It's not a dress, it's a masterpiece

Wow. What a week. Wedding fever hit our house last Sunday when we sat down with Deborah and planned the details for the ceremony. We’ve picked the music, readings and order of things – we now just need to decide on our vows and work out the sand ceremony details. I’ve got all our wedding music on my iPod and love listening to it on the way to work, it finally feels like we’re getting married soon!

We also arranged the reception timeline and sent out our 3 month countdown to guests. We have 30 guests confirmed so far - and I know there’s many more who have booked their flights but just haven’t RSVP’d yet. To make the most of having all these fantastic people in Port Douglas with us, we’ll be setting aside a couple of hours each day to catch up with everyone. This will be a great opportunity to show them our favourite spots and everyone will start to get to know each other too. We’ll put this info on a postcard which will be waiting in their rooms when they arrive.

I just can’t wait to start dance lessons – I’m so excited that I’ve even started learning some basics at home (slow, quick, quick, slow – back left, side right, close left, side right)! We haven’t decided on our song or dance style and we’ll have to wait until the week after Easter to begin that adventure. I think it will be a really great stress reliever as we get closer to June.

I finally tried on my very own dress on Friday night, Mum and I got from our door to Brides of Melbourne in 20 minutes. It was the last time I’ll see Wendy and her assistant Kelly who have both been so helpful along the way. I don’t think they see any Melbourne Brides quite as often as they’ve seen me (every time they’ve visited since November 2008!)
My poor dress was so crumpled, and it was strange seeing it without the lace on the front of the skirt. I was pinned into it and Wendy marked the hem and where the lace will go. I put on my earrings and my beautiful Kezani bracelet – a gift from Michelle and got excited all over again! I was still very sure of my ‘no veil’ decision, but I tried on one that Wendy recommended – just for fun and it was actually quite lovely. The difference was that it was silk tulle – so it wasn’t as stiff as the regular stuff and it was also as long as the train on my dress, which looked a lot better than the waist length ones I’d tried. They’re going to send down a sample in the right colour with my gown and I’ll make my mind up then.
It will take another month for my masterpiece to be completed and returned to Melbourne and then I’ll be able to visit it every time we go to mum’s. Travis is sure I’ll be trying it on every time! I am looking forward to trying it on with my hair all done up – and am trying to think of anyone I know with a free standing mirror – it would be very helpful to have a couple for that day. I might start checking out some op shops.

On Sunday Marian and the boys went into town to pick out their outfits, and Louise came over and tried on her dress with her beautiful new satin Sandler heels. She. Looked. Stunning. The dress fit perfectly and it was very comfortable - it’s such a relief to know I won’t be trying to return them to the store in America. Just need to pin Tamra down now.
 
So we’ve gotten a lot of major stuff done and have a very clear plan of what’s left to do – only 88 days to go now…