Saturday, July 30, 2011

saying thank you...

The future hubby and I decided to send out thank you's to everyone who attended our engagement party or graciously sent us a card in the mail to congratulate us! After looking at a number of templates online, we actually decided to use the group photo that we had taken at the party. I played around with it a little bit and viola! This is what everyone is receiving!


Each photo has a note on the back from the two of us :) We're mailing most of them out (an easy job thanks to my handy little address list!) but for immediate family and close friends we will be seeing in the next couple of weeks, we will be handing them out in person. We're seeing all of future hubby's family tomorrow, for his sister's 21st birthday, and since a lot of them helped out in various ways, it will be nice to be able to thank them in person.

For the thank you's that will be given out in person, I've added a cute little "fake" stamp to the top corner. I love these little images and couldn't resist using them!!!


All the envelopes are now waiting patiently for our return address stamp, which should be in the mail any day!!!


Once they are all return address stamped, and all the letters being mailed have got *real* stamps, they will be off on their merry way! A nice easy project (shame the wedding invites won't be as easy!!!)

Thursday, July 28, 2011

let's talk veils...

Oh I loved this part. The other day, while visiting my parent's home, I stopped to have a chat with my mum about her wedding veil, and whether she could pull it out for me to have a look at. I had been thinking about it a few days earlier, how much I would love to wear something of hers, and you know what they say about great minds...a few days earlier my mum had pulled it out and hung it in her wardrobe! Along with my Holy Communion veil and HER Holy Communion veil! (Yes, she still has it! And it has not only been worn by my mum, but by all my aunts as well!)

Well, I was quite a happy bride-to-be!!! As many people would know, I'm quite a sentimental person (just like my Mumma and my Nanna!) and a veil is definitely something I would rather have a personal history, then bought brand new. And I think either of the ones my Mum has kept would fit the bill! Despite being an 80's veil (ooooh 80's weddings, you were a special bunch!), my mum's wedding veil is quite simple and pretty. She wore it as a head band, which gave it a bit more of that 80's "boof", but it would easily work on a hair slide for a more simple, tucked into the hairstyle look.

It's very long, and double layered (one section to go over your face, which I probably won't be doing) but I do love the style of it:


Unfortunately this veil doesn't have an elastic or anything to hang off at the moment, so the top is folded over the hanger and you can't really see how it would fall...


The second veil, my Mum's Holy Communion veil, is almost a miniature version of her wedding veil. It's two layers again, but has much less gathering so it sits quite flat and it is significantly shorter. Again, on a hair slide and tucked up into a hairstyle, it would look gorgeous.




I also really love the idea that this one has been worn by so many women in our family. I think at the moment, the Communion veil is the one I am leaning towards the most...but as I said to my mum, it will very much depend on the dress I end up with! And since I haven't even started looking for that yet, it's hard to really tell what I will end up with. Mum is going to speak with a wedding restoration place, to get the veils cleaned and see if they can lighten them slightly, but for how old the veils are (Mum's wedding veil is about 29 years old, and the Communion one is approx...well, it would be over 45 years old easily, since it was worn by my aunts as well, maybe even more then that!) there is hardly any discoloration at all! Here they are compared to my Holy Communion veil (in the middle), which is the newest of the lot and probably about...maybe 16 years old? (Whoops, I can't remember how old I was when I wore it!)




I apologise for the bad photos - I was on my own when I took the photos and got into some weird positions trying to take pictures of them against my hair but...well they just looked terrible! I promise to get some proper photos soon, I plan on attaching the veils to some slides, to get a better idea of what they might look like!!

I love the idea of wearing one of these SO much. Did any of you lovely newly weds out there wear something of your mother's? Grandmother's? MIL's? What about brides-to-be? Any plans to do something similar?

Sunday, July 24, 2011

bits and pieces, here and there

Ok. So while I haven't been blogging much about wedding stuff, that's not to say that I haven't been working on some! Over the last 2 weeks I've ordered 1 of what I hope will be part of my bridesmaids gifts (I REALLY wish I could post about it, I'm dying for it to come in the mail but alas, MoH reads this and I don't want to spoil the surprise!). I ordered 1 before I order 5, to check out whether it is going to work or not. Hopefully so, then I will place an order soon for the 5!!! (Plus two *sorta* similar for the flower girls) I also inquired about ANOTHER part of the bridemaids gifts (which I know are going to be beautiful) to see if I can get them in the colours I want, then I shall be ordering THOSE.

So many things I can't talk about on here yet! But one thing I CAN show you is the personalised stamp I ordered to use on our thank you envelopes. I ordered it a couple of weeks ago, and I'm hoping it arrives by the time I've finished printing off and writing on our Thank You's for our engagement party. Here's the stock picture from the Etsy site:


[source]
I think it's funky and interesting. I love it :)


What else have I been doing that's wedding-related? Well talking. A lot actually. The future hubby and I have been having some good old chats lately, about a lot of things - wedding related, marriage related, baby related, finance related. It's been really, really great and it's good to know that we are on the same page with most things, at this time in our life. And it's good to know that our visions of what we want from our lives seem to be threading together very nicely :) Can't wait to start our "official" lives together...

We also stopped in at a men's store the other day, while out shopping, and had a look at a few suits...I have a better idea of what the future hubby has in mind for his groomsmen now! Although he is still tossing around with a few ideas - whether to have everyone matching, alternating lighter/darker grey or having himself in one tone of grey and his men in another. It will be so much fun to put all of that together, with the girls colours as well! Can't wait!!

It seems like the next item on our agenda, to tick off our list, is finding a minister to perform our ceremony. Luckily for us, one of my lovely bridesmaids was married by a retired priest, who married them outside. She's going to see if she can find his details, and hopefully we can have a chat with him about our marriage in our little chapel!!!

I'm currently working on our Thank You's tonight, and will post up a picture once the future hubby has given his approval of the design...for now, I'll leave you with a picture of some of the kitchen bits and bobs we picked up on our spending spree today, with some of the gift cards we were given for our party! Thanks to some wonderful friends, we have been able to replace a few things that needed replacing but we just hadn't gotten around to, as well as to pick up some new things...and we have much more in mind to grab!!!



Til next time! xx

Friday, July 22, 2011

a few favourite cards...and an initiation!

I've been a bad blogger lately, I know. I'm finding it hard to get back into the swing of things, now that the engagement party is over. I have so many saved pictures, websites and ideas that I don't know where to start, to get back on the blogging train! I think I am going to try and spend this weekend sifting through all the the wonderful inspiration I have saved, and get a clear picture back in my head, then get back on the horse. So to speak.

But for now, I thought I would share a couple of things. First of all, we got some AMAZING cards for our engagement party (we are currently in the process of attempting to display them for a while!) and I thought I would share 3 in particular that stood out.

The Magazine Style:
This AWESOME card (which is going to be framed, I love it that much!) came from the gorgeous Miss Laina (I've previously mentioned her and her lovely Soy candles and melts!) and her boyfriend. Although we all know it was Laina's idea. Hehe. I LOVE this card, I think it has to be the *coolest* one we received:



The Future Mr and Mrs:
This card came from my gorgeous sister-in-law and bridesmaid, Justyna, and my brother, Chris. Again, we all know it would have been Juzzie to pick it out! It's from one of my previously mentioned favourite stores, Typo, and it's just so, so cute! As soon as I saw it, I knew immediately I wanted to use it to make something cool...thus, a gorgeous frame with a couple of engagement pics became the newest decor addition to our living room!



And lastly, the gorgeously sentimental Handmade Card:
This card came from my extremely talented, artsy MoH and her boyfriend. In our group of friends, we never buy cards for engagements or weddings anymore - we get Miss Annie to make them for us. I wish I had photos of all the amazing ones she has made so far (including a gorgeous engagement one for friends of ours earlier this year!) but I'll just have to share the wonderful pics of ours.



The hand drawn picture is, of course, my MoH's version of this picture from the day we got engaged!!!




Finally, my lovely SILs-to-be surprised and spoiled me for my birthday this year, with an initiation into the family - these lovely ladies have all have sister rings, since the future hubby's SIL joined the family approx. 7 years ago (officially anyway - she'd been a part of the family for much long then that (she and the FH's brother have dated since school!) but I believe they all got rings after the wedding). Well for my birthday this year, they bought me one as a way of "officially" becoming their sister :) Mine is a little different to theirs, as they all wear gold and I wear silver, but I love it and thought it was a beautiful idea. I think a picture of all our rings together is in order, but for now, here's my ring.



Tell me, did your family-in-law "initiate" you in any way? xx

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

engagement party pics

Well, there's not really a point for this post other then sharing some of my favourite pictures that have come to light following our engagement party. I can't believe that in a few days it's already been two weeks! This weekend we get to celebrate the engagement of the future hubby's little sister, Monique, to her fiance Mark. Very exciting! They are getting married in October this year, so no doubt I'll be talking about their wedding in the future!

But for now, some of my favourite e-party pics. Then I should really get stuck back into wedding planning! Yay! xx




My fav. shots of me and the future hubby...Love him so much!

Our families:

My family - wow, we're all coupled off! (That's my littlest brother's first girlfriend. Shhhh, don't tell him I told you!)


And the future hubby's family - my future in-laws! The little monkeys running around on the stage behind us are a couple of my cousins' kids and my godson/cousin. In the pic of my family, it's my nieces and nephews on the future hubby's side, as you can see. Hehe.

And the awesome group shot that my brother set up - This is now framed and in our living room :)


Some speeches:

(So embarrassing...guess we better get used to it!)


With both sets of parents - although my dad is hiding!




Yes. We are classy with our plastic cups. (I wasn't going to buy 100+ plastic flutes just for 2 minutes of the night. That money can go elsewhere. LOL)

ALMOST all the little monkeys who were present, sitting on a fence (as such!)


Getting into some "Nutbush" (yes, it was serious. The shoes were off!):


Some of my mates enjoying the ice cream!:


First snuggles with our brand new little godson, Logan:

This one was my first snuggle EVER!




My MoH signing our guestbook (she likes to write backwards. And upside down. And basically anyway that makes it difficult to read. :P Love you!!)



And finally, have to include the mandatory girls shot - if you go through the engagement and/or wedding albums of any of these girls (well, those who are married!) you will find a version of these two photos. They are mandatory, and those who are not yet married or engaged, WILL get them also. LOL. Love these ladies.



There were really SO many awesome photos that people took during the night, I could keep going and going and going (there is a particularly exciting "secrets" themed series that was pretty exciting haha - more on that later)... we had an awesome night and appreciate everyone celebrating with us :)

Sunday, July 10, 2011

engagement party decor recaps

WARNING: This post will be picture happy! I know everyone is probably sick of it, but it's been a week since our engagement party (whoa! I can't believe it's already been a week) and I wanted to share some of the awesome photos that were taken of the decor at the party. Followed by another blog post with some fun piccies taken on the night (they are slowly trickling from various people - neither Graham and I had a camera on the night and were relying on everyone else...felt weird!)

I managed to get a couple of shots pre-party on my iPhone, then my little brother and MoH managed to catch some of the decor during the night. I loved how everything came together, we all had a great night and EVERYONE seemed to love the ice-cream parlour (even though the ice-cream melted...apparently the industrial fridge out the back wasn't cold enough to keep the ice-cream frozen!!!)

Without further ado - some piccies. Leave the post now if you are over hearing about it. Hehe.

Ok first up, our guest book table. This changed slightly from my pre-party iPhone pic (below) because the cupcakes were added to the table, and the table was also used as our cake table when we cut our cake!



Thankfully the cupcakes didn't look as bad once they were on the cake stand...and as predicted, the kids loved them anyway!



Our gorgeous cake was made by my sister-in-law, Justyna (also one of my bridesmaids!), and let me tell you - it was yuuuuuummy!!! It also incorporated some Guylian chocolates, since it was Guylian Cafe where we got engaged!!!


Next up, our card cage/gift table. I didn't get to take a picture of the table with everything on it - but there is a picture below of all our pressies when we got home...we were totally spoiled! We felt so loved and are so grateful for everything we received - particularly the generous start to our honeymoon fund! Again, the display changed slightly from my pre-party iPhone pic, as I bought some of our elements from our home (our "A&G" letters that are usually on display in our living room) and added them to the table.





A few of the other details...


...the slushie machine/drink table






...our table decor (These gorgeous flowers are now all throughout our house and still looking beautiful!!)





...the ice-cream parlour! (big hit! yay!)


And lastly, some odds and ends...the signs I bought from Type (not a good shot of them, but everyone stood between them for speeches, etc.), the sign I made (we popped it over the food table!), the signs explaining my brother's awesome music system (guests were able to log in and vote for songs to play!) and one of the many ways we used my decorated jars during the night (they were also the vases for the flowers and the pen holder at the cup table).





And that's it for the decor! If you read this far, you deserve a medal, or at least some of our ice-cream (and trust me, we still have LOADS of toppings left!) Thanks for taking the time to check it all out, would love to hear what you guys think!!!
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