The Dress and the lingerie.

I may have found my dress. It's by All Saints who may just be my favourite high-end-high-street brand. They take goth to high fashion places and I can't walk past a store without going in and fingering the merchandise. This is the first time I've been able to afford any All Saints clothing. I got given some second hand trousers once but I, ehem, outgrew them. However the Gods of discount shopping were smiling on me this Monday after giving our notice in to the registry office. I popped into Tk Maxx, and spotted it straight away. I actually caught my breath when I realised 'Oh God...it's All Saints' and went on autopilot straight towards it. As I got closer I saw it...the red sticker. REDUCED! REDUCED IN TK MAXX!

This baby retailed at £135 originally, and it's now out of season and in TK Maxx for £22. A lot of people wouldn't shrug at spending £135 on a dress but I've never really been in possession of that kind of money and just because I'm getting married doesn't mean I have that kind of money to spend now. I think I was already in the queue before I realised this was a beautiful dress by a favourite brand of mine for just £22.

 And it may need some tweaking because it's a modal/silk mix and thus rather thin. I'm going to need to hack a slip of some kind. The top of the dress is an empire line with racerback straps made from leather and brass D rings.

Equestrian influenced.

Or Bridle Wear....BOOM BOOM! 

Due to my steal with the dress this does mean I now have more of my (imaginary) budget to play with for accessories. I've been toying with getting some rather fancy lingerie. Despite my being a model and burlesque dancer...
http://www.facebook.com/ally.katte
http://www.modelmayhem.com/1328419
...I don't tend to go for fancy lingerie myself. 70's style graphic cotton pants are my day to day style, with plain lace Brazillian high leg panties for fancier days. But this week there's been an explosion of independent lingerie brands online thanks to The Love Bomb. A celebration of independent brands. And a brand I've followed for a while, Kiss Me Deadly featured today. Not only are the majority of their items modelled by the gorgeous Morgana - who I've been told I look like before, though I'm not sure about that one - but their items are really top notch. I'm not one for vintage repro lingerie but these really are classic, they don't scream 40s like some other brands.

This girdle really caught my eye. Sleek, simple, classic. Won't show under the dress, suspenders to allow for some nice stockings...

I think this may be the one.

Giving notice...part 1

Today we're giving notice of our wish to marry...fingers crossed it all goes ok.

We are not..

We are not this.

Or this.

Or even as cool and alternative as this.

However, we are this...

This is us

Like hipster douchebags at the most debauched wine and cheese party I've ever been to.

The Engagement AKA The Engagements

This post will address the multiple times Ad, the husband-elect, asked me to marry him.

The first was whilst feeling rather delicate the day after a rather spiffing night out at one of Bristol's premier dance music establishments, Timbuk2, to see some of our friends DJ at their night Nebula. Everyone was hungover to hell and all getting a bit emotional. And that was the first time he 'proposed'.

The second time was after his work Christmas meal, where he's been steadily drinking since around 1pm. I was pretty sideways myself after spending an evening drinking Tuaca with my good pal, mentor and one of my chief women folk Tuesday Laveau and her husband. This time he was, surprisingly, more lucid and spilled his beardy, french heart to me and quite plainly asked 'Will you marry me'.

The few weeks after this I got restless, to me it seemed like the question was something said in the heat of a drunken moment. I got all rather pissy and moany which prompted Ad to say to me with sheer exasperation 'I've not found the right ring yet'...to which I cried because I'm a horrid person.

Faaaaaaaaaast forward to 7th January 2012, after thwarting his attempts to get me to go to Cabot Tower with him, Ad presented me with a beautiful solid black opal set in a white gold ring as we stood by the river in our home of Bristol and asked me one final time if I would marry him.

...And I said yes.

First post AKA Why I started a wedding blog

Why I started a wedding blog:

First off, I love the internet. I have 2 facebook profiles, a tumblr, another blog which I never use and I follow around 300 blogs via my RSS feed. If there were a physical personification of the internet I would marry that. And we would while away the hours watching cat videos and playing Japanese Flash point and click games.

Another reason is that I've pretty much got full on wedding brain. All my knowledge of maths, the sciences or common sense have been pushed out in favour of wedding fluff. Makeup looks, hair, shoes, cake made of cheese.

Also, my mum lives a couple of hundred miles away so this way she can keep abreast of my wedding squawking.