big gay weddings and a small amount of disappointment.

a list of things that i did for gem and mel for the wedding?

• made the bouquet of wonder and flowers for bridesmaids to wear.
• cared for their dog in a hotel across the city because theirs apparently does not like dogs (and as a result, was kept up all night the first night due to his incessant groin chewing and leg licking).
• planned the hen night of delight.
• gave up my house and my husband's cooking skills for the hen night so all the ladies had a place to convene, eat a big fat curry, make themselves pretty and suitably inebriated.
• planned and organised the wedding cake of glory to be as they did not have a wedding cake and it is just NOT RIGHT for someone to not have cake on their wedding day!
• went to numerous dress fittings and took photos to help the beautiful gem be sure that the dress was absolutely perfect.
• left work early several times to meet up to discuss wedding-related things.
• made countless phone calls to make sure everything was just right. (this included people bringing things for the hen night, wedding and for the BBC to send flowers to their room on their wedding day)
• spent more money than i ever should have for food and decorations.
• was the only reason that gem had bridesmaids, as she did not even think to have any until i mentioned it.
• was NOT asked to be an official witness to their wedding.

should i be pissy about it? no, most likely not, but it still feels like a bit of a slap in the face because i REALLY put a lot into this. this wedding stressed me out more than my own wedding did and at the end, when the officiator came out to prepare the witnesses for the ceremony, he called sarah up instead of me.
i am not saying i regret doing the things i did for them, and perhaps it is a wee bit petty for me to be upset about it but it just feels like perhaps that would have been the ultimate thank you for someone who threw their entire life out of whack to make sure your wedding and hen night was as perfect as physically possible. am i just being stupid? when i say it out loud i feel like i am just being a big fat stupid face but mygod, i am only human.

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anyways, all that aside, the wedding and the entire holiday was flipping brilliant. in fact, if i do say so myself, the entire week has been perfect.

it all started last friday when i left work in a big fat hurry to ensure i was home in time to get all the shopping done for the hen night. i tidied like i never have in my life, got all the decorations i could ever need and made all the final phone calls.

saturday was a day of OMG TEH STRESS!! husband was still in a whirlwind of unsure-ed-ness about whether or not he wanted to even come home and help cook. i was running around tidying and answering the almost-constant phone calls from the BBC, trying to figure out when they were arriving. when they finally arrived, it all calmed. i was able to just sit and relax. they helped decorate and we discussed the differences between drinking here in england and america. the crew were amazing. i really enjoyed talking to them.

once everyone arrived i was able to really just chill out. i LOVE playing the hostess and i can say that there is no more satisfaction than pouring your first drink for a guest of the night and watching everyone sit in the garden eating a meal lovingly prepared by your husband...

it went a little like this...

we ate and pranced... once we were finished and we have performed a suitable amount of talking, we then proceeded to take a group photo and run away to another pub of which i am not such a huge fan. it turned out amazing though because SO MANY splendid people turned up.
we were obviously followed by the three from the filming crew for the entire night, but it was so totally fun. cherry, who is in the red top to the right there. she was just like, the funnest person ever. her and i had many a lovely talk that night.

the film crew made a quick stop over to the stag's night just so they could see how much less they are enjoying themselves and we moved on to another pub which sucked balls.


upon arriving, the landlord was incredibly inebriated and therefore the most awkward person on the planet. he decided he would short change husband a pound and when husband mentioned it the guy said that he could make something of it and if he did, he would bar him from the pub. yeah. apparently, he rolls like that. after that incident we decided to finish our drinks off and run away to the next pub where we were to meet the stags.


OMG was this place glorious. i hadn't been there in over a year and since then it had been turned into a gaybar which i had been a bit leery about because it was like, the most heterosexual bar ever in the world before. WELL! let me just say, it was the most fabulous place ever on the planet. and i shall show you!



and OMG the wedding was incredible. i really had a brilliant time in brighton. it was my first time REALLY seeing the sea and i couldn't have imagined it to have been any better.

i am just going to post loads of photos now, as i am completely exhausted.












overall, it was just splendid because i was at at the sea and husband was there and i got to share a really special event with some very close friends. i really, really loved these last few days. they were something i will remember forever. hooray!

i heart things and things tuesday

this week is like, the best week ever in the world for hearting things. i have spent just the last two days in a big fat whirlwind of excited glee, trying to keep my feet on the ground but failing quite a lot. i have been running around with wedding plans and hen-night plans and rabbit joy and have forgotten to remember to slow down. although, despite my pleased-ness, i have been enjoying all things life...

• the sneaks... this is the band husband played with on friday and they are delightful. the lead singer is a really young guy who looks quite a lot like chad from new found glory and he is generally really sweet, shy and has amazing taste in music. it is not often that i really enjoy a band that husband plays with. i tend to be quite protective about his abilities and how he goes about utilising them. it really makes me happy to see him playing in a band that he seemed to enjoy a great deal and that performs a genre of music that speaks more to his style of music than anyone else's.
• my amazon wishlist... i have only just learned the glory of creating an amazon wishlist and holy moly has it been a fun experience. i really love that when i look at a book it tells me what other books that i would like for it to make friends with. it is true, i would like for all of my books to have their own BFF and if i can find something that is willing to help me in that quest, i will greet it with open arms.
• angel food bakery... i am more excited than anything ever to prance into the little bakery on meeting house lane and buy every single cupcake i can find whilst i am there. they all look like their own little piece of precious and yummy art that i just want to consume as quickly as possible. i plan to march into the shop within the first hour of arriving in brighton and gain at least half a stone by forcing these precious treats to become friends with my esophogus.

• getting tattoos... never in the course of getting any of my tattoos have i felt so chilled out and pleased than when i got my hula done on my arm. i had spent at least a week before getting it fretting about the impending doom my arm would experience and how little i was going to be able to sit through. however, going against my expectations, my arm decided it would behave and i was able to sit through 6 1/2 hours of being stabbed. in that time i took a nap and drank at least a litre of orange juice (which i have now deiced is much better than consuming an abundance of caffinated liquid. obviously, having a tattoo on the underside of one's arm does leave a lot to be desired, but mygod it is splendid!

• changing jobs... it isn't until one leaves their current job for another that they realise how much they are needed and how lost the world will be without them. it has been so delightful this week to have the chance to see how much everyone is falling apart with the thought of not having me around to do my work. everyone keeps trying to weasle queries into me before i leave and it is just really nice. if ever you are feeling down or like you just aren't needed, quit your job. people will fall at your feet, begging you to stay.
• our bitchin' hen night!! so, as you are aware, the hen night is fast approaching. the excitment has only been building for it though, in leaps and bounds. last wednesday i got a phone call from a lady at BBC3 saying that they are doing a programme on 'modern women's relationships with alcohol.' so generally, they want to send a presenter out to drink with lots of people with lady bits from all age ranges. one of the nights they wanted to attend was a hen night. well, i got a call and spoke to the lady for a while... after being so excited, she said that they would speak to the director and get back to us by the end of the week but she was SURE we would be picked as characters like us are 'virtual gold dust' in the world of television. well, friday came and went with no phone call so gem and i just gave up. until yesterday! gem got a call saying that the producers are going to come meet with us today and get the go ahead for filming!! OMG! so not only will it be the best 50's themed partay ever, but it will be filmed and aired on national television for everyone to pretend they are a part of!!

quite good, but not good enough for a real blurb... making your own bath bombs, galaxy chocolate milk, mini cheddars, stationary, the dirty looks one gets if they have tattoos and DARE to walk down the street, lush toner tabs, abseiling, post-it notes, tiny boy tee shirts, flipz, tattoo conventions, imporomptu day trips to birmingham, almost being finished with a project and having a big fat curry after a night on the booze.

oh the hair that you weave

oh the last week has been exciting and full of lots of things to keep a girl preoccupied. not that i have anything i need to preoccupy myself to avoid... i actually realised this morning that i am preoccupying myself far TOO much. there have been some reasonably important things going and coming up in my life that i have just been too distracted to notice.

take, for instance the fact that the fabulous gem, of the darlings... she and her 'sig-oh' are getting married soon and i am to be a bridesmade AND official hula wrangler(HOO*LAH-WRA*NG*LER: individual denoted with the responsability of taking care of the precious french bulldog that is hula... aka tulamond, pig, toot, piggarie.) now, the fact that they are getting married is not the only important factor here... there are also factors of if husband will get the time off work, how we will get down to brighton, how much money we must save for the wedding and the oh-so-important, WHAT WILL I WEAR?!

i came to realise, after having a long, hard think, that because this is going to be the wedding/event/partay of the year, it is important to look absolutely perfect, whilst NOT out-shining the bride (who will be looking fabulous, by the way!). now, because this will be a 50's themed wedding, i searched and searched for a dress that would offer me the just perfect amount of cute and sassy whilst NOT overstepping the 'fabulous' line. when i realised it would be wholely impossible to rely on the fashion availability of etsy, ebay and vintagejunkie.com, i decided i would have to take matters into my own hands and make my own dress...

and so it begins... i printed out and taped together all the bits and pieces of the pattern last night and have been left with this:





i am excited that i will hopefully be making a dress all by myself that i will be able to love and beam about when people ask me where i got it. i plan to cut the fabric out tonight so i am ready for sewing maching party time with vic tomorrow. hooray!

now, one would think that the above would be enough to deal with when it came to preparedness for a wedding but oh no! i have also been given the job of planning and maintaining the hen night. OMGWTF!? i had almost forgotten about it until my arch rival in the post-wedding party arrangement contacted me via email to advise me that her STAG-DO would be better than MY fabulous hen night... AS IF!! since then, i have been planning like a big giant planning bee for the best night gem and all the other hens that will be attending could ever ask for. everyone will die.

alongside all of that, i have also been planning to get some special extensions placed methodically into my hairs. they will be like this....



but insanely sexier and thinner, as i have picked not only the best colour and wool, but also the best person ever in the world to do it. my wool is being dyed as i type and i should hopefully have longer 'hair' by the end of next week! hooray!