Oh guys I've been so excited to share this adventure with you! It feels like it happened aaages ago when in fact it was only a few weeks ago. I guess I should start right from the beginning when I got one of the most excited emails I've ever received from the lovely Charlotte at Simply Be asking me if I would like to be one of five bloggers to be photographed in some of their fabulous partywear outfits! Naturally I got very very over excited and immediately replied with a big fat YES!!!
A few days later I received an email letting me know who the other lovely ladies were that would be joining in too - I was really happy because I already followed all three of the UK based ladies Betty, Rachel and Rosie but was also excited to be introduced to someone new on my radar in the form of US journalist and model Allie McGevna.
Lots of private messaging ensued in the lead up and I arranged to meet up with Rachel and Rosie the night before as we were all staying at the same hotel in Manchester. I got there after a pretty much ok train ride (trains majorly stress me out after I missed the one I was taking to my first GBBO audition a few years ago) and was very happy when I checked in and was given a warm chocolate cookie! What a great idea huh? I got settled in to my room (which was lovely and full of treats!) and then met Rachel downstairs in the bar where we shared a few cocktails before lovely Rosie showed up fresh from a night out at a comedy show and we sat chatting for a while before deciding we should get to bed so we wouldn't look too tired out the next morning.
We were up bright and early and met outside the hotel before piling into some mini vans and heading to The Wirral to our fabulous destination...
Thornton Manor! We were all ooing and aahing as we got out the cars and were led into the building through beautiful hallways and up a sneaky little set of stairs into the room that would be our main base for the day. It was all go and we took it in turns to get our hair and make-up done while the team of stylists and the seamstress prepped all our outfits!
Thank you Betty for snapping away throughout the day while I was too busy fluffing around and forgetting to take any photos!!!
When my hair and make-up was done it was off to the set! I was led to an incredible wood panelled dining hall and off we went! I was really nervous and I'm pretty sure looked absolutely awful with a big awkward expression on my face for the first few shots, but the photographer and team were lovely and I relaxed and started to enjoy it really quickly. Here's a photo of the first outfit that I shot it which was a gorgeous body-con style midi dress with a subtle metallic baroque print - you can view it on the Simply Be site here.
After this we decided to try another dress style which was this lovely skater style dress, again with a baroque style print which I loved so much - you can see it on the website here! I felt a lot more comfortable in this style and I wasn't so nervous about posing, so I think these photos came out much better. Here are two of my favourite shots...
I was surprised by how much I liked these shoes too - I never go for pointy styles but these looked really nice on and the gold embroidery was so darling!
I had a lovely rest of the morning pottering about in our base room and having lunch while the other girlies has their individual shoots. It was really nice to talk to Betty, Rosie and Rachel in person and to meet Allie who was just lovely - I was nervous to meet her at first as she's a pro but she was so sweet and easy to talk to, we share a love of period houses and ghost stories and both ran off at the end of the shoot to take photos of the house and grounds!
After everyone had done their individual shots and had lunch we all went down into one of the main reception rooms where a lovely big fire was burning and we were to pose around a lovely chaise lounge for the group shots. It was so hot next to that fire I was afraid we'd catch fire with all the hairspray that we had on! It was so much fun though - we tried lots of different arrangements and switched places a good few times taking lots of different shots before doing some sillies at the end including a group Blue Steel!
After this we all went back upstairs and got ourselves back into every day mode before driving back to Manchester, and I hopped on my train back home still full of excitement and so looking forward to seeing the final photos!
Just look at these gorgeous ladies - don't they all look just stunning? Thank you so much Rachel, Betty, Rosie and Allie for being so wonderful and friendly, I know I'm very lucky to have done this shoot as I'm pretty new to fashion blogging but you were all so lovely and welcoming! I really hope our paths cross again in the future!
And last but not least thank you so so much to the Simply Be team - it was so lovely of you to invite me to take part, it was an amazing experience and I appreciate it so much! I'm really proud to be featured on your site and can't wait to see the sexy stylish outfits you come up with in the future, you are a very big part of why I'm now so much happier in myself and started outfit blogging in the first place, because you offer clothes that show off my curves and let me show my personality through fashion like I always wanted.
Thank you times a million!
x o x o x