Life in April

Wedding plans have been in full swing during April. It's hard to believe that, after being engaged for almost three years, this time next month I'll be a married woman! We settled on a date pretty early on into our engagement and it seemed like the time was never going to come but, now that it's almost here, it's been a mad dash to get everything sorted and make sure everyone has been paid. There's still a few bits to do but the four day Easter weekend really helped us out this month.

So, the Easter weekend for me was non stop planning - it didn't really feel like a long weekend to me but the all the stress and hard work will be worth it in the end! First up on Good Friday was something a little more relaxing (especially as my Gran felt the need to take over and do most of the work as we were "doing it wrong"!), we did a trial run at baking our wedding favours. We weren't totally sure which flavours we wanted to go for so we tried a couple of recipes out, and you can see the "winning" recipe here. We didn't completely get the finished look we were after, since I left my butterfly cutter at home, but at least we now know what they will taste like!

Saturday was a pretty hectic morning, trying to get all of my bridesmaids together and over to Southam for 10am to have our dresses fitted for alterations. Luckily we made it on time and had a lovely morning trying on all of our dresses together. It was also the first time my youngest bridesmaid had tried on her dress - we had to order it as late as possible to make sure we got the most accurate fit. The afternoon was spent having a lovely pamper, as me and my older bridesmaids had our hair & makeup trials. This was followed by my nail trial on Sunday afternoon, which was done by my soon to be sister-in-law. As you can see above, I've gone for a lovely butterfly design on my ring fingers, to match the colour of my bridesmaids dresses.

On Easter Monday, we took a trip back to our wedding venue with our photographer to discuss possibilities for different shots. One in particular I liked was me pretending to push my husband into the lake - just as long as he doesn't actually fall in! It was a really lovely sunny day when we went and it was lovely to see the stunning grounds in the sunshine. Let's just hope it's like that on the day too!

So Easter didn't just mean wedding planning. It also meant junk food - and lots of it! It started off with a pit-stop at McDonalds with my bridesmaids on Friday lunchtime and I think after that we had one home-cooked meal all weekend after that! Really bad, I know, but we were rushing about so much throughout the day that by the time we got home in the evenings we just wanted to veg out and grab something quick & easy to eat. And, of course, there was plenty of chocolate too. I was pretty impressed I only managed to put on a few pounds, most of which have already come off, so I shouldn't have to worry about fitting in my dress!

Spending-wise this month, I think I've done a lot better than I had done last month - that was just a complete disaster! I've still treated myself to a few things here and there but my shopping bags have definitely been a lot lighter! This does mean, however, that I've got a few extra pennies stashed away to do some serious honeymoon shopping this month. I still have no bikinis or flip flops - kind of the holiday essentials really, aren't they?! Look of for a holiday haul very soon!

We'd known it was coming for a while, but my (almost) father-in-law finally went in to have his hip replacement this month. It's been a long wait for him and he'd been in discomfort for a very long time before they could finally book him in, so it was a great relief to get the date, though it was a little weird seeing him knocked out on morphine when we went to visit him. He was worried about not being fit enough to walk about at the wedding. To be honest, he was the only one worrying. As long as he was there, it wouldn't matter to us whether he was running around the field or sat in his wheelchair. Luckily he has been making a very speedy recovery. My boyfriend took some time off work this week to look after him whilst his mum was away with work, and he's already walking to the shops, albeit using his crutches. I don't think any of us expected him to be doing this quite so soon, so it's great news.

Finally, last weekend was my hen party! It was such a great night and I had lots of fun. We spent most of the night at the casino, firstly having a lovely three course meal, then spending the night gambling away (we got a few free chips, so we didn't spend too much money!) and listening to the live act they had on in their show bar. A few of us then moved on to a night club for a few more drinks but we didn't stay too long - a sign that I'm getting old I think! Aside from feeling a little worse for wear the following morning, I had a brilliant time.

So that was April - super busy but also lots of fun. It did end on a little sour note though, as I've spent the last few days ill with a tummy bug - better now than in a month's time though, I guess. I'm now counting down the days and I'll be enjoying my last month as a single lady. I've got lots of exciting things planned in May, including another hen party with work.

What did you get up to in April? Did you have a good Easter holiday?