Morning lovelies! Just two days to go until the b.party, and it’s a hive of activity at b.loved HQ with ribbons and sparkle galore!  We can’t wait to reveal all… but until then we’re still serving up your daily dose of inspiration!

Up today is this super pretty engagement shoot from Katy Lunsford!  It’s not the first picnic shoot I’ve featured on b.loved, but I’ll never tire of them!  I adore the soft pastel colours and gorgeous light Katy has captured.  Fillapa picked the cutest outfit, a white sundress and floppy hat, while Darren’s laid back style suits the setting perfectly. Grab a rug and a bottle of champagne, and let’s celebrate!

Darren and I met on a kwik cricket course for school. I was PE link teacher at the time and Darren worked for the football club. After the course Darren passed me his business card as he wanted to book in some ‘meetings’. As is often the case in schools, we didn’t have the funding available to have Darren in for coaching. But eventually Darren offered our school some free training for our pupils so immediately I said yes. From the first meeting onwards, we booked meetings for the sake of meeting, ha! And the rest went from there…

A couple of years a go I had a (shall we say) big birthday and Darren surprised me and took me to New York! Feeling extremely lucky about my surprise trip, I never even considered that there would be more to come. The day Darren proposed we went on an open top bus tour, where Darren insisted I sat in the window seat (we would normally race for this, hehe). Later we went up the Empire State Building and Darren took a considerable time getting through security. In retrospect, I probably should have thought something was going on but I was far too caught up in the buzz of the Big Apple. Towards the end of the day we had lunch in the Boathouse in Central Park, food, service and setting were exceptional and we were running slightly late for the Lion King Show but Darren took his time, dragging his feet through the park. I couldn’t understand why, and then to my slight annoyance he wanted to have a ‘photograph’ on this pretty stone area with a lovely back drop. When I turned around, Darren was on his knee with the most beautiful engagement ring and a look of excitement and trepidation on his face. He didn’t need to take me to New York, I would have always said yes! It was a true New York Fairytale!

As a result of our New York engagement, we decided to combine elements of the big city and one of my favourite fashion eras ‘Art Deco’ to style our wedding. Also, when planning our day, we tried to incorporate touches of our personalities, interests and our chosen ‘theme’.