September 2014 OMs :-)

I have the blues

this time last year was so exciting - finally being able to say "I get married this year"!!

i feel like I have nothing to look forward to this year. I want to go back to 2014 and have all the fun and excitement again

Aww, sad to hear you're feeling low. I'm mourning 2014 too, having got engaged and married, as well as taking H away to Budapest for his 30th, and one of my best friends getting married a couple of days ago, 2014 was a crazy busy year but it was amazing. People keep saying it'll be nice for you to have a quiet year, which I guess is true, but I really will miss all the excitement!

Happy New year girls!

I know that blues feeling, last year we could say - we get married this year! Hopefully this year I will get pregnant so trying for that might be fun

I have literally had my wedding photos back from our TOG so they have brightened my day, although by the end of the night I am looking like a hot mess! I think I would describe the evening photos as a mixture of hilarious & hideous! But my TOG loves them!

xx

I've just realised that tomorrow is our 4 month 'anniversary'! And that has made me get my bum in gear about getting my dress cleaned/boxed as it is still hanging in the dress bag in my spare room. Have you all had yours professionally cleaned and if so, where? I've looked at the online companies but it seems so expensive! I emailed the only dress shop in my city (not where I bought my dress) and they've quoted £150 which is about the same. Seriously considering just dipping the bottom in the bath with some handwash liquid as it's only a bit dirty on the underside of the back/train - has anyone tried this?

ETA: Wooo new avatar, needed an excuse to flick through photos again!

Aww, lovely pic beccak! I still havent done anything with mine either. Unfortunately the materials they make wedding dresses out of don't usually mix well with water. I love the idea of donating it like bekkijane has, but I can't bring myself to part with it yet. Getting it cleaned is so expensive that I think you'd end up losing money if you sold it, and it seems silly to keep it. I wouldn't get in it at the moment, i've piled weight on since the wedding! My bridesmaid dress was so tight it bruised! Oops

I kept my first wedding outfit for years, even though I hated it and would never have wanted to pass it on to my daughter. for some odd reason, even after the divorce and all the awful feelings associated with my ex,it didnt feel right to get rid of it. I left it with my parents for many years and finally it went to charity just before the wedding!!!

Hang on to your dresses ladies if you can and you want to. Hopefully your marriages will last forever and you will pass your dress on to your daughter or grand-daughter. Or you could do what my sister did and have it made into christening outfits for her daughters and a cushion for each of them to keep.

Aww, bekkijane, a christening outfit is a lovely idea. We have no plans for children currently (H is dead against it) but I think I will keep my dress for a while. No daughter of ours would be able to wear it though, he's a foot taller than me, they'd definitely be too tall! ☺

I also have wedding blues too ? also not that happy with my wedding pics and a few things on the day, I hate myself in my pictures, don't know if I'm like this due to it all being over I did have doubts about my photographer!! Maybe it's just me being low! Ahh I miss planning it so much!!

Aww, loves young dream I hope you come to love your photos. Its weird for me because I was only planning for 8 months which meant it was really concentrated (and I'm obsessive so I did a lot!) And my best friend was planning too, and now both weddings are done and it feels weird. I need something new to do! I've found lots of new recipes to try and I had a look at the holiday sales but can't book any of the amazing deals as H is doing exams around the time they're all for.

Happy new year ladies! But like you all I have been finding it a bit strange/feeling low about the fact that we got married last year, and nothing exciting is happening this year. Had a lovely christmas, spending a few days with family and relaxing with hubby. Back to work tomorrow, not been at work since the 23rd. Needed the break though as haven't had a day off (except weekend) since I got back from honeymoon

My plan for this year is- saving money! Next step for us is for move to a 'family house' and then after that have children, so we need all the money we can get! But still want to enjoy yourselves too...

Glad it was a lovely wedding! Dress looks gorgeous, a lovely colour

Yep, saving for the next house is our plan too. Not so sure on the kids part yet! Thank you, the pic doesn't actually show the colour very well, its actually really bright. I'll try and post one showing it properly soon

How's everyone's week been? I did a few days around Christmas just replying to emails and such but this week was the first proper week of work since November - fortunately it seemed to go by quite quickly, but I really miss being on honeymoon! Just put some pics up in the Awards honeymoon category and it reminded me of all the amazing things we did.

I've researched DIY cleaning my dress some more and as it is 100% polyester and I literally only need to clean the bottom few cms of parts of the hem, I'm going to try dipping it in the bath / gently rubbing the dirty areas this weekend. I definitely wouldn't be brave enough to put it in the machine (it's heavily beaded/sparkled), nor would I want to drench the whole thing in the bath but I can't see anything going too wrong with just the very bottom - hopefully this won't be famous last words!

MrsShep you look fabulous. Colour if the dress really suits you even if you say it hasn't come out great in the photo.

Exciting news over Christmas as my husband's sister who was my bridesmaid has become engaged. She's already asked me to dig out the old supplier list. Something to look forward to!

Blimey beccak, I think your honeymoon blows everyone elses out of the water! Good luck with your dress, let us know how it goes! I think mine is taffeta, so dont think I can bath wash mine sadly!

Its been tough getting back into the swing of work, although now it feels like we've been back forever again.

Thanks Helen. I've cropped a pic (didnt want to put the bride on here) just to show the real dress colour, but it wont let me load it!. The tog pics are back already so i'm hoping i'll get my hands on a couple of those!

Looking forward to seeing your bridesmaid pics, MrsShep. Was it fun being a bridesmaid or did you secretly wish you were the bride again?!

I think it's really the quality time spent with your new husband/wife that really makes a honeymoon special rather than where you went/what you did so in my book everyone's honeymoons sound great, particularly when they are posted about with such excitement. I'm lucky I had some great pictures to flash, though!

Our stupid boiler that we inherited from the last owners was having a new set of "issues" over the weekend so didn't want to use the hot water more than we had to in case it stopped working altogether, so haven't washed my dress yet. Engineer has now been to look at it though, so might try this weekend if the bloody thing doesn't break again before we get to Saturday!

Our TOG has finally sent us details of the albums (they are priced separately as he finds a lot of people now just want the digital files), so we've picked out the photos we want including and the cover options etc. Hopefully it won't be too long a wait, but I'm not holding my breath!

Being a bride is definitely better! I did get lots of compliments though which was nice! The bride says I was an incredible bridesmaid, I definitely see why you traditionally have a matron of honour, having been married so recently I knew exactly what she'd need me to do.

Our honeymoon was amazing, we've been saying we'd definitely like to go back one day. For me it was all about getting to have that quality time together in an amazing setting, so lucky.

Yay! Be lovely to have your album. Apparently ours is nearly ready. I had a cheap one made too which is nice to look tthrough but has made the photos a little blurry. I got a beautiful 3 square wooden canvas type thing on a deal too, amazing photo quality! Cant wait to put that up.

I hope they sort your boiler out! We're going down to my parents this week for birthday celebrations so I might have a proper look at my dress

Yay!

Lovely photos Mrs Shep! You look lovely, what a gorgeous dress

Definitely lovely photos. You look so happy with your (almost) new husband. Love the fur wrap! Desperate to go to someone's wedding now...

Beautiful Bridesmaid MrsS! That colour looks fab on you.

Thanks girls! I found out today I get to go to a wedding fayre in a couple of weeks with the fiancee of H's best friend. They're getting married in May

Took the plunge and washed the bottom of my dress today. Filled the bathroom sink with hot water and some handwash laundry liquid, hung my dress on the shower door and dipped the hem in bit by bit, working my way round and just rubbing the grubby bits. I used a soft toothbrush dipped in the laundry liquid on some of the blacker bits and the dirt seemed to mainly disappear.

It is now hung up drying and I have my fingers crossed there won't be any watermarks. Will report back tomorrow with some before/after photos hopefully, and once I'm happy it is ok I'll order a storage box for it.

Dress is dry and pleased to say I didn't ruin it!

Before (these are the worst bits, on the underside of the innermost layer at the back):

After:

There are still a couple of areas that are a bit discoloured on close inspection but most of the dirt just vanished straight away so I'm happy with this.

Anyone with a polyester satin dress (mine was satin underskirt them lots of layers of tulle and lace) I'd definitely recommend having a (very careful!) DIY go at cleaning.

Wow beccak - looks great. Can't believe how well your dress has come up. Haven't even dared look at mine properly nevermind attempt to clean it. You may have inspired me into action...

Haha, yes do it!

Although I now have no excuse not to put it away somewhere properly. Which apparently requires a special box. The cheapest of which seem to be around £30. But then there are oh-so-pretty ones that are more like £50 - £60. And I don't know which to get. Has anyone here bought a storage box?

You've done a great job beccak! Looks fab I think I might just leave mine hanging in my parents spare room forever! Haha

Hi girls! How is everyone? It's our 4 month anniversary tomorrow, and at the weekend im going to a wedding fayre with H's best friends fiancé.

In non wedding related news, I restart my diet today after Christmas and my birthday! So I'm guessing that hungry and stroppy will be the order of the day for a while!