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.