Practice makes........hopefully not a blubbering mess!

Our wedding is now just 17 days away, and we are both very excited, but very nervous too, we both hate being the centre of attention, and detest public speaking.

On Sunday during our practice run with our celebrant I got a bit teary and emotional when we were standing at our ceremony spot, and going through a reading.

To most people who know me I'm pretty much tough as teak, I'm quite reserved, and the one who seems to get asked for advice a bit (why, is beyond me most times!).  But my girly/emotional side don't hide too far below that teak exterior.

Mr Mel often laughs (in a good way) when I tear up, or flat out cry, during movies, tv shows, songs, even ads for gods sake!  I too easily put myself in the position of the person having the emotional experience, and the tears soon flow.

So I have decided, so that I don't end up a blubbering mess during our ceremony, I am going to read through our ceremony, maybe every day or 2nd day.  To hopefully take the emotional edge off it to a point.

(photo source)

Some might think it's a bit weird, that you want to be full of emotions on your big day, and I definitely do. But let me give a bit of an eg of where I'm coming from.

About 10 years ago I was asked to do a reading at the funeral of a family member, my first response was no, as 1 - I wasn't the biggest fan of this person, 2 - I hate public speaking.  But I gave into the pestering (in the churchyard just before the funeral was to start!).

So we get to the reading, I walk up to the altar (the Church was one we had grown up attending, and next door to my primary school), put my paper on the lectern, I looked up to the gathering, looked down at the paper to start. And nothing. Yes NOTHING. I couldn't say anything.  I cleared my throat, went to start again, and nothing. I stood there for what seemed an eternity (in reality maybe 2-3 minutes), before my sister (aka Bride Slave), came to my rescue and did the reading for me.

Now I'm not sure if I put that instance down to an intense fear of public speaking, or not wanting to give a loving glowing reading for a person I didn't get along with, or what. But to say it has put the fear of god into me when it comes to public speaking, is a massive understatement!

What has prompted this post? Well I just read through our vows, as I had to email a reading to my sister.  And tears were flowing by the end of line 2, there are 10 lines in our vows, plus the 4 lines of the ring exchange.

(photo source)

I can clearly see myself in a veil of tears not being able to talk, with makeup sliding off my face, in front of our friends & family.  Yes I'm probably psyching myself out, but I assure you it won't take much!

So I have printed out the 5 pages of our ceremony, with the bits I have to say in bold, and I am planning on keeping the soon to be tattered, tear stained copy a souveneir, hopefully it all goes well, and this will be a funny story/post to share with friends and family, post wedding! We shall see!

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!

2nd Ebay & other stuff Haul - bargains, woohoo

3 weeks tomorrow to the big day, gees Louise that's flown up!

Things are coming along, the to-do list is getting to-done, just need to pull it all together.

While researching how to try and keep costs down, I realised I could buy alot of the things you would usually hire for decorations, at a cheaper, or around the same cost, and then with reselling them after the wedding I could bring costs down even further.  So I've been on the hunt, mostly through Ebay, and some local garage sales.

I posted back on April 20, the haul at that stage:

100 x Rice Paper Lanterns (white) - $126 ($150 to hire)
150m x Fairy Lights (warm white) - $283 ($300 to hire)
2 x Candelabras - $40 ($50 to hire)
1 x Bird Cage Wishing Well/Card Holder - $66 ($40 to hire)
100 x Willow Green Organza Chair Sashes - $139.99 ($2.00 each to hire)
1 x Bridal Cake Knife & Server set - $2550 x personalised wine charms for gifts - $75 - can't resell

1 x Guestbook - $25

4 x 4m White Bali flags - $25

The Guestbook above will be sold unused as I found a different one I just loved, after I bought the Ebay one. Also the bird cage is in the midst of being painted white.

Since then I have secured some more lovelies for the day:

Gorgeous cake stand with mirror etched plate, we will use it for our 2 tier wedding cake 

$39.99, haven't seen similar in shops for under $50

6 x ceramic cake stands, we will use on the cake table, with 6 cakes made by our mums, sisters, aunts

a steal at $12.50 each, have seen exact same in several shops for $25-30 each!

6 x cake servers for the cake table

$18 for 6, bargain!

This weekend I'm hitting the op-shops to hopefully pick up a heap of bowls & plates for the soup & desserts, wish me luck, c'mon treasures come to mamma  :)

Songs - final (ish) list!

This weekend we meet with our celebrant at the hall for a trial run for the big day!  EEEEEEK!!! so close!

So by Sunday 11am we need to have our music sorted, we're pretty close, I posted back in mid May a list we were working on, and not much has changed (links to Youtube vids on song titles):

Arriving at the Hall - Marry You - Bruno Mars
Walking Down The Aisle - Jessica's Theme - Man From Snowy River
Signing Registry - Somewhere Over The Rainbow - Israel Kamakawiwo'ole's version
Walk Back Down Aisle - Crazy Little Thing Called Love - Queen
First Dance - Halo - Beyonce
Cutting cake - maybe How Sweet It Is - James Taylor
Bouquet Toss - Single Ladies - Beyonce
Garter toss (if we do it) - You Can Leave Your Hat On - Joe Cocker

Loving the Bruno Mars song, really up beat, I think it's perfect to be be playing as our car arrives, and we're getting sorted, then we'll go to Snow River song for the walking bit, it's more mellow, and just lovely.

I love Israel Kamakawiwo'ole's Somewhere Over the Rainbow version, I think it will work well as background music while the 'official' stuff is happening.

Everyone loves a bit of Queen for the end of the ceremony.

Probably my favourite song ever is Beyonce's Halo, I cry nearly every time I hear it, so I've told the makeup girls to make sure I'm waterproof everything, and have a supply for touchups!

Not overly worried if the music just goes freeform from there, but if we remember, I think How Sweet It Is will be perfect for the cake, Single Ladies for the flower toss and a good stripper song (and I loved 9 1/2 weeks movie!  Mickey Rourke was so hot before he got carved up!) for the garter (if we do it!).

Now just to make sure we're 150% ok with them and burn them to disc for the celbrant on Sunday!

Poodles, Drag Queens, all in the bridal prep!

After a mad dash to Newcastle on Friday afternooon for strapless bra and suckitallin knickers, Saturday was a big, and busy day.

10am was my Hair & Makeup trial.

I told the girls I wanted to be quite natural, a 'posher, bridey' version of me, but that I was open to suggestions. I have straight blonde hair to about bra strap, so there were a few options. I took with me photos of hairstyles I had found online, and told the girls that I wasn't wearing a veil, I wanted to use fresh flowers.

After about an hour of hot curlers, straightening irons, enough spray to sink the Titanic, I was done, well almost.  Once she said she'd finished she held a mirror behind, and I had to stop myself from muttering 'poodle'!

I wanted a bit of body & wave, but not like a poodle ready for best in show!  So I asked her if she could pull out the curls a bit, which she was happy to do.  She pinned one side back to behind my right ear, leaving some light curls around my face, and added some fake flowers, so I could get an idea of how it would look.

Surprisingly I liked it!  I'm a ponytail girl, all week long my hair is in a ponytail, the only time it comes down is if we're going out for dinner, or I've just washed it.

So to see so many curls & waves, and hairspray (haven't used it since early 90's puffy fringe fiasco!), was a bit of a shock. But I was happy enough, knowing that my dress will probably give quite a different look to the hair, rather than jeans & tshirt I was wearing!

Next I went up the back of the salon to the makeup chair (Napoleon Perdis), I explained again I wanted natural, but joojsed up a bit so don't wash out in photos etc.

My chair was about a metre or so from the mirror and she went to work, painting, brushing, adding fake lashes to the outside of my lids, highlighting this, contouring that, etc etc, you get the drift.

After about an hour I was done, and from a meter away it looked a bit intense, very black liner on top lids, fake lashes curling up.  Then she gave me the hand mirror, holy guacamole!!!  Hello Drag Queen!

I looked like I'd been hanging out with George Hamilton, and had taken on his orange hue!  The eye makeup was the most distracting, with heavy black liner, and bronze/gold/white/green to almost my eyebrows!  I'll sometimes were a brush of glittery shadow on lids if going out, but never extending above my eyelid fold, so for me it was new, and a tad scary, in a Priscilla Queen Of The Desert way!  Except I luckily had a nude lip!

She asked if I was happy, if I liked it, I didn't want to offend, as she had put in alot of work (and used buckets of product!). I meekly said 'um I think it's just very different to what I usually wear, all the eye makeups not something I do, I guess I'll wait to see with the dress before deciding'.

A not great quality shot from my phone, of right side of my hair, after dress fitting!

She looked at me a bit like I was a rabbit ready to bolt, and I kind of was.  I almost ran to the counter, paid and got in my car, not wanting people to see me in full regalia!

I drove to the dress shop early, as my plans to drop in at cake shop & Spotlight were out the window now I was in my war paint! Luckily the girls at Newcastle Bridal, were free, and able to do my fitting early.

Another photo I took on my phone, on the way to the dress fitting, yes I'm too scared to show the drag queen makeup!

Once I manhandled myself into the strapless bra (if you're a cup size of D+ you know what I mean!), and suckitallin knickers, and shoes, the NB girls laced me into my dress, and helped me with the bolero jacket.

I stepped out, and the NB dressmaker smiled a big smile, so I felt a bit better.  I stood on the podium thingo, and had a proper look.

The poodle hair fell like waves on my shoulders, and the drag queen makeup didn't look that bad, now I was in 'bride mode', I was shocked, I didn't feel like a freak!  Yay!!

My dress, alas not me in it!

The dressmaker said with my shoes, the length of the dress was perfect, with the only alterations needed being tucking in at the bust to make it sit flat on my chest (yay Curves!!).

So after parading back and forth for about 20 mins while the girls tucked, primped and prodded, and getting some lovely comments from teenagers looking for Debutante & Formal dresses, I was sorted.

I'll pick up my dress in 2 weeks. Woohoo. Now all I have to do is dye my ivory shoes green, and all will be sorted on the clothing front.

So to wrap it up, I loved my hair in the end, and I think with a bit of tweaking I'll love my makeup, and I already love my dress.  All in all a great Saturday, and when I tried my dress on at 2pm, was exactly 1 month till I would be donning it to walk down the aisle with my man!

Weekend Schedule!

I have just got home after 5 days in Sydney working, I had plans of prepping all of the fabric for bunting, in the hotel room, each night, however it just didn't happen.  The first 2 nights I was treated out for dinner, night 1 with the boss, night 2 with the boss and the boss of another farm, then the other 2 nights I was absolutely knackered, after 12 hours walking the horses at the sale, I was asleep by 8pm, so no fabric work was done!

Seeings as it's a month yesterday till the big day, my schedule & to-do list is under the pump, so this weekend my plans are:

Friday

• 3pm - early mark from work, leaving at 3pm, to be at Newcastle by 4pm to buy bra & underwear for final dress fitting on Saturday!
• as long as I last - bunting work Friday night

Saturday

• 10am - hair & makeup trial
• 2pm - final dress fitting in Newcastle 
• 4pm (surely won't take more than 2 hours!) - crockery hunt for the soup station and dessert table, the rest of the food is finger food from waiters
• Sat night - bunting!
• 40 mins on treadmill

Sunday

• wine tasting to make final selections on wine & champagne for wedding
• dye shoes from ivory to green - wish me luck!
• meet with 'cake lady' to give her the cake stand, and recipe for ganache
• bunting!
• 40 mins on treadmill
• organise 2nd bedroom for installation of built in wardrobe next Wednesday! Heaps of boxes to sort/move!

(photo source)

As my Nan used to say, I'll be running around like a blue arsed fly :)

Trimming down! Eek 5 weeks left!

This Saturday is 5 weeks until our big day, it has come up so quickly it's crazy!

When I went dress shopping back in mid April I gave myself an aim of losing 10kg before the final fitting, and hoped to lose around 15kg before the big day, over the 3 and a bit months.

Well it's 5 weeks to go, and I have lost 6 kg, not as much as I hoped, but given I was sick with gastro for a week (yes should have meant weight flying off me), then sick with a shocking flu for 2 weeks (no exercise boo!), it's not too bad, at least it's a loss!

I have 10 days until my final fitting, I know I won't get to my 10kg target, but hoping I can get pretty close!

My dress is a lace you up, suck the air from your lungs type, the bonus of which is if I do lose more weight the dress won't look funny, I'll just get my Brideslave to put her knee further in my back and rip those laces tighter  :)

A small challenge is I'm away from home with work from this Sunday till Thursday before the fitting, staying in a hotel in Sydney, so eating right will be numero uno on my agenda, not giving into the temptation of restaurants, fast food, room service!!

My plan is to head to the supermarket Sunday morning before starting work at midday, and buying food for the week, fruit, breakfast supplies, lunch and snack supplies so I don't venture to the cafe at the venue for anything more than coffee!!  I won't be getting to Curves which sucks, but I'll be walking km's a day with work, and dealing with a couple of 300kg+ horses for the week will give me a good workout!

Wish me luck!