Tonight me and my boyfriend are going over to his cousin’s to congratulate them on their recent engagement, especially as my boyfriend is going to be his cousin’s best man. However, we are faced with huge dilemma of what to take with us as an engagement present. At the moment they live in a fully furnished 2 bedroom flat so there is nothing we can really buy them for their flat as it is pretty full of stuff. We have decided on a John Lewis voucher but it just seems so impersonal to buy them a voucher, especially as the groom is my boyfriend’s cousin, I feel we should buy them something more sentimental. But now that we have the dilemma of how much to spend on them, I am totally unaware what the engagement amount should be?! Obviously we don’t want to spend too little as they are his family but with the wedding, accommodation, hen and stag do’s, plus the wedding presents, it soon adds up to a lot of money! Oh decisions, decisions!!

I was recently bridesmaid for one of my best friends which was such a fantastic honour, when she asked me to be her bridesmaid I was so excited about being involved in her wedding and helping her plan her big day. However, I was not prepared for the fact that I actually would not be involved in any aspect of her wedding.  My friend suddenly became very secretive about every aspect of her wedding, claiming that it was tradition for her to plan everything and not tell anyone else about it. When me and her three other bridesmaids went for our first dress fitting we were all told that we were not allowed to tell anyone the colour of our dresses or the style of our dresses. When I asked my friend if I could take a photo on my phone to show my mum (as she was not invited the wedding) my friend went mad, saying that everything had to be kept a secret. Obviously we were not allowed to see her wedding dress or even know what colour it was. As her bridesmaid I felt quite left out and I think that it is important for the bridesmaids to be involved.

So you have your dress all sorted for your big day, you have chosen the bridesmaid dresses too, you’ve picked out your shoes (that you know will kill you by the end of the night) and the bridesmaids have their shoes sorted too but there is just something missing - the accessories!

It is often the little finishing touches that will decide whether or not a dress is stunning or just ‘nice’. A friend of mine had chosen her own jewellery but she could not find anything that would match the bridesmaid dresses as she has picked a colour that matched nothing. Eventually she found the necklaces that she knew would be perfect for the bridesmaid dresses but unfortunately the shop only had 1 necklace in stock and she had four bridesmaids! So just a week and a half before the wedding she found the necklaces online and ordered them from America. She was panicking when 2 days before the wedding they still hadn’t arrived then just 1 day before the wedding they arrived and looked stunning.

My advice is to treat the accessories with the same importance as the dresses themselves as they will both be on show and in all the photos from your big day.

A friend of mine very recently got proposed to on a week holiday in Ireland. They had booked a lovely hotel in the Irish countryside and she thought that they were just going over to Ireland to visit his family. Then 2 days into the holiday, after a beautiful meal in a local restaurant, he got down on one knee and proposed! He had the ring ready, he was clearly optimistic that she would say yes. Luckily she did say yes and they are now busy arranging a wedding for 18 months time.

But this got me thinking - what would make the perfect proposal?

Another friend of mine was proposed to in a restaurant in the Lake District, which sound romantic but when you consider that they live in the Lake District anyway and it was in front of room of strangers who were all trying to eat their dinner, it turns into a nightmare! For me this would be the worse way to be proposed it, as I think it needs to be personal and private between you and your boyfriend/girlfriend. For me the wedding is the social celebration of your love and the proposal is a personal moment between the two people involved.

One of my biggest worries for the big day is whether or not it will be a lovely sunny day or a typically British wet, gray day. I did consider getting married abroad purely for the fact that you are guaranteed lovely sunny, hot weather but the logistics and the cost of getting my family and my fiance’s family somewhere nice and hot was going to be a nightmare so instead I have taken a massive risk and opted for a UK wedding instead.

A friend of mine recently got married in the , she picked the venue specifically because of the beautiful grounds and the stunning lake at the bottom. The grounds were going to be the basis for the majority of all her photographs but in typical British style, it rained on her bug day! It had been pouring down for several weeks before her wedding so the ground was completely drenched which completely ruined my shoes, which had been specially dyed to match my dress. Luckily she did managed to get a few photos in the grounds as the rain held off for about half an hour but we were all cold and a bit damp when we got back to the champagne, but it didn’t spoil what was one of the best days of last year, and for my friend was the best day of her life.

I have my fingers and toes crossed that the rain holds off on my big day but if it doesn’t who cares, so long as everyone has a great day!