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!