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Our Wedding Timeline

Published on Jun 6, 2019Aug 21, 2019 by Life With Lynette17 Comments

Wow, it’s been such a long time since I last posted on the blog! I’m sure you know why (and if you don’t, you can guess by the content of this post)…WE GOT MARRIED! Welcome back/hi lovely readers. After THE MOST INCREDIBLE DAY OF OUR LIVES last month, our photos came back earlier this week. Sugarbird managed to capture our day perfectly, and we’re over the moon with every single photo!

Whether it’s a cliche to say or not, it really was the most magical day of our lives, and we’re so incredibly grateful to every single person who celebrated with us or sent messages of congrats and well wishes – the love we’ve experienced in the last month is extraordinary and we feel so lucky. I could waffle on for multiple paragraphs about how out of this world the whole experience has been, but that’s not why you’re here…you’re here for a photographic timeline of the day! So here we go:

7:00am – Alarm (may or may not have already been awake)

7:30am – Bridesmaids arrive, bridal party start getting ready

8:00am – Groom gets ready

9:00am – Sugarbird arrives and starts snapping away

9:30am – Flowers arrive

10:00am – Groomsmen are ready and preparing to meet guests

10:15am – Guests start to arrive

10:20am – Last minute hair tidying

10:30am – The dress goes on

10:40am – Dad arrives in Bridal Suite

10:50am – Guests seated, Groom trying to remain as calm as possible

10:59am – Show time

11:00am – Ceremony

11:30am – Mr & Mrs

11:40am – Slip away from guests for ‘us’ time

11:50am – Return to drinks reception and mingle

12:00pm – Confetti and formal photos outside

12:20pm – Get the bloomin’ sixpence out of the shoe, because after 2 hours, it hurts

12:25pm – Couple shots

12:40pm – Breathe. The adrenalin’s wearing off and exhaustion setting in…

1:00pm – Second wind! Call in to wedding breakfast

1:15pm – Speeches

1:45pm – Food!

3:45pm – Quiz

5:00pm – The Great Bishy Bake Off

5:45pm – Guests mingle, photo time for us

7:00pm – Evening guests arrive

7:30pm – Cut cake

7:35pm – First dance

7:40pm – Parent’s dance

7:45pm – Buffet, sweet cart, PARTY!

8:30pm – Outside for sunset shots and a walk around the grounds together

10:00pm – Sparklers and Fireworks

10:30pm – Hot dogs and more dancing!

12:00am – Home time. Thankyou to everyone who shared in our special day ❤️

Best Family Games at Christmas

Published on Dec 19, 2018Aug 21, 2019 by Life With Lynette10 Comments

Games have always been a big part of our family, so naturally, they’re a big part of Christmas too. The games changed as Todd and I got older, but now we have a few good go-tos that come out every year! Christmas is different this year for us because #adulting, so a lot’s changed, but these games are traditions now – hopefully we’ll keep a few of them going!

Monopoly

This was our little sibling tradition. We’d have a late lunch whilst watching The Muppet Christmas Carol on Christmas Eve, then out the Monopoly board would come, along with the Pringles, Baileys and Christmas music channels. Todd always wins, because I let him have Park Lane and Mayfair 🙄 But we always have a laugh, and it was such a lovely tradition for so many years…this’ll be the first year without it!

Buzz

On most evenings around Christmas, we get out Buzz! We’ve loved Buzz for YEARS, and it wasn’t set as ‘Christmas only’ game, but that’s the only time of year when we’re all together in the same place these days! It’s a quiz show (either Music or General Knowledge, there’s a few discs you can get) with various rounds, of varying length, all controlled with a buzz pad each. You can take it as seriously (or not!) as you want, and I really would recommend it! This’ll give you an idea…
(You can probably skip through the first 45 seconds though)

Scattergories

Get into teams, pick a list of questions, role the lettered dice, start the timer, and fill in the list with words that start with that letter – again, you can take it as seriously (or not!) as you want – though sometimes, taking it less seriously, being more creative (and enjoying a drink or two at the same time) makes it even more fun! I LOVE this game and can’t wait for our fam to introduce it to Ed and Verity this year!

Headbanz

If you don’t know what Headbanz is, WHERE have you been living?! It can be frustrating if you can’t get your card, but if you’ve had a couple of drinks, it doesn’t matter as much 😉 There’s plenty of embarrassing stories attached to this game, but I’ll save them for another time…

Kazoos

Definitely best under the influence of alcohol (that seems to have turned into a bit of a theme doesn’t it? Oops 😜) It’s not a particularly challenging game, it’s got simple rules – get into teams, pick a card, pick one of the songs on it (of varying degrees of difficulty), and start kazooing! If they guess the song, you get the points! As I say, not particularly special, (I don’t think you need a video for this one!) but at 10:30pm on Christmas Day, after a few drinks, with certain family members (DAD) who are rubbish at kazooing, it’s hilarious 😂 It’s the perfect light hearted game if you need some daft-ness in your day!

Our Christmas will be different this year to any other, we’ll have 6 of us for our games evening on Christmas Day rather than just 4 – if you have any fun game recommendations, let me know in the comments below! Not Cards Against Humanity though! Ed and I played it a couple of times recently with friends to see if we could introduce it to my parents at Christmas… NOPE. A big fat NO. Definitely not 😂

Hello 2017…

Published on Jan 23, 2017Jul 1, 2018 by Life With LynetteLeave a comment

Well then! Happy New Year to you all! I can’t believe how fast 2016 went – I observed with several people over the last couple of months that each year seems to go quicker than the last. Can you remember when we were at school and the terms dragged onnnnnn and onnnnnn and onnnnnn. It felt like we spent our entire lives there. Half terms were only actually 6 weeks long! Now, 6 weeks goes by in the blink of an eye. Weird.

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and New Year and spent it as you wanted, whether that be with friends, family, or colleagues (for those of you out there who had to work) 😦 It’s such a nice feeling to have friends and family come back home for Christmas. The feeling of the place changes and you easily pick up and adopt old traditions. Whether that’s an annual party (big nod to the Corrins, you hosted an excellent party, as always), games day, night at the pub, countryside walk or quick cafe visit.

And whilst there are plenty of nice traditions…there ARE a couple that crop up every year, that you pray you’ll maybe escape this time…

The DVDs/tapes that are brought out, of you and your sibling/siblings as kids…
The quizzing from the grandparents about why you don’t have a boyfriend…
Losing at Monopoly. Every. Year.

Nevertheless, it’s a wonderful time of the year and regardless of the negatives, we know we’ll look forward to it just as much next year.

So, Christmas is over, you’ve stuffed yourself with left overs, drunk enough Baileys to fill a bath and struggled with the random limbo week where we don’t know what to do. Now comes the New Year. For me, New Years has never been anything special. But this year, I’m home and I got to spend it with exactly who I wanted. Not watching High School Musical 1-3 back to back in my studio flat in Hammersmith (yeh, I saw in 2016 really well, don’t be jealous) 😉

Which brings us to New Years resolutions. I understand that a New Year seems an appropriate time to make lifestyle adjustments. But a ‘Resolution’ feels like such a big title – we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to achieve something, which is sometimes unachievable (‘I want to quit this, I want to quit that’). As with any change, I feel baby steps are the way to do it. So instead, I like to acknowledge what makes me happy, and if there’s anything about my life I’d like to change. The main one for 2017: I want to spend less time on social media in my spare time (especially now that parts of my work are heavily based/dependent on it). I think the majority of us can put our hands up and admit we could make better use of the time spent aimlessly scrolling. Pass me a book.

2016 was a strange year for me. A lot happened. Lots of big life decisions – but I’m happy with the decisions I made. I’m going into 2017 happy, with a job I love, in the place I love, surrounded by the people I love. It’s a new chapter. And I can’t wait to see what the year brings.

Sending best wishes for 2017 to you all,
Lynette x

P.S. New Year, New You (please forgive me for saying that) – I have new adult classes starting at Studio 3! Dance classes for beginners and fitness classes for all abilities! I’m so looking forward to these, ESPECIALLY after piling on the Christmas pounds! :’) For more information, head to my Instagram (lynette_s3dance) or search for Studio 3 Dance Workshop on Facebook 🙂

Merry Blogmas…

Published on Dec 19, 2016Jul 1, 2018 by Life With Lynette1 Comment

‘It’s the most wonderful time of the year’.

It really is. And even more so for me this year…this is the first time I’ve been around for the run up to Christmas since I was at school. Yes, I would come back for a couple of weeks whilst I was training. But I missed all the run up things. Studio 3’s Christmas Crackers, the Knaresborough lights switch on, Santa and Knaresborough Lions Club going round the estates visiting everyone with carols blasting from the sleigh. (As it happens, I managed to miss Santa, again, for the sixth year running – I was at work. Mental note to cancel classes on the first Monday in December next year in order to see him – sorry lyrical Jazz girls, priorities…) 😉

Knaresborough’s beautiful this year. As she is every year. Some of the decorations are gorgeous. Knaresborough House is magical! And so classy. I think we all know why there’s no decorations on the grass this year…but the new decoration plan works. Let’s stick with it from now on. And has everyone seen the window display at The Yorkshire Soap company?! That made me feel all warm and fuzzy when I saw that.

Welcoming Christmas with the Christmas lights switch on was magical. So many people, such high spirits. It was a cold night and even wearing fake fur didn’t keep out the cold. What DID help was the hot chocolate down at the Train Station after Studio 3’s final performance of the night on the platform. Mind you, I’m complaining… I feel for the piper who was there in his kilt…

And I have to do a quick shoutout to work – firstly to Danceology who started Christmas a month ago! And the girls I saw on the last Saturday of term – without you, I wouldn’t have had the excuse to pretend to be a Christmas tree or dance around being a reindeer. And secondly to Studio 3 who’ve been busy performing at festive events left right and centre for weeks! Christmas Crackers 2016 was such a lovely weekend, everyone happy and smiling, both the youngsters involved, and the parents. Most especially so when 6 of the mums did a flash mob and performed one of their daughter’s numbers on stage – step for step – the girls were mortified and the ladies were incredible – a job well done 😉

I’m very much looking forward to this week. The last week in the run up to Christmas: last minute bits of shopping, the hustle and bustle of people in town, catching up with friends as we begin to find more free time, the quiet nights in with a cuppa and a Christmas film…or a loud night out at a party… 😉

And of course, re-connecting with family and friends. I know some of my friends are working away from home/overseas/on board ships. I hope you’re having the times of your lives, and sending love to anyone out there reading this who’s separated from their family.

And sending love to all of you reading this. The blog thing is still new for me…I’ve just kind of gone with the flow! Thankyou for reading and supporting both it and me. It means an awful lot.
I shall leave you with my guilty pleasure Christmas song. Just coz 🙂

Tag: family

Our Wedding Timeline