The countdown to the wedding has truly begun – only just under 2 weeks to go! I won’t bore you with the hours, minutes and seconds from my countdown timer!

The 12th April was my hen party. A hen party is a party given in honour of the bride-to-be and therefore is not hosted by the bride herself although she may assist in the organisation. The hen party stems from the stag party and its modern form began in 1960s and is related to gender equality. Before it meant a pre wedding party; hen party was used to describe any all female gathering and is mentioned as far back as 1897.

I cannot thank my best friend and maid of honour, Catriona, enough for the effort she put into the event which really was one of the best days of my life. I enjoyed getting ready and chose to wear my thyme Allure dress from Coast which I wore as maid of honour at Catriona’s wedding. I matched it with some silver sandals and some big silver hoops.

The party began at Hyatt Regency – The Churchill – a hotel near Hyde Park corner, awarded the Tea Guild of Excellence in 2012. I was furnished with the usual regalia – a baby pink sash with bride to be on it and my Mum bought me a flashing tiara complete with veil.

We took afternoon tea in the Montagu restaurant, named after Elizabeth Montagu – a writer who lived in Portman Square 1781-1800. We were ushered to our table by some lovely, impeccably dressed waiters and when I sat down and saw the menu – my eyes were drawn to the Sex and the City Par-tea without realising that that was exactly what was planned for me! The savoury treats were themed to New York with a mini hot dog and bagel. There was also a mini burger in honour of one of Carrie’s boyfriends in the series – ‘Jack Burger’.

Carrie and ‘Burger’

The sweet offerings included a cosmopolitan jelly, a sickly sweet iced cupcake, a mini New York cheesecake and a biscuit shaped as a shoe! We began with a Flirtini (a champagne and pineapple cocktail) which was most refreshing and then could choose a tea, each named after one of the 4 girls. I’m not a lover of tea but went for the one named Carrie of course.

After a most enjoyable catch up with friends and family alike – a few left and the remainder of us made our way to the tube to Liverpool Street.  We were so packed in, you couldn’t have fallen over if you had tried. We then had quite a trek to the mixology event but it was well worth it when we arrived plus we burnt off some of the afternoon tea calories!

We were welcomed with a ginger cocktail. 3 more friends joined and the hunky teacher showed us how to make 3 different cocktails. He looked like Enrique Iglesias and the more we drunk, the more he looked like him. As he explained the method of making the cocktails he frequently dropped in a double entendre or two and before long we were all in fits of hysterics. He also punished anyone who talked whilst he did, with a shot of his choice. The class finished with each team making a cocktail and I had to choose the one which I liked the most. It was a tough call but in the end I went for the one that was the easiest to drink. He also showed us a party trick with lighting a cocktail and alcohol on the bar and then sprinkling cinnamon to make sparks. All I can say is he must have good insurance to trust drunken women with matches!

Hunky Teacher

Selecting the winning cocktail

Playing with fire

By the time we left we were all a bit worse for wear but although drunk I knew I wasn’t that drunk that I couldn’t walk properly – however I was struggling. Finally I realised that my shoe had in fact snapped and the heel was hanging off but it took me a little while to convince the others of that! The shoes were Ravel sandals which may explain why Ravel went into administration! Luckily Catriona had some flats with her so I changed into them.

We finally made it to Loop – a club near Oxford Street with a multi coloured rubix cube style dance floor. The girls treated us all to a mega large cocktail in a huge martini glass.

They then did a Mr and Mrs Quiz with me where for every wrong answer I had to drink a shot – I got more wrong than I should have done as it was too loud to hear all the questions properly. 2 more friends arrived and we all partied the night away. My fiancé picked me and his two sisters up which I am very grateful to him for as he found himself lost in London!

A truly fabulous day/eve and I am so fortunate to have such wonderful friends and family – thanks guys – you all mean the world to me.

Easter came and went, later than usual this year.  It was a real challenge to not over indulge but the final weigh in showed I won the competition, losing an impressive 1 stone and 8lbs so that helps with the motivation; although the mini eggs are calling.  I arranged an easter egg hunt for the kids which they greatly enjoyed complete with cute signs from Laura Ashley.  Needless to say it wasn’t as big as the largest egg hunt in Guiness Book of World Records which was 501000 eggs searched by 9753 kids in Florida in 2007 which makes for over 50 eggs each – they must have been seriously hyper on all that chocolate!  For more information on egg hunts and Easter bunnies please refer to my post ‘Loaded Spring’.

My Easter egg hunt

Over Easter weekend, I indulged in another afternoon tea with a friend who couldn’t make the hen. This time it was the Prêt –à-Portea tea at the Berkeley Hotel – perfect for all you fashionista’s out there! This tea started in 2005 at the infamous Berkeley Hotel.  The Berkeley began as a coffee house in the 1700s on the corner of Berkely and Piccadilly, became known as a hotel 1897 and moved to its current location in Knightsbridge in 1972.  In 1920s it became the first London hotel to offer air conditioning.

The treats are inspired by current catwalk trends so we enjoyed munching our way through the spring/summer collection 2014 which included Christian Louboutin pigalle spike turquoise shoe biscuit – complete with the signature red sole, a Mui Mui chocolate handbag and a wonderful representation of Dsquared mini strapless  dress with hot pink lampshade hat which was essentially mango bavarois with blueberry compote. Also represented were Karla Colletto’s red swimsuit, Oscar De La Renta pistachio dress and many others. The tea was topped off with pink Laurent Perrier courture champagne. We were given a handbag shaped goodie bag when we left which included 2 of the sweet treats. A wonderful afternoon which made you feel just like an a list star at a catwalk show.

With our goodie bags in the Berkeley

Karla Colletto swimsuit

Louboutin pigalle spike shoes

Model 2nd from right wears Dsquared dress with pink lampshade hat

Designer sweet treats – Dsquared, Colletto and Louboutin

The other week, I waved goodbye to my beloved Beetle.  It was sad but for the best as it was just rusting away and I didn’t use it much anymore but it’s gone to a good home and I cheered myself up with these pair of LK Bennett shoes in similar colours to the car with some of the money.

My beloved beetle

Right I am now going to continue adding to my honeymoon wardrobe – happy shopping!