dresses for the bridesmaids. I'm a little indecisive.....! Anyway after months of deliberating on which colour to go for, I came across the Jenny Packham dresses. As my bridesmaids are all different shapes and sizes, the dresses ticked all the boxes and looked perfect on all of them. I wanted all of my girls to feel and look amazing. I've been to too many weddings where the bridesmaids end up in a dress they're not comfortable in (and it shows!). I fell in love with these dresses instantly and had to have them, plus even better they were the perfect colour for a spring wedding. If you're looking for chic and sophisticated dresses then look no further, it also comes in a dusty pink if you're not a fan of the green.

The beautiful bridesmaids :)

My little nieces dress was from Monsoon and was a bargain in the sale for £27.50! 

My gorgeous sister aka maid of honour & me. 

Alterations - Perfect Fit - Jacqui Walsh

My dress needed a few alterations to make it fit, especially on the length (I'm not blessed with long legs!) To make all of our dresses fit, we visited Jacqui, who is amazing and reasonably priced. If you need any alterations and your based in Hemel Hempstead or nearby I highly recommend. 

Makeup - Jade Denwood 

I am a massive perfectionist so I found the makeup part paticularly hard, being a beauty therapist I find it hard to trust or let anyone else do anything for me! However I am so glad I came across Jade, she is AMAZING! She uses Urban Decay, which I'm now a convert to! The makeup stayed on perfectly all day, so many of my guests commented on how flawless it was! I cannot recommend Jade highly enough and I will most definitely continue to have my makeup done for special occasions with her. Thank you! 

Hair

I'm a massive pain when it comes to hair, I must have changed my mind about a million times! Thanks to my boards on Pinterest I managed to decide on a style! Debbie a family friend, who has been doing my hair for years did all the hair for the bridal party and she was fab! My recommendation for for finding a hairstyle is to use Pinterest, but make sure it's something you're going to feel comfortable in all day! Don't forget updo's involve a lot of pins! 

My lovely cousin & I, sporting our lovely hairdo's! 

Nails 

Incase you didn't know, I do Calgel nails, so of course being a control freak like I am, I did all the nails (including mine!). I managed to find a colour that matched the bridesmaid dresses perfectly - ticklish pear to be precise! As I tied peach into my theme I decided to be creative and put some peach rose transfers from Hail the Nails on their ring fingers. 

For my nails as I didn't want to go with the classic French. I decided to go for a nude peach - Calgel's hide and seek. It worked perfectly with my peach and green theme. I love this colour :) 

For all you lucky brides to be, I hope you find my blog useful and have the most amazing day x 

The best day of my life

Where to start! They do say a picture is worth a 1000 words...... This just about sums up how it was!

Photo courtesy of Neil Sampson who was our photographer, he was brilliant I've loved the photos I've seen so far can't wait to see the rest! http://www.neilsampson.com

I truly can't thank the staff at Sopwell House enough, the events manager Joe Carter is amazing and his team are trained to the highest standard. Mine and Nick's wedding day wouldn't have been anywhere near as perfect had it not been for the staff, we were treated like a King and Queen all day. The set up of the room was outstanding all the prep was well and truly worth it! I would also like to thank Mandy, who was there right until the end of the night. 

The flowers were organised by Sopwell House's preferred florists - they were brilliant and created the most beautiful arrangements within the colour scheme. They even managed to put in sweet peas, in memory of my Grandad.  http://weddingvenuedecorators.com/about/

The wedding breakfast was thoroughly enjoyed by all of our guests, in fact comments from many of them were that it's the best wedding food they had ever had! We chose ......

All of our stationery was provided within our package by Kelly at Big Day Designs - who got the green from my colour scheme perfectly matched! http://www.bigdaydesigns.co.uk/bespoke.php

The cake, neither of us are paticularly massive on cake, although I am partial to carrot cake and Nick to chocolate cake! I decided not to go for the traditional three tier cake, but to go for three separate cakes - fruit, carrot and chocolate - I wanted something a little different plus it went perfectly with my shabby chic theme. 

Debbie from Cake of Herts made the cake, compliments as all three tasted great and looked gorgeous - http://cakeofherts.co.uk

To keep the guests entertained, especially my niece and two nephews throughout the drinks reception and meal. We hired Mick Smith a magician from the inner magic circle, the guests loved him and are still trying to work out how he did some of the tricks! It definitely kept our guests busy while they were waiting for food! I even managed to watch a few, I have to say I find Mick fascinating I could watch him for hours. If your looking for entertainment then look no further - http://www.mikemagic.co.uk

For the ceremony, drinks reception and wedding breakfast we had a saxophonist Raymond Jaeggi who was superb. Both myself and Nick love the saxophone so it was the perfect choice for us and everyone loved the music he chose. 

www.saxophonewedding.co.uk 

For the evening reception we hired The Lowriders from London - we opted for the 8 piece band although they have various options - www.thelowriders.co.uk

They played two one hour sets (they specialise in Motown, soul and funk) In between the sets they dj'd. I'm so glad we booked them for the wedding, the dance floor was full all evening. The feedback from our guests, not one person wanted them to go home, if the party could have stayed past midnight everyone would have carried on dancing away! One word to describe them - AMAZING, can we get married again just so we can hire them please!?  

We both had the best day and didn't want it to end. Thank you to everyone that came and all the people that helped to make it so special. 

In conclusion I highly recommend all of the suppliers we used and the venue couldn't have been more perfect thank you. X 

The perfect way to spend an afternoon

Despite some of the negative reviews online, I love the Crazy Bear in Beaconsfield. I've been there on 3 occasions for afternoon tea and had an amazing time with great customer service. It truly is the perfect way to spend an afternoon, although make sure you have a light breakfast! As you'll be thoroughly stuffed otherwise. They're definitely not short of food when it comes to sandwiches and cakes! 

For £20 per person or £30 (with champagne) it's worth a visit. My Nan even loves it there, She's already talking about our next visit! Even if you're not up for afternoon tea, I hear they serve amazing dinners and you have the choice of 3 restaurants!

My sister and I had a pornstar martini for starters, which I have to say is my highly recommended cocktail, it might have something to do with the shot of champagne! 

As well as the food and cocktails, the design of the crazy bear is fab! The best way to describe it is an up market tarts boudoir! It is one of the only places I know that it's acceptable to take a toilet selfie. Ladies in case you get confused, as the toilets aren't labelled the women's one is the one on the right!

I loved my surprise afternoon, pre wedding with my Mum, Sister and Nan. Thank you Amy (best sister ever) Roll on the wedding, 2 sleeps to go eeeek! 

X 

Hen do activities (the best bits!)

Apologies I haven't written anything for a little while, I've been slightly pre-occupied enjoying the best hen do! My sister Amy pulled out all the stops not only planning my hen do in Marbella, but organising the awesome activities! My sister didn't have the easiest of times trying to find companies that organised affordable activities for 22 people, until she came across Graham and Donna from Escape to Marbella. I was keen to write this blog as a massive thank you to my sister but also to both Donna and Graham for helping to organise the best weekend. My sister sent about 50 odd emails back and forth and recieved fantastic customer service. As you can only imagine it's slightly daunting organising activities abroad for somewhere you've never been, especially when transferring large amounts of money. We decided to go pole dancing and quad biking as the activities. With the booking Graham also organised the coach transfers to and from for an additional fee along with a transfer for one of our nights out. The pole dancing was hilarious, when we arrived we were greeted with some bubbly, which definitely helped loosen us up! As there was such a large group of us we got to do both pole dancing and lap dancing. The instructors were brilliant, they helped to put everyone at ease. I don't think I've ever laughed so much and loved the certificates and photos at the end. Be warned though pole dancing uses a lot of muscles so you might want a nice chilled day after!

The following day despite being rather  achey and bruised we went for our quad biking excursion with Graham, I have to say this was my favourite! Graham was really thorough when it came to safety and made sure we were all happy and comfortable. The excursion was fab, we got plenty of time on the quads and photos. The route was a little bumpy in places and muddy, which added to the fun and the scenery was beautiful. I can't wait to get back on a quad bike again! After the quad biking Graham and Donna provided an amazing BBQ, It's definitely worth spending the extra money on. They couldn't have made us feel any more welcome if they tried. Both myself and all my hens had the best time and we're already planning the reunion. Thank you for making my hen do extra special :) 

I truly have the best sister and had an amazing time. I highly recommend Marbella as a hen do destination - more hen do blogs to follow, keep your eyes peeled x 

My new sinful addiction....

Despite trying to be healthy and toning up for the wedding...... I recently came across the salted caramel sauce in Marks & Spencer's. I couldn't resist buying a jar to try, at only £3 it would have been rude not to. Unfortunately for me it was as good as I had expected and I'm now addicted! It's beautifully sweet with a subtle hint of salt. It can be easily heated in the microwave to drizzle over ice cream or even a chocolate brownie (if you're feeling like splashing out). My preference is to have it hot, but it tastes just as good cold.

In conclusion if you're going past Marks & Spencer's it's worth popping in to buy a jar, or avoiding at all costs if you're on a diet!

Hope you enjoy it as much as me! X 

Something to brighten up your day!

Looking for something to brighten up that empty space on your desk at work or at home? I recently came across these cute quote postcards, I love how simple, yet effective they're. I picked the three below as they put a smile on my face when I looked at them, plus I loved the colours, my favourite is the home sweet home one. I've decided to put the smile everyday one in my office at work, for those days when I need a little pick me up. I might even get some frames from Wilkinsons to put them in. 

For £1.99 the postcards are a bargain and can be found on www.esty.com/shop/bhambina the only hard part will be deciding which of the 24 designs to buy! x