Thursday 3rd June...
16 DAYS TO GO!!!!
We picked up our dresses today!!!
They both look *wonderful*.
It was brilliant to see us both in our dresses, at the same time.
We look like SUCH a couple. We love how they match and yet they're
both different styles. Julie's dress has the gold organza over
the whole dress, with the cream satin only on her hat. While Mel
has the gold organza from the bust down, and the top in the cream satin.
Julie looks so gorgeous in her dress and the hat is just perfect. It
blends in beautifully with Mel's dress. The dressmaker suggested that
we put some of the gold organza over the hat band, but it just looked silly.
Mel looked sooo lovely, Julie could have married her right there! We were both
and shy and giggly, passing secret glances in front of our dressmaker.
We thought the dressmaker had worked out that we were marrying
each other, but she hasn't. As we were walking out the door she asked
if we lived together, "Yes!!" we both answered. A moments thinking time
and then she asked, "Are you sisters, you have different surnames?"
Mel just walked to the car avoiding the question altogether. Julie
just said, "oh no". We figure we'll just send her a wedding photo.
On the way to dressmakers we stopped to buy some more florist ribbon, for
decorating the handrail from the chapel to the reception.
Julie thought it would be a good idea to get the girls a little bag of
things to do just in case they start to get a little bored. We picked up
some colouring books and games that they can play together. We're pretty
sure that they won't even get looked at.
Friday 4th June...
15 DAYS TO GO!!!!
Lots of talking being done.
How is the reception room going to be set up?
Who is sitting next to who?
Should we do a timetable for the day?
What music are we going to use?
How are we going to kiss? (!!)
Do we want to ask people to make speeches?
Or do we get the MC to throw it out to the guests on the night?
If we do this what if no one wants to say anything?
Will everyone sit looking at each other waiting for someone else to
get up?
Who's walking down the aisle first?
Where are we going to stand?
Where are the girls going to stand?
How are we going to be announced?
And the list goes on and on and on.....
Saturday 5th June...
14 DAYS TO GO!!!!
We bought the girls tights today and Mel's 'something blue'. Mel is
wearing boots and wanted to get blue socks. She managed to find blue socks
with penguins on them...how lucky is that?
Julie bought a cream wrap/stole to wear in betweeen taking photos to
keep warm.
Julie rang Nikki this afternoon to give her a wedding up-date. Nikki had
made another wedding cake to have a trial icing. Everyone said
it tasted beautiful even without the icing!!!
Julie asked Nikki what she thought about the toast/speech thing? We
didn't know what to do. Nikki said she would like to get up and welcome
Mel into the family. We think that is just great.
Julie finished painting the directional posters tonight and they look great.
In a big purple heart she's got "J & M's Wedding"...
.and under that an arrow saying, "This way". We're
sure that no one will miss the turn off now.
Sunday 6th June...
13 DAYS TO GO!!!!
Mel had some major unpicking to do on Raechelle's dress today. She got
it back under control and will finish it this week. She'll have to guess
the length as we won't see Raechelle until the day. Lucky we have a photo
and she should be able to do it from that...fingers crossed.
We've enlisted a couple of our friends to be helper bees for the wedding day.
They will put up the direction signs, do some decorating and run up
and down the hill to our cottage if there are any last minute hitches.
We got lots done today. Drew up a seating and floor plan for the
reception room. We have decided to have a timetable. We think that
would be the best thing so that everyone has a basic idea of what's
going on during the day. We worked out about who's standing where in
the chapel. The speeches are sorted, Mel just has to ask Alan.
Received our first wedding gift! Two friends of ours didn't want to take their present
all the way down to Sydney and back (especially as they're sharing our car!).....so
they arranged to give it to us tonight. (One of them is leaving for Sydney early).
They had been dropping hints for MONTHS about what they were making us and we
were quite terrified! *L* (especially the "I'm carving a naked woman onto it" clue)
We knew it had been made of wood...and came up with the ideas that it was either:
A) A statue/carving (of naked women?)
B) A blanket box (with engravings of naked women on it?)
C) or a Rocking Chair (with engravings of naked women on it?)
It turned out that the naked women hint was all a trick, meant to confuse us! It
sure did that...we were so worried about what this thing was that we'd have to
keep in our house and drag out every time them came over! (As well as looking
suitabley surprised and pleased when we were given it!!)
We should have trusted their taste and good judgement from the start and ignored
all their teasing! What we actually were given was a gorgeous Norman Lindsey print in a
beautiful handmade wooden frame! If you haven't heard of Norman Lindsey,
he's a famous Australian artist, best known for painting Nymphs and Goddesses, as
well as illustrating a famous Australian children's book, "The Magic Pudding".
The print they chose is just PERFECT. It's of two women, in the bush. One half sitting,
or reclining on a rock...and the other at her feet. Worshipping her almost. Of course we
fought over which one of us was which! *L*
We spent a lot of time today going through cd's, trying to decide what music we're having for
every bit of the day. There's music to choose for: The Chapel - when guests are arriving;
the Aisle walk (!!); Walking out again...then the Reception Music: Entering, The Bridal
Waltz, the next song after the Bridal waltz, Dinner music and then dancing music.
On the maybe list are our favourite artists: Ani DiFranco, Melissa Etheridge, Marie Wilson,
Indigo Girls and kd Lang.....but we're not going to give anymore away here until AFTER
the wedding :P
Monday 7th June...
12 DAYS TO GO!!!!
Julie rang our celebrant this morning to give her the final details.
Also we wanted to change how we are going to be announced at the
end of the service. We've decided to go with the double barreled
surname and 'partners in life' instead of the old 'matrimony' word.
We still have to decide on the music for when we are leaving the Chapel.
Julie suggested that we use the same song we are walking down the aisle
to. We'll make that final decision soon.
Thursday 10th June...
9 DAYS TO GO!!!!
Mel went and got copies of the seating plan to send to Sam along with
the deposit for Chapel Hill.
Mel was told to be home today for a delivery from her friend Els in
Belgium. We received the most gorgeous bunch of long
stemmed cream roses mixed with other flowers. Thank you so much Els
and Vicky we wish you could have joined us on our day but we know you'll be
there in spirit.
Friday 11th June...
8 DAYS TO GO!!!!
Julie is off work today with a bad back. It started on Wednesday and is
not getting better. We are going to the chiropractor this afternoon in the
hope that he can do something for her. She is really worried about the
long drive down to Sydney and being able to walk down the aisle on the day.
Mel managed to pull something in her hand yesterday. She is hoping that
with some rest it will just go away.
We are both starting to feel as if we are falling apart...*LOL* Is this
what wedding stress is all about? Oh, well, at least we are still laughing...
a little.
Saturday 12th June...
7 DAYS TO GO!!!!
Julie got some pain relief yesterday from the chiropractor. She needs to
return on Tuesday before the road trip to Sydney.
Mel's hand seems to be getting back to normal. She knew it would be ok...
eventually, even without seeing a doctor.
We sorted out the rest of the things that are going into the storage
boxes and checked that we didn't need anything else.
Mel rang the florist, but he wasn't there as he was in the city doing
another wedding. He'll catch up with me Monday. She also rang the
liquor store and checked our order and everything is ok with that.
Basically we are just counting sleeps and trying to get them over
a.s.a.p. In all the wedding advice books we have read they say that
in the last 2 weeks get as much sleep as possible and we would have to
agree as that's all about we have left to do. Everything is ready to go.
Sunday 13th June...
6 DAYS TO GO!!!!
We babysat Mel's niece this morning. She's a gorgeous two-year old who's
just starting to talk, great to play with, lovely and fun.
After a couple of hours we were happy enough to hand to her back.
Jules later confessed that she was feeling rather clucky!
I sure hope that our friends, David, Brady and Brandon, realised we were
joking when we added 'sperm' to the end of the gift suggestion
list we emailed them!!??
We spent the afternoon at some markets and bought little gifts for our
two 'helper bee's', just to show them we appreciate them being there for us.
We also bought some cards that morning for our hairdresser, makeup artist,
florist and chef.
Back at home, and after a nap (two years olds sure tire you out), Mel
got stuck into finishing Raechelle's dress. She had the zip left to put
in, which caused much anxiety and stress. While she did this Jules wrote out
the cards and wrapped the gifts, including the flowergirls' earrings.
Mel finally finished and did a wonderful job. The dress looks fabulous and the girls
both LOVE them. Genevieve tries on hers every time she visits Julie's mum's house,
and can't believe that she gets to keep it after the wedding.
Monday 14th June...
5 DAYS TO GO!!!!
Today we finished off all those little things that still had to be done.
Printed out drinks list, wedding timetable, instructions for the MC,
checked that we've packed everything in the boxes and made a final
shopping list for tomorrow.
We even started our wedding speech!!! At this stage it has been decided that we will say it together...one line
each.
Our florist rang yesterday with the quote and told Mel that it was snowing
on the other side of the mountain. Mel thought he was joking but soon
realised that he wasn't. We think we are going to freeze our butts off
in our dresses. Lucky we aren't having a video taken so you won't be
able to hear our teeth chattering...*LOL*
Julie called Mary before her big trip down under. She's totally excited
and just can't wait to see us. She will be leaving very very soon.
Nikki made yet another cake and managed to get this one iced. She said that
everything turned out great.
Tuesday 15th June...
4 DAYS TO GO!!!!
We re-checked the boxes to make sure that we *really* did have everything
that we needed. The hallway was filled with everything we needed to take down
for the wedding, plus the week's holiday in Sydney...now we just have
to get everything into the car!!!
It sure is getting very very exciting. It's hard to believe that the
day is almost here...it certainly has been a long time in the planning.
Wednesday 16th June...
3 DAYS TO GO!!!!
We went to the hairdressers this afternoon to have the works done. Mel got
streaks, color and trim. Julie had her hair dyed all the same color - a
dark brown. We are
both very happy with the results even if it did take us a little while to
get used to it.
After Mel finished work she came home, packed the car and we were off!!!
Stephanie, one of our helper bees, is joining us on the road trip.
We left Brisbane at 12.10 am, expecting to be in the Blue Mountains in the
afternoon.
Thursday 17th June...
2 DAYS TO GO!!!!
We've ARRIVED!!
Drove into Chapel Hill around 3.00 p.m.
We had forgotten just how stunning the property was. The Chapel is
just to-die-for and we had shivers being inside, it is all getting so CLOSE!
We found Teresa and she showed us to the big house, where we dumped a few belongings
before drivng back down the mountain in search of food and bourbons.
We were kinda distressed to discover that our new mobile phone didn't work
at Chapel Hill. It was out of the network range, which put a dint in our plans of
phoning all of our vendors. It did work while we were in Kurrajong, the town midway
down the mountain, so we made calls to our families to let them know
we had arrived safely.
We grabbed some pasta and sauce to take back and cook at the homestead.
We were all absolutely exhausted after driving overnight in shifts and
headed off to bed as soon as we got back. It was about 5pm, and the sun
hadn't even gone down yet.
We found once we were in bed that we couldn't sleep...way too excited about
the next few days. We got up, threw the pasta on to cook and opened a beer each.
Stephanie heard us and joined us for the quick dinner. We sat on the lounges
eating quickly, all too tired to bother talking.
Afterwards Stephanie went back to her room to sleep (or drink cheap port straight
from the bottle, depending on who you ask). We grabbed a second beer each, sat
out on the verandah overlooking the mountains and watched the sun set.
Friday 18th June...
1 DAY TO GO!!!!
..and what a busy day we have planned! So many last minute details to take care of.
Our first stop for the day was the local supermarket. Here we bought heaps of
mixers, some chips'n'dips and dinner for tea tonight with Julie's mum Nikki.
Before we could get to the bottle-o, we had to pick our friend Sue up from
the train station. We drove over and found her easily enough in the Golden
Arches carpark. We piled in her luggage and went to pick up the grog.
Our order wasn't ready at the bottle-o, so we ran around
the store grabbing cases of beer, wines, bottles of bourbon and scotch. We filled
two shopping trolleys full! *L* The store manager who Mel had been dealing with over the
phone wasn't there, but he left instructions to give us a free magnum of Champagne.
It was a lovely surprise, and a litre and a half of bubbles never goes astray!
We each took a trolley full to the car when we were faced with a huge dilemma...
'How the **** do we fit all this stuff in the bloody car!!!???' Somehow we managed to
squeeze it all in, along with Sue and Stephanie (although we DID consider leaving them there!).
Before we left Richmond we called all our vendors to confirm that we were actually
here in the mountains. On the way back up we called in to see Gerhardt, our florist.
We had to give him the heart-shaped vases and ribbons to use in the bouquets.
He had a horrified look on his face when he saw the color of our ribbons! The only
irises he could get were blue ones, and they clashed terribly with our purple ribbons.
We had a moment of pure freak-out. His suggestion was that we use the lisianthums
in our bouquets with the Calla lillies, and reserve the irises for the table centerpieces.
The Lisianthums were EXACTLY the same color as our ribbons! We hastily agreed to
whatever he thought best and told him we'd see him in the morning.
We loaded the alcohol into the reception's fridges and dumped Sue's bags at the house.
We came across Donald (Theresa's husband) and asked if the Lake Lodge,
where we were staying, was ready yet. It wasn't, but he said just to go down there
and leave our groceries in the fridge. The Lodge was absolutely stunning!
We had only seen it before in a photos, and they didn't do it justice.
It's nestled away in a corner of the property, surrounded by bush and resting
over the edge of a small reed-filled lake. We were planning every camera angle
possible!
We were all starving by now, and headed to a fabulous cafe/art studio we had
visited in January for some lunch. On the way out through the gallery, Jules
spied a painting of a naked woman, recling in bed and looking out the window with
her back displayed. There was no discussion, we HAD to have it :) Just another
wedding gift we bought together. On putting it in the car boot, we thought to ourselves,
"this is gonna be really painful to get home".
We dropped Sue and Stephanie at the big house and we went off together to see
our caterer, the gorgeous Sam. We both commented to each other just how much
she reminded us of Ani DiFranco. It was wonderful to meet her after months of
emails between us. We gave Sam copies of all our lists and everything for the tables
at the reception. She was just so excited to see all the place settings, menu's,
bonbonierre boxes with names attached - and all with our 'two brides' logo's
on them.
Mel was concerned that she had too many lists. Sam reassured her that it was a good idea,
as everyone would know exactly what was going to happen. She was amazed at how
organised we were and all the trouble we had obviously gone to in order to
make our wedding special. Mel walked the programs and candleholders over to the
chapel whilst Julie showed Teresa the recepetion goodies.
Went to move our luggage into Lake Lodge and found that our dinner had
gone missing!!! Completely!! We were laughing hysterically and raced back up
to Sam to see if she had any clues as to where it had gone. No luck there, so
we went to Teresa's house, but she wasn't there. This was CRAZY!
We finally tracked her down at the big house and asked her if she'd stolen
our dinner.
"That's YOUR dinner?", she said, laughing. She thought that the couple who
stayed in the lodge the night before didn't bother with eating! *wink* As we
were standing out on the footpath laughing, Nikki turned up!!!
We went with Nikki to check out her cottage and unload the wedding
cake she had made. We stopped to pick up our breakfast baskets from
Teresa's, just as we were about to leave our celebrant rang to say
that she was having car trouble and if there was anyone coming from
Sydney that she could get a lift with?!?!?!
Mel, in total shock, told her we would ring her back. Everyone stood there a little dumb struck at first thinking, THE CELEBRANT IS RINGING LESS THAN 24 HOURS BEFORE THE WEDDING SAYING SHE IS HAVING CAR TROUBLE!!!
Teresa swung into action ringing anyone and everyone who had performed
a commitment ceremony at Chapel Hill. The couple of people she talked to
were already booked for the day.
As we waited to hear from some of the other celebrants Theresa left
messages for, we tossed a few different ideas around about what else
we could do. In the end we decided that we could ask Carolyn,
a long time friend of Nikki's, if she would perform the ceremony. We just
need to get on-line to print off some vows from the wedding page so that
we at least had something to start from. Teresa didn't have net
access, but Sam, our caterer, did and said that it would be no
trouble for us to go to her house and get them. OK...at least we had a
plan.
Just as we were about to leave Teresa's house our celebrant rang back
to say she had arranged a lift...Thanks the Goddess....*big sigh*
After all this stress we went to Nikki's for drinks. After a long
bourbon Nikki melted the white chocolate for the cake as it needed to
cool. Mel rang Raechelle to make sure she was ready for her 1st plane
flight. She was very excited and scared that the plane was going to
drop out of the sky. We kept telling her that Qantas was the best
airline in the world. She still needed some more convincing though.
After dinner Mel finally finished Raechelle's dress...well as much as
she could do. The bottom could only been done when Raechelle had the
dress on, which would be tomorrow. There's nothing like leaving things
until the last moment...*heehee*
Nikki and Mel iced the cake and stuck on the little white chocolate
slabs that Nikki had previously made. They tied ribbon around the two
tiers, made large ribbon bows and placed them on the cake. We all
agreed that the cake looked great and with the roses on top of it,
it would be wonderful.
Finally, it was time to get some sleep. We got to bed around midnight
and set the alarm for 6.30 a.m. Let's hope that will be enough beauty
sleep...*grin*
Resources/ Two Brides/ Photos/ Wedding Announcements
this page last updated 27/12/99
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