Wedding Photos

Today during lunch at work, I thought I'd take a look at the blog of the photographer I've booked for my wedding. Just to make sure he hadn't fallen off the face of the earth. The very first photo I saw, I thought - awesome, he's still as incredible as I remember.

As I scrolled through his blog, I was very surprised to see that the groom was an old colleague of mine. Several of my work-mates had gone to his wedding last year. I love coincidences like this!

:)

(photo by Daniel Griffiths Photography)

Bridesmaid Dresses!

So I got the lovely girls together to do a spot of shopping for some bridesmaid dresses. I had decided to completely stay away from bridal stores - why buy something that will be supremely overpriced? (Well, I did that for my wedding dress, but one time in my life will be ok I'm sure...)

We started our day wandering through DJs in the city - still find the clothes there too designer for me. There were some good things on sale, but not quite what I was looking for. We then moved on to Myer. I'd seen the Maticevski bridesmaid line exclusive for Myer when they first came out last year. Gorgeous dresses, and in my fave colour - purple! So I made a beeline straight to those dresses. Imagine my delight when I saw they were on sale - only $150! My fabulous BMs tried on the dresses, but to my dismay, there was one size that wasn't available in the purple - the sales assistant called all around Sydney & Melbourne searching - no luck! As a wedding is a special occassion, the sales assistant said she'd try Melbourne again and let us know how she went. There was always the option of trying to order a dress to be made direct from Maticevski.

So we decided to take a break for lunch to refuel, and then continue browsing to see if there was anything else out there.

SB had suggested Shieke would be a good shop to look at earlier in the week. I had my misgivings, as I'd always remembered Sheike to be full of very short clubbing dresses (or maybe I was thinking of Seduce?) but we went in to have a look anyway. Straightaway a dress on display caught my eye - a fabulous plum/violet/fuschia colour (I still haven't decided on the right name for that colour). It's called the five ways dress and can be worn in numerous styles. A floor length gown, there are press stud buttons on the hem and waistline, so that it can be converted to a shorter dress. The top of the dress is also extra long - so designed to enable different ways of draping/wrapping the dress around.

I'd originally seen this design from twobirds bridesmaids but at over $300, I wasn't sure if I really wanted to go for it or not. So it was a lucky chance that we found a similar dress without even looking for it!

All my girls were happy with the dress, so I went ahead and bought them. My BMs though, have very kindly offered to pay for their own dresses, so I'll have to make sure I find extra beautiful accessories to gift to them.

This is a very long post on the subject of dresses, but one last thing to add - I'd asked CL (sister & maid of honour) if I could borrow her dress to do lots of colour matching. Genius that she is suggested that I ask for a fabric sample. I emailed Sheike, and I was in luck! I was so excited that when my sample arrived I was a little disappointed in the size - a strip about 1cm x 10cm. It's better than nothing though and will definitely be easy to carry around.

And easy to lose! FH tried to throw out the envelope with the sample still in it! Lucky I noticed before it went into the smelly wheelie bin! :)

Wildfire Sydney

Had a farewell lunch function for a colleague yesterday at Wildfire Sydney. Unfortunately, there was a ship docked so no views, but the food was divine!

We had the Churrasco Grill with tapas...

Menu

Flatbread with dips - the yummiest bread ever!

Tapas
- fried chicken
- white beans & chorizo
- squid
- tortilla (omelete)
- risotto balls

Churrasco
- pork
- beef
- lamb
- chicken
- chorizo
- chicken sausage
- swordfish
- prawns
- pineapple

Dessert
- Assiette
- Souffle

Drinks
- Toffee Apple
- Orange Mocha

Me being a pig, I had to try a bit of everything. It's not everyday I go to an awesome restaurant.

I was sooooo full - no dinner for me last night!

My MacBook

I have joined the apple bandwagon, and now have a brand spanking new MacBook.

I'm so excited! I haven't used a Mac since high school, but what I've seen so far (in the last couple of hours) is looking pretty good!

I don't know about everyone else, but migrating info & files over is a major pain in the bum - music, photos, documents... I wonder how long it'll take me? Will have to dedicate the weekend to setting up the laptop properly.

Photography & Videography

Photography

If I thought finding a venue was difficult, finding a photographer was just as hard. Trawling through so many sites just to try find one that is just right. And then going to meet with the photographer, to make sure you do like their photography style and the person also.

Almost from the beginning there was a particular photographer I liked. But we decided to have a look around at a few others to make sure we were making the right decision. After deciding that yes, she was the one, someone else put down a deposit for our date, before we were able to. (and this was almost a year in advance!) Disappointment! I had to start the search for a photographer again.

Luckily, I was able to find one that I loved even more (after going through numerous more websites), and I made sure the deposit was put down straight away.

Daniel Griffiths Photography

Some things to consider when looking for a photographer:
- how long will they be shooting for
- will there be just one photographer
- how long have they been in the industry for
- if you're getting an album, how many sides come standard with the package
- how much do extra sides cost
- are the high res negatives included

Videography

We had originally decided against having a professional videographer to capture our wedding as a way of saving costs. However, after viewing a friend's wedding video, and thinking a bit harder, we realised that our memories (mine especially) are not the best. I would never remember exactly what I said, or how everything looked on the day. Having a video will record moments that will otherwise dim in my memory.

Choosing a videographer was easy. Just looking at the videos that had been done previously, we knew straight away. No cheese, just a fabulous video.

DnM Wedding Films

Useful Tip: Once you've found a vendor/supplier you like, put down a deposit straight away to avoid being disappointed!

Church & Reception Venue Search

Church

The decision of which church to use was a relatively simple one. We had decided that our usual parish churches were too big for our numbers. My mum remembered there being a lovely church in Hunter's Hill. A google search revealed Holy Name of Mary & St Peter Chanel's. After going to have a look at the two, we knew that St Peter Chanel's was exactly what we were after.

Reception Venue

The search for a perfect wedding venue is a tough one. So many things to consider - location, size, price, ambience, availability of parking, quality of food. Many a day has been spent visiting one venue after another.

Things to watch out for:
- Venues that don't include GST in their prices (who does that these days??)
- Limited parking availability
- Cost of decorations - chair covers, back drops, draping
- Quality of alcohol on offer

One venue we went to gave us a showbag containing a thick glossy photo book showcasing the venue and mini bottle of bubbly. Quite evident why the prices were inflated there!

We finally decided on the Sydney Marriott at Hyde Park in the city. The best value package around in a great location.

Useful Tip: The brides and weddings thread on Vogue forums has been a fantastic starting point in searching for vendors and suppliers.

Diamonds are forever

Are diamonds forever? Absolutely! I suppose that diamonds are one of the toughest stones around, so naturally they would symbolise strength in commitment. Why the topic of diamonds? Well, I'm engaged! This is a bit of old news seeing as I've been engaged for over a year now. But, seeing as I have yet to brag about my ring online, I may as well do so now!

Isn't it just gorgeous?

I only wish I could take better photos to do the ring justice.

Specs:

Round Brilliant

Carat Weight: 0.56

Colour Grade: D

Clarity Grade: VS2

Cut Grade: Very Good.

What does all that mean? To me - I've got an awesome diamond ring! But to be a bit more technical:

Carat weight - the size/weight of the diamond

Colour grade - this inidicates the colour of the diamond. The scale ranges from D (colourless) to Z (light) with colourless being better

Clarity Grade: ranges from flawless to I3 (VS2 being Very Slightly Included)

Cut Grade: self explanatory really

Ok, so it's clear I'm not an expert on any subject, but hey I'm not professing to be. Just a little bit of background info for anyone that wants it.

Now the engagement ring has been exposed, more wedding things to come!

The Art of Cooking Chicken

Now I'm no MasterChef, not even a great home cook. I'm still in the process of learning how to cook. So here's a bit of what I've learned.

The other night dinner was had at my friend AH's house. He served up some chicken breast pieces and vegetables with cinnamon salt. Delicious! The chicken was soooo tender. Why was mine never like that? Well, obviously tough chicken is overcooked chicken. This I discussed with AH and he came up with these suggestions & tips:

- only turn the chicken once
- make sure the oil is hot
- watch the chicken as it cooks up, then turn over.
- test the biggest piece to see if it is cooked, then you know all of it is done
- don't cook for too long!

I know that most people will probably find this all to be common knowledge. But for someone like me who has little knowledge of cooking, it was very exciting to be able to serve up chicken that was not chewy.

Taoist Home

What is this Taoist Home?

A very special restaurant in Kingsgrove serving fusion asian food. From the outside, it looks like a very non-descript shop. Once you enter, you find yourself in a cozy home. With three different dining areas, each with its own theme (ancient china/80's china/modern china) you'll be in for a treat.

Many of the decorative items are for sale. There's also a library of Chinese books available to peruse. And then there's Neko. Your host for the evening. No ordinary host - he's a gorgeous cat that graces the restaurant.

A set menu is served, but this changes often, and is a veritable feast. Last night I went and we were served the following:

Fresh Grapefruit Juice
Chinese Tea
Taro chips
A Scallop dish (with a sesame oil type dressing)
salted squid I think it was - white strips that are chewy and very tasty
Corn & crab meat soup
Sushi - one with avocado and tofu, another with raw prawns
Fried salted fish
Mussels in a spicy tomato sauce
Tempura prawns & vegetables
San Choy Bau type thing
Chinese Spinach
Katsu
Rice with that delicious Japanese type seasoning - sesame and other stuff
Cocount & Green Tea pudding

All of this food, and at a very reasonable price. I wish I was more of a food connosieur so I could describe the meals with accuracy, and do them justice. Unfortunately, I'm not, so the above descriptions will have to do. But I would highly recommend this restaurant.

Check out its facebook page for more details and some photos.

I can't wait till the next time I feast there.

The World of Blogging

Having read numerous blogs (ok, maybe just a few) and hearing so much hype about them, I figure it's time that I try my hand at maintaining my very own blog.

So here goes!

Welcome to my blog. I envision that this will be an outlet for me to rant about all the things that get me narky, stress about my upcoming wedding and just ramble about anything that takes my fancy.

And now future hubby is eagerly awaiting the use of this laptop (and I'm waiting to order a new one for me!) so I'll leave it at that for now.

fifi-m
xoxo