Ricky and Hayley

Last weekend marked four weeks until our big day- a milestone filled with excitement but also a reminder it was time to get serious….our big day is coming!

Firstly, some background. Ricky and I were introduced by a mutual friend back in April 2009. He had me laughing from the very first conversation and still keeps me laughing these days. In July, Ricky, ever the non-romantic, surprised me with an incredibly romantic proposal and the date was set for December 8. That gave us four months to get this gig pulled together.

These are some of the adventures, surprises, joys and disappointments that have come our way in the final weeks of preparation. The first of these joys was receiving our engagement shoot photographs, taken by the fabulous Lillie and Ari from Shutter + Lace . Ricky and I aren’t really into a lot of the ‘fluffiness’ that comes with weddings, which for us included such things as engagement shoots.

When we sat down with Lillie to talk business, I warned her that we were both terrible in front of a camera and lacking the ability to give anything more than fake smiles and awkward poses. So, she (in all her photographic wisdom) suggested we do an engagement shoot as a trial run. While it all still felt terribly awkward at the time, to our surprise we love LOVED the finished product. While it looks like Ricky is whispering sweet nothings in my ear, he is really muttering something along the line of, ‘This is so silly!  Why are we standing like this? I feel dorky!’ Some of them are a bit awkward-looking but that’s just us, and I kind of like that it’s still visible to those who know us well… and maybe even those who don’t! We can’t wait to see what their photographic genius will produce from the big day.

Another unexpected joy was sitting down to write our vows. It was one of those jobs we had been putting off but we had to just get them done. I felt a lot of pressure for them to be really deep and meaningful and personal, pulled from the bottom of our hearts, certain to not leave a dry eye in the house – but that’s just not us. We like simple, traditional, straight to the point.

So we did what any other couple without a creative streak would do; we googled ‘wedding vows’, clicked on the first page that popped up, picked one we liked, tweaked it a bit and hey presto, vows done! Not only was the process less painful than anticipated, it was also (surprisingly) a lovely moment to sit quietly together, really think about why we doing this and refocus on the point of it all which can sometimes get lost amongst, ‘Do we really need to release doves at the ceremony?‘, ‘OMG we forgot to get shoes for the groomsmen!’, ‘Have you organised wedding cars?‘, ‘Did we paid the invoice for the cake?”.

Just when we were thinking things had been going along too smoothly, came the mother of all disasters. I went for my final dress fitting and IT WAS THE WRONG DRESS. It was the stuff of nightmares. The dress I had waited three and a half months for was totally not what I had ordered… and there was only twenty-something days to fix it! After a short but turbulent fit of princess tears in the middle of the shop with my mum, I pulled myself together and started figuring out how we were going to get the right dress in time. As you read this, the dress is frantically being made and should be ready for collection a whole 6 days before the wedding, so in the scheme of things, it should be fine (says the anxious bride, chewing her nails down to the finger tip).

So, my advice at this point?

This is a simple one and maybe it’s just me, but lists really are my best friend at the moment. I keep a master list with me at all times and write down every minor little thing I have to do or confirm. It means they actually get done and I’m not a preoccupied ball of stress trying to keep them all in my head. I write them down and get on with my day, knowing the task is there for me to get back to when I am ready.

A big one, depending on the type of people you are, is keeping your eye on the big picture, which makes it so much easier to not sweat the small stuff. For us, it has never been about the day or ‘the event’ that is a wedding. It has always been about actually being married, about being able to call him my husband, about waking up the next day, and every day after that, committed to loving that person whatever that takes – and knowing he will do the same. And a wedding is just part of the process to get to that goal, not the goal in itself.

And finally, some of what’s on the agenda in the next week or so…… finishing off the stationery, choosing music, organising seating plans, moving into our house together and of course, The Kitchen Tea and THE HENS!

 

Ms Gingham says: I can actually feel the excitement and nervousness as I read this post by Hayley! But thank the stars for talented vendors like Shutter + Lace… these images are divine!

About Hayley: “I am a 23 year audiology student in love! My fiance Ricky and I live in Brisvegas with our two pup-babies, Pumba and Bonnie. We got engaged in late July and have been busy busy busy putting together our wedding for December 8th. I know you probably come across a lot of excited brides-to-be, but I am pretty confident that I am one of the biggest balls of excitement you will have come across yet. “