So, I’ve been planning this post since I bought the outfit, thinking it was for our two year anniversary date, however that night turned into our engagement too, which seems like even more reason to blog it!
My lovely other half gave me £30 to go shopping for a brand new dress ready for a surprise night. I took my lovely mother-in-law-to-be, Pam to help me as I can get pretty demotivated shopping at times. We headed into Southport with no real idea of what we were looking for. My initial idea was to go for something sexy and sophisticated, a look I do very rarely as I am kind of a dork. No where seemed to have anything we liked! I’m too short for maxi dresses and I didn’t want anything that would cling to my tummy incase IBS struck and I got a case of the bloats. I didn’t really want the top of my arms out because I’m trying to tone them up, so really, our options were limited. I was stuck in a weird limbo, some of the clothes were too ‘young’ for me; they were aimed at teenage girls whose metabolisms and hormones meant that they didn’t have anything to hide. Other stuff was far too frumpy and had the potential to make me look in my forties – not ideal!
After trying several obvious stores, we headed to Peacocks – good ol’ Peacocks! Straight away we found some dresses that were actually dresses – Yay! 
This is the first dress Pam picked up. I wasn’t sure of it on the hanger, it didn’t look very ‘special occasion’, but when I put it on, it had a lovely fit and I actually really liked it. I think I would buy it for a holiday, or for a day dress, but it just wasn’t right for this occasion.
I was really disappointed with this dress because I LOVE the print and the shape but it just looked very frumpy on me. I think it was the fact that it was quite a long dress which tends to make my legs look very stumpy. Also, I must apologise for my socks, I’m a disaster.
Finally we tried this one, and I fell in love. I think the print makes me look a little bigger than the first dress, but I decided to embrace the curves. I love this pattern and the length was much better. It has some beautiful, dainty little buttons on the front and ties at the back to give a nice fit. I just loved everything about it and I felt nice in it. Granted, it certainly wasn’t the ‘sexy’ look I had planned for, but I felt pretty in it and a lot more comfortable so this was the one! It was £16 which we were pretty happy with as it gave us some cash left over for some accessories.
We also bought this lovely little cardigan for £12, also Peacocks. It’s lace and really sweet, and meant I felt a bit warmer and more comfortable. They only had one in the size above mine, but I think it actually worked best that way as it covered more.
I teamed it with some new heels from Shoe Zone, as we had spent forever trying to find some nice, quite low heels in a neutral colour. Everything seems to be neon and incredibly high! The shoes were supposed to be £5 but the guy gave s a cheeky discount as there was a tiny mark on the heel of one of them.
I grabbed this lovely little bag from Primark for about £3, as I’m a big bad kinda gal usually. I rocked this white rose choker that I bought last summer at a craft fair. I also had a little set of pearl beads on my wrist. I think the colours all worked together and looked pretty classy if I do say so myself!
I curled my hair, although thanks to the rain it didn’t stay curled for too long, and just had simple red lipstick and black winged eyeliner. I had a little band in my hair with gold flowers on which was nice, but subtle. I was pretty proud of the outfit (although my feet didn’t like the shoes!) and Steven told me he thought I looked lovely. Unfortunately, as we were outside in the rain, the outfit was wrapped under a blanket for a lot of the night, but still! The dress would be perfect for a summer wedding I think and I can’t wait to wear it again! Not bad for £30!
