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.

Beautiful Wedding On A Budget

A friend of mine asked us how we're managing to keep the cost of our wedding down.
Here's how:

DO NOT TRY TO PLEASE EVERYONE. At one stage, we were looking at a ceremony and reception combined. One day. $12,000. 150 guests. And the stress! Do we invite my relatives whom I only see once every few years? Mum and Dad's friends? Primary school friends? Where do you draw the line?

GO OVERSEAS!!!This string of questions led us to joking about eloping. Then we looked into booking our honeymoon as a distraction. That led to us investigating having our wedding ceremony and honeymoon combined in Vanuatu. My advice, if and where possible,  The fact we're not shelling out extra money on TOP of a wedding here in Perth has meant we've got money for smaller things, and for our house deposit.

HAVE A BUDGET AND STICK TO IT!!! Easier said than done, I know, but be realistic about what you do need, what you don't need, and what you may be able to comprimise on/beg/borrow/steal.
Have a friend who is great with a camera? Wedding photographer. Someone close to you who is an amazing baker and cake decorator? Wedding Cake. Have a friend or family member with a lovely, big home or garden? Ask if you can have the wedding ceremony/reception there. Do not be afraid to ask. It never hurts.Do you really,really need a 3 couse, sit down meal AND cake? Do you really need wedding favours, flower girls, a horse and carriage to get there, a $3000 meringue dress? By defining what you will really, really need will help. For us it was a good photographer, an area for on outdoor wedding, alcohol and our honeymoon. The rest, we've managed to cut out or find alternatives.

ENTER COMPETETIONS!!!!!! We won our wedding photography by simply entering online. It was a complete fluke, but it took me about a minute. Go to Bridal Fairs/Expos- write down your details and enter every and any competition on offer. All of them. Take a friend and get them to help you! It's how we ended up choosing who to build our house with- at a bridal expo!

BE REALISTIC! Not the sort of person who wears a dress regularly? Don't go the whole hog in a meringue, white, tulle covered dress, with a full on veil and a boquet of 100 roses. Stick with what you're comfortable in. I am having a halter neck, cream dress that is very simple. It is lovely, but I'll feel like myself. Not the sort of person who is good a public speaking? Don't have a wedding ceremony and reception with 200 people. Keep it simple. Maybe don't even have anyone except witnesses. On a budget? Don't have the full on schebang wedding. If you explain, people will understand that your priorities lie in something other than spending money on one day.

FIND ALTERNATIVES!! Is there something you can't "let go of"? For me, it was the idea of roses for my wedding boquet. Then I got a quote for 3 post style boquets. $500, straight up. THEN, we decided to have the ceremony overseas. Does Vanuatu have roses? Probably not, being a tropical island.
Here's how we have found alternatives to pricey or unavailable issues
Decorations: Beg/Borrow/Steal. We're having a reception at home, and are planning to buy, rather than hire, a marquee. Hire- $5000 plus. Buying-$500. And we can use it again. Or just sell it. The decorations will be simple. Think fairy lights, candles and vases of flowers with a teal and white/cream theme.  All of which have been purchased or borrowed for our engagement party. Re-use where possible!

Flowers: Look up Special Occastions on Facebook, then tell me you MUST have real flowers for your boquet. For a total of $250 covering postage too, I'm recieiving 3 boquets in cream roses, and 3 hair pins with the same colour rose attached. And I'm not talking small boquets, I'm talking really big, expensive looking ones. And I can take them to Vanuatu. And I don't have to worry about keeping them in water. And I can keep them. Maybe.

Dresses: Have a design, but they're all out of your price range? Get quotes from a dress maker. Is the style simple? Maybe a family member or friend can make your dress, or the bridesmaids dresses? Pale skin? Can't wear white- well, don't wear it! I have the most stunning "diamond" white dress, which suits my skin tone beautifully. A friend of mine wore the most stunning deep RED wedding gown. She looked amazing. Scour shops for ball dresses- see if they come in a more "bridey" colour. Ball gowns tend to be a fraction of the cost of a wedding gown.

DO NOT MENTION THE "W" WORD ( Wedding)!!!! As an experiment, I called a florist for a quote for a posy of white roses for a wedding. Then rang the next day for the same thing, but did not define the purpose. The difference in price? $100. Ring around. Get quotes, ask why the difference for a wedding is so vast. We're having our reception catered, but there will be no mention of a wedding. After all, it is really just a party. With a wedding cake. And music.