Our Wedding Journal

And So We Come to the End

2010-12-30T01:14:00.000-08:00

It’s been a long two years of planning, celebrating and packing away but at last our wedding journey is complete! We’ve received our photos, watched our wedding DVD and sent out all of our thank you cards. My final task is to finish off this blog which has become such a wonderful part of our wedding journey. I’ve loved sharing all the exciting, frustrating and unforgettable moments with everyone that has been faithful reading and I hope that you have enjoyed reading about them.

These are the memories that we will cherish forever and this chapter of our lives has been more than we could ever have anticipated. But like any good book, it’s time to close the final page of this journey and set forth on new adventures as husband and wife. And might I add, I cannot wait!

I’d like to thank each and every person who has read, commented and enjoyed ‘Our Wedding Journal’ over the past 2 years. It has been a wonderful way to share this special time in our lives with the ones we love from near and far but also a way to reflect and record on this time in our lives. I hope in many years to come that we will look back on this blog and remember our marriage journey and the great joy that it brought to both of us.

I mentioned a while back that I had some exciting news to share about my blog. My wonderful husband suggested that since I’ve put so much hard work into this blog and of course would like to keep it forever, that I should have it published in a book form. So we are going to have ‘Our Wedding Journal’ made into a book using Photobook Australia, just like our wedding album. I believe it will be something we treasure and look back on with much joy.

Thank you for reading, praying and thinking of us over the past two years!

God Bless

With Love

Mrs Carmen Gadenne

Wedding Traditions

2010-12-30T01:06:00.000-08:00

Since before our wedding I wanted to write this post and seeing as our wedding blog is about to be finished I decided that it was important to me to finish writing this post. Whilst planning our wedding we had so many different things to think about, in particular the traditions which we wanted to keep and were important to us. Our wedding was a fairly traditional Christian wedding where we did things that you would normally find within the church. We both knew that having God as the center of our ceremony was very important to us and a lot of people comment on how nice that was. I agree!

When some friends of ours, Luke and Talia Carbis, got married they decided to learn all about the traditions that a lot of people have in their weddings and why. I thought this was really interesting and really embraced that ‘deep level thinking’ (look out, there’s a uni word!)

These are just some of the traditions we kept and why!

A White Wedding

I wore a white wedding dress as I had never been married before and the white symbolizes being ‘pure’, as in no sex before marriage!

Unveiling

I’ve noticed that a lot of brides wear their veil as a fashion accessory these days and leave it pulled back. I wore my veil over my face so that Jeffrey could pull it back at the end of the ceremony to kiss me, which symbolized the ‘unveiling’ of the bride. The veil was very special to me as my Mum and my Aunty both wore it for their weddings and I hope to share it with my cousins if they get married someday!

Walking with my Dad

My dad walked me down the aisle to show that he was willingly giving me over to Jeffrey into his care forever.

The Bible

We had scripture readings during our ceremony and also a short sermon my Ps Bakss to show that God is the head of our union and will be our guide through our lives together. We also had Jeffrey’s dad pray for us at the beginning of our ceremony and Ps Bakss pray at the end!

Congregation Song

We asked everyone to join us in singing praises to our God. We sang How Great Thou Art which seems to be a favourite song among Christian and non-Christians too. It was one of my favourite parts of the ceremony!

The Vows

We wrote a mixture of Christian and traditional vows which we read and promised to one another during our ceremony. When we wrote them we made sure they were not unrealistic promises, but ones that we can keep forever! I think we should hang them on our wall somewhere!

Rings

I think pretty well everyone gives wedding rings so this wasn’t unusual. These are simply to remind us of our promises and show others our marriage status! They also represent our never ending love for one another!

The Bridal Party

We had bridesmaids and groomsmen because we have some special people in our lives that we wanted by our sides as we got married and to celebrate with us. As the names suggest, we also had them there to help us with planning and organizing during the wedding process!

The Reception

Most people have receptions these days but basically to us it was our first meal as husband and wife which we shared with all of our close friends and family. A huge evening of fellowship!

Bridal Waltz

I guess back in the day, the first dance as husband and wife was very important which is why we decided to keep this tradition. It was also really nice to be able to dance with my husband and not fall over!!!!!! We invited our parents up to dance along with the bridal party with their partners! It was nice to see family and friends all up on the dance floor at once. Great photo opportunity too! I even got to dance with my dad which has only happened once at my formal! Jeff danced with his Mum, Chris danced with Mum and Jeff’s dad danced with Laree! Lots of nice memories there!

Throwing the bouquet

This was our final wedding day tradition but I didn’t throw my big bouquet, just a smaller one that the flower place made me. It is said that the girl who catches the bouquet is next in line to get married… I don’t exactly believe that but it’s kind of sweet!

The Honeymoon

Most newly married couples go on a honeymoon to have some time alone to get to know one another better as a married couple. Our honeymoon was just over a week away and was bliss! We loved every minute of it!

I think it’s important to understand why you are doing certain things as part of your wedding day because they usual have a tradition behind them and in some cases you may or may not want them to be part of your special day! We choose carefully and I enjoyed each and every one of them!

Our Wedding DVD

2010-12-23T03:50:00.000-08:00

Today, the final part of our wedding and planning showed up… Our Wedding DVD! When we were doing up our budget, having a videographer film our wedding wasn’t really in the budget but we REALLY wanted to have it filmed professionally so we saved really hard to include this in our wedding day. I can officially say that it was worth every penny we spent! The video is AMAZING, so many special memories that we will cherish forever!

I’d also highly recommend our videographer Ben Connolly from Velocity Images! He is very professional and is great at what he does. We’ve been given a few discount voucher from Velocity Images, so if you are interested let me know so I can post one to you!

I cannot wait to show all of our family and friends our DVD and I’m sure it will be watched over and over again for the rest of our lives together. I think we should watch it every year on our wedding anniversary!!!!!!!!!!

A Beautiful Wedding Album

2010-12-23T03:41:00.000-08:00

A month or so ago now, just after we received our wedding photos, I sat down and designed our wedding album using the ‘Photobook Australia’ website and software. I’ve made two different books on this site now and they always come back looking beautiful so that’s way I decided to use it for our wedding album.

Once I put the order in, our book arrived a week later… it was super quick! As usual, it came back looking even better than I thought it would. We’ve been showing friends and family the album and everyone says the same. That it looks amazing. I can’t share it all but check out a few photos I took! We are both very happy with the album and photos

Wedding Vows

2010-12-08T22:09:00.000-08:00

Jeffrey and I spent a lot of time thinking about and writing our wedding vows. They mean a lot to us and are promises we want to keep to one another til death do us part. I couldn’t share them here before the wedding but I’d love to share them now!

Jeffrey's Vows
My beloved Carmen, I love you and believe that you are God’s gift to me. Today as we stand before our family and friends and as God unites us together, I take you to be my wedded wife and accept my new role as your husband. I promise to set you as seal upon my heart, and to stand by you from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish even until death. It is my prayer and desire that you find in me the husband that God has purposed especially for you. For as God loved the church and gave Himself for it, so shall I love you.

Carmen's Vows
My beloved Jeffrey, I love you and believe that you are God’s gift to me. Today as we stand before our family and friends and as God unites us together, I take you to be my wedded husband and accept my new role as your wife. I promise to set you as seal upon my heart, and to stand by you from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish even until death. It is my prayer and desire that you find in me the wife that God has purposed especially for you. For as God loved the church and gave Himself for it, so shall I love you.

Professional Wedding Photos

2010-11-25T05:52:00.000-08:00

I’m very determined to finish off our wedding blog however I still have a couple more posts I’d like to write before it’s time to say farewell! Our amazingly beautiful wedding photos arrived last week and I’ve spent the past week working on our wedding album. I had coffee with Talia during the week and she agreed that getting it done straight away is important or it will just be another project for the ‘too hard basket’!

It’s taken me well over a week actually but our official wedding album is completely finished and looking beautiful if I may say so! It’s a photobook which I designed using the Photobook Australia website and software. I’m now in the process of uploading and ordering the books! Can’t wait to see them all printed!

I don’t want to give too much away with our photos, as not all of our family has seen them yet but I’ve added just a few of my favourites for your viewing pleasure. I hope you like them as much as I do!

Please do keep half an eye on this blog as I do intend to finish with a couple more posts and do have a little bit of exciting news about the blog itself!

These photos are by far absolutely beautiful however they are only the beginning and in a few days I’ll add all of my favourites to facebook, once we’ve had a chance to share them with our families!

Name Change

2010-11-09T16:38:00.000-08:00

I must say that changing my name is a very big job. I’m really fortunate that a few of my friends have been through the name changing process and gave me a few tips.

1. Order our wedding certificate from Births, deaths and marriages asap

2. Get a few of the official wedding certificates JP signed to post off.

Knowing this information has definitely made the name changing a lot easier and before getting married I also made a list of everywhere I’d need to change my name so really I’ve just been working through the list.

Most things are now officially changed, I just have a couple of places that I need to fill in forms or send in the marriage certificate before they can change my name.

It’s been an interesting process but I think I’m beginning to get used to the name change – Mrs Carmen Gadenne. (Yeah, still sounds weird!) I’ve had so many changes to deal with so far but I think with time I’ll settle into them really well.

My Beautiful Roses

2010-11-08T07:56:00.000-08:00

Flowers are such beautiful things but I think it’s so sad how they die and we just throw them away. Before our wedding I looked into ways to preserve my bouquet so I didn’t have to throw it out. One option was to have it freeze dried and framed but it really wasn’t work it for the cost. I decided that I’d just let them dry out but I didn’t have high hopes of how they would turn out. But I'm quite happy with how they are looking so I thought I’d share a photo with you!

Before!

After!

Carmen’s Top 10 Tips for Wedding Planning

2010-11-08T07:41:00.000-08:00

I have so many tips and pieces of advice that I could give for wedding planning but I’ll just give you the ones that I think are most important and are also pieces of advice that I was given whilst planning. Some might seem so simple but can make a huge different to your wedding planning and special day.

Tip 10: Don’t expect everything you plan to work out the way it does in your head. Be realistic about it and don’t have expectations that are too high.

Just some of the planning we did. I drank a lot of coffee through it all!

Tip 9: Before starting your planning, discuss with your soon to be husband what is important to you both and what your expectations are for your wedding. You need to both be on the same page because there is no point in one of you thinking you’re having a small, informal wedding while the other is planning fireworks and limousines!

A photo from our engagement sitting!

Tip 8: Write a list of everything that is very important to you both for your wedding day and follow this up with a budget. If you have everything that you really want on the budget than you’ll be less likely to go over the amount. Also, over calculate because weddings are simply expensive.

Writing the budget!

Tip 7: If you are booking people and companies to do things for you on your wedding day, e.g. photographer, reception venue, florist, than take the time to meet them and make sure you are happy with their service before you book. It’s your day and you want to be comfortable and able to trust those that you are investing money into.

Checking out reception places with Jeff and Mum.

Tip 6: You don’t want to regret anything from this once in a lifetime day. If there is something you really want than make sure you make it happen. But know the difference between those things that are important and simply just being a bridezilla!

I designed my wedding dress around my grandmothers brooch because it was so important to me!

Tip 5: Learn to let things go. No doubt during your planning you will have at least one person say something totally stupid or give you terrible advice. There is no need to fly off the handle at them, just ignore the suggestion; you don’t have to do anything you don’t want. Someone suggested we have bride and groom bibs… not cool at all!

The wisdom tree that Rachel made for my hens and we ended up using at the wedding because it was such a great idea!

Tip 4: Be organized and if you’re like me, over plan. I had so many comments on how organized I was because I gave everyone involved a run sheet of the day but when the wedding day came along, I had not a worry in the world because everyone knew what was happening and when. Have a rehearsal, it’s a great time to hang out with your family and bridal party and will make sure everyone knows what’s happening. Also, don’t be afraid to ask people to do things for you, or even put certain people in charge of jobs on the day. We were very blessed to have so many helpers on our wedding day which just added to how special it was.

Dance practice at our wedding rehearsal!

Tip 3: Ask your friends to be snap happy! You can never have too many photos on your special day. In fact I took loads of photos throughout all of my planning to keep and look back on one day. They are very special to me. I was also blessed to have many photos taken on our wedding morning whilst getting ready, mainly by the lovely Talia. And I also had to brother running around with my camera prior to the ceremony and have loads of friends who have given me copies of their photos!

Can you count the cameras?

Tip 2: Allow yourself to take it all in because it will be all over so quickly. I was told this by so many different people so I took their advice and would stop now and again during the day to take it all in. I especially surprised myself during the ceremony because I was able to look around, smile at different people and generally just take in the whole event without feeling nervous or anxious about anything. You’ll also find that your joy and happiness will come through in your photos and video. That’s another tip, remember to smile on your wedding day. All the makeup and styling in the whole can’t make you look as beautiful as when you smile and show your joy!

Taking it all in at our ceremony.

Tip 1: Enjoy your special day. I told myself that I was not going to be stressed from the moment I woke up that day so that was the main reason I over planned. When I woke up on my wedding morning, I was so calm and relaxed. Nothing really bothered me and it made all the difference. I had a wonderful wedding day. You also need to be prepared to let things go on the day. If something goes wrong or it rains (like it did for us) just let it go. If it’s something big, deal with it on a different day because your wedding day isn’t the time to get cranky at someone or start a fight. Be unflappable and just enjoy your day with your partner! Let love cease the day!

We thought the rain on our wedding day was bad but this was the next morning!

My Thank You Blog Post

2010-11-01T05:11:00.000-07:00

It’s been 3 weeks now since our wedding and I have had plenty of time to think, re-think and look over and over again at our beautiful photos that I’ve got from friends and family so far. As soon as we get our professional photographs back I am going to sit down to begin the thank you process but because this blog has been so important to me during our planning process, I felt it would be appropriate to thank some people on here! Feel free to skip over this post or just look for your name if I’ve got a thank you for you but it seems important to me to thank those people who put their time and effort into our special day.

To God: the only reason that I am a wife to such an amazing, inspiring and loving man is because You brought him to me and listened to my countless prayers. Thank you for bringing me somebody to love and to love me, for the rest of my life.

To My Mum and Dad: Our wedding day was perfect and that is thanks to both of you. Thank you for the big and the small things on our wedding day that made it so special and for the time and effort that went into the past 2 years of planning. The pens that you made us Dad and wearing you’re veil Mum, were just two things that we’ll never forget! Also thank you for being the best Mum and Dad in the world ever!

To Dad and Mum Gadenne: Thank you for your kind and generous contribution to our wedding day. For the beautiful cake and prayers which were said for us. It is wonderful that we are now officially family and may many special memories grow from this day on.

To My Family: I must firstly thank my Nana for making my incredible wedding dress! It was and is still the most beautiful wedding dress I’ve ever seen and everybody who’s seen it since has commented on how beautiful it is as well. Thank you so much for putting your heart and soul into making such an amazing creation for me to walk down the aisle in! I will certainly treasure my wedding dress forever and will always boast of how you made it for me! The bridesmaid dresses were just as incredible and everyone comment on how beautiful they were as well.

Nana Owen, thank you for giving me you’re beautiful brooch from Poppy. I knew as soon as you gave it to me for my 21st birthday that I would wear it on my wedding day and treasure it forever. It was certainly an honour and so special to wear it on my wedding dress and I hope that it was special to you as well! I know that my wedding day would have been a special and proud day for Poppy if he was still with us so it was incredibly important to me to have part of him with us!

To the rest of my family, each of you put your time and kindness into making our wedding day so special and it means a lot to us that you’d do that to make sure we had a perfect wedding day. It was extra special to share it with all of you and we thank you very much for your support and love!

To Our Bridesmaids: The way the five of you looked on our wedding day will stay with me forever. You all looked so beautiful in those pretty pink dresses and with the amazing roses. Curls were a great choice for your hair styles and the shawls, whilst not exactly planned were a very pretty addition to the outfits!

To Our Groomsmen: Not only did all five of you arrive on time, but you all looked very handsome in your suits. I know pink is not all of your choice colour but it looked very nice and I thank you for wearing it for us!

To Simon and Jan: Neither of you are related to us but it feels as if we are close family members. Words are not enough to thank you for all that you did for us on our wedding day but thank you so very much. We pray that the Lord may show you what a great blessing you have been to us and that He may bless you both abundantly!

To Carly: You are always such a blessing to be around and we are both so grateful that you were willing to not only be part of our wedding day but to give up so much for your time to practice and find songs for us. Those songs were such a memorable gift on our wedding day and whenever we hear them from now on we will stop and think of our special day and your kind contribution to it.

To Ps Bakss: We were very blessed to have you performing our wedding ceremony and to have your guidance and wisdom throughout the planning and counseling process. Thank you for travelling such a long distance just to perform our ceremony and we hope you know what an amazing blessing you have been to the both of us so far! May God Bless you and your family!

To Rachel and Aaron: You are both such precious friends to us, so to have you both part of our wedding day was exactly how we imagined it. Thank you Aaron for learning so many songs on the guitar for us and for giving up so much of your time to practice them for our special day. Rachel, you did an incredible job as Matron of Honour and there is no one else on this whole planet who I could have asked but you. You are truly a gift from God to me and I pray that whilst we have an incredible friendship already that the Lord will just strengthen it even more. You said in your speech that I am amazing, we’ll your pretty amazing yourself!!!

To Luke and Talia: The two of you inspired me to write this particular post because I needed a way to thank you both (and many other people) for the AMAZING photos that I’ve been looking at from our special day. Talia you caught everything on camera that happened on our wedding morning and Luke the photography during our ceremony is fantastic. Thank you to both of you for giving us treasured memories in freeze frame. They mean that world to me! Also to Talia, thank you for all that you did to help with our planning, it was not only a huge help but I have some very special memories from the past 2 years.

To Kevin: You are always the one to bring such joy and laughter into our lives. It is an incredible gift to have and I hope you cherish it! Your friendship to us both is so very precious and important and definitely a gift from our Lord. Thank you for helping with our wedding preparations and for sharing our very special day with us. May the Lord continue to grow our friendship as we travel through our lives!

To Luke Rudge: What a privilege it was to have you speak during our wedding ceremony! Thank you for your scripture reading and for traveling such a distance to be part of our wedding day!

To the Happy Snappers: We’ve had so many people give us a copy of their photos from our wedding day so far. I cannot thank you enough for giving them to us to treasure forever. As you can probably tell, I love photos so to have so many people sharing their special memories of our day has been a great blessing. Thank you very muchly!!!

To the Travelers: We had family from Sydney, friends from Rocky and many other travelers too. Thank you for coming such a long way to be with us on our wedding day. It just shows us how much we mean to you and that is a very special blessing. We hope that you enjoyed the day as much as we did.

To Our Wedding Vendours: These are the different people and businesses that we employed to do something for our wedding day. Maleny Manor, Mondo Floral Designs, Melissa Jean Photography, Velocity Images, Meryl for our cake, Lidya at Fine Line Hair and our makeup ladies. I’m sure there are others too. Thank you for helping us bring the day together so beautifully and for providing such wonderful and kind services to us and our families during our planning and wedding day. It couldn’t have worked out so well without each of you and your wonderful work and time.

To Our Guests: Everyone who attended to watch us get married, thank you for being there and thank you for your very kind gifts to us. We had so many generous guests and words a simply not enough to thank you! We plan to build our first home soon and each of you have helped us get a little closer to that dream coming true!

To My Husband: The biggest thank you I must give to you because you started this whole wedding thing by asking me to marry you. I will never forget that night on the Sydney harbour when you proposed, as will I never forget the day that we said I do! I love you so deeply and I thank you for committing to me for the rest of your life. There isn’t another person in this whole world that I would want to spend the rest of my life with and I can’t wait for the rest of my life to start because I get to spend it with you! I love you xo!

Our Honeymoon

2010-10-25T02:03:00.000-07:00

Sunday 10th October – Sunday 17th October

I’m sure everyone would love to hear a little bit about our honeymoon! We didn’t really want to go too far away but we wanted to do something extra special so we saved our pennies carefully and went to three different places during our week away. It sounds like a lot of moving around but we were on a holiday so it wasn’t a problem at all. We just took our time and enjoyed each new place we visited together as husband and wife.

The night of our wedding we stayed at Maleny Manor in their bridal suite, so we didn’t actually have to travel anywhere after the wedding. That was really nice as we were both pretty tired and we could open our gifts too. So on Sunday morning we were able to make a pit stop at my parents house to pick up our luggage and make sure we had everything we’d need. I even took a little bunch of flowers with me to remind us of the wedding day!

Us at Maleny Manor the morning after our wedding. Newlyweds!

Our first stop for our honeymoon was the beautiful Palazzo Versace on the Gold Coast! Talk about spoilt, this place is just stunning and we were so well looked after. Before my new father in law left the wedding reception, he gave Jeff the keys to his awesome sporty car for us to borrow on our honeymoon so we rocked up to the Versace in style and had full valet parking the whole time. It was awesome! We stay in the basic sized room (which was huge) and were upgraded to a pool view which was super nice! We had a huge spa bath and even arrived to chocolates and a message from the managers congratulating us on our wedding.

We spent 2 blissful nights at the Versace and then headed to the Brisbane airport (in the rain) to fly up to Hamilton Island for 3 nights. We were planning on staying at one of the more basic hotels on the island but we booked a little late so we had to book at the most expensive resort on the island. We stayed at Qualia and it was worth every single cent. Hamilton Island itself was very busy and touristy but Qualia is right over the other side on a huge amount of private land. All the little pavilions that you stay in are set far apart so it feels like you are the only person staying on the island. It was extremely private and peaceful. We also had a golf buggy included in our package so we could get around the island easily. We had a wonderful time, even though we saw no sun until we had to leave!

The last 2 nights of our honeymoon were spent back on the Gold Coast at Rydges (the Gold Coast International). After staying at two amazing resorts we were a bit let down by Rydges. We paid quite a bit to stay there in their best room so it was a bit of a let down. We had a lovely view of the Gold coast though and a huge spa and huge suite! We still enjoyed ourselves greatly and did a few touristy things and lots of shopping!

One week might seem like a very short honeymoon but we had just the best time and visited some incredible places. We came back feeling very relaxed and with lots of shopping too! We even came back with sunburn, though we didn’t see a huge amount of sun during the week. In total we probably had 3 sunny days but it certainly didn’t matter as we had a wonderful time away!

We’ve had one whole week off at home as husband and wife but tomorrow is back to reality for Jeff as he heads back to work. I’m on call for any relief work as well so I wonder if I’ll get any call ins before Christmas!

Check out photos here and keep your eyes out when we add photos from Jeff's iphone soon!

Our Wedding Day

2010-10-21T01:36:00.000-07:00

It's taken me a little while to work up to writing this blog because how do you put into words a day like this that is just so amazing and special. It was such a precious day for me, so simply using words to explain it is quite difficult. If you don't understand what I mean than just wait until you see our photographs (and if you still don't understand, I might just have to whip out the DVD!!!!!!)

Our wedding day was seriously more than I could ever have imagined. It wasn't without its ups and its downs but nothing else could explain it but an amazing blessing to both Jeffrey and I and also our family and friends who watched on as we became husband and wife. We had so many wonderful and emotional moments and we really understood the depth and greatness of the love which our families and friends have for us. So many people went out of their way with time and effort to make sure we had a fairytale wedding day that we could remember for the rest of our lives.

So let me briefly (if that’s even possible) talk you through our wedding day from start to finish. A picture speaks a thousand words so I will add a few however I must direct you over to facebook here to see all of the different photos from our day. (The professional ones are still to come so keep an eye out over the next few weeks.) If you cannot access facebook and would like to see some more photos, let me know so I can get them too you.

The night before the wedding (in fact, the day before the wedding) it completely started to pour down rain and didn't stop. I didn't really panic but at about 9pm on the Friday night, I did a quick ring around of the relatives to ask them to put their umbrellas in the car just in case we needed them. I lay awake for ages that night praying and hoping that the rain would settle down for the wedding day tomorrow. It was a shame because I just couldn't enjoy listening to the rain that night. I woke up at just after 5am and thankfully it wasn't pouring, just very overcast and drizzly. This continued all day until after the ceremony and we got a huge down pour during the late afternoon and evening. Praise the Lord that we got through most of the day without getting washed away.

Mum, Dad and Nana watching the sky!

Most of the bridesmaids, my Nana and Aunty arrived at 7am along with the two hairdressers and two make up ladies. They started straight away and thank goodness we got going early as we needed every bit of those 5 and half hours to get ready. We spent the morning having hair and makeup done, nibbling on croissants, muffins and subway for lunch, taking loads of photos (check them out here) and staring at the sky, hoping the rain would hold out! The morning felt like it flew by to me and one of the most exciting moments was when Dad arrived back home with the girls flowers. They were all packed neatly into these HUGE boxes with a big gold bow tied around them. It was like opening a giant present and I don't think I've ever untied a bow that fast, I was incredibly excited!!!! What followed was a chorus of girly squeals of delight and lots of oohing and arhing over the absolutely beautiful bouquets that sat in the boxes. THEY WERE PEFECT!!!! I won’t explain them, just check out these photos for their beautifulness!

By the time we'd looked at the flowers, it was time for me to get into my wedding dress (I totally felt it was too early, but it wasn't!) I've also never had so many females in a room dressing me before. I had all 5 bridesmaids, my aunty, Nana and my Mum upstairs helping me to put on everything that went with my bridal outfit! It was super special too and I have loads of photos to remember it by. Once I was in my dress, I could pretty well do nothing but sit in one place and wait for people to help me move around. My dress was HUGE and my train was HUGER!!!!! Once I got my dress on, there were a lot of emotional people at my house which didn't include me. I think I held it together for the team though! The bridesmaids got into their dresses and while I was waiting, our photographer Miss Melissa Jean arrived to start taking photos. She got some snaps of me getting my hair finished and then took all of us girls outside to have photos taken. Praise the Lord, the rain completely held out so we got loads of photos and Snuggles was the star of quite a few of them!

Very quickly it was time to leave my house and make the journey up to Maleny Manor with our procession of bridal cars, myself and Dad in Ps Simon's car plus the bridesmaids in two other cars. I think we looked pretty flash!!!!!! I had a lovely trip up to the manor chatting to my dad and Simon, no nerves at all. In fact the whole morning I felt extremely calm and relaxed about the day, even though it was rainy. We arrived at Maleny Manor with my Mum, Chris, Nana, Poppy, Aunty, Uncle and the lovely Marlene from Maleny watching. We of course also have Melissa there snapping away. Cannot wait to see those photos!

We spent the rest of the afternoon having photos taken and sitting up in the loft at Maleny Manor waiting for the boys to arrive. I don't know about the rest but the time flew by for me and this is when the nerves started to set in! I'm really getting married!!!! The people who work at the Manor made us feel very relaxed when it was that time to leave the loft and walk down the aisle with all of my family and friends and most importantly, my soon to be Husband watching! I started to feel a bit teary when Mum came to give me a hug before the ceremony began and the aisle music began! I held it together though and very soon Dad and I were on our way down the aisle. I was extremely nervous at first but once I saw everyone and Jeffrey, I couldn't wipe the smile off my face and felt so very at ease!

I didn't think I would (I thought the nerves would get the better of me) but I completely enjoyed the ceremony. I really let myself take it all in and looked around at everyone I could see, at Jeffrey, Ps Bakss and even the incredible view that not even the rain had hidden! It was very cold (not that I really remember that) but the ceremony was perfect. Everyone played their part perfectly and I completely loved singing my song (however I must give God the credit for that one!) We had some giggles, lots of smiles, emotions and plenty of lovely moments and at the end Ps Bakss pronounced us Husband and Wife and we got to have a kiss! We kissed a lot on our wedding day hehe!

The rest was a whirlwind of photos, hugs, kisses, best wishes, more photos and FREEZINGGGNESSSS! It started to rain half way through the photos so we couldn't get all the snaps we wanted (we got plenty though) but the photographer and videographer along with Ps Simon, took just Jeffrey and I up to a place in Maleny with a long road covered by trees to have some photos taken where it was pretty but we wouldn’t get extremely wet. Now it was COLD and as we stood out there having our photos and video done, the mist from the mountains started to come in and surround us! I'm hoping it comes out in the photos/video as it was truly magical! I think I was blue when we got back in the car but it was worth it I say! I really wanted nice photos!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! When we got back to the Manor was had a few bridal party photos outside and some up in the loft where it was warm and dry! We had lots of fun with all of these photos!!

The reception itself was gorgeous. Filled with lots of roses everywhere. Just check them out in these photos below. Everyone commented on how good the food was and we listening the soft music we'd selected and the beautiful rain outside. (Everyone was just glad to get out of the cold!) We cut our gorgeous cake and had our speeches. Some very beautiful and thoughtful, other interesting and one in particular, completely horrifying! (Thanks Laree.. !) As a surprise, Jeffrey got up and sang our song 'When You Say You Love Me' by Josh Groban. It was seriously beautiful and everyone loved it. Very emotional and something to treasure forever! We had our bridal waltz (and even did our little fairytale lift) and danced with our parents! The dancing was lovely and I think everyone enjoyed it too. One of my favourite parts of the evening was throwing the bouquet (just a smaller one) and the lovely Emma caught it!!! (Look out!!!) Soon after it was 9:30pm and quite a few people decided to head home as it was getting a little late and very rainy outside. I guess Jeff and I were a little disappointed that some people left so early but at 10:30pm we still had lots of our close friends and some family still there and we are very grateful to them for sticking around to celebrate this very special day with us. At 11pm our last few guests said goodbye, we handed out our last thank you gift and started to collect up all the flowers from the tables. We were able to sit down with my family who were staying the night and have a cup of tea and a chat to finish off the night! It was super nice!!!

Jeff and I didn't hang around downstairs for too long before we bundled up all our gifts and headed up to our room. We escaped the room and borrowed my Uncle's camera to take loads of photos of ourselves in our wedding clothes around the Manor. It was nice to get those last few photos in before we had to get changed and go to bed. I need to add here that my wedding dress (mainly the train) was extremely dirty after a rainy wedding day and photos on the grass. I even had a perfect shoe print on the train! The photographer told me that brides with dirty trains and dresses have had a good wedding day and we certainly did have that so I don't mind so much! It's getting cleaned anyway.

We finished off the night by opening up all of our wedding presents and to those who were so generous and thoughtful, we'd like to thank you from the bottom of our hearts of your gifts and very kind words! We felt so blessed as we opened up our presents and envelops from those who love us! After that I cannot tell but we did wake up early to share breakfast (amazing breakfast) with my family and relatives at the manor and pack up everything to head home. We took all the flowers, cake, left over stationary and so many presents home! I'm still unpacking it all! I was very grateful that we didn't wait that extra day to have our wedding on the 10/10/10 as the Maleny Manor staff were on the phone when we left talking about weather warnings and bringing the wedding inside for that day. We were very blessed to have minor rain most of the day for our wedding and it will not be a day I will ever forget. I love my husband very much and I'm extremely grateful that he wanted to marry me and make me Mrs Carmen Gadenne forever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It’s Our Wedding Day

2010-10-08T13:22:00.000-07:00

No More Sleeps!!

I know I said no more posts but I’m up early so I figured I’d write a short one anyways. So I actually did get some sleep last night, not a huge amount but at least I slept. This morning isn’t exactly how I imagined our wedding morning, it’s very drizzly right now BUT it’s not pouring at the moment! Phew. Don’t ask me how we’ll work around the wet grass for photos but other than that, alls well and looking good!

I hope your all looking forward to seeing photos of today. I sure am! Time to go and shower now as everyone is arriving very shortly. Farewell!

Wedding Eve!!!!!!!

2010-10-08T03:13:00.000-07:00

1 sleep!!!!

Well we’ve made it! Can you believe it!? One more sleep and we’ll be Mr and Mrs Gadenne, husband and wife. This week has gone like a flash but praise the Lord, everything is done and things are fairly calm at my house now! The house is sparking, the dresses are upstairs and it is absolutely pouring down rain!!!!! We’ve checked the forecast for tomorrow and it looks like we’ll have a rainy wedding day! I’m praying for the rain to settle a bit more tomorrow but I’m trying not to worry about it. Whatever will be, will be and Jeff and I will still be married! Isn’t it good luck that it’s raining on your wedding day?

The rain today! Eeeek!

Thursday night was our wedding rehearsal and dinner. We finished all our pre-marriage counseling which was really good. We’re both feeling very confident about our marriage and can’t wait to see all the new things that come with being married. Our counseling was followed by our rehearsal which was quite rushed but I think it went well and I’m certain all will be fine tomorrow. Again, whatever will be, will be! This was all followed by dinner, music run through and dance practice in the night. I personally had a lot of fun and I hope everyone else did too!

Photo take by Talia at the rehearsal

Jeff and I heading to the rehearsal

Carly and Aaron practicing

Chatting with my very soon to be Father and Mother inlaw!

Our friends

More friends and family

Snugs had a wonderful night

Dance practice!

Today was spent taking the suits to where the boys are getting ready and doing the last few little jobs! Jeff and I even scored a little bit of time together and a quick bridal waltz practice before he left to spend time with his family. Now I have to wait until 3pm tomorrow to see him!

Taking the suits to Simon and Jans

Stress relief coffee!

We’re now at the end of the planning process for the wedding and tomorrow it will be all systems go. I’m certain the day will fly by me and it will be all over before I know it. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it. I’ve certainly still got a few more posts up my sleeve for after the wedding and honeymoon so please keep an eye out. But for now, I’m off to have a long warm bath, watch some TV and get a super early night as I need to be getting up before 6am! (Like that will be hard!)

Please pray for us tomorrow that all goes well and that perhaps this nasty but still beautiful rain will settle down or even disappear. Either way, keep us in your thoughts as we become husband and wife!

Written by Carmen Owen (but not for much longer!)

Hello Dresses!

2010-10-06T17:30:00.000-07:00

2 days away!!!

Last night after having my spray tan, Mum and Dad brought home all of the bridesmaid dresses, shoes and most importantly, my wedding dress! They’ve all been secretly tucked away in mum and dad’s room so that Jeff doesn’t see them, visitors don’t see them and our lovely little pet family doesn’t meeting them either!

Jeff and I are spending today (it’s almost 10:30 so the rest of today) shopping for the last few things we need and at 2pm we’re heading up to the Manor for the final part of our pre-marriage counseling and the wedding rehearsal. We’re following this with a bbq at my house and a quick bridal waltz practice with everyone. It should be a really nice night together!

I was going to turn off my phone today so that Jeff and I won’t be disturbed while we spent a little time together and get the last odds and ends we need but so far I’ve had 2 important phone calls so I might just leave it be lol. I can’t wait for our honeymoon when I can escape everything and have a big rest!

Time to go shopping so see than eye out for photos of our rehearsal in as I might pop some up tonight!!!

Puss and Snugs have been very unsettled with all thats going on and Puss decided to hide in here last night. We had to take the draw out to free her!

Flying Away Week

2010-10-05T20:18:00.000-07:00

3 days

I thought it would be nice to update you each day but I’m flat out getting through each day at the moment lol! So very busy that by the end of the day I’m too tired to blog. Never mind, will just give you a little update now.

All is going very well, not stressful because we got on top of things early! Go us!!! The last two weeks have just felt like a huge ‘To Do’ list but I’ve almost crossed everything off now. We need to do a little shopping, catch up with a few people and pack for our honeymoon.

This week I’ve had something every day so far.

Monday Hair trail

Tuesday Nails

And later on this afternoon I have a spray tan booked in. Well I’ll hopefully update again soon but for now I’m running out the door. Take care!

My Bridal shower and Hens Night!

2010-10-03T00:25:00.000-07:00

7 days!
As you would know if you’d read my previous post, yesterday was my bridal shower and hens night! Rachel organized the whole event along with the help of Talia who made some very yummy savory foods for the shower.The bridal shower consisted of

Tupperware

Delicious food

Amazing decorations

Wisdom Tree

Fancy drinks

Lots of girls/ladies

Presents

Bridal games mainly all about me!!!

And of course, dressing me up!

We had such a great afternoon and I was completely spoilt with so much tupperware, presents, kind words and wisdom from all of the ladies!

In the evening we headed out to one of my favourite restaurant Belissimo for dinner and mocktails, followed by coffee! I was seriously exhausted by the end of the night and had so many people stop me in the street or whisper to each other because I was wearing my bride badge, sash and crown!

It was such a wonderful day/night and I have to give all the credit to Rachel for organizing it, Talia for helping and my Mum for having most of the day at our house and buying me so much Tupperware to start off my collection!!!!! A day I’ll never forget and I’m now even more excited for the week ahead and wedding day!!!!! Check out more pictures on my facebook because they really tell the story of our day!!!!

Note: I have got something happening every single day until the wedding, so keep your eyes on this blog everyday for updates!!!

The Happy Little Hen!

2010-10-01T06:33:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow I shall be ‘The Hen’ for my kitchen tea and hens party. I have honestly given it very little thought as I’ve been very busy with other wedding related things and weekends away. I feel like it’s really snuck up on me and I’m very excited about it! It honestly doesn’t feel that long ago that I was organizing a kitchen tea and hens night for Rachel but now that I think back, it’s almost 3 years ago! Hard to believe!

Jeffrey left for his buck’s weekend this afternoon (I’m hoping to have him back in one piece) so I best be off to bed so I can be a happy hen tomorrow! Keep an eye out for lots of photos from the day!!!!!!

PS: aren’t you lucky, two posts in one day!!!!

The Little Day that Could

2010-09-30T23:09:00.000-07:00

9 days!

Today, Friday 1st October is certainly the little day that could, throw everything our way! Hopefully it’s not a trend for the days and weeks to come in October! I must say, it keeps life interesting!

Jeff and I started off our day (which we knew would be very busy anyways) with a late breakfast at our favourite café! This was total bliss and so relaxing! We knew we should catch up while we still had plenty of time.

Great Breakfast!

We’d organized for our friends who are providing live music for the ceremony to practice at the church with the sound system. For many reasons and no one’s particular fault, there was a miscommunication so when we arrived at the church it was locked and we couldn’t use it. Our tiny little car was already filled with three people, Snuggles, cupcakes and a huge keyboard with stand and chair. We had to fit one more person in as well and in this process of re-arranging the car, Snuggles decided to drop a load…. on the two front seats of the car, gross and such bad timing.

Locked out

Anyways fast forward to 3pm back at my house. Music practice is going fine, Kevin has arrived and we are waiting on a whole lot of people meeting for Jeff’s bucks party. We get a call from one of Jeff’s friends travelling from Brisbane to say he’s gotten himself bogged in the middle of the highway…. don’t ask how! So off the boys go to help or maybe I should say laugh at his misfortune. Hopefully they can help him out quickly and get on with the Bucks evening without any more trouble.

Along with listening to the beautiful music coming from outside, I’m also waiting on friends of Jeff’s to arrive and another friends of Jeff’s who is coming to bath and clip Snuggles. Hopefully things will calm down and go back to normal soon but I don’t see that happening in the week ahead!!! Hope your having a wonderful day too!!!

Something in the Air!

2010-09-29T04:52:00.000-07:00

10 Days!!!!!

You know that feeling of anticipation, that something really exciting is about to happen? It lingers in the air and you can’t get to sleep or concentrate on what you’re doing? Well I’ve got it, real bad! Right now, as you can see, I’m finalizing music, burning CDs, writing a speech, packing for our honeymoon, printing out our accommodation/flight info, mowing our block of land, finishing place cards and writing out our run sheet for the day. What a joke! No, I’ve been completely side tracked by my anticipation and excitement and just had to blog about it! See what I mean about losing concentration?!?!

A quick visit to Nana's for a few different things

One of those things was for Kevin to try his suit on... just incase!

And to pick up Urnie the Urn and the big tea pot!

My family aren’t the type to do things spontaneously. Each day is usually carefully planned out and everyone knows where they will be and what they will be doing. Well the last couple of days haven’t exactly been like that as we’ve had to make a few sudden dashes out to the shops or Nana’s for suits/alterations. I guess all of that adds to things feeling different!

Our house has also been turned upside down being cleaned by Mum all of this week. It’s sparkling now and a lot of normal day to day things in the house have been put away to make more space. We’re going to have about 17 people here on the wedding morning!!!!!!

Even Chris helped with the cleaning... kind of!

Dad tried on his suit which looked very nice! (I'm obvisouly not allowed to show you a photo!)

Orders of Serive are finished!!!!

Dance practice maybe!!!

I’ve been hearing a lot about Jeff’s buck’s night (Bucks extravaganza!) and also about my kitchen tea/hens night. It sounds like Jeffrey and I have a lot to look forward to and we’re very grateful to those people who have organized these special events for us to help celebrate our impending wedding!

I bought home my shoes and wedding veil (so I could just look at them and practice walking). I had my veil hanging from the curtain in the spare room so I could admire it however Puss figured it was a challenge for her so we had to put it away in the cupboard where it would stay safe haha!

I guess I better actually try to get something done now. Jeff’s come over to help me with the music so I better use this time wisely!

Feeling very excited!!

My little helper!

My other little helper!!

Girls Weekend Away!

2010-09-26T07:42:00.000-07:00

13 days!!!!!!! (totally doesn't feel real haha!)

To celebrate my impending marriage to Jeffrey, Rachel took me away on a girls weekend to Toowoomba to the annual Carnival of Flowers! We spent the past 3 days drinking coffee, looking and taking photos of flowers, eating fine food and shopping our little hearts out! It was bliss!!!!!! The perfect weekend to me!

We kicked off our weekend by having lunch at a gorgeous café on the way to Toowoomba with so many different lunch selections. I’m totally up for visiting this place again! After lunch and halfway through our journey to Toowoomba we found a magpie who’d been hit by a car on the side of the road. We turned around and picked the little guy up to drop off to the Esk vet on our way. I’m pretty sure he had only minor injuries as he decided to take flight in the car as we got closer to Esk. He was a very lucky bird and I hope he’s made it safely back to his home in the wild.

When we arrived in Toowoomba we settled in to our hotel which was right in the middle of the CBD and headed out to do some serious shopping at Grand Central! This was followed by Indian for dinner and a visit to the movies to see Despicable Me! Very funny and cute cartoon.

The thick fog when we came out of the movies!

On the Saturday we started the day off with an amazing breakfast at our new favourite café in the main street and spent the rest of the day travel to the public gardens to see all of the flower displays and snap many, many photos! We were kind of flowered out by the end.

We had the most amazing dinner at night time – 3 courses of delicious food (Mmmmm dessert).

Much coffee was consumed this weekend!

We got up nice and early on Sunday morning so we could have an early breakfast and visit a church in Toowoomba for their Sunday service. We went to Hume Ridge Church of Christ which was really nice. The message that the Pastor shared with us was about putting our faith and trust in God who is our fortress and strong tower and we sang a fantastically upbeat version of Standing on the Promises of God!

On our trip home we stopped at the Highfields Chocolate Café for lunch and had another delicious meal! We may have just had some chocolate too…!

A Huge thank you to Rachel for planning and surprising me with such an amazing weekend away which I will never forget. We had so much fun, I mean coffee and flowers, what more could a girl ask for!!!!

Our whole trip in just one photo!

Check out heaps more photos here on facebook!

Exhausted Little Bride

2010-09-22T05:47:00.000-07:00

17 days

I wanted to up my blogging as we only have a little bit more time together writing about this journey. We’re so close to the finish line which means things are getting very busy. I’ve had something on every day this week and next week looks to be filling up as well. The week before the wedding is almost completely filled up too!

Yesterday Mum and I went on a huge shopping trip which lasted over 9 hours. We bought everything from irons to tissues, dresses to gold paper! And plenty of things in between that we probably didn't need!

Just part of the shopping

Needing a rest!

On Monday night Talia threaded and attached the beads to my dress and along with Rachel, the three of us spent the rest of the evening in a coffee shop having a lovely lady date!!! Great night!

Tomorrow Mum and I are heading over to the Manor to sort out our seating plan and back into the shops for more wedding related things! Friday morning, Rachel and I are off on our girls weekend away to see the flowers! We’re both really looking forward to it and it should be a nice break from wedding planning. Stay tuned for lots of pictures from our weekend away!!!

Printing Orders of Service... Puss found it very exciting!

So Much to Do! So Little Time!

2010-09-19T08:58:00.000-07:00

20 days (2 weeks and 5 days)

I write it, say it, think it and it still seems very surreal at the moment! 2 and half weeks is certainly not that far away and I’m certain it will fly by! In fact, it probably won’t feel real until I’m wearing the dress!

I cannot believe how much there is left to do and I’m really not sure how we’re going to get it all done! Luckily I have some trusty bridesmaids to help me out if the going gets tough haha!

Talking of trusty bridesmaids, tomorrow night, myself, Talia and Rachel are going to add the beads to my wedding dress. The bling bling, sparkle, sparkle. Can’t wait to see it completely finished and totally can’t wait to bring the dress to my house a little closer to the day so I can admire it til my heart’s content!

Well for now I have plenty to keep me busy, printing 80 place cards, printing and making 40 orders of service, chasing up RSVPs, finalizing music, writing a speech…. So much to do!!!!!! Catch ya later!

Counting Down the Days!

2010-09-13T05:25:00.000-07:00

26 days

We’re down to counting days now! It really hasn’t set in at all and feels quite surreal at the moment. Hopefully it totally sets in before we get too close so I can start to get a bit more motivation to get things done.

On Saturday Rachel and I had a makeup trial and discussed with the lady who did it for us the times for the day. I’ve got 5 bridesmaids, myself and my mum getting makeup done so she told us that if she comes on her own we’ll have to start getting ready at 4am!!!!!!!!!!!!! No way was that going to work out so she’s going to bring another lady to do makeup for us as well so we can get ready at a more decent hour of the morning. The boys have it so easy, I bet there getting ready 2hrs before!!

Checkout our pretty makeup faces!! The hotties!

Make up trials are always followed by lunch and coffee aren't they?!

Also today I received the engagement photos that Melissa Jean did for us a few months ago. They are gorgeous and you can check some more of them out on my facebook. We couldn’t be happier with them and I’m going to start our orders of service now!

The Rings

2010-09-09T07:53:00.000-07:00

In 4 weeks time these will be safely on our fingers to show the commitment we are making to one another! Seems pretty special to me and warranted it’s own post!

The Big Count Down!!!!

2010-09-09T07:45:00.000-07:00

1 MONTH! (4 Weeks)

I don’t think I have a particularly large amount of things to update our journal on but I just had to write something… it’s only 1 month until our wedding now! I can’t tell you how great that feels and how much excitement and anticipation is building up now! This is definitely a time that we need to sit back and enjoy because it’s not going to last for much longer. We’re almost ready to start a new season of our lives and we’re both more than ready to take those steps forward!

We’ve got a fair few RSVPs back now and will have to start chasing up the last few soon as Friday is our RSVP date. Once that’s done and our guest list is confirmed, we’ll finish making our pretty place cards and the seating chart for the reception. We also have to make our orders of service for the ceremony but I’m waiting on our lovely engagement photos to arrive in the mail so I can add them to the program.

RSVPs that have arrived!

This will look like a seating chart at some point!

Getting started on place cards!

There is only 1 week left of the school term now which is great and means that Mum and I will be on holidays until the wedding. Great feeling!!!!!! The holidays will be nice and busy getting the house ready and on the weekend of the 24th Rachel and I are having a girl’s weekend away. This is followed by my bridal shower/hens night on the 2nd October and Jeffrey’s Bucks weekend (which sounds more like a Buck Extravaganza!!!! ) I hope its extra special for him!

Invitations to my bridal shower/hens!

A month or so ago I ordered some new glasses to suit my wedding dress a little more. Yesterday they arrived and I’ve been switching between my normal glasses and these for the past few hours. I like the colour but the lens are different and not very good as far as vision is concerned. I’ll give them a bit more of a chance but I like my normal ones better! Far more comfortable. I’ve added a picture, there no surprise, so let me know what you think!

New glasses from the front

Glasses from the side!

We also have to finalizing our music CDs in the next week so if you have a requests or suggestions then please leave a comment and I will see about adding those songs! We’ve had a few requests so far which is nice. It’s really nice to have other people’s ideas involved with our planning, it’s like sharing the love!

Make up trial on Saturday so keep your eye peeled for some happy snaps and have a great weekend!

Reflecting on August!

2010-09-01T09:26:00.000-07:00

1 month 9 days

I thought seeing as its 3am and I can't sleep that I may as well write a blog post to add to my collection. I can't believe it's time to reflect on August, I really have no idea what has happened this month as it's gone so fast!

The house is looking really good with it's new gravel, polished garage doors and neat gardens. It's also been pressure cleaned ready for painting in the next few weeks. A little more painting and some straightening up inside and we'll be all ready and set to go!

I spend a large chunk of this month at my grandparents house so that Nana could finish my wedding dress (as you've been able to read about in past posts) and it's now all finished! Mum and Dad have both been over to see it and we all think it is absolutely beautiful and just the perfect colour for me. We've just got a few finishing touches with the beads and it will be ready to wear down the aisle!

We've also got a lot to smaller details done. Thank you cards, draft table plans, extra decorations, bedroom plans, make up trial booked and on Monday Rachel and I had a spray tan trial to see how it looks. I'm very happy with the colour! I've also had so much help from Rachel and Talia to get all those fiddly details finished off without any problems.

I've added a few photos from Jeff's iphone of other things we've been up to.

Jeff went to a Rotary Camp & was a leader

We've have quite a few rainy days

Me outside our very clean and neat looking house!

Japanese for dinner one night!

A peaceful breakfast together!

One of the slides at church!

Out shopping with Jeffrey and his parents!

Coffee with the girls!

A wedding present for our future house from one of the church ladies!

Letting my spray tan dry!

RSVPs arriving!!!!

Month ahead - September
Another busy month ahead of us but the excitement and anticipation is building up now!
- Visit from Jeffrey's sister Laree and boyfriend Clint
- Jeffrey's Mums 60th birthday party (we're decorating and singing)
- Father's Day (with each side of the family)
- Make up trial
- Writing our speech
- Girls weekend away!
- Burn music to CDs
- Wrap up all the final details
- Three family birthdays

I'm guessing lots of other things will pop up over time so hopefully I can get a little more sleep than I am tonight!!!

The Little White Wedding Dress!

2010-08-25T08:14:00.000-07:00

1 month and 14 days

I’m sure there is a point for any couple planning their wedding when they think ‘Come on, let’s just get on with this and be married!’ Jeff and I are certainly at that point now! Our engagement will have been almost 2 years so I think we have the right to feel that way and be just a little bit over the planning thing. At least that’s how we’re feeling this week!

After the grand total of 8 dress fittings my wedding dress is on the final stretch and will be hanging up by Saturday! Today I was able to try it on completely while Nana hemmed it, and it’s looking absolutely stunning and exactly how I wanted it to look! I think everyone will be very surprised when they see it and what a fantastic job Nana has done on it for me! I’ve been on Ebay tonight buying some beads to add to it somewhere. I’ve given you a little peek at the beads because I think there so pretty and your guess is as good as mine as to where they will be on the dress… if they are at all!

I spend some of today taking photos of the girl’s shoes just because I like photos and I can’t believe how many there are! (I guess we do all have two feet but still) Again, I’m pretty sure you’ve seen the shoes but I’ve given you a little peek at these too.

6 more weeks until the wedding, 4 more weeks left of the school term and 5 weeks until Jeffrey has his time off! Bridal shower/hens night, bucks night, surprise weekend away (organized by Rachel and Talia… I have no idea about it at all), last minute arrangements, rehearsal, wedding morning, ceremony, reception, honeymoon… we have got so much to look forward to in the next couple of months and I’m pretty excited!

The Perfect Song!

2010-08-19T02:12:00.000-07:00

1 month and 21 days

Busy, busy, busy is how our household is right now! Now that we can count in weeks (almost down to 7 weeks), we’ve all gotten the motivation to get a lot more done around the place. Both Jeff and I are getting very excited and you might think it’s been a long time but for us it’s felt like an eternity!!!!! In fact sometimes it doesn’t even feel like it’s going to happen haha!

At home I’ve been keeping the house super clean and trying to slowly but surely get things put away so as to save mum from a bit of the work. I’ve also spent each day this week polishing the garage doors. Hopefully by the weekend they will all be completely finished. It might sound like a funny thing to do but they look really good now! It’s hard going but at least it means I’m exercising!

I’ve had a song in mind for ages that I’d like to walk down the aisle to, but I’ve also known the style and kind of sound I wanted too. I couldn’t find the song in the style I wanted so Jeff solved my problem and organized for a friend of his brother’s to record it on piano for me. It is absolutely beautiful and exactly what I’ve been hoping for. It’s also plenty long enough to get my 5 bridesmaids plus myself and my dad down the aisle without having to run.

So with the song sorted and our music selections well on their way, we sat down to book our honeymoon. Again, this was Jeff’s job and he’s booked the perfect honeymoon. I’m not allowed to say where we’re going but it’s going to be very relaxing and something else to really look forward too!

I’ve also spent the week updating my wedding planners (as I’d like them all done and dusted well before the wedding). I consider the planners a really sweet way to look back on our wedding in years to come. Which is also why I started this online journal, not so much for others to read (but that’s a bonus) but for myself and Jeff (and perhaps our children) to look back on one day and remember what we did and how special it was.

Mostly everything else is taken care of. We had a little drama with the makeup lady we booked as she sold her business however I was able to organize someone else for the day. I’ve also got another wedding dress fitting on Saturday which is something great to look forward too! Well enjoy the warm days we’ve been having and that’s all from me for now.

Planning with a coffee!

My stress is so tight that Nana broke a few pins on it!

RSVPs have been coming in!

Half polished door!

Our gravel! Kinda hard to see because it's night

Over the 2 Month Mark!

2010-08-11T02:44:00.000-07:00

1 month and 29 days

It’s been a week or so since my last post but we’ve been pretty busy over here. We reached the two month mark and starting really getting into action with all of the left over bits and pieces.

My wedding dress is well on its way to being finished. I’ve had 4 dress fittings in the past 2 weeks and have quite a few more planned with Nana. Winter is certainly not the best month to be having dress fittings, its freezing earlier in the morning! I’m pretty sure I shivered a little bit of weight off me!

Jeff and I have been choosing our music for the day and soon we’ll have to start burning the CDs. We’ve had to find over 5 hours of music that we like and that people can get up and dance too. It would probably have been a lot easier if we’d just booked someone to do the music but this way we save money and we also get music we really want.

We’ve still got a lot happening to the house with more gravel, painting, polishing, edging, gardening etc. It’s going to look very nice here after the wedding and keeping everyone very busy and just a little bit stressed!

And at long last, our invitations were posted out today! We now just have to hand out the last few and wait on replies from our guests. We’ve already had 6 friends RSVP which is very exciting! Our first official guests woohoo!

That’s it guys, I’m off to do some cleaning up of things I’ve left all over the house (my planning seems to be everywhere haha!) Have a wonderful week!

Reflecting on July

2010-08-01T03:01:00.000-07:00

2 Months and 8 Days

Hello August and goodbye July! Time for a reflection post on the past month and a look at what’s happening during August. July has gone so fast that I can hardly remember everything that’s happened so far so if I leave anything out you’ll just have to forgive me.

We had 3 birthdays and Nana and Poppy’s anniversary to celebrate this month. It was super special giving them their gifts as I made them a photobook of the highlights of their 60 years of marriage. It was a lot of fun for me to do me as I got to look at how our family has grown and think about my impending marriage and all the new things that will bring with it! We also applied and got them a letter from the Governour General, Prime Minister and Queen which I think they really liked!

We’ve got a lot of wedding things done this month and heading along very nicely. Dad keeps telling me that I won’t have anything to do after the wedding is over. Sounds nice to me haha! We met with our photographer and had our engagement photos taken. My new glasses are on order, there pink! We’ve put aside the money for our honeymoon at long last but still haven’t got around to getting the car sorted. (We just haven’t had time but hopefully this month.) I’ve had my first dress fitting and will be having a few more in the weeks to come and I’ve put on some weight! That’s right, all the wonderful exercise isn’t going so well. I’ve been doing quite a bit but I’ve also been very tired and having to eat normally so the weight is back I think! Hopefully as the cooler weather leaves, I might be able to get back to eating a bit lighter, less bread more salad!

The house is going through its major makeover still. The tiling is finished, the front driveway now has gravel down and in the next month or so there is going to be painting and tidying up happening.

Also, Jeff at long last got his new iphone 4 that he’s been saving up for ages for! He’s one very happy boy now!

Snugs wearing some material from the bridesmaid dresses. What a cutie!

I spent hours putting little pink bows on our bubbles to make them look extra pretty!

Us all ready to have photos taken!

The digging of our driveway easy one morning!

We gave Jeff's parents their invitations early and little keepsake for the wedding day!

Uncle Greg's birthday cake!

Nana and Poppy's anniversary cake. Very yummy!

Jeff with his new iphone 4!

Check out more photos from July here!

The Month Ahead – August!

I’ve decided this month that I won’t be writing myself an exercise roster as I won’t stick too it. I’ll continue with the exercise but just as I feel like it rather than on a plan. I don’t have time for it and I’m losing the motivation to follow the planned out stuff! We’ve also got

- Picking up my new glasses

- Getting the invitations written on and post out by 13th August!

- Completing a few things on my ‘to do’ list

- Wedding dress fittings

- Eating less!

- Confirming music and burning CDs

- Sorting out our honeymoon

- Fixing up the car

- Working as much as possible

- Fixing my computer

- Exercising

We’ve both been very tired lately and also picking up part of this evil cold that is going around so this month we’ll be focusing on keeping well and getting plenty of rest! After all, things will be getting busier and busier and busier.

Great Friends!

2010-07-29T08:19:00.000-07:00

2 Months 10 days

Time is flying by and July is just about over… where on earth did it go? Not that much has happened in the past 3 days since my last post however I did go over to Nana’s house this afternoon with Mum for my first dress fitting! Very exciting! I’m going to spend the day over there sometime next week so that we can really get it started and Nana can have a good fiddle until it looks perfect. She’s not working from a pattern so it’s just that little bit trickier. I like it though, means I can have absolutely anything that I like!

The lovely Zoey, over at Ramblings of a Wife and Mama has just finished and sent me photos of the bridesmaids and my wedding jewelry, which she handmade from photos I sent her. I completely love them and think they will look gorgeous with our dresses. I can’t wait to see them in person and try them on! Seeing as not even the girls have seen them yet, I won’t add any photos (Like I said in previous posts, the photo police will get me!) but they are very elegant and sparkly!

Jeffrey and I are very blessed to have such wonderful friends, willing to be involved in our wedding. We’ve lined up the beautiful Carly Hampson to sing whilst guests are arriving and during the ceremony along with my Matron on Honour’s husband, Aaron West, accompanying her on the guitar! We’re both very excited to have our friends involved to make our day just that little bit more special! It will mean so much more when we look back on our wedding in years to come!

Invitations go out in about 2 weeks and everything is starting to feel so much more real, very exciting and most nights stopping me from sleeping. I’m pretty sure I’m more excited than Jeff is but I guess that’s just how boys roll! I’m counting down the days til our wedding and Jeff is counting down the days until iphone 4 is released hahaha!!!! (By the way, it’s just been released now!) I’m sure that when it gets closer the excitement will kick in for him too! I’d also like to add here that Jeff has just been the best through all of this planning! I don’t know how other males go with wedding planning but Jeff has been involved in everything (even how the napkins are folded on the tables) and he’s never once complained. He’s also organizing the music for me to walk down the aisle too. Isn’t that sweet of him? Awwww!

Well that’s it for now folks, keep reading and leave comments! I love to hear from my readers and I love seeing that little counter go up each day with the visitors that drop by! If you’d like me to write about something in particular then just drop me a line. Take care and buy an iphone (a message from Jeff!)

Jeff's Added Essential

2010-07-26T08:03:00.000-07:00

2 months and 13 days

As you can see, Jeff has been playing around with our blog and added in a counter so we know how many guests we've had and also a count down on the right hand side. It's very exciting to watch it count down and see it change each day! We're very pleased to see that we actually have quite a few visitors to our blog, and it's not just us!!!!

Music
We've spent the past day looking for the perfect song for me to walk down the aisle too. Jeff being the clever boy he is has got it all sorted for me! I'm going to keep it a lovely surprise though for the day! I've been having trouble sleeping knowing that I still have a lot of things to do and time running away quickly. Music needs to be my main focus this week as we need to get it on the computer and start burning CDs.

I've at long last got my computer back however things are still falling into place with it. Once Jeff gets everything completely sorted I'll be able to start on the music and the other million things we've still got to get sorted or at the very least, remember that we have to do them! I keep thinking of things but need to actually write them down somewhere!

We gave Jeffrey's parents their invitations last week so they got to see them before everyone else. They really liked them which makes all the time and effort we put in very worthwhile. I hope everyone else that recieves an invitation thinks they are lovely too. I just so happen to think they are perfect!

It has honestly been a tough couple of days as we've had a busy week and weekend. I started to get a cold and along with that we have our big to do list, 6am phone calls for work and just living life, I've been exhausted and feeling very run down and tired! Poor Jeff has had a day off work sick as well. As for exercise, thats has just totally gone out the window at the moment. I might have to spent a day off catching up on everything I have missed out on!

I'm hoping things might slow down in the next few days and I'm also very happy that things are falling into place really nicely, perfectly! We're two very blessed people right now!

Engagement Photos!

2010-07-21T03:39:00.000-07:00

2 months and 19 days!

This afternoon Jeffrey and I had the pleasure of meeting with our photographer, Melissa Jean and had some engagment photos taken. We headed down to the beach and balanced our way along the rocks to a gorgeous cliff face for our photos. We had so much fun and I hope that comes through in our photos. I seriously can't wait to see them in a few weeks time.

On 13th August we're going to try and get the invitations out so over the next few weeks we are going to confirm our guest list and get the names and addresses on our invitations. I can't wait for everyone to see them as I think they are just beautiful and exactly what we wanted!

My parents house is havig a major make over at the moment. The inside has been tidied up a lot, gardens have been tidied up and bark added and tomorrow the front driveaway is going to be completely changed. It's going to be very exciting to see how it looks once it's finished.

That's about all our news for now. We've got a lot happening until the end of the month and sstill a long list of wedding things to do in between working. Keep us in your prayers and thoughts.

A photo we snapped just after our engagement photos. How good does Jeff look in jeans!?!?!

Remember the One You Love!

2010-07-17T09:00:00.000-07:00

2 months and 22 days!

This is only a short post but I've been reminded lately and would like to encourage you to remember the one you love.

For me, to remember the beginning of this journey, dating, love, needing one another - it never changes but it's easy to forget when your busy and stressed.

For you, remember the one you love, why you love them, why your with them and how important they are too you.

I encourage you this new week to remember the one you love. Do something super nice for them (it doesn't have to cost you a lot) and no matter how busy you are, put some time aside for the one you love. Turn off the computer, get out of the house, leave your phone at home - whatever it may be. Go on an adventure together, learn something new together or just grab a coffee and relax!

Whatever it maybe, remember that life is short and you should cherish every chance you have with the one you love and remember not to take them for granted. I know, deep for a Sunday morning but I think it's important and truthful in our busy, stressful and crazy lives. Have a wonderful week!

School Holiday Fun!

2010-07-13T20:04:00.000-07:00

2 months and 26 days

It's been a while since my last blog because my computer has had a meltdown and I've been using Jeffrey's mini hp laptop which is just a pain in the butt to do anything on. But right now I've been blessed with the use of a 15inch macbook pro which Jeffrey has borrowed from his work for a week. I can really see myself getting hooked on this thing as it rocks! Macbook as a wedding present, yes please haha!

Anyways I'll fill you in on the last couple of weeks of our planning. We've spent all of the school holidays sorting out the house a little more. Mum has filled all of the gardens with bark, Dad has continued with the tiling of the lounge room and I've been sorting out any junk in different rooms of the house and getting rid of the clutter. We've also been sorting through Jeffrey's bedroom and bringing some of his things over to my house so that after the wedding he and I can be settled here until we've got our own house built on our land.

I thought it would be mighty difficult but Mum took me glasses shopping over the holidays and I've ordered a new set of glasses for the wedding. I've never had to worry about how they look but everyone agreed that black glasses frames with a white wedding dress didn't look very good. I found a lovely pair of frames in the second glasses shop we visited so they are now on order! I was also very surprised at the patience and kindness of the people working in the glasses place I went too. Normally the way glasses look on people is quite a vain thing which they don't consider all that important. However these people were kind enough to take photos of me and look at the frames against white. I had the whole store giving me their opinions and help to choose the right ones and asking all about the wedding. It was really nice of them to care so much!

We've also got a lot of the little bits and pieces sorted that needed to be done at some point. We bought bubbles and I tied pretty little pink bows to each one (which might I add took me over 3 hours) and we got our table seating chart started. We also organised our engagement photo session, emailed everyone involved in the day and started to work out the specific times for the day. Everything is falling into place so nicely.

I cannot believe the wedding is less than 3 months away, it's been so long coming and I don't think Jeffrey and I are the only ones who are really looking forward to the wedding. It always surprises me when I hear that other people are talking about our wedding. Rockhampton, Kingaroy, Brisbane and Sunny coast churches have apparently been chatting about it. Very weird and sweet too.

Also, this is the last term of school that I will be Miss Owen, how totally weird! Hopefully my computer will be well again very soon so I can blog a little more regularly and keep you up to date as things start to get busier and busier!

Reflecting on June

2010-07-01T07:26:00.000-07:00

3 months and 8 days

We’re already at July, can you believe it?! Time to do our tax again and just another month closer to the day I say I do! As usual I spent June trying to eat healthy and stick to my exercising. Mineral water and crusket biscuits became my best friends as did soup! Unfortunately the cold weather has made me much hungrier and left me with very little motivation to exercise. I did finish the whole monthly exercise plan however I had to do a lot of ‘catching up days’ to get on top of each week.

We’ve got loads of wedding stuff done this month, the invitations, all of the bridesmaid dresses are finished, all of the boys have had suit fittings, invitations are completely finished, finalised most of the flowers, finalised most of the wedding and reception plans with Maleny Manor, finished paying off the last few wedding things that Jeff and I were responsible for, collected a lot of music to go through, visited Rocky for more pre-marriage counselling and had our land party to celebrate our land purchase. Phew it’s been a busy one but I relieved to have all of that done and dusted!

The Month Ahead – July
July will be a busy month as well!

- Nana and Poppy’s birthdays and Anniversary (Yes I wrote that last month but really it’s this month)
- Nana is going to start my wedding dress at the end of the month
- Finished place cards
- Sorting out music
- Both Jeff and I working
- Finishing our vows
- Saving up money for our honeymoon (that might take a few months)
- Getting a few things fixed on the car
- Glasses shop for me
- Exercise, exercise, exercise
- We’re meeting our photographer and having some engagement photos taken

I’m sure we’ll have plenty more things to get sorted... but I can’t think of them right now. I couldn’t be more grateful that the wedding plans are falling into place and that Jeff and I are extremely happy with everything we’ve been blessed with to have on our special day!

Fine Details!

2010-06-30T06:25:00.000-07:00

3 Months and 9 days

Today, Mum, Jeff and myself spent the day doing wedding stuff. We visited the florist, Maleny Manor and had Jeffrey’s older brother Brett try on his suit. We managed to get quite a lot done in just one day which is definitely the best way to do it.

Our first stop was Mondo Floral Designs new studio which might I add is gorgeous! We met with the lovely Louise just under a year ago to decide on the main flowers we’d have so this appointment was really just about bring it all together and putting down our theme which is Roses! We’re going to have roses coming out of our ears on the day, which I love! We’re having whites, light pinks and latte coloured roses throughout pretty well everything on the day. In my bouquet, the bridesmaids poises, in our hair, on the boys, the table decorations, our wedding cake and the ceremony flowers!

Mondo Floral Designs is just such a lovely company with great people who are easy to talk to, understanding, incredibly professional and genuinely care about our special day. I’m sure they have seen hundreds of wedding but they are still so friendly, helpful and make you feel like you could ask them anything and get an honest answer. I don’t have a worry in the world about our flowers, I just know they will be amazing!

Our second stop of the day was to Maleny Manor to go through our run and fact sheets with the lovely Marlene! We spent some of our time there just looking around, taking photos and discussing where we’d put everything on the day. After we’d looked around, Marlene sat us down and was more than helpful with all our details. I’m certain, beyond a doubt that she’ll make sure our wedding day is perfect! We went through every single fine detail and asked lots of questions. Nothing seemed too silly or fiddley for Marlene and by the time we left we pretty well had the whole day from start to end sorted out! Which I am extremely pleased about!

Both Louise at Mondo and Marlene at the Manor commented on how organized we were with our arrangements and how much easier it is to have it sorted early. I totally agree!!!! Just a few weeks ago, Jeffrey and I received an email from Maleny Manor about getting our details sorted early and I just have to share the little note at the bottom (because I think it is just spot on and loved the sense of humour!)

‘The secret to no stress is get organised early ...so when some well meaning relative says something totally stupid 4 weeks before the wedding you will not be up for murder.’

After our very productive morning at the Maleny Manor and feeling extremely confident in everything, we zipped home for a quick lunch than over to Nana’s so that Brett could have his suit fitting. We couldn’t be more pleased as his suit fits perfectly, no alterations whatsoever for Brett! So I’m pleased to announce that the whole bridal party is done (other than the girls dress zips). At the end of July Nana is going to get started on my wedding dress and by than things will be getting closer and closer!

I’ll leave you with some snaps of us at Maleny Manor today exploring everywhere! Have a wonderful week!

A vase from Mondo Floral Designs to try out on the tables at Maleny Manor

Jeff trying out the chairs!

Jeff just outside where we are getting married

Testing out the steps. I could totally handle this in heels and a huge dress, no probs.........eeeeek!

Big Thank You!

2010-06-27T04:22:00.000-07:00

3 months and 12 days

I’d like to dedicate this blog to thanking everyone who helped with invitations and stationary on Saturday. To my Mum, Rachel, Talia and my two cousins Sarah and Morgan, thank you from the bottom of my heart for your kind help!

I didn’t think it was possible but all of the invitations, RSVPs, envelops and bird cage envelops are completely finished and safely put away! We’ve still got to finish the place cards, order of services for guests and Talia is finishing off a stamp of my bird cage frame. That’s it and we’re done with the stationary!

Over the holidays we plan to get most of those things finished off, go to our appointments with the florist and Manor on Wednesday and also look for some new glasses for me... which will be a challenge and a half!

The photo police are out to get me so I will only post up a few photos to give you a sneak peak of the day.

Mum, Sarah and Morgan figuring out the first invitation

Rachel and Talia programming the cricut!

The front of our envelops!

The back!

Talia making our love bird stamp!

Making Invitations!

The cricut doing it's thing!

Snug being a big help of course!

Chris even came to help... for a second!

Puss made an apperance too!

Lunch time!!

Our love bird stamp!

A peak at our invitations!

Place cards maybe?!?! hehe!

Keep your eyes on facebook for photos of June so far and wedding planning!

And So Begin the Invitations!

2010-06-23T04:14:00.000-07:00

3 months and 16 days

Gosh time is flying by and it makes me think that I need to make good use for this blog while there is still time. After the wedding and maybe some post-wedding updates, this blog will cease to exist anymore. Kind of sad hey? But not to freak, I’m a blogger at heart and will continue my Misadventures of Carmy and Jeff and may even change the title to suit our married life. (Jeff’s clever suggestion actually!)

So I can update that Talia had one of her final dress fitting last Thursday and she looks beautiful in her dress! In fact all of my bridesmaids look gorgeous! I cannot wait to see them all dressed up and with their flowers on the day. I made the discovery whilst taking photos of Talia in her dress. When using the flash on my camera the dresses come out in this amazing pink colour. Check it out in the picture, I love it so much... I only hope Jeff does as well.

On Saturday Mum, myself, Rachel, Talia, my cousins and Aunty are coming over to help start making the invitations. I imagine this process is going to take longer than just one day but at least if we get them started we’ll be happy. Hopefully we can get them all finished by the end of the school holidays so that if term 3 gets busy we don’t need to be stressed out. So stay tuned for some photos of our invitation day!

I’m really looking forward to 30th June as mum, Jeff and I are heading to the florist and Maleny Manor to get some more things finalised. I just LOVE visiting Maleny Manor as it is just so beautiful. It wouldn’t matter if it was rainy, sunny, windy or foggy up there, it’s just stunning! Hopefully we can have another look around the house and rooms while we’re there! Hopefully more photos too!

The healthy eating and exercising has been a real struggle this month because it’s so cold. I don’t feel like going for walks and I’m much hungrier in the cold weather. I’m trying to just eat healthy by making lots of soups but eating a bit more than usual. It’s very frustrating though!

Well that’s about it for now, we’ve been busy and are getting busier so I will try to keep up the blogging and hope that you enjoy the updates. Take care xo

A Whirlwind Weekend!

2010-06-14T21:41:00.000-07:00

3 Months and 24 days!

Time is ticking away and very quickly too. The month of June has been very busy and is already half over! The weekend just past has been like a whirlwind of things happening for Jeffrey and I! His family come to visit which meant lots of time was spent with them and his brother’s band Kindread released their first CD at Club Envy on the Coast as well which was a super late night for everyone! Their CD is called ‘Free World’ and if your into Reggae/Funk music than they are certainly for you! Check them out on facebook here or let me know if your interested in buying a copy of their CD – Free World! You wont regret it, they are great!

Anyways back to the weekend, I’ve spent a fair bit of time organizing appointments for the school holidays and sending out confirmation emails to people who are involved in our big day. Jeff, Mum and I are heading to the florist, Maleny Manor and photographer all in one day to make the final decisions about what we’re having in a few weeks time.

I thought you might be interested in the people who we’ve booked for our wedding, so here is a list along with their websites. Check them out!

Maleny Manor

Mondo Florial Designs

Melissa Jean Photography

Velocity Images

Also on the weekend we caught up with Laree (Jeffrey’s sister) and James (Jeffrey’s brother) and took them around for their dress/suit fittings at Nana’s house! Laree’s dress looked beautiful on her and James looked very handsome in his suit. I think they are both very happy with what their wearing which makes me very happy! I like to think that it’s not just Jeffrey and I who will be happy on the day but that everyone will have a fantastic time and a day to remember forever!

Laree trying on her dress!

Two of my lovely bridesmaids together!

Jame's trying on his suit!

Thinking all the way back to last Thursday, Talia and I headed over to Nana’s house for her dress fitting as well. Even though Talia’s dress is only half finished, it is already looking very beautiful on her! I can’t wait to see the finished product as well. So many people have been complaining to me that I put up photos on my blog and facebook of wedding stuff that ‘should be a surprise’. Personally I don’t really mind, I LOVE sharing things as they happen but for the benifit of those who don’t like it, I will restrain myself and not put up any photos that give anything away too much. I’ve edited a few pictures for my blog so that you can see something from the weekend. I hope you like!

Me at Talia's dress fitting!

Land Party
Jeff and I celebrated our land purchase by having our friends over on Sunday afternoon for a land party! It wasn’t a big affair but it was relaxed with lots of yummy food! We were able to show everyone around (which took about 2 seconds, it’s not very big) and now all our friends know where we’re going to be living in the future! Thanks to everyone who came and made our afternoon super special!

Lots and lots of yummy food!

So very good!

Snugs and I chilling out after a HUGE weekend!

Friends celebrating with us!

Talia and Luke enjoying the afternoon!

Snugs loved the attention!

Jeff and Kevin, two great friends!

Simon, Jan, Kevin, Jeff and Snuggles!

On our land together xo!

If your interested in our busy month of June than check out pictures from the month right here!

Hens and Bucks Night

2010-06-07T15:54:00.000-07:00

As the wedding gets closer and closer the little traditions like my Hen’s night and Jeffrey’s Buck’s night have been being discussed. Now let me tell you before I write this post that I am SO incredibly blessed to have my best friend Rachel who I trust completely organizing this event. And Jeffrey is very blessed to have Kevin who he trusts very much organizing his!

Both Jeff and I share very similar views on the Hens/Bucks night which comes just before the wedding. We are both excited to have a special day/night to share with our friends but are not so happy with the ‘traditions’ or what our society seems to think these nights represent. I for one (and I know I can speak for Jeffrey too) think that strippers, male or female genital games or items and getting totally drunk are just totally wrong! I don’t do that normally so why would I do that when I’m engaged and about to get married?

My beliefs as a Christian have a large part of play in my thoughts about these things but also generally my morals and how I’ve been brought up too. I’m engaged right? So as far as I’m concerned I’m committed to Jeffrey and he is committed to me. I would be mortified if I knew he spent his bucks night watching half naked women dance, getting drunk or chatting up other girls because it was his ‘last chance’. And I know he would feel the same if it was me doing that too! It’s not our ‘last chance’ we’re not single (and I wouldn’t do that even if I was). And why does our society seem to put such a negative overtone on the idea of marrying one woman or one man for the rest of your life? I think it’s brilliant and will bring many many blessings along the way! I’m so happy that I’m going to spend the rest of my life with Jeff has my husband!

Of course this is just my opinion (and I’m sure there are lots of people who are reading this thinking I am deluded about marriage and that I’m too young to understand), so if you don’t share my views that’s fine with me. I really am looking forward to a great day/night with the girls that is glorify to God and will help in celebrating the lifetime commitment that my wonderful Jeff and I are making to one another!

Whilst I know there are a lot of people that do not share mine and Jeffrey’s view on this tradition, I’d like to share a post written by the lovely Talia about her hens night. I was very blessed to attend this night and we had the best fun ever!

I’d also like to leave you with some photos from my best friend Rachel’s bridal shower/hens night which I was very blessed to organize. We had a fantastic day/night that was lots of fun and that celebrated her future marriage with Aaron!

A Quick Trip to Rocky!

2010-06-07T15:02:00.000-07:00

4 Months and 2 days!

On the weekend just passed, Jeffrey and I took a quick trip up to Rockhampton for our second last pre-marriage session with Ps Bakss. We flew up very early Friday morning and drove Kevin’s car back Saturday afternoon/night. The drive back was a great opportunity to chat about our pre-marriage session and discuss any unanswered questions we still had.

We had another very good pre-marriage session which focused on ‘The roles in Marriage’ and ‘How to have a Good Fight’. We learnt a lot about one another and also about the biblical principles to do with these topics. We also have quite a few strategies to help resolve any conflict we have rather than just compromising all the time. We both couldn’t be happier with the course Ps Bakss is taking us through and would highly recommend it to anyone getting married!

We also spent a little bit of the session discussing the ceremony and have now given Ps Bakss our draft for the ceremony so he can help us plan it out nicely. We’ve also filled out and posted the main forms to Maleny Manor and am hoping to make an appointment to sort out the unanswered questions on the school holidays.

Whilst we were in Rocky we also took the opportunity to catch up with some of Jeffrey’s friends, visit the free Zoo and eat out a fair bit before the huge 6hr drive back home. It was only a flying visit but we still had lots of fun.

Also in the week just gone, Jeff and I spent the whole day down in Brisbane together just drinking coffee, walking around the CBD, seeing a movie and having dinner with friends. It was such a relaxing day together that it has made us decided that we need to take at least one day the week before the wedding to get away from everyone and just spend some quality time together chilling out. I’m not sure where we’ll go but as long as it’s just us for a whole day!

On the weekend we’re having a visit from some of Jeff’s family and we’re going to take that opportunity for them to have their fittings with Nana. Hopefully soon we’ll have all of the bridal party sorted and Nana can start on my wedding dress! Exciting!!!!

I’ll leave you with some snaps from the week just gone. Happy reading!

Coffee in ANZAC Square

Jeff feeding the birds

The war memorial

Me at the memorial

I love my coffee!

Dinner with James and Lauren

The flight out of Brisbane to Rockhampton!

Sunrise as we fly to Rocky!

The Rocky Zoo

Cool bird aviary!

Jeffrey with Luke who gave us my favourite chocolate!!!

Josh and Jeff checking Kevin's car before we leave!

Travelling home!

Us at high tea the next day after church!

High tea with family and friends. Best afternoon!

Reflecting on May!

2010-05-30T23:41:00.000-07:00

4 months and 9 days

Reflecting on May

I thought I’d make these ‘Reflection’ posts a regular for the end of the next few months because I’m trying to achieve something each month and there is a lot going on which would be very nice to reflect on.

May was the first month where I got really strict with my eating and exercising. Has it been easy? No, it hasn’t! Have I enjoyed it? No, not really! Do I feel good because of it? Yes, I’ve lost 2kg and am feeling really good and healthy! I’ve completed every single day of my exercising for May as you can see from the picture and I’m quite proud to be able to say that. I don’t usual stick to my plan when it comes to exercise so I am very proud of that achievement. Now I just have to keep it up for June, July, August, September and a few days in October! If I had to score myself out of 10 for healthy eating (10 being the best) I’d have to give myself around about a score of 6. I mean I’m vegetarian so I’m already a few points ahead but Krispy Kreme donuts really are very bad! Must improve next month!

You can read an update on how busy May has been over at my Misadventures of Carmy and Jeff blog but it really has been the birthday month! 4 birthdays plus Mother’s Day is quite a lot! Jeff and I also had the settlement for our land, we visited Rockhampton for our pre-marriage stuff, we’ve written a draft of our vows, both been working and have filled out all the paperwork for Maleny Manor. I’ve also been along to dress fittings for Rachel and Talia and have had my going away dress fitted and finished! But what can I say, I’m loving every single little tiny thing about it all and am certain I’m not a stressed out, bird brained, sleep deprived bride...yet! Yes I’m having a few loop moments as you can see from the previous post but May has been busy and all in all has been a great month that has been very productive.

The Month Ahead: June

Just some of the things in the month ahead

- Nana’s 80th Birthday
- Poppy’s 81st Birthday

- Nana and Poppy’s 60th Wedding Anniversary

- Continuing the exercise/healthy eating

- Working for both of us

- Land Party

- Making the invitations/RSVPs/place cards/bird cage stamping/envelop decorations

- Meeting with Maleny Manor and florist

- Family get together with extend relatives

- Trip to Rockhampton for pre-marriage and ceremony arrangements

- Jeffrey’s sister visiting

I want to leave you with a link to the lovely Zoey’s blog. She has written some very wise words to any bride/groom whilst planning their wedding which I completely agree with. Hope you enjoy it!

Cars, Vows and Land!

2010-05-24T07:38:00.000-07:00

4 months and 16 days

I always get the motivation to write new updates on my blog at weird times of the morning. Right now it’s just turned midnight but what the hey! If I go to bed I’ll just lie awake thinking about what I’d write and start to solve world problems in my head! I do think I’m starting to go a little loopy though! Due to having so much on my mind I now have post it notes, paper and a pen on my bed side table. I woke up this morning to find that I’d decorated my paper with cupcakes and flowers sometime last night... I don’t sleep walk so I guess I was half asleep/half awake when I did it! Crazy stuff!

This week Jeffrey and I sorted out the car arrangement for the wedding day. Dad and myself are being driven to the wedding by Pastor Simon in his car with the bridesmaids following in Jan’s car (Ps Simon’s Wife) and my Poppy’s car. Jeffrey is going to arrive to the wedding in his dad’s sporty red car and the groomsmen will arrive in Kevin’s sparkly new silver car! We bought enough white ribbon for all the cars from Spotlight along with a bow thing for the front of the car that I’m arriving in. I’m loving the fact that our friends and family are helping out with the cars, might help us feel a bit more relaxed on the day and just makes the day even more special!

Talia had her dress fitting last week and Rachel tried on her finished dress which looked beautiful! I got to try on my going away dress and I LOVE IT! Perfect colour and such a pretty style. We also had to do a little more changing over of groomsmen suits but that’s all under control now!

Last night Jeff and I actually started writing our vows. We looked through loads of different ones, highlighted the good bits and Jeff sat down and wrote something out which we than moved around and altered to make it just right! There still a work in progress but I think we’ve got the vows pretty well written out. It’s such a good feeling and really makes the wedding seem closer.

And finally we’ve decided to celebrate buying our block of land by having a Land Party! We’re still working on a date but everyone is invited so stay tuned for a date and time! We’re thinking lunch/afternoon tea, picnic rugs, cupcakes, tea, hot chocolate and just lots of celebrating with family and friends. But stay tuned for that!

I Promise to Love You!

2010-05-19T22:51:00.000-07:00

4 months and 20 days!

I think we're going to be very happy here!

Vows

For the past couple of days I’ve been typing up the run sheet for our whole wedding (ceremony and reception) and I’ve also been typing up the order of service. Jeff and I are flying back to Rockhampton in 2 weeks time to do another pre-marriage session and to also discuss our wedding ceremony. We’ve figured out the order, the music, the people we want involved and the giving away of the bride part. Our last task for the ceremony (and of course one of the most important parts) is writing our wedding vows.

We’ve decided that we’d like something a little bit traditional, mixed with something Christian and with a touch of the ‘I love you’ stuff. I’ve been reading the vows Ps Bakss gave us and looking at some online. Did you know there are thousands and thousands of different vows online? My mind can’t cope with it! So I printed out just a few that I really liked and highlighted parts in other vows that I felt were important. Our plan is to sit down and try to put together parts of vows we like to create ours.

The other thing I think is very important is making promises that can be kept. After all, these are very important and I honestly cannot stand up in front of all my friends, family, Jeff and most importantly God and make promise I know I’ll break. ‘I promise to be even tempered all of our lives’. Yeah, that’s not going to happen so I wouldn’t promise it. ‘I promise to always love you.’ Now that one I can keep! You get the gist! Writing vows is definitely not as easy as I first thought it would be! It’s lots of fun though.

In about 5 minutes Rachel will be here to pick me up. We’re heading over to my grandparents house to meet Talia so the two girls can have their dress fittings. So I best be off, take care!

Our Exciting News!

2010-05-14T08:14:00.000-07:00

4 Months and 25 days

Quite a few posts back (in March) you might remember I told you that Jeffrey and I might have some very exciting news to share with you. Well I did say ‘in a few weeks’ but it’s actually been 3 months now but we can officially share our very exciting news! We purchased a piece of land to build a house on!!!!!!!!

It’s only about 5 minutes drive from my parent’s house and about 2 minutes drive from Jeffrey’s dad’s house and its right in the township which is great seeing as I cannot drive. We can walk to the shops, train, school, doctors etc and can easily visit our families because they are so close! It’s not a huge piece of land, in fact to the average person it’s probably tiny but for just the two of us (plus Puss and Snuggles) it’s just perfect! Our plan all along has been to borrow the least amount of money possible for the land and for the house. Because it’s small we’ll only be able to fit a small house which is good!

We’ve been looking at loads of house plans and Rachel and I visited some BEAUTIFUL display homes a couple of months back. I’d love a gorgeous modern house but I’ll settle for something a bit cheaper and smaller. For now we’re hoping to build in the next 6 – 12 months and to build a small, simple but modern style house that has good re-sale but doesn’t cost us loads. We’re also hoping to build it just to lock up stage and finish the rest ourselves and with the help of our families! Mum and Dad are being really helpful and Dad is going to get us a few different quotes to build. They are also very happy to help us to do things a bit cheaper like painting, and tiling ourselves, building certain things ourselves and Dad is going to do the plumbing for us!

We feel incredibly blessed and this couldn’t be a better gift from God! We’ve been looking at land for a while now and all of a sudden one of the very last vacant blocks in the township came up for sale at the price we could afford and we had plenty of time to get finance and buy it! Praise the Lord! For obvious reasons I can’t put up too many pictures around the land but I’ve added just a few to give you the idea of it.

Wedding planning is coming along nicely. Rachel, Talia, Mum and I are going to tackle invitations and any stationary stuff on the school holidays and Jeffrey’s family is coming to visit in a few weeks to have all their fittings! So glad things are getting sorted and everything is falling into place. Hope your all having a great week and don’t forget to leave comments as it’s always very encouraging!

Reading the mountains of paper work!

One of the many gorgeous display homes Rachel and I looked at.

Signing away our lives haha!

Sorting out the Bridal Party!

2010-05-09T19:55:00.000-07:00

5 Months today!

Last week we found out that the boys suits are no longer in stock at the store we bought them from which means we need to get all of them fitted very quickly in case we need to change any sizes! I knew this would happen haha! We’re pretty confident that all the boys’ suits are fine though, just Brett and James left to visit Nana for a fitting.

Rachel had one of her last dress fittings last week which means Nana has finished 3 dresses, only two left and she’s started both of them already! In the next month everyone else will be having their fittings and hopefully by July all the bridesmaid dresses will be finished and the suits either altered or ready to be altered. At least that’s what Nana is hoping for!

Exercising is going really well, as is the healthy eating. I’ve only been doing it for a week and a half and already I’ve lost almost 2kg! Hopefully it either stays like that or I lose a little more. I don’t actually need to lose much, just from certain places. Snuggles is loving the exercise too because I take her for plenty of long walks! She’s totally up for helping with that!

Also in the past week I’ve bought some pretty light pink nail polish for me to wear on the day, we’ve started filling out our pre-marriage counselling worksheets, booked flights back to Rocky in a few weeks for another pre-marriage session, I’ve typed out the fact sheet for Maleny manor, started looking at hair styles, tried on my going away dress and also begun organizing the music! Phew, it’s been a busy week! In between all of that Jeffrey has been working full time and I had one day of relief which was GREAT!

So there you go a glimpse into a crazy wedding planning week. I think I’m going to have to put a note pad and pen next to my bed because I wake up in the middle of the night with something on my mind that I have to do and remember! I also am almost at the point of having to write what’s happening each day on my exercise calendar because we’ve got so much on right now!!!!

Rachel's fitting

My pretty pink nail polish

Chris checking himself out at Nana's!

Morgy trying out a hairstyle!

Sarah trying another hairstyle!

Nana taking a few more of Jeffrey's measurements!

Pre-marriage Counselling

2010-04-30T18:19:00.000-07:00

5 months and 8 days

At this moment as I write this blog post I am not sitting at my computer with it's big screen and easy to master keyboard, rather I am in Rockhampton hunched over Jeffrey's mini laptop with a tiny keyboard and very hard to read screen. All the same I felt it important to take some time out to write this post about pre-marriage counselling.

On the plane flight up to Rocky

Every since I told people that we were going to Rocky for the weekend for pre-mariage counselling I've had a lot of people both in person and online asking what on earth it is so I thought I'd outline what exactly we are doing and why I think it is very important and valuable in the wedding planning process.

Planning a wedding is so much fun! I've tried on dresses, looked at flowers, read wedding blogs for months now and have just generally been soaking up the wedding vibe! Let me tell you now, it's a girls dream to be doing things like this and I'm having the best time but Jeffrey and I are not getting married for the beautiful reception, wedding cake or delicious food, we are having a wedding so that we can be married - husband and wife. Now not just because I'm a christian but because of my personal belief in marriage, I consider marriage a commitment for life and therefore want to make sure that Jeffrey and I will be strong as a couple and know each other as well as we know ourselves. Yes this does come with time but this is also where the pre-marriage counselling comes in.

Arriving at the church to meet with Ps Bakss

Basically the Pastor who will perform the wedding ceremony is taking us through what it means to be married. The topics we are covering are
- Marriage and Counselling
- Ingredients for a Marriage made in Heaven
- Who's Who (The Roles in Marriage)
- How to have a Good Fight (Resolving Conflict)
- Till Debt do us Part (Money and Marriage)
- How to keep the Honey in the Honeymoon

As you can see it's not just a matter of I love you and you love me, we dive deep into many issues that we are about to face or might face in the future. We've filled out questionnaires about ourselves and partner to better understand each other and find out what we need to sit down and talk about. We want to find out each others expectations of marriage so that neither of us get an unpleasant surprise after the celebrations are over.

We went for a peaceful walk together on Sunday afternoon to talk about what we'd learnt!

Now another question I've had is 'Do all people getting married have to do this?' No they don't. Most pastors will take couples who are getting married through some type of pre-marriage counselling but you do not have to do it. However I would highly recommend it to anyone getting married now or in the future. It wont make your marriage perfect but it will certainly bring you closer together and get you talking about 'the tough stuff'.

A match made in heaven!

Jeffrey and I are both really really enjoying the counselling and have already learnt so much about ourselves, each other and marriage. We've had two sessions now and have another two before the wedding as well. If you would like to, keep praying for us we'd very much apperciate it as we've got a lot of our plate at the moment and your thoughts are always a blessing. Check out more pictures from our trip on facebook

Our tickets to fly back to home sweet home!

Settings Some Goals

2010-04-27T07:33:00.000-07:00

5 months and 12 days

Up until a few months ago I was doing pretty well with the healthy eating and exercise but since just before March I got really lazy and I also got sick, twice! Now that it’s less than 6 months until the wedding I decided that it’s really time to get kicking with losing a little bit of weight and generally getting a little bit more fit ready for the big day!

So I have a plan to try and stick to some simple exercise over the next 5 months up until about a week before the wedding when I figure things might get pretty busy. I’ve blue tacked a calendar on the wall above my computer with the exercise I need to do for the day and each day I’ll cross it off or I’ll have to make it up if I’ve been super lazy! I’m starting out with small amounts and will hopefully work up to doing something each day even if it’s just for 15mins. It all counts right?

I also plan to start thinking a bit more about the food that I eat. I’m vegetarian so not a whole lot of fatty food passes my lips but I love chocolate and midnight snacks which is not a good mix by any means. So less chocolate and if I ‘need’ a midnight snack it will have to be rice crisps or a salad for the time being. As for my other love – coffee, I don’t think I can get rid of this but I’ll have to try and cut down, just until after the wedding and not a minute longer!!!!!

So wish me luck for the next 5 months and hopefully I’ll be a few kilos lighter by the 9th October!

Crazy Little Bride!!!!

2010-04-23T05:03:00.000-07:00

I’m having one of those funny nights when I NEED to do and produce something useful but can’t for the life of me think of anything I can or want to do. For the past half an hour I’ve sat at the computer searching for loads of random things on google and ebay from coffee to hair styles. To stop myself from going crazy I thought I’d write a blog about the things I’m having trouble deciding on for our wedding preparation. Feel free to give me your suggestions and ideas in the comment section of the blog as I really like hearing other people’s ideas and suggestions.

So basically these are the things we/or I have been having much trouble making a decision on.

- My hair style

- The bridesmaid’s hair styles

- When and how the girls will arrive?

- The music/what and when?

- How to fit all of my crazy ideas into one day and what NOT to include in the day?

- Whether to hire a pretty car and if so what to hire?

- When to leave for our honeymoon – straight after wedding or next day?

- Who to ask to do things to help on the day

- Vows

Yeah so you can see I’ve been doing some ‘over thinking’ here! That does tend to happen when you can’t escape the house sometimes haha! Well if you have any ideas about anything than please leave a comment!

PS: This post may be a result of the very strong and large amounts of coffee I’ve consumed as well!

Our Invitation Design

2010-04-18T23:52:00.000-07:00

5 Months and 20 days

I actually really enjoy writing these blog posts and reflecting on the process of our wedding planning. I miss it when I’m not writing them and so I found an excuse to write a new post plus I’m sick... again but this time with a cold/flu type thing! I’m hoping it will go away very quickly so I can work a little more this year (a lot more I hope) and actually feel well and healthy! Neither Jeff or I would like to be sick for the wedding or honeymoon so I think it’s time we purchased some multi-vitamins and kept ourselves super healthy!

At the moment I know at least 4 other friends who are planning their wedding which is nice because I can keep up to date on what they are doing and we can share ideas and resources sometimes! It’s also a source of motivation when you have a lot on your plate!

The main reason I wrote this post was to share with you our invitation designs and place cards too. We’ve been purchasing the paper, envelopes and ribbon over the past few months and hope to get started on these in probably the next 2 months. The design in these pictures will be the same (as similar as possible) but the colours are a bit different. Mum, along with my two clever and creative friends Rachel and Talia are going to help with the stationary side of things are I am banned from cutting... I never cut or glue straight apparently!!!!

Along with the invitation and place cards we have to stamp the envelopes for the bird cage, print the RSVP cards and Talia is going to use her cricket to cut out some fancy letters for the front of the envelops which will make them just a little bit more special!

So still quite a lot to do but lots of fun and creative things! Stay tunned to see pictures of the finished product!

Full House!

2010-04-09T09:26:00.000-07:00

6 MONTHS TODAY!!!!

Today is the 9th April which means it’s exactly 6 months until our wedding day. I can’t believe it, I remember counting down until 12 months and now it’s already half that time. INSANE!!! I’m looking forward to the wedding but like Jeff we are both looking forward to being married – Husband and Wife!

As usual we’ve had a few things happening over the past two weeks to do with the wedding preparations. Last week my cousin Morgan, who is also one of my bridesmaids was able to get us a bit of a discount on the ribbon for our invitations and place cards so we quickly went shopping and got what we needed while she was available. Can you believe we needed 70 metres of ribbon? I can’t, seems like a huge amount to me!

On Monday afternoon myself, Jeff, Josh, Kate, Kevin, Jess and baby Andre went over to my grandparent’s house so that Jeffrey, Josh and Kevin could try on their suits. It was a full house that day! Nana helped me sort out sizes and alterations for the boys and was even kind enough to do the alterations for us rather than going back to the store. Isn’t my Nana the best! Jeff looks REALLY good in his suit might I add!!!! Whilst out in Brisbane on Thursday Jeff and I went up to one of the bridal stores in the CBD and he found some really nice shoes to go with his suit so we quickly bought them and have put them away safely. All he has left to buy is a belt!

I also found some pretty nail polish for the bridesmaids. As you might remember from a month or so ago, I was dreaming about the nail polish so I found the colour I was dreaming about!!!! Tis pretty and I’m even wearing some now. Hopefully I’ll be able to sleep now with that off my mind haha! Just joking, have been sleeping pretty well lately!

We’ve starting thinking a bit more seriously about the music and cars (which is pretty well all we’ve got left to organize) and I’m really finding it hard to pick music for all of the different parts of the ceremony. We’re trying to decide whether to have something live or not and whether to hire a car or just use a few friends’ cars. The final touches are always the tricky ones! I think we’re at the point where if we add to many extra things the wedding will be a bit too ‘overdone’ so I’m thinking of keeping it simple!

So I’ll leave you with some pictures from the past 2 weeks and hope that you are having a lovely April! If you are or would like to pray for Jeffrey and I we’d really appreciate it as things are going to start getting pretty busy, especially once school goes back on Monday. If there is anything I’ve learnt a lot about over the past few months, it’s that prayer is VERY powerful!

PS: I’ve been reading these two blogs lately, love them and hope you do too!

http://www.polkadotbride.com/wp/index.php

http://weddinggawker.com/

Josh trying on his suit and Kate snapping a photo while she had the chance!

Kevin trying on his suit and some how managing to break it!

Kevin "Nana, somehow the button popped off"

Jeffrey trying on his suit. My Nana is 80 this year and she can still get down on the ground like that to alter a hem! You can't see the front of his gorgeous suit until the day though!

Having afternoon tea with everyone. Was a very full house that day!

The girls (and Andre) Me, Jess and Kate! Waiting very patiently whilst our boys tried on their suits and modelled them for us!

Jeffrey and I enjoying the whole wedding process!

The bridesmaid shoes with their pretty pink nail polish! I really like it!

Jeffrey trying on his really nice shoes. He must've liked them a lot because he was happy to carry them around Brisbane for a few hours before we made it back to the car!

Shutter Bug!

2010-03-30T05:08:00.000-07:00

6 months and 9 days

If you’ve spent time with me than you’ll know I love to talk photographs of everything. I enjoy capturing moments both setup and relaxed which means I have thousands upon thousands of photos since I got my first digital camera in high school! You’ve seen a lot of photos of our wedding planning through this blog but I thought I’d dedicate this post to sharing with you some pictures of the planning that you haven’t seen yet and of Jeffrey and I over the past 6 years that we’ve known each other. I hope you enjoy and have a great week!

The story of Jeffrey Gadenne and Carmen Owen... so far!

After we'd been going out a few months - 2007

At my 21st. We hadn't been dating long!

Our photo with Ronald!

A day out in Brisbane at our favourite take away place!

At Dreamworld with a Koala!

Heading off to the ANZAC day Dawn Service

Breakfast After the Service

Much love xox

We think we're so cute!

At my graduation from Uni!

We are so very happy together!

1st Christmas engaged!

The day we went Canoeing!

An arty picture at Montville

Chilling at the beach

Just before Jeff proposed to me!

Eeeekk Engaged!! So excited!

I'm very spoilt with beautiful flowers!

Our Engagement party!

Us on Sunday night!!

Pictures from the wedding planning!

First wedding magazine I read!

Lunch with Mum and Dad after wedding shopping

My planning folder

Puss sleeping on James' suit bag!

Matching the bridesmaids and groomsmen colours!

Many layers of the bridesmaid dresses

Nana's sewing room filled with weddng material

Sarah was very excited about her dress!

The box I'm keeping all the wedding stuff in!

Talia at my Nana and Poppy's house!

Mum and Dad picking the tiles for the lounge/dinning room!

Info on wedding venues

Yummy Chai at Poets Cafe with Mum and I!

Pretty steps at Maleny Manor!

One of the bedrooms at Maleny Manor

Wedding Dress shopping in Brisbane with Talia

and with Rachel too!

We've had a lot of coffee, chai and hot chocolate during the wedding planning!

Saw this in a shop and it reminded me why we're planning this wedding. It's nice to be reminded during the busy and sometimes stressful times! I love Jeff!!!

At Spotlight trying to figure out the place cards. Maybe not blue though...

Jeff helping Mum pick out the ribbon colours. Good job dear!!!

I've been told I need new glasses to suit my wedding dress. Trying to find some! No luck yet!

Talia's awsome Cricket!!! I want one!

Mum and Dad re-doing the side garden!

Setting Up House

2010-03-23T06:26:00.000-07:00

When I was a bit younger (like in my teens) I started a ‘Glory Box’ which is basically just a box to put things in you are collecting for your house. Over the years I’ve collect quite a large amount of homewares. In fact I’ve collected everything we need for our house except for the electronic things like kettle, toaster, barmix etc.

Over a year ago I sat down and took photos of all the things I had so I thought I’d share them with you. Of course I’ve now collected about triple the stuff that’s in the photos! I’m a big fan of homewares which I think it pretty weird but I just love them so much! Wish I had the money to update the kitchen every year! I’m also very organized so I wanted to make sure I had everything well before Jeff and I wanted to get married!

Tupperware! I need more though

Utensils for the kitchen

Most of my baking tins/over things

Randomish things. Cookie jar, tea pots etc

Vases and jars. I have quite a few!

Christmas things! Again I was surprised at what I had!

I have A LOT of photo frames and more now!

My cutlery set from Mum and Dad!

Mini Platters

Chopping boards

A couple of board games

Lots of cups and mugs! Again, I have more now

Big platters!

Tea towels, face washers and sheets

Random stuff that I really like!

My dinner set from Mum, Dad, Nana and Poppy

Baking dishes, trays and wok!

Scales, flowers and my hair dryer!

Maybe when I can be bothered I'll take some pictures of other things I have collected in the past year or so!

Our Family

2010-03-23T03:07:00.000-07:00

6 months and 17 days

So ‘Our Wedding Journal’ is not just a journal about our wedding preparation but also about Jeffrey and I starting our lives together. Up until now I’ve really only focused on the wedding stuff... mainly because that’s all we’ve done so far but I thought I’d change that by adding a few posts about getting things ready for our married life together.

First and foremost I want to share with you our two new babies that are part of our little family – Puss and Snuggles. Puss has always been Jeffrey’s gorgeous cat but she’s lived with Jeff’s Mum since he went to Rockhampton and couldn’t take her with him. Snuggles is his sister Laree’s little dog who also has liked with Jeffrey’s Mum since she moved out of home. Now as Jeff’s Mum has sold her house and is off travelling Australia we have adopted both the cat and dog as our own. My parents are being very generous and have let us have them both at my house until after the wedding and until we figure out our living arrangements.

Puss has been at my house now for a few months and has settled in really well and Snuggles has just arrived today so she’s still getting used to being here. So that’s our cute little family!

Puss helping me with the washing

Resting while I printed out wedding stuff

Snuggles on my computer desk

In her new bed having a rest!

More fittings

2010-03-20T09:09:00.000-07:00

6 months and 19 days

I feel the need to give you an update but I don’t have a whole lot to write about, I just enjoy blogging really. We’ve had a VERY busy and quite stressful 2 weeks which I’ll hopefully tell you about in a few days time. I’ve luckily not been working but the more difficult part was that I caught a stomach bug and was really sick for about 4 days. It was rotten, wouldn’t wish it upon anyone. Feeling 100% better now though!

On Saturday I went out for brunch with Rachel and Talia and then went over to Nana and Poppy’s house so the girls could both have a dress fitting. Rachel had the top of her dress fitted and Talia had all of her measurements taken. Nana is flying along and it won’t be long until she’s got 4 completed dresses! I love them more each time I see them too!!!! Sarah dropped by a bit later on and tried on her dress so my Mum could see it, she really likes them as well!

The other night I had a whole lot of really important things on my mind and instead of dreaming about them I had a dream about the bridesmaid’s nail polish... how ridiculous! I think my brain must’ve crashed or something haha! I am now also aware of why brides lose weight before their wedding, so much to do and so little time to eat. I’m guessing stress doesn’t help either!

I’ll end this post by sharing with you a fantastic website about all things bridal – Polka Dot Bride.

Dream Girl

2010-03-15T05:38:00.000-07:00

Last week Jeffrey and I have had so many things happening all at once. It’s so bad that when I’m not actually organizing something or just thinking about it, I’m dreaming about it when I sleep!!! It’s driving me crazy, I awake up trying to figure out if it actually happened or not! Not to mention that it doesn’t really help with the whole ‘sleeping’ thing. Something tells me that it’s not going to get any slower either. Just this week we’ve been:

- Organizing our fiancés

- Visiting banks

- Filling out bank paper work

- Shopping for wedding stationary

- Filling out job applications

- Writing Selection Criteria

- Ringing teachers Union

- Started pre-marriage counselling

- Filling out booklets

- Scanning documents

- Booking flights

- Booking hirer cars

And the list actually does go on! On top of all that, I managed to pick up a stomach bug and have felt really awful for a few days now. Praying it passes very quickly and stays away. I haven’t been working though so it’s helped to get everything done quickly.... no idea where the week went though!

On Sunday we started our first session of pre-marriage counselling with Ps Robert Bakss while he was down here. We’ve now filled out the form for ‘The Intent to Get Married’ and after emailing him a few more documents it will be lodged. The first session was really interesting as we learnt a lot about marriage in the bible and also realised that we’ve talked A LOT about most of the things in the book. We also have very similar view points and expectations within marriage which is always a very good thing. Before we have our next session we have to fill out a few worksheets about ourselves and about the other person. When we meet next we’ll compare the answers... which will be VERY interesting! Jeffrey booked flights last night for us to go up to Rocky at the very end of April/start of May. Will be good not driving that far!

On Thursday Jeff took me shopping to buy some paper for the RSVP cards, gold paper for the invitations and some beautiful gold ink for Talia’s awesome stamps!!!!! We’re going to have to think about making invitations soon so my lovely cousin Morgan is going to help me with ribbon as she works at Spotlight, very handy!!! Was thinking we might look at some ribbon for all the bridal cars too.

That’s it for this post folks. I’d also like you to note that this post took me over 24hrs to write because I’ve been sick and had to keep saving and finishing later, but all done now! I’d also like to leave this post by saying that Jeff and I ‘might’ have some exciting news to share in a few weeks time... so stay tuned!

Bird Cage!

2010-03-12T21:57:00.000-08:00

So here is the picture I promised of the bird cage I bought! It arrived on Friday!!! Tis very pretty!

2010-03-08T18:55:00.000-08:00

7 Months today!!!!

Not a great amount of things to share today. We’ve got quite a lot of forms to fill out at the moment and I’m waiting on my bird cage to arrive in the mail... will add a picture when it arrives. Am hoping to have tomorrow off as its Jeff’s day off too and I wanted him to take me to the paper shop to get the last few bits we need.

This week so far I’ve spent pretty well most of the days sitting on my bed with Puss helping me fill out my wedding planners (I have two, yes). I want to get them all up to date because there is some very important information that I need in them and also so that in years and years to come I can look back on all the planning we did for the wedding, something special to keep.

Together Jeffrey and I have started writing out a draft for the wedding invitations, the bird cage poems and the RSVP cards. They are pretty well on their way now and we just need to make them all up... in a few months time I believe. Well that’s it for this post but I’ll leave you with a piece of scripture we really like, maybe even for the wedding ceremony.

Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow, but woe to him that is alone when he falleth for he hath not another to help him up. Again if two lie together then they have heat, but how can one be warm alone? And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him and a threerfold cord is not quickly broken.
Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

Attention to Detail!

2010-03-04T07:52:00.000-08:00

7 months and 5 days

Time for an update on the world of weddings in the Owen residence! First and foremost I bought a beautiful bird cage on Ebay last night as our wishing well! I know I could probably hire/borrow one but this one was just so pretty and wasn’t all the expensive either. If I don’t want to keep it I’ll re-sell it on Ebay after the wedding. I also bought a simply beautiful white frame which Talia is going to make me a lovebird stamp to stamp two gold lovebirds in each side. I’m going to sit the birdcage and frame together on our gift table at the wedding! I think it will be very pretty and I believe attention to detail is important!

Rachel and I headed over to my grandparents house last week so she could have her dress fitting! She really likes the bridesmaid dresses too which made me very happy! It won’t be long until my Nana has got them all finished and they look better than store bought dresses too!!!!! Talia will be lucky last to have her fitting in a month or so and my wedding dress will be last to be all finished off. I can’t wait until the morning when I get to see all the girls in their dresses, they will look absolutely stunning!

This week I received an email from Maleny Manor with lots of documents to be filled out about the wedding details. Things like decorating, times, who’s arriving when and with who, menus, table setting etc. I was very excited to receive this as it means we get to decide of some finer details! I’ve started filling it all out.... but it’s not as simple as I first thought. Might take a little more time before we figure it all out!

On the honeymoon front, we’ve decided exactly where we’d like to go and now it’s just down to the saving game so we can afford it! Seems we’re saving up for so many things at the moment. Wedding stuff, a house, house stuff, honeymoon, Jeff’s iphone, car etc. Crazy business!

We’ll that’s it for now, hope all my readers are having a great week. Take care xo