Wedding Blog

18th July 2010 - Dress and Music

Yesterday I authorised the third payment towards my dress, so only 4 more payments to go. In September/October, I'll start to think more about my shoes and accessories. Also around that time I plan to think cake and flowers. In the meantime, I will soon start to think about music for the ceremony and any special pieces I might want the band to play at the reception. Once I've come up with some ideas I will see if Corey likes them too.

30th May 2010 - Dress, Celebrant and Bonbonniere

So, last week I made the second payment on my dress and also picked up the last of the bonbonniere. That means I can tick bonbonniere of the list completely now! All done! I don't think we'll do much more the next couple of months, but after that we will start to think Cake and Flowers and I will start to look for shoes and accessories.

We did also see Karen, the celebrant, recently and signed the official paperwork as well as having some further discussion on our ceremony. Karen will now do a draft and send it through to us in the coming weeks.

1st May 2010 - Odds and Ends

Not a lot new as we are having a mini-break from the organising for a few months now that we have a chunk done. yesterday I did order the last part of the Bonbonniere though and they should be delivered by the end of the month; we can then tick that off the list.

Had my hair cut today and had some initial chats with my hairdresser about doing my wedding hair and make-up. She is really keen and said she had some ideas already. She mentioned a few and they tied in with what I was thinking, so I think it is nearly 100% sure I'll book her to do it next year.

Kirsty bought the material for the bridesmaids' dresses the other day. Soon she will take enough to do her own dress then ship the rest to me so that we can get Emily's made up here.

In 3 weeks time we will see the celebrant again, sign the notice of intention to marry to get the legal stuff out of the way and have some further discussions on the ceremony.

We are still thinking a lot about things like the flowers and cake etc, but we'll make more definite plans on those in the latter half of the year.

14th April 2010 - Shoes and Bonbonniere

Not a lot to tell today. In the next few weeks though, I plan to buy the last part for the bonbonniere; then we will have everything ready for that.

I have put all the invitations together and only need to add all the details to them this time next year before I send them out.

A work colleague suggested I look in the dance stores for more comfortable and better fitting weddings shoes. That must be a popular idea as the biggest dance store in town actually has a wedding section on their website. I will go and check things out there in the not too distant future.

1st April - Wedding Dresses

Well, I now have a deposit down on my wedding dress!

On Saturday morning, I went on my own to start looking but the shops were busy and in one where there were free staff, they just looked at me then ignored me and dashed after larger groups that came in...I was pretty down-cast and upset as I'd been expecting to enjoy the experience of finding a gown...

However, today I went to Caleche and Corey's mother came with me. I tried on several there. I had been thinking I'd have to get something made but then the first one I tried on was really nice and Gloria thought so too. We considered mixing and matching between two designs, but in the end I decided the original one I tried on was the way to go!

It is still 18 months to the wedding so we didn't take any measurements or arrange any fittings yet, but I put down a deposit and will pay bi-monthly installements over the next 12 months and then I'll go in and start fittings etc around this time next year.

They gave me a sample piece of the material too so that I can use that to look for suitable shoes (a nightmare task for me as I have trouble finding shoes that fit and hate shoe shopping). I will start that search soon as it may take a while for me to find something suitable!

I will need to think more about what hairstyle I want on the day too, so I can decide if I am having tiaras, veils etc...

So, we have a lot done now and still 18 months to go, which is great as it means I can relax more nearer the day, knowing that things are all in place and in progress!

20th March 2010 - Reception Music

This week we finally made a choice on the music for our reception. I had been considering jazz, as I thought that would be great during the meal, but we weren't so sure about it for dancing later in the evening...

So in the end we settled on a more general band, which plays music from the 60's to the modern day. They are called "Keep The Change" and we are having the 'corporate' line-up (option 1): 3 guys, 1 girl. They will also do all the MC stuff for us as well.

I sent a deposit on Wednesday eve and just got confirmation from them for the booking!

14th March 2010 -Engagement Party OZ

Well, last night we had our engagement party for the Adelaide crowd. We hired a local RSL hall, booked and DJ and did food and drink ourselves (with help from Corey's parents)!

It was a fun night and around 60 people came, which was great. We finished at 1am and did a quick tidy, though Corey and his folks went back today and finished tidying up...

We got a huge pile of gifts, which we will open tonight after dinner...we had loads of food and drink left so we won't be going hungry for a while!!

5th March - Celebrants

We met with celebrant, Karen Coates last night and really enjoyed our chat with her. She was very friendly and organised (and liked how organised I was with things!) and we left a deposit and booked her for our wedding!

We will see her again in May as it was a little too early to fill out the legal paperwork still on this visit.

We now need to think about what vows we want and we are considering whether or not to include a wine ceremony; it seems appropriate somehow as we are at a winery - but we'll think about it.

I must also consider what music we want to play as guests arrive and as they leave...I am thinking Pachabel's Canon in D as I walk down the aisle...

So - now it's time to think seriously about the reception music!!!

25th February 2010 - Wedding Car Booked

So - yesterday we went and looked at a wedding car and put down a deposit, securing our booking. The car, from R and J Limousines, will take me, mother, papa and my two bridesmaids to the ceremony.

Tonight we were supposed to meet with a celebrant but she is ill and has had to cancel. She will call us next week to arrange a new time to meet.

Last week I ordered something for the bonbonniere. We will pick one more thing to go with it later though....

So - the plan between now and end April is to book the mini bus for Corey, book the celebrant and book some music for the reception. After that we can rest for a few months before we start looking at dresses and thinking about flowers etc...

It is just 16 days now until Engagement Party number 2 as well....

20th February 2010 - Confirmations

Yesterday we got final confirmation of our booking at Seppeltsfield so our wedding date of 22nd October 2011 is now definite!
Photographer is confirmed too so that is a good start to our planning!

Hope we can sort out the celebrant and my wedding car next week! Then music will be our next priority.

Yesterday I got the final bits I need to make the invitations and I managed to do it for half what we budgeted for so I am thrilled at saving a bit of money there!

18th February 2010 - Celebrants and Cars

We paid deposits on the venue and photographer the other day...I already had final confirmation from the photographer after he recieved the money.

No final confirmation from the venue yet, but the woman who does the functions only works Fridays and Saturdays, so I should hopefully hear from them that they received the money tomorrow.

In the meantime, we are moving on apace. This coming Wednesday we are going to view my first choice of wedding car - if we are both happy when we see it, we will put a deposit down on that too...Then on Thursday night we are meeting with Karen, a celebrant. Again, if we are happy with things after the meeting, we will book her to conduct our ceremony.

Once these two things are pretty much sorted, we will think about the music!!

After that I think all the really urgent things are booked in and we can have a few months 'off' before we start looking for my dress and thinking about flowers, cakes etc later in the year.

Oh, I am also pretty much set on the invitation/stationery front. I am making them myself from scratch and have already bought all the blank cards and envelopes, coloured card, embellishments and equipment (craft knives, mat etc). It has come in at about half our budget for that area so I am pleased to have made some savings there at least! I have decided on the design aspects and may start putting them together this year so I can do one or two at a time when I have a spare minute rather than rush them all at once.

13th February 2010 - The Story So Far

So - 3 months since Corey and I got engaged and lots to catch up on. I was considering applying for a B2B Blog on one of the wedding planning sites, but they wanted a lot of info such as your address and I feared we'd be spammed with mail from companies - plus there was no guarantee they'd take me up on it, so I then thought of good old LiveJournal from my distant past and it seemed the best option.

I wanted to do a wedding blog somewhere, separate from my usual notes on Facebook and to my email update group. I experimented with a page on my website, but just didn't feel right about that so we'll see how things go here.

So, engagement-wise, we are one party down (from when we were in UK) and one to go...The party here is just 4 weeks away now and we have finally sorted a DJ and just need a few final food/drink bits...plus I'll do a cake nearer the time. We are a bit stuck for food though as we are still waiting for responses from a number of people. We asked for RSVPs by the end of February - so there are still two weeks to go yet, but from about 80-90 people asked we have only about 25 replies so far! Hopefully some other people will get in touch soon!

But back to the wedding. Since late January we have been looking for our venue. We visited several places in the Hills and in the Barossa before narrowing our choice down to two - The Lane Vineyard in the Hills and Seppeltsfield Winery in the Barossa. The Lane was beautiful but completely overpriced and we couldn't justify spending that much when we are having just around 55 guests. So we decided on Seppeltsfield, which may not have the wow factor of The Lane, but is still lovely and much much better value for money with what we are getting at the end of the day. In the next week we will be sending off the form and deposit to confirm our date with them - 22nd October 2011!

As I said, the guest list is small. I would have gone smaller still but Corey was guilt-tripped into deciding we had to invite a few people that I was keen to leave off...never mind...mid 50's still isn't too bad.

In terms of the bridal party, we are keeping it small again. Corey's brothers will be best man and groomsman and my sister will be chief bridesmaid with my friend, Emily, making up our little group!

With the venue hunt underway, we also started looking for a photographer. We were surprised at the prices when you seem to get very little to show for it at the end of the day. Plus a lot of places looked OK at first but when you read the small print there were extra charges for this, extra charges for that...Plus, being into photography myself, I wanted someone who would take not only good 'standard' wedding shots, but also great artistic shots too...

Finally though we found the right guy - Glen Dealtry (Destill Photography). He is expensive but you get a lot of items to show for it at the end of the day and his pricing was very transparent so you knew from the start exactly what you'd get for your money. We met with him last week and liked him very much. He customised the package for us; taking out a few things we didn't need and adjusting the price and we have just just sent off the form to book him in. We will pay him his deposit next week when we send Seppeltsfield theirs. Part of the package is a pre-wedding shoot, which will take place sometime next year - I am looking forward to that!

Now we are on to looking for a celebrant. I have emailed 5 people we thought looked OK and when we hear back we will narrow it down to a couple that we'll visit and see how we get on with them.

Also in the next few weeks and months, we need to think about cars and music.

It may seem odd booking these things so far in advance, but the venues are already getting a lot of interest for next year and our photographer is already booked out for November 2011, though luckily he was still free on our date!! So 20 months in advance is not as early as it might seem.

Once we get the celebrant, cars and music sorted, we can relax a little though for a few months. I will start looking at dresses and such around September/October though and we still have to start thinking about other bits, even though we may not have to put the order in quite yet.