Today it is our great pleasure to hand the blog over to one of our brand new Lovettes for the very first time. Let's give Madeleine a very warm Love My Dress welcome…
As I sit on my bed with two buttered crumpets and a snoozy cat at my feet, with my wedding-budget spreadsheet open and a sewing machine covered in white cotton triangles – the bunting I really must start making – it’s absolutely wonderful to take a bit of time to think back to how Tim and I first met.
We were first introduced over seven years ago – Tim was a friend of my ex's friends; and over the course of five years we met a handful of times (as Tim was living in Hungary, then Cyprus). We always got along well, and when my relationship ended we stayed in touch.
Tim would always send me links to really obscure, but amazing, music to sample. As we gradually discovered a mutual love for bad Nic Cage movies, DBC Pierre, sea views and Kid Koala I think we both realised our friendship was potentially blossoming into something a little more. Our first proper date was a book-return in Hampstead; as a Film Studies grad Tim had lent me a copy of Theodore Roszak’s somewhat challenging Flicker to mull over! We sat outside The Holly Bush pub, with London sprawled out at our feet, talking long into the evening over frosty pints of cider and cheap red wine. When he bundled me into a taxi at the end of the night, I honestly knew that life would never be the same again.
For my 30th we went to New York, and on the morning of my birthday – after he had already made me cry with Rob Ryan’s A Sky Full of Kindness – Tim proposed over a cup of tea in our East Village apartment. It was everything I could've hoped for, heartfelt, low-key and an incredible way to start my 30s. We popped champagne to the buzz of a New York morning and went for a celebratory brunch of pancakes and When Harry Met Sally romantic nostalgia at Katz's Delicatessen.
We got lost by the Hudson River in glorious 30 degree October weather, inhaled the Manhattan skyline from the Williamsburg Bridge, and spent the afternoon supping brown-bottled beers in Brooklyn. We went for dinner at a terrible Indian restaurant with the most lethal white wine but stumbled home, incredibly happy, to eat chocolate covered pretzels in bed and wilt under a failing air-con system.
The next day I got to choose my own engagement ring and fell in love with a vintage horse shoe studded with 7 diamonds from the gorgeous Erica Weiner store in Chinatown. When the assistant wrote out the receipt I learnt that my ring is called Extra Lucky and I couldn't agree more. I'm still utterly delighted I get to wear it every day; it's timeless, cool and understated, a little bit like Tim!
As I recount our little history, the memory of our first date and engagement really do fill me with happiness. Getting engaged is such a unique and exciting time in my life; in any bride-to-be’s life. To be honest, it’s so easy to lose focus on what it really means when you’re caught up in the sometimes chaotic and overwhelming stages of wedding planning. But remembering how we got to where we are now, and forgoing my frankly rather scary wedding-to-do list, I truly cannot wait to make Miss Me, Mrs Him. Here’s to 220 days of enjoying the engagement..!
Love Madeleine
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