7 sleeps... running around town

What an action-packed day! It was one of those days that, when you climb into bed at the end of it all, you can't quite believe what you were doing at the beginning.

We woke up to the sound of construction works across the road, our sleep-in was shortlived - even though I was covering our ears with my hands.

We had a difficut start this morning, when Trav came downstairs in the morning he just caught Rossi having another seizure. We were both there together for the first time. I'm sure the last one was in April, which scares me because it's reoccured a lot faster than all the others. What else can we possibly try that might help our little man?

Once we'd all recovered from the rough morning, Trav and I headed into town where I met Kate at Brides of Melbourne for my FINAL try-on and dress pick-up. Once again I was so glad to have company. An overly smiley assistant named Cath helped me into the fitting room and all she could tell me was that it was all done. Hmmm, I asked to see Allison for my own peace of mind.

Before I even put the dress on I noticed just how nice it looked inside - they'd taken the cups and sewn them inside the lining, rather that leaving them tacked on as Wendy's team had. Bonus points!

This time I didn't even bother taking my leggings off and I stepped out of the fitting room to see Louisa for the very last time. She had no idea what had happened that week and as I took my final 'walk' she declared that my husband would run down the aisle to me!

Allison came out and confirmed that they'd fixed up the skirt without a problem and Kate and I could see with great relief that the skirt was very even, and the front lace panel had been moved up to match. Satisfied, I arranged to pick up the dress later that morning.

As Kate reluctantly returned up the hill to work, I met Trav at ADC and we wandered over to Laurent for a breakfast of croissants and lattes.

It was 11:30 by the time we arrived at Arthur Murray unannounced (for the first time today), the studio was closed and dark, we could hear the phone ringing and the answering machine kick in as we waited, deciding what to do. It was a bit surprising considering they advertised 10am to 10pm opening hours.

I returned to Brides of Melbourne with Travis, who graciously turned around as I inspected my gown to make sure it was indeed mine. He asked whether the puffy sleeves were being sent up directly, and quipped that he'd seen the road train carrying the rest of the dress leave this morning. 

Trav offered to carry it for the first couple of minutes, before deciding that it wasn't doing much for his image and promptly swapping it for the bag containing our dancing shoes. I suggested that any young lady would melt at the sight of him carrying a VID (very important dress) and he agreed that they would sigh with regret that another good man was about to be off the market - why else would Louise and Tamra be wearing black dresses??

Our day continued with a visit to the Collingwood Football Club, where I luckily rescued one of the groomsmen's gifts from the Australia Post bag, only to find that they'd packed the wrong size, talk about timing! Next up - Boyles dance shoe store in Prahan, after finding that all the heel grips were still too big for my heels, we took their advice and headed to a shoe repair store in North Melbourne who would replace the cheap plastic heels with rubber-absolutely-non-slip ones.

We scoffed our pork rolls at home on the couch before I headed up the highway to see mum. Without time to try on the dress, we laid it out and were happy to see that the semicircles matched up this time. Crisis officially over.

Mum showed me the finishing touches she'd put on our little project and then I spent the rest of the afternoon with Kimberly of Karma Hairdressing, we set a date for my PWC (Post Wedding Chop) and Kimberley almost had a tear in her eye as she recalled my wedding gown and wished us all the very best. My colour was finished in record time - apparently it does take a lot faster if the client has a lot going on at the time. Our carefully planned colouring hit a high - we were both really excited with the result and I walked out of there positively beaming.

Hitting the highway I hoped I'd make it in time to catch a few of Trav's workmates before their drinks wrapped up and their long weekend began....
On the way I got a fair ribbing from Louise about my 'to-the-minute' running sheet but have to say, it was load off my mind when I sent it out. I knew that it meant I wasn't the only one who knows what's going on next week and I'll be able to happily put down my memory stick and pick up a Mango Daiquiri as I resign from my wedding coordinator role and Trav steps down from his TRAVel agent role!

Arriving at VU about 7pm, there were a couple of guys left and we chuckled over a drink with Dan, Warren (the fijian-indian), Trish and Mick before making our way back to the car.

Walking down the hill, Trav said the words "I think if we knocked out 2 good practices at home, why don't we go into the city."

....it took me a few seconds to understant what he meant. I
d totally forgot that we'd originally been asked along to the social night to peform our wedding dance tonight...he actually wanted to do it. He'd originally written it ff because he thought he;d havve too many drinls and didn't even expect to ave the bus-stop under control let alone our routine!

'Are you sure???" I panicked... he confessed he'd been feeling really low about our last practice and wanted to really show Sim that we knew wht we were doing. "OK" I offered, unconvincingly.

t home we moved the couches >again< and practiced. and practiced. and practiced. Rossi was under our feet so Trav moved him and hi bed to the couch and we practiced aain. and AGAIN.

To be percetly honest, after the fist 4, I didn't think we were readyu at all to make the trip downtown, but we persisted and after knocking out 2 good ones, I changed and we were in the car headed for Bourke st.

I couldn't believe he was serious! My Trav doesnt dance until I beg him, i started to feel like the whole night was a deam, my Trav - draging me onto the dancefloor, on a night we'd already declined once. I started to feel like I was in the end of 'Shall we dance' when Mr Clark showed up unanounced at the going away party...

I was still aving trouble believing it as we drvove into town, I was thinking to myself, "this will either be a xomplete success or a complete flop, it's up to us".

We stepped into the elevator. pressed "M" for Mezzanine. We could hear the music as soon as the elevator door opened. We looked at each other. This was it. I pushed open the door, my bag got caught as Francesca looked up from her group class and said

OH
MY
GOD
This couple will be presenting their wedding routine to us tonight!!!


The next hour was all practice, and again, and again. We did really well only a few minor slips and were both feeling very confident....

We were both having a ball, and soon enough we were on. We completed the routine to applause and there was only one time when I'd skipped half a step so we'd finished about 2 seconds before the music. Sim was so proud of us and Francesca walked in just as we'd finished - after all that excitement!

It was about 9:15 by the time we headed over to the dumpling place for a late dinner. It was the same one we'd dined at after our very first lesson too!

Disclaimer: Any typos are due to the fact I was using Trav's Mac rather than a standard keyboard. live with it.

8 sleeps...I'm on holidays!

I was thrilled to be able to bring some cheese along when we visted Kate, it was her last night in a gorgeous little weatherboard house she was looking after for a friend.

We relaxed over a couple of beers and Kate, my city sister, presented me with a very familiar and exciting looking yellow paper bag. Anyone who knows me knows I have a thing for Lush! And Kate knows just how hard it is for me to visit the store now that I'm not working in town - inside was a 'Figs & Leaves' soap to use while we're away!

Oh Kate! You're a woman after my own heart! Big Hugs to you! We all marvelled at the fact that this time, in a week we'd be enjoying dinner on the balcony of the Courthouse Hotel after the rehearsal. Kate showed us her gorgeous dress and necklace she'd picked out and I decided she definitely needed to try out my silver sandals.

It's these casual, lingering catch ups that I love the most.

Soon it was time to head home, Travis whipped up some delicious chicken, avocado and punkin pies for us and I celebrated the start of my holidays by cracking a bottle of bubbly, (and finishing the whole thing!).

What a guy, can you see why I'm marrying him?

I had a little surprise in store for him later on that night...

8 sleeps...handover (letting-go) time

My last afternoon at work was a strange one, my team were all in meetings until 3pm so I tried to keep myself busy and caught up with Belinda and Jess. Belinda reminded me that if I started getting agitated, i should think of how she regrets her attitude on the day and wishes she could have been nicer to everyone. She cant't have that time again and I much prefer to learn from others' mistakes.

Jess was very impressed with our sewing efforts and Callum, Sarah and Leon all dropped in to wish me well too.

After everyone returned to the office it still wasn't until about 4:15 that we popped the champagne (yes - Laurent Perrier!) and enjoyed some Tarago River cheese.

Joanne was just like a proud mum when she said the words 'Christie, you're a very special person' and  presented me with a beautiful card and gift, which happens to be Matthew Evans' The Real Food Companion cook book! Now that she saw how excited I was she promised they would all sign it when I returned. I was so touched - and then Kyle ducked out and returned with a big beautiful bunch of orienal lilies, gerberas and other beauties! He confessed that they'd been surviving on mugs of water, hiding in his car since yesterday as we'd postponed the handover. Their words in the card were so touching and we had a lively chat about mothers taking too many photos, whether we were sleeping apart the night before and how my hair trial went. I explained my philosophy of being quite flexible during these last few days, so that there would be less things likely to upset me by the time the 18th rolls around. All I hear is how fast the time goes and I just want to be sure Im soaking up every minute.

I handed everyone their printed, highlighted copy of my handover notes and funnily enough no one had any questions - once again I put this organisation down to taking plenty of time to plan and prepare. Of course I still desperately hope that i haven't forgotten anything but that seems to just be human nature.

Travis arrived soon after and got to meet Kyle, before we headed off to see Kate in Kensington...

9 sleeps...

More cards and a gift!

After a  work day that absolutely dragged, we met family and friends for dinner in Sunbury. It was lovely to see Michael before we leave for QLD and Marc and Amanda came along with Susan and Gary as well.


Susan presented us with a stunning handmade fabric card that she has embroidered herself using gold and silver thread and sequins from the lace on my dress. We opened it and there was a picture of St Mary's Chapel with our invitation wording printed across it, there was also an embroidery of the chapel and an embroidered message to us - complete with our little monogram that I'd come up with! There was also a little pocket made from the fabric of my dress which held some $.


Then we received our gift - an amazing tin chapel/birdcage that holds 3 candles. Susan said she could see this in our garden but I think it will look beautiful in our entrance until the weather improves!


It was such a nice evening to share with everyone and I think we might even be lucky enough to see the ring cushion at the rehearsal - I just know I'll hardly see it on the day and want to be able to really appreciate it beforehand!


Eight sleeps to go and today is my last day at work. It's kind of sad to think that everything I've been running through my head, how we'll spend each day up there and all the plans we've made for a wonderful wedding are almost here. It's exciting but I really do think that looking forward to something is almost as good as actually getting it. 


I hope we take the time to relax and really soak everything up. I know the days will go fast and won't always go as I've imagined, but I've got a feeling they'll be better than I could ever have hoped for. Just go with it. Everyone will finally be up there together as we've all been preparing for and we'll all be ready for our 'winter holiday'.


You can't plan things forever, they eventually come around and become real memories, not just wishful thoughts. We've prepared well, we're not expecting a perfect day and I think we've allowed a lot of flexibility so nothing can go too 'wrong' on the day.


Yes I think it's finally time to kick back and relax and allow all this planning and imagining to become reality...

10 sleeps

I knew there would be a moment when I just started to chill and it happened today. 

I’m feeling really calm now. Funny – it’s all the extra fluff that goes with it (reception) that worried me more than the actual ‘marrying’ part – I only just confirmed our flower selections and there may be one less guest attending which we might not find out until we arrive in Port Douglas but all that is just fading right away now too - I only need Trav, Deborah, Me and our witnesses to get married. All the rest of it can just roll along however it will on the day.

I saw my naturopath this morning and she is only about 5% concerned that I might 'crash' after the wedding - I'm sure it's natural to feel like something's missing after it's all over and you return home again but I know we've got so many things to look forward to that I'm not too concerned about it. We've got a week and a half at home and we're looking after Dudley for most of it. We've got a European holiday to plan and all sorts of other exciting things!

I dropped into Passionfoods today at Sharlene's request and they gave me a gift that Sharlene said she just cannot live without now that she has one. She said that she hopes I would love it and find it as useful as she does!

Yollie was there too and they both reminded me to just enjoy all of it. The attention, the fussing - 'this is the only day you'll have absolute exclusivity! It's all about you!' Sharlene said.

I love gift hunting!

  source

40 days to go...

This weekend was abuzz with chatter about next week's big hens and bucks parties! It all started with a phone call from Tamra on Friday night - "You need to wear white next Saturday". White? I don't have anything white - it goes with owning a black pug. Gotta hit the shops!

On Sunday we checked out the 'Man Cave' Egan created and Kate and I rummaged through her wardrobe in search of white dresses. I took home a couple of possibilities but when I realised that they were so short I couldn't even bend over I had to cross them off the list. A quick trip to eBay solved my dilemma and I'm looking forward to receiving my dress on Tuesday.

At Mum's later that evening I tried on my gown - fearing that this detox may have left me with less to work with but there was nothing to worry about - it actually fit slightly better under the arms than the day I picked it up. Those push ups are working - keep at'em Christie!

Mum loved our Mother's Day dinner and gift of the photo frame with 'Memories in the making' and then she absolutely floored us with a gift of her own.

She has given us a set of Royal Doulton Neptune Champagne Flutes - complete with our initials tied to the stem! They are to use on our wedding night and I am so terrified that I'll damage them!