Priya Mehta

Minesh planned the most meaningful proposal for us, I could not have dreamed of anything more fitting. My high school crush asked me to marry him on our ten year dating anniversary. We were standing completely alone in the very place that we first met: outside our old headteacher's office, in the foyer of our old school, surrounded by all my favourite foods which had set up ready for a red-carpeted-candle-lit dinner. I was in awe. Park High School, I now owe you so much more than just my GCSE grades! A few months of celebrating our engagement later (we really milked it ha), we sat down to start planning the wedding . O k a y. As it was such a personal and meaningful proposal, we wanted to carry on and get married somewhere equally as meaningful to us and our story so far. Therefore chosing the venue was an easy for me. After getting the approval from our parents, doing some measuring of my parent's back garden and committing to how many people we could therefore in...

It's already been three months since our backyard wedding, and today I find myself relaxing on a beautiful beach in Thailand reliving the fun in my mind and wandering out loud if we can do it all over again (ok, full disclosure: I have this daydream daily). Considering I was once initially apprehensive about having a formal wedding ceremony, this is no small feat. Thank you so much to these brilliant people whose magical work allowed this to happen: Stretch tent for our back garden: Stretch & Tents Will and Alex are great on email, phone and in person. They're a busy company due to their quality and pride, but never let us feel the effects of their packed schedules. We drafted out multiple layouts ideas / options the first time we met, which was great as they're innovative and open to anything - everything we thought of, they found a way to make work. The tent, poles and lights were great quality and aesthetically attractive, and it was al...

Last weekend, during the act of terror in London that broke the hearts of so many, I experienced the fear of not knowing if my brother was safe. The worry only lasted a few minutes - we heard from him pretty quickly, thankfully. But the seeds had been planted. Now I can't help but really think about all the resulting re-communications about Reporting Suspicious Activity. I mean, aren't 'they' going out of their way to look non-suspect until the very last second? Shouldn't this read, "look out for anything that looks too normal"? I know I'm focusing on the wrong thing right now, but it's hard not to.  What else can we focus on when what has been done cannot be undone? When naturally, we want to focus our anger and fear on any first-hand attempts to justify or rationalise this behaviour - but there is none? Should we focus on Politics? On donations and appreciation for the emergency services? Should we focus on using social medi...

First Time Buyers. What else? Why is it that no one is brutally honest about what it's like to buy -or move in to- a new place? Why don't we learn any of this at school, college or university?  Here are things we found out ourselves and would have found useful to have to refer to beforehand... I'm writing them down so I don't forget, but also in case it is helpful for anyone else in the future! Is there a checklist? A) Viewings This is the definition of a numbers game. Play the game, go to loads of viewings. We were probably on 40 or so before we found one that really worked for us (ok, maybe it was more like 10 but it felt like 40). Viewings don't really take more than 10-15 mins on average. By the third viewing, all questions were second nature rather than an act. Notes to self: Try to go to viewings after work or early on weekends. Don't try to fit loads on 1 day because it's likely the agent(s) will save the best until last, showing yo...