Orange Windsor (The After Party)

We met a few more friends (including my cousins Sam and Rachael) at Orange on Chapel Street afterwards and I was given 2 pages of dares to complete - so with a little help from my friends and the good sport Michael I got..

A guy's philosophy on marriage written on a napkin
A single guy's phone number on my arm
A guy bought me a drink
A single guy's business card
A photo with a taxi driver (Excuse the angle)
A photo with a cop
A photo with a guy's chest hair (didn't have the heart to rip it out)
A 50 cent coin from our year of birth
A happy meal toy (must return that to Rachael)
A menu
A pair of guy's jocks (thanks new little sis!)

Some chewing gum

And the prize? Yes! I did all that for a ... you guessed it - a talking vibrator!! Totally worth it - even if just for the photos...

On the way hope we stopped off at a highly acclaimed 24 hour cheescake shop and this is about where my fun ended... no explanation required.

 some of my loot

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....

We survived!

I had twice as much energy than normal on Sunday morning - same couldn't be said for Trav but I bounced out of bed and made the girls pikelets for breakfast.

We looked through all the masterpieces that the girls chose for me as well as mum and Louise's photos. I also created my very own art exhibition of those masterpieces up and down our stairwell!

I couldn't get the grin off my face all day and was probably a bit too chatty for Trav's liking. When I saw him at Henry's first birthday party the first things I noticed were his split lip and the massive bruise on his arm - and of course his inability to make more noise than "Ugh" and "Hrmph".

So we took it very easy that evening, replenishing our selves with the finest, fastest fare we could find...

And soaking it all away in a nice warm bath...

I could hardly sleep that night because I kept remembering how much fun we'd had the night before. Thank you girls!!

A picture tells a thousand words...

I'm ready

After a fun shopping trip with Kate I'm ready for whatever tomorrow holds...

source

It's amazing what a dress can do for your confidence!

source

Last words of advice

Belinda from work just dropped in to wish me a fantastic hens night and reminded me that

'It's all about the Bridesmaids'

Someone help me...


And my good friend Marissa had this warning just before all the fun started on Saturday evening

'Don't get arrested'


Good one - thanks 'Riss!

The last word goes to my friend Kat...

 

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!