Archive for April, 2009

I’m into my 2nd week of bootcamp and I’m not going to lie …. IT’S TOUGH!  In all honesty though, despite my asthma challenge in this thick cold air, I  love it.  I’m up at 4:15 every morning – giving me time to wake up properly, have some coffee and a small snack for energy and on to meet at Trinity House rugby field by 5:25.  I thought the class would be no more than 5 girls however we’re a group of 20 and that’s a small group in comparison to others.  One of the biggest has been 45.  They definitely don’t mess around either!

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My last week has been spent searching for specifically what we want for our decor and to be honest it’s getting more confusing.  Although decided on the theme, colours, etc when you start breaking it down to actual table settings, gifts, invitation stationery it gets a little harder because of the thousands of choices you come across on the internet!  I’ve decided to start a scrapbook to print out, or tear out if from a magazine, pics and articles pertaining to our theme and then break it down from there.  On the one hand it gives you a great visual of how you would like things to look and on the other hand you have a ‘diary’ of your planning to keep along with your wedding pictures and other memorable items!  Although we have 124 days to go, they are flying past!  I’ve been thinking we have so much to do and it’s overwhelming.  I’m so busy going over things in my mind that I totally forget to refer to my checklist which details all monthly tasks and creates complete calm.  Remember ladies, when you start feeling that the thinking is getting a bit much, look at your checklist to calm yourself down as it puts it all into perspective.  It really is a MUST.  Make extra notes on a spreadsheet or on a notepad that you keep with you so when you have a new idea or concern, write it down and refer to it when the time calls for it. You won’t function without a list if you are doing most of it yourself and the overwhelming feeling will definitely cause you to panic and forget things.  The biggest difficulty we have faced out of all the planning is who is going to take care of our little boy on our big day and when we go on honeymoon.  Read the rest of this entry »

One of the things at the top of my mind in preparing for my wedding is the fact that I would like to look good in the photographs. Obviously, the first step in ensuring this happens is to choose a great photographer. Having done just that, I considered resting on my laurels and trusting him to work some magic. However, it did occur to me, hopefully not too late, that even Annie Lebovitz couldn’t make Kirstie Alley look like Christy Turlington and so I began the inevitable attempt to shape up before my wedding. Read the rest of this entry »

Choosing the colour for the wedding proved to be more difficult than I had originally anticipated. I have always loved the colour of the ocean on a stormy day have been heard to sigh “I would love a dress that colour.”
Of course, I had no real hope of finding the purpley-blue-gunmetal colour I have sighed over and had therefore resigned myself to a rather plainer shade of violet.

Blow me down, however, when I walked into Bridal Centre (yes, the very same bridal emporium which I initially refused to enter and ended up finding my dream wedding dress) to find material in the perfect shade, at R30 a metre! I am quite beside myself with joy. And, no, the irony of my inital reluctance to shop at Bridal Centre only to find two of my most important elements there has not escaped me. And how’s this for shivery? The same sales lady – there are about 20 - sold me the dress and the material! Cleary Mizz Diva + Bridal Centre = meant to be…

I have now got all excited about using this sophisticated palette and turned to Polyvore to try and express my vision. Here it is:
Purple and Lace Wedding by CandiceBotha on Polyvore.com

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I’ve just come across a great packaging place if you’re looking for wedding favours or gifts to your bridal party.  Packing Source www.packagingsource.co.za.  They are in Pretoria and Cape Town.  They have some beautiful gift boxes, tins, bags, boxes, ribbons, etc and they do printing at very reasonable prices.  Sorry, can’t download any pictures from their website due to copyright.

Mr Style and I have been together 6 years in June and have lived together for most of the duration of our relationship.  Baby Style will be 3 in May so obviously we have the house and our necessities covered which left us thinking about our gift registry.  We didn’t want to simply ask for cash because it sounded a little impersonal and we wanted friends & family to at least have an idea what we’d like to spend it on to make it more meaningful.  Getting a gift registry gives people an exact idea of what you want for your new home so we thought we’d apply the same ‘rule’ to a cash gift request.  We thought long and hard and decided against a honeymoon registry as we had budgeted for that already.  We therefore decided we really wanted to go ahead with projects around the house we have always wanted to do - so that was our answer! Read the rest of this entry »

I thought I would look up some disaster stories, although quite funny to read, which might come in handy to help avoid the same thing happening or just to put a smile on your face.  I came across this first story at http://weddings.lovetoknow.com.

“The evening of June 17, 2005 was the perfect time to get married. The ceremony was so beautiful with the sun setting on the mountains and lakes in the background. However, along came a dress disaster, or shall I say five dress disasters. I had my four sisters and my best friend as bridesmaids. To try and save a little money, my mother-in-law and grandmother-in-law to be volunteered to make the bridesmaids dresses. I picked the perfect design and got the measurements for all my girls. However, something went wrong during the process of actually making the dresses. First of all, the dresses were not completed until the day of the wedding. Talk about anxiety! Then when we were all getting dressed for the wedding, we realized my in-laws had taken the identification papers off the dresses. Therefore, no one knew exactly which dress was whose!

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It somehow still seems to be every girl’s favourite colour (and nowdays alot of guys are loving it!) and creeps into wedding colour schemes even when you’re not planning on it!  Whether you go for pink or not,  this colour remains one of the softest, most elegant colours to add to any event.  Hot, darker shades of pink mixed with red is funky, chic and absolutely glam!  Found on www.stylemepretty.com.

One thing that I have come to absolutely love is surfing the net for inspirational blogs, sites and pics of wedding themes and ideas.  I came across Google’s Picasa free download which is the best tool I’ve ever come across!  It sorts your pics and images on your computer, you can tag the pics to search for them at anytime, create movies, download to cd’s as gifts, create a picture collage and so much more. It comes in very handy with the wedding images you download to form collages according to colour scheme, theme or whatever you choose to do.  Here are some beautiful rustic, natural and earthy themes I came across on www.stylemepretty.com.

The most important thing to remember about looking at these types of inspirational images (or collages) is not necessarily copying the exact style for your wedding (unless you really love the ideas), but more about colour schemes, textures and unique ideas. 

Most of the time we know what colour scheme we want but have no idea how to get the final result.  You’re never sure of what colours match or don’t match or what illusions you can create without spending alot of money.  Use the images more to inspire your own ideas – you’ll surprise yourself with what you can come up with!