My Graduation Day!

Hi there! I know my most recent post was a graduation post as well (read here) but it's such an important day and with such an important day finding the perfect outfit is key. I'd had the usual panic in the weeks coming up to the day about what to wear... trust me it was hard.

Girls have more of a choice with what they can wear, yes but there's still the usual dilemma of  'what dress?', 'what style/colour?', 'what heels?' and the most important question: 'what if I fall?' It really is a struggle and so I thought I'd write this post to dicuss how I found my perfect dress in the end.

A lot of my friends had already found their perfect dress months before and I sort of panicked that three weeks before the big day I hadn't. I knew it was top priority but with my hectic schedule I knew that the time window I had to shop for the dress and accessories was limited. From the offset I knew I wouldn't be able to order it online although I'd seen soo many beautiful ones because it would be touch and go whether a) they'd arrive on time and b) fit me properly so a few trips to town were needed!

I thought the whole thing would be a bit daunting, the one thing I had been sure of was that I wanted something natural and quite plain so it wouldn't clash with my robe and hood which was green. I also thought it would take quite a long time to find something that I would fall in love with however after the first shop and seven dresses later, I had found the one. It was figure hugging, smart, simple and classy with such pretty lace detail. Once I had tried it on, I knew this was the one that I wanted and it wasn't until I reached the till that it was on sale too! I always assumed a graduation dress would be expensive but that's not the case at all as this one was from Miss Selfridge.

The only problem I had was finding shoes to match the colour of the dress exactly as they were more of a blush nude but eventually I managed to find just that from New Look. At the same time I realised that I wanted more of a statement clutch for the day and the dinner afterwards so I picked up this navy (also New Look) which had plenty of jewels and the blush colour running throughout. As for jewellery, I luckily managed to pick out the jewels in the clutch and match them perfectly to a necklace and bracelet from Next. I wanted something to stand out against the dress and around my robe with such a high neck line and this did just that. I then matched it with my silver Pandora rings and my Accessorize watch which again was a blush nude.

I wasn't able to book in to get my hair and makeup done as planned - my ceremony started at 11am and is 2 hours away from my house so we knew it would be an early one and nowhere would be opened in time. However us graduates actually needed to be there for 9:30am instead and so we had to wake up even earlier and I decided doing it myself would be the only option. I kept the makeup minimal for the day and curled my hair loosely the night before.

As for the ceremony itself, it was over in the blink of an eye and all those little worries about tripping on stage seem so far away. For a start, we had a ramp and so tripping wasn't even an option. In addition we were presented with our degree and shook hands with James Nesbitt - an actor from Northern Ireland and also our Vice Chancillor. Afterwards, we were able to catch up with all of our friends and lecturers with lunch spreads on in the gardens. I made sure to talk to everyone in amongst the glasses of wine and buns. Everyone was in such high spirits and of course photos had to be taken. Let me tell you: group photographs are so hard to organise, especially with 7 odd sets of parents all wanting us to look a certain way haha!

After giving back the gowns and hats, it was time to spend some quality time with my family. We went for a gorgeous lunch at the Bushmills Inn - it wasn't too packed but the food was absolutely delicious and the sun was out so it made the day all the more enjoyable. Before we started off on the trek home, exhausted from the day we stopped off for an ice cream by the sea and it was incredible. All in all, the past four years have been hard at times but definitely worthwhile and its hard to believe that Graduation day is finally over! As cliché as it may be, it's time for bigger and better things

Thanks for reading, Jenny xo

P.s Have you Graduated recently? What outfit would you pick, simple or bold? Are you at Uni?