Our special day, in pictures

Wedding day

This happened! A perfect night was had by all, and I plan to update this blog for a final time union our return to Australia. Cheers from Mr and Mrs Peters!

Tonight

We fly out of Perth tonight!

It is surreal we are here, to be on the very verge of our wedding.

We get married 4 days from now, and in a few hours, we are out of here for 7 glorious days. Many family members are already there, and their photos are simply exquisite. 

We are beyond thrilled to finally be going, however I am a little nervous about having my dress in my normal luggage. Nightmares about losing the dress have been occurring over the last few nights! 

Over and out until we are married,

Emma and Royce :)

Food, glorious food!

The whole blog here was conceived to show that a wedding CAN be done on a relatively small budget.
Because of the unconventional way we are having our wedding ( overseas ceremony but informal reception in Perth), trying to keep all of our guests happy has been hard, bordering on very expensive. Royce and I have decided to go with a low-key post ceremony party in Vanuatu, with drinks and nibbles following the ceremony, followed by a very special surprise!
The cost for this is coming down as more and more people are finding they can't join us! It's a little sad, but at the same time, our bank account is screaming " THANKYOU"!

We got stuck on what to do both reality and etiquette wise, and were going to go with a catering company who specialised in platters. We were looking at approximately $2,500 for 100 people, plus easily another $2000 for drinks on top. Add in decorations, hiring of furniture, crockery and cutlery and things were getting waaaaaaay out of hand!
I opened my email account on Monday, to see a "group discount" site offering a deal to have an event catered for 50 people for just $399. That equates to $2.50 a head. Royce and I are planning to pick up two of these babies, add our own green salads, and viola!
Two course meal with alcohol for $2000 for what could possibly be 100+ people.

The Budget Bridezilla inside of me is happy tonight!

My only real advice to brides wanting to keep their costs down is to keep an eye out for these offers on sites such as Scoopon, or All The Deals, or Living Social. Living Exclusive also do really great deals on alcohol as well.
You never know what you might pick up!

Coming Up

April 23-

• First wedding dress fitting and alterations. I will have my mum with me for this, which is wonderful!
• And while we're at it, we are also looking at a way to attach Mum's antique veil to the veil I brought.

April 23-26-

•  Zoe is coming to Perth to be measured up for her dress for the wedding. The supplier doesn't have the dress we are after in stock, but we will at least know what size to have ordered. We're looking at $370 for it, but it will look amazing on her! Here's the link, and we're looking at the blue pattern with a navy sash. http://www.lizfields.com/Product/Bridesmaid-Dresses/Long-Strapless-Style-352/#collection_type:viewall Also going to have the option to have spaghetti straps with it.

April school holidays- (April 19th-May 6th)

• Royce, his best man and I will be having a look at some different styles of outfits for the wedding. I am hoping it will be straightforward enough to find navy dress shirts and black pants. Linen for both would be great, but as long as they're light and breathable.
• Royce and I will also be doing our gift registry at Myer. It will be great!
• I am also hoping to be able to have a little road test of some different cupcake recipies to choose which one to use for our Perth reception. I really should order the cake cases and decorations for it while we're at it... Looking at navy cases, and pearlised navy blue sugar balls to go on top. Can't wait to do a test run of them!
• Going to purchase and trial some heavy dury anti-humidity foundation ( Clinique) to test out while I have time for my skin to freak out or not with it!
• Getting my shoes altered so that I can wear them properly!

July School Holidays-

• Choosing jewellery and shoes (and headband) for the reception. Can't decide between diamonte and black jewellery.
• Begging/borrowing/stealing yellow fairy lights
• "     " tables
• Marquee
• Table cloths
• Getting the backyard finished in the new house!
• Deposit paid for caterers

Vanuatu reception

The other day, Royce and I finally worked out how we are going to host a simple, inexpensive reception following our sunset wedding ceremony at Tamanu on the Beach in Vanuatu.
The drink situation,we still have to work out, but we are having a cocktail style service with a choice of
-mini jacket potatoes with sour cram and chives
-teriyaki beef lettuce cups
-bacon and kuala rostis
-chicken ballantines

Based on our current guest list, we are looking at approximately $1000 to have the whole restaurant, wait staff, and simple decor throughout. For that price, we are pretty happy.

Our accommodation at Tamanu is reserved with the deposit left to pay, the remaining deposit on the ceremony and flights left to pay for and we are good to go. It has admittedly cost a little over out original budget, but you only get married once.
Still, to have our ceremony and reception for 60 guests, a week of accommodation and return flights from Perth for $ 7500, it's really not too bad.
The only task for me is to get full time work in the new school, year and we will be sitting pretty.

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 :)