engagement party

This is going to be a very long and very picture heavy post.
On Saturday March 10, Nick and I had our engagement party.
It was held at my parents house and was very laid back.
[I'm saving all the fancy stuff for the wedding.]
I hired a photographer and I have to say, totally worth it.
She got some fantastic shots.
I won't post all of the photo's as I don't want to intrude on all my guests privacy and some faces might be blanked out for the same reason.
I also threw in some of the edited photos.
Oh, and the photos are in a completely random order for some reason.

Enjoy!

 James, Lauren & myself chugging down some water.
I was a very good girl. I had 2 vodka cranberries then went non-alcoholic for the rest of the night.
The same cannot be said about all the guests though that's for sure!

 James & Lauren again.

 Amanda & myself.
Those aren't crows feet [yet!], they are my smile creases.

 Having a chat to my dad.
Excuse the excessive boobage, I was leaning over to talk to him and didn't realise I was putting on a show! 

 The following five photos are probably my favourite.
I had been telling Louise earlier that week how high my brother can lift me and she didn't believe me, so I had to prove my point.

 Slippery dress

 Me saying 'See? I told you!'

"I'm flying Jack, I'm flying!"

 Time for the dismount

 If this photo was taken 0.001 of a second earlier, you would see my underwear.
In hindsight, I should have realised my dress would catch the wind.
Oh well.

 Don't ask, because I have no clue what's going on here.

 Mum: 'There's something on your boob'

 Me: 'Oh there is too! It won't come off!'
Mum: 'I'll do it'

 Myself & Louise, before everyone showed up.

 My cousin Melanie, my Nan and myself.
Mum wanted a nice photo of us so I go to lean in and somehow completely stumble in to my Nan, and nearly spill my drink everywhere.
Total action shot.

 Laughing about how uncoordinated I am. 

 In case you're wondering, this photo isn't posed.
I've had a couple of people question that, which is a pity as it's one of my favourites.

As you can see, Louise bought me my wedding night lingerie.
Sexy!

 Louise defending the honour of her goon bag.

 Excuse Nick's blanked out face.
This is my 'ohh I see' face.
Easily confused with my 'What the hell is going on?' face or my 'Huh?' face.

 Damn my huge cheeks! Damn them to hell!

 The bridesmaids & myself
[L-R] Amanda, Louise, myself, Melanie & Lauren.

My family <3
 Myself, Ryan, Mum, Dad & Jordan.

 I absolutely adore this photo, it's so silly but so us.
My 2 big brothers, Ryan & Jordan.

Louise, myself & Melanie.

There are a lot more photos but my computer kept freezing and this is as far as I got with the picture uploads so this is all I'm doing.

Overall it was a fantastic night.
There were a few inappropriate comments but if that's the worst thing that happened then I'm a pretty happy girl.
I may or may not do a post going in to further detail about the night, but I'm not sure. 

Would any of you be interested in reading that?

The specifics;
Dress; Sophia [Bought at a local boutique]
Shoes; Windsor Smith
Make up; Pout Cosmetics
MUA; Tara @ Pout Cosmetics
Hair; Myself [Can't you tell? haha]
Necklace; Michael Hill
Nail polish; OPI Divine Swine
Photographer; Chelsea @ Proof of Life Photography

Just a side note; I know that my bra is WAY to visible. I actually had the perfect bra laid out to take with me to my parents house [I got ready there] but I totally forgot to take it and by the time I realised it was too late.


ETA; I just looked over all the photos and have realised that all the photos feature maybe 10 people.
We had about 100 guests but I really don't want to invade their privacy as I don't know how they'd feel about being featured on my blog.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the photos!
x

stress & love

My engagement party is this Saturday.

It is a lot more stressful than I had anticipated;

With everything from family drama to people not rsvping.

I've been so on edge lately that I needed to remind myself of why there is even an engagement party in the first place.

I found some pretty pictures that have calmed me down and made me get a little bit of perspective so I thought I would share them with you all & this way I can always look back on them.

all images courtesy of we heart it

Stay tuned for what I'm anticipating to be a disaster of an engagement party.

x

reception venues

Last weekend, Louise and I went to a bridal fair at The Manor House.

I'd always been very curious about what it looks like inside and oh dear, was I disappointed!



THERE ARE SHIELDS AND SPEARS ON THE WALL!
SERIOUSLY?!
And look at the hideous chairs for the bride and groom.

You can see the bridal table to the front of this photo and the entrance to the function room is right behind the group of people in the back right of the photo.

There is a small area in front of the already set tables, and a small area to the left for more tables and also the door to the outdoor area.

And can you see the hideous shield and two swords in the background of this photo?
Yuck!

Apologies for the blurry photo.
This is what the venue looks like as soon as you walk through the doors, the burst of light is the outdoor area and as you can see slightly to the right is the dance floor.

Now this confuses the hell out of me!
For a second, let's ignore how small the dance floor is.
THAT IS THE BAR RIGHT IN FRONT OF THOSE STRANGELY PLACED CHAIRS.
WHY IS THE BAR SO FREAKING CLOSE TO THE DANCE FLOOR?
Imagine having to fight your way through the dancing people to get a drink and then more than likely get knocked by somebody and end up wearing your drink.
Seriously.

This place was a complete DISASTER.

The decor is absolutely hideous.
I imagine a reception venue to be a sort of blank canvas so that you can decorate the way you want.
I'm leaning towards a purple theme and this room is completely red and medevil!
A purple theme in this room would clash.

And that's just the beginning.

The events coordinator gave me a booklet with prices and details.
I noticed there was a room that seated 120 guests, [the room Louise and I were standing in could fit no more than 60 at the absolute most. Even 60 people would have been squished like sardines.]

I asked the events coordinator if I could please see the room that seats 120 and her answer?
EC: 'This is the room"
Me: 'This room seats 120 people?'
EC: Well.. 100ish...'
Me: 'Uhm, alright then..'

Talk about false advertising!
And the events coordinator just would not leave us alone.

There was some crazy lady who was apparently a celebrant that kept berating me with questions.
How many times do I need to say that I am having a church wedding with a PRIEST before you get the message you crazy cat lady?!

So frustrating!

Safe to say I will never enter The Manor House again.

Do you have any reception venue horror stories to share? I'd love to hear them!

x

wedding cars

This is possibly one of my favourite things to plan out of the whole wedding experience.
I've always known that I didn't want a limousine.
My dream wedding car has always been a Chrysler or a Rolls Royce from the 30's-50's.

I've actually found a local car hire service that uses the same car that the Royal Family uses...

[1949 Rolls Royce - Silver Wraith]

Isn't it beautiful?
I am torn between the above car, the 1938 Chrysler & the 1956 Rolls Royce

1938 Chrysler's

1956 Rolls Royce Bentley S1 & 1956 Rolls Royce Cloud 1
(Apparently these 2 are sister cars. I have no idea what that means!)

Decisions, decisions!

What is/was your dream wedding car?

x

new beginning

I have deleted a lot of my old posts.
I was reading through them recently and I feel like they aren't really 'me' anymore.
Some would probably think it's a good idea to leave them there so I could look back on how I've grown as a person but honestly, I just found some of them embarassing!

So welcome to my new and improved blog.
Paige, 2.0.
I will be blogging more frequently about everyday things and documenting my wedding planning process in detail.

To celebrate everything that's been going on lately, I will be doing a giveaway in the coming week.

Stay tuned!

x

i'm back!

Well, it has officially been FOREVER since I have last blogged. I've really missed blogging but I have just been so busy lately that I can barely spare a second to write a post.

What I've been up to since my last blog;
I've been in crazy wedding mode.
- I went dress shopping with my mum and best friend yesterday and I tried on some amazing dresses. You're not supposed to take photos in a bridal store for copyright reasons but Louise managed to get a few on the sly. I'm undecided about whether to post them or not.
- The whole guest list thing is driving me insane and I am only up to the engagement party!
Nick's parents had a very bitter divorce about 10 years ago and the two sides of his family hold a lot of animosity towards each other and there are a few family members that are not afraid to cause a scene. Throw some alcohol in to the mix and the situation will quickly escalate.
I am quite literally scared of my own engagement party for this reason.
- Nick and I have decided to do all our wedding invitations, engagment invitations, place cards, rsvp cards etc ourselves so that we can get exactly what we want and not spend a fortune.
I made up some save the date cards and engagement invitations yesterday and they look really nice if I do say so myself but printing them is turning out to be an issue so we went and bought a printer today. Way to save money, hey?

Other than wedding stuff, there has been a fair amout drama going on in my life. I won't go in to any detail as it's highly personal but it's the main reason I've been MIA on the blog front.

I finally recieved my certificate for the course I finished last September (about time!) so will hopefully have a new job very soon!

I'm going to go back and study this year, I've got my sights set on pathology.

I did a post a few months back about Demi, my future brother-in-law's cat that we took in, yeah well, she's still here.
I got so attached to her and Nick's brother said that because she settled in with us then it would be cruel to move her again.
She is absolutely beautiful, her wound has healed perfectly and she is very well behaved.
She follows me around like a dog and likes to chew on all our electrical cords, which is proving to be very hard to deal with lol but we are saving lots of energy by turning everything off at the powerpoint now!
Demi gets along incredibly well with our other cat and they always snooze together on the foot of our bed.

---------------------------------------------

And that's my update for now.
I will post again soon.
xx

church is booked!

I will officially be married on September 7, 2013
in this beautiful church...

We will be married on our 7 year anniversary.


This church holds a lot of sentimental value as my parents got married here and so did my grandparents.
It feels amazing to keep the tradition going, I hope that if I have a daughter, she chooses to get married here as well.
♥