Text from a friend.

The other day I got this text:

"Oh my gosh, total mumzilla. How am I going to survive the next 6 months??"

My reply:

"Breathe, respect, stick to your guns ;)"



Wedding planning; it's not ALL glamorous!

Honeymoon.

On Thursday night we had a major glitch happen with our honeymoon. The last leg our flying if from Rarotonga to Aitutaki, flying Air Rarotonga. We had scheduled everything pretty well considering there are such limited options for connecting flights from NZ-Rarotonga-Aitutaki

They emailed us saying they had had to bump us from our Aitutaki flight to an earlier flight, the only problem?

Our Air NZ flight didn't touch down until after the new flight had left.

Well, we emailed them back, saying that yes, it was a pretty big inconvenience as we would now have to find accommodation on Rarotonga for the night, cancel a night on Aitutaki [  :'(  ]  and or leave 2 hours after our reception (not ideal!) and spend all of Sunday in airports. Ugh!

So we emailed that to Air Rarotonga, our hotel on Aitutaki giving them a heads up as to what might happen and we researched hotels on Rarotonga and found a couple of options.

The next day Air Rarotonga emailed us back, they hadn't realised that it would mess us around that much so they canceled the whole thing, got us back on our original flight, delayed it by half and hour (in case the Air NZ flight runs late) and generally backflipped.

Which is lovely of them, I don't think a major airline would ever do that. But I think Zac may have some gray hairs now, going through that little 12 hour experience!!

Weather.

Been checking the long range weather for a couple of years now. It's silly really, you can't control it, so why worry about it?

Our venue is beautiful when it's raining, and everyone is undercover, so there really isn't a problem... I think I'm just curious.

I wish I could understand this rain forecast:

from Elders

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:

100.

Woah, when we wake up tomorrow we'll be in double digits.

But who's counting? So much to do before that hits zero!

Pranks.

There is a horrible tradition on my Mum's side of the family that I am really hoping doesn't carry through to our wedding day...

Pranking.

My Aunt Katherine, who was working in a lab with rats doing science was greeted on her wedding day with two chauffuers dressed as rats. They whipped off their costumes to reveal suits just before they walked into the church, but golly what a shock!

My Uncle Kevin HATES cats. He woke up the next morning to cats crawling all over his car, someone had tied some bait fish to the engine block.

My Aunt Michelle was blocked in her driveway by two Luigi's (i.e. "Sava da Money") with flannel hats, bonds singlets, work shorts and thongs telling her to "backa away from da car, donna scratch my car wid your car!"

I think she yelled out, "YOU BASTARDS!!!" and ran after them. The whole street came out to watch and laugh and clap. The Luigis had their suits in the trunk too...

The ultimate was my poor mother, who married last. They didn't do anything, but on purpose. My poor mum was fretting about it the whole day, wondering what they would do!

That is why I am being very tight lipped around my extended family when it comes to how the day is running and what is being planned. Hopefully the first exact information they know will come from the invitation! haha :)

It's hard being secretive around my Nana, but she is the worst! She loads the guns and then blames everyone else for firing....

Ode to Floor Time.

I have a list of things that I love about Zac.

I know. I'll just let that revelation of dorkitude sink in for you.

Anyway, this list started when I was still scared about being in a relationship that I saw 'going somewhere' to reassure me about all the things that I loved about Zac, so I wouldn't talk myself out of it. I've added to it and sometimes I look over it to feel all those 'falling in love' feelings again.

Right now, Zac is having 'floor time'.

It's funny, he gets annoyed, frustrated or overwhelmed and he hits the floor. Some people call it a "Dead Man's Drop" but we call it Floor Time.

Floor Time is so endearing. I love it. Sometimes I join in. Things really do seem better when you're lying on the floor with the one you love......

So Floor Time is going on the list :)

4 Months!!

Oh my gosh!

It's exactly fourth months until we get married.

Time absolutely flies!

This week.

Woops, haven't done one of these for a while! The last few weeks have seen us complete the following, looking back it seems like a lot!

• Met with Chantelle to talk about our invitation suite, finalised our wording etc.
• Picked a new colour scheme for our wedding day. Golly, I love planning parties!
• Met with Sweet Floral, Applecross Studio Flowers and Lesmurdie Florist and Gifts regarding our flowers. Expensive, wishing I could be talented enough to do this myself.
• Paid the deposit for The Old Brewery
• Chose the music for our ceremony and reception - Zac is a legend! We are really happy with our ceremony songs. Jazzy and sweet. Maybe I'll post on them later...
• Found a makeup artists - Jane Wong, recommended by my friend, colleague and fellow bride-to-be Bonnie
• Bought Clare's shoes, yes I got them. This new season in shoe-land was really uninspiring. Too many buckles, studs, velvet and horror. As Sarah so aptly put it, "one side of the shoe says SWEET, the other side is WHORE WHORE WHORE". Yeah, not great for a wedding. Considering dyeing them to be a little less "bridal".
• Picked up Clare's dress, Zac has not seen it yet. Miracle.
• Went out a few times trying to find bridesmaid dresses - proving to be a difficult task! Morrison, Myer, Review, Aurelio Costarella, Alannah Hill, Forever New, nothing nice in our price range so far.
• Bought a bed frame, mattress and linen with money we had saved and gifts from our engagement party
• Acquired a 2 year old washer and dryer from a place down the road for $80. Bargain!
• Got a free-standing wardrobe from Freedom that they were going to chuck out (because they didn't want to pay for delivery anywhere). Free. Bargain. We are going to put it in our entry as a linen cupboard/extra storage.
• Booked in hair appointments right up until the wedding. I heart Identified Hair.
• Wrote all of our thank you cards from the engagement party. We are still handing them out - bit of a nightmare!
• Adjusted our guest list, task list and budget in response to our change of plans. Not so fun. Loving google docs though, so handy to have one copy, rather than always sending each other updates!
• Paid off the flights for our honeymoon, now it's only 1 more night of accommodation to organise and everything for our honeymoon is done...
• ...besides my passport, started filling out the application. I promise I have started, Zac!

First Look.

We have been thinking about having our photographs taken prior to the ceremony, in the USA I believe they call it a "first look" which is a whole lot lovelier than saying "we don't have time between ceremony and reception to have photographs taken, as a result we eshewing tradition and are reversing the order to suit our timeline"

Though we may have started entertaining the idea because of scheduling purposes, it quickly grew on us for the following reasons:

1. We have confronted every tradition to do with weddings and questioned whether it still applied to us and what we would like. Some things we have kept, some, like Zac seeing me for the first time at the aisle, we aren't. I'm also not wearing a veil. If this worries you, read on.

Both of these traditions started from arranged marriages and the concern that if a groom saw the bride before the vows were said, he would possibly take offence to her appearance and back out of the nuptuals. Well, Zac knows what I look like, he still asked me to marry him and we're both so excited I don't think anyone will back out at the last minute no matter what I'm wearing.

2. Zac and I want to be totally 100% focused on the vows we are about to make. He doesn't want to be thinking "oh God, oh God, oh God, don't cry, don't cry" and I don't want to be thinking, "Does he like my dress? Oh God, don't cry, my makeup! Does he like my dress?"**

We know those emotions are part of a wedding and they are beautiful, but we are thinking that, for us, they can happen at any time of the day - so why not before everything gets crazy? A private moment (with Tasj, our photographer, hee hee) will be lovely to calm any nerves, get some tears out of the way and just have a quiet moment together before the ceremony and celebration kicks into gear.

Here are some sweet "first look" sessions from around the web:

source.

via.

How cute is the surprise element? And that rooftop setting.... vois comme c'est beau

**At least if he doesn't like my dress, he can have a few moments to suck it up and remember it is not about the freaking dress.

Our Venue.

We have changed our venues. Having a cocktail reception at Zac's family home was going to be too much stress, so we reviewed our decision making paradigms.

The original logic being: we wanted

• A beautiful space
• That didn't charge for food
• And was sheltered in case of rain.

Good luck with that in Perth. Unless you want a dingy town hall, but we chose a church instead.

New logic:

• We can go somewhere that charges for food
• Because we now require it.

Brilliant.

So for a week there we were in limbo. We canceled the church and the caterers. Officially getting married no-where, scary.

But we ended up finding a great venue that fits exactly what we wanted...

Let me introduce you to The Old Brewery.

A bit of a regular on the Perth Wedding Scene, but for good reason. It is a beautiful, old building that is in good repair (rare in Perth), separate function area, it has in-house caterers (award winning!) and a view to knock your socks off.

We decided that we are going to have both the ceremony and our reception at The Old Brewery, dividing up the space in the function area. The ceremony will be in the glass-walled foyer area, the reception further back into the room. We will be going straight from the ceremony into lunch.

The only down side is that because of this new transition between ceremony and reception is that we had to cut our guest list. It was the lesser of two evils - invite more people to the ceremony and be rude by asking them to leave when a whole bunch of people would obviously stay around for lunch or be rude by inviting less people than we did to our engagement party.

The latter option won out.

Ladies and Gentlemen, The Old Brewery:

all photos from The Old Brewery

Winter Romance in the City.

We promise to tell you all about our new venue and our new ideas very soon! Until then, these images are inspiring us... you will have to content yourselves with this little mood board I made up:

top left: Elizabeth Toll via This is Glamorous top row: by Michele M. Waite via 100 Layer Cake,

Mucca Design via Black Eiffel middle row: Snippet and Ink, Joachim Bandeau Watercolour

via This is Glamorous bottom row: via, Jose Villa, via This is Glamorous

Benches.

This week we are preparing for our engagement party and crossing things off our list left, right and centre.

The basic idea is two, long tables filled with family and friends, family-style-served food under lights and in the backyard tennis court. The look is 'rustic chic' if you had to give it a name. Lots of native grey foliage from our garden, bunting and lanterns to light the way to the tennis court, yellow flowers in mason jars and hessian table runners. We are borrowing most of the decorations from friends or sourcing materials from our house and garden.

One problem we have encountered is seating. Hiring nice chairs is expensive, and hiring cheap plastic chairs is out because they are 1) ugly and 2) still wasteful and expensive. So here are our options.

Build some benches. Re-use the sleepers in the vegetable garden at the O'Neil's place.

Use sleepers, but support them on hay bales, reuse all of it in the garden:

Just use hay bales, but of course hay can be scratchy, so we could cover them with pretty coloured or patterned sheets, we could also build some couches (reusing everything of course):

photos from Snippet and Ink (1), Carl Zoch (2), Scott Chester Blog (3)

Decisions, decisions....

Aitutaki.

So this week we started booking our flights for our honeymoon!

Eep!

Really can't wait, we are so excited about going away together... and we're going REALLY AWAY to the middle of the Pacific, middle of nowhere. We are heading off to the Cook Islands, to a little lagoon called Aitutaki. It's small, it's beautiful and we have a boutique beach-front villa all to ourselves! Looking forward to getting away and having a holiday where there isn't anything to do, other than relax and do the things we love - snorkeling, riding bikes, kayaking, golf and EATING.

Here is where we are going:

Aitutaki lagoon and beach:

Our Villa:

photos via google image and tripadvisor.com

This week.

The last couple of weeks have been busy with lots of assignments and work shifts. Somehow, we still managed to find time to:

Find our photographer!

Find our caterer!

Start designing our stationery!

Bridesmen.

My (Clare) side of the bridal party is a little different. I was looking for a way to include my brothers in the whole deal, while still allowing Zac to have some friends on his side of the bridal party and making sure that there wouldn't be too many people standing with us when we say our vows (c'mon, someone has to be in the congregation!)

So, after little while of pitching a sneaky plot to Zac, we came up with an idea that allows to to include our 4 brothers and 4 of our friends.

Quite simply, we will both have our two brothers and two friends stand with us.

It will look something like this:

L-R: brother, brother, friend, friend, clare, zac, brother, brother, friend, friend

There are some logistical issues to work out, Phillip was particularly concerned about how the boys would walk back down the aisle.

We've never really been interested in hooking up my friends with Zac's friends, so the idea of them walking arm-in-arm out of the church was a bit weird for us anyway.

Who knows. Maybe single file? Maybe the boys can just give each other a handshake and a kiss on the cheek and still link arms and go down the aisle!

These sort of things should be fun to work out :)

Words.

As soon as we got engaged the advice started flowing:

"Spend more on flowers than on food, there are more photos of the flowers"

"Get your friends to photograph, they'll do just as good a job as anyone"

"Definitely get a professional to photograph your wedding, we didn't and we regret it"

"Spend up on the dress, who cares? It's your day"

"Flowers only last day and get chucked out, don't get expensive ones. Spend more on invitations"

"Invitations just get chucked out, so spend up on flowers!"

You get the idea!

It is nice to hear people's points of view and their different stories and experiences - even if you do giggle inside because someone told you to do the opposite 5 minutes ago.

I guess that major thing it all this has taught us is that we just need to figure out what is important to us and go ahead with that, rather than worrying about what other people are imagining for us.

So here are our big values that we keep coming back to:

including and honouring them as much as possible!

This is not just about two individuals, this is about two families.

weddings should be the best chance to celebrate and party

thinking outside the box and maybe forgoing a few traditions so that

this experience really reflects who we are as a couple

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 :)