Thursday, November 08, 2012

recap: bridal party gifts...the girls!

September 28, 2012...continued!

After leaving the boys to their own devices, we girls headed back to our main room, where we would be getting ready the next day, for me to give the girls the first half of their gifts. I was really looking forward to this part!

As it turned out though, the girls had something to give me first...

My MoH (and my Mum, and bridesmaid Kylie) is a teacher and had turned one of her wheelie containers into a little "Just Married" carry-all for us to use the following day, to carry our shoes, water bottles, etc. while running between photo spots, etc. Each of the girls and my Mum had written little post-it messages all over it, and there were some little surprises inside!

I'd love to show you the professional photos of the whole front, but unfortunately it shows you our last names, so I won't. Annie had made up one of those old school games, where you write out your full name, your partner's full name and "loves" in the middle, then you check off the matching letters, etc. and work out the compatibility "percentage". It was so cute! You can see the square of it and all the post-its in the picture from the actual wedding day below...

Reading all the messages...
courtesy of sandra henri photography

In use...
...on wedding day!

Inside was some yummy pink champers and some non-alcoholic sparkling grape drink for those of us who couldn't drink...that was consumed with relish! But first, I had some things to hand out!

I had been collecting bits and pieces of the girls' gifts for a while...and unlike the boys', I managed to make a lot of theirs!

In their "night before" gifts, each of the girls received:

    • A little floral box containing:
    • Their earrings for the wedding and
    • A little clay love heart to hang on their bouquet (which could be used as a Christmas decoration...or a bookmark...or a million other things afterwards...my MoH currently has hers hanging on her fridge next to a polaroid from the wedding!)
  • Their ring for the wedding
  • A personalised coat hanger
  • A "Bridesmaid" or "Maid of Honour" dressing gown!

I think the girls enjoyed their robes, which we all got to wear the next day while we were getting ready...they certainly enjoyed taking pictures of them! DIY post coming soon!

All the MoH's goodies:

After handing out the first half of the girls' gifts, we had a toast, and set about doing last minute things for the next day...

Like choosing my shoes...
Purple or Ivory?
Adding my "I Do" Stickers...
They were so hard to get on!
Concentration was required!
As you can see, the ivory won
And taking random photos admiring our nails...because that's how we roll...

We also made up sandwiches for the following day...and then things got a little "interesting" with the boys being just down the hall...(those picture will remain hidden I'm sorry to say...but there was stealing of hot chocolates involved...among other things!)

Eventually it was 11:45 and I headed outside to say good night to my fiance for the last time. We shared good night kisses...and a hug I never wanted to let go of...and headed back to our rooms. It was the last time I would see him before we became husband and wife!

Next Up: Getting Ready...The Girls! Part 1

Miss something?

  1. recap: the girls get purty...nail day!
  2. recap: the night before the big day
  3. recap: bridal party gifts...the boys!

Wednesday, November 07, 2012

recaps: bridal party gifts...the boys!

September 28, 2012...continued!

While the rain poured down outside, the hubs and I made the decision to exchange gifts with our Bridal party (and he would give the last remaining groomsmen their gifts in the morning...he was supposed to remember to get someone to take photos - I don't think anyone did. Typical males.). Bear in mind that this is actually only HALF of the Bridal parties gifts...but they weren't aware of this at the time.

First up were the men! Given that the majority of the groomsmen were family (or adopted family in the case of the hubs best mates!) 4 out of 5 of them had been in 2 or more weddings recently...and most of them had been in the SAME weddings. So, when picking out their gifts, we really wanted to try and find something that was a little different. All the boys had recently received flasks and beer steins or glasses, so we ruled those out straight away. We opted to purchase the boys' (rather expensive!) ties as part of their gifts, and I packed them up in little boxes which were given to them the night before/morning of the wedding. Along with these, they each received a smaller box. This little gift was probably my favourite part of their present. Anyone who knows my hubs knows how much of a comic fan he is, in particular a Superman fan. And most of his groomsmen are similarly inclined. So, we decided to purchase them each a set of cufflinks that we felt best suited them...It was a lot of fun seeing them open them!

(Ps. please excuse all the bad lighting in the following pictures - the lighting in our rooms at night was TERRIBLE!)

Hayden received "The Punisher" cufflinks
Christopher received "Star Wars" cufflinks
Mark received "Batman" cufflinks

Not pictured: the hubs' brother, Garth, received "Captain America" cufflinks and groomsman Brenden received "Transformer" cufflinks.

I think they all got a kick out of them and we got lots of comments about them from guests, particularly since the hubs had planned to wear his Superman belt on Wedding Day, and his best man had worn his Batman belt!

Speaking of Superman...poor ol' hubs thought he had been left out...I could hardly let him be the only one without some awesome cufflinks could I? (please ignore how awful I look in this picture! It's not a very flattering picture!)

I surprised the hubs with matching cufflinks to his belt...I think he was super chuffed. I had managed to get them delivered to our house without him seeing them! I still don't know how I got that one to work...I had already told him not to get me anything since he had purchased me the matching earrings to my engagement ring, which he had given me months earlier and I had planned to wear for our big day :)

Then, the boys had a toast, kicked us out of their room and we headed back to our suites so I could give the girls the first half of their pressies...

Next Up: Bridal Party Gifts...The Girls!

Miss something?

  1. recap: the girls get purty...nail day!
  2. recap: the night before the big day

Tuesday, November 06, 2012

recap: the night before the big day

September 28, 2012

The day before the wedding was actually a pretty smooth day, minus the fact that my Mum thought we were checking into the hotel at 5pm instead of 2pm for some reason, so ended up a little rushed. (She had also done the same thing the prior day with our nail appointment - I have no idea where she kept getting 5pm from?!)

We had a last minute change of music after our rehearsal on Wednesday (which I'll have to blog about and backdate at a later point, since I don't have the pictures for that day! They are on the hub's Mum's camera!) so I quickly re-made our Ceremony CD the morning before we left for the venue, then we packed up our cars and headed over to check into the rooms we would be spending the night before in, and getting ready in the day off.

The Bride/Bridesmaid suites...courtesy of my MoH
The boys stayed in room 50

After we checked in, bought up all our stuff and got a little settled, the boys headed straight for the pool and spa (typical) while Mum and I hit up the local shopping centre to get some supplies for the next day - there was no way we were having anyone fainting from lack of food so we made sure to have breakfast cereals, juices, sandwiches and fruit on hand for all the bridal party to munch on while they were getting ready all morning!

Yep, glad to see they were going to
make sure he wasn't broken before
the wedding...

By the time we returned with the food, most of the bridal party who were staying the night before (a couple of the boys weren't staying due to family commitments...Like Brenden's fiance due to go into labour at any time!) had arrived, so we started to arrange what we were going to do for dinner. We decided to head into "downtown Windsor" (I say that sarcastically since Windsor isn't very big!) and see what was on offer! We split into two groups for dinner, with the majority of the girls heading to Stir Crazy noodle bar, and the majority of the boys heading to the pub...but Juzzie joined the boys and Hayden became an honourary bridesmaid for the evening. We took some happy snaps along the way, enjoying our last few hours altogether before we split up until the ceremony the next day!

Honourary Bridesmaid
Proof that not even an upcoming wedding can stop
Kylie from looking at shoes!

We returned to the Sebel...and the rain that had started sprinkling on us during our walk back to the car after dinner came BUCKETING down. You can't really see it in this picture, but trust me - it was POURING! My thoughts at the time? "That's it, get it allllll out of your system now..."

While the rain poured down outside, the hubs and I made the decision to exchange gifts with our Bridal party...

To Be Continued...

Miss something?

  1. recap: the girls get purty...nail day!

Monday, November 05, 2012

recap: the girl's get purty...nail day!

September 27, 2012

Let the recaps begin!

The Thursday before the wedding, the majority of my Bridesmaids, my Mum and myself (and a few of the little ladies belonging to said bridesmaids!) headed to a local nail bar to get our nails done. Prior to meeting up with the girls I had headed to get waxed and made pretty...then we met up to pick up nail colours and have relaxing pedicures!

I had planned to blog this the day it actually happened but well, things got busy! After we got our nails done, I went with Ro to have a look for a dress for little Miss Violet for wedding day, then headed home to finish off the last of our wedding programs and help my SIL Juzzie make the cake pops that the kids at the wedding were receiving as favours, instead of the melts that the adult guests were receiving. So, blogging never happened. Instead, you get to see a couple of pics today! Yay! Just building the suspense to the actual wedding day...hehe...

Pretty little ladies - Miss Matilda and
Miss Violet (who was in a beautiful
pink princess dress!)

We all ended up having French tip manicures, and various colours on our toes - a pretty pearly peach colour for the girls in blush, a lavender for those in purple, and I had my "Something Borrowed" from the Essie Wedding Collection. They all looked so good together! I'm actually sad that I didn't get a group shot of all our toes together!

Still didn't actually feel real at this point...like any of this was for me! It was fun getting my nails "did" with the girls though!

Mum and sis, Danielle
MoH, Annie
Bridesmaid, Kylie


Bridesmaid, Ro, and her little miss!
My sister, Danielle, who clearly didn't
want her picture taken!

Coming up next...the day before the wedding! Then, the real fun begins - The Wedding Day!

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