Chatting with Ana Rose O'Neil

0:06 Thank you for joining Let’s Talk Weddings with your Scottish wedding. I’m so excited to be here today and I’ll be

0:14 your host, Lesley Traynor. Our guest is the wonderful, the beautiful, the extraordinaire. Um, it’s the one and only Ana Rose O’Neil.

0:25 Thank you so much.

0:27 Thank you for joining us. So excited to be here. Really? Yeah.

0:30 I don’t think you’re as excited as I am excited. How have you been?

0:35 I’ve been really good. I have loved every single moment of planning this wedding. And to talk about it with you today is just brilliant.

0:42 And we should probably say actually that you’re getting married. Yes. That’s very important.

0:47 You’re getting married. You’re in the magazine.

0:49 Yay. And the May issue is just out. What was it like to be in a magazine?

0:54 Oh, hilarious. Yeah. when it came through the door, you tell your friends and family, but I don’t think they quite believe you until it comes in. And yeah, just seeing it and it’s something that we can keep forever as well.

1:05 Isn’t it? It’s just a really nice keepsake, isn’t it, of your journey. So, you’re going to be obviously in you’re in the May issue. You’re going to be in

1:13 September and then January cuz you get married. When do you get married?

1:16 December. December 19th Christmas wedding. And to be honest, I think that’s a good perfect time because all the festivities and then you can keep it going for a long time.

1:26 It be so cute. It’ll be I can’t wait actually to feature it in the magazine. It’s going to be incredible. It’ll be brilliant.

1:33 Absolutely. Yeah. So, obviously we’re going to chat today about your journey.

1:39 Um you’ve been on TikTok, which is where I found you. I know. Um and and then obviously you were getting married and I

1:46 just thought we have to have this beautiful individual um cuz you’re beautiful inside and out um just in the

1:54 magazine and and now on our podcast. So yes. So um just tell us a we bit about your background like obviously you’re on

2:02 Tik Tok and that’s kind of where we found you but just tell us your journey like so journey um I mean Tik Tok I only

2:11 started in the December and my friends and family were saying so I used to sing that’s probably where to start right I used to do singing when I was younger

2:19 and I’m opera and classically trained and I loved doing it yeah but I stopped confidence when I was getting older I just didn’t have the confidence to keep going into a very

2:28 corporate route with my work and stopped doing the creative fun things that I love to do.

2:34 So in December of last year, my friend said just start singing again, start documenting the wedding. And I thought, why not? You know, to think about it, it

2:43 can be daunting to do, but once you get started, it’s been the best journey.

2:49 So I posted the first two Tik Toks of come along with me to the wedding, let’s do our wedding tasting, and we brought our family with us. And then I think

2:58 yeah you reached out within was that the one that you took your grant to? You called her granny and I loved that and you said I’m here with my mom and my granny to show off the venue.

3:07 And what venue have you booked? We book in the Old Course Hotel in St. Andrews.

3:12 Lovely. What views? I mean honestly the views are insane up there.

3:17 It’s magical. Absolutely magical. And they had a wedding fair. So I was lucky enough to bring my mom and my granny and yeah nobody can believe it. It’s just a

3:25 really really exciting time and to have all of our closest family with us and we try and do all the the wedding fairs and stuff and bring them along just makes it such a memorable time.

3:35 I was going to say it’s building memories, isn’t it? And it is such a it’s such a key time I think when you’re when you are planning a wedding you just

3:42 think where are what am I doing? And hopefully just getting this out there.

3:47 Hopefully like your Scottish wedding have helped with that. Absolutely. Absolutely.

3:51 Yeah. So how did you meet Aidan? How did I meet Aidan? Where did the fairy tale begin?

3:57 Where did it begin? So Aidan and I work for the same place and we were building a very big bank in the UK together. Not

4:04 just us two, of course. No, there’s a team. There’s a team. There’s a team.

4:08 We were building one of the biggest banks in the UK together and it was an amazing journey to be on and I was presenting at one of the town halls that

4:16 they had and Aidan came up to my desk after and asked me to go for coffee. Very bold, you know. I know. I was proud. Yeah.

4:24 Bullshy.

4:24 Yeah. So, he came up and said, “Yeah, do you want to take um let’s go for a coffee?” And the rest has been absolutely brilliant. So, that’s been five and a half years we’ve been together.

4:35 Really?

4:35 And it has just been seamless. It’s been fun. It’s been great. And he’s such a hilarious person. He brings out a really

4:43 calm, adventurous side of me. I’m quite um yeah, serious. And are you?

4:49 Well, maybe not serious. You never come across. This has been serious maybe. But I’m very um I’m very adult.

4:55 Like I I I do my womanly duties, you know. I take womanly duties seriously.

4:59 Um yeah, I’m quite Yeah, he brings out a really fun side of me and I I love I love him for that.

5:05 Oh, that’s so nice. So, five and a half years. I bet it’s just whizzed by. It has. It really has. Yeah. And how did he propose?

5:13 Proposal. So, he proposed. We went to the Rox. I hope I’m saying that right.

5:18 Um in the borders. It’s a spa hotel. If anybody hasn’t been, you have Rox show.

5:24 Yes, you have to go there. It is unbelievable. Um, so yeah, shout out for the Roxra.

5:30 Yeah, shout out. Um, we went there for 4 days and we were staying for my birthday and it was on the first night. He said,

5:38 “Let’s go for a walk.” And I thought, who says, “Let’s go for a walk before dinner.” And obviously I kind of knew

5:45 that the proposal was coming at some point at some point because we spoke about it a lot like Aidan and I are really open about you know our wedding.

5:54 We want to be with each other forever.

5:55 So I knew it was coming. I just didn’t know exactly when.

5:58 So we went on this walk and the whole time I thought, “Oh my god, when’s it coming?” And then we went into this beautiful rose garden. It was a rose

6:06 cottage and it was round a fire pit and it was just perfect. That’s lovely.

6:11 Everything I could have asked for. Did you cry?

6:14 Oh yeah, a lot. It doesn’t take a lot for me to cry to be honest, but um it was magical. It was brilliant. And then

6:21 we had three days in an absolute bubble, just the two of us. That’s nice.

6:25 And then he had organized for all the family to be at my parents’ house when we got back.

6:30 And then we went straight to London to celebrate with one of my best friends and my brother. Oh, lovely. Did he ask your dad?

6:37 He did. Yeah. So, so I’m really close with my parents and my mom and my dad.

6:42 And he asked for he asked both of them and he asked my sister and my brother-in-law who I’m also very very close with.

6:50 Really? He’s asked everybody.

6:51 Yeah, basically the whole family. The whole family.

6:54 Please accept me into your family. I love that.

6:56 Yeah. My parents both knew and then my brother and sister, my sister and brother-in-law. Um yeah, were along with us on the whole journey which has been really lovely.

7:06 Nice. Nice. Now you’ve got a beautiful sparkly ring on your finger. Like I remember you showing us it on Tik Tok

7:13 and we were just like that’s so incredible. Like so did you design it? Did Aidan design it? Like Aidan design.

7:23 So first of all, I think it’s a keeper. He is a keeper. Isn’t he?

7:27 Um yeah, I feel so lucky to have this ring. I think it’s absolutely hilarious.

7:32 And I was really shocked at the level of detail he went into for this ring. So he actually picked the middle diamond. So

7:40 he went we’ve got a family jeweler that we use and he picked the individual diamonds with this little um you call those things.

7:48 I don’t know like a magnifying I know it’s not a magnifying glass but it’s one of those diamond glasses. So he he looked at the stones in particular to find the one he wanted and then made

7:56 this beauty. And you’ll need to show user forever. There we go. There we ring. Honestly,

8:04 I’ll cherish that forever. I mean, it’s Yeah. Absolutely magical. So, when he opened the box, when he proposed, I nearly fell over around the fire pit.

8:12 Yes. To the ring. Absolutely. And anything else that you’re asking.

8:16 So, no, he he absolutely nailed the ring. And yeah, I feel very very lucky.

8:21 Yeah. And you know, like you’re worth it. Thank you. This is a lifetime thing.

8:26 I know. Yeah. I never ever need to change this ever. Well, hopefully not.

8:30 Or you’d convert it into something else and get a bigger one. Yeah.

8:34 Just just saying it, Aidan. 10 years, 15 years, 20 years. No, I’m kidding. You don’t need to cuz it’s absolutely spectacular.

8:41 But yeah, he’s he’s a keeper. He’s brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.

8:44 So, what sort of things have you planned? Um, so since becoming engaged to obviously right up until today,

8:51 what sort of things have you planned? Is it all planned? Is it just really? So when so I discussed there we went to London. Yes.

8:58 3 days after the proposal and on the train down to London we finalized the guest list.

9:03 So we knew exactly who we wanted to join us. And then it was a case of right we’ve got these 80 people.

9:10 Where do we want to start looking and then it dictated quite a lot about the venues.

9:14 So we looked at two different venues and then the old course was the second and we went with the the old course straight away.

9:20 Staff are incredible up there, aren’t they? They’re brilliant. They’re just so nice.

9:23 Jess, a special shout out to Jess because she’s and Laura and Laura. Yeah, we love Jess and Laura.

9:28 Um, she’s one of my wedding planners and she has been so kind and helpful and having her along on the journeys made everything really seamless for us.

9:37 So yeah, we we got the old course straight away and then we started with Andrew who is our celebrant.

9:44 Andrew is amazing and an absolute legend and a human as well who and that was really important for us. So when we were picking our

9:52 vendors, we wanted good people to be with us on our wedding and really like the people that we were going to spend time with.

9:58 So we were really lucky Andrew was that makes all the difference, doesn’t it?

10:01 You’ve got to bond with them. You’ve got to have a rapport with them. Otherwise, you’re just a bit doesn’t work. No. Yeah. No.

10:09 So we loved Andrew and we were very delighted he was free.

10:12 Yeah. And then we got the Soul Establishment. So they’re a brilliant massive big jazz band type thing and

10:19 they’ll be super fun. And Tom has been exceptionally easy to work with. So we’ve really enjoyed working with them.

10:24 Marty Studios, they’re kind of our like evening booth slash audio book type thing. Yes.

10:31 Um so yeah, we we’ve found the vendor experience brilliant. And then my best friend Jessica, she’s doing my makeup on the morning of the wedding.

10:38 Um she’s great, isn’t she? She is an incredible makeup artist and I couldn’t have I mean I couldn’t have imagined any

10:45 other makeup artist doing my wedding makeup. But Jessica Trant MUA by the way she she another shout out. Absolutely.

10:55 And Jessica is a huge part of the wedding day cuz she’s in the bridal party of course. So we also say only one person gets their makeup done by Jessica

11:03 which will be me and the rest of the girls have a lovely um other makeup artist who’s doing Oh nice. So, I was just about to ask there, you know, like is Jessica doing

11:11 everybody’s makeup because that might be quite stressful just you cuz it’s your day.

11:16 So, yeah, she’s doing mine and then everyone else can can have That is great. Now, your friends, um,

11:23 your besties, they’ve done this really beautiful thing for you where every month on the runup to the wedding, you’re getting showered with gifts.

11:34 Brilliant, right? That’s great. I need to get new friends.

11:37 Oh, honestly. So, on the first of every month, either Jessica, Caitlyn, or Lori will arrive with the gift and such a

11:45 lovely letter as well. So, they’ll make this poem or letter of love and they’ll just tell me how close I am to the wedding and the

11:53 the gift is a surprise every single month. I’ve got no idea what they are. Oh, really?

11:57 Yeah. And I need I normally need to have that control over everything in my life, but I’ve got no idea what these presents are.

12:03 That’s so nice. So yeah, I always unwrap them on TikTok and my reactions are hilarious cuz I’m like, you’re so dramatic.

12:09 Genuinely, though, doing it for the first time. 100%. Oh, really? That’s great. I’ve got no idea. I love that.

12:14 And often they’re like such bougie gifts, which I find even more hilarious.

12:19 I love the candle. I was like, I’ve never seen I’ve never seen a candle like this before. Like I’m googling this.

12:24 But even, you know, down to the detail of that’s the perfume my mom wears and the girls called that out and that’s why, you know, really sentimental. All

12:32 of these things are really special, precious moments on the buildup to your big day. And also just makes it fun for

12:40 them, fun for you. Nothing’s too serious or like hardcore. Like, nobody wants that. Nobody wants to be stressed out.

12:47 Like, and it shouldn’t be a stressed.

12:50 I mean, I get that there’s going to be a bit of stress, but along the way, like I just thought that was so so nice.

12:57 No, it is. And just to your point there, like I just I think it’s so important to say to brides during this journey.

13:02 Anything can be stressful throughout this, but you cannot allow it because it is one of the most special times in your life. You’re so lucky to be planning the

13:10 dream wedding. And there’s not one time I’ll allow myself to get annoyed, upset, stressed, cuz I take myself back to the

13:18 fact that the 19th of December will be, you know, the best day of my life so far. And how lucky am I?

13:24 And that’s just the beginning of it, though, isn’t it? Like that one day, all that planning for that one day is incredible and but then that’s for the rest of your life.

13:34 Totally the adventures ahead.

13:36 It totally is. Like and I think sometimes people have their wedding day and they go, “Oh, that’s there’s nothing else to plan.” And I go, “No, like

13:43 there’s like babies, there’s honeymoons, there’s, you know, there’s anniversaries, there’s a whole host of different things to look forward to.”

13:51 Like you make your own adventures, don’t you? So definitely. Yeah. Have you and Aidan started planning fiveyear plans?

13:57 Fiveyear plans. So, both of us are very work focused just now. That’s um our big focus. We bought our beautiful house 3 years ago.

14:06 Um and we want to travel the world, right? That is our our next five years is getting to live this amazing life that we have, spending quality time with

14:15 our family who we love so much and adventuring the world together and exciting. Yeah. Building Yeah. an amazing life.

14:23 And we one life. Exactly. Yeah.

14:26 So, that’s kind of all your your wedding plans and everything sort of caught up with, but there’s another side to you.

14:33 So, you’ve got an incredible following.

14:37 You’re now starting to get merch from people. Um, so is it Lola Cakes?

14:44 Yeah, Lola’s. This is really cool. So, was that the first one that came through? No, the first one was so I was very lucky to be gifted some things from

14:53 like Tresomeme sent me the most beautiful PR box.

14:57 We saw it congratulating me on my engagement and then L’Oreal

15:04 sent some things and Tatcha Beauty, you know, the cream.

15:07 So, yeah, we’ve had I’ve been very lucky to have some nice PR things. And then more recently, the biggest, my first ever collaboration is with Lola’s

15:16 Cupcakes Cakes in London. And they are an incredible baker that I have used for years, genuinely loved their products

15:23 and reached out to the team and was really, really clear around. Look, I love your products and I would love to chat with you about different

15:30 opportunities. Um, and really grateful to say that they’re collaborating for the wedding. So, they will be doing our wedding cakes.

15:37 Are they? Oh, that’s so special. That’s lovely. I love that.

15:40 Yeah. Just I will bring Lola’s into every celebration we have. Good for you. Good for you.

15:45 That’s just been a really special thing that’s came out of all of this. Might need to check Lola’s out.

15:50 Working with the team on creating either like a big dessert table for everyone.

15:54 So, they do brownies and cupcakes and cakes as well. Lovely. Or we do like a crazy big cake. So, we need to make that decision. Yeah.

16:03 And we’ll be doing the wedding cake tasting shortly.

16:06 And I think Aidan’s going to feature in the Tik Tok, which he’s not done before.

16:10 I know. He’s been he’s been quite camera shy, hasn’t he? He’s been quite like, “No, keep me in the bag.” Yeah. Yeah. He says, “Yeah.” Yeah. But I said, “Look, you’re in the magazine now, Aidan.” Everybody knows you.

16:18 Yeah. Everyone knows. So, I’ll either be doing it with Aidan or my granddad because my granddad is so supportive.

16:26 Honestly, he’s brilliant. And he loves cake. So, that’s an easy way to get him on the Tik Tok.

16:30 Who doesn’t like cake? I’m sorry, but we all love cake. Oh, no. That’s incredible.

16:35 So, yeah, I feel really lucky about the Lola stuff. I love that. and I’m just going to keep seeing what the opportunities are on social media, right? What I said to you at the

16:43 beginning about the singing and the creative side of things. I really stopped it and I focused on my career.

16:48 Um, and obviously a huge part of my life is my career. Still keep that going. But on the sides at the weekends when I have time to really focus on TikTok, that is

16:57 absolutely what I’m going to do cuz I just love it. I love it.

17:00 For you and you’re so good at it. You’re just a natural. You just are. Like I was go, “Oh, there’s Ana Rose again. She’s rocking it.”

17:08 Yeah. You’re just you’re you’re you should definitely be in front of the camera for sure. Like I think I’ve said that to you before. Like you’re just incredible. You’re an incredible human

17:15 being. Um and obviously there’s a wedding dress.

17:19 Has that been booked? Has it been ordered? Has it been Oh, yeah. I’m glad we spoke about this.

17:24 So, are we allowed to talk about it?

17:25 We are. Are we a little snippet? I think. Okay.

17:28 So, we have I’m getting my dress made by the amazing Caroline Baxter.

17:33 Really is amazing. Oh, she is brilliant and she has given me so much confidence and happiness throughout this dress

17:40 designing experience. So, I have always I’ve been lucky enough to know exactly what I want my dress to look like and I’ve always known that.

17:47 So, I went to Caroline with a very clear vision and she’s making it happen. So, we’re starting the final measurements in

17:54 July. So, safe to say Lola needs to stay away for now. No lola.

17:59 No las. Um, so final measurements are in July and then she’ll make the dress in a few months. That’s how cool she is.

18:06 That’s how talented she is, right? Um, I mean, I think Caroline’s going to be massive. She is already massive, but she’s just going to continue to boom.

18:15 And yeah, her dresses are exceptional.

18:17 So, I I didn’t know necessarily that I was going to get my dress made. I did try and do some different um try to go to different shops and

18:25 things and try some on. And this is probably something else I’d love to tell brides for upcoming. The experience of

18:33 trying on wedding dresses. Yeah. It’s a really daunting, nervous experience. And you go into this shop and you think, “Wow, it’s going to be amazing and

18:41 they’re going to have my size of dress and they’re going to treat me amazing.” And I did not have that experience when I went in. Did you really not?

18:48 No. So, you know, it’s such a shame because I’ve heard this like so many times now.

18:54 And I’ve been in this industry for 34 years and the amount of times that I’ve heard this, it just shouldn’t be the case. Just should not be the case at all. Like it’s that’s not okay.

19:05 Definitely it’s not okay.

19:07 And it was a really prestigious shop in Glasgow, right? Really brilliant bridal store and I was really excited to go there cuz they have some brilliant

19:15 designers, but they only stock a size six or eight in their sample dresses. And I felt like a stuffed chicken at Christmas, you know. Really, really bad experience.

19:26 That’s not what you want for a first experience.

19:28 No. And for a size 12 to 14 to not be able to fit into wedding dresses, they’re asking you to spend thousands of pounds.

19:35 Um, it was like the UK average to be fair is size 16. Yeah. Yeah. Totally. That’s a UK average.

19:40 Yeah. I was really disappointed about that experience and I did feed back to the store on like, you have to make sure this is an exclusive experience for everyone. Good for you.

19:49 Because I I felt really terrible after that experience and then I thought, “No, I know exactly what I want. Caroline’s going to be my lady to do it.”

19:57 And also just to obviously look through like what And it’s funny actually, I was going to say look through and see what dresses you like, but sometimes you look

20:04 at dresses and then you go, I absolutely love it. And then you try it on and you go, I absolutely hate it. And then

20:12 that’s where that’s where though these stores really come into their own because they’re going to grab some dresses for you to try on and you maybe

20:21 go I don’t like it and see as soon as you try it on you just feel incredible.

20:26 Absolutely incredible. Um so that is a real shame that you’ve had that experience but now you’re with Caroline looking after you.

20:35 Yeah, she was brilliant from the first appointment. She made me feel like a princess. She really did.

20:40 So how does it work? Does Caroline sketch out something? Do you have a vision? And then she sketches out like

20:47 what is the process of getting your dress made? So I have if you’re happy to share.

20:51 Yeah. Yeah, of course. So I showed Caroline exactly what I wanted and needed my dress to look like. We sat together and done the final sketches. We

20:59 made some changes based on length and drop and things. And then I got to pick my materials. So that’s been

21:08 probably the hardest part because there are so many materials and it’s hard to envision them. Yeah.

21:14 So we’re going through the final four materials now and then in July we’ll have our final fitting

21:21 and then we start trying on the mock-ups. Wow.

21:24 There’s probably a more professional word to use it than mock-ups, but she’ll Yeah. She’ll pull together the design.

21:30 And then I have probably six different appointments between July and November and then I walk away with the most incredible dress.

21:40 So exciting.

21:42 And then shoes as well. This is another thing I would say.

21:45 Ladies, I do not know how you are affording Jimmy shoes.

21:50 Where are they? I think they start at like 600.

21:52 Honestly, you know, the dream the dream at the moment is ASOS shoes or next shoes, you know. So yeah, I would say

21:59 that’s another expense that I will not be going crazy on. Just I done my research. I tried on a lot. Um but I’ve blown the budget in so many other areas

22:07 that right now that the shoes it back in the shoes are not allowed. The Jimmy shoes are not allowed.

22:12 So um our front cover model um Stephanie Cheap um from the Mia shoe. She’s absolutely spectacular. Yeah. So during

22:21 that shoot because we just we’d said you know can you bring shoes along with you and she brought her wedding shoes with her but she bought them out of Zara

22:28 which I was really really I was like oh Zara but they look incredible like they look absolutely spectacular um and they

22:36 just suited all the outfits that had been handpicked and selected from her from um Rachel Scott Couture. So yeah it

22:43 was it was magnificent. So yeah shoes are and shoes have got to be comfy because you’re in them all day.

22:48 Totally. Unless you’re like me and you end up bringing a pair of flip-flops with you.

22:53 Yeah, my mom’s in charge of that. The flip-flop basket. Yeah, I’m saying, mom, you just have a few jobs. The flip-flop basket, those kind of crazy light up

23:02 sticks in the evening. So, yeah, my mom’s all over that.

23:06 Oh, that’s so exciting. And are you going to change from your high shoes to your maybe a wee low? Yeah, maybe pump or a wee.

23:13 I mean, the girls got me Crocs for one of the one of the presents. Mrs. B.

23:18 didn’t see that one. I was like, that’s cool.

23:20 Um I’m I’m hoping to keep them for my honeymoon to be fair, but um yeah, I’ve not got any quams about being in pumps or flatter shoes.

23:29 My um my friend just got married last October and she got us all um Converse. Oh, nice. And we got them bejeweled.

23:37 Love it. Bejulin. Love it.

23:38 They were great. They were And they were so comfy because we were sort of walking about during the day and then see at night time we’re like, “Right, heels off, flatties on.

23:46 Oh, I love it.” And we were just dancing about the dance floor all night. It was great. But um Oh, no. That’s You’ve got so many exciting things still to happen.

23:54 Have you picked your jewelry for your wedding day?

23:57 Yeah. So, we’ve designed my wedding band and Aidan’s wedding band, which is cool. Same jeweler.

24:04 Yes, of course.

24:05 Of course. He is amazing. He’s a family friend. So, yeah, we’ve designed the wedding ring and on the day because of

24:13 my dress, which I can’t say too much about. I need to pull back the jewelry, I think. So, either we go big on the

24:20 earrings or big on the necklace, but something needs to give cuz there’s a lot going on right now. I’m sure there’s a lot. I’m sure.

24:27 So, the jewelry is something that I do need to finalize once the dress is fully complete with the fabrics. Uhhuh.

24:34 And yeah, after the jewelry, the bridesmaid’s dresses, that’s important. That needs to be done quite soon.

24:39 I was going to say, so you’ve not done that bit yet. Okay. And the girls are a bit like, come on. But I think we’re going to go with Club London or

24:47 something pretty easy. Club London dresses are absolutely brilliant. The quality is incredible. The quality is great. So I had one for my engagement shoot which we done.

24:55 Is that from your engagement shoot? Really?

24:57 So I would love I love that engagement shoot was so nice. So nice.

25:01 So I would love a dress like that or something crazy and sparkly and beautiful for the girls. And I think Club London when the season comes out in October, I’ll just get ordering them.

25:11 Absolutely. I’m not getting too nervous about that. No, the girls probably are. Oh, you’re okay. It’ll be fine.

25:19 Yeah. And other than that, everything else is pretty organized. We’ve not booked the honeymoon yet because of the way the world is and flights and things.

25:26 I know, but we know our plan and yeah, we’ll just keep enjoying. Just going back to your bridesmaids. So, have you got any plans

25:34 for because although you’re going to get them from Club London, that means that you’re not physically going out to look for cuz you always have to have like days out, don’t you? And then like go to

25:43 the cocktails and have nice lunches or dinners or whatever. So, is any of that sort of planned for you and your bridesmaids?

25:50 Yeah. So, one one of my best friends, Lori, she’s in London, which makes it slightly more difficult, but and my sister is expecting her second baby just

25:59 now. um before the wedding or before the wedding. She’s due in July.

26:04 Oh, so are we a summer baby?

26:07 Um so, and then we’ve got the hendu of course.

26:11 So, yeah, in terms of like get all the planning, we’re doing we’re doing different drinks and stuff at the old course. We’re doing some champagne

26:19 picnics which is quite cool. On the 7th of June, that’ll be fun.

26:22 So, I’m going there with Jessica, which will be brilliant.

26:25 Um but yeah, just trying to We’re always keeping in touch. We talk every day on our chat and of course it’s just it’s going to be brilliant.

26:33 Is this a bride chat with you and the girls chats? Yeah. Love it. Is your mom in that?

26:37 No, not quite. But we will invite her in near to the wedding.

26:42 But mom’s coming on the Hendu. My mom’s a hoot. She’s hilarious. And um yeah, everybody that’s coming on the Hendi, I think there’s 22 of us.

26:50 Is that all? 22? I know.

26:51 You guys are going to be right. It’s going to be crazy. So, it’s this beautiful big house in the Cotworlds and every we’re just going to go and have the time of our lives.

27:00 Absolutely. It’s going to be brilliant. Absolutely. Some girl time.

27:04 Yeah. Absolutely. Um and we do a we thing with your granny.

27:08 Oh, yeah. The granny my granny and granddad are they’re unbelievable. And how lucky am I to have them here with me

27:15 and so able and really passionate about being involved. So yeah, we’re going to do we do caffe Andeloos all the time.

27:24 They love a cafe and absolutely. Who doesn’t? So absolutely.

27:28 So we’re going to take them out and do different things with them. Um but yeah, I just feel so lucky to have them with us. Yeah.

27:34 And another thing would be the love letters.

27:38 So I saw that. That’s that is such a unique thing to do and it must be taking up though a lot of your time.

27:46 It is. But I thought I you want to put kind of everything into it, don’t you? for it to be really meaningful. That’s so nice.

27:52 So, when you’re putting all this effort into one day, how do you explain individually to everybody that’s attending how much you love them

27:59 and includes lovely photos of us throughout our lives together? Like my uncle and my aunties and my granny and granddads. Lovely.

28:05 Um, yeah. And I just I really love the people that are coming to our wedding, which going to be a lot of tears.

28:10 Going to be so much, but hopefully hopefully not that many. For for them, there’ll be loads. But for me, I’ll sit there and think, “Oh, I’ve already cried

28:18 so much.” I was going to say that. You’ve probably already shed your tears.

28:21 Too much crying. But yes. So nice. So, how many people are going to the wedding?

28:25 So, there’s under 80 during the day and then 120 in the evening. Oh, nice. Nice. It’s a good number.

28:31 So, that’s 80 letters or are you doing individuals or is it couple letters? Individuals. So, 80 letters.

28:37 80 letters and I’m at that’s commitment about 17 right now. I’ve got a long way to go.

28:44 I’ve got a long way to go. And I’m also They have to be perfect. So, say there’s a say there’s a smudged word and I’m at the end of the page. I’m doing that.

28:53 Absolutely. Absolutely. Cuz they’ll treasure that forever.

28:56 They’ll keep that forever. Of course they will. It’s such a special thing to do, I think. Yeah.

29:01 And then it means on the day I don’t have to do a speech. I just focus on my vows. I’ll nail the vows and then I’ll party all night.

29:08 Sounds incredible. Sounds incredible. Is there anything else that you would like to share with our audience today?

29:14 Um, closing notes from me would really be just enjoy every second of it. You know, in the world we’re in today, you know, a

29:23 lot of people don’t get to marry the love of their lives.

29:26 Um, and I was so lucky to find Aidan in my early 20ies and plan the dream wedding. So, just enjoy it all. Focus on the things that are important to you.

29:36 Take advice, but don’t always follow it unless it feels important to you. Um, and yeah, just just enjoy every second cuz I am living the dream and I love it.

29:46 And just a huge thank you to you. You’ve made this a really memorable experience and having the magazines and you know, this is such an incredible opportunity.

29:53 So, I’ll cherish all of this and I just love planning my wedding.

29:58 That’s so nice. Um, lovely to have you on. Lovely to have you on as a guest.

30:03 Um, and that sort of concludes this episode.

30:07 Thank you so much, Ana Rose. and we wish you all the very best with your planning and for your special day. And certainly our readers can’t wait until

30:16 our May issue so they can actually see the the actual wedding. Um yeah, we we’ll be waiting with baited breath

30:24 to follow your story, but thank you so much for coming in today. Thank you. That was a pleasure.