Making the Movies Jealous | marriage proposal

If you guys missed this one when it originally happened, here it is again. Since then this gorgeous couple have been featured on Ellen, CNN and their romance has been catalogued on youtube for us all to enjoy!

There was a homegrown version recently on Cadbury Dream Factory – the tv show which brings Kiwi’s dreams to life, but I can’t find it.

How to be a magnificent wedding MC

We were very lucky – My Darling and I had the most magnificent MC. He may have forgotten about the pre-wedding planning session and kept joking about forgetting what day the wedding was – but our good friend went above and beyond on the day bigging me up and said how nice My Darling was, as well as keeping the guest amused and the show running without a hitch.

Here is a rough format weddings follow and a few tips to help your MC be the best he can be:

If you have been honoured with the responsibility of MC – Congratulations! It’s your job to ensure the smooth running of the days formalities. If you’re married you’ll remember this was one of the most important days of your life. So I’m sure you’ll want to make the Bride and Grooms day just as memorable.

EXPECT that some things will change on the day. Be prepared – appear calm and unflustered, even if you’re having a mild panic!

Ceremony
Sometime during the ceremony the Celebrant/Officiating person will introduce you – explain your relationship to the Bride & Groom and that if guests need anything throughout the night to see you. Talk through housekeeping – let everyone know where the toilets, bar & smoking areas are. Now is also the time to run through the format ie. Please join us for refreshments after the ceremony under the shade of the tree over there… and standby for your photo call.

Reception Welcome
♥ Welcome guests to the venue and thank the guests for their attention. When the bridal party make their entrance advise everyone to be upstanding. This is when
♥ Acknowledge and introduce the parents.
♥ Announce the newlyweds into the room with style, flair and enthusiasm i.e. “It is my pleasure to announce the arrival of our guests of honor! Put your hands together for the newlyweds – Mr. and Mrs…”
♥ Propose a Toast to the couple

Announcement Of Dinner
i.e.“Ladies and Gentleman at this time each table will be escorted to the buffet, so please remain seated until your table is called – the bar will remain closed throughout dinner – but water and wine is on each table.”

Speeches
♥ Check all dinner plates are cleared away well before the speeches start.
♥ Give guests a few minutes warning before announcing the next thing coming up. A quick visit to the restroom before speeches. Brief each of the event professionals before making announcements to make sure they are prepared and ready for THEIR role in the next phase of the evening.
♥ Make sure the toast glasses are primed and ready before the speeches start also and that the Bride & Groom and their families are seated.
♥ Before announcing speeches, ensure that all of the important people are in the room!
♥ Before making any announcements, get the crowd’s attention FIRST. Remind people to turn their cellphones to silent or off.

1. If you wish to deliver a speech go for it now! “Ladies and Gentleman may I have your attention” We are ready to do the speeches.”
2. Then Father of the Bride speaks
3. Bride & Groom will follow
4. Read any messages from guests who can’t be there
5. Open the floor for any guests who may wish to make an impromptu speech
6. Close with advising friends and family of any lunches the next day and remind guests to participate in any activities i.e. photobooth, sign guestbook

Cutting of The Cake
Announce immediately after speeches. Invite the Bride & Groom to come forward and cut the wedding cake. Ask guests to refrain from taking photos for a moment while the professional photographer takes photos. Then invite guests to come forward and take a photo.

First Dance
Once the cake is cut invite the Bride & Groom to the dancefloor for the first dance. * If the venue has not done so, dim the lights. “Ladies and Gentlemen once again a great big round of applause for Mr. and Mrs. xxx as they mark the start of their life together with their first dance as husband and wife.”

Second Dance
Father of Bride/Daughter, Son/Mother of Groom will start, then invite everyone to come and join the Bride & Groom on the dancefloor.

Bouquet Toss
There will be plenty of single ladies vying to catch the bouquet which symbolises who is going to tie the knot next! You should let the Bride & Groom know to do Bouquet Toss about 30 minutes before the bride and groom depart.

Farewell
Announce farewell and any other special touches i.e. fireworks displays.
Encourage the Bride & Grooms parents or nearest and dearest to be near the doors. The Bride & Groom should start at this end of the circle. Instruct the Bride & Groom to travel in opposite directions, saying goodbye to everyone as they go, halfway they will cross over and continue until they meet up again back at their parents.
Announce that it is time for the Bride & Groom to go and start their life together and wish them luck.

Tips

♥ By attending rehearsals and pre-wedding dinners, you will be fully aware and confident of your responsibilities and timings. Plus you will get to know in advance who the family and speakers are, what they look like and what their relationship is to the couple (and won’t have to read off your notes all night!).

♥ Familiarise yourself with the Order of Service: and layout of ceremony and reception venues.

♥ Get to the venue early so you can greet all the relevant service providers. You will be working with these people on the night so it is great if you know them and are comfortable dealing with them.

♥ Remember to keep an eye on the time and proceedings moving. You don’t want guests to fall asleep over speeches or to be cutting the cake at 11pm when everyone is ready to go home!

♥ Sincerity is more important than humour for the MC. Keep it brief- it’s not the MCs role to deliver a speech.

♥ When speaking, ensure you can be seen by all guests, apologising in advance to any who are behind you or obscured. Then apologise profusely to those who CAN see you!

♥ Keep the photographer, videographer and DJ informed of every key moment so they can play their parts accordingly.

♥ If you have any tricky names to pronounce it helps to get the phonetical spelling and plenty of time to practice!

Things to remember

♥ Your cue cards

♥ Your speech

♥ You are also a guest – the bride and groom want you to have a great night as well.
Make sure you don’t miss out on a good dance!

♥ Most of all – have fun!

The Singing Priest

How about walking down the aisle to this!!!

My tips on planning the best ever wedding

Hi everyone

It was me and My Darling Husbands 1 month anniversary on Friday! 1 month!! My Darling was a bit worried I would be expecting to celebrate an anniversary every month, but I told him just the 1st month is important. Then the 3rd, the 6th and then every year after! haha He made a beautiful effort and gave me a huge bunch of the beautiful white and yellow daisies I had for the wedding – after he wound me up by saying he didn’t remember!!

So 1 month later and we’re back to reality and I’m going to have heaps more time to share my little insights with you. I know some brides blog all the way through the process, but because we’d personalised every aspect of the wedding to the smallest detail it took up alot more time than I ever thought and this blog got a bit neglected. So I’m committed to sharing all the tips and tricks I found along the way with you, plus my usual inspirational bits and pieces which I hope you’re still enjoying!

Here’s a few tidbits that really helped me (and sadly didn’t help me) achieve my perfect day:

1. Go with your gut instinct!
   My logic overrode this on a couple of things and I’m kicking myself for not listening – see 3 & 4.
2. Start planning ASAP!
   I remember My Darling laughing at me about starting planning 10 months out. We had a 12 month engagement and having heard about weddings that take 3 years in the making I knew we would need all the time we could get. This is because celebrants, venues and photographers get booked out way in advance – and your vision evolves, so give yourself enough time to perfect it.
3. Suppliers.
   The biggest tip I can share is to find solid suppliers. Finding a good supply partner who is enthusiastic about what they do and how they can help make your wedding super special is invaluable. Here are mine:
   • Hair & makeup artist. Rochelle Strathdee (rstrathdee@xtra.co.nz) is the coolest fashion & film stylist based on North Shore, Auckland. She was so much fun to be around, knew her stuff and gave us other good tips (eco tan natural deodorant). I have to be honest, even though my stylee french roll did fall out due to high winds, it didn’t bother me too much because Rochelle was just so nice!
   • Venue. The venue on the other hand was McHughs Cheltenham. Luckily only the guests with event or hospitality backgrounds could tell how ineffective this venue and its staff were. The list of negative points is too long to go into here, but from my first meeting with them I felt like they were doing me a favour (ummm it’s the other way around in business!) and they were highly inattentive throughout the process, resulting in me (the bride!) being constantly bothered throughout the reception. My constant gut feeling was negative, but this venue had sentimental childhood memories and is a stunning on the beach location. Sadly their lack of basic professionalism left me feeling so f*#@ed off and marred the day a little bit.
     Do your research and pay attention to online reviews – even when we’ve booked accommodation you’ve found how truthful they are. I should have paid more attention to them.
   • The Dress. Don’t order online unless it’s from a supplier you’ve been fully recommended. I think you all read my wedding dress disaster. Luckily a friend referred me to her dressmaker who did a fantastic job – advising me not to have too much “slutty” cleavage and creating a matching veil at the last minute!
   • Celebrant. Make sure you interview a couple and feel comfortable with them. We were lucky – the first one we met with was perfect. Christina Venville was the right fit for us, contemporary, fun and seemed enthusiastic all the way.
   • Photographer & Videographer. When the day is just a blur these are the professionals who are going to help you relive the excitement and capture what you missed at the time. They have one shot at this and they need to take beautiful shots and know how to direct a large number of people. Make sure you interview your photographers, get verbal references and view portfolios. Unfortunately the two wedding photographers I wanted were booked out 10 months in advance, so I found Kylin Image on the internet – their photography looked stunning and represented the feel I wanted. We met with the photographer who we were reasonably confident could do a good job. The risk was this was a photography studio with multiple photographers, English was not there first language and their main customer base was Asian – not vibrant kiwi. 6 days prior to the wedding I had a phone call to say my booking had been lost and as a result we got a stand-in photographer who I doubt had any photography skills, let alone wedding photography. Out of 400 shots, we have about 10 which look professionally composed. Very sad.
     Luckily we had a few great family videographers who saved the day. And snapshot photographers who captured more candid shots.
4. Friends & Family! Or a Wedding Planner.
   Surround yourself with your best friends and calm, proactive family members or a professional wedding planner. These are the people that are going to give you a reality check, keep you from going bridezilla on your fiancé throughout the process and on the day ensure everything runs smoothly. Hand everything over and have faith in the people you have asked to be part of your big day and your gut instinct and history with them tells you they are reliable and have your best interests at heart. Don’t ask people to be involved who aren’t mad excited for you to be getting married. They will treat the day as a ‘piss-up’ and the focus will turn into them having a party – and not about the bride and groom celebrating their love and marking the rest of their lives together!
   (Our MC, the boys, my ‘bridesmaid’, my floral stylists, team of set designers and our ‘friend family’ – you know who you are!! A millions thank- you’s!)
5. Tiffany Blue
   Don’t choose this as your colour theme – every supplier you speak with will ‘think’ they have a Tiffany Blue match. In reality their blues will range from pastel green to baby blue to teal blue. The way to try and match this is by giving your supplier a PMS colour reference. PMS stands for Pantone Matching System – a colour chart range and because Tiffany has a specific trademarked PMS that is a big secret, the closest PMS match you will find is PMS 325C. Sadly none of them will have a clue what a PMS colour is, so I would ask your stationery designer to print off a supply of swatches you can use to physically match against.
6. Be specific. No matter how much info you give people or planning sessions you have people some people just won’t get it! But what you can do is be as specific as possible. Remember to include a dress code on your invitations. Reminders for guests to arrive ‘no later than xxx’. And if you would like gifts include gift registry details. If you would like monetary contributions specify the amount.
7. This is not a rehearsal!
   Take the time to enjoy each other, your day and all the effort that has been put into it. The day itself is all a bit of a blur, so it helps if you are well organised in advance, then you can chill and take it all in. Hopefully you will only ever get married once in your lifetime so enjoy the moment!

Check this for more Bridal Tips!

First Kiss

Aloha! Well, the BIG day is over (even though you wish you could relive it all over again) and we’re starting our new life adventure – officially! I am going to post some helpful wedding tips now the madness of organising the wedding is over…

So for now check this out. Creepy but cute. I think the couple in the still should get together in real life!