The 'African' Engagement

I may not have day dreamed about my engagement ring but I did day dream about how my future lover would pop the question. Luckily for me the reality was better than the day dream. Future fiancés take note.

I am an avid African bush lover and I’m fairly confident I inherited this love from my father who has had shares in a few small private lodges over the years. It has been one of my biggest challenges about living in the UK. Every time I return home I make sure to plan a trip to the bush to satisfy my addiction to the smells, peacefulness and beauty of Africa’s greatest asset.

We planned a trip to South Africa for a friends wedding in December 2012 and we combined this with Christmas and family time. Normally I am quite happy to stay in more rustic places however, it had been a busy and tiresome year so I decided to splash out a bit and we booked at the 5 star Thanda Game Reserve in the luxury tented camp for 3 nights.

Our home for 3 nights

As cliché as it may seem to you all it was the most romantic and perfect setting for what was to come. Besides the game viewing being awesome and the food to die the staff went over and above for us. They snuck into our tent, scattered rose petals and candles everywhere, ran a bubble bath and left a bottle of bubbly for us. When we returned from dinner and I came back to this, Mr P insisted that this was standard as part of their ‘romance package’ which we had booked. I am very gullible so naturally I believed him and didn’t quite ‘get it’ when I turned around to a dashing young lad down on one knee, lit up by flickering candles…. as you can gather I put two and two together and said ‘yes’.

We still had a night left in the bush after this so it gave us time to be alone, let it all sink in and have a relaxing spa day before heading back to a gang of over excited family and friends. The great thing was, as it was Christmas and the wedding was a few days later, most of our family and friends were all in Durban to celebrate with us.

View from our tent

Turns out he had already decided I was going to accept and went ahead and organised an engagement party so we would be able to have it at home. One of my girlfriends booked out an area at a restaurant called Remo's by Mount Edgecombe for a few hours on Boxing Day and a few friends chipped in to pay for a photographer, Kate Van Onselen. What a lovely day! We had pizza and focaccia snacks as well as a bar tab, which both sets of parents very generously picked up.

katevanonselen.com

katevanonselen.com

katevanonselen.com

katevanonselen.com

katevanonselen.com

Quite simply it was the best holiday I have ever had and I cannot wait to return for my wedding in October.

Nothing beats an African bush engagement, except an African bush wedding!

PURL - Speakeasy Cocktail Bar

purl1 n. A drink, of which beer is the principal ingredient, defined about 1815 as hot beer mixed with gin: same as Dogs Nose; in later times, a stimulating mixture of beer, gin, sugar, and ginger. It was, before coffee and tea were used, commonly made to be drunk in the morning, and hence the liquor is called early purl.

Tucked away in the undergrounds of Marylebone, is a cosy little time warp called PURL.

Stepping inside is like stepping back in time to the days of horse and carts and jack the ripper. The ‘Speakeasy’ theme means its discreet location and lack of street presence makes for an authentic experience of old school drinking. A single swing sign sits at street level indicating that a drinking hole lies beneath. 

Based in a cellar there are several original alcoves as well as couch seating and stools at the bar. The 1920’s theme is consistent throughout this cosy venue with victorian decor and antique-style chandeliers.

Every cocktail at PURL tells a story. Set up by the mixologists of Fluid Movement these guys use Liquid nitrogen, helium balloons, scientific tools and other creative aspects to make your drinking experience almost theatrical.

Greeted in true English style with a erlenmeyer flask of water and some cucumber sarnies even the staff are dressed in the wardrobe from the set of Sherlock Holmes.

Cocktail prices range from £9 to £12 and they also stock beers and wine.
Snacks consist of (excluding the standard welcome sandwich) meat & cheese boards as well as good, old, American hot dogs.

I can recommend the Ball point Fizz. It was delicious. It comes with 4 pipets of different flavoured vodka and you add to your own preference. Have a look on their website for their drinks menu, which changes seasonally. 

It’s a great place if you are looking for something a little more intimate and different and it’s perfect for a first date, classy and not crowded. Booking is recommended though as space is limited.

Drink and Enjoy!

Jus

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The 'Wedding body' obsession.

Source

6am, woke up, went to gym and sweated like a beast as the trainer pushed me to the point of wanting to throw up. Why would I do this? Simple, I am getting married in less than 6 months.

Isn't it weird that for most of us it takes a ring on our finger and a wedding lingering on the horizon to get our butts into shape? It has become part of the standard wedding planning list:

• Buy dress
• Book DJ
• Book flowers
• Book hair dresser
• Book make up artist
• Book venue
• Choose menu
• Book minister
• Buy wedding bands
• Lose 7 kgs

Anyone who has ever been engaged will know what I am talking about. One day you are plodding along, maybe you go to gym if you feel like it or have a nice slow Sunday run, then your own Mr P gets down on one knee and bam the pressure is on. Forcing yourself to get out of bed before 6am every day, googling wedding arms work out programs (I like the one below by Studio 132 ) and turning down the birthday cakes at work ;( Gone are the days of guilt free sleep ins and afternoon treats.

www.studio132.co.uk

Literally every morsel of anything yummy becomes forbidden and if you back slide just once, even on a weekend, the guilt is unfathomable. Although none compared to the remorse felt should you really have an off day and give the gym a skip.

Even when I was trying on wedding dresses at the shop the assistant remarked 'you'll have to have alterations done just before the wedding as all brides lose weight before their wedding', now if thats not pressure to get on a treadmill I don't know what is.

Yes, we all want to look amazing on our wedding day and yes we all want to be in the best shape possible but what we should not do is put our health at risk. Make it a lifestyle not an obsession. That way your goal is more about looking and feeling great everyday instead of 'I have to be skinny for my wedding'. What happens after the wedding?

My best piece of advice is to throw away the scale and don't focus on numbers, but more on how you look and how healthy you feel. Lucy at Studio 132 also recommends using a tape measure instead, which makes sense really. I have never lost weight according to the scale even when I have been in my best shape.

I try to exercise at least once a day during the week so I can relax and enjoy the weekend. I tend to run to work 1 - 2 times a week, go to the gym 3 - 4 times a week and then I play in a netball league once a week too, which I love.

I’ve recently started some HIIT/Cross Fit Training classes and they are awesome. It just helps having someone there to push you. I shower, leave the gym, walk in the cold for 15 minutes, get the tube and arrive at work still sweating and looking like a tomato, but I feel GREAT!

Happy healthy wedding bodies all!

Jus 

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Source

Source

The Black Diamond - Engagement Ring

http://katevanonselen.com/ 

http://katevanonselen.com/ 

I've always tried to be a little bit unique. I've never been very girly and I don't wear a lot of jewellery, that’s partly because I'm too lazy to coordinate it and partly because I'm very sporty. Engagement rings were never something I dreamed about like other girls and even when Mr P proposed I didn't even see the ring until he asked me if I liked it.

Well if I told you I was different from other girls and said that I didn't fall in love with my ring, I would be telling a very big fib.


I had just met up with an old childhood friend who had recently got engaged and guess what? She has a black diamond ring. I had never seen one before and I thought 'now that is much more me'. Not so glitz and glamour but elegant with a dark sophisticated touch. I loved the antique element that the black diamond had to offer and I was quick to throw it out in conversation with Mr P.

A few months later here I sit typing this with my very own black diamond on my finger. However, different coloured stones seem to be the 'in thing'. I have since had friends get black diamonds as well as lemon and chocolate diamonds, sapphires, emeralds and amethysts. Are the days of the white diamond coming to an end? I think there will always be a market for the traditional white diamond engagement ring but it doesn't hurt that it’s become acceptable to be able to reflect your individuality through your ring. Besides we do have to wear it everyday for the rest of our lives.

It's not only the stone that has branched out to new domains, metals are evolving too. Rose gold is becoming more sought after as well as it has a softer and more neutral tone than yellow and white gold or platinum. 

My ring was designed by my very talented fiancé. The inner lining surface of the ring with rose gold is not only quirky but it adds that little bit of intimacy to the ring.

I love my ring and I am often being asked about it and what stone it is. All hail the black diamond!

Mmmilkshakes - Ed's Easy Diner

www.edseasydiner.com

Traipsing along a bustling Oxford street with one of my bridesmaids (Jade) in tow on a Saturday looking for 6 pairs of bridesmaids shoes is no easy task. I will say however, the sun was shining so I was happy!

Actually my assumptions were wrong and we ended up finding shoes within 30 minutes and then started looking for somewhere to consume some calories. We found this little American diner down one  of the small roads off Oxford street. I wasn't expecting anything great.

It turned out to be a little gem. Besides feeling like we were being rushed due to the queue forming outside, I really enjoyed it. The chocolate milkshakes were not only massive but to die for.

Ed's Easy Diner Chocolate Milkshakes

Ed's Easy Diner has all your standard American diner plates: hot dogs, burgers, fries, onion rings... and whilst there are a few attempts at American diners around I really felt like I was sitting in one of those that you see on American films, I almost expected to see the waitress come rolling up on her skates in a cheer leader outfit. Complete with black and white chequerboard flooring, typical American diner style booths as well as red poof stools at the bar the only thing lacking is the American accents.

www.edseasydiner.com

I am not under any illusion, the food is calorific and its not a formal sit down meal, more of a quick pit stop and refuel, but we are all allowed a cheat day ;)

For my friends at home: They have two sister branches in Cape Town Joe's Easy Diner. I have never been so I don't know if the experience would be the same but it sure is worth going to try out their shakes.

Wedding Invites: Paperless Post

www.paperlesspost.com

I was always against emailing out our official invites as I thought it came across as a bit tacky. However, after going over the costs involved in getting an invite designed, printed and posted to 130 guests and weighing this up against the extra guests we could invite if we just emailed the invite out we decided we would rather have the extra guests.

I found this great site that was really easy to use.  I customised my own design using a template from a large range of choices.

Once your design is ready you can then send your invite out using the site and Paperless Post will keep track of who you have sent to, who has opened the invite, which addresses have bounced back and the RSVPs. You can also customise the RSVP to ask your guests to respond to a question. We decided to ask what their favourite song was so we could incorporate this into our wedding play list.

The site charges a very small fee to send out the invites (we only paid USD $16), so we saved massively on printing and postage costs as well as saving a few trees in the process ;)

They also have an app available which you can load to your tablet or phone to keep track of responses on the go.

My experience with this site has been very good and I must admit that I almost decided to just create my own PDF document and send this over email however, email RSVPs would have been a lot more difficult to keep track of.

If you are thinking of going the email invite route this site is a must!

Jud

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A very cool app - Pocket

This is a really nifty app that I recently discovered. If, like me, you follow other bloggers or even twitter feeds that post interesting articles and you don't have time to read them right then, So you leave them as 'unread' in your inbox or save the link down somewhere only to forget or lose it amongst the thousands of other emails, then this is the app for you.

You can get the app on your phone, tablet and laptop so no matter what tool you are using your files (articles, web pages, videos, images) get saved to the same place. The best thing for me is that you don't even need the internet to access the articles or web pages. This is great if you have a tube journey to work and no internet.

Once you have it saved in Pocket you can then share it to your social networks but don't forget to tag it  as 'share' so you remember to share it later. You can make your tags anything you like which makes it easier to categorise whats in your Pocket.

www.getpocket.com

Hope you enjoy this app as much as I do. It's really helped me to organise my articles and posts.

Enjoy!

Jud

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