Practice run with celebrant

It was 3 weeks last Saturday till the big day, and everything is coming together, Mr Mel & I have to-do list each that we are getting through.

Saturday saw me buzzing around Maitland search for and finding some bargains for crockery, cutlery, and bowls/vases/decorations.  A good haul was gotten :)

On Sunday, Mr Mel & I had a practice run at the Hall with our Celebrant, Victoria from Beautiful Days.

Victoria is lovely, we would highly recommend her, she has a really relaxed vibe, and is very excited about our surprise wedding. She helped us come up with our plan of how we'll tell our parents and arrive at the hall.

We met at the hall, Mr Mel & I were a bit early so we did some last minute measurements for the fairy lights around the verandah etc.

Victoria arrived and we signed the last bit of pre-ceremony paperwork. She then gave us some options re how the ceremony will run and where we will stand etc.

We are going to stand on the 2nd top step of the hall, with Victoria on the top step, our Maid of Honour (aka Brides Slave) and Best Man will stand on the 3rd, maybe 4th top step, depending on how we fit. And our guests will stand on the grass surrounding the steps.

The Hall, we'll stand on the steps in the middle

Brides Slave will drive our parents to the Hall, after we tell our parents about 1/2 hour before kick-off, at our house.

Then Mr Mel & I will follow together, with Mr Mel driving.

As we pull off the road, a friend (who is in on the secret) will hit play on the CD, and Bruno Mars 'Marry You' song will start, that song along with the ribbon on our car will be the 'announcement' so to speak, of the surprise.

When we pull up, our celebrant Victoria will bring my Dad and Sister (Brides Slave) to the car, Mr Mel will go and ask his Best Man to be his Best Man!!  Then Mr Mel & Best Man will stand on the right of the steps.

My sister will walk in front and my Dad will walk me across the verandah from the car, stopping about 3m from the steps, when Mr Mel will come and shake Dad's hand, then walk me to the steps.

View from verandah

Then Mr Mel and I will stand on the steps, and the ceremony will begin.

Now up until this point of the practice Mr Mel and I were fine, lots of excited smiles and winks, and hand squeezes.

Then Victoria said that my Sister (Brides Slave/Matron), will say a reading from the 3rd step, looking at us.

Well that was that, tears flowed from me.  Imagining my sister standing there reading the beautiful reading we had picked, got me.  Victoria, Mr Mel & I had a laugh, and after a few minutes of wiping eyes, punching Mr Mel in the stomach for laughing at me, and then laughing at myself, I was ok!

View from the verandah

Once the ceremony part is done, Mr Mel and I will sign the registry, which will be set up on the left side of the verandah, then Victoria will announce us, and we will go down the steps and no doubt get mobbed by friends and family.

We are both so excited, it's 20 days until we have a fantastic day at our surprise wedding, and we can't wait. Sure we have alot to do still (bunting you are my nemesis), but we know that no matter what happens, we will have one of the best days of our lives so far!

To Bunt Or Not To Bunt

To Bunt Or Not To Bunt that is one of the questions I'm asking myself.

Our venue is quite large and so far I'm thinking of decorating it with white chinese lanterns, 3 different round sizes, along with fairy lights.

I'm meeting with a lady this weekend who is going to help with the decorations, I'm buying/renting/supplying everything, she'll put it all together for me.

Because it's a surprise wedding I can't rope in friends & family, and because we don't get access until the Friday afternoon, which happens to be when all of my family are arriving from Vic, and I'll be shuttling between home & Newcastle Airport, I was struggling to work out how I was going to manage to decorate everything.

Over the past 3 weeks, my hairdresser, our accountant and a lady at Curves have all suggested I call the same lady to come help, so I did, and we're meeting up this weekend.

One of the things I've been tossing up is bunting, I've been touring around the web quite a bit getting inspiration for decorations, and quite a few photos of bunting, and I'm loving them.

(photo source)

(photo source)

I'm still trying to work out if I have the time and skill to give it a go, but having asked the question at Simple Savings, the girls have filled me with confidence, even pointing me in the direction of a tutorial.

My Mum gave me her old sewing machine at Christmas when she upgraded, and while I haven't sewn a stitch (apart from hand sewing socks, buttons & hems), in over 15 years, I don't think it'd be too much of a struggle to pick it up again!

This weekend I'm heading out wedding dress shopping, well at least to meet with a dressmaker hopefully, and will stop at some Op Shops on the way to see if any sheets or clothes made out of green & white material that would look nice in bunting form.

Not sure if it's a fool's folly to add another thing to the to-do list!  But we'll see anyway!

Flower Scheme

After much googling to see what flowers are in season in Winter, we, well let's be honest, I (poor Mr Mel has little input on it heehee) have decided on our flowers for our surprise wedding.

Because it will be end of July, mid winter, we're going with a white and pale green theme, and I just adore the floral display below from Lily And Rose.

Green Cymbidium Orchids, Leucodendrons and Dodder Vine

At this stage we're going to have mainly white, with pale green features, through flowers, and maybe seat sashes and/or tablecloths for the cocktail tables & stools.

An update on progress so far, given it's just over 5 months till d-day!!

Catering - we're meeting with our preferred caterer this Saturday at their kitchen near Newcastle

Decoration - I've received a few quotes, and will visit the showroom of a local supplier to have a look at options, she has decorated the Hall for previous weddings, so it will be great to get some input.

Also scanning Ebay to see if any deals on fairy lights to hang on the ceiling of the verandah and in the hall itself.

Our Venue

So the venue was something we'd had many thoughts on.

Living in the Hunter Valley, the obvious choice was a vineyard, however vineyards come with a few restrictions we weren't keen on.

1 - Catering - most vineyards have their own caterers, the 'cheapest' one we liked was $129 per head!   Now we're only having around 70 people, that's just over $7,000 alone!

2 - Alcohol - most vineyards, being vineyards, will only allow their own wine to be served.  While we love several wines in the valley, not enough to be paying $20+ per bottle, as the catering packages only last 4 hours, then you pay on top.

So we soon found out we were pushing it up a hill a bit, with our list of requirements:

- able to bring in own caterer

- able to supply own alcohol

After much emailing around to vineyards and guest houses, things weren't looking good, a few guest houses said we could use their grounds, IF we hired the guesthouse for 2 nights (prices ranged from $2,500 to sleep 12 for 2 nights, to $5,000 to sleep 20 for 2 nights), and you had to bring in your own marquee, seats, toilets, etc etc.

So as a last measure I emailed the Wine Country Tourist Info, and their answer came through on Tuesday:

"Thank you for your Hunter Valley Wine Country enquire. There is not a great deal of places in the area that allow what it is that your asking for, as you can imagine being a wine country area most properties are wanting to promote their own product! There is the Hall where you can hire caters bring your own alcohol. However as for any other venue such as this we are not aware of anything. Sorry we were not able to assist further. "

I had never heard of the Hall, so after work on Tuesday, I plugged the address into TomTom and went to see the Hall. 

What a revelation, it's exactly what we want, a lovely stone hall, with a view over vineyards, a grassed area in front of a big verandah, not too over the top.

As the wedding will be the first time our families have met, we want more of a party atmosphere, where everyone mingles, rather than a formal sit down dinner wedding.

And I think we've found the prefect venue in the hall.

The Hall was locked, so I could only look in the windows, I excitedly jumped back in the car, drove home, ringing Mr Mel on the way, saying 'meet me out the front in 5, lock up the house'.

I didn't tell Mr Mel where we were going, when we got there, he looked at me and smiled and said 'well Chickadee I think you've done it, its perfect'!

So on Thursday I rang the managers at Draytons Wines to see if it was available in July/August, and woohoo it was available on 23 July.

Then I held my breath as I asked the price (having just received numerous emails from other venues that averaged around $1,000 to hire ground to erect a marquee on!) and couldn't stop smiling when she said $660!

So I organised for us to pick up the key and pay a deposit.

This morning Mr Mel & I drove out to Draytons, picked up the key, and went for a walk through.

Below are some photos.

Hall - front

View from Hall

View from Hall verandah

View thru window at Hall

Hall - with a bit of love and decorations we'll transform it :)

Kitchen at Hall

I think you'll agree, we've been very fortunate to find our future wedding spot!! :)