Places to check out

Hello there.

Not sure anyone out there reads this. But if you are a newly engaged Brissy girl and are looking for a venue I'm going to do a top 10 places to check out. Can I quickly add a disclaimer of some kind that this is very much based on my fiancee's and my taste and that we LOVED everywhere. Don't think of this as a ranking system, just some suggestions.

Our Top Ten Reception Venues

10. Lakeside Garden Cafe

http://www.lakesidegardens.com.au/lghome.php

A bit about the place: Lakeside Gardens Café & Functions Centre, located in the midst of the beautiful Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens, offers you a truly romantic and tranquil setting for your special event. Both function rooms reflect the exquisite surroundings with diverse views of the picturesque gardens, ponds and lakes.
What we loved: The location. Its beautiful surrounds and the ability to have the ceremony at the gardens at Mt Coo-tha.
Why we didn't decide on having our reception there: Size and the colour of the carpet. It was just so red and my theme was always going to include pink. It's an amazing place though.

9. The Bardon Centre

http://www.centralvenues.com.au/central-venues-conference/bardon/weddings.htm

A bit about the place: My fiancee when to a conference here so I was uming and arghing. It's a venue near Mt Coo-tha, with the most amazing Gazebo I have ever seen and three venue rooms if my memory serves me.
What we loved: Everything
Why we didn't decide on having our reception there: The massive slope at the ceremony location and the fact that it probably could have only sat 25-30 people and placing chairs on a hill would have been tricky.

8. Snug Harbour Dockside

http://www.snugharbour.com.au/weddings.html

A bit about the place: Enjoy panoramic views of the river from the Harbour Room and RiverRoom, in their unique alfresco setting, surrounded by manicuredgardens and water features.
What we loved: The water features and the gardens.
Why we didn't decide on having our reception there: location, location, location. It was a bit far from the north side for our liking.

7. Royal on the Park

http://www.royalonthepark.com.au/weddings-at-the-royal.html

A bit about the place: A hotel across the road from the city gardens with classic rooms for a reception.
What we loved: The location
Why we didn't decide on having our reception there: In the end none of the hotel reception venues felt like 'us.'

6. Indooroopilly Golf Club

http://www.indooroopillygolf.com.au/guests/celebrations/weddings.mhtml

A bit about the place: Beautifully landscaped gardens and the lush greens of the golf course make for an idyllic backdrop. Extensive menu selection to suit any style of wedding. 7km from Brisbane City.
What we loved: The rooms, the dance floors and the location. The bridal party have a room in which they can chill and prepare for their entrance in.
Why we didn't decide on having our reception there: Again, an insane reason, but the chair sashes only came in silver, black, white or red. NONE suited what I had in my head.

5. Gianni Portside

Website: http://www.giannisportside.com/weddings_home.html

A bit about the place: I would consider this a modern venue at Portside. With black chairs and minimally decorated white tables it looked classy and, well, modern!

What we loved: The space, the fact that you could change the colours of the lights in the ceiling and the view.
Why we didn't decide on having our reception there: Turns out they split the room into two! We didn't want to share or risk hearing the other parties music. That and we decided that as a couple we are not modern! Old fashion nerds would be more accurate.

4. Hillstone St Lucia

Wedsite http://www.hillstonestlucia.com.au/hillstone-weddings-gallery.html

A bit about the place: An amazing golf club hidden away in St Lucia, I used to drive passed it on my way home from uni, thinking *maybe.*
What we loved: Everything
Why we didn't decide on having our reception there: We didn't think we would be able to reach the 100 people minimum, without inviting people for the sake of inviting them.

3. The Boulevard Gardens

Wedsite: http://www.boulevardgardens.com.au/

A bit about the place: It's just off to the right, just before you get on the bridge at Indooroopilly. It was a magic place with a beautiful garden to get married in and two nice rooms for receptions.

What we loved: THE STAFF, they were so friendly, the location.

Why we didn't decide on having our reception there: It was a two-for-one place where you have the guests sit and wait between the ceremony and the reception, which I personally HATE. It's exhausting spending a half hour waiting for the ceremony then watching the bridal party leave and waiting for another two and a half hours while they get photos done... as a guest I find it exhausting. I could have easily had my wedding there, it was beautiful and the staff were amazing but it resulted in too many arguements with my fiancee about how long to leave the guests for...

2. Victoria Park Golf Club

http://www.victoriaparkgolf.com.au/content/view/36/73/

A bit about the place: Situated just two kilometres from Brisbane city, Victoria Park Golf Complex and Function Venue is an inner city sanctuary that boasts 4 unique wedding spaces, all with spectacular views of the sparkling city skyline. These include the traditional Ballroom, the elegant Marquee, and the contemporary Alabaster and Quartz rooms.
What we loved: Everything, except a MASSIVE miscommunication, we were lead to believe that all of May was available and that it was almost insane that we were looking almost two years in advance. When we went to book we were then told our date had been booked months ago.
Why we didn't decide on having our reception there: I was cranky with the miscommunication. Since they didn't have our date we went with somewhere else. It was an absolutely beautiful venue.

1. Customs House

A bit about the place: What better place to celebrate your marriage than in the unique and unforgettable setting of Customs House. Customs House is unmatched for food, service, spectacular architecture and atmosphere.
The grandeur of its architecture, the spectacular views of the river from its balconies and reception rooms, and the sheer magnificence of its interior decor makes Customs House a classically elegant and romantic venue.
Professional and friendly staff offer uncompromising service. A banquet Supervisor will oversee your function and a senior waiter will be dedicated to look after the bridal party. Your special celebration commences as you step onto the regal red carpet and our staff welcomes you.
What we loved: Everything, the service, the architecture, the potential for photos. The co-ordinator seem to get me in a second and could see what I wanted and started with suggestions that made me think *I really like her!* I was sold.
Why we didn't decide on having our reception there: We are!

Read this for your Bridesmaids.

The book is called, Bad Bridesmaid and the Author is Siri Agrell, my FMIL bought it for my birthday a couple of years ago. I love this book. I was reading it today and I just cannot put it down, although as a bride to be, it's almost offensive that The Bride is always an evil character. Almost. But some of the things people will do to be part of someones big day. I love how it questions the role. Really, read it! It's so funny, you may end up laughing at yourself.

http://www.badbridesmaid.com/

Cake!

I saw this cake in a magazine and thought *thats my cake*.

Flowers

I love roses. I'm thinking pink and yellow roses. Not a massive amount, I don't want anything too heavy!

I haven't really looked into flowers yet. I just know, vaguely, what I want and what they'll look like.

Colours

The wedding colours are pastal green, yellow and pink. Each of the bridesmaids have their own colour, but each will wear (hopefully) the same dress. Unless we cannot find a dress they all look fab in. We are having 3 bridesmaids and 3 groomsmen.

Finding our Photographer.

This is our photographers blog:

http://stphotography.com.au/blog/

I hated looking for a photographer. All the photographers were great, don't get me wrong. It is just so personal, looking at their work. I originally booked to see like 8, we saw 4 and I couldn't take it anymore! Knowing that I would need to pick only one!

I know it's their job and they get people coming in and looking at their work and 'rejecting' them all the time. But I HATED it.

This photographer had an awesome portfolio and can provide us with all the bits and pieces we want and works from the "bride gets ready" stage until the first dance at the reception, which was unique in itself. From what we saw most only do mock reception shots or charge extra!

We're having our engagement shoot next spring. Yay.

Our reception venue. The first thing we booked.

This photo was taken from our photographers site, ST photography. An AWESOME photographer, I'll post a link.

Our reception venue, only took us about three months to decide on.
Customs House was the very last one we looked at and we only looked at it because I remembered thinking how beautiful it was when I was looking for a venue for my 21st. Its owned by UQ and anyone who know's us, knows that we both went to UQ and if our family members went anywhere, it was more often than not UQ too.
We almost booked two other very lovely places, but one didn't have our date and the other did not have the same feeling as Customs House, but had amazing staff.
I honestly think its an amazing building and even the room we are having our reception in matches our colour scheme.
http://www.customshouse.com.au/index.html?page=19845
Have a look if you're bored. I spent ages just looking at the photos. I know the place inside out! Haha.
Finding a reception venue.
We used the white pages, wedding websites and a QLD bridal magazine to find places. We went to all of the websites for each venue and visited ones that fit into our criteria. Which was location nearish to UQ, wheelchair access, friendly staff, BIG dance floor and can provide me with chair sashes that are not red, silver, white or black.
Ruling venues out is hard. You can so easily pick anywhere and see it being a beautiful day. But I had such a clear image of my colours and what everything will look like that I could rule out rooms that would clash.
I might dig up our list and post it up here in case any other Brisbane girl comes across this blog and is looking for a venue.

Donate or Give blood

Hi.
So for our engagement party we asked people to donate to
Oxfam.
The Arthritis Foundation.
Or
Give blood.

Ri and I are in a place where we don't need anything. We'd be living together for over a year and dating for over two and a half and had enough stuff.

It was a good feeling too, seeing people give blood or donate to charity.

Expanding on the engagement party

Like I was saying in my previous post we did somethings that I hadn't seen at past engagement parties.

The best man election 08

Ri has two very good friends and couldn't decide who would be the best man. So we decided, without exactly telling his friends, that there would have to be an election. So my FMIL (that's future mother in law) called for everyone's attention and spoke about Ri's friendship with them both and decided that they each had to make a one minute speech saying why they should be best man. Once the speeches were done (one of them sculling the rest of his bundy and then spoke, hehe) we passed around a ballot box and each person at the party voted for one or the other. We had a winner by ONE vote, when we counted the votes that night, it was good fun, was exciting to see how our own bridal party would turn out!

Krispy Kreme

This was a massive hit. We gave the groomsmen $100 and told them to go into the city and get us some Krispy Kreme. It took them a couple of hours but they came back with like 100 donuts. Ri put out the first 25 thinking that it would take people a while to eat. He turned his back and they were all gone. He ended up putting all of them out and we had none left within minutes. It was a great novelty since the store had only opened here in Brisbane this year.

Our Engagement Painting

We set up a massive canvas (see photo) and set out paint and told people to paint! It was good fun as we watched the painting be created, there was always a group of people standing around watching who ever was painting. We're adding some finishing touches. When its 100% complete I'll post a picture. I love it, it's in our kitchen and always makes me smile.

Engagement Party

We had our engagement party in July 2008. I used to think that you should have your engagement party within a certain time of getting engaged to show that its 'serious.'

I've seen its the engagements that don't have engagement party within so many month that break off. So I was paranoid to make the statement 'yes, we're really getting married.'

Pfft, nuts to that! If I could do it again, I would have it a year to the day of the wedding. That way both sides of the family would have had over a year to let it sink in.

Anyway, it was still a beautiful day and I really hope our guests enjoyed themselves, and I was so greatful so many could come, because I tried my hardest to make it the least "engagement" feeling engagement party there was.

I'm not a big fan of engagement parties.

I get bored easy, so I tried to include activities and surprizes. Like painting.

Best Man Election 08.

Krispy Kreme.

Advice Book.

In the Advice book we asked. Whats is love? Give us advice.

My favourite responses were:

"What is love, baby dont hurt me, dont hurt me"

"Yes dear"

"Love is hugs" - 3 years old girl

Ring number two

Here is the second ring and here is how I was given it.

We went to Tiffany's a few weeks before hand and this was the first ring I tried on and it was perfect. I tried others on, but kept coming back to this one.

We were expecting it to arrive on the Friday, but it arrived early.

So he comes home with the ring on the Thursday and I am watching TV, probably like a slob and then, after about an hour, notice his absence.

So I call out for him and he eventually comes back out to the lounge room, picks me up and carries me into the bedroom, where he stands me up and knells again and asks me again if I will marry him. On the bed tiny tea candles in blue pink and yellow spell out Marry Me and in the middle is a little blue box.

Ring number one

This is the ring he proposed with in Montville. Its a lovely white gold ring with black diamonds and I love it. I wore it for about three months and then he proposed again with the second ring.

The weekend we got engaged

On Friday we headed up to Montville (forgetting my delicious wine, mind you) to spend a weekend in a cottage in an advocado garden.
It was beautiful.
On the Friday, the first thing we did, was go to a winery and buy some wine for me to sip (I think I had 3 glasses over the whole weekend - I dont think we finished a bottle between us, but hey, we're just not big drinkers).
We took our wine to the cottage and just chilled out on the nice-but-not-as-nice-as-ours couch. We ended up at the lovely place called Zana's for dinner (yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum). Seriously, if you're ever in Montville, go to Zana's.

On the Saturday, we got out of bed at about 10, and managed to get out of the cottage and head into Montville by about 12. We bought some candles for Earth Hour, some spicey chocolate liqueur called "Dragons crap" (great if you LOVE chili). We had lunch overlooking the view to the ocean. We spent a few hours looking at the shops, ending up with a collection of tea, lollipops and fudge. We then went back to the cottage with stuff from IGA to make our dinner.When we got back to the room, I was on the couch, wearing my peasents dress, sucking on a sour apple lollipop when Rhys disappeared to out of site. When he came back into the lounge room, he stood infront of me, reached into his back pocket, kneeled down on one knee (at which point I think I either protested or made some sound resembling no, I think I said "...But I'm sucking on a lollipop" - I'll ask Rhys) and then he said "Victoria will you marry me..." and I said "yes" and got mascara all over his face.
I have a temporary ring I've called Jr. I get the real thing on June 27th (our 3 year anniversary).We had vegetarian sandwiches for dinner and participated in Earth Hour.

On the Sunday we went down to the Lake and had sandwiches, fruit and fudge, while naming the different birds after the first country/state/city that came to mind when we saw it. There was a bush turkey I named Germany, a little birdy I called Belgium and a duck called Kentucky. We went for a random drive, that led us to a random park, where we decided to go on an impromptu 1.2 km walk through rainforest.

After the physical torture, we figured it was about time we call our parents and some of our friends to let them know about the engagement.

Photos is of the sunset we watch on the Sunday, we sat by the local lake and just watch the sun go done and played on the swings.

We're getting married. Yeah old news.

So I've finished uni, after six long years.
So what's next?
Start working.
Get married.
Travel.

We've been engaged for 9 months now, and still have 15 months to go.
Will post up the proposal(s) and planning ideas.

xo