As some of you will know, I spent time in Los Angeles in March, probably the most health-concious and cleanse-obsessed place on the planet. Its no secret that I’m a ‘grab what’s available’ kinda eater, that I have a penchant for wine (and gin!) and that I’m totally allergic to exercise. However while I was in the land of buffed bodies, I did surprise myself by becoming quite the green juice junkie (something I have kept up since returning home!) and I even started to think a little more about how I treat, and what I put into, my body.

I’m no model. I’m a comfortable(ish) UK size 12 with enormous boobs and wobbly bits but, overall,  I’m pretty happy with how I look. Now it might be something to do with getting scarily close to 30 or spending more time with my much more health-conscious American BFFs, but over the past few months I have started to think more about what I eat and the effect it all has on the way I look and my mood. I’ve always figured that I ate pretty well. I don’t have a sweet tooth at all and I rarely snack, but my Achilles heel is without a doubt the regular love affair that I have with wine. Just thinking about how many calories and toxins are in the glasses I sink on a nightly basis is actually pretty terrifying.

Gala has been a committed convert to The Clean Program for a while, and although for a long time, I balked at her healthy lifestyle (“yeah, yeah, you look great but I could never do that…”) over the past few months I started to think about it a bit more seriously. I have been feeling a little more self-conscious about my appearance as well as feeling sluggish, tired and totally overworked of late, so I decided to hell with it and to finally give it a go.

Being a detox virgin I was really pleased to find out about their new Clean Refresh program, a seven day detox designed to boost energy and give those that might have fallen off the heath wagon a much needed jolt in the right direction. They advise that this isn’t a full-on cleanse (they have a 21-day program if that’s more of what you’re after) but for someone who’s never so much as tried to cut out chips, I decided that a gentle week long introduction would be the best way to start. Baby steps and all that.

So how does it work? Well, you have a nutritional shake for breakfast, supplements that you take throughout the day and a refresh ‘boost’ drink which you take after lunch. In terms of food, you have to eliminate wheat, dairy, gluten, caffeine, alcohol and processed sugar – which sounds very daunting. However once you get into it it’s really a lot easier than you think it’s going to be. Luckily, the Refresh program comes with handy manual full of tips, tricks, bucket-loads of information and recipes to try. There’s even an online forum with over 45,000 members and ‘wellness coaches’ on hand if you need any help or encouragement along the way. Their website is also chock-full of recipe ideas if you’re lacking inspiration.

Surprisingly, I found the food part quite easy. I bought myself a smoothie maker and instead of my usual coffee, eggs and toast I was starting my morning with a shake made with rice milk and frozen raspberries and blueberries. For lunch I was having a giant mixed salad with some protein (prawns, chicken or eggs) and for dinner, meat with veg and either brown rice, couscous or quinoa on the side. The manual also has some great dressing ideas which were, pleasingly, mostly made from things I already had in my cupboards and added some much needed variety to the dishes. If I was doing it for longer than seven days I might have got a little bored and would definitely have had to expand my repertoire, but for such a short period of time it was perfectly doable. Pretty easy in fact.

For me, the hardest habit to crack was my coffee in the morning and lashings of wine in the evening. On day one I was incredibly grumpy and during days two and three I had massive headaches, but by day four I literally felt on top of the world. My energy levels were up, my aches and pains were gone, and although I still craved that mid-afternoon boost that only a lovely cup of tea can provide, I quickly got used to having water, green juice or coconut water instead. You’re allowed (good) fat and I also discovered that an avocado with a few olives or an apple with almond butter made for great 4pm pick me ups.

However, perhaps the most surprising thing of all, was what happened once I finished the seven days. I thought, for sure, that I’d be desperate for caffeine that first morning and for gallons of wine as 6 o’clock (wine o’clock) drew near. But, weirdly, I really didn’t… and believe me, no-one was more surprised about that than I was! I can only put it down to the fact that I’d put all that hard work in and I didn’t want to completely waste it by having a massive blow out.

Of course I’m not going tee-total or swearing off diary and wheat for life, but coming out of this process I am much more aware of everything I eat and drink and I do honestly feel like I’m going to continue with a lot of the changes that I’ve made. I plan to stick with the rice milk, eat much less cheese (which has always my fave – does anyone have suggestions for dairy free alternatives?) and to cut out bread as much as possible. I’ve also been drinking much less coffee and tea and (shock horror!) even slurping less wine.

If you’ve never done any kind of cleanse or detox before but you’d like to make a few positive diet changes, I think the Clean Refresh program is the perfect place to start. You’re not going to come out after seven days two stone lighter or giving Gwyneth a run for her money, but its a brilliant way to give yourself a fighting chance and a great jumping off point to being healthier.

I can’t recommend it enough, and come on, seven days isn’t really that long to give it a good old go is it?!

Reader Giveaway: Win a Clean Refresh Program

When I spoke to the Clean Program guys afterwards to tell them how I’d got on, I was thrilled when they asked if I’d like to run a giveaway on my blog and offer a free Refresh Program to one of my readers. So now you have no excuses!

For your chance to win the complete Refresh Program, worth $199, simply comment below and let me know your vice and why you’d like to give it a whirl. This contest is open to all readers of Rock n Roll Bride and you have one week to enter.

Good luck and here’s to getting healthy!

Ts & Cs

♥ The winner will receive one Clean Refresh pack worth $199.
♥ Closing date for entries is 29/05/2013. Winner will be selected by Kat Williams and notified via email after that date.
♥ Only 1 entry per email/IP address
♥ Contest is open to all readers of Rock n Roll Bride who are aged 18 or over only and are not employees of The Clean Program. Depending on your home country, you may be liable to pay customs charges to receive your prize.
♥ By entering the draw, you hereby warrant that all information submitted by you is true, current and complete.
♥ The winners will be contacted via their email address within a week of the the competition draw date. Rock n Roll Bride/The Clean Program will not amend contact information provided.
♥ None of the prizes may be exchanged or transferred and no cash alternative will be offered.
♥ Liability cannot be accepted for entries which are lost in transit or not received due to technical difficulties.
♥ Kat Williams’ decision and any decision taken by the promoter is final and no correspondence will be entered into.
♥ The Refresh program is not suitable for anybody who is pregnant or nursing, is under 18, has cancer, liver disease or hepatitis, is on any medication, or has bipolar disorder or type-1 diabetes.
♥ No purchase necessary.
♥ This is not a paid editorial, although I was gifted a Clean Refresh Program.

Emilie & Antony spent just £3000 on their wedding. They were married on a Friday and were really lucky to have a friend who worked at Lains Barn in Oxfordshire, who was able to get them a really cheap deal on the rental and food costs. “Lains Barn is perfectly charming and was perfect for our shabby chic wedding!” wrote Emilie. “We chose to have a hog roast. It was served with buns and apple sauce. My grandmother didn’t seem a big fan of the way it was served, but not everyone agreed – one of my friends said ‘Burgers at a wedding – genius!’ with a big smile on his face and a couple of burgers on his plate!”

This wasn’t where the money saving stopped though. Emilie found her dress for just £30 on eBay and Antony’s suit was from TK Maxx. They also didn’t have any bridesmaids or groomsmen, the bride’s mother did the flowers and they kept the reception décor minimal. “The venue already came partly decorated”, she continued. “The main barn had long flowing fabric hangings which I thought looked perfect as they were, so I just added the flower arrangements to decorate the tables. The second barn, where the bar is, already had fairy lights and greenery decorating the animal troughs. I hung lots of silver stars along the wood beams to add some shabby chic whimsy to the room. I made them myself using the inside cardboard from toilet rolls, cutting each roll into 5 roundels. I flattened each roundel to make it a little pointed, and then hot-glued them in the middle to make stars! All that was left to do after that was spray-painting them silver.”

“The tables in the second barn were decorated with sweet jars and sweet bags, along with little puzzles with Antony’s and my face on them. I made those at work thinking they would be a great little thing for people to take away from the wedding! On the outside, I decorated the entrance path with old jam jars filled with tea lights. As guests entered the barn, the first thing they would lay their eyes on were two vintage hat boxes; one for gifts, one for cards, and one that held a load of disposable cameras. The idea behind it being that anyone could pick up a camera and take some photos, as long as they left the camera at the end so I could get them developed.”

Well that’s something you don’t read often is it?! And what a travesty because Luke & Wout’s wedding is one of the coolest I’ve seen in a long time. Talk about doing things their own way, stuffing tradition and bucking all the wedding expectations. These seriously awesome dudes were adamant that their wedding would reflect them… and it does – in spades!

The wedding took place at their own home in Melbourne, Australia. “We first met through the internet when Luke was still living in Australia and Wout in Holland”, they began. “We then met in person by chance at the Christmas Market in Brussels in 2003.”

“Given our attractions to bears, bikes (and bikers), gothic and dark electronic music and celtic/viking mythology, we brought a lot of those elements to the day. We didn’t really have a theme, it was just an evolution of ideas based on things we like. To us it was all very normal, but it’s a matter of perspective. Most of our friends, particularly the straight ones, found it unlike any wedding they had been to before. But all of them loved it so it cannot have been too out-there!”

“Perhaps one of the most unexpected highlights was the wishing tree”, they continued. “We didn’t know at first exactly what that was going to be. In the end, we went for an outrageously simple option that worked brilliantly. We brought a stack of plain, brown paper gift bags, some plastic disposable drink cups, some pens and some tea lights. We got people to write a message or wish on a bag and then put the tea light in a cup inside the bag and hung the bags from a tree in the garden. We also had a couple of laser lights happening at night and the combined effect was like fireflies dancing in the trees, with the softly glowing wishes underneath…”

“The thing that blew us away the most was the amount of love and goodwill we felt from everyone there”, the concluded. “Of course, we had an amazing wedding planner, celebrant and photographer, which meant we could relax and enjoy the day too. We splashed out on our photographer, because we had such an amazing connection from the first time we spoke. It just felt like we had to work with her. Also on the food, because nothing will spoil the vibe faster than crap food. We obviously saved money on the venue by doing it in our own back garden. We have an fabulous garden space, and early autumn in Melbourne is a perfect time to enjoy that. It was so nice to be able to have an amazing day and then chill out in our own garden in the evening.”

It’s no secret that I have a ‘thing’ for ridiculous headwear, and my obsession with ears in particular is completely unfaltering! So I was thrilled when I saw this cute ‘bunny love’ photo shoot by South London based wedding photographer Ellie Gillard. This world needs more brides wearing ears that’s what I say. Why not be brave and do something quirky like this for your wedding day portraits… go on, I dare ya!

“I’ve wanted to pull together some form of styled shoot for a while”, wrote Ellie, ” something to showcase my work and something that had a different angle to the weddings I shoot. I wanted to shoot something where I could create my own story. I was also keen that, rather than just being a showcase for lots of lovely things, that there should be some kind of tangible emotion in the photos, so that real couples planning their wedding could see something in it.”

“For this reason it was really important to me that I picked a real couple, and Kat and Andrew fitted the bill perfectly. I wanted to put a spin on the concept of an elopement, or a simple at-home wedding, but that the couple were really cool and lived in a big white warehouse space. I always wanted to add an element of whimsy – hence the modern nods to a fairytale theme – the ears, the felled tree as a back drop, the natural earthy feast and the moth eaten flowers on the cake, set against that clean backdrop.”

“For the few bits of wedding related pretty I have featured; it was really important to try and showcase suppliers working in my corner of South London – so much is written about East London but Brixton, Peckham and other areas of South London are brimming with creativity, and a lot of the couples that book me seem to be from the same areas. I guess I wanted to keep it as local as possible and support these local businesses.”

On a soggy Spring evening Lisa and I headed to London. It was Tuesday, and the night of the Cosmopolitan Magazine Superbloggers Masterclass. I was thrilled, honoured and damn right nervous as hell to have been asked to join an illustrious panel of experts at this prestigious event. The masterclass was a complete sell-out, with two hundred enthusiastic wannabe bloggers braving wind and rain to make it to The British Museum for the two-hour panel discussion and Q&A.

This is my nervous and ‘omg that’s a big auditorium’ face

I was cacking it. There was nothing cool about me as we took a peek into the empty auditorium and I squeaked to Lisa “Oh my god, that’s a lot of goodie bags…” We were the first to arrive and were ushered into a side room where we were soon met by the Cosmopolitan team and the rest of the panel.

No pressure…

I was joined on stage by Louise Court, Cosmopolitan Magazine’s editor-in-chief; Pat McNulty, Digital Editor of Cosmopolitan.co.uk; Vicki Fogwill, Social-media manager for Next; Dominic Smales, Founder of blogger agency Gleam Digital; Andreas Pouros, COO of Greenlight Digital and the incredible (hello, new girl crush alert!) Emily Johnston, of influential style blog Fashion Foie Gras.

Louise led the panel, asking us a variety of questions ranging from “What would be your biggest do and don’t for a blogger?” (if you’re interested my do was to value your worth and my don’t was to not be controversial for the sake of it – car crash blogging is never pretty!) to “How do you find your niche?” We also spoke about SEO, working with brands, making money, what makes good content, and social media.

I found it particularly interesting hearing from Dominic and Andreas who deal with ‘the other side’ of blogging. They work with brands and bloggers (Andreas with the brands and Dominic with the bloggers) bringing them together for mutually beneficial relationships – i.e. getting the brands exposure on blogs, and getting the bloggers paid! As I deal with all the advertising on my site and any brand collaborations myself it was really interesting for me to hear how other people do things. There were definitely a couple of tips in there that I’m going to nick too!

We sure packed a lot into the two hours and after some lightening speed Q&A, it was all over. I’m not gonna lie, I was a little sad. I could have banged on for much longer. Blogging is my favourite subject, after all!

But I needn’t have worried. I was completely overwhelmed by the number of people who came to ask me questions or say hello to me afterwards. At one point there was an actual queue of people waiting to talk to me or wanting to snap a photo. Mind literally blown.

Speakers get goodie bags too right?!

I had such a great time at the event and I have endless love for Cosmo and what they’re doing with bloggers at the moment. Do you know they also have a yearly blog awards? I won ‘Best Wedding Blog’ in 2011 which was so exciting and such an honour. If you have a blog yourself (however big or small) I can’t recommend entering these awards enough. Winning one myself was definitely a defining moment for me and Rock n Roll Bride. It’s opened so many doors, including speaking at this very event, so it’s certainly one that I’ll never forget.

If you want to find out more about the Masterclass you should read Cosmopolitan’s own write up of the event.

Photography: Ellie Gillard Photography

I’m hungry. I’ve been doing the Clean Program Refresh all week (more on this soon!) and whilst I initially moaned about being a little hungrier than usual, as I came to the end of the seven day programme I had a moment of clarity. In a metaphorical way, being hungry is undoubtedly a good thing. Hunger is what forces us to go out and make changes. Hunger is what encourages us to re-evaluate what we’re doing and if we’re on the right path. Hunger makes us long for something better and pushes us to achieve it.

I am hungry for change. To change how I do certain things and act in certain situations. I’m not perfect at this business stuff, but I’m doing my best. Muddling through in the best way I know how… Now please excuse me while I crack open this packet of biscuits to celebrate my amazing moment of clarity.

♥ Why I don’t care about SEO
♥ The joy of accounting (boooo!)
♥ Why being ‘all booked up’ is ruining your business
♥ Did we exist before social media?

“A friend once told me that social media was like being at a party where everyone’s high on cocaine—they’re all talking at the same time and no one’s listening, all while trying to look good and sound smart.” Paul Jarvis

♥ Why going back to basics creates the best blog posts
♥ How to position your product to sell
♥ 10 things a wedding photographer should never do at a wedding – so funny!
♥ How to get interaction on a Facebook fanpage
♥ Attention wedding photographers: The amazing Lisa Devlin is now offering one on one training and it’s an utter bargain.

A wacky, fun and rainbow themed wedding is always going to be a winner with me, and seeing Melanie & Michael’s day, at Cocoanut Grove in Santa Cruz, was no different. I mean what’s not to love?! “When we first began planning our wedding, we started with a list of things we didn’t want to do”, began Melanie. “We had been to enough impersonal ceremonies and stereotypical receptions in the past few years to have acquired a pretty substantial list! We wanted the event to be as engaging for the guests as for us, we wanted it to be silly but meaningful, and we wanted it to be the most fun wedding anyone had ever attended.”

“I’m a production manager for a theater company, and he’s a writer and director, so we began to think of the wedding as ‘the show we’re doing this summer’. We wrote a script which included a variety of movie music cues, kids in Halloween costumes throwing confetti instead of flower petals, and ‘readings’ by members of the wedding party. These ‘readings’ included the ‘Mawage’ speech from The Princess Bride, the Donny Eulogy from The Big Lebowski, ponderings on the nature of the Force by a fully-costumed Yoda, and a commissioned poem on the importance of love comprised completely from popular song lyrics.”

“Mike walked down the aisle to the theme from Superman, and my folks and I danced in to the theme from Austin Powers”, she continued. “But while it was all silly and delightful, the meaning of the day was never lost in the fray. We used a ribbon wrist-binding ceremony as a way to bring more people we loved into our joining (my Grandma tied a triple knot with hers…) Before we said our vows, our officiant (my wacky uncle) asked the audience for their vow first – to love and support us in our new union. The ceremony was awesome, and it segued seamlessly into an equally awesome party.”

This couple really went all out with their rainbow theme, starting with Melanie’s dress. “I found it dang near impossible to find a ready-to-wear halter dress with a circle skirt that had room for a rainbow petticoat underneath. Luckily I then found Ramona Ponce. She had already volunteered to build the petticoat, so when I had a hard time finding a dress to go with it, she said she could just build the whole dress from scratch. She built the petticoat first, and it ended up being too fabulous to keep hidden for the whole night, so she made the top skirt removable – I had a convertible dress!”

“Everything was organized by color”, she continued.”Our wedding party were dressed in rainbow order and the centerpieces were each one color with matching toy. We had balloons, matching m&ms in custom shot glasses and our cake was a delicious rainbow cake. About half the table markers were Muppet toys, and the other half were movie superheroes – the kids (and adults) were very excited to take those toys home with them at the end of the night!”

“One favorite moment from the evening was the wacky re-entrance of the wedding party into the reception”, Melanie concluded .”One of our groomsmen had asked if he could change into a ‘promoted suit’, which is a suit where the sleeves of the shirt and coat have been removed to give a full-blown frat-boy look. Of course we said yes, and in the moment, his costume change inspired the whole wedding party to come up with ridiculous entrances. Folks grabbed whatever they could find to make an impromptu costume change, including a Lego bucket, sparkly star wire and paper bags. We all came dancing in to James Brown’s ‘I Feel Good’, and the party had officially started!”