Wedding prep

It’s been a long time in the making however I have enjoyed planning this 2nd chance wedding much more than the first one. I was studying myotherapy the first wedding and ended up paying for everything, with nothing homemade, got super excited about the best of the best vendors and budget BLEW way out of proportion. Damien and I had some of our worst arguments over it... THIS TIME we wanted to get married more than before, it has been a lot more personalised and fun scouting for everything we needed. Being a lot more budget friendly made it less stressful and more interesting. Everything that went "wrong" made the day exactly how it was meant to be. Damien and I went out for dinner one night at Little Italy and decided we should just get married already, it was either now or never, ie before kids! I set a 10K budget and went out to Pioneer Park to suss out the venue and pricing ($1200 instead of the previous venue $8000). It just felt better, more relaxed, rustic and that we weren't being ripped off! 

We had several outings to the park to measure stuff and scout for goods in the back junk yard

We set a date, wrote a guest list cutting it from 120 to 70 guests, got my graphic designer on the task of changing the date on the original save the dates, and posted them out. MEANWHILE we fell pregnant! Putting the wedding smack bang on the impending 20th week! 

I created another SMALLER WEDDING pinterest board and set out on buy swap sites, etsy and posting on facebook to scout for bits and bobs. The brief I told vendors was rusty, boho and fun. I found an old frame from a deceased estate sale and painted it white which has hung empty in our sitting room for months waiting to be used. It will eventually have a pic from the wedding in it. I couldn't be happier how the welcome sign turned out, and finding matching frames for the smaller signs was easy from spotlight in all the sizes I needed!! 

Reception inspo board

Ceremony inspo board

I got a few rugs from spotlight and people offered me some however they just weren't exactly what I was after from my inspo pic, so I did splurge on a range of rugs and planning to sell them. I was very happy how it looked on the day, well worth it. 

Trusty psudo bridesmaid Kate helping choose rugs

The door arbour came about after looking up numerous options, and set out to find the perfect doors! I did buy one on buy swap however I needed 2! Finally a client told me about Brownie's Bits, an eccentric bloke with a lot of birds in Nericon who sells and hires antique goods. Ruby loved going there to see the birds. I told him what I was after and he found the perfect pair for us! I white washed them and sanded them back then Damien added the corrugated iron, with the perfect amount of rust. I left it with Damien to work out how to get them to stand up...

I made Damien move and lift a lot of door options... he didn't like it.

While looking around Pinoeer Park I noticed a stack of school chairs through a window in a neglected shed out the back, I asked to have a look through the shed and found these gems! Most were pretty ratty, half were unusable. Though I took them all to the workshop and washed them down, Damien has just loved storing all of this stuff in his workshop! There were 7 chairs that were very splintery though I needed them to make up the 40. So decided to make 40 cushions so the guests didn't get splinters in their bums. Mum came to the rescue and finished them off at home after my machine wasn't up to scratch. 

Backing up the ute for a tester to see if we could arrive on the back of it, before it got stollen and burnt... 

More stuff to store for Damien. I found a lady selling a 70 guest catering set of plates, crockery and cups on buy swap after their farm style home wedding. It was cheaper then buying new from kmart or hiring! The perfect number of items. We picked it all up from Coolamon on our way back from a weekend with Stem in Wagga. Underestimating how much stuff it would be, my car was chokers. 

Add a few more pallets, a fire pit and grog, the shed got fairly full

Though we were allowed to have a lot of candles, we weren't allowed to have a wood fire, so Besty and Damien created a gas alternative which was passed by the venue. These go for $6k+ online! I think they enjoyed playing around with the flames and exploding rocks. We bought a fire pit which matched perfectly to my inspo and s'mores bar dreams. 

Ruby decided on the colour SAGE for the dress very early in the planning and luckily she and Emily had the exact same taste and preference for the bridesmaid dresses. The original dresses were not suitable for this Autumn theme wedding, previously the theme was COLOUR, hence the Mexican fiesta inspo last time. They had both changed body size and shape since then, so a new theme was created. 

Original dresses & much smaller bodies

Damien's try on proved he needed to loose a few kgs. Choosing the boots was a task....

I could have hired a vintage couch for $300 though there wasn't much I liked in Griffith, then this one came up for $500 from a local photographer so I jumped at it. We've used it in the sitting room and have come accustomed to it. I think i'll keep it for awhile, maybe reupholster it blue or replace it with another lounge. It's been very handy when we have people and kids over. I did spurge a bit on blankets and pillows that matched the sage theme. Adding more sage Em designed our stubby holders that also double as fishing reel holders, which was Damien's main wish for the wedding, that and having Tim the butcher cater. 

THE CAKE was an epic effort by mum who put a lot of work into getting the gluten free and vegan top tier and mini carrot cupcakes down pat. We had a few taste tests along the way, which I was ok with. It had to be the famous chocolate mud full of grog that I love. A third tier was added to make it more grand/wedding like and the florist was to decorate it on the day. YUM! We served it as our desert. I was looking forward for weeks to eating heaps of cake the day after the wedding. 

Anyone need cinnamon sugar? I original had a cinnamon and ginger mocktail planned, I didn't want to miss out on a fancy drink being pregnant, after making a HUGE couple litres of cinnamon sugar, emergency calling in Kate and Tom to taste test a whole batch I decided it was sickly sweet and yuk! So I googled another recipe with ginger beer, cranberry and sparkling apple. It was much better though I now have to come up with things to do with the left over sugar syrup... what a waste of cinnamon, though the house did smell amazing.  

JEWELLERY: after my original engagement ring was engraved for Monty's memorial and I fell in love with this opal ring (opal is what I always wanted) I changed the rings! The original wedding band was too small for the other hands so I got it made smaller for my little finger. Now I have 4 fancy rings and I love them! Lots of blue. Damien's wedding band thankfully still fit and he likes its beaten metal black look, so he can't get upset if it gets scratched. Kate has been getting into making polymere clay earrings so I asked if she would make my wedding earrings. She put a lot of thought into it making several options. I loved the green for Emily's earrings and Ruby's necklace as it used a leaf stencil that matched the mens bow tie patterns to perfection. Kate made a set for me with the same stencil and used the rose gold metallic accents that match my rings. I LOVE THEM! She even made a pair of bright blue party earrings for later in the night that I wore to the brekky. 

Peg engraving took 10 weeks! But Damien got it done. 

Damien returned from his bucks very battered, bruised and shaking. 

Had a throat dilation 2 weeks before the wedding, it was brought a week forward as I wasn't breathing well at all. Thankfully, as I had extra time to recover after aspirating in the surgery. I also could breathe very well running around wedding planning and dancing at the wedding. 

Damien washed Tony's wheelchair on the Wednesday, low and behold it didn't work the following day!!! I had said I wasn't sure he should be hosing the electrics... He went to Wagga on Thursday and a technician fixed it up... just adding another element of drama as usual. 

MEANWHILE the dress was a drama and a half. My tummy popped a week before so when I got the dress back from the seamstress I was very unhappy with her rushed job as well as just lot liking how it fit on my bump. It accentuated all the bad parts and the boning pushed in on my stomach making it hard to breathe. I was even going to go to Wagga to buy another EXPENSIVE dress. I bought and hired a lot of dresses online that arrived either on time or on Monday. I am in the middle of returning and trying to get refunds. Kate and Paula heard the whinges each day and Kate found me a hire dress I snapped up. As soon as I tried it on I felt like a sexy pregnant bride. It was too big but we pinned it together and I loved it. Even better being a hire dress I just threw it in a bag and returned it dirty, as requested. 

Ended up with a marquee as thunderstorms were predicted THOUGH we had the best luck in the world with blue skies on the day, the marquee ended up being great as it created a room to help contain the wedding. No regrets.