Wednesday 13 September 2017

Wedding Post #1 - Everything About The Big Day So Far...




When I came back to blogging I knew I wanted to do Wedding posts!
Not just to share with everyone our big day but also to look back on in years to come at the highs and lows of planning your big day.
In the posts I want to share my plans, well maybe not EVERYTHING but as much as possible and also post any tips I can to help plan your special day.


So this first post I'm just going to through what we have planned so far.

The Date
Our big day is going to be Saturday 5th May 2018 (8 months to go!)

Venue
We are having our whole day in one venue! This is something we definitely wanted to do to save having multiple trips and just for ease.
Our venue is a very nice Doubletree by Hilton hotel, it has a separate ceremony room and we have gone for the biggest room for the Wedding Breakfast (first meal as a married couple) and evening reception.

We have someone coming to decorate the rooms for us, this post will be going up after the wedding with details of who is doing this for us and also a review with lots of photos!

Dress
I'm obviously not going to go into too much detail with this one but I ordered my dress last November! I will definitely be doing a post on wedding dress shopping, I found it extremely overwhelming and I can imagine I'm not the only Bride to Be who has felt this.
My fitting is January....I know!! Flipping January, straight after Christmas! To be honest I was going to be having a no crap eating Christmas this year anyway but this just makes me not want to eat junk at all over the festive period....I just keep reminding myself 'It's only this Christmas!' Needless to say I will still be having the odd tipple.
I have to say a special thank you here (I'll obviously also be doing something more nearer the time) to my lovely mum who is buying my wedding dress, I didn't know this until I said 'Yes to the dress' !

Photographer
After looking online and going to wedding fayres we finally decided on a photographer who we think is going to brill, this will be another post after the wedding of the photographer, a review and photos.

Cake
It's obviously way too early to have a cake yet but we already know what we're having....cupcakes!
I just thought cakes are not cheap and I've been to so many weddings and they have the cake cut up for people to take and it hardly gets touched!
So we're having cupcakes made by my lovely mother in law to be who is fab at baking and then we're going to have cupcake boxes made so everyone can take them home.
Suits & Rings
We are hiring suits and these are going to be a light grey colour - love it!
I've never seen Richard in a suit (and we've been together 11 and a half years! so I'm not going with him for the fitting as I want to save this for the day. The rings are the next thing on the list to get, we've seen a few we like when walking past jewelers but need to go in and have a proper look and try on. 

Transport
I searched and searched on the internet for a wedding car, now my absolute dream wedding car would be the 1967 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 'Eleanor' I did actually find someone who has this as a chauffeur car however at around £300-£400 an hour I wasn't prepared to spend that much! Especially as it's only the one trip and it's only approx. 20 minutes!
Therefore I found a local wedding car hire company who has done me a fantastic deal, it's one guy who only has the one car so for no extra cost he's picking up my mum and the bridesmaids and taken them to the venue first at no extra cost.

I think for now I'm going to leave the post here, don't worry I'll be covering everything in posts every other Wednesday (as much as I can!) leading up to the big day including our Disneymoon and also the Hen Weekend!!

Don't forget to follow me over on Twitter and Instagram.

If you have your big day planned and coming up let me know in the comments.
Also if you are also posting about your wedding and sharing tips, let me know and I'll check it out!

Maxine x



Sunday 3 September 2017

I'm Back!






Well hellooooo there! I am back!
This feels kinda surreal writing a post and exciting too! I've had somewhat of a break from the 'blog scene' and I'm back and ready to take my blog to the next level.

I wanted my first post to let you know why I stepped away and what has made me come back.
So, when I look at the time I started blogging I can see where it went wrong! If you look at my first posts you'll see I had intentions of being a beauty blogger and I was going to write about new products and reviews, however when I really think about it, I'm not a beauty blogger and I felt like I was being false. Although I do wear make up, I don't have a make up routine and wear highlighters and contour, I literally wear a foundation and mascara when I'm going to work and when going out I'll use my Urban Decay Smokey Palette (That I DO obsess over!) and I have 'nicer' products but still nothing that requires technique! (I do wish I could make my make up look as flawless as those who are amazing with the skills!) I know beauty doesn't just cover make up so don't get me wrong I may from to time feature a product whether it be a new mascara or body lotion or a face cream etc but as the main point of my blog I started in the complete wrong direction and I don't mind being honest about it, I think it was mainly because there is a lot of amazing beauty bloggers and so I thought maybe that's what people prefer when reading blogs. However in the time I haven't been posting I've still been reading different blogs and different styles and it hit me that actually your blog is YOUR blog, it doesn't matter if the most popular ones are beauty inspired it's about YOU.
Which brings me to why I wanted to give it another go and this time I'm really determind to have a blog that I'm proud of and can look at and be like 'Yep, that's me'
So as I say yes I may include a few posts of beauty products but my main style of blog I will have is a Lifestyle, as the name tells you I am a chatterbox! So the idea of having more chatty posts is something I look forward to.
Also I love movies and mainly horror! Therefore I'm currently thinking of ways I can incorporate this into my blog, I think the main thing will be maybe reviews of horror movies I watch, whether it be new releases or something I come across on Netflix etc
To be honest I am a huge movie fan in general.
One of my main loves that I am hoping to include is Disney - yes I see you rolling your eyes and thinking 'Really?! but Disney is for kids!' Bish, I am going to Disney World next year for my Honeymoon!
This also brings to me another topic I will be featuring and that's Wedding's! I am marrying my best friend May 2018 and I couldn't be more excited! So I'll be posting an update of our plans and also any tips I can share to help other future brides! (This one I really look forward to)
I'm also hoping to do a few travel style posts, mainly things to do in Nottingham and places to visit especially the Christmas Market!
I just have so much planned and I look forward to sharing it with you.


So yeah, without making this post too long I just wanted to give an idea of where I am hoping my blog to go and see what happens! I'm very excited but also a little nervous, I know there are a lot of amazing bloggers out there and I am a tiny little fish in a great big blogging ocean but I'm excited to get back into the scene properly and meet more lovely people. I have to say that's another reason I wanted to get back into blogging - the lovely people you get to meet.


I'd just like to say a huge thank you to Amy (AlohaAmy) for making my blog header, it's absolutely amazing and I love it!
Go give Amy a follow on Twitter @alohaamyg and check out her amazing blog www.alohaamy.co.uk

Don't forget to follow me on Twitter (@Chatterboxmax) and Instagram (maxinefrancis89) although to be honest I think people are a bit fed of Instagram at the moment, including me! But I still post on there and I'm using the Instastories more now too.

Come say Hi over on Twitter or leave a comment below.
I'm also on Bloglovin' so give that button to the right a click to make sure you see when I next post.

Maxine x