A weekend of achievement: the photo guestbook

Okay, I am back from insanity…. for now.  Time to get back to the fun, exciting, yay we have actually achieved something stuff.

There are so many options for guestbooks out there. We eliminated most of the options by being fussy. We didn’t want a traditional guestbook because we knew we would stick it away and it would never get looked at. Given that reason, the next logical option would be a signature tree or a signature photo frame. We didn’t want a signature tree because we want messages, not just signatures. The signature frame was vetoed for similar reasons, plus even if we got one big enough for actual messages, I don’t really like the look of them. I googled heaps of options but none of them were quite right so I came used a few ideas together to come up with my own – which my fiancé loves too!

This is what I incorporated into our guestbook:

• My love of photobooths. The budget doesn’t stretch to a professional one though and I’m not sure how a DIY one would work because how small our reception venue is.
• My wish to have an ‘interactive’ guestbook that people might actually get excited about.
• Our wish to have a guestbook that we will have on display in our home after our wedding.
• Our wish to have a guestbook that will also be on display at the reception.

So this is what we will have (logistics of exactly how we’ll work it still need to be sorted);

• People will write their message to us on a blackboard (I will make up/buy some of these).
• They will take a photo of themselves holding up the message on the blackboard (we might not be able to have a nice backdrop though because of the size of the reception venue. We will see. Also not sure how we are going to go with lighting)
• There will be a digital photo frame on display.
• At intervals throughout the night we (well, probably someone else) will upload the photos off the camera to the frame.
• At the end of the night we will have photos of all our friends and family with their lovely messages in our photo frame that we will display in our house!

I’m pretty keen on the idea of funny props to get people more into it but we’re not sure on this one yet.

Anyhow, this idea we’ve had for a while so what did we achieve on the weekend? We bought a digital photo frame. It was easier said than done because I generally HATE digital photo frames. I hate the plastic, I hate the little sensors on the front. I don’t know why, I just do. We managed to find one (on sale) that has a wooden frame and no little sensor on the front – perfect! It’s nice and big (10.4 inches) so hopefully the messages will be big enough to read.

I’m excited! It should make for lots of fun on the night!

 

Image from The Nichols Blog

The Wedding Party Bus (aka Amy is going insane)

There are still 2 things left I need to post about under “A Weekend of Achievement” but I need to pause from that for a second and throw this post in because I AM GOING INSANE! Wedding cars are killing us.

Ages ago we got heap of quotes for wedding cars. We almost died when we saw the cost of them. Because we are doing a first look and also need transport between the ceremony and the reception, in total we need cars for 4.5 hours… which is expensive.

The solution we had was that we were going to book two Audi A4’s from Europcar. The Dad’s were going to drive them and then we were going to use our ‘contacts’ to try and leave them at a house up by the reception so that the Dad’s could drink. We were going to catch a taxi home and go back the next morning and pick them up. Perfect right? I wish.

So today I called up Europcar to ask a few questions before booking. The lady said straight up that she wouldn’t recommend booking through them for a wedding. She said in one instance there was couple that booked an Audi for their wedding and something happened (I think maybe someone crashed it the week before) and they ended up getting downgraded to a yellow Hyundai Getz because that was the only car available. There are also logistical issues. For starters the A4 is a ‘prestige’ vehicle so the driver needs TWO credit cards in their name to book it. I’m not sure about Justin’s parents, but I’m 99% sure that my parents only have one credit card. I asked if ours could be the second credit card and she said no, it had to be the driver. Next I asked about additional drivers. If we were to be additional drivers would be need to be there at the time of rental? The answer was a big fat yes. We can’t do it the day before or anything. That is an issue because I can not be at Europcar and at my house with the hairdresser at the same time. We could hire them for 2 days but that is starting to get expensive.

So with Europcar ruled out I started thinking of other ideas. Basically the only ones that I think are feasible are either;

• Use our own cars (we don’t know anyone with awesome cars)
• Hire a mini bus. Kinda like a limo… but lamer and cheaper.

So far in my mind the last option is winning. We could crank up some sweet tunes to get in the party mood and call it ‘The Wedding Party Bus’ (get it… it’d be like a party bus, but it would transport the bridal party too).Okay, I have officially gone insane. HELP! Any ideas/thoughts would be appreciated.

A weekend of achievement: groom’s getup

We were meant to be hiring the groom’s suit. He had one picked out and everything. The plan was that we would pop in on the weekend and book it in. Then on Friday he came home and let me know that he wasn’t sure about hiring his suit anymore. He was thinking he’d rather buy a new one. He’d had a look in David Jones and they had some on sale. I won’t go into the reasons for wanting to buy, but we decided that over the weekend we would go and check out new ones.

There were only two potentials to try on. The first one was a poor fit on him… and then there was the second. Damn! He looked damn fine in it but we didn’t buy it straight away. He was still unsure whether to buy a new one or just hire one.

We went to another David Jones a little later in the day and he tried it on again. Drat, the sleeves were too short. I looked at the tag on it and realised that it was a size 36 short, not regular… but they didn’t have any regulars. We asked the store guy if they had a 36 regular at their other WA stores (we weren’t sure if the one we had seen that morning was a short or a regular) and there was none in WA. Frick!

We wandered off to think about it. Maybe we could just get the sleeves taken down. He called his Mum and she said that if there was enough fabric she could do it. More pondering followed.

We went back to David Jones to ponder further. His sister called while we were there and I mentioned our little issue. She suggested that we could ask if there were any in Sydney and if there was his other sister, who lives in Sydney, could go in and get it. Brilliant idea! Turns out there were none in Sydney in that size – damn, damn, damn. Then the store guy, who hadn’t seen the suit on, asked to see it on. Turns out that you have to look at all these other things for fit because the sleeves are the easiest things to alter and apparently all these other things fit perfectly. So we bought the suit! Yay!

The next day we were back at the shops again on a mission for a shirt and shoes. He was just after a white shirt (with a little bit of pattern, not straight white) but it was proving hard to find one small enough due to him being a skinny little bugger a small build. We found what we thought was the perfect one on a sale rack. It was exactly what he was looking for and fitted perfectly. We took it to the counter and then he realised that there was dirt on it. Bah! We went back to see if we could find another one in that size but it was the only one. Usually we don’t care about a bit of soiling with sale items, but this was the shirt that he would be wearing to our wedding! We went to the counter again to ask if they might have another one somewhere. The lady said she’d knock another 10% off the shirt… taking this $75 shirt down to $45. We were sold. A bit of nappy san or a trip to the dry cleaners should sort it out. Shirt sorted!

Next came the shoes. The ones that he picked out were semi-boots. Now I’ll be honest, my reaction was ‘those things look like boots. You aren’t going to wear boots to our wedding are you?’ Bridezilla much?! I said he should try them on anyhow and they actually looked really good. Under pants they don’t look boot-like anyhow. So we got the shoes.

Groom’s getup is sorted!

A weekend of achievement: groomsmen ties

After the purchase of the bridesmaids dresses, we went for a look around the menswear section to see if there were any appropriate ties for the groomsmen. Lo and behold, we found some that would work perfectly. They are navy blue with a bit of a check pattern with splotches of pink. The navy blue and the pink tie in with the bridesmaids dresses and the check pattern ties in with the grooms suit (I’ll post about this later… and don’t worry, it’s subtle checks on the suit, not full on ones) – perfect! Only problem was that they were 30% off and the sale ended that day, leaving no time for the groomsmen to come and look at them. This turned out not to be a problem though when my fiancé called both of the boys and the general response was ‘yeah man, I’ll wear whatever’.

So we have ties for the boys! They will be wearing their own pants, shirt and shoes (we were thinking of going with casual shoes but one of the guys has issues finding shoes that fit so it was decided they will just wear their own black shoes), so all we have left to do for their outfit is to either buy or hire them vests!

My only regret with being able to find ties so easily is it means that I can’t peruse Etsy for them. I thought that ties were finally my chance to make an Etsy purchase! Oh well.

A weekend of achievement - we have bridesmaids dresses!

What a productive weekend we had. We got so much wedding stuff achieved that I'm actually going to have to post this all spread over the next week or so. I think that this weekends achievements almost puts us back on track with where we should be at according to all of the to-do lists! Big yay!

I'm going to start off with the bridesmaids dresses. On Friday I actually typed up half a post about how hard it was to find bridesmaids dresses.... Well, I can delete that one now and instead show you all our lovely bridesmaids dresses. :)

They are so pretty. They are light pink with a navy blue floral pattern on them. They are a really flattering shape too, which ensures that the girls will look smokin' hot and won't be too horrified to ever look back over the wedding photos again. This also means that we now have a colour scheme - yellow, light pink and navy blue. No idea why we need a colour scheme and what we will do with it but it seems that everyone else has a colour scheme so I want one too dammit!

The only bad point for these dresses is that it was my fiancé that  found them. I know there is no way that he is EVER going to let me forget that it was him that found the bridesmaids dresses.

From polka dots and sunshine to hail spots and snow...

Originally I wanted to have a polka dot wedding dress and yellow wedding shoes. This isn’t going to happen due to difficulties in finding what I want. Rather than a polka dot organza overdress, I will be having a hail spot tulle overdress. Rather than yellow wedding shoes, I will be having white wedding shoes (perhaps with a yellow bow if I decide to do it). I’m not overly disappointed about this, but I would still like to incorporate some beautiful yellow into what I will be wearing.

Now how can I do this? I like bows, I will be wearing a dress, I need to add some colour…. Hmm….. I need to make a sash for my wedding dress – duh! How hard can it be (touch wood)? Wish me luck on my sash making adventure!

What personal touches did you add to your wedding dress?

Picture from Lizzie Jayne's Etsy Store

Rediscovering the Library

Back in my uni days I wouldn’t have dreamt of buying a book (other than textbooks). If I wanted something to read I went up to my local library and borrowed what I wanted. Once I joined the walks of the employed, I began to buy books rather than borrow them. There’s something nice about reading a nice, crisp clean book - plus I do love the look of a nice full bookshelf. The catch is that buying books, especially non-fiction books, can be quite expensive.

The other day I decided that I wanted a book on bread making. As we are trying to cut costs at the moment, rather than running straight to the bookshop, I thought I might try the local library. My oh my, did I find some treats at the library. I have never noticed before, but not only does the library have books but they have CDs and magazines (amongst other things).

We have pretty much decided that one our wedding invites we will ask guests to choose a song or two that they would like to hear. I have often wondered though what the older people will pick and how much it’s going to cost us to download high quality versions of all of the songs that we don’t have (this is something that we haven’t budgeted for). Now I know that our first port of call will be the local library. They even have an online catalogue so I can search for what I’m after from the comfort of my own home!

I beg of you, before you spend money on wedding books, magazines or CDs, dust of your library card and see what your local library has to offer. Free stuff is the best kind of bargain (plus you give it back once you’re done so it doesn’t end up at the tip or cluttering up your house)!

PS. I only really mentioned CDs in this, but our library has hundreds of books on weddings – more than I imagine that any non-online bookstore would ever have.