Aussie BIW club

[Echidna]

Hi Rae

We've set a date since my last update- 9 July 2011. Glad to have you and Supers as planning buddies!

 

[Rae~]

Oh, yay, planning buddies!!

So, yeah... apparently we are engaged, as of tonight.

Ring is still on the way but today's date had significance to us so FI decided to propose anyway. He knew I didn't care about a ring, per se!

 

[Supers]

Congrats Rae -looking forward to seeing your ring!

 

[Rae~]

Thanks, Supers. I believe it will be another couple of weeks until it arrives, but I'll be sure to post a pic!

 

[Echidna]

Woo hoo!!! Congratulations, Rae and Soon-to-be-Mr-Rae

Looking forward to pics and a story...

 

[gls]

Hi Girls!

Count me in! I'll be getting married September 2011.

Congrats Rae on your engagement!

 

[Magenta]

Seems I'm a bit late for this, having gotten married on Monday, but *wave*.

 

[Supers]

Congratulations Magenta!

Anyway, our plans may be changing. FI has 4 kids from a previous marriage and when we considered destination wedding, we did not think they would want to come. However, the oldest would like to, and FI has realised that we can't exclude the others, so it may be that we have a wedding at home after all so they can all attend.

Bit disappointed as I'd spent a lot of time researching destination weddings, but it is the right thing to do to have everyone there. Am now consoling myself with the thought that we can have an amazing honeymoon.

 

[Rae~]

An amazing honeymoon sounds like a great "backup" idea, Supers.

I really need to start planning - we only have 6 months! - but part of me is resisting. I really dislike being the centre of attention and I sometimes doubt the wedding will be a particularly enjoyable event for me! The main stress is working out what to wear. I am soooo dreading dress shopping!

 

[Supers]

You know what I have been loving the look of (and may suit for a winter / late autumn wedding) is the whole steampunl / Victorian / gothic corset / bustle skirt dress. Maybe in a dramatic colour - not white.
I think it was Iris Accents' post that got me thinking. Speaking of which, I was hoping she would come back and share her pics.

I have no idea what to do about the dress. When we were having the destination wedding, I saw something light, floaty.. but now, we have no plans, so I have no idea what to wear!

 

[Rae~]

I am now living up north (WAY north!) and even in "winter" it's really warm. And just to make it worse, I feel the heat HORRIBLY. So of course, given the extra stress I am no doubt going to be under, one of my concerns is ending up a sweaty mess on my wedding day. For that reason I am going to need material that doesn't show sweat marks easily... perhaps an overlay of lace? I may be being overly cautious, but I'd just DIE if I had to walk around with visible marks on my dress. Ugh.

I like the steampunk look but am not sure if I personally could pull it off, especially in front of family. I have a bit of a weird thing about blending into the background around people I know. Which is probably why I LOVED living overseas for so long! Argh.

How early are people sending out invitations? Our wedding is around mid year, perhaps as early as early June, so I was thinking.... March? Does that sound reasonable?? I don't plan on sending out Save The Date cards, though - I'll just get the word out via word-of-mouth.

 

[Magenta]

I really need to start planning - we only have 6 months! - but part of me is resisting. I really dislike being the centre of attention and I sometimes doubt the wedding will be a particularly enjoyable event for me! The main stress is working out what to wear. I am soooo dreading dress shopping!

I found the centre of attention problem much better than I'd expected. People found things in common to talk about, and weren't hovering around us all the time. Having candles around was a great icebreaker too - got people talking about chemical reactions, and things that go boom!

Good luck on the dress shopping

As for save the dates, we tried for 6 weeks before the date (although they only got posted 4.5 weeks before the date). We had people who couldn't make it due to timing. On the other hand, we had STD's at least 4 months before the date, which was very handy. People just seem to stick them on the fridge, and not lose them, so sending them out earlier seems to work just fine.

 

[Supers]

Rae, I didn't even consider sweat marks on the dress!
I think you'd be fine though with a good anti persperant - unless you really sweat a lot? Sorry, I'm not much help here!

As for sending invites out in March, I think that is plenty of time.

We're now thinking on getting married on a winery somewhere. My thought was that it might be nice to have autumnal colours in the photos, but I realised that that is only 4 - 5 months away. I don't even know if that is enough time to plan. We wanted a simple wedding, but now that it is at home instead of overseas, I can see that it might end up being more people and just more drama....

 

[Magenta]

We're now thinking on getting married on a winery somewhere. My thought was that it might be nice to have autumnal colours in the photos, but I realised that that is only 4 - 5 months away. I don't even know if that is enough time to plan. We wanted a simple wedding, but now that it is at home instead of overseas, I can see that it might end up being more people and just more drama....

There's no real reason you can't have a simple wedding in your normal state, even with more people. Your biggest problem, I'd expect, would be finding a date that the venue could do, which might be somewhat difficult if you want a Saturday, for example. Anything you don't care about, just don't do.

 

[Rae~]

I found the centre of attention problem much better than I'd expected. People found things in common to talk about, and weren't hovering around us all the time. Having candles around was a great icebreaker too - got people talking about chemical reactions, and things that go boom!

Good luck on the dress shopping

Thanks Magenta. I think the being-the-focus issue is why I am dreading dress shopping so much. Hopefully on the day it won't be so bad.

Rae, I didn't even consider sweat marks on the dress!
I think you'd be fine though with a good anti persperant - unless you really sweat a lot? Sorry, I'm not much help here!

As for sending invites out in March, I think that is plenty of time.

I don't THINK I sweat more than others but maybe that's part of it? I definitely feel hot MUCH more easily than anyone else I know. It also takes me quite a while to cool down - bad circulation, maybe? Dunno. While I've learned to live with it (eg have always carried a folding fan in my handbag, since I was about 25) it's still something I'm self conscious about. Everyone else will be sitting there watching a game, quite happily, and I'll be under the thickest, deepest shade tree, fanning away at my bright red face!! So I guess I'm just super paranoid about that being an issue at the wedding, too. Oh well, I'll deal with it!!

We're now thinking on getting married on a winery somewhere. My thought was that it might be nice to have autumnal colours in the photos, but I realised that that is only 4 - 5 months away. I don't even know if that is enough time to plan. We wanted a simple wedding, but now that it is at home instead of overseas, I can see that it might end up being more people and just more drama....

4-5 months might be tight but surely do-able? Will many people have to travel to come or are they mostly living locally? You may just have to make some quick decisions, that's all. Good luck!

 

[honey22]

I am now living up north (WAY north!) and even in "winter" it's really warm. And just to make it worse, I feel the heat HORRIBLY. So of course, given the extra stress I am no doubt going to be under, one of my concerns is ending up a sweaty mess on my wedding day. For that reason I am going to need material that doesn't show sweat marks easily... perhaps an overlay of lace? I may be being overly cautious, but I'd just DIE if I had to walk around with visible marks on my dress. Ugh.

I like the steampunk look but am not sure if I personally could pull it off, especially in front of family. I have a bit of a weird thing about blending into the background around people I know. Which is probably why I LOVED living overseas for so long! Argh.

How early are people sending out invitations? Our wedding is around mid year, perhaps as early as early June, so I was thinking.... March? Does that sound reasonable?? I don't plan on sending out Save The Date cards, though - I'll just get the word out via word-of-mouth.

Don't stress about the dress, honestly. I live in Melb and got married in Cairns (Angsana, Palm Cove) end of November! I wore a silk dress (looks a bit like satin, but is silk) and I was really hot (not to mention the gastro I had!) and I didn't have a single problem with my dress. I really feel the heat too, so if I can survive Cairns in November, you will survive FNQ in winter

 

[Rae~]

Not a great pic, I know, but the best I could do at the time.

Taken at dusk, outside, no flash (hence it's a bit blurry).

 

[Supers]

Ooooh - gorgeous.
Details please!

 

[Rae~]

I've always loved cushion cuts and when pictures of GOG's August Vintage Cushions - and their gorgeous chunky facets - started popping around here I knew it would be top of the wishlist of cuts.

So, once we started talking seriously about getting engaged, we looked together and found this one. It's not quite the specs we wanted but there was limited inventory and we were on a fairly restrictive time frame as we wanted to be engaged by the end of the year in order to have enough time to plan for a mid-2011 wedding..... we really didn't want to wait another year, and winter is the only time of year I will even *consider* wearing a wedding dress!

Oh, yeah - specs. Heh.

The centre AVC is a 1.36ct G SI1 (Ex Polish, Ex Symmetry, no flour) and the side diamonds are 0.05ct each.

The ring is just lovely, and I think my FI did a great job in designing it. If I had designed it myself I *might* have done a few small things *slightly* differently, but I know he he put a lot of thought into it and I think it is gorgeous.

 

[Supers]

Rae - your man did a great job. Did you get the ring made locally?
Those specs are fab - it might not quite be what you wanted but I think it's sensational.
I've got a 1.28 J SI1 AVC - not what I expected, initially I thought I would have gotten something of a higher colour, clarity but smaller size, but I love my ring and diamond.

 

[Rae~]

The ring was made by a jeweller in Brisbane. We will likely also have our wedding rings made by the same jeweller.

We were in the same situation as you - initially looking for a slightly smaller but higher colour & clarity stone, but there just wasn't one in our range. I am not complaining, though - I do love this stone.

 

[Supers]

Last Saturday I went dress shopping with my girlfriends - just for fun.
We went to Mariana Hardwick, just so we could say we had been dress shopping at Mariana! Their dresses were stunning, but at $3000+ for a made to measure dress that would take 6 months.... that was more than I want to spend and given that I'm looking at a wedding in May/June/July, wasn't going to happen.

Also went to some off the rack stores, and found something beautiful from Pronovias for $2099. Discovered I could buy thee same online for USD850, but once again delivery time was too long.

I came away thinking I don't want a traditional dress and have contacted a seller on etsy to make a corset/jacket/skirt - quote is USD400, which I am happy with.

Now just need to plan the wedding - we're kinda dragging our feet on it as we're stuck for what to do now that we're not doing a destination wedding.

 

[Rae~]

Supers, have you done any more dress shopping?

I am going to a "bridal expo" on Sunday and have heard that there will be at least one dress shop there selling all their floor stock from one of their two stores as they are moving/consolidating at their other store further out in the countryside. I've been putting off dress shopping because I am dreading the process, but now I'm just slightly hoping that I'll find a reasonable dress this weekend and not have to think about it any more!! Not really likely, I know, but it would save me so much stress.

 

[Supers]

Good luck at the expo... you never know, the perfect dress may be there at a sale price.
No more shopping from me. We really need to organise the venue first!

 

[hawaiianorangetree]

Hope the planning is going well ladies and that the QLD floods arent affecting your plans too much. I was in a wedding/ hens party supply shop today and they had signs up on out of stock items explaining that their suppliers were underwater

 

[Echidna]

HOT, thanks for your thoughts. Both of my venues flooded so I'll be interested to see how the clean-up goes and when I can get in and check them out. My July wedding is small potatoes in the grand scheme of things but it made me sad to think about it nonetheless!

Rae, best of luck with the expo. Dress shopping was hands-down the hardest thing for me (probably more budget related than anything else) so I wish you loads of luck

 

[hawaiianorangetree]

Ouch Echidna! You poor thing, but you are right, July is still a while a way and I'm sure they will have it all fixed by then. Fingers crossed and lots of dust that it all works out!

 

[Rae~]

Echidna - any news on your venues? Fingers crossed any damage is minimal and can be fixed quickly.

Dress shopping actually went OK last Thursday. I went to three stores, but the third one was the "old" location of the second store, and really only had old store samples which were fairly beat up, so nothing worthwhile.

The first store was wonderful in that the owner - a dressmaker - was there and talked me through all the different styles of wedding dresses. She asked a few questions to see what I was looking for (I didn't really know, so just told her a few "no way" points, such as no shiny satin, no big poofy skirts), then she gave advice on what styles she thought might suit me. I have to say, she was pretty good at picking styles, as the few she selected for me to try, were probably the best it was going to get.

The second store was fairly useless, really. The lady there was a saleslady rather than a dressmaker so she was really just there to sell dresses; no concept of what might suit me, no advice on what stock they had, just said for us to pick out a few wel liked and she'd help me try them on. We struggled to even find a couple we wanted to try, but ended up with about four. We both (Mum & I) dissolved into a fit of The Giggles at one point as the lady was manoeuvring a dress over my head, so I think that was a good sign we were all dressed out at that point and needed coffee!

One of the dresses the lady at the first store picked out was - I realised later - a dress that I had saved photos of in my "Dresses I Like" folder. It was probably the nicest of all of them, although it was a tight call between that and one other. So I am going back today to have a chat with her again and - maybe! - order it. It will be nice to have that weight off my mind.

What else have I been doing... hmmm...

We also have picked our entertainment, yay. We've gone with a guy who will play guitar for the ceremony, pre-dinner drinks and the first bit of the reception (ie until speeches), and will then switch over and be a DJ for the last few hours. It has worked out well because we really wanted live music for the signing/pre-dinner drinks in particular, and didn't want to splurge for a band for the dancing part of the reception. And having him do both gives us a fairly reasonable package deal, compared to hiring separate DJ and live musician/s.

Invitations are stressing me! I need to just decide on them and get going! *slaps self*

Anyone else have any planning updates?

 

[Echidna]

Echidna - any news on your venues? Fingers crossed any damage is minimal and can be fixed quickly.

Dress shopping actually went OK last Thursday. I went to three stores, but the third one was the "old" location of the second store, and really only had old store samples which were fairly beat up, so nothing worthwhile.

The first store was wonderful in that the owner - a dressmaker - was there and talked me through all the different styles of wedding dresses. She asked a few questions to see what I was looking for (I didn't really know, so just told her a few "no way" points, such as no shiny satin, no big poofy skirts), then she gave advice on what styles she thought might suit me. I have to say, she was pretty good at picking styles, as the few she selected for me to try, were probably the best it was going to get.

The second store was fairly useless, really. The lady there was a saleslady rather than a dressmaker so she was really just there to sell dresses; no concept of what might suit me, no advice on what stock they had, just said for us to pick out a few wel liked and she'd help me try them on. We struggled to even find a couple we wanted to try, but ended up with about four. We both (Mum & I) dissolved into a fit of The Giggles at one point as the lady was manoeuvring a dress over my head, so I think that was a good sign we were all dressed out at that point and needed coffee!

One of the dresses the lady at the first store picked out was - I realised later - a dress that I had saved photos of in my "Dresses I Like" folder. It was probably the nicest of all of them, although it was a tight call between that and one other. So I am going back today to have a chat with her again and - maybe! - order it. It will be nice to have that weight off my mind.

What else have I been doing... hmmm...

We also have picked our entertainment, yay. We've gone with a guy who will play guitar for the ceremony, pre-dinner drinks and the first bit of the reception (ie until speeches), and will then switch over and be a DJ for the last few hours. It has worked out well because we really wanted live music for the signing/pre-dinner drinks in particular, and didn't want to splurge for a band for the dancing part of the reception. And having him do both gives us a fairly reasonable package deal, compared to hiring separate DJ and live musician/s.

Invitations are stressing me! I need to just decide on them and get going! *slaps self*

Anyone else have any planning updates?

This is a great update, Rae! Well done on the dress shopping adventure. SO glad to hear that you had a great sales lady because it really makes all the difference. Can we see any pics of your top dress choices?

Yay also for entertainment beings sorted! We were going to do exactly the same thing with the music (half live, half DJ) but the money got too tight. Great to hear that you've found someone perfect.

Well, I'm back on the wedding planning bandwagon after a loooong break. I found out that NEITHER of my wedding venues flooded after all That is an absolute miracle of epic proportion given that both venues are pretty much on the Brisbane River. I was particularly worried about the reception venue but it was saved by a massive construction site- it's currently just a 30m deep hole in the ground, so it filled up with water and saved the rest of the street. Phew! Poor construction company though!

Anyway, invitations are next on my list too *slaps self as well* I'm thinking about getting a company to do me up printable templates and then just printing them myself (with my fabulous sister's help). I have a planning meeting with our venue next week. We're hoping to test out our DIY music, get some floor plans, and finalise the menu (and thus reception cost). Have also emailed the cake lady...

That's it for me so far! Anyone else?

PS. Things I have already sorted: dress, BM dress, reception venue, ceremony venue, florist (details not finalise though), photographer.

 

[Supers]

My dress has been made!!!
Which is kinda funny seeing as I have no date and no venue as yet.
But we are going for dinner tomorrow night at one of the possible venues to sample their food.
FI and I have been saying we really need to get cracking - especially if the wedding is in May/June/July.