The Last Wedding Before Ours!

Today Wade and I attended the wedding of some of our friends, Tara and Johnathan. It was a slightly more stressful day than we had anticipated, to say the least. The pianist at the wedding was having jitters and so Wade was roped in, twenty minutes before the bride walked down the aisle, to play guitar for the ceremony. You know what's difficult? Playing old hymns on guitar. I was totally freaking out, and crossing my fingers and toes that he wouldn't mess up. I was so proud to see him up there playing like he had been practicing for weeks instead of twenty minutes. Then, in between the ceremony and the reception, Wade and I popped up to my Grandmother's house, only to find that she had very low blood sugar (she is Type One diabetic) and was fading slowly out of consciousness. Without breaking a sweat, Wade went into paramedic mode, testing her blood sugar, giving her juice and preparing glucagon for her while I stood around and freaked out - again. And we didn't have to take her to hospital, which was awesome. For the rest of the day, and all through the night, I continued to be totally amazed by this guy who takes on any challenge that comes his way without panicking about it at all? Sitting through weddings always makes me think about my wedding, and now finally the next wedding will be ours. And I'm almost certain that at the next wedding, Wade won't be as calm!

- H

Winter Wedding

Does anyone have as much trouble deciding what to wear to a Winter wedding as I do? This is my third wedding that I've been invited to in the past few years that has taken place in the middle of Winter, so I feel like I'm becoming a bit of an expert. I found this gorgeous dress at Forever New a few weeks ago. It's wonderful for Winter because it's made of a thick cotton / nylon / elastine blend and fully lined so it's actually quite warm. And how cute are those beaded straps? I'm undecided as to whether I'm going to cover up with a little fur bolero (like the one pictured) or a black blazer with longer sleeves. I'm leaning towards the blazer because the reception takes place near the water - but how cute is that bolero? I know this wedding is going to be pretty dance-heavy so I'm leaning towards wearing these trusty and incredibly comfy Wittner heels and some simple, yet sparkly accessories. Wade's wearing this charcoal Saba suit so I'm looking forward to snapping some quick pictures before we head off to the ceremony!

- H

Gifting

Yesterday, I was browsing xoJane, when I was (slightly shocked) to find this very controversial article, originally titled "A Third Of The People Who Attended My Wedding Didn't Give Me A Gift - What's Up With That?" You can have a read of the article - it's very interesting! - or you can trust me to give you the highlights. Basically, the author got married a little over a year ago and is very perplexed as to why a third of her guests didn't give her a gift. Although she admits that she felt guilty for getting upset about it, she still goes on to describe particular wedding guests who she feels "owe" her a gift and yet did not deliver.

I then read the comments section and was surprised to find that a lot of people agreed with the author - that when you throw a wedding, you are owed a gift. A lot of people agreed actually. Part of my job at work is to help others create wedding invitations. More often than I'd like to admit, I get asked by customers how to ask for particular gifts (especially cash) on the invitation. Why? Because they expect a gift and they want to direct people towards the right kind of gifts.

Here's the thing. A wedding gift is just that - a gift. Not a payment, or a "token of appreciation" for the honor of being invited to the wedding. I guess I'm bringing this up as a bride as well as someone who works (partially) in the wedding industry. I want to give couples a gift because I love them, and want to show them that I love them by giving them a gift that reflects my relationship with them and their personalities. My parents still have pieces that they received for wedding presents that my mom will tell me, "Oh, so-and-so gave me that. I never would have thought I wanted it, but I use it all the time." I want to be so-and-so who gave them that awesome mini food processor that has lasted a zillion years. I want to be so-and-so who gave them that beautiful painting that still hangs in their living room. Have a read of the article and let me know what you think about our gift-giving culture. I'd love to know your thoughts!

- H

DIY Photobooth with the Canon Selphy CP900

When we were party planning for my brother's sixteenth birthday, we were trying to think of something that would make his party really fun. Obviously, photobooths are the bomb. I've been to a few parties and weddings with photobooths and I love that you get to leave with an awesome souvenir of the night. That being said, when my mom and I started looking into hiring photobooths for the night we were shocked at the prices - $1000 for 3 hours? - so we started thinking about alternatives.

At Wade's brother's wedding, they had a Fuji Instax where you could snap a Polaroid and peg it up on a memory board for the bride and groom to keep forever. However, some guests - not me, I swear! - liked the pictures too much and knew they were never going to see them again so they took them. Which kind of sucks for the couple, because they never got to see some of the best photos of their guests. It also sucked for me because I took a great picture of Wade and I that I will never see again.

Enter the Canon Selphy CP900. Aka, my new favorite toy. The Selphy is a tiny printer that you can hook up wirelessly to your camera, computer, or smartphone - or you can stick a USB or SD card in - and print 6x4 photos.

To make the photobooth I started by cutting pieces of tissue paper to look like papel picado. Wade then strung them up on the walls to create a colorful backdrop.

Then we popped a couple of chairs in front of the backdrop and a box of fun props and let the party guests do the rest! After they posed for the shots, I printed the pictures straight away. I printed two of each of the four poses (eight in total) on each piece of photo paper and sliced the 4 x 6 image in half. We then tacked the photos up in a public place for the guests to look at and take home.

Here's my sister Steph and I getting a little crazy in the "booth"!

- H

Sharing

I never thought of myself as a particularly private person - I mean, hey, I have a blog for crying out loud! A personal blog! Filled with my thoughts and stories and my very own day-to-day in my own little pocket of the world. But today I was driving with Wade, and he told me that he appreciated that I limit the personal content I share on Facebook. About a year ago I did a major Facebook cull and removed all of the people that I didn't talk to on a regular basis. A lot of these people I cared about - I simply did not feel comfortable with them knowing all of my stuff. I did keep a few who lived overseas who I wanted to stay in contact with. But everyone from high school - gone. Everyone from my old workplaces - gone. After doing that, I felt a little more breathing room to share personal thoughts on Facebook. But, I decided, there was still a definite line between sharing and oversharing. I love sharing funny things that happen to me, or anything that I think will bring a smile to someones face. I hate bragging, so I always check my posts to see if they come off that way when I share news or whatever. I also love sharing nice photos, but I don't want to bombard everyone's newsfeed with pictures of me. After all, everyone who I'm friends with knows what I look like. When we got our engagement pictures back I only posted one up on Facebook and kept the rest as something private for only myself and Wade and our families and close friends to see.

Now I'm wondering if it's enough. Why do I have Facebook? I'm starting to wonder if I can rationalize having a page when I see almost all of my friends regularly. After all, the information anyone posts on Facebook has been described as a "virtual tattoo". Permanent. Forever. Does everyone need to know my stuff? Am I simply trying to craft a visual facade of my "perfect" life? My sisters will laugh when they read this because I threaten to delete Facebook all the time and never do it. I still don't know if I will. Just thinking about it.

- H

Engagement Fiesta Planning

When we got engaged, we didn't know if we wanted to have an engagement party. Don't get me wrong, I love a good party. Ask anyone in my family - if there is an occasion to throw a party, I will take it. I just didn't know if we could find the time to plan one! But then we discovered that quite a few family members and friends wouldn't be able to make our November wedding date. But they could come halfway through the year. And so we decided to have a party to celebrate!

Now we're two months out and in the throes of party planning. I figure there are only going to be very few occasions when we'll be lucky enough to be surrounded by all of our closest friends and family - so we're going to do this party right. And by right, I mean, kick off your heels, drink a Margarita, and whack a pinata. That's right! We're having a fiesta! Here's a roundup of my favorite Mexican-themed engagement party ideas.

via Hostess with the Mostess

via First Time Fancy

via Kasey Loftin Photography

via Sweet Chic Events

via Utterly Engaged

via Juneberry Lane

via Modern Hostess

Just looking at all of the possibilities makes my head spin with possibilities!

- H

Little Pops of Neon

When it comes to fashion, for me, being super comfortable and wearing figure-flattering clothes always takes precedence over the latest trend. This has actually come about pretty recently, when three months ago I did a huge clothing cull and sold over half of my wardrobe on eBay - including lots of items that still had tags on them and things I had only worn just once. After reading about the 40 hanger closet I invested in some cute and functional hangers and every time I buy a new item, I make myself donate or sell another item. I've found that I rarely moan, "I have nothing to wear" anymore because I know what I have to wear and I also know that most of the different pieces co-ordinate with each other.

I've also found myself investing in accessories to make the outfit - things like a great bag, or a new pair of shoes, or a great statement necklace. At the moment I'm enjoying incorporating pops of neon into my winter wardrobe. This bag was an absolute steal from one of those cheap handbag stores. I like it because it's neutral, but at the same time it has that great orange detailing! And when neon isn't popular anymore I won't feel too bad about donating it because I got it for cheap. I snapped this quickly on my way to church, so sorry about the quality of the image!

Finishing the Semester

This has been the hardest semester of my life, I told my mom last night while throwing my bag down on the table in a huff, including Semester One, in seventh grade. Semester One in seventh grade was awful. I think that being eleven is awful enough, but a whole bunch of things happened that made that particular semester stand out in my mind as the worst ever. Believe it or not, these past few months, study-wise, have been even harder.

Needless to say, when I went to hand in my assignment, I took a gratuitous "I'm handing in my last assignment for the semester shot" and Instagramed it. You'll notice that I took it from the side because a) the skin under my eyes were so puffy and black from studying that a very sweet lady at work asked me - seriously - if I had been punched in the face recently; b) my hair is getting long enough that I can do cute little side-of-the-head knots; and c) I found these earrings lying at the bottom of my jewellery box and aren't they cute?

Oh my goodness, if my final semester is anything like this then my parents and Wade will literally have to drag me to graduation kicking and screaming. I think I'm just going to curl up in a tiny ball and sleep for a million years, thank you very much!

Happenings

Reading: Textbooks, textbooks, and... oh yeah, more textbooks. It's exam time, if you hadn't guessed and I'm elbow-deep in post-feminist theory and English Lit criticism at the moment. Fun.

Watching: Firefly with my dad. Wade is a bit of a geek, and loves this show - as in, he would contribute to a Kickstarter project to create a second season, or another feature film a la Veronica Mars - so my dad, who is also a bit of a geek bought it and we are now watching it. As in, right now, I am blogging, watching Firefly and have a textbook open next to me. My dad is loving it, I can tell. I mean, the man owns whole seasons of Battlestar Galactica.

Listening: The Hamish and Andy Podcast. I don't know what it is about these guys, but I think they're absolutely hilarious! Nothing better than kicking back and listening to twenty minutes of hilarity in between study sessions.

Loving: French bulldog puppies. Random, yes? Wade promised me that once we buy a place to live I can get a fur-baby, so I've been researching dogs. Growing up, we had Max and our next door neighbors had Pip - the two best dogs in the world. Pip was a mutt, and I guess Max was too (he was supposed to be a Jack Russell, but he's definitely not!) I love dogs, and I think I want a French Bulldog, but a few minutes ago, I showed Wade this picture, and he said, That is the ugliest dog I've ever seen. So maybe not.

via Life is Beautiful

Not loving: I'm going to add this category because I'd just like to say death to mall kiosks! Those people trying to grab you and sell you moisturizers and hair straighteners and make you sign petitions about things you don't believe in. Usually my tactic is to ignore them, but just recently I got totally cussed out by one guy for saying, "no, thank you". I feel like everyone is equally annoyed by them, and it makes me not want to try their products because of how annoying the kiosk people are - I'm looking at you Dead Sea Minerals. If everybody just walked on by, rather than responding when one of the sleazy guys said, "hello gorgeous, can I interest you in a free sample?" then maybe malls could get rid of them for good. /end rant/

I think I'll move to Sydney

As you might know, I love French food. I have three French cookbooks (untouched), and love going to the different French restaurants and French patisseries around Brisbane. So when I heard about this gorgeous little French cafe in Sydney - and their ingenious marketing scheme - I just about cried.

Because, you see, they are letting their customers pay for their coffee with... wait for it... a kiss! How perfectly Parisian. Their Facebook page states, "We're not accepting your money, just your kisses." Basically, for the month of June from 9 - 11am, customers are given the option of kissing for their coffee - but, the promo video says, it has to be a real kiss ... a true kiss.

"I can see if it's a fake kiss," the waiter teases. "I'm kind of an expert." What do you think? Is the concept bring romance back? Would you kiss for your coffee? I've already informed Wade that a trip to Sydney within the next couple of weeks is in order!

- H

The Engagement

Wade's proposal was a big surprise. And while I suppose that's what I wanted, looking back it shouldn't have been as surprising as it was. While Wade and I had discussed getting married now and again, it was always labelled as an arbitrary someday.

I think I first decided that I wanted to marry Wade about six months after we had started dating. Obviously this would have been completely illegal as I was very underage, so we just continued on as we were - two teenagers in love, with no serious commitment or plans for our future together. As each year passed, people started asking us when we were going to get married. We also saw friends and family start dating and get married quite quickly - I think that's generally what happens when you grow up in a church community. One couple who started dating around the same time as us (they were a few years older) got married, had a baby and are now having their second child in a few months - crazy! Another couple advised us not to bother with "getting all of our ducks in a row" before getting engaged and married, to which I replied, well I'd like to get some ducks up there at least!

This was never us. Marriage was a huge commitment. For us, the ultimate commitment - definitely not something that we would enter into with just anyone, at any time. As Wade completed his first degree, and the end of my degree started creeping closer we started thinking maybe. But then Wade decided to go back to studying to become a paramedic, and I took a new job with reduced hours and our conversations about getting married started to drop off again. We started talking about moving overseas, we planned traveling holidays and dreamed about our future careers.

Then, one day, Wade asked me to come with him for a drive down to the Gold Coast to meet up with one of his friends. It was an elaborate ruse - Wade's friends posted decoy Facebook updates about meeting us, and Wade pretended to be working at the ambulance station all day so that he could get everything ready. I was dressed up to the nines because I thought we were having dinner at the Marriot. When we got down, Wade took me for a walk on the beach to where we had our first kiss. As the sun was setting, he got down on one knee and gave me the most beautiful ring I've ever seen in my life. I was completely shocked! Spoiler: I said yes.

But the surprises didn't end there. When we drove home, there was a huge welcoming party of family and friends waiting to celebrate with us, and our phones were beeping and ringing all night. Apparently everyone knew that Wade was going to propose except for me. But the biggest surprise of the night was how happy I was. I wasn't scared. I wasn't nervous. I was just incredibly happy and content. It just felt perfect.

- H

Guest Post: Nicola of N.East Photography

I'm lucky enough where I live and work to be surrounded by strong, beautiful and talented young women. I thought I would ask a few of them to guest post on this blog, so that you can get to know them too! I'm kicking off the series with my sweet friend Nicola, who is a photographer from N.East Photography. You can check out her work on Facebook and her blog!

Hi, my name is Nicola! I’m nineteen. Most the time you’ll find me with a camera in my hand. I’m addicted to the beauty of the world around me, both capturing it and exploring it. I’m a strong believer in dreaming, optimism and striving to make the world (or at least make it look) like a better place.

I live by the bay in little ol’ Brisbane. Although, the little wandering spirit in me tells me I won’t be staying put for too long.

I am constantly being inspired by new sources. Of course, there are a few photographers in particular who make me keep doing what I do, the ones who capture the world - so perfectly imperfect. But over and above that (and I know it’s terribly cliché), but the sheer beauty of the world we live in has the strongest and most undeniable source of inspiration for any photographer.

It is hard to say the exact moment I made the transition from an amateur with a point-and-shoot camera to “photographer”. I was fifteen when I owned my first DSLR. You know you are the real deal when you have an album on Myspace called “My Photography”, containing nothing but photos of flowers and water droplets on leaves. From there, I guess things progressed, and now I find myself actually earning an income from my most loved hobby!

I adore shooting people I know. There is something extremely rewarding about finding someone with natural beauty and no modelling experience, placing them in front of the camera and snapping away until they find comfort in front of the camera. You find out a lot about a person when they are in front of the camera. You see everything- their vulnerabilities, their flaws, but most importantly, you see that every single individual possess a unique, complex beauty. I enjoy uncovering that beauty.

I actually had one of the scariest and most memorable stories of my life occur when I was on a shoot. Being a photographer, we occasionally go to great lengths to get the photo we want, which sometimes means putting ourselves in situations that would normally be wise to avoid. In this instance, it was spring time, and I thought it would be a dandy idea to get one of my friend’s to dress up like a princess and photograph her frolicking in grassy bushland opposite my house. I didn’t seem to think through the fact it was indeed snake season, and half an hour in to shooting, I saw a slippery brown creature slither away from my leg. It was only a matter of time before I looked down and realise I had fang marks on my ankle, and I had indeed been bitten by a snake. There was a lot of screaming and running involved before I was rushed to hospital and spent the next twelve hours thinking my life was going to end! I was lucky enough to survive, as that generous snake decided not to inject its venom when it has bit me. Still, craziest shoot of my life! But hey, I got a good shot in the end, so it was worth it… right?

I think in this day and age the biggest challenge is establishing yourself to be different from every other photographer out there. These days, everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, has a fancy camera. I know, because I work as a camera salesperson! This means there is a lot more to compete with, and people start to value professional photographers less and less as they seem to think picture-taking is as easy as buying an entry-level DSLR (or in some cases an iPhone) and shooting away! The challenge is getting people to really value and love your work, sometimes enough to pay you for it. I think that will be a challenge that will never cease. In the end I do photography because it is what I love, so even if people don’t always see the value in it, I will happily keep doing it for myself!

 

Being a photographer is literally the easiest thing in the world when you are shooting what you love. There is nothing more rewarding then getting home after photographing a dreamy sunset or a picture-perfect portrait session and seeing the fruits of your labour on your computer screen. It gives me this unexplainable buzz.

Three words to describe me? Young, adventurous, dreamer.

Nesting: The Outdoors

While we're apartment hunting, there are a few things that I'm keeping a sharp eye out for. One of the things that is important to me is that the apartment has a decent outdoor area. The two apartments that have made it into my shortlist so far both have beautiful enclosed balconies that are the perfect size for fitting a dining set or a couple of squishy outdoor couches. There's nothing more relaxing than a fun dinner party with friends or family eaten outside, or stretching out in the sunshine, reading a nice book. With that in mind, I've been obsessively trawling the internet for outdoor space inspiration.

via The Design Files

via Design Sponge

via Decor Pad

via House & Home

via House of Turquoise

I'm getting shivers of excitement just looking at these images! I can't wait to find a place to make a home.

- H

Happenings

Reading: The Sweetheart Season - Karen Joy Fowler. I picked this one up at a secondhand bookstore because I really enjoyed reading The Jane Austen Bookclub, so I thought it might be similar. It's not. But I'm enjoying it nonetheless. It's set in post-WWII, where a small town is suffering a shortage of men who have not returned from the war, but instead "moved on to greener pastures" and married foreign women, or out-of-towners. To solve this, the town starts an all-girl baseball team. If you read it, let me know how you like it!

Watching: Masterchef Australia. I realized that Wade and I have watched every single series of this show together (we're in season 5 now!), and I still absolutely love it. I love watching cooking shows, but it never inspires me to cook. Wade loves watching them - I think because he thinks it will someday inspire me to cook. Right now, Wade is the chef in our relationship. I make the coffee, and occasionally bake.

Listening: What else? Random Access Memories - Daft Punk. For a while there, Get Lucky was my jam, and so when the album came out I downloaded it on Spotify. At first it was so different that I wasn't enjoying it as much as I thought i, but then I started listening to tracks such as Lose Yourself to Dance, and now I'm loving it again.

Loving: Three links today! First, this manicure on The Beauty Department:

Second, this article about living in my favorite city, 25 Things I wish I knew before moving to San Francisco, which also includes this great (and slightly hilarious) infographic:

And finally, this awesome collection by photographer Jamie C. Moore to celebrate her daughter's fifth birthday:

 Enjoy!

- H

Book Review: Delirium

I'm definitely not embarrassed to tell you that I got totally swept up in the Hunger Games pandemonium of last year. I bought the books on my Kindle when they went on sale and absolutely devoured them, and have been pretty glum since I finished them. Yes, I have a HG-shaped hole in my heart. Cue Delirium, by Lauren Oliver.

I first discovered this book, after reading Danielle's post, where she mentioned some of her favorite dystopic novels, like A Wrinkle In Time (my absolute favorite childhood series) and The Handmaid's Tale. I downloaded the book onto my Kindle a while ago, but for some reason I never started reading it until this past Saturday when I was feeling really sick. Turns out, I had the flu, and subsequently I have spent the past three days lying in the bath and reading this book and the others in its trilogy. Ahhh bliss.

The story is set in the future in Portland, Maine, where everyone has been educated since birth to regard the feelings and symptoms of love as a disease (delirium). Lena, a seventeen year old girl, has spent her whole life dreading the disease and awaiting the "cure" which will happen on her eighteenth birthday, when she will no longer be in danger of falling in love. Right before her eighteenth birthday, however, she meets Alex and everything she thought she knew about love changes.

I liked this book for a whole variety of reasons. I thought the storyline was interesting and it certainly held my interest - to the point where I had to buy the other two books in the series straight away. I also loved her descriptions of first love, and the feelings associated with that, when everything is new and wonderful and beautiful. I would certainly recommend reading this book, especially if you catch this awful strain of the flu that is going around - it makes the time pass much more quickly!

- H

Transformers Tattoo

Last year, I had an English Lit class with a really pretty girl. She always wore these gorgeous sundresses and brightly colored cardigans - really cute stuff. I loved her style. Then I looked at her feet. Peeping out of her cute floral flats were two Transformers tattoos. One autobot symbol and one decepticon symbol. I think. I'm not really an expert. At all.

Anyway, it got me to thinking why she would tattoo Transformers on the tops of her feet. Was there a special meaning behind them? Could there be a special meaning behind them? I was thinking about this when it hit me - if anyone would have a reason to get a Transformers tattoo on their body, it would probably be me. And I don't like the movies at all.

Let me backtrack to high school, when the movie was a really big hit, and everyone was talking about it and seeing it and reminiscing about their childhoods watching the TV show. I never watched Transformers growing up. I was more of an Arthur kind of girl - you know, Arthur the aardvark? So I wasn't too interested in seeing the movie, until one of my oldest friends asked me to go see it with him. I agreed, and we made plans to see it the next day. Then my Dad asked me if I wanted to go to the beach, so I texted my friend and cancelled. We rescheduled for the next week, until I remembered that I had a friend's birthday party and cancelled again. We didn't reschedule.

The next time I saw this guy, I was about to go in for surgery, and he was about to go volunteer at the Red Bull air show. He told me, in no uncertain terms that if I still hadn't seen Transformers by the time he got back, he would take me and I wasn't allowed to cancel. And he did, the day I got out of hospital.

I was on about a whole bunch of painkillers, so I was really dopey when he picked me up. We sat on a guard rail by the river while we waited for the movie to start, and I remember trying to stay coherent enough so that I wouldn't topple off. When the movie started I fell asleep within about ten minutes on my friend's shoulder.

But that doesn't matter, because guess what?

That movie ended up being my first unofficial date with Wade.

- H