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 :)

   

If the Dress Fits...

If the dress fits... fist pump and go eat a hot dog :)

And that's exactly what I did!

My dress arrived and I finally had my appointment to try MY dress on! I took my two sons with me, so that they were two of the first people to see my dress, and I wanted to get their nod of approval. Well, boys being boys, they looked slightly excited, but I think that was probably more because they were allowed to sit on a gigantic, stripy pouf, more so than the appearance of me in my wedding dress.

But I was stoked that my earrings ($19.95 from Lovisa - bargain!) suit my dress perfectly and the dress fits like a glove. I tried my hair piece in, but I am not 100% sure about it now. I like the simplicity of not having one, but I will be able to make a better decision once I have my hair trial with the hairdresser.

I will return in a few weeks to have the hem adjusted and some minor work on the shoulder straps but other than that, it is good to go!

Dress. Tick!

Following this, we went to the footy and had a hotdog from Harry's Cafe De Wheels. Nom!

Sick, Busy and Slack

Long time, no blog! 

As the title suggests, this is because I have been sick, busy and slack. 

That is not to say that all wedding plans and preps have hand-braked to a halt, rather my nattering about them has. 

So, forgive me followers, since I last blogged I have:

- Continued to chase pricing for flowers. My illusion of cheap flowers has been shattered, although I am at peace with my floral decisions now, and accept that these choices come at a cost. The tight-arse in me is cringing. The bride in me is just making it happen.

- Received the flower girl dress, which I ordered off ebay and paid less than $40. I am so in love with it, but it will need to be taken in a bit and I am eager to have the claw set rhinestones replaced with non claw set strings of bling to save my gorgeous step-daughter's hair being caught all day and night. Absolute bargain, and it is absolutely magical. Also purchased tiara for said gorgeous step-daughter. Too much cuteness! 

- Have designed 'thank you' notes, so that I can send these as soon after the wedding as possible. I like gratitude, I like thank yous. These coordinate with the invitations and printed notices for the wedding.  All of this has been done through Photoshop, and I am absolutely stoked with how they look and how much they have cost. 

- Met with the cake man. He is awesome. I am super excited about his ideas, and eating lots of yummy, yummy cake. 

- Finished painting my wooden cake topper family. Rather than just having the bride and groom, we have a small wooden figure for the bride and groom (Wonder Woman and the Flash - obviously), plus all of the kids. I have one kidlet who wanted to be visually represented as the Human Torch, another who wanted to be represented as a pig man, and the third tiny human who is a mermaid.  I am BURSTING to show more pics, but you will have to settle for this one for now...

- I have created a timeline to get an idea of when to purchase the suits for the boys, and when to get the clothing for the kids altered, when to get ring put in for cleaning, etc, etc. I like the visual of seeing it all out in chronological order, but it did make me realise there are not too many weekends left before the big day. Eeeeeiiiikkkk!!! I am so freaking excited! :) 

- Been shopping at Pumpkin Patch online. I am obsessed with baby clothes! I have so many gorgeous friends who are pregnant or who have had bubs and I cannot resist tiny clothes! This is where the slack bit comes in...wedding stuff is increasingly taking a back seat to my adoration of tiny humans and round bellies. Focus Moo. Focus!

-  Purchased my wedding day scent. It was cheap at Chemist Warehouse, but it smells divine! It is taking all of my strength to not put it on and smell myself all day. I will not name it, because I do not want to be judged right now. :)

- Checked out gifts for our witnesses. Still undecided as to if we go for traditional, or something a bit 'out there'. 

- Signed up for WedPics. I love this concept! It allows your guests to upload their pics from your wedding, where everyone can view them. A bit like your own lil Instagram for your wedding. 

So I have been busy, not just slack!  I will say some Hail Marys and try really, really hard to blog regularly. Cross my heart :) 

Let them eat cake!

When we first started the whole wedding planning thing, we had thrown around the idea of having a Cold Rock ice cream cake as our wedding cake. Firstly, I have long enjoyed the supermarket freezer section ice cream cakes that were a cornerstone to the Maccas birthday party, and liked the fun element of having a chocolate chip cookie dough flavoured ice cream wedding cake. Secondly, many of our dates have ended with a Cold Rock cup and a walk along Terrigal Beach, so it was a nice touch.  

However, in the same way as there are people who do not enjoy pizza as much as The Flash and I, there are also people who do not share our affection for ice cream and in turn ice cream cake. 

So The Flash has engaged a family friend who is an AMAZING cake maker, to come up with a Wonder Woman and The Flash type of cake. He made this fantastic Bash Car cake for my father-in-law's 70th birthday last year.  

Originally, we were looking at two separate cakes, one for each superhero. Just a square or circular cake, with the Wonder Woman and The Flash symbol on top. As has been the theme of the wedding, nothing too fancy, just tasty, tasty cake and lots of it. 

One of the most important elements of the cake, the flavour was hotly debated. While we felt a sense of obligation to have two separate flavours of cake, we have decided that neither of us want to be represented in cake by anything other than chocolate mud cake. I do not want my family and friends to judge me, thinking that I have actively sought to have a vanilla cake! Chocolate is who I am! :) So chocolate X2 is on the menu. 

Secondary to the flavour, is what the cake looks like. 

A google search of Wonder Woman cakes returned some awesome images. 

Like this one from Sweet Sunshine:

And this one on Techrony:

On The Flash side of things, I found these: 

This one is from Pinterest, I could not find the image originator:

And this one from Erica Gomez Cakes:

The Flash has been working with our cake maker, and he in turn has been inspired by some half and half, two tiered creations which combine the two, like this one from Bake A Wish on Flickr:

At the end of the day, as long as we have cake, we are happy! We trust him and feel excited to see what he comes up with!  Watch this space for the final wedding cake!

The Wedding Expo and the Second Time Bride and Groom

Being outside of a capital city, there can be few opportunities to attend a Wedding Expo. So I excitedly diarised the event and sold the benefits to my husband-to-be of us attending together. Because he is so lovely, he humoured me and braved one of his first bridal/wedding events. 

We were really lucky in that so much of our wedding is already organised. We have the date, venue, invitations, food, dress, celebrant, music, bouquets. The purpose of attending was really just to go through our mental checklist to see if there is anything else we have not considered that we really should have. 

First stop were the cars. There were some beautiful Combis, a stretch Hummer, and a stretch limo. Nice, but what could be cheaper and more fun than me driving myself to my wedding in the Yaris?

Next, we entered the expo. $5 per person at the door. I think the last time I paid a cover charge was at Fanny's in 1998. Anyone from Newcastle should appreciate this reference. 

From here, we followed the snaking line of stalls.  Each eager stall holder chipper and ready to talk turkey. 

I was absolutely delighted to see Kel-Leigh Couture there, their gowns still turn me into a doe eyed child due to their sheer beauty! They are just so freaking magical. It was a relief to see that my gown was not there, because I am a pretty crap liar, and did not want the gig to be up with the hubby-to-be. What made my day even more, was Jade from Kel-Leigh greeting me by name. My name. Not just hello 'lovely', 'honey', or 'sweetie', but my actual name! As if I needed any more reason to be totally in love with Kel-Leigh, but here was yet another one!    

Bidding farewell to Jade, we rounded the first bend, and heard one of the stall holders mention how happy we looked. Naievely, I thought, "well, isn't everyone who comes to a Wedding Expo happy?"  I'm happy because I am on the countdown to marrying the 'Ying' to my 'Yang'. I'm happy because we are working on an awesome wedding for an even more awesome price. I'm happy because we have included all of the things in our wedding that are important to us. Why would we NOT be happy? 

So we continued along the line of vendors. There were lots of smiles, nods, etc. Lots of references to me 'changing your name', or 'when you have kids', but I will come back to that... We got cake too! It was nice cake, even if the lady was mortified that we would be marrying soon and have not finalised our plans for a cake.  We talked to her probably more than we otherwise would have, mostly so we could try out her cake. If you are looking for a tasty, good looking cake, check out Beautiful Cake Creations. Their caramel cake rocked the big stuff, but hubby-to-be says he enjoyed the gluten free chocolate cake. 

As we drove home following our Expo morning and into the afternoon, we talked about what we had seen. My husband-to-be's observation was enlightening. He likened his experience at the Expo, to walking the streets of Kings Cross at night. Shocked but curious, I asked for clarification. He went on to explain that when you are walking past a strip club in Kings Cross, no amount of chatter, handing of cards, or persuasion is going to get you through the door. Either you want to go in, or you don't. Can't blame the stallholders for eagerly thrusting their brochures into the hands of anyone and everyone who meanders past, but there are certainly ways to not do this.  

For me, the stand out feature from our outing is that within the wedding industry, there is little regard for the societal changes which see an increase of second time marriages (heck, even third, fourth, fifth marriages), many more children born to different parents and outside of marriage, and the fact that it is no longer a foregone conclusion that the woman will change her name following marriage. In all aspects of society, particularly in government and the service industry, you are not to assume the marital status of a person, or that all women of a certain age are a Mrs, nor that women will pop out some kids once they tie the knot. 

So why does the wedding industry seem immune to this same social convention? 

Not every newlywed woman is going to be Mrs Domestic Goddess...

I suspect it is because this is an industry that relies on the belief that tradition is good, that tradition is necessary, and that of all days, you should uphold any and all traditions ahead of your own personal choice or belief system. Why would this industry as a whole want prospective clients, brides and grooms, to break free from the expectations of what your big day should be? The simple equation is that weddings = money. If every Mr and Mrs to be decided they do not need a stretch hummer, or an Oscar winning videographer, or do not need their guests to have gem encrusted, tri-fold invitations, the economy of weddings would stall. 

And if tradition is YOUR thing, go for it! If tradition is important to YOU, make sure you have heaped tablespoons of it on your wedding day. But tradition does not guarantee your 'happily ever after'. Our parents and grandparents lived (and loved) in a different time. What worked for them, will not necessarily work for us. By all means respect traditions, respect the meaning it has for your ancestors but know there is always the opportunity for you to create your own traditions.    

It's your day, make it one you are happy with! 
      

You're Invited!

You're invited to share in the Holy matrimony...

You're invited to share in the love of...

You're invited to witness the joining of two souls...

Man, it was tricky to get the wording right on the invites! We knew that we did not want the traditional spiel with our parents names but there were so many options. Once my ally, Pinterest proved to be overwhelming, so I returned to my old, faithful friend, Google. 

Our parents, while we love them dearly, are not in any way funding the wedding and so we figured it was not necessary for them to be on the invitation. The kids, on the other hand, are the centres of our universe and so they are the ones who feature on the invite. 

After reviewing a number of layouts and even online templates which created invitations using the information inputted, I opened PhotoShop and went for it. I already had my colours sorted,  so I had a good idea of where I wanted to head with it. I already had quite an assortment of fonts, so it was a matter of playing with layout and fonts until I was happy. This did not happen overnight. The invite file stayed open in PS for weeks, and each day I would have a tinker. Some days I would fuss and then undo all of my work. It was quite an organic process (said in my best hipster voice).

To maintain our privacy and to protect the innocent, I have taken some details out, but this is what our invites look like:

We also created an insert to inform our guests where they might like to stay locally, but that was it. No little RSVP cards, or wedding registry stuff, or cute rhyme about giving us money instead of a gift. Call, text, email, or write to us if you are coming or not.  

You may be thinking that there are some important bits missing from the invite, such as who the invite is actually for and what are people to wear? Well, if the invite has been sent to your household, everyone in that household is invited. Kids, babies, friend/partner, etc. What do you wear? Whatever you are comfortable in. For some people they love getting dressed up, so go to town, glam it up! But if jeans are more your thing, fill your boots! At the end of the day, we are stoked that you can make it, and if you choose to not attend, it is quite clearly going to be your loss and not ours.  

Quite chuffed with our creation, we took the invitations and inserts to Office Works (fist pumping that I have incorporated Office Works into the wedding yet again...), picked the textured paper, and had them printed. All up it worked out about $25 for the printing, $13 for the paper, $6 for the envelopes. Well, it was for 100 envelopes, so we will be using them for many years to come! 

You certainly do not need to be particularly creative to DIY invitations, and it is another fab way to save a butt load of dollars on your wedding. 

Oh yeah, and Warnie, an invite has been sent to you. We do hope to hear from you soon :) I am sure we can even arrange for a dirty pizza!  

If you are reading this and you are a social media buff, please feel free to tweet this blog post to Warnie (@ShaneWarne) and share among anyone else who may be interested. Pete would totally lose his shit if Warnie came, or even RSVP'd so any assistance in making this happen is greatly appreciated.  

Paper flowers and hand made bouquets

When I was fortunate enough to be witness at the marriage of one of my awesome friends, Mrs C, she had the most amazing bouquet. It was made from paper flowers which featured sheet music on them, as a nod to her love of music and many musical talents. 

As fate would have it, I caught her throw away bouquet at the wedding. What can I say, I am quite competitive when it comes to the bouquet toss :) 

Catch of the wedding day, well, other than Mrs C :) 

But other than the superstition that comes with catching the bouquet, I came away from the wedding with complete adoration of her bouquet and knew exactly what my bouquet would feature if I ever walked down the aisle again. 

With this in mind, I hit Etsy to find an appropriate bouquet, and while beautiful, they were asking more than what I was willing to pay. 

I was willing to spend the time to be able to create my own bouquet, but first I needed some good information or templates on making my own paper flowers. Here I found Pinterest to be the best source of information, tutorials and links. 

After I had a Bex and a lie down, being so overwhelmed with results, I firstly tried the paper flower tutorial on The Casual Craftlete  which was really easy, and I loved the modern, minimalistic look of them. But after determining the theme of the wedding, I decided I wanting something which mimicked a rose more, so experimented with the Capitol Romance tutorial, minus the water colour. 

To say I was thrilled with the results is an understatement. The only problem is that I need a LOT of flowers to make both my bouquet and the throw away bouquet. Of the many traditions we are snubbing at our wedding, the bouquet and bouquet toss are not two of them. 

I am using a combination of Wonder Woman comics and metallic paper from Office Works. The brads which feature in the middle of each flower is from Spotlight, so I am stoked to be able to incorporate two of my favourite stores into the construction of the flowers.  :) 

A sneak peek of my bouquet

Using the same method I have created The Flash's boutonniere, and will create these also for the Mini Moos using a yet to be determined comic or theme.

Don't get me wrong, it has not been particularly easy, nor at times enjoyable. But as I have had many months to do this, by making a few flowers each week, I have been able to create my bouquet and the throw away bouquet for approx $80 (AU) as opposed to spending approx $250 for my paper flower bouquet alone if I had purchased it from Etsy. 

As with all of my DIY stuff, I will keep it at this for now, but after the big day, I will be sure to post a STACK of pics so that you can see how it all worked out in the end. 

  

Shiny, Sparkly Things

I like shiny things. Things that shimmer and sparkle.  

I think it started with Miss Kim's magic mirror,  although it could be attributed to Dorothy's ruby red slippers. I loved the Wizard of Oz as a kid (although would cower when the Wicked Witch showed up) and would watch it often. Well, that and Grease, and Singing in the Rain. There is quite clearly a pattern there...   

Shiny, sparkly things are special. Shiny, sparkly things are magical. I would love to say that was just something I believed as a kid, but I admit, I still believe it. 

One thing I have discovered as a bride to be, is that there is such a thing as too much bling. By having too many shiny things, it makes them less special, less magical. So I have exercised extraordinary self control to actively limit the shiny things that adorn me on the big day. Don't get me wrong, there is bling...measured bling. 

One of the things I have been searching for is a hair comb so that there are sparkles in my hair. Being the tight wad that I am, I refuse to pay $85 for one, especially because they are not exactly what I am looking for. 

While we were on our recent family holiday, we visited a beautiful little town called Rutherglen. I know Rutherglen mostly because of Parker's Pies, as they are the most AMAZING pies (and cakes, and slices, and tarts). But it also has many antique stores. While meandering through an antique shop, I caught sight of some vintage brooches. While they were beautiful, at that point I really had no idea what I would do with them. 

So I hit up my old friend Pinterest and looked for some inspiration, and I found this:

Originally found on Pinterest, but attributed to weddingomania.com

These were lovely, but I really could not see how I could successfully blend this with my Wonder Woman themed bouquet. I searched ebay for vintage brooches, still needing some kind of sign of what to do with my vague concept. I found a bulk lot of vintage inspired brooches, $27 for 25 pieces, delivered. 

These will be used as part of the bouquet, used sparingly (remember, too much bling is not a good thing!) I have also selected 5 of these to create my hair piece. 

Don't worry, there will be pictures, just not yet. I cannot go spoiling the surprise for everyone! But I promise I will post copious photos after the big day :) 

  

Why should you have a 'second marriage' wedding for your first wedding?

The first time I got married, I was worried about making sure everyone else's needs and expectations were met. I am my parent's only daughter and so wanted to make sure they had the wedding experience they wanted. My mother in law to be had been excluded from her other son's wedding preparations, so I attempted to include her in decision making processes. 

I wore white, despite being almost 4 months pregnant. We got married in a church, as this was important to my parents. We had a formal meal, raft of speeches, first dance, bouquet toss, etc. It was a fun day, and I gladly allowed others to have the elements that were so important to them. 

This time around, 15 years later, it is all about what we want. We are fully funding the wedding, and as such, we are able to create our perfect day, for us. 

If I knew then, what I know now, I would have had a very different first wedding! 

The best thing about your wedding, is that it is the opportunity for you and your significant other to work together on a day that you will remember forever. You may wish to call on friends and family for their assistance and opinions, but at the end of the day, it is YOUR big day. If they have a different vision, let them follow that for THEIR big day. 

I have been so inspired by one of my closest and most amazing friends (you know who you are CC) ;) who had a beautiful wedding a few years back. Also her second marriage, her and her husband were able to capture the elements of a first wedding, paired with the simplicity and purpose of a second wedding. 

Reality TV programs such as Four Weddings, My Fair Wedding, even the blasted Kardashians set unrealistic expectations of what a wedding looks like. Pinterest and Etsy further fuel the hype of what your perfect wedding day must contain.  

Traditions, while lovely, are not for everyone. Some traditions can be symbolic and beautiful, while others bear a weight of expectation. 

This time, we are having a very short ceremony. Our celebrant is amazingly quirky and specialises in small, no fuss ceremonies. My fiance and I have agreed that we do not need lengthy vows, we tell each other and show each other every single day how much we love each other and for us, there is no need to publicly declare or detail this love. This ceremony will either be in the large foyer area of our venue, or on the large balcony (depending on the weather, and we can made this decision on the day). This decision has saved us both the expense of booking a venue for the ceremony, but also took the worry out of having to have a back up venue in the event of bad weather. 

I am wearing ivory. I did struggle with this in the very beginning but I am so happy with my dress, and my decision was more about looking fabulous than adhering to any kind of tradition. My boys will be walking me down the aisle. 

Sorry Dad, you have already had a go... 

We do not have a 'bridal party'. But rather two witnesses who get their name on the official certificate. If there were spaces for three, four, five, a dozen, we would have our nearest and dearest's names on there too :) 

There will not be a chair cover in sight. Nor chair sashes. The tables will be adorned with plain white tablecloths and glass jars, many of which have held the contents of past dinners (pasta and stiry fry sauces) or have been gathered from dollar shops or second hand stores. I will eventually get around to blogging about them too. 

There will no 'first dance'. My fiance does not like to dance and so we asked ourselves why should we put ourselves through something that we do not want to do, just because it is a tradition? 

Bonbonnieres. Nope! 

Bridal cars. Nope!

Open bar. Nope!

Long range weather forecast before locking in a date? Nope! I don't mind if it absolutely pisses down. It was a dreadful June day when we had our first date, so why should our wedding day be any different? 

It is incredible how many things I found myself doing at my first wedding, that really aren't important this time. Don't get me wrong, I still want to have an awesome wedding day, but I am really just stoked to be marrying The Flash :)    

I have just read in a bridal group on Facebook, about a bride to be (or b2b) who is looking to spend over $10,000 on a photographer and videographer. If you have the cash to spend, go for it. But I can tell you from experience, that a  $1000 photo package gets divided/ceremonially burnt in the same way as a $10,000 package does if the marriage does not work out.

And I guess that is the point that I am trying to make. Rather than starting your lives together with mountains of debt and expectation, marry the person you love, the way you want to. Every marriage is a half chance of going the distance, so why not focus your time and energy on your relationship in the long term, than on one day?