The count down is on- 120 Days to go!

Wow- It's taken a while for my next effort- shocking effort from me!

OK - A LOT of things have happened since Jan. I asked my best friend to be my maitron of honour and to my delight a few months later her partner proposed
and she asked me to be hers. So planning 2 weddings is sooo much fun - especially when it's with you best friend!

I have chosen the bridesmaid dresses. They are candy pink- like on the your wedding website tool bar. Think of lollies! They are straight neckline and go just under the knee. They have diamontes under the left breast near the hip in a little cluster and diamonte straps & lace up back. Its very elegant and suits all my bridesmaids. I love it!! I got a good bargain with the dresses. I went to the Calabro Store and they gave me a price $300 a dress but weren't willing to budge on the price- even though I was buying 4 of them. So I rang around and found out who else supplied these dresses and found a shop called All The Rage Formal Wear in Leichhardt. I managed to bargain them down to $250 a dress. Thats a saving of $50 a dress. Nice work Maria!!!! The are generally cheaper anyway but I still managed to talk them down since I was buying 4 of the dresses!

We had a taste tester at The Sydney Glass Island mmmm the food was amazing. The boat is magnificent and the staff are very down to earth and friendly! I
can't wait! Final menu is to be decided! We are still tossing up if we should get chair covers from a supplier and put them on ourselves to save a bit of money or to get a company that the Sydney Glass Island uses. It's double the price but hey- trusting 4 groomsmen to tie over 100 perfect bows - Mmmm I don't think so!!! Still loving the tiffany green sash- not sure if we go organza or satin yet- May even go pink. The carpet is new on the boat and its bright blue so I have to get something that compliments the royal blue carpet.

Decisions decisions!

I asked 1 of my good friends to be bridesmaid. We were out for her birthday and I asked her at the end of the night- to my delight she accepted and was
quite teary- so was I!!! I am very happy. She is very supportive and I know I made the correct decision!

Invitations invitations invitations! ARRGH It's taken me 5 days to finish these bloody things!! So much cutting, pasting, sticking, pulling, straightening, buckles oh gosh. They look absolutely amazing and I am glad I chose the ones I did. I went to Truly Madly Deeply- the staff there were quite helpful. We got invites that are approx 29mm x 14mm and one flap of the 29mm's folds into a pocket. But When they cut them with the guillotine they cut it 1mm out- that doesn't sound like alot but when it has to meet up perfectly the 1mm sticks out like...you know what! So cutting 1mm off was a fun task. Piece of advice when someone charges top dollar for invites it's because they take up so much time and you have to nit pick BIG TIME!

Otherwise they look B grade and no one wants B grade invites! So either make sure you have alot of patience or be prepared to pay good money for good
invites! After the whole headache of cutting, sticking etc I have decided against individual place holders. I am having a table list and then the guests can choose where they sit at their chosen table. So much easier!

As for mens suits- they are on hold until Spring Carnival time. My fiance wants brown or beige suits- something very modern and as all the summer suits come out then we have to wait.

Cars- we went against the traditional classic cars for the special day. We couldn't make sense of $800 a car for 5 hours. Thats $4000. No way! Instead we went to Europcar and have decided to get brand new Audi A6's in silver which are quite a hot car. Car is still worth $100 000 so its nothing cheap but looks classy!

Flowers- I went and saw Wedding Blooms in Hunters Hill. It's an Italian family-owned business and they couldn't be friendlier. They are quite expensive, but being in Hunters Hill I expected that they wouldn't be cheap but they knew exactly what I was saying when I described what I wanted. Of course I chose Phalanopsis Orchids. The most expensive flower to have in a bouquet :( But I can't go past their beauty. I am having a mixture of them and willow in my bouquet. If you have Modern Wedding Flowers Mag edition 10 check out page 32 picture 1. Thats what I am basing my ideas on. It's not your traditional "posey" But hey I am not your traditional bride. I am going for glamour and modernism!! Hope I pull it off!!

Bonboneirre- We have decided to go for 4 hand made chocolates. We chose the little stall in Rhodes Shopping Centre. They are usually $90 a kilo- same
price as David Jones and Myers and places that sell hand made chocolates but since we were getting over 400 choc pieces I talked them down to $70 a
kilo!!! That's almost cost price. I did VERY VERY well there! Another huge saving we are putting the chocolates in clear plastic square boxes. I asked
through other bonboneirre manufacturers and they were charging $3+ for a box! I thought...for a box? The chocolates are costing about $4.00 for the 4
of them! So I thought hard and though- huh! Cut out the middle man. I googles plastic manufacturers and found one in Kirrawee. Funnily enough I recognised all their pictures- all the bonboneirre re-sellers used this plastic manufacturer and had a 300% mark up on their boxes. I got the boxes at $1.10 a box.  Another little bargain I found on www.bonboneirre.com.au is pre-tied silver bows for 39c each. They are EXACTLY what I wanted, pre-tied so all I have to do is slip the bow over 2 diagonal corners as its stretchy cord and its done!!! So $5.50 for each person for 4 hand made chocs, little plastic bow with silver bow was ideal!

Meeting up with the priest soon. I still haven't gone to marriage classes - bad girl!! I will soon- I promise!! Just waiting till World Youth Day (week) is over and he will be a little less busier! Going to go through the 'When We Marry' book and choose different verses and the order of the ceremony. OH GOOD NEWS! I just remembered...In my entry of the 13th Sept I mentioned St Peter's Chanel Church at Woolwich having hideous green carpet....well guess what?! They changed it! YAY! So excited! Heath and I went to the church one Saturday to have a look and a wedding was just finishing. I waited till they were all out of the church and they were all on one side of the church - near the carpark and I was near the road so I thought, I am going to quickly sneak in and have a peak at the carpet since I was in the area. I ended up chatting to a bunch of smokers who I had to walk past and I asked them about the sound/acoustics in the church- If it was all muffled or if you could hear the music/priest/vows and they said it was all crystal clear!  Another YAY! So I quickly peeped inside and the church looks lovely. Its got red carpet and had little crowns or something like that on it- but its quite luxurious. I am very very happy! See pray to the right people and you can get what you want!!! I am no longer going to have the red carpet runner but my florist is going to put down a satin drop sheet that was measured up for that church (as her daughter was married there) and put down rose petals.

They clean up everything so the church can't complain about the mess. Walking down the isle on rose petals....ohh I will be floating! :)

As for jewellery- I dont know what I am going to have yet. All I know is I want a Tiara and long earrings. Definately no necklack as the dress has Swarovski crystals all over the top 1/2 of the dress. check out www.houseofmoshe.com.au 'princess for a day' is the dress. Its amazing! Oh I also got my shoes!!! Alan Pinkus 'Debussy' I think they are called.....$350 later...Ouch but hey it's your wedding and you have to feel like a princess!

Oh another funny story- Heath & I were at the expo at Rosehill and I saw a dress reasonably similar to mine- quite full and well i dont want to say puffy but it has lots of layers of tuille! I said "Hey babe what do you think of this dress" and his reply was 'Who does she think she is? Cinderella!' in my head im thinking 'careful what you say there buddy!!' but i just laughed it off and moved on asking him about other dresses to throw him off the trail! He is expecting that I have a straight fitting tight dress. My my my won't he get the surprise of his life when I walk in and take up 1/2 the isle with just my dress!!

I also got something else done- something I've wanted to do for a while - since they stopped growing. Yes you guessed it. I got a breast augmentation.
I went from a B cup to a D cup. 3 weeks ago yesterday so still very early stages. Still a bit swollen. I tried to go bra shopping yesterday and I am into a DD...woah! But they look amazing! My surgeon is Dr Anoop Rastogi. His office is in Double Bay but he operates out of Bondi Junction Private Hospital. Minimal pain it was actually quite amazing. He uses a laser instead of a scalpel. Cuts to the depth he needs and slides the implant in and puts disolvable stitches in and thats in. I was on panadol a few days later and up and walking around the next day. 3 weeks till gym - stationary stuff only- exercise bike. Then 3 more weeks till I can do everything. My sweetheart neckline is going to look AMAZING!!!

Wow that's a big update from me...until next time!

"A dream that is dreamed by two will always come true"

Love Maria