Jessica Reader

In a bid to get moving more regularly postpartum I signed up to @macmillancancer “Run 28 miles in February” challenge 💚 But a combo of work pressures, boring illness and being a Mumma (!) means I’m wayyyy behind on my miles - 9.5 down, 18.5 to go, and just 8 days to do it in… Yikes! 😬 But I’m determined to honour all the lovely donations I’ve received so far and the incredible work the charity does by finishing it! 💪🏻 - Any words of encouragement or pennies donated (link in profile bio👆🏻) greatly appreciated - wish me luck! 🍀

Very sad to see that the wonderful @bridalrelovedtring where I bought my wedding dress is closing down 💔 But I wanted to do a celebratory shoutout as I am very grateful to have had such a warm and welcoming bridal shop right on our local High St who gave me a dress I will forever love! 🥰 Harry, the lovely lady who helped me, was incredible, and it felt amazing to spend our special day in a dress I could give a second life to! 👰‍♀️ Anyone local knowing someone getting married soon still looking for their outfit, head on down quick for some last-minute bargains! Or I’d highly recommend checking out another #BridalReloved store elsewhere! 🙌🏻 . 💛Also huge shoutout to some of the other incredible suppliers from our special day: . 💐 Hidden Botanics (looks like they’ve also closed down 😔 but I’d highly recommend dried flowers you can keep forever!) 💇🏼‍♀️💄 @_purpletwinsmua 📸 (1-6) The incomparable @helenamarionphotography

📅 What a difference a year makes: 📸 #1: 22.09.24 Our gorgeous wedding day 📸 #2: 22.09.25 Celebrating our 1st wedding anniversary not as two, but three, as our beautiful new family 👶🏼 💛 Happy Anniversary @timbojdreader I love you so much and bring on many more happy years xxx

🏆 9 days on from our @epiphoni victory tour and I’m still not sure I can truly put into words what an incredible experience it was. So I’ll let pictures do the work for now 📸 One thing I can say - the proudest moment for me was being given the privilege of standing in front of my musical family leading them in our closing number for what became our WINNING Grand Prix (and following encore) song 🎶 Huge thanks to our beloved maestro and my beloved husband @timbojdreader and to you ALL for trusting me with it, and it’ll be a moment(s) I’ll never forget ❤️ . 🥇🥇 April 2025 - The 18th Tallinn International Choir Festival Chamber Choir & Grand Prix WINNERS! Link in bio to blog post and recordings/videos 🙌🏻 . ©️ Official photos - Vahur Lõhmus 📸

💛 Six pictures to celebrate six months ago today when I married the love of my life, and what an incredible day it was. Happy Six-Month-I-Versary @timbojdreader I love you so much 💛 . 📸 The beautiful work of our pal @helenamarionphotography - it was near-impossible to select just 6 photos and I wanna share them all 🥰

👆🏻 19th Jan 2024: Turning 31 with a cute Cotswold trip away where we decided to put a 💍 on it 🥰 . 👇🏻 19th Jan 2025: Turning 32 and celebrating that 💍 and following 💒 with our once-in-a-lifetime honeymoon trip away, our final day in Cape Town, SA 🇿🇦. . 🤩 Safe to say my two last birthdays are ones never to forget. Love you @timbojdreader 😘😘😘

🇿🇦 10 days into our dreamy homeymoon and our 2nd #SouthAfrica #Parkrun ✅ So grateful that we can go almost anywhere in the 🌍 and we can find our beloved @parkrunsa @parkrunuk 🙏🏻 Thanks for having us, @greenpoint_parkrun 🥳

✨ 2024, you really have been a beauty. Best year yet, and it’s gonna go up from here, I can feel it 🤗 . 📅 A month-by-month selection of just some of the wonderful moments experienced, all (and more!) for which I feel incredibly grateful 📸 . 1️⃣ Jan: We put a ring on it! 💍 @timbojdreader 2️⃣ Feb: A very belated trip for afternoon tea at The Ritz, gifted by @davidjhaig87 & @s_haigy for my 30th birthday, TY v. much! 🍰🙏🏻 3️⃣ Mar: Some spontaneous and rare March sunbathing on our new-ish non-existent front patio ☀️🏡 4️⃣ Apr: Paella & Sangria night with besties @imo.drakeford & @drakeford.mark , a new tradition I hope will stick! 🥘👯‍♂️ 5️⃣ May: Ticked off another @parkrunuk ‘Full Ponty’ challenge in my fave country 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 6️⃣ June: Celebrated soon becoming ‘Mr & Mrs’ with some of our favourite people on this planet for a weekend in the amazing @briggwhitehart (check it out, AWESOME) and ofc managed to fit in a group PR! 🍻🏃🏼‍♀️ 7️⃣ Jul: Second cathedral trip away with my @epiphoni fam to @cburycathedral ⛪️🎶 8️⃣ Aug: Cute wee day-trip to Bath (1st time for me) and saw some glorious sights 🤩 9️⃣ Sep: A moment that I’m not sure can be topped, marrying the love of my life and becoming Mr & Mrs Reader 💗 🔟 Oct: Ticked off a challenge I thought was impossible, running my first Half Marathon @oxfordhalf raising money for a cause v. close to my heart @fma_uk & the legend that is @millypelmore came along as surprise cheerleader 📣 1️⃣1️⃣ Nov: The proudest moment of my time in @epiphoni as we celebrated 10 years of music-making and friendship (for some - if you ask me the choir didn’t exist until Aug 2016 😉) and I’ve never been prouder of us & our maestro 🥳 1️⃣2️⃣ Dec: Topping off a cracking year with my cracking family with a cracking Christmas Day feast full of love laughter and joy, love you all @haigsheena @haiggeorge & the Nothern Haig’s 🎄🎅🏻💝 . Blimey o’riley, am I lucky or what. What a turn for the better. Happy New Year to you all and I wish you so much love and joy for 2025 💛💛💛

📸💐 My wonderful, beautiful, strong, inspiring, caring Mum - Sheena Haig @haigsheena - deserves to be celebrated every day of the year. But today especially, not just on her birthday, but HER 70th BIRTHDAY 🎊 , is an especially excellent reason to say how utterly amazing this woman is. My rock, my twinnie, my best friend - Happy Birthday Mum - how lucky the world is to have had you on this planet for 70 years; and me almost 32. We’d be lost without you. Love you loads 🎈🎊✨💃🏻🤩🎁🎂🥰🩷

🏡 1 whole year of our life in Horseshoe Barn, and what a year it’s been. Feeling very grateful today for the roof over my head and for the wonderful man I get to share it with, my now-husband @timbojdreader 🙏🏻💖 . 📸 Scroll through for a random selection of my fave moments from the last year - exploring our now local area, and times with some of our gorgeous guests who came to visit - and yes I know the last one isn’t technically from our hometown of Tring, but it was a pretty big moment from the last year, nevertheless… 💍 💒 😘 (Last photo: the fab @helenamarionphotography 👌🏻)

📣 PLEASE WATCH & READ: It has genuinely been one of my proudest work experiences to date being a Support Worker for @streetwiseopera London groups for the last 2.5 years, and it breaks my heart that they (like lots of arts institutions) are struggling💔 We can't let this awesome charity doing invaluable work go down - they mean too much and our performers need them. Please do all you can to share the word and support (link in bio)! 🙏 -- We urgently need to raise £120,000 to continue to inspire and empower people experiencing homelessness. Please donate or share our campaign to ensure our vital work can carry on. This emergency appeal is the most critical campaign in our 22-year history. Follow the link in our bio to donate or find out how to get involved. #StandWithStreetwise

📆 April 2021: Unexpected back, shoulder, general joint pain and tiredness, thinking it was down to my recently started Triathlon training. 📆 August 2021: After 2 months of fast-progressing widespread pain and fatigue, some days/weeks not being able to get out of bed, work or being too scared to move even an inch, and far too many tests, I received a diagnosis of Fibromyalgia, a life-long chronic illness. 📆 November 2021: Life took a turn for the better & I had the greatest honour of performing the mezzo solo alongside my London fam @epiphoni in our Durufle Requiem concert, and it was one my favourite, most grateful & proudest moments to date, after everything life has thrown my way. —— This is not a cry for help or for pity. I am so incredibly lucky to have the best support network of friends, family, partner and work colleagues around me, all of whom have dragged me through this strange, strange time, and they will continue to support me through my future journey and learning how to live with this new challenge. You know who you are, and I love you all so, so much ❤️ But after having shut myself away for so long while figuring out what was wrong, but also having started reconnecting with the outside world again, I have never believed more in the insane power of talking, listening, communicating, sharing and most importantly friendship, and I feel compelled to share my story. This is for all those people out there struggling and suffering in silence: please, please, please speak out. No problem is too big or too small. And life is too god damn short not to put yourself, your health and your wellbeing first, and to find those answers you may desperately need. Life seems so much clearer now I have my diagnosis, but even if you don’t have one to find, just remember to love and look after number one, YOU 💕 —— My condition, like Endometriosis (and others), is massively under-researched and under-supported, and not massively known about. But if you’d like to know more about Fibro or my general journey, please get in touch. I’m off the day job atm and seem to have a lot of time for coffees and gins… 🤗 —— 📸 #1: @liz_isles_photography