My Big Fat Weight Loss Journey - Part 2

If you haven't already CLICK HERE for part 1. You'll find a little bit of background on why I decided to lose weight and the gruesome before pictures that haunt me! They also serve well as a reminder of what the old me looked like, I won't ever go back to that!

In my first post I told you that I wasn't happy at the weight I wasand I knew I wasn't healthy but didn't care enough, until I was going to be a wife and mother, to do anything long term. This is all true, but that's not to say I've never dieted before. I've dieted since I was around 15 and I've tried everything! There was slimming world, weight watchers, slim fast, I signed up to the gym, counted calories and I've even done those 'Drop two jean size' magazine diets. Although the numbers on the scale would drop by a stone, sometimes two, I'd soon get disheartened that I'd eaten well for two weeks and wasn't a size 8 yet. I'm one of those people who want everything yesterday and I was exactly the same while dieting.

I would try, sometimes harder than others. I'd stick at it for a few weeks or even a month. But it wouldn't be long before I'd go back to my old eating habits, the diet diary would be binned and the gym membership would be cancelled.

What was different this time?

Apart from everything in part 1, I started to really be bothered by my appearance. From the age of 16 I've hated every photo in existence of myself from the neck down. I hated ALL photos of me once I was in my 20's. I looked like Violet Beauregarde from Willy Wonka only not quite so blue.

What Diet did you use?

I started out in July 2011 using the Cambridge Diet. In basic terms it's a low carbohydrate, high protein diet where you are limited to shakes, soups, meal bars and some more recently added meals that weren't available when I was on Cambridge. It works by getting your body in to Ketosis, i.e. you don't eat enough carbohydrates for energy so your body has to burn off the fat stores instead.

You work your way from Step 1 through to Step 6. Step 1 is obviously the lowest calorie diet and step 6 is the maintenance step. As you loose weight you adjust the amount of products you have, introduce more foods and eventually carbohydrates in to your diet. Essentially I was too fat to start at the beginning on Step 1. It would have been too dangerous for me to cut down to the 440 calories a day that diet required. So I had to start out on Step 2, 810 calories a day.

What did you eat on an average day?

Breakfast - The Apple & cinnamon porridge or a banana shake

Lunch - Vanilla shake

Dinner - Chicken, Prawns, Egg or Quorn Sausages with cauliflower & broccoli

Desert - Chocolate Shake

Drinks - 3 Litres of water a day. 2-3 cups of coffee.

How much did you lose?

Initially I lost just over 5 stone. However by the time I quit the Cambridge diet I was at a 4 stone 3lb diet. So some of the weight lost was regained.

What were the hurdles you faced?

• Christmas. I took a few days off and quickly gained over a stone. It became apparent to me that if you didn't work your way up the steps and off the diet that even a tomato would affect your weight loss. I lost the weight I had gained and more, but my faith in the diet had been shaken.
• Surgery. I had surgery in February and had to come off the diet for a short while during my recuperation. Although it was only for three weeks I regained two stone. I had been off the diet long enough that I found it very difficult to return to such a strict diet.
• The cost. It was costing me £40 a week at a time I was saving and budgeting for our wedding. I decided to call it a day on the Cambridge and find a cheaper way of loosing weight.
• Negativity. I had a lot of people whispering in my ear that I would be carrying my excess skin down the aisle if I lost much more weight. That I was loosing too much. It got to me. Enough to eventually stop the diet.

How did you lose the rest?

As already mentioned I'm currently at a 9 stone loss. As I lost 4st 3lb it's clear I lost the rest in some other way. I did that by downloading My Fitness Pal. It's an app that has a huge database of different foods and their nutritional information, not just calories, but protein, salt, carbohydrate content etc.

I input my height, weight, goal weight and how much weight I wanted to loose a week. It told me how many calories I could eat a day and I set about inputting my meals each day. For the last 804 days (as of 11/1/2015) I have input every single item of food, every calorie I have consumed in to the app. I've allowed myself treats and days where I have gone over my calories a little, but every day I keep track of what I've eaten. 

Why don't you take a day off?

I'm often asked why I don't take a day off from inputting all my meals in to the app. Especially when I continued to do so through pregnancy. There are two reasons I don't stop tracking my food.

1. Even if I have a day off, or a treat I want to be honest with myself. For many years I told myself I was just unlucky, I only had to look at food and I'd gain weight. Obviously that wasn't true. I was in denial. So if I keep track of what I've eaten even on my off days I can't pretend I've "been so good this week and not lost any weight". 
2. By keeping track I am learning about portion control. I am learning what a normal sized portion of virtually every meal I have ever and will ever eat looks like. It will help me when I reach my goal and hit the 'maintenence' stage of this new lifestyle. I will be able to stop using the app with full confidence I know what I can and can't eat.

What does an average day look like now?

Breakfast - Honestly I forget breakfast way too often these days. But on the days I remember I have either two pieces of toast with clover or mornflakes porridge oats made with semi skimmed milk.

Lunch - Either scrambled egg on toast (not if I had toast for breakfast) or a tortilla wrap with chicken and a garlic salad dressing, a banana and some yoghurt. 

Dinner - Fajitas or meat filled pasta or meat of some sort with vegetables, potatoes or rice.

Snacks - fruit, yoghurt, the occasional packet of crisps or sunbites 

Drinks - coffee, juice, coke zero

Treats - On rare occasions I allow myself a bag of wine gums, marshmallows or a bar of chocolate. I eat the bar/bag slowly portioned out over a few days until it's all gone.

Hurdles Faced

• Pregnancy #1. I increased the amount I was eating but continued to log my meals. I was determined not to eat for two. However sadly the pregnancy didn't progress past 12weeks and I had a little battle with my self to keep on track. Copious amounts of Ben & Jerrys were consumed. I got back on track by continuing to log every item of food and found it gave me a sense of control at a time where I felt a total loss of control. This taught me to adopt a sensible attitude to food that I will be able to maintain for a lifetime.
• Pregnancy #2. The first 12 weeks were full of scans and scares. It was very stressful and although I didn't diet, I found it very difficult to find the balance of eating well. I wasn't hungry due to the stress and for the first time ever had to force my self to eat! 
• Breastfeeding & having a newborn. I was constantly hungry and ate ALOT of food which my midwife assured me was normal for a breastfeeding mother. However sometimes I would forget to eat and drink in the foggy early days where your head is full of questions like, when was his last feed, when is the next feed due. Resulting in a bit of a binge when I did finally remember... it was difficult to find the balance but we got there in the end.

Weight Loss?

Since using the app I have lost a further 4 stone 11lb, putting me at a total loss of 9 stone so far.

Would you do it differently if you had your time again?

That's a tough one. I am by no means bashing The Cambridge Diet and in some ways I think it's a good diet. Especially if you don't have as much weight to loose as I did. I don't think, knowing what I know now, that I would opt for Cambridge again. For me personally it was too restrictive.

That being said Cambridge gave me my life back. Although I didn't stick to it until I reached my goal it taught me self control I'd never had before. After such a strict diet, calorie counting was easy peasy! It gave me a kick start and my consultant was amazing. She gave me confidence to believe in myself, and if it wasn't for her I think I'd be sat here probably fatter than before, crying in to a tub of ice cream.

As for Myfitnesspal. Yes I would do that time and time again. I've learnt portion control and gained an awareness of what I put in to my body. I don't know why calorie counting never worked for me before, but I'm assuming the combination of the kick start Cambridge gave me and the ease of finding any food I eat in the app was what made it work this time. 

How is dieting going at the moment?

It's not coming off as quickly these days but I'm genuinely OK with that. No I don't have the time to worry over every food choice I make, I'm busy enjoying being a mum and making the most of what's left of my maternity leave.

That being said I am determined that by the end of 2015 I will have reached my goal weight and the additional 2st 6lb will be gone, and gone for good. I think once I'm back in work this will actually be easier. In work I found it so much easier to drink large quantities of water (which I'm a firm believer definitely helps with weight loss). 

So what is the plan?

• Continue to use MyFitness Pal. It's worked so far and it's really teaching me portion control.
• When I get to my target weight I will use it for a while to help me adjust to maintenance but then I need to stop relying on the app and learn to trust what I'm eating without counting every calorie. 
• I plan to reduce the treats. Over Christmas I didn't gain any weight, but my calories were made up of a lot of treats and not a lot of nutritious food. 
• I'm useless at eating breakfast so my immediate goal is to make sure I have breakfast every day.
• Increase my water intake. I drink little to no water most days. I need to get back to my 2-3 litres a day.
• Reduce my coffee and carbonated drinks intake.
• Increase my exercise. I get out and walk with Baby R in the pram quite a bit at the moment, but want to start doing something to tone up. Also when I'm back in work I won't get to walk as often so will need to make an effort to walk around the local area in my lunch break where possible.

So I guess this is kind of a New Years Resolution. Beat the bulge once and for all! I will keep you updated on my progress and hopefully sometime soon I will be happy to announce I hit my goal weight!

As always, thanks for reading! xoxo

Day In The Life - Picture Perfect

Having read a few Day In The Life blogs and thoroughly enjoying them I thought I'd attempt my own DITL blog post.

(Warning: the kettle being put on for a cup of coffee will feature a lot. This is NOT a typo, I do live on coffee. Yes I know caffeine is probably not the best thing to fuel my days with... but I'm Rachel & I'm a coffee addict. Nice to meet you.)

6.10am Can hear what sounds like a baby stirring. Ask myself why on earth he's waking so early.

Wait a minute or two, silence! Thank you sleep gods.

7.40am Hubby goes downstairs to finish getting ready and leave for work. Tell myself in my half asleep state that a good wife would get up and make him a cuppa. Decide I am not a good wife, applaud myself for my honesty and go back to sleep.

8.20am Wake up with a sickening feeling that the house is too quiet for 8.20am. Think the world is about to end. *excited shriek heard on baby monitor*. Begin to wish I hadn't questioned the silence. Then feel guilty for thinking that.

Trudge into nursery and put on the biggest pre coffee smile I can manage. Baby boy gives me a huge grin and suddenly smiling is not such an effort after all. Gorgeous boy.

Get baby out of cot and change first nappy of the day. I made that sound far too easy, realistically I pulled his feet out of his mouth 8/9 times. Picked the wet wipes off the floor half a dozen times. Changed his nappy and then tried to do all the poppers on his sleepsuit while he grabbed my arm in some sort of wearing clothes protest. I eventually redress him and we head downstairs.

8.30am Baby is in the bouncer, the music B.I.N.G.O. is playing for the fourth time already today. Kettle is on. Already debating if it would be cruel to have my coffee before he has his bottle. Decide I will make my coffee as his bottle cools and by the time he's done with breakfast it should be 'just right'. Start putting 8 scoops of formula in to a bottle. Add the gaviscon. Add hot water, question if I remembered the gaviscon. Open the bin, there's a gaviscon wrapper on top, yay I remembered! Put bottle to cool and make a coffee.

8.40am Take bottle in to living room and get comfy on the sofa. Take baby from bouncer and within seconds bottle has been snatched from me and feeding time has commenced.

8.55am Wind the baby and place him back in bouncer. Cries of protest ensue. Switch on the music and crying stops. Grunts, shrieks and giggles. Can't help but smile at what appears to being a very emotive discussion with a plastic lion hanging from his bouncers toy bar. Leave the two of them to work it out. Make him some banana porridge and quickly drink my coffee.

9am Put baby in high chair. Give him porridge and water. Quickly tidy up the kitchen, brush my teeth and wash my face and then take Mr man upstairs.

9.30am Take forever picking out 'the perfect outfit' Today he's having some photos taken in town so want him to look nice. Does that look right? Is that t-shirt going to be ok? Shall I put a long sleeved body suit underneath? Are these socks matching? 

Decide that it will have to do. Now to undress and redress him. Undressing as usual happens easily enough. He clocks the bodysuit heading his way and gives me a cheeky tongue poke. I can't help but laugh while battling his arms in to sleeves and pulling poppers, sleeves and feet out of his mouth. Eventually the monkey is dressed.

Baby placed on playmat. Go to my wardrobe. Do a quick scan of the trouser shelf, leggings will do (again). Chest of drawers opened, do a lucky dip and pull out a vest top and jumper. Yeah that'll do. (I'm not joking, that is the level of effort that goes in to outfits these days.)

Brush my hair back in to an all too familiar ponytail. Attempt to apply some make-up with quick glances at the mirror and a lot of "there's a good boy. Is that fun?" Decide winged eyeliner is a good idea today. Eye 1 perfect! Second eye... disaster. Look like I've been thumped. Wipe all my make up off and decide I'm done with make up today. Something doesn't smell good. Pretty sure it's not me! Take little man back to the nursery for a nappy change - the dress & undress battle is won by Mummy eventually.

10.20am Take the little man downstairs with 'George' his Giraffe. Sit him in the bouncer and grab a quick coffee. Natter away with the baby. Hear a strange beeping noise and can't work out what it is. Tell the little man 'mummy will be back in a second'. He shows no signs of being at all bothered by the noise or me going to the kitchen.

Walk in kitchen and realise the washing machine is beeping. Can't even remember putting the washing on. Go in for a closer look... oh I see. Leant against the buttons again didn't I? Switch machine off and head back to living room to explain to baby what I did. He looks at me laughs and sticks his tongue out.

Put little man on sofa next to me and chat/play for a while.

11am The tired eye rubbing has commenced. Being tired has made his teething bother him more and so hands are in mouth and he's whimpering. Stick some bonjela on his gums and decide a bottle and naptime are in order. After giving baby his bottle I put the little man in his cot, turn the lullaby on and I head back downstairs. 

11.20am Put the kettle on and make a cuppa. Drink coffee while watching YouTube videos. In between YouTube videos I potter around tidying up and get the changing bag ready to go out.

12.30pm Starting to get bored of naptime. Realise I haven't had breakfast yet. Decide it's lunch time. So have toast and a packet of crisps ... and another cup of coffee.

12.45pm Text hubby. He's on his way out for lunch with his work. Tell him I'm heading in to town but should be home before him. Still feeling slightly guilty for not getting up with him in the morning, I decide to make it up to him and send a very unattractive crazy faced snapchat. His reply shows he found it amusing. Decide maybe I am a good wife after all!

Beginning to wonder why I wanted naptime. Missing the little man.

13.15pm Hear movement. He's awake! Head up to the nursery, open the curtains and pick the little man out of the cot. Nappy change - the usual battle ensues. He throws in a few kicks for good measure. Babbling away. Find my self 'answering' him back and wonder if this is a sign of being crazy.

13.30pm Head downstairs and place the little man in his high chair. I make a bottle to take out with us. Check & recheck the changing bag. There's clearly way more stuff than I need for a quick trip to town. Start removing things. Put them straight back in the bag as decide being prepared is better. It's not too much stuff, it's being prepared. 

Grab a jacket for the baby, put it on him and then put him in his pram. He sits quite happily babbling away to himself and playing with his toy zebra. Quickly shove on a pair of boots, check I have my phone, purse and keys. Say goodbye to the cat and head out the front door.

Lock the front door.

Get half way down the hill and seriously can't remember if I locked the door. Push the pram back up the hill to the house, check the door. Yes it's locked. Walk down to the bottom of the hill and turn the corner to head towards the bus stop. Hang on, where's the bottle I made for him? Apparently I didn't check & recheck well enough. Back up the hill, back in the house, grab the bottle from the kitchen worktops and back out we go. Double check the door is locked before setting off and walk down to the bus stop.

13.50pm Bus comes, won't let me on. It's half term so the bus is jam packed. Wait for the next one.

13.55pm Next bus turns up, jump on and head in to town.

14.10pm Get in to town, get off bus and am surrounded by Devils, Vampires, Witches and Pumpkins. It's Halloween!! The baby seems highly amused and seems to think that everyone in town has dressed up just for him. Find a free bench in the bus stop, give baby his bottle, wind him and head on to the photo place. There's one baby already having photos taken, shouldn't be too long so we wait. A mother and child of about 5 turn up. The 5 year old is chatting away to the baby. Baby seems to offer the child his zebra toy, but then quickly changes his mind and shoves the toy in his mouth. 

14:30pm It's our turn to have photos done. My little man is really well behaved and still in a very good mood while posing for photos. He sits, lies, smiles, coos and basically looks cute (even if I do say so myself) After 3 poses the photographer makes the mistake of calling my son a 'Cheeky Monkey'. This appears to be the trigger phrase for his tongue to come out. The next four poses he smiles in between photos but as soon as the camera is pointed at him, his tongue shoots back out. I can't help but laugh. Photographer steps a little too close to my 'cheeky monkey' and the toy she uses to distract the children is promptly snatched out of her hands. He looks delighted with himself and starts playing with the toy. 

15.15pm We are finally heading back to the bus station. Little man starting to get tired so decide not to push my luck. Grab a cold drink (that's right, a drink that isn't coffee) from the shop and head to the bus stop. Our bus is there, but is once again jam packed. Decide to sit on the bench and wait for the next one. Send Hubby a snap chat of me and the little man waiting for the bus. Old man gives me a strange look, so I find myself saying quite loudly "Lets send Daddy a picture, as he probably has missed you all day." Old man gives a slight nod as if to say he understands. I question my sanity for feeling the need to explain myself to a) a stranger and b) my 5 month old baby.

15.35pm After a hilarious snap chat conversation with Hubby I get on the bus. My son decides that this is the perfect time to test just how loud he can shriek and what other glorious noises he can make. He goes quiet. I think he may have fallen asleep, pop my head around the pram, no he's gazing at an 18/19 year old brunette, smiling at her. He seems to be blowing kisses. I smile and laugh, but inside am annoyed at the girl for getting his kisses. Tell myself to get over it.

15.50pm Jump off the bus and head back to the house. Get home and unload the pram. Baby goes in door bouncer, kettle goes on and I text the hubby asking him to pick me up spinach & ricotta cannelloni for dinner. "Seeing as you are eating out, I don't want to cook for just me." 

16.10pm Sit down with a cup of coffee. Something smells bad. Realise the baby is probably overdue a nappy change. Put coffee down, pick up baby and take him for a nappy change. He's rubbing his eyes, so I put him in his cot for nap #2. He falls asleep before I even leave the room.

16.15pm Ring mum and forget to drink my coffee. Tell her all about the photo shoot and just how adorable and funny the little man is. We discuss his halloween costume (Which was baby Harry Potter by the way, wrapped in a blanket with a lightening bolt on his head and an envelope addressed to the dursleys rested on top of him). Gave myself major kudos for my costume idea. Fill a bowl full of mini smarties and mars bars while confessing to Mum that I'm kind of hoping that not many people will come so I can eat the sweets!

17.00pm Baby wakes up. Tell mum "I'll have to love you and leave you now." Hang up and go and get the little man. He's all smiles as I get him. Smacking his lips to tell me he's hungry.

17.10pm Apples & baby rice given to the baby. He eats most of it, but towards the end of the bowl starts blowing raspberries at me. Wipe up the mess and make his bottle. Hubby comes home and Baby goes to Daddy for hugs and play time.

17.30pm Daddy gives baby his bottle so Mummy can have dinner and... yes you guessed it a cup of coffee. We chat about our days and then Daddy takes baby upstairs for a nappy change.

18.00pm Door bell goes and the first group of trick or treaters have arrived. Not sure if trick or treaters suddenly got cuter, or if having my own child makes me more prone to bouts of "awww". 

Watch YouTube daily vlogs and answer door as and when door bell goes.

18.45pm Call Daddy & baby downstairs. It's bath time!! Stick baby in his bath seat. Hand him the 'spare sponge' to play with so I can wash him without him taking the 'main sponge' off me. Wash him, and shampoo his hair... well his fluff. There's not much there, but I wash it anyway! Legs dangling over the edge of his chair baby boy decides to kick and splash mummy. I'm soaked.

Take him out of bath and put him on the towel on the bath mat. Take the sponge off him. He whimpers but soon gets distracted by the shiny side of the bath. Raspberries, tongue poking, kicking and hitting the bath commences. I get the baby lotion on my hands and attempt to rub it all over him as he wriggles and tries to stop me. Nappy & clothes battle... remind myself this is the last battle of the day. Once he's all dressed we have a quick cuddle.

19.00pm Daddy decides he wants to put baby to bed today, and Mummy is all for it. Hugs and kisses given to the little man before he's taken up with Daddy.

Kettle on and yes you guessed it... another cup of coffee. Listen to Daddy putting baby to bed.

19.15pm Hubby & I chat about the day. I watch YouTube while he watches telly. 

20.30pm I decide to go for a bath, put the washing machine on first, and ask Hubby to make me a coffee when I get out.

21.30pm Coffee & crime programmes. Whack the clothes in the tumble dryer. Sit on the sofa with Hubby.

11.30pm Coffee. I enjoy my final cuppa of the day and then tell Hubby that I'm off to bed. I give him strict instructions not to leave any mess. Give the cat the same instructions. Up the stairs I go. I pop my head around the door of the nursery. Baby is still asleep and looks so peaceful. I stare at him for a good five minutes. Then close the door and head to bed. I curl up in bed, text hubby to tell him how cute our boy is. Fall asleep not long after my head hits the pillow, all the caffeine never stops me falling asleep!!

Well I hope you all enjoyed my DITL. I know this is super long so well done if you made it to the end and as always thanks for reading!!! 

Snappy Sundays - First Snap!

While enjoying a family Sunday, I came to the conclusion that Sunday here on my blog would be a good time to share a picture or two, a quote or even a meme that sums up either my week, my weekend or just my Sunday.

I will be calling this little Sunday series "Snappy Sundays". A quick blog with a little picture. I always enjoy these little insights to other bloggers lives and I hope you will enjoy the same from me.

Todays picture is my son in his car seat as we drove to see his Nanna & Poppa. It has been a miserable rainy day, but I have thoroughly enjoyed being around my family. My poor little boy has not been feeling good today so we wrapped him up in a fleecy jacket, a warm hat and gloves. But being my little monkey he pulled his trousers up to his knees, took his hat off and eventually the gloves followed!!

Hope you've all had a lovely Sunday. As always, thanks for reading!! xx

Back in business... kind of!

It has been 16 months since I last blogged and finally I have decided to pick up the pen, or rather lap top, and start writing again. I took a break from this little corner of mine in the web for personal reasons but now I'm back!

Never being one to do anything by halves I have filled the first two years of marriage with an awful lot of change. We decided that we no longer wanted to rent but wanted to buy a house and when we moved in to our home I was 20 weeks pregnant. That was much earlier this year, and in May we welcomed our son to the world. He is now 5 and a half months old and growing up far too quickly for my liking. 

While away from my blog I kept a loving eye on it and noticed that people were still reading. I don't really feel I can continue with the wedding blogs, as it has been over two years since I got married, and all that planning and preparation seems such a distant memory. I am a different person now, and so it seems right that my blog grows with me. I am moving on to family style blogging with the same old random posts thrown in for good measure. For you regular readers, I hope you still enjoy and continue to read my 'fresh' perspective on blogging. For any newbies, welcome!

So, starting the new blog has already been a bit of a challenge. It turns out a five month old who has taken over my sofa and all the remote controls, has decided the first day mummy wants to blog, is the first day in quite some time he doesn't want to take his afternoon nap. This makes for a rather tired and needy child, which makes blogging near impossible.

So I will leave you with this picture. 

This sums up a stubborn, strong willed little boy I happen to know rather well. Feel free to leave your stories about what your child, niece, nephew, grandchild etc is stubborn about below in the comments. And any requests for blog posts you would like to see can also be left in the comments or can be emailed to me Here. 

As always, thanks for reading! :)

Seating your guests - Tips on Table Planning

There will come a time in your wedding planning, usually around 1 month before your wedding, that your venue/caterers/decoration companies will require final numbers of guests, a seating plan and details of where you want any extra tables (for cakes/gifts etc). 

This was one of the tasks I found a little daunting, it sounded like a lot of hard work, but once I sat down and got organised it wasn't any where near as difficult as I expected it to be. Read on for my hints & tips on planning where to put your guests and how to get all those final details pinned down in time.

• My first tip starts with your invitations. Make sure that you request RSVP's by 3 months prior to the date of your wedding. Although this may seem very early on and way in advance of when you need the figures, it will save you any headaches later on. This gives you time to chase up any late replies. It also means you can ensure you meet your minimum head count requirements. Most venues will have a minimum amount, and if you do not have this amount they will apply a room charge. For example, my venue required a minimum of 50 day guests and 100 evening. If when we supplied our final numbers we were short of this amount, they would apply a £250 charge to our final bill. This should have been explained when you signed the contract with your venue, but if you are unsure call your venue & double check to avoid a nasty surprise when you get your final bill.
• Also, don't forget to ask for any allergies or specific dietary requirements on your invites. We had a set menu, but if you are offering a choice then you will need to request the choice is given at the time of RSVP. If you include this on your plan it makes it a lot easier for the venue/caterers when they are serving the meal.
• Find out from your venue what size/shape tables they offer and any room layouts they use. If they regularly do weddings they will more than likely be able to tell you what will work best for the amount of guests you have. Bear in mind their recommendation doesn't have to be used, so don't be afraid to ask if you have a specific idea in mind. 
• Start off working out how many tables you will need in total and roughly how many guests per table you will have. Each table may have a slightly different amount of guests on it, but try to keep them as even as possible. To give you an idea I calculated it like this: I had 52 guests in the day. 10 were on my top table, leaving 42 guests to seat. I put 8 on table 1, 10 on table 2, 8 on table 3, 10 on table 4, 6 on table 5. It wasn't the same on each table as certain couples, or groups had to be sat together but it worked out with a nice distribution across the room.
• Next draw on a piece of paper how your tables will be laid out, leaving plenty of room to write names. Here's how mine looked before the names were applied:

• You don't have to have the same lay out, you could have rows of long rectangular tables for your guests, a round top table, square tables, all the tables in a arch, or pretty much what ever you want within reason. Put this in to a simple plan as above, showing exactly how you want the tables laid out, including where you want the cake, gift table, guest book etc.
• Traditionally on the top table you would seat the Bride and Groom centrally and then working outwards the parents would sit either side followed by the best man and maid of honour. But you don't have to follow this tradition, if you already have children you may want them on the top table with you, or if you have divorced and remarried parents, you may want your step parents on your table too. Generally you will have about 10 people on the top table. Try and be fair, so if you have a sister or brother on the top table, don't leave out your other half's siblings.
• Next work through your guest tables. As an example we filled table 1,2 & 3 with our families, table 4 with our dearest friends, and table 5 was good friends & colleagues. I personally felt it was right to have our families on the tables nearest to us, but it's a choice you and you spouse-to-be will need to make together. 
• Once we had worked out who was going to be on each table I started to think of the logistics. For example, our grandparents I put on the seats closest to us, but facing us so they didn't have to twist around during the speeches and struggle to hear, I surrounded them by their children and grandchildren. Mainly because that's who they want to be sat with, not my younger friends who want to have a giggle and mess about. I put children in between adults and not together on one table separately. If they get tired, or need help with cutting their food (for example) they will want their parents to help, not another child they probably have never met before. You don't have to group your guests in this way, and if there is a family feud, you may find a table of relatives isn't a good idea. But for us we felt it worked well and everyone was sat with someone they knew well so they could have a good natter and not feel left out.
• Once you have written down where you want each guest sat on the plan it's time to include allergies, menu choices, or other special arrangements. We wrote a key on our plan as follows: C = Child, V = Vegetarian, P = Peanut Allergy, H = High chair. We didn't offer a menu choice but if you did then either use 1 = menu 1 etc or M = meat, F = fish. Next to each person in brackets include the corresponding code. For example my table place was written as - Bride (P). The venue knew I had to have no Peanuts near my plate and knew where I was sat (as if the big white dress doesn't give it away) when bringing out the different courses.
• I put the plan away for a week and then went back to it to make sure it was exactly how I wanted it. I gave a copy to the venue at our last meeting, and the night before the wedding we went over it with our event co-ordinator to make sure there were no changes.
• We did our own centerpieces so I didn't include this information on the plan, although our venue were a huge help setting up. If, however, a company are setting up for you, or you have specific table names, variations on decorations for different tables or any other detail you want to be perfect then I suggest you include this on the plan. For example if half your tables are in red, and the other half in gold, then write on the plan which ones are which colour. This will avoid any last minute panics on the day.
• If you have a decoration company, or someone setting up for you then make sure they get a copy of this seating plan. Even though you can tell companies or little helpers what you want, if it is written down they can refer back to your plan and make sure everything is how you wanted it. It just saves stress, arguments and confusion for all parties involved.

This all may seem common sense, or even rather simplistic, but I looked online and found the best thing was to keep it simple. There were many complicated plans, long blogs and articles on etiquette & tradition but it was too complex. I decided that it was best to keep it simple & include the important information such as dietary requirements. It worked for us, with the venue commenting how thorough yet easy to interpret our plan was. So I suggest you avoid big pin boards and over complicated table lay outs. Simple means less mistakes can be made!

I was lucky that my venue supplied a Table Plan outside the door of our room for guests to check where they were sat. This was part of our package. If you want to make one yourself or if your venue doesn't supply one you can do this to match your theme, without getting overly expensive. If you want my ideas on an actual Seating Plan Board for the Wedding Day then let me know in the comments below. I will do some research and attempt to make one myself before I write a post for you. 

My last piece of advice is, do not get stressed over numbers, who is eating what and who is sitting where. It is your big day, and you are marrying the love of your life. If it makes life easy on you then have a set menu, if someone doesn't turn up then it's not the end of the world. So long as your spouse is there, your wedding is legal and you two are happy then that's what is important. The rest is just added extras.

I hope you enjoyed and I hope it has helped some of you bride/grooms even just a little bit! 

As Always Thanks For Reading :)