My wedding planning

I haven't done an update in a little while and did have a slight "OMG" moment when I looked at my wedding countdown the other day and saw this.....

 

 

when did this happen? was I sleeping??

 

Luckily I have still been doing some wedding planning.

 

 

Looks better with a flash, the white pops out more.

 

I FINALLY found black lace for the tablecloths at a suitable (aka not $20 per metre) price. I cannot tell you how difficult this was... everything was wayyy too expensive, as I needed 80 metres or just well, fugly. Thanks to aliexpress and a supplier from China I got the lace I wanted for only $2.7 per metre. I love globalisation and the internet :)

 

 

We also decided to go with the second bridesmaid's dress and I ordered the rest.

 

 

My mum ordered her dress, which will look a bit like this... I'm glad she went with something special, I want her to feel special on the big day too, after all she made me who I am.

 

I purchased part of my dad's wedding present.

 

I ordered my robe for the day, which I will post when I get it.

 

 

I FINALLY (most were booked out) managed to lock in a hair dresser - Mary Tannous.

 

We found some frames in the Reject Shop, which look to be perfect for the table names... we just need to find more than two now :S

 

and the best news of all.... we booked our over the water bungalow in the Maldives for our honeymoon!!

 

 

 

We aim to go for a five week honeymoon and go to Singapore, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Malaysia.. I CANNOT WAIT!!

 

How are my fellow brides going? Some of you must be close to D day now!

OHHH and one other question - where do you usually put the daddy daughter dance into a wedding program? I can't think of a wedding I have been to where it has happened. Please help.

Who runs the world? Girls!

I love a good night/day out with my girls. The endless chatter about things your fiance only tries to seem interested in and the jokes that only you and your girls find funny.

 

I had a huge dose of female love last weekend.

 

On Friday night, I met a few girls that I use to work with for what my friend R described as a "cheap and nasty night". And that it was my friends!

 

 

Unfortunately it was pouring down rain in Sydney just before we were going to meet, and I had know jacket, but luckily R had a spare leather jacket in her office that I borrowed. She insisted that this jacket was made for me, hence the pose.

 

 

What I love about Friday night drinking is that because you start early, it is socially acceptable to finish early and still be able to get a train home, which is exactly what I did about 12.30am.

 

I felt fine just before we were leaving, so thought there was no harm in quickly downing my last glass of wine - Oh Sarah will you never learn?! After about 5 minutes on the train I realised I was intoxicated, legless, drunk, blind as a skunk.. you name it, I was probably it!

 

I looked at my phone and saw a message from A earlier asking me where I was, this was my response...

 

 

 

Poor guy must have freaked out!! I didn't mean to write that but I couldn't see my phone properly, let alone type and i'll also blame stupid autocorrect! I cleared it all up and then was very happy to see A at the train station waiting for me when I got off; such a sweetheart!

 

On Sunday I met up with my 3 bridesmaid's for a champagne (hmm starting to see a reoccurring theme here? ) brunch and a bridal expo.

 

 

We couldn't leave out my MOH who is currently living in Colombia, so we made sure she had a spot.

 

 

We ate at Cyren in Darling Harbour, and whilst our Waiter was lovely, the food took way too long to come out and then my poor girls who ordered eggs Benedict were faced with a long plate with 2 muffins sliding around it on top. There was no garnish, no prettiness, no nothing.

 

 

My Mediterranean breakfast was delicious, but I still don't think I would return.

 

Going to the bridal expo slightly tipsy, we had a ball!

 

 

Highlights: Of course the photo booths, the fondue freebies, cake testing, the awful awful drag queen at the fashion show, the ketut and rhonda lollies and the boys in the fashion show who cheekily decided to show what was under their kilt ;)

 

Ketut loves Rhonda

 

Cons: There was only one way in and out, which was really frustrating. Only one cake place out of 6 had samples - I need a cake, samples would have helped me! For our $20 each I didn't even get one free bridal magazine.

 

Cake pops cake

 

All in all it was such a fun day with lots of girly silliness and I can't wait for more adventures out with my bridesmaids all together.

 

 

 

 

What's something you always do with your girls?

 

Have you done movies and sleepovers recently? I know it is a bit cliche, but after typing the question, now I want to do it! hehe.

Pick a Dress

Do you remember way back HERE when I received the first bridesmaid gown? I loved it and was gushing over it and all the bridesmaid's loved it and felt like princesses, and aside from getting the sleeves fixed that was that.

 

Well.. that WAS that.

 

See I don't know if I actually told you this part, but when I picked the dress I was originally going to order it from thecelebritydresses.com, but then I heard all these horror stories and decided it was probably too cheap to be good, so I went with one in Australia - dress of your dreams.

 

I ordered samples and pinked the colour chiffon I wanted. When I received an email from Dress of Your Dreams I was told the dress was shipped and oh yeah btw we couldn't do the twisted bodice in chiffon, so we changed it to chemise satin (I think that's what it is called).

 

I freaked out initially, but loved the dress anyways as you can tell by my last post.

 

Now maybe I have had too much time to think about things, but as the rest of the wedding gets put together, that niggling feeling of "I never wanted shiny bridesmaid's dresses" was becoming stronger and stronger, until (with my mum encouraging me) I ordered the dress from thecelebritydresses.com for $165 including delivery. I figured if it is crap, it is my own fault for wasting money.

 

Is it crap? NOPE! It is beautiful and all of the bridesmaid's agree it is better! It is lighter, the sleeves are perfectly how I wanted them and the train is just beautiful.

 

I love the softer, non shiny fabric and I think on the day before summer the girls will be a lot more comfortable in this lighter fabric.

 

So now I want to ask you to.... pick a dress!

 

Which one do you think is better?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The pinks are different and I loved the dustiness of the first one, but this one is also soft and fairy floss like lol.

 

Only problem with the new dress is the the bodice sits slightly higher, but this could maybe be altered? I say maybe because I have no idea about the construction of dresses. 
 

The one that loses I think will have to go on ebay or something.

Wedding Update

Ok, so I wrote this post at the start of last week, but it wouldn't let me add pictures and I didn't want a post without pictures, so I kept trying every day until it let me! :)

I will do a life update shortly, but now that we are OFFICIALLY under the 12 month mark, I thought I would do a wedding update.

 

 

 

The dreaded 12 month mark, made me whip my bottom into action a little bit this week I think...

 

I sent out most of the save the dates, you can see here.

 

I finally got around to asking my friend Alessia to be my bridesmaid.

 

I told her to close her eyes, because I had a birthday present for her, I placed this in her hands and then told her to open. She did a double take at the card, then started to cry.. I was worried for a split second, until she started saying "OMG OMG OMG" and then squealed!hahaha

 

I spent the rest of the night speaking with her and showing her things only bridesmaid's can see e.g. my wedding dress. She was messaging me the next morning, still excited!

 

Unfortunately, Alessia has a trip planned to Italy next year for 6 months and will only get back a few days before our wedding, but this is just an awesome excuse for TWO hens parties if you ask me :)

 

I finally got around to paying the deposit for and locking in my Makeup Artist, who did my trial here.

 

We started to get a friend (travel agent) to help us plan our honeymoon, which when I originally started writing this post was going to be the carribean, but due to the time of the year.. I think it will be a lot of hassel and money, so now we are looking at the maldives... but not just the Maldives, because I want a year off so we are looking at also going to Malyasia, Macau,  Dubai and either Beijing or Singapore, as well as either Laos, Sri Lanka or somewhere lol.

What do you think? Do you have any tips about any of these places? I'd love to know!

 

And last, but not least we picked our wedding band.

 

We decided to go with Vibe wedding band, they had great reviews on wedding websites, sound good, have a good selection of songs and most importantly they promised they have never ever played celebration! haha A and I are not the corny wedding music type at all.

 

A is pretty happy now that all he has left to "decide" on is the wedding cars, cake, rings and his attire. The rest I am pretty sure he will be happy to let me take care of.

 

I know this year will fly and I am excited, nervous and in full wedding planning mode! 

Weigh in and Weekend

I am on my way to work smiling and feeling like a million bucks today... It was a good weigh in this morning...

I lost one whole kilo this week!! So much for being in the 67's... I flew past them and went straight into the 66's!

Boooyahhh that's now a total of 3.4kgs down and 4.8%.

The other nights meatballs.. mmm

How did the other 12wbters go??

This past weekend was the second weekend in a row when I was sober (and by sober I mean just not being totally wasted or partying), it's amazing how much things I get done when I'm not hungover!! Lol It made me start to imagine all the things I could achieve if I wasn't a lover of booze......

On Friday night my girl Priscilla came over for fish, pilates and movies.

I wish I took a picture of the fish, but in true fashion I forgot so you have to trust me. At Woolworths now you can get your seafood marinated. Basically you pick your seafood or fish, then your sauce (I chose lime and chili) and then they put it in an oven bag for you. You follow the instructions on the bag, open it up when it's ready and have deliciously cooked fish!! And it's FREE!!! If you haven't tried it yet, I suggest you do!

After our Fish I told Priscilla I had a special dessert for her and I surprised her with this....

She was not expecting it and as you can tell from the photo she was super excited! I think one of the first things she said was "what if you hate me in a year?" lol. Not gonna happen.

She left the cake on her lap for about an hour after that, as we talked all things weddings.

On Saturday, I took Priscilla and one of my other BM's Alana to see my dream dress. Both girls loved it, Alana even got a bit emotional. Dress is confirmed, deposit is paid! :)

Saturday night I went out with some friends for Tapas in Bondi. Again no food pics, but it was delicious....

Devil eyes strike again!

But I did manage to take a couple of outfit pics for you...

ignore my face

Do you like my new Kookai faux fur vest? I loooveee it!

Thigh high boots.

and a selfie, where I look orange :)

 

Sunday was the best kind of day... A stay in your trackies close to the couch kind of day. I cleaned, I cooked, did washing and uploaded some pics of Dat Girl Clothing. I even squeezed in a glass of moscato - see what I mean about achievement levels when I'm not hungover? Haha.

This weekend we are having a weekend away with another couple, before A leaves for Melbourne on Monday. *sigh* I don't think it has sunk in that he is going to be gone yet... Give me a few nights in bed alone and I'll be whining!

What's your plans for this weekend?

Photo of Bobby my mum sent me.

My mum is working from home.. this is bobby's reaction lol.

Wedding Dress Shopping

A IF YOU ARE READING THIS - LOOK AWAY NOW!

IMAGES YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE! ;)

On Saturday I went wedding dress shopping with my girls along Parramatta Road, St Peters area.

Any female who lives in Sydney and has driven along Parramatta Road, knows about the abundance of wedding dress boutiques along there.

The girls hadn't seen me in a wedding dress before, only my mum had.

We started off with an appointment at Oahn Ma.

 

The first dress I tried on before walking out, I shouted "are you ready" so the girls would look up from the magazine they were ready. When I walked out they were all speechless, not because it was the perfect dress, but because here I was, their friend IN A WEDDING DRESS!!!! To get them out of their daze, I started talking about the various parts of the dress which we liked and did not like. We liked the big bow at the back, did not like the straight neckline. Loved the fullness of the skirt, but not the lack of detail.

I tried on a few more at Oahn Ma and one in particular was loved by the girls.

I loved this dress too, but I wasn't sure that it was the one.

Here is my dilemma- I love a tulle skirt because it looks soft and princessy, however I have been told by a few places that you can't really have a train with a tulle skirt as it will tear easily. I have always wanted a train and when this was told to me my heart sank! I can't be without a train, no no, not an option!

After Oahn Ma, we just strolled down the street walking into every bridal store. The girls and I found something for me to try on in almost every store.

The girls wanted to try dresses on too, despite already having their bridesmaid's dress, so I picked a few ......

 it was fun to try all the different styles and colours, whether they were our taste or not!

After an hour or so we were all starving. The only place open for food was the pub, so the pub it was!

Chicken Burrito

Seriously though, someone should open a little cafe amongst all these wedding stores. Wedding dress shopping is hungry work and women want to eat!!!

One of the other stores we went it to was Evermore Bridal. In there, I tried on a beautiful mermaid gown with lace cap sleeves. I fell in love with the lace detail on this, but mermaid gowns DO NOT suit me and I am not just being a typical girl. All of my friends confirmed my thoughts. Mermaid gowns accentuate my butt and hips in ways I do not want on my wedding day.

The designer was very helpful and told me they could alter the skirt to make it into a ball gown. HMMMM...more things to think about! Has anyone had a dress made here?

One of the dresses in a store I cannot remember the name of, the girls fell in love with. It was their pick of the day! It is an absolutely beautiful gown with so much detail!

(the crease isn't there, the designer just lifted it up to show me where the dress would sit)

I think part of the reason the girls loved it was also because it was the first time they saw me in a veil. I swear a veil makes such a difference! Alana even drew a tear.

I was surprised at how much I liked this dress, being a big dress girl and all, but now looking at the photo it just doesn't look like me. It's not me.

We left Parramatta Road exhausted and confused!! I think I had a clearer idea of what I wanted before I started looking.. The only conculsion I HAVE reached is that I will have a long veil.

 

How do you even combine all these ideas to design a dress? has anyone done it?

The Dress

Okay, it is not "the dress", but it is my Bridesmaid's dress and I know there are a few of you waiting for this post... so here goes...

 

On Saturday after pole dancing, I went over to my Mum's house to see the bridesmaid's dress. Mum was chatting away when my eyes locked on the box, I began ripping off some of the sticky tape, before my mum pushed me to the side and said, "let me do it, you'll wreck the dress" - she knows me well.

First glance at the dress - not the baby pink I was expecting. Mum and I digest for a second, yes it's not what we were expecting but we do like it. We like it a lot. Flowers will need to be adapted to suit.

(sorry in advance for the poor quality iPhone pics!)

Before we continue, we lock Bobby outside to avoid the moment where she jumps up and ruins the dress and I curse at her over and over.

Bobby sleeping on mum

We pull out the dress, hang it up against the wall and stare at it for a while.

Mum suggests we eat our lunch while we stare, so we do.

It looked different to what I expected, but then things bought online always do.

We knew it had to be tried on.

 

This photo makes the pink look brighter than it actually is,

 it is a softer/dusty colour like below

 My MOH and I love the bodice.

The fabric (which they changed during production, due to a problem with the chiffon) makes the dress quite heavy, but it also makes it very formal and elegant, which is what I want. I love the idea of a formal, classy, fancy pants kind of wedding. I always have.

Once I put the dress on I decided that I loved it. I played with it and as you can see I took lots of photos. I'm happy.The colour is even better than what I had originally picked and the material photographs well.

The bead work is perfection.

Looking back at the picture I sent Dress of Your Dreams, they have done an amazzzinngg job at matching it, yes it is not identical, but that doesn't bother me, as long as it looks good! The beading on the sleeves is beautiful and inside the dress is a strap to keep you in the dress. It is hard to explain, but it is a nice added extra. The dress also came with a packet of additional beads. I would have no hesitation in recommending the Dress of Your Dreams website to anyone.



 The only thing I want to change about the dress is the length of the sleeves. At the moment, to me, they are kinda thick straps and I would prefer them to be the full on cap sleeves, like the original photo above. I emailed Lara my request and she said it was no problem, I could send back the dress, they would remove the sleeves and replace them with longer ones.  That is GREAT customer service!

So now it is time to tell me what you think and be HONEST?!?!?

Like, love, hate?

Anything you would change?