So, January is well underway. The weather is cold and damp, the traffic is awful, and all across the land resolutions are being attempted… and in many cases broken.
I’ve failed at my first one which is to only eat chocolate at weekends and during my time of the month (needs must) thanks to a very tempting box of M&S chocs I was given post-Christmas. But I am only having 1 or 2 each evening which is definitely less chocolate than I was consuming in December, or indeed throughout the whole of 2014. My other resolutions (as if writing them down will make them unbreakable) include:
- To take a weekly dance class. (I’m thinking Latin and Ballroom so I can emulate my girl crush and fantasy BFF, Caroline Flack.)
- To cap my weekend drinking at a bottle of wine. (I can happily go all week without alcohol but I binge at the weekends and the hangovers are just getting worse).
- To eat less sugar generally. (I knew it already but sugar really is the devil. For productivity, energy, fertility, happiness… And whilst I’m not going to drastically change my diet to the extent that I no longer have the odd bowl of Start in the morning, or my Sunday hangover cure of a San Pellegrino Limonata, I am trying to avoid the obvious bad stuff- cakes, biscuits, white bread etc.)
Continuing along this vein, Paul is also on a bit of a New Year health kick and the Hemsley household has had a very wholesome start to the year, I must say. There have been squat and plank evenings in front of the telly, a switch to wholewheat pasta and brown bread (not such a new thing for me but Paul is a white food addict), evening jogging (again, Paul, not me), and more exotic-looking, dark green vegetables than I’ve ever seen or eaten in my whole life. Long may it last! (Well, until tonight when we’re treating our good selves to a Friday night kebab, YES.)
Anyway, back to the matter in hand.
As I was squatting away the other night I was thinking about the blog and my goals for it in 2015 (Paul was doing the counting), and I came to the conclusion that what The Utter Blog is lacking is its raison d’être, its essence, the driving force that started it all… Uttersons, we need a wedding.
Operation Amazing Wedding was the thing that got me writing and you reading. It was, in effect, a 17-month long story with a beginning, a middle and a very happy end. Through blogging my wedding planning journey I rediscovered a love of writing, made a whole host of social media friends and followers, gained the courage and confidence to launch my business, made (very small) waves within the industry, and even got some great deals with my wedding suppliers. There is NOTHING I regret about blogging my wedding. To be quite frank, it changed my life.
But I’m an old, married hen now. My focus has changed from being a regularly blogging bride-to-be to an occasionally blogging wedding planner, wife and home-maker-come-interior-designer. (I say that last one with my tongue firmly implanted in my right cheek.) But my goodness I’m missing a wedding. Aren’t you?
So The Utter Blog is recruiting. Now I have to state first-off that this is not a job in a monetary sense. What most jobs will pay in money, The Utter Blog will pay in gratitude, love and respect (*makes heart shape with her fingers*). And whilst I can’t guarantee that writing for The Utter Blog will change your life, I can guarantee that for every new follower you gain, every tweet you receive and every encouraging comment you get for your blog posts, your wedding planning journey will just get more and more enjoyable.
So what am I looking for?
- Well, ideally you will be very recently engaged, or just at the beginning of the wedding planning process. (Whilst it won’t go against you if you already have your venue or a couple of suppliers booked, I do want to follow the whole shebang where possible.)
- I’m in it for the long haul, so ideally you’ll be getting married in 2016, or the end of 2015.
- I’m a sucker for a blank canvas venue, so whether you’re getting married in a barn, warehouse, marquee, campsite, museum, studio or any other dry hire venue, I want to hear from you.
- It’s all in the detail- you don’t have to be super-crafty, but the overall aesthetic and styling of your wedding has to be important to you.
- You’ve got to love writing and be prepared to share. And if you can make me laugh, all the better.
And what do I want from you?
Your story. Regular posts.
It’s really that simple. You can blog twice in a week or once in a month, I really don’t mind as long as we get to follow you from the beginning right through to the wedding day itself. Posts can be short and sweet, or long and long and musing. If you find your perfect wedding shoe and want to shout about it- brilliant. If you decide to make your own version of said perfect wedding shoe and care to share your DIY prowess- even better. If later down the line you realise your DIY wedding shoes are a painful abomination and you need to spend an extortionate amount on a designer pair instead- PERFECT.
Need some more blogging inspiration? Have an Operation Amazing Wedding montage…
Clockwise from top left: 1. Finding the venue / 2. Bridesmaid dress shopping / 3. Pimping up jam jars / 4. The dresses that got away / 5. Wedding day / 6. Make-up trials and very bad hair
Ok, so you want to be my Uttering Bride- how do you apply?
In 3 simple steps:
1. Email me at sama@utterlywow.co.uk ands tell me about yourself and a bit about your wedding story so far. You may want to tell me how you got engaged, or how you found your venue, or simply why you’re so looking forward to being wed. Ultimately I need to know that you meet the criteria above, so be sure to mention where and when you are getting or hope to be getting married.
2. Please include a link to your wedding Pinterest board, or if you’re not on Pinterest, send me a few images of the kind of wedding aesthetic that’s inspiring you. I want to see what rocks your wedding world.
3. If you can also give me an indication of how regularly you would like to blog, that would be great. Lordy knows it’s time consuming, so I’m not going to choose someone simply because they say they will be able to blog the most regularly. I’d like to know what you reasonably feel you can commit to.
There are no right or wrong answers and I’m not going to put it to a public vote. At the moment I think I’m just after one Uttering Bride and it will simply come down to who I feel the most drawn to and who’s wedding journey I want to follow! (Not to mention the fact that I may only get two applicants.) But if I’m inundated with wonderfulness and simply can’t choose, maybe I’ll have a couple of Uttering Brides. We shall see.
Fancy sharing your story and gaining a whole host of new friends along the way? Please send your emails through by Friday 23rd January and I shall pick a bride-to-be shortly after.
Oh I’m excited! What do you think Uttersons? Are we ready for another Operation Amazing Wedding?
Sama xxx