We really haven't been doing much except save the $$$ needed for our dream wedding.
Mel has been doing some work on the program and we have been talking about changing the girls dresses or maybe just changing Raechelle's (Mel's niece) dress to something a little more grown-up.
Tomorrow is our 1st Anniversary....*swoon*. Never in our wildest dreams did we think we would be where we are now. Life can sure change very quickly when you least expect...*grin*
We spent Friday night on the Gold Coast in a motel that is right on the beach. It was wonderful to have some time away from the usual daily grind.
Here's to the next 50 years together!!! CHEERS...
Tuesday 9th March...
Mel is way excited today...Julie has the day off work tomorrow and we are doing *major*
wedding stuff!!! Buying the things for the cake that Julie's mum, Nikki, is making us and
everything for the girls' bridesmaid dresses. We'll up-date tomorrow on all the purchases!!!
We have to decide what we want to do with the girls hair....up or down, fresh flowers or not (Julie says not!!!). We can then ring the hairdresser to make final times with her.
We are also going to finish planning the programs tomorrow. It just needs a little fine tuning that shouldn't take long.
Mel's mother is having very weird wedding dreams. Last nights' was that Mel had piled her hair up and used heaps and heaps of bobby pins to try and keep it in place. On one side of her head she had all these weird pieces of sticks with leaves and stuff on them sticking out of her hair?!?!?! We have no idea what this all means but, if anyone does please inform us a.s.a.p......*lol*
Wednesday 10th March...
We got *so* much done today it was just great.
First we went into the women's book store in the city to pick up the pride flag we ordered. We are going to hang on the front of the table which the cakes will be on.
Next stop was Spotlight to buy the material for our flowergirls' dresses!!! The girls are going to be so excited. We must have waited for nearly an hour to get served... ...*gggrrr*. If it wasn't for the fact that we wanted to do *everything* today we would have walked.
Anyhow, we bought all we needed for the dresses except a pattern for Raechelle's dress. Mel was originally going to use the same pattern for both the dresses even though they're being made in different states, by different people. It was eventually decided it would be much easier and quicker to have two patterns. So, it was off to Lincraft to find that pattern!!!
We got to Lincraft only to realise that Mel had left the pattern in the car...*gggrrr*. OK we'll just flick through the pattern books and get the number....NOT!!! It is then decided that we will get the pattern another day. We are walking past a jewellery store and thought we should look for something for the girls gift and Julie wants to get Mel her wedding day gift, but she needs a little help.
We found the most gorgeous heart shaped amethyst and gold earrings for the girls. Julie goes to get her wallet, to find it's ALSO that's been left in the car. Back out to the carpark...Julie also grabbed the pattern.
Back at the jewellery store we decide we have spent a heap already today we just put the earrings on lay-by. Julie still didn't get anything for Mels' gift because Mel doesn't know what kind of jewellery she wants to wear. She had better start thinking about it soon!!!
We head back to Lincraft and Mel is sweating on getting the pattern. It was our lucky day as they had it and also in the size we wanted...*grin*
Only one thing left for us to do today.....Buy the things for the mudcake Julie's mum, Nikki, is making for us. Back into the car and over to the cake decorating shop...this is the last stop for the day. The cake decorating shop has everything that we need and seeing as Mel owns a bakery we get a discount!!!
Saturday 13th March...
WAAAHOO
...We've been engaged for 1 year today!!!
ONLY 14 WEEKS TO GO!!!...*HUGE GRIN*
Wednesday 17th March...
Mel talked to her mother about giving her away again. She said "Yes, she
wants to do that." Mel asked her about 20 times during the morning if she
was sure she *really* wanted to do it because she didn't have to. She
still insisted she will give Mel away...*huge grin from Mel*
Sunday 21st March...
Jules here...You're not gonna believe this one!
Today I talked with Mel about a little thing I've been thinking about
for some time. Remember a while back that I found the PERFECT dress?
Well, I think I've changed my mind and actually want to return it.
For one thing, I'm never going to fit into the damn thing...but I also want a different style now. It IS a beautiful dress, but I just don't think it suits me, or the style of wedding we're planning. (Afterall, we have to trudge up the hill from the honeymoon cabin to the chapel....and it was, well, slinky).
So today I told Mel that I want to return it, and to give her credit, she didn't TOTALLY freak out...
So now we're BOTH shopping for new dresses again! What a difference from the original idea we had of gold shirts and black skirts. And yes, we've still got the gold shirts, it's just been a little too long to take those back *L*
Saturday 27th March...
12 WEEKS TO GO!!!
Today has been planned for some serious wedding shopping.
First stop is the jewellery store. We have decided to pick up the girls' earrings today, as we have the money already. Julie finally cornered Mel about what kind of jewellery she wants for her wedding present. She picked a gorgeous pair of drop amethyst earrings and a small pair of diamonds studs... (Mel has 5 ear piercings). Julie bought these today, but Mel has to wait for the day before she can wear them...*pout*
The womin who served us wants to see the photos when we get back!!!
Next stop is DJ's.....Julie is returning *the* dress. The bonus is that we now have an extra $400 in cash for the wedding.
We decided to have our dresses made. Now it's just a matter of finding the one's that we want. This turned out much easier than we thought. We both found our patterns in the one shop and the bonus was that they had the right sizes!!!
There is this one shop we go into all the time looking for headpieces, specifically a tiara for Julie. Nothing new in tiaras, but Julie tried on a hat...and Mel just loved the way she looked in it.
We had a coffee and talked about buying the hat there and then, but after just returning one wedding dress Julie didn't want to rush into anything. We decide to go into the city tomorrow and have a look at some other hats to see what else is available.
Sunday 28th March...
Into the city we go today looking for hats and material for our dresses.
As our patterns are similar we have decided to use the same material.
The hard part is going to find something that we *both* like.
After spending 3 hours walking around the shops we have found *nothing*. Time to head home and dye the tulle for the girls' dresses, as Genevieves' material has to be in Sydney before Thursday.
After following the instructions we rinsed the tulle, only to find that it is only a very very very pale blue!!! This was *not* what we are looking for. After talking about "what the hell we are going to do NOW!!!"...we decide to try and find a chemist open, buy some more dye and give it a double dose and leave it soak until it's the color *we* want.
It is still soaking...we'll let you know how long it takes.
Monday 29th March...
Julie is on a late shift today so we are going to have another look at the
hat. Mel has her fingers crossed that Julie will decide that she
loves it too.
Before we leave Mel rings and books into have a fitting for our bridal lingerie. We all know how important it is to have the *correct* foundation garments!!!...A little sewing humour...*giggle*
We hit the shops...Julie does buy the hat!!! Waaahhhooo...Mel is *really* happy as Julie looks so stunning in it. You'll have to wait for the photos to see just how gorgeous. (Jules here - still not sure 100% about the hat thing...and VERY wary of rash decisions. But hey, I can always return it, right? *grin*).
We go to Lincraft again to have a *good* look at their material and find
a satin that is the perfect match to Julie's hat. They only have 8 metres
left, so we buy that and they are now looking for some more for us.
We cannot find a contrasting material that we love so we head for a
small material shop and find the most gorgeous gold organza. It has to be
ordered in, but will be here by the end of April!!!
As April school holidays are nearly upon us Mel has to get her sewing machine fixed so she can make Raechelle's dress. That is our next stop for the day, the sewing machine repair shop. We get there and they tell us that we need the cord from the old foot pedal...Mmmmm. Mel thinks she has thrown it out in of her de-cluttering rituals. They call up to order in another cord but are out of stock and it won't be in until well after Easter...ugh. We decide to go home and have a look just in case the cord hasn't been thrown out.
While Mel is looking for the sewing machine cord Julie rings the dressmaker that we've picked out of the yellow pages. She quotes us $280.00 per dress. We are thinking that is a lot of money to get a dress made but we worked it out that it will cost about $400 in total for each of our dresses, which is pretty cheap for a wedding dress.
Great news Mel has found the foot pedal *and* cord !!! Saves us $30 for a new cord and we can have it today. Now Mel just has to remember how to use the sewing machine!!!
Lincraft ring back this afternoon and they cannot find any more material in Queensland...*sigh* Not to panic we'll just take a swatch of satin and match it up with another brand...easy...famous last words.
Tulle Up-Date....it's still soaking!!!
Tuesday 30th March...
We think that the tulle looks the right colour and start to wash out the
dye....and well...it is no where near the colour we wanted...*sigh* We are
after a deep, dark purple, but it turned out the most pale pastel you could imagine,
and actually looks white next to the purple satin **aaaarrrgghh*
PANIC STATIONS!
Plan B is that we go and try to find some purple organza to match. Although we did want tulle and not organza for the girls' skirts, it seems we don't have a whole lot of choice about it. They only make tulle in white and cream. Netting comes in the right color, but is heavy and scratchy and not at all right for the 'purple-princesses' look we're going for. *sigh* ...So we're resigned to organza and head off to the fabric store again...
But first we have to go and get fitted for our lingerie...this is much easier than we thought. For those of you who are wanting to know what we bought you'll just have to keep wondering cause this is just for us ...*wink*
We are now back at Spotlight looking for the girls' material and you wouldn't believe it but they now have purple tulle!!! Except that it is now being called Fairy Mesh!!! Mel can't believe that we've spent lots of $$$ and two days trying to dye some tulle. The important thing is that we have bought what we wanted and didn't have to settle for a second choice.
We also found a near perfect match in the satin. We are going to use the original fabric for Mel's dress as you will actually see it more than on Julie's dress. We can't believe that finding a fabric to match was actually easy.
(Jules here...)
Called Julie's mum Nikki when we got home to catch her up with all the news.
She is sooooo excited. During this conversation Jules was asking her mum
what she was going to wear, and when she was going to get her outfit. She said
Sandi, (J's sister), was taking her shopping so she gets something stylish.
I was telling her she could wear any color, but gold/cream...as she might
look like us brides walking down the aisle.
"What do you mean walking down the aisle??"....Ooops! I guess I kinda FORGOT TO ASK HER TO GIVE ME AWAY! So, I asked her then, after explaining that I thought I already HAD asked her when she came up here for Christmas. She's pretty thrilled about it. I also told her that we were paying for her (and Mel's mum) to have their hair and makeup done on the day. She was extra pleased :)
Another person who's totally excited is my straight sister, Sandi. She's been talking about the wedding for months and is sooo looking forward to it. She's determined to look 'the coolest' and changes her mind constantly about which friend she'll be bringing. She's told me that, "EVERYONE at my work wants to come, and are soooo jealous!"....Quite frightening when you consider that she works as a passenger attendant on interstate trains and she has about 150 workmates *L*
Mel posted all the fabric, cotton, zip, fairy mesh and pattern down to Nikki so she can make Genevieve's dress over the easter holidays. We hope she's not too stressed out about it all, it's been a while since she sewed anything. Genevieve and Raechelle better not have a growth spurt between now and June either *yikes*
Wednesday 31st March...
Mel here - I took in a sample of the fabrics we are using and a rough copy of the
program to show my mother. She said that she liked the fabrics,
but didn't say much about the program. I've decided that maybe if I
keep her up-to-date with what's going on by the time the wedding day is
here she will be a little more comfortable. It's worth a try anyhow.
Julie's mum Nikki got our parcel with the cake tins, cakeboards and icing instructions yesterday. So she can now start experimenting with the chocolate mud cake. We hope it's not too much pressure for her...along with making Genevieve's dress over the Easter holidays. We like to think that we're involving her with the wedding plans, even though she's interstate....but maybe it's just super handy to palm off a little bit of the work? *hee hee*
She's totally excited about the wedding and even tells random strangers that her daughter's getting married, to a *gasp* WOMAN!
Resources/ Two Brides/ Photos/ Wedding Announcements
