Third time lucky

J, the bride from the wedding we attended last week had a tricky time finding herself a wedding dress. She lives in country Western Australia, and initially tried to save herself some travel miles.

The first dress was ordered online. The vendor was in China and I understand that money was paid and measurements sent however no dress arrived and queries have not been responded to.

I am not entirely sure how the second dress was ordered, but it was in Melbourne and to be sent over to WA. It failed to appear on time so the bride and her bridesmaid set off in the car in search for dress number three.

They found it in a bridal shop in Rockingham. I am guessing that it was on the rack. A few adjustments needed to be made and the dress was perfect!

Dress number two did arrive in time for the wedding; in fact on the drive to Rockingham she received a call that the dress had arrived, but they decided not to tempt fate and continued with their mission to search for a dress.

J wore dress number three. Dress number two came along to the wedding for the ride but who knows whether dress number one will ever turn up?

In the end it all fell into place and she looked gorgeous, but I am sure that she could have done without the stress and hassle!

Fingers crossed that we so not see any drama with our dresses. Everything is being made locally so the only thing that could trip us up is availability of the silk!

Something blue... or silver?

Thank you to Martha Stewart Weddings for some beautiful inspiration. I am looking at either blue or silver for my shoes and accessories.

A flower

I was drawn to this flower at the Karridale Tavern.

Getting married - the legal stuff

Chad and I have the first meeting with our our marriage celebrant on Sunday. He is a friend of our family and it is lovely to have someone we know able to perform our ceremony.

Chad and I are both a bit in the dark about what we need to do, so I did a search today to research online the legalities of getting married in Australia.

It all seems fairly straightforward. You have to warn the government that you are going to get married at least a month and a day in advance, and make sure that you have the right person to perform the ceremony.

We should be in good hands and good time for our wedding!

Image here

Bridal shoes

One of my workmates has suggested shopping for shoes at Benelli Shoes in Osborne Park. They have many different styles of shoes, and they will make your shoes to measure. Benelli Shoes boasts a selection of over 100 colours! Shoes cost between $189 to $249 to have them made to measure, and they take three to four weeks.

Now that is not a bad idea! I always struggle to buy shoes. I prefer a mid height heel, and the fashionable styles tend to be either completely flat or too high!

There are also a few online sites that provide a made to measure service, however my preference is definitely to be able to try on a pair of shoes before I take them home.

Image here

A beach wedding

Chad and I headed down to Margaret River for the wedding of C&J on Friday. It was a very simple wedding, attended by the bride and groom, their two sons, the best man (Chad) and bridesmaid and their partners, the bride's parents and the groom's mother and aunt.

The bridesmaid's partner H and I were both asked to take photographs for them of the day, and I managed to snap 276 over the course of festivities. It was pretty bright out so lots of squinting went on and I need to do some more learning on how to take photos and also edit them!

C and H came to our room in the morning for C and Chad to get ready. From there we headed to the Karridale Tavern to meet with everyone except the bride and bridesmaid and to the wedding venue at Hamelin Bay. After the ceremony we headed back to the Karridale Tavern for lunch and to relax.

Hamelin Bay is a gorgeous location! So peaceful. The bride's aisle was the sand and the processional music the sounds of the ocean.

Not looking too nervous.
Chad and me.
Mother of the groom sorting out the flowers.
The blushing bride.
Bridesmaid A with BabyR, Bride J and her father with BabyS.
Pledging their love.
Joined together.
Kiss the bride!
Happy family.
Just married.
Gorgeous bridesmaid.
Beautiful colours.

Send in the cows!

C and I went down to Margaret River for a wedding yesterday. There is a Cow Parade happening down there, and I managed to get a couple of the cows to pose for photos.

These two were spotted cruising at the Karridale Tavern and surfing the roof at Settlers Tavern.

Cute shoes!

These cute shoes say it all!

By Louisa Bailey via Polkadot Bride

Aussie flowers Exotic flowers

These bouquets are nice and simple. A single native exotic bloom surrounded by green. Nothing over the top.

I am surprised that my sister did not pick me up, the protea is a native of South Africa.

By Louisa Bailey via Polkadot Bride

Looking for... waistcoats?

I went for a wander at lunchtime today, practicing being a wife by purchasing face wash and deodorant for my beloved. On my way back to the office I thought that I would make some enquiries about waistcoats for our wedding.

First up Ferrari Formalwear. They had they waistcoats on display, and one or two of them seemed okay. On speaking to the friendly salesgirl, I was told that they do not sell the waistcoats, and they will only hire them out with a full suit. Whilst that could still be an option for us, dependent on cost, it is not what we are looking at doing for the moment and she suggested that I try Tony Barlow across the road.

At Tony Barlow they were also very friendly. They do not sell waistcoats at all, and she suggested a couple of men's clothing stores that may stock waistcoats. I then asked about shirts and trousers, and was told that they have a range of shirts in different styles of collars and cuffs so we would have a range of garments for the boys to choose from... at least unless they are over six foot tall and in that case there was only one style of shirt that had extra long arms to cope. Two of C's groomsmen S and CF are around his height, and sleight. D however is six foot six so we may need to look harder to find a shirt his size! Conveniently King Size Menswear is located across the road ...

Image here

Casual wedding shoes

Designer bridal thongs, perfect for a beach wedding! These are by madeit seller SahraJ.

Keeping track

I like that Miss C of This Little Journey has a list of what she has organised so far on her blog, so I thought I might borrow the idea and do something similar.

I have a more detailed checklist with target dates on it. I put that together two weeks after we were engaged. No point in leaving it until the last minute!

We organised most of the larger items in December and January, and have slowly been moving through the list.

Bridal inspiration

My friend J sent me this photo. It is from the Oscar de la Renta Spring 2008 Bridal Collection.

I am guessing it is inspiration... I remember asking her a while ago to describe the dress that she could see me getting married in, so this may be it!

Groomsmen style

Now that the bridesmaid dresses are organised we can look at the outfits for C and the groomsmen.

The plan for the boys is for trousers, shirt, waistcoat and tie. They will not have jackets so the waistcoat will be on display!

There are so many options for what we can do with the boys' outfits. I think that C is keen for grey trousers, although I am not sure how that will work with his waistcoat, which will be white with silver.

Ideas for the groomsmen include:

• Blue waistcoats in different shades, ties to match


• Waistcoats in the same shade, ties in different shades of blue


• Charcoal waistcoats, blue ties


• Waistcoats patterned, ties plain


• Both waistcoats and ties plain

Lots of subtle variations. Nothing too over the top! There is also the matter of where we will get them from. C's mother has offered to make them waistcoats, and she measured the boys at our engagement party for reference. I think that would be the nicest option, and hopefully will give us more flexibility with colours.

I went looking for some inspiration online from the local Perth hire places, and could only find a few. None of them were what I was looking for either. They are all a bit washed out; the girls are in dark colours so the boys will need to have strong shades to suit!

The first is the best of the four. I like the stripes, and it would work well with the right shade of blue. Not sure why I picked the second, maybe for the contrast between the patterned waistcoat and darker plain tie. The third is closer to the colour combinations that we would be thinking of, and the fourth reminds me of an old school loungue, or maybe wallpaper...






First three here, fourth here

Bridesmaid dresses - a breeze!

Well, we managed to avoid Uncle Charlie, and we missed the street parade, but E and I did spot the cranes as we approached Fremantle!

My lovely bridesmaids and I met at Hustle to speak to Linda of Lin Pin about dresses for them. I am wearing a Lin Pin wedding dress, and when I was as Hustle organising my dress Linda let me know that she also can make bridesmaid dresses to measure.

It seemed like a very good place to start. I was keen for my bridesmaids to all have a dress that they could wear again, and they all have different bodies so I did not expect the same style to suit each girl.

My preference was also for the dresses to be designed and made locally. By locally I mean preferably in Perth/WA but if they found something that they loved from the rest of Australia I would not lose any sleep over it.

They tried on a few different styles each, and agreement was quickly reached for each girl on the style they liked the most. It was all over in an hour! I really do hope that they like their dresses.

No photos of the dresses - they are being made to measure - but I did get a photo of the colour swatches. Lagoon, Peacock and Petrol! Such interesting sounding shades.