Goodie Bags: Planning the Perfect Hen Do

Hi guys,
As soon as I returned from our holiday, I packed another bag so that I could get up the next morning and head off for my sisters hen weekend! I had organised it all, so I was very nervous about everything going well. We headed down to Brighton where we enjoyed a life drawing class, cocktail making, a delicious dinner and danced the night away. And it was awesome: phew!!

As well as organising the party I had also organised goodie bags for all of the 12 girls that attended. I decorated the bags and filled them with goodies for everyone:

The pastel coloured bags are from Hobbycraft. I embellished them myself using stick on gemstones: one painful gemstone at a time! On each name label I also added gems to look like minature Mickey Mouse ears, as a Disney theme was the order of the day. The bags were filled with a host of stuff:

Practical things: I taped paracetamol to water bottles so that people could soothe their sore heads the morning after the night before. I also added a tin of mints to each bag and some miniature toiletries in case any one had forgotten to pack their own. And because I am the queen of hyper-organisation I also added a copy of our itinerary to each bag so that everyone would also have the names and addresses of our next destination.

A gorgeous keepsake: My absolute FAVOURITE thing that I put in the goodie bags was the personalized shot glass from Mugshot Glasses which had a picture of Amie's face on it, as well as the date of the weekend we went away. I loved these so much (and so did everyone else) so they really made an impact and Amie got a real kick from drinking out of her own face. I think these were a fantastic addition to the bag because whilst everything else in it was disposable, this was a nice keepsake that everyone could take home and have as a souvenir to remember the weekend. They only cost £5 each too (unless you're ordering more than 10 in which case they are £4 each) so they aren't going to break the bank if you're organising a party on a budget. Hands down the best thing I ordered!!

Adornments: I popped in 'team bride' badges for everyone to wear (a bargain from eBay) and to keep with the Disney theme (but in a subtle way) I added little tiaras and wands for everyone to wear in the evening too. We had dressed up in full on Disney costumes all day, so everyone wanted to glam up a little in the evening: this was the perfect way for them to do just that whilst still having a hen do feel. Amie had to wear a much more ornate crown, complete with veil, sash and huge 'Bride' badge. And of course it wouldn't be a hen do without the obligatory willy straws, sweets and balloons! I don't think you're ever too old to laugh at a funny willy.....

Have you ever organised a hen do? I'd be interested to know if you made goodie bags and what you put in them? I swear organising these actually took longer than organising the party!

Love Tor x

Fabfrocks gets married: Reliving the details

Hi guys,
This week I celebrated my third wedding anniversary. At the same time my sister has been busy organising her impending nuptials and my mum has been posting constantly over on her craft blog (link here) about all of the amazing things she's been making for the wedding. The two things combined got me thinking about my own Alice in Wonderland themed wedding, and all of the amazing details mum and I made in the lead up to the big day.

I think when your wedding day actually arrives it moves at the speed of light and the whole thing becomes a big happy blur. All the things that seemed so important (like the colour of the chair sashes) become completely insignificant. Our vintage car hire company sent us the wrong car on the morning of the wedding (one far too small for my big dress!) but I just folded it in and got going: I was getting married to Mike and nothing else actually mattered! Now though, three years on, the details make me so happy. So indulge me, please! Prepare for a picture heavy post then, as I relive the details of my big day:










There are certain aspects of my wedding that make me cringe when I look back at them now (seriously: what was I thinking about with that hair do?) But all the little details handcrafted with love? Nothing makes me happier!

Are any of you in the middle of planning a wedding? Are you finding it stressful or loving every minute? I love hearing about other people's weddings!

Love Tor x

Shoes: Slightly in love with Terry de Haviland

Hi guys,
I have massively exciting family news this week, which has left me with a huge smile on my face. My little sister Amie is getting married, and I am going to be the (incredibly old sounding) Matron of Honour for the occasion. That means whenever I have been doing any online shopping, I have been deviating towards anything vaguely bridal: think dainty metallic shoes and accessories, floaty lace dresses, and I had a very enjoyable hour looking at the Dreamboys website too (For hen 'do research purposes, of course!)
When I was busy shopping for shoes for another wedding I have to do to next month, probably because I was still thinking about Amie, these incredible gold Terry de Haviland shoes just jumped out at me. Wouldn't these make amazing bridal shoes for a modern, fashion-forward bride?! I've never been much of a fan of delicate and dainty shoes, so these are perfect for me from that point of view. They would look amazing with a dress that showed a little ankle, or even peeping out from under a floor length sheath dress.

I am thinking of getting these for the wedding I am going to (as a guest) in September: they have been reduced in the sale from £353.99 to £212.39 so from a price point of view they're a damn bargain! And the beauty of a statement shoe like this is that you can wear such a simple outfit with them and still look good for any occasion. I love wearing simple black dresses for almost everything, which means I can get away with wearing almost any shoe I like: the more ornate the better, in my opinion!

What do you think? Would you wear a pair of shoes like this for your wedding?

Love Tor x

*Post written as part of a new partnership with Spartoo shoes

Looking Back: Two Years Ago Today....

Hi guys,
Today is my wedding anniversary. Two years ago today was a Friday, it was hot and sunny, and it was my wedding day. To celebrate Mike and I are going to The Crazy Bear in Stadhampton, where we will be having an Alice in Wonderland afternoon tea, dinner in their award winning restaurant, then a champagne breakfast tomorrow morning. It's the first time since he was born that I've left Wilbur for more than an hour or two, and I'm both excited and nervous.
To celebrate this, and because I'm feeling nostalgic (and because it's my blog so I can if I want to!) I'm prescheduling this post and sharing some of my wedding pictures. Again. Because you aren't sick of seeing these already. I know it's self-indulgent, but I have these scattered all over our house, and I never get tired of looking at them. Two years have gone so quickly, and so much has changed already. Let's see what happens after many more wedding anniversaries to come! Wedding season is in full swing again this year - I love weddings, and we have another two to go to before the year it out. They're such a wonderful way of sharing love and happiness with your family and friends - especially when you're the bride!

I hope you have something lovely planned for this week, and that you're feeling as happy and lucky today as I am!

Love Tor x

Fabfrocks loves... Bundle MacLaren millinery

Hi guys,
So far this year I have three weddings to attend: and its only February! I suspect we have another couple of invitations to arrive! Spending every warm weekend at a wedding is one of the curses of being in your late twenties. But the plus side of this is getting to wear a series of pretty dresses. And of course, fabulous hats!

L to R: Splat £70, Ayshea £64

I love a good hat, and any excuse to wear one, so I was excited to be introduced to the Magpie and Olympia collections by Bundle MacLaren millinery. Bundle works from her home in Battersea where you can make an appointment to browse and try on the collections. You can buy pieces off the peg or she can make any design in customised colours to compliment your outfit. And the best thing is, every piece is handmade to order.

L to R: Natalia £80, Esme £216

Bundle MacLaren fills the gap between high fashion and high street. She caters for those wanting beautiful, statement headpieces at a refreshingly affordable price, and the new collection ranges from £40 to £350. OK to £350 is a little much for wearing once to a wedding, but the lower price bracket is massively affordable, especially for something bespoke that you can guarantee no one else would be wearing (and you can't say that about a £50 hat from Debenhams!)
L to R: Kinvera £170, Charlotte £152

I love the humour and the tongue in cheek nature of some of the hats: you know how excited I get about anything to do with food! My favourite though is the 'love' hat made from wire and tiny ditzy flowers. This would be just perfect for a romantic country wedding: in fact, I have a wedding in mind to wear it to!

To find out more about Bundle MacLaren Millinery, visit the website.

Love Tor x

Themed wedding ideas: Alice in Wonderland, Casino Royale and more...

Hi guys,
Apologies in advance that this piece is slightly off topic, but I want to talk about weddings. Yes, again! Since I shared my wedding photos last year, and the theme for the wedding the year before, I have been inundated with emails asking me to share some of my ideas on how to have a themed wedding on a budget. Given that that's exactly what we did (big wedding, small budget, buckets of creativity) I thought I'd write this post. Here are some of my favourite wedding themes, and how you could make them work on a budget:

Yes, all of these photos are from our wedding!

I loved our Alice in Wonderland wedding and with the help of my trusty team (read: my mum and sisters) we managed to do alot of it ourselves. If you're looking to throw an Alice themed bash on a budget then make your local carboot sale and vintage shops your friends: this is where I sourced all 60 of my teacup favours, and all of the tea pot centre pieces. The best investment I made though was to spend £12 on two stamps: one of Alice and one of the Mad Hatter. I used these to personalise everything! My invitations, menus, table plan, and even sweet buffet all had a visit from those stamps!


If we hadn't chosen the Alice in Wonderland theme for our wedding, then we were also toying with a circus themed wedding. Again, simple ink and stamps would have been key for making this theme consistent. I am a sucker for the circus font type face too: you can download this and use it to make your own stationary.


If Mike had his way, the wedding theme would have been casino. Think card tables, poker games, dancing girls, and a Vegas-style carberet. Although it wasn't right for us, I actually love this theme idea. Your invitations could include casino chips (which could then be used as drinks tokens at your bar) and the feathers from a show girls frock would make great table decorations! This theme would probably be harder to do well on a budget though: you'd need to hire croupiers, entertainers, and all of the games tables too. I would also have wanted an Elvis impersonator! On the DIY front though, you'd be amazed at what you can do with a pack of cards. Make that the centre of the theme and get creative. I also love the cookies and cupcakes above, if you know anyone who can cook...

Would you have a themed wedding? Or do you think they're a little tacky (I won't be offended I promise! I love tacky!) I'd love to hear your thoughts....

Love Tor xx

TKMaxx Bridal: If only they'd invented it sooner!

Hi guys,
Do you ever see something awesome, but way after you needed it? Like the perfect swimming costume two days after you get back from your summer holiday. Or the perfect present for your mum three weeks after her birthday. Well that's how I felt when I saw the new wedding boutique launched by TKMaxx.

TKMaxx have added a wedding shop to their site, selling everything you'd need (fashion-wise) to have the perfect wedding. Think gorgeous wedding dresses, with prices starting from £39.99, bridal shoes, Mother of the Bride outfits, and bridesmaid's dresses. Believe me, when I was looking for my bridesmaid's dresses, this would have saved my life. Who says getting married has to break the bank, right?



To prove it I created outfits for the bride, the bridesmaid, and the mother of the bride, all from TKMaxx, with each outfit costing less than £100!!

I love the short lace-embellished wedding dress (which would be perfect if you were looking for an evening wedding dress you can dance in). I also really like the gold bridesmaid dress, which is so versatile and could be worn over and over for so many events.

If you've got a wedding coming up this year then why not check it out? We're attending two this summer, so I plan on popping down and seeing if they have as great a range of guest-wear too....

Love Tor x

I'm back: Gratuitous wedding pictures!

Hi guys,

Well i'm back: thanks for bearing with me whilst I abandoned you for sun, sea, and sand! (Speaking of which, i'll be showing you the way I wore my honeymoon in a later post!) In the meantime, because it's vaguely fashion related and because i'm so excited I could scream, my wedding photos have arrived, and I just have to share!

Here, now that I can finally share them, are the outfit details:

- My (more traditional than everyone expected) dress was by Veromi: I was sold by its heavily beaded bodice and the impractically long train

-My peach satin shoes were Dior, my veil was from The Bridal Shop in Skegness

-My necklace was a surprise wedding present from the Mr (from Mikey) and I think it looked fabulous: I was planning to wear a turquoise pendant on my mum's gold chain (my something borrowed) which I instead wrapped around my wrist.

- A special mention (and huge thank you!) needs to be said to my hair stylist Kelly Gration. I wanted something crazily curly and Marie Antoinette inspired, whilst still keeping my trademark fringe; the look was more than achieved, and it stayed in all day, which is quite a feat! (She really is fabulous: if you're in Lincolnshire and looking for a hairdresser let me know and i'll put you in touch!)

- I decided for a peaches and cream look for my make up, which was a mix of Chanel and Dior, with a Benefit blusher. Lil sis (and make up expert) helped with the application: I was really pleased with the overall look.

-My bridesmaids wore dresses from Debenhams and BHS respectively. Their satin boleros were from The Bridal Shop Skegness, their shoes and brooches were Debenhams, and I made their headpieces myself.

-Finally, my photographer was a chap called Dan Sunderland: if you're getting married in or near Norfolk, I couldn't recommend him more! This is less than 1% of the photos he took, which I selected for their dress showing abilities, rather than because they're the best ones! He couldn't have been better.

OK, I guess you're now all wedding-ed out! I promise i'll try not to mention it again for a little while: it's back to reality for me!

Love, Tor xx

I'm in wonderland!

Hi Guys,

At the exact moment this scheduled post was published I will be walking down the aisle to meet my very own handsome prince (I don't plan on being late!) After months of hard work, our Alice in Wonderland wedding is in progress: I can't wait to share the photos of it all with you guys when we get back from our honeymoon.

Because it's my Disney fairy tale day (and I am a Disney addict) I thought I would show you the new Disney Bridal wedding dresses that are available from August that I am coveting hard. Alfred Angelo has collaborated with Disney to come up with a series of wedding gowns inspired by each of their princesses: Ariel, Aurora, Belle, Cinderella, Jasmine, Snow White and Tiana.

Wish me luck, and see you all in a fortnight!

Love, Tor xx

Just one month today....

Hi guys,
Apologies for the gushy post in advance, but in exactly one month today I will be marrying one of the best men i've ever known. I can't wait. To celebrate the milestone (am I allowed to start counting down the hours yet??) here are some sneaky peaks of what I will be wearing on the big day:





Can you guess which details are from which part of the outfit?! Of course I won't be revealing the full dress until the big day: i'm not really superstitious, but who wants to take the risk of jinxing anything?!

I know i've shown you the shoes before, but they're still as gorgeous as ever! And the bundle of brooches? That's my bouquet! I've written about my love of brooches before, but what you might not know is that I also suffer very severe hayfever (both tree, grass, and flower pollen) meaning I really didn't want to carry a bouquet. So when I saw pictures of brooch bouquets on a series of wedding blogs I was inspired, and set about making my own: this is it, and i'm completely in love with it!

Anyway, enough wedding chat! Normal blog service will resume tomorrow, I promise!
Love, Tor xx

It's tea party time for everyone!

Hi guys,

As you know doubt already know (I talk about it enough!) the theme of my wedding is Alice in Wonderland and the Mad Hatters tea party. We're having flowers in tea cups, tea pot favours, and all manners of other whimsical things. Which is why Marie Curie's new "blooming great tea party" campaign resonated so much for me.

Marie Curie are asking people to hold tea parties to fundraise for Marie Curie nurses who provide free care for people with terminal cancer and illnesses in their own home. Tea parties big and small will make a difference in helping terminally ill people spend their final days at home. Every £20 that's raised will pay for an hour of nursing care. 1 in 3 people in the UK are affected by cancer (either themselves or someone they love) so I think caring for those people is something we all think about/know about.

The best thing about throwing a tea party or getting involved in the campaign is, this only has to be as much hard work as you want it to be! Your tea party can be everything from a vintage high tea (the fashion bloggers dream) to agarden party, our just a cuppa and a cake in the office with colleagues. The ‘official’ tea party season lasts from June 12th to July 12th but people can register to hold one any time up to 31st July. My wedding is on July 15th, and I think i'm going to register and hold a party in my office for the week before that: that way I can celebrate my big day with my work friends that can't make the wedding, and save some money for a good cause too.

Will you be throwing a party? What theme will you have? Wedding planning has turned me into a party planning addict, so i'd love to hear all about it!

Love,
Tor xx

Saving for a rainy day. Even though the sun is shining!

Hi guys,

I have a secret confession to share with you today: I love saving money. I’m totally terrible at it, and seem to spend my entire pay check every month, but I have three different saving accounts and I use each one to save for different things. One is primarily used as my fashion savings account: if I see an incredible handbag or pair of shoes that I just have to have then I filter off some of my wages into the fashion account every month until I can afford what I want. And it feels really really good! Better than having something pretty when the pay off is debt, any day of the week! I also have a savings account which I call my teeth account: I’m pretty paranoid that one day something really terrible is going to happen to my teeth (it’s a recurring nightmare!) so I have a little cash put aside to get them fixed, should that terrifying day ever come.

I wish I was a better saver. I wish I could save “for a rainy day” or for my distant retirement. But I have to have a specific savings target to keep myself motivated. Right now of course, all my saving efforts are going towards the wedding: its amazing how much easier it is to save for something you really want!

As soon as the wedding is over (the finishing line is in sight!) I’d like to upgrade my car, buy a Mulberry handbag, and have a really great cashmere winter coat that would last forever. Ahh, the shallow targets of a fashion blogger! Ultimately of course we’d like to buy a house, but that is a saving situation bigger than I can comprehend right now!

Are you guys saving for anything at the minute? And how is it going?

Love, Tor xx

*This is a sponsored post

Daily Wear: Black, Grey, and a Fancy Hat!

Hi guys,

Yesterday Mike and I went to a friends wedding: it was a beautiful ceremony, and when the happy couple read their vows to each other there wasn't a dry eye in the house. Thank God I was wearing a water proof mascara!

To those of you that were worried about my poor ankle, you'll be pleased to note I wore my flat grey suede wedges from River Island instead of my heels, and avoiding doing too much salsa dancing (although I couldn't resist joining in when the girls started doing the limbo!) The dress was from Primark, the cardigan is Topshop. The bag is Marc b and I accessorised really simply with my me and Zeena rabbit ring and my Disney Couture bottle necklace.

Here's what it looked like:

Here's a close up of the hat: I got this for 50p from a car boot sale a couple of years ago, and have never had a reason to wear it. It's 100% wool and has this really great red veil and crazy feather detailing: the red is even more vibrant than it looks in these pictures, if possible! I do love weddings as a good excuse to get dressed up (even if I was the only guest wearing a hat! Oops!)

I think I managed to strike the balance between the formality of the event and the couple's natural casual natures quite well though. And I thought Mike scrubbed up well too, in his Next suit and Topman shirt. I very rarely see him out of jeans and a Tshirt, so it made a nice change!

I love going to weddings, and it made us very excited to realise that our next one of the season will be ours - yikes!!

Love, Tor xx

Question: Can flat shoes be dressy shoes?

Hi guys,

*Warning - This post contains wedding content. I'm aware i'm becoming obsessed.*

I am a dedicated high heel lover. So much so that even though I sprained my ankle on Monday, and my foot is swollen like a balloon, I will still be squeezing it into heels for a friends wedding on Saturday afternoon. For special occasions and evenings out, I don't feel like i'm ready without a heel on. Which is why I opted for high Dior heels in satin and leather for my own wedding: if you're ever going to have an excuse to buy expensive and impractical shoes then this is it! But the practical side of my brain has been telling me that I won't last 12 hours in stilettos, and I need to invest in some flats for dancing the night away. Which leads to my mission of finding party style flats and my question: can flat shoes be dressy shoes?

Here are the shoes i've been looking at:



Above: Peep toe flats (Faith), Thong sandals (Faith), Gold sandals (Miss KG), Diamante sandals (Dune), gold cystal sandals (Red Herring).

White satin pumps are a) pretty ugly to look at and b) not the kind of shoes I would wear ever again, so I immediately dismissed those. So my next thought was to look at sandals: I wear sandals every day in the summer and would definitely get wear out of them after the event. How do you make a sandal semi- dressy? Make it metallic and throw diamante at it, of course! I love the Dune ones in gold, but worry the high back would irritate in the heat. The crystal Red Herring ones are my second favourite, because I would definitely wear these again on my honeymoon.

What do you think? Can flat shoes be dressy? Can you wear flat sandals on your wedding day? Or do you only feel like your dressed up to go out when you have your highest heels on?

Love, Tor xx