Birthday weekend in the UK

This weekend I went on a surprise visit to Nottingham (UK) for my mum's 60th birthday and she certainly was surprised! My brother walked into my parents room (his was a surprise visit from Bournemouth too) which was shock enough, and then I appeared 10 minutes later resulting in tears from my mum and a 'you could have given us a heart attack!' from my dad who was undeniably pleased but just doesn't cope well with surprises (it's a control thing :-))... Well, we had a lovely day of birthday fun with mum, and I managed to do some bridesmaid dress shopping (I need a frock for my sister's wedding next month). I found my perfect dress (I felt just like a princess in it - strapless with a full floor-length skirt) but unfortunately it could not be made with such short notice, so I've semi-opted for a silk nightie type affair from Pierce Fionda at Debenhams...it's very flattering, but a bit sequeny and beaded for me, which makes it all feel a bit 'footballer's wives' (photo above, purple is the offical wedding colour). Anyway, I've got said dress on reserve, whilst I have one final look round Madrid this weekend. I have found some amazing dresses here in Spain to be fair, the only problem is that they cost over 1000e. A couple of weeks ago I decided to look in the shops near my house on Calle Argumosa (Lavapies) where there are a couple of quite fancy looking shops, run by people of gypsy origin I think... Well, I truly had my prejudices slapped in the face; for some reason I had decided to equate gypsy with low price. How wrong could I be? These shops were run by perhaps the most glamourous women I have ever seen (gypsy or otherwise) and sold beautiful handmade designer oscar-dresses in silk at a start off price of 1000e (700e for me as a 'special client', ahem), so for the moment I'm back to the drawing board, or at least back to the chavvy suburban shopping centre, La Vaguada...