How I Met Your Father

Continued from part 14…

The last post was all about getting our invites out, finalising our seating plan and sorting out to-do lists. The last few weeks before our special day went by so quickly that they’re all blurry… But it doesn’t matter because our day was so memorable that I don’t need to recall the lead-up.

Saturday 24 March started off with French toast made specially for me by my dad. We sat on the patio in the early morning sun and chatted and ate. I was calm. But I was also nervous and excited. I couldn’t believe that the day had finally arrived.

The morning’s hair appointment drifted into the afternoon and the start of having my make-up done and getting ready. The photographer arrived and before I knew it, it was time to slip into my beautiful dress, put my red heels on, and take my dad’s arm as he walked me down the aisle.

I remember silently willing my legs to keep me upright. I remember each and every step on the grass towards a red rose petal heart where my husband-to-be was waiting. I remember leaning over and kissing him which obviously caused a stir, but I hadn’t seen him since the Friday and I just had to kiss him.

Our marriage officer led us through our vows and I Do’s. And as I was promising to be there through it all, I couldn’t help but notice how I was barely whispering the words. Not because I didn’t mean them or because I didn’t want anyone to hear, but just because there was so much emotion that my voice just couldn’t take it.

And then we were married. Husband and Wife. With a signed document to prove it and with red rose petals strewn all over us for extra effect.

The reception was perfect. The decor was beautiful. The atmosphere was relaxed. It was like we were hosting a dinner party with our nearest and dearest. The evening flew by in a bit of a haze between starters, main course, speeches and dessert. And although we had handpicked the menu (especially the dessert buffet), I found I couldn’t eat for the excitement. I was married! To the man of my dreams! To my best friend!

PS: Of everything that happened that day, the one thing I’ll never forget is how I burst into happy tears after reading through my Twitter timeline that morning and seeing Gary’s tweet about how he was going to be marrying his best friend.

And now for some piccies… These were all taken by family or friends and uploaded to Facebook. I just can’t wait to see the professional pics…

The setting & saying I DO

My gorgeous dress

My sexy red heels

Mr & Mrs

Continues in part 16 soon…

How I Met Your Father

Continued from part 13…

The wedding date has been set and it’s now only a few weeks away. Eeeeeeek! My oh my how time flies! And everything is falling into place so nicely…

Our invitations arrived only last week after there was a small glitch in the printing process. Despite the delay in getting them, we have almost delivered all of them already (this was quite easy considering how small our guestlist is). I know how detail oriented I am so I’m sure you’re keen to see what they look like…

We chose a simple yet classic invitation that has an outer “slip” envelope. Our initials are embossed on the front and a simple black strip has our guest’s name on it.

The insert is again simple and classic. (Sorry I had to blank out the details for any of you that would want to gatecrash…)

Now we are just awaiting the last of the RSVPs so that we can finalise the seating arrangements (I’m sure this will turn me grey), confirm final guest numbers with the venue, and start tying up all those other loose ends.

Continues in part 15…

How I Met Your Father

Continued from part 12…

First a recap…
His Sexiness and I went through a bad patch. So bad that the wedding was called off! But we got to talking, we got to working through things, we got to a place where we wanted to be together come hell or high water…we got to a place where the ring was back on my finger.

And now… Now we have set the date for March and the wedding plans are well under way! YIPEEEEE!

Everything is falling into place so nicely…like it’s meant to be.

We have our ceremony venue and reception venue sorted. The ceremony will be taking place in a garden and as the setting is already so beautiful, we won’t have to spend a cent on decor. The reception venue is just what we were looking for. And best of all, the amazing menu that has been put together for us sounds absolutely tantalising and is really affordable.

Our invitations are being printed, well actually they are being reprinted because for some reason I kept all the previous invitations as we hadn’t yet handed them out. So all we had to do is reprint the insert. And this means that we will be able to get them out quicker.

And now for the details any gal would want to know…the dress and the shoes. Well, I have already met with my dress-maker to discuss the design and type of fabric. And we recently met at The Plaza to buy my fabric. I was so quick in choosing fabric, that she came with me to look at shoes. And as luck would have it, I found my wedding shoes in the second shop I walked into.

So…everything is coming together! And we’re totally excited! And we just can’t wait for our special day to arrive!

Continues in part 14…

How I Met Your Father

Continued from part 11…

First a recap…
His Sexiness had popped the question and the wedding planning began. It was all running smoothly, too smoothly perhaps?! Just as we were about to hand out our invitations and start the count down to the big day…the wedding got called off!

It’s almost been a year since the day we told our friends and family our special day was not happening. BUT a lot can happen in a year… Fighting, crying and shouting (at each other, or just by myself), talking things through to get to the route of the problem, analysing every aspect… In the end we realised what we wanted, which direction we wanted to head in, and who we wanted to share the journey with… So yes, the engagement ring is back on, the wedding is being planned, but mostly…we’re just looking forward to kicking things off as soon as possible because once you know you want to be with someone, you can’t get there soon enough!

Continues in part 13…

How I Met Your Father

Continued from part 10…

First a recap…
In the November of 2009 His Sexiness placed a gorgeous engagement ring on my finger and asked me to marry him. I said yes and the wedding planning began. In the January of 2010 we found the perfect venue and booked it.

Now came the arduous task of formulating our guest list…

I sat down in front of my computer, opened up an Excel spreadsheet (because I don’t believe in simple pen-and-paper lists) and began inputting names. I started off with Gary and myself, because you do need to count yourselves in if you’re hoping to eat on the night, and specifically if you’re working towards a specific number of guests. Then I continued with my mother, my father, my step-mother, my brothers and their wives, my sister and her husband, my step-sister and her husband, and then family friends. Then I followed on with friends from high school and university. And then I made Gary sit down and send through his list of family, family friends, and friends. And then the real fun began…

Because, not only had we reached our estimated amount of guests really quickly, there were still some others that we needed to invite. As we’re both quite involved with Twitter, and had got to know quite a few on a personal “in-real-life” level over the months, we needed to add them to our guest list. And that meant diminishing the list a bit on the family and other friends parts.

So we went through our respective lists of friends and family and Twitter friends. And we looked at the list with a harsh eye and removed people that we haven’t spoken to in a while or aren’t that close with. The list diminished ever so slightly.

In the February of 2010 we sent our electronic Save the Date through to everyone on List A (as we now call it).

Now a lot happens in a year. Some people you lose touch with. New people arrive in your life and become good friends. And so, right before we finalised the amount of invitations we would need, we looked through the list again. And yes, some people were added and some people were taken off. It was difficult. It was tough. But it was necessary.

Having the final guest list in hand, we designed and ordered our invitations. They’re now sitting safely in a box on my kitchen counter. And guess what, between the time of “okaying” the design and getting them printed, there’s one or two people that have creeped onto the list… Can you say “back to square one”…

Continues in part 12…

*Picture credit

How I Met Your Father

Continued from part 9…

First a recap…
In the late November of 2009 I had been whisked away by His Sexiness for a weekend away. Little did I know though that that particular weekend had been planned for months before. Little did I know that that particular weekend was not just a weekend in Cape Town to surprise a friend. Little did I know that that weekend away was going to be the weekend we’d get engaged!

As soon as we were back from our weekend away, the bride-to-be-slash-event-planner bug in me took hold of soft flesh, and bit down hard! I used every conceivable free moment at work to trawl the internet in the search for the perfect wedding venue. I wasn’t just looking for anything, I was looking for charm, out of the ordinary, affordability, something that no-one knew of, something that spoke to me… A walk in the park? You can bet my butt it wasn’t!

I trawled and I surfed.

And I browsed and I googled.

I knew the perfect place was out there so I searched some more.

I managed to find quite a few options and put them down on the list. I showed this list to His Sexiness and he gasped. Could there really be that many venues to look at, he asked me with tears in his eyes. (There weren’t really tears but you get my drift.) So I relooked at the list. And the list got shorter. Again I showed it to His Sexiness and this time there were less tears but still he enquired as to the number of venues we could possibly be interested in. And again I relooked at the list and managed to get it down to a handful. And this was where the “fun” came into things…

During the December of 2009 and the January of 2010 we went to look at my handful of venue options. I was on holiday. His Sexiness was on holiday. So we took our time in seeing each venue.

We started our viewing at The Bridge. Now, this place looked and sounded absolutely perfect from the website. And with such hopelessly high expectations and thoughts that this venue was The One, I was quite disappointed that it was far from perfect when we arrived. Now obviously all your thoughts are “but how could you expect to find The Venue on your first viewing?” But picture me, screaming and screeching in delight because, oh my word!, we found The Venue on the first try. It was stupid of me and my overly positive thoughts and over active imagination. Onto venue number two…Everwood…

Again Everwood looked like it could work well. But given my experience from venue number one, I didn’t trust the website and what it said or showed. We arrived at this venue on a particularly hot day. We stepped out of the car and immediately the smell smacked us in the face. The smell of horse manure. Not quite the smell you want to have when you’re walking down the aisle. Not quite the smell you want to have when you’re promising to love one another forever. So we took the five steps back to car, hopped in and drove away…with the outside aircon button switched off.

We had a quick look at The Moon and Sixpence but found that it was a bit too commercial for our liking. We had a look at Oakfield Farm when I dragged His Sexiness to a bridal fair that was being held there. And again, it was too commercial. Not out-of-the-ordinary enough.

It was at about this stage that we went to look at one of the last few venues on the list. And it was as we were going through the front gate that I knew this venue had more than just a fighting chance. It was quaint in an old English countryside kinda way. It was big enough but intimate enough at the same time. It was rustic and modern. And the honeymoon suite would be thrown in for the night of the wedding. Score! Unfortunately you don’t get to know the venue’s name. Not until the invitations go out…

Continues in part 11…

How I Met Your Father

Continued from part 8…

First a recap…
His sexiness and I had fallen in love! We’d been together for almost 2 years and living together for almost a year. We had added 2 doglets to the mix and made a little family.

In the November of 2009, Saturday the 21st to be exact, His Sexiness woke me up at 04h00. He told me we needed to get up, pack and get going by 05h00 or we’d be late. I thought he was having some vivid dream so I told him to go back to sleep and let me sleep until a reasonable hour (I had had a particularly gruelling function the day before). He laughed this off and again told me to get up and pack. I was instructed to pack for three days and that I should include two sets of smart outfits. Again I questioned his “awakeness” and I knew he wasn’t joking when he started running around getting his things together.

Being the curious, have-to-be-in-control girl that I am, I questioned him nonstop hoping to get a few clues as to where we were going so that I knew what I should be packing. I surmised that we must either be going to the bush or to Cape Town to surprise my friend. I packed and got myself ready, all the while continuing the questioning.

It was then time to get into the car and get going. His Sexiness used a tie to blindfold me and drove left, then right trying to disguise where we were going. But as I have an acute sense of direction, I knew exactly where we were going. And when he asked where we were, I said we were in X suburb on X road and that he really was taking me a round-about way to his parents house to drop off our house keys. Upon this statement, he huffed and puffed! He told me he’d forgotten about having to drop off keys and that I should remove my blindfold because I’d already guessed where we were going – Cape Town. I felt supremely satisfied that he’d had to give in to me because of my awesome sense of direction and deduction.

I was told to keep quiet about the trip though as it was a surprise for my friend for her birthday. So no tweeting or any mentions otherwise.

We arrived in Cape Town and His Sexiness’ brother Ross came to fetch us from the airport. Before driving through to Hout Bay where we were going to be staying, we had to stop past somewhere as Gary had a client that needed his system converted to Mac. While he had his meeting, Ross, his then girlfriend and I had a bite to eat at a restaurant nearby. Before long we were on our way to our “home” where we freshened up and got ready to head over to Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens to surprise my friend at her birthday picnic.

We arrived and walked very slowly not wanting to be spied before we spied her. Once we’d found where the group was sitting, I phoned to wish her a happy birthday. I mentioned how gorgeous she was looking in her orange top and she only said “thanks”. I then had to prompt her as to how I knew what colour she was wearing. While on this phone call we sneakily walked up to her and surprised her. And the surprise went down so well! She was so happy!

The rest of the afternoon passed quickly with catching up with the birthday girl and Ann and meeting other twitter friends – Cazpi and Acidicice – while munching on the yumminesses we had brought with. Before leaving the picnic, we made plans to meet up that evening to continue the birthday celebrations at Oblivion. Gary and I then made our way home to have an afternoon nap before getting ready for the night’s festivities.

The nap was heavenly! Just what was needed before a night out! But before we joined the ladies, we decided to go out for dinner, somewhere for just the two of us.

As we were leaving, His Sexiness suggested we go to Chapman’s Peak to watch the sunset. I thought it was a fantastic idea since I couldn’t remember when last I was there. And I didn’t think this was out of place at all, I just thought His Sexiness was being romantic and wanting to show me what Cape Town was all about. I did find it so funny when His Sexiness began getting antsy because all the viewing points were busy. I simply told him that it’s probably “date night” for most couples and what better way to spend it than watching the sunset together. We eventually found a quieter viewing point and got out of the car to have a look at the sunset.

Now His Sexiness had been quite quiet and acting a bit weird. I thought nothing of it and put it down to him being tired and not properly awake yet from our afternoon nap.

So… We’re standing on the cliff, him behind me with his arms wrapped around me, and he’s saying how we should do this again and how he wants to make it official. And I’m standing there thinking “what are you on about?” but saying how beautiful it is and how we should do this again soon.

The next moment he’s on bended knee asking me to marry him! I burst into tears! I smothered him with hugs and kisses!

And then he asks, “Is that a yes?”

And I’m like, “You’re damn right it’s a yes!”

And suddenly it all made sense. We weren’t here just to surprise my friend, we were here because he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me! And considering the amount of plans I’d made for that weekend that he had to cancel, he must really love me!

Continues in part 10…

How I Met Your Father

Continued from part 7…

A recap…
His Sexiness and I had met and fallen in love. We shared our first Valentine’s Day, our first holiday, our first Christmas and our first New Year.

In the January of 2009, after officially living together for about a month, we added a doglet to our little family. Now this wasn’t a decision that was made after long discussions and pros vs cons. It was a decision that was made while staring into the gorgeous eyes of a Pug puppy at the pet store and just knowing that we had to have her.

This little doglet was promptly named Layla (aka #LaylaThePug) and came home with us immediately. We bought the necessary puppy food along with a very cute pink bed (she’s a girl so it just had to be pink) and some toys. She was too cute! And so small! And made the most adorable little snuffling noises when breathing and running. Above all she was an absolute dream to house train!

About a month or so after we got Layla, we decided she needed a friend to play with when we were away during the day.

So we made our way to the same pet store and stared into the gorgeous eyes of a Basset Hound puppy knowing she was the one!

This little doglet was named Chelsea (aka #ChelseaTheBassetHound) and again came home with us immediately. We stocked up on more food, more toys and a new bed. (*The money spent on the new bed was a bit pointless as the doglets used to snuggle up together in one bed.) Chelsea was adorable! Her ears were so soft! And so long that she’d trip over them or they’d get messed with food.

We enrolled our doglets on a simple puppy training course so we could get them to sit, stay, walk nicely on a leash, etc. We went every Saturday morning for six weeks. They learnt a lot! And so did we! We got to know the true personalities of our doglets…

Layla is a mommy’s doglet. She follows me around wherever I go and will often come find me if she’s fallen asleep and I’ve moved places. She loves her treats (just like me), gobbles her food down and will growl at Chelsea if she comes near her bowl. She’s also very assertive. When she wants to come inside, she wants to come inside now, and she will scratch and whine at the door until she’s let inside. She also believes she’s the main guard dog of the house – each afternoon when we get home from work she’ll run ahead searching the sky and barking here and there. She wants us to know that she’s checking everything out and making sure it’s safe.

Chelsea is all about independence, food, sleep and sunshine. If there’s no food involved, you’ll find her sleeping in a sunny spot. She’ll often go off by herself to find these spots of “awesomeness” and you won’t see her for ages. If there is food involved, she’ll do anything you like…well almost! She does have her “mad dog” moments where she’ll go running up and down the garden or taunt Layla with a rope or other toy.

They have had their naughty moments…

Like the time someone (aka Gary) left the bathroom door slightly ajar over night. They pushed the door open and had a ball tearing up a new bag of toilet paper and chewing through my facial cream containers. I awoke to no dogs in their bed and promptly asked Gary when he had let them out. Only he hadn’t… On closer inspection I heard squeaks coming from behind the just-closed bathroom door and as the door was opened, they bolted to the front door to be let out while being in two minds about how sad they were to have been caught, but how excited they were that they’d had fun.

And what about the time our domestic put the bags of rubbish in the outside bin. They sniffed out the contents, turned over the dustbin and had a blast distributing the rubbish all over the garden. And all of this in the space of 30 minutes! You see we had let them out when we woke up to do their business while we got ready for work. We knew there was trouble when they weren’t waiting at the door for their breakfast…

And what about the time where their bed was drying outside and they decided it would be fun to chew it up (they’ve actually done this three times!).

*Sharing the bed: then & now

Continues in part 9 soon…

How I Met Your Father

Continued from part 6…

A recap…
His Sexiness and I began dating in the summer of 2008 and ensured we saw each other whenever possible. We had our first date. We had our second first date in the hope of making a better memory. And we celebrated our first Valentine’s Day.

By the autumn of 2008, His Sexiness and I had already discussed, in detail, about moving in together. We even went so far as wanting to sit down with both parents (separately of course) and chat to them about our thoughts and plans.

His Sexiness brought it up casually with his parents, without me around. His mom was thoroughly pleased with the idea, while his dad was somewhat undecided (though this changed within about 10 minutes, or so I’m told).

My parents were different!

Over dinner one night, we explained our plans of moving in together and were met with looks of disdain and many questions. We were asked why we wanted to move in together so soon? And we explained how we weren’t planning on doing it immediately but rather wanted to test the waters and move in when we could. We were asked why we didn’t just get engaged first? And we then had to explain that ultimately marriage was on the cards but that living together would be a great “test” to determine whether we are well suited etc. We also reminded them of the fact that both sets of our parents had been divorced and have remarried and so we were looking at doing things a little differently to the way they had done it. This comment really struck a chord with them.

More discussions ensued between June and September.

Finally we received the approval from my parents and we started planning. It was decided that I would move in with His Sexiness on Saturday 13 December 2008 – the day after I finished work for the year.

So…for the two weeks leading up to the big move, I packed a little here and there after work each day. And by the time that last Friday arrived, I was almost done.

Saturday morning arrived and I began transforming Bullet (my car) into my mini truck by folding down both of the back seats. I had already loaded my car up to it’s capacity by the time His Sexiness arrived at 9am. We then packed his car to capacity as well. My sister and BIL arrived soon thereafter and since we now had two strong men, the heavy lifting began. My bedroom unit and mattress and bed were hoisted and manoeuvred onto the hired bakkie and tied in place. All in all it took two trips to get all my stuff moved across. And because we’d started early in the day, everything was moved in by lunchtime (excluding the many many boxes which were just piled atop one another).

We then took the rest of the afternoon to get everything in place – the bedroom was first on the list, with the rest of the cottage taking second place. By that Wednesday, most of my stuff had been sorted and put away. There were still a lot of boxes to sort through and junk to throw out but I was moved in! I now lived with my boyfriend! I was beyond excited!

Continues in part 8 soon…

*Picture credit

How I Met Your Father

Continued from part 5…

A recap…
At the beginning of 2008, His Sexiness and I started dating. We had an unromantic first date but he thoroughly spoiled me on our first Valentine’s Day. We spent every possible moment together and when we weren’t together, we’d sms each other or he’d call to chat.

My 24th birthday arrived after we’d been dating for nine months. I don’t remember telling him that I LOVE and ADORE my birthday but I do remember the extent to which he made my special day even more special.

My birthday happened to fall on a Wednesday so I was at work when I received an email at 10h00 with the subject of “Listen” from His Sexiness.

Below the pic of us was a link to a website. It was clue #1 as to what my present was. A cryptic riddle was sent via sms later that day which formed clue #2. For the life of me I cannot remember what clue #3 was. What I eventually figured out was it had something to do with music (clue #1) and that it had something to do with the colour pink (clue #2). Now this got my imagination soaring! Could it be a pink teddy bear that played music? No, don’t think he’d pick something like that. Could it be pink cupcakes with music notes in the icing? Nope, didn’t think so either. I eagerly anticipated the end of the work day as I knew I’d be seeing His Sexiness and knew I’d finally be able to understand his gift.

But unfortunately that evening I was told that my gift hadn’t arrived yet. I was left in limbo – anticipating, waiting, wanting time to hurry up…

The next day (Thursday) I was at a venue supervising the setup of a huge fun day event that was taking place on the Friday. I was quite bored waiting for the stretch marquee/tent to be erected and for the various games to be installed. The next moment I get a call from His Sexiness. I complained about not having had lunch yet and being stuck at a setup. And he immediately offered to pop past with a quick bite to eat. So there I sat, waiting for his arrival with with my stomach grumbling and growling.

He arrived with the tell-tale paper bag of his favourite fastfood store and I immediately tucked in. After our lunch was done he told me that my gift had arrived and would I like it now. Of course I said yes because I just had to put my imagination at ease. Off he went to collect the small package from his car. He arrived back at our temporary lunch area and tells me that he hadn’t had time to wrap it properly because he’d just got his hands on it. And I think, “Great! Less time on unwrapping and more time on finally knowing what it is!” He hands it over, and I finally see that it’s a pink iPod (one of the new editions). I am in love! I protest a lot about how he shouldn’t spoil me so much but at the same time loving the fact that he wants to spoil me! The best part of all… He whipped out his Macbook, connected my new iPod and installed all his music on it so I could use my new gift right then and there while at the boring setup!

Continues in part 7 soon…

*Picture credit