Trophy wife

Haha, love it. I would SO wear that.

Being a bride..

It's hard being a bride! One minute I think I have it all figured out, and the next minute I'm at sixes and sevens again! I've been working my way through some of the loose ends.. trying to narrow down those bible readings, trying to decide on the songs, getting the bridal shower sorted out with my girlfriends etc.. So far I'm still stuck in the mud, but as far as the bridal shower goes we're all catching up for a 'playdate' tomorrow morning and the plan is to hammer out the date & time for the bridal shower and what the girls need/want to do. So that's kind of exciting.

But going back to the vacillating... I bought my chair sashes despite my misgivings over the sunny yellow gold colour (compared to the muted soft gold of my dress/shoes) and figured that I'd make adjustments to my colour scheme to make it work. Not that I really had a colour scheme other than the dresses. So tonight my MIL and I were talking about the bomboniere as she is providing the soap, and she suggested that we wrap the soap using some pretty paper.. and to cut a long story short, I pulled out the pictures of my flowers/chair sashes etc and she's also expressed concern about the full-on goldness of the sashes. So I showed her some pictures from the venue with the chair sashes and she liked the pictures with the white organza sashes.. so we went hunting on ebay and I showed her some that we could get for ~$40 for 50 sashes (including shipping) and she's offered to buy some white ones instead and we'll just sell off the gold ones.

And so ensued a discussion of colour schemes.. for paper and table runners and flowers and whatnot.. So even though I just told Chantelle (the florist) that I wanted to stick with all cream flowers, now we're reconsidering shades of pink & purple for the lisianthus (as originally planned!) with the cream roses.. and then carrying through the shades of pink & purple into the paper for the placecards/table numbers and paper to wrap the soap, napkins, table runners etc.

Now I'm temporarily feeling a little chaotic and destabilised.. not because I have a problem with the changes, but I just need to get it all 'straight' in my head again.

Measurements..

I just don't get it. When my dress arrived at the beginning of November, the modesty panel at the back of my dress was ~2.5cm/an inch from being able to do up. So I was thinking that once I got back into the swing of Biggest Loser that I'd lose another few centimetres and it would all be sweet as. But I had my Biggest Loser pre-appraisal today in preparation for next week and not only have I managed to lose another kilogram since my appraisal at the start of December (not to mention losing the 2kg or so I put on over Christmas, but that doesn't really count towards my measurements seeing as I gained them and lost them again, right?) but I've also lost another 4cm off my bust, 2cm off my waist and 5cm off my hips. And yet when I tried on my dress in Geraldton last week, we still didn't get the modesty panel sorted out. *sigh*

But on the plus side, I've now got 8 weeks of 3x intense 1 hour training sessions, plus the occasional 40 min walk with my MIL to hopefully lose the last 7kg and a few more centimetres. My goal? To conquer the modesty panel! (Only because it wouldn't look quite as effective without it.. somehow seeing my corset underneath doesn't seem very alluring to me!

I'm pretty psyched about Biggest Loser starting again.

Counting down..

So tomorrow I hit the 11 week mark. Only 11 weeks left until I become Mrs Ziph! Only 11 weeks left to get my act into gear and get everything I need to do done. It's starting to make me feel a bit antsy. I started to make a list of things I still need to do (and other things I want to try to do), but I got distracted and ended up blogging here instead! So here are the things I still need to do:

* Wedding programs/place cards/table numbers - I need to get onto Ziph about helping me design what is in my head. My inspiration for the herb pictures is drawn from the image shown (but also with mint, rose geranium and/or other herbs that are being used in the bouquets), but in black & white/shades of grey/outline.. as a background image maybe with text (eg table number?) over the top, or as a main image with text underneath. I need to see what magic Ziph can bring (he's amazing with graphic design)..

* Suits - Ziph and I need to get our act into gear and go down to get him fitted for a suit & pick the style etc for the groomsmen. We've already got ties made for the boys, so we need to be able to co-ordinate their waistcoats and accessories. Then they can all go back together and get fitted and do whatever boys do when they got for a suit fitting.

* Finalise the bible readings for the ceremony (and who is doing the readings). I have a list of ~half a dozen that I'm thinking over, but I think I need to cut and paste them all onto one page because it's so hard to keep flipping back and forth and keep it all sorted in my head. I'm thinking of having my Nonna (grandmother) do one of the readings, but I'm not sure who should do the second reading.. I'd suggest someone from Ziph's side, but I know my MIL is not keen on public speaking (she doesn't want to do a speech either), and neither of his brothers are particularly religious so they might not be keen either. Could get Best Man's mum to do a reading (she's a celebrant, too as it happens.. not that it's relevant!).. need to check what Ziph thinks.

* Finalise wedding music selections. Once again I have a list of songs that I'm thinking of using, but nothing that I'm definite on. I think the problem is that I had always planned to walk down the aisle to Pachebel's Canon in D, but after having watched so many wedding reality shows I just can't do it. It's so common, and I think I need something that doesn't make me think of other peoples' weddings. But contenders are (not just for the aisle walk, but also for the waltz and the recessional/signing of the registry):
- Only Hope, Mandy Moore
- I Wanna Get Married, Nellie McKay
- Kiss Me Again, Jessica Lee Mayfield
- Our Love is Easy, Melody Gardot
- Maybe I'm Amazed, Jem
- For Sentimental Reasons, Nat King Cole
- Somebody, Depeche Mode
- If I Had the Stars, Melody Gardot
- Chapel of Love

But I wonder if none of them seem right because I just haven't found the right song yet. Will I know the right song when I hear it?

* Sign up for Biggest Loser (again) at the gym. Still want to lose a few more kilos.

* Bridesmaid's survival kits - I've started collecting bits & pieces, but I need to make a list of exactly what I want to include and what I still need to get.

* Bathroom baskets - Again, write list & work out what's missing.

* Tears of Joy packets - I bought the tissues today, now I need to get my hands on some glassine envelopes and design some labels (hopefully Ziph can do those while he's sorting out the design for my programs etc.)

* Bridal shower - some of my Clayton's bridesmaids (you know, those girlfriends who are pretty much honorary bridesmaids, but not officially) have offered to host the bridal shower (as opposed to the hen's night which my actual bridesmaids are organising) but I haven't had a chance to catch up with them since before Christmas, so I don't think there's anything planned yet. I need to find out if they're still keen, or if I need to pass that over to my official team.

And then there's the list of things I *want* to do.. but I think I need a whole new post for that!

Tears of Joy..

OMG! How cute are these "Tears of Joy" tissues? I found them both on Wedding Bee and as it happens I saw a 12 pack of 10 tissues at Target earlier today for the very expensive price of $2.00. Think this might be a DIY that I'll have to try!

Ebridal expo..

So off to the expo we went.. mum, the kidlets and I..  right before our 4.5 hour drive to Geraldton! Luckily, even though I forgot to get their snacks out of the car, there was free popcorn, free slushy samples and cupcakes for sale. Bribery goes a long way with the kids.. and it helped that practically every stand had a huge dish of candy.

As previously mentioned I had $500 in vouchers to spend at the expo and a list of about a dozen things I was interested in spending them on. About 80% of those things weren't available. I *did* put down a $100 deposit with Sugar Blue Burlesque, and have now handed over the booking details/responsibility to my Matron of Honour Mrs McD.

I spent another $100 at The Luxury Shop on some freshwater pearl jewelry (including some earrings I was hoping would be my perfect wedding earrings, but they were too long and the wrong colour). We had some trouble finding other things we could buy and "take straight home", so we put down $200 to spend at Put it Out There on wedding and/or hen's stuff and the last $100 I ended up blowing on personalised chocolates for my hen's night from Amanda Dwyer. All in all, a pretty successful outing.

Veil, Shoes, Chair Sashes.. check!

I picked up my chair sashes (as shown in the previous owner's photo) on Wednesday night. They're very much a yellow gold and I was wondering whether I would have been better off with a "Champagne" or even just plain "Ivory" but mum and I talked about it and she said that maybe the paler colours would 'lack' colour, and that the gold will atleast stand out. And it doesn't clash with my dress, so that's good. I'm just still unsure. I'm reserving judgement until we do a table mockup.

Then yesterday I went over to mum's to work on my veil. Got side tracked on my shopping trip to buy a hair comb to attach to said veil and ended up buying shoes for the whole (girl half of the) wedding party! I love a bargain, and while my sister and I were waiting for Kmart to print out my photos (pictures of my hair/flowers/dress/cake to give to the hairdresser/florist/MIL etc) we were planning to walk over to Spotlight to buy some tulle (to practise on before touching my veil!) and a hair comb. And we did.. but not before walking past Williams and seeing a SALE stand. Of course we had to stop and take a look, and what did we find? Some gold satin peep toe slingbacks, and some black peep toe strappy heels marked down to $30! And incase that wasn't an excellent price already, it was "buy one pair, get the 2nd pair half price"! So we bought both pairs of black heels (and fingers crossed that one pair fits MrsMcD!!), the gold slingbacks and a pair of pearly coloured flower girl shoes.. all for less than $100! And even better, when we got back to mum's and pulled out the pearls, they match the shoes perfectly! 

Not to mention that at Spotlight when we were buying tulle, I found some adhesive pearls that I thought were approximately the right colour (perfect match, actually!!) to embellish the veil comb, but there are so many in the pack that I will have enough to consider bling-ing my shoes up. Speaking of my veil, we got as far as finishing the gathering when it was time for me to head home for the night, but the plan is to hopefully finish it off tonight so that it's complete and ready to take to my hair trial on Monday morning!

Burlesque Brides..

MOH Mrs McD, my sister (BM) and I have been phoning back and forth all week with ideas for the Hen's night, when to hold it and what things I ABSOLUTELY do not want. Current #1 idea is a Sugar Blue Burlesque flavoured Hen's Party. My sister and I saw them at the last ebridal expo and thought it was a fabulous idea - and I've spoken to a couple of people who have been to their parties and they said it was well worth it. Definitely sounds more my style than a stripper!

Speaking of the ebridal expo, did I mention that in addition to the $100 voucher I won at their August expo I won $500 to spend at this weekend's expo? (Conveniently in 5x $100 vouchers so that I don't have to spend it all in the one place!) So I've written a list of things that I'm hoping might be at the expo.. including hair pieces/fascinators for the girls, clutch purses, lingerie, scrapbooking supplies for the programs/placecards/table numbers etc - there are about a dozen things on my list. If I can find even two or three things that I can spend my vouchers on I will be happy!

Decorative signage..

So I mentioned yesterday that I was browsing the DIY section of Wedding Bee, and there were a couple of pages that I forgot to bookmark as good ideas that I'm now having trouble re-locating! But one idea that I saw and liked was this "&" idea instead of a "Bride" and "Groom" sign on our chairs at the reception.

Now I don't think that I mentioned specifically that I've managed to find some gold organza chair sashes second hand on Gumtree that are an excellent price and I'm hoping to pick them up this weekend. There are 100 of them, and given that I only expect 40-60 at the reception that leaves me enough to use some as table runners (maybe) and pew bows too.

But today whilst looking for a birthday present for my BIL at Loot Homewares, I came across some wooden letters, including an... ampersand! And they were only $11.95! They also had some of those "Love" wooden signs (that's one of the things I'm sure I saw on a cake table on Wedding Bee but can't find again now) but only in red. But they have ordered some in white and they should have them in about a week or so. So the plan is to go back and get the love sign and the ampersand and then maybe paint them in an appropriate colour (or maybe leave them white.. who knows?).

And that's where the extra chair sashes will come in handy!

Pretty things..

I've spent most of the day browsing the DIY section of Wedding Bee and I've seen some pretty spectacular ideas..

There was some DIY "I Do" wedding shoe bling.. and then there was the Bridesmaid Survival Kit:

After that, there was the jewelled comb mantilla veil:

And the super cute dyed crinoline petticoats!

I also love the idea of these hot cocoa cones (but don't think it will fit with my theme specifically)

There were lots of other ideas that I found along the way, and I'm still only on page 97 of 186!

Photography..

Ziph and I were having trouble finding a *good* wedding photographer in Geraldton. Sure, there are lots of photographers up there, but considering what a technical snob (I mean that affectionately) Ziph is, we can't just use anyone with a pretty facebook page.. their actual work has to be good. So that cut the field down significantly.. and the good photographers hide themselves pretty well - they don't tend to come up in google searches for "Wedding Photographer Geraldton"! But we managed to find two. Yes, only two. So we contacted them both to find out if they were available, and to get quotes etc. The first photographer was Carrie Young. She's located in Geraldton, but upon receiving her pricelist it became apparent that she wasn't going to be within our price range.. but that was ok, because Ziph actually preferred photographer #2, Dani from Wheatbelt Photography.. so we were very happy when we received her email reply and not only was she available, but she was definitely in the ball park price-wise! Yay!

So we arranged a meeting with her here in Perth last week and had a talk about what we wanted and what she offers and looked through one of her wedding albums etc.. Dani & Ziph also had a nice little chat about photography equipment (which went straight over my head, but I smiled and nodded when I thought it might be appropriate!). So when we got home I emailed her to confirm that we are definitely keen to have her as our wedding photographer and now I'm just waiting on her to send through her booking/agreement form etc so that we can get it all locked in! Fingers crossed.

Wedding hair..

I thought that with the changes to my veil I'd have to change the way I was planning to have my hair. But I was browsing the internet and I found this hairstyle which is more or less exactly what I had in mind (except my veil will sit higher). Now I just need to find a hairdresser in Geraldton. I tried one salon (that came recommended) but they said they can only do wedding hair for existing clients as they're very busy - but I forgot to mention that I'm getting married on a Tuesday morning, incase that made a difference! Then when we met up with the photographer, she suggested that a mobile hairdresser is a good idea because then you get to have photos of the makeup and hair preparation etc. Looks like I'll need to get MOH Mrs McD onto the case.

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..