A sneak peak ... a couple of our amazing photos

Seeing as we are on our honeymoon and we are pretty much gone for five weeks, I thought that i better give you all a sneak peak of our photos ...

So happy with what we have got so far and can't wait to see the rest of them ...

Who thought i'd end up actually being photogenic ...

Enjoy ...

Only a few days left ...

Today is friday which means we are having our final dance lesson later on today. I'm getting my spray tan in a few hours and should really be sleeping in but was woken by FH's alarm clock at 7am, yuck! We are also picking up the NZ relatives today and bringing them home to see our humble abode before taking them out for dinner at our local pub and then back to the city to their hotels. 

I found some cute little blue ballet flats which are great for dancing in from Big W, so tried them out at our dance lesson on Friday with my hoop and it worked a treat. Don't have to worry about having sore feet from heels now. Very simple and cute!

Blue dancing shoes - Big W for $15 (my photo)

My Hens Party .. the actual event

I had my hen's party on Saturday, the weekend just been and man it was great fun. I got up reasonably early and got myself down to Toni and Guy in Cronulla where Annabelle recreated my possible hairstyle with hair extensions and it was really quick as well. I was very impressed as usually it takes ages for my hair to get put up.

Wedding Count down - Less than two weeks!

Wow we are now just under two weeks left to go till the wedding, or 11 days and are surprisingly stress free which is fantastic. We had our hens and bucks on the weekend and had a great time. Now its just pretty much tidying up the loose ends and finishing work. FH went on annual leave on Friday and I'm so jealous. I've got four shifts left at work and finish on Sunday, a week before the wedding exactly.

The count down (my photo)

Hen's Party ... Pre event

Tomorrow is my hen's party and I'm so excited! I couldn't wait for work to finish today as I've now got two days off. One to party and the other to recover and then back to work for a week before I go on annual leave. It's starting to get serious now ... :)

The Reception ... Confirmation time!

Yesterday we headed into Circular Quay to attend our check list confirmation meeting. I had a 10 or so page check list which I had to complete by Thursday last week for Dockside - the venue management. By the end of it, it was a 14 page document full of all the info that was going to make our reception run smoothly. As soon as I emailed it, and got the confirmation from Sasha, our wedding executive that it was good to go and that she was looking forward to meeting us, I immediately relaxed and felt some weight come off my shoulders. It was a full on document I can tell you.

So circular quay wasn't looking so spectacular yesterday as it was turning into a bit of a cold and grey evening with a slight chilly breeze, but the set of buildings where our reception was going to be held, was looking great as always, biased much. Hell yes, haha.

About to walk along the front of the restaurants (my photo)

The Ceremony - Order of Stationary

I've been umming and ahhing as to whether to do an Order of Ceremony. It is a great way of introducing your bridal party to your guests and letting them know what's happening on the day. I was also thinking about including a map of how to get out of the botanic gardens and along to waterfront our reception venue.

So I've been adding inspiration images to this post when I find them:

Credit to Martha Stewart Weddings

The Wishing Tree and DIY Tree tags ..

We decided to have a wishing tree after having a meeting with our MC as he recommended it to be a good fun entertainment section of the reception. The guests would write short wishes/messages on the tags and hang them on the wishing tree and the MC would grab them during the night and read them out.

Photo Credit to Squidoo

Wedding Count Down ... 1 month to go!

Wow, we have offically reached the one month mark, or four weeks or 29 days which ever you prefer. I didn't actually realise that it would come to this point so fast. I keep having minor little nervous freak outs when I look at our checklists or need to complete something, in the form of nerves but that's only about actually having the day coming up, nothing about not wanting to get married. So I apologise in advance, this post is still a bit list and word heavy.

One month to go (my photo)

Reception Music ... Mission Completed!!

We sent our reception music in last week and that was a slight mission in itself again. Luckily our DJ company Maestro Entertainment  who are included in our package from The Dockside Group had a list of songs that have been used in weddings that they have used in the past. 

The song list was all tick boxes which was nice. I left a copy of it at home for FH to have a look at and he decided on the background music and left me to choose all the dancing music which was awesum as we now have a selection of 80s, 90s and today's type of music, bring on the Pitt bull!! So we are going to be doing some grooving if we have some time. With the RSVP's, I added a section where they could suggest some of their favourite dancing songs and we got some good ones! The one I had the most laughs with was LMAFO - I'm sexy and I know it ... so that wil bring the movers and shakers to the floor. We selected about 20-30 songs for each section and James, from Maestro Entertainment adds the rest of the songs in that he thinks will work. We don't get to hear what he has come up with until the night, but the reviews through dockside are rave reviews, so I know that we are in good hands. 

Wedding Accessories ... The Garter and Clutch Bag....

First of all I apologise for the lack of posts, I lost the motivation to blog there for a week or so, thanks to night shifts. They really suck the life out of you. I'm so not a four night shift in a row girl, and its the first time I've done four nights in a row in a long time. Usually I split my nights and do two and then two a week later, but was last to the night request roster this time and lucked out. So here is my long needed post. I finally bit the bullet as its getting close to being under five weeks and decided to order my garter and buy a clutch bag. 

My MOH and I went to see The Sapphires at Hurstville Cinemas and while I was there we had a look in the handbag stores and found a nice silver clutch from Direct Shoe Warehouse. She suggested that I get a silver one so I could use it again and it really won't be seen much on the actual day, just to hold my survival kit of perfume, band aids, mints, panadol, phone, etc.  So here's my little clutch. It cost $59.95 and you can purchase them at any Westfield. It's got just enough bling on it in the form of little diamantes along the top metal bit and is rather pretty.

Silver Clutch Bag from Direct Shoe Warehouse (my photo)

Ceremony Music ... Our Songs!

We have finally decided on all the songs for our ceremony which is a definite load off our minds, well my mind any ways. FH as usual, went yep, those ones are good or nah not keen on that one after my hours of researching and coming up with a small list. Natasha, our celebrant also sent us a list of songs which have been used at the weddings that she has officiated at which was very helpful as well. 

So onto good old U tube we went, and listened to some songs before I had to go to work and came up with this lot for our ceremony ... 

Pre Ceremony Music:

Ed Sheeran - Lego House

The Melbourne Wedding...

We travelled down to Melbourne on Friday and had a extreme weather shock! We were prepared for the cold but not that cold, haha, it was freezing. We checked into the Novotel in St Kilda and the sun was setting as we were heading in, casting beautiful colours over the city and the beach.

View from Bolte Bridge (my photo)

Suit Update ... A slight change..

When FH came home he got onto sorting out his suit pretty quick which I was very impressed with. We went into Spurling Suit Hire in Miranda and was very impressed with the man running the show. 

Image credit to Bridal Wave

The Kingscliff Wedding ...

We travelled up to Kingscliff on Friday for one of my workmates and friend's wedding on the Saturday. We went to dinner that night, just FH and I, at Season. Drink. Dine, at Peppers on Salt Beach and the food was fantastic. We had oysters and pork belly for an entrée and steak and lamb for the main. Absolutely fantastic. FH was right when he said that the restaurant had been given 19/20 on a food review site. It was great!. There was also domesticated black rabbits around the place which had been released and they had gone wild ... the type of black pet shop rabbit .. so cute! Wish I had my phone so I could of taken a photo of them. 

On Saturday, the weather was beautiful and our friends were so lucky that it was a stunning hot day down on the beach. Not so hot that we were sweating our make up off but just enough that you didn't feel cold standing on the beach watching the beautiful couple become husband and wife.

The beautiful beach ceremony set up on Kingscliff Beach (my photo)

Wedding Count Down ... 2 months to go!!

Wow, the last month has seemed to have flown and I think most of that is because FH is now home and I can get on with wedding related things that I needed to have his opinion on. So we now have two months, or eight and half weeks or 60 days, counting down much, haha.

Wedding Count down (my photo)

Wedding Food .... DIY Menu

After our tasting on Sunday, I've went into mass production of Menus. I looked on the internet and through some magazines for some inspiration on how to design them. I've decided that we will have one placed on each plate and that it would be double sided with the reception menu on one side with the selections for each course and then the beverage list on the back. The meals will be served alternatively so the guests can swap around the table.

Here are my inspirations for wedding menus:

Credit to Style Me Pretty

Wedding Jandal Box - Ready for display!

I have been slowly putting the finishing touches to the boxes which my creations are going to be displayed in and this post is about the jandals which I have supplied for those guests with sore feet.

My inspirations:

Credit to Elements of Entertaining

An extremely crazy couple of days ...

On Sunday we had a bit of a roller coaster of a day and I'm sorry to admit that it's taken this long to get around to blog about it. So I apologise for this massive post. FH was running in the Sydney City to Surf so we were up around 6am to my body's utter dislike. Too many early mornings in the last few days and its starting to rebel against me with a head cold.

City to Surf start - Image credit to The Vine

The Meeting ... MC and Wedding planner

Last night we had a meeting with our MC and Wedding Planner and it went really well. I think our MC was a bit surprised at the beginning as I'd forgotten to tell him that Jenny, our wedding planner was going to be there. They both arrived a little bit late due to our place being in a Nav Man blip, which is annoying as we always get phone calls going where do you live ... I'm at the end of so and so's road. Or we end up calling them going "are you lost". So both of them got a smidgen lost, but it worked out well as we were able to create our draft run sheet with Jenny before Salvatore, the MC arrived. 

Wedding planning meeting - Photo credit to Paper Doll Romance

Wedding Rings .... Mr and Mrs

We headed up to Michael Hill Jeweller yesterday as I got a phone call on Wednesday saying that my wedding band had arrived and that I had a gift voucher accompanying it. I was like what? Apparently I had been quoted the wrong price and paid the wrong price, so had a refund waiting for me which was awesome! A very nice surprise. I knew that FH was coming home so I wanted to wait till he was able to come up with me and we could choose his at the same time to save a trip to the jeweller.

The ring boxes (my photo)

Completely off topic .. but one of the most happiest days of my life

Yeah this post is completely off topic but yesterday was one of the most happiest days of my life. My FH came back from overseas where he had been working for six months. I was standing at the airport shaking with excitement and nerves and also cause it was dam cold and his gate B which is just in front of some big doors which kept letting in massive blasts of cold air as it was freezing at 7am yesterday morning in Sydney.

The big red balloon tied to my car keys so I wouldn't forget it (my photo)

Wedding parasol display boxes .. inspiration and the real thing

Photos like the one below have inspired me to have parasols at my wedding. I don't know whether it is going to be hot or rainy, as its in October and a week within the date either side last year was hot and the other side raining. So I'm covering my bases. I've blogged about how I've purchased parasols last year for it but haven't got around to showing you display images of what inspired me and what I've decided to do.

So here's my inspirations

Credit to What a wedding blog

Bridesmaids ... The dresses have been picked up!

I have had the most fabulous day today. A, one of my bridesmaid's and I went to the place where I'd purchased the girls dresses from - Exclusively Bridesmaids in Miranda. My MOH L wasn't able to come along as her shifts had been changed but it was all good. 

Credit courtesy of Wedding Bee

Wedding Night Accomodation .. Park Hyatt

Carrying on the theme of our accommodation, I thought I might as well add how fantastic our reception package is through the Dockside Group as it includes our wedding night accommodation. With our reception package we had the choice of three hotels to choose from and seeing as our reception is in circular quay, we decided to choose the Park Hyatt. And dam I am glad we did. 

The Park Hyatt - Circular Quay, Sydney

Pre Wedding Accomodation .. For the boys!

I've been searching wotif.com for some nice accommodation for the boys for the pre wedding night that didn't cost the earth, and they had a mystery deal recently for five star accommodation in the Sydney CBD. 

Photo credit to Going Places

Lust Have it .. July Box

My Lust Have It box arrived yesterday and it was an interesting box as some of the brands that were in it, I'd never heard of before, but that's the beauty of the box, it makes you try new things. It was definitely a bright one this month, a lovely orange colour.

July's Lust Have It bag (my photo)

Wedding Accessories - Need your opinions!

So seeing as my first hair comb doesn't really go with my earrings and bracelet, I've been searching through the internet occasionally to see what else I might find. I clicked on a link on a post on Polka Dot Bride the other day and arrived at a site called Miss Martini. 

Photo Credit to Miss Martini

Now I'm stuck as I really like two of their hair combs but can't decide between the two of them so need your opinion. All the photos are taken from the Miss Martini website, so credit goes that website as shown above.

Wedding Count Down ... 3 months to go!

This month has been at times rather unproductive due to lack of motivation, things not needing to be done just yet and over all, can't really be bothered. I don't really know why either as my DIY list has many a fun thing to make and create but I figure that I've hit a standstill and needed to do things that weren't wedding related like going out with friends for dinner, working and catching up on sleep as work as has been rather stressful and busy lately. I apologise now as this post is a bit word, list and link heavy.

Count down timer (my photo)

Something completely off topic .. but so very cool!!!

Yesterday I visited the Miranda RTA as I had booked my hazard perception test as I had been on my Red P's for longer than what I should of but just couldn't find the time to go in and sit my test. 

Red P Plate - Photo credit to Where I live

The Wishing Well - Reception Signage

Here is my next dilemma - how do you make people aware of your wishing well and what they are supposed to do with it. Put a sign up of course. But then what do you write on that sign? After intensive searching, dear google has given me some ideas. So this post is about my wishing well signage inspiration and what I've decided to do.

Reception signage for gifts and well wishes - Photo credit to Celebrations at Home Blog

Restaurant Review ... Viet Wraps and Rolls

I went to this lovely Vietnamese resturant last night with a friend called Viet Wraps and Rolls. It's what i would call a hole in the wall in a great way. Very simple and basic and has absolute to die for food. It was only my friend and I in there for about an hour or so and the staff were extremely attentive bringing out a mix of utensils for all the yummy food that we ordered. They are at 355 Bay Street in Brighton Le Sands, Sydney, and I throughly recommend going there as you very nearly had to roll me out of the door as I was that full!!!

Inside the restaurant - Photo credit to Viet Wraps and Rolls

The Wishing well ... Our finished one!

So after writing that post on Wishing Well inspirations, it has inspired me to get my butt into gear and finish our one. So this post is about the process, choosing and deciding and actually finding the wishing well that I wanted. I managed to get my butt in to gear and finally completed it today, so I'm very very happy with what I've come up with...

Credit to Style Me Pretty

The Wishing well ... Inspirations!

I've been trying to get myself motivated enough to finish the Wishing Well for our wedding reception, so I thought I'd do a teaser of Wishing Well Inspiration, in the hope that it gets me motivated to finish our one. Our wishing well is more of a bird cage but it still is going to be used as a wishing well. I know that Wishing Wells are highly debatable, thought tacky of, can't believe your asking for money type of things according to Vogue Forums. But I think it is appropriate in our case. We have a lot of people coming from overseas and interstate and who wants to bring a bulky present in your carry on if you've picked up one of those cheap deals to Sydney and are just bringing carry on luggage for the weekend. And also we have been living together in an apartment now for nearly two years and have furnished it just the way we want it.

Photo Credit courtesy of Claire Bundy

Cake Accessories ... Frames for the cake boxes

Seeing as we are having a really yummy cake at our wedding we want others to enjoy it as well. I made a heap of cake boxes ages ago so our guests can take a bit of cake home with them in a box instead of the typical cake bag which gets squashed so easily. At least if the box gets squashed then it will sort of protect the cake a wee bit.

Photo Credit to Wedology

Table Assignment ... Are you numbering or naming?

It has come to the time where I need to decided whether to name or number our tables, so I thought I'd write a post on how I decided to create my table decorations. I was inspired by many a table number or name, they all differ and each and every wedding has a different way of displaying their table number.

Photo Credit to Unique Event Design

Rainbows and a new hair colour .. its been a great week!

I had a bit of a change this week. I had my usual hair appointment on Thursday before night shift every six weeks as the regrowth was starting to get a wee bit out of control again. I walked into the salon and sat down and decided that I needed a change. My hairdresser went oh dear, not with three months to the wedding and I said yes I am having a hair crisis! 

Photo Credit to Dermstore.com

Wine Cork Place Cards .. waiting for RSVP's to trickle in..

I started my cork place cards ages ago as the RVSP's were starting to come in and I thought I should stay ahead of the game and continue to be organised. So started creating my place cards. I had a slight tinge of disappointment as my original idea didn't seem to work, but then when I mocked a place card up, it certainly met with the agreement of myself and my friend who was staying with me at that time.

Credit to Corky Creations

Wedding Water Bottle Update ... The new labels have arrived!

After the initial drama of the second batch of labels being completely the wrong colour. I did some more research and found another company who were much cheaper than the first company. And I actually liked their design more than I did the first company. This company is called LabelsRus.com and they are based in America so it took two weeks for them to be shipped out. 

Funky wedding water bottles in real life - Image credit to What a Wedding Blog

Wedding Accessories: Shoes .. the search is over!

Yay the search for my white satin wedding shoes is over. After sending a few pairs back to Endless.com and receiving my refunds back for them within 14 days, it certainly made it easier for me to find my dream ... well semi dream pair of wedding shoes. I originally wanted blue ones, but have settled for white, which I'll dye and wear on dry days. I didn't want to run the risk of having them dyed and it then raining on my wedding day and getting a blue bottomed dress... Classy baby.. haha. 

Way to sort out those puddles on a rainy day - Credit to Tie The Knot

Lust Have It ... June box!

I received my June Lust Have it box and must admit I was rather impressed with it this month. I worked out that I would probably use just about everything in it, minus one of the perfume samples. It came in a lovely purple bag this month which was very nice.

Purple June Lust Have It bag (my photo)

Wedding Accessories ... Earrings and Bracelet

Now that I've posted about my wedding band being ordered I might as well tell you all that I've found my earrings and bracelet, which I was very very excited about finding. I had been scouring the cheaper jewellery shops such as Lovisa and Diva and such, and didn't really find anything. Going through numerous online wedding accessory shops and didn't see anything that really took my fancy. I was originally going to go with long statement earrings, but found out that they wouldn't really work with my dress.

Pretty in pink with statement earrings - Credit to Socialnormslink

My Wedding Band ... Found and Ordered!

I posted ages ago about finding my potential wedding band, and since then have fallen much more in love with the same band but with bigger stones in it. Hence causing me to have a heart attack and feel very sick to my stomach when the Michael Hill Jeweller Sales lady told me the most accurate price on what the 18 carat white gold would be. 

Credit to ryanspirations.wordpress.com

Wedding Count Down ... 4 months to go!

Arrggggggggggggggghh ... I think I will start this post off in this way. Not cause I'm stressing or anything like that, but because the day is starting to get even more closer. Now I feel better for letting that out. Haha. A few things have happened in the month gone by as you've seen by what I've posted about. Some good things mainly and a few bad things .. those dam water bottles.. but I will update you later on them at another time. And yes sorry, this is another word and list heavy count down post, but it is getting better I assure you, haha.

Counting down (my photo)

Wedding flowers ...Florist check in!

I received a phone call last week from Rochelle who is doing our flowers for the wedding as I'd sent her an email asking if I could pay more off on the flowers, as we'd already paid the initial deposit and I was wanting to clear up the remaining amount so it reduces the things we have to pay in the last couple of months leading up to the wedding.

Image credit to Pink Frosting

Wedding Nightmares .. Have you had one yet?

I woke up early this morning and then fell back asleep into the weirdest wedding dream that I have had by far! It's not the first wedding dream I have had, but generally I'm not so distressed as I was in this dream.

Wedding nightmare credit to Wedding Bee

Bridesmaid's dresses - they're ready for pick up!

I received an email last night saying that my bridesmaids dresses were ready to be picked up. So emailed back asking if I needed the girls to come with me to try them on or what was the usual procedure. 

Bridesmaids courtesy of Wedding Bee

Wedding Water Bottles .. totally the wrong colour!!!!!!!!!!

I came home from work today and my water bottle labels were waiting in the mailbox for me. Me being all excited that they had finally arrived and that I could finish re labelling the water bottles this long weekend, ran up the stairs to the apartment and ripped them open when I got inside.  And..... 

I was severely disappointed. You all know how I was told that there would be a small colour change. Well this was a massive colour change. The main colour has gone from a browny black to a dark forest green black which looks so obvious when you put the two of them together which I have done in the below photos.

What to do on a rainy day ... The Fifty Shades of Grey Trilogy

I finished night shift this morning and it was beautiful when I was driving home from work and then on waking up this afternoon after a few hours sleep. I woke to the storm that had hit Sydney and was making everything wet, cold and miserable. So I thought what am I going to do today....

Rain Rain Go away - photo courtesy of Pretty Moment

Wedding water bottles ... let's customise them...

I thought it would be a nice idea to provide some water for our guests as when we visited our ceremony site last year around the time of our wedding date to be, it was rather hot and then the week after it absolutely poured with rain. So I thought I'd cross my fingers and hope that it would be warm and thought I'd buy some water to provide the guests, and personalise the bottles while I was at it because I could. Good enough excuse I reckon... So this post is about customising my water bottles.

Water bottle photo courtesy of Ruffled

My 30th Follower .. thank you all!

I just noticed last night that my Google Follower count had reached 30 and I was rather impressed! I really didn't think anyone would really take the time to read my blog. I made this blog on New Years Day this year as a record of my wedding planning as I really wanted to have it recorded so I could look back and read it later on when its all over. And I can't believe that I have thirty people following, or reading intermittently, or have forgotten about it all together, haha.

Thirty photo - Credit to Brtsergio