Married!

We are finally Mrs and Mr!
For more details of the wedding here is the link to our next blog:

www.travellingwithhenari.blogspot.com

:)

Getting married

We are getting married this long weekend.
More than anything I am feeling so tired!
My emotions are all over the shop lol.

The rehearsal went well!

Interstate guests are starting to arrive!

We're currently going over of speeches and vows.

Better go! People to get from the airport!

I wrote this like three days ago

This wedding thing can really get you down sometimes. I cannot wait to marry Ri, but I can’t seem to stay excited because there is always something going on. Small things, but as they pile up its draining.
The hair dresser needs a $25 travelling fee.
It was my last day at work today and I am going to miss my workmates like crazy, and seeing as I was only casual I don’t have a job to return to.
The cars can’t seat the flower girls.
The chapel won’t take responsibility for playing the music – so we need to ask a guest.
Someone told a friend of mine that I was seating her with her ex. (I wasn’t).
The Chapel is costing about $200 more than we thought, because the price didn’t include gst.
The Reception is costing, er, a bit more than we thought because somehow we jumped from 90 guests to 113 (we’re VERY happy that so many people are willing to share this day with us, but yikes).
The suit hire place had our wedding down as next weekend, so when all 5 boys and I went in last night, we waited for ages. The staff treated me like I was an idiot. And the boys have to go back tonight before the rehearsal.
We paid for all 114 guests, only to find out that someone who rsvp’d yes, changed to a no, and their partner’s sister emailed a friend instead of telling us. By the time the message reached us, it was too late. At this point I can’t see myself looking the partner who is coming in the eyes.

I feel like we’ve lost our way a little bit. It’s only one day, but it means so much to us. And it’s suppose to be about us and our choice to get married.

The rehearsal is tonight. I’m hoping that it’ll mark a changing point in how I’m feeling. I’m sure tomorrows high will match today’s low.

Next Week...

...it will all be over!
...we will be married!
...and we will be off on our honeymoon.

Everything is coming together. We actually have finished most of the name cards and favours and just need to tweak the seating plan.

The dresses are waiting upstairs.

All providers except the chapel and reception venue are paid in full.

Ri has 3 days left of work.

I have 6 days left of work.

This day, our day, is finally almost here. Not this weekend but the next, so, next week.

Celeb wedding 10: J is for Jones

Catherine Zeta-Jones, maybe I'll regret not using this one as Z.

Zeta-Jones is married to actor Michael Douglas, sharing the same birthday, making him exactly 25 years her senior. She claims that when they met, he used the line "I'd like to father your children." They were married at the Plaza Hotel in New York City on 18 November 2000. A traditional Welsh choir (Côr Cymraeg Rehoboth) sang at their wedding. Her Welsh gold wedding ring includes a Celtic motif and was purchased in the Welsh town of Aberystwyth.

Celeb wedding 9: I is for Ivana Trump

It took me AGES to find an "I" celeb, and in the end I found this "cougar", who seems to have given all the guests flowers and named them Bridesmaids.




Ivana Trump, 59, gets hitched for fourth time in £1m bash with 25 bridesmaids (no wonder the groom arrived to the Rocky theme tune)

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-559721/Ivana-Trump-59-gets-hitched-fourth-time-1m-bash-25-bridesmaids-wonder-groom-arrived-Rocky-theme-tune.html#ixzz0lJraEW5b

because I'm leaving on a jetplane...

Mum and I packed today, which I'm sure will thrill Ri. I can already hear the complaints about packing the wrong shorts or to early. One of the two.

I look at the bags and like a said to a friend of mine today (a newly wed, who understands whats going on right now, having been through it 6 months ago) anyway I look at the bag and realise I'm not going to see a lot of people I love very much for 6 whole months (and two days). And it hurts!
I am going to miss so many people, and what a time to do it, it's like the wedding has brought me closer to (some of) my friends and then I leave? Plus I adore the people at work and it makes me sad to think that I may have had a chance to work there if it weren't for our trip.

But then I think, its the world. He is giving me the world. Who wouldn't take that?

I'm missing some people already.

Loved

I haven't been sleeping very well, there has been an issue driving me to distraction.
I'm a little bit smarter than to blog what it is, but it left me feeling like a complete failure as a bride to be. And leaving me to toss and turn, so I'd only get 3-4 hours sleep.
I've obsessed over this one issue so much that I almost missed all the good things happening around me.
I almost missed exactly how many people are going out of their way to help.
I almost missed being happy and excited.

I'm happy that I've had people to guide me past it. I would have hated to miss out on feeling this excited.

xoxo

Hens Night

I so should have written this on Sunday as my memories aren't as fresh now. But my head is clear.

I had a fantastic time, here is my day:

Final dress fitting... breathing is over-rated, right?

Hairdressers. (Got my hair put up).

Then back to mine to grab my stuff as BMyellow and MC had booked a hotel on Queens St for us to get ready at...

MC helpt put my massive fake lashes on.

We went to dinner at Mecca Bah.

We had drinks at the RG.

Crashed a 21st at the family.

Back to the RG.

Back to the hotel at 5am.

Hung over for 3 days.

Here are some pics.

Hung Over

Hello.
I'm just a little bit hung over today. So I'll probably post about my hens night tomorrow.
I had an awesome night. My girls went out of their way to make it awesome.

Next Month

Well I can finally say that we are getting married next month.
Its so exciting, here is a rough list of things that need doing:
Final dress fitting
Call the ?RSVP people
Place cards
Put candy in jars
As much honeymoon stuff as possible
Meet with the photographer
Pay off the reception, the hairdresser, the cars and the chapel.
Find someone to work the CD player at the chapel. I got an email from the chapel saying that the event coordinator doesn't do the CD player, they need to be available for 'emergencies.' My current emergency is that my wedding has noone to start the music! I REALLY don't want to ask a guest!

and next weekend HENS NIGHT! I am getting excited about it! The more I talk or think about it the more excited I get. I am very lucky to have so many people putting this event together. LOVE.

I found this on the net during my hens night research:




Not happening


Image from www.tshirts.com

Our First Wedding Gift!

It was the most random thing, on Wednesday after work, mum's friend dropped off her gift for us. Its a tub of Vera Wang towels she got while she was in the US.

AWESOME. This is getting exciting. GIFTS!

SUGAR HIGH

We received 10 Kg of our Candy in the mail yesterday. and I love it. and it's not that expensive as far as favours go. About $3-4 per person including the jars. I just love the colours, very cartoonish.
They are from the same candy store as the lollipop that I was sucking on when he proposed, they are apple flavoured (the same flavour as said lolly)

Sun kissed. Tuscan sun.

Well here are some photos of my tanning experience. My hands ended up different colours. If I were to do it for a wedding I would have had about 4 practice runs, go get the hands and elbows right lol. My skin was stained for over 2 weeks! So I don't have the time to get it right for our wedding.
Ri is pale too, so we can be pale together.

Just over one month

I caught myself thinking on the way home about how I was looking forward to our far off wedding that was happening some time "next year."
It actually startled me when I realised we really only have a month to go.

We've just finalised the menu (YUM!) Lots of vegie and gluten free things. As I know that at least 3 guests are vegies and 1 is on a gluten free diet.
The guest list is starting to take shape with about 80 people confirmed for the reception and there are still 5 invites sitting on the table.
My hensnight is 2.5 weeks away and I'm so excited.

What has surprized me the most is that I'm not stressed (about the wedding). I'm not losing sleep over it like I was a year ago. I'm not staying up going over every decision over and over again. I keep telling mum that I'm not making a very good bride.

Monday is the two (2!!) year anniversary of Ri's proposal at Montville. :)

But you were always together

I had an awesome weekend with a friend of mine who just got back from a couple of weeks in Japan.
On the Saturday we went out for sushi for lunch, did some shopping, she got a dermal piercing (awesome!), we went and saw Alice in Wonderland. Then had some dinner.
Then we all got up at 7am on the Sunday and drove out to Googa (near Blackbutt) which was a camp that my friend and I had gone to together pretty much exactly TEN years earlier!
Ri went on the same camp 2-3 months after my group.
So there was the three of us at Googa. The camp we went on when we were 14-15 years old. 10 years ago.
The site had changed so much. No more chapel in the tree! No more low ropes, or horses, or cows, or chip heater. 2 new dorms. The menus now read "wedges" for dinners - this involves getting froozen wedges from the canteen and putting them in the over... kids these days!!

And the, then, four year old son of the man who now runs the camp, is now 14. He is no longer running around in a cape and afraid of girls, but is driving a ute and playing practical jokes on his parents with smoke machines under the engine of said ute. (it was pretty funny).

The three of us set up a picnic in Ris old dorm. Dorm 3. We had a moment there where I was saying "but we cant eat in there Stace! That's the BOYS DORM!".

We walked around down to the ding-a-ling and pamper pole and Stace and I cheered Ri on. He gave them both a go and he did pretty good for an oldie.
Most of the other ex-students there were from the 2006 and 2007 googa class. We were the 2000 googa class, and that will make you feel old. Add to that- the kids were talking about the first tat they plan to get (awww) and argueing over the lyrics to "Get low" - I tried to weigh in and add that it was in fact To the window - To the WALL (not WILD), but I felt like they were looking at me like I was as credible as Granny on this issue.


You know what was great about this weekend?
It was not about the wedding at all. We just had some fun.

We had dinner at Stace's and her mother asked, when did you start dating?
27th June 2005.
No that can't be right! He was always there, always helping you, like at Staces 18th. I think you've always been together...

Fake tan

Oh halp.
I'm on the net wasting some time as I wait for the tanning lady to arrive.

I'm stressed! I've never gotten a fake tan before! And I've always been so pale, that I figured that I would just be pale at the wedding.

But my sweet talking cousin has convinced me to give it a go and with more than 8 weeks to go, well why not hey?

YIKES! Will post the result!

happy bride-to-be

Picture not related. I just like to add a photo, I'm a visual person.

So I've been reading through my blog and have noticed that I'm either cranky or feeling apathetic towards the wedding. I guess its because being happy can sometimes come across as being, I don't know the right word, boastful perhaps? Or maybe it's because a good friend once said that "nothing is ever as good or as bad as you think it will be."
I've found that to be very true.
Like I was looking forward to this wedding in November, and then spent the reception the the bathroom with a bucket throwing up.
Or at my 21st where I Broke My Leg.
Or at my 18th where there was a fist fight...
Ot at my Graduation from GEMS when we (my immediate family and I) didn't go out to dinner because no one could agree on a place to eat.

I feel like I'm sitting back waiting for something to go wrong.

Being Happy is tricky!

But here are some this that I'm happy about:
The reception venue. It is oh so perfect. and it's us. because it's UQ.

Our rings. We had them engraved with the date of our wedding and a little message to each other that only highschool friends will understand.

My dress and the Bridesmaids dresses.

That so many extended family members will be there!

and that I get Ri for 6 months! All to myself 24/7. hehehehe.

xoxo

Our First Dance

Music... its getting there. Here are the lyrics to our first dance.


Jack Johnson -Better together

[Verse 1:]
There's no combination of words
I could put on the back of a postcard,
No song that I could sing
But I can try for your heart,
Our dreams, and they are made out of real things,
Like a shoebox of photographs,
With sepiatone loving,
Love is the answer
At least for most of the questions in my heart ,
Like why are we here? And where do we go?
And how come it's so hard?
It's not always easy,
And sometimes life can be deceiving,
I'll tell you one thing, its always better when we're together

[Chorus:]
MMM, it's always better when we're together
Yeah, we'll look at the stars when we're together
Well, it's always better when we're together
Yeah, it's always better when we're together

[Verse 2:]
And all of these moments
Just might find their way into my dreams tonight
But I know that they'll be gone,
When the morning light sings
And brings new things,
But tomorrow night you see
That they'll be gone too,
Too many things I have to do,
But if all of these dreams might find their way
Into my day to day scene
I'll be under the impression,
I was somewhere in-between
With only two,
Just me and you
Not so many things we got to do,
Or places we got to be
We'll sit beneath the mango tree now

Yeah, it's always better when we're together
MMM, We're somewhere in-between together
Well, it's always better when we're together
Yeah, it's always better when we're together

MmMMmm MmMMm MmMMm
I believe in memories
They look so, so pretty when I sleep
Hey now, and when, and when I wake up,
You look so pretty sleeping next to me
But there is not enough time,
And there is no, no song I could sing
And there is no combination of words I could say
But I will still tell you one thing,
We're better together

Less than two months to go

With less than two months to go, I wonder if any other bride to be got bored.
This month marks the two year anniversary of Ri's proposal.

And I think we're done.

And by that I mean all organised.

I have never felt more organised in my life. I'm even doing the seating plan as the RSVPs come in to spare the stress of doing it in a single sitting.

In the next month I've got to meet with the florist, photographer, the cake maker, the dress maker and the reception venue. But all the details are written down to be handed over to the relevant provider.

Maybe I'm jinking myself, but I can't think of a single thing left to plan or find.

So I'm left waiting.

And since there is still 2 months to go, it's too far away to be really excited.

I guess I should shift focus to the honeymoon, but with that we have the opposite issue.

O M G there is so much we could plan!!!

Here is the first leg, lets call it leg North America:
10 days in western USA
5 days in western Canada
21 Days in Eastern USA and Canada...
So far we're landing in LAX and have a flight to San Fran that day. And we've booked a place to stay in San Fran. So that still leaves us with over 3 weeks worth of accomodation to book. and small flights. and train trips. and buses.

Hair trial

I had my hair trial last night :)

Were we like that?

I'm not in a good mood today. So who knows were this blog will go, but it's been too long since my last post that I'm just going to type.
Since my last post
- I went to Melbourne
- I 'missed' Valentines day.

Complaint Number 1. Flying
DYK that Virgin Blue has a 'two wheelchair per flight' rule? I'm going to guess no. I've been flying with them for ages (with my chair) and didn't find out until I was number 3 last week.
I called the call centre a few days before my flight and said that I was in a wheelchair. Now the only reason I do this, or so I thought, was as a courtesy to the airline. So very dang wrong. The 'lady' on the other end said, in poor English.
"Now your options are to rebook your flight at your expense"
notice the use of a plural? I'm on the other end waiting for option two... which never came.
MY FAULT. THIRD WHEELCHAIR. OWN EXPENSE.
I have not had someone talk down to me like I was an idiot for not realising this rule was in place. I actually hung up on them.
I refused to rebook the flight. Virgin Blue refused to provide any assistance. So if I had been unable to walk to the gate without help I'd have been boned. So Very Wrong.
Everyone else at Virgin Blue were nice enough, but call centre lady has landed Virgin Blue squarely on my list.

Complaint Number Two: Young Couples
We had dinner with a young couple last night.
So young that they both swear they loved that movie valentines day.
I've done some reading on the net to make sure it's not just me, this is from rotten tomatoe
Consensus: Eager to please and stuffed with stars, Valentine's Day squanders its promise with a frantic, episodic plot and an abundance of rom-com cliches.
SO TRUE.
Plus PDA. Urk.
There were five at dinner, two couples and one single, so out of common courtesy limit the PDA. Plus we're eating. Really wait one hour, it will be ok.

You see how cranky I am today? I'm all down with love.

Maybe I just need a good nap. Tomorrow we're going to the next fitting for the BMs and Ri is picking up our wedding rings tonight from Tiffany's, newly engraved.

Tori's Black Tie for women

I think heels and hair/make-up can make most dresses black tie. I tend to go out and buy a dress for each wedding I go to. But that's just me.
Does it have to be full length? I don't think so.
Here again are some visuals on the red carpet.





I'm not enjoying telling people how to dress. I thought everyone would see black tie and go sweet! a chance to dress up. I get a certain idea in my head and get stuck on it like, wouldn't it be nice for everyone to be dressed up? That's why I've labelled these blogs bridezilla.

In the end it won't really matter, as long as the people we invited are there, I don't think we'll even notice.

Tori's Black Tie for men

These are only my standards.I'm a Brisbane girl and realise that it can get hot.
I made the mistake of putting 'Black Tie' on our invitations. It's done and I don't want to undo it. But it was suppose to be fun. A chance to dress up. Not a major drama. So to start of with let's put out a minimum. Collared white shirt, black tie (does not have to be bow), black pants and nice enough shoes and a jacket would be nice.
My theory is if it can be done on a red carpet then it is black tie.
So here are some visuals.






If it were me dressing Ri. Does he have black shoes? yes. White coloured shirt? yes
Black pants? yes. Jacket? No. Either borrow one from friend or find one at Vinnies (he had one that he bought for $3 from Vinnies - I think it died, but he got some wear out of it) or buy a simple black one he can wear again. Does he have a black tie? No. Borrow from my brother who I know has one. DONE.

Do they have to be in black and white? No. It just looks classic. Like you can't go wrong with simple black and white.

This would not fly:

Just like mum

I believe that it is around now, the mid 20s. That a girl will look at her mum and go, oh dang, she's just like me.
It was my baby brothers 23rd birthday last week, and so we had dinner with my folks. I asked mum when it was that she saw Europe. Late 1979. When she was 25. Now just over 30 years later, at about the same age, I'm going too.
Here are some mum and me stats.
She meet Dad when she was a teenager, I meet Ri when I saw 16.
However she married Dad at 19, I'm marrying Ri at 25.
Dad was 20-21 when he proposed, Ri was 22.
Ri will be 24 when we get married Dad was 21.
They got married in October one day before my mum's dad's birthday. We are getting married in May one day after my dad's birthday. (We didn't know this before we set the date- well I knew about MY dads birthday, but not Pa's as he had been dead for many years).
Mum finished nursing school at age 29, 3 weeks after having her first child.
I finished university (with 2 degrees mind you) at 24, sans children.


I'm hoping to recreate some of the photos they took on their Europe trip. They went in November, so I'm going to practice looking very cold.

Celeb wedding 8: H is for Heidi

Tivo had been taping The Hills for me. I've only seen the first season or so and CANNOT BELIEVE that Heidi ends up with Spencer. Really?

From Zimbio

Valentines day run away

Last year Ri booked us this beautiful 3 night stay at a place in the gold coast hinterlands -O'Reileys I believe. It was perfect, no tv, no phones, just the two of us.

So this year I've decided to do the only thing a good wife to be would do on the valentines day before our wedding. Exactly 11 weeks before our big day. 77 days.

I'm leaving Ri in Brisbane and going down to Melbourne for four days with my cousin, for shopping, make-up trials, eating and shopping. Heck yeah.

I did ask him before I booked the flight. I still felt a mild bit of guilt as I booked the flight. THEN EXCITEMENT.

We agreed to change the date of valentines day to the 7th. We've shown each other the gifts we bought. And we have decided on where to eat. Doesn't sound very romantic, but I don't care, we're going to Paris and Venice this year... we can catch up on the romance there.

Bride of the year 2009

My friend who got married in 2009 sent me this:

http://www.truebride.com.au/vote.asp?compid=13&month=2&state=ALL&year=2010&entry=close&id=2576

Please vote for her!

I am really excited.

I just had a call from my mum, who has told me that most of my Auntys and Uncles are planning to make the trip from Victoria to our wedding in QLD. It's crazy! Yay.

Also, less than 3 months to go!

Tori Master of the short and sweet blog.

10 wedding dresses that elicited a response

Number 1: The TP Dress. Yep made from Toilet Paper. Would you say that is enviromentally friendly?


Number 2: The Balloon Dress. Awesome.



Number 3: I am a Fairy Princess Dress. (Or marrying a beast).


Number 4: The From My Favourite TV Wedding Dress. I don't care that they get divorced like a season later. Charlotte and Trey's wedding was amazing.


Number 5: The Short Wedding Dress. LOVE it and hope I get to see it (with my knee replacements I wasn't about to show off my massive scars on our wedding day) but its so hot here in Australia and it makes sense to have a cooler shorter dress. Come on! Do it!


Number 6: The Red Dress. I try to like this concept. But I can't. The photos of brides in red dress look so beautiful and its unique. But there is something about a lady dressed all in red...


Number 7: The I'm walking on a cloud dress. I love this dress. I tried one on like it and could not pull it off, but for those who can it looks like they are walking on clouds.


Number 8: The multi-colour dress. I really love this concept and was tempted to have a dress like this. I think it's Alfred Angelo.


Number 9: The I'm wearing feathers dress. I either really love or hate this. I cannot figure it out.



Number 10: The Blue wedding dress: I love this concept. But I'm not sure which skin tone could pull it off. Naturally Keira Knightly can.