Tag Archives: Wedding

For Ladies Wot Celebrate!!! One Year Anniversary SPA WEEKEND!

30 Oct

Yes!  We know how to celebrate! And what better reason to relax, unwind and indulge in the good life than For Ladies Wot Brunch’s One Year Anniversary?  Nothing!

The weekend of 15-16 September saw 16 effervescent young women making their way to the Brooklands Spa & Hotel in Surrey for an afternoon of treatments, hot tub loving, race car watching followed by a private dinner party extravaganza, slumber party and breakfast activities which you’d only expect the morning after the night before…

The trip started with a bang and after a 2 hour journey (and being accused of having road rage.  Me?  Never!) we arrived in the hotel lobby.  Bags checked in, swimwear slipped into and robes worn, we made our way to the spa for our 2 treatments each.  Unfortunately, I cannot expose my ladies and therefore there will be no bikini shots for those of you eagerly scrolling to the slideshow at the bottom!  What I can divulge however, is that there were several smoking bodies on display!  The afternoon in the spa was amazing – from the body brushes, massages and manicures to the relaxation, steam and sauna rooms, it was utter bliss.

Dinner was just as amazing an experience and we were seated to a 3 course meal in our very own private dining room.  The conversations, catch up and meet ups were fantastic.  And of course the food was amazing too!

Here are some of the weekend’s highlights –

Musical Chairs!  It’s that simple!  After lots of food and even more to drink, the chairs were placed, the iPod dock was set and the game began.  The bumper to bumper dancing to ensure you weren’t knocked from your seat meant that everyone had a boogie with radical vigour and it was oodles of fun!  From 16 to 1 – the ladies were put through their strategic dancing paces and our winner was Feyi.  Please believe that she made sure we all hailed her as the Musical Chair Queen!

Let’s gatecrash the wedding!  From the moment we arrived at the hotel, we were surrounded by the guests attending a wedding that evening.  Now, these were not just ordinary guests – these were extremely handsome guests!  The type of guests that catch ALL eyes!  We ummm’d and ahhh’d about whether or not to gatecrash the wedding after our dinner – we were all immaculately dressed and super confident that we could and would add some extra fizz and pop to the festivities.  Wedding celebrations +anniversary celebrations = one good partayyy!  In the end, we were so consumed by our own fun and games, that we sacked the wedding off (as if we were actually invited!) and turned the after party into a slumber party.  But the side eye glances and hushed tones continued at breakfast the following day when all the guests emerged to break morning bread. It was lots of fun and despite not attending (or really knowing) the wedding party, we wish the bride and groom all the success and love in the world 🙂

High speed hot tub – I think every single one of us thoroughly appreciated the outdoor hot tub which overlooked the Mercedes Benz race and dirt tracks.  I think it must have been the combination of fast cars and fresh air and champagne which made it an exhilarating viewing experience.  The wolf whistles received from swimwear admirers below was a shameless added bonus (this may or may not be a lie). Tee hee hee!

Waiters wanna party too!  As we seem to be the life and soul of the party wherever we go, it was no surprise when we discovered that despite finishing dinner two hours earlier, waiters still kept coming into the room to “service the table”.  When we eventually cottoned on that the staff had been told about the fun-loving young ladies celebrating life and fabulousity and simply wanted to join in, we happily invited them to shake a leg with us and even got the head of waiting staff to azonto with the Ladies Wot Brunch.  Drop it low and bring it up slow ol’ boy!  Eassssy!

As I’m sure you’ve gathered, this was an absolutely fantastic weekend break.  The time spent relaxing with old friends and getting to know new ones whilst celebrating the club’s existence was icing on an already generously decorated cake.  We chatted weddings and babies because YES!  We are expecting our first Brunch Club baby!  Woohooo! A ginormous thank you goes to Tobi and Esther who not only painstakingly organised every last detail of our trip (including a surprise delicious Patisserie Valerie cake and a Prada purse for meeeeeeee!!!)  but also used their creative skills (Esther’s amazingly hilarious and engaging emails got us to do exactly what she asked) and connections with the hotel (Tobi is a celebrated Brooklands customer!  Big pimpin!) to ensure that we had the weekend of a lifetime.  We couldn’t have asked for anything more and the bar has been set for next year’s anniversary celebrations.

Brooklands Spa & Hotel: We loved it. We recommend it.  Go do it!

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Ebony’s Wedding… The ACTUAL WEDDING!

14 Sep

The big day finally arrived and we travelled to Lagos, Nigeria to celebrate with Ms Ebony – now known as Mrs AJ!!!

It was a joyous 2 day event, with the traditional wedding taking place on the Friday and the white wedding on the Saturday.

Tears were shed, dance floors were baptised, champagne was guzzled and small chops were… chopped!  I speak for all the Ladies Wot Brunch when I say we had an amaaaaazing time.  From the run up to the wedding, the pre-wedding gist, the bridal shower (yes!  We won the toilet roll wedding dress challenge!) to supporting our beautiful bride in Las Gidi, it has been an awesome experience.

Read about Ebony’s honey moon here

Next Stop: Ebony’s Baby!  Tee hee hee!

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Ebony’s Wedding! The Perfect Dress

10 Mar

As a little girl, I used to long to get married, just so I could design my wedding dress and look somewhat like Disney characters’ glamorous ladies, with the big ball gown, tiny waist and full round bust. I never stopped to think for a second whether the idea of the perfect dress I had as a kid would suit my taste and body shape as an adult. Luckily, when I started looking for my ideal wedding dress, the idea of a Disney dress quickly evaporated from my mind. I mean they are beautiful on the dolls on Disney channel, but it just won’t fit my body structure, and even if it did, I would like to think my style has evolved since my Disney days!

Another myth I had about the perfect dress was that it would take me days and days and weeks if necessary to find it. I thought I would go from bridal shop to bridal shop, trying on an endless number of dresses while my friends sat in the next room eagerly waiting for me to come out in the dress so they could sigh awwwww and wipe a few tears from their faces. This myth was again quickly squashed with my actual experience. I understand for some girls, this actually happens and is not a myth for them, but seeing as I intend on getting married just once and I found my dress in the first shop I went into, it remains a myth for me.

We set the date for our wedding about 3 weeks after we got engaged. The wedding date was set for 8 months time. I assumed I had plenty of time. My parents are doing the bulk of the planning and all I needed to do was sort myself and the bridesmaids out and make sure my fiancé did the same. However, 8 months slowly turned into 7 months and I still did not have a dress. I had looked online to get an idea of what I wanted. I was so convinced I wanted a Justin Alexander dress as he seemed to be the only one that made dresses with decent sleeves that both I would like and that wouldn’t make my church in Nigeria send me packing when I got to the altar. You see, when getting married in Nigeria, one of the biggest pains is finding a dress that the vicar and Church folk will find acceptable. If its too short, too tight, or God forbid, reveals your delicate features, you will NOT be allowed to get married!  I soon called a few bridal shops close to me to do a price check just to give me an idea of how much I should expect to spend. The one closest to me was £200 pounds more expensive than the second bridal shop I called. The second shop was also doing a January sale which meant if I ordered my dress or placed a deposit of £100 before the end of January, I would get another 10% off my purchase. Fantastic!

So I tried to book an appointment at the second bridal shop to find that the next 3 or 4 Saturdays were already booked! This was really frustrating: I mean, how many people are getting married really?! This meant that I had to take time off work to go and try on dresses. I went into the bridal shop with an open mind, consciously deciding to try on the Justin Alexander dress I thought I wanted last, just so I would not have a biased opinion on the other dresses. I picked a few dresses with sleeves which I thought looked nice on me and then the shop assistant suggested I tried on a boob tube wedding gown. My thoughts went to what my mum’s face would look like if she saw me in this, then to what the church would say and so on. However, once I’d tried on the boob tube dress, I could not deny the fact that it fitted perfectly and despite telling myself I was not going to buy a boob tube wedding dress because I wanted to be comfortable when I was dancing and didn’t want to worry about my boobs seeping out, I ended up buying a boob tube dress! On a few conditions though…

I expressed my worries to the shop assistant and she showed me all the support the dress had inside: a zip and 2 layers of buttons to keep me strapped in. Then, she showed me this beautiful jacket I could also wear on top of the dress (not like boleros, I’m not a huge fan of boleros). Unlike boleros, the jacket covered my chest and buttoned up at the back. The buttons matched my dress and basically the jacket looked like it was part of the dress. I was thrilled!

My joy was very short lived! I knew my mum wouldn’t understand if I tried to explain the dress and jacket to her. Once she heard boobtube, she would have switched off, so the plan was not to tell her. However, my dearest thought it would be a good idea to pass it through my mum so we could jump through all the hoops now. Let’s just say the conversation with my mum about the dress ended up in tears! And of course by then I had already paid a deposit for both the dress and jacket!

So I cancelled the jacket before it was too late, just until I figured out what I wanted to do. I knew for sure I wanted my beautiful dress but just passing it through my mum and church was going to be a problem. I spoke to my mum and then got my friend to go to my church with a picture of the jacket to ask the vicar’s wife if it was acceptable. The vicar’s secretary said NEVER!  “The dress had to be long sleeved and we may even accept if it reaches your elbow!”  When my friend told me, I just laughed and thought what a joker!

She eventually saw the vicar’s wife and apparently although my chest is modestly covered and they can’t see any cleavage whatsoever, the fact that they can see my arms is an issue, especially as they can see my armpits! So, I would need to add sleeves to the jacket. Sigh. At this point, I had wished I allowed my dad get his way so we would be getting married in England instead of jumping through these unnecessary hoops in Nigeria.

I resulted to calling my designer to ask if I could buy the exact same material the jacket was made from along with the dress.  They said to ask my bridal shop to call them and they’d arrange something. For an extra £115 I now have a solution to cover my armpits. Hahaha! When my dress arrives, I’ll go for a fitting and the material should have also arrived by then. I’ll then decide what length of sleeve will suit my look.

I am slightly upset though… Oh well.. Its all for a good cause. As long as at the end of the day I’ll be married to my dearest, they can dress me in sacks all they want!

PS: Of course the jacket will be coming off at the reception 😉

PPS: I need to order my veil…  Lacey? Long, short, medium length… None?  Decisions decisions…

Ebony’s Wedding! The Proposal

5 Feb

So for those of you who follow this blog, you will know how much I have yarned about my lovely friend and fellow Lady Wot Brunches who will be getting married this year.

After lots of persuading (psych!  She’s such a good sport!) Ebony has kindly agreed to update us on her wedding plans.

For those of you who want the full scoop on the engagment story, click here!

More to follow…

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