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 This month our two brides take us through the adventure that is figuring out guest lists and dealing with random dramas...
Sarah Edwards is the winner of our Diary of Bride competition - she's a Wellingtonian nzgirl who is planning on getting married next March. Our other bride is Lauren Andrews, co-creator and owner of the recently launched wedding planning website, theBIGstep.co.nz.
With Lauren as an insider in the wedding industry and Sarah as the typical nzgirl, we thought it would be awesome to show you the two different sides behind wedding preparation! With just a couple of months to go before our brides walk down the aisle, they've been super busy dealing with guests lists and dramas...
Lauren Well, tomorrow is the big day! It’s crazy, months and months of planning, and it’s now just a day away. It’s been a bit of a crazy week, so I’m going to have to keep this brief…but don’t worry – I’ll give you all the juicy details after the wedding! We’ve been working on all the last minute details this week, and there certainly seem to be a fair few. It’s amazing how these last few days just don’t seem to have enough hours in them. Although at times it’s felt a wee bit chaotic, it’s also been incredibly exciting. My bridesmaids hosted a brilliant hen’s night for me last Friday. They picked me up at 12.30pm and took me to a special lunch at the amazing Boulcott Street Bistro in Wellington. It was great to just have some “alone” time with my bridesmaids before the chaos ensued. After lunch, we joined a heap of girlfriends and female family members for a special cruise around Wellington harbour. The theme was “Lauren’s Love Boat” – I’m sure you can just picture it! The party continued into the early hours – it was a wicked night and one I’ll never forget. I’m so lucky to have such great friends and wonderful people around me! So now it’s off to Riversdale…to get married! Next week we’ll be going on a mini-honeymoon in the Hawkes Bay – just to relax for a few days and enjoy the first week of married life. After that, I promise to catch you up on everything…until then, wish me luck! Sarah
Only a month to go! I can't believe we're nearly there. I've had to buy a diary to organise all the appointments. The hardest part is that our wedding is about an hour from our house so with every appointment we make we also have to think about the travel time. So meeting the caterer at 11.30am on a Sunday was a good idea when we made the booking, but getting up and heading over the Rimutaka Hill after being at a party the night before was hard work.
We had a meeting with the florist, Moonflower, who was fantastic. I took with us a groomsman’s shirt and bridesmaid's dress so she could help us with what would look best. When you're a person who doesn’t know much about flowers it's nice to deal with someone who gets what you want and also doesn’t push stuff on you. Our groomsmen aren’t wearing jackets, just shirts. She recommended that we don’t have any flowers for the boys as the flowers would not look right with the shirts we had chosen. Dave was very happy as he didn’t want flowers in the first place but I kept telling him he had to. We decided on a loose bouquet of ivory and green with a touch of pinky flowers for me and my bridesmaids will have the same flowers but the bouquets will be slightly smaller.
Once we finished with the florist we decided to drive to our venue, Ponui Homestead and time how long the drive took. When we got there we ran into the owner and asked her if we could have another look around. The first and only time we had looked at the place it was raining, so it was fantastic looking around and figuring out where to have the ceremony and where the main photos could be taken. The venue was even more beautiful than we remembered.
I have booked Gail from Turret House in Martinborough to do our hair and makeup. You pay a flat fee and your party have the use of her services from eight in the morning until 12. To make sure I wouldn’t freak out on the day, I knew that we had to have a trial. Two bridesmaids and I headed over to Martinborough. I was rather nervous and didn’t know what to expect, but I was very surprised at how great we looked and there was no stress or drama. I have a fear of thick foundation that you have to claw off your face rather than wash off, but the makeup she used felt light and natural. Gail is so good and makes you feel so special. We are under orders to bring lots of food and bubbles so we can really have a good time. I couldn’t believe how different I looked.
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I have managed to get this far through summer without any major strap marks, but I have started going to sunbeds. I know they are bad for you but just wanted to have a bit of a tan. So I went for a few lie down sunbeds and then decided to shake things up and went in a standup one. I didn’t realise how the stand up tanners work and that your face is in front of those blubs. My skin felt normal during the day but once night hit my face was bright red, I was glowing. All I could think was thank goodness I did this the month before not the day before. Lots of Aloe Vera and a few days later I was back to normal but now know the stand up tanners are a lot stronger.
I also had my final fitting at Brides on Thorndon. As I brought the dress off the rack on sale I was very happy that it still fitted and didn’t have to have many alterations. All it needs is to be taken up.
It is now all starting to feel real and things are really falling into place. I am happy with everybody I have hired and am happy that on the day I can leave it all in their hands.
Only major things left to do are
1. Survive the hens night
2. Not put on or lose any weight
3. Stay away from stand up sunbeds. |
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