Our Wedding - so far

I thought it was about time that I did a wedding post. I realised I still haven't outlined everything that has been planned so far and what I imagine our special day to be like, so here goes.

We are getting married on Saturday 12 January 2013 (a little under 2 months away!!!). 

The gorgeous staircase - Villa Howden

Venue: Our venue is the beautiful Villa Howden which is a luxurious boutique hotel located on Tassie's North West Bay. I am very confident in the venue and know that I can rely on the natural beauty of this place to make our day perfect and our photos amazing. The ceremony and reception will both be held at the hotel, I will be staying there the night before with my mum and Alex and I along with 19 of our guests will be staying there the night of our wedding. I love that there will be no mucking around with travelling or checking into hotels and that I can spend my entire weekend at the venue. They also have a conference room that will be our back up ceremony room in case of rain. The make-up artist and hairdresser will travel to the hotel to prettify us girls in one of the lovely suites, awesome!! Brian from Villa is brilliant and so accommodating and the food is something pretty special as well. The entrée and main will be served alternate drop, with the cake served as dessert. Canapes will be enjoyed in the grounds of the hotel prior to dinner. 

Bridal Gown: Obviously I can't say much at all about the gown! It is from Rayanne Bridal, who since I purchased has relocated to Launceston. I have heard mixed reports about Anne from Rayanne but I have to say she was a great help and gave sound honest advice. She even threw in my veil for free! She is the kind of person who is straight up and honest but so am I, so maybe that's why we hit it off. There was no hassle with her moving to Launceston, the dress came in around August, I paid for it and picked it up and spoke to the alterations person she employs who is located in Brighton. Around December I will give her a call and she will come to mum and dad's house (also in Brighton) to fit the dress! Easy peasy. I also got my bracelet (which I love to bits) from Rayanne Bridal.
Bridesmaid Dresses: The girls dresses are from Bridal Boutique in Hobart. The colour is a gorgeous champagne/latte colour. I love their dresses, they look beautiful in them. 
Groom and Groomsmen Suits: The boys suits are from Les Lees, which was perfect as some have decided to hire whilst others have purchased theirs.

One of Robyn's buttercream cakes

Cake: The cake is being made by Robyn from Heavenly Cakes of Indulgence. The cake took some thought as we are rather picky. We wanted a great tasting cake more than we wanted a traditional looking gorgeous wedding cakes. As our cake is getting served as dessert we really wanted it to be a tasty dessert cake. We did consider cupcakes but it seems silly when our cake is getting individually served on plates anyway. We both aren't fans of fondant icing (the traditional white icing) whilst it looks great, it doesn't taste very nice. It could have just been cut off before serving but I don't want to pay for something I am not going to eat. So instead we are having delicious buttercream which will be as smooth as Robyn can do. Under the buttercream will be chocolate ganache encasing a three tier raspberry and chocolate mud cake Mmm yum. There will be no flowers or ribbons as I like the idea of the entire thing being edible but there are some yummy edible decorations that Robyn is making! I can't wait to see it.
Music: We are having a string quartet for the ceremony only, Strings on Fire. A band will start after dinner around 8.30pm, the band, Ebeneza Good, took forever to find. I think we watched every band in Hobart and I am so happy with our final pick. The lead singer is confident and charismatic. I know now that everyone will be up on that dance floor dancing to a mixture of old and new tunes, just the way we want it. I have linked to a video of them their song list excites me I can't wait to dance the night away will my husband and family and friends!! 
Flowers: The gorgeous Ange from Harmony Flowers in Lauderdale will be doing our bouquets. We are having white lilies with baby's breath. I know at least two other brides who had their flowers done by Ange so I am really confident in her plus she is just so damn lovely and helpful. We are doing the boys bouttonneirs, the ceremony arch and isle and table centrepieces ourselves! 
Photographer: Our photographer is Al of Alastair Bett Photography. Again he was recommended to us by three different people and he is easy going and fun plus his photos are amazing! He will photograph us girls getting ready plus the boys (we will all be getting ready at the hotel) and he will stay well after dinner - perfect!

Celebrant: Our celebrant is Tom Payne. I really wanted a male celebrant (it just seemed more fitting to me) and Tom was celebrant to my brother's wedding so we have seen him first hand. This was a no brainer for me!

Hair: Jo from Shear Delite Hair & Beauty will be doing my hair, the bridesmaid's and mum's hair. 
Make-up: Karla from Sharkra Medispa will be doing our make-up as well as mum's. Karla has done my make-up already on two other occasions and I have been seeing her for 5 years for my facials every 8 weeks so she is just like a friend. She will doing our spray tans as well. Plus any other maintenance I may need *wink wink*. Karla and Sharkra were another no brainer for me.

Rings: Our rings are from Michael Hill which is where my engagement ring was purchased. We have these already and I just need to get my engagement ring rhodium plated in a few weeks.

Invitations: We made the invitations ourselves with cases and card purchased from Christina Re. 

The Prime Pool Villa at The Vijitt Resort!

Honeymoon: Sarah from Flight Centre, Liverpool Street organised our honeymoon with plenty of input from us. This was another plan that took us forever to reach a decision, we procrastinated for months. We really wanted somewhere tropical and relaxing but not too expensive. Sarah was really helpful and had plenty of experience and advice. We are spending five nights on Phuket at The Vijitt Resort in a prime pool villa with our own private pool and five nights on Phi Phi Island at the Phi Phi Island Village Beach Resort and Spa. I cannot wait for this but we did totally go over budget...oh well I am positive it will be worth it!! 

So I am pretty organised. I am so glad I documented this, it makes me realise how much I have done. Now we just have the final crafty stuff and embellishments to organise! 

Happy Birthday

OMG what an incredibly busy few weeks I have had.  I measure my life by my weekends (sad I know) and the last three weekends have been jam packed with my own birthday celebrations, my bridal shower and a hens night plus lots more! 

Me on the Pancake Train!  

My birthday is on 4 November and this year I turned 25.  My celebrations started with dinner with Alex and my parents-in-law at Dede Indonesian and Thai Restaurant in North Hobart.  I love Thai food mmm yum. The following day both Alex and I took the day off work and when to the pancake place at the Margate Train, we sat for a few hours eating pancakes and reading the paper, it was really nice and relaxing. Alex had pancakes with bacon and maple syrup whilst I had chicken with pancakes, we then shared the scrumptious chocolate and banana pancakes for dessert! We spent the rest of the day shopping and he bought me three beautiful dresses for my birthday, he says one is sexy, one is cute and the other is beautiful, I think they are all great!

Amazing Chocolate and Banana Pancakes

Out to lunch with friends

The following day we had lunch with our friends at Barcelona in Salamanca and then wandered through the Salamanca Market absorbing all of the wonderful stalls but I was a good girl and didn't buy anything.  I must go to the Market more, they have some great stuff especially for unique gifts and the atmosphere is infectious.

Birthday cake!

Presents!

My man making me pancakes xx

I told you he is gorgeous!

On Sunday (my actual birthday) I had to beg Alex to get up out of bed and make me breakfast, pancakes (again).  I love pancakes. Then we visited mum and dad for a relaxing afternoon in the sun.  My brother, sister-in-law and nephew joined us all for a lovely dinner.  Mum made me an amazing half white chocolate, half dark chocolate mud cake, it was delicious.  Well done mum.  My gorgeous nephew kindly decorated it for me.  It really was the best cake ever. 

As far as presents go,  I was utterly spoilt.  Mum gave me an awesome shellac nail polish kit and light, I love being able to do my shellac nails myself!  I received flowers from my boss, dessert plates from my parents-in-law, dresses and nick-nacks from Alex plus lots more from friends.  I was a lucky girl!  

Thanks to everyone for my birthday well wishes and for helping my have a fantastic birthday!