My Wedding - Engagement

It's taken me a while to come round to writing about my own wedding. I'm not sure why. I'm not naturally shy, but I'm determined not to become one of those 'it's all about ME' brides. Bridezilla. Bride of Frankenstein. You get my gist. But considering I'm out there gathering ideas from all these other lovely brides, I think it's only fair I share my own planning. So with exactly a year to go, here's my story....

The Boy and I met 'officially' in 2006. We'd actually bumped into each other years before, through his best friend Kiran, but neither of us really remember it. Apparently it was in the Nando's on Upper Street in Islington - dead romantic! Our first date was at a Japanese restaurant called Koi's, near Kensington Park - I'd recommend it, because you have to take your shoes off, and it's good to check out a guy's socks before you consider him as a future husband. So one thing led to another, we bought a flat together, went travelling for a year, and by the time I turned 30 in February last year, I was pretty much ring obsessed. In fact I started Before the Big Day four months before we got engaged. Talk about a hint!

The Boy asked me to marry him on 4th January in the mountains in France. We were skiing, and I'd headed home early for a bath, and while I was tucked up in my dressing gown, The Boy wrote 'will you marry me in the snow'. He went down on one knee, and read out an extract from The Great Gatsby {below}, and I said yes. And cried a bit, and he might have too, but he's too macho to admit it.

I had to wait till we got home before I got my proper diamond ring. I always thought we'd choose the engagement ring together, but The Boy had taken matters into his own hands, and picked one for me. It's a solitaire diamond, and it's perfect.

We decided we wanted to get married abroad for lots of reasons. First of all we really want a wedding in the sunshine, and in the UK you can pretty much guarantee rain. Secondly, friends of ours had celebrated their big day in Carpri the year before, and we'd had such a riot that we wanted to recreate the mood.

So we picked the South of France, specifically Provence, because we spent our first summer holiday there, and we'd fallen in love with the food and wine, olive trees and lavender. Also, it was close enough to the UK to keep flights cheap, but far enough away to be sunny. Also, I can speak French, or at least, I think I can! In the next installment, I'll show you my inspiration boards, which I'm using to give my suppliers a sense of our wedding style. Do leave me comments and tell me about your engagement stories!