WEDDING WEDNESDAY : Do what works for you.

Something different for the week. It's not a "Where to buy...or how to" guide a wedding.
This little post is focused on what you decide as the couple for the wedding and to follow through with that.

What do I mean by all this, Here's three points to explain.

1 // The wedding day is YOUR day, you and your future husbands, and no one can hinder that day, but only if you allow it. Josh and I sat down many times figuring out what we wanted, and the look and feel of the whole day. We wanted our guests to feel included and to have the best day alongside us. We didn't want a huge wedding, or a big ceremony, so we only included in the ceremony what we felt was applicable to us. I've honestly been to so many weddings lately, thats all the same, two church songs, brooke fraser songs used, straws in milk bottles and photo booths.

We cut it right down, we knew our vows were important, we both wanted a beautiful entrance, haha so my husband and his 6 groomsmen danced down the aisle to Bruno Mars song 'Uptown funk', best entrance ever! We had a prayer from both our parents and a little message from our pastor whom we both had a lot to with. We loved every minute. It was just US.

2 // We knew that money was being passed to us for our wedding, and we decided to ask the people giving it to us, what they saw us doing with it particularly. And we honoured them through that, and with a lot of many thanks.


3 // We only wanted a reception of 50 people, and flip that was very hard to cut down. We spent hours on the tables and number, but on the day we LOVED how it came together and the people we wanted there was perfect. We had so many people comment on how relax and fun the reception was, and how intimate and personal it really was, it just wasn't a room full of people who 'had' to be there.


Overall, have fun in the process, do what works for you and your budget and remember it's gonna be the best day ever, and it will go SO FAST.

Happy Wednesday xx

(Photo credit - Catherine Ruth)

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WEDDING WEDNESDAY : Bridesmaids Dresses

Welcome to the long awaited WEDDING WEDNESDAY! 

Todays post is about, my beautiful Bridesmaid dresses. The reason why I wanted to write about this, was because I wanted to share how I found my dream bridesmaid dresses for such a LOW price! 

I'd been searching for hours online for bridesmaid dresses that suited everyones shapes, and I came to an end, where I found a perfect dress that matched what I wanted, however the price was a bit off putting. The brand, Two birds were the top brand for the particular dress called the 'Infinity dress' which can be wrapped in over 15 different ways. 

So I decided to do some of my own research and I found through the trusty website, Etsy.com that they had some incredible China direct suppliers that made the exact same dress however without the hefty price. The 'two birds' dresses are around $250 a pop, however I went through every supplier on the Etsy website and went with the shop that had the most top reviews and quickest shipment. In the end we ended up paying $65 per dress, and went for three different shades of pink, which in the end was such a different look, was great! 

We went with the three top left colours, and each of them suited all the girls, who had spray tans as well. 

I simply loved how I could give freedom to my bridesmaids to create a style that suited them and their bodies, so they too could feel beautiful on the day. I didn't at all want to make them wear all the same dress, I found it rather tacky, as I wanted them to have the best day, feeling as best as they could in their own dress style. 

I just love how the ties on the dress were super flexible and able to create any style, Keren one of my bridesmaid's dress was awesome, the back of it was so simple yet eye catching. The girls all loved their dresses and all felt so elegant in them. 

Against my own dress, I loved how the colours all matched, we had a colour scheme of blush pink, green, gold, grey and black. Which tied in with the whole wedding and reception. Because the dresses were full length, I got the girls to wear whatever shoes they wanted, so then again they felt comfortable for the day. 

I can not recommend enough, the website Etsy.com, as the suppliers on there are so trust worthy, and the shipping was super fast, only took two weeks total for all 6 dresses to come through, and with the price of $65 per dress, really we saved so much!! We were looking into Forever new dresses, however those dresses started out with $150 per dress, and when you have 6 dresses to get....no thank you! 

Well, there you have it, always do your own research, screw having to pay heaps of money for dresses and accessories when you can find the same thing online but cheaper, but make sure you know where you're buying it from. Ask around and be sensible when shopping online, read the reviews from other buyers and know how much your shipping is, before you buy. Luckily we got free shipping included and a 10% discount with the bulk buy of 6 dresses. 

I love my girls very much, and I'm so happy we found dresses that suited all of them, and made them feel stunning on the day too. 

(Photo credit, Catherine Ruthless)

Happy Wednesday lovelies xx

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WEDDING WEDNESDAY : How to pick your music well

Happy Wednesday! Todays post is rather special to us, because it links in within our engagement and happy times together. I'll be sharing how we picked the important songs for the wedding and how you can also decide for the day, and links that could help if you're not really a music type of person.


To start this post off, Josh and I were sitting in his lounge room one afternoon when the new Ed Sherin song 'Thinking out loud', came on for the first time.  We both looked at each other after a few lines of the songs, and we just knew....weirdly enough, it was 'our song'. Yes we are that romantic type, having our little songs and sayings for each other. Don't judge.

Anyways, every time we heard it, we blasted it and sung it to each other in the car or lounge room.
One particular day, it was my birthday and Joshua had the day off with me, we chilled out and went for a walk to our favourite little spot. This spot had a beautiful wharf, and at the time the sun was setting. We eventually made it to the end of the wharf after some time of chatting, taking photos, to which he wanted me to sit with him on the bench. He started saying all this beautiful stuff to me, you know, all that romantic stuff....anyways, he then asked if I wanted to dance with him...he popped our song on and we together danced at the end of the wharf. After a few minutes, he then dropped to his knee and asked me to marry him....YES!

That was our song, and we used it for our first dance, we created a little routine for it, but when we actually did it, we just free styled it, and made it more fun. That song, 'thinking out loud' was perfect for the first dance and everyone loved joining in, with their partners afterwards.

For the Processional song, I've been to soooooo many weddings where all I ever hear is Brooke Fraser, and don't get me wrong, her music is lovely, it's just so over done now. I wanted a piece that no one had ever heard, it was original and something that would make everyone cry, haha. 

Good old Spotify helped me picked the one song, and I found it through stumbling the browse section, after I heard this duet couple, JonnySwim, I knew they had to be it. I trawled through all their songs, and eventually found the song!!! Its stunning and every word fitted perfectly, for the love that Josh and I have. 




Heres some of the lyrics



We don’t need calligraphy
To write a fancy story
Kings and Queens return to thieves
To find what we’ve been holding
You and Me
We can take the world.

Oh sweethearts give sweet compliments
But our love goes without saying
Though you make it hard not to spill my heart
Every time I see you swaying
Darling You and Me
We can take the world. Darling...

Cause they can write stories
They can sing songs
But they don’t make fairy tales 
Sweeter than ours
They can climb mountains
High into the sky
But they can’t take the world
Oh…Like we can take the world

Oh I can see 
The future you and me we last forever
In the rising tide
No fear or fight
That we can’t face together
Darling You and Me
We can take the world

When picking a song, for when you walk down the aisle, remember it's the one song that you'll remember for the rest of your lives. Every time we heard it come on our shuffle playlist, we always stop and smile, and I'll try hold back a joyful tear.



Spotify can help so much, with making playlists, finding original songs and it's easy to have on your phones and iPads for the time of the wedding, we upgraded to Premium for that amount of time of the wedding.

Last but not least, this is a different take on for the Groom and his groomsmen. 

My Husband wanted his 'walk in' song and moment, and I said, "well why not, our wedding is suppose to be full of fun and laughter". I trusted whatever he wanted to do, everyone would appreciate it and love it.



He choose Bruno Mars newest song, 'Uptown Funk', where all his groomsmen had a moment dancing down the aisle, and then eventually my husband came down, in time for the famous Bruno routine from the video; the boys all learnt the dance the night before and nailed it. Of course, I didn't see it, until after the wedding from his Aunty who had video it all, it was so hilarious! Everyone LOVED it, and was in fits of laughter and joining in with the dancing.




Overall, we had fun creating our music to suit our personalities and love. We found Spotify and Pinterest to be of great help. There were so many lists of songs that everyone has heard of before at weddings, I do recommend, using the Browse button on Spotify, which then leads you to new talent, and it recognises the music you like and links you to similar artists, easy isn't it! Takes time to find those perfect songs but its worth it for an amazing day that you'll remember forever.


xx

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WEDDING WEDNESDAY : Wedding Makeup artist

Happy Wednesday everyone! Todays post is mainly about my makeup artist, and the reasons why I chose her. Her name is Romaine Solomona. She's a free lance makeup artist, who is taking Wellington by a storm. She worked previously for other makeup companies, but predominately Napoleon Perdis. 

When I was looking through Pinterest for makeup ideas, I had a rough idea of what I wanted, something strong and long lasting. I'm over, seeing natural brides, that look normal. I'm all about the big lashes, eyebrows on point and strong contouring & highlighting. Here were my inspirations on Pinterest, that I showed to my makeup artist. 

I love the dramatic look, and this is exactly the speciality of my makeup artist. To begin the story of how I chose my makeup artist Romaine, was actually through my girlfriend who is a Revlon Makeup artist at one of the local department stores. I told her about the length of time I had to find someone, and being January it was Wedding season. Everyone she knew of was booked out. However she passed on to me her girlfriends number that she knew who was free lance makeup artist, and to flick her a text. 

So I decided to email Romaine instead, asking if she was available, surely after stalking her Facebook page of her previous weddings she had done. It turns out that actually, she was my husbands friends wife, and she knew exactly who I was, it was hilarious. We got talking for a while, and out of all the Saturdays she had, our wedding date was the only one free for her. It was meant to be. 

Seeing all her work online and all the raving reviews from other friends, I was in great hands. We arranged to not have a makeup trial, as I had shown her what I wanted, and she thought it'll be fine on the day. And she was right, she was AMAZING! Here are the process photos from the day, getting my makeup done by Romaine. 

She spent a lot of her time doing my eyebrows, something she is AMAZING at, she knows all the right techniques. 

I simply loved how much of a perfectionist she was, she took the time to perfect it all and make it all blend so well. 

The whole Process I decided to not look at any of it, until the end result. I've had my makeup done trillions of times, but I have not seen my face like it was, that day. I was so happy with the result. She knew exactly the look I wanted, and went for more. Romaine even went further, and even did individual lashes and looking back at all these photos it just makes me so happy that I chose her. 

When choosing a makeup artist, always ask other makeup artists if they are any good, as they know what they are talking about. When I spoke with my other girlfriend and told her what exactly I wanted, the heavy makeup, big lashes and strong contouring, she knew Romaine would be fit for the job. Ask around, and don't be afraid to ask for what YOU want exactly. 

(Photo credit : Catherine Ruth, Ruthless Photographic) 

Happy Wednesday xx

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WEDDING Wednesday // Inspiration Board

From the time I was engaged to actually being Married it was a little over 3 and a half months. Call me crazy, but I seriously had the BEST and chilled time of my life. Of course there were times when it got stressful and a little crazy, but I had the best friends and family around me, who had the best connections. 

I'm about to show you some of my wedding inspiration, all through the helpful and amazing Pinterest. I will be taking you through the colour schemes, decorations, the bridesmaid dresses and their flowers, and my wedding earrings.

First of all, the colour scheme sets the WHOLE wedding, however when I chose my dress, my colour scheme had to change again. I first wanted to go for a black, white and gold theme, however I felt with my dress that it kind of clashed, especially with the grey suits we were wanting for the groomsmen. 

This is the colour scheme we were using for all of the little and big details for the day and preparation 

I LOVE rose gold, blush pinks and creams. So after that it was pretty easy to create style boards for the rest of the planning. Grey suits for the groomsmen, green and white flowers for all the girls including me, and my off pink dress fitted right in. 

I would be lying if I said I didn't like candles, I LOVE them! We got tall vases for the ceremony, and placed them down the aisle, like the above picture. We couldn't have them around the stage as there were too many people around, we had a bridal party of 14!!

We then decided to create a romantic theme to the reception, with yet again, little and big candles, scattered around the table, that sat on round mirrors. I absolutely loved this look, as the light reflected off the mirrors and totally set the scene. 

As you can already tell, I love gold and sequins, and having a sequin GOLD table cloth especially for the cake table was an essential. My best friends mom is a wedding planner, and she was the one who helped create all these things. I showed her all my ideas and colour schemes she was so amazing in making them happen. It was defiantly a stand out, with a beautifully made and simple cream iced chocolate cake, with matching hydrangeas, which were all around the church. 

I fell in love with the dress brand, two love birds, which were famous for their infinity dresses. However we had a budget to stick to, and we found an alternative site for buying them for a third of the price. I loved seeing through Pinterest and youtube, different ways of wrapping them, and also making sure the colour scheme was fitting in well also. 

I found that because I went for the formal look, with the full length elegant dress look for the bridesmaids, that I wanted something really simple for their flowers. It was easy and cheap to pick the famous, baby breath flower. It looked really stunning against the pink dresses that we choose. 

As soon as I saw these earrings, I knew I had to have them....but when looking at the price online, hell no was I forking out money to look good in these. So I took the time, trying to find an alternative pair. The off pink/ivory colour wedding dress didn't need a necklace to compliment it, however I wanted a bit of blush pink to match the colour scheme to tie it all in with the earrings. What would you know, I found the perfect set of earrings, blush pink and slightly similar to these pair, in a normal mall store for like $15. I was so happy with them and they were really light weight, so I felt I could wear them all day. 

This calls for the end of my main Pinterest Inspirations and ideas! 

Goes to show, finding a cheaper option online or in a store is the way to go for keeping to the budget. Next wednesday I will be showing you how we kept to a tight budget and made it look just perfect, for us! 

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Where to now?

Today I have been planning out new ways to blog, and to make it easier to be able to blog more but effectively! 

Last weekend we had the pleasure of having our photographer come to visit us all the way from Wellington, to deliver our Wedding photos! WOW we were so HAPPY to have them with us now. 

For the next while I will be filtering out through different posts of our wedding. I will be sharing things like "How to do a wedding on a Budget" "How I choose my colour scheme" and "How I picked my 5 top wedding essentials". So looking forward to sharing with you, our wonderful day! 

Here is a sneak peak of a photo so far.  

Enjoy x

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Take a peak. Wedding Photos

Welcome to a sneak peak of our wedding photos! We are so excited to have them officially in our hands this weekend, when our photographer gives them to us! I love the lighting (I think I have an obsession of AMAZING lighting) and how its all looking so far! And maybe in the next week I'll post up some more delicious photos! 

All these beautiful shots and our second engagement shoot was done by the talented Catherine Ruth. In the next wedding blog post, ill share her Facebook page, which she has some amazing shots on there to show! 

Enjoy x

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