What I Learnt From My Wedding

This entry will pretty much rundown all of the things that I wish I had known before/on my wedding day.

Hopefully someone reading this will be helped!

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Let me start off by saying: My wedding was amazing. I really really loved it.

It was a very beautiful day and a lot of fun.

I do not, however, wish to ever repeat this day. Ever.

As much fun as it was, when the evening came, I was glad it was over.

My husband agrees with me!

It was such a busy, insanely hectic and stressful day, I don't want to ever go through that again.

I'm glad its over. It was great. But I'm glad its over.

People told me: "Enjoy the day! It goes by so fast! You'll wish it lasted longer! Blink and you'll miss it!"

I disagree. Yes, it does go by quickly, but that is a GOOD THING!

It's such an unbelievably nerve-wracking and panic-inducing time and I'm glad it flew by.

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If you're like me, and you get stressed very easily, try to have your wedding day planned out pretty precisely.

L and I had written up runsheets, and we did stick to these. But we missed a few things out:

SNACKS:

Firstly, girls, if you are having snacks while getting ready, have these set out the NIGHT BEFORE!

I didn't do this, and I wish I did.

I had a whole bunch of fruit I wanted to cut up, but it didn't happen.

Your best time to eat a good meal is early in the morning, by the time you've been up for awhile, your nerves will have set in and then you aren't going to be able to stomach anything.

I ate a bowl of grapes and crackers/chips with dip.

Make sure you have food available that won't mess up your makeup.

LAY OUT WHAT YOU'RE WEARING

I very nearly forgot to put my earrings in, and I forgot to wear my special wedding perfume!!!! NOOOOO!!!!! This happens very easily. In the chaos of your wedding day, you just straight-up forget!

My tip is to put all the things you are putting on (including perfume) in a special area so there is no way to miss anything!

TELL YOUR FAMILY NOT TO BE LATE

At my wedding, I was early. Because its me, and I'm obsessed with being on time.

My family didn't show up as early as I would have liked, and L was stressing out.

Tell your family/friends/misc guests EXACTLY WHEN to show up.

I should have been more strict with everyone and told them all to show up at 1.30pm.

If I could change that, I would've.

At the end of the day, I was right on time and everyone was there, but poor L was freaking out because family didn't turn up early. So if you can avoid this, you should try!

My extended family, minus the Uncle, Aunt and two cousins who left right after the Ceremony

TELL PEOPLE NOT TO LEAVE AFTER CEREMONY

Usually you take family photos after the ceremony, and that is what we did.

Unfortunately our officiant didn't tell the wedding guests not to leave after the ceremony because we would be taking photos.

A whole portion of my family, my mother's sisters family, left.

So they were not there for our family photo.

This is not the worst thing ever, but it is pretty frustrating. Both my mother and I were quite annoyed by this.

Make sure your officiant tells everyone in the church that there will be photos and for them NOT TO LEAVE.

INVENTORY ALL THE THINGS

Make sure you write a detailed list of all the things that should be at your ceremony/reception.

The day L and I set up our reception was very busy and chaotic, we COMPLETELY forgot the iPod we bought especially to play music as well as the cake knife and server we also bought especially.

I realise now that the reason this happened was because the iPod and cake stuff were not in the same place as all the reception stuff.

We should have made sure everything was in the same area so it all went to the reception in one go.

Luckily L's sister (who was a MAJOR help to us!!!) went and got the cake knife during the reception!

HONEYMOON PACKING- OH THE DRAMA

This was a complete disaster. In fact it was, aside from the cake knife, the only major things that went wrong at the wedding, so we did pretty well!!!!!!

I found that packing for the honeymoon was almost impossible.

I did it a few days before and it was just so hard and I forgot so many things.

L came and got my bags on the wedding day and took them to our hotel room, but because I was still using a lot of the stuff that I needed on the honeymoon, they didn't get packed into these bags.

I therefore put them all in my handbag and intended on taking this with me in the limo when I went to the wedding ceremony.

There was a huge drama about where this handbag ended up, and I freaked out, thinking it was left in the limo or lost somewhere.

Turns out I had left it at the house, along with a lot of other things. L's sister found the bag when she went to get the cake knife, thank goodness.

The day after the wedding I realised I had forgotten SO MUCH STUFF at home, so we had to return to better pack for the honeymoon..

It's just too hard.

TRY AND GET SLEEP

I got to sleep on the eve of the wedding just fine, but I woke up to use the bathroom around 5am and I couldn't sleep after that.

I was SO NERVOUS.

I was tossing and turning and my mind wouldn't stop.

I was really hard.

I don't know how you'd combat this. I tried to stay in bed til 7am (I had told everyone I would be forcing myself to stay in bed til 9), then I was up.

I was just too nervous. So so nervous. It felt like the nerves I get before I play a gig, but a lot worse.

Once I was up and walking around I felt better, but a few hours before the wedding I started freaking out REALLY BAD.

I wish to never feel that way again!!!!

TRY TO EAT

Because of the nerves, you may find it hard to eat.

But you should try your best to do so!

The food at our reception was delicious, but I couldn't eat half of it.

I was just too all over the place. I was starving when I got to the reception, and ate all I could, but was not able to finish my plate.

It's just really really hard. I can't even really explain why. Everything is going on around you and your stomach just won't accept all the food you want to give it.

But try your best!!!!!

ITS OVER BEFORE YOU KNOW IT

It really is. Enjoy it. It does go by quickly, but that is a good thing.

And things will go wrong, but hopefully you can sort them out without too many tears.

Good luck to all the future brides out there!

I hope this has helped!!!!!

xxxxxxxxx

Bride Brain : One Day To Go

Well OH MY FLIPPIN GOSH!

The wedding is TOMORROW.


This is not a drill. This is NOT a drill.



The day everyone who has been reading my ramblings has been waiting for (because after tomorrow I won't talk about weddings so much anymore, hahahaha)

I probably shouldn't be writing a blog right now, but I wanted to write down how I feel.



So how do I feel?



Well. I am anxious.

Not because I'm getting married, but because it's a very big day and there's a lot to do beforehand.



Well, actually there isn't THAT much to do.


I have not had a wedding week crunch.



Once we get the reception all set up and I pack for the honeymoon and write my speech, maybe I'll feel a bit more relaxed.


I don't want people to bombard me with questions tomorrow.


Hopefully they won't.


I've tried my very best to be as organised as humanly possible.




I've been calling L a lot in the last 24 hours, many things to discuss, check up on, run through etc etc




If I could give any advice from my current position, I would say the following:

• People will tell you they aren't coming, I have had a number of people do this in the last few days.

My only living grandparent, my Grandfather on my mother's side, is no longer coming. So that's disappointing. Also a really close friend of mine had a work issue happen yesterday and he is no longer coming.

That's just how it goes.

• Get your parents to rent a car

Mine didn't do this and BOY do I wish they did. Yesterday I was driving them all over the place and I was exhausted by mid-day. I had a lot of stuff to do for the kitchen tea plus I had planned to do the wedding favours, and my needing to drive around really cut into precious organisational time.

Get your families to rent cars. Please, just do it.

You'll be so happy you did.

• Delegate delegate delegate

I realised yesterday when I was about to pass out from exhaustion that my lovely fiance is actually right there to help me if I need it. So I asked him to pick up dinner for me, instead of, once again, driving around to get it. I am so sick of driving.

And of course, he was happy to help me.

It's hard to ask for help sometimes but in the case of your wedding week, just do it.

You can delegate other tasks to people as well, its all about lightening your own workload.

My friends Briar and Katie, and L's mum Christine were all a big help to me yesterday.

I don't know how today will go, but I'm hoping it all runs smoothly.

My wedding is tomorrow.

Oh my goodness.

It's very exciting but also quite scary, because it is a big day and things can go wrong.

But if things go wrong, I'll just have to be okay with it. As long as I marry L, I'll be happy.

Tomorrow will be a good day.

It won't be perfect, but why would I want it to be?

Perfect is boring. :-P

 Here are some pictures of my hens night and kitchen tea.
Very big thank you to the organisers and attendees of these events!

xx

DAYS TIL THE WEDDING: 1

Re: The Downside To Being Overly Organised

I recently wrote a blog post on my OTHER blog, I am including the link here:

http://girlthateatschips.blogspot.co.nz/2015/02/the-downside-to-being-overly-organised.html

It's about weddings, so it should have actually been written here.

But to be honest, I couldn't be bothered.

Give it a read if you feel so inclined.

I will HOPEFULLY write once more before the wedding day and then after, with all my tips for future-Brides.

I want to apologise for not writing in here as much as I originally planned.

Hopefully it'll still be good for me to look back on and remember all the JOYS OF WEDDING PLANNING!

DAYS TIL THE WEDDING: 10

How I Made My Table Numbers

Hello blog,


I haven't written in a little while.



So fun fact, it's still a little over a month til the wedding but I'm ALL FINISHED!

L and I have done heaps since my last entry.
Such as this sign:

Lyndon cut and shaped it and stained the wood, and I painted the words.


Well, apart from the wedding favours, which I'm not putting together until the week of the wedding.

But aside from that, I'm all done.



I wanted to write about how I did my table numbers, which was all DIY and took some time.

I also recently did the wedding playlist which took SO LONG! Oh my goodness.

I kept putting off because I knew it would take ages and I wasn't wrong!


But anyway, here is how I did my table numbers.


I started out by buying a bunch of card (that were the same as our wedding colours).



I then

I then hooked my laptop up to the TV and opened up a Word document.
I typed out all the numbers, the traced the numbers onto a scrap piece of paper.

Here you can see all the different numbers I traced.

Here's the Word document with the numbers on it on my laptop.

 I then traced over the scrap of paper onto the good card to there was a visible indent.
Then I traced over the indent on the card so I could more easily cut it out.
This is how it looked after I cut out all the numbers and with the second coloured card showing through.

The last step was gluing all the different cards together with glue stick.

I cut out two sets of each number so every card had a number on the front and back.

If I could do it again, I would have traced the numbers on the scrap of paper onto the card backwards, because some of the card got quite messy when I traced directly onto the card from the indent.

I don't know if that makes any sense.

But yes, that's how I did it!

It actually looks really good. It's amazing how using an actual font makes such a different.

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Further more, I really don't know what else to write.

If you have ANY questions for me at all, you should ask!

I'm watching TV while writing this so I'm finding it hard to focus on more than one thing at once.


Here's a funny picture I took of something L wrote when he was 11 years old.

Classic.

Til next time:

5 Months To Go

Today marks five months til the wedding!

Not too long to go now.



My biggest headache thus far has been trying to get the church L and I are getting married at to give me information.

We want to have an organist play at the ceremony but I am yet to get the contact information of one.
I asked a while back for it and got no response.
L called them and they said they'd email.
They didn't.
I emailed again, still no contact information.

When we were first planning the wedding back in February the churches we inquired at didn't get back to us and it really upset me.
I was crying and telling everyone I hated wedding planning.


So I've got a back up plan in place, because I don't trust these people to get back to me and I don't want to have to rely on them.
I'm glad I'm friends with a range of talented musicians who are more than happy to play at the wedding.


Grrrr. Its so frustrating though.


Apart from that small detail, the rest of the planning is going slow and steady.




L is yet to do the things he needs to (typical).
We have almost got our centerpieces completely done.

Our RSVP's are due next month so I will have a good idea of numbers for the caterers.
Then I can start working on place-cards, seating charts, favours etc.

It is exciting that the wedding isn't too far away now.


My dress should arrive next month too!
That'll be good to get back into it for a fitting, and my friend Laura gets back to New Zealand soon will be good because she is good to talk to about wedding planning.



Don't have too much else to report, I'm sure things will get busier and busier the closer we get to the wedding day.

I want everything done at least a month in advance though. That is my goal.


At this rate I will be able to achieve it too!

:D

YAY!

August Update

Hello lovely people,

Apologies for my lack of writing lately.

I've been waiting for my friend Aimee to send me some snaps from the engagement party.
I don't have them yet but I'm certain I'll have them before my next entry.



So I figured an update was in order.

I originally started this blog so I could read it later and follow my planning process.


Unlike some brides I've heard of, I am planning all the time.
And I am NOT leaving it to the last minute.

I plan at least a little bit every few days, and the wedding is forever plaguing my mind.
I mean, not plaguing, happily-filling!

Yes, that sounds better.



So since my last entry, my parents came to visit L and I and we had our engagement party.

The party was a lot of fun.


It was basically "The Staggered Party That Wasn't Very Staggered"


Our plan was to have people pop in and leave between the five hours that the party was on.



Some people did this.

Most people did not.



It was actually really sweet how long some people stayed.


Though I'm an introvert and I found all the socializing UTTERLY EXHAUSTING, it also made me feel like the cat's pajamas.
Many warm fuzzies in my heart that day.

What awesome friends and family L and I have!

I will put up some pictures when I get them from Aimee.




Furthermore, my mother accompanied to the wedding dress store, along with Aimee, and they both saw me in my dress.

It wasn't like what you see in the movies.

My mother didn't get all teary and give me a hug.

She didn't say, in an emotional voice: "My daughter is getting married"

She told me there was a mole on my back, and that I should probably get it looked at.
She also advised me to start doing sit-ups to flatten my belly.
Eventually she agreed that I looked nice.

Ah parents.


The wedding dress was all paid for so that's one more thing off the list!


My bridesmaids dresses were also ordered sometime before the engagement party.
We went with simple blue floor length gowns.

I ended up ordering them from Light in the Box, the same place L's sister got her bridesmaids dresses from.


Earlier this week, THEY ARRIVED!


They looked tiny, and I actually started stressing that they wouldn't fit the girls.

This is the first time I really ever stressed about anything since L and I got engaged and I had such a horrific time trying to book wedding venues.


My mind was flying. I had to phone my bridesmaids and talk to them about it.


They assured me everything would be okay.


I decided I would send their dresses to them regardless.


Oh, in case I never mentioned, both my bridesmaids live outside Dunedin.

One is in Christchurch, the other is in Auckland.



Both L's groomsmen are in Dunedin.

So unfair.



Anyway, so I fastposted the dresses to the girls and I was informed the next day that the dresses did, in fact, fit them.

APART from the armhole, which is tiny.

But in the grand scheme of things, I think that is easily fixed.


Since we paid extra to get the dresses custom made to the girls' measurements I would have been pretty devastated if they didn't fit right.

But lo and behold, they do.



All is right with the world.



This weekend L and I are going to go look at suits.

We've also written out thank-you cards for all the people who got us engagement presents so we'll have to start getting those out.


We've only handed out two thirds of the wedding invitations as well so we need to get onto that sooner rather than later.


Phew!


It sure is a busy time.



L still hasn't done the jobs I delegated to him: booking honeymoon accommodation and wedding day transport.

Hopefully he does it before my next entry.

One can only hope.








DAYS TIL THE WEDDING: 198