Wedding Planning #1 - Our Ideas / The Inital Stages

I have been a little absent on my blog lately, and that's because I'm into serious wedding planning mode! I can't say that it's been easy, but that's something I'll go into detail a little later on...

Joe and I got engaged on my birthday last year, he proposed to me whilst we were on holiday in Turkey. And, since then, it's been go go go with the wedding (...literally)!

We were going to settle for a 2017 date, as it gave us a lot of time to save and prepare for the wedding. But, after a lot of consideration and because of family reasons, we decided to choose a date at the end of this year instead. 

I've been happily pinning away on my Pinterest board since November, of these big, beautiful and wonderful ideas that I would love to have. From the colour scheme, to decor, to my dress and so on.

Anyway, I thought it would be a good idea to discuss our wedding plans, our ideas and where we are now with our wedding plans. 

The Venue

Joe and I aren't religious at all and we both loved the idea of getting married in a barn. We started looking at venues from December onwards and settled on our dream one back in February.

We got really lucky with dates as a lot of couples had booked their venue two years in advance, and they had one or two ideal dates left!

It was also really hard to find the right venue because Joe's family are from Corby and mine are from Watford, so we needed to meet in the middle and find somewhere easy for everyone to get to. 

But oh my, it's perfect, absolutely perfect. I won't give away where it is for privacy reasons, so the pictures above and below are just to give you an idea of what we had in mind. I will of course share where it was after the wedding!

The Dress

After choosing our venue, the dress hunt was on. I must of tried at least 70 different styles on before finding the right one! It honestly felt like we went to every bridal boutique in Hertfordshire...

But I'm in love with it, it feels very me. 

Below I've picked four of my favourite dresses that I tried on.  I know my friends, family and Joe read my blog, so I don't want to spoil the surprise! 

I've also got my shoes! Initially, I really wanted one of Emmy's designs but they are way out of my price range. But I'm completely happy with the ones I picked! I won't tell you the exact ones that I bought, but I will tell you that they are a stunning pair of shoes designed by Rachel Simpson. 

Now that I've got my dress and shoes, I still need to get my veil, head-pieces, lingerie and bridal jewelry! 

Photographer and Videographer

While hunting for my perfect dress, came the huge task of selecting a Photographer and Videographer. These are both super duper expensive but I love my photography and videography, so it's something I was willing to spend a little extra on. 

Our photographer for the day, is the lovely Cat Lane. I just adore her work and I'm so excited for her to shoot the day. And, our videographer is Tim Spatz, who creates the most beautiful films.

Tip: If you are also planning you're wedding, I recommend booking these are soon as you find your venue. They get snapped up pretty quickly!

Colour Schemes and Bridesmaid Dresses

Our colour scheme is blue, grey and sliver. With a little bit of burgundy here and there.

Originally, I had my heart set on navy sequinned bridesmaid dresses but instead we've gone for some beautiful grey embellished dresses. Which they will pair with some strappy sliver heels.
We may consider a fur shawls for them to wear too.

Joe's suit is a dark cobalt blue and the groomsmen will be dressed in navy, with *hopefully* some braces. We're not sure if we are going to have grey ties or powder blue as of yet.

Invitations / RSVP's

Another huge job was doing the invitations! We have around 90 people coming to the day and 50 extra in the evening. So, we had around 100 invitations to send out.

I really wanted to make our invites special, so I designed and printed them. Hours upon hours of feeding paper through the printer to achieve the doublesided-ness... boy was that a workout. Then they were left to dry, and Joe finalised them by wrapping each individual one in twine. 

Whilst doing that, we collected our guests address' on an excel spreadsheet (one of many) and sent away. Chasing down some our RSVP's was a tad annoying, but I let Joe handle that part ;)!

Themes

For the reception and table plan, we love the idea of having a 'world/travel' theme of all the places we've visited in the world. Other than that, we're going for the rustic farm vibes, but in a classy way.

Decorations and Sweet table

The venue/barn itself is beautiful and to be honest, we don't need to do an awful lot of decorating to it.

I would love to have more lights across in the reception but it's costly and I don't know if it would be 'too much'. We may also have a bunting running across, but again to be decided.

At this stage, the only decorations that I know we would be splashing out on, are the table decorations. I vision tree log slices with kilner jars and floating candles in them. A jar filled with photo props. And maybe a globe on each table. Oooh and vintage suitcases!
I do also like the idea of having balloons near each table... but may look a bit out of place!

I would also like a lot of signage. Lots of cute quotes here, there and everywhere.

One of my must-haves is to have a sweet-table in the evening! I've been to various friends weddings where they've done this and it always goes down really well with the kids and adults, and well it looks super cute too.

I've been looking at vintage glass sweet jars on eBay, but may have to find some more affordable ones so it doesn't end up costing a bomb!

The Flowers

I don't know why, but I found choosing a florist one of the hardest and most frustrating things. One, because I didn't realise how expensive they are, two, because the majority I contacted weren't available and three, because I really couldn't make up my mind of what I wanted...
Luckily we found a supplier who had been recommend by our venue. She's really lovely, and I'm excited to see what she makes! 

We didn't want to spend a fortune, so we had a budget for £300 (seems like a lot... but believe me that's the bare minimum) which includes my bouquet, five bridesmaid bouquets, corsages and buttonholes for the groomsmen. And one table decoration on our main table. 

With colours, we decided to go down the burgundy route as I personally feel that it will compliment the greys and the blues. I also decided on having quite a lot of green foliage. And, the design will be a hand-tied bouquet with twine holding it together.

The cake

A family member of Joe's will be baking our wedding cake which we are super grateful for. It adds another personal touch to our wedding!

For the cake, we originally wanted a cheese tower wedding cake as it really fits in with the barn feel. But after seeing multiple pictures of naked tower cakes, I think our hearts are set on one of these instead. But we may be cheeky and have both...

I also really love these personalised cake toppers that I keep stumbling across, something like this would look perfect on our cake.

There are lots of other bits that I want to share with you all as we get further into planning the wedding... more decorations, food, the honey moon, bridal hair, make-up and so on. But I think I will leave it here, otherwise we will be here for years...

With less than four months to go, we're into the nitty gritty stages now. There's been ups and downs but I'm really excited to see everything come together!

I'd love to know what you think of our ideas so far, or any advice or tips you have for our wedding planning!

Zoey

Feel free to follow me on Instagram: @zoeyoliviablog or tweet me: @zoeyoliviablog. I'm forever responding and interacting on those platforms :).

Hourglass Lighting Powders: Ethereal Light & Dim Infusion - Worth the Hype?

Hourglass powders have been getting so much hype on the interwebs in the past year or so and I've been experimenting with wedding make-up the past few weeks so I wanted to give these a go.

Setting powders are something I've always struggled with for some reason. And believe it or not, I've only really been using setting powders the past three years or so!

I like a semi-matte finish, yet glowy and natural looking. Ideally I want a powder that I apply once and it stays like that all day with no touch-ups. In the past I've tried many from Clinque, Estee Lauder, Soap and Glory, MAC, jane iredale and many many more, however there is always something I don't like about the finish, or it makes me oily in a few hours, or the lasting power isn't as great as I'd hoped. Maybe I'm just being a bit of a fuss-pot... But with my wedding coming up, I need to find the perfect powder!

Any who, going off on a bit of a tangent there... So yes, after all the hype over Hourglass' powders and watching loads of YouTube reviews, I decided to give them a go. I picked up Ethereal Light (£38) which is suitable for fair skin. And, Dim Infusion (£32) a gorgeous coral shade which is part of the blush range.

These powders have been formulated to deliver a soft focus effect that look amazing under harsh fluorescent bright lights or other unflattening light sources. The key benefits of these powders are to capture, diffuse and soften the way light reflects on to your skin by using cutting-edge photo-luminescent technology—transparent micron-size, colour correcting particles to alter and refine the appearance of the complexion. And to deliver a multi-dimensional luminescence to every skin tone, making it appear younger, unlike traditional powders which simply sit on the skin to cover imperfections.

After trailing them for a month or so, I have to say I am completely in love with them and yes they are 100% worth the hype! They are such beautiful powders.

First off the packaging is stunning - luxurious, weighted metallic cases. And, the marbled effect of the blushes are too pretty to look at! Also the finish of the powders are incredible, they are so finely milled and they give you a healthy glow whilst looking airbrushed.

As my skin gets fairly oily through-out the day, I do have to touch-up or use a matte powder underneath, but that doesn't bother me too much because they leave such a beautiful finish on the skin.

(Wearing Estee Lauder Double Wear Foundation, jane iredale PurePressed Base, Hourglass Ethereal Light and Dim Infusion in the photo above.)

Ethereal Light is a soft, cool white powder with a hint of lumionsity. The finish is a 'moonlight glow' super radiant looking.
This powder is kind of like a highlighter for your face, without looking shimmery or like a disco ball.
If you do prefer more of a matte finish or have combination to oily skin, I would recommend using another powder before applying this on top.

This is the perfect powder for fair skin girls and those who enjoy a glowy, yet soft focused finish.

I absolutely love this powder, I've been wearing it every day since I got it, and I will be most likely wearing this on my wedding day!

Dim Infusion is a beautiful coral shade that add's a bit of warmth to the cheeks. This shade works really well with my hair colour and my fair skin-tone, but I do think it would look lovely on other skin-tones too.

I've also been wearing this every day since I got it! It's the perfect peachy coral shade and looks lovely and natural on the cheeks!

I will most likely be wearing these for my wedding day. Or, if not these shades, then perhaps 'Dim Light', 'Diffused Light' or 'Ethereal Glow' - I haven't yet decided, too many choices of different 'lights'!  But for the time being I want to look air-brushed every day and these two are doing me wonders! Highly highly recommend these and I get the hype! They are frickin' amazing!

Feel free to follow me on Instagram: @zoeyoliviablog or tweet me: @zoeyoliviablog. I'm forever responding and interacting on those platforms :).

Aromatherapy Associates vs NEOM - The Battle of the Bath Oils

When it comes down to bath oils, Aromatherapy Associates and NEOM don't compare.

In my humble opinion, they are the most gorgeous scented, most relaxing, luxurious oils on the market today. But who comes out on top? Let's find out shall we.

So let's talk about the Miniature Bath & Shower Collection by Aromatherapy Associates (£39.00) first...

This set includes ten therapeutic mini oils (3ml bottles). You get:

Deep Relax -
 Vetrivert, camomile and sandalwood for a tranquil night.

Light Relax -
Made with Lavender, ylang ylang and petitgrain.

De-Stress Mind -
Frankincense, petitgrain, wild camomile and rosemary to organise your thoughts.

De-Stress Muscle -
 Rosemary, black pepper, lavender and ginger to de-stress your body.

Revive Morning -
Grapefruit, rosemary and juniper for a fantastic and reviving start to the day.

Revive Evening -
Geranium, ylang ylang, patchouli and sandalwood to re-energise you for the evening ahead.

Support Breathe -
 Eucalyptus, pine, tea tree and peppermint to maintain easy breathing and a clear head.

Support Lavender & Peppermint -
Comforting powers of lavender and peppermint to keep you feeling your best.

Support Equilibrium -
Geranium, rose and frankincense to help lift your spirits during challenging times.

Inner Strength -
Clary sage, frankincense and cardamom to help find your strength in challenging and difficult times.

My favourites are Revive Evening, Support Breathe and De-Stress Mind. But to be honest they are all really lovely and relaxing. I really enjoy coming home from work, running one of these under the tap and indulging in bath heaven!

What I really love about this mini collection is that you can test out near enough all of Aromatherapy Assosicates range and see which ones you really like! This is great for all the indecisive ladies out there... Especially me!

The outer packaging is really sleek and I love the gold foiled text which adds a sense of luxury. I also think the little bottles are adorable and I love the little touch of the gold lids.

This would be a perfect birthday or Christmas present. A real treat for those who adore baths.

Moving on to NEOM's Six Blissful Nights In Mini Bath & Shower Oils (£24.95). A friend from work actually gifted me this beautiful little set which I'm really grateful for. 

This collection includes six mini bath and shower oils (5ml bottles). You get:

2 x Tranquility Oils -
English lavender, sweet basil and jasmine combine to relax the mind and body and help to induce the perfect night's sleep.

2 x Time to Unwind -

Bluebell, guaiacwood and rose have been blended to create a treatment that helps you unwind and focus.

2 x Real Luxury -
 Heady jasmine with a little French lavender and the soothing, spicy tones of Brazilian rosewood. Gently calming and pampering.

I absolutely love Real Luxury and Time to Unwind. These scents are really unique and special. They really help me relax, and I feel like I'm bathing in gold! I could spend hours and hours in the bath with these.

The only downside to this set is that you don't get a huge variety like Aromatherapy Associates collection. You only get three different oils. However, you do get slightly bigger bottles, instead of 3ml you get 5ml (almost double)!

But any who, this collection would be a great birthday or Christmas gift, or for someone who travels a lot.

After trialling, testing and weighing up pros and cons. If I had to choose which one I prefer or gift someone, it'll have to be Aromatherapy Associates collection overall, as it comes with a much better selection and variety, and is a really good price point for ten oils.

 However, NEOM's 'Real Luxury' scent is my absolute favourite of them all. It's feels like you're being wrapped up in a blanket whilst watching a fire. It's so comforting! Seriously do try this one!

Feel free to follow me on Instagram: @zoeyoliviablog or tweet me: @zoeyoliviablog. I'm forever responding and interacting on those platforms :).

MAC's Faerie Whispers Foiled Eyeshadows | Review

I don't normally get too excited about limited edition collections from MAC, apart from the Dita Von Teese lippy that I missed my hands on... But, when I saw MAC's Faerie Whispers Foiled Shadows go live on the website, I just had to have them!

And, with my wedding coming up, it's the perfect excuse to play around with new make-up - especially the eyes as I have no idea what to do yet! So I picked up Joy Toy, Enchanted Forest and Faerie Fayre from the collection.

These foiled eye shadows have been created to 'light up the eyes with luminous wet or dry shades' to achieve a beautiful glowing fairy tale look. And they do exactly that!

Joy Toy is a golden coppery shade, and my favourite of the three. 

Enchanted Forest is a warm golden rich brown.

And, Faerie Fayre is a deep brown red.

The pigmentation of these are amazing, and the formulation is so smooth and buttery - they honestly blend like a dream. I've also tried and tested them both wet and dry and I do actually prefer the dry finish. The wet finish would be perfect for a high-end photoshoot, or a night out!

The packaging is the standard 'MAC Packaging', nothing special, however the shadows are embossed with a crinkled effect which is a nice little touch.

In the photo above, I'm wearing 'Joy Toy', which is my favourite of the three. I really like that it's in between gold and copper. And a little bit peachy too.

I think this would be lovely for a wedding day look, paired with Hourglass' blush in the shade 'Dim Infusion' and MAC's Brave on the lips. It would also be perfect for every day if you do like a bit of shimmer!

Feel free to follow me on Instagram: @zoeyoliviablog or tweet me: @zoeyoliviablog. I'm forever responding and interacting on those platforms :).

Four days in Venice

On Monday, we flew away to the beautiful land of Venice for four days! This was a much needed break for both of us (those who have been through the whole wedding planning experience will know what I mean...) and this was also a little birthday treat for Joe.

During our time in Venice, we indulged in heavenly foods - I had the best savoury crepe of my life, we visited the colourful houses in Burano and also got lost a fair few times.

It was a pretty chilled trip, and that's exactly what we wanted. As whenever we do city breaks we always jam-pack our days with so much to do that we end up feeling exhausted by the end of it. And with everything going on at the moment, a semi-relaxing holiday was all we could ask for.

Anyway, I hope you liked our Venice Photo Diary. I will be doing another post on Venice shortly - of things I recommend doing if you plan on visiting. Until next time...

Feel free to follow me on Instagram: @zoeyoliviablog to see lots of other snaps from our trip, or tweet me: @zoeyoliviablog. I'm forever responding and interacting on those platforms :).

Love, Zoey

Spring Primark Haul

It feels like ages since I've sat down in front of my camera and filmed a video! And reason being is that I've just been so caught up in wedding planning, learning to drive, as well as being mega busy at work.

This week I flew to Venice, just to get away for a few days with Joe. Everything has been feeling a bit overwhelming and exhausting lately, and our little break away was much needed.
I will of course post a few snaps on here and share my trip with you very soon.

Anyway back to the main purpose of this blog post, I have a Spring Primark Haul that I wanted to share with you all!
These are one of my favourite videos to film, and they tend to be my most popular ones too. So, I hope you enjoy it :).

Also, I will be back soon with a humongous beauty haul, so keep you're eyes peeled for that. As well as writing lots of reviews on here in due course!

In the meantime feel free to follow me on Instagram: @zoeyoliviablog or tweet me: @zoeyoliviablog. I'm forever responding and interacting on those platforms :).

Love, Zoey

Belated Lush Boxing Day Sales Haul

First off, let me start by saying how sorry I am for posting this so late! I'm normally on top of things, but if you read my life update post you'll understand why I have been falling behind a little.
I was also going to film what I got from Lush too but I think it's far too late to post, but we shall see...

So, a few days after Boxing Day, I purchased a cheeky online order with Lush. I do this every year as the majority of their Christmas collection is half the price.

And, well I got quite a bit! I'll start with the items to the left first.

Santa's Sack Bubble Bar, this is an online exclusive and I've never actually seen this before! It's really really cute.
This bubble bar is three baths in one - take the presents out and leave them aside and crumble the sack under water, and then re-use the bubble bar presents for two baths at a later date.
The main ingredients in this little sack are tonka absolute and neroli oil which are super comforting and warming for the colder months.

Snowcake Soap, this is limited edition and I've only seen it pop back over the Christmas period.
I don't usually buy Lush soap's, however I wanted to give this one a go as I love marzipan, and that's exactly what it smells like!
It's main ingredients are Rose, Cassie and Benzoin oils which combined gives it that marzipan fragrance.

Golden Wonder Bath Bomb, I've had this before and it's amazing! It has a fresh smelling scent that's quite citrusy and not usually the kind of fragrance I would go for.
When you pop it into your bath, it turns your bath a greeny-blue colour, with lots of glittery stars floating around along the top. It also creates lots of bubbles too!

Cinders Bath Bomb, this is one of my favourite Christmas Lush bath bombs. It has a spicy cinnamon scent and crackles when you drop it into the bath. It's super warming and comforting for the winter months. Highly highly recommend.

Frozen Bath Bomb, this is part of Lush's fairly new collection and has been inspired by the film Frozen.
This one has quite a fresh scent, it has grapefruit oil, neroli oil, rose oil, amongst many other ingredients. Quite excited to test this one out soon!

Intergalactic Bath Bomb. I bloody love this one! It creates the most beautiful galaxy bath! I've previously spoken about it in a past blog post, if you're interested, click here to read it.

Snow Fairy Shower Gel. Snow Fairy is highly raved about on the interwebs and is exclusive over the Christmas period! I picked up a 100g bottle which is plenty enough for me.
If you haven't tried Snow Fairy, it's a sickly sweet scent and you will smell like unicorns, candy floss and all things sugary sweet!

The Experimenter Bath Bomb. I've always been intrigued by the shape of this, it's very cool. And the scent is unusual - it's quite minty and spicy vanilla-y. I'm excited to give this one a go!

Rub Rub Rub Body Scrub, I'm unsure if this is new but I've never seen it before! And, I haven't tried one of Lush's scrubs in a ridiculously long time so I thought I'd trial this one.
It's main ingredients are sea salt, illipe butter and has a cherry blossom flourish. It's very Japanese like, so I was very much drawn to it for that reason!

Candy Mountain Bubble Bar. if you like Snow Fairy, you'll love this one! It's sugary sweet and creates a beautiful pink bubbly bath! I usually get this every year as it's quite nice to be bathed in pink water and feel like a princess.

Dashing Santa Bath Bomb. Last but not least, we have Dashing Santa! I usually get this one every year as well.
He's pretty awesome as he dashes around your bath and turns your bath a lovely red colour.

So there we have it, my belated Lush Boxing Day Sales Haul! If you would like to see what these look like in your bath, follow me on Instagram, @zoeyoliviablog as I'll be posting them over the next couple of weeks!

Love, Zoey