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!)

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!