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!