Chris & Carly ~ An Introduction

Chris and Carly image by Essenkae Photographics

I’m Carly and I’m getting married 21 March 2014 at Harbour Room, Royal Melbourne Yacht Squadron.  I’m so excited about planning that I wish my wedding were sooner – in fact, it was a relief getting to the new year and finally being able to say “I’m getting married next year!” … but good things take time and at least I have plenty of time to ogle all the pretty weddings on Polka Dot Bride! My job fortunately/unfortunately leaves me with plenty of spare time to write, so I thought it would be fun to blog my wedding planning and share this wonderful experience with others and hopefully share ideas and gain some inspiration. Allow me to introduce myself and my fiance Chris and to give a little background to this journey…

So that’s where the story starts.  Having been (very) overweight my whole life, and failing all attempts to get it down no matter what I tried, I had lapband surgery in April 2011 and it completely changed my life. The “old” Carly never had a boyfriend, lived like a hermit, and had no self confidence. Slowly but surely as the weight came off, I developed new confidence and started going out more, and when my flatmate at the time dared me to sign up for RSVP, I decided I had nothing to lose. That was Grand Final day 2011, and when my profile went live the next day I fell upon this most amazing guy called Chris.Emails flew back and forth, then texts, and we organised to meet just four days later. My first date with Chris was my first date ever, and after four hours of effortless chat, I knew he was the one. That was sealed by my first kiss as we waited at the train station! Nine months later I moved in, and ten days shy of our first anniversary, on 26 September 2012, he got down on one knee by the pier at St Kilda, and asked me to spend the rest of my life with him. Of course I said yes!

Not surprisingly this has been quite a whirlwind, but I feel so blessed that I get to marry my first and only love! I was also Chris’ first girlfriend, so we both feel pretty lucky that we ended up with *the one* in our first relationships!

Not long after Chris popped the question, my mum and dad flew over from NZ to help us celebrate and hunt for venues. I grew up by the sea in Auckland and knew that my one “definite” was that my wedding should be by the water. We’d already put The Baths at Sorrento on our shortlist, but my amazing parents helped out by scouting no less than TEN venues. Their favourite was Harbour Room at Royal Melbourne Yacht Squadron, and after Chris and I saw it we knew it was perfect. Wanting to avoid the heat of high summer, and potential Grand Prix interruptions, our date was set for 21st March 2014 (ironically my brother’s 34th birthday!). I love the neutral palette, the views, the proximity to the city (ideal for all our NZ guests) and fingers crossed for fine weather, we will hold the ceremony on the roof with gorgeous views of the pier & Port Phillip Bay.

A few weeks before we got engaged, my brother and sister-in-law and gorgeous niece and nephew had a family photoshoot with Tess Follet. I fell in love with her photography and was so moved by her wedding photos that I knew we had to have her shoot our wedding. Once we had the date set we organised an appointment with Tess, who was just as lovely in person as we had heard and shared our vision for the wedding and gave us some great ideas for timing the photos around the ceremony and reception. Her albums are simply glorious – so much so that as we left I told Chris that I wanted to get married now just so we could have one of those albums! I can’t wait to work with Tess on the big day and am glad we don’t have to wait quite that long to see a bit of her magic – we’re having an engagement shoot with her in March this year.

Once Tess was organised the wedding planning took a break – after all we were so far out from the wedding it seemed a little silly to be contacting people. But once we ticked over to 2013 things started to gather speed again. At the moment I’m in the midst of gathering quotes for my wedding binder so I can take them with me when I take a quick trip home to NZ in March and discuss with mum and dad. At the moment I am obsessed with the combination of Hello Blossoms for flowers and Cake Ink. for the cake and stationery, they’ve been wonderful to deal with so far and I hope we can work it into the budget.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of the planning so far has been Pinterest! I don’t actually know how people planned weddings without it :P.  I find it so wonderful for collecting ideas so I don’t have to hunt back for things I’ve seen that I love, and it’s so fabulous for showing florists etc – letting them see my ideas visually rather than me struggling to describe it verbally has been incredibly helpful and time saving.  Here’s my board:  http://pinterest.com/carlyswedding

Now I’m planning our engagement photoshoot with Tess, which I’ve decided to do in St Kilda (Chris has decided to leave such things to me, heh). It seems fitting considering that’s where we got engaged, and where we’ll be married! But I hope to mix this up with some fun and more relaxed photos than we’ll be able to get on our wedding day. I’m also looking forward to 21 March 2013, when I can start the one year count down! I might be slightly silly for organising this far out, but knowing I’ve got the main players sorted will give me such piece of mind as the year progresses. I’m hoping to have all the plans sorted by Christmas, so we can relax and enjoy our last few months before the wedding.  I guess we’ll see how that plays out!

I’m hoping to continue this blog as our plans take shape and get some advice as well. At the moment I’m looking for recommendations for wedding bands – and some idea of a ballpark cost figure. Any ideas?

Carly

Ms Gingham says: Super sweet story and really inspiring Carly. Thanks for sharing and we look forward to following your wedding planning journey!

Carly says: “My “day job” is as a receptionist (hoping to get a new job soon!) but I also run my own pageant site – long explanation needed there but it brings me a lot of satisfaction, I’ve made some amazing friends in the US and was even blessed to have them donate two and a half grand to get me to Vegas for the show last year. :)”