Becoming a Mrs

Par for the course for most brides when getting married is taking your husbands surname.

Looking into it, there is alot of information for/against, and the reasons why (see Wikipedia entry), but I just think of our marriage as being the 'official' start of  us becoming a family, and I would like all in our family to have the same surname, so I'm happy to take on Mr Mel's surname. Actually I can't wait to be Mrs Mr Mel :)

(photo source)

However, I keep ticking over one main 'issue' in my mind.

I am 37, and have been working since I was 19 (after dropping out of Accounting degree I detested!), and over the past 10 years I have built up a good reputation in my industry.  I'm not on the whose who list, but I am quite well known within the business circles I travel.

By losing my surname I worry that I'll lose the 10 years of good work I've put in under my 'maiden' name.

My thinking is split into 3 thoughts currently:

1. Suck it up and just go with Mr Mel's surname, the contacts I have will get used to it
2. Go for a hyphen on work/business side, but take Mr Mel's surname officially
3. Stick with my maiden name for business dealings, which could get confusing?

I'm currently leaning to - 1- but 2 & 3 both have their merits.

Has anyone else had these thoughts, or am I being a tad precious?  Be honest, I can take it  :)

Edit - A comment from Sami Jae reminded me I hadn't mentioned Mr Mel's thoughts.

Mr Mel is  happy with whatever I want to do, he's just rapt I want to take his name officially :)  Personally I think he'd like it if I went by his name business wise as well, but I don't think he'd mind if I went with the other 2 options.  Shall have to discuss with him further once I know where my thoughts are heading!

DIY Decorations - Bunting - part 1

It's been a little while coming (see earlier posts!) but on the weekend I finally made a start on my massive DIY Bunting task!

We have worked out that we will need approx 150m of bunting to do all the decorating we want:

• 2 x 2 strands looping from sides of hall up to a chain hanging high from ceiling at each end of hall, width of hall is 10m, so allowing 15m per stand to include the 'loop' - 15m x 4 = 60m
• 1 x strand looping behind/above bar - 10m should cover it
• 1 x strand looping above cake tressle table - 5m
• 1 x strand looping above soup station - 5m
• 1 x strand looping above kids area - 10m 
• 1 x strand looping above entrance - 5m
• 1 mega strand looping around verandah, below the fairy lights - 40m
• leaves 15m just in case it looks to bare!!

The triangles/flags I'm using are 20cm wide, however once sewn together and turned right side out they're about 17cm wide, so going to have 5 flags per metre with gaps of 2.5cm between each flag. 

So 5 flags per metre x 150m = 750 flags (oops DIY project out of control a tad!!)

So far I've cut out around 100 flags, and sewn up around 60, so you could say I'm a way off being finished!!

Luckily I'm really enjoying it, finding it relaxing (thank god!).

These are my creations so far, in various stages of completion!

The calico was my first try, luckily it worked, so I moved onto some of the fancier material, these are ready for binding

These are now all sewn up into flags, to be bound together

This mornings inside out flags, waiting to be turned right way out then bound, a bit of red to break up the green/cream

I have sourced material from a number of places:

• Op Shops - sheets, shirts
• Garage Sales - sheets, shirts, curtains
• Big W/Target/Kmart - discount baskets of fitted sheets, flat sheets
• Spotlight - sticking to the budget options

We have a long weekend coming up in a few days, looking forward to getting through a couple of hundred metres worth of flags!!  Wish me luck!

What To Do With Mop Top!?

Just under 7 weeks till the big day (holy hell how has that happened!)  and I have still got absolutely no clue what to do with my mop top (aka hair!).

I am booked in for a practice hair & makeup run on 25 June, and they have asked me to bring along photos of what sort of styles I like!

I don't think "Um, I dunno you're the hairdresser" will cut it, so I've been Googling my heart out and came up with some options that MIGHT work!

My dress is strapless, but I'm wearing a sheerish bolero/wrap type thing, so not sure what style will be best!

I have blonde straight hair that sits just above bra strap, with layers at the side/front, no fringe.

I think a total up-do will be too formal, our wedding will be quite casual, so I don't want to be feeling to done up so to speak. I don't want it really curly either as it's just not me. And I won't be wearing a veil or tiara, just a flower or two, if looks ok!

These are the styles that have caught my eye so far.

Any suggestions more than welcome!!

Passport - done!

Woohoo, Mr Mel will not be going on our Vanuatu Honeymoon solo, I just received an email from DFAT:

We are pleased to advise that your passport application has been processed and your passport has been produced, it is now being despatched by registered mail.

Yay, happy dance, and on a Hump Day Wednesday no less, excellent!  I should receive my passport in the mail shortly, oh and in your face Cessnock Post Office, who wouldn't accept my application because I didn't have my expired passport with me (expired in 2008), the Newcastle Post Office rocks, you suck!  :)  (apologies to regulars for my immature outburst!)

Soooo exciting, it's 53 days today till our wedding, and 58 days till our Honeymoon!

Car - didn't even consider it!

Oops, it's around 7 weeks till our big day, and it suddenly dawned on us, how are we getting to the hall?

I had initially sought out quotes from a variety of car places, Limos, old style cars, horse drawn carriage, but across the board I couldn't justify the cost, especially as we are having the ceremony at the same place as our reception, therefore the car will just be dropping us off.

We have a few friends with nice cars, but if we asked if we could borrow it for the day, guaranteed they would have guessed the reason. We could have used either of our cars at a stretch, but a station wagon and a hatchback aren't really what you'd consider wedding cars!  Altho if push came to shove, we'd use one of them.

So that's where the thinking cap was put on.

My parents (and all the rest of my extended family) are flying up from Victoria, we are picking up most of them from the airport, however my parents are going to hire a car so it's an extra car to ferry people around.

So I spoke to my sister (also known as Brides Slave), and asked if she could work it with our parents so that it was her job to book the car for them, luckily it's not that much of a stretch as my sister travels alot with work, and saying she could organise a discount through work was 100% believable.

After a few calls to sister, and discussions between Mr Mel and myself, we settled on a Ford XR6, either in Black or White. I'm no car nut and neither is Mr Mel, but we thought they looked smart, and not too over the top.

My sister just emailed to say that she had booked the XR6 and had requested black or white, yay!

So Mr Mel and I will be arriving together (Mr Mel driving, see entrance blog earlier), in either one of these fellas

Black Ford Falcon XR6 (photo source)

White Ford Falcon XR6 (photo source)

And the huge bonus is it's only costing us $50 (plus $5 for ribbon), as the car they'd chosen was only $50 cheaper for the 4 days, than this option, when you add my sisters work's discount into the bargain!  Compared to the $500 - $800+ we were quoted it's a huge saving. Woohoo, our budget is very happy about it!

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!!!!

OMG 2 Months Today!!!!!!!!!

That's right, 2 months from today I will be getting ready to marry my darling Mr Mel!

How on earth has it come around so quickly, we only got engaged yesterday (ok so Feb 14 but feels like yesterday!).

Things are happening, we're getting through the list, the weekend just gone ticked a few big items off:

• Passport for Me! - I had a passport, however it expired 2 years ago, seeings as our honeymoon is in Vanuatu, would've sucked for Mr Mel to have headed off solo!

(photo source)

• Suit for Mr Mel - we were going to hire a suit, but nowhere hired the colour we I wanted.

Originally we were going with a Taupe colour, something like this photo

However after going to 5 separate formal hire places in Newcastle it wasn't looking good, none of them had suits to hire in the colour, and what they did have to buy in the colour had a cream pinstripe, which we didn't like.

The next colour to have caught our eye was grey, so Mr Mel tried on a few different options and we ended up buying a 3 piece darkish grey suit, with an ivory shirt & tie.  The ivory will match my dress, and he can wear the tie if he wants, but probably won't.  I love the waistcoat look above, and when Mr Mel tried his suit on without the jacket & tie, I knew it was the one, he looked so handsome and swish!

This is similar to the suit we've purchased, however with the same colour waistcoat, ivory shirt & tie.

I was sick with cold/flu and spent most of Sat arvo (after shopping) to Sun night either in bed or on the couch dozing, but it was good to get some of the 'To Do's' done!

Last night we finalised our selections for vows and ceremony and emailed them to our celebrant.

Next weekend I'm going shopping for my shoes, Brideslave shoes, Bra & Suckitallin Underwear for me.  And hopefully getting onto the elusive DIY Bunting project!