Time To Get Things Sorted

As 2017 is now well and truly upon us, our real Dubai bride Anna Lucas is making it her mission to get things done this January. After a busy December and festive season, Anna’s upcoming wedding now appears to be scarily close, and it seems that there’s still plenty to organise. Read on to find out how Anna is coping with ‘The List of Doom’, and how she intends to keep her visiting guests busy in the days before her wedding. Enjoy!

I feel like for the last few months, all I’ve been saying is, “After Christmas I’ll start,” which is exactly what I’ve terrifyingly fallen into. It’s terrifying because ‘The List’ – now referred to as ‘The List of Doom’ – is massive and daunting and I, right now, do not see how I’m supposed to get it all done. So, delegation is in full swing.

Apart from the venue and the dress, pretty much nothing else has been sorted, which is very typical Anna style. The nickname given to me by Dubai friends, ‘Last Minute Annie’, is now ringing very true.

The first thing to focus on in 2017 was climbing back on the sensible wagon. December, from Tom’s birthday, straight into mine, alongside a packed social and work schedule, flitted by in a whirlwind of fun and antics. Now is the time to reign it ALL back in and become a respectable human once again, with rules and regulations, and a carb restriction.

Don’t feel too sorry for my carb halt; I spent most of December either staying at the Burj Khalifa, hitting the gorgeous restaurants of NYC and London or lying flat out on Mum’s sofa being force fed all sorts of delicious delicacies – HEAVEN!

This month, I discovered another amazing tip for shopping out of Dubai: TAX BACK AT HEATHROW! Woohoo. Don’t forget to take your goods with you to the line though, or else that 20% off will NOT be granted.

One thing about NYC wedding shopping is that it is by no means cheap! However, it’s certainly a gorgeous and perfect city to visit at Christmas time and spend some good, dedicated days talking all things wedding with the one and only Mum!

On top of all this, I randomly decided, kind of as a dare gone wrong with a colleague, to sign up for the Dubai Marathon with just three weeks to train. So as well as planning the biggest day of my life, I’m also running all around Dubai trying to rack up enough kilometers to get me at least half-way to the finish line. Help!

So, back to wedding chat. My long list started with contacting anyone that I could by phone or email over the weekend. This weekend has been nominated as the ‘deal with stuff and get stuff off the list’ weekend.  As a result of this, we are off to Dubai Garden Centre to meet with the fabulous Beverly to talk flowers and decorations. She’s amazing and I have used her before so hopefully, she can solve my woes. Next stop will be good old Dubai Mall for bridesmaid dresses and groomsman suits. That in itself could take forever, so if it takes over two days then I’m outsourcing the suits to Tom and the dresses will be found by me on the sofa, via the internet. Simples.

Lots of people have been asking questions about the days surrounding the wedding and the plans for visiting guests. With Dubai being so expensive, especially with the hideous GBP exchange rate, I’m contacting my favourite ‘reasonable’ venues to try and get a group booking discount for lots of the dinners, beach days, waterpark admissions etc that guests might be interested in. I’ve laid out what I think is a super fun itinerary for five days, plus the wedding, and people can choose to join in as they wish. All of the details are on our wedding site, with prices and menus. EASY. Now I just need to wait for the next wave of questions.

We’ll also be having a meeting with our planner this week, so more on that in the next issue…

xX Anna Xx

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