Precision and order, that's all that I ask

Yeah, we saw Mary Poppins again a few weeks ago and it was as good as the first time we saw it in New York a year and a half ago.

I have a few friends who are getting married in the next 12 months, all of which have said they find the starting of their planning overwhelming. I completely agree with them.
My boss is a civil celebrant, and I was lucky enough to get the heads up on the 'golden rule of wedding planning' pretty early on - Book the celebrant, venue and photographer all at the same time and before anything as without these 3 things there will be no wedding. Is this really the golden rule? It got me thinking about the difference between the order of booking and planning for an elopement and a full white wedding.
Our elopement planning went like this-Book the celebrant/photographer husband and wife team (2 birds 1 stone), book accommodation (The New York Palace), then booked a 2nd photographer as I love her photography and she's so sweet. I guess when eloping with only 4 guests it quickly becomes evident that the reception part isn't the main focus- there will be no decorations, no table charts, no speeches, maybe speeches as the night goes on and the champagne flows, and no badly choreographed dance as FH and I are both incredibly uncoordinated.

So, what is the order of how things should be done? Is there really an order?

Now time for a few tips:

• Outsource! I've been lucky enough to find out hotel has a lovely concierge who seems to enjoy wedding planning. I was finding flowers difficult and obviously cannot have a consultation-so he did it for me and ordered exactly what I wanted.
• You'd think flights would be one of the first things you'd book, but if you hold out till about 3-4months before the fares will go down. The difference between booking for June/July in Feb or early march compared to the end of March was $900 each.
• Purchase your dress keeping in mind the type of wedding you're having and take into consideration how you'll transport it. If I'd known we were going to elope I wouldn't have ever purchased my gown. I would have purchased off the rack and something light and easy, probably this Colette Dinnigan gown but I plan on being less corpse like on my wedding day.
  

Let me take you down, cause I'm going to...

That title sounds so emo, yet this post is not about my life of pain or my love of My Chemical Romance... I actually couldn't name 1 of their songs if my life depended on it-thankfully that emo phase ended with 2007 so I won't have to worry about being tested on what the kids are listening to in a darkened alley by the bassist of Fall Out Boy. My goodness I ramble...and know nothing about music from 2006/2007

It's no secret to anyone who knows me, I love love love The Beatles and have since I was 12 years old. From age 13 I scoured garage sales on Saturday mornings and 2nd hand stores in search of their records to add to my vinyl collection, I even have a first pressing numbered White Album which I found at a trash and treasure market for $10-it was clear that baby wasn't meant to be in there. What I was getting to was that it's no secret that The Beatles are probably my number 1 favourite band of all time. So I guess it's no surprise that we have decided to be married within Strawberry Fields, the John Lennon memorial garden in Central Park.

Specifically at Wagner Cove ------>
I really love the greens in this photo, I also like the way the people in the boat on the lake look like they are sitting in the tree.
Although our wedding is going to be at the start of July and should ideally be warm and sunny, if not humid and sticky, I should probably come up with a wet weather plan...





Once the ceremony and photos are completed we'll be heading back to the hotel for a dinner reception at Gilt. I just love the the deep colours in that pic.And that's the rough plan for the day...for now...

P.S. Less than 3 months to go and I'm getting really nervous. I need to start writing my vows but I get teary thinking about it. I'm totally going to be the blubbering bride with mascara running down her face in the photos-I'm going to own that look!

These boots were made for walking

It's been a busy 2 weeks of planning flurry, lots of tears (mostly for Japan) and the changing of more plans (airfares mostly because of Japan). But I didn't forget you, I like you, we should be friends...too creepy?

But on to more cheery and less important but fun things-wedding shoes!
So, we are marrying in Central Park, which may be as cliche in New York as having photos with graffiti in Melbourne but this is what we want for our day, and probs would have done in Melbourne too. So knowing we'll be schlepping from the hotel to Central Park then through the park I didn't think twice about wearing nice flats and I had just the pair in mind-metallic sandals with silver bling which I saw in Myer a month or 2 back on sale but not my size. I have freakishly small feet and can often fit children sized shoes. FH found the last pair at the Diana Ferrari in our old stomping ground, and dream suburb to live, Fairfield. There was only 1 pair in silver and it was my size-freakish 5! Done and done! So cute and low key-if you don't like toes you should look away now,Ewwww, feet! I dropped something on my toe the day before when helping friends move house, nice!
FH has a good eye for what looks good, and suggested that I should have a pair of heels for the photos, as he said, heels can change the way an outfit looks. I don't wear heels much these days after chipping a bone in my foot about 2 years ago. He's right, I need to and would like to as I do love heels. I always had the silver Alan Pinkus heels in mind, however they are steep, very steep. The strange thing is that the silver ones, which appeal to me a lot, are more expensive but look very cheap-like they are made of pleather. Then I saw the same shoe in red, which had a completely different exterior, more looked lovely, made of silk and not as expensive-conflicted!!! The red is less traditional and that has appeal in itself, but the silver pulls me back, till I realise how cheap they look yet are not.




Silver

Red

Then I found these Fetish Louboutin's and felt the war was won :P
I took some pics of a pair of gorgeous cream Louboutin's but the photos looked terrible as obviously the shoes had been well worn and were filthy. I couldn't get the SAs to bring a pair in my size, as they may or may not have existed in kiddie sizes.



HELP? Red or silver, or fetish shoes? I know heels are the way for photos, then that raises the question of do I have my final dress fitting wearing the flats or the heels?

Then by chance I found my wedding night lingerie. Woo, I'm getting a bit hot under the collar thinking about wearing this pink baby!

I'm seriously tempted to get a onesie, just because it will make FH laugh

UPDATE: Overnight we had 2 guests RSVP, who were in our original wedding party-very very exciting! Now there will be 6 in attendance- D and I, best man, groomsman, maid of honour and the very lovely bridesmaid who saved the life of our kitty when we were first in New York.

It's a nice day to start again (don't look here FH-gown photo ahead)

So, I spent a lovely sunday afternoon watching bridal shows, specifically 'Say Yes to the Dress". SYTTD is a show originally based at a bridal store in New York called Kleinfeld, there's now a version based in Atlanta but we all try to pretend that doesn't exist like the 'Real Housewives Of Atlanta'...Look, we have Foxtel and I need to watch my $70 a month worth of crap okay!

In November 2009 my fiance and I went to NYC, (before he became my fiance of course). I had a dream that I wanted to be married in a gorgeous Claire Pettibone gown.

My now fiance insisted I try the gown as it may be my only chance, and a quick search of stockists revealed that Kleinfeld was the only NYC stockist so it was a done deal. After making the appointment online I received a call advising me that they record a show called 'Say Yes To The Dress' and were filming the day we were booked so not to be too concerned to see the crew. A few days later I got a VM from all the way there to all the way here asking if I'd like to be featured in the show since we were travelling all the way there from all the way here. Knowing it was a faux dress rehearsal there was no way I could so it, and thankfully we didn't as the gown was FREAKING DISGUSTING! I looked like a whale beached in lace-this was where I learned that you can't judge a dress on a rack as it looks completely different on and this is a lesson that goes both ways. Nothing was as terrible as that thing, even 'dead fish attached to a sack'* was nicer and it looked on the rack exactly as I describe...it sounds like all my dress shopping experiences were a massacre at Seaworld. No point going too much into the Kleinfeld experience as I did not Say Yes To The Dress.

Long story short, I found the dress and I said yes in Melbourne over a year later. The gown didn't come without dramas (as with the entire freaking wedding) but as FH said, "we're eloping but you still needed to feel like a bride and a nice gown will do that". I'm having a few modifications made- no train and not that strap (which I think I'll use the flowers from for a headpiece). I'm hoping to feel slightly bridey on the day :)

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My dress-awwww.

*dead fish attached to a sack may not be as horrific as it sounds, it's just that it was a mermaid gown that looked like a sack with a fish tail attached when on rack

All these things that I have done

A whole lot of nothing to be honest! Things are proving difficult, I have ideas of the things I want, things that are incredibly accessible to me here in Melbourne but I don't know how to find them or find them affordable in NYC.

Gluten and fructose free cupcakes
I can have one or the other but I can't get both! High fructose corn syrup is in everything in the States, it's cheaper than cane sugar so is used as a substitute. In Australia the issue would have been finding pretty looking gluten free cupcakes as they usually look rubbish. Ahhh cupcakes, I think it's easier than a full cake when there will only be 4 of us attending and my MOH said she couldn't imagine us not having them given I'm well known in our group for my cupcake love. I've baked them for a few weddings in the past, oh the stress and the sugary headaches that causes, I wouldn't ever consider baking them for my own wedding. Those ones above almost killed me as the stand shook every time anyone walked near and my heart stopped for a second each time thinking they would fall to the floor.
The only option seems to be sucking it up (you too MOH with the same intolerance) and get glutenous cuppies from our favourite cupcakery, Eleni's at Chelsea Market. They are so tasty, cute and they even have face cupcakes. I'm an adult and with being an adult it's my right to fall out of bed hungover and eat Obama cupcakes for breakfast if I want to!

He tasted like liberty and patriotism-which is exactly what I look for in a presidential cupcake. Face cakes really weird me out.


Flowers:

I know you've heard it before, when you mention the word 'wedding' prices skyrocket. Well, I think I've officially found the winner of the most ridiculous wedding price fleece.

I kind of liked this bouquet of gardenias and hydrangea, but they cost about 75% of the cost of a return airfare from Melbourne to New York! Now, I'm good(ish...) with budgets and when I love something I can usually work a budget to then make sure we have it at the expense of something else-there was no justifying $722 USD for 1 bouquet! That's insane! My original Melbourne bouquet only cost $100 and was stunning (below)

It's difficult to find something similar strangely enough. I guess this is the opportunity to have something completely different, which is pretty exciting in itself.

Okay, I know there are more important things to worry about than cupcakes and flowers but I know that when we officially book the celebrant, photographer and the restaurant for dinner that's closing the door to the dream of having the wedding in Melbourne with family and friends. I know what eloping means to my FH and I know in my heart of hearts that elopement will be all for the best, it's just been a bit emotionally draining.

RIGHT!
No more faffing around with designing spreadsheets, drooling over cupcakes and laughing at crazy priced flowers for now-We're getting married on the 3rd Of July in New York City and I have lots of planning to do!

Elope with me Miss Private

Well, turns out that despite everyone from Martha Stewart to Google having wedding checklist spreadsheets, I'm yet to find an adequate elopement checklist spreadsheet and, by jingo I need one. You see, I love to plan, I love to plan EVERYTHING to a tee-I need to plan, I'm sure FH only proposed because he wanted to play computer games and needed to distract me with a planning project.
Thank goodness I'm marrying my lovely nerdburger best friend- D is so smarts, D is so smarts, and helped me (I stood there dictating what I wanted and he made the magic happen baby!) to create The Ultimate Elopement Checklist *quickly googles to make sure Oprah hasn't got a copy write on that*... Yes, The Ultimate Elopement Checklist for all your/my elopement planning needs can be found here :) I hope this is as helpful for you as it is for me. If you think of anything I have missed let me know and I'll add it, I need the help with this stuff too as I really didn't/don't know where to start.

So, how different is planning an elopement for 4 guests as opposed to a big(ish)wedding for 80 guests? It's surprisingly not easier or more affordable. You see, it took me less than 3 weeks to plan the big Melbourne wedding. We booked a venue, celebrant, photographer, ordered the gown, the flowers, the invites and RSVPs, purchased the bridesmaids dresses, the bonbonerrie candy buffet, the rings, the hotel stay. But in 2 weeks we have only decided on a location-New York, and even then that wasn't my idea, so technically I've not done a thing other than faff around on here.

When the dog bites, when the bee stings...

There were plans, big plans because planning is my specialty and no one loves an excessive themed party more than I and nothing is bigger than a wedding.
A Sound Of Music subtly themed wedding reception, complete with a bonbonerrie candy buffet stocked with raindrops on sugar roses, whiskers from chocolate kittens and a meringue mountain with a lonely goat herd on top. It cost a freaking truck load but would have been totally worth it. In fact, I think I may ask them to deliver it to my house on the 27th of August instead, since it's paid for, and I'll gorge on sweets-party at our place guys!
How could we not want to have a candy buffet? But alas, that dream of wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings has flown like a flock during duck hunting season-the doors are closed to fixing things sadly, and with each day we realise more and more that the decision to cancel the planned wedding is the right one.

Months and months ago, before we even became engaged I had a nightmare that I awoke from in tears. It troubled me for a few days however I brushed it aside as come on, bridezilla wedding day disaster dreams happen once you're engaged and planning right? In the dream plans needed to be changed around our wedding day and at the reception not one person acknowledged D and I, not a glance in our direction, not a card, and certainly not a word of congratulations... Then months later when we actually did become engaged, the nightmare strangely came true-well, part of it. Now, I'm not saying I have some crazy medium woman ability, god I hope not after last nights nightmare about zombie hookers stealing my FH and hooking my MOH up with their zombie gigolo buddy, but that's weird right? ... the wedding stuff but maybe the zombie hoes to lesser extent.

This blog is about us, and bringing the focus of our engagement and subsequently bring it back to being about us, as these once in a lifetime moments should have always been from the start. This is a blog about choosing to take control of the situation and choosing to eliminate the possibility of drama tainting the day-this is a blog about elopement. My goodness there needs to be a blog or a website guideline of how to do that when I'm in Australia and FH has been decided we will marry in New York. Where to start? Where to start?

So, having conversations to resolve problems, planning a wedding for only 4 guests from the other side of the world, and kicking some zombie prostitute butt - these are a few of my new favourite things.