16) Be a Bridesmaid

Bonjour,

I thought I'd do a mini update on my past week as it involved another item on my list.. Number 16 to be precise.

Did you ever have a friend at school that you knew would be the perfect bride? I did... her name was (and still is) Jennifer Hanson. An incredibly intelligent and beautiful lady who I knew would succeed in life.. and she's not yet proved me wrong!

I've known Jen since she was 11. I can't say we got off to a great start, as she was dating Joseph C ... who at the time was a bit of a God, and I was rather jealous. We must also bear in mind that I was a bit of a tragedy until the age of about 18... so was often jealous of anyone who managed to get a boy to go near them. However, once that fizzled out we became rather good friends. Jen lived on one side of Halifax, and I on the other.. and we would often show up unannounced at one of the two houses and stay the night, much to our parents' bemusement. I can safely say I had as many good times in the Hanson household as I did in my own growing up, what a lovely bunch..

We parted ways for University as Jen learnt how to teach, and I learnt how to use Babelfish to translate English to French! This involves a few blurry years of ups and downs and ins and outs.. boys, stress, and giggles.. with the occasional reunion oop North.

Having finished uni Jen went on to put a deposit on a lovely little house and is doing an amazing job as a Primary School Teacher. I often wish I could revert back to my youth so I could go and be taught by Miss Hanson (especially having seen the mini crisp packets she's turned into keyrings, genius!).

Along the way she met Alex... tall? Check. Dark? Check. Handsome? Check... she's got them all ticked off the list, and what a lovely man he is indeed. So much so that he's taken his life into his own hands and asked Miss Hanson to be his Mrs Mutch.. brave man! (I jest, of course, he is very lucky indeed!).

FYI - Where did he make such a proposal? Only in bloody Egypt, *swoon*.

So who was delightfully surprised to receive a phonecall informing me of thus engagement and asking me to be a bridesmaid? Oh hello .. me!! In July 2010 I will officially be walking down the aisle.. at Jen's wedding as one of three Bridesmaids, I cannot wait!

So much so that I had my first fitting this weekend oop north with the Hanson clan.. which proved great fun as the dress I tried was a thousand times too big.. but having stuck in a few pins - hey presto, I'm a princess!

Absolutely GORGEOUS dresses, I finally get to look like a grown up, shocking eh? Was a tad disappointed that I didn't get to see Jen's dress.. but it's all a bit top secret til the day... dum dum dum..

So there we have it.. stage one towards crossing off Number 16... and I couldn't think of a lovelier couple to do it for.

More updates to follow.. xxx