Rock.

Father Peter: hello, Peter Manuel

Clare: Hi father, I was just wondering if we are allowed to play secular music in your church for our wedding ceremony?

Father Peter: Yes of course, I believe most music can be sacred, whaddya have in mind.. some BLACK SABBATH, METALLICA?

Clare: Nah, I was thinking more accadacca, gunners.

Father Peter: sounds like a good wedding

*click, beep, beep, beep*

Shoes.

photo from wittner.com.au

Oh shoes, when I first saw you I thought you were a bit ugly. Then I tried you on and you looked great!

But I still couldn't walk in you. Why must you taunt me with a sweet knotted bow and kill me with a stiletto heel?

Damn.

Loving.

Loving these photos this week. They are definite inspiration for our engagement party (which is now only 6 weeks away!)

Invitations out soon!

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

Furniture.

This week we bought our first big piece of furniture :)

We got a bench seat for a dining table that will be arriving in a couple of weeks. It's presently in a box in my room, waiting until that fateful day when we have enough room to unpack and assemble. Here is a photo I found online, but we're just getting the table and 1 bench, we'll add some chairs later on.

'Santos' Dining Suite from Freedom

Best part?

Getting both pieces for less that the original price of the bench!

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!

Stationery.

Oh Joy!

I (Clare) just LOVE letterpress stationery. Whenever I send out a birthday card, or any card for a special occasion, I prefer to use letterpressed stationery.

Zac is convinced that I like letterpress because it is time consuming, expensive and old-fashioned. I won't deny any of this but truthfully, there is just something about designs being printed on soft cotton paper using techniques that are centuries old. Each piece of paper is printed one-at-a-time, by hand, on clunky big machines that go 'whiiirrr' when they move... One colour at a time, leaving an impression where the printing plate hits the paper, just to let you know that this is something special you're holding.

It's like the slow food movement, but for design and printing!

I always save the stationery I receive from weddings, so it's an area I would like to be special for our own wedding. I researched online (along with Lisa - thank you!) and finally found a great company who is able to print all of our stationery at about 1/3 of the price of every other place I have seen.

Here are some of their work for previous wedding clients:

See how you can layer colours to make text pop?

This is a three colour print. Mucho expensive because it has to be printed 3 times.

Letterpress can be traditional or modern, beautiful or funky.

If you are clever, you can layer colours to make more colours. 3 for the price of 2!

All photos from beastpieces.com

I received samples in the mail a few weeks ago and actually received a piece from the 'mixtape' invitation set and the 'English/Spanish' invitations. Yes, I can confirm that they are more beautiful in real life. Sometimes I open the little envelope they came in so that I can feel the soft paper again. Shh, don't tell anyone about my guilty secret!

I'm excited.

Maybe a little bit too excited.. Hmmm...