B is for Bride (To Be)

Hello lovely readers of Juno & Joy! I am so excited to be writing my first post to you as the official Juno & Joy blogging bride-to-be. I’m over the moon that Sarah thinks my wedding witterings will be of interest to their uber stylish and all round awesome readers (yes I’m talking to you my lovely).

First things first, a little bit about me; I’m a Kentish girl living in South East London and working as a professional bookworm for a rather brilliant literary agency. I’ve been a bridesmaid 8 times, so technically I’ve nearly tripled my odds of never ever being able to write this post.

Things that make me smile: Books, bubble baths, Prosecco, pyjamas, fresh cut flowers and owls

Things that make me frown: Cats, gym instructors, litterbugs and neck nuzzling (this actually makes me scream and not in a good way).

Time to meet the man of the hour – say hello to James…

This is him doing the famous crab dance at a friend’s wedding, just one of the many reasons why I agreed to become Mrs Gardner. James and I were set-up by one of our best friends Jodie nearly 4 years ago, we went for dinner, drank some VERY strong cocktails, he stole the hat I was wearing and planted a kiss on me when I went to snatch it back – we’ve been together ever since.

The Proposal; I woke up on Good Friday this year feeling very, very lazy and looking forward to spending the day under the duvet – instead I opened my eyes to see James dancing furiously round our bedroom to Chaz N Dave… I should have guessed something was up at this point, but it just wasn’t that unusual.

He persuaded me to get on a train into London to go for lunch – unbeknownst to me he’d booked a table at our favourite restaurant Polpo and had the ring hidden in his sunglasses case (which I had my hand on the whole time we were on the tube – cue heartattack)!

Elbow to elbow with five other couples and with the waiter miming dropping to one knee behind my back, James decided that the restaurant proposal wasn’t the right way to go. So we headed for cocktails at Sketch where we had our first date (if you’re ever there make sure you go to the loo, you’ll see what I mean), before heading over to The Langham hotel for ONE last drink.

I’d like to take a moment to point out that James was so nervous he’d hardly touched the Prosecco we had at dinner or his cocktails – I had taken full advantage of this and was now well on my way to being quite tipsy. Which is probably why I decided it would be a good moment to ask him when he thought we should get married…dun dun daaa!

He told me he didn’t think we were ready, there was still so much he wanted to do and that I’d probably be waiting for at least another 3 or 4 years… I was heartbroken and took myself off to the ladies for a little talking to, when I came back I saw James lurking in the hotel foyer. As I walked over to him he dropped down on one knee, gave me the biggest grin ever and cheekily waved a small red box at me.

I honestly can’t explain what happened next, but it was a mixture of uncontrollable sobbing, sublime happiness and sheer disbelief that my brilliant boy loved me enough to want to put a ring on it (thank you Beyonce).

So now that I’ve finally come down from Cloud 9 and stopped looking at my ring every 30 seconds, it’s actually hit me that we have a wedding to plan and I haven’t got the faintest idea where to start. Luckily for us, we’ve got just over 18 months to smash this in and I am so excited to be able to share every step of our journey to wedded bliss with you.

That’s enough from me for now, it’s your turn to tell me all about your incredible engagement stories and if they involved as many tissues and mascara panda eyes as mine did!

♥ Lauren

Image credits: From the top: Elizabeth Messina Photography