Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Buying Shoes Online = Fail

My shoes arrived on Monday. They would be great… if they weren’t lime green (a very pale one but still green)! I’m not really fazed by it - I knew that it was a risk buying online and there was a good chance they wouldn’t work out, but at the same time I didn’t expect them to be green. I went back through my emails and in my exchange with the lady I definitely stated yellow several times and the picture that I attached could not be mistaken for green. In her defence, in certain light (including in these photos) they do look kind of yellow so maybe where she works just has very poor light.  

Monday, March 29, 2010

Lessons from the World of Amy-zilla #1



Planning your wedding should be a fun time. However, I do sometimes find myself getting a bit stressed out over things, which really isn’t how I want it to be. I wanted to share my first ‘lesson learnt’ for two reasons. Firstly, I figure if I share it someone out there might read it and not make the same mistake, and secondly I’m hoping that putting it in writing will mean that I won’t make the same mistake myself again!
This lesson starts with Michelle Roth’s ‘Maya’ dress, the most fantastic wedding dress in the world. My future mother in law is making my wedding dress so lately (lately being the last couple of months) I have been searching for white on white polka dot organza with coin sized dots so I can have my dream dress. It started off with me popping into a few fabric stores with no luck. Next I scoured the internet with no luck. At this point I think it became a bit of an obsession and I either looked in or called any fabric shop I could think of in Perth. When this failed, I started looking at ways of making my own (screen printing, transfers, embroidery e.t.c). Meanwhile my future sister in law, who lives in Sydney, was looking for me over there. She sent me a few samples, one of which was exactly what I wanted…. but in yellow. I called up where she had got it from to try and get it in white. They called the manufacturer and sadly the answer was ‘we’ve stopped manufacturing that and white and ivory were the first colours to sell out’. I think this made me even more obsessed because I knew that it kind of existed somewhere out there. I scoured the internet some more and called around some fabric shops in Melbourne, once more with no luck. I was getting so frustrated that I couldn’t find it.
This Saturday I went shopping with my future mother in law to get the rest of the material for the dress. I took my sample with me (even though I’d already been to this particular shop twice and asked them about it), just in case. The lady in the shop suggested a tulle they had with tincey wincey dots on it. At first I declared that tulle was too stiff, the dots weren’t right etc. As I talked to her, I realised that the tulle probably wouldn’t be too stiff given the structure of my dress and when she held it up to me with the white satin underneath I realised that while it wasn’t the funky dress that I had been dreaming of, it was still going to be an awesome funky dress. I bought the tulle and I just feel like such a massive weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I’m back to being excited now and am ready to start looking at other aspects of the wedding (which also will hopefully mean it won’t be another week before I update this blog again). I still would love to find my polka dot organza and I will keep an eye out because I still have time as that will be one of the last parts of the dress to get made. I know now though that I will be much happier if I just casually look but keep in mind that my dress will look great with or without that polka dot organza.
Moral of the story: It’s great to have an idea in your mind of what you would like, but having very specific things in mind will take over your life and not make you happy! It seems so obvious now I’m writing it down but it can be very easy to get caught up in details and forget the bigger picture. With that in mind, from now on I will try to make sure that my ‘inspirations’ are stepping stones pointing me in the direction of what I want for my own wedding, not must haves. After all, our wedding day is meant to be fun and a celebration with our friends and family and I really don’t think that the wrong kind of polka dots have the power to ruin that!
The tulle that I got.

What I wanted (but in white).

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Hair & Make-up Trial!

I loved my hair trial! I ended up getting one of the styles that I previously posted as a possibility for bridesmaids hair. Because of the length of my hair, the side 'bun' wasn't as full as what I wanted but the hair dresser reckons I'll gain another few inches length by November and this will make it nice and full. Kudos to Alana Vassallo for her wonderful work!




I also had a make up trial on the same day. At first I was horrified but as I got used to looking at myself with make up on I started to warm to it. I'm still not 100% sure. I have some night photos where I think it looks really good but all our pro photos and the ceremony will be done during daylight. I also felt my eyes looked a little flat but she showed me with some fake eyelashes (not on in the pictures) and I think it made it look a lot better.
All of the below photos are taken in natural night. I would really love some honest opinions on the make up!



Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Blooms of Sunshine

Well, now I have my hair and make-up trial booked in I've decided it's time to turn my attention to flowers.
At first this seemed like a simple task. Find a picture of flowers I liked, get quotes off some florists, book a florist and it's all done. The more I think about it the more I realise how wrong I was. I've found many lovely pictures but then come the questions - what type of flower is that? Will it be in season in November? Are they expensive? Should we get corsages for the Mum's? Do the groomsmen need 'buttonholes' (they are just wearing shirt so would it look stupid just attached to a shirt?).

Here are my fave flowers thus far:

I believe these are daisies and calla lilies. I think they both should be in season and I think they might not be too expensive:


I think these are calla lilies again. I think I'd prefer a mix of white and yellow though. And maybe just straight white for the bridesmaids:


This little baby is the best bouquet in the whole wide world. I have no idea what type of flower it is though. Any ideas?

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Why does makeup stress me out so much?

I think I have been to the website of every makeup artist in Perth at least twice. I check their portfolio, I google the death out of them in the hope of finding a comment on a forum about them, I pick one of them and contact them only to find that they are booked for my day and then I start the entire process over again. This has been going on for months. About two weeks ago I told myself to stop being stupid, emailed a couple, found them to be free, picked one and added 'book trial with makeup lady' to my to-do list.

Today I get home, take a deep breath, dial the first couple of digits of her phone number... then hang up and start googling again.
What on earth is wrong with me?!?!
I finally forced myself to dial the number and have booked a trial in for the 20th of this month. I don't know why, but I am still freaking out and nervous. It's just a trial for crying out loud!

Has anyone else had this sort of indecisiveness about something so stupid?

I will leave you now with the 'cover picture' off the website of the lady who I will be having my trial with (Elsie Makeup Artistry). I really like the picture (even though it's probably been photoshopped like crazy) and looking at it is helping to calm me down a little.

Wish me luck!

Thursday, March 4, 2010

If I Had $8,700...

... I would buy this wonderful dress.

I was flicking through Marie Claire tonight and this amazing Alex Perry number caught my attention (you'll probably have to click on the picture to make it big enough to see)... if only it wasn't so expensive :(

I would LOVE to wear this to my wedding..and to balls... and to other peoples weddings. Basically, I think if I owned this dress I would wear it until it disintegrated.

If nothing else, I hope this post will inspire someone out there.... be it someone that can afford the dress or someone that is or knows an amazing sewer.

For now I'll go back to dreaming... and maybe pick up a lotto ticket on the way home tomorrow.

Monday, March 1, 2010

Hair Inspiration

Why is it that all the hair pictures I like are for long hair? My hair is currently at shoulder length but I need it to hurry up and grow in the next 8 months.... wonder if pouring fertiliser on my head would work.

Anyhow, assuming that my hair does get its act together and grow, this is the hair style I want:


If that's not possible maybe something like this:


For the bridesmaids I've also found a few pics that have caught my eye. Obviously they get to pretty much pick their hairstyle.. but I still get a kick out of looking up hairstyles :p