I have been very rubbish at updating this and I do apologise.
Life seems to have been a whirlwind of work, fun and wedding related busy time. I am not complaining, the last few months have been really good fun and I have spent some realy quality time with family and friends. Which has been wonderful.
In typical Lucy & Nathan style we decided to move house a few weeks ago which did not help either of our stress levels but its done, we are in and we are happier in our bigger place (Apart from that it takes longer to clean!)
One of my bridesmaids had a baby last week, typically he arrived a little late but the excellent news is that baby is healthy (although still nameless) and she can actually get into her bridesmaid dress... Now that is commitment less than a week after!

I cannot believe I will be a "Mrs" in 16 days! I must actually do this bloody table plan!!!

Here are a few pictures of my Hen Do....

I decided on a 50's theme and we had a cocktail making session in a bar with a nice young chap who's shirt came off half way through.

Great day had by all, would like to thank my best friend M for organising such a fabulous day!

My goodness last post 13th September! I knew it had been a while but I hadn't realised how long. Those hellish weeks seem like such a long time ago, thankfully! 

Life has been so busy! I have passed a hair extension course to try and make more money and that has been picking up, plus we have been picking up other little jobs here and there to try and make money for the wedding and to be honest we haven't been out much at all so its all been busy but boring! 
I have entertained myself by dying my hair several colours, its too tempting when your hair is not full of bleach! These are my colours since June. 

I am currently sans extensions and sans any particular colour! I am the last picture on that reel and its is disturbing me everyday. The extensions make me feel thinner, glamorous and more in control. Isn't that the daftest thing you have ever heard? I am like Samson losing his strength without his hair!
Should I manage to sort the non colour out of my hair I will be back to normal self by next week. But for now I shall just be hiding at home until I get a half decent solution from somebody on what to do! I refuse to go back to the hairdressers as they charged me £90 last time and I don't think they did a particularly good job. 
I should have stayed blonde! Never mind hey, hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Wedding plans? Well we are mainly concentrating on saving as much dosh as possible at the moment, we have nowhere near enough just yet so its just endless running on the hamster wheel, we will get there eventually. 
I have had a new idea which involves 2 of my smaller relations, my niece Eve and god-daughter Molly, Oh and I have some amazingly creative friends, one in particular who has just done something for me that was going to cost me an absolute fortune and he has done it much better, much more personal and easier than any of the pictures I have seen of this thing, I am so pleased and so impressed :-) 

I have a few days off next week, I am planning on getting some serious organising done over the 3 days. So I will post some updates next week..... proper stuff about the wedding I promise! 

The last 4 weeks for me and my man have been hell. 
I made my man go to the doctors 4 weeks ago after he kept complaining about a pain in his side and he has had a cough for a while too. 
There has been a ad on TV about having a cough for a while could be something serious so I kept asking him to go. 
Eventually he went and the doctor did some checks and seemed concerned, concerned enough to send my man for a blood test and an ultra sound. The blood test was scheduled for last Tuesday and the ultrasound appointment eventually for this Monday just gone. 

I cannot understand why these things take so long, surely if the doctor was that concerned he could set up appointments for later that week or the next but no, we had to wait 4 weeks.......4 long weeks of worrying, we both lost our mothers to cancer, mine to lung cancer and my man to pancreatic so the Big C was all either of us could think about. 
As most of you know our relationship has never been plain sailing, issues with my Dad that went on for nearly a year, problematic ex wives, work/money issues, horrendous summer being ripped off at the BBQ etc etc after getting through all of that could life be so cruel as to take my soul mate away from me? 
My lovely wedding and the rest of my life just taken away from me? Sounds dramatic but it is really what you think when faced with this kind of situation. It also made me realise just how much I actually love my man, obviously I knew that anyway but it made me just appreciate how much I do and that I really do not want to live without him in any way, shape or form. 


After the end of the 1st week of us both being sad I decided we needed to do something fun for the day so we both could take our minds off of it so I decided we would go to London Zoo! Random and we picked possibly the worst day to go as the minute we pulled out of Haywards Heath train station the bright sunshine disappeared and the heavens opened! And it did not stop drizzling/raining all day! But the aim of that day was to have fun and it worked, we had a really love day out despite the rain, the fact I had no coat and had to buy a plastic poncho, I wore the stupidest high wedges to walk around in and it cost us £50 to get in to the Zoo (When did admission prices for Zoo's get so ridic?) We actually had a real laugh and my god did we need it. 


That evening we decided that we would try our best to think positively & just get on with things as best we could until the test dates came through and we could get some results. Which we both did, in front of each other, I know I was a mess in my head and I am sure my man wasn't in a pleasant state of mind either. 
That week I cooked him healthy meals, bought him his favourite ice creams & was generally a really wonderful fiancé! (He probably thought this behaviour very strange)


Anyhow, the blood test came and went, obviously you don't get instant results from those and then Monday loomed, the day of the ultrasound, I arranged to leave work earlier so that I could be with him. 
After some looking around the lovely doctor said "Gall stones" 
We both looked at him and he said "Yep, you have 3 gall stones, would you like to see them?" 
Cue me high fiving the ultra sound scanner lady and my man bursting into tears. The doc thought this a strange reaction to being told you have gall stones as it was certainly not one he had seen before but once we explained he understood. So those weeks of worry and stress were gone in an instant. 

I spend my whole life apologising, it is like I enjoy it and I was literally just about to write to you again with the first line apologising for not writing as often as I should but it would appear I have started most of my blog posts like that for the past few months. 

So............ I'm not sorry! 

I'm busy - hectic, mad, crazy, busy. I am not going to apologise for that as it is a good thing, I am busy because of positive things - My promotion at work, the wedding, I am waiting to become a Great-Aunt (my niece was due yesterday) my bet is on tomorrow though and there just seems to be an endless stream of social events, most of which I cant go to but the ones that I can get to I am enjoying immensely! 

The Barbeque is keeping us both busy as we seem to work on that from shopping on Thursday evenings, salad prep on Friday evenings and then the BBQ itself on Saturdays & Sundays. 
Unfortunately we are being messed around like mugs by a certain person at pub where BBQ is. We are truly not wanted and we get the picture, oh we definitely get the picture! 
For why I do not know. Minimal effort is being put in from that side and maximum effort on ours and yet they make decent money out of it for doing... well.... not a lot really..... Its not bread & butter (they have a whole very busy pub for that) but its a bit of jam on the top. I don't see the problem myself. 
Also the BBQ is not as lucrative as we were led to believe sadly, and whilst I am very grateful for the money we have had from it as it has paid deposits and other necessary things it is very sadly nowhere near enough for our wedding. We have a few more weekends left doing the BBQ if this wonderful summer holds out long enough for the Rewind Festival & the August Bank Holiday which should be decent weekends money wise but after that it will all quieten down a bit. 
For this reason I have booked myself in to do a hair extension course, it was something I only thought about when the lovely Tracy who did mine told me it was only a days intensive course and you can do it in Brighton. 
After speaking with the Man over the weekend we thought it worth the money and something that hopefully will bring in a bit of extra cash that I can do in the evenings and weekends, I don't plan to make a career out of yet but I am hoping that it will bring in some of the extra badly needed cash! So fingers crossed for me please! 
I am thinking of Lucy's Locks for a name - Any good? Suggestions welcome. 

Anyway on a lighter note, I spent some lovely time with family this weekend and I met one of the newest additions to our ever growing family - Mr Michael Murphy Junior and here he is. 

Just delicious! 
Anyway, until next time which wont be as long I hope as we now have a bongle & a big byte (more on that next time) I can do this from home instead of on my phone in my lunch breaks! 

Take care 
xXNBXx

So tonight I sat for 4 hours FINALLY having hair extensions put in. 
After months of research, being messed around by people wanted to charge extra for the amount of extensions and different colours being put in I found the lovely Tracy of Lookluscious Lengths. (There is a lovely photo of the back of my head on the page when she had just finished, it looks amazing!) 
She is a mobile technician based in Shoreham-by-Sea who charges reasonable prices and the results are fantastic, well worth a look  and she came to my flat and put up with me and my other half for 4 hours! 

I am absolutely delighted with the results, its amazing how long hair can instantly make you feel glamorous! I have had a lovely response from people as well and its only been a few hours! 

I am going to see how I get on with them and the care (which actually isn't as high maintenance as I originally thought) and if I am okay with them I can see this becoming a new addiction for me! 

What do you think? (Excuse the dodgy facial expressions!) 

We were back in Cobh for a very brief 48 hours this week to sort out some wedding things that needed seeing to and also to meet with our photographer. 
As I mentioned a few months ago for Nathan's birthday I had arranged a surprise engagement shoot for him as he does love his photos and I hate all of the ones of me, I thought this way there would be a half decent chance of having some nice ones! 
More about that in a separate post. 
I was also meeting a lady to have trial wedding make up and lashes done, I had conveniently arranged this for the same day as the shoot so that if I liked the make up I could also see how it came out in photos. 
The trial went brilliantly, Shelley was a lovely lady and listened to what I wanted and captured in perfectly, I have heard such horror stories about wedding make up being to heaving, making you look like a drag queen etc but once I had explained my usual make up routine she was up and running, even covered up my horrible little premenstrual spot breakout on my chin! Amazing. 
I was more than happy with the results, I even tried false eye lashes for the first time and she had these amazingly light ones that after an hour of wearing them I forgot they were on, Perfect for a long day like a wedding day. I was thrilled.  

We also went to the local florist to discuss flowers and tried to find this supposedly amazing local lady who makes the best wedding cakes ever, unfortunately she was not around but a local shop had examples of her work and the rumours were true, the cakes looked fab. I have since found her website and contact details so I will be discussing things further with her and hopefully meeting her when we go back in September/October time. 

All in all the trip was successful! 

We arrived in Cobh on Tuesday and it was absolutely glorious weather. I have only ever been to Cobh between the months of November and March and it has always been cold, wet and grey. I still have always loved it anyway (obviously otherwise I wouldn't be getting married there!) but it is like a completely different place in the sunshine! 

We once again stayed at the Commodore Hotel in a seaview room and what a view in the sunshine! 

Cathedral from the Promenade 
18~06~13 

Cathedral from the Promenade 
18~06~13 

Gorgeous Harbour View 
18~06~13 

My man 18~06~13

J'adore the colours of the buildings 
18~06~13

Promenade 19~06~13

Seaview from our room 19~06~13 

Cathedral from the Commodore Hotel Roof terrace, imagine this view behind us in our wedding photos! 
20~06~13 

In a rare break from running around My Man was delighted to find the biggest 99 cone ever! 

So Nathan's surprise birthday present, an engagement shoot with the fabulous Paul Duane. 
Nathan knew we were meeting a photographer during the trip and kept asking me when and where. I just said it was all in hand and not getting any further information from me he just gave up asking. I thought that he had cottoned on to something but after the event when I asked him he said he gave up as he thought I hadn't organised anything (the cheek, I tell you!) 

We met Paul in Glengarra Woods in Co Tipperary, what a fabulous location as you will see by some of the little teasers below. 
Apart from the midges which were always 5 seconds behind us! But even that could not spoil the enjoyment and fun of the photo shoot. It was a beautiful evening, a fantatsic location and Paul is just brilliant at making you laugh and feel relaxed and comfortable in front of the camera. I was slightly apprehensive as I hate posing for photos but the hour went quickly and when he told us he had taken about 400 or something I was shocked! 
We have since received the digital images and we think they are absolutely brilliant. Even me who goes through our camera and Nathan's phone deleting what I believe to be horrible pictures of me actually like them. I could definitely do with losing a few more pounds before W-Day but that is now firmly in hand. 
I cant wait for Paul to be our photographer on our big day! 

You can check out his work and contact him here

Here are just a few pics for your enjoyment. 

So I decided on my maids dresses after getting the go ahead from my beautiful girls and I decided to order one in the size of M being as she is the closest to me and the least likely to change shape drastically between now and the wedding (the other ladies are all dieting, M due to her fantastic metabolism does not need to..) 
Anyway this started a huge saga of emails and calls between the delivery company and I. 

I arrived home form work on Monday and found one of those card things that they post to say they had tried to deliver but were unable to post as they need a signature, they said not to do anything as they would redeliver tomorrow... Well I called them as I knew I would not be in to accept delivery again and I really didn't want the parcel disappearing to their depot somewhere in the back of beyond that I would have to drive to, I agreed with them that on Tuesday they would deliver to William Hill bookmakers next door as they often sign for packages for us as they know us. Great, I thought... I will have the dress tomorrow. 

But nooooo! I arrived home to another yellow card advising delivery had not been successful and that I needed to contact this particular company. Which I did, again we made arrangements to deliver on Wednesday to William Hill. 

Wednesday I arrived home to the same thing again, they had not even attempted to go to William Hill, just to my door. I called the delivery company again and this time arranged for delivery on Friday morning between 8:30 - 09:30 they advised I would be the first drop so I arranged with work to be half an hour late on Friday morning. 

Thursday evening I got home to another damn "cannot deliver card" I just could not understand what the hell was going on!! I called once again and they apologised and advised it must have gone out in error. I checked and double checked that delivery was all set up for between 08:30 and 09:30 on Friday morning to which I was advised that it definitely absolutely completely was. Satisfied but slightly annoyed I confirmed my arrangements with work to be late the following morning.

Friday morning came and found me standing outside my flat  in the road absolutely determined not to miss the delivery driver this time, I had spent a sleepless night wondering if they would even bother ringing the bell so I thought standing outside from 8:15 was mean that I would not miss the delivery. It got to 9:23 and by this time I was sitting in my car which was parked directly outside my building and there had still been no sign of the driver. By 9:39 I had to give up and made my way to work. 
I called the delivery company absolutely raging this time as I had wasted all of that time this morning. They calmly advised me that my package had been delivered to my address and signed by a J Brown. There is no-one in my building by that name so I was even more angry, they advised they would get hold of the van driver and get back in touch once they knew where he had delivered it. I eventually got a call back at 3pm saying it had been delivered to a hairdressers on my street at 08:31 this morning, they had no further information like the name of the hairdressers (there are 2 on my road) and I could not leave the office until 5. I called my gorgeous other half and asked if he wouldnt mind have a little walk to each of the hairdressers to find out if they had taken the parcel in. By this time I was having visions of a petite blonde hairdresser thinking her luck was in having a lovely dress just turn up for her at work and flouncing around in it. I was mentally throttling this unknown hairdresser. 
I had a call back from my man in 5 minutes who had the parcel, the lady in question at the hairdressers handed it over quite willingly along with a handful of post for us that she had been waiting for someone to claim! As she is not from the area herself she said she didn't even know where to start looking for our particular address (our building is hidden at the back behind another block so it isn't even in a really obvious place!) so she had been keeping it hoping the person the post belonged to would realise things were missing! 

Mentally my hands were removed from around her neck and peace and calmness washed over me. I even bought her a little thank you card. 

Until I got home and discovered a pile of unpaid bills........ 

Anyway, all that aside the dress is perfect. It fits M perfectly and looks exactly as I imagined, I was unable to take a picture to post as she had hairy legs when she was trying it on & wouldnt let me. (I am not entirely convinced they were that hairy that they would show up in a photo!) 

So here is a little taster for you all to enjoy..... 

My icon, the most beautiful woman to have walked the earth as far as I am concerned.(apart from my Mother of course) 
Nothing to do with weddings at all, I was just having a Marilyn moment on Pintrest and I thought some of these images & quotes were just too good not to share! 
xXNBXx