Thursday, July 30, 2009

Wedding Progress Report - commence!

I am absolutely so excited I just had to write a little update.


I rang Jo at the African Reef Resort last Thursday to go over some details for the wedding, as Shane and I have decided to change the venue. The restaurant in the hotel was going to be the place, although it posed a lot of problems with where to put tables and decoration as it's an awkward shaped room.

We've now decided to move over to the Southgate Room, a separate room in the facility which is really spacious (we now have a guest list of 67 people), and also doesn't pose any problems with decorating. Because the restaurant is used the day before and after, we'd have to set it up on the wedding morning and then rush to clean the place up immediately afterwards. It would be very rushed as well as trying to get ready and I don't want to ask anyone to do that for us or pay a wedding organiser, who charges $50 an hour. In the Southgate Room, we can set up the day or two before and clean up the next day, rather than having to have it done on the spot for breakfast the next morning.

Jo was on her day off, so I ended up writing her a big email with all my questions about the room attached and left her to reply at her own convenience. I've eagerly checked my email every day and lo and behold, this morning there was my reply. I nervously opened it and nearly jumped with joy! Jo is so casual and her first comment was being so pleased about us wanting the extra room for dancing as that always makes for a fun party!

She basically has agreed and easily answered all my questions and even supplied a photo of the room so I could get an idea of the decor. When I saw it in June, it was being decorated for a wedding that Monday and had the white drapes hanging everywhere, chair covers and was really flash, so I wanted to see the room in its boringness. Jo mainly suggested the chair covers would be essential, and looking at the chairs I can see why; they're pretty ugly. But then made my day by saying the Resort is looking at purchasing some for ongoing use, so they might get those over the next 11 months for us to use! Yay!
Also included in the room hire of $800 is the staff, all tablecloths and skirting for bridal, cake and present tables, equipment for dance floor, lights, MC lectern and projector (hmmm!). One great thing is that I asked about a separate area for the kids so we can set up a DVD player. She said that outside the room is a lounge area with a TV and DVD player, and this can be set up for the kids including colouring books and crayons! How good is that? I have about 14 kids under 10 so its important for me to have an area they can run amok in, especially as I'm thinking of hiring someone from my sisters daycare to 'babysit' kids for the night.

She also gave me ideas of how many tables fit in the room and people per table, so I can finalise my seating plan (yes, I'd already started one knowing we were moving over to this room).

I feel super organised. I've spent the last couple of days on EBay and have bought my disposable wedding cameras, invite programs, guest cards and some gorgeous hair accessories for Cassidy. Jodie is checking out shells and starfish for my centrepieces and I ordered my bridal underwear yesterday too.

Adding to this joy is the fact that I spoke to the wedding dress shop yesterday and the dress fitter Debbie. She assured me that even with my large bust size (which was posing a problem for buying a dress off the rack), I shouldn't have any problem with buying a dress from their store. They go up to size 26 and I only need to get the bottom half of the dress altered about a month out from the wedding. This will be especially helpful as I soon intend to get off my butt and start walking again so I'm hoping my baby weight will FALL off with hardly any effort, heh heh.

Wow, I'm so ecstatic. Things are just falling into place for me and good timing too. I have so much going on, and therefore going on in my head, I was starting to get depressed and sick to boot. I lay awake for at least an hour in the middle of the night, running over things I have to do. It's getting a bit better now our holiday and trip to Broome is done, but we're going camping this weekend, so I have to starting packing and organising AGAIN today and tomorrow.

But I do feel so much better and hopefully this will reflect through to my health soon. All I need now is a few good nights sleep (yes Devon) and I'll be back to my old self. Shane will be so pleased! TTFN for now my friends, I hope you're pleased for me too!

0 comments: