Plus North 2013... A night away

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I have just returned from my first ever Plus North event which took place in the Renaissance Hotel in Manchester.  We woke early on Saturday morning ready for the drive ahead of us and although it took a little time to get everything packed and sorted we eventually made our way up the motorway to Manchester. I must admit, I had booked tickets, hotel etc before we booked our wedding so I did have a slight pang of guilt that the money I had spent could have been used for our wedding.  I'm such a worrier! For the day event I wore a bodycon New Look dress, brown leather jacket, ankle boots from Tesco and a sparkly statement necklace also from New Look.

Anyone who knows me knows that I hate being late for anything so when we got stuck on the M6 with long delays I started to panic and ended up being around 30 minutes late - grr!  When I walked into the Exhibition Hall I was greeted by the lovely Charlotte from Yours Clothing with a goodie bag and a warm welcome which was much appreciated because for some reason I was really nervous!  There were clothing racks everywhere and pick a mix too!  Yum!  I arrived just in time for the first catwalk show which was the Simply Be catwalk.  I stood next to the Yours Clothing exhibit and watched as everyone walked down the catwalk looking fabulous.  

Afterwards I made my way around the room anti-clockwise and approached Curvissa, Bon Prix and Lovedrobe.  Every exhibitor had something that I liked on their rails but with the wedding approaching I was on a pretty strict budget and unfortunately had to window shop! Next up was the Evans stand which was really cool.  I chatted to a lovely lady about my body shape as I am still undecided if I am an apple or a pear then I entered their gift card giveaway where everyone got a gift card with a value of between £5 and £100 and would only know how much it was when I took it to an Evans Store.  Thankfully there is one in the Arndale centre in Manchester since our local one has closed down.

I then spoke with Natalie from Scarlett and Jo, who I have spoke via e-mail but never met.  She is so lovely - and had a good nosey at the Powerfit dresses from their new range which I will be blogging about later this week.  I moved onto the Slink Magazine exhibit of which I had never heard of before and spoke to them about their magazine and their new boutique which was opening that day.  

Simply Be was next and I finally got to drool over the blogger dresses in person and a bunch of other new Autumn / Winter ranges.  They also had some of their shoes on display too and they look really well made.  Next up, Excite clothing.  I had a look at this Exhibit in two parts as another catwalk show was about to start.  The Yours Clothing catwalk show was really good because it had more winter looking outfits including lots of comfy knitted jumpers and accessories too.  We had a very special treat to a Slink Boutique catwalk show straight afterwards with a mix of some really funky outfits and gorgeous eveningwear.  All of the models looked amazing!

The Excite Clothing stand had a lot of bodycon dresses that I liked the look of and after feeling a bit daring with wearing bodycon for the first time to the day event I made a mental note to check out their website again on my return.  I could have bought some there, but was being good for a change. Growing up sucks!   The Topsy Curvy stand was next; another brand I hadn't heard of and I had a good chat with the lovely Charlotte (my apologies if I have got your name wrong!) before heading over to the other exhibition room.  I didn't spend much time in this room as it was aimed at accessories and I am deadly around things like that so me and Mr FH decided to head over to the Arndale centre to have a look around since we haven't been to Manchester before.  

The Arndale centre is massive and you could get easily lost in the number of stores!  We looked in Yours Clothing, the Lego shop (omg I could live in there!), the Disney Store and I finally found the Simply Be store!! Go me!  The Simply Be store in Manchester is slightly smaller than I had imagined but it had an amazing atmosphere and the staff were all really friendly.  I tried on 3 dresses and had a good play with their magic mirror.  This feature is a fantastic idea!  You can take a photo of yourself in your outfit and tweet/facebook it too. I tried to tweet an AX Paris dress but it wasn't connected to the Internet.  I did give in and buy the navy floral print AX Paris curve dress because it was so stunning on (pictures to come soon!).  We also went to the Evans store where I had won £5, but the good thing about this is it will last for 2 years so after the wedding I will keep an eye out on what I want to order.

We went for dinner at the Slug and Lettuce before stepping back to the hotel to get changed for the Plus North after party.  By this time a migraine had set in so I was a little nervous that I wouldn't make it.  I changed into my Paper Dolls dress which has now gotten a little big for me due to spinning, so I teamed it with a cardigan in-case the straps fell down.  I wore flat shoes and a bunch of gorgeous accessories.  We arrived in the suite and were given a gorgeous goodie bag from Scarlett and Jo. Inside was a "Fatshion" acrylic necklace, some nail decals and some sample goodies.  We all sat around the tables and listened to a performance by the gorgeous Rosie O'Sullivan who was a previous Britain's Got Talent contestant.  We were then treated to a glamorous catwalk show by Scarlett and Jo featuring the new dresses and outfits all of which I want! It was a really lovely weekend meeting a bunch of bloggers - my only regret being that I didn't get enough time to chat to everyone!

*Edit - I have ONE photo from the event that is viewable! So next time.... please, someone remind me to take my Canon!

 

2 comments:

  1. YOU WERE THERE!?

    Did I talk to you? I hope I did. Blinking heck, so many people, just not enough time! Haha.

    Kathryn x

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  2. I think I recognise you from the by the catwalk shows but I don't think we spoke... I know it went by so fast and I was a little shy! lol :) xx

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