Happy new year you lovely lot, I hope you all had a rocking time over christmas. What did you get up to??? Any newly engaged couplings???

When Big Ben struck 12 o'clock I can honestly say the first thing I did was shout...'I AM GETTING MARRIED THIS YEAR' I can't quite believe just how fast the time has gone. I feel like I still have a million and one things to do and no time to do it but I am loving every minute of it.

My mum has reassured me that I am on target and everything will get done and with time to relax. Do you know though, I think I'm more panicky about what I will do once the big day has arrived?! Don't get me wrong I can't bloody wait to say I do and start my married life as Mrs Carly Ann McCoy (that makes me feel very grown up, *slight perspiration*!!!) but I am going to miss the planning and excitement I feel each time I/we get something completed or booked. I will never forget the week after my big sister got married, we sat in the garden and and said 'so what next'... It was like someone had died, spending all your time and energy preparing something so amazing and important to you and then what?? This got us thinking, we want to celebrate for as long as we can. Have you got any plans to carry the celebrations on and extend your big day??

We are currently deciding on the honeymoon, as tradition goes it's the grooms job to sort it out right?? So I am leaving it all or most of it up to Mikey.... He knows me so well. When we first began to talk about where and when we wanted to honeymoon it was like right let's go the day after the wedding, all the guests can wave us off and we can drive off into the sunset... Something like the scene out of father of the bride but minus the thousand guests ha ha. Then reality struck... The next morning tends to equal lots of hungover guests with sore heads and half of them still fast asleep. Another reason I wasn't so keen on going straight after the big day was because that would mean our wedding celebrations would be over! leaving no time to reminisce with our friends and family and we would miss several weddings while we are away. It seems to be the year of "I do's" for us, and I couldn't bear to miss any of them, which Mikey fully understood. He came up with an idea. We will have a minimoon after the wedding (a couple of days away somewhere in England) and then go on our honeymoon later on in the year. This way when the wether begins to turn rubbish and the dark nights get closer we will have the excitement of the honeymoon to look forward to. Me and the other brides have recently been discussing our destinations and can I just say each one is doing something amazing and I just wish I could go where they are going as well. Hopefully my numbers will come up on the lotto one day!!! What honeymoon ideas have you considered?? Anything unusual?! A friend of my mums is currently staying in the ice hotel in Sweden which looks amazing.

As Christmas seemed to spring upon us we didn't managed to get anything wedding related done to my disappointment. Time just seemed to fly and the to do list was put aside for the time being......Only until the 27th December though ha ha then it was all systems go, go, go. The first thing I did was get my trusted little black book out and started to plan. Making a list of everything and when I say everything I mean EVERYTHING that we still need to do until the wedding day. The sparks were flying much to Mikey's amusement. Once the list was complete I got to work and focused on the decorations. I got on the phone to my sister and booked myself a slot at Betsy Button. We went through everything we wanted and she had some fab ideas on how we can style the rooms at the venue and went through all the different props that can be used to bring the outside in. We are going to dress each table individual using a mixture of flowers, bird cages, vintage books and bell jars. I love wild flowers and think they will suit our theme perfectly, especially the variety of colours.

Me and Mikey decided that instead of having each table numbered we would name them. We don't want to give this away until our big day but as you have probably already guessed we chose something that meant a lot to both of us and I loved every minute of making them.

If you remember since my first post I have been on the hunt for the perfect videographer. It was looking more and more unlikely that we were going to end up with one. I scoured the internet over and over, looking at one's that had been recommended but just couldn't find one that I really liked that was also within budget. We both decided that we didn't want any special effects or fading in and out as it wasn't us. We wanted our videographer to capture moments throughout the day just as it happened. I began to panic when we got to January and lost all hope in having one, I resigned myself to the fact that it wasn't meant to be....That was until 2 weeks ago....We only went and found Dave Spink, originally a photographer who has broke into the world of video. It was completely by chance I was searching through You Tube and came across several videos that he had shot. I don't know how I had missed him, I got on the phone straight away to check availability and couldn't believe it when he said he was available. We got him booked a couple of days later, take a look at his website there's lots of work to be seen on there or follow this link to see his video's on You Tube ...

Before I sign off I want to thank Charlotte lots. I had a lovely surprise a couple of weeks ago. Jackie my fellow real bride messaged to inform me that our mood boards were featured in charlottes post of February's issue of perfect wedding. I was so excited and went on the hunt for the magazine straight away. It took me nearly 2 weeks to track a copy down, and I was completely over the moon when I reached the page. The following day I received a message from Seb ( our photographer) which read 'what's hot for 2014′ with a photo of me and Mikey on our pre wed shoot. Stella photography were only featured in the same magazine . I couldn't believe it, there we were in print....twice in one amazing magazine whoop whoop!!!

Carly