Wedding Series | Engagement Party Planning

Engagement party planning is the fun bit before all the stress comes. Its the perfect excuse to get your nearest and dearest together and celebrate your up coming nuptials.

I also know many people who have decided against having them as they haven't wanted one, or they are getting married quicker. As we had decided to wait two years in order to save for the wedding and a house, we wanted to celebrate!

The venue is the big decider for this, as it will be what costs the money if anything.
We decided to have ours where we first met, given that we got engaged abroad, we couldn't really have it where he popped the question!

Luckily for us, the place we first met is just up the road from where we live, and is one of our local pubs.

They have a lovely function room out the back of the pub that also has access to the garden (of which a section was also reserved for us)

The function room was also free, which was a massive bonus, especially when you are saving for the wedding and in our case a house too. I would definitely recommend trying to find somewhere cheap or free if you can. If you don't have any pubs nearby that offer this, try village halls or even church halls.

We also decided against food, to keep the costs down, which I slightly regret as I was starving as I couldn't eat before hand as was too nervous!
However, the pub serves really nice bar food, (the cajun fries are to die for!) so people had the option to either eat before they came, or to order something once they arrived so I didn't feel bad on them - you have to think of money unfortunately. If you are lucky enough to have budget for food too, then obviously crack on, but we didn't, and no one minded.

If you are local to Tunbridge Wells, you will probably have heard of St John's Yard. If not, and you live close by I would definitely recommend it for functions (I also had my 30th birthday party there) but also if you just want a drink with friends. On Sunday's they also do a burger deal where they have a selection of burgers half price and they are a-m-a-z-i-n-g!
They have also recently opened another restaurant next door to them, The Shuffle House, which serves pizza and tapas, with a bar upstairs that has shuffle boards that you can hire to play on. I believe they can also do functions here.

I love St John's Yard as the atmosphere is always great, the decor is quirky, the staff are friendly, and the garden is lovely especially in the summer, but also has heaters in the colder months.

The room is decorated really well with cute bunting and fairy lights hanging up as well as the quirky pub decor already, so we only added some balloons and a board of pictures with fairy lights that I made up the week before. This meant minimal effort from us, meaning we could enjoy the day without rushing around to decorate and didn't have to worry about clearing the decorations before we left that night or go back the next day.

Everyone commented on how lovely the function room was, even if we were a bit squished in. This was mainly due to the fact we presumed a lot of people wouldn't be able to make it and then were blown away with the turn out!

We were so surprised with the turn out and it gave us an insight of what the wedding day would be like as we spent the whole night saying hello to people and thanking for them for coming before we'd have to move on to the next person.
It was very overwhelming, as well as a lot of fun, but we barely saw each other. So we have made the decision to ensure that on our wedding day, we schedule time out of the day for just us. It's our wedding day, and yes, we want to spend the day celebrating with our family and friends, but we also want to be able to celebrate together.

Much Love as always,

237 days and counting... 🧡💒💜

Winter Ball | OUAW Events

My niece's birthday falls in between Christmas and New Year, so it's nice to spend time with her and actually do something, rather than buy another present for her.

My brother had the same idea and booked us in to a Winter Ball held by a local events company (Once Upon A Wish) that we had previously used for a Princess Knock for my niece's birthday a few years ago.

It was held at David Salomons in Southborough; a Victorian mansion with a vast estate, used for functions, events and weddings and it is a stunning venue.

Parking was easy to find, with plenty of spaces and there were OUAW staff on site to direct us to the event itself. There were also staff at the door greeting us, letting us know which table we were on, as well as giving out pre-paid goodie bags if you had pre-ordered one (which we had)

 

On our table was myself, my brother, our mum and my niece as well as another group of 2 adults and 3 children. The table was laid out beautifully, with our table number in the middle, colouring for the kids as well as water and glasses.

We took time when everyone was settling in to have a look at what the goodie bag included. Inside was a 'glass slipper', a pair of fairy wings, a wand, a tiara and a voucher for a glitter tattoo - well worth the money.

The event started with the owner of the company, Jess Nelson, taking to the stage to welcome everyone to the event and let us adults know that the bar was open!

The stage was then filled with prince and princesses singing and dancing - all the kids were in awe - and most adults were too.

The day continued with songs and dancing from the characters and they made sure to get the kids involved.

There was also photo opportunities, glitter tattoos, even a treasure hunt! As well as some quiet time with arts and crafts when the kids were all given a cupcake.

             

To finish up, there was a disco and every single child was given a book to take away - all individually wrapped up - which must have taken hours.

Every detail was thought of, including the amazing Cinderellas carriage for photo ops (Wasn't able to get a picture as there were too many children around it!) but it was simply stunning.

The costumes were honestly amazing, such good quality.

All characters stayed in character the whole day and were great entertainers.

The day was family friendly and good value. I would highly recommend the company to anyone with children.

They don't just do these big events, so if your child is better one on one - they also offer other options such as Home Visits and Princess Knocks where the character/s of your choosing will come to your house, as well as kids parties and more.

Princess Knocks from 2017 - Belle

I would highly recommend them for kids of all ages and you can find them online here or on Facebook here.

Have you ever used OUAW? Or are you planning to? - Let me know.

The next event is A Royal Tea Party in February - Book now so you don't miss out!

Much Love as Always,

*Please note; I am not affiliated with the company in any way, all opinions and pictures are my own and are from my own experience*

The Mexican Kitchen | Review

Nowadays there are so many restaurants in my hometown, that it's hard to keep up and to actually eat in them all!

When myself and Emma finally found an evening to go out for Dinner for the first time in 10 years on our own, we jumped at the chance to try out the New Mexican restaurant.

Mexican is one of my all time favourites and we haven't had a decent one in Tunbridge Wells for what seems like forever.

We booked the table for 8pm and were given the choice to eat inside or outside due to the weather. Unusually we chose outside, but it was so hot to start with I don't think we could have sat inside.

As we walked through the restaurant, I noticed a lot of colour, which is obviously very in keeping with the Mexican theme, and outside in the garden was filled with fairy lights above us and flags around the wall surrounding the garden.

First up, we ordered cocktails, of course! I went for a Frozen Margarita, and Emma had a Pina Colada - I obviously had to sing when she said she wanted one...

We also ordered our food at the same time as we don't mess around. Plus we had already had a sneaky look at their menu online, which I find really helps me make a decision when I actually get there as I'm horrendous at choosing anything! 

I went with my fave Mexican starter, Frijoles and Tortillas, while Emma chose homemade Guacamole. 

So delicious, and loved the presentation. I have a rather big love for slate anyway, so they were onto a winner there, but teamed with the colourful buckets was great. There was just enough as a starter, not too much so you were full before your main, but not too little that you wondered why you bothered. 

Next up we both went for the Chicken Tanga Enchilada... 

This came with a small portion of Mexican rice and garnish, with sour cream drizzled on top. When we got them, I thought there wasn't much there, but the meat was so tasty that it was definitely enough. What I liked was that I wasn't too full that I felt sick, but was comfortably full. 

As you can see it had got dark when we ate our mains, so the waiter had turned the heater on as well as provided us with blankets so that we could stay outside. 

Lastly, I heard someone say that they had Churros on the menu so we just had to get them and we were not disappointed!

Served with a caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream these were a dream. Emma has never had Churros before but I think it's safe to say she is now converted.

All in all, we had a lovey evening. The waiters were attentive, the food was delicious as were our cocktails and the price wasn't bad either. 

If you are local to the area I would say to definitely check them out. 

You can follow them here: 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/themexicankitchentw/ 

Twitter: @mexican_tw 

Insta: Mexican.kitchen.tw

If you want to book a table click here. 

Have you been yet? or have you found a restaurant I need to try? We loved getting glammed up and having a girls night!

Much Love, 

* All opinions are my own and I am not affiliated with this company.