Diary Of A Real Bride 

Our gorgeous real bride contributor Barbaranne Heaton of Moirai Style is back, and this time not only has she been stalking Gary Barlow (read on to find out why), but she has now embarked on a quest to find OR design her dream wedding gown. Over to you B!

“Who are you going to ask to sing at your wedding?” someone asked me last week. Er … hello? Gary Barlow, of course! I was greeted with a puzzled look. “I’m not joking,” I replied. And really I wasn’t. Ask me what wedding plans I’ve been making recently and all I can report is that I’ve been attempting to twitter @garybarlow into submission.

If you’ve been living under a rock recently you won’t have heard about the competition Gary ran for his fans who are getting married soon and would love him to sing at their wedding. All you had to do was stalk him on Twitter.

In the past few weeks, he’s announced five fan-worthy weddings. Once of which, he has recently sang at (see below image). Could ours be next? You don’t find out, of course, until he is literally stood in front of you, suited up and making you faint with his sultry rendition of Rule the World (my song of choice if anyone asks). So due to my love for him, in case you hadn’t quite picked that up, I shamelessly tweeted anyone that would listen about how Gary should jump on a plane and sing at our wedding in Dubai this year.

Image: Via mananltd.wordpress.com

No expert at this ‘tweeting’ business, I probably didn’t create the media storm needed to get him to notice little old me (Catboy and Geordiebird, Virgin radio – shame on you! My tweets fell on deaf ears, it seems!). But I did try, and so did my bridesmaid Beth, who didn’t even have a Twitter account before all this malarkey and selflessly signed up just to badger Barlow! Rio, founder of Bride Club ME, swooped in to support with her re-tweets too. Needless to say, the fiancé wasn’t quite on board with it, which might have been because I came home with a life-size Gary Barlow mask a few years back and asked him to wear it. Yeah, that’s probably it. He really missed out on major brownie points for life there.

Above: Screen shots of me and my tag team, trying to tweet Gary into submission

Ok, so something is now telling me I don’t exactly have my wedding planning priorities in check. But you will be pleased to hear that apart from turning into a bit of a stalker recently, the past month has been pretty productive for the ‘Heat’ham’ wedding.

Over Christmas, on a drizzly grey winter’s day in a little town in Lancashire, I had my first experience of wedding dress shopping! That exclamation mark is about as excited as I get, I’m afraid. The shop was beautiful, the dress selection good and the staff very lovely and helpful. But I didn’t get ‘that’ feeling. Maybe it was the thick, wooly, suck-your-tummy-in tights I had on and kept on even while trying on gowns. Plus it was freezing, folks!

Above left: Me trying on gowns. Above right: Image via Pinterest.

The question I’m asked the most is: “Will you design and make your own dress?” The answer is yes. I’ve become very hard to please since starting Moirai.

I’ve become very hard to please since starting Moirai. Dresses have become my life and in Lancashire I shamelessly dissected each one I tried on. I’ve ruined it for myself really! But it was a great exercise. I was able to see the whole experience from the bride’s point of view, and I understand even more now why brides-to-be come to me to have their dream dress made. It’s bloomin’ difficult to get one that ticks all the boxes otherwise.

I liked the skirt of one, the top of another one, and the trim of another style. Don’t get me wrong, there were some exquisite dresses, but I didn’t get that ‘this is THE ONE’ feeling, and to be honest I’m glad because then I’d have been temped to buy it! I just wanted to have the experience all brides have with their mums. But there was no champagne and I didn’t get to eat any cake.

My main motive for trying them on was to get an idea of the shape that would best suit me. I advise all my brides to try on at least a handful of gowns before coming to us, as this really helps them to make important decisions about creating their bespoke wedding dress. I have an idea of what I want, but the fabric will be the final decider. I’ll see the fabric and I’ll know. But, obviously, that’s staying under wraps until the big day!

We also visited some lovely venues in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, but I’ll save that for my next installment.

Right, it’s been all of an hour since I’ve been on Pinterest, so I’m off to do some ‘work’!

x B x

Don’t forget to log on next month to see B’s latest bridal diary post!