1st Set of Photos!

We just received a link for our first cut of photos, with the full set to be available when we get back from our honeymoon!

Most of these pics are of the hall.

 

D-Day 5 more sleeps away!

Wow, what a difference a few days makes!

Things were going along swimmingly, everything coming together well, then kaboom a clusterf%*$ bomb goes off.

Don't want to go into too many details, as it's already doing my head in, and I just can't think about it any more. But needless to say alot of swearing, tears, and stress has been had since Friday, none of it of our doing!

1 family member doesn't want to stay in the same house as another because their voice annoys them (yes I'm being serious!), a couple of kids in the family have fallen ill, the illness means they should be isolated, the easy, and common sense answer is that one of the parents stays with the kids, while the other comes. But that's turned into a nightmare with people threatening not to come, even when we told them (1 family who have been sworn to secrecy) that it was our wedding, hoping they would be able to sort it.

Mr Mel and I had a sleepless weekend, trying to placate all parties, we spent most of our weekend calling/texting/emailing everyone trying to work out the best plan for the weekend, when we should have been us fine-tuning everything, and relaxing if possible! However it just didn't happen.

So now it's 5 sleeps till our big day, and we still have a bit to do:

• Bunting - or now known as Nemesis - everything is sewn up, ironed, just need to sew them all together into 15 metre lengths, that is my mission tonight and tomorrow before and after work
• Shoes - I dyed them however once fully dried they were too light, so I have gone over them with acrylic paint, which is in the process of drying, I will then spray them with a sealant
• Honeymoon Clothes - whoops, not a smart idea to try and go summer clothes shopping in middle of winter!  Have found a few bits an pieces that will work with our current clothes, thankfully even found some not too horrific bathers! Yay
• Payments - tonight have to make final payments to caterer, decorator, hire company, hall
• Flowers - I am heading to the Sydney Flower Market on Wednesday morning, leaving home at 3.15am!! with a lady who goes to the Curves I go to, and her daughter, who was a florist, and does some work on the side.  The plan is to go and see what catches the eye, run it by florist re how it could work, then buy them wholesale.  We're going to have a few arrangements, then a heap of single flowers in wine bottles & jars, at this stage!
• Ring - I am hoping I will have time to get my engagement ring polished/cleaned for the big day, if not, no big deal
• Photographer - we are meeting with our photographer at the hall on Wednesday afternoon to get an idea of where to get photos, what sort of light is around etc
• Music - I need to finish off saving music to my ipod and organising playlists
• Decorations - I need to write on a few blackboards & picture frames to go around the hall with info re food, wine, etc.
• Pom Poms - IF I get time I am going to make some pom poms, to hang around the hall, I have all the tissue paper, just need time to make them!
• Family issues - need to make sure I stand my ground for my big day and not get bullied into backing down, I only want to ensure all of our guests are safe and healthy, not infected by possibly sick kids on the day!
• Oh and work - tomorrow is my last day, yay, then I can concentrate properly on my to-do list, instead of squeezing it around my 10 hour work days!  Not mentioning all the work to get done before I leave tomorrow!

Wish me luck!

Photographer - update

We booked our Photographer a few months back, she is someone we've known informally for a few years, while not close, I think knowing her a bit will help us feel a bit more relaxed (here's hoping!)

Now our wedding is less than 2 months away we're meeting up with Katrina to show her the location so she can get an idea of shot angles/lighting etc, and to chat about the sort of photos we want.

We're meeting this Saturday out at the Hall, and she is going to take some test photos of us also, have I mentioned I HATE getting my photo taken?

We want our photos to be informal, relaxed, impromptu, not the normal posed shots, we want it more personal like family photos.

In our initial discussions back in Feb I sent Katrina a link to some great photos of another surprise wedding (http://www.polkadotbride.com/2010/11/how-to-throw-a-surprise-wedding/) and I still really like the style of the photos, especially how well they have captured the emotion of the surprise.  I think this will be the main thing I want Katrina to focus on, and yes it's a sneaky way to get some of the focus off me!

I'm going to do little props like this for our wedding day (photo source)

Seeings as I hate HATE getting my photo taken, I would be extremely grateful for any words of advice from readers, ie

How do you relax for a photo?
What's the best way to stand? keeping in mind I'm no skinny minny!
What sort of photos/poses should we aim for, in this pre-wedding shoot?
Do you know of any websites with good pre-wedding photos?

Plus any other gems you may have :)

Update - as I hit 'publish post' an email came through from Katrina, she needs to reschedule (yay!!) so I get a few more weeks grace before we meet up for the pre-wedding shoot, but feel free to give any and all ideas!! :)

Thanks!!!!