Wedding Photo Swop in high resolution for printing.

We've attended two weddings this year already, our 3rd is in October and we have one more planned for September 2019.

The weddings so far have been that of our eldest son and best friends. It’s the turn of our niece in October and our 2^ndyoungest son next September.

With family and friends living around the world and not everyone being able to attend, it’s rare for us all to be together at any family event. When one family member is unable to attend we still want to make them feel part of the event, even if they can’t physically be there. 

So when I heard about Wedding Photo Swap I decided to take a look. It allows you to create your own personalised space in an app where guests can share the photo's they have taken on your wedding day. Once you have downloaded the app you can email your guests or send them the link with the invite. 

Although a professional photographer has been at both the weddings to date, they spend the time with the Bride in the morning as she gets ready and arrives at the church. With the app we would be able to upload the photos taken of our son when he arrived at the church and for the second wedding, the Groom stayed with my husband and I the night before, we would be able to take and share photos of him and his best man getting ready also.

With the official photographer leaving the venue after the cake has been cut and the first dance, it’s a lovely way to have un staged moments of evening only guests and friends and family snapping away catching those other ‘unseen’ moments that the Bride and Groom often miss.

Wedding Photo Swop allows guests to share their photos from your wedding with everyone else and they are saved in high resolution for you to download and print. 

What I particularly like is that photos can be shared for those who can’t attend allowing them to still be part of the day but not posted online until the Bride and Groom decide to share their pictures of their big day.

For the last two weddings we’ve attended we’ve shared the photos we took with the Bride and Groom via face book, but the quality is affected when it comes to the Bride and Groom wanting to print any photo’s out. With the app the photos are saved in high resolution. 

Photos can then either be downloaded or edited and printed directly from your phone and they can be uploaded as the day unfolds rather than sending 100’s of photos via face book in the following days, as I’ve been doing for the past two weddings.

I certainly will be passing this on to my niece for her wedding in October and my other son for his next year.

It would also be a good app to use at hen and stag parties and who knows? Christenings in the future.

This is a collaborative post.

Injecting some colour into my life and trying new things in Dubai

I joined the local leisure centre. By local I mean it takes me 3 minutes to walk there, by crossing the road at the end of our garden.

There's an outdoor pool and a gym (as yet unexplored) and a cafe (as yet open when I've been there) 

There are plenty of sun beds and umbrellas for shade and the pools temperature is controlled, perfect for the hot summer months.

It takes an hour out of my day to go for a swim and is already after a week benefiting my health, I can feel I have a lot more movement in my neck and shoulders already.

I used to belong to a gym in South Africa and used it most days and we had a decent sized pool in the garden, but gym membership in Dubai is very expensive and as I now spend half the year in the UK, it hasn't been worth it. This gym costs £400 a year and for a small fee I can take visitors with me.

I've also inquired about attending some sewing classes and have finally got round to taking my sewing machine and over locker in for service and minor repairs. I did a lot of sewing in South Africa, making bags and bunting that I sold for charity to raise funds for educational supplies, but since moving to Dubai, there's a ban on fundraising and even advertising charities unless they're registered with the UAE Government, so all my stuff has been gathering dust, but my plan now is to get back into the swing of making things to sell over in the UK when I'm there.

Having spent most of 2017 in the UK I was living in Jeans and t-shirts, I was in the UK in February and March for a month also during the snow and wore so many layers I could hardly move. It's nice to be back in Dubai for some warmer weather, sadly it will be too hot soon to enjoy the outside (other than using the pool over the road) but by the time the heat kicks in at 45c I'll be back in the UK for summer and I've decided I need to revamp my wardrobe.

Peter and I have 3 weddings this year in the UK. Our eldest son is getting married, Peter is best man at another, both in the summer and Peter's niece is getting married in the autumn which is going to be a casual affair.

I must say the last wedding excites me the most. No pressure on what we wear, attending as guests only with no responsibilities. For the first two weddings Peter is wearing suit hire and forms part of the Groom party with formal wear, it's not stressing me out what I'm wearing but I do feel a little out on my own when it comes to my choice of outfit, particularly with our son's wedding as I have to avoid the brides colours (red and yellow) and avoid clashing with the Bride's Mother (still don't know what she's wearing either)

Due to ill health over the past year, I've lost a bit of weight, as in I'm now back to the weight I was a few years ago, which means I've been able to wear so many more of my favourite dresses I've hung onto and I've had fun buying new outfits for the upcoming weddings, all of which are suitable for the occasions and for day to day wear in Dubai for popping to the malls, out for brunch or dinner.

I do need to invest in some new underwear and sort through my accessories

Dresses I've been wearing around Dubai and upping my expat game. It's so much easier to wear dresses in Dubai, teamed with a pair of sandals and I'm good to go. No need for jackets, coats or sensible shoes in case it rains over here.

Dress - Jasper Conran

Dress - Mr Price, South Africa

Gap

Dresses I've purchased for the weddings, as yet undecided what I'll wear for which yet and I'll need jackets and a hat and possible water proofs although the first two are summer weddings, they are both in the UK. Shoes are already sorted.

Jacques Vert

The Collection at Debenhams

Debut

M & Co

Dress Sea Salt, Jacket Quiz for the Autumn Wedding, need shoes but have yellow Hunter wellies should it be wet as the reception is in a barn.

However the dress I'm looking forward to wearing the most is this one, but I'm not sure for what occasion it is best suited, but we do have brunch this Friday.

Cheryl Arthur - South Africa

Preparing for the teenage invasion

The 16 year old arrives in Dubai tomorrow from the UK for 30 days, that’s a whole month.

The teen lives with neither parent, in fact he doesn’t even live in a conventional family, he lives in boarding school, where people are paid to care for him including his washing and ironing. They act as his alarm clock, they tell him to wash, tidy his room, do his homework and he complies…why? Because of peer pressure.

He didn’t behave like that at home; everything was a constant battle, mind you to be fair, since the age of 7 he only lived at home for 2 and a half years and that was when we lived in South Africa.

This is his first trip to Dubai in the summer, he found it too hot over Easter and the temps were at least 10c cooler.

He’s sent a list of demands prior to his visit, sadly this house isn’t viewed as home, it’s the Parent’s home, but not the kids home, even though the 2 youngest moved with us from South Africa to Dubai so they could be part of the experience, but sadly due to the company not sorting out the visas in time, they stayed in hotels with us rather than living in the house for a month before returning to the UK.

His demands are as follows:

Wifi in his bedroom and it must be wireless

Air con that he can leave on 24/7 if he wants to

 Tickets to see Adam Savage in Mythbusters in Abu Dhabi on August 14^th

Unlimited cold drinks

A Sunday Roast every weekend

Ice pops

We’ll happily comply with all the above, I’m cooking a roast for tomorrow evening, the water cooler has been refreshed, tickets for Adam Savage have been purchased, the air con is on 24/7 anyway, but shhhhh don’t tell him that.

I’ve not given him my list of demands yet, although I did ask him if he'll come to the desert with me to let the dog play and accompany me to the Aquarium which he's agreed to willingly.

I’m not actually bothered about whether he washes, what time he sleeps till or what he wears. Although I have been out and bought toiletries, clothes and beach gear as he never packs it. His last trip here he packed all his school books, a winter coat, 2 jumpers, 3 pairs of pants and a couple of odd socks.

It’s just going to be nice to have him home.