Weekend in Manchester.

Best Weekend Ever!

My boyfriend surprised me with a weekend in Manchester, he literally only told me we were going like the week beforehand...somewhat quite worrying as hes not usually the SURPRISE type of person and leaves it to me to book everything...until now. We went this weekend, going dinner time Friday and coming back mid-day Sunday, and the whole weekend was just incredible and the weather was definitely on our side as it was so beautifully sunny and hot, which meant the dresses and skirts were out for the whole weekend (which isn't like me at all).

This post is just a quick overview of what we did over the weekend and where we visited.

Friday;

Friday was incredibly hectic, and the morning was focused primarily on packing and getting ready to go. My boyfriend had to go to work in the morning, however he finished at dinner so I had until then to get everything ready and sorted. I have to say, for a weekend, I had a lot of things with me, it was apparent I went slightly over the top packing wise. At 1 it was finally time to go, due to me never have been to Manchester before, it was easy to say I was incredibility excited. Instead of going to the hotel straight away, we decided to go to the Manchester City Centre, we thought it would be rude not to, especially with the sun shining. I never expected it to be as big, I think you could walk around all day and still not have seen it all because its ridiculously huge. However most of the best shops; Selfridges, Harvey Nichols etc were right in the centre, and you are forever surrounded by restaurants and cafes, so if you get peckish there's no worries about trying to find somewhere to go. The thing I was most focused on however was finding a Shu Uemura stall as I really wanted one of their lipsticks, there has been so much buzz about them that I really wanted to try one, and hopefully get treated to one by my amazing boyfriend. I finally found a counter within Harvery Nichols and the lipsticks are stunning (a review is to follow). One thing I have to say is that everything in Manchester, the shops, the counters etc are all really pretty and the designs are impeccable, they really focus on making there building look eye catching and really beautifully stylish, this definitely made the experience even more memorable. After a full day shopping and looking around, and a quick something to eat at Café Rouge we thought it was time to go find the hotel; which was actually a good 20 minute drive from Manchester. It was just out side of Wilmslow which is a very pretty little town. It was actually a really nice hotel and really quite with a pub/restaurant next door which meant we didn't have far to travel for breakfast, which turned out to be all you could eat which made my boyfriend a very happy person indeed in the morning.

Saturday;

Saturday we woke up early for breakfast and headed to the Trafford Centre at about half 9. The building is just mesmerising beautiful, I wish I could live there is so stunning...my mouth just dropped when I saw it. Inside its actually not that much different from the shopping mall near me, other then it had a John Lewis and a Selfridges, but overall the building and the feel of it was so amazing its really hard to explain how amazing it is just to look around and be there, everyone should really go because its fantastic. Whilst there I did buy a few make up things, which I will do individual posts on sometimes soon. The rest of the day was spent looking in  all the shops, and we even went back to Manchester City Centre for a change of scenery and bask in the sun for a bit. I did also get a SuperDry top, which I thought was really pretty. I did aim to get some holiday clothes however being 6'2 and a size 8, clothes have a tendency of stressing me out when they don't fit properly, so I just bought make-up mostly. On the way back to the hotel we did stop in Wilmslow, we thought originally it was just going to be a quite little town, with the usually shops boots, superdrugs, river island etc. However, it was definitely one of those, "don't judge a book by its cover moments", it was really nice, it also had a Hoopers which was something neither me or my boyfriend had heard of, so imagine our surprise when we walked in and saw Chanel, Dior etc make-up counters a massive Mulberry bag counter...its easy to say we were confused and somewhat shell shocked, it turns out Wilmslow is actually a very posh little town with some really massive houses which are just fairy tale houses that everyone dreams of living in. Overall it was a really lovely, chilled out day and I really loved it.

Sunday;

There isn't much I can say about Sunday, it was just basically re-packing everything and loading the car. It was weird because I really didn't want to come home, the weekend had been really incredible and we don't usually get to spend a whole weekend together because of him working and other things. We nipped to Stockport on the way home, to have a look around and get out of the car, it was just ridiculously warm even with all the windows down. It wasn't anything special, just a strip of shops like in most towns. I was looking for a SpaceNK however there wasn't one which really was quite disheartening.

Overall, the weekend was unforgettable. I was treated like a really Princess, and the weather just made it that bit better, I really do think the sunshine puts you in the best of moods, my boyfriend was also a real prince charming and as lovely as every. I really urge anyone who hasn't been to Manchester to really go, its a really lovely place to go, especially if you enjoy shopping, however I also saw many museums so I guess it has something for everyone there. The Trafford Centre is also someone I believe everyone has to go, even if its just to go and look around, the building is just stunning and something you would never expect to see. I'm hoping we'll be going back again at some point soon, as there is so much I think I missed the first time round.
Oh and by the way, in regards to my Manchester Dream List, which I posted last week...it sort of, pretty much went out of the window. I think I bought like 3 things out of the 5 on it, and one of them I bought before I actually went to Manchester (TIGI Dumb Blonde Smoothing Stuff). However I did buy many make-up products, so dont worry there will be at least 5 new blog posts coming shortly.

Have you every been to Manchester or The Trafford Centre, what did you think to them?