Image via Virtual Tourist

Hello all!

I hope everyone had a fantastic Easter! Mine was excellent, but it was hard to really sit down and breath with how much I did during the long weekend! And before I continue, I’d like to sincerely apologise for being a lame blogger.

I’m terrible, I know.

The reason for my long absence? University, moving house, health and fitness, and wedding planning. I’m a full-time student studying externally and a lot of the texts I need have been arriving late (which means I have to read 3 chapters in one week! My brain wasn’t feeling very good after that…).

Anyway, on to the wedding!

Earlier in the wedding planning, I initially wanted to get married in Christchurch, New Zealand. I love Sydney, it’s beautiful, but GP and I are strapped for cash. As a fulltime student, I don’t make that much money (or… any really) so GP is paying a majority of it. I’ve been the good researcher and tried to find deals and negotiate where I can (Asian gene win!), but a wedding can be pretty hefty.

Christchurch provided a solution to our money issue without sacrificing too much – it was close to Australia, the weather would be similar, travel isn’t too expensive, and GP knew of some people who could assist (namely his parents, love those two!). However, after negotiations with my daddy and some prodding from some cash-strapped friends, we decided to keep it onshore.

I still, however, dreamt of having a photo shoot in New Zealand. But this dream vanished when we started piling on the expenses, namely travel expenses to fly our photographers over (even though we love those guys!!).

Fast forward to this year, about a few weeks ago. On a whim, I leant over to the fiancé and asked him: “Where do you want to have the engagement photo session?” After a brief pause he turned to me and said, “Cockatoo Island”.

Now, at that point in time, I had never been to Cockatoo Island (and for those who are in the same boat, I recommend going to Cockatoo Island. But that’s a different story…), so I wanted to make a day trip out to the “little” island in the middle of Sydney harbour. GP was more than ecstatic to take me and I have to say I very much enjoyed it, but that’s not the point of this post.*

What are you trying to say then woman?, I hear you asking.

Well! After GP’s suggestion, I sent off an email to the wonderful Ellen of StudioSomething and we back-and-forthed a bit regarding the e-session. Basically, GP and I wanted to have an e-session with a ‘theme’. Not a strange, dress-up-as-characters-from-one-of-the-bazillion-games-we-play theme, but a general “gamer geek” theme. GP suggested the tag line: A co-op campaign of a lifetime.

It was perfect.

Our marriage would be the perfect example of a co-op campaign of a lifetime! Now for those who don’t understand the geek lingo, a ‘co-op campaign’ basically means a game which is played co-operatively by two (or more) people to assist in either/or both:

  1. solving puzzles, for example Portal 2;
  2. defeating the enemy, for example Gears of War (and it’s follow-ups, 2, 3, and Judgement) and Halo (GP’s favourite game of all time)

If this is not a perfect description of a marriage in its most simplest form, I don’t know what is! The idea we have in our head is to wear “grungy, semi-military-like” clothing while carrying fake guns. We’ll definitely not take ourselves seriously throughout the whole thing, and it’ll be pretty light-hearted and fun. Now the real question was, when could we do this?

I suggested September, but had a feeling StudioSomething would be booked out (it is high wedding season then after all). Sure enough, they were pretty busy during that time, but suggested that winter would be better. Now, things one needs to know about winter which make this story easier to follow: July is an important month for both GP and I (25 July is our anniversary, 28 July is GP’s birthday – yes I met him 3 days before his birthday <3). This year GP is turning the big 3-0 and I pestered suggested that he go and celebrate it in New Zealand (if you recall, GP is Christchurch-born-and-bred).

With this big trip to NZ in July, I therefore made mention to StudioSomething that August was free, and we’d be busy in July in New Zealand. This is the reply I received:

“We’re also heading to NZ in early July – when are you going and where? We fly into Christchurch…”

I. Flipped. Out.

My thoughts were pretty similar to this: “OHMYGOD THEY’RE GONNA BE IN CHRISTCHURCH. OHMYGOD WILL WE BE ABLE TO MEET THEM THERE!? CAN WE HAVE THE ENGAGEMENT SESSION IN CHRISTCHURCH!?!? THAT WOULD BE SO AWESOME. *inner hyperventilating*”

Yes. I was indeed, very excited! After a hurried, excited phone call to GP (and leaving my message on his voice mail, boo!), I emailed Ellen and asked if she and her beau, Phu, would be available during the time we were over. Her return made me a little anxious: she wasn’t sure, but she’d check with Phu.

A few talks with GP and an email later, Ellen gave us a date: July 24. We were available, they were available, and we’d all be in Christchurch.

So basically –

My dream has come true!! We’re having our engagement photo session in New Zealand.

I’ve been looking up ways to change up my clothes (I dress like a 14-year-old, seriously), especially as it’ll be winter there. I love the military style (always have, always will) and can’t wait to deck myself in swathes of green and black with my awesome boots. I’m so excited!

So, exciting news or what? Any tips on what I should wear in wintery Christchurch? Anyone have any ideas on what we should do during the shoot?

*As an aside, if you would like to know how much I love that island, visit my blog! *self-promotion*

Ms Gingham says: How exciting!!! I love Ellen from Studio Something! Can’t wait to hear how it goes!

Eileen says: “I am a Chinese-Indonesian-Australian getting married to a Dutch-Kiwi. We’ll be having our wedding up in the Hunter Valley and we’re planning it from Sydney. Although our wedding is still more than a year away, we’re trying to plan it now to save the stress later! (We’ll see how that goes).”