"Our Wedding Day..."

Well I went into the The Drawing Room this afternoon to pick up some black card to add to a photo album & it reminded me & enthralled me all over again, the fun I had in planning our wedding day. How much I would so do it again & in do so again have our invitations produced through the Drawing Room.

So in thinking about this & reliving it in my mind;s eye I thought I would share our day with you all.

Simon & I were married on 11 January 2011, a Tuesday in the middle of summer. The date chosen over getting married at the weekend.

I/We spent all of 2010 planning & spending our way towards our day and I personally enjoyed every minute of it. Our Pastor said to us in the early stages "to enjoy the cappacino moments", something I whole-heartedly encourage all wedding planners to do because once they're gone, they're gone. Every part of planning it was documented too. A friend put together a scrapbook for us capturing the main points of the lead up to the month before our day.

I had lists & lists & lists, everything broken down into sections, months, final weeks, days & hours.  Every part was close to perfection & looking back I wouldn't change a thing.

I started looking for my dress on line, I remember having finished uni at the end of '09 & after having a drink with a friend, I was walking along Riccarton Road & realised that I could actually go into that bridal shop opposite & really have a look at things. So I did & so began the hunt for my wedding dress.

"The DRESS!!"

I officially started trying on dresses exactly one year till the wedding at Wilkin's Bridal, Cashel Street Christchurch. The second lot of try ons was at Brides of Merivale - this one started out with the idea that it wouldn't come to much. I looked at & tried on about a dozen dresses, but it was dress #11 that had possibilities. I tried on dress number twelve but went back to the other one. And it stuck. I'd decided that my decision on dress would remain a secret until the day, even from my bridal party. The one person who did know was Emma, who also played my mother-of-the-bride, her opinion I knew I could count on to be honest & direct. She was great.

I continued to think & think about "The Dress" over & over again; so in June I went & ordered it. After trying it on again of course. I was so in love with it. Even now when I look at I still love it, such a pity I can't wear all the time.

The rest of the year pretty much fell into place. As it went on I checked off lists. Even though not all things got done when I initially planned for them to do so but they did all get done. Every single thing. We got the invites stuck together & sent out by the August that year. We even type up an explanation sheet on how every thing from the invites down to the martini glasses on the tables all tied in together.

To give you an idea the invites were black with pink inlet, on top of a frame of grey/silver & tied with a white ribbon. The black to symbolise the black morning suits the guys wore & the dresses the girls wore, the grey to match their waistcoats, pink to symbolise the colour of the sashes with the girls' dresses & guys' ties to match (these we had made through Chantilly's at a place in Wellington at a really great price). The pink ran through into the pink buttons in the martini glasses which sat on pink table sashes draped with pink organza ribbon. The martini glasses were from James Bond, the only movies we can consistently agree on to watch.

All in all I enjoyed the planning & executing the whole thing - it was worth it all too, because the day was fantastic & thoroughly enjoyed by all, but especially us.

Doing my make-up

 The Day....

The day started early, though I slept well the night before, no nerves be cause I knew I was making the right decision. It was a misty morning but soon cleared. I was up & showered before everyone else in the house. I sat & enjoyed the peace.

We girls' got ready, it was great getting ready with my best friends & adopted sisters. Loved it. Shared a glass of wine, I monitored the progress of everyone getting ready. I got my hair done, then while the Bhavi & Kylie had theirs done I did my make up. No point paying someone to travel to our location when I could do it myself. Out MC popped round to get his final instructions. I got ready bit by bit, returning from the room with something more added, shoes, then necklace & earrings. Kylie & Bhavi got dressed first & between Emma & I we sashed them up. 

Emma lacing me up

Then it was my turn. I slipped into my chosen white dress & Emma laced me up. She started out with her jacket & shoes on but as we went on they both came off. Not too much of a mission but definitely worth having a lace up dress.

Phil helping Simon with top button

While us girls were getting pretty, the guys were getting handsome. Simon, along with Phil & Bryan were getting all dressed up in their suits. His friends had kindly cooked him bacon for breakfast & taken Simon out for Sushi for lunch. Other than that I can't really report on what happened as I wasn't there, go figure :) But I do know they arrived at the church when they should, as did the Pastor, who had been told our church was in Timaru when asking for directions the day before when coming to the rehearsal.

While the men were at h church with the musos setting up & Terry, our Pastor trying to practice to say my middle name (which he managed somewhat okay), us pretty ladies headed to my Aunt's garden for photos. After the photo shoot, we were on our way. A quick stop in the middle of the road for another photo op for me & we were at the church and not late.

The ceremony involved songs "Today is the day" & "We Declare", vows, declarations & prayers. We had some of the musos from our church come down so we could have live music. Wish though we could've had the drums, but oh well.

Photo taken by Steve - Husband of Simon's friend Nicky who came out from the UK to share in our day.
I loved this photo after Steve had put it on his Flickr account, that I waited to plan our Photo Album until I had their disc of photos.

After the ceremony we had family & friends photos outside the church. The bridal party went to Stonebridge (our reception venue) for group photos etc.

It was a fantastic day. The evening ended with dinner at Stonebridge. The tables were named after Formula 1 Grand Prix circuits. The head table been named after "Monaco". Dad started of the speeches, followed by Simon, Bryan, Bhavisha & then me. I had the last word of course :).

Simon & I had a friend design a dance for us to our chosen song "Leather & Lace - Stevie Nicks & Don Henley". The evening finished with a bit of dancing. Did I mention we even chosen all the songs to be played leading up to the ceremony, before during & after dinner.

I loved every bit of it & totally, thoroughly enjoyed the entire day.

Hope you enjoyed a glimpse into the fun of planning & enjoying our wedding day!!! I know I sure did :)

"30 in 30 on 30"

Last month my wonderful Husband turned 30 on 30th June and I quite literally planned out the entire month for his birthday. Right from the 1st day on Saturday, Queen's Birthday weekend.

We took a wee drive south to Peel Forest, which is a wee village outside of Geraldine. Literally there is just the forest for taking walks, a cafe/dairy & a school. I packed together a picnic lunch, after finding a picnic blanket with the Union Jack on it, which was way cool. Simon's comment when he saw it was "they could see it from space". We enjoyed our picnic lunch in direct line with the sunshine, despite the cold. It was a fantastic day.

I also promised to make his sandwiches for work each day and to take the bins out each week for the duration of the month.

June - entirely planned out.

I decided o do this from about mid-April and spent May planning it out and finalising it, right down to mini lists for each of the more adventurous days/evenings.

The days that followed involved little gifts and on the 10th & 20th something more. Little gifts included Yorkie Bars, Double Deckers, cans of Dr Pepper, Sherbert. I made dinner a couple of times (which in our house is a rarity as Simon cooks dinner most nights - I'm not really a cooker). The first night I cooked on Tuesday 4th was Lasagne with salad & homemade garlic bread. I put the salad in ramekins to make it look a little more exciting and lit candles round the kitchen & lounge.

Gift Card - homemade

With each event or gift it came with either a gift tag tied/hung round it or a gift card, which would say a little message, explain out the event of allude to the evening's plans.

Gift Tags decorated & written out

I took Simon out for dinner & movies, up to Victoria Park for Ice Cream (though it was raining that night so we parked up to enjoy the view of our city at night). A couple of times I went out & got Moro Bar Cheesecake from Coffee Culture (which if you are local and haven't tried it, you must, it is melt-in-your-mouth amazing).

Simon had mentioned, that if he did do something for his birthday to celebrate, that he'd have a dinner at Styx & Stone at Northwood. So I organised that too, while he knew about it & chose the guest list & agreed to the invitations, I sent him an invite too. We held this on the Friday night before his birthday. It was a lovely meal with family & close friends. I also had a cake sorted too (from Divine Cakes of course). A chocolate mud cake with "Happy Birthday Simon" iced on it, with "30" number candles. It was absolutely delicious.

Simon's own personal invite to dinner :)

On the Saturday I took Simon over to Akaroa for the night. We stayed at the holiday park up on the hill & had a great view of the harbour, through the trees. We arrived mid-afternoon so enjoyed a relaxing earl evening, followed by pizza & chips at L'Hotel down by the water. Even in the middle of winter Akaroa is amazing. I feel we can never stay long enough (have decided we'll definitely have to purchase property there & as soon as possible). We walked out onto the wharf afterwards, pitch blackness + freezing cold, while wrapped up warm was just lovely.

The next day "B-DAY" Simon was 30....

After checking out, we strolled around the area, drove along further round the peninsula to where the marae is situated. Then parked up by the lighthouse & walked along beside the bay. It was such a lovely, mild winter's day.

Akaroa Lighthouse

My Father, Step-Mom & Brother happened to pop over to enjoy lunch with us (I'd arranged this of course). We had lunch at "Bully Hayes" - the Monteith's Bar there, which is just another example of how excellent these bars are to dine at.

View of the Bay from our Accommodation

The presents: well Simon was well & truly spoilt this birthday. He ended up with 5 bottle of whiskey, all different, both Irish & Scottish. I bought him a Seiko watch & had it engraved. Having received some pounds we finally purchased the James Bond 50th Anniversary book set of all the movies on Blu Ray from Amazon, which once we'd received was definitely worth getting. So now we'll start watching them from Dr. No all through to Skyfall.

One of the other great presents he received as the 30th Anniversary edition of Pink Floyd's 'Dark Side of the Moon' on vinyl.

Overall it was a fantastic birthday & I know Simon really enjoyed it all. I thoroughly enjoyed planning & executing out everything for his big birthday.