This will be my second wedding and my FI's first. We're both naturally shy people so we opted for a small and intimate wedding with just our closest friends and family.

Three words to describe our wedding dream would be:

"romantic", "intimate" and "fun". After having a wedding with 170 guests I knew I wanted something small so I could enjoy the day with the people I love, rather than feeling like I was at a Guiness Book of Records night trying to talk to as many people as possible within a certain time period.
So we're having 30 guests plus their children (just 6 of them and 5 of them will be under 3)

Nev (Neville) and I met on Facebook. We found each other through old school friends and found out that our best friends had dated each other in grade 10. We started chatting on msn and found that we had so much in common, especially our sense of humour.

One night I was bored at home, my parents were in England for a holiday, my brother was in his room playing some computer game and my little boy was tucked up in bed. I was, as usual, chatting to Nev and randomly asked him if he'd like to come over and watch a movie. It was too late in the night at the time so we agreed to catch up the next night.

Nev got out of his car and followed his nose to the door of my house. I'd made my famous slow cooked BBQ ribs and the mouth-watering smell had drifted out onto the street. He was gorgeous, he'd lost the awkwardness of his teenage physique and developed into a 'strapping young man'. I was smitten!

We sat down to dinner and chatted and laughed about stories from high school, finding out what all our old friends were up to now. Then we sat down to watch a movie and the electricity between us seemed to crackle in the dark.

We started dating that night.

Nev and I had been dating for only a few months when we started discussing marriage and even kids. We knew that we had something special and what it would lead to.

Nev asked what type of rings I liked and I googled a few for him to have a look at. Then one day we were in the main shopping mall in my town when he suggests that we have a look at a jewellers. We were browsing the diamond rings when I spot the most perfect ring I've ever seen. It's so simple and understated yet stunning and elegant in it's simplicity. The jeweller is letting me examine the ring when Nev finds one that he prefers. The jeweller looks at the ring that Nev is pointing to, looks back to the ring I'm holding and laughs. We'd both picked the exact same ring!!! Though I must add, Nev had picked the better colour diamond.

Nev paid for the ring then and there and we waited for it to arrive.

It arrived a few weeks later but Nev said that he wanted to ask my dad's permission first and then propose to me when he was ready.

I waited impatiently :)

Our six month anniversary was getting close and Nev and I decided to celebrate by going to the best restaurant in town. I have a hunch that our anniversary might be 'E-day' but I try not to get my hopes up.

The morning of our 6 month anniversary I'm woken up by Nev shaking my shoulder at 6am. Once both my eyes are open Nev get's down on one knee and my eyes nearly pop out of my head! He asks me if I would do him the 'ultimate' honour and become his wife. Everyone now knows my answer.

Invitations

The basic idea of our invitations are petal cards

with the invitation printed on square cream cardstock, stuck to the inside with double sided tape

Menu

I'm so in love with my menu! Though I think it's mainly because of the food :D

The menu will printed on the same cream cardstock as the invitations, but in an A5 size to be tucked into the napkins.

I'm not sure who's pic the napkin one is, but if it's yours let me know :)

We're having the ceremony in our home town of Mackay, Queensland, Australia. It's a lovely little town/city with a population of 80,000 people and the main trades that keep the town running are coal mining and sugar cane.

The ceremony will be at the Mackay Regional Botanic Gardens http://www.mackayregionalbotanicgardens.com.au/home  under a gorgeous big tree.

We'll be having chairs with white chair covers under the tree and have tissue paper pomanders in fuschia hanging from the branches.

These are my ceremony inspiration photos :)

My brother has written a song for our wedding and will play/sing it as I walk down the aisle. He played it for me the other day and now I'm certain I'm going to be crying before I even get to the end of the aisle! Hahahaha!

My bridesmaids will be my closest three friends; Ashleigh, Kylie and Charli. They're all gorgeous girls that have stood by me during all the ups and downs in my life.

The girls dresses will be this one, by Mori Lee. But in chocolate brown instead of black.

All my bridesmaids are different sizes but I think this dress will be flattering for all of them :)

I really wanted to have pomanders from my bridesmaids (this was my first DIY). But I decided on going for traditional bouquets when I decided to use the pomanders as ceremony decorations.

So now, the idea for my BM's bouquets is this.

I picked up one of my BM's gifts yesterday. It's a simple heart shape pendant with Cubic Zirconia's embedded inside it. I'm really pleased with these :)

The clutches I bought for my BM's arrived in the mail today and I couldn't be happier! They're perfect!

I got these from an eBay seller; Auswedding. I still can't get over how fast she posted them! And they were a fantastic price!

Our wedding is at 3pm on the 3rd of March 2010. In Australia, March is the first month of autumn and in Mackay (our home town) it's still very warm. So I've been panicking about people getting too hot and being uncomfortable.

I thought about program fans, they look great and are obviously very practical. But I couldn't stretch my budget to include them. So I searched for a cheaper solution and found this.

It's a rose coloured paper hand fan, courtesy of a lovely lady on ebay

Please check out her Ebay shop, it has tonnes of great ideas for warm weather weddings
http://stores.shop.ebay.com.au/lfweddinghot__W0QQ_armrsZ1

The best thing about these fans is that they match our colour theme!!! I can just imagine these gorgeous pink fans fluttering around during the ceremony!

The fans will be placed on a small table with an ivory tablecloth. I'm also putting a small sign on the table... my mum/mom isn't too sure about my choice of words, but everyone who knows me will understand and have a giggle.

Bridesmaids flowers

My inspiration

My bouquet

My inspiration.

It's actually quite similar to 'theprincessbride's bouquet but I'm leaning more towards ivory and maybe a very pale pink

I originally wanted the boys to wear a chocolate brown suit (like the one below), but after much wailing and nashing of teeth I gave in.

They're now having a more casual, but super funky, black/brown pants, white shirt with personal cufflinks and a '1920's gangster' hat. My inspiration came from fellow PWer LadyY, http://www.projectwedding.com/biography/list/LadyY who's groom is wearing the same.

It's so cool!

I bought my first dress, mainly due to financial constraints.

A few months later I realised I really didn't like my wedding gown and decided to buy another and sell my original dress. I was successful in finding a dress that I fell in love with as soon as I saw it.

Here are the pics

The original dress - Grace by Maggie Sottero

This is my amazing new dress!

Q182 - Quinceanera 2009

The detailing on the bodice

On the hanger, where I first fell in love with it

On me, where I fell it love with it all over again :D

More pics at my first fitting. The skirt doesn't look so full because I had a large hooped skirt underneath the first time

I haven't made any final decisions as to hair and make up but I wanted to share my inspirations :)

Hairstyles

Make Up

The staff at The Blue Gecko have been fantastic and so supportive of how we want our 'big day' to be. Teresa, our event planner at the reception venue, has worked with me to create a unique menu, even though they don't usually make some of the dishes I've requested!

Here is our menu

Entrées

Prawn Cocktails

Salt & Pepper Calamari

Savoury Tarts

Mains

Salmon with Dill Hollandaise

Reef & Beef (reef optional)

Mushroom & Chicken Ravioli with Creamy Mushroom Sauce

Desserts

Served with tea & coffee

Chocolate Mousse

Apple & Blueberry Crumble with Creme Anglaise

We're having our reception at 'The Blue Gecko' http://mackayresortmotel.com.au/, a small restaurant just down the road from the Botanical Gardens, where we're having our ceremony.

While we're having our photo's taken, we'll have pre-dinner drinks at the restaurant starting at 5pm so everyone can have a chat and relax before dinner.

We'll be arriving at 6pm which is when they'll start the bar-tab and guests will take their seats and place their entree orders.

Between the Entree and Main meals we'll have speaches. At this stage it will just be FI's parents, my parents and our MOH and Best Man that will give speaches.

After dessert we'll have the garter and bouquet toss. As their are only two single people on our guest list (one of the groomsmen and my grandma) we're enviting everyone to catch the 'lucky' garter/bouquet.

Neither Nev or I enjoy dancing so we'll have background music, but we wont have a designated dance floor. Though if people wish to dance we definately won't stop them :)

Here are pics of the room we will be having our reception in

< my little boy, wanting to be part of the action

At the beginning of my cake search, all I knew was that I wanted cupcakes!!! :)

Through my venue, I found my cake lady (always ask your vendors if they can recommend anyone, you're generally guaranteed of their quality and sometimes you might even get a discount).

Roz, from Exclusive Cakes 4 All, is fantastic! All she wants to do is create my dream cake, exactly the way I want it, down to the finest details.

I've never seen a cake/cupcake tower, like the one Roz is making for me so I'll have to describe it the best I can and show you my inspiration pics.

We're having a small round cake at the top of the cupcake tower and 3-4 tiers of cupcakes below.
The cupcakes will be vanilla butter cream or chocolate mud cupcakes, the vanilla ones will have white chocolate ganache on top and the chocolate ones will have chocolate ganache on top.
They will have pink foil cases and be covered in cachous, I wish I could show you a picture, they just look incredible!
The cake at the top will be covered in chocolate ganache and topped with cachous as well. The cachous will drop down the side like icicles.

I really don't think I've done my cake/cupcake tower justice with my description so here are my inspiration pics :)

2 months before the wedding and I completely change my mind about my centrepieces!

I'm taking the idea of the candy buffet and giving it a twist.

Each table will have a giant martini glass in the centre which will be filled with pink candy (to match the wedding colours) and have a little scoop sitting on top. Everyone at the table will have a little bag at the place setting with a sticker on it, inviting them to tuck in :)

 I love this sticker on jasminealaine's candy boxes

I've even been considering sitting a sign on top of the candy like this one from nickisansonetti's wedding 

 sign by camelsintexas

I hunted far and wide for a comfortable pair of theoretical 'glass slippers' to marry my prince in. But being a size 11 does tend to make things a little difficult in a size 8 average world.

My mum and I went down to brisband in April this year and found a really gorgeous pair of red, italian, patent leather heels.

I decided to wear them last weekend to my parent's 30th wedding anniversary dinner.
*insert dead pac-man music here*
I put them on, did my make-up and by the time I'd finished my toes were numb... my make-up generally only takes 5-10 minutes... THEY WERE TOO SMALL :'(

I was so upset, my wedding shoes didn't fit!

I told my mum and wonderful person that she is, asked if she could try them on a few days later. They fit like a glove and made her feet look gorgeous. So she offered to buy them off me and give me the money towards the wedding or another pair of shoes. YAY for mum!

So yesterday after work I pop round to one of our sister stores (they're all under the same group) and I wincingly (is that even a word? If not it is now!) asked her if they had any pretty heels in a size 11. She found me 3! It must be a record or something!

And I fell in love with these babies. I originally wanted something I could wear again but with a price tag of $20 (reduced from $80) who cares?! :D

I made tissue paper flowers as a trial idea for my BM's, but once we decided on the ceremony location I realised I'd prefer the tree to be 'carrying' the pomanders instead of my BM's.

A few people have asked me how to make the tissue paper flowers, which are then stuck into a foam/florists foam ball and hung by ribbon or fishing line for that 'floating' look.

So here are my step by step instructions on how to make a tissue paper flower :)

What you will need
- tissue paper in your prefered colour
- scissors
- florists wire

1. Take a rectangle of tissue paper in your prefered colour, then place 4-6 layers on top of one another.

2. Start folding the tissue paper, accordian style, from the short side. The folds should be approximately and inch wide.

3. Then gather the folds together and fold in half

4. Take a 20cm ( or 8 Inch) length of florist wire and bend in half

5. Slip the wire over the tissue paper and secure by twisting the wire

6. Cut curved edges on the two ends of the tissue paper

7. Fan the tissue paper out

7. Gently start lifting up one layer of tissue paper at a time, it's ok if it tears, no one will notice.

8. Keep going till all the layers have been pulled up

And there you have it, a tissue paper flower.

Stick a heap of them in a foam ball and you have either this

or this

My MOH and my mum organised my Hen's Night (Bachelorette party). It was Twilight themed because my MOH and I are total Twilight addicts. I had the best time and the decorations were awesome!