my wedding date

you guys have heard me harp on about weddings a lot so far this year, and well, that's because i am attending a lot. in my whole life up until this point, i have only been to four and a half weddings. the half-wedding was that of my uncle and his second wife. it was in a registry office in new zealand. all i remember of that was that my hair was in braids and they were really tight. i was about five or six.

the first real wedding was my mum's best friend margaret, and her second husband. growing up, we lived across the road from her and her first husband and two kids; aimee was 18 months older, and my original bff. i don't remember much of the wedding, only looking down on the ceremony from high up in the rafters (i don't even know if that really happened, to be honest) and wondering what all the fuss was about. i mean, that wedding was not like the one in the sound of music, and therefore, it wasn't really a wedding.

the second, and the first proper wedding i ever went to, was one i was in. i was 21 years old, and a bridesmaid for my cousin kristy. we wore shiny pink, strapless two-piece dresses, that were really unflattering. i mean, i guess that's the point, right? to look awful to make the bride look lovely? but, they really were hideous. between the last dress fitting and the big day, i'd invested in my first pair of spanx. they helped me lose almost a whole dress size. the dress was too-big on the day, and i almost tripped up the aisle. ahhhh  yes. memories.

the third wedding, a few years back, was that of two of my dearest friends, alicia and simon. the bride wore red. they married in a church, in the middle of winter. that was the first catholic wedding i'd been to, you know. i wore pink. i was much skinnier. it was freezing. but, it was beautiful. that wedding, was what weddings were supposed to be like. that was a real wedding. at the fourth, and most recent wedding that i was only invited to because one of the guests had passed away (amy winehouse. yes, really), i found myself in the company of the likes of adele, kate nash and alex clare. yeah, no big deal. i don't even remember. it was so mad.

and now this year, i have three weddings to attend. three in one year, versus my three (and a half) of a lifetime. boyfriend will be accompanying me to them all, what a dear. to be fair, he was actually invited (by name!) to them all, but i prefer to think of him as my wedding date. so, now i have a date, but he has nowt to wear. which got me thinking...and window shopping...and polyvoring. and here is, what i consider now to be, the perfect wedding date ensemble:

1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5 // 6

the majority of these are completely out of our price range, which is a shame, but after surfing around john lewis online, i decided that boyfriend would look best in these reiss pieces. the good news is that most of them are in the john lewis sale, weeee! i adore the sea foam colour in that jacket. it will compliment two of the three outfits i have already, and the third will be too-warm for a jacket anyway. the slacks in that soft grey fabric seem more casual than a darker pant would, but i think the slim-line tailoring and the pressed pleats make it perfect for the beach and country church weddings we have this month, and the short sleeve shirt is going to be more comfy in the hazy summer we're having (and we will be faced with in australia for the final wedding), and the print is the perfect way to break up the colours above and below.

now to convince boyfriend to buy it all. wish me luck.

 

*written in collaboration with brand*