oh my

ok, this is a wedding blog, not a fashion blog. but look. and yum and oh my.

i can't fucking wait

us at a music festival earlier in the year

can i just say that i cannot wait to be married. i want to be able to call sandy my husband. like right now!

foot freak

oh man. has anyone else had as much wedding shoe flim flam as i've had?!

i can't believe i have spent so long looking for these bloody shoes - -it's ridiculous! and makes me feel like a mad, detail obsessed freak, which i'm not.... but i wanted them to be right you know?!

for me the shoes are a big thing as i'm in a short dress. so they are out there for everyone to see.

as my main colour is yellow i thought yellow sandals with a little heel would be sweet. nothing too fussy, just cute and vintag-ey to go with the dress... simple right? wrong.

apparently there are no cute yellow shoes out there in UK shoe land (except on the wedding blogs, where they were freaking everywhere, but they were actually vintage so no go there). in the end i found some cute shoes online, however as the cute shoe gods hate me, the website only shipped to the USA. do i know anyone in the USA who i could hit up for some shoe help? nope. but my boss does. so i got them shipped to her friend's house, who then took them with him to her wedding in italy last week. she then brought them from italy back to the UK and into the office today.

palaver no?! but look how cute they are!



what are you doing/did you do for your wedding shoes?

the paper

ok, so here's another real wedding post. i have been working my little fingers to the bone making our australian wedding invitations and i want to share!

first up though, i'll show you our STD that we emailed out earlier in the year...


the original idea for this was the bike, which i know is all over blog-land, however, the boy and i are actual bike enthusiasts. i cycle to and from work everyday, we cycle everywhere together on the weekends and between us we own 5 bikes... one of which is a tandem. dorksville i know.

anyway, the rest came from collaborating with a friend at work and finessing the design together.

then came the actual mail out invitation. we wanted something fun and unique - something that would set the tone for the day. so i was snooping over at evie's blog and i saw this, it was just so adorable, i knew i wanted to work with the general idea to create our invite. cue my email her to begging to be able to use the design. as she is lovely and generous she said yes and we had our starting point.

we made some changes to the way the card opens, background design and layout etc. so, without further ado, here they are...




please excuse the dodgy photos, after 6 hours of cutting out the pop up section with a craft knife my care factor on the photos was pretty low.

the lame and the awesome

ok, so i know it's been a while - i have good excuses! i went to beirut, there was a skirmish on the border, i went to copenhagen (no skirmishes, just lots of chocolate and bicycles), and oh yeah - and the boy and i had our london wedding party!



here's the deal. we are getting married in january in australia but as it's on the other side of the world and all we thought we would have a party in london to celebrate with our friends here. we wanted to have it in august so it would still be warm (ha ha, oh how i under estimate english weather) as we were having the party in the courtyard of the boy's workshop. also we wanted to drag out this whole wedding-centre-of-attention thing as long as possible :)

the day dawned and i was tired. i have to be honest - i was not in the mood for a party. we had stayed up late drinking wine and making bunting from old wallpaper (what can i say, the blogs get to me!) it got to 4pm and i am not kidding, it fucking poured with rain. torrential. i freaked out. i got down to sandy's work shop after baking 3 cakes, a batch of 20 scones and a batch of jam drops and had a mini freak out. our wonderful friends were there, tidying, hanging up a tarp against the weather and generally being awesome. and i had a mini melt down. not my finest moment.

anyway, as the rain created a mini river that flowed through the designated dance floor area i retreated to the hair salon to get my hair did for the party. when i emerged the sky was clear, the sun was shining and the courtyard was looking pretty good! we strung fairy lights, bunting and bought prosecco. we were ready.

i just have to say, if our actual wedding is half as awesome as our london wedding party i will be one happy lady. people came - lots of people! they were so excited for us, so happy and open and generous with their love for us. our friends got up and said wonderful heart felt speeches and sandy gave a speech that made more than one guest cry. we ate cake and popped bottles and danced and danced and danced. we got to bed at 4am, drunk on prosecco and love. it was the best party i have ever been to - no doubt.

as for the real wedding in january? bring it.

an 'interesting' wedding

via


oh guys.

i'm sure you are all well versed in dealing with family incomprehension at your 'non-traditional' choices. and i could use some help.

we are not having a very 'traditional' wedding. we are marrying in the early evening so we can skip the sit down dinner thing and save ourselves some money and stresses. instead, we are doing anti-pasto, a dessert reception and cheese boards in the evening. for some reason the boy's family just does not get this. they keep trying to change our minds about this and can't seem to get past the idea of what you 'should' do at a wedding. rahhhhh! to clarify - i LOVE the idea of no sit down meal. we want something relaxed and fun and informal but after so many questions and suggestions of how to do a sit-down meal after we've said we don't want one... well, i start to feel like everyone thinks we are cheap. which we are. but it's also not all about the money and i HATE that i care so much what everyone thinks.

you know what though, i have to add in a little caveat here - i do think we are pretty lucky with the families we have and i'm sure compared to other people's wedding meddling families they seem like a walk in the park. i guess i'm just not used to having to explain or defend my choices in life. and we've been so careful in making choices that resonate with us that it feels like an attack when someone goes 'oh... well maybe we can put all the wedding guests on a bus and drive to a restaurant and do the dinner there...' (i am not kidding about that last quote by the way - that was the boy's sisters suggestion after we said we didn't want to do a sit down dinner.)

grumble. grumble. i guess i was just pushed over the edge last night when i was talking the the boy's 80 year old grand-ma and she said 'well, your wedding is certainly going to be... interesting.'

ok, share your wedding doubter stories. it will make me feel better!

an actual wedding related post

ok. it's dress time. just as some background, here's what i wanted in my wedding dress:

• not full length. it's just not what i wanted, it doesn't really suit the venue and the type of wedding we're having - we wanted something relaxed and fun and i wanted to wear something that reflected that.

• not strapless. the last thing i want to be doing on my wedding day is hoisting my dress up and stressing that the ladies might pop out (especially on a day when i am supposed to be grown up, elegant, sophisticated... HA!)

• not too hot/uncomfortable/itchy/poofy.

• ideally with a lace overlay.

• preferably something 1950s vintage - or at least 1950s looking. my mum once told me i was born in the wrong era and it's so true. 5os shapes suit me and make the best of the boobies and the fact that i do have a waist.

So after a few weeks of looking online and freaking out at the average waist sizes from that era (26" - really?!!! who were these women - barbie?) i found this little gem on etsy.




it was cheap. and sometimes i feel weird about how little money i spent on my wedding dress. i think it's fine but i know other people are all like 'but it's your dreeeeeaaaam, you can spend whatever you want' by which i sometimes think they mean 'you are obligated to spend a lot of money. it doesn't count if you get it for cheaps.' anyway - i LUUURRRVVVEE it and when i got it and it swished out of it's packaging and slipped over my head i knew it was going to see me through a very happy day.

however, it does need some alterations. it was hand made in the 1950s (just what i wanted - seriously the internet is awesome) but the lovely lady it was made for had stonking knockers because i am swimming around in there. also her torso was really long because the waist line sits almost at my hips. i also don't think i will leave the sleeves as they are as it is going to be freaking hot when we get married and the last thing anyone wants to see is a sweaty bride.

i also think i will change the neckline so it shows of the ladies a little more. they are one of the boy's favourite parts of me so it would just be mean to hide them on our magical day.

so - i have two options i am thinking about (please excuse hasty photoshop alterations).






thoughts and input are appreciated!