I discovered Jeune Premier – a Belgian accessory brand that was founded in 2012 by a lawyer and a pharmacist – during my Christmas holidays at Oostende (Belgian coast).

According to their website (www.jeunepremier.be), the brand started with schoolbags, because the couple could not find the ideal schoolbag for their child that suited their needs in terms of design and weight. Gradually, they expanded, and now they also sell beautifully designed diaper bags, weekend bags, pencil cases, toddler backpacks and kids bags. The bags are designed in Belgium by Hélène Fransen.

As I am expecting a baby boy in February and still needed a diaper bag, this was the perfect discovery. One of the dealers is ‘Charlie’, a cute shoe store located in the centre of Oostende. The shop owner did not have any diaper bags in stock when I first visited, but she managed to obtain one very quickly for me – the very next day! The service was excellent, and I am very impressed by the good quality of the bags. Also, the design of the bags is lovely! This looks like a brand of bags with an excellent price/quality ratio.

I will try to organise a presentation of the brand for all interested mummies and daddies during the summer of 2016 – I will keep you posted. Let me know if you are interested to attend.

As every pregnant woman at some point you realize that your clothes no longer fit, it’s hard in the beginning but a reason to shop for new clothes.:-)

I personally recommend the Belgian brand “fragile” http://www.fragile.be, they have beautiful clothes which gives you the feeling you are very trendy and no longer pregnant. The other brands like Asos, Noppies, Esprit etc … are much more “old school” – I bought a bunch of clothes online but when I tried them on I felt like I was going back in time and totally not trendy which made me miss my own clothes (non-pregnant clothes) even more.

If you want more info you can also check the post : http://www.thevillage.be/shopping/maternity-clothes

Having a baby in Belgium but you have no idea where you can find support?

I recommend the meetings ‘parents to be’ at BCT – you can follow this with your birth partner and feel much more relaxed in order to prepare for birth – You can find more information on the following website: http://bctbelgium.org/support/prenatal-support/.

In addition being a pregnant woman and you want to spoil yourself, I recommend the pre-mummy arrangement at Shambalah (http://www.shambalah.be/en/aanbod-arrangement-07.php).

Yayyy! Finally we found our wedding venue – we decided we will have the wedding next year in May in Menton (South of France), now it’s time to start preparing the wedding. Invitations were send so that people can prepare their trip to the South of France. Next week we are going on location to start preparing the wedding. One thing in particular is the ceremony how will we organize this? Tips are welcome 🙂 please send me an e-mail : julie@expatrelocationbelgium.com

Have a nice summer as summer is coming to an end but we have still 2 more weeks to go so enjoy!

Julie

The two first things you need to do is finding a venue and a wedding dress as in Belgium you need to find your venue 1 year in advance and ordering your wedding dress can take up to 4 months.

Finding a venue is not easy and expensive in Belgium, prices range between 2000- 5500 EURO just for the room and in addition you need to pay the menu and drinks so this can get very expensive! If you rather want to have it simple you can rent a room in a school, etc.. and this is totally not expensive but not that fancy, it depends on what you want. You can also decide to hold your wedding in the Netherlands or France. Like in ‘Cadzand’ or in the South of France this is popular among Belgians as it’s not far and something different than the traditional Belgian venue. This is something I preferred so my wedding is in the South of France, I found a nice venue in Cap Martin,namely les deux Frères :-).

Finding a wedding dress is challenging as last week I went to two bridal shops, one in Brussels (Pronovias) and one in Antwerp (JPC Collection). The experience I had at the Pronovias store wasn’t good – they showed me dresses that were size 34 to small so I had no idea how they would look like as the dress didn’t fit at all. On top of that I really liked a dress I saw online (Mijas model) but they said they didn’t have it in store, when I called back the day after all of a sudden they had the dress! My experience at the JPC Collection store was much better, we could choose from books and they had most dresses in stock and they were really friendly and helpful. I already found one I really loved, namely the La Sposa dress model Eithel :-). We will see, will we take a short dress or long dress or both?

http://www.lasposa.info/wedding-dresses2015/fashion-collection-eithel

I would also like to thank Melissa and Magali for helping me with finding a wedding dress.

I am engaged! Wow and I am so looking forward to plan the wedding.
Tomorrow evening I have a dinner with my girlfriends planned in Antwerp at my favorite restaurant Fiskebar.

I will regularly post on what to do and not to do and I will give future brides some recommendations.

I already have an excel-sheet at my disposal in which the steps to take are nicely ordered thanks to Kim one of my friends.

Keep you posted.
Julie