This week.

Well, this week has been a bit of a write-off!

I've got a cough that won't quit and Zac has some crazy stuff going on with his ATP - like getting his students ready for a visit from K.Rudd at his school tomorrow night. There goes his lovingly-planned teaching programme!

As far as wedding stuff goes it's ALL LOGISTICS, ALL THE TIME.

Via This Is Glamorous

We have been working out deliveries and pick up of flowers, furniture, people. Where are things placed in the reception room? Is there something to hold pens for our guest book? (Thanks Lisa!) Seating charts. RSVP management. Extra invitations. Following up internet orders. Calling around for photo location permissions (expensive). Registry updates x2. Post-wedding admin (insurance, cars, internet, phone etc etc). Confirming who are our go-to people on our wedding day and clarifying their roles. Packing belongings into boxes and clearing out cupboards. Re-plating my engagement ring so it's nice and sparkly and new-looking for July.

It's all happening and most of it is mundane, but necessary.

T-minus 31 days. Wooooohooo!

Drive.

So this is google maps from the last couple of days.

We hit the central suburbs together on Sunday night, Monday night I hit the southern suburbs, this afternoon was north&east.

via

Driving clears my head and that's exactly what I needed this week - just getting away from work, singing, being amazed by Safety Bay at midnight, Waterman's Bay at midday, kangaroos in a field near Ellenbrook, Darlington pine trees, wondering if you'll make it home before you pee.

I have 2 invitations left to deliver. I need to re-do their envelopes, woooops.

This Week.

The past couple of weeks we've been busy little beavers.

Our cupcake boxes arrived, and saved us a pretty penny because Ebay is so much nicer to us than a brick-and-mortor store, about $50 nicer. Unfortunate but true. I almost had a picture but we ate the cupcake too quickly...

I had another meeting with the florist this week. I had emailed her the pictures that I showed her in our initial meeting, but she thought they were really different? Went in to clear up any confusion and hopefully bring the price down by simplifying the bridesmaid's bouquets. Found out all sorts of lovely information like when we can pick the flowers up etc.

We sent our paper off to the nice, scatterbrained man at the Print Shop. We are getting some films made up at the moment which he will turn into plates and then magically - voila! - Our invites will be done. Probably a week later than I initially hoped. I have been addressing envelopes all week. Sick of it. But I feel a great sense of accomplishment. I still have to line and stuff them....

I bought my girls a gift. It's on it's way. I hope they like it.... but I won't post a picture because they both check the blog. Haha, sorry Sarah - sorry Chantelle!

We had a meal tasting at The Old Brewery with Mum, Lisa and Phil. It was lovely and will make a good Winter lunch. I got full very quickly and promptly got grumpy because I needed to sleep it off. I'm glad I found this out before the wedding day. Poor Zac! I won't each as much on the day or else I will be like a sleepy winter bear! Sorry no pictures. Was too busy eating.

We also found out that they have changed the carpet and painted the big, huge, ugly red wall in our function room. I am thankful for small mercies. I had no idea how to decorate with that red wall clashing with all the neutral tones in the room. Yik!

Did I tell you we found some friends with nice cars to use on the day? I can't remember, but we have. They are even grey-coloured. How coordinated is that? I do feel a little bit bogan though. Riding in a Holden. Haha!

Photo via

We filled out our Notice of Intention to Marry form. Laughed when we had to tick Yes or No when it asked if we were related.* Mentioned to Paul Morrison about getting together to talk ceremony specifics. Trying to find a time to talk with him about it is like nailing jellyfish to a wall. Impossible! Haha... love that guy :)

Perhaps the biggest thing this week is that Lisa and Phillip bought Zac a suit in the UK, again. The UK is a much better friend than AUS. About $600 worth a better friend. Here is the suit on an model who has a seedy-looking-porno moustache:

from Hugo Boss UK

Perhaps the best thing about Zac getting a suit is that we can know for certain that he will be wearing something at the wedding. No more jokes about wearing his 'birthday suit'.

*We ticked 'no'. Just clarifying.

Here to Stay.

We love our jazz standards. In highschool I feel in love with Louis Armstrong and wished that I had been born a few decades earlier. Maybe 5 decades earlier! I always wanted to be with someone who appreciated Jazz.

What do ya know? I'm marrying a jazz music teacher. Funny how things work out...

We've chosen this song to play while we sign all our documents during the ceremony:

Ladies and Gentleman, Gershwin Bros by way of Billie Holiday:

Glitches.

Not everything goes to plan when you're planning anything. What I mean by that poorly constructed sentence is that I love the little glitches that have happened during our planning - the change of venue, a photographer being booked out, Post not having the dress I liked in my size, not printing our invitations back in November.

Each time something has gone wrong, we've found something even better, that suited us more, that worked out better value, something that we absolutely love.

Not everything goes to plan and that's just fine by me!

ps. I have no idea where I got the above image. Let me know if you know where it's from, or if it's yours!

Consoles.

From what I can decipher from the email Orielle sent me, those console tables are $28 to hire.

For both.

Done.

Yard.

This week we have been getting our yard ready for the party - such a huge job as we live on 3/4 acre with lots of natural bush (read: lots and lots of leaves to rake)

It's a great chance to also finish off those little jobs that take ages to get done..

This week we have:

• given the fences 2 coats of paint
• cleared the path to the tennis court, and raked all the leaves away
• moved our mulch piles further away from the tennis court
• got rid of some wood we were drying for firewood (we got to give it away - yay!)
• organised our bonfire area - we won't be having a bonfire, but it looks pretty now!
• gave our deck it's yearly coat of oil and paint
• tightened our tennis court fence around the top
• chopped down a rotten tree near the tennis court fence
• pressure cleaned the tennis court surface
• trained our climbing roses and vines.. gave them some more support
• pressure cleaned our courtyard area which was dirty from our bathroom renovations
• removed a built-in brick barbeque in the courtyard and re-paved where it had been
• paved a new path to the tennis court
• mulched all our garden beds with pea straw
• got rid of old garden pots created a new garden bed in the courtyard
• washed all the glass jars that will be on the tables
• confirmed everybody's r.s.v.p.
• tiled our toilet room and laundry sink back-splash
• put down wood chips under our swing

yet to do:

• grind off the bolts under our swing so that and pets/small children won't get scratched by them
• rake down our bonfire area
• put down some pea gravel on the sides of the new path
• meet with our lighting guy

Almost done! Then we can get onto the fun things, like hanging lanterns and picking up all the PARTY GEAR!

Launch.

We have a go for the website!

If you have arrived here from the site, welcome! We've been blogging for a couple of months now, it's mostly Clare writing, but Zac will sometimes pop in to say hello. Feel free to comment or laugh with us about the funny things that happen as you plan a wedding.

Big shout-out to Jason who, after accepting this (very unpaid) job, got 3 other paid jobs straight out of uni, had his computer crash on him a couple of times and still managed to volunteer at schoolie's for a couple of weeks and STILL get the site up before the r.s.v.p. date.. haha!

Love you bro!

My favourite page on the site is the little biographies we wrote for each person in the bridal party. Hee hee, they are a little bit cheeky!

Dress.

*drum-roll*

Found a dress yesterday!

I was starting to think that I wouldn't find one until the Very Last Minute . I tried on so many dresses at a few different places but I just didn't like any of them. Too bulky, too much skirt, bead overload, too little fabric, itchy, hot, heavy, see through (!), boring, interesting (but not in a good way), beautiful but not flattering on me... you get the idea.

Some of the dresses I have tried on:

photos from smartbride.com.au (1, 3), pronovias.com (2), onewed.com (4), weddingo.co.uk(5) oldschoolromance.wordpress.com (6)

Enter: Aurelio Costarella - great designer and all-round good guy. I've been a fan since Chantelle wore one of his gowns to her wedding back in 2007. She looked stunning.

I loved Post Emporium (his store). I loved all of his gowns. I liked that Vanessa and Ali, the sales assistants, remembered my name when I walked in the door. Everyone kept telling me that I would know "the one" (seriously, it's just a dress, it is not a deep spiritual experience) when I saw it on, I did not have a "ZOMG THIS IS THE ONE!!!!1!!" moment.

I just felt so very comfortable. Myself. Relaxed. The dress was simple but still looked liked some imagination had gone into the design. I felt like I didn't need to worry about the weather on the day. I liked that I am supporting a local designer, not some overseas company who get their dresses manufactured in China. And the fabric... I love how it felt! So I didn't "know", I just drove (very quickly) to work and thought about it for a couple of hours, called a friend, called Zac and eventually called Post to put a deposit on it.

Done. Simple. Just the way I wanted it to be.

Month.

Well, it's been about a month since we got engaged and after a couple of weeks of enjoying our newly-engaged status we have got off our bottoms and started planning this shin-dig!

Trips to the mailbox have been particularly exciting as quotes, letterpress samples (yay! -clare), homeware magazines (yay! -zac) and confirmation letters have started arriving.

So far we have:

• Set a date for the engagement party (8.1.10)
• Set a date for the wedding day (10.7.10)
• Compiled a guest list
• Booked the church
• Chosen a reception venue
• Looked for a caterer for the reception
• Met with the priest
• Started building a wedding website
• Booked some pre-marriage counseling
• Started a gift registry
• Booked honeymoon accommodation

I think we have realized just how busy we will both be at work and studying in the last months leading up the the wedding. We decided that we would prefer to get as much done as possible before we enter that time, hence the early planning.

Don't worry, we'll keep you updated with all the news and fill you in on all the details about what we're planning :)