4 sleeps... crazy

Well I know I was feeling calm yesterday but after a shocking night's sleep and a couple of odd dreams, I woke up edgy, nervy and shaky.

In my first dream I got to hug Michael Buble (I know I know) but in the second dream I was trying to put our suitcases into our room though the upstairs window (which had a pool as a balcony so that didn't help at all).

I was so worried about forgetting all sorts of things and still had a few things to tie up - print the menus, get the wine list from Lure, send out running sheets to our dream team, print copies for us, make the reception music cd, do washing, change the sheets pack our toiletries and Trav still hadn't sorted out his shirt. 

It was lunchtime. All I did was lean over to grab a tea towel and BAM! A piercing pain went through my back and from then on I was walking like an 80 year old. For no apparent reason my old lower back pain returned – just as Trav’s neck improved. He gave it to my back from his neck he said…

After lunch I was feeling a bit more relaxed about our to-do list, but maybe that’s because my attention had moved to my back instead. We managed to get away by 3:30, and after a short stop at highpoint for some last minute essentials we were finally on our way to Sunbury.

We started shuffling our suitcases with Mum’s stuff, whatever way we looked at it we were about 4 kilos over our limit. Time to have dinner with the McIntosh’s before we reassess. It was such a lovely evening, Mum proposed a toast to how well we all get along (compared to some In-Law stories) and we all agreed that we’d had a great time planning it all. A delicious roast chicken and vegie dinner was the perfect comfort meal for our last Melbourne night!

My back was still holding me back, even after a few sprays of Deep Heat and more Voltaren…please please go away.

Back at Mum’s she and Trav maneuvered our holiday packing again while I took a nice warm shower. We agreed to be up by 4 and out the door by 4:30 and were in bed around 10.

I'm still feeling really panicky - just want to be as relaxed as I was yesterday - I hope it goes away soon...

Another wedding nightmare

Geeze I really thought this one was real.

I was looking through a few pictures that our photographer took of the day to find that they were boring, were missing people and basically just had us standing in the one spot with different guests, staring straight at the camera. No! I only get to do this once! Don't tell me that this is what we got from that whole day! What about the ceremony?

Suddenly we were back at the reception, this wasn't Lure - it was a beautiful old ruined building in a wild garden and forest - but the dancefloor wasn't on the deck. There wasn't a deck! Why oh why didn't we pop in the day before just to make sure everything was as planned?

Everyone was dancing in a little room off to the side and some guests were dancing in a swimming pool. There were guests there who can't make it to our wedding and everyone was having a great time except me - trying to work out where the hell we actually were!

Then Trav was making his speech and admitted that he was *%*^ing drunk to which I cried "YOU PROMISED!" and let everyone know how strung out I was. Truth is I'm not even worried about him on the night.

Well only 18 more sleeps of wedding dreams, surely the dreams stop after you're married? Right?

The Artful Hen

Our parties were nothing like the dream I'd had on Friday night - my hens party was a magic show which was overrun with zombie Pugs that wanted to take a bite out of everyone's shoulder, if they got you then you became a zombie and so on....yeah don't ask me.

I was in the kitchen at Trav's buck's party heating up food to send out to the man cave and everytime he came back inside I asked him if the girls were warm enough.

Weird.

Well that's not how it happened at all. It was 100 times funner!

My evening started with Tamra, Louise and the mum's enjoying some pink champagne at my place - before heading over to .... Pole Divas? No way. This is too easy!

I still had no idea even when we were sitting in the foyer waiting for everyone - it wasn't until our host came out in her 'Artful Hen' apron that I clicked - it couldn't be? Is it? This is what I'd wanted to do! I couldn't believe my luck! A Life Drawing class was just the right compromise between class and nakedness for me - I was over the moon!

Everyone was dressed up in red and black with very appropriate devil horns, so I definitely stood out in my pink tutu inspired dress and very virginal white veil with crooked halo.

Before we began I had the honour of 'removing the towel' from our muse David and then the 11 of us were taken through a series of techniques - from drawing without looking at the paper or removing our graphite from the page, to drawing left handed, progressive drawings (which had some of us running from one end of the room to the other several times!), using axis and finally it was my turn to pose with David (no I didn't undress). Funny - we were up there for five minutes and everyone was concentrating so much on their drawing that they only peeked out from behind their easels now and then - it didn't feel quite as confronting as I'd expected.

We had a short break half way through and David poured us drinks and chatted with everyone and We ended the evening with a photo shoot and some group shots (for these one he wore the apron!).

It really was the best idea ever and everyone who went along had been really looking forward to it! I highly recommend it to all the bridesmaids out there who are looking for the perfect idea for their creative hen!


Next up... onwards to Orange in Chapel Street....

and another one!

It's the 18th. We'd agreed to help some friends in Mt Macedon for the day and soon found ourselves at the cemetery, tidying up the gardens.In the afternoon some music started playing in the background and people started arriving, for what seemed to be a big picnic. With a sick feeling  I looked over at Trav - "We're supposed to be at our wedding!" Trav looked at me rather blankly so I ran to Mum's house yelling 'Mum! Everyone will be waiting! We have to be in Port Douglas! It's our wedding day!" I couldn't understand why no one had rung us as we should have arrived on the Tuesday - wasn't Michelle wondering where we were? Then I realised with great relief - it was only the 18th May.

dream a little dream

OK they've started again. I think Belinda's upcoming nuptials are freaking me out a little.

Last night in my dream we arrived at our accommodation in Port Douglas to find that 10 of us were sharing one room. But then in reception we bumped into 2 very uninvited guests who were casually explaining that they wanted to stay at the same place for the week. Her partner said he'd tried booking out 4 villas months ago to find that they were already taken.

I looked at them in horror, were they serious? Would someone actually have the nerve to crash our wedding - even going as far as staying at the same place???

The next day we all went to the chapel and Travis was standing at the front, facing the front with Kate and James on either side. Louise and Tamra walked down the aisle, stopping and standing in a row behind Trav. This was starting to look weird. I can't even remember the music being played or Deborah being there, but the pews were full.
I walked down the aisle, and no one even noticed that I was coming - I was near the end when someone said "Oh here she comes". When I reached the end of the aisle, everyone was still facing the front and I didn't know where to stand. I tried to squeeze between Trav and his sister but she didn't budge. I ended up standing on the end, with Kate between us. I then realised that we didn't even have a rehearsal! Maybe this was supposed to be the rehearsal? I looked behind me to see if the Uninvited had snuck in to watch.

The ceremony continued with me peeking around Kate when saying my vows, then when we all walked out everyone kind of wandered off. I told Travis that that was definitely not our ceremony and we hadn't gotten married yet. Even though we were all dressed up I refused to believe it was the actual thing.

I hadn't even confirmed the flower yet. We hadn't even taken the things over to the restaurant. We spent the rest of the day going through the shops, trying to find fishing line and other odd items we needed for the reception. Disaster. What other things can I tick off my to do list now?

PS: No one is escaping this curse - Travis dreamed that he was at the reception but hadn't written his wedding speech. His dad kept saying everything was 'Really Good'.

It's arrived!

Got an exciting call from Brides of Melbourne yesterday, my wedding dress has arrived in their store! When I booked for my fitting in March, I hadn't realised that it might arrive before Wendy. Now I get to wonder about it waiting for me in the storeroom for 4 more Fridays.

This week I also received my very beautiful custom earrings from Lizardi Bridal from Etsy. I'd finally come across a pair that I liked and after sending a few piccies of the dress through to Roxy we came up with the perfect pair! I'll get a photo up over the weekend.

Oh, funny thing - Trav finally had his first wedding dream the other day - it was finally his turn to not have the right outfit and be an hour late for the ceremony!

Nightmares

It seems that as soon as I get the wedding on the brain, I start to have some crazy wedding dreams - all of which end in Trav and I not getting married because one reason or another. i'm going to put this down to normal jitters - I mean surely after two years of planning there'll be nothing we haven't thought of, right?

I've decided to start recording any little piece of advice I get right here so let's start with Helen from work. She planned her English garden wedding from Melbourne so I'm sure she's qualified to help me ... "Whatever you do make sure you get a hair and makeup trial - you' don't need to be worrying about those details on the day"

This is handy -after already meeting with Kristy, my hair & make up guru from Blush I was happy to just try a few things with my hairdresser in Mebourne and bring up some pictures - but now I'm thinking twice.
My new friend Jen (Trav's workmate's Steve's wife) also offered this gem

"Just enjoy the time and don't stress about anything on the day - it will go so fast"