Fitting and Sitting

Two weeks to go. I cannot adequately explain how quickly the time since I got engaged has flown. I have gone from a laid-back “she’ll be right” attitude to worried anxiety in the space of a few weeks.

I had my final dress fitting on the weekend, so it was back to the farm I went. I was a bit worried truth to tell, I have been feeling a bit on the large side lately and the previous dress fitting included a small struggle to do up the zip! At that point I was cursing myself for not getting a lace-up style bodice but… guess what? It fitted perfectly!

The dressmaker was very pleased – she had done some darts and hemming and the whole thing fits like a bloody glove. To top off a successful fitting they are also going to make me a birdcage veil. I have been researching and fretting about the bloody veil for about 3 months now so I am relieved to get it out of the way – AND for a cheaper price than any I could find on the internet!

We brought the dress home and it is now hanging in my mum’s spare room. She kept sneaking in there every few minutes and unzipping the garment bag to look at the dress, it was so cute. I must admit it is a glorious thing to be seen hanging up there. It’s a powerful visual reminder of how close the actual day is getting.

In the afternoon, after lunch and a little lie-down to recover from the excitement, the wedding photographers came over to do some reconnaissance. I loved that they did this and that it was included in our photo package price. We strolled around the farm talking about good photo locations, backdrops, lighting and cheesy pic ideas. It took ages but they were happy and we were happy. Afterwards my feet were so sore I could still feel them hurting when I went to bed later that night!

But those two things got me really excited about getting married.

On Sunday mum and I debated going to the local markets but then decided on a lazy day pottering about the place instead. Did I say lazy? I meant PRODUCTIVE. Mum recalled that I had mentioned getting all the place cards done this weekend (stupid me). So off to the printer and good old Microsoft Excel to print out 82 placecards in our theme font, and glue them onto the luggage tags we got from Officeworks. Then we threaded each one with some jute twine for a rustic feel.

I am really happy with the way they turned out – they look just like I imagined! They will be placed strategically in the middle of the guests’ dinner plates. They can then tie them to their bonbonierre bags if they wish.

And once they were all done, of course nothing else would do but to figure out the seating plan for the reception tables. Both of us being visual people, it became clear that we would have to clear off the entire dining table to do this. It was at this point I was glad we’d kept the numbers fairly small! So that took a while longer. When done, it felt like we’d been going for HOURS and lo – we had.

I can tell you, it was a good mental workout working out who can/should/needs/shouldn’t sit next to who – keeping exes far apart, parents close to their children, making sure everyone was sitting near at least someone they know – what a nightmare! I have no idea how society hostesses work these things out all the time.

Then we packed up all the place cards and hid the plan from my fiancée (he would only have interfered and wanted to change things) and collapsed with a profound sense of accomplishment.

There are still quite a few things to organize – mainly around confirming vendors, but one thing that has had the bottom fall out of it is my makeup artist. Turns out the bride she’d booked for the morning (and had booked well before me) wanted a later appointment so she couldn’t make my afternoon wedding. My backup had already booked someone else (as I had been rude and never answered her quote) so now I am googling like mad and taking recommendations for anyone who has my date free and will travel to the country to make me up like a painted doll!