THE ONE WITH MY SISTER

My sister turned 21 on the weekend. I honestly cannot believe it. It feels like yesterday that she was a little three year old girl who said and did the funniest things and she always had me in stitches.

It’s so strange for me now that Jessie is 21 because I see her as a little girl still. So when she tells me about parties and nights out drinking fabulous cocktails and devouring pizza at 3am to soak up the alcohol, my instant (internal) reaction is “WHAAAAT?” before I remember, she is a grown up now. Accept it. If I’m lucky enough to have a little girl of my own, golly gosh, I will be such a hideously overprotective mother. How did my Mum do it with not one but two daughters? The constant worry I have when I know my sister is out for the night is ridiculous. And I’m just the sister.

You see, Jessie has always been my little angel. There is a ten year age gap between the two of us and when she was born, she became my best friend. I just loved her and cared for her and wanted to be around her more than anything. She was such a little character, always telling jokes and making her own fun from anything and everything. It makes me laugh so much to this day to think of the two of us singing Row Row Row Your Boat because we had a little joke where we wouldn’t look at each other when we sang it, but then if one of us snapped our head around to look at the other person, you had to try and snap your head back at the exact same time. Silly to anyone else, but how we laughed.

The nicknames I had for Jessie have stuck with her for 21 one years. It’s rare that I call her by her actual name, but rather the ridiculous names we came up with when she was just a little girl. Loop, Loopy, Loopalina, Munchican, Munch Head. Variations of all of these things. Jessminda. I did try to get Flubber to stick, purely because the movie Flubber came out when Jess was six years old and she used to dance like Flubber to “do a little dance, make a little love, get down tonight, get down tonight” and it was hilarious. However, she HATED me calling her Flubber, so that was one name that was kind of off limits.

Of course during the teenage years, I do recall Jess telling me not to call her any of her names in front of people. I would get yelled at if I called out “Loopy” in front of her friends. “Naaaaat, you’re so annoying”. Ha ha ha.

I feel so happy when I think of my sister growing up and all of the fun we have had over the years. There was a period where we had some great house parties when Jessie was a teenager. Not the kind you might be imagining, but family parties where we had jelly shots, punch and a lot of SingStar. Good times. Jess and I would always be a team (trust me, I never wanted to go up against her because she would ALWAYS win) and we were hard to beat. Jess would sing properly (winning us the points) and I would be more into the performance part, up singing (badly and loudly) and dancing away. All of the aunties and even Mum, would get amongst it, singing out hearts out and having a blast. My Grampa would sit in the next room laughing at how horrendous we all sounded but he loved that all of his daughters and granddaughters were all there with him and that we were all being silly and having so much fun.

Originally when Ryan and I started planning our wedding, I was adamant that I didn’t want to have a bridal party. I thought it would be so nice to be just the two of us and perhaps our parents could be our witnesses. It sounded so romantic. Ryan on the other hand wasn’t keen on this idea. He was really excited at the thought of having his best friend as his best man and told me that our wedding was not a “barn dance”. He was right and now, I cannot imagine ever not having my sister as part of my wedding day. What was I thinking?! So, Jessie is going to be my one and only bridesmaid and I’m super excited to go shopping for her dress and to get our hair and makeup done together. She is such a beautiful girl and I’m so happy to have her by my side. I love that when I told Jess my idea for a hens night (which ladies, I’ve decided I will definitely do in Melbourne after Shanelle suggested it might be a good idea as more people can attend) she was SUPER excited and completely loved it. She has been so wonderful since Ryan proposed, her and Mum have been marking pages in wedding magazines and Jess sends me emails full of wedding inspiration.

And, lucky for Jess, she has had a little bit of practice having been in some wedding previously. I adore this photo of a six year old Jessie (the tiny little one in front, pictured with my Nanna) at my aunty Felicity’s wedding. Cutie pa-tutie. She just looks so innocent.

My sister is the best.

Love to you all,

THE ONE WITH THE CATCH UP

It’s been a few weeks since my last blog on New Year’s Eve and I’d love to tell you that I’ve been ever so busy doing fabulous things, but the truth of the matter is I’ve been really lazy. I’ve literally been laying around on the couch catching up on sleep and bad TV over the Christmas break I had from work. So much so, that I even joked with Shanelle that my couch has a body imprint of me from having spent hours on it for the past few weeks. That’s what holidays are for though, right?! With Ryan away for three weeks, I had the house to myself and it became my little quiet haven. I rarely cooked dinner for myself (who can be bothered cooking for one every night?), the house stayed super neat and tidy for all I did was go from the bed, to the shower, to the couch and back again. Pure relaxing bliss.

Don’t get me wrong, there were the girly catch ups, the dinners with friends, the pool hanging on hot days, a few hours laying on the beach, shopping and I did speed read my way through a fabulous read in a few days, The Help. I’m sure loads of you would have read it or seen the movie, but if you haven’t, I highly recommend it. I literally could not put the damn thing down. I laughed, I cried, I flicked from one page to the next desperate to read how the story went.

Sadly though, it had to come to an end and it was back to work for me and my fabulous little cycle of doing nothing was over. Life is now back to normal. I’m back at work, Ryan is home again (YAY!) and January is coming along quite quickly.

There are a few little things I have brewing this month, such as my save the date cards which are en route from St Louis. I’m just desperate to get them into my hot little hands and send them out as soon as humanly possible. And in addition to that, my FAVOURITE little custom blog designer is currently whipping me up my wedding website to send to all of our family and friends so they can keep informed on the week of our wedding. I tell you what, Miss Sass is just a dream come true and I love her designs and creativity. I tell her what I like and she brings it to life. Um, love her!

Another exciting thing for me is that my lil sis Jessie is turning 21 this month. Very hard for me to believe as I still see her as a little three year old girl. Bless. So, we have a delicious family lunch planned to celebrate and I have a nice little present to give her, which makes me ever so nervous. I really hope she loves it as much as I think she will. So, bring on Mr Wolf for a classic margherita and the cos salad. And for Jess, the potato pizza, a cocktail and the chocolate mousse. My mouth is literally watering as I type this. No joke.

And of course, I have Leanne’s wedding to look forward to in just under three weeks now. Oh em gee. I'm extremely excited to attend this wedding because I feel like I’ve been there every step of the way with the organising and research and the ohhing and ahhing over wedding blogs together. It will be amazing to see how it has all pulled together nicely and of course, I'm excited for us girls to have a fabulous time on the dance floor boogying the night away. Super dooper excited. Oh and P.S. I will be recycling outfits for the weddings I attend this year. This makes Ryan very happy. No more new dresses for me.

Love to you all,

THE ONE WITH NEW YEAR'S EVE

So, it’s New Year’s Eve and I’m sitting at Elwood beach as I write this blog, getting a little tan and relaxing to the max.  I just LOVE the little beach side suburb we live in and the fact I can walk five minutes down the road to the beach.  Comes in super handy when your fiancée is overseas and you have lots of time to catch up on books and magazines.

One of my favourite New Year’s Eves was two years ago when Ryan and I were in Paris. It was below zero, snowing, freezing and SO much fun! We stayed in a lovely hotel in the 7^th arrondissement surrounded by quaint little cafes and exclusive boutiques. I’d love to say that we spent NYE drinking wine, eating scrumptious food and just being all around fabulous, but no, we rugged up and walked the streets for the night with about five billion other people. I’m talking hours and hours on end of walking, seeing the sights, stopping at a few places along the Champs Elysses and  having a drink at a bar every hour or so. And when I say drink, I was having camomile tea in order to warm me up. I was frozen right to the bones. Il fait super froid. Ryan would laugh and laugh at me for being so outrageously uncool with my tea, on New Year’s Eve, in a city that was clearly going crazy with people really kicking up their heels.

We made our way down to the Eiffel Tower for midnight and it was really something special and I’m so happy that we did it. You see, Paris was a quick side trip after we had spent Christmas in Ireland with Ryan’s family. A nice little trip for just the two of us and it was beautiful. J'aime Ryan.

Some Parisian memories…

Midnight kiss at the Eiffel Tower on NYE

Coffee stop

Louvre on New Years Day 2010

Arc de Triomphe

So cold my nose was red



Happy New Year French style

It has been a super fabulous year for me and I'm just so excited to see what 2012 brings. Lots of weddings that's for sure, but hopefully lots of love and happiness for all.

Amour à vous,

THE ONE WITH THE EXHAUSTION

As I write this blog, I'm just home from a few days in Lorne, finding myself completely exhausted and sleepy. I think 2011 has finally caught up with me, and having finished work for the year early this week, my little body shut down and refused to do anything more than nap randomly and eat whatever I fancied. Who knew that I was in such need of some r and r, but r and r is what I had.

Ryan is going home to Ireland on Christmas day for a week, followed by a couple more weeks in the US for work, so bless his little soul, he organised a few nights away for us before Christmas and his dreaded departure. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm excited for him to go back to Ireland and spend time with his family and best friends, but the whole trip is almost four weeks and that just seems such a long time to be away from each other. Pathetic really when I think about Bianca and the long stretches of time she is away from Tyson, months and months of him being in the Middle East with very little contact. Such a strong woman that Bianca.

So Lorne was for me what rehab is for Lindsay Lohan. Lots of rest, lots of time to catch up on a good Marian Keyes novel, lots of tasty food, lots of walking on the beach, lots of napping whenever I felt like it. And it was heaven, pure heaven. I've never been one to have an afternoon nap, yet I found myself sleeping for hours on end throughout the days. I woke up one day, had breakfast, hopped back in bed and promptly fell asleep for a few more hours only to wake up at lunch time for a delicious cheeseburger. What a life eh?!

Something we did realise on this trip of endless sleeping was that when we're at home, we don't often just do nothing. If we have no plans, we'll make some. We'll go shopping, catch up with friends, see a movie, clean out the house, do a stack of washing. We never sit still. Why is it that we don't ever take the time to take care of ourselves? This little trip away has made me think that perhaps afternoon naps and no plans for life are the way forward. Forget about filling my time with fancy commitments. Fluff my pillow and say goodnight, this lady has learnt how to sleep at the drop of a hat and she isn't afraid to do it.

Perfect timing really with it being Christmas and all. Time for the Christmasy traditions and time with family, but then there is the extra week or so of holidays which will be spent laying on the beach with some trashy mags that help me nod off in the sun.

Wishing you and your families a lovely, happy Christmas full of lots of laughter and happy memories.

Oh, and just one more thing. When next in Lorne, you MUST MUST MUST have dinner at Babalu. Ahhhhmazing.

Love to you all,

THE ONE WITH WEDDING TRADITIONS

What do we think of wedding traditions? The bouquet toss, the first dance, the something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue?

Jenny reminds me of myself. She is getting married in Wales and doing all of the planning from Australia. So, the two of us having been chatting this past week about little wedding traditions, and you know what, I’m torn. There are some wedding traditions that I love, and some that are just, not so much. And I know that everyone is different and while I may love, love, love something, the next bride may not and that’s okay. No judgment here.

One that I really love is the grooms cake. I love the idea of having a fun manly cake for Ryan with some kind of odd non-wedding theme, but do people still do this? I’ve not seen a grooms cake at any of the weddings I’ve been to but it does seem to happen in the movies. And you know whatever happens in the movies is true to life. My love affair with the movie Steel Magnolias doesn’t help my curiosity either - who remembers the bleedin’ armadillo cake?

Jenny also introduced me to cake toppers. She has a gorgeous little cake topper that she ordered online and sent me the link, so I started scrolling through them and came across this one and it got me thinking. Perhaps I will organise a grooms cake. Why not?! That way, Ryan can enjoy a lovely little cake topper like this (ha ha) and it’s manly as there is a sports ball on it.

Another tradition I quite like is the bride and groom spending the night before apart and not seeing each other until the bride walks down the aisle. Very romantic. Although, it’s quite popular these days for the bride and groom to have some photos together before the ceremony as a way of squeezing so much into one day, but I’m not so keen on this. I love the idea of walking down the aisle seeing each other for the first time that day, the bride in her dress all glammed up, the groom with a tear in his eye as she approaches.

I stumbled across some really funny old wedding traditions today and I just cannot have them. I would desperately want to eat the cake rather than mush it up in my pocket or under pillows (but they do make me chuckle):

• The chief bridesmaid should keep a piece of cake in her pocket for the duration of the couple's honeymoon, if she hopes to marry soon.
• Single female guests should take home a piece of wedding cake and place it under the pillow to dream of the man they will marry.

One thing is for sure though, and that is I’m not keen on the garter toss. Again, no judgment for those brides who like this tradition, each to their own. I’ve just seen so many hideous displays of garter behavior that is beyond words. Grooms with their heads up the brides dress for far too long a time frame, pulling out props from under the brides dress like handcuffs and rubber chickens. WTF? No. That’s not for me. There will be no garter toss, no garter worn.

And so, as I think about all of the wonderful (and not so wonderful) traditions, I’m excited by one in particular, and that is the Save the Date card. Ours are ordered and being printed as we speak and I could not be happier with them. I love them and it’s taking me all of my might not sharing a picture of them with you today, but I don’t want to ruin the surprise for my friends and family who will be receiving theirs in January.

My fellow engaged friends at work and I will continue to share all of our little bits and pieces of wedding information with each other and in the New Year, Jenny will be a guest blogger for Girl About Love as she finalises the finer details for her wedding in Wales which is very fast approaching. Now this is one SUPER DOOPER organised bride.

Love to you all,

THE ONE WITH LUKE & WENDY'S WEDDING

On a beautiful day, in a beautiful winery, a real sweetheart named Luke married his gorgeous bride named Wendy.

The moment that Wendy walked down the aisle with her parents, I knew that it would be a beautiful day. She looked stunning. Absolutely stunning. Her dress, her hair, her makeup. She looked like she was straight out of a bridal magazine. The ceremony and the reception were held at the Morning Star Winery in Mornington (which overlooks Port Phillip Bay) and you almost could imagine you were at a gorgeous chateau in France, made even more realistic with the lovely champagne in hand all day long.

  

There were so many gorgeous little touches throughout the day that I loved, things like the clusters of vases full of lovely white and green on each table, the individualized cupcakes for each guest added a great talking point with others on your table and the beautiful/amazing song performed by one of the guests (and 

let me say this, the girl could sing - she was captivating).

Everyone was having a blast during the reception, dancing the night away, no bums in seats. The music was fabulous. It was just so Luke. All of his favourite oldies like Frank Sinatra were played. I only wish he had a little croon with the band himself. Bless. And, I was even happier with the songs played because Ryan managed to get up and dance with me for quite a while. I love when he dances with me at weddings. Maybe that is my favourite thing about going to weddings, having a dance with my fiancée.

It was such a truly magical day. The following day however, rain, wind, cold. The perfect day for a hangover. And if our hideous headaches were anything to go by, it was one hell of a reception.

Luke and Wendy, sitting in a tree

K-I-S-S-I-N-G

First comes love,

Then comes marriage…

Love to you all,

THE ONE WITH SOME WEDDING INSPIRATION

So, as I'm obsessed with wedding blogs, I come across loads of gorgeous pictures of weddings, wedding styling, wedding photography, wedding fashion... And I just save them so that one day, I can click on my wedding folders and say "I want this, that and those". Wedding planning, done. If only it was as easy as that, hey!

These are some photos I've saved today. LOVE.

 Note: Photos from Style Me Pretty, Monique Lhuillier, Martha Stewart Weddings and The Foundry.



Love to you all,