Our Mini-moon

Mar 2, 2020Mar 2, 2020 vacaysandsunnydays

I’m a little bit late with this post.. over 6 months actually! My goodness time flies! As we were lucky enough to get married in France, we decided to head down to the South of France for 6 nights for our mini-moon.

I cannot believe that I have never visited the South of France before! On the flight in we lost count of the number of super-yachts and private jets we saw, it was insane! The coast line was absolutely beautiful as well and it made me so excited to spend the next week there.

Hotels

When searching for accommodation we struggled a little bit because there is so much choice! There are so many amazing hotels in Nice such as Negressco, Le Meridien, the Radison Blu etc. all of which have amazing sea views. Then you also have the options of Air BNB and serviced apartments as well as the boutique hotels. When choosing your hotel you have to consider the location, and decide whether you want to stay along the promenade or in the Old Town… there was just so much choice! We decided on Hotel Villa Victoria which was a lovely 4* hotel based around 5-10 minutes’ walk from the beach and around 15-20 minutes from the Old Town.

We arrived at the hotel around 7pm and the staff were so helpful from the moment we checked in. We decided to drop our bags in the room and head out for a quick bite to eat as we were both feeling exhausted from the journey. We got back and sat outside in the hotels garden on the terrace with a bottle of wine and opened all of our wedding cards and read through our guestbook, it was so perfect. One of the other reasons I loved this hotel is they have two cats in the garden that they look after (of course that’s what sold me!)

Beach Days

We had a total of five full days in Nice, I had (obviously) planned an itinerary for our time but we decided to balance it by having a few chilled days down the beach and the rest exploring and activities! We definitely needed those chilled days after the build up to the wedding.

The beach in Nice is stony so we didn’t fancy rocking up and putting our towels down on the floor. As you walk along the Promenade de Anglais you see several different beach clubs where you can hire a sunbed, towel and umbrella for the day. On our first day we stopped at a beach club called Le Galet, it looked super chilled, had a bar and restaurant and sunbeds to hire for the day for €20 each. We were sold!

We ate lunch the in Le Galet restaurant and just told the staff on the beach when we were ready for a table and within 15 minutes we were seated with a glass of wine in hand!

The food was amazing and the portions were huge! We shared a Caesar Salad and lobster linguini, both were wonderful! We also had several, probably too many, glasses of rosè! As you can imagine, the rest of the day was spent napping on the sunbed!

A few days later when we had another beach day factored into our itinerary, we headed straight down to Le Galet again! We spent the day in exactly the same way, the only thing that changed was our lunch order! Ryan ordered the Thai Beef Salad and I ordered the Seafood Pasta Salad, the food was seriously amazing!

Monaco

Our first adventure day out was one that i was most excited for. As one of our wedding gifts, Ryan’s dad kindly paid for us to hire a vintage car. We opted for a convertible 1963 cream MG MGA. I’m not exactly a car enthusiast but my god this car was amazing! We (Ryan) drove from Nice along the coast to Monaco, stopping in the small town of Eze on the way for some photos. We didn’t even have a satnav or map with us but we managed to navigate our way there using the road signs – I was more impressed at us managing this than anything else!

We arrived in Monaco and drove around the one way streets in front of the casino and Cafe de Paris, people were stopping to take photos of the car, it was honestly incredible. We parked up and headed into the casino to play on the slots. I thought I had one €24 and cashed out but it turns out €20 of that was the note I put in to start with! Oh well, it was still a win!

After the casino we had a reservation for lunch at Cafe de Paris. We had a lovely meal followed by wine and coffee and spent a bit of time walking around the area. We headed down to the harbour to see the yachts and window shopping (sadly it was only window shopping).

Ryan done so well driving considering the car had no assisted steering or breaks .. or air conditioning! But we wanted to make the most of our time with the car so we headed back to Nice and continued along the coastal road through Cannes and along to Antibes. It was such a memorable day.

Cannes

A few days later we had another day trip exploring and this time we got the train down to Cannes which was around an hour and only cost 12 Euros for a return. We stopped for a bite to eat at a little bagel cafe and then headed down to the main promenade. It’s become a bit of a tradition for us now whenever we visit France to stop in Le Fouquet for a drink. As we arrived relatively early we just had a coffee this time but at least we can say we have stuck with our tradition!

Living in Dubai you would think that we were used to seeing the super cars but honestly Cannes promenade was another level, even though 90% of the number plates were Emirati!

We had made a lunch reservation at La Guerite on St Margerites Island which is a small island off the coast off Cannes with not a great deal on it, apart from the restaurant! You can travel to the restaurant by arranging a speedboat with them or taking a public ferry. As we had a bit of time and wanted to explore the island a little, we took the ferry across and then walked around the island before making our way to the restaurant. The atmosphere st La Gueriete was amazing, it started with a live band going around the restaurant singing to each of the tables and later a DJ came on which is when the party really got going! It was crazy seeing all of the superyachts moored up outside and people taking their speedboats from their yachts to the restaurant and back. The food was also excellent, Ryan had the pot of mussels and I chose the prawns which were delicious! As the wine was flowing we got a bit carried away and ordered ourselves a bottle of Dom Perrignon! We told the waiter that we had just got married and when they brought it out to us, the Dj played Bruno Mars “I think I wanna marry you” and they were carrying huge England flags over to our table! It was so much fun.

Wine Tasting

The other fun activity day we had planned whilst we were down in Nice was a wine tasting tour. My sister and her boyfriend were also down in Nice for a few days at the same time as us so we all met up for breakfast and then headed to the Old Town to where our tour was starting from. This wine tasting tour was a bit different to others as it was on bikes, yes, bikes! We only a small group on our tour consisting of us four, our tour guide and another group of four Americans. Thankfully, the bikes were assisted which was definitely needed when we were cycling up the windy mountain roads to the vineyards.

The views on the way were beautiful and we were able to take in so much more around us by cycling rather than driving. The vineyard we visited is one of the only vineyards in France that is inside the confines of a main city. We completed our tour of the vineyard which was followed by sampling five of the wine. We also bought some baguettes in the Old Town so we could stop and have a little picnic at the vineyard. We chose our favourite bottle of red wine and chilled out for a little while. By this point, I must say I was feeling slightly tipsy. On the way back down we had the assisted pedalling on and my bike reached up to 40k! I pulled over to get my phone out to video my speedo but as I was picking up the pace I felt a bit wobbly and pulled on the left break as my right hand was holding my phone. The left break slammed on and turned the front wheel of the bike to a halt and I absolutely stacked it off the bike! It was inevitable really wasn’t it, combining me with wine and a bike!!

On our final day we had the morning spare so met up with my sister and her boyfriend again for breakfast before heading across to the Old Town for a free walking tour. We actually got a little bit bored part way round and also distracted by the market so decided to slip away from the tour group before heading back for our flight. We absolutely loved our time down in the South of France. France will definitely hold a special place in our hearts now with all of the memories we made there this summer.

Food in Cape Town

Dec 3, 2019 vacaysandsunnydays

I honestly don’t even know where to start with all the food we ate on our trip. We didn’t have one bad meal during our entire stay in South Africa and with such an abundance of choice, it was difficult to choose where to eat! We had received so many helpful recommendations from friends on the best places to eat before visiting and it was advised to make reservations so we weren’t disappointed!

Camps Bay

La Belle Bistro & Bakery

When we arrived in Camps Bay our hotel room wasn’t quite ready so we headed out for a bite to eat. Conscious that we had our Afternoon Tea already booked for later in the day we chose La Belle Bistro & Bakery and shared a pot of mussels, calamari and a few glasses of the Chenin Blanc. I don’t know if it’s because we were quite hungry or what, but the mussels in white wine sauce were some of the best I have ever had.

The Bungalow

We were super excited to try the seafood at The Bungalow and it didn’t disappoint. Our reservation was at 8pm but I would advise arriving earlier to watch the sunset. The restaurant is located just off the beach with a really relaxed vibe. You can choose to sit in the marquee seating area closer to the beach or a bit further back into the restaurant. We ordered a portion of the langoustines which came with 6-8 in a serving and one portion of the prawns which came with 10 in one serving! We ordered a side of chips and veggies and a bottle of white wine. It felt like a lot of food but, of course, we finished it all! The staff were friendly and very informative and it was, all in all, a lovely evening.

Bilboa

We sat in Bilboa for some sunset drinks one evening but as we started to see the food being brought out to tables around us we got slightly envious! So we ordered some starters just to tide us over until our actual dinner reservation later on that night. I ordered the halloumi which was amazing. It was served with a light marmalade sauce, freekeh and chilli. Absolutely gorgeous. Ryan ordered the lightly battered prawns which, considering it was a starter, was a generous portion of 5 large prawns. I wish we had time to return for a main meal! Upstairs, they have a rooftop bar, Chinchilla, which was much more lively with a DJ whereas the restaurant itself is a more chilled vibe.

Codfather

My favourite seafood meal in SA (and situated less than a three minute walk from

our hotel)! The Codfather had a much more rustic vibe to the restaurant than others we dined in. We visited for lunch and were dressed in our gym clothes and trainers as it was our reward after completing the hike up Table Mountain! They have a sushi counter with all of the fresh sushi on the conveyer belt which you can help yourself to at any time and take back to your table. They also have a fresh fish counter and your waiter explains all of the different types of fish that they have on offer and their flavours, what you should accompany it with and helps you decide on the portion sizes. As we had just worked up a huge appetite, we ordered 3 langoustines each, 3 prawns each, Kingklip fillet (which is the local line caught fish and is very similar taste and texture to cod) and also some butter fish, which was absolutely gorgeous and I would highly recommend. The food is served in a copper basket with rice, chips, vegetables and a side of four sauces, the garlic butter was my fave! We demolished the food and saved a little bit of room for some sushi which was super fresh and tasty!

Paranga

Paranga is located just along the seafront in Camps Bay with a mixture of big groups and couples dining when we joined for dinner which created a great atmosphere. We both opted for steak for dinner this time and were not disappointed. Ryan ordered the rib eye whereas I ordered the fillet, both cooked medium and with chips, mash and peppercorn sauce on the side. My steak was slightly undercooked for my liking but the staff quickly rectified that and when it returned it was cooked perfectly.

I saved room for desert this time and we ordered the rocky road which came with brownie, crushed chocolate biscuit, marshmallows, piped walnut icing and espresso flavoured ice cream. I’m not going to lie, this was my favourite part of the meal!

V&A Waterfront

V&A Food Market

If you’re in the area and are not quite sure what to have for lunch, head straight to the food market at the V&A Waterfront. I lost count of the number of different stalls inside offering everything from pokè bowls; samosas; wraps; burgers; oysters and fresh seafood; biltong; desserts, you name it and you’ll find it in there. We ordered a selection from different stalls including samosas, grilled pork belly wrap, lamb with aubergine wrap and Ryan got a beer (of course). We sat outside on the picnic benches and there were also local street performers around the area so we sat watching a group of young children in tribal wear singing and dancing and it was just amazing.

Harbourfront House

We were so lucky with the weather when we visited the V&A Waterfront so we headed to one of the bars overlooking the port and had a few glasses of wine and some sushi. It’s in the perfect location for people watching so we each had a few glasses of the Chenin Blanc (as you can tell this it been a favourite of ours this holiday!) and the teriyaki salmon sushi which was lovely!

We also wanted to visit the Grand Africa Restaurant and Beach Club during our stay in Cape Town but sadly, due to having to reschedule our hike up Table Mountain, we didn’t have time on this trip.

Others

Mount Nelson Hotel

Afternoon tea at the Mount Nelson Hotel has been voted in the top 10 in the world, and we understand why. Upon arrive the service is exceptional. The hotel has a high end but relaxing feeling to it. The weather was beautiful so we sat outside on the terrace and ordered a few glasses of MCC to go with our sandwiches! They start by first providing you with a stand of hot and cold savouries including salmon, egg, ham and cheese sandwiches, spinach and cheese frittatas, onion bhajis and others. You can request any of these as many times as you like! Then come the scones with jam and clotted cream. Obviously we had the standard disagreement on whether the cream or jam goes on first (I say jam, Ryan says cream)! The sweets are kept inside the lounge area and there’s a huge variety but by this point I was exceptionally full! They also have a menu with over 40 varieties of tea, all of which are included in the price. Overall, it was a lovely, relaxing afternoon and an entitled different vibe to the hustle and bustle of Cape Town outside of the hotel walls.

Two Oceans

We stopped at Two Oceans for lunch during our day trip down to Cape Point, before heading to Boulders Beach. We had read about how busy the restaurant gets so booked in advance which I would definitely recommend to avoid disappointment! We had a great seat outside overlooking the sea and ordered one of the seafood platters to share which came with a selection of prawns, mussels, kingklip, calamari and chips. It was the perfect amount of food for two which we shared with a bottle of white wine and couldn’t resist the carrot cake for dessert!

Pot Luck Club

The last, but by no means least, and actually our favourite restaurant that we visited, the Pot Luck Club. Reservations open on the first day of the month before you wish to visit, so we made sure to set a reminder to make our reservation on the 1 of October to avoid disappointment! When we arrived we were welcomed with a complimentary glass of champagne each as we had informed the staff that we were celebrating Ryan’s birthday which was a lovely touch. We were sat just opposite the cooking station so had the entertainment of watching the chef at work all evening which was so impressive. The menu is based on a tapas / sharing concept and they advise that you order 6-8 dishes to share. The plates are brought out in the order recommended by the chef, starting with the lighter dishes first.

We started with the fresh ceviche tacos, served with a jalapeño sauce, followed shortly after by the calamari which was lightly fried and served with a mustard aioli and Parma ham. Next came Doenjang Glazed Tuna which was four generous chunks of tuna, lightly seared with a teriyaki style sauce. Up next was the Springbok Carpaccio, I almost didn’t want to order this dish but I’m so glad we did as the meat was so tender and with balsamic dressing and thin crouton crisps on top, it was delicious.

These were essentially our starter dishes and we then moved on to the heavier plates, starting with the Peri Peri Chicken which was cooked perfectly and served with a feta crumble on the top – slightly better than Nandos I must say! Our penultimate dish was Penang Pork Belly which was served in a light coconut curry sauce with broccoli and broken fish crackers. We definitely got the taste of Malaysia through this dish. Finally, we finished with the Smoked Beef Fillet served in black pepper, truffle and cafe au lait sauce. Oh my god it was amazing.

Overall, everything about this restaurant was incredible, from the service, to the ambience in the restaurant and of course, the food.

Our Wedding Day

Sep 16, 2019 vacaysandsunnydays

Oh, our wedding day. When I try to put into words how I feel about our wedding day the only word I tend to use is amazing. I’m not the type of person who can say I have always dreamt about what my wedding day would be like or that I had it all planned out as a young girl because honestly, I had never even thought about it until we got engaged! But our day really was everything I ever could have imagined it to be, and more.

Throughout the day I had to keep stopping to remind myself, “this is actually your wedding day… you’re getting married today” to make sure I tried to take it all in. Like when I was sat having my hair done in the morning by Sheree, or just as me and Dad were about to walk down the aisle, I just had to take a moment to process it all.

I’m not going to lie, I didn’t exactly have the best start to the day. Katie and I shared a bed the night before as Ryan was in with his best man, Harry. I think I got a total of about 90 minutes sleep the night before the wedding… it was without a doubt, the worst night’s sleep of my entire life. At one point, I was convinced the entire wedding party had food poisoning from the BBQ and I called my mum at 2.30am in tears saying “Mum, everyone’s got food poisoning, there’s not going to be a wedding, everyone’s ill!” I needed Mum to be the voice of reason and tell me, that actually, no one has food poisoning and I’m probably just feeling a bit nervous!

The morning of…

So on the wedding morning at 7am, my Mum, Ryan’s Mum (Lisa), Katie, Sheree and Jemma came to the bridal suite to start getting ready for the day. I am so lucky to have such an amazingly talented best friend as Sheree and she was not only a bridesmaid, but also our hair wizard. Kelly, from Perfection, also travelled across to France to do everyone’s makeup. Me, being me, prepared a schedule for the morning, broken down by every 15 minutes so that we knew who had hair and makeup at what time and to avoid the issue of running late or anyone feeling stressed out.

I have to say that getting ready was one of my favourite parts of the day. It was such a lovely, relaxing morning. We had presents, champagne, croissants and just all had such a lovely time. At around 1pm the flower girls and page boys came up to the bridal suite for some photos and to prepare for walking down the aisle.

We had suggested a hotel nearby for the wedding party to stay at and, for ease, arranged transportation to and from the wedding venue for the BBQ day and wedding day. At about 1.30pm, the wedding planner came to me and said “I don’t want to worry you but there’s been a slight issue with the coach… it’s broken down, so we’re going to be slightly delayed!” Can you believe the entire wedding party kept the bride waiting?! I just popped open another bottle of champagne! Both the photographer and the videographer wanted to capture me getting into my dress so, as we had time, I did it twice so that they could both get the shots they wanted.

The Ceremony

The guests all pitched together and made their own way as a lot of people had hired cars for the weekend anyway. Once we were informed that guests had started to arrive, that’s when the nerves started to hit me. Luckily the ceremony had only been delayed by 30 minutes but by this point I was itching to get started. Our ceremony was supposed to be outside but the weather on the morning was very hit and miss with a bit of rain and so the wedding planner and florist decided it would be best if the ceremony was held in the barn. As we walked from the Chateau to the barn we were all holding umbrellas, my dress was tucked right up and I could hear the cellist as we were approaching. Everyone told me how cute and well behaved out little page boys, Rufus and Rafferty, were. Now that we’ve received the video back I can see the nerves in my whole body as I walked down the aisle with Dad.

The ceremony itself seemed to go so quickly for us. As part of our ceremony, we had a Wine Ceremony. Ryan and I had to write a note to each other which is to be stored in a wine box alongside a Polaroid picture from the wedding day. If our marriage is ever experiencing any difficulty we are supposed to sit together, open the bottle of wine and read our notes to one another, to remember the reason why we got married and the reason we fell in love. The aim though, is that our marriage never comes into difficulty and that we are supposed to open the wine and enjoy it together on our 5^th wedding anniversary.

After the ceremony, we had the cocktail and canapés reception. We had arranged for the band to play an acoustic set during this time and when we visited France in April we sampled all of the canapés that would be served at this time. We even had a live station where the chef was carving a leg of Serrano ham. I’ll be honest, this is the part of the day that I was most looking forward to (obviously apart from actually marrying Ryan!) But, we were taken away during this bit with our photographer and videographer to capture some special moments together. I did manage to make my way in for some of the Serrano ham though, and it was lovely!

By this point, it was still drizzling and my dress had started to become a bit muddy. I had a bit of a bridezilla moment when mum said “don’t worry Lou, we can have it dry cleaned” I snapped back “but I need it clean NOW!” (Sorry Mum!) Everyone told me throughout the day that all the best wedding dresses end up covered in dirt and wine and that they tell a good story of the day but it was just a little heart-breaking seeing the bottom of it getting so muddy and wet in the rain. Thankfully it doesn’t show up in any of the photos!
We then had the family portraits which seemed to go on for ages so after that, Ryan and I decided to go for a little walk around the back of the Chateau, just the two of us, have some champagne and just spend a little bit of time together. That’s another thing so many people had told us in the lead up to the wedding… “make sure you get to spend some along time together on your wedding day”’

The Dinner

One thing that we really loved about our venue was all the space that could be used for different aspects of the day. Originally, we had planned to have the ceremony outside in front of the Chateau but thankfully had the backup of the gorgeous barn. The wedding breakfast was then held in the marquee which was attached to the barn and the barn itself had the stage and the band and was essentially our party room.

The marquee looked absolutely gorgeous, so much more beautiful than I could have imagined. Rather than having the tables set with name tags for people to find their seat, we had polaroid’s held in corks (all of the photos were taken of the wedding guests the day before at the BBQ)! Ryan and I entered to Luther Vandross “Never Too Much” being played and joined our family at the top table. The speeches were lovely, and I’m so glad we have our video which includes all of the speeches as when we watched it back, I couldn’t remember half of what was said, it all seemed like such a blur!

One of my favourite parts of the room was the corner where the cake was. Our wedding planner had set two oak barrels with flowers either side of a trolley on which the cake sat, I thought it looked gorgeous. The marquee was clear so you could see through to the Chateau in the background, and once the sun had set the festoon lights connected from the tree to the marquee looked beautiful. We cut the cake and then had our first dance, ready to get the party started.

The Party

Our band were absolutely incredible our first dance was to Robin Es “Show me love” as an acoustic version which then sped up into the dance version. It got everyone straight up on the dance floor and I literally didn’t leave for the rest of the night! The band were honestly brilliant and made the evening for us. It was so amazing to be surrounded by our family and friends, dancing and laughing and just having the best time. We had a sparkler send off at around 9.30pm after the bands second set and the proceeded to DJ for the remainder of the night. It was only the next day that I remembered that we had arranged for burger sliders and bacon buttys to be brought out for the evening food – everyone else polished them off and I didn’t even have one!

As we had to use up all of the alcohol that we had ordered for the wedding day, we started to hand out bottles of the champagne so, me being the classy bride, had one glued to my hand for the rest of the night! The coach was arriving at 1am to pick up the guests and take them back to their hotel so Ryan and I slipped off at 12.55 as we were told we should leave before everyone else starts to leave.

Writing this has made me wish I could just live the whole day again. It really was the best day of my life.

The Lead up to Our Wedding

Sep 4, 2019Sep 4, 2019 vacaysandsunnydays

I really don’t know where to start with writing this. I also cannot believe how quickly the time has gone. We’ve already been married almost three weeks. In the build up to the wedding everyone told us how fast the day would go but you don’t realise it until you’re actually there, in the day. I had to stop and have a few moments to try and take it all in.

Ryan and I arrived in France on the Wednesday with a luggage allowance of 75KG! We picked up our hire car and headed straight to the venue. The weather was a bit hit and miss on the drive to the venue but I didn’t want to let it put a downer on things so we headed straight out to Ikea and Carrefour to get some of the final things we needed for the weekend. As our wedding was dry hire it meant that we had to source everything through vendors. However, there were somethings that were definitely cheaper to source ourselves, for example the caterers wanted to charge €2 per shot glass whereas you can get a pack of 6 for €1.60 in Ikea. The same with water and soft drinks. So after approximately 5 hours in the shops with a stop at McDonalds in between we were tired and headed back to the Chateau. On the drive back the heavens opened and I was sat in the back of the car surrounded by Coke and glasses and just cried. I thought, I can’t believe everything we have planned over the course of the last year is now going to be ruined by the weather.

We got back to the Chateau and unpacked everything into the caterers kitchen connected to the marquee and sat in the lounge with a bottle of wine and wrapped up our gifts for our family.

The Family Night

The next morning we went out to the shops again and stopped at a local bakery to order some sandwiches ready for when the family arrived. We asked the lady if she could speak English and her expression was shocked so she ran to get her son to help! We ordered 20 huge baguette sandwiches and some eclairs and little pastry bits for the family lunch and headed back waiting for them to arrive. Literally as the coach turned into the Chateau the sun burst through! It was so exciting to have all of our family there to show them what we’ve been talking about for the past year. We showed everyone to their rooms and all gathered in the marquee for lunch. It was exactly what we wanted, having all of our family there just relaxing and enjoying time together.

That evening was the first event of the wedding weekend and we had hired the caterers to prepare a 3 course meal. It was so lovely having all of our family together and the food was amazing. As people were on the first night of their hols and it was the first night we could properly relax and enjoy ourselves a few of us got a bit rowdy and didn’t make it to bed until almost 2.

The Barn

The Best Man

The Booze

The BBQ

The morning of the BBQ, Ryan wanted to laze about in bed and nurse his hangover but I was up and out of bed at 8am to tidy the barn as we had a list of tasks we needed to do that day! Me, Ryan, Mum and Ryan’s Uncle headed back out to the shops to pick up the remaining soft drinks and some bits for lunch for the family. The soft drinks were one of the things we were really struggling with, how do you quantify how many cans of coke are going to be needed for 80 people for a two day event?!

When we got back to the Chateau the weather was beautiful and everyone was sat outside in the sun so we had a little picnic, opened some wine. It was just perfect. It was exactly how we had pictured having all of the family together and one of the reasons that we decided on a destination wedding in the first place.

That afternoon, we had a rehearsal with all the people who would be walking down the aisle. Ryan and his best man, our mums, the flower girls and page boys, the bridesmaids and me and dad. That was the first time I got emotional and had to fight back tears a little bit. Ryan’s little cousins Rufus and Rafferty were so funny and I was kind of hoping they would be a little bit naughty walking down the aisle on the wedding day, but they were absolutely perfect on the day.

After the rehearsal, Sheree (bridesmaid/hairdresser) took me upstairs and treated me to a hair wash and blow-dry so I could get ready for the BBQ. Luckily the weather held off for the BBQ and we still had lovely sunshine. For the BBQ we had a selection of garden games and our wedding planner had set up some picnic blankets under the trees for people to sit and chill out. We had giant connect four, corn hole, Bowles, beer pong and rounders. The rounders was a hit and at one point almost everyone was there playing rounders together, I even managed to run in my dress and heels! It was so surreal seeing so many of our amazing friends and family from all different walks of life playing games together, drinking and just having the best time.

We had the same caterers for the family night, the BBQ and the wedding day and the food was amazing. We had chosen a selection of meats such as lamb chops, pork, sausages, chicken, salmon skewers and it was all so tasty. At around 10pm it started raining, to be honest I’m just glad the rain held off that long! Our wedding planner, Sarah, was on hand straight away handing out umbrellas and pashminas to keep us dry. At around 10.30 the fireworks started. They were brilliant. I was stood next to Ryan and Dad watching the fireworks under an umbrella just trying to take it all in.

When the fireworks finished, me and Katie snuck off and went up to get ready for bed as Ryan was spending the night with his Best Man, Harry. I can honestly say that that night was the worst night’s sleep of my entire life! Me and Katie were convinced that we had food poisoning which resulted in me calling my Mum at 2.30am in tears as I had convinced myself that there wouldn’t be a wedding because all of the guests were ill with food poisoning! That obviously wasn’t the case and it must have just been a combination of nervousness and excitement. Katie also wanted to keep the light on the whole night as she was worried about seeing a ghost in the Chateau (which I did actually see the previous two nights). I managed about an hour and a half’s sleep and once we noticed it started to get light outside, Katie turned the light off. Then within about 15 minutes our alarms went off to start getting ready!

Wedding Planning

Feb 28, 2019Feb 28, 2019 vacaysandsunnydays

Planning a wedding is hard.

Planning a wedding with a dry hire venue is harder!

Having a wedding planner makes it so much easier but oh my god I feel like there’s so much to do! People say that weddings cost a lot of money and that there are so many things to consider, and honestly, I hadn’t even thought about half of the things that are actually involved with planning a wedding.

With our wedding, there are several factors that have slightly added to the stress factor of planing our big day. Firstly, having a dry hire venue means that we simply hire just the venue itself. We then have to source all of the vendors, caterers, bar, furniture, band, DJ, marquee etc. separately!

Secondly, we live in Dubai, our family live in England and the wedding is in France! We are having to put in a bit of extra work with the coordination amongst the countries whilst also bearing in mind time differences. Additionally, we don’t speak French – honestly having an English wedding planner who speaks French has literally saved my life and my sanity! When we were first searching for a wedding planner, Ryan had set up a day of back to back calls to speak with different planners. Out of the six planners we spoke with, five were French, and although they had good spoken English, we would definitely have encountered some difficulties with the language barrier. I am so thankful for And Then We Got Married!

And Then We Got Married / Instagram

Also, the fact that we are planning a three day event – no, not an Indian style wedding – but having a family meal on the first night, a BBQ for all of our guests on the Friday and then the wedding on the Saturday, this has added another layer of consideration and cost to planning the weekend.

All of that being said, I am honestly having so much fun planning and researching for our wedding weekend. It’s great to have the knowledge of our planner who is on the ground and with amazing contacts but it is also fun to research and source different elements of the wedding ourselves.

The great thing about having a dry hire venue is that we can tailor it be completely our own. We have decided on the general decor and florals concept with our planner, without really having any restrictions from the venue. We have also been able to use the grounds of the Chateau exactly how we want to, so we’ve managed to plot different elements of the weekend at different locations around the venue. It’s allowing us to be creative and have fun in this huge project but we we also encountering factors that we wouldn’t necessarily have considered if we were using a traditional wedding venue / church / hotel.

We are both really excited for our next trip to visit the venue in April and we will be packing a lot into a few days whilst we are there! I will be meeting with my makeup artist for a trial; then both of our Mums are flying over to Paris so we can take them to visit the venue; trial the food and the wine; cake tasting and also to visit the hotel that our guests will be staying at locally.

We are seriously on the countdown now… 170 days to go!

Three years in Dubai

Aug 5, 2018 vacaysandsunnydays

I’m slightly delayed with writing this post, but, on the 25th of May we celebrated our 3 year Dubai-nniversary! Three years! It is crazy how fast the time has gone.

To celebrate, we wanted to treat ourselves to a little staycation, somewhere that had an authentic Arabic vibe so we chose the Qasr Al Sarab Desert Resort. When I booked the stay, I didn’t actually realise it was a three hour drive from Dubai and almost on the border of Saudi!

The Qasr Al Sarab is possibly the most beautiful hotel I have ever stayed in, it is surrounded by nothing but vast desert and it felt so tranquil. The resort itself is located approximately 20 minutes away from the main road so it feels almost like you’re dune bashing on the drive up to the hotel! It was such a relaxing stay and I reflected on some of the amazing things we have had the opportunity to do since living here in the UAE, here are a few:

Skydive Dubai

I bought this as Ryan’s birthday present in 2015 and without really thinking about it, I purchased two tickets! I then thought shit I am going to have to do this now too! It was such an amazing experience and we were so lucky that the weather was perfect the day we jumped, you could see for miles! I would definitely recommend doing the skydive, I just wouldn’t advise doing brunch the day before!

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

I am so lucky to have an amazing group of friends that make weekends here so fun, but the best weekend of the year is the Abu Dhabi F1. In the two years I’ve been, I can’t say I have seen that many of the cars but we end up partying for the whole weekend and it’s such a great atmosphere there.

Dubai World Cup Horse Racing

It’s strange watching the horse racing and not being able to gamble, but the World Cup has such a buzz and it’s so nice to get properly dressed up for the races. img_5883-1

Dubai Opera

The Dubai Opera only recently opened in 2016 and as part of my Christmas present, Ryan bought us tickets to go and see the performance of Westside Story! I absolutely love the film and seeing it in the Dubai Opera theatre was so lovely. I am just holding out for Phantom of the Opera to do a tour over here because that is my absolute favourite West End show!

Learning to ski in the Mall of the Emirates

So Ryan has previously skied quite a lot, I however had only been on one ski holiday and that’s when I was 15 at school. So for Christmas, Ryan bought me ski lessons at the Mall of the Emirates indoor ski slope. How crazy that I learnt to ski in the middle of the desert! The indoor ski slope is great and it actually has real snow so I had my ski lessons there right before we went to Georgia in February.

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Travelling

As I’ve said before, we try to maximise our holiday days as much as possible, so whenever there is a public holiday or long weekend, we try to get away. Since living in Dubai we have visited 10 countries (and counting)! We’ve done a safari in Kenya where I got to see eles in the wild – of course I burst into tears when I saw them! We’ve visited Sri Lanka twice for my birthday; we’ve also had holidays to Bali, Lebanon, Thailand, India, Philippines, Germany, Georgia and Nepal! Due to the central location of Dubai, it’s relatively easy to get around and you can usually be somewhere new and exotic within a few hours!

Making friends who feel like family

Living abroad is hard, and you don’t have the same support system as you do at home with your family, that’s why friends out here are so important because they really do turn into your family.

The past three years have had their challenges, but I wouldn’t change living here for the world. My time living in Dubai isn’t up yet!

Home v Holiday

Jun 12, 2018Jun 12, 2018 vacaysandsunnydays

With such a small number of annual leave days per year, it’s always hard deciding on how to use them! The trouble with living abroad is wanting to spend my annual leave days travelling to places around the world that I have easy access to… but also wanting to spend them coming home to visit family! It’s funny though, living away from home makes you realise all the small things that you really love and miss (obviously family and friends) but also silly things such as a sausage roll from Greggs and mums cooking!

I decided to book a long weekend trip back to the UK to visit family in April and it was so lovely to just spend the days chilling at home with family and popping round to see my grandparents, I just really wanted to spend as much time with family in those 5 days as possible. One of the highlights of my trip home was spending the morning alpaca walking with my mum! It was so lovely just being out in the countryside and we had so much fun with the alpacas!

I have been feeling quite homesick again lately and I hate not having trips booked home as I feel like I always want to count down the days to seeing my family again. Ryan and I have just booked another trip back home for the first week in July and I really am excited as I will be able to spend some time with his family also this time. I’m praying that the weather in the UK stays nice as I am looking forward to BBQs and the long summer evenings – that’s something that I really miss, living in Dubai. The sun sets really quickly over here and the latest sunset throughout the year is only around 7.30pm.

Living as an expat really is an amazing experience, and I am so lucky that we have the ability to travel to so many new and amazing destinations, but nothing compares to home comforts.

“It’s good to know that the ones you love will always be in your heart. And if you’re lucky, only a plane ride away.” – Carrie Bradshaw