Anniversary

Happy 1st wedding anniversary Mr and Mrs $1 Pies!

Married! And on to new projects...

Here I am. Married!

Props to Kristy R for this photo - it is one of my favs

The past month has gone by way way too quickly. We are still in the process of sorting photos, write thank-you cards, catching up with people, and generally sorting out our house and lives. We are getting there slowly but surely. Post-wedding things that have happened in the past month:

• A fantastic Eastland Honeymoon
• Nana's 80th Birthday
• School camp with my youngest brother in the Urewera National Park
• A mean cold and a stomach bug
• Job quitting, followed by hunting

Now I am trying to mentally prepare myself for Christmas (not really my thing) and putting a good amount of effort into finding a 'proper' job. More about this another day.

Sneak Peeks

In 9 days we will be married. Here's what I did today.

Made pompoms for the hall in these colours,

ate my lunch in the sun,

and practised making vegan cupcakes (it was about taste not presentation at this stage):

Photos aren't great, but today I don't care.

Now I am off to some Architecture week events involving more cupcakes, and creations by 400 Architecture students.

Wedding High Fives

Mr Jones and I have been discussing the possibility of a wedding high five. We love to high five when we are happy or something goes well, so getting married could be the ultimate high five occasion. So since I am having a low activity week, I did some 'Internet research' and came up with these beauties:

The two handed high five. Source: Planet Neil - Tangents

The secret high five. Source: Seth Kaye Photography

The extra high, high five No. 1. Source: Offbeat Bride

The open handed extra high, high five No. 2. Source: Flickr

The impromptu high five. Source: Wedding Bee

The über coordinated high five (she's not looking and she can still do a high five!?! Now that's flash!). Source: http://www.physics.mcgill.ca/~tamc/play.html

It could be a great moment, if we can get it right! Back to practicing...

I'm back, having just spent a wonderful weekend in Whakatane. Had a really busy time catching up with family and meeting with various wedding vendors.

Spent some time with our marriage celebrant. We got a bit teary-eyed when she gave examples of what she might say during the ceremony. I have a feeling both Mr Jones and I will be blubbing big time on the day!

We also met with some of the vendors we are hoping to use on the day including; Tui Party Hire, Pink Rock Caterers and Flower Devas'. Thanks to you all for your help and ideas. And thanks also to Whakatane.info, which is proving incredibly useful in the wedding planning process.

Other things we enjoyed in Whakatane were:

The coffee, choc chip cookies and magazines at The Bean

The new mural on the side of the Whakatane Police Station featuring Auntie Mabel

A rainy day dip at the Awakeri Hot Springs

Ohiwa Harbour, which is strictly speaking not Whakatane, but the landscape is stunning. We will be planning a holiday there soon for sure!

And Matariki celebrations at Mum's house.

What a great town!

Shout out to $1 Pies for the mention in Eye on Kope. Thanks for keeping me in the know about the important things going on in Whakatane.

Source: Whakatane.info

Source: Ohiwa Harbour Jos's Photography

Poladroid

About a month ago I saw this post on one of my favourite wedding blogs - A Practical Wedding. This blog is great because it has loads of eye candy, some of the prettiest weddings I've seen, and sensible advice. The entry today really struck because it kinda fits in with things going on in my life right now. But that's a side note.

Anyway, my point is (I'm getting there...) we have not budgeted for a wedding photographer for our wedding, mostly because we can't afford and also because we are a bit camera shy. So I found the post on Practical wedding about alternatives to having a wedding photographer incredibly useful. In the article they talked about using Poladroid, down-loadable software that turns ordinary photos into Polaroid look-a-likes! I downloaded it and have had a wee play around and I love it! Photos of people turn out really well, as you can see here, but today I will share my top three nature shots.

My Mum took this photo when we were camping in Paihia. Thanks Mum :)

Mr Jones took this photo of the Puhoi Library

This photo was taken at the old Warkworth Cement Works

You can look at other peoples Poladroids on Flickr, but just a warning, it contains a variety of content.

And finally a Poladroid birthday shot for someone who is having a birthday today.

Happy Birthday!