The Pride of Britain Awards with Lidl

I know I’m the Queen of lateness but this post is ridiculously overdue. I can’t believe it has taken me quite so long to blog about my Pride of Britain Awards experience. I think I’ve been holding off because once this post has been written and published it really will be truly over and life will be a lot less sparkly. It all started with an email from the lovely team at Lidl inviting me and a plus one to the Pride of Britain Awards ceremony at Grosvenor House and ended with a raucous after party and a selfie with Simon Cowell. Here’s what we got up to on the night.

As a blogger, I’m used to 8 million emails a day with subject titles that promise the world but very rarely do they actually live up to the promise. So, when an invite dropped into my Inbox to The Pride of Britain Awards I nearly fell off my chair. Approximately 47 minutes of dancing around the room and three phone calls to my Mum later and I was making travel arrangements for the trip down to London that was less than 10 days away.

Our invites arrived days later which included not only details of the red carpet arrival but a four course dinner and an after party. The next week was almost entirely dedicated to finding the perfect dress and shoes as well as booking multiple beauty appointments. Lidl surprised us with a lovely room at the Millennium Hotel in Mayfair and even arranged our transport to the event. I opted for a backless floor length black dress from Rare (which was a total steal at only £15 here), spectacular Dune shoes (that are now devastatingly in the sale here) and bracelets (similar here) and my favourite silver Jimmy Choo clutch (similar here). You’ll be pleased to know it got the Gok seal of approval!

Walking on the red carpet was completely surreal and totally added to the glitz and glamour of the evening . 90% of the night was spent trying not to stalk Mary Berry and plucking up the courage to ask Abby Clancey which fake tan she uses!

We sipped champagne and watched as famous faces made their way in to the venue. We saw everyone from Cheryl Cole and Joey Essex to Simon Cowell and Jimmy Car. Did I mention Mr Selfridge’s Jeremy Piven was also there? *squeals*

While it was fun to dress up and feel like an A-lister for the night, it was truly inspiring to meet some of the award winners. Tony the fridge guy who runs marathons with a fridge strapped to his back is marvellous considering I get puffed when I’m walking up the stairs. Watching Stephen’s Mum collect an award for her incredible son who had raised an epic amount of money for cancer charities with Stephen’s Story was really emotional and I felt privileged to share a room with such selfless people. I was too excited to eat most of the courses but I couldn’t resist the trio of deserts or my fiance’s! The food was courtesy of Lidl and was absolutely phenomenal. We were lucky enough to share a table with the Lidl team and I’ve never met a bunch of funnier friendlier people. Marketing manager Rob kept us entertained all night especially with his shockingly good moves on the dance floor.

One of the highlights of the night was meeting Mollie King from the Saturdays and her amazing lashes. She is so tiny in person and she is one of the prettiest people I’ve ever come across. My Mum really wanted to be my plus one for the event and so to make up for her absence I managed to get a few get well messages from her favourite celebs!

We managed to get a great get well wish from Simon Cowell, head over to my Instagram to see his video as well as a hilarious one from Jimmy Car and Dermot!

The whole night was a dream come true and I constantly had to pinch myself throughout the whole evening. A huge thank you to team Lidl for the most incredible evening. It was truly unforgettable.