Ceremony site booked

While I was away in the us this year, I was told another woman wanted our wedding date at Tamanu. I don't think so. We are now all booked in on the 6th now, for a sunset, ocean side ceremony, with a lantern release and fireworks to follow the ceremony, followed by a basic reception and toasts. Now to book flights and accommodation and we are good to go!

STOP THE PRESS!!!!!!

Massive spanner in the works regading the ceremony in Vanuatu!

Our travel agent at Small Guide Travel has notified us that the resort we were looking at to stay and have our ceremony is not exactly fantastic. We were honestly told that the resort was in desperate need of renovation. This was coming from people who have lived and worked in Port Vila on and off for years.
We're sure its ok to stay at for accomodation itself, however we're needing somewhere that meets our needs for BOTH the ceremony and accomodation for while we're there.

We're looking into Paradise Cove Resort ( http://www.paradisecoveresort.net/ ), however we're letting Small Guide Travel research something similar to what we want, for a close if not matching, price.

I cannot reccomend these travel agents enough. Small Guide have been amazing! From my endless questions, to my almost 2 years ahead planning of said wedding, to having to change venues. They've been GREAT!

Wedding rings

I brought my wedding band yesterday.
I spied this through the window of a very exclusive jewellers in the city. I've always admired this style of wedding ring, the brushed white gold, with shined gold borders.
Mum and I went in, and I asked to try it on alongside my engagement ring.
It was a perfect fit.
I then saw the price.
For an 18carrat gold band, it was priced at $1000.
As much as it pained me to let go of the "perfect" ring, I mentally parted with it, as the main jeweller came over to assist us.
I asked him if there was a chance it was on sale.
He said that it was.
I was expecting him to say it was down to $850, or something like that.
He then told us that it had been in the store, handmade 5 years ago.
The jeweller then said that because it had been in the window for so long, that we could have it for the price of $280.00.

My jaw fell open,and I looked at my mum in shock.

Needless to say, we took it home.

It's so beautiful and floaty, all soft and feminine. Perfect for our reception :)

Where are we at?

Ceremony:

• Dates booked (October 3-10, 2013)
• Accomodation booked
• Deposit for accomodation and ceremony due
• Ceremony booked
• Bride's dress and accessories arrived
• Save the date cards sent
• Invitation mock up completed
• Florist selected and booked
• Ceremony decoration theme chosen
• Wedding ring designs chosen
• Wedding party basically finalised
• Photographer confirmed
• Post wedding celebration venue chosen, yet to be booked
• My passport paperwork is so close to being processed!
• Most guests we want to be there have been invited- bar the east coast family!Invites ARE on their way!

Reception:

• Date confirmed ( Friday November 8th, 2013)
• Location A and B confirmed- our home, or if it is not built in time, a bar that is near our soon to be home!
• If location A is a go-er, catering company chosen and to be booked closer to date
• Bride's dress arrived
• Invitations made and ready for ordering and professional printing
• Cake style and theme chosen
• Table decorations chosen
• Makeup and hair professional chosen
• Photographer confirmed ( for posed formal wedding shots as well as reception coverage)
• Venue decorations chosen and purchased

A Second Dress

I have finally paid off my second wedding dress.
Yes.
Another one.
This one is for our reception for our return to Perth, post wedding ceremony.
I think I blogged about this one earlier, from Intangible. It's exactly what I would have had if I hadn't fallen in love with my "India" dress by Henry Roth.
It is cream/off white, more of a light coffee/ivory colour, with a fitted bust, and layers of chiffon that fall to the floor. It has adjustable straps, so I am able to have the "vintage" capped sleeves I wanted.
It. Is. Lovely.
I'll hopefully be able to post a nice pic of it, to show it off.
The only bit I am stuck on is the accessories.
Do I go black, or silver diamonte?
I want a pair of vintage style chandelier earrings, a simple hair piece and plain shoes.
Black or white.
Decisions!

We shall see!

Wedding Photographer

We met who we hope will be our wedding photographer tonight!
He so far seems to tick all of the boxes. It's almost 100% decided, with just a pre-wedding shoot to confirm what I suspect I already know- he'll be great!
All up, because the "wedding" bit is overseas, we're only looking at about 6 hours in total from pre-wedding shoot, to us donning our wedding gear when we get back to Perth for the more formal, posed shots, then only 3 or so hours of the reception ( cake, speeches etc)
In saying that, I've taken up Nutrimetics as a second "job", to help out a little with the wedding, so hopefully I see some results from this!

That awkward moment when you add up the real costs

We haven't actually sat down to work out a projected budget. We're sort of just winging it, and paying as we go.
It has been ok until now, however I sat down last night and worked out our expenses combined from our Engagement party all the way through to the reception in Perth.
It wasn't pretty.
Somehow, we've imaginarily spent close to $17,000. And thats without being OTT about most things. Or including things like Hen's and Bucks Nights, or gifts for attendants, or thankyou gifts for the guests...
Whoops.
In our defence, we have paid in full for our engagement party, as well as my dress, jewellery and veil.
I'm also doing a little relief teaching, and the pay from that is going towards our honeymoon accomodation.
I've got to get back to the drawing board as to how to scale back the costs associated with the reception. Something casual upon our return to Australia has come to almost $6,000. Just for food, alcoholic and non alcoholic drinks, cake, and the hire of chairs and tables.
Way back to the drawing board!

Somthing Old

There's something magical about being able to incorporate a special family heirloom or antique into a wedding. For me, I am "making over" the same veil that both my mother and my grandmother wore when they were married.
I've ordered my veil, just a single layer, fingertip length white one. I intend to have a dressmaker add my mother's veil layers to it when the veil arrives, in about 10 days time.
I also inherited, from my paternal grandmother, my great-aunt's engagement ring. While it is gorgeous, the style is not something that is "me". I want to get a jeweller to melt the ring down into a plain gold band, and set the diamonds into it. A simple wedding band, that will match my engagement ring.
What was your something old? Or, what will it be?

Decisions, in pictures

My Dress for the ceremony in Vanuatu

 My boquet-white roses (From Special Occasions on FaceBook), bridesmaids to have something similar, but smaller

My gown for our reception in Perth ( the arms are adjustable and interchangable, which is great because I don't like the way its's styled on the model)

Ceremony & Honeymoon:
Sunset Bungalows, Port Vila, Vanuatu- check out their website

Photographer ( in Perth):
Terence Boylen Photography

Hair & Makeup (in Perth):
Flawless Flair-Nicole Hare, Napoleon Perdis certified makeup artist

Travel agent for ceremony & honeymoon:
Small Guide Travel/Go Vanuatu

Ramblings of a tight ass bride....

Reception options:

Number 1 (depends on if our house is built in time)-
Informal reception at our home. Think homemade finger foods, lots of champagne, round tables with white tablecloths, candles and lots of large bowls filled with an assortment of fresh fowers.
Cake, speeches,toasts and a viewing of the ceremony in Vanuatu for anyone who missed out.
Relaxed, fun. Sums up us in a nutshell.

Number 2 (if we don't have a large enough space at our home)-
Breakfast Champagne reception- we're off to the Hyatt for Keelin's hens breakfast this weekend, and for $35p/h, you get a full buffet breakfast ( danishes, muffins, croissants-the works), and champagne.
Easy!
We'd obviously "do" speeches etc there too, but the beauty is that there's someone else to worry about finer details such as decorating and "is there enough food?".

Depending on how our saving goes this year (have to remember it IS only February at the moment), we may very well be able to go with option one...
We shall see!

We set the wedding date!

October 6th, 2013. Vanuatu.
Hope to see you there!

Engagement Party- January 7th, 2011

So, we became an "engaged" couple almost a year ago. So we thought it was about time to have a party to celebrate!
Our party was held at Perth's Botanica Bar and Bistro, in Innaloo. The venue was perfect, the staff were incredible, and all in all- a fabulous night was had by everyone, the couple included!
It was a laid-back affair, with lots of food, candles and alcohol to be had by all!
My dad gave the most beautiful speech (completely by surprise), and it was so amazing to share the night with our friends and family!
I've posted a few shots from the night, however the majority are on Face.Book!
Enjoy.