Wedding Guest

Being a wedding guest is actually so stressful! Especially when it’s in a different town. I mean not only have I got plan what to wear, how to do my hair and what shoes to wear; I have to also plan accommodation and transport. Thank goodness, I am not the bride .. I would be a major Bridezilla.

So I’m attending a wedding Mid August as my cousin is getting married. The church ceremony is in Reading and the reception is a half hour drive away in a fancy hotel.

The outfit

Okay, so being a female my first thought is what to I wear. Actually this thought also guided me to another thought, I probably should loose some weight? It’s defiantly helps having a goal, for weight loss. Now I’ve lost the initial weight, I was ready to order my dress 3 weeks before the wedding. I trolled through website after website, I looked in Next, Missguided and New look. Do I go extra, so I go sophisticated, do I go summery.. what if it rains. Eventually ( 2 weeks into looking) I found a light lilac, off the shoulder, sweat heart cut midi dress that I thought could be the one. I ordered it from Boohoo.com and had it delivered the next day. I loved the colour when I opened it, and I tried it on and it fit great! It was maybe even a little to big for me ( which is good because I always order the same dress size on boohoo.com)

The Nails

I had my nails done a few days before the Wedding. I had Almond shaped weddings, with purple Sheelac and Chrome over the top.

The Hair

So the day before the Wedding! I have visit Pretty Please in Hove ( where I get all my blow drys done) They have washed my hair, and pinned it up! I’m to sleep with the pins in, for my hair to bed ready for the BIG day ( My cousins Big day, I’m sound like its mine)

The Accommodation

This was complicated! So the wedding ceremony is in Wedding but the Reception is in a different town. So I have booked the Premier inn, in Reading by the oracle (£52 a night) for the Friday. Then on Saturday, I’ve book The Bird Hand Inn which is where the reception is! ( so I can get drunk and stumble back to me hotel) and finally I’ve booked the Premier Inn ( again) so that I’m back in Reading as my family live around the corner! NIGHTMARE! But I do think this is the easiest way to do it!

Pre Wedding Eve

It’s the day before the Wedding! Today so far I’ve worked until 1pm, had my hair done and it’s now 3pm. I’m almost finished packing but I’ve taken up 2/3 of the suitcase because I couldn’t decide what make up to bring, so I’ve brought all my pallets! ( not sure where my boyfriend stuff is going to go woooops) I’m waiting for Tony to finish work, so we can get on the road!

On Our Way

4:30pm and we are on our way! There is lots of of traffic, so we are taking the country roads! It takes us a while to get there and we arrive at 6:30pm at the Premier inn by the Oracle in Reading. Time to get ready for some dinner in the hotel, I’m looking a bit crazy with my pinned up hair.

Wedding Day

It’s the Big day ( For Sam and Ashley). We woke up at 8am, and got changed into some comfy clothes for breakfast in the hotel. The breakfast wasn’t that nice, as it was a little greasy for my liking. I enjoyed a Costa Cappuccino and a glass of fresh Orange juice.

Once our bellys were full, it was time for a hot shower and a hour and half to do my make up. For my make up I used my Huda Beauty Rose gold edition for my eye shadow, my Revolution baked bronzing Pallet and my usual make up. I actually did my eye shadow first, as I knew it was going to be quite heavy. Then cleansed my face , before doing the rest of my make up. Once, finished I unpinned my hair and I was ready to go.

My Dress is from Boohoo.com, and it’s a Sweet Heath cut, midi dress. I wore my black scrappy block heels from Primark and my Envelope clutch from New Look.

Once, I was ready ( and took a few selfies) we got in the car to pick up my Auntie Lizzy before driving to the church.

Church Ceremony

The wedding Ceremony started late ( which is typical for a wedding) The Church was beautiful with Tall stained Glass Windows. The church was were my nanny and Grandad for married many many years ago. The Ceremony was lovely and the priest made lots of jokes keeping us entertained throughout.

The Hotel

We checked into the bird in hand Hotel after the Ceremony and freshened up. My dad went in a separate car and managed to sneak KFC into our room! We were all greeted with Pimms and sat outside in the Sunshine. The Hotel was super cute!!!

The Food

Unlike most weddings, the sit down meal was a BBQ!! I Had a hot dog, a burger and lots of salad. I also discovered that the American mustard I had smothered my food in was actually spicy French mustard. The puddings were a miniature selection and were very delicious.

The Toast

I must of been tipsy at this stage because I kept joking that they were going to give us roast, rather then us doing a roast. I realised this wasn’t the case when we were all handed a glass of wine. Lucky my dad and Tony didn’t like there’s, so after I drank there’s too.

The Party

Our tummies were full, our livers were saturated with alcohol and we were ready to boogie. There was lots of R&B tunes for me to dance too.

Bars Closed

At 11pm it was last orders but we were not ready to go to sleep yet. We decided to have an after party. It was the Bride, The Groom, my cousin, their friend, Tony and myself that carried on through. The Hotel told us off for drinking downstairs, so we drank our champaign in the car park. ( classy but fun)

It was safe to say we were all pretty drunk at the wedding. I had consumed Gin, wine and champagne ( I won’t even tell you about my hangover) I thought it was a good idea, to tell everyone to go for a family breakfast at 9am the next day. When i woke up, it didn’t think it was such a good idea.

Overall

It was a great Wedding! So lovely to see my family old ( 13 years I haven’t seen some of them for) that had travelled from America. It was amazing to drink with my cousins, and I’ve actually invited them for a night out in Brighton.

Brighton Pride 2017

I love Brighton Pride! It’s not just celebrating the wonderful LGBT community; it’s also about celebrating diversity and how beautiful Brighton is as a city! Pride starts with a fabulous parade, which leads to the main event in Preston Park. There is also a two day Street party on St. James’s street. I attended this last year and can’t wait to attend again this year!

Pre- Pride preparation

Five weeks to go
We bought our tickets five weeks before the event. We bought early bird ticket which cost around £12. I’m going with a big group this year and most of us for early bird tickets.

4 weeks to go
The first thing I ordered was a rainbow highlighter off Amazon! I am sooooo excited to is this. I also ordered Huda Beauty strobe light lipgloss!

Two weeks to go
Me and the girls have booked in to have our hair done at gorgeous hair Boutique in Hove. We are having space buns covered in glitter!

1 week to go
Trying to decide on a outfit took a few weeks! With less then one week to go me and my boyfriend bought matching tie dye tops, literally love him for being such a good sport! That’s only one day outfit so I need another one! Ahhh!

5 days to go
My friend ordered 5 grams of glitter, and now I feel I don’t have enough so I have ordered another pot! I also bought eyelashes for both days! Vaseline for my glitter to stick too! I’ve also purchased some different colour jelly and shot glasses because I’m making VODKA SHOTS!

Pride eve
My vodka jelly shots are setting!! I’m soooo excited for tomorrow! We are having a bozzy picnic before we go the St James street.. so we have bought cup cakes, crisps, wine and Cider!

Pride Pride Pride
My dad made me a toasted cheese and bacon baguette for breakfast to line my tummy for pride. I showered and washed my hair ready to go to gorgeous hair boutique, to have my hair done! I had two French platts, and space buns with glitter roots! I thought she done an amazing job and I loved my hair!

We had our picnic at the green on the level, opposite St James street. We did a few shots and I managed to drink my bottle of wine and it was safe to say I was tipsy going into St James street. There wasn’t as many acts on this year but it was still an amazing atmosphere. Everyone dressed up uniquely and Dancing in the street. It was great that Tesco was open as it allowed us to buy cheaper drinks. There where more toilets this year, but also more people. It was really good, I felt like I got home at 3am but actually it was only 10pm! (Maybe because I went to cheeky chicken and it was packed)

Sunday Pride Pride Pride

Sunday is always my favourite day at Pride! It’s like a massive rave in the street, with dancers on stilts and dancing on the scaffold on R Bar / Revolution! This time we started our day having lunch and cocktails in yates! Lunch to get rid of our hangovers. Cocktails to ease us back into alcohol. We got to St James street around 5pm, which was later then planned. The second we got there my hangover disappeared and I was ready to dance the night away. Revenge bar really pulled it out the bag with their dancers on stilts and fire breathers! Plus there alcohol stall accepted card! Literally spend 4-5 hours dancing in this area! The atmosphere was just amazing, when I stopped dancing for a second and looked around I felt so proud to live in an amazing city! Feeling the love for Brighton right now. Shortly after the street party closed, fire works went of at the Brighton pier! They were amazing and better then some of the paid display I have been to before. It’s felt like the perfect way to end a amazing weekend, BUT I didn’t stop there we danced for a little longer at Charles Street bar, it was crazy packed but it was still had the fun atmosphere from the street and party! I left there at quarter to one in the morning!

The Morning from the night before
All I want to do today is eat and sleep! I’m glad I took the day off to recover! I spent half an hour in the shower trying to take the glitter out of my hair! I’m also feeling achey from dancing for two days and not sitting down! It was worth every ache and pain I’m in today!

I cannot wait for pride next year, if I could book now I would!

DL 💋< img src=”https://dominiquelennon.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/img_2565.jpg”&gt;

Mask Monday

Monday is the most important day of your week! You should Start the week off with a fresh mind, just as you mean to go on.

This Monday I am pampering myself in the evening with a …. Tea Tree Clay mask from the body shop costing £11. I'm also relaxing with a lush bath bomb costing £3.90

First impressions

I love the packaging it's cute and it's simple.
It Smells AMAZING, smells minty!

Apply

It's a light texture and really easy to put on, a little goes a long way. At first it tingles on my skin It dries fairly quickly, within 15 mins. It feels like it "dried thinner" and my skin feels fresh while it's drying.

Wash off
It was slightly difficult to wash off, despite the reviews saying it was easy. I chose to firstly attempt with water and then to us cotton pads. Once I used cotton pads, it was fine to get off.

After

My skin feels amazing! It feels light and refreshed! My pores feel minimised and my skin feels fresh. My skin feels moisturised and tight, but doesn't feel like it has dried it.

Recommend
It reccomend a using this product twice a week for full effect. I am defiantly going to try this as I love it so far!

4/5 ****

DL 💋

Road Trip

I love exploring! Especially after exploring Thailand, I discovered how fun it is to try new places and new things. This weekend me and My partner decided to go on a Road trip!

Friday – Reading
Friday we headed down to Reading, we have been here many times and usually is a straight run that takes less then two hours. Today being the first Friday of the summer holidays it took 3 hours and 45 mins! Night mare, we eventually got to Reading around 2pm. We drove straight to my nan and grandads for a catch up and then to my aunties were we would be staying the night. We went for dinner with my Aunties to TGI Fridays and it was lovely food! The TGI in Reading was not as busy as the one in Brighton but was still fairly busy. We then went to Beach bar, which is soooo random. It's a bar with swings and fake sand, was all fun and games until it rained and we were standing outside with our cocktails! We soon retreated to Yates for a few more drinks and I met with one of my childhood friends for a drink. Which was amazing as we haven't seen each other in years and it felt like nothing had changed. Saturday morning my auntie made us all bacon sandwiches, which I think we all needed!

Saturday – Basingstoke
Saturday lunch time, we drove to Basingstoke for shopping and lunch. We of course went to Nando's for our lunch! Shopping was great we both got loads of hits we needed! I defiantly recommend festival place for food and shopping.The car park was a little confusing.. we defiantly lost out car for twenty mins haha!

Saturday night hotel disaster
Our original hotel was booked in Hook. They called us Thursday night to tell us they where going refurbishments to the hotel and some of the rooms were not ready. The rooms we booked happened to be the ones not ready. They said they would book us in to a hotel down the Road. On Saturday, 4pm we checked into the new hotel. We walked to our room to find it hadn't been cleaned from the people that slept there before, there was dirty sheets and dirty towels in the room. After complaining, they showed us to another room but even though this room had been cleaned, it was so small, black stained carpet and was to a poor standard for £70 I had paid. We managed to get a refund and decided to stay at the Hilton in Bracknell which was a 20 min drive

Hilton bracknell
What a lovely hotel! We checked in at 6:30pm. Our room was nice and tidy, had an amazing double jet shower. It was super busy but we managed to book a table for 8pm for dinner. I felt so refreshed after a shower and got ready with a glass of bubbly. Dinner was a 3 course buffet; I had patte on toast, curry and rice and sponge cake for desert. Me and my partner for the first time in our life shared a bottle of wine ( now I know he likes it.. we can drink wine every date night! YAASS) I had a good night sleep and had a great
breakfast in the morning!

Winchester – science centre
Sunday morning we drove to Winchester to play at the science centre! Great fun for all ages from testing how high you can jump, to learning about your organs to watching a film about the galaxy!
We spend around 3 hours here!

Portsmouth pier
After playing at the science centre, we were not ready for our adventure to end yet. We made a diversion on the way home to Portsmouth pier, we played in the Arcade, had a burger from Browns, went on rides and played mini golf! I really loved Portsmouth and want to play a weekend to come back!

Home
6pm, we arrived home tired from our day of fun! Just in time to change into pjs and watch Monana ( which is now on sky yay)

DL 💋

Summer Faves💋

Their are lots of factors that effect our skin, hair and bodies. The weather is defiantly one of these factors. I love summer because my skin gets browner and my hair goes lighter. Here are my favourite products to
make it through summer.

Micellar cleansing water 💦

I love this stuff, not only does it melt my eye make up away without tugging and rubbing. It cleans my skin and soothes it. It really leaves my skin feeling fresh!

Simple Moisturiser

I personally prefer a light moisturiser to hydrate my skin. I've tried lots of different ones but have found that this one is the best. The smallest amount gives you lots of vitamins, includes Borage seed oil and it's very natural so should not upset your skin.

Defend your hair girls!

I have two favourite summer hair products; that I will use without fail. The first is this Argan oil heat defence leave in spray. Not only does it protect your hair from heat styling but it also leaves Argan oil in your hair to keeps your hair silky and smooth. I then also use VO5 Frizz free cream, literally a pea size to the end of my hair again it protects and makes my hair look healthy and glossy. It's super important to use heat products in the summer, Because if your hair is weaker from heat styling and then left to sit in the sun, you will seriously damage your hair! 😳😳

Summer fragrance

This is not a summer essential .. well actually it kind of is. I love my perfumes and my favourite summer mist is "Pure Seduction by Victoria Secrets". Even more excited that this can be purchased in Super Drug! They also do a moisturiser and other products to match.

Lip balm 💄

Do no forget to keep your lips hydrated. It can be hard when MAC makes so many amazing summer lipsticks to forget to put lip balm on your lips. I use "baby lips" by Maybelline which is not only great for my lips but is also a tinted colour. I use this on a day to day bases at work for a natural look.

DL 💋

Slay at Life

• Own a diary – A diary can be such an advantage in life. You can organise the balance of your life from work, social and personal. I also write to do lists in mine and highlight when they are complete. This will help you BOSS at life. Make sure all your work jobs are done before you go home, make a note to call someone on a certain date to look efficient. Haven't called your nan in a while? Make a note in your diary to call after work. If you don't do it, you will have to tip ex it out and you will feel guilty; therefore it's in your best interest to stick to it. I also allocated time for myself 7-8:30 – pamper time. Then on my to do list remind myself to buy face masks.

• Me, Myself and I – let me tell you, that the only person you will spend every second and every breath with is yourself. If you are not loving yourself, then you are not slaying at life. You have to make sure the relationship with yourself is healthy. like if you don't spend time with your Boyf, you feel annoyed that your relationship is crap, same kind of thing. If your not allowing time for yourself, then you feel unwanted and unloved. As I said above allocate once a week minimum to wack a face mask on, soak in the bath and read a book.

• Healthy eating – boring alert I know. However, it is scientifically proven that a healthy diet improves energy levels, sleep levels, alert levels and your mental health. Not to mentioned eating healthy can give you better skin, nails and hair. There are also long term befits which can reduce your chances of diabetes, dementia and cancer. It's a no brainer but of course, it's also good to treat yourself now and again. If your going to eat lots of ice cream one evening, make sure you have some fruit and veg in the morning.

• Relationships – This stands for everyone if you are single, dating or in a relationship. Do not revolve your life around finding a boyfriend or based on your relationship. Yes, having a boyfriend is great but it's not always a walk in the park. Sometimes you argue and it may seem like the worst thing in the world, easier said then done but switch your phone off and distract yourself with other aspects of your life. Never carry your baggage into work, leave it at the front door. If your relationship is not your world, then you won't feel like it's falling apart when something goes wrong. This stand for you single or currently dating people, don't make this your focus in life make yourself your focus, your career and what you want to achieve.

• Fitness – oh yes I said it! When we think of fitness, we mainly think of loosing weight! Which is brilliant, and great for your ego. Regular exercise can also help with improving your Stamina, strength, and flexibility. It is also proven to reduce stress, lifts moods and help you sleep better. It is also rumoured to keeping you looking and feeling younger. I used to suffer from Chronic Tension disorder and the doctors told me to excersise, at the time I could not think of anything worse then to work out when I had a throbbing headache but believe me it helps. I feel great working out in the week, helps me to feel fresh and be clear minded.
• 
• No bad vibes – I love when people say this phrase because who needs bad vibes in their life? If your "Friends" make you feel negative, then they are bad vibes and you need to cut the cord. Easier said then done, but it's something That I done last year and I feel much better for it. If you see a negative situation arising, remove yourself from it don't need to get involved. If you feel like going somewhere is dodgy or you don't get the right vibes then don't go. You will feel much more positive in life.

• Ask for help – As much as it's nice to be independent we don't know everything in the world. Not only that, but sometimes our opinions are will come from our personal experiences and emotion. A outside opinion may have other life experiences that can broaden the opinion. There is no harm in asking for advise and as much as we want to show our parents and grandparents that we can do this Adulting life, sometimes they are the wisest people for advice. Speaking to people about your problems, can also give you relief and be beneficial for your mental health.

• Keep learning – We go to school, we go to six form, you may go into university and then our given education stops. Why not learn a open university course online? Why not do a project manager course online? Why not see what your local community hall are teaching. It's important to keep your brain sharp, it can help with your interaction skills and may give you interesting things to discuss. It can also help you progress in your career.

• Eat the frog – this may be my favourite saying! If you have something bad you have to do like make a bad or uncomfortable phone call, or let someone down; the worst thing you can do is to think about it all day and keep putting it off. The saying eat the frog means stop staring at the frog worrying about it, just do it and get it over and done with. Leaving it to later will not help your case and if anything it can make it worse. Most of the time I find that people are understanding and there was no base for my original anxiety.
• 

• Do something different – do something you wouldn't normally do. Try a water sport, go for a long country walk, visit a museum. We find our self saying "I'm boring, I don't really have any hobbies", unless we try New things we won't know what excites us. The internet is your hero, search fun things to do in England and start making your list.

These small tips all add up to give you direction in life, organisational skills and positive mind. They really do make the difference and even if you try one step a week and find only a few of them help, then at least your life has still been improved.

Most importantly be you, because no one can slay the way you do, like you.

DL 💋

Lists

I read a post online today about a girl that LOVES lists! And I am with you honey! 

Writting down your goals is commitment in writting that you are going to do somthing! And once you’ve achieved and ticket of highlighted it.. well what an amazing feeling!

I love a list and today I was writing a list about writing lists.

At the start of every year I usually write down my goals! This year was different because I went traveling my only goals was to see more, so more, eat more and tan more! 

Now that I am back to reality it’s time to get my list on!

So I have written a list on my phone keys things to by a super cute note pad and super cute colour gel pens!

Next I want to write lists of:

I’m hoping to add more to lists To my notepad but the ideas might not come until I choose the notepad!
Lists are great for setting your goals in writting! No going back once they are set!

What do you write lists about? Do you find them helpful? 

How I’ve lost 11 pounds in 4 weeks

Yay for my weight loss! And I can already see a difference! Although granted weight loss is not just about losing the pounds it’s also about loss of inches, because when you gym you also gain muscle which actually make you weigh more. Lucky for me I’ve lost inches on my stomach, arms, legs, knees and chest.

Food 

My personal trainer has helped me with a good plan. Limiting carbs is key and actually it’s a lots easier then I thought it would be. Maximising protien and vegetables. Fruit is good but to much has high suger. My example food diary would be as such: 

Breakfast

Veg and fruit smoothie – my fave is spinach, apple, banana, spinuala, whey dress 

Lunch 

Scrambled egg, two eggs no bread or salmon and pease 

Dinner

Egg, chorizo and tomato or chicken and veg

Eating restaurants was always my diet errors but now I’ve learnt to replace chips for vegetables or salad. I had steak the other day and replaced chips with more pees and mushrooms. 

Fitness

I’m very good at moviracing myself to go to the gym for two weeks and then I usually get bored. I have now learnt that mixing it up keeps it exciting. My week to week Fitness will include one gym session, one fitness class and one swimming session. I try and add atleast one extra fitness thing a week, I usually like to have another gym session. This keeps it fun and excersizes different muscle groups. I am also seeing my personal trainer once every two weeks and she either does a hardcore cardio or strength session 

Mind 

A lot of fitness is to do with mind. Avoiding drunken nights out is inportant for a clear mind set. Plus a night out makes you out on 3-4 pounds ah! I try to only drink twice a month as rule, granted I do not always stick to this but I do try. Setting out time for myself is key, because you need time to refuel. Take a bath, read a book have a green tea. 

I’m hoping to loose more weight as I have a wedding to attend in 6 weeks. I’m seeing my personal trainer next week and I am ready to up my plan! 

I would love to know, of anyone has further tips on weight loss? 

Kindle VS Book

I have wanted a kindle since I discovered you could get handbag sized with Anti glare screen. 

However, I was held back by the love of holding a physical book. I always enjoy going to a book shop, and looking through to decide what book I would like to read. Opening the first page, and being greeted by a waft of new book smell. It may seem silly to some but the new book experience is magical to others. Holding an actual book may one day become extinct, and technology may take over. Holding and reading a physical book, is also part of the experience. Placing the book mark in your book and seeing how far you have read is also part of the journey. Once you have finished snapping the book shut and feeling satisfied with the ending.

As you can see, I had a lot of reasons to hold back. In June this year, I decided I was ready to try a kindle. My boyfriend bought me the small paper white Kindle costing £89.00. It is 6 inches tall, and has a anti glare screen. He also bought me a leather flip case and a £50 Amazon Voutcher to download books. 
5 weeks later, I am now on my 5th book. When searching for a book to read on the kindle, you are able to click on reviews and find out the average reading time for each book. You can scroll through, and search for books. Once you have finished a book it will reccomend you a similar one from your taste of books. The kindly is lighter then a book, originally I thought this would ruin the experience for me; however I found it more convenient in the sense it was easier to carry around. I carry it around in my handbag every day, I can easily take it out of my bag and walk around with it as it’s size and weight is ideal. I feel I have read more books in the last 5 weeks, sinply due to convenience of the size and weight. The kindle has some handy tricks such as, being able to search words that you do not understand to find the meaning. This is really helpful, especially as I like to read crime books and it sometimes can help me with technical police jargon. You can also highlight parts of a book, that may be important later on to save in a seperate are. Flicking though the book is simply done by clicking on the left or right side of the kindle. Lastly, my favourite part is that it tells you how much of the book you have read. I get excited and determained when I get close to 80%, as I just want to finish the book.

All in All, after much hold back and concideration I have decided that I prefer the kindle for convince of buying books and carrying it around and for it motivating me to read in my lunch break and allocate more time to finish the book.

I would love to know; if you prefer a book or a kindle??? 

The Missing by C.L Taylor

I have read plenty of crime books and plenty of stories about people going missing. They all are generally a guessing a game, who was the murderer? Did someone kidnap the child? Did they just run away? Those are the typical questions I ask myself.

This book has you asking more. Everyone becomes a suspect in the eye of controlling mum.
Being written in third person, allows you to take on the persona of mum. The constant of mention of memories, allow you to relate to all the characters and builds a good foundation of the background. You feel how chaotic mums life is, and how her worries are adding to her stress.
This book covers a aspect of social media and how this can effect teenagers life. It is a aspect that teenagers can perhaps relate to and a aspect that adults will be interested in. It is a style that that I have not until now read in a crime thriller.

There are also other elements of lies, cheat, rebelling and manipulation.

This book was one I could not put down. I went to work wondering why certain people had lied to poor mum, who was just trying find her son.

The last few chapters had me really feeling that the chaos is peaking, i felt like mum like I couldn’t take anymore. Then, bam a massive twisted ended.

I promise you won’t be disappointed.

I recommend this book highly, 5/5. I even tweeted the CL Taylor to thank her for such a great read. I was so looking forward to Reading her next book, that I finished The Missing this morning and I’ve already bought another of her books called “The escape” and reading it on my way home.