Pictures of Me, Pictures of You.

Photography rated high on Mr Big and my list of “things we wanted” for the wedding. As every bride, blog, and bee has said before me, once all the décor is packed down and the guests slowly drag themselves home, all that’s left are the memories and the pictures.

And Mr Big and I have pretty shoddy memories!

For us, our search to find just the right photographer was a hard one. We wanted to find a photographer who took photos that were able to not just capture the moment and the people, but understood our personalities and provided everything we needed. This was emphasised further by the fact that Mr Big and I aren’t very photographic (we like being spazzes).

Case in point. / Personal photo.

The ‘sane’ thing to do would’ve been to look locally.

I’ve posted numerous photographers on the ‘Bee who are Hunter Valley/Central Coast locals. Photographers like Something Blue Photography, Cavanagh Photography, the quirky Popcorn Photography (careful, has music which plays when you click!), and my personal favourite, Photography on Hermitage, all made it on to my “should possibly contact” list. But the reason I didn’t pull the trigger?

Price.

You see, Mr Big and I didn’t really want an album. Just digital prints and unlimited access to said prints. “Paper” prints would be great, but weren’t ‘necessary’. You would’ve thought that would lessen the price at least a little bit, but it wasn’t the case. The search for our photographer frustrated us to no end. Mr Big was suffering from sticker shock and I was attempting to find anyone who could provide us with all we wanted without the excessive price tag.

What made it even more frustrating?

We wanted a photobooth and a videographer as well. That meant we had to pocket away some money to afford a photobooth, a photographer, and a videographer. Mr Big and I tried to get ourselves to stop. Loving. The photobooth. But it was too hard. We wanted it.

We wanted it bad.

And we weren’t willing to sacrifice a videographer either. I remember watching my parents’ wedding video as a kid, my uncle’s wedding video as a pre-teen, and thinking it would be awesome to have a wedding video when I were to get married. Mr Big also has a saying for this wedding, “we’ll only do it once… let’s make it the best thing ever!”

So what could we do?

Well, hive, we gave up. For about a week at least. We just didn’t touch or even poke at the subject of the wedding. We enjoyed being engaged, we stayed in and watched movies, and cuddled on the couch. We just didn’t, want, to handle it.

And then one day, after stumbling across a particular post on Polka Dot Bride, I found StudioSomething. Curious, I clicked on their link and flicked through their photos. Impressed, I went to their information page.

The first line of this page?

It’s a little small, but it reads: “You’ve heard we’re awesome, right?” / Taken via Studiosomething’s information page.

Now, if you know me, or if you’ve been reading my posts, you’ll probably have realised I use the word ‘awesome’ a lot. Like, a terrible amount of lot. I am “awesome”-addicted.

Barney knows where it’s at.

To see those five word emblazoned on the information page was enough to make me turn to Mr Big and pronounce, with wide eyes:

“I WANT THESE PHOTOGRAPHERS.”

(I kid you not, hive. Mr Big was alarmed at my enthusiasm.)

What’s more than their spectacular use of the word ‘awesome’? They take amazing photographs and the team are quirky, intelligent, and amazingly skilled at their work.

They’re not just amazing, but they understood our personalities. They know we’re not really the typical couple. They tailor their shooting styles to the personalities of their clients, they collaborate with the couple, and most of all, they have fun! Their photographs capture more than just the couple and the wedding. They capture the love, laughter, tears, and sheer beauty of the moment!

Our first meeting with them was at a café in Bondi where we bonded over coffee and the traditions attached to our wedding. They asked us what we wanted, what we liked, why we wanted to do the wedding in the Hunter, and basically just got to know Mr Big and myself.

We emailed back and forth a lot after that. Despite the fact that we loved StudioSomething, however, we knew we needed to do some shopping around. Mr Big is all about ‘choice’, so he and I wanted to see what else was out there.

However, after finding another photographic outfit that seemed like a good fit, meeting up with them, and falling into the Venus Flytrap Effect (dubbed by the wonderful Mrs Waterfall), we hurried back to StudioSomething. No other photographer made us feel as comfortable as StudioSomething’s Ellen and Phu, the two we had met up with that day in Bondi. They treated us like people, not like customers, and we definitely didn’t feel like we were being swindled simply because the word ‘wedding’ was attached to our particular event. They were still professional with us, but friendly and conversational as well!

And their photos are. Absolutely. Magical.

I love the way they shoot in black and white, as well as colour, and put so much emotion into their photographs. They’re extremely talented and bonus –

They do photo booths and stop motion.

Check it out for yourself:

Love it!

So with all of that, we were a complete and total goer for StudioSomething.

What do you guys think? Did we make the right choice?

(All photos and video copyright to StudioSomething unless otherwise stated.)

Moving Pictures

Last time I talked about our photographers. Now, I thought I’d talk to you guys about our videographers. I’ve talked a lot about our photographers and how they’re frakking awesome, but I haven’t mentioned our videographers!

You see, when Mr Big and I first started planning this whole wedding shindig, we knew we wanted videographers. We wanted to see moving pictures of our day, hear the vows being said, the whole shebang! The catch? We also wanted a Same-Day Edit (SDE).

For those of you who don’t know what a Same-Day Edit is, it’s basically video clips compiled together to be shown on the ‘same day’ it’s shot. Therefore, our videographers will record most of our day, and then spend the other part of it editing a small film clip together before showcasing it at our reception.

The reason we wanted so much to have the Same-Day Edit is because a lot of people won’t be at our ceremony. Most of my family will be coming up on the day, and have given me the head’s up that they’ll likely only make it for the reception. By showcasing an SDE, we can give the folks who couldn’t make it to the reception a little snippet of the day, including the ceremony.

However, searching for videographers who do SDEs in Australia is NIGH impossible. I emailed out at least 10 videographers, maybe more, and the response was usually a resounding no, although all of them were pretty polite about it. The wedding videography team that we did like were insanely priced, so we decided against it.

Glumly, a few weeks went by where we were deliberating not having an SDE and then I found Onsight Films. Onsight Films is a two-man team – Marlon and Redge – who hail from South-West Sydney (where I come from!). Our first meeting with them was over chocolate brownies and chocolate coffee. We talked packages, gaming, weddings, chocolate, and travel. The two of them were awesome, and  Mr Big and I booked them in the next day!

When we received our package we fine-tooth-combed it (like we always do) and realised that they had given us travel at no extra expense and we were also receiving raw footage. SCORE! Also included in our package is a pre-wedding interview, where Marlon and Redge will go through our “love story” as they say. It’s pretty exciting!

We met up with them in November to film our pre-wedding video, and here’s picture from that day:

Mr Big and the camera! / Personal Image.

As for the quality of their work, I’ll let the videos speak for themselves:

So what do you guys think? Anyone else a SDE-r?

Flower Porn! … well ok, maybe not.

When Mr Big and I began this whole wedding planning thing, I knew we’d have flowers at the wedding. I didn’t know much about flowers, but I knew we’d have them because that’s “just what you did”. Mr Big didn’t care any which way, so he left me with the task of deciding on flowers. The only thing he mentioned was that he did not want to use boutonnieres. I also didn’t want to use fresh flowers for the reception because of the cost and preferred to give my bridesmaids corsages instead of bouquets.

When I began to look at types of flowers, I found myself gravitating towards these:

From left to right, top row: white hydrangea, freesia, red roses and hypericum berries by Flowers by Pat; cascading ribbons on a bouquet of garden roses, fuchsias, hydrangeas, phalaenopsis orchids, and foxglove, image via Martha Stewart Weddings, arrangement by Ariella Chazar, and photography by Belathee Photography. Bottom row: bouquet of orchids, image via Martha Stewart Weddings; bouquet of blue Singapore orchids and white roses, image via Kylie Meyer Flowers.

It seemed I liked orchids, roses, hydrangeas, and berries, and I liked the bouquet to look sort of “thrown together”, but in a nice way. With this in mind, I looked up what flowers were available during summer in Australia, specifically around the month of January. According to this website, orchids, roses, and hydrangeas all seemed to be available during the summer months of Australia. YAY!

I found myself drawn to flowers which – according to The Knot – are “hand tied” (you know, the “thrown together” look?).

A classic hand-tied bouquet. / Image via The Knot, photography by Jules Bianchi Photography.

It’s simple and doesn’t look too “neat”.

So, armed with this information, I searched around for a florist. I basically took a punt and went for the florist who seemed to be the most popular: Yeng Tan Floral Designer. Yeng was recommended by our reception coordinator Lou and our event decorator Kellie (more on Kellie later guys!). When I followed Yeng on Facebook and stalked visited her website, I loved the look of her designs:

From left to right, top row: a bouquet of Talea roses, white lisianthus, and white freesias; a bouquet of Calla lillies with roses and lisianthus; bridesmaid bouquet of white David Austen roses, white lisianthus with a few sprays of blue Singapore orchids; Bottom row: Rustic bouquet of Cymbidium orchids, roses, hydrangeas, and bouvardi; bridesmaid bouquet of sweet avalanche, white freesias, peach pink sweet peas; and a bouquet of hydrangea, succulents and peppercone. / All flowers and images by Yeng Tan.

Her work speaks volumes.

I made a consultation with her in May of this year. Mr Big came along with me, but spent most of the time looking through the Smelly Cheese Shop next door (Mr Big loves his cheese!). Meanwhile, Yeng and I discussed flowers, the wedding, and even my dress. She’s a very awesome individual and really knows what she’s talking about. When we went through what I wanted for the wedding flowers, I made sure to emphasise roses and orchids. I also mentioned hydrangeas, but she suggested the flower lisianthus instead and showed me pictures:

Pink lisianthus – so fluffy! / Image via Oasis Horticulture.

They were fluffy like hydrangea, but had a sort of quality that just made them charming – almost rose-like.

I also mentioned I loved the idea of foliage and berries, and I wanted pops of red. The flowers chosen for the bridal bouquet also dictated what was to be brought through with the boutonnieres chosen for the father-ofs and the corsages for the mother-ofs and bridesmaids.

In the end, this is what we ended up with:

• For the Bride: a natural hand tied round bouquet of cream bounty roses with mini red roses, light pink lisianthus, white Singapore orchids with green berries and foliage. Stems to be tied with off-white satin ribbon.
• For the Bridesmaids: 5 sets of wristlets with white Singapore orchids and red mini roses and foliage
• For the Mother-ofs: 2 sets of corsages with white Singapore orchids and red mini roses
• For the Father-ofs: 2 sets of boutonnieres with white Singapore orchids with foliage

It was important to me that I have orchids for the mother-ofs, as both of them love growing orchids and have a huge collection of them. It’s Spring right now, and my ma’s orchids are looking absolutely gorgeous!

Finally, I also requested mixed colour rose petals for the ceremony.

Sprinkled rose petal aisle. / Image via Country Bouquets Maui, LLC.

All of that, for just over $500. I think I did pretty well for myself! I can’t wait to see what Yeng designs! Next up, I’ll explain why the bridesmaids won’t be carrying bouquets and why the groomsmen won’t be having any bouts!

What do you guys think of the choices? I’m not a flower enthusiast, unlike my ma, so fingers crossed it all works out!

 

“I F***ing Hate You”, An Ode to my Skin

Hey all!

After two post-pones, my hair and makeup trial is finally coming up! I’m both excited and scared. Excited – self-explanatory – it’s a wedding-related event which basically means I’m sitting at a makeup artist’s (MUA’s) chair and getting prettied up. Same with hair! I was lucky enough to find a makeup team which does both hair and makeup, and they also come to you to do the job. Hopefully next week I can blog about their job and show you pictures of my face (I know – the suffering you guys have to go through…).

You guys might be wondering why I’m scared as well. This can be summed up in two words: sensitive skin. In general, I’m not that great with makeup. In fact, of the bajillion photos I’ve (bravely, if I say so myself) put up on the blog, a majority of them (I think ALL of them) have me wearing no.makeup.atall.

You see guys, I have terrible skin. I don’t mean oily, or combination, or even dry (although I do have dry skin), I mean sensitive, eczema-riddled skin which just LOVES to break out when the weather changes (and it’s changing right now – winter to spring, yay /sarcasm/). Want some evidence re: how bad it REALLY looks – here’s a hint:

See the icky pock marks on my neck? BLUGH. // Personal image.

Those things you see on my skin are caused by scratching, which I often do subconsciously, especially when I’m asleep. I’ve been trying to stop scratching, but my skin gets irritated easily, whether that is through stress, sweat, or heat. When I am itchy, and awake, I try to rub or scratch as lightly as possible, but old habits die hard and before long, I’m tearing my skin off once more. It’s even worse when I’m asleep.

So I’m pretty intimidated by the whole ‘getting-married-and-having-a-bazillion-photos-taken-of-me-and-my-crap-skin’ thing.

As for why I’m scared about makeup, well, makeup seems to irritate my skin if it isn’t the right kind of makeup. Heavy makeup irritates my skin, non-mineral makeup irritates my skin, and hence, I don’t wear makeup all too often. On the plus side, this means I’ve been less inclined to get pimples from clogged pores due to makeup, but on the other hand, it’s made me worried about how my skin is going to react when I get all dolled up for the wedding.

Hence, the trial. I’m really hoping I can talk to my MUA about my skin and we can work something out. It’ll be the height of summer as well (read: bloody hot) so I’m worried my skin will get absolutely IRRITATED and I’ll breakout (again). Summer is not my friend (neither is… basically any weather other than cold).

As for hair, my scalp used to be as bad as the rest of my skin, but it’s been getting better. As long as I wash my hair everyday (I know, you’re not supposed to do that), my scalp is as happy as a clam. If I miss even one shower, my scalp decides it hates the world and gets super irritated. Another thing about my hair – it’s thin, so can be rather difficult to work with. It’s pretty good at moulding into shape though, but any hairstyles that call for volume will need to be thought through and worked out carefully.

So I’m hoping my MUA and hairdresser can work with my skin and my hair.

I’ll show you guys some evidence next week (hopefully!). Also, next post will be some inspiration photos of the kind of hair I want. 🙂 I promise I won’t rant on anymore about my crappy skin.

They’re kissing… for science.

So guys, I’ve dropped hints about our cake topper previously. So I thought I’d finally tell the Hive! 🙂

From the beginning (I’m talking back in July of 2012!), we wanted to inject a little bit of geekiness into our wedding. We’ll be doing that through several things – the props of our photobooth, some of our choices in music, and the quintessential piece of them all – the cake topper.

Originally, I mentioned many times that Mr Big and I both wanted a cake topper of us fighting the zombie horde, like this:

Cake topper – fighting the horde with style! / Image from Garden Ninja Studios.

However, to get the bride and groom and 2 zombies, it meant forking out a LOT of dough. Add to that shipping from the US, where the toppers came from, and that was a lot of money for a topper. So we started thinking of alternatives. I found a few good cake topper designers, but none of them really gave us the feel of what we really liked as a couple.

There were either too cutesy for us:

Wall-e & Eve cake topper / Image and Topper from Annacrafts.

Or too far away from what we originally wanted:

The Running Bride & Groom / Image and Topper from Weddings and Wire.

I loved the works of both annacrafts and Weddings and Wire, but they departed too much from our original image. They weren’t any cheaper, either, so we’d still be paying a good amount of money to get them. By this point, however, Mr Big and I had figured that – if we wanted to get a unique cake topper that was very “us” – then we shouldn’t worry too much about money.

But (more than) $400 was still way too much for us to grasp!

So back to the drawing board we went – literally! I enlisted the help of my awesome Maid of Honour/big sister to design us some cake topper ideas we had. She churned out the goods over a month and we received these beauties:

Miss Big and Mr Big standing on a Cube, K-I-S-S-I-N-G… yeah that didn’t work. / Image from MoH M&Ms.

Fighting the horde – with style!! / Image from MoH M&Ms.

Romance with Portals! / Image from MoH M&Ms.

As you can probably tell, two of three are Portal-inspired. This is because Mr Big and my relationship grew from this wonderful game. We have many, many, many other things in common (music, likes, dislikes, intelligent debates, etc.) but Portal was got me into the one thing I refused to do before meeting him: play a video game on my own.

I don’t want to go too much into it, because this post is already SUPER long, but basically, after completing the first Portal game, I become what one would call a “female gamer chick”. I don’t play competitively (I suck at competitive death-match-y type games) but I LOVE playing co-operatively. In fact, if you watch StudioSomething’s stop-motion video, it states in the end that marriage is the ultimate co-op! That’s how Mr Big and I see our marriage as – we co-operate with each other to reach each other’s goals and help each other along the way.

Anyway, to get back on target, we decided – after polling others and deliberating the kind of feel we want for the wedding – to pull the trigger and contact Garden Ninja Studios. After going through details with Mr Andrew Olds, the mastermind behind the geek cake toppers of Garden Ninja Studios, we finalised everything and patiently waited for the cake topper to come in.

Well, guys, while we were in Melbourne, we got a package. After returning from the trip, we excitedly opened up the package and found these babies inside:

OH MY GOD. THIS IS AWESOME.

Kissing – for science.

We decided to go with the first design!

We are SO ecstatic with the whole thing and can’t wait to display these on our cake! And then in our home!! Drew is an AWESOME designer and if anyone wants to get a custom-made, one-of-a-kind cake topper, I HIGHLY recommend his work!

Who else would go or went with a custom cake topper? 🙂

(All photos personal unless otherwise stated.)

Look what we got in le email yesterday…

http://vimeo.com/studiosomething/eileengrantengagement

❤ 😀

Our photographers are awesome.

I really should be working on my thesis…

Alternative Title: I am AWESOME at procrastinating!

So… I should be writing about political tactics and the influences of said tactics on workplace bullying… buuuuuut I can’t be bothered. Also, my brain has been on frantic-wedding-mode since Monday and I can’t, for the life of me, figure out why! I was fine last week, working hard on my thesis and all, and then – POOF! – gone. No focus – no concentration.

It really sucks.

But it does mean I’m getting some wedding-related things out of the way.

For example, I’ve been putting off ‘ceremony wording’ for a while because I just didn’t want to peruse through the thick book of ceremonial suggestions. Yesterday, I buckled down and managed to write down our choices in cohesive order. It’s obviously not the whole ceremony, since that will be refined by our celebrant, but I’m happy to have gotten that out of the way. Now I just need GP to read through it, add his own revisions, answer some of the questions, and we can send it off to our celebrant.

Yay!

I’ve also been going through some DIY projects. Mainly, the simplest of them – personalised coat hangers for the girls. All I needed was a black sharpie, graphite pencil, eraser, ribbon and a wooden hanger.

Done.

My makeup and hair trial is coming up this Sunday. I’ve tried changing it to Saturday, but the hair and makeup team I’m with are a little… late to reply to things. I might text or call them.

Otherwise, I haven’t done much and there isn’t much else to plan apart from the finer details which are more-or-less dependent on guest numbers and the like.

So yeah guys – I really should be working on my thesis…

Pictures worth a thousand words

Yesterday I talked you through our very ‘cool’ (haha, see what I did there!) Winter engagement shoot in central Christchurch. Well, last night, while I was chatting to my ma, I got an email which resulted in this:

Guys – WE HAVE OUR PHOTOS!!! *FLAILS AROUND WILDLY*

Now, I knew from the get-go that our photographers were awesome, but I’m the kind of girl who just can’t stand looking at herself in photographs. There’s always something wrong in every photo I see. But when I opened up that webpage to see my photos, I was enamoured.

Seriously you guys – LOOK AT THIS.

(All photos copyright StudioSomething)

MIND = BLOWN.

I’m so glad we chose these guys to photograph our wedding!! I know they’ll do such a marvellous job. I can’t tell you how happy we are. And because I love you guys, I’m leaving you with my favourite image (which just highlights how incredibly silly my relationship with GP can be).

A Winter Engagement Shoot in a City Full of Hope

On a FABULOUSLY sunny day, at 11AM on Wednesday 24th July, GP and I headed out to New Regent St in central Christchurch to meet up with our photographers of the fabulous photography group StudioSomething. Prior to that we each had respective appointments to get all ‘done up’. GP had a professional hair trim and shave from the fabulous people at ManScape, and I had my nails done at Wonder Nails.

Observe:

SHINY! (Personal Image)

Yes guys, I’m eating a cookie. A choc-chip-macadamia cookie from Mrs Higgin’s Cookies. It was DIVINE. Also, can someone spot the rose in the apothecary jar. I got that for my 25th birthday from my awesome friends ❤

Can you also see how AWESOME the weather was!? We totally lucked out, especially when the weather was looking rather hairy previously.

Our photographers experienced the typical Cantabrian confusion of trying to get around Christchurch through the maze of road works currently choking up the streets. Luckily, GP knew the way and was able to direct them to New Regent St where we finally met up with Ellen, Phu and their ADORABLE 6-month old baby. After some cooing with Lewis and chatting about both the shoot and the city, we decided to grab a coffee. We ended up in ‘Shop Eight & Rekindle’, a café attached to a ‘pop-up’ art shop which recycles wood taken from the demolition work happening around the city.

There, we took the first photos of the day.

Now, for those of you who haven’t see StudioSomething’s work, they do ‘stop-motion’ videos. Which means they take multiple photos using a fast-shutter speed and capture photos that, when stitched together, look like a movie! This meant that, when they wanted to capture GP and I kissing, we had to do it slowly at times.

I may have been rather happy to continue kissing on my fiancé… (This girl has no shame loving on her fiancé!)

We also had to slowly stir our hot chocolates, which made me giggle a heck of a lot.

After our photographers had a bite to eat, we moved on to an Astro-Turf space-filler close by. Does anyone remember this photo?

Space-filler Astro-Turf project! (Personal Image)

Unfortunately, there were SO MANY PEOPLE when we got there with our photographers. In the shot above, there was barely a soul around, but with our photographers, people kept flooding in and out – kids, people with dogs, families. So our photographers were able to improvise and asked us to sit in the big couch in the centre (see that Astro-Turf on the right of the image above? That was a HUGE couch). While we sat there, relatively still, they captured the movement around us.

It was an AMAZING shot and I wish I could show you guys, but we haven’t gotten the pictures back yet.

From the Astro-Turf project, we moved to Cathedral Square. These shots were a lot more sombre (considering the damage done to the Christchurch Cathedral in the earthquakes), but we were also able to use the space around us and have some fun with it. By the time we were done with the Cathedral Square we moved on to the famous “Container Mall”, otherwise known as the RE:Start Mall.

The RE:Start Mall on a busy Sunday. (Personal Image)

That picture was taken during our tour with GP’s dad. During the e-session on Wednesday there was barely a soul! It was fabulous. We were able to get awesome pictures of us in the main square, among the colourful containers, and we even got some pictures of our disappearing Fritz’s Wiener lunches! (I recommend Fritz’s Wieners for those who like hot dogs).

At about 4:30PM, the sun started setting and our photographers got snap-happy with the lighting. We got a lot of kissy-photos during that time, and as I was saying – I was more than happy to kiss on my man!

By 5PM, we finished our shoot, giving us a whopping 6 hours with our photographers!

We enjoyed each and every single moment with them and were able to not only get fantastic photos but enjoy their company. They got a pretty good tour of the city centre as well, so I’d have to say it was a win-win! 😉

We can’t wait to get our photos back. I’ll definitely be sharing some of them on this blog!

You’ve got a “friendor” in me!

Alternative title: “I’ve got friends with benefiiiiiits!”

In our wedding, we’ll have a few vendors who are, first and foremost, our friends. In ‘wedding lingo’, these generous people are called “friendors”. Mr Big and I have about three of them (well, I guess one is technically my soon-to-be brother-in-law, but still!). The first is a friend which Mr Big has known since his work in a large retail company back when he first moved to Australia:

DJ Jeeves (AKA Dirty Sanchez!)

Jeeves has been Mr Big’s friend for about 4-5 years (give or take). They met while working at a big retail company here in Sydney, where Jeeves still works to this day. I met him during Mr Big and I’s ‘are we in a relationship?’ phase, where we ate awesome steak and had an overall good time. He’s an awesome friend and uber fun to talk to and hang out with. He’ll be our DJ for the day due to his skills on the mixer (of which he just bought himself a kickass custom). He also has a good ‘vision’ of things when he hears certain songs, and has offered to take up lights and other assorted equipment from Sydney for our wedding.

We’ve procured all of our songs, including all the ‘special songs’ for the wedding, so we’ll get to start working with Jeeves soon! I can’t wait to hear what he comes up with for the wedding!!

Friend Wonderland

Wonder has been my friend for about a year now, having met at my old work place. She and I both left that horrendous place (thankfully) and still remain friends to this day. A few weeks after she left that ol’ place, her mother and herself set up shop in the southwest of Sydney. At first it was clothes, but Wonder’s mama decided a nail salon would be more fitting. After a makeover, they turned their shop into a nail salon called Pretty Women Nails (SPONSOR!).

I went and had a shellac manicure (and pedicure) there as a ‘test run’ and Wonder worked… well, wonders on my nails. It was my FIRST.EVER manicure and pedicure and I felt so damn pampered! Even though we’ll be having our wedding up in the Hunter Valley, I really want to get my nails down at Wonder’s mama’s shop. It’ll be a good bonding time with Wonder.

[BTW – if you’re looking for a nail salon that isn’t overpriced and does GOOD work, I do recommend Pretty Women Nails. And I’m not just saying this because my friend’s ma owns it. My shellac manicure lasted TWO WEEKS, probably more!]

FBIL Muso

FBIL Muso is, obviously, Mr Big’s brother. They grew up close, but grew apart later in life. When Mr Big proposed to me and we started planning the wedding, FBIL Muso put his hand up to volunteer his band to play at the wedding. Mr Big and I were rather touched that he’d do that for us, and after listening to some of the samples, agreed.

In January 2013, we went over to New Zealand and visited the little town of Nelson to hear the band live. We were impressed, especially as they play ‘our style’ of music, and were excited about having them at the wedding! We’ve even asked them to learn some songs, which they’ve obliged to. 🙂 We’ll be putting them up in a place for the wedding, but other than that, won’t have to pay the exorbitant amounts which many of the bands I’ve come across want their clients to pay. Their band, the Johnny Parro Band, is a five-piece-band, so we’re REALLY excited on how it’ll sound in the reception space.

And those are our “friendors”. 🙂 We’re really excited to have these guys as a part of our wedding!

Who else is using a “friendor”? 🙂