West Aussie Wedding

Di's sapphire

I'm very happy to see the official engagement photo of Prince William and Kate Middleton gives us a decent look at the famous sapphire and diamond ring.

Isn't it beautiful! And doesn't it look lovely on her hands!

  

If course, I'm biased.

 

Marriage Preparation

When we went to our celebrant, we were given a DVD about Building Strong Relationships, which is provided by Relationships Australia, given out to all couples applying for civil ceremony.

The Mister wasn't interested in watching the DVD let alone doing any marriage preparation courses, but I thought it would be a really good idea and figured if we got something out of the DVD he would be more open to attending one of the courses.

We got into a small argument about it (ha!) but did end up watching the DVD mainly because he could not resist my powers of reason: a relationship can never be too strong... It's better to tackle small issues before they become a big issues.. the ability to constructively deal with conflict is a gift for life... If you love me you will watch it. 

 

Lu Flux  via Frankie Magazine

Well. I should have saved the emotional blackmail for something else. (like getting him to agree to an engagement shoot)

I'm not sure if we received a pirate copy or maybe something is wrong with our DVD player.. but it seems like there was a big section missing..? Like the bit on how to identify potential issues in your relationship. And the bit where they explain how to resolve conflict constructively?

Has anyone else seen this DVD? It went for about 12 minutes?? There was a couple of bad actors on the lounge having a really lame disagreement infront of their tv, followed by a few different scenarios showing how to fight better.  Just as I was saying to the Mister 'dont worry I'm sure it will get better', it ended. I kept going back to the main menu thinking surely we've skipped a chapter or something-- but that appeared to be it.

Has anybody else seen this DVD, are we missing something..? I have heard really good things about the Relationships Australia marriage PREPARE courses so was quite disappointed by the dvd.

the newly engaged

A girl at work just got engaged while she was on sick leave.

She was actually meant to be on holiday leave, but came down with serious illness a couple of days before they were due to go to Europe and they had to cancel it. Her boyfriend had planned to propose in Paris but did it in Narrogin local hospital instead.

She is totally okay now and got back to work yesterday. She has filled us in on the juicy details of the proposal, family & friend reactions, showing off her beautiful ring..  She is still buzzing with excitement and it is contagious! (unlike her her illness, thankfully)

Seeing her so giddy reminded me of just how awesome those first few weeks of engagement are.. there is nothing like it!

I'm sure being newly married will feel pretty amazing as well.. but newly engaged is its own kind of special.

 

image via The Love Effect

My favourite part of getting engaged was telling people the good news.. Even though I'd mentioned our ring shopping to a couple of my nearest and dearest, it was fun surprising everyone else with the breaking news. And I was really touched by how stoked everyone was for us

And even better I loved listening to the Mr announcing the news to his friends and family.. He sounded so excited and proud and phrased it 'We're getting married!!', (rather than 'we got engaged!!' which was how I said it) but hearing those words from him was so nice. ahhhh

count down

Exactly six months to go.

photo via We Heart It

It feels big. (Even 'Mr Relaxed' Himself drew in breath when I pointed out this milestone.) 

People have stopped going "ooh you've got plenty of time.." and started saying "gee not long to wait now"

True that. In 6 months I'll be a married woman and he'll be a married man. Weird.

Especially the part about him being a husband. In my mind he'll always be my crazy boyfriend! (I still don't even use the word Fiance because it doesn't really gel)

Anyway... in more tanglible matters, I have updated my To-Do List

Tassie

For us the decision to get married was a gradual one.. We'd been together for 5 years and the subject had started to come up more and more often.

Here is where we first seriously talked about making it happen.

Camping on the beach in Tassie....

   

photos by me

The official proposal and ring came about 8 months later. It was simple and sincere and perfect and thats the story I tell people (if they ask)

But it really was that night, eating 2 minute noodles and drinking Cascade around the campfire, when we got the marriage ball rolling. When I got that first rush of butterflies and a racing heart and I couldn't sleep I was so excited

The Embrace

Here is another card we received from a friend when we got engaged

 

Its by Xi Pan

Its a nice image.. I'm away with work at the moment the Mr was away last week and this is what I'm missing right now

Edwardian Rings

Ohhh pretty... No prizes for guessing my favourite is the middle one

 

image from Junebug Weddings, rings from Isadora's

Card Artwork

We got some really cool cards congratulating us on our engagement.

Like this one..

 

I like the way to two people are compelled by the other, each in the moment,

The picture is 'The Escalator' by Bernadie Sternheim

Card from Art Revisited

Engagement Party

We held it in my parents backyard, as its a beautiful space, with limestone walls, large private courtyard, big back room with french doors opening into the lush garden..  

We got a couple of kegs, some cases of wine, made some killer punch and cranked the bbq and had a very laid back backyard party with 100 or so of our friends and family.

It was so much fun, from beinning to end.

Planning was so effortless..We made some funny invitations , the Mr's parents supplied some fresh meat from their farm, we bought some gourmet sausages at a discount from local butcher. I made the punch from a great recipe given to me by my friend, my Mum made some delicious salads, My Aunty was in charge of the dips and nibblies and Dad did a great job setting up lights in the back yard. 

We got the alcohol at a discount through the pub where the Mr's Sister works. We have had fun making a playlist on our i-pod, and the Mr.'s mate bought round his decks for later on..

It was a roaring success, everyone let their hair down, we have had so many compliments on the food, the alcohol flowed all night, everyone loved the music, we are still getting calls from people thanking us for such a good time.  We are so stoked that everyone had a great time and think it was a good warm up for the wedding! 

I've been thinking about what made it such a joy to plan...

We held it somewhere easy.

People were happy to help and we were happy to let them.

We invited whoever we want.

We kept food and drink simple yet filling.

We werent too precious about any of the details.

We stuck to our budget.

We had fun doing lots of the fun stuff together.. music, invites etc

Ahhh I hope that planning the wedding can continue like this.....

Party Invite take two

The First Invite I made up was not a success.

I think deep down I new the second one wouldnt be either because it was just a continuation on the theme of the first... Two people kissing.... Except this time instead of anonymous people it was us.

I thought that would be better..

but apparently it is WORSE.

(all names, addresses etc been changed)

 

So this is another one that has been poo-pooed. Kissing apparently just isnt cool.

It's official

 

 

 

I thought taking a photo which did the ring justice would be tricky, turns out getting a flattering photo of my hands is actually much harder. eek!

More photos of my gorgeous ring here

Princess Di's sapphire ring

I'm waiting!

for my engagement ring..

In the meantime I am getting my fill from Princess Di..

The basic design is pretty similar.. we are just sort of on a different scale.. her sapphire is a whopping 18 cts, mine is just over 2ct. Mine is surrounded by tiny diamonds and her is surrounded by rather large ones.)

Which brings me to the other reason I looking at pictures of hers.. It helps allay my fears that mine will look a bit too oversized.. chunky.. or OverTheTop.. (as detailed here )

According to my calculations hers is 9X bigger than mine and it looks alright for her..

  

image from littlebelt.com

     

image from The Diana Ring

Mine is going to look one ninth less ridiculous.. which isn't ridiculous at all I'm hoping..