From Miss to Mrs

We’ve followed her journey for the last ten months, from her proposal story to her search for her dream dress. Today, it’s time to wish our real bride, Loren Penney, all the very best as she prepares to marry her fiancé, Matt, this weekend! In her final post, Loren tells us what she has been up to over the last few weeks, including getting those oh-so-important last minute items ticked off the to-do list, and how she’s feeling about the big day. Enjoy!

It’s here! It’s here! That’s right, as you read this I’ll either be about to skip down my rose petal aisle or I’ll be exhausted and bleary eyed in our suite at the Ritz-Carlton post wedding day.

Over the course of the final four weeks, it’s all been a little bit of organised chaos if I’m honest. We’ve had several (and by this, I mean close to ten) trips to the Mall of the Emirates in a last-ditch attempt to buy those ‘essential’ items that kept managing to find themselves on my never-ending to-do list, but we did also manage to squeeze in a staycation in Abu Dhabi (naturally at another Ritz-Carlton) for a weekend of rest & relaxation before we really needed to knuckle down into the depths of wedmin.

Final dress and suit fittings were had, with one very happy bride and one very happy groom thanks to Esposa Group and Knights & Lords tailors, and the last venue meetings took place with our event planner and our amazing on-the-day coordinator, Liesel from Aghareed Weddings.

We also added the last few touches to the styling of the wedding, something that has been my favourite part of the whole planning process. There’s nothing quite like starting to see your vision come to life. We hired Iluma Lamps to dress our cocktail tables and I’ve been slightly obsessed with their super stylish wireless lamps ever since. They are great for outside venues when lighting can be somewhat of an issue and they’re even available to order bespoke to fit in with your colour and theme of wedding or event. I’ve opted for a neutral beige shade coupled with a gilt base to match our classic colour scheme.

Something I also managed to source this month (after literally weeks searching and several Saturdays dragging my other half around Dragon Mart) was some pretty parasols for our guests to use during the ceremony which became a priority over recent weeks with the mercury rising by the hour. Funnily enough, the company I managed to source them from is even called ‘pretty parasols’ and offers beautiful, handmade paper shades in a range of colours.

We even spent a fun evening in the desert with Melrish, our photographer and videographers, when we both got to know each other through an informal test shoot. The resulting photos are beautiful and I can’t wait to work with them on the day itself, hopefully feeling a bit more relaxed in front of the camera.

Now with all our family and friends starting to arrive in Dubai, it’s really starting to feel real and I can’t wait to see them all on the day as well as my handsome (and very patient) new husband!

Signing off as the new Mrs Thomas!

X x Loren Thomas x X