SUSHI MAKING IN TOKYO

Posting a little out of order here, but I wanted to squeeze in a little food post as it's been a while! Hands down the best thing we did on our 'second honeymoon' in Tokyo was go to a sushi making class. My friend's boyfriend booked the four of us into a class at the Tokyo Sushi Academy in Tsukiji and the school's close proximity to Tokyo's fish market (seeing this was the second best thing to happen that day) meant we had our pick of some of the world's freshest fish!

BUDGET WEDDING/BRIDESMAID DRESSES

This post is actually what sparked all of my other wedding round-ups. I wasn't going to blog that much about the ins and outs of wedding planning and such, but a conversation on Twitter reminded me how much research I did into wedding dresses and that my encyclopaedic knowledge (and experience!) of online shopping might actually be useful to someone other than me.

CHICKEN SATAY BURGERS

WEDDING DECORATIONS + DIYS

When you scour wedding blogs and Pinterest for ideas, everything starts to look the same. The more I looked, the more I simultaneously wanted to do all of the things and none of the things. In the end, I think we found a good middle ground. The pub was pretty enough that it really didn't need much in the way of decorations, just flowers and a bit of bunting. I was very chilled in the run-up to the wedding and then two weeks before I realised that I did want all of the things, and so began a round of frantic shopping, online ordering and quick DIYing.

THE VENUE: A LONDON PUB WEDDING

Darren and I knew we never wanted a big, fancy 'do for our wedding: the only prerequisites were good food, lots of booze and nice lighting...oh, and not paying a hire fee! Early on, we decided a pub would be the right venue for us; all the hard work of staffing, seating and so on would be done for us, if the decor was nice we wouldn't have to spend much on decorations and a readymade venue comes with its own atmosphere, so we knew everyone would feel relaxed on the day.

WEDDING MORNING IN AN AIRBNB

One thing that made me slightly sad about the location of our wedding was that it just wasn't close enough to my parents' house to get ready there - they have the most beautiful home and it would have been lovely getting ready together there, but the journey times just didn't work out and I'm 100% sure it would have been stressful af. The next best thing was renting an Airbnb; it felt like being at home, which I preferred over a hotel, and it was 5 minutes' drive from the Town Hall. To be honest, on the morning I didn't even give a second thought to getting ready there. Here are a few of my favourite moments!

JUST MARRIED

We're home from our honeymoon! If you follow me on Instagram you'll have seen this snap already from our amazing wedding photographer (and friend!) Jo, but I wanted to share it here as well. Jo knew I really wanted a nice confetti shot so when she sent over this sneaky peek the day after the wedding I was sooo happy. We had the best day ever and we've just come back from 3 weeks away - being home is lovely...even if the dog did wake us up at 4:30! I think it will be a little while before I post much on the blog, but just wanted to drop in and share this little snippet of our day.

A MODERN WEDDING DECORATION IDEA

After a bit of radio silence on the blog, I'm excited to share this post with you! I haven't talked too much about our wedding, mostly because we haven't actually had to put too much thought into it...! The reception is in a pretty pub which doesn't need much decorating, but I always knew I wanted to find a way to show some of our favourite photos from our childhood and the 10 years we've been together. With bunting and chalkboards already on the agenda, I was a little worried about things looking too 'rustic', so when I found Lalalab online, I knew their big photo posters would be perfect for keeping things looking a little more clean and modern.

Lalalab kindly offered to gift me one of their framed posters and I'm so pleased with the result. I picked a 35-picture poster (you can also have 24 pictures, but the poster size is the same, so the photos just come out bigger) in a plain black frame. The 'glass' is actually plastic, which is better in some ways as it's super lightweight and doesn't create as much of a glare either. The process is also really easy - you can either download the app or use the desktop version to upload pictures straight from your phone/computer/social media and then reorder them to get your poster looking exactly the way you want it. I think it would look really cool to just pick pictures that are all one tone or create a graduated colour effect. We're going to display it on one of the mantlepieces in the pub; it's been so nice going through all the old photos together and getting our parents involved - I also think it's fun for family and friends who don't necessarily know both of us to get to see a bit more of us on the day!

Lalalab also offer a few other services, including Instagram prints, calendars and books; if you're interested, my referral code  - PGBSYXPG - will get you €5 off your order.