The five London birthday outfit layouts

As you're reading this, I'll probably be sat on a poky coach ready to brave my 4hr 30min journey to London (not a nice thought but hey, it's better than leaving yourself bankrupt with the extortionate train prices). I've never been to London in my 20 (nearly 21) years of living (mainly due to the distance and cost), the lively capital has always been a place I've wanted to visit and there was no better opportunity than to plan a weekend away with the family for my 21st birthday this Saturday. Today, when we arrive, we'll be taking a stroll across Hyde Park which is dead opposite our hotel. Then we'll be heading off for a well needed spot of dinner, followed by a drive to Victoria Palace Theatre to see Billy Elliot The Musical, which again has always been a wish of mine. I love musicals, I love how engaging they are, I love how they appeal to anyone no matter what the age, and I love how when you leave a theatre you're always left with so many words on how brilliant the show was.

Saturday will be a completely different day, and a mad busy day at that. In the morning, bright and early, I will most likely go through the usual stages of a birthday morning. Wake up, embarrassingly listen to a sing song or two directed to me, open presents and cards, speak to the numerous friends and family to thank them for their lovely, thoughtful gifts, indulge in a big birthday breakfast, then step out for a fun packed, enjoyable day. As it's my 21st, I'm guessing there will be a bit more fuss made compared to an ordinary birthday (cue balloons, badges and banners) but I don't mind, it just adds to the novelty.  

Saturday will be a day of cram packing as much as we can into only 10 hours or so. First on the agenda is a spot of shopping (or more likely a lot with me present). I want to check out Oxford Street, Regent Street, Bond Street, and Covent Garden. Then we'll be heading over to see the famous sights; Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, London Eye, River Thames, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus etc etc. A walk down Southbank appears the ideal location for me, too. It looks like such a beautiful setting, and the perfect time to snap some (okay, maybe way too many) photos of the vibe in and around London. I'm ridiculously excited to have my camera at the ready for all the picture opportunities, and it'll also give me a chance to experiment with my new lenses properly. I'm sure once I'm back home and refreshed, the photos will be shared over on my blog expressing my new inner love for the city, and a chance to show what we I got up to during my time there... through picture form of course.

Saturday night was originally going to be a put your feet up, relax, and recover from the daily activites kind of night, but that soon changed. As you may or may not know, my uttermost favourite boys in the word, The Wanted, are taking a break to engage in their solo projects at the moment. As London is the pinpoint for their whereabouts, I was hoping somehow I'd bump into or be able to go see at least one of them. Then comes along Tom, he announces he'll be performing his new solo featured single and DJ'ing at a club starting from 10pm. Seeing him, on the night of my birthday, was an offer I couldn't refuse, so we booked the tickets and will now be continuing our hectic yet delightful day into the night.

Sunday is the day we unfortunately have to head back to reality (and I'll be heading back a whole year older). Our coach is at 2pm so I'm hoping we can catch breakfast early and then have a little wander around Camden Town. I know, whatever we end up doing, I'll be fast asleep on the coach back home! 

Now, I'm the kind of person who likes to plan ahead in the outfit department. I hate stressing out last minute trying to pull an outfit together and then being the one regretting your choices after it's too late. You do have to be weather conscious in this country and plan accordingly to the forecast but as London is like a completely different planet compared to up North, I guessed (with a little help from the forecast) that the weather will be warm and pleasant so whipped out my best shorts, dresses and sandals to create a suitable yet my style kind of outfit for each occasion. Due to the strenuous schedule, I highly doubt I'll have the time to be taking outfit photos; which sucks, as a change of background scenery would have been nice but hey, time is already limited. So, I decided to get together my very first outfit layouts post to show you every individual detail of what I've created.

OUTFIT 1:

Crop Top - Missguided | Shorts - Missguided | Bag - Vintage | Sandals - Primark | Necklace - Primark

This is the outfit I'll be travelling in. I wanted to go for the cool and comfortable look whilst adding a dash of style. The sandals are the comfiest pair I own so that definitely ticks the expectations. The high neck top from Missguided is one of my staple items of clothing, it not only looks lovely on, it's soft, cosy, and easy to pair with almost anything. The high waisted shorts are a really pretty blue colour and I love the pattern it characterises; when spotting them in my cupboard I knew exactly what would go great with them and my thoughts lead to this. 

OUTFIT 2:

Dress - Persunmall | Shoes - ASOS | Bag - Primark

Ah, just how dreamy is this dress? I saw it and instantly fell in love. It's very sixties with the neckline and the way it falls outwards when on. This outfit will fully bring out the girly side of me. No matter how many times I try and mix and match with colours, light pink will always come crawling back to number one. I will be wearing this to Billy Elliot; I didn't want to be too over dressed, but I wanted to look like I've made the effort. It will also be the first time I get some wear out of my ASOS beauties, the colour doesn't match the dress exact but the contrast clashed nicely. To complete the whole sixties look, I wanted to finish off by taking a tote/bucket bag with me but I'm yet to purchase one that compeers, so I went for this simple but gorgeous pastel clutch bag and surprisingly, the hint of mint green adds to the outfit.

OUTFIT 3:

Co-ord - Ark | Sandals - Primark | Hat - H&M

The famous black and white has made its way back into the limelight in this outfit. Although it's summer, I don't think you can ever go wrong with the versatile colour. I knew when I spotted this quirky co-ord that it had to be mine and when thinking upon what I could wear for Saturday day time in London, this sprung to mind. I've only recently started wearing hats and I'm still not entirely sure whether they suit me or not; however, this modest bowler hat is ideal to pop on whatever time of year it is and it adds to that indie look I was reaching for. As we'll be walking pretty much all day, I had to once again face the dilemma of style vs comfort. Luckily, these Primark block heel sandals serve both. They're super easy to walk in and even add that extra length to my legs so they don't look stumpy in shorts, yay!

OUTFIT 4:

Playsuit - Missguided | Belt - Charity Shop | Heels - New Look | Clutch Bag - Vintage

If you haven't yet noticed, I'm loving florals this summer. The ditsy, cute kind of flower like the above co-ord and dress are super flattering, but the tropical kind of flower is also something I can't get enough of at the moment. This beautiful mint green coloured playsuit can be styled in most ways; dressed up or down, worn with black or white accessories and so on, but for this particular time I wanted to bring out the safest option which is black. This will be the outfit I wear on Saturday night. I'm not a regular party animal so it's hard for me to find that comfort zone. However, I think I will be perfectly fine in this.

OUTFIT 5:

Shorts - OASAP | Top - Forever 21 (last year) | Shoes - ASOS (last year) | Bag - New Look

Within this outfit, 3/4 of the items are old and have been collecting dust in my wardrobe for a while now. When I finally received these beautiful lace pocket shorts from OASAP, I was struggling to find a top that would go with them. That was until I routed and found this past favourite t-shirt of mine. Tucked into the shorts, the top finishes off the whole lace look entirely and it would be naughty of me to not include even more lace/floral touches. I'll be travelling back home in this outfit so once again it leaves me with style and comfort. Hopefully I won't be too cold in what I'm wearing when I reach Yorkshire, but I'm not getting my hopes up!

Have a lovely weekend everyone! I will be back online at the beginning of next week and I'm sure I'll have plenty to babble on about. Turning 21 makes me feel quite old as each year seems to pass by rapidly without warning and before you know it, half your life has gone (seriously, I swear it feels I left school only yesterday). It's pretty scary but it also allows me to look forward to my future; I just refuse to ever give up the inner child side of me! And on that note, I shall leave you with a life motto "growing old is mandatory, growing up is optional".