So in todays post I am going to be covering my wedding day play list. Not the playlist I had in my room when I was getting ready, not the playlist I gave the DJ for the evening, but mine & Lukes playlist, the personal songs we chose to use at certain points throughout our day.

Some couples may simply choose not to have songs played apart from the first dance. Other couples may choose a variety of personal songs that are meaningful to them. Every wedding is different, and there is most certainly no rule in how your day should be. So keep that in mind.

Okay back to my my wedding play list

Aisle walk – Lets start this off by saying I had been imagining my aisle walk since way before I met Luke, probably back when I was wondering if I might end up marrying prince Harry, or any member of One Direction, so to say this had been planned out for sometime was an understatement! I always knew that I wanted to make an entrance when it was eventually my time to take the walk. I equally knew I didn’t want to do some big parade down the aisle, which don’t get me wrong I have seen many great routines on YouTube of wedding parties doing some well planned out routine, it just wasn’t for me personally. I had heard loads of different songs over the years and at the time thought “yeah, that’s my song” then just forgotten about them as the years went by. I eventually randomly stumbled across the song This Love by Tyler Brown Williams and instantly fell in love with it. I think I actually heard it in the background of some tv show I was watching, if I’m completely honest I think it was Love Island, it was only playing very faintly in the background, but my Shazam was on it, and in no time I had the full song downloaded. What is so gorgeous about this song is how pure and connected it is. The words are too perfect for a wedding day, and it’s just a really beautiful piece. Then all of a sudden BAM! You have this amazing instrumental segment that I knew I wanted to be my entrance. My sister and I worked so hard getting the times just right so that everyone could walk on cue, which would leave me enough time for my moment. And the end result was just so perfect, it all went so well, considering there was no rehearsal for the bridesmaids and groomsmen!

Introducing our wedding party – Luke and I had an absolutely amazing wedding party, and felt like we wanted to let our guests know how brilliant they all were and how much we loved them and appreciated them standing by our sides. We therefore decided that when all the guests were seated for the meal, I would introduce the wedding party into the room two at a time. I think this is possibly quite an American thing to do, but I am so here for that! As our wedding party were going before us we needed a song to really get everyone revved up – CUE Thunderstruck by AC/DC!!! I mean what a tune!!! It got everyone up on their feet clapping and in my opinion really set the tone.

Our wedding breakfast entry – Its your wedding day, so you HAVE to make an entrance right? Well that’s what I wanted anyway. I wanted a great song so that my sister who acted as Maid of honour could introduce us into the room, and we could enter with style (I’ll use that term loosely) I had a few different songs that I kept listening too and trying to picture my entrance too, but I think once you know the song you want – you JUST know! So we settled on the intro of “Bat out of Hell” by the late great Meatloaf but instead of using his one I opted for the one from the musical instead, purely because the intro was slightly shorter and worked with the timing of the entrance. Don’t worry though we did use Meatloafs recording of the same song for the dance that came directly after our first dance, so we had the best of both worlds.

First dance – Ahhhh the first dance, loved by some couples, dreaded by many! Luke & I were not particularly fazed by the thought of a first dance, however I wasn’t exactly jumping for joy at the thought of it either. I just knew it was important and we needed to get it done in an elegant and classy manner (I think we managed it, just) Choosing your first dance song is a whole new level of importance! It really needs to be perfect and a song you will love to listen too forever more. When it come to choosing ours, we were super fussy, I really wanted to avoid the cliche songs, like Ed Sheerhan which seems to be immensely popular, and just for the record I completely understand why. I’m an Ed fan, and his slow songs are so romantic and give off first dance vibes, just for me personally I wanted to move away from that and go for something different. I had a few unique songs on my list but only one that really jumped out to me. It was a song that once again I had fallen in love with long before mine and Lukes paths crossed. It was a song that I had never heard at anyones wedding before, and that made me love it even more! Our chosen song was called “Darlin’ pretty” by Mark Knopfler from the band Dire Straits. The song actually features briefly in the background of one of the first scenes in the movie Twister (one of mine and my sisters favourite movies) It’s not even the whole song, it just plays softly in the background. But I managed to pick out the song find it on YouTube and have loved it ever since. It’s so different, it’s not like really painfully slow, but slow enough to do a first dance too, it also has a country vibe to it, with a bit of rock and the most beautiful guitar solo ever.

Last dance – When the night is almost over you want to finish on a high! And finish on a high we did!! I wanted a song that got everyone up singing and dancing, a song that you could just sing at the top of your lungs and get right into it. Well we made our entrance to a Meatloaf song so it felt only right to finish on Meatloafs “I’d do anything for love” Jeez, what a tune!! I make no secret of the fact that I am a Meatloaf fan and have seen “Bat out of hell the musical” 7 times, I literally love it. So of course I HAD to throw some of meatloaf’s tunes in the mix.

As previously mentioned some couples may not have that many required songs and other couples may have more. For example Luke and I weren’t worried about the background music playing whilst we were all seated and eating our 3 course meal We let Holkham run with their own specific play list. But we were certainly more fussy with other songs that would be played throughout the day.

One of my favourite things to do (when I have time) is to search for special unique and unusual songs. Songs that are a little off the grid, or really good covers. As I mentioned I had a few different songs that I thought about using and I am going to share those with you. I think it’s always nice to think outside the box.

Songs for the occasion

Kina Grannis – Can’t help falling in love

Sam Tsui & Casey Breves – Time after Time

Tim Halperin – Forever starts today

Tim Halperin – With you

Brett Young – In case you didn’t know

Kate Thompson – Heaven is a place on earth

Leeann Womack – I hope you dance

Becky Hill – Only You

Alistair Griffin & Leddra Chapman – The one

Chester See – God damn your beautiful

Callum Scott – Heaven

Jack Savoretti – I’m yours

Emily Hackett – Take my hand

Nate Ruess – Nothing without love

I’d love to hear anymore usual off the grid songs that I can share with my sister who gets married next year. Married couples, what was your first dance to?

The post Wedding Planning – My Play list appeared first on Lifestyle Lisa.

Since meeting Luke back in 2013 we have been lucky enough to attend 11 (12 if you count ours) weddings together, and whilst I have danced the night away with a drink in my hand, and over indulged in fine food, I have never once thought about the team that work so hard behind the scenes. The ones who keep everything running smoothly leaving no stress for the bride and groom.

I was extremely lucky on my wedding day to have the most amazing suppliers working so hard to ensure my day was perfectly amazing and flawless. I mean these guys I honestly miss!! Some I got to know over a longer period of time, others I only met on the day, but I just felt so at ease with everyone, it’s like we were best friends.

So I have to dedicate this post to my suppliers for the Kendal Taylor wedding on the 29th January 2022

The Holkham team – Being completely honest I wasn’t sure about the wedding planners at Holkham (bare with me on this) I had lots of concerns that they weren’t very attentive with us, and we didn’t hear from them very often, and at times I really felt like I needed more guidance from them, as this was both Luke and mine’s first (and only) wedding. I had major concerns over how the day would run and all come together, and yes there was a few sleepless nights. And that’s because contact was quite minimal with the Holkham team in the months leading up to the wedding. HOWEVER on the day I really really (really) cannot in any way fault Belle, Niamh and entire Holkham team, who despite my early concerns, were AMAZING! They worked efficiently, professionally and knew exactly what they were doing! And ran the day absolutely flawlessly. There wasn’t a single a glitch, it was just perfect. So although I didn’t hear from as much as I thought I would, I think that’s because they are pretty confident in what they do and know what they are doing.

Wedding planner/on the day coordinator – As well as the Holkham Wedding team Belle and Niamh, we decided to bring in an independent wedding planner to oversee everything and ensure that there would be no glitches on the day. There was never another wedding planner that we were ever going to go for, except Emily Andrew Events. Emily actually helped Luke plan my surprise proposal back in December 2020, in between lockdowns, so I was happy to find she had our wedding date free in her diary and jumped on board the Kendal/Taylor wedding. I mean really what can I say about Emily? She just gives you this confidence that everything is going to be just fine, her presence is calming and she’s always one step ahead of you. She liased with suppliers on our behalf, she sat in on zoom calls with us, always taking notes and making sure the timeline of events added up. It was also a really lovely personal touch to have her as planner for our wedding, as she had already been present during such a big in event in mine and Lukes life.

Photographer – Georgia Rachel Phototherapy is another special one for Luke and I because like Emily, Georgia was also their on my surprise proposal, ready and waiting to photograph the whole thing. Luke & I had looked on Instagram at different Norfolk based photographers, and spoke to a few at a wedding show we’d been too, but we kept coming back to Georgia! Her style and flare was something that we found other photographers just didn’t match up too. So we decided not to look around anymore and see if Georgia was still available. Fortunately she was (we did leave booking her quite late) but she had our date free and again I was so happy we had her on board. It was just such a super special touch to have someone who kind of knew us. She is like so chill, so nice, and she really knows how to capture the moment, she allowed our personality’s to come through, and it was all about the natural rather than the stuffy. As we wanted a second a photographer on the morning of our wedding to shoot the groom and groomsmen getting ready, Georgia recommended Richard Jarmy Photography, someone that she knew and had worked with before. As he spent most of his time photographing the boys in their room I didn’t see much of him. However the grooms all thought he was brilliant, with a wicked sense of humour , and his photos were equally as brilliant.

Videographer – Mike Savory Videographer was a recommendation by Georgia, and honestly when these two work together it’s just GOLD!! We checked out his YouTube and Instagram reels and the rest is history. Mike walked into my bridal suite whilst we were all having hair and makeup done, and I felt like I’d known him for ages, very warm and very friendly, and super professional. He wasn’t in the way at all, and at times I literally forgot he was even filming. And oh my god, did I mention, he was just the nicest guy!

Florist – Constance Rose actually jumped on board in late December after our original florist pulled out of our wedding to take a holiday to see family (I’m not even going there, I promise) But to be honest, I much preferred Constance rose floral designs and Instagram page to the one that was included in our wedding package. Tracie (from the florist) was great at answering emails, and providing us with designs and drawing and pictures, and really worked with us to bring our vision to life. I only got to meet Tracie briefly on the morning of my wedding when she delivered my flowers, but she was lovely and told me how to hold my flowers to make sure they looked beautiful for my aisle walk.

Catering – Mackenzie David Events, David and Rebecca are the nicest two people you could wish to meet. We first met them when we went for our food tasting back in May 2021, and found them to be the most helpful couple we had met up to that point. Food tasting was so much fun!! They made sure that everything catering wise, ran smoothly and went without a glitch on the day of the wedding. The food was amazing, and it’s no surprise that it was a big hit with all our guests.

Music – Jam Duo are the Award Winning Cello and Piano Duo who played during our church ceremony and in the marble hall whilst guests were having drinks and canapés. They were amazing! I mean they have a pretty wide variety of music they can play but even learnt a specific song that I really wanted played whilst we were signing the register.

Entertainment – Nick Einhorn Magician I don’t even know what to say about this guy! So Luke had originally seen Nick when he was younger at a few Tottenham games, so when we spoke about wedding entertainment, Luke was adamant he wanted Nick. To be honest I had very little to do with the booking of the magician and let Luke deal with this (it was his idea after all) and I wasn’t fussed either way on a magician on the day. My wedding guests STILL talk about Nick to this day!! They were as I was amazed at his tricks and how he came across to everyone. I mean he was fantastic!! He worked the room and I heard random cheers, and applauses every so often, and lots of laughter. What a great addition to the day.

Makeup – Norfolk Makeup artist (Georgia Rae) My wonderful makeup artist arrived at my wedding venue at 7am armed with a team of professionals and a case full of makeup products to make myself and bridal party look like a million dollars for the main event. She worked her magic like a dream and made me feel beautiful and super confident. My makeup got so many compliments throughout the day and stood the test of time by looking immaculate right until the end of the night. I can’t sing Georgia’s praises enough, she stayed with me until I was just about to leave my suite and head to the church. She really wanted to make sure that I really did look my best. All my correspondence with Georgia with easy and friendly and it was just an absolute pleasure having her as my makeup artist for the biggest day of my life.

Hair – Studio 19, honestly when it came to bridal hair I was only ever going to have my wonderful best friend! I think we had arranged this years before I even met Luke (we go way back!) Emma is just the most creative person when it comes to wedding hair, you can show her one photo and she recreates it for you. It was a real special personal touch to have Emma as my hair stylist on the day, it’s such a true friendship.

Cake – The little Sugar Rose, I would not like to be responsible for transporting someone’s wedding cake to a venue on the morning of a wedding. Especially one so beautiful as the one that Ginny created for Luke & I. We had one meeting with her and sampled lots of delicious cake, and then we told her our vision along with the flavours we wanted, which Ginny then bought to life for us in the form of a stunning 5 tier cake.

DJ – Connections Entertainment, who had the task of making sure the dance floor was busy all night long! I didn’t want an empty dance floor and when making sure this doesn’t happen good music is the key! Luke & I chose beforehand the songs that we wanted on our “must play list” as well as a list of requests we had asked our guests to give us. We then told our DJ to play what he thought worked whether it was on our list or not. We figured that as a professional DJ he would be able to read the dance floor and keep the guests happy with some brilliant tunes! And oh my god did he do a good job? YES! Again we had so many comments on how good he was, and kept the dance floor busy until the end!

If you are getting married and are lucky to have some of these suppliers at your wedding then can I say congratulations you are so lucky. And are definitely in the best hands.

If you are engaged and are looking for suppliers in the Norfolk area, then click the links and check out the ones I had at my wedding.

The post Wedding Suppliers appeared first on Lifestyle Lisa.

I have dreamed of going wedding dress shopping since I was a little girl playing with my Barbie dolls and dressing them up in weddings outfits. Finally it was actually my turn! Wedding venue deposit done, it was now time for me to go out and choose THE dress!!

You can read all about my first visit to Adella bridal and saying yes to the dress here

As mentioned in my previous post Adella just ticked all the boxes for me and the fact that they were featured in and recommend by British vogue – I mean come on, that’s just AMAZING!!

So about the dress – My stunning, beautiful dress was an actually an original design by the extremely talented Amy owner of Adella bridal.

I was quite specific in what I wanted, I had a Pinterest board full of ideas and a picture in my head of what I wanted my dress to look like. Luckily because I had chosen an original dress Amy was able to customise it to pretty much how I wanted it.

Long sleeves were a must, as I was having a winter wedding and had my bridal party in dresses with long sleeves, and I wanted to compliment their dresses.

So although the dress I originally chose didn’t have sleeves I was able to get those added on, and matched perfectly with all the lace and trimmings. I also decided to add length onto the veil, because when your only going to do this once, go big or go home right!!

Although being completely honest the veil as beautiful as it was, was annoying after a while as their was just so much of it! it was like having a best friend attached to you. Having said that, I wouldn’t change it for the world, as it was all just stunning.

I also had extra beading added to the bodice, skirt panels and to the sleeves that were going to be made and added at a later date. To finish it all off I added a diamanté and beaded belt which just made the dress even more spectacular than it already was! I have added my original receipt but of course hidden the price – let’s just say it was totally worth it.

It was 8 long months until I got to see my dress again! My dress was delivered to the boutique in December and I was so excited to go and see it again!! Okay I was a little nervous too, what I didn’t like it? What if it wasn’t what I wanted anymore!! WHAT IF I HAD PUT ON WEIGHT AND THE DRESS DIDN’T EVEN FIT ANYMORE!! So many emotions right there!!

I remember walking into the changing room at Adella and seeing the dress hanging there and just being blown away at how beautiful it was, I’d forgotten, as it had been so long. It was such a relief that I still loved it as much, actually even more than I did the first time round. And honestly it was even more of a relief that it actually still fitted me, I seriously would have been devastated if it had needed it to be made bigger!

Choosing a dress is difficult because when you are standing in a room full of beautiful dresses, it’s so hard to choose. It’s definitely true what they say, you just KNOW when you’ve found the right one, you get the “feels”.

I also wanted to be different, so although my dress can be purchased at Adella, I made it unique for me, so it’s a one of a kind, and although someone may have similar to me, it’ll never be the same, and I love that fact.

My wedding dress got so many compliments on the day, and I felt like the Disney princess I had always wanted to be.

So sad that I’ll never get wear it again.

The post My Wedding Dress appeared first on Lifestyle Lisa.

The sun shone bright, the rain stayed away and although it was cold and very windy I will take that any day over grey skies and a down pour!

So with a few posts sitting in my draft folder to write up and publish, here is my first one dedicated to the wonderful Holkham Hall – Our wedding venue.

I had been very good at avoiding the name of where Luke and I were getting married during all of my blog posts prior to the wedding by simply referring to it as “our chosen venue” But of course now the wedding is all over (sad face) I can now talk about the very stunning Holkham Hall.

Holkham Hall is a gorgeous 18th century country house located adjacent to the village of Holkham near Wells-Next-The-Sea Norfolk. Luke and I had never heard of it before, nor had we ever visited that part of Norfolk.

In fact we came across it simply by chance, after sitting down night after night during lockdown last January (2021) watching so many YouTube videos of different venues, trying to whittle down a list of 6 that we could visit once restrictions were lifted. We were having very little luck, and really not getting a vibe from any, that was until Luke stumbled across a tour of Holkham. Apart from the obvious WOW factor, we actually enjoyed a very informative virtual tour of the grounds and the actual hall, which was more than any other venue (on YouTube) had given us so far.

We organised a telephone call with Belle one of the wedding team towards the end of January who answered some questions of ours and went into a little more detail about the venue and different wedding plans on offer. By the February we had put down a deposit securing our winter date of January 29th 2022.

It was another 2 months before lockdown restrictions were eased and we were able to go and view Holkham and have an actual tour.

It really was such a surreal moment visiting the place where I would marry Luke my partner of at the time almost 8 years. It just didn’t feel real, I had to keep reminding myself why I was there!

The grounds surrounding the estate are beautiful, with herds of deer roaming freely, and stunning scenery.

The hall itself is equally beautiful and boasts a very regal jaw dropping marble room, which is beyond perfect for a wedding ceremony. However it was important for both Luke and myself that we got married in a church, which lucky for us was in the grounds of the estate!

St Withburga church sits proudly on the hill in a remote corner of Holkham, and is only about a mile away from the main hall itself. As you can imagine it’s a beautiful building both inside and out, but extremely cold in the winter months. And there is the small matter of the smallish hill you need to walk up to get there. Thankfully my wedding car made it up the hill, unfortunately I can’t say the same for the bridesmaids transport which saw them all having to get out and walk (seriously, thank you for not raining on that day) The church is very picturesque and was everything I wanted in a church (if that makes any sense at all)

As Luke & I live 2 hours and 30 minutes away we did have to attend church once a month starting in the June 2021. And although I struggled with the 6am starts on a Sunday morning, it really was such a small ask of us, to allow us to marry in the beautiful church. We even enjoyed getting to know the regular attendees who made us feel so welcome. We were invited to stay for drinks and nibbles after one particular service in the Autumn which is where we both met Lord & Lady Leicester (of Holkham hall) and my goodness they are two of the nicest people you could possibly meet.

And how could I not mention the wonderful Brenda Stewart who married us at St Withburga, such a lovely lady, with a manic work schedule who always found time for us.

Our conclusion after our tour had ended – Holkham hall certainly did not disappoint, I mean honestly how could it!

Stunning in every single way, it had the wow factor for sure. And even though prior to getting engaged I was always sure I wanted a barn style wedding, my mind was certainly changed once I had seen Holkham.

Admittedly being completely honest there were times after we had safely secured our date, that I wondered whether we had made the decision too quickly and should we have viewed other venues, and even at times I did wonder if that was the right venue for us! But I think it was only natural to have some doubts, after all it is an extremely big decision to make, and you do have to be sure that it’s the right one.

Fortunately it was and I have no regrets and no doubts whatsoever, yes maybe I could I have viewed a few more venues but I highly doubt any of them would have matched up to what we had.

Holkham hall really is an extremely special place, it’s beautiful in all seasons, and I should know, seeing as I have visited in spring, summer, autumn and winter. It just never fails to completely impress me.

The building and the surrounding grounds are so grand, they are almost royal looking.

We have had so many good, positive comments on our venue from our wedding guests, they all loved it so much, with a few commenting on how “royal” our wedding seemed – well I’ll take that any day!!

Holkham Hall will forever hold such a special place in my heart. The place where I said “I do” and became Mrs Kendal.

The post Wedding Planning – Finding the dream venue appeared first on Lifestyle Lisa.

Luke and I really have worked so hard this year putting together our dream wedding which is due to take place in January. There’s been highs and lows and a few (more than a few) stressful moments, but we did it! And to be honest we are nearly done, we have finishing touches to do, and then Wedding planning complete!

As we’ve been so busy, we decided to switch off from planning for Christmas, and just enjoy being Lisa & Luke for the festive season.

Of course with the new Omicron variant that has descended upon us I feel like I am looking at a 50/50 chance of a wedding. I’m definitely hoping for the best but expecting the worse, I’m not allowing myself to get overly excited for fear of restrictions coming up that will effect the wedding, or worse still weddings not being allowed to go ahead.

Luke & I have sat down and had a lengthy conversation about what we will do in the event of number limitations at weddings, luckily we are both on the same page with our decision which makes everything a whole lot easier.

Who knows what the next week or so will bring. But I’m officially switching off from Wedding chat now and am going to enjoy my Christmas and worry about everything after!

@thelifestylelisa

The post Wedding Planning – Done for Christmas appeared first on Lifestyle Lisa.

I was going to do a really in-depth hen do post, but then decided instead that I am going to keep it simple. It was my weekend spent with amazing people who I truly care about and enjoy spending time with.

Instead here is just a small glimpse into my insane weekend.

Firstly the amount of planning and effort that went into making the weekend so amazing and memorable was partly down to two special girls – my maid of honour Lora and my matron of honour Emma. They are the girls who know me the best and knew exactly what I wanted.

From what I’ve heard the hen do planning started way back in late February early March of this year, my sister is so like me at times, we both love to get stuck in and get planning! I also know that planning had been stressful at times, but I know from planning my cousins hen party that stress kind of just comes with the title of maid of honour.

The whole weekend was kept a complete surprise, no one dropped even a tiny hint, and I have to say I was very impressed that everyone managed to keep it under wraps, as I can be a very inquisitive girl at times.

With everything being kept very secret, I had no idea on where I was going, how long I was going for and more importantly what I should pack! Luckily that was of course covered and I received a cute poem 2 weeks before the weekend giving me a few hints of what I would need to pack, and a little guide on what should be worn over the weekend.

My road trip started at 2pm on Friday 26th November, travelling down with a few of the lovely girls, they didn’t give me any clues as to where we were heading, I just got in the car and we drove for what seemed like forever. In fact it was only about 4/5(ish) hours although we did hit traffic! Luckily there was lots of good chat and laughter in the car which made being stuck in traffic far better.

Arriving quite late to my destination and in the dark I was pleasantly surprised to find myself in Somerset, staying in the most stunning house, I had seen in a while!

It may have been late into the evening, but my amazing hen do girls got the party started straight away, made sure the drinks were flowing and the music was on!!

Whilst Friday night was cocktail making, games a gorgeous grazing table, dancing, getting pretty merry, and and lots of giggles

Saturday was classy in every sense of the word, the morning was chilled, the late afternoon was even more so with the arrival of our beauty therapists who were there to do some relaxing massages and treatments on us all (bliss) The beautiful house we were staying in also had a hot tub in the garden, which made the whole of Saturday even more chilled!

The evening was a touch of sophistication which started with champagne and canapés followed by a very talented private chef who cooked up a stunning 3 course meal. It was such a delightful social evening, I wanted to savour every single moment.

The evening was finished off by lots of photos, music, dancing, gin and laughter.

I had a small group of 12 wonderful girls who I invited on my hen weekend, every girl played their own part in making sure I had the best time. Everyone connected and got on so well, and some girls travelled for hours to come and celebrate with me.

Sometimes it’s really not about having loads of friends, instead it’s about having those friends that even when you don’t see each other every day, you just pick up where you left it. I prefer to surround myself with people that matter to me, and I did just that on my hen weekend.

There is nothing that I would change about the weekend, from start to finish I loved every single second of it.

The post Wedding planning – The hen party appeared first on Lifestyle Lisa.

1 – The makeup trial and 2 – The hair trial, both done and both went amazingly!

A few weeks ago my maid of honour Lora and I took a mini road trip to Norfolk to meet up with the extremely talented and super nice Georgia-Rae who will be doing my wedding makeup in January. Makeup is extremely important to me in my day to day life so finding the right makeup artist for my wedding day was even more important. I did a lot of googling and Instagram stalking of many bridal makeup artists before shortlisting a few to contact and find out more details. I had a few email conversations with some makeup artists but didn’t really connect with any of them, they didn’t really get what I wanted, or avoided certain questions, and I just didn’t get the feels! I then got a friendly email from Georgia and I instantly got that vibe! She was happy to answer all my questions, going into detail, and didn’t find any question too silly. I had a look at both her Instagram and Facebook page, and decided that she was the one for me. It’s a very big deal and big decision finding the perfect makeup artist, but I was more than confident that it was Georgia. And I was right, going for my makeup trial a few weeks back was the first time I got to meet Georgia, although I actually felt like I kind of new her after the email exchanges and following her on her social media pages. She made both me and my sister feel so welcome in her beautiful studio, we had Prosecco whilst chatting about what look i wanted to go for on the day, she made notes and asked lots of questions about the wedding and the dress. I had sent over my wedding makeup Pinterest board to her the night before and I felt like she had really looked at it and got a really good idea about what I wanted. When Georgia had finished my makeup and I looked in the mirror I was literally blown away! It was everything and more, she really had got me. I couldn’t have been happier.

The week after my makeup trial I headed to see my best friend and chief bridesmaid Emma who will be doing my hair along with my maid and matron of honour’s hair. I think years ago long before I met Luke and got engaged Emma and I would chat weddings and decided that she would definitely be the one to do my wedding hair (although I met Emma in 2010 so it’s been a long wait to me actually getting engaged!) Emma is a fantastic hairdresser and her passion for wedding hair is evident on her Instagram page, she’s just so talented! I went to Emma with just a Pinterest photo of just the back of the hair that I wanted (I couldn’t find the front part) Emma worked her magic and nailed it! My hair looked beautiful! And there was genuinely nothing that I would change. It was great to spend time chatting all things wedding with her and my sister and of course drinking more Prosecco (Can you ever have too much Prosecco?)

I am so excited to get ready on the morning of my wedding and have my hair and makeup done, and then get into my beautiful dress, i can’t wait for it to all come together. Now all I need is for some decent lighting and a good mirror to be out in the “bridal suite” at the venue, still one tiny problem at a time.

Well next on the list for me – HEN DO! So excited, cannot wait, watch this space for a post!

@thelifestylelisa

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Okay so here we go wedding planning – It’s not all I thought to would be, I did have this preconceived idea in my head that it would be all sunshine and roses, but in reality you have to add a few down pours in there too! It seems like the online social media side of wedding planning looks like a total blast! But there are days when I definitely don’t get that vibe so much. Some days when Luke and I are on a roll and everything is coming together nicely it’s great fun! And then there are those days when there is problem after problem and you wonder if anything will go right again!

I’d say that planning a wedding partially in and out of lockdown has been a bit of a Thorne in our sides to say the least. Finding your dream venue on YouTube doesn’t have all the feels and sparkles that you would probably get if you went in person and picked it. As I’ve mentioned in a previous post Luke and I put the deposit down on the venue before seeing it, and then went to view it in mid April. We were semi lockdown with some restrictions still in place when we went for our visit, so the tour was really bland if that’s the right word to use? I didn’t feel like a couple who had just booked a dream wedding, I felt like a couple who just wanted to look around but hadn’t booked a wedding (make sense?) April was also the first and last contact we had with our wedding planners, there’s been no follow up calls or emails, apart from us emailing them, so the whole thing feels really impersonal. However after visiting our venue again on Sunday, just seeing it makes me fall in love with it all over again, it’s a very very special place, and is absolutely stunning, very grand, and a definite head Turner. The staff do let it down unfortunately, and haven’t been overly helpful, and were misleading over several things when we first met and had our tour and chat. In fact with different issues cropping up we have since made the decision to bring in an independent wedding planner to oversee everything, as I have no confidence in the staff we have at all.

Brides dress – I’ve also had a nightmare with my dress which I have previously mentioned in a past post, and whilst I initially would have recommended Adella bridal I’m not so sure I would now. Again with them, I’ve had zero contact and communication since putting the deposit down on what I think is my dream dress (although it’s been so long and I can’t remember what it looks like, so who knows) So again I feel it’s been another very impersonal experience. But on a positive note I am about 3 weeks away from seeing my dress and trying it on again (praying that I haven’t put much weight on since April) and I know that once I have the dress on and see it again I will just love it, and know why I picked it (I hope….. I’m sure I will)

A few other planning problems

We also seem to be having problems with the florist! Which is a long drawn out battle that I’m not backing down from!

I’ve had problems with colour scheming, bridesmaid dresses and flower girl dresses, as well as suits for Lukes groomsmen.

And I’m sure between now and the actual day a few more problems will arise……

So yeah, wedding planning certainly does have its good and not so good days! And issues do tend to pop up at any given time!!

So I ask myself 2 questions- which when I started writing this post had very negative answers, but after having time to process things I have come to a different conclusion.

1) would I reflect back on this whole planning process with happy memories? Yes & No, there are times when I love it and times when it seems just so consuming, and the problems are never ending. However there are always solutions, you just have to find them.

2) Would I recommend our wedding venue to other people. This was always going to be a definite NO, mainly because of staff! However even bad staffing can not take away how visually stunning the place is, and it just takes your breath away every time. So I would recommend it, but equally I’d recommend getting an independent wedding planner in straight away and don’t wait until November like we did.

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Being completely honest (with myself) I never ever had a vision that when I got engaged, and started planning my wedding that I would be this chilled out anything goes kind of bride. I’m a serial planner, I’m a little bossy (on occasions) and that’s just in general life. So getting engaged and planning my dream wedding, I was always going to be half a normal bride and half a bridezilla!

My bridal party – luckily these girls KNOW me so when the bridezilla bride to be starts coming out, they know that I’m not being a super bitch (or at least I hope they know) I have a large(ish) bridal party – 1 maid of honour, 1 matron of honour, 1 chief bridesmaid and 3 bridesmaids. I also have 5 flower girls, so having a relatively large bridal party brings quite a big expense. I have kept to tradition (mostly) and have bought all the girls dresses, hair accessories, other accessories and have paid for all hair and makeup to be done on the day. The only thing I have asked my bridal party to buy is their own shoes. So once I total everything up my bridal party has cost me just over £2000, which in turn kind of gives me the right to be a little bridezilla(ish). I think I’m within my rights to make sure everyone will look the way I want them to look on the day. I know I have been very (very) picky when it comes to my bridal party and have been quite vocal on what I want – like to not see a bra on show under the dress, backless bra’s only, or having the flower girls all matching, and having them in tanned tights instead of white and lacy. I even want as far as wanting the flower girls to have messy buns on the day, and genuinely contemplated getting a hair piece for any flower girl who’s hair didn’t meet the messy bun criteria (luckily all girls hair looked beautiful and worked perfectly, but the hair piece was a back up) Or finally the fact that I don’t want any bridesmaids to have lash extensions for the wedding as strip lashes will be applied by my fabulous makeup artist. Yes I know it’s picky, but on the day I just know they will all simply look stunning.

Oh, and then there is of course the small detail of being “THAT” bride who changed the colour scheme and subsequently had to change ALL the bridesmaids dresses!! Yep I did that! In September, 4 months before the wedding.

I have also been less than impressed with the 2 wedding planners that work at my chosen venue so we’ve bought in an independent wedding planner, meaning that I now have 3, but only one I completely trust. Plus she helped plan my engagement so I know she’s good!

Being a serial planner and perfectionist isn’t always a good thing, especially when I know exactly what I want and how I want my wedding day to be. I have full visualisation of it, and the day has to be more than perfect. So yes I would say that there are times (and I’m sure there will be many more) when the inner bridezilla is unleashed and comes out full force! But my bark is definitely worse than my bite…..

@thelifestylelisa

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How’s it going then?

Well Luke and I have been attending church since June, we actually have to travel to Norfolk one Sunday every month (2hours & 15 minutes there and 2 hours 15 minutes back) to attend a one hour church service in the church we are getting married in. This was something I was aware of, but didn’t quite fully take into consideration how time consuming it was going to be. I absolutely understand the reasoning behind it of course, if nothing else it’s curtesy, neither Luke or I live anywhere near Norfolk so of course we should go to introduce ourselves and get to know some of the locals who attend. It’s unfortunately just such a long way to go, plus I have to get someone to look after Hunter, as we are away from the the house for around 6 hours by the time we travel there and back. But still once a month Luke and I leave our home at 7am on a Sunday to attend Sunday service.

As I have previously mentioned and written about, I picked out and tried on my dream dress back in April (blog post here). I feel like there has been such a lack in correspondence with the dress shop since I walked out of there 6 months ago, it’s actually very disappointing. I had such a lovely day at Adella bridal during Covid restrictions, trying on dresses and eventually choosing my dream dress. But since I walked away after putting down my deposit I have heard nothing from them. Whilst I never expected a weekly email or Instagram message from them, I did expect some sort communication, maybe an update on how long my dress would be or estimation of when it might be in, or even just a message to see if I had bought my shoes and accessories yet. Anything would be better than hearing nothing for 6 months, and instead me having to message them and not getting a reply! It makes it far more stressful than it needs to be. So whilst Adella bridal has the most beautiful dresses and booking a private slot here was an amazing experience, the lack of follow up communication has unfortunately made the experience less enjoyable.

In terms of suppliers Luke and I now have a photographer in place (finally). She is lovely and was actually there when Luke and I got engaged, to photograph the whole thing. So it makes it extra special and it’s also nice that we already have that rapport with her, it makes everything a whole lot less awkward on the day. We have also booked our videographer (yay) we watched a lot of his work on YouTube and decided he was the one for us! He has also worked alongside our photographer as well, so they have a good bond and know how each other works which is good.

In true Lisa style I changed my bridesmaids dresses – and I’m so glad I did! As we are having a winter wedding our colour scheme is very rich colours which compliment that season. My original plan was to have my four bridesmaids in one colour dress and my maid and matron of honour in another, thinking that the colours I chose would work together. Wrong…… the colours just clashed big time! I knew I didn’t like the colours together but left it until September to decide that I had to change the four bridesmaids to the same colours that both the maid and matron of honour are in (I bought the dresses in May) Luckily to the company I purchased all the dresses from said they would take back the unwanted dresses which went from 4 to all 6, as I also slightly changed the style of the maid and matron! Now I have all bridesmaids in the same colour and have scrapped one particular colour from my colour scheme altogether!……………Trying to write all of that without giving anything away was more difficult than I imagined!

I have also purchased in my opinion the most stunning flower girl dresses! I am in love with them, and they complement the bridesmaid dresses perfectly.

I think the final important thing to do for us is to speak with the florist, she’s out florist and is booked out for us but I haven’t as of yet spoken with her as I was so undecided with the colour scheme. Now I’m settled on that we can chat all things flowers!

And now it really is just the little personal touches and add on’s that we need to do.

So I would say we are 90% there, which isn’t bad going!

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