I'm ever so sorry I've not been posting more regularly my lovelies, the last few weeks since I got back from my holiday have been pretty crazy with my birthday and getting engaged and then going off to London for a few days! We've also decided to get married in Autumn next year and while that seems like a long way away when it comes to wedding planning it really isn't!!!
We had such a fabulous time in the big smoke that I thought I'd share some of the things we did and some of the cheeky purchases I made while we were there. Our first stop was to one of my favourite places in the world, the V&A to see the Wedding Dresses 1775-2014 exhibition. We'd actually decided to go to this before we got engaged and it was just wonderful. There were so many stunning dresses there including some celebrity dresses worn by the likes of Dita Von Teese, Gwen Stefani, Kate Moss and more. I really enjoyed learning about old fashioned wedding traditions such as the Victorian trend for adding orange blossoms to the bridal wreath or bouquet which actually originated in China. One of my favourite pieces on display was the embroidered silk satin dress above which you can see in more detail in the picture below which was worn by society beauty Margaret Whigham in 1933.
After our jaunt and lunch in the V&A we headed to our hotel and dropped off our bags before hopping back on the tube and heading to Carnaby Street. We dropped into Johnny Cupcakes and Pete treated himself to a new t shirt and then we headed to the Simply Be on Oxford Street where I tried on a few of the pieces from the new Look Magazine collection and got disappointed as I just cannot pull off a duster jacket, ah well. Selfridges was the next stop where we bought fancy chocolates and I swooned over the latest Vivienne Westwood bag designs before strolling back to Carnaby and heading to The Diner to have dinner with some of our lovely London based friends. We ate far too much and I had many a tasty cocktail and boozy milkshake which made the tube back to Holborn a much quicker experience!!!
Day two saw me heading to Black Garden Tattoo for my appointment with Cassandra Frances and Pete heading back to the V&A to do a bit more exploring. Getting tattooed sucked but Cassandra was a lovely lady and I'm more than pleased with the final tattoo, it's so beautiful and feminine! After grabbing a quick sushi lunch I met back up with Pete and we headed to the British Library to see it's latest exhibition Terror and Wonder: The Gothic Imagination. This exhibition was so so good and surpassed both of our expectations, we were in there for a good hour and a half and were thrilled to see some of the pieces on show including the famous 'Dear Boss' letter sent by Jack the Ripper to the police, some beautiful first editions and some original artwork from the Batman: Arkham Asylum comic. It's only a tenner and I highly recommend that you go along if you're interested in gothic literature and film - there's even an Alexander McQueen outfit on show.
After this we headed back to Oxford Street and did a little more shopping and grabbed some dinner before we got our train back home. Here are a few of the things I bought while we were there...
There was so much in the Terror and Wonder gift shop that I wanted to buy but I restrained myself and just got a tote bag and some little vampire chick mirrors.
I didn't but much on our Oxford Street trips as I had spent a lot on my new tattoo but I treated myself to a choccy bar and a few little pieces from & Other Stories - this hand cream smells wonderful, I wish the body mist from the same range had smelled as nice. I also bought this sweater from Monki which is a lovely candy pink - I got a size large and it fits me perfectly!
My favourite purchase was this gorgeous nail polish from the V&A exhibition which I'm saving for our wedding day. It's called a silver veil top coat and is a clear base with lots of little flecks of sterling silver leaf. It's just stunning and was a lovely little memento of our trip - I'm trying to introduce lots of little memory stirring details into the wedding plans.
Well, that was my very busy few days - what have you been up to this week?
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