Wedding dress shopping

This weekend my lovely family came up to visit. I've started the hunt for a wedding dress! I'm trying to start early so that I have time to visit multiple outlet shops before giving in to the comprehensive but expensive proper bridal shops.

Cait and mum popped to Cardiff on Friday, and then on Saturday we began. 

First up was a bridal charity shop in Abergavenny. This was the most unlikely option to find my dress but also the cheapest, so worth a go! We were released into a room of dresses and had fun dressing up.

This wasn't quite the one...

Of course, we had to pop into a charity shop or two while we were there, and Caitlin was fully out in support of the rugby. 

We loved Abergavenny, it was so cute, and we found a new favourite shop for me - a zero waste shop with pick and mix sweets, a coffee shop, and a toilet! What more could I want?

And apparently, 2kg of brown rice is what mum wanted. 

I'd asked our venue (St Tewdrics House - and no, I didn't leave an apostrophe out) if we could visit and then asked dad if he wanted to pop up and join us. He drove up on Saturday morning and picked up Mark from Chepstow station. We then had a lovely time showing them around the venue and visualising our wedding! We even got lucky and got a view of the estuary. Dad is pleased there are lots of comfy chairs for him to fall asleep in. 

We drove back to Cardiff and had a quick lunch whilst watching the first half of the rugby (Ire vs Eng). Or rather, Cait & dad screamed at the TV while mum & I actually made lunch. Next, we left the boys to the rugby and went to a secondhand reloved bridal shop, which was closer to the 'right dress' but still too much tulle!

On Saturday evening we treated ourselves to a takeaway & introduced Mark to fifteens (made by dad), before dad drove back home. 

On Sunday we tried our third bridal shop of the weekend - this time a bridal shop outlet. This was the closest yet, and I nearly bought a dress! But ultimately, I want to look a bit more to see if I can get that 'the one' moment. We shall see!

Time with friends

 We've had a pretty chill January and February so far. We've done a big few wedding bits - venue, photographer, caterer - which has been fun! And yes, I've bought cake toppers for my currently non-existent (and potentially always non-existent) cake. 

A recent highlight has been spending time with lovely friends. 

Last weekend we helped move David (Mark's friend) into a new flat in Cardiff. This involved multiple car journeys, David & Mark walking 40 minutes across Cardiff carrying a bed headboard, and strapping a mattress to my car roof (pictured after straps taken off!). David has lived in a house share until now, and I couldn't quite get over his lack of belongings. 1 mug, 1 glass, and 1 fork/knife/spoon anyone? I doubled his mug supply by buying him a new one so we could both have a cuppa whilst I watched them assemble the bed.

Walkies. 

I drove the mattress over so I'm not sure why I have a photo of Mark in the car here!

The lovely Pontcanna/Canton. 

Lonely mug. 

Then last week, I saw the gorgeous Katharine! She's moved from Sheffield to Bristol for an amazing new job (training as a plastic surgeon!!), so was able to pop over on the train to Cardiff for a much loved catchup and dinner.