Wow - its finally all happened!  I'm married to my amazing BF - who I will have to get used to calling DH now!

Weather-wise we had a fantastic day.  Just wonderful.  Started off with the girls and I going to Maccas for breakfast, then my bridesmaids (BMs) came over and we transported all the vases and birds of paradise flowers to the reception place ready to set up.  First accident was me dropping one of the vases in the carpark at the club and it smashing completely.  Luckily one of my BMs went out and was able to find an identical replacement.  Phew! 

This is a piccie of the reception tables all set up.  The only thing missing is that the chairs were covered in black with orange sashes as well (was done before everyone arrived for the reception).

Then I had got a french manicure the day before, and the polish chipped and a piece fell off.  We spent the rest of the time before the wedding regluing pieces that chipped off and trying to stop me doing anything that would chip them further! The biggest problem of the day was our hairdresser.  She turned up an hour late (still not convinced that her story that she got stopped by the police for speeding explains being a whole hour late) which really threw off the timing for the day.  She also clearly had not paid any attention to my emails telling her what I wanted to do for my wedding hairstyle and asking her to bring the appropriate materials she needed (which she didn't do) - but I was determined not to let her spoil my day.   Thankfully I ended up with a hairstyle I was happy with and so did all my BMs and my daughters who were both flowergirls.

Here's me all dressed up and ready to go before the wedding:

We were 20 minutes late to the ceremony (I was impressed we'd managed to make up 40 minutes of time!) but it pretty much all went smoothly (though later than was intended) from there on in.  We had a lovely ceremony.  I was worried about crying at the ceremony (I bawled at my first wedding) but instead I giggled all the way through!  I was just so happy.

Here's some piccies of the ceremony:

After the marriage part of it, both DH and I made promises to the girls and DH presented them with necklaces as a reminder of the day.

After the ceremony, DH surprised me with an introduction that he read out in Italian and then English - as a reminder of his proposal - and then arranged for us to release 2 doves as a symbol of our marriage.

This is us and most of our wedding party (one of the groomsmen isn't quite in the picture) after  releasing the doves.  The cage / box they were in is in the front of the picture.

We then cut the cake in the church courtyard just after the ceremony so we could share it with all our friends who came to the ceremony but who we couldn't afford to ask to the reception.

This is us just after cutting the cake.

We then went off for photos (there are some great ones on the blog of our photographer: www.kellytunney.com.au) and then to our reception.  There were some lovely speeches, a great dinner, and at the end of the night Chris's family grabbed some of the birds of paradise flowers and made a guard of honour with the flowers held up like swords! (don't have any pics of that yet). 

Here is a picture of us doing our bridal waltz

A picture of me with my bridesmaids (in black) and another friend

So that's the whole day!  We headed off for our honeymoon on the Saturday and spent the last week aboard a cruise ship and visiting some South Pacific Islands.  Got home yesterday.  Now just got to get my land legs back again!!

Only 2 more sleeps til the wedding - on Thursday its the big day!  Can't believe its finally here!!  I must confess I'm looking forward to it being over cause there's been a lot of stress.  But I can't wait to marry my BF!

By the way, the hens night went really well.  I got taken to an African drum lesson by my bridesmaids - very cool.  Then we went into the city for drinks and dinner where a whole lot of other friends met up with us.  I really did drink a lot more alcohol than was good for me - was dizzy all the next day as a result.  But it was a fun night.

Here are some piccies!!

These are the African drums:

This is me in my hens night gear looking pouty:

And this is happy me with a cocktail!

Its so close!!  I've been pretty stressed.  But I think it's all coming together.  Gotta organise the wedding rehearsal, print the order of services and work out what to do for the menu cards (cause my printer broke today).  I think  that's the last of the big stuff.  The rest is just picking stuff up and dropping it off.

Going out in about half an hour to my hen's night.  Not sure what we're doing, cause my bridesmaids have kept it all secret.  But I reckon it should be fun!!

The wedding is coming together.  The big thing that I'm still stressing about is the music.  My friend who is playing the organ only got back from a 2 month trip to the UK last Friday, so I'm keen to get together with him soon to sort out music.  And I have 7 friends who are willing to sing in the choir at the service, but I have to sort out music for them as well.  Once that's done, I think I'll be feeling a lot better.

I haven't had a turn with the vertigo for a couple of weeks, but I'm still getting ear aches.  So I think things are improving, but I think the stress I'm under right now isn't helping.

Saw the knee specialist last Wednesday.  He reckons I've torn the cartilege in one if not both knees and has sent me for scans and is expecting to do an arthroscope after that (after the wedding!) to repair it.  I feel that was a very positive outcome.  I'm hoping the scans quite clearly show the issue so there's no confusion.

The good news is that I've managed to lose 4.8 kg! (at least, I think I have.  My scales are being a bit erratic).  So I'm pretty happy about that.  BF is starting to watch his weight as well (to help alleviate a back issue) so I think that's helping as we're both more aware of what we're eating together.