Florist

I am so organised for this wedding. So far we have finalised the location for ceremony and reception, got the bridesmaid dresses, found my dress, and now I have the florist. I found her in an unconventional way, one of my friends Tina on facebook joined her fan page Emma Valentine flowers so I decided to contact her. Tina just had a beautiful baby girl named Olivia and is in the same mothers group as Emma.

I gave her a call and she came around Tuesday night. She was absolutely lovely and really knew what she was talking about. She used to have a store on Unley Road but closed shop to have a baby and now is starting her floral business from home. We went through all the options. I really wanted peonies for the wedding but they only flower for 3 weeks of the year. So she suggested other alternatives. Aisha and I are both going to have flowers in our hair, and the family members who are female are going to have corsages. She is also doing our centre pieces. I think she will do a great job and I'm looking forward to seeing the result.

Bridesmaid dress shopping...

Aisha and I have been looking for dresses for about 3 weeks on and off. I have also been doing ALOT of research on the internet. I found some really great dresses at Nordstroms online but it's hard to know what it would look like once you put it on. We starting off the search a few weeks ago in Rundle Mall. We tried Myer and there was a nice purple dress there that was on sale reduced to $80, however it had a stain on it so we didn't buy it. We also tried DJ's, Showies, City Collections, Whistles, and Pilgrim and found nothing. Yesterday we headed to King William Road to Wild Child which I thought would be a sure thing, but we couldn't find one thing for Aisha to try on, everything was so over the top and trashy.

Next stop Melbourne St, we headed to Inta Mode, and George. We tried on a couple dresses at both places and even though the Matthew Eager dress was really nice on Aisha it was also out of my budget. Last stop of the day was In Dubbio which is solely a bridesmaid dress shop. Aisha tried on about 6 dresses and with her figure everything looks great on her. But the last dress I picked up from the rack was the one we went with and it was within my budget! It is a lovely chiffon material that is very flowly and it's a maxi, perfect for a garden wedding. The staff at In Dubbio were very helpful I would recommend them.

We have had alot of fun discussing the colour, it is in the purple family. But it isn't violet because I don't like that colour, it has a tinge of pink in it, but is more purple than anything, very hard to explain.

So now I have the colour scheme of our wedding I can start working on the invites and flowers. I'm starting to get very excited because I can see it all coming together.

I've found THE dress...

Yesterday Aisha and I continued the search for my wedding dress. I was initially planning to have it made because I'm so short but didn't really want to go through the headache of fittings, buying fabrics etc. We went to Jenny and Gerrys which is one of the biggest bridal salons in Adelaide and where most brides buy their dresses.

We had a lovely lady named Silvania help us. She was very professional and honest about what suited me and what didn't. I tried on about 10 dresses and the dress I chose was the second one I put on. I had narrowed it down to two dresses but the other one was too princessy for me, and it was a very common dress lots of other brides had worn it before.

I can't say too much about the dress because Ty reads the blog but I love it!!! And I keep looking at the photo on my iphone LOL.

Wedding dress shopping !

Yesterday Aisha and I went wedding dress shopping. We went to Bride on Pulteney which didn't have a huge range of dresses, and they only stocked the one designer. I tried on about 10 dresses and one of them was really nice. The service there wasn't fantastic so I doubt I will buy my dress from there. We then headed to Rapsimo on King William Road to have a look just for fun. I could never buy anything from there cos their dresses are really expensive. I tried on one dress which was gorgeous but it looked similiar to Aisha's wedding dress plus it was a big dress, and I'm still leaning towards a simpler a line dress.

I have an appointment with Jenny and Gerrys bridal next week. We stopped there on the way home to have a quick look and it was chaotic in there. Brides everywhere, who were quite pushy too, was a bit Bridezilla like. I missed out on the sale it ended yesterday which was very annoying. I might end up getting my dress made but I'm trying on dresses first to see what suits my figure. I haven't found the one yet though, I liked some dresses but none of them were "the one". Dress shopping isn't as fun when you are fat!! Most of the dresses on the rack could not be zipped up, the salesperson had to hold the back together so I could get an idea of how the dress would look.

We also had a brief look for bridesmaid dresses on friday night. There was one dress that Aisha liked for her wedding that didn't suit my figure. We went there to see if it was still available, it would have looked stunning on Mel and Aisha but it was no longer being made. At this stage I have no idea what my colour scheme will be until the bridesmaid dresses have been sorted.

Mount Lofty House Booked !!

Last time I posted I mentioned that we wouldn't be going with Mount Lofty House because of the cost. I emailed the wedding co-ordinator to advise her of this. She wrote asking what price range we had in mind. I advised her we didn't want to have to book an additional 4 rooms on the night of the wedding, and that we didn't want to pay the $10 per person surcharge. She said she would speak with her manager to see what she could do.

Well today she rang me back to advise that her manager had waived all those conditions for us, plus we get one free nights accomodation to the value of $280 with buffet breakfast and late checkout. The price person for dinner is still a bit higher than other places but I will be staying there the night before with the bridesmaids so we won't need a car hire, that saves $500. We are also having our wedding cake made by our very good friend Mitch who is also our photographer, which is saving us alot of money. Mitch you rock!!!!

I am so happy because Ty and I really fell in love with Mount Lofty House and now we can stop scouting for locations.

Still searching for location...

Last weekend Ty and I went to visit Mount Lofty House. We were shown around the grounds by the wedding co-ordinator and it was breathtaking. The location for the ceremony had full views of the hills. The reception room had an antique feel to it which was a perfect size for our reception. After we had seen the places and been wowed by how nice they were we found out the costs. The original cost was $145 per head, we managed to reduce that to $130 by reducing the drinks time and having an alternate drop for the main course. However once we received the proposal from the wedding co-ordinator there were alot of additional costs. We were expected to book a minimum of 4 rooms at a cost of $280 per room. There was a $10 per person surcharge because March was considered high season.

Ty and I decided that the main reason we wanted our wedding at Mount Lofty House was because of the ceremony on grounds with the views were so amazing. We decided if it was to rain or be extremely hot we would end up having the ceremony indoors hence the reason for having a wedding there would have been pointless. The cost of the ceremony was $950 which is quite expensive.

We are now looking at Chloes, Botanic Gardens and Belair Country Club, hopefully we will find something soon.

Mount Lofty House Visit...

Ty and I are visiting Mount Lofty House tomorrow. We have ruled out Mortlock Library and Windy Point because they are really expensive. Windy Point had a minimum spend which was going to be $4,000 more than the total bill at Mount Lofty House. This cost was for the more affordable cafe too instead of the restaurant. The Mortlock Library is absolutely stunning but has already been booked for the date we want. We also looked at some places in the Barossa Valley but they were booked too. Botanic Gardens restaurant is also booked. I thought more than a year would have been enough time!

The date has been tentatively set...

After being engaged for nearly a year Ty and I have finally decided what we will be doing for our wedding. Initially we were going to have a destination wedding in Noosa with just our families but have decided to change that. We had a few people express disappointment at not being able to be there to see us get married. I also thought I would regret it if I didn't do the proper wedding.

We have set the date for 5 March 2011. I have started the ball rolling and looked at several places that I think are quite nice. They are Mount Lofty House, Windy Point Restaurant, Mort Lock Library and Adelaide Town Hall. We haven't chosen a place yet, and the decision will come down to cost as most weddings do.

We are hoping to keep the wedding numbers to 50 guests but that is becoming a struggle. Family alone comes to 30 so just close friends would be another 30. It would be pretty much 50/50 Ty's side and mine.

I'm really looking forward to the planning of this wedding because I'll be able to do the wedding the way we want it. Stay tuned for more of the stresses, laughter and fun of planning a wedding.