Mammoth Friday

(Decoration)
Well Friday was a bit of a marathon. Not so much because I was racing around everywhere frantically but rather that I felt like I had been driving around in circles the whole day by the end of it. Which come to think of it, is not really like a marathon at all and is more like laps. Anyway, the first circle I drove around in was a relatively small one which started before 5am when we had to get up so we could head out to the flower markets. Freedom Lady who is the partner to The Father Of The Groom very kindly offered to assist us by coordinating the floral element of our day and as such, we went out to meet her to look for suppliers and ideas. I’m sure we were a little frustrating as when we got there, we pretty much had no idea what we actually wanted. And a lot of the things we liked were only widely available in pretty much every season but the one we were getting married in ie. Winter.

We looked at lilies and orchids and pussywillow and various forms of foliage. We saw tulips and kangaroo paw and I realised that I was naturally going to be drawn to one of the more expensive flowers there when some imported roses from South America caught my eye. It does amuse me that I always said I didn’t want stupid roses for my bouquet. I felt they were too generic and boring and was favouring the arums and the callas instead. And yes I know they’re the funeral flower but I’m not superstitious about flowers and I think they’re pretty. Anyway, I was not going to have roses. I also know that The Boy had once been talking to a florist and had heard of people who imported the flowers for their wedding in from South America or somewhere exotic like that. At the time The Boy thought that was excessive and was a bit dumbfounded as to why anyone would seriously bother doing that. Then he obviously met me. In my defence though, they are beautiful and we both like them.

The roses that I saw were described as a jaffa or chocolate orange type of colour. They’re not brown or coffee or latte but have a real burnt orange type of tone to them which is unlike anything I’ve seen in the Australian roses. I would only need a couple of bunches to complete a rather modest bouquet and provide a couple of buttonholes so I’m not planning on decking out whole rooms with them or anything. I think we will try and complement the colour with some more latte coloured buds for The Pussycat and then some orchids stems for the centrepieces at the reception. I figure twining one of these around a piece of driftwood with some vine or maybe leaves would look alright. It might sound a bit weird but I think it would work. We do of course have to try a mock bouquet and the centrepiece out first to make sure I’m not insane but hopefully this comes together without too much heartache. Much like my jacket idea has done.

(Dresses)
After the nanna nap I had when I got home from dropping The Boy at work, The Mother Of The Bride and I went to a fitting for my jacket. Which didn’t seem like much of a fitting really because I only tried on a readymade jacket in the style that I wanted and the couturier took a few extra measurements as I have apparently lost a little weight since I saw her last. It was a chance for me to actually see a jacket with the dress however and show my mother that it was not some weird idea The Boy and I had concocted in our minds. The dress and the jacket would look good together. Actually, I think they looked better than good. I think the jacket looked hot in an elegant kind of way if thats possible and it gave a different dynamic to the dress which is pretty impressive by itself. Its also nice to think that I will be able to walk down the aisle and actually surprise some people because so far I have managed to share pictures of me in my dress with just about everybody I know. Except Naughty M who expressly forbade me telling her anything about the dress whatsoever. I happen to keep a picture and a swatch of fabric with me wherever I go though which is quite useful when talking to vendors and apparently anyone else within arms length as well. Honestly, I didn’t set out to show all and sundry but by now, a good proportion of my friends have already seen it and some of The Boys’ have too so it would be nice if when I walked down the aisle, the majority of the church wasn’t thinking “I knew she was going to look like that”.

So yeah, I had a fitting for my outfit and then we went to sort out some fabric for the Mother Of The Bride outfit. Which we managed to pull off without too much drama. Especially since I think The Mother Of The Bride has changed her mind on what she wanted to wear to The Wedding as many times as I did. There was the floor length jacket idea, the knee length jacket idea, the thigh length jacket idea and then the hip length jacket idea. And what went under the jacket seemed to go from skirts to dresses back to skirts again. Basically though, we did have a rough idea of what we were looking for when we went out and I think we found some real options. We wanted suit material in a light grape sort of colour to take back to the dress maker who unfortunately has no qualms about voicing exactly what you can’t do or what she doesn’t like about what you want. You can’t for example wear a jacket over a beaded top. Excuse me, but who made you queen of the castle? And she figures that no one should actually want a peplum anymore because they are so out of fashion these days but I have news for her. If she want to mess with the bride, bring it on I say. Even if peplums were out of fashion, I’m damn well bringing them back in myself so she can pipe down. And as for wearing jackets over beaded tops, she doesn’t have to like it, she just has to do what she’s being paid to do or politely decline the commission.

So anyway, after we had finished our couple of errands, we doubled back to pick up The Boy from work and then headed back into the city to check out another fabric store which as it turned out wasn’t all the productive at the time as The Mother Of The Bride was already sold on what she’s seen and The Boy and I were tired and hungry so we headed home for about an hour before we drove back into the city for dinner.

(Dinner)
We had a menu tasting on that evening which came about after no small amount of phone calls and emails in relation to same. Basically this was because we weren’t sure if we were going to have issues with the menu. When we first booked the venue, the sample menu had five dishes in each course, the majority of which I would have had no trouble nominating for the wedding. When it came to organise the tasting dinner however, I was emailed the new updated menu which held very little that I could actually eat and almost nothing at all that I wanted. The only thing that looked any good to me was the Chocolate Fondant Pudding with Sour Cream Ice Cream. Which, if you can only fit one course in because you are constricted by your dress, would be a pretty good dish to have but I still want to maintain the pretence that I’m going to eat the full three courses that we’re paying for on the night. So I wanted food that I liked.

As it turned out however, the kitchens were prepared to serve the meals from the old menu and when one of the Parentals came in to town for business, The Boy and I figured we’d include The Mother Of The Bride in on the action. This turned out to be rather fortunate as it meant we got a chance to sample three dishes in each course instead of only two. Something that definitely made the difference in the selection of dishes for the entree as the ravioli which sounded so nice on paper turned out to be almost as salty as the harbour we sat dining beside. Initially I was a bit disappointed that we only were allowed to order one entree, main and dessert each as some places that you go offer tasting nights where they make the whole menu available for you to try. Since we basically got a choice between the old menu and the new by selecting individual dishes for each person though, this worked in our favour.

The three of us happily shared the dishes around which much have looked a little weird to the people sitting beside us. Within a couple of minutes of us sitting down, bread and sparkling wine were brought out without us apparently having ordered anything. Then the food and white wine started coming and the plates got passed around the table every couple of bites taken. When the mains and red wine arrived, the same thing occurred as we discussed the merits of having either two salmon dishes on the night or two red meat dishes in the same course. I have no idea whether there is some sort of etiquette that says you should have at least one white meat and one dark meat in your entree and main or one seafood and one meat dish providing that there is adequate variation but its our wedding so we’re having cured salmon followed by cooked salmon unless you opt for the vegetarian frittata and the beef. If you’re somewhat fussy though and none of those options actually float your boat, you can hold out for the dessert and the wedding cake which is yet to be decided. We don’t see the cake lady till Tuesday week.