A particularly SUPER wedding

Without being too 'out there', we wanted to pay homage to The Flash and Wonder Woman on our wedding day. So there were some very fun little elements we incorporated into the wedding, as you can see below: 

Our little super family, with The Flash, Wonder Woman, the Human Torch, Pig Man and Elsa (from Frozen). Each member of the family got to choose their superhero or how they were visually represented. 

Wonder Woman Cons. Super comfy and my nod to WW

Our guest book. We picked up a fab blank book from Typo (I love that store) which was then covered in a comic and sealed with a spray on decoupage sealant.

Where it all started...

Fun pic for old time's sake

The Groom's (and my sons) boutonniere made from The Flash comic and B&W Wonder Woman comic. 

Pasta jars and a closing down sale

As previously mentioned in this blog, my wedding colours were determined by what was available at my local Lincraft store when it was closing at the end on 2014. 

We also saved a lot of money by using old pasta sauce (and stir fry sauce) jars, glass jars found in dollar stores and from charity shops. The look I wanted was as though someone had gone for a walk through nature and picked some flowers to fill the jars. 

I sourced the flowers from a friend of a friend who owns A Floral Signature at Toukley. We spent $185 for all of our flowers and ended up with a stack of baby's breath, lisianthus, chrysanthemum, eucalypt, some hyacinth and a handful of roses. The flowers lasted for a week from when we picked them up and looked amazing in the glass jars. 

I could not be happier with the final result of our table  centrepieces, and I have already found a new home for all of the jars. Winning! 

Comic Book Paper Flowers

Before this year, I had not ever made a paper flower. I had not really considered how easy, or hard it may be, or how long it would take to make a single flower.

Needless to say, I have now had my lifetime fill of paper flower making so it is unlikely I will undertake this task again any time in the future.

Inspired by Pinterest and buoyed by the opportunity to have a unique bridal bouquet (and save some serious dollars) I started. The first half dozen came out quite quickly and I was pleased with the results. But then it dawned on me that I would need a LOT of paper flowers to make a decent looking bouquet, and a throwing bouquet, and the boutonniere for the groom and the boys. Sprint turned to marathon, excitement turned to dread.

But in the end, after many months of cutting and gluing, there were enough flowers and the construction of the bouquet commenced, and was eventually complete.

To say I was relieved when it was done, is quite an understatement. I love my bouquet and it holds pride of place in our home, but it is safe to say hell will freeze over before I set off on another paper flower making adventure.

The bouquet - made of Wonder Woman comic book pages

Groom boutonniere - made of The Flash comic book pages

One of the awesome young men who walked me down the aisle with his black and white Wonder Woman comic book paper flower

Just shoot me

The photos are back!!! The photos are back!!!

I excitedly raced to the post office box to collect a much anticipated package - the USB containing the images from our wedding!

My most excellent friend, Nammo, was the official photographer for the big day. I am eternally grateful for her patience and taking such amazing photos. 

The shot list grew from three shots to about forty-three, but she did not bat an eye. We worked through the 'must have' shots, and the 'would be nice to have' shots, and by the end of the reception every shot was ticked off the list. 

I will be sharing the images in separate posts, grouped together in relevant themes. Here is a few of my husband (never gets old saying that) and I.

The first look. He looked happy with how I scrubbed up :)

I was early to the ceremony. So early I beat the cake, so I had to wait until the cake arrived.
Anyone who knows me knew I would be early

The first kiss

We had our pictures taken before the wedding so that we could spend time with family and friends immediately following the ceremony.

Seated at the cafe where we first met

It's not you, it's me...

I absolutely adore the girlies at Kel-Leigh Couture, but each time we meet, it gets closer to our last goodbye.
 
I was discussing this very point with the lovely Jade, about a week ago. I had just attended to have my final alterations sorted before the big day. Jade, Kel and I chatted about men, and roadtrips, and babies, and my big day, and the journey that had lead me to that point, standing there, in my wedding gown. One of my earlier blog entries details how I found the gown.
 
All the details of the dress were sorted and my was sitting down with Jade, making the payment for my alterations. It was such a bitter sweet moment. It was the final fitting, finishing details, final payment for anything to do with my wedding gown. No more stopping in to try on my gown, just to make sure I could sustain my dollar hot dog habit. No more excited nattering about all of the details of my big day that the ladies in the bridal store loved, but that no one else in my world really gives a toss about. Worst of all, no excited little claps from Jade as I effervesced about my rapidly approaching nuptials. I will definitely miss that the most.
 
The same goes to the amazing people at Michael Hill Jewellers. We purchased my engagement ring from their Tuggerah store, and they were amazing. We purchased both wedding rings from Erina Fair, and they have been equally awesome. We are now on a first name basis with Scott, the manager, and we often walk past and find ourselves having a natter about anything from the weather, to the Parramatta Eels.
 
Unlike awkwardly bumping into an ex at the shops, our paths are unlikely to cross again. I will not likely be in the market for a wedding down any time in the future, meaning I will not casually bump into Jade or Kel. There is a slight chance I may head into Michael Hill again to buy a special necklace, or dress ring etc, but I think I have used my jewellery allowance for many years to come!  
 
And I guess that is the problem with getting really awesome customer service, and building a relationship with a retailer in the wedding industry. God willing, this will be my last marriage. I have already told Pete he is stuck with me for good. So the best I can do to support and reward these local businesses for being absolute angels in my wedding journey, is to share their awesomeness here in my blog. So be sure to check out check out Kel-Leigh Couture or Michael Hill Jewellers. I hope you experience the same level of professionalism and friendly service that actually makes you feel like a human being. It is quite refreshing!

And so I bid farewell to two of the absolute loves of my life over many months.
I'll call you?
Never say never?

It's not you...it's me... :)



  

Never settle of anything less than butterflies...

Well, the count down is well and truly on for the big day! 

To say I am excited is quite the understatement!! 

Sure I am excited to be wearing a pretty dress, but to be honest, I am just so freaking excited to be marrying one of the most decent, awesome men I know. 

While there are so many reasons that I love him, there are many things that really make me stop and recognise that he is the man I want to bet half my shit on going the distance with. 

One of the reasons why I know I want to marry this man is that when he gets up and goes to the kitchen, he always asks, "can I get you anything?" He doesn't just ask and then ignore. He often follows up my response of "no" with a, "are you sure?" and almost seems disappointed if there is nothing I need.  This makes me smile, because he asks this every single time he gets up off the lounge and heads toward the kitchen.  I love it because it demonstrates his thoughtfulness. Over the few days that it has taken me to finalise this blog entry, I have smiled like an absolute loon each time he has asked me if he could get me anything. 

I could bang on for days about all of the traits and features of his that I adore, or why I am so fortunate for him to love me. But I will save you all of the nauseating details :)

I get butterflies when I think about him. But not like 16 year old, girly crush butterflies. These butterflies are different. These butterflies are a genuine excitement about what adventure our next day has in store. It is an excitement about all of the places we are going, bucket list items we are going to tick off together, and the awesomeness of our lives together. And I really dig that. 

In the past, I have settled. And I resolved to never settle for anything less than butterflies (...thank you Sex in the City...) I honestly feel like I am the luckiest person alive and I cannot wait to call him my husband.  

Celebrant Roulette

celebrant noun cel·e·brant \ˈse-lə-brənt\ : a person who performs or leads a religious ceremony : a person who participates in a religious ceremony : a person who celebrates something

The celebrant was the second thing we booked in for our wedding. The first being the venue. We locked our celebrant in about 6 months before the wedding, but  6 weeks out, found ourselves playing a game of celebrant roulette.

When we started looking at celebrants, I guess it was a lot like looking for a partner. We knew what we did not want, but we could not really narrow down what we wanted. We did not want a fuddy duddy old person who would be over the top with religious stuff, nor banging on about the sanctity of marriage and that we have one true love in our entire life. We wanted someone who could get the job done, and make our union official, while still saying some sweet things along the way. We found a wonderful celebrant who specialises in elopements. Our fondness for a Vegas wedding drew us to this celebrant. This celebrant stated on their website that they only did very small weddings, and initially we were not going to have THAT many people. But as they do, the guest list grew, and so we went back to our celebrant to explain our guest list now exceeded her maximum capacity, so she explained she would pass the batton to a fellow celebrant who would be able to still give us a quirky lil ceremony but would feel comfortable in front of a larger group of people. We were assured that all would be ok, and deposit, paperwork etc. transferred over.

8 weeks out from the ceremony, I sent a message to the new celebrant, touching based and making sure everything was ok. I waited for about 5 days (which, for anyone who knows me will be astounded by my patience in waiting this long) but still did not hear anything. So I rang the new celebrant. I was assured that they were on top of everything, and  that the celebrant would ring my fiancé and I on the coming Sunday to have a good chat about what our expectations were, and to give them a better idea of who we were and what we wanted to achieve in the ceremony.  Sounded great, and I was relieved that we would finally have some forward movement on the ceremony/celebrant front. Sunday came and went. No call. Late on the Sunday night, I received a message which stated they had forgotten but would contact us the following evening. Then on the Monday night, I received quite a brief call, advising they would send through a questionnaire for them to get to know us better. She advised that this questionnaire would be sent through the next day. So Tuesday comes, and goes. You guessed it, no email. At this point, I was panicking. I felt really let down by the celebrant, but knew we were against it with time, as the notice of intended marriage needing to be held by the celebrant 30 days before the date of marriage.  Eeeiiikkk!!!

So I rang NSW Fair Trading to get some advice on how to handle the situation, and go about getting our deposit back. They were fab and gave me some really useful information. Armed with this, I put in writing my desire to cancel the arrangement we had in place with the celebrant. I explained that it was due to concerns that we held about her promising certain things and then not delivering on these. I expressed concern that she would remember to actually attend our wedding. It was not nasty in any way, more defeated and fearful. 

Not too long after I hit send, I was speaking to two of my lovely colleagues. Mrs W was telling me and Mr W about a friend they had who was a celebrant. Mr W offered to make contact with the celebrant to see if he was free on our required day, and see if he would be into officiating our ceremony. Later that night, after texts and calls between Mr W and the celebrant and Mr W and I, I gave the (now third) celebrant a call. He sounded lovely, and we arranged for him to meet us the night after next. 

On Friday night, at the time we had agreed on, the doorbell rang. Bugger me. The celebrant was there. He showed up at the time he had told me he would be here. And best of all, he showed up!! Things were certainly looking up! We talked, laughed, talked some more. He was FAB!!! Funny, well spoken, listened to what we had in mind for our ceremony and what it was all about for us. We could not sign on the dotted line quick enough! Lock it in Eddy!!! 

After he left, it was the biggest relief! All of our concerns were gone. We have great faith in our third (and final) celebrant and can now be all philosophical about how things happen for a reason and everything works out in the end :) 

Confidence that your celebrant is going to show up on your wedding day - #priceless :)