This is hayleyb85's Red Wedding!

Just to update my blog as I havnt done much in a while...

We had our e-session on the beach last Sunday. (the 1st attempt had to be cancelled as i woke up with a monster cold sore...which made me worry that i may get one again for the big day :-( Any prevention tips welcome!!!)
It was a loads of fun despite the wind. I always tie my hair back so thought id leave it down for the shoot... half way through the wind got the better of me and up it went...

To date, we could get married tomorrow if we needed to.

Venue...Check
Dress....Check
Shoes....Check
Photographer etc etc...

We are umming and aaahing about a wedding video.
We have our own camera so thought of doing a home job rather than paying R8000 for someone else to do it... yes quality wld be better but who cares really...we'll prob watch it once in our lives!

We've already sent out our invites which is know is early but guests were asking for accommodation etc seeing as most are coming from far.
FH's ouma (grandmother) actually had a dream about our wedding 2 weeks ago, the day before she received the invitation, she shared it with FHs mom. She said she was at a big celebration and suddenly tiny white feathers started falling from the ceiling, followed by tiny red feathers, tiny silver feathers and lastly tiny black feathers.... She said that on that day there would be a special union and that God was going to bless our marriage... the next day she received our invite in the post and was so surprised to see that they were white, red, silver and black...she didnt even know our colours before the dream so its certainly a message from Jesus :-) Amen!
- Sadly ouma passed this past Sunday 8th July and FH will be flying up to her funeral tomorrow. RIP Ouma Mara.

Well thats it for now... I wish i could post pictures of my dress and shoes etc but i dont know if any of our guests have found the blog and i dont want to ruin the surprise...

I have a bit of a dilemma regarding the wording of our invitations and would appreciate any advice/ ideas...

You know how the hosts ie the Brides parents are usually the ones inviting..
well, FHs family is a little bit complicated and I dont want to offend anyone...heres the deal:

My parents have contributed towards the wedding and FHs step mom has contributed to the wedding...shes divorced from FHs dad but is still very important in our lives...

So how do we word the invites...

Heres what i have so far...

(Brides Parents)
Request the pleasure of your company
At the marriage of their daughter
(Me)
To
(FH)
Son of
(Grooms biological parents)

so now, how do i bring step mom into the picture as shes the one who is contributing???

Thanks Ladies!

Just a few cool ideas i may or may not use...

I dont know the 1st thing about flowers so with the help of FH and a wonderful florist...and a bank manager...we came to the conclusion that we were going to make use of the twig look for our wedding...

My bouquet will be red and white roses, my bridesmaids will have white roses and then on the tables we'll have a glass vase with twigs, bear grass and red gerberas wired onto the sticks...
It'll definately be something unique to the other weddings we've been to....

FH and I want to make our own invitations so we went to Prints Charming to discuss papers...
I dont have a picture of it but we are going with the folded style that has the little paper slips with directions, accomodation, etc...
They will be done in our wedding colours which have changed 500 times and are now White, Red, Silver and Black...lol.
I did make this monogram however which will be on the front of the invite

Today i tried on my very 1st wedding dresses!! I felt like a princess... but wow! I didnt realise how much energy wedding dress shopping would take up! I managed to find 3 dresses that i like but they arent the "take my breath away dress that i'm waiting for" lol!
I dont know about you guys but here, we are only allowed to try on 3 dresses, then they charge you and you arent allowed to take photos...how crazy is that? How am i supposed to remember which dress looked like what?!
Oh well...

I had a bit of drama in the process... i forgot i had put my sunglasses on my lap whilest driving to the stores and only 2 hours later, whilest shopping, did i realise my glasses were missing and i had the dreaded memory of them being on my lap in the car...yes, they fell on the floor when i got out and i didnt notice...
I raced back to the car and they were nowhere to be found. I went to lost and found and ...no! Eventually when i was in a bad mood and had nothing else to do, i came to my senses and asked God to please let me get my glasses back...(I had bought them overseas when i when i worked on the cruise ships)... needless to say, when i got back to my car, a gentleman walked up to me from out the blue and handed me my sunglasses! I was over the moon! Definately a Godsend and God sure cares about the small things!!

I could then continue shopping happily!

I havnt found that dream dress yet but i know i will and atleast now i have a vague idea of what i like...

Cheers to dress hunting!

Oh and did i mention i saw a gorgeous dress online to buy from China but i am a little nervous...anyone know of anyone who's bought a dress from China and can anyone recommend a good site?

This has nothing to do with weddings but are any of you also trying to study when there is much more exciting, wedding planning to do??

I sit at work with my wedding file on one side and my studying file on the other and im finding there is a stronger force pulling me towards the wedding file..lol! But i am disciplined and am forcing myself to go through those dreary books... Only 1 more year to go i hope...

Choosing wedding colours has got to be one of the most difficult things, wow! I didnt think it would have me so stumped!!

Basically, i was looking at pictures of bouquets and came across this gorgeous one...which just goes so nicely with the colour dresses the girls are wearing... so im settled on that pink (if i can find the real thing that is...).

I like the idea of Dark grey, Pink and White as wedding colours but i also wanted to bring in something a little more manly for FH... He wont wear pink, thats for sure! lol. But...i can still sneak in a pink rose as the button hole thingy majig that the guys wear...heehee!

If anyone has ideas of what might look nice with those colours...please share! Grey doesnt have to be a big colour in the wedding, FH wld like a grey suit though and i think it'll look awesome! So grey suits then maybe the pink for the ladies with a touch of Olive Green for the men?! IDEAS??????????

The colour has since changed to red, silver, black and white ladies...

FH and I went to see our 1st possible wedding venue yesterday and i think its sold. I can be very undecisive so I've decided it would be best to just go with it seeing as its just US and looking at more venues will just leave us hanging! lol!

Its not your breathtakingly elegant type of venue but then again, we arent your breathtakingly elegant kind of couple :-)

We would like a "semi-formal", relaxed, tranquil, unpressured atmosphere and both of us LOVE the bush so here it is...

iShona Langa... Rustic, Rustig (Afrikaans for relaxed) and Really just us! Its a wildlife sanctuary and they have giraffe and zebra and various buck :-) Its in Kwazulu Natal in South Africa by the way!

FH and I were fortunate to have a Bridal Show nearby the weekend right after our engagement. We went together on Friday night and were overwhelmed with all the wedding goodies.

We are a DIY couple and are going to try do as much as we can on our own.. ie wedding invites, signage etc...

Exciting times!