This morning I woke up in my own bed, I made my own breakfast, and I prepared myself for a Saturday of doing laundry and dishes. It's a far cry from the luxury & glamour of waking up in Belfast's Malone Lodge just a week ago.
As you all know I'm part of an ever expanding group of NI Fashion & Beauty Bloggers called FABB. The lovely people contacted us and invited everyone to come for the evening and have a wee Pajama party complete with pampering, treats and DVDs! Well I was there with bells on and despite only living mere streets away from it's Eglantine Avenue location I also accepted their invitation to stay overnight too. Well who wouldn't really? Upon arrival we were offered Apricot Belinis, shown to our rooms where we found Onesies courtesy of BANK . We then changed in to PJs and headed off for a tour of the hotel, much to the amusement of its other non-blogging guests.
The family owned hotel itself is gorgeous and after recent refurbishment is tailor made for the wedding scene. Complete with 240 capacity function rooms, halls dedicated to Audrey Hepburn, brand new Knife & Fork restaurant & take away deli complete with an award winning head chef and, from what I hear, the best steak in Belfast. Malone Lodge promises great things and they really delivered it for us. Speaking with the staff, management (We were joined for the evening by General Manager Carla) and the owners themselves (we got to meet and speak with Gareth Macklin before he was ushered out to leave us to our girly ways!) it is very clear how proud everyone is of the changes they have made and that they just want to show it off to everyone!
And then we got down to business of enjoying ourselves and relaxing. before dinner we had a quick introduction session as many of us have never met before despite chatting online. We then tucked in to plenty of wine and a selection of hot food and salads from the Deli. It's safe to say my plate was cleared and those bottles were fairly well emptied by the 20 or so of us present.
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| FABB girls enjoying wine and good company |
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| Top: Dinner of Lasange & Salads from the deli Bottom: Breakfast of an Irish Fry minus mushrooms |
After we were fed and watered we moved into a private suite downstairs
kitted out with beauty chairs for facials and hand massages courtesy of Skin Medi Spa, we all
piled on to the biggest bed I have ever seen and settled down with
popcorn to watch Breakfast at Tiffany's. But not before an impromptu
makeup lesson from FABB's resident MUA and my roommate Rebecca Bryson about the upcoming Autumn season's makeup trends. Key tips? Don't worry about either/or when it comes to dark eyes and dark lips, both is better. Also you don't need to wear falsies but definitely get that mascara layered up! Its all about big and thick lashes.
And so after movies and chats and setting the world to rights, it was time for bed. Although we could have happily talked into the wee hours, and some of us did back in our rooms, we needed to get our beauty sleep in order to be up in time for breakfast and to make the most out of those hotel beds. I don't know how they do it but Hotel beds are the best beds in the world. Its like magic! We also enjoyed another visit from Gareth over breakfast and another quick nosey at the function rooms all dolled up. It was an amazing transformation from the night before and so quick!
Thank you so much to the Macklin family for their generosity, to Carla and her team for hosting us and also to Anna from INC PR for iniviting us! It was a really special evening and one I am looking forward to hopefully repeating some day!
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| The Deramore Suite complete transformed for a wedding on Saturday evening. |
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| Myself & Gemma-Louise from That Belfast Girl enjoying mirrored ceilings! |
Don't forget to check out the other FABB girls and their sites Here
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Sickened I didn't go, great post on it chick x
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