Our Surprise Wedding

Over to my original blog

2012-03-07T21:14:00.002-08:00

Finding it a bit of a challenge to keep both blogs up to date, so if you'd like to keep in touch or see what's happening post Suprise Wedding! Pay me a visit at my original blog - Can we do it?

Scouting round for bargains really pays off!

2012-02-21T16:20:00.003-08:00

When I was planning our Surprise Wedding (July 2011), I spent months scouting around online, mostly via Ebay for items to use during and to decorate our venue.

I had fallen in love with the idea of a dessert/cake table and found a gorgeous vintage cake stand to use for our wedding cake, and some lovely, plain white porcelain cake stands for the 6 cakes I had asked our mums, sisters & aunts to make for our 'engagement party'.

Our cake table

I bought the 6 x porcelain stands on Ebay for an average price of $11 per stand, I was able to negotiate down from the listed price of $19 each, as I was buying 6 of them.

Plain porcelain cake stands - we used 6 of them on the table

So straight off the bat I saved $48 on buying the cake stands (6 x $11 v 6 x $19).

Fast forward to post wedding/honeymoon, we find out we're pregnant and think holy hell where are we going to put the baby, as our 2nd and 3rd rooms were chock-a-block with wedding deco's.

So I went into Ebay selling mode.

I listed 1 of the cake stands to test the market, with a starting price of $5, well blow me down if that stand doesn't sell for $22 plus postage! Quite bizarre, if the buyer had scrolled down about 8 listings they would have bought them new where I did for $19 plus postage!

So over the next 3 weeks I list the 6 cakestands, and my total of sales for those stands was $138, plus postage, which averaged $23 per cake stand, more than double what I paid for them!

Now I don't know if the story I put on the listing re how we used them for our wedding swayed people, but I was one very happy camper.

We've now sold about 30 of our wedding decos/bits & bobs on Ebay, and crazily have made a profit on 28 of them! At last count we're up about 45% on what we outlayed to buy them!

We've got a bit more to sell, waiting for the wedding season to kick off again. Shall keep you posted!

Ummmm I'm back!

2012-02-08T19:20:00.000-08:00

A thousand apologies to anyone still visiting my blog, to say it's been a while is a bit of a stretch!

Just because I'm a bit pushed for time at the moment, I have just posted the news/reason of why I've been so slack on my other blog, I hope you'll drop by and check it out :)

http://canwedoityepwecan.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/ummmm-im-back.html

I promise I'll be back soon!

The horror - the aftermath!

2011-08-29T17:01:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update:

Mr Mel & I returned from our fantastic honeymoon 2 weeks ago and were confronted with a house that had been overrun during our absence, by wedding decorations!

Our 2nd and 3rd bedrooms were chock-full, I mean so full the only clear bit was the door opening space! Over the past 2 weekends we've slowly started working through it all.

We're working out what we'll keep (the bloody bunting :)!), and what we'll sell/ebay (chair ties, bowls, etc) etc.

So far our keep/sell lists are about even, but I think we might have to get a bit more ruthless!

I'll be back shortly to update the lists :)

Honeymoon discovery

2011-08-17T17:54:00.000-07:00

One of the enlightening discoveries made on our honeymoon

I LOVE MOJITO'S!!

(photo source)

Our barmen at Erakor in Vanuatu, Peter & Nixon were expert Mojito men, and after struggling to have a ready to go drink of choice for quite some years (sambucca incident in the early 2000's!), I'm pleased to say I officially endorse Mojito's, as my fave :)

(photo source)

Back to normal programming!

2011-08-09T17:08:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update to let everyone know we're still in the land of the living! We just returned from an amazing honeymoon in Vanuatu, will be back to 'normal blogging' soon! Bare with me :)

1st Set of Photos!

2011-07-25T18:29:00.000-07:00

We just received a link for our first cut of photos, with the full set to be available when we get back from our honeymoon!

Most of these pics are of the hall.

Our Wedding Day

2011-07-25T17:08:00.001-07:00

Hi Everyone!

Our wedding day was amazing, went off better than expected. A very special day, if the rest of our married life goes 1/10th as well as yesterday did, I will be one happy girl :)

We went back to the hall at 9am Sunday to clean up, 'unsetup' everything, and make bacon and egg rolls for everyone. It was a lovely morning with our family, everyone was abuzz with happy talk about the day/night before.

My husband (that sounds weird!) spent most of Sunday in bed trying to sleep off a shocking hangover before we met with the last of our family Sunday night for dinner before they fly back to Vic yesterday!

Thank you everyone for all of your support, advice, good vibes & wishes, I have felt the love through the screen :)

I will post a 'proper' entry with photos soon, we were blessed with a lovely day after a week of pouring rain, we had some rain while getting photos done, but when the sun broke thru again the light was amazing, according to the photographer! Hope to have some photos before we head to Vanuatu on Thursday, if not we'll definitely have them when we return in 2 weeks, and I will post them here.

PS - the bunting looked amazing!!!!!!! :) :)

Today is our big day

2011-07-22T13:34:00.000-07:00

Today's our big day, wish us luck!

Shall update after :)

Sydney Flower Market - amazing!

2011-07-20T06:55:00.000-07:00

This morning, at 3.15am no less, I headed down the F3 to the Sydney Flower Market, WOW what an eye opener, I have never been before, and it was just amazing.

Flowers of every description and colour, I was a bit overwhelmed with the options at first, but luckily had Emma with me (part-time florist who is putting the flowers together for me), and she had a plan of attack, I had several photos of flower arrangements, and colours I liked, so we targetted the bouquets & cake topper first. Once we had found everything for them, we took the flowers back to the car (in the pouring rain!!)

Then we were back to pick flowers for decorations, we're having 2 urns on either side of the stairs for the ceremony, so those arrangements need a little bit of height, then we have a range of around 30 wine bottles, and 20 jars that we will scatter flowers throughout.

One thing I saw that I just had to have was white kale.

White Kale

We decided to change some of the decorations to include the kale, they're so stunning, even nicer than this pic, they were my favourite find today.

And we picked up some of my favourite, Cymbidium Orchids, they have been my inspiration all along re colour scheme etc, and I'm so happy I was able to get some to have in the bouquet.

Cymbidium Orchids

Other flowers we selected were

White Fresias

White Daphne

Cream roses

Blushing Bride

We also got a few bunches of natives and grasses, and some lovely green wheat, to use in the bottles/jars,

I would have loved to have hydrangeas & peonies, however neither were available.

All the flowers are with Emma, she'll keep them in her special fridge, then put the arrangements together on Friday, deliver them to the hall on Saturday morning, then bring the 2 bouquets and button holes to our house on Saturday afternoon before we head off.

I think I could easily become addicted to the Sydney Flower Market, the bargain prices we paid for just beautiful flowers was amazing. The cost, including Emma's labour, will come in at about 1/3rd of what we were quoted from 3 local florists! Huge saving.

Well it's almost midnight, and having got up this morning at 2.30am I'm a tad knackered. Happy to report I have just finished the last of the 100m of bunting!!!!! I shall post on that tomorrow hopefully. We also met with the photographer today at the hall, and drove to the photo location options, very happy with the plan of attack!

D-Day 5 more sleeps away!

2011-07-17T21:43:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a difference a few days makes!

Things were going along swimmingly, everything coming together well, then kaboom a clusterf%*$ bomb goes off.

Don't want to go into too many details, as it's already doing my head in, and I just can't think about it any more. But needless to say alot of swearing, tears, and stress has been had since Friday, none of it of our doing!

1 family member doesn't want to stay in the same house as another because their voice annoys them (yes I'm being serious!), a couple of kids in the family have fallen ill, the illness means they should be isolated, the easy, and common sense answer is that one of the parents stays with the kids, while the other comes. But that's turned into a nightmare with people threatening not to come, even when we told them (1 family who have been sworn to secrecy) that it was our wedding, hoping they would be able to sort it.

Mr Mel and I had a sleepless weekend, trying to placate all parties, we spent most of our weekend calling/texting/emailing everyone trying to work out the best plan for the weekend, when we should have been us fine-tuning everything, and relaxing if possible! However it just didn't happen.

So now it's 5 sleeps till our big day, and we still have a bit to do:

Bunting - or now known as Nemesis - everything is sewn up, ironed, just need to sew them all together into 15 metre lengths, that is my mission tonight and tomorrow before and after work
Shoes - I dyed them however once fully dried they were too light, so I have gone over them with acrylic paint, which is in the process of drying, I will then spray them with a sealant
Honeymoon Clothes - whoops, not a smart idea to try and go summer clothes shopping in middle of winter! Have found a few bits an pieces that will work with our current clothes, thankfully even found some not too horrific bathers! Yay
Payments - tonight have to make final payments to caterer, decorator, hire company, hall
Flowers - I am heading to the Sydney Flower Market on Wednesday morning, leaving home at 3.15am!! with a lady who goes to the Curves I go to, and her daughter, who was a florist, and does some work on the side. The plan is to go and see what catches the eye, run it by florist re how it could work, then buy them wholesale. We're going to have a few arrangements, then a heap of single flowers in wine bottles & jars, at this stage!
Ring - I am hoping I will have time to get my engagement ring polished/cleaned for the big day, if not, no big deal
Photographer - we are meeting with our photographer at the hall on Wednesday afternoon to get an idea of where to get photos, what sort of light is around etc
Music - I need to finish off saving music to my ipod and organising playlists
Decorations - I need to write on a few blackboards & picture frames to go around the hall with info re food, wine, etc.
Pom Poms - IF I get time I am going to make some pom poms, to hang around the hall, I have all the tissue paper, just need time to make them!
Family issues - need to make sure I stand my ground for my big day and not get bullied into backing down, I only want to ensure all of our guests are safe and healthy, not infected by possibly sick kids on the day!
Oh and work - tomorrow is my last day, yay, then I can concentrate properly on my to-do list, instead of squeezing it around my 10 hour work days! Not mentioning all the work to get done before I leave tomorrow!

Wish me luck!

Honeymoon upgrade - woohoo!

2011-07-11T16:44:00.000-07:00

Once again my stalking skills have paid off!

My first stalking success was our house, I stalked the 2 streets we wanted to buy in and we ended up buying one before it came on the market, yay us!

Now another win (not in a wanker Charlie Sheen way!).

I was stalking the website of our honeymoon location - Erakor Island Resort, Vanuatu - and while daydreamily flicking through the online photos noticed that the accommodation page had a new addition.

We are booked on a Romance Package in a Waterfront Spa Villa, the new listing is for a Superior Waterfront Spa Villa! Immediately I began comparing the details and was getting a bit green eyed monsterish.

So I emailed the lovely Rina at Erakor who has been my contact through the quoting/booking process. She said we could upgrade to the Superior Waterfront Spa Villa for a tiny extra daily charge (saving us a fair chunk off the usual rate for the Superior Villa).

WOOHOO!!!!!!!!!!!

From the Erakor website:

The Waterfront Superior Spa Villas are privately positioned further along the island and are perfect for a romantic retreat. The villa has separate bedroom and sitting area, breezy front deck with daybed for an afternoon siesta, corner spa, mini bar, plasma screen for a quiet night in with a good movie, bicycles for your morning ride to explore the island and more!

Features:

- Master bedroom with Kingsize bed

- Seperate sitting room

- Bar fridge with mini bar

- Tea & coffee making facilities

- Ceiling fans & ocean breezes

- Private deck with daybed

- Tropical gardens & hammock

- Bicycles & board games

- and mesmerising water views

The Waterfront Spa Villas are spacious and stand-alone and feature a spa bath big enough for 2 to relax and soak up some Island Time whilst sipping a glass of bubbly and looking out across the mesmerizing blue lagoon waters. Decorated with a Melanesian theme, the timber louvres invite the natural light and ocean breezes.

Features:

- Kingsize bed

- Corner spa with lagoon outlook

- Bar fridge

- Tea & coffee making facilities

- Ceiling fans

- Private deck with outdoor setting

- Tropical gardens

- and mesmerising water views

The extra's are the Superior has a mini bar, plasma tv, ocean view rather than lagoon, daybed and hammock. But the big extra is it is further down the beach and more secluded. Woohoo.

Hopefully our villa will be something like this!

Our Romance Package, just for interest sake includes:

• Tropical Breakfast Daily

• VIP Return Airport Transfers

• Tropical Coconut Shell Welkam Drink

• Champagne & Flowers on Arrival

• 30min Island Massage for 2

• Private Beach Champagne Picnic

• Sunset Cocktails and Chef’s Dinner

• Free use of all Watersports

• Free 24hr Ferry

• Tropical Indulgence Giftpack incl Waffle Robes & Slippers, Saron & Lava Lava Spa Bath Pamper Set, Handmade Chocolates

As you can probably tell we're a tad excited about our honeymoon!

D for Dye Day

2011-07-10T00:26:00.000-07:00

Today was d-day for dyeing, shoe dyeing that is.

Having searched far and wide for a pair of green heels that weren't skyscrapers, I purchased a pair of white satin heels online, with a view to getting them dyed locally.

Little did I know how difficult it would be to find someone who could dye them for me! Sydney was the common recommendation when I was asking round - hairdresser, drycleaner etc. There was one other option in Newcastle, but at $130, I thought it was a bit excessive.

I went googling and found a few forums discussing dyeing satin ballet slippers, I thought that surely it wouldn't be too hard to dye my heels.

I also want to dye some of my calico bunting, so picked up various green dyes on one of my trips to Spotlight.

I had my final dress fitting on Saturday, wearing my shoes. So today I set to dyeing the heels.

I used the Dylon Amazon colour first, the colour on the packet looked pretty close to what I was after, but once the first coat had dried I realised it was way too pale and too olive.

Dylon amazon green

Shoe 1, Coat 1 of Dylon Amazon Green

1 coat on both of Dylon Amazon Green

So once dried, I went over them with a coat of Jacquards iDye Kelly Green

Jacquards iDye Kelly Green

And woohoo, perfect, I still have another coat to do once they dry, probably finish them off in the morning so totally dry. I'll post pics of the final product after that, I think I should probably get a sealant for them to.

Left Kelly, Right Amazon

Both Kelly - coat 1

Just ignore the mess on the towel!

1 coat to go, then sealant

So far, very happy with the result :) And with the leftover dye from each packet I'm hand painting/dyeing some of the bunting flags.

Practice makes........hopefully not a blubbering mess!

2011-07-05T17:55:00.000-07:00

Our wedding is now just 17 days away, and we are both very excited, but very nervous too, we both hate being the centre of attention, and detest public speaking.

On Sunday during our practice run with our celebrant I got a bit teary and emotional when we were standing at our ceremony spot, and going through a reading.

To most people who know me I'm pretty much tough as teak, I'm quite reserved, and the one who seems to get asked for advice a bit (why, is beyond me most times!). But my girly/emotional side don't hide too far below that teak exterior.

Mr Mel often laughs (in a good way) when I tear up, or flat out cry, during movies, tv shows, songs, even ads for gods sake! I too easily put myself in the position of the person having the emotional experience, and the tears soon flow.

So I have decided, so that I don't end up a blubbering mess during our ceremony, I am going to read through our ceremony, maybe every day or 2nd day. To hopefully take the emotional edge off it to a point.

(photo source)

Some might think it's a bit weird, that you want to be full of emotions on your big day, and I definitely do. But let me give a bit of an eg of where I'm coming from.

About 10 years ago I was asked to do a reading at the funeral of a family member, my first response was no, as 1 - I wasn't the biggest fan of this person, 2 - I hate public speaking. But I gave into the pestering (in the churchyard just before the funeral was to start!).

So we get to the reading, I walk up to the altar (the Church was one we had grown up attending, and next door to my primary school), put my paper on the lectern, I looked up to the gathering, looked down at the paper to start. And nothing. Yes NOTHING. I couldn't say anything. I cleared my throat, went to start again, and nothing. I stood there for what seemed an eternity (in reality maybe 2-3 minutes), before my sister (aka Bride Slave), came to my rescue and did the reading for me.

Now I'm not sure if I put that instance down to an intense fear of public speaking, or not wanting to give a loving glowing reading for a person I didn't get along with, or what. But to say it has put the fear of god into me when it comes to public speaking, is a massive understatement!

What has prompted this post? Well I just read through our vows, as I had to email a reading to my sister. And tears were flowing by the end of line 2, there are 10 lines in our vows, plus the 4 lines of the ring exchange.

(photo source)

I can clearly see myself in a veil of tears not being able to talk, with makeup sliding off my face, in front of our friends & family. Yes I'm probably psyching myself out, but I assure you it won't take much!

So I have printed out the 5 pages of our ceremony, with the bits I have to say in bold, and I am planning on keeping the soon to be tattered, tear stained copy a souveneir, hopefully it all goes well, and this will be a funny story/post to share with friends and family, post wedding! We shall see!

Practice run with celebrant

2011-07-03T18:24:00.000-07:00

It was 3 weeks last Saturday till the big day, and everything is coming together, Mr Mel & I have to-do list each that we are getting through.

Saturday saw me buzzing around Maitland search for and finding some bargains for crockery, cutlery, and bowls/vases/decorations. A good haul was gotten :)

On Sunday, Mr Mel & I had a practice run at the Hall with our Celebrant, Victoria from Beautiful Days.

Victoria is lovely, we would highly recommend her, she has a really relaxed vibe, and is very excited about our surprise wedding. She helped us come up with our plan of how we'll tell our parents and arrive at the hall.

We met at the hall, Mr Mel & I were a bit early so we did some last minute measurements for the fairy lights around the verandah etc.

Victoria arrived and we signed the last bit of pre-ceremony paperwork. She then gave us some options re how the ceremony will run and where we will stand etc.

We are going to stand on the 2nd top step of the hall, with Victoria on the top step, our Maid of Honour (aka Brides Slave) and Best Man will stand on the 3rd, maybe 4th top step, depending on how we fit. And our guests will stand on the grass surrounding the steps.

The Hall, we'll stand on the steps in the middle

Brides Slave will drive our parents to the Hall, after we tell our parents about 1/2 hour before kick-off, at our house.

Then Mr Mel & I will follow together, with Mr Mel driving.

As we pull off the road, a friend (who is in on the secret) will hit play on the CD, and Bruno Mars 'Marry You' song will start, that song along with the ribbon on our car will be the 'announcement' so to speak, of the surprise.

When we pull up, our celebrant Victoria will bring my Dad and Sister (Brides Slave) to the car, Mr Mel will go and ask his Best Man to be his Best Man!! Then Mr Mel & Best Man will stand on the right of the steps.

My sister will walk in front and my Dad will walk me across the verandah from the car, stopping about 3m from the steps, when Mr Mel will come and shake Dad's hand, then walk me to the steps.

View from verandah

Then Mr Mel and I will stand on the steps, and the ceremony will begin.

Now up until this point of the practice Mr Mel and I were fine, lots of excited smiles and winks, and hand squeezes.

Then Victoria said that my Sister (Brides Slave/Matron), will say a reading from the 3rd step, looking at us.

Well that was that, tears flowed from me. Imagining my sister standing there reading the beautiful reading we had picked, got me. Victoria, Mr Mel & I had a laugh, and after a few minutes of wiping eyes, punching Mr Mel in the stomach for laughing at me, and then laughing at myself, I was ok!

View from the verandah

Once the ceremony part is done, Mr Mel and I will sign the registry, which will be set up on the left side of the verandah, then Victoria will announce us, and we will go down the steps and no doubt get mobbed by friends and family.

We are both so excited, it's 20 days until we have a fantastic day at our surprise wedding, and we can't wait. Sure we have alot to do still (bunting you are my nemesis), but we know that no matter what happens, we will have one of the best days of our lives so far!

2nd Ebay & other stuff Haul - bargains, woohoo

2011-06-30T17:08:00.000-07:00

3 weeks tomorrow to the big day, gees Louise that's flown up!

Things are coming along, the to-do list is getting to-done, just need to pull it all together.

While researching how to try and keep costs down, I realised I could buy alot of the things you would usually hire for decorations, at a cheaper, or around the same cost, and then with reselling them after the wedding I could bring costs down even further. So I've been on the hunt, mostly through Ebay, and some local garage sales.

I posted back on April 20, the haul at that stage:

100 x Rice Paper Lanterns (white) - $126 ($150 to hire)
150m x Fairy Lights (warm white) - $283 ($300 to hire)
2 x Candelabras - $40 ($50 to hire)
1 x Bird Cage Wishing Well/Card Holder - $66 ($40 to hire)
100 x Willow Green Organza Chair Sashes - $139.99 ($2.00 each to hire)
1 x Bridal Cake Knife & Server set - $2550 x personalised wine charms for gifts - $75 - can't resell

1 x Guestbook - $25

4 x 4m White Bali flags - $25

The Guestbook above will be sold unused as I found a different one I just loved, after I bought the Ebay one. Also the bird cage is in the midst of being painted white.

Since then I have secured some more lovelies for the day:

Gorgeous cake stand with mirror etched plate, we will use it for our 2 tier wedding cake

$39.99, haven't seen similar in shops for under $50

6 x ceramic cake stands, we will use on the cake table, with 6 cakes made by our mums, sisters, aunts

a steal at $12.50 each, have seen exact same in several shops for $25-30 each!

6 x cake servers for the cake table

$18 for 6, bargain!

This weekend I'm hitting the op-shops to hopefully pick up a heap of bowls & plates for the soup & desserts, wish me luck, c'mon treasures come to mamma :)

Songs - final (ish) list!

2011-06-29T19:26:00.000-07:00

This weekend we meet with our celebrant at the hall for a trial run for the big day! EEEEEEK!!! so close!

So by Sunday 11am we need to have our music sorted, we're pretty close, I posted back in mid May a list we were working on, and not much has changed (links to Youtube vids on song titles):

Arriving at the Hall - Marry You - Bruno Mars
Walking Down The Aisle - Jessica's Theme - Man From Snowy River
Signing Registry - Somewhere Over The Rainbow - Israel Kamakawiwo'ole's version
Walk Back Down Aisle - Crazy Little Thing Called Love - Queen
First Dance - Halo - Beyonce
Cutting cake - maybe How Sweet It Is - James Taylor
Bouquet Toss - Single Ladies - Beyonce
Garter toss (if we do it) - You Can Leave Your Hat On - Joe Cocker

Loving the Bruno Mars song, really up beat, I think it's perfect to be be playing as our car arrives, and we're getting sorted, then we'll go to Snow River song for the walking bit, it's more mellow, and just lovely.

I love Israel Kamakawiwo'ole's Somewhere Over the Rainbow version, I think it will work well as background music while the 'official' stuff is happening.

Everyone loves a bit of Queen for the end of the ceremony.

Probably my favourite song ever is Beyonce's Halo, I cry nearly every time I hear it, so I've told the makeup girls to make sure I'm waterproof everything, and have a supply for touchups!

Not overly worried if the music just goes freeform from there, but if we remember, I think How Sweet It Is will be perfect for the cake, Single Ladies for the flower toss and a good stripper song (and I loved 9 1/2 weeks movie! Mickey Rourke was so hot before he got carved up!) for the garter (if we do it!).

Now just to make sure we're 150% ok with them and burn them to disc for the celbrant on Sunday!

Poodles, Drag Queens, all in the bridal prep!

2011-06-26T20:27:00.000-07:00

After a mad dash to Newcastle on Friday afternooon for strapless bra and suckitallin knickers, Saturday was a big, and busy day.

10am was my Hair & Makeup trial.

I told the girls I wanted to be quite natural, a 'posher, bridey' version of me, but that I was open to suggestions. I have straight blonde hair to about bra strap, so there were a few options. I took with me photos of hairstyles I had found online, and told the girls that I wasn't wearing a veil, I wanted to use fresh flowers.

After about an hour of hot curlers, straightening irons, enough spray to sink the Titanic, I was done, well almost. Once she said she'd finished she held a mirror behind, and I had to stop myself from muttering 'poodle'!

I wanted a bit of body & wave, but not like a poodle ready for best in show! So I asked her if she could pull out the curls a bit, which she was happy to do. She pinned one side back to behind my right ear, leaving some light curls around my face, and added some fake flowers, so I could get an idea of how it would look.

Surprisingly I liked it! I'm a ponytail girl, all week long my hair is in a ponytail, the only time it comes down is if we're going out for dinner, or I've just washed it.

So to see so many curls & waves, and hairspray (haven't used it since early 90's puffy fringe fiasco!), was a bit of a shock. But I was happy enough, knowing that my dress will probably give quite a different look to the hair, rather than jeans & tshirt I was wearing!

Next I went up the back of the salon to the makeup chair (Napoleon Perdis), I explained again I wanted natural, but joojsed up a bit so don't wash out in photos etc.

My chair was about a metre or so from the mirror and she went to work, painting, brushing, adding fake lashes to the outside of my lids, highlighting this, contouring that, etc etc, you get the drift.

After about an hour I was done, and from a meter away it looked a bit intense, very black liner on top lids, fake lashes curling up. Then she gave me the hand mirror, holy guacamole!!! Hello Drag Queen!

I looked like I'd been hanging out with George Hamilton, and had taken on his orange hue! The eye makeup was the most distracting, with heavy black liner, and bronze/gold/white/green to almost my eyebrows! I'll sometimes were a brush of glittery shadow on lids if going out, but never extending above my eyelid fold, so for me it was new, and a tad scary, in a Priscilla Queen Of The Desert way! Except I luckily had a nude lip!

She asked if I was happy, if I liked it, I didn't want to offend, as she had put in alot of work (and used buckets of product!). I meekly said 'um I think it's just very different to what I usually wear, all the eye makeups not something I do, I guess I'll wait to see with the dress before deciding'.

A not great quality shot from my phone, of right side of my hair, after dress fitting!

She looked at me a bit like I was a rabbit ready to bolt, and I kind of was. I almost ran to the counter, paid and got in my car, not wanting people to see me in full regalia!

I drove to the dress shop early, as my plans to drop in at cake shop & Spotlight were out the window now I was in my war paint! Luckily the girls at Newcastle Bridal, were free, and able to do my fitting early.

Another photo I took on my phone, on the way to the dress fitting, yes I'm too scared to show the drag queen makeup!

Once I manhandled myself into the strapless bra (if you're a cup size of D+ you know what I mean!), and suckitallin knickers, and shoes, the NB girls laced me into my dress, and helped me with the bolero jacket.

I stepped out, and the NB dressmaker smiled a big smile, so I felt a bit better. I stood on the podium thingo, and had a proper look.

The poodle hair fell like waves on my shoulders, and the drag queen makeup didn't look that bad, now I was in 'bride mode', I was shocked, I didn't feel like a freak! Yay!!

My dress, alas not me in it!

The dressmaker said with my shoes, the length of the dress was perfect, with the only alterations needed being tucking in at the bust to make it sit flat on my chest (yay Curves!!).

So after parading back and forth for about 20 mins while the girls tucked, primped and prodded, and getting some lovely comments from teenagers looking for Debutante & Formal dresses, I was sorted.

I'll pick up my dress in 2 weeks. Woohoo. Now all I have to do is dye my ivory shoes green, and all will be sorted on the clothing front.

So to wrap it up, I loved my hair in the end, and I think with a bit of tweaking I'll love my makeup, and I already love my dress. All in all a great Saturday, and when I tried my dress on at 2pm, was exactly 1 month till I would be donning it to walk down the aisle with my man!

Weekend Schedule!

2011-06-23T20:08:00.000-07:00

I have just got home after 5 days in Sydney working, I had plans of prepping all of the fabric for bunting, in the hotel room, each night, however it just didn't happen. The first 2 nights I was treated out for dinner, night 1 with the boss, night 2 with the boss and the boss of another farm, then the other 2 nights I was absolutely knackered, after 12 hours walking the horses at the sale, I was asleep by 8pm, so no fabric work was done!

Seeings as it's a month yesterday till the big day, my schedule & to-do list is under the pump, so this weekend my plans are:

Friday

3pm - early mark from work, leaving at 3pm, to be at Newcastle by 4pm to buy bra & underwear for final dress fitting on Saturday!
as long as I last - bunting work Friday night

Saturday

10am - hair & makeup trial
2pm - final dress fitting in Newcastle
4pm (surely won't take more than 2 hours!) - crockery hunt for the soup station and dessert table, the rest of the food is finger food from waiters
Sat night - bunting!
40 mins on treadmill

Sunday

wine tasting to make final selections on wine & champagne for wedding
dye shoes from ivory to green - wish me luck!
meet with 'cake lady' to give her the cake stand, and recipe for ganache
bunting!
40 mins on treadmill
organise 2nd bedroom for installation of built in wardrobe next Wednesday! Heaps of boxes to sort/move!

(photo source)

As my Nan used to say, I'll be running around like a blue arsed fly :)

Trimming down! Eek 5 weeks left!

2011-06-15T16:58:00.000-07:00

This Saturday is 5 weeks until our big day, it has come up so quickly it's crazy!

When I went dress shopping back in mid April I gave myself an aim of losing 10kg before the final fitting, and hoped to lose around 15kg before the big day, over the 3 and a bit months.

Well it's 5 weeks to go, and I have lost 6 kg, not as much as I hoped, but given I was sick with gastro for a week (yes should have meant weight flying off me), then sick with a shocking flu for 2 weeks (no exercise boo!), it's not too bad, at least it's a loss!

I have 10 days until my final fitting, I know I won't get to my 10kg target, but hoping I can get pretty close!

My dress is a lace you up, suck the air from your lungs type, the bonus of which is if I do lose more weight the dress won't look funny, I'll just get my Brideslave to put her knee further in my back and rip those laces tighter :)

A small challenge is I'm away from home with work from this Sunday till Thursday before the fitting, staying in a hotel in Sydney, so eating right will be numero uno on my agenda, not giving into the temptation of restaurants, fast food, room service!!

My plan is to head to the supermarket Sunday morning before starting work at midday, and buying food for the week, fruit, breakfast supplies, lunch and snack supplies so I don't venture to the cafe at the venue for anything more than coffee!! I won't be getting to Curves which sucks, but I'll be walking km's a day with work, and dealing with a couple of 300kg+ horses for the week will give me a good workout!

Wish me luck!

Becoming a Mrs

2011-06-09T19:01:00.000-07:00

Par for the course for most brides when getting married is taking your husbands surname.

Looking into it, there is alot of information for/against, and the reasons why (see Wikipedia entry), but I just think of our marriage as being the 'official' start of us becoming a family, and I would like all in our family to have the same surname, so I'm happy to take on Mr Mel's surname. Actually I can't wait to be Mrs Mr Mel :)

(photo source)

However, I keep ticking over one main 'issue' in my mind.

I am 37, and have been working since I was 19 (after dropping out of Accounting degree I detested!), and over the past 10 years I have built up a good reputation in my industry. I'm not on the whose who list, but I am quite well known within the business circles I travel.

By losing my surname I worry that I'll lose the 10 years of good work I've put in under my 'maiden' name.

My thinking is split into 3 thoughts currently:

Suck it up and just go with Mr Mel's surname, the contacts I have will get used to it
Go for a hyphen on work/business side, but take Mr Mel's surname officially
Stick with my maiden name for business dealings, which could get confusing?

I'm currently leaning to - 1- but 2 & 3 both have their merits.

Has anyone else had these thoughts, or am I being a tad precious? Be honest, I can take it :)

Edit - A comment from Sami Jae reminded me I hadn't mentioned Mr Mel's thoughts.

Mr Mel is happy with whatever I want to do, he's just rapt I want to take his name officially :) Personally I think he'd like it if I went by his name business wise as well, but I don't think he'd mind if I went with the other 2 options. Shall have to discuss with him further once I know where my thoughts are heading!

DIY Decorations - Bunting - part 1

2011-06-07T06:00:00.000-07:00

It's been a little while coming (see earlier posts!) but on the weekend I finally made a start on my massive DIY Bunting task!

We have worked out that we will need approx 150m of bunting to do all the decorating we want:

2 x 2 strands looping from sides of hall up to a chain hanging high from ceiling at each end of hall, width of hall is 10m, so allowing 15m per stand to include the 'loop' - 15m x 4 = 60m
1 x strand looping behind/above bar - 10m should cover it
1 x strand looping above cake tressle table - 5m
1 x strand looping above soup station - 5m
1 x strand looping above kids area - 10m
1 x strand looping above entrance - 5m
1 mega strand looping around verandah, below the fairy lights - 40m
leaves 15m just in case it looks to bare!!

The triangles/flags I'm using are 20cm wide, however once sewn together and turned right side out they're about 17cm wide, so going to have 5 flags per metre with gaps of 2.5cm between each flag.

So 5 flags per metre x 150m = 750 flags (oops DIY project out of control a tad!!)

So far I've cut out around 100 flags, and sewn up around 60, so you could say I'm a way off being finished!!

Luckily I'm really enjoying it, finding it relaxing (thank god!).

These are my creations so far, in various stages of completion!

The calico was my first try, luckily it worked, so I moved onto some of the fancier material, these are ready for binding

These are now all sewn up into flags, to be bound together

This mornings inside out flags, waiting to be turned right way out then bound, a bit of red to break up the green/cream

I have sourced material from a number of places:

Op Shops - sheets, shirts
Garage Sales - sheets, shirts, curtains
Big W/Target/Kmart - discount baskets of fitted sheets, flat sheets
Spotlight - sticking to the budget options

We have a long weekend coming up in a few days, looking forward to getting through a couple of hundred metres worth of flags!! Wish me luck!

What To Do With Mop Top!?

2011-06-05T18:28:00.000-07:00

Just under 7 weeks till the big day (holy hell how has that happened!) and I have still got absolutely no clue what to do with my mop top (aka hair!).

I am booked in for a practice hair & makeup run on 25 June, and they have asked me to bring along photos of what sort of styles I like!

I don't think "Um, I dunno you're the hairdresser" will cut it, so I've been Googling my heart out and came up with some options that MIGHT work!

My dress is strapless, but I'm wearing a sheerish bolero/wrap type thing, so not sure what style will be best!

I have blonde straight hair that sits just above bra strap, with layers at the side/front, no fringe.

I think a total up-do will be too formal, our wedding will be quite casual, so I don't want to be feeling to done up so to speak. I don't want it really curly either as it's just not me. And I won't be wearing a veil or tiara, just a flower or two, if looks ok!

These are the styles that have caught my eye so far.

Any suggestions more than welcome!!

Passport - done!

2011-05-31T22:13:00.000-07:00

Woohoo, Mr Mel will not be going on our Vanuatu Honeymoon solo, I just received an email from DFAT:

We are pleased to advise that your passport application has been processed and your passport has been produced, it is now being despatched by registered mail.

Yay, happy dance, and on a Hump Day Wednesday no less, excellent!  I should receive my passport in the mail shortly, oh and in your face Cessnock Post Office, who wouldn't accept my application because I didn't have my expired passport with me (expired in 2008), the Newcastle Post Office rocks, you suck!  :)  (apologies to regulars for my immature outburst!)

Soooo exciting, it's 53 days today till our wedding, and 58 days till our Honeymoon!

Car - didn't even consider it!

2011-05-29T22:56:00.000-07:00

Oops, it's around 7 weeks till our big day, and it suddenly dawned on us, how are we getting to the hall?

I had initially sought out quotes from a variety of car places, Limos, old style cars, horse drawn carriage, but across the board I couldn't justify the cost, especially as we are having the ceremony at the same place as our reception, therefore the car will just be dropping us off.

We have a few friends with nice cars, but if we asked if we could borrow it for the day, guaranteed they would have guessed the reason. We could have used either of our cars at a stretch, but a station wagon and a hatchback aren't really what you'd consider wedding cars! Altho if push came to shove, we'd use one of them.

So that's where the thinking cap was put on.

My parents (and all the rest of my extended family) are flying up from Victoria, we are picking up most of them from the airport, however my parents are going to hire a car so it's an extra car to ferry people around.

So I spoke to my sister (also known as Brides Slave), and asked if she could work it with our parents so that it was her job to book the car for them, luckily it's not that much of a stretch as my sister travels alot with work, and saying she could organise a discount through work was 100% believable.

After a few calls to sister, and discussions between Mr Mel and myself, we settled on a Ford XR6, either in Black or White. I'm no car nut and neither is Mr Mel, but we thought they looked smart, and not too over the top.

My sister just emailed to say that she had booked the XR6 and had requested black or white, yay!

So Mr Mel and I will be arriving together (Mr Mel driving, see entrance blog earlier), in either one of these fellas

Black Ford Falcon XR6 (photo source)

White Ford Falcon XR6 (photo source)

And the huge bonus is it's only costing us $50 (plus $5 for ribbon), as the car they'd chosen was only $50 cheaper for the 4 days, than this option, when you add my sisters work's discount into the bargain! Compared to the $500 - $800+ we were quoted it's a huge saving. Woohoo, our budget is very happy about it!