Wedding over.

Well it's been rather a long time since I posted a blog. I felt as if I wasn't really qualified to write a blog, if I'm perfectly honest. I also didn't think anyone really wanted to read it anyway. Hence my long absence. And all because of that, I didn't document the months leading up to the wedding, but hey ho... life moves on.

I'll attempt to tell you now what happened since September and how the day was (the little I can remember about) in the coming blog posts.

Since I last left you, I'm sure loads has happened. Thankfully, the wedding happened and nobody died, or got seriously injured. So let's all say a communal "thank you" and "amen" for that!
We had a great day, and I think a lot of other people did too. They might just be humouring me, it's a distinct possibility, but I'll take them at their word.

Jumping way back though.... November and December included a trip to Darwin, NT. My friend is currently living up there and working as a nurse, so myself, Ben (now husband - woohoo!!) and three friends booked a ticket with Jetstar (worst decision ever made) and jetted, excuse the pun, off to Darwin.

It was quite possibly the hottest and most humid time in my existence, but it was a great experience and I am glad we did it. Next time however, we're going in dry season so there aren't continual thunderstorms, and so there isn't any threats of crocodiles. That way we can actually go to places like Kakadu before they're closed (due to crocodiles) and electrical storms electricuting you whilst leisurely swimming in the creeks and watering holes.
My friend is still living up there, and might be returning to Sydney some time this year, so there might be another trip north yet!

December was just as festive as usual, and included Christmas lights on the house! Ben and I decided to get up on the roof of my parent's house and decorate the crap out of it.
We also decided to buy a Christmas tree, after only having a fibre-optic one the last couple of years. We also saw it as a bit of an investment for future Christmas' as a new family.

It was rather sad when I realised that it would the last in my family home. It then brought on other realisations like, last birthday in my family home, last night, last meal... last everything.
I'll leave most of that conversation for another blog post, though.

Ben and I celebrated also our two year anniversary in the ShangriLa hotel just before Christmas. Ben surprised me with a night there, and we were thrilled with the room and the service.
We went to the Meat and Wine Co. in the lobby of the Intercontinental and absolutely loved it. Would highly recommend you go there for a meal!

January and February went by in a blur. I've actually had to refer to my Instagram to see if anything of note happened, but it appears not much went on which I felt should be broadcasted on social media. I did appear to make some banana bread, and do a test run on the wedding bonbonnieres, but other than that, my life appeared to be fairly uneventful.

I turned 24 at the end of February. Wasn't an overly grand affair. I worked during the day, and then went to dinner with my family and Ben in the evening at the St George Motor Boat club. It was a great night as my parent's had not been there since their wedding reception in 1988! We finished the night off by eating Caramel Cheesecake from New York Cake Patisserie and watching The Sound of Music. It was Ben's first time watching my favourite film, and of course he fell asleep when the nazis got involved, but I forgave him.

February and early March included my last few weeks at work, my university exam, my final fittings of my dress for the wedding, a 60th birthday party,and many other wedding-related things, and the arrival of the first English people! It was a very exciting time, and those memories I will cherrish forever. I will speak more about March in my next blog post. For now, here are some snaps about the above mentioned. Please ignore the weird sizes of the photos. Who knows what went wrong.

Darwin - Litchfield National Park

Litchfield National Park. Soaked.

Nitchcliff Foreshore

Anniversay shot.

Christmas shot!

The view from my birthday meal.

Dear friends at the surprise 60th!

SPRING HAS SPRUNG!

Today I don't feel as if I have much to talk about even though we have been on the go the last couple weeks.

Last week we went to our friends, Hannah and Tristan's wedding. Their ceremony was at Trinity Chapel at Trinity Grammar School and the reception was at The Grounds.
The whole thing was beautiful. I felt so privileged to be able to be a bridesmaid. It was such a special day.

The rest of the week included catching up with some friends for dinner, and lots of looking forward to the weekend so we could catch up on sleep.

This weekend we went for a bush walk with the above newly married couple in the Royal National Park. The weather was perfect. We spent the first hour or so walking about and exploring the creek, and then stopped for a picnic on a rock at Winifred Falls (first photo below).
We definitely plan on making it a semi regular event. It was so nice to get out about in the sunshine and take Ben to some places he hasn't been before. He even worked up the courage to jump off Wattamolla rocks! The jump looks fairly tame from the side, but is about 10-12 metres and much more scarier when you're about to throw yourself off.

Today we were able to finally use one our Christmas presents from my parents - brunch with champagne on a tall ship! The weather, much like yesterday was amazing! We boarded at Campbell's Cove in The Rocks and made a 2 hour loop of the harbour whilst being served canapés and alcoholic beverages. We didn't opt to climb the mast of the ship, but if you're a little adventurous then it's definitely something you should do.

On the wedding front, we finally decided on transportation this week and make a deposit on an old school limo for the day. We also started dance lessons with my cousin who is a ballroom dance teacher. We decided we would leave ourselves lots of time to become rumba maestros! 

We've done other little bits and pieces like choose our menu options and do a rough seating plan, but can' definitely be ticked off for a while yet.

Next on the agenda is bonboneries (wedding favours) and invitations! I've been doing some creative investigation this week to get a better idea of what style we want for everything that needs to be printed (invitations, order of service, place names, menus etc). I think I've almost decided on a colour scheme. I will be running through all my ideas with my friend Laura who is kindly doing the invitations for us in the near future. Getting things organised sooner rather than later is better in my opinion! 

Apart from work this week, we have absolutely nothing planned next weekend - the first in a while for us! I'm hoping it stays that way... I'm looking forward to a bit of R and R!

POST-EXAM ELATION

It's been a long time since I've even thought about writing a blog post. I had my uni exam this week and I cannot even begin to tell you how pleased I am that this semester is over. I won't even go into how bad the exam was (exacerbated by a sinus infection that left me comatose for 72 hours), because I am concentrating on the positives rather than the negatives for the next 7 weeks (until uni commences again).

It's very strange having all this free time. I have this niggling thought that I should probably be doing something... but thankfully the only thing to think about is my friend Hannah's wedding next weekend (wooo!!). This is the first time being a bridesmaid and I am loving it! I get to be involved in all the minor and major details, and get to be there with Hannah in the lead up. It is going to be so exciting. There is even a run sheet!!!!!! If you know me, a run sheet is pure bliss.
Hannah is also one of my bridesmaids for our wedding, so it will be fun when roles are reversed next March!

So to update you on our wedding, we have been super productive in the last couple weeks.

- Wedding rings 

- Finalise and book church

- Hair stylist

- Start collecting documents/evidence for visa

- Suits

- Honeymoon flights

Of all the things we had to do on the 'up next' list, we have done them all! We booked flights last night and bought the suits today, and it felt amazing to have another thing sorted.
At this stage we don't really need to be too pedantic about the evidence for our visa. We have most of the evidence already stored away in a little filing box. We'll continue to store everything until the new year and then begin to arrange everything and start the visa application.
I don't want to tempt fate, but we are really quite organised at this stage. I am loving it. 

This coming week we have our first meeting at our reception venue to start talking about some of the finer details. They forwarded through an 11 page document that we need to start to think about/fill out. Along with the run sheet I mentioned earlier, this is also pure bliss for me. I am having serious trouble controlling the elation I get from all this organisation.

This week I will be trawling through Pinterest to get some ideas for a colour scheme for the reception and some inspiration for flowers. If you're interested, this is my Pinterest Board.

BRIDE'S ESSENTIALS

Thought I would do quick post to show what my essentials have been in order to plan, organise and stay on top of everything wedding related.

I got the Wedding Notes book on the left from one of my bridesmaid's, Hannah, just after Ben and I got engaged. I only just recently got the little Bride's notes (on the right) when we went to Peter's of Kensington to finalise our gift registry. Such a cute little momento to give to a bride!

The little Bride's Notes book is just a little blank notepad where you can jot things down. Much more handy for things that you see out and about (like the price of a florist) or things you remember that you need to do later on. 

Generally, I will update the bigger one with all the details when I get home of an evening. I use the both of them a lot, but I tend to use the little Bride's Notes more recently as it can fit in my handbag and can pull it out much easier.

When you first open it up, it has a wedding countdown checklist, with everything you could possibly think of and the time frame for organising it/booking it/to making final arrangements. Everything from 'announce your engagement' to 'get manicure and pedicure' and everything in between. I love it. It's been heaps of fun to keep up to date with it and see if I am on track. We're currently in the 6-9 months bracket and are about half way through with everything we need to do.

After the checklist, there is every tab under the sun where you can put in more detail about places you have been, or who you have enquired with. It's also really good for keeping track of how much money you're spending and what on (so not to go too overboard!).
As you can see, I am yet to finalise a cake maker, or do any research (and 'order a wedding cake is on the 6-9 months checklist!!).

For any of the Bride's getting married in the not to distant future, I would definitely recommend getting one of these. Any notepad will do fine, but it is nice to splurge a little and get a wedding organiser. All the information is in the one place that I can go back to, and having the checklist is a massive help to see what needs to be done!
FYI - you can purchase wedding organiser's at any stationary store, or some gift stores. The one above is from Kikki K.

PLANS

I said to myself before we started planning this wedding that I would try not to get stressed, and that most importantly that we would organise it how WE wanted.

Both of those are still true, but boy.... people cannot warn you enough about how ridiculous planning a wedding can be. They also don't tell you how quickly everyone and everything books up!!!

For instance - many of hair stylists and makeup artists that I enquired with were already booked for our wedding day - ALMOST NINE MONTHS IN ADVANCE! Um.... excuse me?! I also couldn't believe how much they were quoting me either, but that's another story. 

We had our engagement party last month at my Aunt and Uncle's house in Agnes Banks. I was a bit worried about the weather to begin with, but it turned out to be a fabulous (friggen chilly!) afternoon.

We were so grateful for everyone that came and braved the cold to celebrate with us!

We could have not asked for a more beautiful afternoon. We were truly blessed with all the help we received as well! My friend Hannah's mum, Lorraine, with the help of Hannah and Tristan did the flowers for us. They were incredible! Thankfully she is free the day of our wedding as well! If the Engagement is anything to go by, the wedding is going to be beautiful!

I was going to write out a long spiel about the things we have organised and why we decided on what we have, but I thought I would be real with myself and just write out a plain, ol' simple list! 

Things already booked/purchased

- Photographer: James Day. We knew for quite some time that we wanted James to photograph our day, and thankfully we were able to snatch up one of his 2015 dates (which as far as I'm aware are now all booked up!) Check him out on Facebook and Instagram.

- Reception Venue: Summer Salt Restaurant

- Florist: Lorraine Allen (as mentioned above).

- Invitations, name cards etc: My amazingly talented friend, Laura! She does her own freelance work here if you want to check her out.

- Makeup Artist: Natalie Wolf

- My dress: Top secret! 

- Bridesmaid dresses: Paper Scissors Frock

- Honeymoon: We're off to Vietnam for 12 days! Staying in Central/Southern Vietnam on the coast in two amazing resorts, before going to Ho Chi Minh at end for some amazing Vietnam deals!

- Bridesmaid gifts: Top secret!

- DJ: Express Entertainment

Up next to organise

- Wedding rings - if anyone can recommend a good jeweller, please let me know! 

- Finalise and book church

- Hair stylist

- Start collecting documents/evidence for visa

- Suits

- Honeymoon flights

I'll end this here before it gets anywhere near essay length and leave you with reason 1081 why I love Ben: he gave me a rose this afternoon - for no reason at all :)

I swear this blog isn't going to turn into sap!

ENGAGED!!!!

I've started a blog. I've been grappling with myself for a while about whether it is a good idea or not as every Tom, Dick and Harry seems to be doing it these days. But I thought given that I've got the worst long term memory known to man, I thought I would write about the marvellous and mundane things going on in our lives.

So, to myself in five years time - You're 23, you're engaged to Ben who you met on Twitter and you're sick with enthusiasm about being able to organise something on a big scale (your wedding)!

Ben and I met via Twitter in October 2012. Cue question - 'how exactly do you meet someone on Twitter?' Well, long story short is that I was following some people who supported Manchester City Football Club (the best team on Earth), and one of those people retweeted one of Ben's tweets. I replied, and if I was really corny, I would say the rest is history... but I'm not, so this is what happened. Keep reading.

After a couple tweets back and forth, we eventually started to chat a bit more and then decided to exchange numbers (mainly because the 140 character limit on Twitter was a bit of a conversation killer)! 

After many consecutive days/weeks of talking and telling each other about life in our respective countries, I decided to book a spur of the moment 5 week trip to England.  If I look rationally back at the situation, it was incredibly impulsive to go on a trip to meet to meet a man who lived in Manchester. However, as I sit here now and type it all out, it was one of the best decisions I have made in my life. 

We spent the majority of 2013 and half of 2014 apart, however I was fortunate to spend two weeks in Manchester last March and September, while Ben came over to Sydney for 4 weeks during the summer. To say it was hard is putting it lightly. Having a relationship with someone through a screen is really difficult, but we were always sure to remind ourselves about how fortunate we were to have the technology we have today, that we were both healthy, and that we were actually able to spend some time together. It also helped knowing that we were both in it together, and we both knew that this is what we wanted. 

Ben proposed on 21 December 2013. Quietly, I did know it was coming, but it didm't make it any less exciting. After spending another two weeks with Ben as his fiancé, we said our final, heart wrenching goodbye started counting down until his big move to come and live here in Australia. 

Looking back it seems that it all went by in a flash, but I can guarantee you I was not a nice person to live with for the last year and a half (sorry Mum and Dad)! 

In May I made the trip over to England and spent Ben's last two weeks in Manchester with him. We packed up his room into several Ikea boxes and said our final goodbyes to all his friends and family. It was bittersweet. I was so proud of how brave Ben was to leave all he knew behind and start a new life with me, in a completely new country. I am incredibly spoiled. 

So now, more than two months into our time together here, I still feel incredibly grateful that he has come all this way. There is not a day that goes by where I am not thankful of his sacrifice to move here... and I think my family feels the same way as I am genuinely a much happier person!!!

Our big day is next March and I am looking forward to spend the rest of my life with the most wonderful man I have ever met. 

Now, enough of the sickly sweet sap! 

This blog will be mainly wedding oriented for the next 224 days, however, I plan on writing some other life things as well... so hopefully it won't all be boring bride talk!

While I organise my first wedding related post, I will plug Ben's blog. If you love a good long word, or some dry wit, then it's definitely the place for you.