Hello friends, how excited I am to be here writing for Rock my Wedding thanks to all of your lovely votes! I'm not going to lie, it's also a little surreal, and a little scary to be sharing our wedding story with so many people, but I cannot wait to get talking with you all, and hopefully save my friends from constant wedding chat.

I don't even know how that happened - I've never really been a girl to dream of her wedding day, but I can 100% confirm that since Scott & I got engaged 8 months ago, it has been my number one favourite topic of conversation (we're not including my French Bulldog Vinnie, because anyone that knows me, knows that he is actually the only thing I talk about)!

So here's a recap if you want reminding of Scott & I's love story click here. I also would like to point out that we did not meet at a musical festival as I said in that original post, but in fact just a general music festival. When I realised my error I got quite frightened thinking of the concept of a 'musical' festival. Bamboozle did have its fair share of cheesy pop punk, but it's also full of shouty men with beards, so musical festival is definitely a misrepresentation of the weekend (soz Bamboozle, I'm singlehandedly trying to ruin your street cred in the UK).

Today I thought I'd share the story of our engagement, because it means I get to talk about my favourite city in the world: Paris!

Living in London, Scott & I have visited the French capital many times. It is the most beautiful, historic, wonderful city that has this surreal quality of being fast paced but laid back all at the same time. We always pick an area outside of the normal touristy strong holds and just walk everywhere. We eat cheese and baguettes for breakfast (one year we visited with my parents and their best friends, and they introduced some cheeky red wine at 9am...wild!), we climb up tall buildings to look out over the amazing rooftops, we stalk French dogs (there are so many!!!), we eat picnics and drink beers in parks (but only some of them, many don't let you sit on the grass!), we watch the Eiffel tower twinkle on the hour (okay, that bit is tourist-tastic, but along with climbing the actual tower, it's one of the touristy things you should not miss in Paris!), we cycle along the Seine and we just have a really lovely, red wine and cheese filled time.

Pretty much on a weekly basis I think to myself how I wish I was living in Paris in some Amelie-inspired adventure. Shame I can't speak French, I think that's probably the only thing which is stopping me from moving there tomorrow.

Anyway, the last time we headed to Paris was back in November. We stayed in a beautiful little Airbnb apartment near Goncourt metro. Such a fun neighbourhood with lots of local bars and restaurants, and only a short stroll to Canal St Martin, which is one of my favourite areas in Paris (especially when the sun is shining - so many bars give you booze in to-go cups and everyone sits by the canal enjoying the warmth). Our favourite park in Paris is a place called Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, in the 19th arrondissement of the city. We have spent so many days there, it's the loveliest place. It's a super historic park which was designed by the dude who made all the parks for Napoleon III (I did History as a minor at uni, bet you can't tell based on that little description!) IT IS BEAUTIFUL! Seriously one of the prettiest places you could ever hope to visit. It is hilly, which affords it the most perfect view over the city. It has miles of grass which you can sit on (again, unusual for Paris!), and it's all fairy tale grottos and waterfalls. Seriously, it is unlike any park I have ever been to, and I'm spoilt for choice for amazing ones living in London.

The most famous place in the park is the 'temple on the hill', as I know it, although it does have a proper name. It's a miniature version of the famous ancient Roman Temple of Vesta in Tivoli, Italy. The original temple in Italy has been the subject of heaps of romantic paintings from the 17th to 19th century, but Scott & I just really like it because it is the best place to climb to see beautiful Paris laid out in front of you.

When we visited in November, Scott told me he wanted to go for a Friday morning walk in the park because the weather forecast was clear and we'd be able to drink in the views of the city before walking all over it (as standard). Looking out the window at a grey dreary, cloud covered day, I thought that Scott's weather app was maybe a little optimistic, but I love that place so I wasn't going to argue!

Mainly when we've visited it in the past it has been a weekend, or during a hot spell, so it's always been extremely busy and buzzing with Parisians going about their sunny day activities. This Friday in November we had the park to ourselves and we enjoyed strolling towards the temple on the hill. When we got up there we found the one other person in the park: an old man playing an accordion (you couldn't make it up!!!!) Scott told me to turn around and look out over the city...which I did, and I couldn't see anything because it was cloudy (of course! Scott is a terrible liar...I have no idea how I believed him!). The next thing I know there was a tug on my jacket and I turned around to see him down on one knee holding out the most beautiful diamond ring, asking me if I would make him the happiest person in the world by marrying him. Of course the answer was yes. I've known since I met him that we were going to marry one day, and I've been excited ever since for this next great adventure of ours.

Since then, we've made great strides in our wedding planning. I couldn't be more excited to share with you our ideas and plans and get inspiration and advice from you all. Two of my best friends married each other last weekend in the most beautiful ceremony so right now I feel absolutely giddy on wedding fever and love. Our first major decision for us when we got engaged was where to hold the wedding. A Scottish girl, living in London, with a Surrey boyfriend, should the wedding be a Scottish one? A London one? A Surrey country affair? A destination wedding? We chose London, but let me tell you, it wasn't an easy decision. What would you do? Is home the only place you've ever considered getting married? Or is where you've made home the place for you?

I'm going to leave you with a picture of the two loves of my life, mainly so I can introduce Vinnie, our constant sidekick, shadow and piglet-dog. You'll be seeing a lot of him over the next year!

Much love,

Danielle xxx