K's Wedding Book

Wedding album

2011-04-02T17:43:00.002+08:00

C and I finally managed to select the photos for our wedding album and sent them off this week to our photographer. There were so many shots that we liked and it was difficult to keep it under control. It was also hard to imagine what it would all look like styled and I hope that our selections will make sense!

We are looking forward to seeing what our photographer comes up with as the memory of our day.

I also have to try and organise myself to print out some photos from our wedding. There are a few grannies to send pictures to and also I would like to get a larger shot of one of the two of us to frame for our photo wall!

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The next phase

2011-03-11T11:17:00.004+08:00

Thank you to everyone who has joined me for the ride to our wedding last year! It was a fun journey, there were a few little hiccups along the way but everything pulled together in the end.

It is true that the day flies by so fast! I tried to speak to as many friends as I could but did not manage everyone.

If you would like to keep in touch with what we are up to, I have another blog Afternoon Tea with the Girls. The big news for us at the moment is that we are building a house, and I am slowly posting photos of the progress!

There are still more wedding items that I will post to this blog, such as the reading we selected and other bits and pieces that I wish to document.

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Wedding: Locations

2011-03-01T12:15:00.000+08:00

These are all professional photos, taken by Anton Chong of C Photography.

This are some of our location shots. We were very happy to be finished by the end, it was quite humid and my feet were numb! I am not sure that I had any lipstick left either, the photographer kept wanting us to "smooch" and I think that Chad had more of my lipstick on by the end of it than I did.

Such a lovely shot! This spot was just next to our ceremony.

We wandered through the Boardwalk, next to the Scented Gardens. It is such a peaceful place.

The boys. It looks like SJ is not too sure...

So nice to sit down and take the weight off our feet!

Images C Photography

Wedding: Reception

2011-02-28T11:15:00.003+08:00

These are all professional photos, taken by Anton Chong of C Photography.

This selection of photos is from the reception.

Making our entrance.

Words of wisdom from our best man.

My cheeky groom.

It seemed such a shame to cut the masterpiece, but we did. A tip though is to make sure that you cut the cake early on, to give the kitchen time to slice it up and put it into bags. We did not cut our cake until later during the reception and I think that people missed out on getting a piece.

Awesome cake!

Images C Photography

Wedding: Ceremony

2011-02-27T11:09:00.004+08:00

These are all professional photos, taken by Anton Chong of C Photography.

This selection of photos is from the ceremony. We were married at the Scented Gardens on the South Perth foreshore. It is a lovely venue, a paved area with climbing plants over a timber structure.

Dad giving me a helping hand. As you do!

Standing around, waiting. We really were not sure what order the girls should walk. The question was whether the chief bridesmaid went first or last. We ended up asking Anton. Last was the response, and so the other two girls went in order of dress colour.

Waiting to hear the music. There were technical issues with our Portable soundsystem. I am not really sure what they were but I had to ask our MC if it was playing before Dad and I started!

Who gives this woman? Thankfully Dad refrained from asking for a couple of cows for me. It could have been ugly.

My knees were shaking! Apart from that I was great and could not stop smiling. I was so happy.

Make sure that you pick the correct ring! C's wedding ring is too large for any of my fingers.

Now it is my turn. I love those cufflinks.

First kiss as man and wife.

Signing the paperwork. Let's make it official before we head off to party!

My bridemaids are the first to congratulate me. C's family give him their blessings.

Happy families! We both have a new sister.

My Mum's side of the family! I had cousins fly in from Melbourne, Adelaide and Broome to make our wedding. Thank you for sharing our day!

Man and wife. Ready and primed for more photos.

Images C Photography

Wedding: Preparation

2011-02-26T10:33:00.006+08:00

Hello again!

It has been a wee while since I posted, and I really wanted to get my wedding photos out there. These are all professional photos, taken by Anton Chong of C Photography.

This selection of photos is from before the ceremony during our preparation time.

My dress, on rumpled bed.

These shoes, whilst the style to suit my dress, were so uncomfortable that by the end of photos I had lost feeling in at least four of my toes and the rest of my foot was tingling! It took a week for my toes to come back to feeling normal, and even then if I squatted down and changed the pressure on my toes they still tingled.

Mum struggled with the zip on my dress, so my sister E ended up making me safe.

Family photo. We do not have enough nice photos of our family!

My beautiful bridesmaids. Oh, and me as well!

Two of me!

C in the foreground with his groomsmen, all looking smart.

My handsome groom.

Images C Photography

Kitchen Tea - the quiz

2010-12-27T14:55:00.000+08:00

My sister E put together a quiz for my guests. I had requested no silly games, as I tend to find them annoying when I attend these kinds of parties. Then again, maybe it was my chance to exact revenge and I missed out on the opportunity! Bummer.

At any rate, the following questions were asked. Two friends were tied on seven apiece and we went into the tie breaker. My favourite bra type was all that split the two in the end!

Kirsty Quiz
1. When was Kirsty born?
2. What is her middle name?
3. Favourite food?
4. Favourite type of tea?
5. Favourite TV Show?
6. Where did Chad propose?
7. Did he go down on one knee?
8. Where is the honeymoon?
9. Where are Kirsty and Chad building their new house?
10. How many nieces & nephews does Kirsty have?

Tie breakers
1. Where did Kirsty meet Chad?
2. What is her favourite charity?
3. What is her favourite underwear label?

Kitchen Tea - the guests

2010-12-24T14:49:00.004+08:00

My mother graciously let us hold my kitchen tea at her place. All of my bridesmaids have relatively small abodes, and it would have been quite tight with the number of people we were inviting. Mum and Dad have a fairly large covered area at their place and it was great in case of contingency - rain or sunshine and we were set!

Dad disappeared for the afternoon and left us in peace. He made sure to come home though while there were still cakes on the table...

Thank you to my lovely bridesmaids for all their hard work and effort at organising, and to Mum for letting us crash your backyard! A marvellous day was had by all.

E conducting the Kirsty Quiz. I will post it shortly - see how you stack up!

Guests busily trying to remember my favourite colour.

Chocolate or strawberry? Hmmm....

Mum wishing that she was allowed to enter. "I know all of these answers. I would win!"

My lovely sister and me.

Kitchen Tea - the food

2010-12-23T14:35:00.005+08:00

My bridesmaids organised a kitchen tea for me. Given my love of afternoon tea it was a given that I would appreciate something special! Bridesmaid N cooked up an absolute storm, and in the days before my kitchen tea she won awards for her baking at one of the local shows! I was privileged to have some of those award winning recipes baked for my day.

There were a few people who contributed to the tasty treats on the table. N was most prolific, with plates of biscuits, eclairs, fruit tart, cake, and cute cupcakes. M made curry puffs, sandwiches and a madeira cake. My MIL made two types of caramel slice, and P brought along her famous corn salsa dip.

We were all well catered for! To wash it all down were cups of tea and a fruit punch that Mum made.

My sister picked up these cake toppers in the US when she visited earlier this year.

Yum chocolate cupcakes with a burst of white!!

These gorgeous fruit tarts were the first to disappear. I only managed to taste one!

Award winning biscuits. Yeeha!

Hiatus

2010-12-11T21:30:00.005+08:00

We are caught up now between Christmas and New Year. The writing of thank you cards is a more laborious process than I had anticipated - I have written 20 out of 66!! Phew. And then Christmas cards to write and send...

Yesterday we picked up our proof book from our photographer. It is a weighty tome - 187 pages of photos. Wow! We also have a DVD of all of our photos at 12Mb (or maybe 12 Megapixels, I cannot remember what he said and I have not looked at the files). At any rate rather large! We have to choose around 100 photos for our album. That will be a job for after Christmas I think...

Image C Photography

Preserving your wedding cake!

2010-12-04T18:05:00.003+08:00

After all of the hassles and running around that we had for our cake, C and I were very happy with the result! The lady who decorated our cake asked us to head out to her place (a 45 minute drive from home!) so that we could see it and let her know what we thought. We were happy to do so, although figured that there was not much that we could do the day before the wedding other than nod and smile if we did not like it!

We loved it! We were very happy with our cake and it surpassed our expectations. S had found a space for all of the icing flowers that Mum had purchased (which would make Mum happy!), and had added some colour through the use of blue and silver dots. I had been able to provide S with fabric samples from the dresses of two of our bridesmaids and she used these as a guide for the colour of the circles. She complemented the flowers with silver leaves and ended up using icing on the base of each layer rather than ribbon.

We did not manage to eat any cake on the day (tip: cut the cake early in the reception rather than towards the end, to give the kitchen time to cut it and serve it up!) and I made up for that the day after our wedding. Yum! I love fruit cake and this was extra special and rich, with dates and apricots and almonds and all sorts of good things. Only the bottom tier was cut, and not all of that served, so we have lots of cake to see us through the next few years.

As we were heading off onto our honeymoon the next day, we postponed preparing our cake for long term storage and ended up putting the two full tiers and remainder of the third tier into one of our car fridges. The warmest that we could set it to was 11C and so they sat in that environment for two weeks. This last week we scrambled around looking for containers large enough for each tier and ended up calling upon the services of my tupperware friend to find us something suitable. Yay!

Today we wrapped both up in two layers of gladwrap, then a layer of alfoil, placed them into the tupperware and into the deep freezer. Fingers crossed the tupperware will protect them from picking up any freezer smells. (They are in the bait freezer.)

I have read a few different websites with varying opinions on the best way to preserve the wedding cake, and also different opinions on the sucecss of freezing icing! At any rate we have frozen ours with the icing intact and we shall see how it goes. The response on this forum seems to indicate that freezing the icing should be okay, and our cake decorator also suggested that we freeze it. S had not had experience herself with freezing the cakes but she did tell us that it had been recommended by one of her colleagues, and also that she had issues with icing left out of the fridge/freezer going rancid due to humidity. S advised that the icing was more likely to go off before the cake!

Image C Photography

Lovely ladies

2010-12-01T21:35:00.001+08:00

My beautiful bridesmaids and me. All dressed up with somewhere to go!!

Image C Photography

Unsubscribed

2010-11-30T16:46:00.003+08:00

I just unsubscribed to all of the wedding blogs that I never found the time to read anyway! It feel relief that I no longer feel that I have to maintain my subscription just in case they posted an idea that I would use.

I am still reading the blogs of fellow brides, I do enjoy reading their stories and ideas and ups and downs and seeing how they go through the process. It is nice to read about the joys and laughs of other brides!

Over the next week or so I will post pictures of our day and the bits and pieces from the leadup until our wedding. I still have to post photos from my kitchen tea and hen's night! Terrible. C goes back to work on Thursday so I should have a little more spare time to devote to documenting our wedding.

Image C Photography

Photos!

2010-11-29T06:06:00.003+08:00

We are back from our honeymoon (photos later) and a surprise waiting for us was a sample of the official photos from our wedding! So exciting! Yay!

I love C's blue cufflinks, they are such a statement. My sister E won them for him! Apparently his groomsmen were giving him grief about them however I put it down to their lack of fashion sense and style!

Image C Photography

Bridesmaid pretties

2010-11-26T21:05:00.000+08:00

It seems that a common gift for bridesmaids is to give them the jewellery that they will wear on the day. I was hoping to give my bridesmaids something a little quirky that they might hopefully wear again, so I turned to my sister for ideas. She is usually good for items that are interesting and fashionable!

Her suggestion was the mini necklaces by Victoria Mason. These are beautiful charms and I had trouble narrowing it down to three! With a little more help from E I ended up selecting these three treasures.

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A sweet thank you

2010-11-23T18:05:00.001+08:00

Our bomboniere were fairly simple. I had tried to think of something creative and interesting and useful and gave up. It was back to chocolate, and in the search for simple E and I came across Whistlers at the Perth Upmarket. They were offerering a 90g block of creamy milk chocolate at a price that was within our budget and I could see that labelling them would be fairly simple. They fit the criteron for locally made, and although I am trying to steer myself towards fair trade chocolate I thought that our guests would be more appreciative of the local product.

At the time that we ordered the chocolates, we planned to use them as our individualised table name settings as well and it all tied in.

Mum and I went into the factory store to speak to Whistlers about ordering the bars, and see if there was a discount for ordering in bulk! Rina was very friendly and she suggested that they wrap the bars in coloured foil, rather than the cellophane of the trial block that E and I had bought.

We thought that this would be a great idea and selected two blues and silver to complement our bridal colours. The chocolates are made to order and this means that they we fresh for our guests!

I toyed with several ideas for labels - my original thought was to use parchment paper to print labels and wrap these around the bars. I then tried to think of ways to incorporate a swing tag style label, and to use our lovely chiyogami paper. In the end though I went back to the wrap around lable but used the vellum that we had made our invitations with. I printed a thank you message for our guests and Chad and I spent part of an evening wrapping and sticking them around the bars. They looked so pretty when we had finished!

The morning after - part 2

2010-11-21T14:17:00.009+08:00

New little sister
Partying hard. Already
borrowing my clothes

For better haiku, check out my (other) sister E's blog. She is much more lyrical than I.

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The morning after

2010-11-21T12:15:00.003+08:00

It feels so surreal, the morning after.

Today we marvelled in the state of marriage, unwrapped gifts, sat around waiting for groomsmen suits to return tomorrow, and picked up our wedding cake.

We missed having a piece, yesterday. Today though there is time to enjoy the cake and each other's company.

Tying a tie

2010-11-19T11:45:00.002+08:00

We're at the pointy end now, and the groom and groomsmen all need to look their best!

The only time that ties come out of the drawer in our house is for my work balls. Chad likes to do it right and we head straight to the internet for instructions on how to tie the perfect tie.

Here's hoping that they all manage the intricacies for the wedding, none of the boys are regular tie wearers so it will be fun to see how they go.

Bucks and crays

2010-11-17T21:58:00.002+08:00

A trip to Rottnest for the start of the Crayfish season (15th November here in WA!) seemed like the perfect platform for a bucks show. C and several of his mates went over on Sunday - four boats in total - for the start of the season on Monday. The windy weather meant that they were not able to access their usual spots and the haul was a measly 6 amongst the three of them who dove. There had been some shark activity recently in the area and not all of the boys were game enough to get into the water!

Rottnest is one of the places that I want to visit more frequently - we have the means to get over there and we can chuck our bikes onto the boat to get around once we are there. Maybe this summer...

Cake giveaway

2010-11-16T09:45:00.002+08:00

Local Perth cake decorator extraordinaire Delicate-Lee is giving away a wedding cake to a lucky Perth bride! See here for more details. It sounds delicious - three layers of chocolate fudge covered in more chocolate.

Kaylee's cakes are beautiful creations, check them out on her blog.

Predicting the weather

2010-11-15T09:53:00.004+08:00

Last year, on the same date as our wedding, it rained. I figured that the chances of it raining again this year would be slight, however the weather last week - 10mm of rain! - made me pause.

It seems that rain however is not on our horizon. The prediction is for 37C after two days of 36C!! I will definitely be keeping my eye on the weather but summer is a coming in and it will be hot hot hot!!

I am extra glad now that I avoided the meringues when it came to selecting my wedding dress.

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Something blue...

2010-11-12T22:02:00.000+08:00

I already have "something blue" but have still to find myself a a pair of earrings! I know what I will be shopping for next week...

(I am still to figure out "something borrowed" and I fear that I am running out of time.)

2, 1, 3, 5, 4

Playing with flowers

2010-11-11T21:34:00.006+08:00

The florist rang me today and let me know that the blushing bride is not available! So, to complement these flowers we need to find an alternative.

A few alternatives that we have been offered are lovely gum blossoms and geraldton wax. Hmmm... more choices to be made!

3, 2, 1

Nearly there - wedding dress!

2010-11-10T21:48:00.002+08:00

Yesterday my bridesmaids (N, E & M), Mum and I met at the dressmaker's for their first and only fitting and my third fitting.

It was very exciting to see the girls in their dresses and the beautiful colours complementing each other. Gorgeous!

It was then my turn. I was very excited and my dress is looking so good! N hadn't seen me wear it before - only briefly on a shop dummy - whereas the others had been dragged into Hustle with me when I tried it on.

Yay! I am very happy and excited and looking forward to wearing it and I really hope that Chad loves it too.

We will all pick up our dresses next week (complete with zips and hemmed) and then it is just the big day that we have to wait for.

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Time flies...

2010-11-06T15:32:00.006+08:00

How time does fly when you are having fun! Wedding highlights of this week:

Tuesday
I rang the lady who is decorating our cake to check to see if she uses marzipan. We forgot to ask her when we were discussing our cake, and she forgot to ask us! It is all good, she only uses marzipan if we want it, and we definitely do not.
She also now has our cakes - Chad's aunt dropped them off - and I look forward to seeing her interpretation of our cake. I have sent her some of the fabric from our bridesmaid dresses so that she can see what our colours will be.

Friday
We picked up Chad's wedding ring. It still felt too large for his finger however the lady said to give it a whirl as she thought that his hands were quite cold. After riding around the river after work yesterday he tried it again and it still slipped off easily. They are going to order a smaller one in for us and third time is a charm we hope!

While we were riding we stopped to look at our ceremony venue. It is looking lovely, with a nice coverage of greenery and plenty of space for our guests.

Saturday
We had a meeting at our reception venue today, and went through the menu, wine list etc. It is all so easy! They will make up the seating plans and even personalise the menus so that we do not have to provide the seating tags. Pretty cool, eh? We are looking forward to good food and a great party!

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Arigato...

2010-11-02T20:35:00.003+08:00

I have ordered our thank you notes! It is very important to make sure that you thank your guests for coming and sharing your day with them, and of course thanking your dear old aunts who could not make it due to health reasons/being out of the state/country but sent you half of their life savings anyway.

The image above, from Mokoh, graced the thank you cards that we sent out for our engagement party. I love the simplicity of the pattern! Mokoh Designs are made here in Western Australia and use papers from sustainable sources.

Not too long to go...

2010-10-31T07:54:00.001+08:00

My life at the moment is wedding, wedding wedding. With a bit of house! built in. It is all good fun and hopefully I will come out of the end of it unscathed. There is so much detail floating around in my head and I am worried that I will forget something. Eep!

A quick round up of the week...
Wednesday
I had another dress fitting! For the first fitting the dress maker Nici had made the dress from lining fabric. This time around she had stiched in the feature panel of my dress and it was starting to take shape! I was very excited, I can see now what my dress will be like. I am looking forward to the next fitting.

Saturday
First stop was to the florist to pay the balance. Tick!

Mum and I had a big morning. We headed out to a couple of places in Belmont to pick up some detail. The first was to Sonboniere, a shop stocking all sorts of goodies for you to accessorise the perfect wedding, party, or anything! We had a goal in mind, and that was to purchase bags for wedding cake. There were many pretty things though to distract us from our task.

Next on the list was to head to Whistlers to pick up the bomboniere for the wedding. It was exciting to see and Mum now has custody of them until the wedding. Thanks Mum!

Sunday
We are catching up with the celebrant today, to go over our ceremony and make sure everything is good! I have sent him the reading that we wish to have so that will be another tick in the box for confirmation and planning.

Chad and I are also planning to check out our ceremony venue today to remind ourselves what it looks like and we will go searching for a pair of shoes for him to wear. He wants to trendy himself up!

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RSVP update

2010-10-25T19:46:00.000+08:00

Well... we did better than I had expected in terms of the RSVPS! The number of cards did not add up to the 60 I had originally counted, for various reasons, but we received 44 RSVP cards and 11 were not returned. That is exactly the 80% return rate that the optimist in me was hoping for. Wow!

Woo. So now that the numbers are in, we have to figure out who sits where. That will be fun!

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My silver shoes

2010-10-24T12:47:00.003+08:00

Last Saturday I made it my mission to try to find a pair of shoes to Linda's specification. I started simple, and went to Harbourtown to see if I could grab a bargain. I found this pair in the first shop I walked into - Williams - and snapped them up. I did the rounds and came to the conclusion that I had the best of the bunch and moved on.

They are a bit higher than I am used to, so we shall have to see how I go! Today I spent an hour tottering around on them. It seemed quite strange to be hanging out the washing in a pair of heels. It probably does not help that yesterday and today I have been running up and down hills and stairs at King's Park and my calves are already tight! Still, all in the name of looking gorgeous.

C and I went to see the dressmaker Niky last week, and tried on our samples. It was all good fun! He didn't bring his trousers or shirt with him so we were guessing where the top of his trousers would be. It would not look the best if there is too much gap between his waistcoat and trousers.

I am definitely getting excited about it all. We just have to organise a few details and then the day will be upon us! I am looking forward to the party.

Roses are white

2010-10-20T13:27:00.000+08:00

A sneaky peak of the roses that Mum bought for the top of our wedding cake. So pretty and delicate. They are now safely in the hands of the cake decorator.

Bride on a budget

2010-10-19T21:11:00.000+08:00

Lupinbunny of Black Swan Bride has given herself the challenge of planning an imaginary wedding with 100 guests for the princely sum of $8000! It will be fun to see how creative she has to be to keep the budget under control.

She is also located in Perth so I am especially interested to see what ideas and options she comes up with.

Check out her progress here. She has so far covered the budget breakdown, the invitations, the venue and the catering.

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Flower update

2010-10-18T14:48:00.000+08:00

Chad and I went to speak to the florist a few weeks ago about our wedding flowers. She rang a few days later to say that she had been to her suppliers and they had confirmed that they would be able to source all of the flowers that she had quoted for us. Yay!

I am happy as I liked the original flowers and it means that I do not have to try and like another combination. I am not sure that I have the energy this late in the piece.

Project Wedding-ism

2010-10-18T07:13:00.004+08:00

I was amused to see that the tip this morning for Project Wedding was a Guide to Household items that you will never use. I was intrigued to see what would be on their list! I am sure that for every significant event where there are lots of gifts there will be one or two that raise eyebrows.

The advice however seems to be more about cautioning the bridal couple not to go overboard with their registry, and actually to think carefully about what items they add to their list, rather than foreshadowing any scary gifts from friends and family.

Disappointment! I see that toasters were mentioned, as were toaster ovens. Mum used to have (and maybe still has) one of those! We would eat open toasted cheese sandwiches as children. Oh, memories of childhood.

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A little hiccup

2010-10-17T06:32:00.002+08:00

Our wedding cake was to be simple. Fruit cake, with white icing and some flowers thrown in for good measure. It has turned out to be the most complicated part of our wedding.

I did some searching of the internet to find a style of cake that both C and I liked. I focussed on finding something quite simple. What I liked was a white cake, silver ribbon and cascading white roses.

From there it started getting complicated. We kept getting offered choices - what kind of flowers, what colour, what size, what type? There was pressure to match the bouquets and reception flowers to the cake and to match the bridesmaid dresses to the cake.

Phew. My mother came to the rescue for me and she bought us white roses and some ribbon for the cake. All seemed to be back on the simple track when we were derailed by the news that C's Aunt was no longer able to decorate our cake, less than six weeks until our day!

The cakes themselve were made months ago and so we did not want to look at the option of starting completely from scratch. Our path forward was to find someone else to decorate the cakes.

Thankfully his aunt had done some of the groundwork for us and had contacted a couple of decorators. So, we start again! We have spoken to one of the ladies and left her the flowers and ribbon and a few photos. We will not see the cake until the day so fingers crossed it will exceed our expectations!

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Reading inspiration

2010-10-12T21:55:00.005+08:00

I had a bit of a break from trying to find a reading for our ceremony. With our date fast approaching I have had to get back to it!

What we are looking for is something that makes sense to C and I. There is a lot out there that is far too soppy for us and I was starting to feel despondant about my chances of finding a reading to suit C and I.

I was hopeful that the Bard would have something relevant in his repertoire, and came across this piece. You cannot go past a sonnet!

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
Oh, no! it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to ever wand'ring bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error, and upon me prov'd,
I never writ, nor no man ever lov'd.

Sonnet 116 by William Shakespeare

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Guest favours

2010-10-09T14:23:00.004+08:00

After months of procrastinating, I finally ordered bomboniere for our guests! Mum has done some good work for us, talking to various local chocolate makers and I have been through a few concepts and ideas and we have found something now that will work for us.

Earlier on in the planning process I thought how nice it would be to give people something useful. I love a practical gift, and I strive to think of gifts for my friends and family that they can use, rather than throw in the back of the cupboard until the next birthday/Christmas and they need a present for Auntie Ethel.

A few ideas that caught my fancy included a small potted herb, or packets of vegetable seeds. I felt though that our audience for those gifts was quite small and would not necessarily be appreciated, and I could see those forlorn little plants sitting on tables of our reception after everyone had left.

So we have gone back to the tried and true of chocolate. Everyone loves chocolate! Yum!

Exactly what I have ordered though... I will let you guess.

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Bits and pieces

2010-10-06T18:32:00.004+08:00

As our wedding draws closer there are more and more little details to organise!

Today we received our 30th RSVP card so now we have 50% return rate. I am looking forward to catching up with everyone on the day and sharing it with our friends and family. Truly. It is all starting to feel a bit real.

On Monday night C and I went to be measured for our wedding clothes. He saw the fabric that his waistcoat will be made from, selected the colour for the back of it and it all sounds really exciting!

Linda from Lin Pin suggested that my shoes were too heavy and that something strappier would suit my dress. I was a little disappointed as I am sure that she does not realise how much of a drag I find shoe shopping! Still, I will endeavour to go again and find a strappier style and I can always make my mind up on the day, right??

They are making up a sample of our clothes first before they cut the real fabric so that will be an interesting process to be a part of. We have maybe a month left in which to gain or lose weight, after that we risk not fitting our wedding clothes!

Bridesmaid ML is convinced that I will lose weight as the day gets closer and the stress mounts. I am not entirely convinced that this will happen - the weight loss I mean, I am sure that the stress will increase - so will be curious to see.

Last Friday I booked myself in for some pampering just before the big day - manicure and pedicure to tidy everything up. I am usually quite slack with these things but figured that everyone will be looking at my hands so I should make a bit of an effort.

I have had a wedding checklist pretty well since we were engaged and have been slowly ticking things off. Now that we are getting into the detail my list is inadequate and I am feeling quite scatty trying to hold all of the information in my head.

Need help. Must ask volunteer bridesmaid to sit me down and make me write list.

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Flowers at last?

2010-10-02T11:23:00.003+08:00

Chad and I went to speak to the florist and pay the deposit for our wedding flowers! Unfortunately at least one of the flowers they originally quoted on is not available so it will be a bit of wait and see for our flowers.

I am very keen on the beautiful combination that we first settled on and am especially excited about the red banksia, so hopefully the available flowers will be just as pretty.

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Another return

2010-09-29T18:05:00.003+08:00

We received another invitation "Return to Sender" today. That makes our list to two missing, and five unknown. Oh, and a total of twenty one returned RSVPs, so we are above my pessimistic baseline!

Wedding music

2010-09-25T23:35:00.006+08:00

I told my friend PH that I had (briefly) considered Also Sprach Zarathustra by Strauss as the song for my bridesmaids and I to walk down the path to.

She countered with the Imperial March. (Check out the head of the back cello in this video.)

I tried to explain the difference - Strauss had composed his music long before Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick had brought it to a popular audience, whereas the Imperial March was written specifically for a movie series. One choice was clearly much nerdier than the other.

I do not think that she was convinced.

If I was going to be sci-fi nerdy about it then Star Wars would not be my theme of choice - it would be Doctor Who!!

Doctor Who Theme 1980-85 @ Yahoo! Video

That would be really weird. I might as well have had a TARDIS wedding cake and made the groomsmen dress as Doctor Who monstors and the girls as companions, with a K9 ring bearer. Chad could dress as Tom Baker's Doctor and I could channel Romana.

Actually... come to think of it...

Shoes shoes shoes!

2010-09-24T20:17:00.003+08:00

This evening after work I headed into the CBD, and tried to take in as many shoe shops (and shops selling shoes) as I could in my quest for bridal harmony. Zomp, Alannah Hill, Florsheim, Novo, Mimco, Nine West, Witchery, Zu, David Jones, Myer and more. I exhausted my knowledge and still failed to find inspiration.

I was somewhat more upbeat than last Saturday, as I have a secret weapon - a pair of much loved shoes that have been loitering in the bottom of the spare room wardrobe. They have been waiting for me to get around to taking them to a cobbler. This I did today and fingers crossed he can make them better than new. That will ease my shoe angst!

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Stationery First Aid

2010-09-20T19:43:00.003+08:00

A big let down today. Eight of the invitations were returned, due to the address on them not being legible. I purchased envelopes that were 100% recycled and unbleached. The envelopes themselves are fine but I do not recommend printing on them.

I wavered between using the printer and handwriting, and in the end I printed since my writing is fairly scruffy. I also thought about sticking my address sticker on the envelopes but held off as it only has my name on it, and not Chad's.

Unfortunately the RSVP cards are doing the same - I printed directly onto the cards and they are rubbing off! I thought that it would be nice to have the RSVPs personalised - that is why I ended up directly printing. I tossed up ideas including printing the info onto a sticker and then sticking it onto the RSVP card, however I thought that there might be issues with people writing on the stickers.

Hmm, so a couple of lessons learned there!

Fingers crossed that the RSVPs make their way home. We now have a total of seven!

To RSVP or not to RSVP

2010-09-19T18:22:00.005+08:00

I decided to send out an RSVP card with our invitations. Mum said that I should get people to RSVP by phone or email, but I was keen for something a little more formal. Phone and in person can be forgotten, and emails would be okay for most of the younger crowd but I did not want to assume that everyone could use it!

My experience from the RSVP details that we put on our engagement invitations was that noone used the particular phone number that I put in and only six used the specific email address.

I designed a simple RSVP in the shape of the postcard. The names of the invitees have been printed on each RSVP and I have also added a stamp to each postcard so that noone can complain about the cost of sending it! The only effort is to tick a box on the card and post it.

I am curious now to see what the take up rate will be for this method of RSVP. The pessimist in me says I will have a 20% return. The optimist says 80%. We shall see! I am putting a gadget on my blog to keep track of the numbers.

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Shoe pain

2010-09-18T16:37:00.004+08:00

Today I dragged my understanding and long suffering sister shoe shopping. Searching for shoes is one of my least favoured tasks and we tried many different areas in our quest!

We started at Harbour Town, then moved to the Claremont and Subiaco areas and finally to Georgie's Bridal Shoes in West Leederville.

No real luck and after I dropped E at home I headed to Garden City to see if I could find some inspiration. (I was feeling too cheap to pay for parking in the city so instead I drove an extra 12km to the shopping centre. Hmmm.)

No luck there either although I did buy some undergarments. I thought that I would try a few different ones to see what would be most comfortable to wear on the day.

We came up with a few shoe ideas. Georgie's Bridal Shoes had a few styles that I could cope with, although they had the price to match! Most promising were Nina "Culver" in silver and Pink "Mist". For an extra $20 the Pink shoes can be made in a number of different colours.

I shall have to scour the city next Saturday (or tomorrow if I feel enthusiastic enough!) and hopefully I can come up with something.

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Hair trial

2010-09-16T20:21:00.003+08:00

My work ball seemed a good excuse for me to have a wedding hair trial! There was curlings and lots of product and pins, pins, pins! It all made it up and my hair stayed up for the night - not that I doubted it.

Hmm, not sure about me with curly hair. Thankfully this photo was taken during the process, not at the end!

Another box ticked

2010-09-15T09:05:00.003+08:00

I posted the wedding invitations this morning. There was a big stack to go out! Last night we tidied everything up and stamped and sealed envelopes.

We bought a 5m roll of magnet to stick to the back of the invitations, so that people could put them on their fridge without having to scrounge around. I had worried that the magnet would not be strong enough – apparently that was not the issue. The magnet itself stayed on the fridge while the invitation fell off! So last night C and I spent pulling each magnet off and resticking it with double sided sticky tape.

We also checked each invitation and made sure all of the inserts were in there (registry card, RSVP card and map of the venues) before we sealed the envelope and put stamps on.

Phew. I am glad that is done now!

Thank you so much to my sister E for her design advice and to ML and NM for their cutting and sticking assistance in getting the invitations finished. And of course to C for his efforts of sticking and sealing. I think that it would have driven me batty to try and do it all myself!!

Invitation Busy Bee

2010-09-09T11:55:00.003+08:00

Bridesmaid ML came over last night to help with the invitation construction line. She brought over a couple of cutters and soon set to work making piles of card and paper for making invitations. I was a bit slow and still had some of the invite sheets to print as well as RSVP cards. I eventually knocked those over and started to construct the invitations.

It was great to get things moving and we managed to get a grand total of twelve invitations constructed! All of the RSVP cards have been cut and stamps added. I shall have a few more busy hours putting the rest of the invitations together, and addressing envelopes. I shall have to see if I can enlist the services of my sister E and other bridesmaid NM to help keep the production line rolling.

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An inspiring wedding poem

2010-08-30T20:04:00.003+08:00

I have been trying to scout out something suitable as a reading for our wedding. In amongst the corny poems and readings I came across this gem, attributed to Bec Hewitt.

Elissa was inspired by Bec's words and composed the following rhyme for us!

There once was a bit of a dish
Who liked to go out and catch fish
Then he met a lovely belle
Who liked seafood as well
And together they are quite delish.

My sister is such a clever clogs!

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Perfect Cake Topper

2010-08-29T19:02:00.003+08:00

Handmade birdies in complementary fabrics. If only we could get away with this...

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With a little help from my friends

2010-08-28T16:59:00.000+08:00

It has been a bit quiet on the bridesmaid front - everyone has been busy - but with less than three months to go it was time to step up the pace and get things rolling! I managed to organise everyone to come over, this time without Chad being home. Whew.

It was good to go through things. There are still so many details to finalise, it is a little overwhelming and we are now to the stage where we need to start thinking about the schedule for the actual wedding day.

I have to get my invitations printed out and then I can organise a construction line to help put them together. That will be fun. I think. I hope!!
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Dressing up the groom

2010-08-27T11:39:00.001+08:00

Chad decided that he wanted to buy a new suit for our wedding (rather than just trousers and shirt). He told me that one suit is not enough. Given that he wears the one suit that he has at most three times a year this is perhaps not strictly true but I would rather he bought new than hire and have something to keep at the end.

We ended up at Tony Barlow in Harbour Town, where his previous suit had been obtained. The gentleman there measured him up, asked what he was after and produced exactly what Chad was looking for. I am sure that he is a magician! We also picked up the shirt for him to wear and it was tempting to buy them for the groomsmen as the shirt was much nicer than the hire ones.

An added bonus is that the jacket looks great with jeans, and so Chad now has a versatile outfit to wear after we are married. Yay.

I definitely recommend Tony Barlow at Harbour Town. We have had excellent service both times Chad has been looking for a suit and a completely stress free experience.

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Hair to inspire

2010-08-26T11:54:00.002+08:00

My wonderful sister Elissa is always on the lookout for ideas to inspire for the wedding. Here is the hairstyle of a real bride that she sent me. Graceful, elegant and soft. Beautiful!

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Groovy groomsmen

2010-08-25T11:19:00.004+08:00

The groomsmen made their way up to Perth last week to get fitted up for their outfits. In the end Chad decided that he wanted them to hire their outfit, rather than purchasing shirt and trousers and his mum making waistcoats. I never really thought about how expensive it was until we were there - $131 for a suit, shirt, waistcoat and tie!!

I was not that impressed with the quality of the shirt, a horrible polyester number. To get a nicer cotton shirt with french cuff was an extra $20 so I did not insist but I would hate to have that nasty fabric on my skin.

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The seeds of an invitation

2010-08-22T07:39:00.003+08:00

E and I have been busy scouring the pretty paper shops of Perth! We started a couple of weeks ago at Starfish Lane. After browsing through their ideas and papers I redesigned the invitation that I had in my head. Unfortunately they did not have all of the paper available that we required so I ordered what I could and purchased that yesterday, with the intent of finding the remainder of our requirements elsewhere.

We first tried Annie P Paperie. They had some pretty paper but not what we were looking for and disappointingly their card was all metallic and shiny, not the matte finish that we were looking for.

Next on our list was Collins Craft up in Balcatta. It had been recommended to me by my friend AT and E and I were very impressed by the large range that they had available! We were able to purchase the rest of the card that we required there and for a cheaper price than I had paid at Starish Lane.

Now all that remains is to get the words right and put it all together!

Bands of gold

2010-08-16T15:43:00.003+08:00

Chad and I selected and ordered our wedding rings today! Our wedding is now fast approaching and there are still quite a few things to organise.

We made it easy for ourselves and went into Stefan Jewellers, where Chad bought my engagement ring. It was all very straightforward. The lady who served us showed us the ring she thought would match my engagement ring, and Chad had a little more choice from the men’s collection and then we were done.

I will be getting more diamonds! There were really two styles of bands to match my engagement ring, one with diamonds and one that was plain gold. The plain gold band was a fifth of the price but of course we are foolish and young and went for the more expensive and sparkly one.

Chad’s ring is two tone but mine is yellow gold, due to his initial selection of band and setting.

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Up or down - the hair factor

2010-08-14T14:07:00.002+08:00

It is starting to get close to our wedding and I have not really looked for style inspiration for my hair. Here are a couple that appealed to me. Soft and low!

I spoke to my hairdresser today and she reminded me that I have to decide how I would like my hair at the front - not just the back of my head! - so I shall keep searching for inspiration.

Images here

Wedding Etiquette Quiz

2010-08-13T20:52:00.004+08:00

Try this Martha Stewart Weddings quiz to test your knowledge of wedding etiquette.

I scored seven out of ten, so give it a whirl and let me know how you go!

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One bouquet option

2010-08-10T17:34:00.000+08:00

On the weekend I went to another (local) florist to get a second quote for flowers for the wedding. They have a standard wedding package that consists of choice of roses and camellias. They sounded a little uninspired to me - unless of course I cannot find any flowers more interesting - and I attempted to explain what I liked. The florist had made a few calls to find out what was in season for our wedding and in the end came up with the following flower combinations.

My two thoughts were for bold colours - reds and oranges - and native Australian flowers. She managed the bold colours.

Leucosperum, or pincusion, native to Zimbabwe and South Africa.

Antherium, native to Central and South America.

Orange roses.

Lillium.

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Flowers!

2010-08-09T23:45:00.001+08:00

I received the quote from the florist who Mum and I visited. I was pleasantly surprised - it was under the figure that I had been thinking so I guess it was not all bad that we did not discuss a budget!

We sat with her and went through some photos of bouquets and flowers and tried to piece together a concept. I really liked the florist shop, it is in an older building and the floor and counter are timber. It has a great vibe to it. I also like the flowers that they have on display as well.

I said that I would prefer native flowers, and that I was keen on strong colours. She had many questions about the style of the bouquet and I have to confess that I had not thought too hard about what bits and pieces go into making flowers look their best!

I find it difficult to visualise what it would look like, and it is difficult to find bouquets on the website with the flower combinations that I have been looking at!

The beautiful Banksia coccinea.

Leucadendron, native to South Africa.

Serruria florida, colloquially known as "blushing bride", and also native to South Africa.

Eucalyptus nuts or something similar.

Gum blossom as a component.

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CONGRATULATIONS!!

2010-08-09T21:16:00.002+08:00

Congratulations to my sister E for passing her exams for entry into specialist training!!!

Chad and I are very excited and pleased as punch for you. Yay!!

xx Love from us.

Image here

Cake confusion

2010-08-07T13:22:00.002+08:00

I am confused now about the wedding cake decorations. Chad's mum makes beautiful cakes and I was really happy when she offered to make our cake for us. I had this vague thought that it wouldn't be too hard to ice (right??) and then we could buy some icing flowers from a shop and stick them on it with some ribbons and it would be all good.

I found a design that I liked, and Chad liked too, and I thought that would be it. (It's the first cake, with the cascade of roses and large letters.) Simple. Elegant. Case closed.

It then got complicated as several people bought into the design and flowers and I was pressured to decide what flowers I would like and what colour.
(White roses?? Like the photo??) We settled on blue orchids as Chad wanted blue and orchids were a flower that I thought would look reasonably natural as a blue colour. Besides, there is a White Stripes song that we could play whilst cutting the cake!

It got even more complicated when we were told the blue orchids would not match the bridal bouquet or the venue flowers and that I needed to sort out my bouquet first and decide on a floral theme! After this it just got all too hard for me and I tried not to think about it.

Chad and his mum did some searching of the cake shops here and they found Sugar Smith as a great source of icing flowers and cake decorating supplies.

Mum and I went in to have a look this morning at their flowers and cakes. We did not mind the rose poseys. None of the flowers that they had on display really took our fancy, and there were a little too many ribbons and bows for my taste!

When Mum & I went to the florist a couple of weeks ago we got her to quote for supplying fresh flowers for the cake as an alternative. The florist came up with a suggested design that we were happy with and if she uses the same flowers as are in the bouquets then we can have a floral theme and everyone will be happy!!

So my decision to be made now is whether we buy a couple of the icing poseys - white roses! - for decoration or if we get fresh flowers from the florist.

Image here

Wedding venues wrapped up!

2010-08-03T16:21:00.004+08:00

I am excited. Last week we received confirmation from the council that the booking of the site for our wedding ceremony was confirmed, and yesterday C finally was able to book the pub for our after wedding party! So all of our venues have been booked and I really need to start thinking hard about our invitations.

The format of our wedding will be morning ceremony, lunchtime reception then party at the pub! Everything is within walking distance for our guests and we are hoping that they will enjoy the party. It also means that we can invite friends and colleagues to the pub to party with us who we are not able to squeeze into the guest list.

Image here

Travelling overseas

2010-07-28T21:19:00.003+08:00

I have a brand spanking new passport - my old and well travelled one had to retire last year - and it is ready and waiting for the first stamp.

Chad on the other hand has to go through the process and get himself his first passport. He has four months...
Image here

Inspirational dresses

2010-07-25T16:17:00.000+08:00

A pretty dress to inspire the imagination.

Image via Style Me Pretty

Do you like this flower?

2010-07-24T19:36:00.003+08:00

Mum and I went to see the florist today to talk about wedding flowers. We didn't discuss a budget. Is that bad?
Image here

Quirky bouquets

2010-07-22T20:36:00.002+08:00

In honour of my trip to the florist this Saturday to discuss bouquets with real flowers, here are some quirky alternatives! Click here for instructions on how to make the second bouquet...

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Destination Honeymoon - hotel

2010-07-21T19:52:00.000+08:00

A sneaky peek of what we are looking forward to on our honeymoon! I picked up our accommodation vouchers today and we are all booked in with flights and a bed to rest our heads.

All photos from the hotel website

Cake decorations

2010-07-20T19:27:00.000+08:00

Chad and his mum had a big day last week, looking for fabrics for groomsmen waistcoats and inspiration for wedding cakes. They drove a few kilometres in their quest (a quarter of a tank in my car!). The gem of the day in terms of cake decorations and inspiration was The Sugar Smith in Maddington.

Mum has volunteered to help me pick the decorations for the cake (yay mum!), and from all accounts we should be able to find everything that would be needed at the store. Here are some flowers from The Sugar Smith's online store as a taste of what we can choose from.

Image here

My kind of cake

2010-07-19T10:52:00.000+08:00

I wonder if Chad will let me have this cake...

Image here

Starting on the flowers...

2010-07-17T10:07:00.003+08:00

I have been procrastinating about flowers for a while, considering whether or not I can find an attractive alternative to fresh flowers and in general not really sure what I would like.

This morning I wandered into our local florist to see what they had to offer. I have booked an appointment to discuss the flower requirements for our wedding. I let the florist know that I was keen for seasonal flowers and that I liked the look of native flowers and she promised to have lots of ideas for me when I come back.

The florist also said that now was a good time to be coming in to discuss flowers (our wedding is in November) as they would be able to confirm availability.

I am looking forward to seeing what can be done and it will be very interesting and hopefully fun!
Image here

Wedding dress detour

2010-07-16T11:39:00.005+08:00

My wedding dress was booked in back in February. I knew what I wanted and once I had found it I did not see the benefit in continuing to look and stressing myself out with different choices and ideas. There are too many other things to worry about along the bridal trail!

Linda from Lin Pin called me yesterday to let me know that she had sold Hustle in Fremantle. Thankfully she is continuing with the bridal business! I would have been disappointed, as she was the designer I wanted to speak to about my wedding dress even before I knew she had a bridal range!

Our bridesmaid dresses are also Lin Pin and they are all good to go too. It will mean a change in location for our measurement and fitting sessions but the final product should still be what we hoped for.

The adventure continues!

Image here

Hair flowers

2010-07-10T17:15:00.002+08:00

Some more pretty flowers, this time from local Perth seller Bloomin' Fabulous.

I am thinking that I would like some small-ish flowers in my hair, and this style could be just the ticket!

Final venue - reception

2010-07-08T21:34:00.005+08:00

C tried (again) today to book the final part of our wedding day.
We are having a morning ceremony with a lunchtime reception (both booked). We are planning to cap the day off with casual drinks at the local pub. The beauty is that all of it will be within walking distance of each other!

He rang the pub earlier in the year and they told him that they do not book the area that we are interested in more than three months in advance! I am not used to leaving everything so late, so I find it a little niggly.

They told him today that he was still too early, so fingers crossed noone books it before us. Three months though should give us enough time to get it organised and onto invitations.

The wedding is getting close, maybe I should start to panic?

Image here

Hair inspiration

2010-07-04T13:03:00.003+08:00

Our wedding is drawing closer and I need to make my mind up about a few things. I had hoped to be able to find something pretty for my hair at the Perth Upmarket last week but it was just too busy for me to be comfortable to stop and have a decent look. My preference is to buy locally, so that I can actually meet with the person who is making the item, however I am starting to run out of time to procrastinate!

These gorgeous flowers by Percy Handmade are inspiring me at the moment. These flowers are simple, elegant and delicate and I could imagine them in my hair in complementary colours.

Images here

Destination Honeymoon: NOT our hotel!

2010-06-30T21:00:00.006+08:00

We have flights for our honeymoon and nothing else so at the moment we are sleeping on the beach. We are looking at a few places but Karma Jimbaran, whilst it looks heavenly, is well out of our budget. Still it is nice to dream!

They have 38 three or four bedroom pool villas, so I am guessing you would go there with a group.

Images here

Beautiful dresses

2010-06-27T20:42:00.003+08:00

These dresses by Louise Alvarez are gorgeous! Simple and elegant and very feminine. There are many more lovely examples on her website for you to swoon over.

Found thanks to Polka Dot Bride.
Images here

Destination Honeymoon - for real!

2010-06-23T13:33:00.003+08:00

Last week I booked flights for our honeymoon. We have finally made a decision and are going to Bali.

It does seem like a very cliched destination however there were a few factors in our selection.
- We are building a house and do not wish to commit too many funds.
- We are restricted with time due to C's work commitments and he does not wish to take another roster off.

We may go for a longer holiday at a later stage. I thought it was important though that we take a holiday together directly after the wedding, rather than putting it off. We also toyed with the idea of going down south for a few days but this will (hopefully!) not be too much more expensive and great to relax together and enjoy the watersports and eating.

We are now trying to figure out where we should stay...

Image here

One step at a time...

2010-06-22T19:58:00.002+08:00

C and I used out time on Sunday in Melbourne to scour the pattern books in Lincraft and purchase this pattern for the waistcoats for his groomsmen. Now we just have to find some nice fabric.

C has decided that he does not wish for him or the groomsmen to wear ties so that removes one item of detail. He's also wavering on whether or not to wear a jacket, although I do not think that they will be necessary.

Any suggestions for good fabric sources in Australia, preferably in Perth, appreciated. The bridesmaids are wearing silk.

Going from strange to out of control!

2010-06-21T11:35:00.002+08:00

Early on in the wedding planning process, I signed up for Project Wedding's daily tips. Most of them have been of vague interest, none of the tips are particularly pointed however I have enjoyed some of the ideas and photos that they send.

It has all gone strange in the last week or so.

The first was advice on Hair Extensions. Definitely not something that I would consider for my wedding, however I could see that some women may wish to enhance their hair. Fair enough.

The next was regarding Teeth Whitening. Again something that is not on my radar. I attempted to liken it to Fake Tans to try and understand the need for it.

I sent this to my bridesmaids. We joked about it and E pointed out that as well as teeth whitening at the Bridal Expo she had seen a booth advertising breast enhancements.

The latest advice was on botox injections! It is just getting a little outside of my interest area. I mean, ideas for making your own invitations and styles of veil I can relate to. Advice on botox is getting silly.

I am curious now to see the next pearl of wisdom for cosmetic enhancement.

I guess the reason why it all seems out of control for me is that I am happy with who I am. I am wearing a dress that I will feel comfortable wearing and I know will flatter me. I plan to have minimal makeup as I want to look like me, not some fantasy bride.

Not my cup of tea

2010-06-13T16:07:00.003+08:00

The Bridal Expo we went to yesterday was also the source of some items that were not quite my cup of tea, or just intrigued us.

First was this (I assume) buck's cake make by Madeliene's Cake Creations. Their website boasts "No cake is too big, too small or too bizarre! Madeliene's Cake Creations can do anything requested(within reason)." Notice in the photos to the right of the cake that they also make cakes for the hen's party...

There were a couple of booths there advertising teeth whitening. This seemed a little over the top for a Bridal Fair for me, but I guess it could be considered in the same class as a fake tan. Notice that in the back of the booth is a tooth costume. E was most disappointed that noone was wearing it!

Bridal Expo 2010

2010-06-12T16:18:00.007+08:00

I asked my sister if she would like to go to a Bridal Expo with me this weekend. She said that she would go, so today we wandered off to Burswood for a looksee and perhaps to find some inspiration.

A lot of the larger items have already been organised for our wedding (photographer, venue, celebrant hair and makeup, cake and so forth), so the day was more about having a look and gathering ideas. There were a few stand out gems amongst the crowd, as a general rule involving food!

There was not much there for the groom. I was a little disappointed as C asked me especially to keep an eye out for some inspiration.

Beautiful handmade chocolates by KaKaWa.

Tasty cookies by The Sassy Cookie. We tasted their sample and at the end of the Expo went back and bought a bag!

Beautiful afternoon teas by Antiquitea. They hire beautiful china and cutlery as well as providing a catering service.

Some inspiration for the groom courtesy of Dress Circle.

The lovely ladies of Mitchell & Dent with their gorgeous wedding stationery. Looks like their beautiful designs were popular!

Lastly, The Celtic Centre. A wedding is always a good place to display your Celtic heritage. The models were performing the traditional highland air guitar dance.

Dacshund

2010-06-10T19:30:00.000+08:00

C's mum breeds miniature dachshunds, so maybe we could have something like this in her honour!

Image here

Mother of the Bride Inspiration

2010-06-08T23:05:00.000+08:00

I started his post back in March, thinking that I would collect a picture or two along the way to post some inspiration for the mother of the bride. My mum managed to beat me to it and has her outfit hanging in her closet waiting to be worn!

This is the single inspiration photo that I have. I like the dress that the mother of the bride is wearing. It is elegant and tasteful, and flatters her figure. It has a mix of fabrics and colours without being too loud.

Image here

In search of shoes

2010-06-06T21:00:00.004+08:00

Today Mum, E and I went to Harbour Town. We dropped into every shoe shop and looked for a suitable shoe for me for the wedding. It is quite disheartening to see the shoes at the moment. Lurid colours, high heels and tacky materials. Nothing that tempts me.

I looked to Etsy for some inspiration. Slim pickings and of course sizes are hit or miss but still something to think about.

1, 2, 3

Stationary Stationery

2010-06-05T07:31:00.003+08:00

I was going to suggest to my sister E that we go to a local Bridal Expo next weekend. That is, until I had a look at their Preferred Suppliers and realised that they had Stationary vendors!

Honestly I do not understand why it is so difficult to spell it correctly! See here for my last expression of disappointment.

Back to the Expo... I believe it is the same one I went to a few years ago (2001??) with my friend SCC. I know she found it useful to organise at least her wedding limousine. We do still have a few items to arrange for our wedding and it may be of use - dodgy spelling not withstanding.

For the star wars nerd

2010-06-03T11:16:00.001+08:00

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...

How cute is this wedding cake topper? The bouquet can be customised to your wedding flowers too.

Made by HILDOM.

DIY Cake topper

2010-06-01T11:30:00.000+08:00

Maybe I should buy a set for each of my bridesmaids. I could set up a competition and the winner of course would have their creation on the top of our cake! Then again we are having three tiers so maybe we could use it like the olympic podium...

Alternatively this could be the party game for a Kitchen Tea. Hours of fun!

Kit available on Etsy from goosegrease

I had a moment this morning...

2010-06-01T09:36:00.003+08:00

I signed up for the City to Surf for the 12km run. I have never run the city to surf and for some reason this year felt like the year to give it a crack.

Work has organised a weekly training session and hopefully I can motivate myself to fill in the gaps.

The run starts at a reasonable time of 9.30am, so fingers crossed that the weather is great at the end of August.

Image of random corporate team here

Animal attraction

2010-05-31T11:00:00.000+08:00

Some more inspiration from Etsy for cute cake toppers. I prefer a generic type of topper, something that is symbolic rather than too closely matched to us! Besides, it is much cheaper that way for a detail that I think is lovely but not necessary.

There are some very cute animals out there. For some reason I am drawn to the birds. The thought of putting a piggy couple or a pair of cows on my wedding cake does not appeal to me, although there are some cute representations if you are so inclined!

PassionArte in Italy
Fliepsiebieps in The Netherlands
Country Squirrels-R-US from the US
Red Light Studio from the US
kikuike from Japan

On top of the world

2010-05-30T08:33:00.002+08:00

We have a rough idea now what we would like our cake to look like. One more detail that we have to confirm is what we would like on the top of our cake.

There are some interesting ideas out there, some funny and some just a little bit tacky. There are people who will customise a topper of the bridal couple with details of their outfits and hair. This is a lovely detail, and a great keepsake.

We do not want to be too fussy about it, but a sweet idea - with basic customisation - are the toppers made by Enchanted Belles from pegs, as seen above.

Wedding blogs

2010-05-29T13:56:00.003+08:00

I have to admit, I do not mind checking out a "real wedding" or two. Especially the ones from the US... twelve bridesmaids, over the top styling and obsession with detail.

Usually I cannot get over how expensive the whole event looks and how much time they (or their team of wedding planners!) would have spent making sure every detail was perfect.

Generally I admire the shoes. There are some lovely shoes out there!

It is the extensive detail that gets me though, I do not want to get too obsessed with getting the day "perfect" and hopefully my sister and friends will keep me in check if I get out of hand.

The "real weddings" serve as a good reminder for me to keep it simple and to not take myself too seriously.

Image here

Too good to be true...

2010-05-28T21:15:00.002+08:00

I love this fantastic detail from the wedding of Sarah and Ben, thanks to Real Weddings. It seems that the happy couple's friends collaborated to bring them a special song at the conclusion of their wedding ceremony. Click on the link and watch the second video to see what I am talking about.

The part I like? The song that they sing! Can't take my eyes off you... The musicians in the crowd too are awesome. Not just one or two of them but about ten, including a man with maracas. Gold!

One of my favourite film moments is when Heath Ledger sings on the bleachers to Julia Stiles in Ten Things I Hate About You, accompanied by the school band! Yes, sad but true.

Image here

My mother is more organised than I

2010-05-27T18:04:00.003+08:00

My mother has her outfit for our wedding. Dad emailed E and I a photo of the shoes she has bought to go with her dress! All she needs now is to accessorise. Not bad!

I have many things about my outfit to organise still, including shoes, underwear, headwear and accessories. Think it might be time to get a hurry on!

With respect to shoes for me, I have been keeping an eye on the shops but it is definitely winter shoes weather at the moment. I am looking forward to the spring shoes coming out and hopefully I can find something I like in the new season collections.

A fruity affair

2010-05-27T11:16:00.005+08:00

Chad went on a shopping mission to get bits and pieces for our wedding cake. His Mum is on baking duty and we supplied her with some of the necessary goods. He said he managed to get all Australian fruit. I am so proud! It was trickier than I had thought, he had to try three shops to get everything that we needed.

Ingredients included currants, raisins, sultanas, dates, blanched almonds and glace ginger and we also needed some brown paper!

His mum had all of the other bits and pieces and his Auntie had cake tins so the baking will begin soon!

Images from here, here, here and here.

Guest favours

2010-05-26T21:21:00.000+08:00

Simple and interesting packaging for guest favours. The last picture looks more appropriate for a child's party than a wedding!

Images 1, 2, 3

Wow - what a cake!

2010-05-25T08:39:00.000+08:00

I was doing a quick search for some wedding cake inspiration and came across this made locally by Avanti Cakes.

Umm. Wow. Very impressive! Although to my untrained eye it looks like two different cakes (in stacks of three) stacked up.

Cake ideas

2010-05-24T21:28:00.003+08:00

Chad's mum has offered to make our wedding cake, and his auntie has said that she can decorate it. We are both keen on fruit cake so that part is easy, but how to decorate?

There are so many examples out there, a lot of them far too frilly to suit either of us! We are hoping for something simple and elegant.

I really like the cakes produced by Kayle Mitchison and shown on her blog Delicate-Lee. She has shown us some very gorgeous and elegant examples.

I think this cake is extra awesome and so much fun!

All images here

A nautical theme

2010-05-23T15:35:00.003+08:00

Chad and I met with our celebrant last weekend. It was all fairly straightforward. We had to sign the Notice of Intended Marriage and fill in the details, to kick off the legal part of the process. We discussed the ceremony and bits and pieces. He explained that there are certain parts of it that are legally required, but otherwise it is fairly flexible.

We will be sent a sample format in the next couple of weeks and then we can really start thinking about what we wish to say and do.

It would be nice to have a reading! The celebrant suggested I Corinthians 13 as a standard piece. He read it to us but it is perhaps too formal. I think that something with a nautical theme would be great since Chad loves the water so much. There seems to be some ideas online and I might need to start trawling through my high school poetry books.

The celebrant will supply the table and chairs for signing the registry, but he does not use a microphone and speaker so we will need to organise the sound system for background music and the all important task of walking down the aisle!

We also need to start thinking about what music we will play. I would prefer something contemporary, but it has to be relevant as well. One thing for sure is that there will definitely be no Celine Dion!

Image here

Bridesmaid shoes

2010-05-22T14:38:00.005+08:00

Tongue in cheek this week I suggested to my bridesmaids that they wear hot pink shoes. Noone rose to the bait - I guess they all know me too well!

E and I were in Myer today and saw these shoes. They fit the hot pink bill (they were much brighter and pinker in person I promise) and apparently last time we were there I had made the suggestion that I wear them!

There are quite a few hot pink shoes to choose from on the Myer shelves. Unfortunately not as big a selection in blue, my personal preference. I shall have to start looking in earnest soon for a pair of shoes for our wedding!