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!

He's Put A Ring On It :)

On Saturday morning we rose at 5.30am, and hit the road at 6.15am (via McCafe for java) and headed to Sydney to pick up our engagement ring.

I have to admit I was feeling quite ill as we arrived, nerves, anticipation perhaps.

The staff were lovely, greeted us as we arrived knowing what we were there for, they were still polishing the ring so we had a seat for 5 mins, then they bought it out, Yowsers so sparkly!  I felt a bit nervous putting it on, but you couldn't wipe the smile off me, or Mr Mel for that matter!

They gave us a bottle of champagne, an ID card for the diamond to ensure it was ethically sourced (Canada not Africa), and valuation certificate, worth 1/2 again on top of what we paid, yay, gotta love contacts (see earlier post).

Our ring!  I forgot to wipe it when I took the pics, will do better photos soon!

I love the side view

So pretty :)

So after a few weeks shopping around, then 2 weeks waiting while it got made, we have our engagement ring.  It's quite different to most in that the band is quite thick, but we love it, and really that's all that matters!

I spent the afternoon trying to stop staring at it, while we were at a family birthday, and still getting used to people grabbing my hand to have a look at it! And yes the smile is still firmly planted on my face, Mr Mel's also even though I keep waving/wiggling/showing it to him!

The Ring - pt 3

Following on from pt 2 - we are heading to Sydney on Saturday morning to pick up our engagement ring!!  Yay!  Very exciting, we met with the jeweller 2 weeks ago, and they've been working on it since, so Saturday is the day!

Sure I had a frantic email to them around 2am one morning when I panicked that I hadn't explained a crucial part properly, and then had a follow up call from the jeweller reassuring me all was ok and that alot of girls do the same!

While we're there we're going to pick out our wedding bands also, I'm going plain white gold, Mr Mel is having white gold with some sort of texture, unsure as yet.

So hopefully the photo I post on this blog with the ring on my finger will look exactly (please engagement ring/jewellery gods look kindly upon me) like the one we picked.

The photo we gave them to work off

Here's hoping!!

The Ring - pt 2

When opportunity knocks, answer the bleeping door! 

Last Friday Mr Mel's father announced our engagement (adding that we hadn't picked a ring yet) at a group he attends, and after the announcement one of the members approached him and said "You know I'm a retired jeweller?  My son is running my shop, if Mr Mel & Mel want to come in and discuss ring options, I'll make sure they get looked after'.

Mr Mel's dad didn't mention anything until the weekend, when we said we'd been ring shopping but had been discouraged by the obviously hugely inflated prices. 

While ring shopping we had found a design we love (see earlier post), then went and had a quick chat with a manufacturing jeweller in Newcastle.  They advised the cost would be approx 3 times our budget to get the design we wanted with better quality jewels & gold, so we weren't really feeling overly confident.

Last night we drove down to Sydney, and met with Mr Mel's dad's mate, which is where my opening line comes in!  

The common saying of 'it's not what you know, it's who you know' rings so true.  We knew we wanted a better quality product, but at a better price, and our drive to Sydney certainly gave us both.

We're getting our ring made, it's the exact design as what we picked (earlier post), with 18ct white gold, instead of the 14ct of the one we saw at the 'mainstream' shop, and a D colour diamond, rather than the J of the one we saw.

The design we're getting made - yay!

So our ring will be ready in 2 weeks, we can't wait!

And another bonus, because we bought our engagement ring there, we get an automatic 20% discount on our wedding bands!  Because the engagement ring is quite blingy (well for me it is!) I'll be getting a very plain white gold band, Mr Mel's will have a bit of texture to it.

All in all, we're very happy campers, part 3 of 'The Ring' posts will have a photo of our ring on my finger in 2 weeks! Yay!!

The Ring - pt 1

I can't count how many texts, emails, FB posts, calls I've had this past since we got engaged last Monday (Valentine's Day), of 'show us the bling'.

Prior to Mr Mel proposing we had discussed engagement rings, that the 'easiest' thing to do would be for us to pick it out together.

Well last weekend we went 'bling' shopping. Holy moly, what a nightmare!  Seemingly acres of rings of all shapes, sizes, and pricetags.  'Friendly' staff trying to maneuver you into a sale. We stayed strong and resisted.

We went to a few 'mainstream' jewellers, and tried on a range of styles. I had originally been certain I wanted a 3 stone square cut ring, I tried them on and liked the, but then I tried another style on and knew straight away that was the one!

The staff member gave us a printout of the ring, so we took that with us to another couple of stores, nothing came close.

We were a bit disheartened by the prices, so went home empty handed.

Over the weekend Mr Mel's father mentioned that he has an acquaintance who is a retired jeweller, did we want him to see if he could recommend anyone, did we??????? Of course!

Turns out the retired jeweller still makes jewellery for friends, so he's offered to meet with us, source the jewels and make the setting for us for near cost price!  YAY!!!!!

So this week we're heading to Sydney to meet with Mr Mel's father's friend, and hopefully start the journey to getting our engagement ring made!

This is the one we've chosen

Engagement Ring we've fallen in love with, just not at it's current pricetag!

Altho we're definitely open to suggestions, very much looking forward to our meeting!  Shall report back post meeting.