First look

Finally, we got into the cars and on the way. We were totally unorganized about the photography. Sure we had a photographer, we knew we would do photos before the wedding, we decided the night before that we'd go to the Fitzroy Gardens for the first look but that was about it. At this point I think a shout out to our photographer is needed. Serana from Photo8 Photography did a fantastic job in spite of our lack of organisation (and one slightly stressed out groom)!

A's family, who were driving the cars, run on something called A-time. However long his dad says he'll be, double it and add 10. Knowing this we probably should have said we wanted to be picked up at 12 rather than 1.  In the confusion, the boys had thought that we were meeting at the apartment then going to the gardens together.  By 2 we had sent the boys off and we were finally on the road. Poor A. He told me the other day as we looked at the photos that he was so mad that the cars were late and then he was dying to see me but we sent them off to the gardens and he had to wait even longer!

Waiting, waiting, waiting... 

So why did we have a first look? A couple of reasons. 

1) I wanted a bit of time with A before the ceremony

2) First look photos are lovely

3) The church had two aisles and was not really set up in a way that we could see each other as I walked down the aisle

4) it meant our guests could go straight from the ceremony to the reception without a big break between

I loved it (even if it wasn't just the two of us - see photo 5 in the sequence - although we had no idea they were there until we saw the photo). It was the only time all day that I was nervous, excited nervous but nervous all the same. So here they are....

Make gif animation

I just got the inspiration to do this from 

Anna and the Ring

A few more photos in and around the gardens, a sneaky glass of champagne and it was finally time to be married!

The day of - recap

I'm really spreading these recaps out aren't I?!

I was woken up on the day of the wedding at around 6 by a phone call. I answered groggily and found it was the minister who wanted to ask a couple of questions so he could finalize his service - "are you kidding?" I thought. But, no, he wasn't. He wanted to know what A's favourite food was. And what my favourite TV show was. At 6 in the morning, I couldn't for the life of me think what A's favourite food was! I took a guess because I was starting to feel a bit stupid umm-ing and ahh-ing and said meatloaf or a good steak. Turns out I was wrong, it's .... For the record my favourite TV shows are The Amazing Race and Dr Who.

There was no going back to sleep after that because I'd realised that today was the day I was getting married!

I got up and had a quick check of the flowers - they were still alive and looked very happy. Phew.

Our hairdresser, T, arrived and soon after, the makeup artist. The preparations began.

I just found out yesterday when I was showing Mum the wedding photos that T's mother who is also a hairdresser did my mother's hair for her wedding! T (who has just finished her apprenticeship) did a brilliant job - as did the MUA who was very accommodating and more than happy to change things a little from the trial.

While my girls were getting ready we headed downstairs to the cafe under the apartment who kindly let us take over the cafe for a bit for some photos.

I love my dad's expression in this photo!

The photographer left to visit the boys, we ate lunch (wrapped in a sheet so I didn't get it on the dress) and had a sneaky red bull (I still had a cold and was already exhausted). I think excitement and pure happiness* got me through the rest of the day.

Around 2ish (quite some time later than planned - the only thing we could have organised much, much better) the cars arrived to take us to the Fitzroy Gardens for our 'first look' and photos.



*along with a large amount of cold and flu drugs.

The recaps continue

So far I've managed to write 2 but hopefully the arrival of professional photos (yay!) will inspire me to finish them!

I think I'm up to bouquets. We had buckets on buckets of roses, lisianthus, billy buttons, alstromeria and blue gum. We also had hydrangeas but were told that they wouldn't last out of water so used them in the table decorations.

A quick break for a fish and chip lunch, (mmmmm - it's impossible to get takeaway fish and chips here so got to make up for it in Melbourne) and we were back to the flowers. This time working on the table settings. 

We'd decided to put floral foam in the vases to hold the flowers stay in position. My sister, K, and her wonderful boyfriend had done this already which saved us some time. I'm glad we did as it meant less fussing with water when transporting them to the venue. We also took our chances with the hydrangeas as they are so bulky and take up so much space it made filling the vases easier.

At this point, Dad came out to help and got stuck into wiring roses and lisianthus for us. He did an awesome job! And before long, Mum, who swore she was having nothing to do with the flowers as she thought we were crazy for wanting to do them ourselves was out helping too. Thanks Mum!

In the end we were packing up around 8pm so it had taken about 9 hours to do the whole lot although there was a lunch break and a manicure break for K and I during that time. In the end we had 4 corsages, 6 boutonnieres, 3 bouquets and 16 centerpieces (2 per table). I think the total cost came to around $600. This included the vases and all the sundries - tape, pins, wire etc. While the bouquets and centrepieces weren't exactly as I had envisaged, we received lots of compliments on them so that was nice. 

One point to note - we did all these the day before the wedding and the centrepieces in particular actually looked a bit better the day after the wedding! They looked fine on the day but some of the flowers had opened more and they looked a bit perkier the day after. I guess my point is, if you want to do it yourself and are using the floral foam, you could put them together two days prior with no problems!

Also, if you were planning to DIY, try to see the flowers you are ordering - as I did it all over the phone I didn't see what the roses were like ( a rose is a rose, right?) and I was imagining the blooms to be larger than they were. If I'd known, I'd have ordered another couple of bunches.

So finally, about 9 we sat down to a beautiful mum-made lasagna (my favourite) and relaxed.

*Thanks to K and friend J for the photos*

What to do first??

We decided to do the boutonniere and corsages first.

They were little, they were simple, they did not have ribbon tied around them as planned as I left it in Canberra.  Not a big problem though, saved some time and I was happy with them anyway.  Actually, that's not quite right - I was really happy and very proud of them!

These shots before the stems were cut to the right length.

So bright and happy. They still make me smile. And after getting them done, we had the confidence to tackle the bouquets.

The recaps begin...

Friday morning we woke up at 6. We'd left the blinds up in our room the night before. This is all very well in our own secluded north facing bedroom but not so great in the 2nd floor, east facing apartment we were staying in. I was not in the least bit impressed as I was still feeling really sick and told A there was no way I was getting up yet! We lazed around for a while, I popped a zillion vitamins and some cold and flu tablets and we went out to get some breakfast.

We wandered down the road in the sunshine (amazing in Melbourne given the weather over the previous couple of weeks) to a cafe and ate delicious ricotta, honey and banana on sourdough - my mood improved significantly! I figured if I was going to be sick there was no point dwelling on it as it wasn't going to make any difference. Plus, I had my voice back so chances were I'd be able to croak out some vows the next day and that was the main thing!

We headed back to the apartment and decided that it really was time to work out out dance.  We moved all the furniture out of the way, worked out the stereo and tried to choreograph a dance using the few merengue moves we could remember to some not-so-merengue music. We got to a point that we felt satisfied that we wouldn't embarrass ourselves too much then went out to relax on the sunny balcony.

Soon after, my parents and sister arrived and the real fun began. We lugged buckets of flowers and boxes of vases upstairs and feeling a little overwhelmed, tried to work out where on earth to start...