A Wedding in Three Parts - Part 2...

Today, Saturday 20th November, we got married...

Invites designed by David, and he's happy to give you the template if you want to use it for something :)

Our homemade cakes! I think they looked amazing...

The ceremony was held inside the Homestead with the fire going, which I actually preferred when Vanessa (our contact at the venue) explained what would happen if it did rain. And it cleared up right on time for photos in the garden.

My bouquet made by me. It smelt divine and even had a few token aphids from the roses picked in the garden...

The day was perfect, and when David asked if I would change anything, I honestly can say that I really really wouldn't. We made almost everything and did it on a very small budget, which really made the whole wedding ours. Even if I did have a bigger budget, I would have done everything exactly the same way.

I didn't feel stressed or tired, and everything just seemed to flow together perfectly. I did all my own hair and make up, the dress is vintage (story here) and the shoes were a mission to find (story here). I wore some beautiful underthings from What Katie Did, including a pair of nude-seamed, fully fashioned stockings (I'm sold)!

My hair barrette is vintage from our local market bought the weekend before, and I agonised over making and wearing a bird cage veil (and Lisette even gave me a pattern from her Etsy shop!) but in the end I didn't want the fuss. I like things to be nice and simple.

Our amazing photographer Sinead Jenkins has posted a few more photos on her blog (and she has agreed to let me be her internet apprentice!! But more on that fun development later). And there are more on my flickr page too.

Overall, a very fun day that I would happily do over again. Having all our friends and family in one place was fantastic and being back in NZ was awesome.

XX
Jen

PS) I've chosen not to post photos of our friends and families (though there are some fantastic ones) because I'm not sure how many of them actually want their faces plastered all over the internet.

A Wedding in Three Parts - Part 1...

Warning - extremely photo intensive post!!

The weekend before the wedding, David and I spent the best part of Saturday stamping names onto name tags. It was much more time consuming than initially anticipated. But our guests really loved them so it was well worth the time!

Thursday 18th November:
A lot happened on this day. We had arrived in Dunedin Wednesday night, didn't end up going to bed until later than planned and we had a big day ahead of us. We met with the venue manager and saw the venue for the first time (the garden was amazing, everything was blooming and there were colours everywhere!). We met our photographer, we did the flowers and made the cakes and made sure we had everything we needed from town.

When David and I lived in Dunedin, it was usually customary to buy a Wendy's super shake. So it was only appropriate we do the same before we got married.

Baking our wedding cakes.

Me: Gluten free chocolate cake.
David: Gluten free fruit cake.

Making the flowers:

Robin (David's aunt) and I had a great time doing the flowers. I'm so glad she was there to help, it was a much bigger job than I had initially anticipated.

The flowers were a mixture of ones from Robin's garden, Jim's garden (David's dad) and bought flowers (and I have to thank Jeff for getting them in for us and giving them to us at cost!!).

Arranged in jam jars and old milk bottles...

It's really hard work trying to make your bouquet round!! A drink was needed.

Friday 19th November:

Dropping the flowers and cakes off at the venue.

Looking down at Dunedin township...

Last minute wedding vow writing! I had the basic ideas written down, they just needed some fine tuning before we met with the celebrant at the venue after we had dropped off the flowers.

Later that night our families met for the first time (yup that's right. They live on opposite ends of different islands!). We had drinks and I saw one of my best friends from uni who had come over from Brisbane for the wedding walking across the street. She came back with me to the hotel I was staying in that night and we chatted and caught up while I set my hair.

It was 11.30pm by the time I went to bed. A tiny bit exhausted, but happy, calm and not the least bit stressed.

The next day, I got married. Wedding day photos to follow...

XX
Jen

Happily Married...

Hello, I just arrived home.

I am happily married.

The wedding was beautiful and the honey moon equally so.

There are photos galore. I need to sort through them. I need to plan Before Wedding, The Wedding and After the Wedding posts. After I've sorted photos and have our official ones back of course.

For now I'm off to brain storm ideas I had while away, play with my kitties and relax...

Talk soon,

Jen

An Announcement...

Hello everyone,

I'm off to marry this guy...

Be right back.

XX
Jen

Green Fingers...

David and I have nearly finished getting the things we want for our wee courtyard garden - tomorrow it's off to the farmers market for strawberries to put in our hanging baskets and a lime tree.

After these photos were taken we headed to the garden centre up the hill from us and added two types of mint, two more tomato plants (called tumblin' toms) and planted two types of chilli and a parsley into the base around the lemon tree.

We no longer say we are going to sit in the courtyard any more, it's now become the garden and it really couldn't make us any happier. Also, our little plants have shot up over the past week due to the beautiful weather we have been having.

For a long time now I have been thinking of dedicating a separate blog to gluten free cooking, gardening and ways to make your life a little greener. I had initially planned to use this blog as the format for that, but decided that I actually preferred to keep them separate. I am now working on the content for that blog and will probably launch it after the wedding. But, I'll tell more as we get closer :)

Have a fabulous long weekend all (and a fabulous normal weekend those elsewhere),

XX
Jen

A Saturday Night Date with Neil (& David of course)...

Saturday night was amazing - Neil Gaiman at the Opera House (and our very first venture into the bowels of that famous Australian icon).

I managed to get some amazing seats for David and I - we were in full view of Neil, the screen on which Eddie Campbell's illustrations for the story were projected and the four person string quartet (aptly named FourPlay). Unfortunately I couldn't take any photos as that was strictly forbidden, but I did get some of the panel the next day.

Before the Neil even came on we were treated to an unexpected event - Kevin Smith was announcing the winner of an animation competition, and shortly after that, on came the man himself, to great applause.

He read a 70 minute short story called 'The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains' (it has since been released in a compilation of stories called Stories, co-edited by Gaiman). After that, Eddie Campbell asked Gaiman a few questions, and then we were given another treat - a reading of an actually unreleased poem (I say actually unreleased because its really not released, its not in a book, a news paper or on the inter-webs).

One of the things that struck me most about Gaiman, is that he is not just a good story teller in the written sense, but he is also an amazing story teller in the spoken sense. Nothing was over exaggerated, he kept the listeners interested, in suspense, right to the very end.

He didn't go so fast as not to understand him, he wasn't so slow as to put the audience to sleep. Whether this is inherent in natural story tellers, who knows (I did once read an article on him talking about the first time he read a story out loud to an audience), but it was a lovely thing to listen too.

Neil Gaiman tickets!!

They are nommy...

Nom nom nom...

Grrrrrrrrrrr....my Neil Gaiman tickets, not yours...

If you are a fan of his work, and ever have the chance to see him, I would highly recommend it!!

XX
Jen