Everything About Sarah..

On Friday me and my best friend and Maid of Honour, Laura, spent the day at the NEC attending The National Wedding Show. Admittedly after a night out in Birmingham, we were slightly hungover but it was a fantastic day to have a mooch around hundreds of stalls looking for ideas and inspiration..  I've never been to the Wedding Show before so didn't know what to expect.. a lot of the stalls were very similar with the majority of them being for companies selling dresses and suits or the stalls advertising venues (mainly abroad) but it was great to look at what was on offer and was a great opportunity to compare prices for similar dresses or things like Wedding insurance etc. Think my favourite stall obviously had to be my favourite Prosecco brand, Premier Estate Wines where we tried a number of different fizzes.    The highlight of the day was watching the Catwalk Show with so many different dress options to help know which stalls to look on, there we...

After watching my step-sister make the best smelling chilli EVER, I followed her method to make my own. Lately I've been trying to make big dishes that will last a couple of days to help us when we're so busy so this is just perfect! I've made chilli loads of times before and used different methods but this is by far my favourite way - it's fresh, healthy and super tasty.  800g of low fat, lean beef mince 1 green pepper 1 red onion Cherry tomatoes - halved 2 tins of chopped tomatoes 2 packets of microwave brown rice (heated up before added to mix) Chilli flakes Chilli flavour sachet  Mixed herbs  2 crushed garlic cloves Large glass of red wine Plus garlic bread and cheese for on top! This is a great dish to make as it's super easy and after you've cooked the mince in a pan, it's an "all in one" pot in the sauce pan before transferring it to a casserole dish. I then mix in the wine and leave it in the oven for about half an hour. Simple, tasty and f...

I've not done a wedding blogpost or update for a while and we've managed to do so much in the last week in organising bits and pieces for the wedding, I have this and 2 other wedding blog posts in the making.. it's been a very exciting week to say the least. Last weekend we got to visit our beautiful wedding venue; Makeney Hall in Belper, Derbyshire, and take part in a wedding taster day where we got to sample a selection of the food (and wine!) that we can choose from on our wedding day. The suite where we will have our "evening do" was all set up beautifully where we spent the afternoon and helped us with a few ideas - we have decided to upgrade our DJ package and add these L-O-V-E LED lights which I LOVE! They're huge and look fantastic. We were joined by a few other couples that are having their wedding at the same venue and each couple had an individual table that had been set up amazingly to make it so personal to u...

I can't believe it's been nearly 2 months since my Black Tie ball in memory of my Sister to raise money for Bone Cancer Research Trust and When You Wish Upon A Star but I still keep looking back at the photos as it was such a fantastic night.. I still can't believe that after a year of planning it's already come and gone. I learnt a lot in the last year.. about myself, about my friends and how to (and not to!) plan a huge event like this for 150 people! And as I have friends organising similar events as well as hopefully myself for our next event, I wanted to share what I've learnt in the last year while organising... TIP 1: HAVE CONFIDENCE The whole time organising the night I was worried about speaking and what I'd say, I even tried to find hosts for the evening so I wouldn't need to speak to a room of 150 odd people.. a lot of who I didn't actually know. But do you know what, when the time came, I couldn't wait to get up there and be p...

Anyone who knows me (including the team at Very themselves who let me choose my own outfit!) knows I am obsessed with Very and I love it's variety of clothing and everything else you could possibly want. Very is also handy for being able to buy something when you needed it urgently just before payday as you can buy now and pay later using a credit account if you so wish (which I do regularly... woops!) Just before Christmas me and Nick planned a last minute date night for the night after and thanks to Very, I managed to order a whole new outfit at 5pm for it to arrive the next morning. I love this look as it's all very simple but for date night with good make up and curled hair, it just gives that extra little bit of glamour. I'm in love with the Skirt which is possible my favourite piece and the top and bag are clearly also popular as they're both out of stock over the festive season! I just put them all together with a pair of simple boots with a small we...

OK so this is only about 1/8 of the candles I went through over Christmas but the rest were the large Yankee candles and got in the way when they were empty so we chucked them but yes.. as you can guess, I went through a shitload of candles as always over the the run up to Christmas. As everyone does, I had my favourites that return each year; the Yankee Candle Red Apple Wreath and Christmas Cookie were returns to 2016 as well as a mini Snowflake Cookie that I had left over from 2015. A Woodwick return was Fireside which I found cheap in TKMaxx as it didn't have a lid. Talking of WoodWick, I also picked up the Pineapple WoodWick early Autumn time in the sale but it actually didn't smell as fruity as I expected and had more of a cocktail smell so I kept it for the cocktail season - plus the sound of the crackling is just perfect for cosy nights in! This Christmas Boots brought out their own candles again but 2016 whooped 2015's arse. The Spiced Apple Crumble candl...

I saved these photos on a draft a good couple of months ago and the shit blogger that I've turned into forgot and never got around to writing a post to go with them! A couple of months ago I was invited to the launch night of the new Novello Lounge Café Bar in Telford so me and Nick went along for the evening to try out their amazing tapas menu and check out the newest hotspot in Telford. Novello Lounge is in the Southwater area of Telford town centre and has a really modern look outside which you can't miss. It looks really sophisticated and inviting. The interior inside was super chic and relaxed with board games and the art on the walls. It was a cute little place with dim lights which just made you feel so cosy. We made the rooky mistake of driving as it was free (yes.. free!) food and drink all evening for those who were lucky enough to be invited but it meant that Nick could try the beers that were available and I may have had the 1 cocktail. The tapas was...