Born to be a bride? Not me!

I'm currently reading a book called, "How I planned your wedding." It's authors are a mother and daughter, who featured on Wedding Podcast Network's "here come the mom's" some time ago. I wanted to read the book because I've already had one falling out with my mum over the wedding, and I'd like not to have another. But that's not what this post is about.

Elizabeth (the daughter) says she was, "Born to be a bride." She's been dreaming of her big day forever, and had a lot of decisions made by the time she got engaged.

I find this interesting for two reasons. First, she's been dreaming of her day, not their day. Second, making  decisions together is a big part of a marriage, and it starts with the wedding.

I only started dreaming about our (not my) wedding when I could see that there might be one - after Gadget and I moved in together. But when we started planning I had obviously thought about things a lot more than he had.

Elizabeth goes on to say that she included all of her groom's ideas into the day (although he didn't request much), and that they sat down and prioritised their budget together. She says sometimes the conversation got uncomfortable, but that it "laid the groundwork for future financial decisions."

Hopefully we can achieve this too, because for me that's what's at the heart of a wedding - the groundwork for the future.

On this day...

... next year I will become Mrs Gadget. Scary stuff! Hopefully the sun will shine, and I will have a less stressful day than I did today. (At one point I thought about "accidentally" throwing the work phone in the bin - that was when it rang for the twelfth time in an hour when each phone call was going to take me at least an hour to deal with!)

Two exciting things happened today: the save-the-date emails went out, and I am wearing my ring. Both felt a bit strange, and maybe not as exciting as I'd hoped. As far as the ring is concerned, it's fab to have it but I can't wear it at work - so it's been on a chain round my neck most of the day. Occupational hazard I guess!

More details on save-the-dates coming soon, but it was quite hard making sure I sent the right attachments to the right email addresses! I haven't had any delivery fails yet - watch this space!

Hooray!

Over the last two days I have finally removed my head from the wedding clouds and returned to earth. I have finished watching 24 season 3 (I was 19 hours into it!), listened to The Subtle Knife (I'm half way through the audio book), and ordered Captain Corelli's Mandolin from the library (it's been on the 'to read' list for years; I was going to get The Hunger Games but 2588 other people want it too). I have also researched flights back to the UK, and been to an art exhibition with a friend.

It was a surprisingly easy transition, but one that I think everyone will appreciate (especially Gadget). I'd like to celebrate with him, but he's watching sunsets in Sydney. So I'm doing the one thing I can't do when he's here - eating yummy vegetarian food covered in cheese!

Upside down blogging

When I started planning my wedding I had no intention of writing a blog. But the more I get into the whole wedding planning thing, and the more wedding blogs I read, the more I want to let people know how the planning is going! I have also found a lack of information about planning a wedding from overseas. There is information on destination weddings, but I don't really fit into this category. So I thought I'd write down any problems and solutions, and either no one (except maybe my nearest and dearest) will read them, or someday someone might find it helpful! I'm actually a couple of months into the process, so some posts will be retrospective.
NOTE: I tend to chatter incessantly (yes, dear friends, I do know that I talk too much). I may write quote a lot. Consider yourself warned!

A brief introduction...

We currently live in New Zealand, and have been here for a year. We love to travel (it's how we got together), and always wanted to work abroad, so when an opportunity came up we grabbed it. NZ is a beautiful country, and we've been exploring of much of it as possible. We'll be heading back to the UK some time after Christmas, probably via the USA.

It's also the first time we've properly lived together - that gave us a few challenges! However, we'd got safely past those when Inspector Gadget proposed. Down on one knee, on a private beach in the Bay of Islands - with an iPod nano!

My engagement iPod!

Waiting for our parents to be on Skype so that we could tell them was really hard, but finally the news was out - bring on the wedding planning...



H x