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Category: wedding

Food Review: The Fox & Hounds, Walton | QueenBeady

We found ourselves at our local pub on Saturday night celebrating 4 weeks of marriage (we so weren’t, it was just an absolute coincidence!)

The Fox & Hounds, Walton provided the food at our wedding and they did not disappoint at all. Some family members have travelled some distances since our big day to try the other fairings that our lovely pub can offer. I assure you it is worth it.

The pub is ran by brothers Alan & Gareth and has also been nominated for an “Olivier Award”.

The pub itself is a typical countryside drinking house & even with it’s own resident stuffed fox called Basil. It offers all quirks and charms than what meets the eye.

All produce is locally sourced and cooked lovingly by chefs. Alan & Gareth often roll up their sleeves!

On arrival we were greeted like you would be at your local pub. First term names exchange are always nice & make it feel a little bit special. Or lovingly greeted as, Mr & Mrs Clayton (yes. I know I keep banging on about it but its just so exciting!)

We ordered a pint & a half of Becks Vier to set the tone. They even serve prosecco by the glass which is lethal for me, however I opted for a beer!

The Fox & Hounds has a FABULOUS offer – 2 courses for £10! That runs Monday – Saturday (Friday & Saturday you are required to be sat before 6.30pm). They decided that they could do slightly smaller portions at a reasonable price which is just fab!

After scrutinising the menu, they had changed the options and I hadn’t seen this menu before. I opted for mussels in a garlic & white wine sauce (my favourite starter!) and Mr C decided on the roasted parsnip soup. My starter was fabulous, plenty of sauce to scoop the mussels up with. James enjoyed his soup, the only criticism was that it was just a little salty! They don’t need to ver indulge in the salt & pepper here as everything is just so tasty and fresh.

There was a little bit of a wait between courses but Alan always wants to make sure that the food is hot & cooked to perfection. It was quite nice to just sit and chat without feeling rushed.

When our meals came we were pretty happy with our choices. They always manage to make it look so good (as well as tasty!)

James went for fish & chips, which he proclaimed that they were better than our firm favourite fish and chip takeaway! So that was a bold statement, it came with home cut chips, mushy peas and tartare sauce.

I’m a burger fiend. Everytime we I out I am drawn to a burger. I just love the bread, meat & cheese combo. It’s a winner everytime.

I ordered my burger medium (after much deliberation) & it came perfectly. My burger came with homemade chips & salad. The chips were just to die for. So deliciously scrumptious! The burger was nice, however, a little on the greasy side. To say the portions were meant to be on the smaller side, I was so full! I could not eat all of it.

After a little wait & ever the greedy guzzler I am I decided that I would have a desert. Warm chocolate brownie with vanilla ice cream. HEAVEN ABOVE. This is quite frankly the BEST desert I have ever eaten. It just melts in your mouth and tastes dream like. I managed all but one mouthful & writing this now is making me wish I had eaten the lot! Even if it had have killed me.

If you are ever in the area & want a delicious meal that won’t set you back then I would thoroughly suggest visiting The Fox & Hounds in Walton because you won’t be disappointed.

The Bill
1 & a half glasses of Becks Vier
Roasted Parsnip Soup
Mussels in white wine sauce
Fish & chips
Beefburger & chips
Chocolate brownie and vanilla ice cream
TOTAL £30.80

Rebecca xxx

July 7, 2014
The Wedding Diaries: The Little Details | QueenBeady

It’s the little details that mean a lot to me at weddings. I want to feel like I am taking a glimpse in to the Bride & Grooms life. Our special day was no exception.

James family are die hard farmers, we rear chickens and love the outdoors. So what was more fitting than a ‘’Countryfied’’ Wedding. My family are very crafty and creative so it was even better that there was so many home spun features on our big day.

The old potato chitting trays welcomed our guests on arrival. Despite the rain we managed to get the ‘’Mr & Mrs Clayton’s Wedding This Way’’ Sign out so everyone knew where they were going.

I think everyone was shocked when they walked in to the hall and saw just how amazing it was and how much love had gone in to decking it out. I have always imagined what peoples faces would be like when they opened their invites & saw that we were having our wedding reception in a village hall.

We managed to get a lovely shot the day before of the venue before chaos ensued. I’m sure you will agree it look PRETTY amazing, if I don’t mind saying so myself.

My mum sewed plenty of bunting to wrap around a few of the tables, like the top table and the Cake/Photo/Post Box table. It gave it just that extra pizzazz (is that even a word, it hasn’t got a squiggly red line under it?!) of colour to compliment the ivory marquee lining.

The ‘’Mr & Mrs’’ on the top table was a Hobby Craft special & so was the red post box that Mr C and I painted at his work. My mum paper mache’d the ‘’Mr & Mrs’’ too, she is so super clever!

The napkins are from the Cath Kidston sale that I picked up right when we got engaged so we have always known that this was the type of wedding we were going for

The centre pieces & flowers were very natural and country garden style. We didn’t want a huge centrepiece on the tables that people could not see one another! The ceramic jugs were an ebay find, we had lovely duck egg blue, blush pink and cream jugs. Each Table was different. We were a little boring with the table numbers and stuck to ‘’1, 2, 3’’ (you get the picture!) but we bought so cute chalk board table number stands which looked great!

I loved our little place settings, simple brown luggage labels that my mum decorated with doilies and the ‘’Mr & Mrs’’ ribbon. It was so simple but so effective. And I love how ours said Mr & Mrs Clayton on them!

Because we didn’t have ‘’favours’’ as such we created buckets for the children at the wedding that had sweets, magazines, colouring pen and pencils. One even had a set of fake moustaches which went down a treat! It kept the children happy during the speeches and throughout the meal and it was something we were so happy that we did. Thanks to my super Aunty Kate!

Like I said, we didn’t have favours so instead we opted for a cute Kandy Kart that kept guests entertained all day/night, rather than taking something home that they were going to stuff in a cupboard to never see again or, throw in the bin and never see again. Plus, it was a nice talking point for people to have a laugh & a joke about how many sweets they were getting.
Donna was fabulous & even sourced some material that matched the bridesmaid dresses. How’s that for service?
We got to choose 10 different types of sweets and we also got to keep what was left. So, we are currently wading our way through LOTS of sweets!

Our beloved ‘’R & J’’. I had seen these all over pinterest and thought, ‘’I HAVE TO HAVE THEM’’ and so I did. My uncle is super talented as he is a joiner by trade. I asked him nicely if he would mind doing them for us and he made sure they were perfect! They looked amazing when the lights were turned off. Again, it just added that extra little sparkle to our wedding!

Now, let me bring you on to the food. It was to die for! When we decided on a DIY wedding the first people we thought of were our local pub, The Fox & Hounds. Their food is amazing, delicious and locally sourced. They did not disappoint with their fairings.

The Chicken Liver Parfait is my particular favourite starter, add that to the succulently warm olive bread you have a winning combination.

Now, with James’ family mainly all farmers, meat is something of a task to them when they aren’t eating their own field fodder. So it was a welcome surprise that they were all saying it was some of the best beef they have EVER tasted.

Food was so important to us, because most weddings you go to, the food is just ‘’okay’’ and you want to feel full. I hate to blow our own trumpet but I think we got it spot on, 100% with the caterers, so a MASSIVE thank you to Alan and his team.

What made your day feel special and set you apart from other weddings you’ve been to? I can’t wait to bring you our other instalments of the big day, it is keeping the memory alive for me.

Rebecca

Images taken by Jenny Prest Photography

July 6, 2014
The Wedding Diaries: The Choo’s | QueenBeady

The Choo’s. Sorry, I mean the shoes. Yes, my beloved Jimmy Choo’s.

It’s every little girls dream to wear a pair of knock out shoes on their big day, right? Well I was no exception to the rule. However, I had resigned myself to the fact it was never going to happen with our tight and limited budget. I could not have been more wrong.

One day I was browsing my trusty eBay, when I decided to randomly search ‘’Jimmy Choo’s Size 5’’ and they pinged up on my screen as if someone was looking down on me and show me the most beautifulest shoes known to man. I looked at the price tag and decided that I shouldn’t look any further, leaving it way past the ending date. But, I just could not get them off my mind. So I scrambled back to the sellers page and noticed they had not sold so I took a gamble and contacted the seller and explained that I was madly in love with the shoes and I wanted them for my wedding day.

I could not have asked for a more lovelier lady. She had got married the previous year and knew how hard it had been to save and the reason she was selling them was because she worked for Net A Porter and had bought them in a flash staff sale. She then knocked me £50 off the asking price. I think I actually may have fallen to my knee’s that day and thanked my lucky stars and whatever magnificent being was looking down on me that very moment! I had the dream shoes.

The story then get’s better. They fit. Like a glove. Almost like the enchanted tale of the Cinderella ‘’who shall go to the ball’’ kind of fit.

What were your wedding shoes like? Did you feel like a Princess when you wore them, like I did?

Rebecca xxx

Images taken by Jenny Prest Photography

July 5, 2014
The Wedding Diaries: The Cake | QueenBeady

I thought the best way to bring you a snap shot of our special wedding day would be to do short, little blog posts to let you in on some of the special moments of our big day.

The Cake was truly magnificent. It was everything I had hope for and more. My Aunty Kate was fabulous as she knew exactly the right person to go to for obligatory wedding cake. The very talented Amy from The Cakery whipped up our 3 tier cake, the bottom cake was a rich, dark fruit cake, the middle tier was a simple, quintessential Victoria Sponge and the top tier was a deliciously gooey chocolate cake! We had the best of all different cake flavoured worlds. It was finished with a beautiful, blue buttercream which tasted divine!

You can see that the time and effort spent on this was quite simply a testament to Amy’s hard work. Everyone loved how it captured our whimsical theme.

The cake stand was made by my amazing Uncle who also helped with a few of the other DIY projects we wanted for the wedding and they will follow in another post.

My Mum is a super crafter and she created the gold, glitter bunting for the cake topper. We loved the ‘’Mr & Mrs’’ theme and thought this was much more ‘’us’’ than a traditional Bride & Groom on top!

So, what did you have on your wedding day for a cake? Was it as cute as ours? I’d love to hear from any other Brides who might be falling in to the ‘’Post wedding blues’’ stage like I am so we can just chat merrily about Wedding’s all day long. That is a plea, a request and a downright beg for someone to help!!!

Rebecca xxx

Images taken by Jenny Prest Photography

July 4, 2014
What’s in my Handbag | QueenBeady

I thought I would do something slightly different for my last post of June 2014. It is another little delve in to my life & what I carry around with me on a day to day basis.

Those of you who follow my blog/twitter/Instagram account will know my love for my Zara City Shopper Bag is my go to bag for all occasions (she is just so pwetty!) but I have now found myself using my gorgeous, new, Italian leather vintage style padded handbag.

She cost me €65 from Gloves in the centre of Sorrento, Italy and was my only purchase on our honeymoon. Yes, she is a total rip off of a vintage Chanel handbag but she’s real leather so who cares that it ain’t the real deal.

So what’s hiding in there? I hear you ask. Well, not a lot but it has just the right amount of space so I don’t go crazy and clog it up with crap/receipts or anything remotely useless. She just has the bare essentials.

I’m a fan of lashes. Yes, totally fake. I know. So when my real eyelashes don’t have the glue and fakeness attached my go to mascara is Maybelline Great Lashes in Very Black. I love how it’s not clumpy and suits my delicate little (real) lashes! Easy application and always even.

Ahh, my Yves Saint Laurent waterproof eyeliner. Perfect for those days you just want to cry or like me, rub your eyes until they bleed because of blasted hayfever! It’s a right buggar to get off but at least you know that it’s going to last you all night.

Who doesn’t like a bit of rouge? Ok, put your hands down. This one is my go to lipstick if I want to stand out from the crowd. It’s not that deep red you’d expect, it is positively WOW! From YSL range it’s no.13 and it makes me feel like I should be dancing on the streets of Paris when I wear this!

My sweet & very flowery perfume is Carcachel’s Amor Amor. This is my signature scent. If you asked someone what I smelt of, this would be it. I wear it to death but I can never get enough of it, it’s fresh and lasts forever. I can’t stand a perfume that disappears within minutes. I want to smell good, all the time. Plus, this one does not break the bank balance. For a 30ml you can find it anywhere between £12-£15 on the high street.

My sunglasses were a last minute airport but before our honeymoon as I had forgotten to bring my Zara sunglasses along! And at £10 they were a real steal (plus a 20% sale discount!) I really struggle to find glasses that suit me because I have such a small pea head. I was lucky with these bad boys.

Last but not least, my trust diary. This year has been one of more hectic times. With the wedding I needed to make sure I had key dates to hand at all time. I could’ve chosen a better diary but limited funds meant I had to opt for a supermarket £1er. She’s battered & bruised but an absolute life saver! Next year I will treat myself to a pretty one from paperchase I think.

What’s in your handbag?

Oh, you may have noticed that I have finally got my own domain name so please search for www.queenbeady.com for all my regular posts!

Rebecca xxx

June 30, 2014