Moving House.

So yesterday we moved all our gear into our new house!

(WARNING: this post will have bulk exclamation marks!!)

It was tough getting everything in, but Zac called in a favour and we had heaps of people come and help us. Although, I think Ryan (his bro & groomsman) managed to spend the whole time putting together 2x ikea bedside tables with lots of blood sweat and tears... haha!

So all our stuff is in, besides our suitcases, some of my clothes and my bed.

Last night we unpacked the kitchen (our favourite room) and it was SO MUCH FUN!!!!!!!

We're going to unpack everything else once we get back.

Also, today the couches and some of our wedding presents get delivered!! :)

oh, and yesterday the necklaces arrived! YAY!

Daft.

My brain is addled, the last week has been shocking! Sorry for being a bad blogger and not posting... To my one reader, I'm truely sorry! haha!

Did I tell you about the Anthropologie saga? About how my friend in CA is shipping me some presents for my bridesmaids? Well, I ordered them 10/06/10 and they got sent out 2 days later to Ali.

6 days later I check the postal tracking and I realised something horrible. I sent had sent them to the wrong address. It wasn't completely wrong, just 1 word was wrong - I had written "Sea Mist" instead of "Ocean Mist".

As Ali emailed me, "Same body of water, different word, sweetie."

Seriously.

So I emailed and emailed and emailed Anthropologie and they finally got back a week later, letting me know that they had received the package back and would I like to correct the address? At the same time Ali emailed me, "We're going away in 3 days (the 1st of July) for 10 days.. any word on the package?" So I emailed Anthropologie back, Yes Please, OCEAN Mist and Make it Overnight Express.

Well, they didn't send the package for 2 days. Wonderful! *sarcasm*

Ali and I emailed back and forth. Thank God she has a cat and it needed to be fed while she was away, because she organised a friend to take care of it. She sent the package and while it's cutting it fine, they're meant to be arriving this Wednesday. One month later.

Sigh... my brain has turned to mush!

via

It seems I'm not the only one, Zac spent last weekend down south with his mates. He went down with a developing cold and the next evening when I spoke to him briefly, he mentioned swimming, the ocean, boating, lack of jumper (it fell in the ocean) and, wait for it....

Sea Biscuiting.

He still has a cold, it has developed into a fully-fledged man-cold.

We also took a trip to the Physiotherapist this morning to get some work done on his shoulder because one of his friends decided it would be great to drag Zac behind the boat at 30 knots. Of course, Zac flew off and landed on the rock hard Indian Ocean, shoulder first.

So he's strapped up, with 2 more sessions to go before Saturday and warned not to lift anything.

Too bad we're moving house on Wednesday and Thursday.

This week is so messed up.

via

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!

Sleuth.

We have been getting RSVPs in my mailbox all of this week, however one arrived yesterday without a name on it. I had read somewhere that you should number your RSVP cards in case this sort of thing happens, but I only remembered once we had sealed our envelopes. Toooooo late.

So, the Sherlock in me will begin sleuthing:

Clue #1: Postmark. 

Visible word "REGION MC" across the stamp. Black envelope makes it hard to see, but ink is shiny. If I hold envelope just so I can make out the word "HUNTER", so altogether it says, "HUNTER REGION MC".

Conclusion: RSVP is from NSW, this means that it is a member from Zac's family or it's Kym Rolle, probably not Stephan and Carla because they live in Sydney, probably not Di, because she lives a little more north than the Hunter, although it is entirely possible her mail went through HUNTER REGION MC.

Possible RSVPers: Clare family, Scarfe family, John and Pat Gageler, Alan and Donna Gageler, Di Gageler, Kym Rolle.

Clue #2: Ink stamp. 

I can make out a square border in the centre of the envelope at the top. So I hold the envelope under a halogen lamp, yields great results. I see a rectangle border with "30 MAY 2010" written within... I also see the letters "AMP" further along, which I can only assume is the end of "STAMPS". Why does it say stamps? Is this a vital piece of the mystery that I am missing. I MUST FIND OUT. Closer inspection reveals a jumble of letters, the ink is already starting to degrade...  "AL" "ISE". OH MY GOSH. IS THIS A SUBURB OR SOMETHING? No, it just says "PERSONALISED STAMPS NOW AVAILABLE". Darn advertising.

Conclusion: This RSVP was sent 30th May. Not much to go on, really.

Clue #3:  The way the dot was done.

Ball point mark was meant to be a dot, they didn't tick. This must have some psychological meaning but I have no idea what it could be... Sherlock would probably say it's because they are a neat person - a girl perhaps, or a boy who can do away with unnecessary flourish. The dot has been gone over a few times, possibly to make the ink darker. Ball point pens don't work so well on the soft cotton paper. The frustration is evident, I can see they've gone over the same spot 2 or 3 times. This must surely have a psychological meaning, but I don't know what it could be...

Conclusion: Not much really.

Clue #4: Writing on RSVP card.

Black ball point pen used, no name, no number of guests. God forbid they have an allergy to peanuts because we'll never know their dietary requirements! And, they are attending our wedding. Yay! If only we knew who they are and how many there are.

Conclusion: Kym Rolle did not send this RSVP. She is arty and creative, she would have whipped out all sorts of pens and because she is creative and knows it, she would have written her name all over that junk. The Clare family's RSVP would have been written by Michelle, who will at least have written the amount of people coming along (which we know to be 4). The Scarfe's family response would have been so thorough that they also would have written how many were attending, they are very thorough people. I'm betting John and Pat Gageler would have written their names and dietary requirements and that they are both attending. 

Possible RSVPers: Alan and Donna Gageler, Di Gageler.

Final Conclusion: 

This RSVP was most probably sent by Alan Gageler (which would explain the frustration of grinding the ball point pen over the same spot and missing the other things to fill out. Perhaps he was frustrated because he had already filled out an online RSVP before he got the invitation and didn't want to do it again?

OR, it's Aunty Di, who was so excited by getting the invitation (as she has mentioned on facebook) that she grabbed the nearest pen, realised it didn't work and in her haste and excitement forgot to write whether she is allergic to peanuts or not.

Case Closed.

This week.

So this week is going faster than expected - which is becoming a regular occurrence as we get closer to the wedding...

We have:

Paid our photographer in full. Goodbye money, it was nice knowing you. Hopefully you will come back and say hello when you have magically transformed into kick-ass photos!

via Natasja Kremers blog

Talked about weddings with our friends (single and married) it was great just to laugh and chat and know that the problems we're facing are universal.

Printed out table numbers. That's right, we're getting into the nitty-gritty now, this sort of task typifies how I feel about so many of the little wedding tasks. BORING, YET STRANGELY EXCITING.

from Martha & Darcy

Finished painting the glass vases for our flower arrangements. Finally.

Visited our printer again, I'm picking up our invitations tomorrow... Kind of nervous/excited to see the finished product!

Prayed I would win a competition that would give me 100m of wide, striped, grosgrain ribbon. I'm so cheap.

via Wedding Style Guide

Zac bought some cufflinks and a belt. They are very classic and manly. Like this guy here:

hot hot hot

Checked the mailbox everyday for a revised quote from our florist which still hasn't arrived.

via Decorology

Drew out how I see tables and rooms set up. We're getting to a stage where we are seeing things work differently and then we confuse each other about what exactly we are doing with the place cards and cupcakes and other stuff? Drawing it out always helps me to clarify with myself and helps Zac understand what I'm talking about/seeing in my head.

Been listening to Johnny Cash to relax. This song cracks me up every time, I'm not usually a big country music fan, but I always make time for the man in black. What a legend!

We are both working so hard at the moment so that we don't come back to chaos when we get back to work after the honeymoon. At the moment I just want big sky, nothing to do, stars and waves and sand and shade and aeroplanes.

via A Cup of Jo

Hung out with friends at Youth and made a fool of ourselves being 'bad' in leather. Yep, we're THAT cool.....

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.

Avenue.

The time has come.

Anyone who has been in the loop about the couches we want knows that it has been a titanic struggle of back-and-forward decisions... not about which couch to get, but what fabric we should get it in.

It's hard when you haven't lived in your own house before.. when you haven't developed your own sense of decor-style.. when you have 'warm neutral' on the wall, but you like soft grays, charcoals, bright white walls and rustic, weathered woods.

Yeah, try deciding on a couch colour with all that swirling around in your head! Zac would occasionally visit me in Freedom during my lunch break. We would flip through the fabric swatches and argue about what to get.

He didn't want a light-coloured couch. I was ok with white.

Leather or fabric? Fabric at the moment, although we prefer leather.

"What about Essence - Pepper?" he would say, "No, it is dark brown and has orange flecks in it. It's too tribal for me. Besides, the Malones and the Dineses have orange and brown decor." I would reply.

"Custom fabric from another range?" I would suggest, "No, it costs more and I don't like them anyway," he would reply.

So it went on like this for, oh, 8 months... by which time all my Freedom friends thought I was the most pedantic, silly girl when it came to couches.

But yesterday. Oh sweetest of days. We found a fabric.

Zac came in to drop me some lunch money (another story) and I whisked him off to the back of the store to show him some dining chairs that were covered in....

A dark charcoal fabric...

With...

A neutral-coloured fleck peeking through...

"Yep, I like that" he said.

"Really! Yay! I like it too!" she said.

(2 hours later over sms)

Clare: So you're cool if I buy those couches?

Zac: Sure. Go for it!

(10 minutes later)

Clare: we have couches!!

Here are the couches, the range is called 'avenue':

Both of us can sit side by side on that armchair! It's big :) Below is the 2.5 seater, which 3 or 4 people could fit on... it's also big!

Here is the fabric we chose:

Biggest furniture saga ever = over.

This week.

We had the best time last Tuesday, I can't believe it has been a whole week since we celebrated! Time flies when you're having fun I guess :)

This week marks one of the major deadlines I had in my head. We had wanted to get all of our major planning done by the time Zac started his prac and guess what, that day was today! Which means it is 11 weeks until we go down south with our friends (separately, of course. Girls only at our place thanks!) and 11 weeks until we move houses, 11 weeks until my hair trial, 11 weeks until the last week of being single. It really doesn't feel far away now!

We have most of our stuff done, now it's just a few little things and Zac's suit. I know, I know we still don't have anything for him to wear on the day. Zac keeps joking that he could just wear his birthday suit, but yeah. Probably not the greatest idea, especially being Winter - haha!

We have booked an appointment with The Old Brewery to taste our menu - yum yum! We bought our wedding bands, and our paper arrived! It smells so good, there's nothing like the smell of good stock.

Chantelle has been a busy beaver designing, designing, designing and I am going to the printer on Friday with Ann and Chantelle to swap wisdom and be inspired by our mate Phil. We'll be dropping off the paper and designs so he can make plates. Maybe in a couple of weeks I can show you photos of our invitations being letterpressed!

Happy 21st

Dear Zac,

You are the best a girl could hope for. I like that you play real-life where's wally with me when you wear the red and white t-shirt. You rock.

"there he is! Found him!"

Happy birthday :) :) :)

Love Clare

Exciting.

A little sneak peek of something special:

That is all :)

Note to Self.

Dear Self,

Remember when you first started dating Zac and the fun in life was all you cared about, and you baked every 2nd night because it was just so darn fun and then you woke up about 200kg heavier one day?

Well, opening the book from hell and making MAPLE SYRUP CAKE WITH MAPLE MERINGUE AND PECAN ICING doesn't help your weight-loss endeavours because now you will want to eat the leftovers for breakfast.

Just saying.

Yours sincerely,

Self.

**UPDATE: I resisted until 3PM, when I had a piece with a cup of tea**

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!

A lot of things going on.

Sorry for the lack of posting, just had heaps going on this week!

Work has been crazy and we have been trying to smash our wedding-related task list so that when Zac goes on his teaching prac in a couple of weeks we're in the best possible position to focus on that, rather than wedding stuff...

In other news,

This bouquet is beautiful:

Wedding Style Guide via Polka Dot Bride

This shoot is where I want to be:

via A Glamorous Little Side Project

And we have found a font we like.. it's kinda girly, but not toooo flouncy, a little musical (think Bass Clefs) and Chantelle has already bought it because we liked it:

Jessica Hische

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!

Inspire me.

These lovely things have been inspiring me this week:

Tissue Paper pom-poms, made for a colleague's farewell party:

Cold places:

via.

Well groomed trees:

via.

Quotes:

"You know you are in love when you don't want to fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams" - Dr Seuss

Where's Wally on my iPhone. We have been playing all week:

Playing tennis, at home and at the local courts with friends, not that I am very good!

via.

Change.

Change is a beautiful thing.

I'm glad I think that way, or this week would have been hell!

New ceremony venue.

New reception venue.

New feel and styling ideas.

New budget. Dear God.

But I picked up my dress and Zac tried on a suit (and a bow-tie just for me) so I think it balanced out in the end. I snuck a photo, which is why he isn't wearing shoes. Hee hee :)

Amazing how new clothes can make you feel!

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!

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....