Altar.

I'm not sure how we are going to decorate our ceremony area, we really want the view to be the main visual interest, but I keep feeling we need to dress the space, somehow.

At the moment, we are thinking a console table would look nice with a couple of flower arrangements. That way we can have a cool piece of furniture to sign our documents, rather than a poxy cafe table covered in 2x tableclothes and a coloured overlay. Something like this, perhaps even black?

Lucite or glass?

Or some blocks

photos from: 1) Corner Store 2) Elle Decor 3) Freedom 4) Style Me Pretty

or just some tall flower arrangements?

Decisions, decisions....

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!

Aurelio.

I simply love Aurelio Costarella's designs. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Clearance sale on Monday, we're going shopping for the girls, but I'm secretly hoping there might be something for me, too!

This one below is probably my favourite, it's on sale, now it's only $1000 because no one has been able to fit in to it, it's a size -1. le sigh. The beading on the bodice is perfect and the layers of fabric in the skirt are dreamy......

All images from Aurelio Costarella.

Final Word.

Tuxedos are slammin'

read here.

google images

Legend.

I keep finding myself saying... "I would totally do that, if our wedding was in Summer..."

This is one of those moments. How sweet would it be to rent heaps of bicycles and BIKE TO YOUR CEREMONY AND RECEPTION? I've heard of people walking, hiring buses, trolleys in San Fransico, but never have I seen bicycles en masse.

photographer via.

I'm not such a fan of the whole attire theming (each to their own) but I am digging the bikes. Apparently they STOPPED TRAFFIC. What legends.

I wonder if the photographer had to be riding a bike to take some of these shots? Mad skills!

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.

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.