I finally figured out our theme!

So it only took me until oh, 4 months before the wedding to finally work out what our theme was. You know, that thing that ties the whole shebang together. Our theme is.. *drumroll*.. *anticipation*.. Herbal. You feel like that was an anti-climax, don't you? But it will be nice, I swear!

It all came together after the previously blogged centrepiece disaster. (You know, where all my everlasting daisies DIED.) So I had to come up with a new idea, and I was thinking about having say 3 single stem vases on the tables (spaced along the length of the rectangular tables) and taking inspiration from my bouquet, I was thinking that each vase could have a sprig of a herb in it.. for example rosemary, rose geranium & mint. Then I found these vases at IKEA for 95c and I couldn't walk past a bargain! And doesn't it just fit the bill perfectly? Almost makes me want gerberas, but not.

I was still trying to work out how to incorporate the kissing bells (because I just think they're gorgeous!) but I'm not sure if I'll go down that road after all, because even my bomboniere has sorted itself out. My MIL makes natural olive oil soap (Wildthyme Soap) and has offered in addition to making the cake to provide soap as wedding favours if we want. I've been thinking that I might pick 2 flavours that incorporate the same herbs as in the bouquets and centrepieces.. and the flavours currently in the lead are: "Uplifting" (Spearmint & Rosemary) and "Harmony" (Rose Geranium, Lavender, Clove & Peru Balsam) but I have a couple of other flavours that might also be ok, I just need to see them together and have a little sniff & smell session! They'll also have custom labels that will have "Ziph & Zarie, 12 April 2011" or similar on there in addition to the normal bits & pieces.

So as you can see, that is how we ended up with a herbal theme.

I am the Biggest Loser!

Well, no actually, I wasn't.. but at the completion of the Biggest Loser Challenge at my local Shapes Health Club I had lost a total of 6.5kg during the 12 week program, and a whopping 12.3kg since I joined the gym in April 2010. Only 7.7kg until my wedding goal! (I'm a bit concerned about a Christmas-relapse, but as long as I can keep it to ~2kg I think it'll be ok.)

So ideally I'd like to lose the whole 7.7kg between now and the wedding, but given that Christmas is in the middle, I'd settle for 5kg+ (plus whatever I put on over Christmas). Definitely plan to sign up for the next Biggest Loser Challenge in February - just in time for the wedding!

Pearls

So you know how my dress came and I was about to go hunting for a strand of pearls? Well mum finally found her (grandmother's) pearls, and they match so perfectly that you'd think we'd deliberately chosen the fabric to match the pearls! So I have a single strand with a matching double strand bracelet, and I just need to go hunting for some earrings. My SIL thinks that I don't need earrings if I'm having my hair down, or just to get some simple pearl studs, but I just can't go past the allure of either drop pearl earrings or dangly earrings.

Some of my inspirations for dangly earrings include the Wannabe DIY Bride's cascade earrings (shown above, in appropriate colours of course!) Or some of the PANDORA compose earrings (like the ones on the left).. Orr I could get some cheap faux pearl earrings and use an appropriate coloured nail polish (as required) to make them match. Good thing I've still got time, yes?

I also need to take my (mum's?) pearls in to be cleaned and re-threaded.. they've been sitting in their box for quite some time now, and I'd hate for them to fall apart on my wedding day!

Oh, did I mention that mum's pearls are gold? (Hence the comments about making earrings match!)

Disaster!

So I think I need to come up with a new bomboniere & table centrepiece idea. I had been planning to use pink & white everlasting daisy flowerheads as table scatters and have seed packets as bomboniere and place cards. So in aid of this I had planted some seeds so that I could harvest the flowers as scatters. But we had some super hot weather last week and my plants shrivelled up and died just before flowering! *sigh* Clearly it was not meant to be.

Now I need to come up with another idea, which is maybe a good thing considering I've been tossing up about the theme etc.

I found some very cute place card holders/bomboniere on (where else??) Pink Frosting:

They're "kissing bells", so guests can "ring for a kiss" at any time through the reception. They come with the coordinating place cards as well, which is a bonus.. so something like that could serve as the bomboniere & place cards and then I'd still need to come up with an idea for table centrepieces.

Alternately, one of my friends has started making cakes & cookies, and does these beautiful butter cookies with fondant icing. There are a couple of options to use her delightful cookies.. I could get her to do single cookie bomboniere, or she also does a 3 cookie boxed set which looks gorgeous and could then double as table centre pieces because I could stack the cookie boxes in the centre of the tables (and then maybe just have something like those diamond table scatters or something to fill the gaps).

Or I could have helium balloons.. but is that a bit too tacky?

I think this needs a bit more thought..

Dresses..

The dresses arrived today! Very exciting! The quality and workmanship is excellent. I cannot fault the quality or the amount of effort that has gone into the construction. The only things "wrong" are little things that are generally my fault.. I ordered a "standard" size 4 for the flower girl dress, but it's long enough to fit an 8 year old! Even held up against my almost 5 year old, it would skim the floor! But aside from the length, the bodice fits perfectly, and she looks like an angel with the dress floating all around her! And atleast it's easier to take something up than it is to have it too short.

My dress will fit perfectly when I lose a few more kilos. It looks ok, but my decolletage would look better once I lose more centimetres in the bust! It also buckles a little at the hips, but again, once I lose some more weight we're pretty sure it will sit almost perfectly. Still, it doesn't look entirely ridiculous.. the colour is amazing and the style is generally flattering.. I need to buy some new support undies though - having lost 10kg, my current control garments are less controlling than they used to be!

It could also have been that the dress needed to be pressed after having been folded for posting, but it looked a little like I have a pot belly with the dress on.. so that's another great reason to buy new control garments that reshape my "problem" areas!

I'm also impatient to lose the rest of the weight, Ziph promised to buy me $1000 worth of clothes when I've lost another 14kg (my "healthy weight range").. and losing the weight is clearly imperitive now that I have the dress! (And if I don't lose it, I'll look moderately ridiculous!)

The veil didn't have the hair comb attached, but after laying it out, one of my girlfriends and I decided that it was probably a little bit *too* long anyway, and might look better if we turned it into a 2 tier veil (which we trialled by folding it, and it will look pretty nice).. but then I'll have to change my hairstyle.. I think I'll have to consider a half up style instead of just an all down, straightened hairstyle. It's just not going to work with the dress & the veil. So back to my wedding ideas file/scrapbook to have another look at hairstyles that I like.

It did help to crystallise the jewelry ideas though.. I definitely only want a single strand of white pearls. Anything else will be overkill and will detract from the overall look. Just need to go hunting for a strand of pearls now.

So overwhelmed..

I've been stressing a little bit because Ziph wants to design the Save the Date cards and the wedding invitations, but so far, nothing. I found some perfectly nice invitations on the Vistaprint website that were priced in the bracket that I was willing to spend - but no, Ziph's will be better.

Meanwhile, I'm also stressing out over the 'theme'.. I feel a little bit like I don't have a concrete concept and that everything is going to seem mismatched.. from the cake, to the bridesmaid dresses, to the bombonniere, to the flowers, to the invitations etc, etc.

But maybe I'm over thinking it. It occurs to me that maybe I should put together a 'mood board' with pictures of the things I'm having (the real dress, the real BM dresses etc) and the other things that I like (the cake design, the flower style/colours) and see if something emerges when I have it all there in front of me.

We finally set a date for the engagement party.. only 10 days to go! My girlfriend, Miss Kitty has a catering company and will be providing a fair portion of the food for the day.

Excitement!

Ziph and I paid our first wedding-related deposit today!! (Deposit to our lovely florist, Chantelle from Flowers in Love) And while we're talking about Chantelle, I must say that after finding that cute herbal boutonniere the other day (see previous post) I couldn't get it out of my mind. So I went looking for bouquets that incorporated herbal elements and I found ->

I just emailed Chantelle to let her know that we'd paid the deposit, and because I'm a pain in the ass I sent her the two images and asked her if we could mess with the flowers *again* to try and incorporate some of the herbal elements.. now I just have to wait to hear back from her..

But on another note, I never mentioned when I was doing my mass posts what I spent my $100 eBridal voucher on at the expo! Let me just say that I wasn't sure that I'd even be able to spend it given that our wedding isn't located in Perth, making about 80% of the vendors irrelevant... BUT never say I'm not determined! On our second lap of the expo, when we were specifically looking for something to "buy" we spotted The Cake Factory's stand, and while my mother-in-law is making our wedding cake, The Cake Factory had the most beautiful white chocolate croquembouche. I've always loved croquembouches, and after calling Ziph to see what he thought, we decided that we'd order one for our engagement party! (Now we just need to set a date for the e-party!) Yum!

AND I think I might have my centrepieces & bombonniere sorted out, just need to flesh out a few more details - so watch this space!

Once wed..

While randomly browsing the internet I stumbled upon Once Wed and couldn't resist sharing some of the gorgeous things that I found on there...

Like these DIY herbal boutonniere - rosemary, sage, oregano, thyme, lavender and blueberries tied with ribbon.. if I had found this website before I'd booked my florist, I tell you it would have been tempting to do these.. I'd originally wanted to go with the whole "looked like the flowers had just been picked from a cottage garden" style - infact when I suggested flowers to the florist I did mention rosemary & lavender!

Or these placecard holders made out of spray painted icing cones!

And check out this cute tufted moss ring pillow.. 

What about these adorable paper cones made out of "vintage" sheet music.. they've punched some butterflies and glued them around the top..

Cupcake wrappers..

I think I'm trying to make up for all those posts I keep meaning to write but never getting around to by posting a half dozen in one hit..

Now that I've sorted out the colour scheme for the flowers and the bridesmaids dresses I've been thinking about cupcake wrappers again.. I've found a couple that I like, but I think I'm going to have to come up with a shortlist and get Ziph and/or his mum to help me make the final decision.

MY dress!

This is what my dress is going to be styled on.. the very beautiful Maggie Sottero 'Ericka' gown in a lovely, warm cream colour. I think I already mentioned that I will be wearing a cathedral length mantilla veil with matching lacework. I think the bridesmaid dresses will compliment it very nicely.. and the flowergirl dress will be made in the same colour cream with a waist sash & bow in the sapphire green to match the bridesmaids.

Bridesmaids, sorted!

So my sister and I went to the eBridal expo last weekend and found a bridesmaid dress that we really liked on her. It's a Mori Lee dress in a "sapphire green" colour and the colour just looked amazing on her. It was a few shades darker than the colour I had in my head, but once I saw it on her I knew it was perfect! Luckily my MOH, Mrs McD also loved it when I sent her the picture to look at! Yay!

Seeing as I'm trying to be "frugal" I just couldn't come at spending $330 per dress, so I emailed the picture to the dressmaker who is making my dress and for a custom made, similar design we're only paying ~$125 per dress. Much better! AND seeing as we're getting them made, the dress maker will also make matching ties for the groomsmen and make the sash on the flowergirl dress the same colour. Perfect!

Ticking Boxes..

Clearly I'm not so great at keeping this updates, but let me say that until this last week I hadn't been moving particularly fast with the whole wedding planning thing anyway!

BUT, as per the title, I have some boxes that I can finally check! So we already know that I have the ceremony venue, the cake, the makeup and the bridesmaids sorted out.. but now I can also say that I have:

* Booked our reception venue - we decided to go with Tides of Geraldton.. Ziph decided that he was prepared to "take my word for it" if I was sure that I liked it,. I also found out that they're doing some renovations next month, so I'm sure that will only make it even better! We went through their wedding prospectus which lists their different menu options and at this stage we think we'll go with the set menu with the tapas entree option. The only difficulty will be deciding *which* items to choose because they all sound so yummy!

* Booked our florist - after meeting with Chantelle from Flowers in Love I was pretty sure that she was the perfect person to do our flowers.. the first quote left me feeling lukewarm (flower choices turned out to be rather temperamental if not handled *just so*), so I emailed her back and told her how I was feeling and asked if we could go with something simpler. Chantelle reassured me that there was nothing boring with my "simple" choice and sent through another quote for the new flowers. I was much happier second time around, and the whole experience served to convince me that my initial impression of Chantelle was right and that she was the perfect person for the job.. I know I won't have to worry about how my flowers will turn out! Sent through the confirmation, just have to post the booking form and pay the deposit.

* Organised to have MY wedding ring made. Years ago, before I had children I used to work in the jewelry industry, so I made use of some of my previous connections and have arranged for Bill at Exclusive Gold Jewellers to design and make my wedding ring. As I'm having something designed to fit around my engagement ring, I've had to surrender it temporarily which left me feeling rather naked! I ended up putting another ring on my finger to make me feel better while I wait! But I'm very excited to see how my ring turns out..

* Picked my wedding dress. I'm having it made by Topspartner and it will be in the style of Maggie Sottero's Ericka dress. They're also going to make a matching cathedral length mantilla veil, and a flower girl dress in the same fabric for my little possum. I'm currently considering getting them to make the bridesmaids dresses as well, but we haven't found a style that we love yet.

We still need to sort out the photography, invitations, bombonniere, ceremony/reception decorations, grooms party attire (and finalise the groomsmen, I think.. Ziph has the best man sorted but seems to be dragging his feet when it comes to asking the other person, so I'm not sure if he's sure, IYKWIM?) and a couple of other bits and pieces.. but atleast if all else fails we now have somewhere to get married, somewhere to party afterwards, cake to eat and I'll have something to wear, my flowers and my wedding ring - all the important stuff, right?

Oh, and there's the eBridal wedding expo this weekend, which I won a $100 voucher to use at any of their exhibitors, so cross your fingers that I might find something worth spending my money on!!

Wedding favors..

I was browsing Pink Frosting again when I came across these super cute wedding favors:

I'm not entirely certain that they'd go with our theme, but I think they're adorable. I also found some favor boxes that are sweet, and definitely in the theme of a fairytale wedding (like this blog layout theme!), but I'm not sure what I'd put in them..

They also had some other lovely things that caught my eye, but I'd almost certainly need a different style of wedding I think, otherwise they'd seem totally random (eco-bamboo drink coasters and autumn leaf themed parasols to name a couple!)

On the hunt..

So I'm back from my quick (5 day) jaunt up to Geraldton. Ziph wasn't able to make it in the end, so the Mama Bear and I took the kids on our own.

I got to spend two days with Matron-of-Honour Mrs McD, going through my ideas file, looking at things I'd found on the internet and sharing all the background work she'd been doing finding local recommendations for photographers/hairdressers/florists/reception venues etc and then on the second day I took her to see St George's, where the ceremony is being held and we hunted around for reception venues and got pricing/requested quotes. Mrs McD certainly proved herself to be invaluable and an excellent choice of bridesmaid!

Because our wedding guest list is so small, we ended up ruling out a couple of the 'popular' reception venues because they were too big - more suited to ~100+ guests, not 40-60.. nobody wants to feel like they're sitting in a drafty barn!

So the two suitable options are Tides of Geraldton (restaurant) and Casa Blanca Function Centre. Casa Blanca requires a separate caterer, and the venue hire fee is quite high (although it does include some decoration) so it might not be cost effective given our small budget (especially once you add on the extra cost of the caterer).. Tides tends to tick all the boxes (including having a killer 180 degree view of the ocean/harbour etc), but possibly has a minimum of 60 guests. The prospectus *does* have a set menu option with a minimum of 30 guests, but when I spoke to them they didn't "suggest" that it might be a better option if I only have 40 people!

I *did* get some great (easy, effective) decorating ideas from looking through Casa Blanca's photo book though.. simple things like coloured napkins in the wine glasses to add a significant splash of colour to the room!

Holidays

The school holidays are coming up in ~3 weeks, and the general plan was for me, my mum, my sister and the kids to head up to Geraldton for a few days for a holiday (and as an added bonus, so that I could do some wedding stuff like looking for a reception venue!).

I was talking to Ziph about it today, and about annual leave in general, suggesting he could take some time off over the school holidays. As usual, Ziph decides to surprise me with a low key, off hand comment like "Oh, yeah.. I thought I might come up with you.."!!

I'm a bit excited, because it means we might get to go hunting for a reception venue together, which will be much more fun than going on my own and hoping that he'll be happy to take whatever I randomly decide on. (Especially seeing as he's apparently got *ideas* of his own about how this wedding and reception should play out!)

More invitations!

So we went to the Bridal Expo on the weekend, and I found a local company that does letterpress invitations. I have no idea how much they charge, I guess I'll have to make a formal enquiry if I want to know, but I thought I'd share their blog with you!

A sneak peek

Wedding Expo

There's a wedding expo on this weekend, and I've convinced Ziph that if he comes to this one, I won't make him go to the next one in August (different expo).. I really want to go today, so that we can get it done, and then he can spend the rest of his weekend doing what he wants. I just know that if we wait until tomorrow, time will get away from us (no, I really mean him) and it'll be 4pm (and it finishes at 5pm) before we get there, and I'll be stressed and cranky and he'll decide the whole going to an expo together thing was clearly a bad idea.
But the whole point of going together is so that I can get an idea of what *he* likes, and so he can get an idea of how much effort goes into planning a wedding, AND that it's NOT OK to wait until 2 weeks before the wedding to book things. Seriously. I know the wedding is still 10 months away, and that seems like forever (to him! I feel like time is slipping away already!) but the more we book *now* (while I'm cool, calm and collected ;) ), the less we have to worry about closer to the time (when my stress levels are astronomical!).

Invitations

Now I know it's a little early to be ordering anything, but I came across these today:

on a website called Pretty Inviting and thought they were adorable..

I also really like letterpress style invitations, but short of doing this, I can't imagine that it will fit our budget considering that we'll only need to have ~20-30 invitations made.

And inspite of being a general fan of the whole scrapbooking thing, apparently I am *not* a fan of DIY scrapbook style invitations. Who would have guessed? Certainly not me!

I think we'll either end up with Ziph designing something spectacular and then uploading it to Vista Print or buying some lasercut designed thing that we can insert some vellum into (that we will print on the laser printer & cut to size)..

But I love the idea of "Save the Date" fridge magnets.. I just wish that Ziph and I had a decent photo of us as a couple (that isn't 10 years old :P)

Something blue..

I found a website called Something Blue in one of my wedding mags, so I decided to check it out today.. Someone has these gorgeous wedding centerpieces available on there:

But considering that we haven't finalised our guest list, or our reception venue, I don't suppose that I can accurately estimate how many I'd need.. and I'm not even sure what our final theme will be, either. But I do think they're gorgeous, and if I'm meant to have them, they'll still be there when I want them, right?

I also found these bridesmaid tshirts on Pink Frosting :

I think they're really cute.. but I'm not sure my sister will be keen to wear something so *pink*! Then again, they're also available in black & white.. I just think the pink is fabulous ;)

Notice of Intended Marriage..

We got our Notice of Intended Marriage form in the mail today. The minister from St George's posted it to us, and now we need to fill it in, get it signed by our local minister and then send it back. It's kind of exciting.. or atleast it will be once Ziph has signed it! *grin* Kind of like it's "really happening"..

To register, or not to register - that is the question..

I was talking with some girlfriends about registries today. It all started because Ziph and I are thinking of going on a cruise for our honeymoon and we have the following options:

a) an 11 night cruise, Fremantle->Singapore, and fly back home;
b) a 25 night round trip cruise, Fremantle->Singapore->Fremantle (the aforementioned 11 night cruise, plus a 14 night return cruise).

The thing is, Ziph doesn't really want to fly.. he would do it though, and atleast Singapore is relatively close..  being 6'7" doesn't make economy class all that comfortable on a long haul! And if we do the 11 night cruise, we could always stay in Singapore for a day or two before flying back. The only reason that I sound put out about this whole thing is that *normally* the cruise line runs a 17 day round trip cruise (which was the one that we'd been looking at before we got engaged) but next year they've changed it and they aren't offering the 17 night cruise, only the 11 night Fremantle->Singapore, 14 day Singapore->Fremantle or 25 night Fremantle->Singapore->Fremantle cruises. *sigh* Or our other options are something like 46 days to India/South Africa, but I think not!!

But if we go for the 25 night cruise it's a bit too long to be away from the kids, so we'd have to take them with us. Very romantic. AND it increases the cost.. Infact, the 25 night cruise (for the 4 of us) would be approximately 1.5x the cost of our wedding budget. Still, Ziph and I *had* planned to take the kids on a cruise at some point in the next year or two (even before we decided to get married).. and if we go on a cruise for our honeymoon, we might not be in a position to go on *another* cruise with the kids for another year or two after that (including annual leave etc)..

So one of my girlfriends suggested that perhaps we could look at a honeymoon registry.

When I was younger (pre-kids) I used to love the idea of going to Myer or David Jones and signing up for one of their bridal registries.. Getting to wander around and scan anything that took my fancy.. oh the things I dreamt of putting on there! But now that I'm older and have a home and children, I already have towels and sheets and cookware. Sure, they're not fancy, and you can never have too many towels.. but it just doesn't hold the same allure that it used to. Seriously.. I would *love* some Le Creuset cookware, but (well, I'd need a kitchen that looked the part ;) ) I do have other cookware that can do the same job. Maybe they're worth every cent, but seeing as I don't have one I don't know what I'm missing, yes? But I just can't justify the price.

Still.. there's a little part of me that wants to do the bridal registry thing, even if it seems unnecessary...

But a honeymoon registry? I'd never really considered that as a serious option before.. I know that it's popular with couples who want to go and do something exotic and romantic, but I never really thought that we'd do something exotic (or expensive) enough to need a honeymoon registry! But having priced our options, maybe it's something we should seriously consider..

It seems kind of bizarre to me to ask someone to pay for me to go on a holiday though, instead of buying a toaster.

So, to register, or not to register?

Wedding scrapbook..

I had an entirely different post planned in my head while I was out and about today. Now that I've put the kids to bed though, I'm feeling a bit tired and so instead I'm planning to curl up infront of the TV with my scissors, glue, paper and all the pages I've torn out of magazines and attempt to organise them into some sort of cohesive arrangement.

I was reading a post on Wedding Bee about wedding themes, and one of the random comments someone made mentioned how the bride/poster used cardboard paint samples to put together her colour palette so that people (vendors, her mum etc) could see *exactly* what her colour scheme was. How cool is that? I'm *so* heading down to Bunnings once my theme/colour scheme has emerged from the chaos that will soon be a nice, orderly file of wedding ideas!

Having said that though, I *think* (although it may change) that my colour scheme will probably be something like pink/purple/white/green for the flowers, and maybe an aquamarine or turquoise colour for the bridesmaids' dresses (which should compliment the flower colours nicely). As for my "theme"? Who knows?

Fitness freak..

Ziph just called me a fitness freak!

This would be completely hilarious if you knew me. I am almost the world's largest procrastinator and couch potato.

So why did he call me a fitness freak? Let me explain.

About a month before we got engaged, I was pushing for us to get married *on* our anniversary. In a registry office. Ziph replied something along the lines of "Do you really want to get married in a month? Won't you want to look good in a dress?"

Yes, that's right folks, it does indeed sound like he implied I would NOT look good in a dress as I currently am. Apparently that isn't what he meant - he was supposedly implying that all brides want to starve themselves for 6 months before their weddings. But I don't care what he meant, what he SAID was that I wouldn't look good in a dress.

So given that I'd been planning to lose 20kg (eventually).. I guess I needed to stop procrastinating and get right on that if I wanted to look good in a dress, yes? So I managed to join the local gym, where all my playgroup mum friends go.. so I have lots of "gym buddies" which motivates me to actually turn up.

Tonight however, I'm a bit under the weather, and would love to curl up in bed and sleep, BUT I have a gym date with the mums to do a Zumba class. So I HAVE to go. And I WANT to go, even though I feel like crap. Ziph thinks this is crazy, and that I should go to bed instead, but as long as I get a good night's sleep, ok. Sure, babe.. and then I'm going to KIMAX in the morning... (again, with the mum's)

And that's why I'm a fitness freak. Because I feel like I'm being hit by a freight train, but I'm dragging myself to the gym anyway, in an effort to be FIT not FAT and look good in that goddamned wedding dress.

Falling into place..

I think I already mentioned that within mere hours of changing our wedding from Tasmania to Geraldton some of our bits and pieces started falling into place..

1. Ceremony Venue - check! St George's will marry us on any day we want, except Sunday because they're too busy!

2. Cake - check! Ziph's mum makes delectable white chocolate wedding cupcakes with butter cream frosting. Yummo!

3. Bridal makeup - check! Ziph's sister-in-law is an incredibly talented makeup artist (who did her own wedding makeup last month!)

also:

4. Picking my other bridesmaid (aside from my sister) - check! As soon as we decided on Geraldton I knew that my fab friend Mrs McD would be perfect.. not only is she one of my dearest friends, but she also happens to be a Geraldton local. How awesome is that? I have a local on the case!

5. MY wedding ring - nearly check! I went in to see a jeweller friend of mine from my pre-baby work days, and got a quote for a custom made ring to match/compliment my engagement ring. And it came in under budget. Woo! Ziph is happy with the price, so all we have to do is actually go in and get the design properly drawn up etc and order it. I know the wedding is still 10 months away, but I really want to order it right now!!

6. Bridal hair - maybe check! A girlfriend of mine is doing a hairdressing apprenticeship, and I was her hair model today.. while we were chatting about the wedding, she mentioned that she could do my hair, but then remembered that I wasn't getting married in Perth.. Might require organising a road trip with one or two of our other girlfriends for the wedding, but still possible! And as a bonus, hair trials will be super easy, because she only lives 5 minutes away from me.. definitely something to think about seriously.

A little bit of this, and a little bit of that..

So our original plan when we got engaged was to run off and get married in Tasmania.. unfortunately for us, the "dream" venue we'd found online turned out to be nothing more than a beautiful facade with some horror reviews.. initially I was downhearted and thrown for a loop, but we persevered with the Tassie dream and started looking for other venues and locations.. but as they say, "Once bitten, twice shy.." and it began to look more and more like we'd have to take a trip over in the not too distant future to check out venues etc.. but no worries, right? A romantic couple of days away, without the kids to plan the wedding.. awesome!

Still, I was feeling a little stuck, because I couldn't finalise any plans until we went over there, and time just keeps slipping away..

And we had a very generous offer from the Best Man's mum - she's a celebrant and offered to officiate our wedding at no charge (other than necessary paperwork) if we decided to have a civil ceremony. Which begged the question, what kind of ceremony did we want?

As a teenager and into my early 20s I'd always envisioned some quaint little stone church, but more recently hadn't given the idea much thought (ironic, yes?).. and the more I thought about it, the more I realised that I still really want a church wedding. So I asked Ziph how he felt about the idea of a church wedding and he (totally randomly) suggested the parish of St George in Geraldton. Hang on a minute? What about the Tassie dream?

Clearly Ziph had picked up on my increasingly stressed out vibes (as well, no doubt, of the extra costs involved in planning the Tassie wedding that kind of defeated the purpose of our rather conservative budget) and was willing to explore our other options. So, what about Geraldton? I had a bit of a think about this, and the more I worked it through, the better it sounded.. infact, by the time I finished daydreaming I was rather excited about the prospect!

You see, Geraldton holds a special place in my heart.. my mum's parents live there (as well as most of her siblings etc) and we frequently holidayed there when I was young (and still do). St George's is a beautiful church that my Nonna attends, and I'd already floated the idea of getting the kids baptised there at some point.

It's also a lot easier for most of our families to get to Gero than to travel to Tassie, which helped finalise some other things.. like Ziph's mum will make our wedding cake, and our new sister-in-law is a makeup artist, and has agreed to do my makeup (and my bridesmaids) and now the ceremony venue is sorted, too! Yay!

Well it's about time!

So it only took us 10 years and 2 children to get around to the engagement part of the proceedings, but to give Ziph credit, when he finally gets around to something, he doesn't mess around!

He chose our 10th anniversary for his proposal, which I must admit has a certain poetry to it.. we left the kids with Grandma and went for dinner at a nice little Indian place that we like. Our original celebration plans had been a picnic dinner at the park where we first met, but it was raining, hence the dining in ;) But while we were eating the rain cleared up, and by the time we got to the park the stars were out and it was really rather beautiful (if somewhat cold!) so out came the picnic rug and a warm blanket and we set about exchanging our anniversary gifts..

Given our twisted sense of humour, I decided to incorporate the traditional gift for a 10th anniversary into my gift to Ziph.. tin. And no, I didn't give him a tin of baked beans.. they aren't made of tin. I ultimately ended up at the hardware store explaining myself to the very helpful owner, who was somewhat amused by my quest. I wanted *real* tin, and refused to budge, and subsequently ended up with a 50% lead/50% tin solder rod. $9.95, bargain. Fortunately for me, Ziph thought it was hilarious. Said solder rod is now sitting in our laundry, still mostly wrapped and unlikely to ever be used for soldering. But that wasn't the point! My other gifts were some Toblerone chocolate, and a bottle of wine - the same brand that we first discovered/started drinking when we first started dating.

After he opened his gifts, it was my turn.. and you'll never guess it.. oh, ok.. so he asked me to marry him! Seeing as I already technically was in possession of my (until that moment pseudo-) engagement ring, he presented me with a 14kt Pandora charm for my bracelet and moved my engagement ring onto my ring finger.

We quickly decided that getting engaged entailed planning an actual wedding.. most likely within 12 months - infact, wouldn't it be nice to get married on our anniversary next year? It keeps things so nice and neat..

So let the wedding planning begin!