Category Archives: royal

Best Week Ever #5

It is really easy for me to say why

and I can sum it up with three points:

1. First week of Summer. This was the first official week of summer vacation for my sons. Which can be odd when I see social media posts from friends in the US who are preparing to send their children back to school. The Autumn school term in England starts back up again in September.

2. My mum flew in from the US to visit. She got in an hour earlier than we expected and so we jetted into town in a taxi to meet her at the train station. I caught a really cute video on Instagram of my boys who were beyond excited to see their Nonna. Ronan has not stopped hugging her since she has been here.

(Side note: For those of you whom have asked about the audio on my instagram videos. Yes it is lower than usual. I think when I dropped my iPhone 4 last, which shattered it on both sides, it damaged the microphone. Just think of it as a modern day take on silent films.)

3. A royal baby was born! I am a royalist. I have been enamored with the Royal family since I was a little girl living in England with frame photos of (the then titled) Prince William and his mum Lady Diana on my vanity. I got dressed up and wore a fascinator in my hair at 0 dark 30 in California to watch the Royal Wedding with my other dual citizen friends and family. So of course I delayed dinner for a few hours to watch and wait for the live review of the new royal baby to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. I was not surprised to find out the name and love how it sounds, George Alexander Louis.

Speaking of names. I have been obsessed with baby names since I was a teenager. I have always had a long list of girl names and though they have changed through out the years, my longing for a baby girl is still as strong as ever. As I was looking through a journal this week I was surprised to find a friend of mine had altered my baby name list when we were both at summer camp back in 2000.

So while Zoë (my sister’s name, meaning life) and Rose still frequent my current baby naming lists, I have to admit that my choices as a seventeen year old have changed quite a bit. The amended name next to the astrid is of my friend and blogger Lauren. So who knows Lauren, maybe when I get my baby girl I will indeed name her after you. 😉

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LOVE WEEK. Starting tomorrow I leave you in the loving arms of ten blogger friends of mine, living in eight different countries around the world. Each day one of them will be the guest blogger with a special post about Love. It is all in celebration for our 10th Wedding Anniversary (02.08.13) and Vow Renewal. I will be keeping everyone updated on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook with the hashtag: #RyanAndBonnie. Our friends and family will be sharing as well as we celebrate from Snowdonia, Wales. Look out for the button below on the Guest Blogger’s blogs and share some love and comments as they open up to you about Love.

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Have an amazing weekend and I look forward to catching up with you all

when we return with photographs and video from the Vow Renewal.

Wedding: Bringing back Sleeves

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As I look around for the prefect type of dress for my sister and friends to wear as my ‘bridesmaids’ for the vow renewal this August I cannot help but think about the curse of strapless dresses. My dress and the bridesmaids dresses were all strapless. My dress fortunately had been custom made and fitted so that it was snug tightly against my body. However it was a common sight to see one of my bridesmaids yanking her dress up as the day went on. There is also the issue of posture. I was wearing a full length corset which made it impossible to bed at the waist, but perfect for standing nice and tall. Depending on what angle a photographer uses, how your posture is at the moment, and what you are doing with your arms can either make or break a wedding photo when wearing a strapless gown. I really loved my dress and so far I am planning on taking it out of its perserved box to wear again this August.

My Maid of Honour, my Bridesmaid, and my husband’s ‘Groomsmaid’ helping me button up my gown.

Then the Royal Wedding happened in 2011 and brides were finally seeing another option for what to wear on their big day. There are many venues like the Westminster Abbey where a strapless gown is just not appropriate. As my mum commented below not every bride looks amazing in a strapless dress. Should you not have more options for looking the best you can be on that perfect day? To which I answered with an agreeing laugh to the meme below.

So I am brought back to the question of what to wear for my vow renewal. I have my gown that I only got to wear for a few hours that was custom made and to which I still very much love. However it is my Vow Renewal for 10 years of marriage. I have been toying with the idea of updating it. I have always loved Gwen Stefani since junior high school and her wedding dress with the ombre pink accent was beautiful. I thought about replicating that with my dress until I realised it would lessen the chances of my own daughter (when I have one) wearing it for her big day. The sash on my dress flows as long as the train and is currently the same shade of duchess satin as the rest of the gown. I pondered about maybe just dying the sash as an easy ‘update’. However again I’m so nervous to do anything that could have the possibility of going wrong. So lets pull this back to the whole conversation of bringing back sleeves. I was not a huge fan of lace ten years ago but now I honestly really love it. So I’ve been looking at coverups to use with my dress that can essentially give me two different looks for photographs.

Source: Justin Alexander

I could always just get some tulle and do something like the photo above. However, my number one choice is the off the shoulder shirt/jacket type coverup. I have seen ones I could wear under the dress and ones that go over the dress. My only fear is making sure the shade of the lace matches perfectly with the shade of white of my gown. I originally wore sleeveless gloves on my wedding day that I look at now and kinda cringe. I still love the gloves but the shades of white just do not mesh as well as I remember them doing back in 2003.

Source: Little Black Book featuring Tana Photography

Source: AlexBridal

My second choice is the lace bolero jacket that looks similar to what the Duchess wore above. I love the look. However I really like the more off the shoulder to the more conservative coverup.

Source: Pinterest

I am also really into anything bohemian and have seen a few capes that are beautiful. I would never have thought to even look for a cape, but you can always have your opinion changed with the right piece of styling.

Source: IHEARTBRIDE

Where does that leave me now? Currently I have been looking at what I own now and what I can find in thrift stores to see if I can do a DIY piece to add a bit of ‘something old’ to our vow renewal. I have not yet found anything that works so keep your eye out for me. I love ideas!

Bonnie Rose