Ten months to go and I can't quite believe how relaxed I feel about wedding planning - I'm worried the panic and stress will start to kick in soon though!

Since my last post I've picked my dress - as predicted I went back for the second one I tried on, though not before working my way through another 15 or so dresses, just to make sure! But I can't decide what to do in terms of accessories. I think I'll go for a cathedral-length veil (my bridesmaids all cried when I tried one on and are being pretty insistent!), but I'm not sure what to wear with it. I'm not one for bling, so a tiara or glitzy comb wouldn't be right, but I don't really want boho style flowers in my hair either. Maybe I don't need anything else, or is that too plain?

We've also managed to purchase the six bridesmaid dresses too, which turned into a national operation. Three of my bridesmaids, Aisling, Claire and Amanda tried on loads of dresses when we were all in a London Debenhams one Saturday. When they opened the changing room door all wearing a beautiful navy Monsoon dress, grinning ear to ear, we knew we'd found the one. They looked stunning!The only problem was that the dress was in the sale (at a bargain £35!), which was great for my bank balance, but meant that finding six of them in sizes ranging from 6-22 might be a challenge! But by some miracle we did it. I ordered three size eights from Monsoon's online store, found a size 10 in the Oxford Street store, and my maid of honour Amy found a size six in a Trafford Centre store. But the real challenge was the size 22, for Jamie's younger sister. After looking in several stores with the help of the girls and my family, I emailed Monsoon's head office who tracked one of the last remaining size 22s down to a store in Aberdeen. It's the other side of the country to me, but with a little persuasion on the telephone (I dropped the bride-to-be card), they agreed to ship it out to me. I think it's our first wedding mini-miracle!I have to say that across the board, in the 12 or so stores we encountered to track all of the dresses down, the staff could not have been more helpful or understanding, I'd definitely recommend Monsoon to other brides to be.

In other news, I'm told that my hen do has been booked for April, but I've no idea what the plans are: it's going to be a total surprise! So far the girls are successfully remaining tight-lipped, but two other friends very nearly blurted it out at a recent party. I've said before I'm terrible for always needing to know what's going on and ruining surprises, but this is one thing I'm excited not to know about!

This week we also welcomed back one of my close friends, Helen, another bride-to-be who just returned from a year in Australia. I'm so excited to have another bride to plan with - I'll be arriving at our upcoming dinner date with armfuls of wedding magazines!

I've also been to two beautiful weddings, the first in Newcastle for my friend Angela and her husband Richard; the second in rural Lincolnshire where my friend Sam married Rachael. Both weddings were very DIY, and the whole family had helped to make and set up their venues, which both had a rustic, villagey feel to them. They were the kind of weddings Jamie and I initially thought we'd like, but given the distance we live from our venues and our busy jobs, we just didn't feel it would suit us after all. Still, we had a brilliant time at both, and I've come away with a few ideas. At Angela's, I loved the rustic floral arrangements and her home-baked brownie favours. At Sam's, we loved the photo backdrop and props they had - maybe a little too much!

So now that they have all tied the knot, I'm officially the next in the group to get married now, which is very exciting and very scary!