Wednesday 11th March, 1998...
Julie arrives from interstate at 6.30pm for a week's holiday,
the first time we've been together since becoming girlfriends.
The next night we saw Ani Di Franco live, and she was just brilliant.
It was a magical night, our first real 'date'.
Thursday 13th March, 1998...
Drove down to the Gold Coast last night and stayed at Tropic Sands On
The Beach Motel. Today the weather was perfect and we spent
hours in the water swimming and kissing and all that good stuff.
We went back upstairs and had a bliss-bombed spa bath, with an
ocean view.
When we got out, we held each other in our arms and Mel said,
"Marry me?"
....and of course I replied "yes".
*pure bliss!*
Tuesday 9th June, 1998...
Julie is up from Sydney for a week and we have bought our first couple
of things for the wedding. The invitations and the champange bubble blowers!!
The invitations are just what we are looking for and I have a little
shopping motto...
"If you like it buy it when you see it cause when you go back to get
it, it will be gone!!!"...That's why we bought our invitations 12 months
before the wedding.
We had seen a pic on the net of a reception that had bubbles being
blown as the couple walked into the reception and it looked great.
Then we saw these little champagne-bottle shaped bubble blowers in a
gift shop we just had to get them. I just hope
that our guests will actually blow the bubbles...
I think that our mothers are a little shocked that we have started
buying things for the wedding. Maybe they are starting to realise
that this wedding is *really* going to happen.
We have decided to wear gold shirts and black
skirts and sticking with my shopping motto I have gone and bought
the gold shirts!!! Way excited.
Tuesday 30th June, 1998...
Julie has moved up to Brisbane so that we can finally be together.
I guess that means we are now living in sin....*lol*
Like that is going to make a difference to us...*ha ha*
Now we can *really* get into wedding mode and make some serious decisions.
Monday 20th July, 1998...
BOOKED THE CHAPEL FOR JUNE 19, 1999!
It has been very hard to decide a wedding date because we had to work
around both Queensland and New South Wales' school holidays so our nieces
could be flowergirls.
Julie's mum said it was good date astrologically-wise,
as the next night (20th June) is a new moon, which is brilliant
for 'new beginnings'.
There was an article about the chapel in LOTL and it sounded perfect.
So we rang up and got all the info sent out about it.
It's called
Chapel Hill and it has *everything* that you could
possibly want or need for a wedding. There are cottages and a
function centre on the 80 acre property that overlooks the Blue Mountains
in New South Wales.
The chapel has been built
as a memorial to the owners' son who died of AIDS and is available
for all occassions including same-sex weddings!!!
Along with the info that was sent about Chapel Hill there is really
great list of people like florists, photographers etc etc
in the area which is going to be a great help in the future
since we are trying to organize everything from 1000 klms away!!!
Also this month we have found a celebrant. Anne Coventry is a
member of PFLAG and she sounds like a very lovely
lady over the phone and is willing to work in what ever we would
like to include in the service.
We have also been reading like crazy the many
books about gay weddings. Yeah, there are actually books out there
for us to help plan our weddings! The one that
we have found the most beneficial so far is "The Essential Guide To
Lesbian And Gay Weddings" by Tess Ayers and Paul Brown.
We also read "Ceremonies of the Heart - Celebrating Lesbian Unions",
edited by Becky Butler. If you do read books such as these
I suggest that when you see something that you *may* think
you would like to use in your wedding mark it straight away
as you may *never* find it again..*lol*
We haven't made any great purchases this month... but we decided to
buy some more invitations just in case that we invite more people
than we've planned and to take the pressure of whoever is going to
address them...(Julie is doing that little project...)
We also decided to buy some more of the champange bubble blowers
and we bought an extra one so that we could have a go and they work
really well...
We took a drive up to Mt. Tambourine, a tourist township full of art
and craft stores, one Sunday afternoon.
There was a shop with a bridal section and they had a
wedding organiser, so we got one. We decided that after everything has been
arranged that we could transfer it all neatly and have a
permanent record, just in case the kids are ever interesed one day.
Saturday 25th July, 1998...
Ok....about 6 weeks ago I went and bought some gold shirts and well...
now we have changed our minds about what we want to wear.
Actually we have changed our minds many many times since then and
I'm sure they will keep changing. At the moment
we want to do the whole thing...full wedding attire...yeah,
both of us in some style of wedding dress. That's gonna fool everyone...
*giggle*.
Today we hit the bridal stores in the City with the thought
that even if we couldn't find what we are looking for
at least we could see what is on offer. Armed with the list of names
and addresses we hit the shops....and found that most of them still
only had those big, puffy, beaded, motif-encrusted white dresses.
We didn't see anything that even looked anything like all the
dresses in the bridal books that we looked through. At this stage
I have pretty much decided what I want but don't quote me on that just yet.
Julie found a dress that she just loved but it only came in the smallest
size possible and to try on a different size you had to actually buy it!!!
Somehow I don't think that they are going to sell many of those dresses.
I'm not sure if these womin in the bridal shops realized that we are
marrying each other. We told them that we both wanted dresses
and that we are getting married on the same day but most didn't
ask any question except one younger womin...
The look on her face was priceless
when it registered that we are marrying each other...*lol*. She did
manage to re-cover her composure very quickly and since I was asking
about wedding frocks she assumed that Julie would be wearing a pant
suit...*lol* and I thought I was the butch in this relationship.
We told her that we are both going to be wearing dresses and she said
"Well, why shouldn't you?!". I think that womin is going to be
talking about us for awhile to come....*lol*
Friday 7th August, 1998...
Julie's mum (Nikki) is visiting for a week, and we took her shopping in
a fabric store as she's really into crafts.
We stumbled into Lincraft and came across these fold-them-yourself
giftboxes that would be just perfect for the bonbonierre's (You know,
that little gift each guest receives from us - usually those
sugar-coated almonds?). We thought it'd be cooler to pop a couple of
chocolates in them, coz, really, who actually likes those things?
And it's heaps more dykey! *L*
Sunday 9th August, 1998...
Took Nikki up to Mt Tambourine we just knew that she would love it up
there. We found a gorgeous non-traditional wedding album and bought it
on the spot. It's made from old wood, like fence palings, and you can
add pages by removing the screws.
We saw a cross-stitched letter in one of the gift shops
and are thinking about making them for the Bon Boxes????
It would be a nice personalised keepsake for our guests, but
it's also going to be a lot of work for Mel.
Monday 10th August, 1998...
The mother-in-laws-to-be meet for the first time!!!
Mel thought it would be the nice to get them together, seeing as we are
getting married and will become one big family in the near future.
We went to Mel's mum's house for dinner and it all went well. There was
no wedding talk probably because this was new to everyone. Neither
of us have introduced our girlfriends to our mothers before let alone
future in-laws.
Monday 17th August, 1998.
The Cake!!!...Julie has always wanted a Croquembouche since she was a
little girl...you know one of those French ones', made of lots of
custard-filled profiteroles, stacked into a huge cone and drizzled
with toffee. (yummo!)
Mel is thinking that since the chapel is so far away from anywhere it
would be just too expensive to get one out there. She is under the
impression that the baker will have to come and set the cake up
at the reception room.... :(
So we have decided to have a carrot cake but, we don't want to have that
royal icing. At this stage we haven't talked to a cake decorator so we
aren't sure if we can have the cream cheese icing. If this is possible
we want a pride flag on the top...maybe.
Wednesday 26th August, 1998...
Decided to cross-stitch the letters for Bon Boxes and bought threads and material.
Also posted deposit off to Chapel Hill.
Major news...
Julie found her dress and put it on lay-by!!!!!
We were just wandering through David Jones' (an upmarket dept store)
on the way to the supermarket and then we both saw THE DRESS!
It was bizarre, cause we wern't even looking at dresses that day or anything.
It's not even from the bridal section or anything, just evening wear...
but we know it's perfect.
We're thrilled and kind-of high...It's not everyday a woman buys the
dress she's going to make her vows in. (Until Julie starts freaking
out about how it's ever going to fit!)
Thursday 27th August, 1998...
Back in Lincraft, the fabric store. Mel's sister Robyn has offered
to sew us something for the wedding. We decided that it would be great
if she could make a ring-pillow in rainbow colours to symbolise gay pride.
So today we bought the satin, but could only get three of the six
different colors....*gggrrr*
While we were there we browsed through the pattern books for our
flowergirls' dresses. We came across a pattern that we could alter
to what we wanted and bought that. Julie then found some violet
crumble-colored purple netting and thought it would be funky for
the girls to have that color, rather than the white or cream we
have been thinking about. So that's another decision made, our three
nieces are going to be purple flowergirls.
We also bought some candles today, Julie's favourite scented ones.
We've read about a tradition where each bride lights a candle, to
represent themselves...and with these they light a third candle.
This symbolises the joining of two into one, while our individual
candles continue to burn as brightly. They will make
the chapel smell fabulous.
Friday 28th August, 1998...
Mel finally dragged it out of Julie that she's really disappointed that
we can't have a Croquembouche...seeing as Julie as *always* wanted one
Mel decided to see what she could do about getting Julie her
Croquembouche.
Mel has been on the net looking for French Patisseries in the area
of the chapel. She has found 4, so now it's to the phone.
After ringing 2 patisseries things were starting to look grim. It must
have been our lucky day because the 3rd patisserie does do them..WAHOO!!
We found out that the Croquembouche gets made at the bakery and you then
pick it up. Mel was a little concerned that it would just fall apart as
soon as it is moved but, the lady assured her it wouldn't. We are very
surprised at the cost (cheaper than we thought) and it also saves us on dessert.
Julie can now have her Croquembouche... :)
Once Mel was on the phone there was no stopping her. She rang and
booked the florist, make-up artist and hairdresser. We will go and see
all of these people when we get to Sydney in January to make the finalise everything.
Sunday 30th August, 1998...
Went to a newsagent this morning just to get the papers but, as usual
just about bought every mag in there...*lol* Julie found this recipe for
a wedding mud cake. It looked beautiful decorated with fresh roses.
Julie wanted to know if we could have this cake as well as the
Croquembouche seeing that we can't actually cut a piece of the Croquembouche???
Julie suggested that Nikki could make it for us and it wouldn't cost
that much. Mel said that was a silly idea before giving it any thought
(as usual).
Monday 31st August, 1998...
Mel came home from work this morning and after having a think about a
second cake now thinks it's a great idea. It's not written in stone
anywhere that we can't have 2 wedding cakes and the bonus is that we
can save even more money on the reception.
Don't get us wrong about all this saving money, it's not about being
cheap, it's about being able to afford the little extra's.
You'll soon find out how quickly things add up.
We went to Spotlight (another fabric store) to buy the rest of the
satin for the ring pillow. Now all that is left to do with that is
decide on what kind of ribbon we want to use to tie the rings on
and get Robyn to make it for us.
I (Mel) have been on the phone all afternoon looking for violet crumble
purple tulle....*gggrrrr*. I'm now not sure how many places that
I have rung but they all said that they have *never* seen it.
In desperation I rang a Theatre Company that specialises in period
and fantasy weddings.They also hadn't seen it but, said that I can
easily dye some.
So tomorrow I'm going back to the fabric store to get some tulle
and see how we go with that. This colour is what we want and I don't
think we should have to settle for second best on *our* wedding day.
Thursday 3rd September...
Mel has had this idea in her head about attaching some kind of penguins
to tulle bows and then tying them around the pews in the chapel. Mel
also has the feeling that Julie isn't too thrilled about this idea.
Why penguins I hear you ask?
Well, we met in Melbourne and it was while we were waiting for penguins
to come out of the ocean on to Phillip Island that we started
to *really* notice each other....*wink*
So today we went in search for penguins. Mel couldn't believe her luck
we found little stuffed toy penguins in Target!!!....and they look
soooo cute. Julie even likes the idea now....*giggle*
They only had 5 so I'm now on the look out for the 6th one.
Paid a visit to Julie's gorgeous dress and made another payment.
Friday 4th September...
Went looking for penguin number 6 but no luck... :( .....yet!!!
Received all the info for the make-up artist in the mail today.
We both want a really nice wedding album something that we can
show the grand-kids later on and we also both know the value of
a good make-up artist....and besides I (Mel) need all the help
I can get.....*lol*
Wednesday 9th September...
In the mail today we received our receipt for the deposit for Chapel
Hill and the most lovely note from Teresa. She is so happy to know
that our plans are underway.
Teresa also told us about a wedding that was held there last week, one
part in particular that bought tears to her eyes was, at the moment when
Anne Coventry (our celebrant) tied this couples hands together with
pride ribbon. Teresa said it was just so moving.
Saturday 12th September...
Finally found the rose stamps that we have been looking for for ages.
Rose stamps??? Special stamps that Australia Post put out for wedding
invitations. They come with heart stamps to seal the envelopes too...
Bonus for us...*giggle*
Monday 14th September...
Mel has been on the phone again looking for the rest of the little
stuffed penguins.
Finally after ringing 5 stores she found the 6th store
had only 2 left. They have been put aside until we can pick them up.
Wednesday 16th September...
Julie has paid half of her wedding dress!!!
We can no longer visit it because they have all been sold... :(
but, it's not long until we get it home anyhow.
Saturday 19th September...
We managed to get to Target to the penguins and even found another 3!!!
So that means that Mel now has enough for the pews and maybe the cake???
or for something else at the reception.
We haven't had much time for planning this week as we have been buying
Julie a new car and getting Mel's fixed.
It's now exactly 9 months until the big day and we are looking forward
to it more and more...*huge grins all around*
Thursday 8th October...
One more payment on Julie's wedding dress!!!
Didn't *that* 8 weeks go quickly.
Not much has been happening in the last couple of weeks apart from
booking the photographer and saving madly.
Thursday 15th October...
Made the final payment on Julie's dress and bought it home at last!!!!!
Julie couldn't remember what it looked like exactly but, when she saw it
again she fell in love with it all over again.
Julie is going to look gorgeous in the dress!
Saturday 17th October...
We went to a Bridal Expo this morning and really didn't get many ideas
out of it. A little disapointed I guess.
There really wasn't much there. We were expecting all the major bridal
dress stores to be there and many more reception venues.
We got one idea that Mel is still trying to talk Julie into. For table
centerpieces they had these huge vases filled with water with 2
goldfish, on the top was some kind of floral arrangement.
Mel just loved it. It is going to take a *lot* of talking to get this
idea happening, but you never know Julie managed to get her
Croquembouche. Keep your fingers crossed for Mel...*giggle*
There was the bridal fashion show...Julie laughed all the way through
it. Some of the props were just *so* funny.
Like in one part the brides walked down the catwalk with poodles. This
just cracked Julie up so much, we thought they would ask us to leave.
They were giving away champange flutes with the "bride & groom's" names
engraved on them.
When we told the woman that we are marrying each other she said "No
problem, we can do that". She then procceded to ask us the usual
questions that she would ask any bride-to-be. We think she handled it
very well.
Tuesday 20th October...
We found some really gorgeous candles today that we are going to use in
the candle lighting ceremony. They are vanilla scented which is one of
our favourites and will make the Chapel smell wonderful.
Sunday 25th October...
We decided that seeing as Julie wasn't working today that we would grab
all the bridal books, go to the beach and look for any advice that
we thought we could use.
It was pouring down rain, but we didn't care we were undercover. That
was until the wind picked up and we started getting wet.
We packed up and do what all good womin do when it's raining....we went
shopping!!!
To our surprise we found our centerpieces in a of those $ shops. We ended
up with heart shaped vases that we are going to get the florist to fill
with flowers. We wanted some kind of candlelight on the tables, so we
bought these little frosted glasses in purple that will encircle the
vases.
The shop that we bought the frosted glasses in didn't have enough purple
ones but, Mel knew that there was another one of the $ shops at another
shopping center on the coast.
Yu guessed it we were on *another* hunt. We got to the other shopping
center only to find that the shop had closed...*gggrrr*
We found phonebook and found that there was another shop on the way home,
so that's where we headed next.
Guess what??? This shop was in the process of closing down and only had
some lame display of junk left.
Well, no problem we'll just get them in Brissie tomorrow.
In the search for the candle holders we managed to find the card and
paper for the programs we are going to print.
Monday 28th October...
Mel stopped in to the $ shop that is near our home and they didn't have
any. Oh, well, there will be some somewhere.
On to the phone again...Mel rang every shop on the southside of town and
there wasn't one candle holder left.
Panic started to set in. What the hell are we going to do NOW?
By the time that Julie got home from work Mel decided that we should
just drive back down the coast and get the dark blue one's. Who is even
going to notice in the dark...right?
We drive down there only to find that there wasn't enough of the dark
blue holders left. In the end we went with the light blue one's.
Even though it wasn't the color that we *really* wanted at least
there is going to be some kind of continuity.
Tuesday 27th October...
A woman is coming this morning to talk to us about the *free* champange
flutes from the wedding expo.
Mel knew that it was going to be a big sell on some kind of product. We
had no idea what the product even was, but we decided before she
arrived that we weren't buying *anything*.
We soon found out that she was flogging $3000.00 saucepan sets!!!
Or we could have bought the saucepans and a dinner set for $4100.00.!!!
Well at that price we may as well have a couple of sets...*LOL*
We explained that at the moment we are saving for the wedding and that
we couldn't really afford it. We were then informed that our wedding
day was only going to be *one* day in our lives, but we would have this
saucepan set for the rest of our lives.
We were also told that we could pay the set off over 3 years at $30/month
at 25% interest...*LOL*
Oh Please!!! The money she was talking about would just about pay off
Julie's car.
Needless to say we are *not* buying a 'you beaut' saucepan set. There was
no mention about the *free* champange flutes, but Julie has declared
that we will have them!...*LOL*
Monday 2nd November...
We went shopping today and to our great surprise we found disposable
cameras for only $10 each!!!
We had been looking at the one's that are made especially for weddings,
but the price of them started at $29.
We did make the mistake earlier on by buying one camera that didn't have
a flash...very hard to take night photos without a one of those...derr!
Julie is making cards up to direct guests to use the cameras that will
be placed on the reception tables.
Tuesday 3rd November...
Went shopping *again* much to Julie's dismay...*LOL*. Lucky we did
because we found the organza ribbon that we want to use in the making
of the ceremony programs.
One less thing we have to search for...YAY!!!
Monday 9th November...
Great news...Julie got a job at one of the major hospitals in Brissie!!!
We are both very happy...there are so many wonderful things happening in
our lives at the moment.
Tuesday 17th November...
Finally managed to sit down and work out a rough budget. We think that
the wedding is going to cost around $6000. That's about $1000 more than
we thought.
Not much else happening on the wedding front as we have just
moved into the *most* beautiful townhouse.
Lots of packing and unpacking going on, but still saving as much as
possible for the big day.
Monday 21st December...
Mel called everyone this morning to make appointments for January.
At this stage it feels like there is *so* much to organise in such a
short amount of time, but we know we can do it.
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