Married!!!!!

Well, as those of you who were there know, we're now married!

What a night! We really enjoyed the night and hope that you all did too.... and hope that the hangovers didn't last too long!

The night went so quickly, it felt like we didn't have any time to sit and really chat with everyone - we think it is because at other peoples weddings you know only a few, but last night we knew everyone!

We really appreciate all of you coming to share our special day - without you it wouldn't have been as special.

And Daniel is very pleased that everyone liked the photos!

Make sure you check out our honeymoon blog that is linked on the right hand side.

Married for 1 day, and loving it!

36 hours to go

Yes, it is only 36 hours to go until the ceremony.
It's 2:30am on Friday morning and I've just finished typing my speech, well, I think I've finished!
It's been busy this past week. On Friday was Daniel's last day of working at Blacktown Council and Helen's last day at work for five weeks.
We had a dinner at Newtown with Helen's work colleagues on Friday night. Saturday we slept in and it hasn't stopped since then!
Helen has finished icing the cake, we've raced around getting final numbers, place tags and table seating to the Harbourview Hotel, stopped mail for whilst we're on honeymoon and booked a heap of accommodation for the honeymoon. We also got a loan for the honeymoon.
To top all this off, Helen's now come down with a cold. Murphys Law!
See you all in 36 hours when it all comes to end!

Eleven Days to go

It's been a while since we last posted something about the wedding.

So what we've done between posts is:

• Confirmed details with the photographer;
• Confirmed details with the florist;
• Finalised the table arrangements and seating;
• Finalised the details for the reception;
• Bridesmaids dress sorted out for Fiona;
• Daniel had his Buck's Party - golf, barbeque and basketball, with alcohol! whilst Helen had a dinner and went to the Beasts of Bourbon;
• Finalised the program for the ceremony;
• Worked on place cards; and
• Worked on icing the cake.

And last weekend we had Jason and Helen's wedding.

On top of all that, Daniel has been offerred a new job.

Only 11 days to go, or 262 hours!

Busy Bees

We've been too busy to update the blog. But here is what has been happening.....

On 1 July we had Father Middleton over for dinner to discuss the ceremony and readings. Helen made pumpkin soup and Daniel cooked his Jaimie Oliver roast. The meal was finished off with creme brulee!

On 8 July Daniel had a flex day and went looking for formal wear. The first store he went to on the day was Spurling at 46 Macquarie Street, Parramatta. David Fox there is the operator there and knows his stuff. For anyone who knows, Jean Fox is his mother and his daughter Karen Fox also has a store at Paddington.

David's service was excellent. Despite having a cheaper price elsewhere, David took the time to fit Daniel out and give him advice on what to ask for when he went elsewhere. In the end, the little bit of money saved on the suit was more than made up in the level of service.

The next day, Daniel and Macca went in with Helen and spent three hours being properly measured and fitted. We were both so impressed that we're buying our suits (We need them again for Macca and Fiona's wedding).

On the Friday, after getting the advice from David Fox about formalwear, Daniel raced into the city to try and catch a few places to look for bonbonerie. It took 90 minutes to get into the city and find parking.

Helen met Daniel at the Lindt store in Martin Place. There we tried a few of the best chocolates. We then raced over to Haighs and tried some more. Finally racing over to Vanderwee, but they were closed.

It was getting close to 7pm and we needed to be over at the Harbourview Hotel for a tasting of the meals we're having at the Reception.

The service there was great and the quality and flavour of the food surprised us - we chose well! I could describe the foods here, but that would ruin any surprise on the night of 3 September!!!

On Saturday 16 July Macca, Jon and I went back to Spurling to get Jon fitted and to try on our suits. Visited a pet store to enquire about fish too.

And yesterday I made a call to a camera provider to organise cameras for the tables. Can't spoil all the fun!

Find out all the details in 45 days!!

Honeymoon

With 67 days to go and acceptances now coming in, you may want to check out what where we'll be going on our honeymoon.

Go to the Honeymoon Blog at http://honeymoon2005.blogspot.com/

It's in the diary!

I came home tonight to find two acceptances to the wedding, and not long after opening them up, there was a phone call with another. Yikes! People are coming, and I don't have a thing to wear!

Still 68 days to go.

Flowers. Check.

We got up early again. Not for a dive, but to go to the flower markets last Wednesday. We met with the florist and looked at some of the flowers. They are so much cheaper at the markets. We're going with Louise as the florist. She is just beginning in her florist career and so we hope that doing the flowers for our wedding will give her some great experience (as well as some great flower displays for us!) But what sort of flowers? You'll have to come along to see, but if you know us, it's pretty obvious!

On the weekend we also went back to the jewellers. Helen's ring has been fixed up and is now what we want. We've almost paid them all off too. Probably next weekend.

68 days to go!

Keep an eye out for the postman

With eighty days to go, the invites have been mailed (with one or two exceptions where we are waiting on addresses or we've been able to hand deliver them).

Last weekend (a long weekend) we met with two florists - both friends of friends. One is a professional florist who no longer has the time to do it full time as she has two young children. The other is just starting her career as a florist.

The experienced florist seemed to be able to draw out information from us better and provide suggestions on what sort of flowers would work, whilst the other has done a lot of groundwork in finding examples of floral arrangements that we said we liked. Next week we're going with her to the markets to see what will be in season and what the flowers will cost. The markets open at 5:30am!

We also went to the jeweller and tried on our rings as they have now been made. Both the rings fitted, but whilst Daniel didn't think his ring was what he imagined (but it is still okay), Helen later decided that she didn't like the look of her ring. She went back on Sunday to discuss changes.

On Sunday we went diving at Camp Cove with Wolffa. On Monday we went to Shelly Beach looking for sea horses. We found some... only 15mm long and 1mm wide.

80 days to go!

Synchronies our watches

Okay, we've known the date is 3 September 2005 for a while now, but today we have confirmed the time.

2:30pm the ceremony.

6pm the reception.

The time between is for photographs around the Harbour, both daylight and dusk shots.

Invites are being printed soon!

87 days to go.

99 days to go

Today there are only 99 days to go. It seems that we have so much more to do, but at the same time, we have so little left to do as everything seems to be falling in place.

Last Saturday we went to the jeweler and had a last look at possible ring designs. We decided and placed a deposit. All that remains now is to pay them off - which means refereeing a few more games of basketball, which might be slightly hindered as Daniel tore a calf muscle a few weeks ago and it is refusing to heal.

On the Sunday we went to Parklea Markets to look for something for table decorations. We didn't find that but we did find a stall that has paper for invitations. We had a brief look on the Saturday for something similiar, but this is pay dirt! We bought some paper and ordered some more. Time for Daniel to start designing the invites! They need to go out soon.

This Sunday we are finally using our Trendwest Holiday that we got for sitting through their sales pitch. We're going to Coffs Harbour where we hope to do some scuba diving!

After the night dive following the course, we haven't done any diving given how cold it has been and that Daniel had a cold, making diving impossible. He's over it now.

The other night we listened to music for the service. We think we've chosen all that we need but may still refine it a bit better later on. Only problem with it all is that the CD that Daniel burnt doesn't seem to want to play on two of our three CD players - hope it works in the Church!!

And finally, tonight we had dinner with the Old School Freaks and partners - Macca and Fi, Jas and Helen, Tim and Jules and Marky Mark. Good to get the boys together again. Talk of a Bucks Party for Macca, Jas and myself was briefly mentioned, but nothing confirmed. There will need to be a meeting of the minds to sort that and clothes for the various Best Men (and Grooms!) for respective weddings.

99 days to go, and counting!

The finer details...

As we get closer to the date (117 days to go!) more and more details need to be sorted out, and fine tuned later.

We survived the dive course and on the ANZAC day long weekend we went for three dives at Shelly Beach. Saw Wobbigongs and Dusky Whaler Sharks, blue gropers and heaps of other fish. Before diving we bought a digital camera and underwater housing so that we can capture images of what we see in Sydney, and when we go on the honeymoon!

We did a night dive on Wednesday 27 April. Saw Port Jackson sharks and a huge porcepine fish, hermit crabs and shrimp. The camera doesn't work so well at night, being so dark!

After the night dive, Daniel got a cold and is still trying to shake it.

But the two days off that he had enabled him to go through the possible readings for the wedding. Not liking any of those in the wedding book, he went through the entire bible and finally found two! Still have to find a psalm and gospel reading, then there is music!

Helen went looking at dresses with two friends on Saturday morning. They were able to narrow it down to two and on Sunday Helen chose one and got them to put it aside today.

On Sunday we went looking for wedding rings. Daniel has never worn a ring before and so it felt wierd putting one on. Engraved rings may look nice now (because they're different) that will probably fade in the years to come. Nothing beats a classic! We've decided to get similiar rings and are waiting on details of how much they want to make these rings for us.

We then looked at something different for table decorations. As long as we can get the store to order in a number of these things, we should have an interesting centre piece on each of the tables at the reception!

And finally, on Sunday afternoon Geoff Shalala came around with his photo albums for us to look at. Some nice photos, but of course, Daniel is critical of some photos [I'm critical of my own, why not others!?] Now we just need to see what others would charge and for what.

117 days to go!

It was dark!

It's now 6.30am, but when I woke up it was 6am and dark outside! What kind of ludicrosy! You can't see when it's dark, should have gone back to bed!

Of to Shelley Beach to swim with the fishes.

140 days to go.

An early night....

Those who know us would be aware that we have some very late nights, either by choice or by demand.

Tonight is not one of those nights. We have to be at Shelley Beach at 7:30am for the second half of our PADI Open Water Diver training, which means getting up at 6:30am or earlier. Helen does this every day, but for Daniel, 7:30am is rarely time to even get out of bed!

On Sunday it is planned to go to Bare Island.

Diving is something we hope to do on our honeymoon. Should we give details of our intended honeymoon? Submit a comment and let us know what you think!!!

Only 140 sleeps to go!

Photography

A few years ago now Daniel started having dealings with Geoff Shalala. Geoff works for Sydney Water and is able to answer his questions quickly and easily with no fuss.

One day their talk got around to photography and Geoff said that he did wedding photography and to give him a call if Daniel should ever need him.

The quote came from Geoff today. A very reasonable price. We don't want to say what it was here (as he may charge someone else more or less) but needless to say it is far under the price of the regular wedding companies.

Geoff suggested we shop around, but I doubt we'll find a better price.

Only 141 days to go.

Learning to Dive

Last night we finally began our PADI diving course, learning to scuba dive.

We've done heaps of snorkelling lately, and a friend from work who is a Divemaster has convinced us to do it. So we're going with Frog Dive at Guildford.

Tomorrow we get into the swimming pool and learn how to breath underwater.

Only 148 days to go.

Dancing lessons

We went to a Bridal Expo a while back.

Heaps of information was handed out and we entered all these competitions for free stuff.... I suspect that it was more of a way to get us to provide contact details for them to spam us later. We are receiving some from photographers already.

Of all the things we entered, we won one prize - free dance lessons.

Tonight we're going along for the first lesson, where we will be assessed. I suspect I'll be told to consider reading instead of dancing!

The decision on what song to have for the Bridal Waltz has been interesting. We'll see how that goes.

I also contacted Geoff Shallala, who works for Sydney Water today. Geoff also takes wedding photos and he's going to send me a quote.

We need to know when the photos should be taken, time wise, so we can decide on the time for the ceremony and the reception. Determining the time of sunset is easy with Geoscience Australia's website.

148 days to go.

A piece of cake

On Easter Saturday Helen and I made our wedding cake.

The cake consists of brown sugar, egg, butter, sultanas, raisins, citrus peel (which stunk!), sliced almonds, glace cherries, currants, and rum. It took about half an hour for me to cut up the raisins, but the rest was relatively simple.

The mixing of it all took a bit of work. It was so thick. A good work out.

The first, larger cake took about five hours to cook.

Helen and her mother used to make it each Christmas and apparently this one turned out perfect.

We made a smaller one (only by about an inch) which was a lot quicker to mix. It only took three hours to cook.

The cakes are now sealed with some rum and being kept in the cool of under the house. Now we have to practice to make the icing!

156 days to go.

Decisions, decisions....

There have already been many decisions made.... the date, where to get married, where to have the reception.... and it never seems to stop!

We now have to decide what 'theme' to have at the wedding. We're not too keen on a theme, but we have something in mind. You'll just have to see what it is like on the day!

We have to decide on the clothes, the flowers, to have a CD or musicians, the food for the reception, rings and the ceremony itself! And I'm sure there are many more decisions that I care not to think about right now!

One thing that we have half decided, is where to have our honeymoon. We intend to go to the Whitsundays for a week, then using the cheap airfares, go to Perth, Adelaide, Hobart and possible the Northern Territory. We're yet to figure out how that is going to work though!

Only 178 days to go!

The Reception

Helen made a list of almost every hall, hotel and reception venue on the North Shore. In the end it came down to a choice between two.... Rydges and Harbourview Hotel, both at North Sydney.

Rydges was nice, but Harbourview was a bit better. Whilst the name might suggest a harbour view, it is really on the way in that you get a great view (perhaps also the honeymoon suite!). The reception room, the Bradfield Room, is totally enclosed with no windows.

We went and saw it set up for a wedding of 100 odd on Saturday 5 March and they had a island theme. We have no such plans, but it did give a few ideas about decorating.

Thinking ahead

Daniel applied for leave yesterday for the week before and five weeks after the wedding. He's been saving his leave for five years and can now use some of it!

184 days to go.

When are you getting married?

The often asked question was often replied with "When we can afford it". That's not to say that we can afford it now, but we'll make it work.

Before deciding on a day we had to decide where to have the wedding.

Daniel finally contacted hisformer year 7 class master, who is now the Headmaster at St Aloysius College, Milsons Point. He has agreed to be the celebrant at the marriage. On 23 February we met with him and the initial paperwork filed out and the date set - Saturday, 3 September 2005.

192 days to go.

In the beginning...

Helen and Daniel first met in Melbourne when Daniel was attending the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations (CAPA) Annual Council Meeting as the Hawkesbury Association of Postgraduate Students (HAPS) (at UWS) President and IT Officer for CAPA.

In December 1997, HAPS hosted the Annual Council Meeting, Women's Conference and International Students Conference.

After 16 hours sleep in 6 days, the meetings were all over on 7 December 1997, and that is when it all started for us. [2827 days to go].

Helen worked for CAPA as the administration officer in Melbourne. She continued to work there for a year after, with many visits during the year from Daniel and daily telephone calls.

At the end of 1998 Helen resigned from CAPA and moved up to Sydney where we shared a single bed in a single room for the next four years!

On 7 December 2002, standing on the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Daniel proposed to Helen and she said.... "Are you serious?" Eventually she said "Yes!" Now in our own home, we're finally going to get married......