Tuesday 3 January 2012

2012 A New Year

 

Happy New Year Everyone!

Simon and I had Christmas in Ararat at his parents place and then on the 27th we drove to Adelaide to see my parents. While we were there we bought ourselves an awesome present from some money that Sandy and Al (Simon’s parents) gave us and some leftover cashola from the Engagement Party. It was on special at Harvey Norman…

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It’s a new Digital SLR Camera! (Canon EOS 1100D)

I can’t wait to work out how to use it! Smile

At the moment most of our photos that we’ve taken with it look like this;

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But every so often we’ve got some cool ones like this;

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Simon took this after he got home, at first glance you might not be able to see what the photo is actually of but if you look closely you will see a Tawny Frogmouth (Australian Owl) sitting in the tree. Simon actually discovered a nest of them with babies in his backyard after he got home! It’s pretty rare to even see one of these at all so to have a whole nest of them in his backyard is really cool!

Smile Thanks Sandy and Al! X

Anyway we clearly had a very merry Christmas and Happy New Years (plural due to the fact that there are two of us). And I thought now would be as good as any time to review how we are coming along with wedding planning.

As Simon was telling me on Christmas Day it’s about 10 1/2 months until we get married! Scary! But Exciting! We believe we are going to have an excellent year but a lot is to be done!

So according to my wedding plan lists we are currently in the 12-9 months to go mark. Following is a list of tasks I should do/ start/ work towards at this stage in order to make sure Simon and I are on track for our wedding day. Some of these things are not just organisational for the event but are things to help me personally prepare for the day such as beauty prep, relaxation and health and fitness. I am hoping all of these tasks will be ticked of by the nine month mark so that only leaves me a month and a half (or 6 weeks) to complete them!

OK here we go…

* Book a massage, pedicure and hair treatment

tick, tick and tick! In order to make sure I feel relaxed and beautiful on the day I wanted to be very intentional about treating myself throughout the process. Also I want to have loooong hair for my wedding day and in order for it to be in tippety top condition I need to make sure it gets regular treatments. This is particularly important for (fake) blondies like me as blonde hair has much more of a tendency to dry out than our brunette sisters. Literally!

My little sister:

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She is a naturally dark brunette who has never dyed her hair in her (almost) 18 years and it is naturally shiny, frizz free and rarely gets split ends. But she’s not blooooonde! Winking smile

 

* Announce your engagement

We did that on June 12, 2011 to check it out click here.

 

* If your families haven’t met organise a get-together

My parents and Simon’s parents met once before the engagement party and then spent a couple of nights staying together at Simon’s house over the engagement weekend. It was ever so slightly awkward and stressful but we made it through

Winking smile

 

* Choose your bridal party

OK, allow me to introduce my Maid of Honour, Kristy:

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I believe you met her during this post about the Barr-Hoque wedding… (She’s clearly the brunette and she blogs herself at http://akaleidoscopeoftreasure.blogspot.com/)

Winking smile

My Big sister and Bridesmaid,  Melissa:

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I just realised I’m doing the exact same head tilt in both of these photos, how embarrassing…

She also blogs and is also a brunette, haha, I guess that’s a prerequisite for being my friend at the moment (joking clearly!!) at http://tryingtobeayummymummy.wordpress.com/

Clearly Since she blogs on wordpress as opposed to blogger she’s only my bridesmaid coz she’s my sister lol! Again, just kidding!

 Smile with tongue out

And My little Sister and Bridesmaid, Natalie:

I know you just met her above but she’s cute so here’s another photo of her

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Told ya…

Now how to make her look less cute on my wedding day… Seriously, again just joking!!!

But on a serious note, thank goodness I didn’t do the embarrassing head tilt in this photo too Winking smile

And, yes, if you were wondering my babysister is on tumblr, you can follow her (if you dare) at http://hmasnatsack.tumblr.com/

Simons best man is his brother, Tim:

Tim

Yes, he’s a spooky baker…

His groomsman and best friend, Craig:

Craig

Crazy Salvation Army Officer like Simon…

And my brother, also a groomsman, Lance:

Lance

Otherwise known as Wolverine…

Clearly the bridesmaids are beaautiful and all the groomsmen are just a little imbalanced Winking smile

Moving on…

 

* Determine the wedding budget (and who pays for what).

Tick! Our budget is fairly small however we are hoping to make the most of it and save a lot of money by doing a bit of DIY. Hopefully in about 11 months I will give you a run down of what we spent and how we spent it but for now the budget stays under wraps…

 

* Estimate the size of your guest list.

We’re going for a guest list of about 100 but it might get cut down to about 80 if some international guests can’t make it.

 

* Choose wedding date and start times for ceremony and reception.

Saturday 10/11/12 (So Simon can never forget it) and at the moment the ceremony will be at 3pm, we will see how we go with the start date for the reception. Since we are having both the ceremony and the reception at the one location we will have to take that into consideration. However we do have some fun activities planned for between the two events, stay tuned for that in future posts…

 

* Book the ceremony and reception.

OK, this is where we get to a stumbling block. We are pretty sure we can tick this one off the list but despite Annie reassuring me over the phone, we still haven’t got it in writing that we have Allanvale booked for 10/11/12… Have a look at our visit to Allanvale and how we fell in love with it here.

We have had email troubles…

I am hoping to rectify that this week…

Really… Seriously!

 

* Book a pastor.

I left this one up to Simon as The Salvation Army Officer and he decided on Captain Jason Davies-Kildea to do our wedding as he was his Pastor when he lived in Melbourne. Jason is currently the Divisional Social Programme Secretary for Melbourne Central which would mean nothing to anyone who is not a part of The Salvation Army. Basically it means he’s a very smart and cool guy.

 Smile

And this is what he looks like:

Jason

Now we just have to work towards marriage prep classes, can’t wait! I think it will be fun and ultimately getting married is about the marriage, not the wedding so that part will actually be the most important part of all!

 

* Make appointments with bridal-dress boutiques.

On Saturday (New Years Eve) it was a 40 degree (celsius) day in Adelaide and I chose then (as it was the only window of opportunity) to try to go wedding dress shopping with my Mum and Kristy. Kristy is currently living in Canada, as some of you would know, however she was in Adelaide for Christmas and New Year. She won’t be back in the country until (hopefully) the wedding and as my Mum lives in Adelaide and I live in Bendigo, Victoria there won’t be many opportunities for us to go shopping together either! So we thought we would brave it in my brother’s old, non-airconditioned car. Not much luck… Most of the shops had closed for the New Year and the one shop we went to, Princess Collection lived up to its name and all the dresses were fairly ‘Princessy’… Not really anything I wanted to try on, plus I was so gross and sweaty (there’s an image for ya) that I was a little scared to try anything on for fear that it would leave a Renee-shaped sweat mark!

I’m actually planning on getting my wedding dress made but I’ve gotta try a few on to see what suits/ fits/ doesn’t make me look like a pregnant bride first. So that’s the next step. I think I’ll try to make a day in Melbourne with Melissa (since she lives there) to go look at dresses there…

 

OK then we have left on the list…

 

*Book music for the ceremony

 

* Book a photographer/ videographer (I think our budget will only reach to photographer)

 

* Book a florist

 

* Book the honeymoon (straight to Hawaii…!!!) Open-mouthed smile

 

* Attend wedding expos (believe it or not we haven’t been to any yet!)

 

* Finalise the guest list

 

* Order the invitations and stationery and decide if we want a calligrapher

 

* Send out Save the Dates!!!

 

So we need to do all that in the next 6 weeks!

Well… We don’t HAVE to, but I’m giving myself that timeline to put the pressure on a little bit…

So, any ideas for us? Any wedding expos that you know of coming up? Any good (and affordable) photographers or florists that you know of?

Once we get these tasks out of the way we can move onto the 9-6 months to go list which starts with… A facial, massage and pedicure! All the more reason to finish the 12-9 months to go list and get ORGANISED!

Love it!

This has been a long post, apologies…

But I’d love to know what you think!

Is it poor taste to have an A and a B guest list so if some guests can’t make it you can include more friends and family into the mix?

How was your Christmas and New Year?

Happy Day! Happy Year!***

Open-mouthed smile

5 comments:

  1. so here are my comments

    1) Your wedding is going to be awesome
    2) We did the WHOLE THING in 6.5 months from engagement to wedding, so dont stress if you dont get everything done before you reach the 9 months mark. Getting it all sorted will be great as you can chill more nearer the time, but frankly as you get nearer, you expect to be busier anyway
    3) the A and B guest list is fine BUT you have to send out your invitations a little earlier, because if people get an invitation 10 days before the wedding, they know they're on the B List, whereas if you send out invitations good and early, you can get replies in plenty of time to invite some other friends.

    Becca

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  2. You are a girl with a plan, love it!!
    All sounds good, and the A and B lists are poor form only if mentioned again. Set a very early rsvp for internationals, then invite more people at that time. Go you!!!

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  3. Thanks Mrs Williams!

    I can't believe that you did it ALL in 6.5 months!
    That's not enough time for me to lose my food baby belly!! ;)
    You looked amazeballs at your wedding and I LOVE'd your dress :)

    We are undecided as of yet on the A and B list but had read/ heard about it at other places and thought I would see what others thought.

    Thanks for the comments as well Annette!

    We are hoping to definitely send out the save-the-dates by the 9 month mark, particularly to internationals! However we were also thinking that we might only send out about 80 save-the-dates as these are 'definitely going to invite you, please make sure you are free' people and we want to make sure we have some leeway and flexibility...
    You know in case I make any enemies between now and then.
    Hahaha. Joking! Thanks for the comments girlies, love it! X

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  4. Hey Renee,

    I just wanted to tell you I am loving your blog and you are soooooo much more organised than I was, but that is a good thing, It sounds like it is going to be fantastic and very very beautiful, which I always knew it would be :).

    The only bits of advice I have from my experience is get on to the dress and photographer early coz it appears that dresses take for ever to come in or make (mine took 4months to be shipped) and photographers book up really quick... but also take some time to enjoy it :).... hope that helps,

    Oh and just becuase I loved her... if you want a good, reasonanlly priced photographer... check out http://alexroadphotography.com.au

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  5. Hmm, not sure if I need a guest list management tool... ;)

    THANKS so much for the comments Em!
    It's so nice to get feedback.

    My Melancholy nature means I love details and being organised but it also means I have to make a point of relaxing and enjoying everything even if it's not absolutley perfect!!

    I am definitely trying to make the dress the prioriy right now and thanks so much for the heads up about the photography! I checked out her website and she looks great! XXX

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