Friday, September 28, 2012

one more sleep!

So! Tomorrow is the big day! I can hardly believe its here already! I had all these plans to add posts this week of the little last minute projects and DIYs I have worked on, a post on our rehearsal night and a few other things, thinking I would have at least *some* time, being off work all week. But nope, I haven't had a chance to do any of it! At least it will give me a chance to have something to write about while we wait for our professional photos though, so I promise I'll get around to all the things I wanted to record (I have been taking pictures as we go, although I'm sure all look back and wish I'd gotten better ones!)

I'm writing this on my iPhone, as I lay next to my sleeping fiancé for the last time. As a result, there will be no pretty pictures, nothing spectacular but probably plenty of heart.

Today we take the last of our things for the ceremony and reception, all of our clothes and make up and shoes and the kitchen sink (just kidding) over to our venue, check into our rooms, meet up with our friends - our wonderful bridal party - go shopping for some food for tomorrow, work out where we all want to share a meal for the last time together tonight and then...

We separate. Tomorrow, when my Graham and I see each other again, it will be to make promises to each other, to share our love with our family and friends, to exchange rings and a kiss and to become man and wife.

I cannot wait.

I am not nervous in the slightest. Neither, he tells me, is he. We are ready. We can't stop grinning. And hugging. I can't wait to see him waiting for me at the end of the aisle. Whatever happens tomorrow - whatever the weather (rain today, clearing tomorrow with a 30% chance!), whatever goes wrong, whatever is missing, whatever changes... All I care about is kissing those lips after exchanging those rings and leaving that Chapel his wife.

Tonight I'll distract myself with my ladies. Tomorrow morning I'll have fun getting ready and giving the girls their presents. But tomorrow afternoon, 1.30pm - that's the time I'm really looking forward to...

See you on the flip side!

My last time signing off as Miss Amanda xxxx

Thursday, September 20, 2012

storymix media blog feature!

So thanks to everything that went on, I'm a little late in posting this, but I was a guest blogger over at the StoryMix Media Blog! You can check out my blog post here.

Thanks again to StoryMix for letting me guest post, and for Laura for hooking me up :) I'm looking forward to using the WeddingMix app NEXT WEEKEND! :)


Yep...that's when you know things are close...

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

a wedding catch up post

So I've dropped out of Blogging Land for a bit, but with good reason. Outside of everything mentioned in the last couple of posts, I've also been dealing with tonsillitis for the last 7 days, (which I've been trying very hard to get rid of before next week!) attending baby showers, birthday celebrations and concerts (I saw Hanson with my SIL for my belated birthday present...my 12 year old self was in her happy place!) AND we have been working very hard to knock a bunch of things off our To Do List!

Following my countdown checklist post at the one month mark, I created a thorough "To Do" list of things left. We've managed to cross a good many off and by tomorrow, a good many more will be gone!


Included in this was making our favours and candles with the lovely Laina on the 5th of September - it was a lot of fun and I managed to sneak in some cuddles with the pretty Miss Talei as well.


I also managed this quick mock up of our ceremony table with my Mum. Please excuse the exercise equipment in the background and the lack of table cloth (we picked that up the next day!). There is also a distinct lack of signs. The Program sign was made a while ago but I still have to make the signs for the two hat boxes (they aren't actually hat boxes, but that is the way they are shaped and it's just easy to refer to them as such!). It's also hard to see how pretty the tealight holders are in this picture - there will be close ups of them later I'm sure!


Today I visited both our little flower girls to make sure their shoes fit them, started making all of our placecards, made a mock up of our ceremony programs (we still need to decide on one more piece of music before I can finish them off and start making them all!) and had a relaxing, much needed coffee break with my MoH. Tomorrow I have my pre-wedding hair cut, I'm buying all the cardstock for our programs, spray painting 1 frame that's a little scratched up, spray painting our chandelier and decorating it, going jewellery shopping with my Mum, hopefully picking up our rings and finishing off our placecards. If I have time, I might get a chance to get started on decorating/writing up our seating chart!

I just realised I haven't told you our entertaining ring story...well, it would be less entertaining if we hadn't (luckily) had time to sort it out. I had received a phonecall to say that both my rings had arrived, but the future hubs hadn't yet (when we ordered mine, we ordered my eternity ring at the same time - it was too good an opportunity to pass up. I won't be wearing it, it will be in the hubs keeping until the right time!). Well, when I went in to try mine on, the future mister came down and they double checked his wasn't there. Turned out it was, but the girls had thought that it WASN'T because the supplier had sent the complete WRONG size - it was SO BIG that the staff had thought that someone had simply put a display ring in the bag to mark that one had been ordered (as they sometimes do that during stocktake and they had just completed stocktake). Oh my. There was no way this ring was fitting my poor guy's finger. And because he has ordered a Tungsten ring, they are not able to be resized, new rings have to be ordered when you want a new size. So the store had to contact the supply and tell them off for their mistake, alert them to the fact that our wedding was 3 weeks away at this point, and get them to send out a new ring. They apologised and I was told on the 12th that the ring was apparently shipped on that day (I dropped my e-ring in for cleaning and re-dipping on the 12th). So it should be arriving this week for us to pick up with my e-ring and my band. We purposely left my band in store to collect them all together. SO, the plan is to do all that tomorrow. *fingers crossed* Otherwise my poor man will be wearing a stand-in ring from the store on wedding day...

....SINCE today we are officially 10 days out! Oh my! Where did the last few weeks go? They certainly snuck up us! It's so exciting yet so surreal at the same time...I have one day left at work, then 3 glorious weeks off. 2 of which will be spent chilling with my new hubby. Can't wait!

my lil fur baby...

As it turns out, Friday got worse. I haven't mentioned her on her before, but I have a little fur baby, Eowyn. And on Friday night she had a stroke.

I sat with her, stroking her poor little head while she still tried to flick her little tail and snuggle my hand. Two hours later, she had passed on. She was almost 10 years old. Thankfully, she seemed to be as comfortable as she could be... I just wish I hadn't been so busy all day that I had taken her presence for granted, not knowing it was my last day at a chance for a cuddle.

My Dad had bought her for me at market near my grandparents, from a kid selling kittens from a box... when she fit into the palm of my hand, the last little black kitten with big blue eyes, when we thought she was a he, and my Dad thought he hated cats...

Both things were wrong.


Rest in peace my kitty. I miss you curled up next to me while I work on projects already...

Friday, September 14, 2012

sending love

I had planned to finally do a catch up post on where we are at almost two weeks out, and write up a bunch of mini DIYs I've been working on...but it all seems a little irrelevant at the moment.

Today I heard the news that my childhood best friend had lost her younger brother in a car accident yesterday. This guy went to school with my younger brother and for many years was like another annoying younger brother to me, through all the time I spent at her house (during years when neither of us really wanted annoying younger brother near us or our friends full stop!).

I haven't spoken to or seen this friend in many years, probably since we left Year 10 in 2001, when we had moved on to different friendship groups but were still friendly. Sure, we are friends on Facebook and I've watched her get married, seen her beautiful little baby boy and we've "liked" various comments and photos, but we've never really spoken.

But all of that seems irrelevant today. Because today I feel like that young girl who was her best friend, and my heart breaks for her and her family. For her parents, who will now be mourning the loss of a child. For her and her siblings, both blood and in-law, who will be mourning the loss of a brother, and for her son, and her sister's children who will be mourning the loss of their youngest uncle, some without even knowing what it really means.

He really was a genuinely nice guy and everyone is so shocked by his sudden loss. I'm sending my love and prayers through to them and hoping that somehow they all can feel it. I know that everyone else in my grade, who grew up with Jess, and everyone who grew up with Tim, would be doing the same thing. We have all been touched my tragedy many times, sadly, in our school lives, and one thing we know how to do, and do well, is bond together for each other. Hopefully they can all feel the love that we are all sending their way today. And find strength in each other.

Tuesday, September 04, 2012

diy rustic signing pen

Last night I had a bit of an epiphany. I can't believe it took so long really. For quite some time, I've had these two pens saved in my etsy collection, thinking they were a cute little rustic option for a Guest Book pen, or our Certificate Signing pen. All the ones in the stores around our area tend to be feather pens, or jeweled and really, neither of those go with the look we have going for our wedding.

[source]

[source]

Then last night I found this one on madeit.com.au and thought, "Hold up". I looked at it again and thought..."I can just make these!".

[source]

I have no idea why it took me so long to realise it but today, here is a simple DIY project for anyone else with a rustic-style wedding.

All you need for this project is a pen (or pens) of your choosing (I used a pack of 3 I picked up at Typo on sale for $4 - they are my favourite pens!), some Jute twine, a hot glue gun and some decorations of your choosing. I choose to use some wooden hearts left over from our invitations, but you could use jewels, flowers, etc.


First up, run a little hot glue in a strip along the top of your pen. Since my pen was thinner at the top (where the lid normally sits) I took this opportunity to try and even out the pen and ran the glue along this whole section. Then place the start of your Jute straight along this line. Allow this to set for a minute, before starting to wrap your Jute around your pen, from the top of the pen. Since the glue will still be tacky as you start to wrap, it will also give your pen a very firm starting base which means it is less likely to unravel. Because you are wrapping around a piece of Jute with glue underneath, at first you may notice one side sitting out more then the rest. Because the glue should still be warm and tacky, you can simply press lightly along the line that is sticking out, and it will cause the glue to mold more to the pen underneath the Jute, giving a more even look.


Keep wrapping up the pen, making sure that you are keeping the Jute nice and close together so that the pen underneath cannot be seen. After my first pen I noticed that if I gave a little twist to any thin parts of the Jute, it unraveled a little, making it thicker and giving more of a consistent look all the way up the pen, rather then some parts appearing thinner then others.


When you reach the top, cover the top in hot glue and let it cool for a couple of seconds, before coiling Jute around the top to cover completely. Then, feel free to decorate the top if you like! I left ours plain, but the top would be a perfect spot to hot glue a jewel or flower!


After the hot glue had dried, I added on our little wooden hearts and VOILA! Personalised, rustic wedding pens for our Guest Books and fr the fiance and I to use when we sign out Marriage Certificate. I can't wait to use them! No offense etsy sellers, but... eat your heart out!! (I'm a little proud of them...)



What DIY projects did you try at the last minute? What ones are you hoping to try?
The next on my list is this pretty thing:

[source]

I'll let you know how it goes!


Please note that I was able to leave the lids off my pens because they come with a little cap on the tip that I can leave on until the day of the wedding, to prevent them from drying out. Please consider this when selecting your type of pen, or alternatively, considering wrapping the lid as well!

Monday, September 03, 2012

Hen's Night Recap - The Finale

Read about the first part here!

After all our wonderful activities (and food!) at the Soho Hen's Wonderland, we ladies who decided to party on (those with young kiddies or baby bumps decided to head home!) jumped back on the train and headed to the Rocks at Circular Quay. Now if you remember from our engagement story, the fiance and I got engaged at the Rocks. In FACT, the Argyle, where we were headed, was right near where this whole thing started. So of course, we had to stop for some pictures...


We made it to the Argyle and got in without hassle, however they don't allow in Hen's or Buck's parties :( Because we weren't trashed (or trashy!) they let us in, but I had to check my feather boa and sash at the door. Sad! Little did they know though...I still had my shot glass and a purse full of feathers! Little rebel, I know...I was still a Hen, even if I had to be in secret!


The Argyle have the most AMAZING cocktail called "The Roxbury". We are going to attempt to re-create it at home one day, and I promise pictures and a recipe if we succeed!


I managed to get my hands on my little SIL-to-Be's camera yesterday and steal her photos...there are many entertaining ones of the night! (Most of which are NOT going to be shared. haha) Below are a mix from her camera and my friend Shelly's, of our time at the Argyle, drinking and dancing. We had a blast, chatting, chilling and "people-watching". When we got up to dance at the end of the night, we even had a guy rock and roll dance with us all, swing style...til his hands got a little grabby anyway...


After we all wore ourselves out (and we'd been partying for about 8 hours or so by this point) we said our good byes and started heading our separate ways...some were being collected by partners, some lived local and were catching cabs and some of us jumped back on the train for the trip home. We took quick night time snaps of the Bridge...


Played around with feathers...


And lost our mojo...


The fiance was lovely enough to collect my SIL and I at the station and drive us home. I happily left a bunch of feathers in his car also. As my MOH said - it was a Hen's Night "Hansel and Gretel" trail!!

I had such a fantastic night and cannot thank my wonderful bridal party enough, in particular the gorgeous MOH, Annie. And of course, their "helpers" and City direction-givers, our friends Erin and Amy (who consequently saw "Naked Man" a few days later, fully dressed and on George Street. Haha). We had such a great time that I am looking forward to our reception SO much with all these great friends around us. I can only hope my fiance has such a great time on his Buck's Weekend! :)

I'd love to hear about everyone else's Hen's/Bachelourette experience! Was yours just as memorable?

Sunday, September 02, 2012

Hen's Night Recap

It's taken me a while to get this up but when you see the photos ... it may give you an idea why. I purposely did not take a camera along and I only took three photos on my phone all night - one of my drink at the Argyle, one of the Opera House RIGHT at the end of the night on our way home, and one when I got home that the fiance took of me in my sash, before I got changed into my comfy PJ's! I was entirely relying on everyone else for photos of the evening. So not only was I sifting through photos as they came in but BOY, did they come in! And I know for a fact that the collection I have on my computer isn't even all of them because my bridesmaid Romana hasn't had a chance to upload hers, my SIL Alicia has a whole bunch from the Argyle (most of which are crazy anyway and probably not blog worthy!) and my cousin has a good few on her camera as well! So I'm looking forward to stealing a good few more!

But anyway! My point is this - while I will try and squeeze this recap into one post, if I think it's getting excessively long (and I think it will...) I might cut it into two parts...so please forgive me! But I hope you enjoy. And as a precursor:

WARNING: THIS POST MAY INVOLVE SOME MINOR MALE NUDITY. If this offends you, please do not read past this point. I promise you no full frontal...but I think there might be a butt shot? Just a heads up! I tried to mostly include towel shots!

Now! Onto the recap!

Invite made by this crazy lady ^^ Appropriate colours, no? :)


GETTING THERE


Many of us met up at a local train station to travel into the City together. It was highly entertaining, particularly since we were all dressed up quite early in the afternoon (the Hen's Wonderland actually began at 4:30 in the afternoon, so we met up at 2:50! Quite early to be so fancily dressed!). I'm sure it was entertaining for our fellow passengers. During the trip, I was decked out in appropriate Bride-to-Be garb :) The girls happily stuck to the "No Penises Allowed" rules...I was very thankful...And I LOVED my feather boa!


ARRIVAL

After getting out of the station at Kings Cross (leaving a trail of feathers everywhere we went) and being greeted by a freezing wind (thanks!) we eventually made it without much fuss at the Soho Bar and were greeted with a gorgeous entry and waiting Piccadilly Lounge and free champagne on arrival. The dark room means not the best photos, but trust me, it was gorgeous! Mirrored ceiling too...as the girls were excited about haha. We took the chance for an almost complete group shot. (Oh and met our hostess, Christine, in the bathroom!)


LIFE DRAWING

After a brief explanation of what would be occurring, the 6 Hen's Groups that were there were separate into 3 groups, meaning that for each activity we were paired up with another group. However, for the most part we were pretty separate in each room. The group that we were paired with was smaller then our group, however definitely made up for that in enthusiasm! Our first activity for the evening was Life Drawing and we heading to the Aviary. Here, everyone took a seat and was handed a pad and pencil, only for the Brides to be called up to "assist" the model to set up for his first pose.

Dum dum dum...

You can pretty much see my reaction to that below. While I'm quite happy to take an art lesson...I'm not so keen to have a naked man all up in my space. The other Bride though? She was all for it. I pretty much let her have that one and headed back to my seat, despite the offer of a "Re-Do". All good thanks, she can have that one...(I'm so glad they handed up free champagne first!)


The rest of the Life Drawing was a lot of fun, although I think the staff thought I was a spoil sport because I turned down the offer of posing with the model (again, not really wanted naked man's junk all up in my personal space, thanks!) which I think he was offended by. Like, they made a big deal out of it but seriously - it can't be the first time a Bride-to-Be has said no...get over it...we enjoyed the rest of the time, leave it at that! (the other Bride jumped at the chance...and her friends even had a cut out mask of her fiance's face for the model to wear. Which I thought was slightly...odd...and creepy...but each to their own!)


For the last (3rd) drawing/pose we did, we got two switch places 3 times, so that we actually did a "communal" drawing, and 3 people actually added to the drawing. It was interesting to see how they turned out! We (read: I!) got to take home all of the drawings, and it was quite a giggle to go through them the next day! We also got to have a group shot with the model at the end. We got him to cover up so that they were appropriate to show after (again, think we offended him...?) The other group opted for nudity and ended up with a naked man in their naps. And we have photographic proof of that too (although I'll spare you from that one!)

Bridal Party Shot
Group Shot

BURLESQUE CLASS


After Life Drawing we headed to what was probably my favourite class - Burlesque! A handful of my girlies are ex-dancers and it made us giggle the moment we entered the class and the instructor decided to take some group shots for us. Everyone was having a bit of a chat and all we heard was, "Girl. GIRLS! Well. If you aren't going to pay attention then this is just a waste of your time." My oh my did it take us all back to our younger dancing days...


We had a blast in Burlesque. Myself and the other Bride got pulled to the front so I only managed to catch little snippets of the girls dancing when I turned around but it looked like everyone had fun! We learnt a little short routine to Pussy Cat Doll's "Don'cha" then a longer routine to "Moulin Rouge". The longer routine entailed us pretending we were dancing inside a bubbling glass of champagne at one point, so the pictures where our legs are flapping around? Yep, pretend that we're elegantly splashing bubbles, will you please? hehe


There were many giggling moments in these classes and lots of chances for group shots, thanks to the instructor (who, despite her cranky dance teacher moments, really was lovely!). I really think this was my favourite class!


SOME GROUP SHOTS:



Cocktail Making


Our class class of the evening was Cocktail Making! We arrived downstairs in the Bar area and were greeted by our instructor (this time we had two separate instructors on either side of the bar...ours had awesome silver sequin pants on :) She was cool). We were told we would be making one of my favourite cocktails - Mojitos! Whoo! I was quite excited. Rather then making them with a traditional simple syrup though, we made them with brown sugar and muddled mint. It gave it a slightly different taste but was still delicious and good to know for those times when you can't be bothered to make up simple syrup (or don't have any to hand!)


Cocktail Making didn't take as long as the other classes and we had time to stand around and enjoy our cocktails and chat, and take plenty of piccies in the cool room! Below are some with my besties, and my sisters - old and new (or soon-to-be I should say!)


And one of my favourite images of the night:


After the classes finished, we were taken to one of the Deco Lounges for food, which we have no pictures of because we were too busy stuffing our faces...but trust me, it was delish! We had the yummiest pizzas and awesome sushi. While we were munching, these three lovely ladies stole away to hold our table at the Argyle at the Rocks in Circular Quay.


Annnnnnd...I think that's probably a good stopping place for now. Phew. A little more tomorrow! It was such a fantastic night! :)
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