Evil Oddie

Righto.  So we’re getting married in the Sunshine Coast hinterland in September.  Yes, it’s a very busy time of the year for weddings, but I am a planner.  I started planning this shin dig as soon as I possibly could.

I initially found a florist that was really helpful and we talked via the phone / email and she even made an appoint to come to my home to discuss flowers.  After thinking that I pretty much had the flowers done and dusted, she sent me an email and text stating that she’s just googled where we’re getting married and has decided that she wouldn’t be delivering the flowers on the day.  If I wanted her to do the flowers I’d have to get someone to pick them up.  GRRRRRRR!

So the last item that I have yet to finalise is the flowers.  I had a meeting with a florist at Coolum last week.  The meeting was great and she was lovely.  However, the quote was late (they said I’d have it by Tuesday, I contacted them on Wednesday and got the quote on Thursday).  I read through the quote and one item that I really want incorporated is flax. 

Seeing Glen’s a kiwi, I thought it would be great to incorporate something significant from the island of the long white cloud.

I’ve email the florist back to see what the go is with the flax.  Seeing the florist is a kiwi, I thought that she understood my excitement when she said she could incorporate flax.   Maybe it was just something that was ommitted in the quote or it has been described in another way – eg… foliage…

I think that this is a glaring issue in the creative fields, they don’t have the administration fine details that an office would implement…  I’m seeing a niche market for  my anal retentiveness!!

The last couple of days have been an absolute shocker for me.  Honestly, people have been giving me a wide berth just due to the look on my face.  To get to the point, everyone and I mean EVERYONE is trying to get all their little odd jobs at work done before Christmas.  So most people’s odd jobs somehow include something to do with me.  So  I am constantly busy, not to mention everything that I need to do before I go on leave… **Sigh**

I have a friend at work, yes yes I hear you say, I have lots of friends at work.  Well that’s awesome for you.  Once you become a manager, you get a target painted on your back and if you trust someone with your personal goings on, sooner or later, they’ll hang you out to dry just to climb the corporate ladder.  Bah humbug I hear you say.  I’ve seen it happen – in my current workplace…   So I have one friend at work, who I actually am willing if not even look forward to seeing outside of the workplace.

This friend of mine is maybe the polar opposite to Evil Oddie.  She’s more like Miss Proper and Politically Correct.  Opposites attract and all that   So getting on with the real story.  My Proper Only Work Friend (POWF) did a Celebrancy course some while ago, but she had to do some other follow ups in order to get the final nod.  Once I got engaged, I was on the push to get POWF to get legal so she can be my celebrant.

After months of waiting, POWF finally got word that she is now a legal celebrant and can marry us… WOOT!!!

Ok… so…  from the beginning…

Let’s start off from getting you into my head space.  Glen proposed when we were up at the Cape.  So, I was literally forced not to do or organise anything for 3 weeks.  For my type of personality this was torture.  Glen had me agree to a budget of $10 000 before I had done any investigation at all.  So when I actually started to do some research… I started to have heart palpitations… Seriously.

After reading many a forum, the advice that I deemed highly important was…  Pick the top three things that you won’t COMPROMISE on. Good starting point I reckon.

My three items are: Photography, Jewellery & everyone there.

My reason for Photography being: you will always have the photos.  In 20 years from now when I’m showing my kids when their Mum and Dad tied the knot, I don’t want to say, gee all these photos are crap.  Believe me, we have been to many weddings and the photos are just horrible.  Either the photographer didn’t have the experience, or they didn’t know how to set the photo up or the bride and groom were too cheap and you get what you pay for.   So, if you’re not sitting down now, please do.  My first quote for photography $3400.  Right, that’s 34% of my entire budget… Don’t think I can do that.  Heart palpitations!!

My reason for Jewellery: you wear it 24/7.  It’s worth the investment!  I’m a bit of a jewellery nut (to put it nicely – read anal retentive).  I can look at a piece of jewellery and pretty write it off or not.  My friend at work got engaged the day that Michael Jackson passed away.  She called me and as soon as I saw it, I knew her fiance had spent a fair whack of money.  The best bit – I even told her what the valuation should be… and I was right on the money… oopsy – blowing my own horn there.  Seeing I’m this ‘nut’ about jewellery, I refuse to wear a cast made ring.  So I went and got a quote for a handmade ring from a manufacturing jeweller… $2300… Ok… So… with the photographer and the ring… 57% of my budget gone.

Everyone there… Glen’s one of 6 siblings and I’m one of 4.  We’re both the youngest (by quite a bit), so they’ve all got kids and some of the kids have got kids… Yes I know… Big family.  Glen and I have been together over 10 years now – so we have quite the big friend base and they’re all different kinds of people.  Which should be fun on the day.  Meh – they’ll have to sort themselves out.  So far the invite list is 140.  We’ve decided not to invite anyone from work unless we see them out of work… ie – more friends than just work buddies.  I put in calls to heaps of places as I was chasing accommodation as well as the wedding, and most places couldn’t fit us all or they were majorly expensive.  One quote was $3300 for the use of a hall!!  That was just for 5pm to 11pm, not including food, decorations or anything!  I almost fell out of my chair.

We’ve ended up booking a Homestead that has enough accommodation for 140 people and we get the place from 1pm on Friday to 1pm on Sunday.  So we can go absolutely nuts!  Woot – and it’s fairly cheap because we booked the entire place out and we’re asking for the guests to pay part of their accommodation.  Hopefully it will all work out!

Most people are aware that I am an “organiser”.  So could it really surprise people of how much I have already organised?  Apparently yes.  I have been engaged for just over 2 months and it’s just under a year away til the big day.

I have to say that not all the wedding preparation has been a wonderful experience.  Glen had got me to agree to a budget of $10 000 before he’d even proposed.  How stupid was I???

When it finally came to start getting quotes etc, my first quote  for photography was $3400.  It felt like a punch to the gut.  I started freaking out that I wouldn’t be able to stick to the budget.  Now, I’m really trying to stick to the budget.  Glen is working for himself, so is only taking a wage when he can, so it’s my wage that we’re relying on.  So I do not want to go over the budget.

So I have been going hard core with research and trying to get people to go contra with us if they need a website or SEO work.   Not so many takers, but meh, you gotta try right?

The forum that I’m checking pretty much everyday is here.  It’s helped me with locations, photography, inspirations etc.

I’ll tell you what’s been booked on the next post.  I’m mega excited!!

Yay! After almost 10 years together, Glen and I are engaged.

To be honest, since I was a little girl, I’ve dreamed of getting married.  Yet, my experience so far has not been dream worthy.

I think that my thoughts on the entire matter are different to what they were even 5 years ago.  I’m not interested in spending mega money on  stuff that guests or the people that matter (Glen and I) don’t even notice.

Glen has set a mega hardcore budget of $10 000.  I’m definately going to try to not spend any excess money, but I’m not sure on how I’m going to keep it under the $10k after getting my first couple of quotes from vendors.

Because of the mega budget, I made a list of what is most important to me.  My list is: Jewellery (the engagement ring & wedding rings); Photography and; having everyone there.  I am more interested to have everyone there and they eat BBQ or Fish & Chips than having a few people and serving them lobster.

So my first quote was from a photographer (my first ever quote).  For their most “basic package” it was going to cost $3400.  I started freaking out at that point!  If someone for 5 hours and an album is going to cost that, how much is the rest  of this day going to cost???

And so begins the wonderful  wedding day planning.  I think it’s better to help a friend with her day than to plan your own!