Elsie's Attic - Vintage Dresses

Hey All

Hope you've had a good weekend. I thought I'd share some dresses I've been loving lately especially for special occasions. Whilst browsing facebook one day I discovered a page called Elsie's Attic (facebook). I instantly fell in love with all of the dresses and as my niece is called Elsie took it as a sign I needed to order lots (who am I kidding I just liked the dresses and use anything as an excuse to shop!) I'm a pear shaped girl so anything that nips in at the waist and goes over the hip is a winner for me.

The first dress is a Lindy Bop dress. Elsie's Attic stock a lot of these. This was actually a birthday present from my other half's parents as his mum had spotted on facebook that I liked it and offered to get me one of my choice.

I instantly loved the neckline of this dress, the nipped in waste and the print. It's a little bit brighter than the image below shows. Once my other half gets back from his work trip I'll try and get some better one's of it. I love that the dresses can be worn with or without petticoats. I have a full petticoat I'd planned to wear with it but actually forgot to take it with me. This one feels great quality and is a lovely silky print dress! The back dips down lower than the front but not low enough to worry about bras showing. Also for me these dresses are great as I can order my normal size and not worry about it fitting over my hips. The dress is £36 but currently out of stock in the bird print. I really want it in the green and the burgundy. I love a good occasion dress! The waspie style belt comes with it too and really finishes off the dress!

The other dress I've got from the website isn't a branded one and one I picked up in the sale. I instantly loved the shirt style top half of this dress. This one comes with a small petticoat built in but for fullness I added my own full petticoat (these can be picked up cheaply on ebay!). I wore this to a friends recent wedding. Excuse the facial expression as I didn't know the photo was being taken (ever a lady with a pint in hand!) This dress also came with a belt made from the same fabric I love that so far all the dress I've ordered come with belts as I do think it really finishes the outfit off. I love the little details on it make the dress look great quality such as fabric covered buttons.

Wedding Guest Vintage Dress

I love dresses like this, they always make me feel glamorous and confident as they are cover parts of my body I don't like. Delivery from Elsie's Attic has always been efficient and it's definitely worth checking out the sale for more bargains.

I'll be ordering more dresses if more occasions pop up. I do have a third dress from the site but no great photos of it. I've worn them to weddings, gradations and dresses them down for dinners without the petticoat.

Would you go for this style dress?

Love M

xxx

here's some links to other wedding outfit posts :)
Asos
hybrid
Warehouse

Wedding Guest Outfit Inspiration

Hey All

I'm reaching the age where I seem to have lots of weddings to go to. I tend to be really bad at reusing dresses and love the excuse to buy a new one. I always have the best intentions to re-wear a dress but it never seems to happen so when the other half asked me to be his plus one for a few weddings in November I instantly started browsing sites.

When I saw Asos had a sale on I started browsing and accidentally ended up with 12 items in my basket making their way to me!

Here are my top picks and I ended up keeping three of these dresses. I had the best intentions to only keep one but they were such bargains I needed to keep a few more.

This is my favourite of the dresses and most likely the one I'll wear. I love the green colour with blonde hair and think the neckline is interesting. It's also really comfortable as while it's tight it skims everywhere. It also comes in petite range too. It comes in at £31. (link)

I love mint green and I'm yet to own much in this colour. I love the length and fit and it's a little booby but think the length still makes it ok for a wedding. For me I wasn't sure if this was too summer wedding due to the colour but it is available in a few other colours. It is a bargain £19 and is great quality. (link)

This one is the other half's favourite. I know he's biased to it though as he loves red dresses. I love the tone of this as I do find red sometimes looks cheap but as it's a bit more on the burgundy side it looks nicer. I love the touch of lace. I'm a lace fan but I do think it's hard to find lace that doesn't look cheap sometimes. It is a very tight dress so this one may only be worn if I lose a pound or two so I'll feel comfortable after eating. Another bargain at only £18. (link)

Lastly is this Lipsy one. I rarely find anything in Lipsy I like. I find it can be chavy, or way to short for a tall girl. I'm also not a fan of an exposed zip. All of that aside I love this dress. It's a thick quality fabric so doesn't bunch on the body and just skims. It has padded cups so a bra isn't necessary, no exposed zip and a fair length. I love how the lace contours the waistline to help it appear smaller. This one is also only £19. (link)

Unfortunately this dress didn't fit me when it arrived. If it did I think it would have been a favourite. I think it's so simple but cut really well and stunning. It also comes in a cornflower blue. I think with pretty jewellery it would be amazing. (link)

With such bargain dresses who am I to resist a new one!

Where is your go to shop for wedding guest outfits? Which is your favourite?

Love M

xxx

Cyprus

Hey All

A lack of posts from me this week as I'm busy sunning myself in Cyprus.  I was hoping to blog more whilst I was out here but super slow Internet and google, blogger, flickr and hotmail all requiring verification texts and things just aren't working.

After arriving super late on Sunday night we grabbed a quick pint and went off to bed!

On Monday I woke up put on the bikini and slapped on some sun lotion from my mum. Immediately after the legs sting and I've now got a nasty rash still covering them. Thankfully I packed some la roche posay anthelios xl which seems to be ok. Monday really wasnt my day.  Let's blame a lack of sleep. After deciding to ignore advice on wearing flip flops to the bar as the stones were hot, I thought walking along the water edge would be the best thing so my feet didn't burn. For a clumsy person not a great idea. Que me taking a rather dramatic fall into the pool and smashing my leg against the side. At this point I'm beautiful covered in a rash with massive bruises developing to add to it I got burnt.

After dinner we all went for some drinks.  My oldest brother was staying with us this night (night before the wedding) so when he put his girls to bed he was free. It was lush to drink was my brother's and dad. We enjoyed a fair few and got asked to keep the noise down ooops.

Tuesday arrived along with the big day and the reason we were out her.  We all woke up with slightly fuzzy heads! My brother seemed reasonably relaxed although he did start to pace.  After picking up his daughter's the beautifying starts. It was a hectic two hours. My hair and make up, my mum's make up and my little niece's hair and nails. My dress luckily covered the giant bruise.

Seeing my big brother get married after 14 years with his partner was amazing. I did cry as she walked down the aisle. It was an amazing day lot's of champagne, cake and amazing food.

Their amazing view from the wedding venue

Yesterday was a chill out day and my dads father's day surprise. We took him parasailing. The rest of us spent the hour chilling in the sea. I seem to have attracted my sister in laws niece and nephew and every time we see them they now want me. I do love little one's but days spent with them remind me I love giving them back!

My oldest brother (much to my mum's worry and dad's dislike, he walked away as he couldn't watch!) took me cliff jumping for the first time. It was amazing!!! I loved the rush. It was only about 12ft though so he's scouted out higher for us today! I'm such an adrenaline junkie but it was scary jumping and having to push yourself forward so you don't hit rocks.  Bring on the higher jumps!

Another evening with great food and pina coladas. We've not done a family holiday abroad in probably over 10 years so it's been really great to spend so much time with everyone. No arguments so far.

This evening me and dad are going wine tasting before some of us head into ayia napa for an amazing fish meze around the harbour.

The next few days for me include a pirate ship, water world and beauty treatments.

So far the holiday has been amazing. I already don't want to leave.

love M

xxx

   

Wedding No.1

Morning lovelies!

I mentioned last weekend that I had the pleasure of going to the first of my friends weddings, and it was absolutely beautiful!
It was such a nice day and everything was exactly how she wanted it so that's all that matters.

Here's a few pictures from the big day, I hope you enjoy them!

I curled my hair with a wand and then brushed it out so it looked big and bouncy and a bit more natural than perfect ringlets. I prefer my hair to look like this and wish it looked like this always!

I had a bit of a heart attack/dance around the room when I cut the label off my dress. It was a bit of a splash out for me a few months ago when I picked it up and i was so excited to wear it!

Here it is on me:

I love the colour and style, it was so simple and perfect for the wedding I was going to.
I was a bit uncomfortable in it after wearing it for so many hours though, the material doesn't stretch at all and wasn't the most comfortable for breathing....which is a bit vital!
I'd already bought the dress in a bigger size to do up over my boobs so I knew it wasn't tight anywhere else, obviously I'm not used to wearing dresses made from material as good a quality as LK Bennett!

One of my favourite things was the really cute sweet stand! I helped myself to some nougat and jelly sweets!

They also handed out welsh cakes after the ceremony which was a really nice touch.

The bride had gone the extra mile to add lots of extra touches including making her own confetti from love stories, putting tissues wrapped up in ribbon on the church pews and flowers EVERYWHERE.

The table decorations were these huuuuuge candelabras surrounded by flowers at the bottom and there was copious amounts of wine and champagne flowing.

The bride even provided flip flops in a basket for all the girls to change into from heels! Mine even matched my dress ;)

And not only was there a sit down meal but later on there was curly fries and a bacon butty! I loved how normal that was as it was perfect for a few hours of drinking!

The venue was stunning too, huge ceilings, massive chandeliers and gorgeous decor.

This is a full length picture my friend took of me on the night, it was such a great day and I am so pleased my friend enjoyed her day as much as she hoped.

Do you have many friends getting married this year or next?

This wedding was a big budget one, I have a second wedding coming up in September which is a lower budget and I'm so looking forward to it!

What would your ideal outfit be? Are you planning your own wedding?

I'm so far away from getting married but I do love hearing about other peoples plans!

L xxx

Recent Buys

When I heard Benefit were releasing a new blusher for one day only before it comes out in September I knew what I was going to spend my birthday vouchers on soon. So I took a trip to Swansea on Saturday. As Debenhams had there offer on where if you spend £40 you get 500 points. I originally wanted the Mac Pro Longwear but after one of the Benebabes tried the World Famous Neutrals Sexiest Nudes Ever one me I was completely sold. It's perfect for when I'm a bridesmaid in 2 weeks.

I then popped into Cardiff hoping to spend the rest of the vouchers I got on a dress for a friends wedding. After I didn't see anything I headed to Illamasqua as I wanted to try skin base. I love how it looked in the shop but can't seem to apply it as well myself. Any tips? I also picked up a small de slick spray. I'm hoping I love this. As I still needed to spend a bit to make it up to £40 I picked up some Urban Decay lashes to try. They had some amazing ones.

After having no luck in Debenhams I headed to House of Fraser who have a brilliant sale on. I picked up this beauty from the Warehouse section in there reduced from £80 to £28. I really love the back detail on it and the colour. I actually found 3 dresses I liked but returned the other two after. Now to decide on shoes and a bag. 

It seemed like I couldn't stop spending. I went to meet L on Sunday to have a coffee and a catch up as we know won't see each other till the 16th August. It's a long time for us ha! I couldn't resist picking up this midi dress in sale. It was only £10. I've wanted one for ages but my shape has put me off. I'm actually really glad I picked it up. I even wore it to work yesterday and felt comfortable in it. Now I want more.

Have you been shopping the sales?

Love M

xxx