Becca Said Let's Get Moving!

So, here I am at WordPress! Reasons for the move – the structure of this place just seems a lot more smooth. Blogger was just stumbling more and more, from the fact that my wedding post-in-draft kept on freezing, to the amateurish widgets.

Also, I love the comments facility. I’ve realised thy the first thing to get me to unfollow a blog or Twitter account is the arrogant I-think-I’m-a-celeb kind of blogger who ignores direct questions and never responds to comments. I want to be able to actually reply to comments, rather than just feel like I’m posting at random!

Come and say hello - http://beccasaid.wordpress.com

Up next – the Big Day!

Leaning A Little To The Left

While lurking over at Cakes and Bunting, I came across http://www.theanycampaign.co.uk/ - a petition set up to allow weddings to take place outdoors. If you've ever drooled over American wedding blogs where people celebrate their nuptials overlooking beautiful landscapes, on the beach, or in their parents' back gardens, then you'll understand!

(source)


Please head over there and sign the petition - and while you're at it, go and visit Claire's blog!

Wandering

Today, I am guest posting for the lovely Fliss over at Any Other Wedding. If you haven't discovered this blog yet, do go and check it out - Fliss and Aisling discuss all things wedding, from a real-girl perspective!

Today's pic - one of my favourites from a solo-travelling sesh through Spain, France and Italy back in 2005. Cinque Terre is a beautiful area on the south coast at the top bit of the boot that is Italy. It was full of the most beautiful multi-coloured houses on the hillside, and this is the first time I thought "ooh, wouldn't it be cool to be able to take photographs?"

What A Tangled Web

There is a lot of meanness on the web. I'm not talking about the random trolling I used to encounter on the Facebook feminist groups (weird guys who would respond to your every argument with "well, that's because you've been brainwashed to think that way"), I'm talking about the gathering together of like-minded people. "Huh?", you say? Let me explain.

There's an old adage that bullies were usually bullied themselves, and while this is easy to see in the school playground, it's not as obvious in real, grown-up life, until you start spending time on the internet. The web's ability to demarginalise those on the fringes of popular culture has created fun places to hang out and discover that you're not alone, whatever those people at school tried to tell you.

In the early days, those who spent time socialising online were a rare breed. You'd start to tell someone a funny story that you'd heard in a forum but stop yourself so you could quickly fabricate a non-geeky source so that they'd laugh at your story and not you. It made for an atmosphere I can only liken to the Gorgonites in Small Soldiers - a rag-tag bunch of slightly odd-looking people, but always friendly and welcoming.

Then, as online socialising exploded, cliques began to form. Now that you can find people who share your love of anything from West African philately to obscure Swedish electropop, anyone who has felt marginalised is able to pass on that lovely feeling to someone else. A new type of snobbery seems to be raising its ugly head as people fall over themselves to have a life that's "more unique" than anyone else's. FYI - I am aware that there is no more or less unique. There is unique or not. Unfortunately, this means that uniqueness takes you back to solitude, so people turn it into a sliding scale.

The wedding world is one of the worst. I've encountered - and quickly unsubscribed from - a number of wedding blogs that repeatedly sneer at the decision to wear a traditional wedding dress, get married in church, have a wedding cake -  the sort of thing that normo-type people might have at their weddings. A great way to let people know exactly who is not welcome. When a fabulously talented photographer's work was trolled recently, readers took the opportunity to reinforce the "we're such outsiders" label with such comments as "they probably just want a nice dollop of blandness and a side dish of same old same old". What kind of world do we live in where quality is not permitted to be commonplace?

Even if a blog is positive, it can occasionally attract a cliquey bride, whose description of her Big Day entails "we didn't want this... we didn't want that...", referring to all sorts of things that you can guarantee someone reading really wanted for their wedding day. There are practically competitions to see who can have the smallest wedding with the fewest attendants and the lowest budget, because clearly if you invite lots of people you're just trying to make up numbers and... the worst thing of all... "be something you're not". 

In two weeks time, I plan to brush my hair, put on a frickin' gorgeous dress and tell everybody in church just how much I love my man. That's not "me" - I'm a scruff; I'm such a nervous public speaker that I'm actually developing a stutter, and I never wear pale colours because I miss my mouth constantly. If someone is the same every other day as they are on their wedding day, then they're either a really exciting person, or it's a really boring wedding. I can just picture it - and now, Mr and Mrs C are now going to sit and watch Sons of Anarchy, while simultaneously IMDBing all the actors they sort-of recognise from somewhere else. (As an aside... Don't do that. Jackson is so hot until you realise he's actually English and that irritating boy with the mockney accent in Green Street. He has now left my fantasies forever).

Then there are the healthy/ethical foodies - the bloggers are the sweetest girls you will ever meet, but there are commenters who compete to be the most puritanical about their food. It conjures up in my mind the Two Ronnies and John Cleese sketch, only where John Cleese is the fruitarian, looking down on Ronnie Barker's vegan, who looks down on Ronnie Corbett's vegetarian.

Ever act like a bit of a slob when you're on holiday? One chap pipes up with "what a shame about your friends who eat dinner at 10pm, wake at noon, and eat pizza for breakfast... I feel sorry for them." No, really, don't. We love it.

I realise that I'm going to have to change my title to Becca Rants if I carry on down this vein much further, so I promise to perk up and live up to my original positivity purpose a bit better. In the meantime - I have resurrected my Twitter account! Please stop by and say hello - I am @littleacceb. Alternatively, leave your Twitter name below and I shall follow you!

Finally - I thought I'd share an old snap from Christmas 2004, of the place where my Dad currently is... Moraira, Spain. Lucky sod.

Type A or Type B?

Ok, ok, ok... I promise that random online quizzes won't continue to be a regular feature, but after reading Wife Lifey's post on Type A and Type B personalities, I just had to give this one a try. 

If you'd caught me at my Matilda-idolising stage, I'd have probably loved to be a Type A - I wanted to achieve; I wanted to be the best. My dream was to become a doctor at a hospital in Pittsburgh, because that's where all the poorly children on Newsround went to have amazing surgeries that would save their lives. I would discover a cure for lung cancer - "so that when you get it, I can cure you", I'd say to my Dunhill-scented parents. Along the way, I'd probably open a school for girls á la Mallory Towers with my best friend Sarah. Battling it out for first place in class was what I lived for.

Somewhere, it all went awry. I am not a doctor. University was a disaster - I struggled in class and really honed my exceptional skill of saying really, really inappropriate things when I'm nervous or intimidated. Chances are, if I've come across as a total a-hole to you at any stage, it's because I quite like you and hope to make you think well of me. Great, huh?

Since dropping out of university, I've sort of ambled through jobs, thankfully earning a so-far-beyond-useful professional qualification along the way. Seriously, I dread to think what my life would be like if I didn't have those four letters after my name. I have finally accepted that my heart just wasn't quite in the ambitious glass-ceiling lifestyle I felt I should be striving for. A couple of years in London mercifully ended in March, and I'm relishing the slowness of life.

I don't really know how to explain how wannabe-Matilda got lost along the way, but all I can think is that I just got too lazy. It turns out you can still have fun even if you're really quite average.

So... the results of the test - 0 means Type B personality; 100 means Type A. I got 52. Clearly Matilda's still battling, just a little. Their blurb...

"You seem to be in the middle between the Type A and Type B personality. In this case, the middle ground is good. Your attitude to life is more of the "smell the roses" kind and you know how and when to relax. Nonetheless, you realize that picking up a challenge and competing a little bit for your place in the sun can add some spice to your life. The equilibrium is important, so don't let your hostile, aggressive, and competitive alter ego take over too often. Generally, you are easy to be around, and people tend to feel relaxed and comfortable in your presence. Yours is a very healthy attitude towards life."

After being called a bit of a bimbo a few days ago, I feel quite relieved!

 As I don't like the "related posts" blank pics, here's a little eye candy. These are some gorgeous pups, one of which we are considering. Seriously, don't you just want to pick them all up and cuddle them at once?

What personality type do you think you are, and does the test say differently? What do you think of these online quizzes - are they potentially harmful, or just silly fun?

Ivory Brollies, Anyone?

According to legend, if it rains on St Swithin's Day, it will rain for the next forty days. This isn't just a folklore thing - there are scientific reasons that explain the superstition. Apparently, the position of the jet stream at this time of year means that weather suddenly becomes completely consistent for the next month or so. As I stare outside at the dreary, grey clouds, I have to remind myself of this gorgeous wedding and how fabulous those mean ol' clouds look.

Yes, the bottom of my perfect dress is likely to get muddy, and yes, we may be lumbered with a load of supposed-to-be-giant-but-actually-just-slightly-larger-than-usual games that haven't even been used, but sod it, we'll maintain that stiff upper lip and have a great time anyway. We are British after all - we've seen worse weather!

Typealyzed!

This is probably extremely silly, but after I saw this on The Church Mouse blog, I had to give it a try.

Typealyzer says that I, as a blogger, am an Entertainer

"The entertaining and friendly type. They are especially attuned to pleasure and beauty and like to fill their surroundings with soft fabrics, bright colors and sweet smells. They live in the present moment and don´t like to plan ahead - they are always in risk of exhausting themselves.

The enjoy work that makes them able to help other people in a concrete and visible way. They tend to avoid conflicts and rarely initiate confrontation - qualities that can make it hard for them in management positions."

I honestly don't know quite what to think. It seems that all the blogs I love are the same (weddings, lifestyle, wit and wisdom, design), or Doers (the healthy living ones), with only a minor interest in Thinkers (generally those of religious or political nature).

This really brought me back to school, if I'm honest. There were so many girls in my class who played the ditz in public, but were secretly working really hard and doing well. It used to drive me mad, because I was always competitive and didn't give a hoot if somebody wanted to call me a swot, so I didn't see why the other girls were playing up to their audience. Is this what I've been doing?

If you blog - what was your result? Do you think it was accurate?

Whether you blog or not - what do you think of girls dumbing down in front of the boys? Have you ever pretended to be a bit dappy?

Photography Gripes and Seeing Results!

One of my blogger faves - Nodakademic - posted this very informative post about what it's like to photograph a wedding.  Rather than totally hijack her post with my thoughts-in-general about the world of wedding photography, I thought I'd share over here!

Having watched our photographer in action at a wedding recently, I have no doubt that it's a physically and emotionally tiring job. He was wearing a pair of North Face-type shoes, which my fiancé (his friend) commented were rather scruffy for a wedding, until he started leaping almost ninja-like from rock, to bench, to bit of ruined castle, all to get the perfect shot, without getting in the way of anyone.

The niggle that I do have about wedding photography is why photographers aren't more straightforward with their charging methods. When someone quotes me £1500 for a fancy album that I don't want, or £3000 for the jpegs as they don't want the quality of their work to be compromised by cheap printing or online sharing, it's hard not to be really confused about what exactly the role of a wedding photographer is.

Our wedding is not a piece of art, it's a day from which we'd like visual mementoes, and we don't want to have to rely on friends/family members (like we would at a regular party) to give up their party time - so we hire a photographer. We want them to have photography skills, an inquisitive nature, and a keen eye for detail.

That's where the first issue arises - with the increased popularity of recreational photography, there are more and more alleged professionals popping up with no more skill than I have with a camera.

While the improved accessibility is wonderful, and competition is healthy, the fact that these lower-skilled photographers are charging as much as the good ones is just not on. We, the laymen, are not always equipt to make the best decision regarding photography - we may naively fall in love with the details of a wedding and confuse that with good photography; a good-looking couple can also sway us; and the number of photographers peddling tales of celebrity clients is amazing. I know it's all a case of caveat emptor, but the accountant in me is just crying out for industry regulation!

My dream photographer? Someone who says "I'm going to be with you for X hours; travelling for Y hours; processing for Z hours. My hourly rate for onsite work is £A; my hourly rate for travelling is £B and my hourly rate for processing work is £C." They then charge for products at cost plus mark-up, like a regular business does.

I'd be happy to pay a handsome hourly rate to get exactly what I want - nothing more, nothing less. Good photography is a great skill, and it should be rewarded - but an industry where there is such emotion attached - it is rare to hear a bride confess that the photographer had been "just ok" - and where repeat custom is almost non-existent, I'm not sure that fair rewards are being paid.

I'm currently in negotiations with a boudoir photography company (I shall report more later!) who charged £50 for an hour-long shoot including five minutes with a make-up artist, and one 5" by 7" print. The next level up is four 5" by 7" prints, for £250! Not only were there not four that I *loved*, but this is a gift for the groom - but having already bought him a beautiful watch, I'm really not planning on spending even more. We've got a wedding to pay for, after all! 

I offered them a further £75 for a second print - there are two that I love - but they declined, saying that they felt their packages provided good value. Um... Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't buying more than you want kind of go against the principles of good value? Sort of why I'm not allowed to fill my trolley with the 10p-a-punnet tomatoes that are just about to go off. 

So, I'm just sticking with one photo. For the cost they have incurred providing the photographer and the make-up artist, not to mention the overheads -  a pretty studio; hefty marketing; two reception staff - they are reaping a total of £50, simply because they didn't want to compromise. And for the baby bump picture I was planning in the future? I'll be looking elsewhere.

Couldn't just leave you without sharing a pic of my super-slummy lunch! Half a vegetarian lasagne from Sainsbury's; brussels sprouts and spring greens, all on a tasty corn tortilla with lashings of extra virgin olive oil. 

Here's a little story about EVOO, as the food bloggers call it: some time ago, I read an article in goodness-only-knows-what magazine, but a chef who said that you should never use EVOO for cooking, because it loses its flavour - only ever for dressings and such. It was one of those things like saying "hippopotami" or naming your child after a celebrity - people do it to appear refined, but actually show themselves to be less so than if they hadn't tried in the first place. Well... Ha! Mr Snooty Chef. Call me unrefined, but I think that EVOO tastes delicious when used in cooking, and I definitely notice that it tastes fruitier than normal olive oil.

As a result of this discovery, I have decided that any calories I have left over at the end of the day (according to my beloved MyNetDiary app) will be used in a big ol' drizzle of olive oil in my supper. It makes even the diet-iest of meals taste like a treat - and the presence of good fats means that my body isn't going to freak out that I'm eating less and exercising more.

So... I should probably share some of my results thus far - 

Whoop! The dotty line is what the scales say; the solid line is the TrueWeight smoothing out. And... The dress is fully zipping up!! Relief. Now I can just get back to slow and steady health-improvement.

As an aside - I apologise if anyone felt that my use of actual monetary figures was a little crass - I just felt that quantities were necessary to make the illustration. x

The Wonderful World of Wedding Blogs

We are in the thick of planning our wedding for August this year - terrifying how quickly it's sneaking up! - and the most useful tool throughout the process has been wedding blogs. In a world where publishers put out one magazine every two months for £5 a pop and more than half-fill them with adverts, the online community hits back and produces something, frankly better!

I stumbled upon this inspiring and heart-warming post on one of my favourite wedding blogs, Love My Dress and thought I'd share some of the sites (and their posts!) that are helping us make our wedding everything we dreamt it would be!

Savvy Chic Weddings - Becca in Wonderland

My dear friend, Steph was kind enough to put together a mood board for me on her wedding blog, which features all the style and sophistication of New England, along with so many excellent tips and hints on how to plan your big day!

Rock My Wedding - Sponsor... Liberty in Love Accessory Boutique

I have been searching high and low for the perfect necklace to complement my gorgeous, low-backed dress, and everything I found was just too flimsy or - let's face it - a little too Ivanka Trump's wedding budget rather than mine! Rock My Wedding introduced me to the gorgeous Liberty in Love website, where I fell head-over-heels for the Hayworth Vintage Necklace *sigh*.


Style Me Pretty

The Big Daddy of all wedding blogs, this American blog has inspiration in buckets - fully searchable, and oh-so-stylish. I couldn't possibly isolate one article, so I've just linked to the lovely Abby's page.


Happy reading!!

Disney Food Blog Cross-Sections

Those of us who know and love Walt Disney World shudder when they hear "But I couldn't go on holiday and just live on burgers and chips!" We know all about the top-quality steaks, fresh and flavoursome seafood, and extensive wine cellars, but there's no harm in indulging in a little junk every now and then.

AJ over at Disney Food Blog provides excellent reviews of restaurants and food events all the time, but the thing that truly sets it apart and gets me through these lettuce-laden pre-wedding times is this...

Ohhhh... Yes. Not only does AJ write about and photograph some of the most nommy naughtiness around, but she actually cuts them in half and shows us the gooey, sugary innards. Yum! Above is the White Chocolate Chip Brownie, available at Disney's Hollywood Studios' Starring Rolls Café.

For those who love the kitschness of American chocolate bars, this one is a treat - the Butterfinger Cupcake, again from Starring Rolls. Would you like some cupcake with your two kinds of butter icing?

If all this sweetness is starting to give you toothache, here's a savoury number from Disneyland's Naples Restaurant, part of the same restaurant group as the hotly-anticipated Via Napoli in Epcot's Italy. The Arancini with red pepper dip is like nothing I've ever seen before, and I definitely plan to try that creamy, cheesy, crispiness when we're on our honeymoon!

Carrying on down the peanut butter route... How gorgeous does this look? It's a Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcake, again from the legendary Starring Rolls Café.

Next up - the German Chocolate Cookie, in all its glorious coconutty goodness. Yes, that's a word. Contrary to popular belief, German Chocolate Cake, this inspiration for this cookie, actually has nothing to do with Germany. It is named after Samuel German, the Englishman who created the chocolate used in the recipe, which was thought to originate in the American South. This beast of a cookie can be found at Goofy's Candy Company, and - between you and me - I think it kind of explains the shop's proprietor's quirky smile!

Would you believe that I've actually lost weight on every single trip to Disney World? Something about clocking up 20,000 plus steps every day, I'm sure!

Big thanks to AJ - all photos were used with written permission from Disney Food Blog. For more yumminess and great food reviews, check out DisneyFoodBlog.com