Public vs Private proposals

This week, the internet has been alight with the story of the New Orleans rose being proposed to on the Rose of Tralee. The general feeling was absolute mortification for Molly Molloy Gambel, who has made history after being the first rose to be proposed to live on the show.

For anyone who hasn't seen the clip, don't say I'm not good to you!


So after saying "No!" a couple of times, and even a "please don't" for good measure, she eventually went onto say yes and they are now happily engaged.

What I noticed was the backlash that public proposals got in the land of social media. There were tweets such as "I'd kill him!" and "I'm mortified for her!" But let's face it. While it wasn't the most traditional proposal, it was certainly memorable!

Even if public proposals aren't for you, it takes guts to go out in front of a crowd and put yourself on the line whilst asking someone to spend their life with you. So I think anyone who does that should be commended.

We've all seen videos on Youtube of proposals going wrong with cringey aftermaths. Proposals are becoming more and more creative, detailed and shared. What could be a private moment between a couple can now be shared with friends and family worldwide with just a few clicks.

The way I see it, the way in which someone asks you to be their husband, wife, significant other or Zombie killing partner, shouldn't be the most important thing. The fact that they have asked you to be with them and to stand up in front of your nearest and dearest to say "This is us. We love each other and want to share our happiness with you" is far more important.

Whether your proposal was private between the two of you, in front of friends at a party or at a stadium filled with thousands of people. The most important thing should be that you've found someone that you want to spend your life with, through the bad times, good times and great times! That feel good factor trumps a red faced moment any day!

Excited face!

Make and do inspiration

I have the greatest of respect for brides and grooms who inject creativity into their wedding day with DIY projects. So you can only imagine my excitement when I came across this project on Offbeat Bride 

Shaving Cream lanterns. I couldn't believe my eyes! I'm not the most competent DIY and craft enthusiast, but I could definitely give it a bash! All you need is shaving foam and food colouring. Swirl it up and then dip whatever you want to tie dye into it. Easy peasy.. I think!

For the full list of pics from this particular bride's project, click here.

Here's a tutorial I found online. It's about using shaving foam to decorate Easter Eggs, but it can be used on all sorts of textiles and surfaces.

Will I be able to use it for something to do with the wedding? Watch this space!

Honeymoon happiness

It's official. We are almost into the final stretch!

Invites are being designed, dresses have been ordered, menu tastings are planned and decor ideas are being signed off.

When we started planning our wedding day, the one thing I didn't expect was how encompassing wedding planning can become. It quickly becomes a common ground topic to discuss with most people, so you find yourself talking about it, looking up ideas, even dreaming about it! (I've even had a few wedding nightmares, madness!)

It's easy to get caught up in all the excitement.

Yet in all this excitement, I sort of forgot that we get to go away on Honeymoon.

We had a look at different Honeymoon packages including desert island getaways to luxurious cruises and everything in between! So many beautiful locations with lots of different budgets.

For us, what we really wanted was to cut loose. We already acted like big kids, why not bring that joviality on our Honeymoon?

With that in mind, we quickly decided on a Honeymoon in Disneyland. We love the Disney films, love the songs and are basically big kids with bank accounts. Mr Ree quickly discovered that for the full month of October, Adventureland will be decorated for Halloween. As this is his favourite holiday, this got a huge thumbs up from us! The park isn't far from Paris either so if we wanted to indulge in delicious French cuisine or have a goo around the city of lurrve, then we were close to the heart of things.

Spooky Disney?! Oh HELL YES!

The flights have been booked, the hotel has been paid for and passports have been checked. All we have to do is wait just a few more weeks and we'll be leaving on a jetplane! (OK, not a spaceship, but the tune is damn catchy!)

I personally cannot WAIT to release my inner child and enjoy the whole Disney experience with my new husband. Rocking the Mickey Mouse ears of course..

When else will we be able to rock these bad boys? WANT!

Trash the Dress Inspiration

I've often wondered what I'm going to do with my wedding dress after the 'Big Day'. Do I keep it in a box so my kids can look at it and probably prance around in it at some point? Craft it lovingly into a Christening gown to become a family heirloom? (Not too sure we'd get much use out of it, as we're not planning to baptise any of our children)

Recently I've become really interested in 'Trash the Dress' shoots as you'll be giving your dress a whole new lease of life and getting some fun pictures out of it with your partner.

You can only imagine my excitement when I came across these pics from WeddingsOnline (Full link here)

Can you guess what's going to happen next?

Deep breath!

Paint + Wedding attire = Colourful, fun chaos it seems. Personally I think it would be a lot more fun to get crafty with my wedding dress rather than stashing it in a box. Chances are we'll have a naming ceremony for any future Mini Rees, what kid wouldn't enjoy rocking a multicoloured robe for the day? Think it's a no brainer really!

Colour, Confetti and Craic

Paperwork, Invitations and Attire, oh my!

We have officially been flat out here chez Ree. The WEDDING DAY is looming, well not looming exactly but it's fast approaching!

Friends of ours had advised us to get all the small jobs done as even they will stress you out closer to D-Day. This has now left me in the position of comparing swatches, trying to decide between wooden or paper boxes and Google has been completely exhausted with wedding related searches. (Sorry Google!)

If Google was a cat

Last week we registered our intent to marry, so the State is aware that we're intending on having our nuptials in Ireland. (With Alpacas! But more about that later)

I was convinced that I would forget something when we went to meet the registrar. Even though they had kindly sent us out a letter with a checklist, I still got my long suffering parents to rifle through the family files until the right birth cert was found. (Who knew there was more than one type of birth certificate? I didn't!)

After we had all the correct paperwork, off we went to the Registrar's office (and somehow managing not the 'stray' into the Science Gallery!) We then went upstairs to wait with some other couples. While we were waiting to go in, a couple were called forward and a third man joined them. It set my mind racing! When did plural marriage become legal in Ireland? How did I miss this? How modern and risqué! Mr. Ree was quick to burst my bubble and point out it was probably a translator. Even still, people watching and creating wild back stories for people will continue to be a hobby.

The Registrar we met with was lovely and very helpful. She went through our paperwork and wanted to check that we were in no way related. We assured her that we were definitely not swimming in each other's gene pools. She took photocopies of our passports (which contains the most horrific picture of me. Seriously!) All in all, the whole process took about 10-15 minutes and was relatively painless. For a list of all the bare necessities, click here.

It's all real now!

A very good friend of ours has also agreed to make the invitations for us. We went to a Wedding Fair earlier in the year and hadn't been blown away with the selection. I have never had any particular affinity with doves, flowers or birdcages* before, so I didn't see the point in including them in our wedding day. Cue an email of video game imagery, cartoons and toys being sent to our pal, and to his credit he didn't flinch. Probably because he knows what nerdy things we're into. With some wedding suppliers we have dealt with, they're not sure how to deal with more 'specialised' requests and tried to steer us down the more traditional routes. Needless to say, we didn't go down those garden paths.

* As an aside, I always thought the symbolism behind a birdcage and linking it with a wedding was bizarre. Wedding doesn't equal entrapment surely? Or perhaps I'm overthinking this..

The last thing we need to work out is what everyone is wearing on the day. I have to hold my hands up and admit it's the one can I've been kicking down the road. I'm at the point where I don't mind what the bridesmaids wear, as long as they're comfortable. Ditto the lads, but the only rule I have is: No gold, and no pink! Although I've been asked by guests if there are colours they're not allowed to wear. I find it shocking that some brides tell their guests what the can and can't wear. The mind boggles! Needless to say, I quickly quashed the questions (Mm.. Q alliterations!) regarding colour schemes. I think the only way I could be upset is if someone wore a big flouncy wedding dress, tiara and arrived in a carriage. I have my gúna almost a year now and I'm pretty sure no one will be wearing the same outfit. If there is, I'm not getting changed!

For more up to date wedding related giddiness, check me out on Twitter @LisaOree

I can totally understand why there are wedding planners in the world...

With less than five months to go til the wedding day, the reality is beginning to hit.

We've been booked into our hotel for a menu tasting, have to finalise wedding invitations and been 'confirming' things. It really doesn't seem like that long ago since I brought home a shitload* of wedding magazines and we started making lists of venues we liked. I'm glad that we organised some key aspects of our wedding shortly after engaged as I feel like I'm running out of steam!

Don't get me wrong, I'm enjoying the wedding planning. But it's trying to allocate time to do it. When I'm in 'getting shit done' mode, I'm on fire! But then there are the duvet days, when I just want to stay in my onesie all day and just veg out on the couch. These are the days that I sometimes wish I had a wedding planner.

In my mind's eye, the wedding planner is like the grown up's version of a Fairy Godmother. She is knowledgeable, sage and completely calm. She wouldn't be getting frustrated if she couldn't find the right type of flowers and stuff (It's not happened to me yet either, but watch this space!)

Nobody gonna mess with the Fairy Godmother!

It's funny, but when I first started picking out things that I liked and putting it into a wedding folder, I could see why people enter into the career as a wedding planner. It's an exciting time, creativity is rife and there are all kinds of possibilities laid out on the table.

When you have those initial decisions made and deposits are put down there's always a little niggling feeling of doubt. No matter how much you feel like this is the right decision for you both. Is the colour scheme going to work out? (Apparently colours can be 'seasonal' - who knew?!) What food will suit everyone? Sweet Jesus what if the dress doesn't fit?!

You could easily worry yourself into a nervous wreck, but I have to catch myself and do this to myself - mentally speaking!

A wedding is one day. One. Is anyone really going to notice or care if there is no apparent colour scheme, or if steak isn't on the menu, or if I'm sporting bingo wings you could perform a flying squirrel leap with? After all, a dog marriage is for life. I don't think I'll look back and sweat the small stuff.

So even though I have my days of "I really should get cracking on ~random wedding task~" I don't know that I would happily give the reins over to someone who doesn't know all my quirks and in-jokes. Until then, we'll just keep on trucking, we're very nearly there!


*metric

Getting shit done!

This poor blog has been gathering dust, but I have an excuse!

The wheels have been set in motion and we've moved into the next gear. In the last few weeks we've booked a solemniser, organised the bridesmaids to go dress shopping, sorted out what we wanted to do for our Honeymoon and cemented down other plans.

Tonight we've got one of the big things off our to-do list.

We have chosen our wedding rings.

SPOILER - Not these exact rings, but you get the idea.

Oh yes. The rings that we'll wear for our married life together have officially been chosen and ordered. We tried on so many.

Seriously.

There was literally a suitcase FULL of rings for us to try on. We asked 101 questions and the excitement has officially hit!

Lego bling FTW!

We've learned a lot from the experience. So here are our top tips:

1. Shop around - Can't emphasize this enough. We had looked at a variety of different designs, metals, settings etc., Choose to suit yourself and don't be afraid to take your time to think it through.

2. Ask questions -  That's what the experts are there for. If you want to know the pros and cons of a tension setting or what metals keep their shine longest, then there's only one way to find out. Just ask.

3. Try everything on -  This is the MOST IMPORTANT of all the tips. We had very set ideas about what kind of wedding rings we wanted. We found similar rings and tried them on. They were lovely. Really lovely. But there was something not quite right. We both chose rings that didn't exactly fit our 'brief' but which we ultimately love! Be flexible and keep an open mind, you might just surprise yourself.

4. Be clear with each other - If you love your wedding ring, make it clear to your partner that you're done looking. The look on your face should say it all!

5. Don't be afraid to haggle - the worst they can say is no!

6. Once you have chosen your wedding rings, don't look elsewhere - Seriously. You'll just torment yourself. Have faith in the decision that you have made and stand by it. There was a reason you had that "WOW!" moment.

Tempting...

It's one of the big things off our list, relief is in the air! Next we have to decide about engraving, but that's for another post!