Frock Fridays: Rehearsal Dinner

I bet you guys can't wait until my wedding posts return to their normal once-a-week schedule, huh?  I'm sorry.  It's almost all over, I promise.  (For the record, Jon and I have been murmuring that to each other repeatedly since I landed on Sunday.)  The day itself is going to be amazing, and I'm so touched by all of your advice - thank you from the bottom of my heart and Jon's.

When I packed for this trip, I put everything for the wedding in a solid carryon: my dress and veil and shoes, of course, but also all of our paper goods, the flags I'd made, the DIY wooden arrows, and a few other gifts and decorative pieces.  You know I almost exclusively wear dresses, dear reader, so I figured that there had to be a frock I could wear for our rehearsal dinner amongst everything I packed for the four days in London before the wedding weekend, three days afterwards in Norfolk on our honeymoon, and a last day in London for my birthday.  But I wasn't really excited about anything I'd brought, and I decided to see what I could find in the last dregs of the sales...

I wandered into Westfield after meeting up with a friend in Holland Park on Monday afternoon and, as fate would have it, found this French Connection dress within ten minutes!  It was on sale for £45 and there was a little bit of make-up on the neckline just inside, so I got a further 10% off.  Mine isn't a halter - the straps go up normally in front and then criss-cross in back - but I couldn't find that image online so you'll just have to imagine.  (I will Instagram it, so look there.  No social media once real wedding prep gets underway on Saturday, I promise!  I can feel Andrea glaring at me from Atlanta...)  There's a bit of navy blue in the embroidery at the bottom of the frock, so I'll wear it with my JCrew espadrilles and a navy cardigan.

Because I slept really badly on Wednesday and Thursday nights, I'll make sure to have a cup of Sleepytime tea before bed tonight and will open up the sachet of Aromafloria lavender bath salts I packed so the smell fills the room.  In the morning, to try to keep myself relatively calm, I'll start the day with a scented bath in my empty bridal suite at Bruisyard Hall (scroll down this page to see the bedroom and ensuite bathroom - it's the fifth row of photos from the bottom) and will try out the Bliss Triple Oxygen Instant Energizing Eye Mask that I got as a sample after a facial a while ago.  (Do these sorts of things expire?  Oh well.)  After any last touch-ups to my nails with Essie Mademoiselle, I'll be ready to prep with the girls!

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