Tim and I decided yesterday that we won’t be having a traditional “top table”.

We were at a dinner dance last night where we were on the top table and found it was the most anti-social seating plan. A long table with no one opposite you makes it impossible to speak to anyone besides the two people you sit between. Although my family were on the same table, I couldn’t speak to them!

So, we’ll be having the bridal party at an oval table instead.

The new photo on the right of this blog was taken at the dinner yesterday.

We had the first of two engagement parties yesterday. It was a quiet event in the afternoon, with my parents, my sister and her family, my uncle, 2 neighbours, and 2 friends with their young children. We’re having the second when we get home to Sydney since we still need a reason to put up the barbecue we bought for our house warming party that we never got round to holding!

Today’s dress shopping was more successful than my first attempt. I went to Pronuptia in Ipswich with my mum and sister and the 2 assistants in the shop were very helpful in getting me into 4 different dresses. They have a wonderful area to view the dresses in, with a full wall of mirrors and a platform to stand on. I didn’t find anything perfect, which is probably a good thing since I wouldn’t want to ship it to Sydney. We also had a quick look for ideas for Bridesmaid dresses. Tim and I are not totally decided on a colour theme, but I think gold and ivory could be good.

Tim and I are currently in England for a conference, which gave me the perfect opportunity to go dress shopping with my sister, Helen, who will be my chief bridesmaid. Since we haven’t yet decided on the colour scheme, it’s too soon to be choosing dresses, but I had hoped we could at least get some ideas about the styles we like to make it a little easier when we later need to co-ordinate buying our dresses on separate continents. It didn’t go well. I tried on just one dress in a hopeless shop where the staff didn’t even offer to help. Try getting what feels like a 6kg dress on by yourself! It was very like crawling into an unerected tent and then trying to stand up. All I have decided so far is that I do not like taffeta or sequins.

Tim and I researched potential venues online and considered everything from vineyards to beaches. We narrowed down our options to a shortlist of 3 and visited The Retreat at Wisemans, Curzon Hall, and Araluen. We chose Araluen, which Tim says “was in a different league to the others”.

Araluen is a beautiful house built in 1894. It’s in Epping, just 17km away from our house. On the same site is a purpose-built wedding chapel, so we can have the ceremony and reception in the same location. They will take care of the ceremony, flowers, food, drink, music, cake, and car!

The question we have been asked a dozen times over the past week is what date we’ve set for the wedding. It’s impossible to begin planning without knowing this. I think we’re now settled on Sunday November 23rd 2008.

Lots of reasons why:

1. That week will be the start of my fourth year in Australia with Tim.
2. It will be exactly 9 months since we got engaged.
3. The weather in Sydney is perfect in November. Not too cold to be outside, but not too hot for my relatives who aren’t used to sunshine (it’s still snowing in England, in mid-spring).
4. A Sunday gives us more venue choices. Many places don’t accept bookings for fewer than 100 guests on a Saturday. Very few of my family will be able to come to Australia for the wedding, so we’re keeping the guest list relatively small.
5. Sunday makes it easier for Tim’s relatives in Queensland, Perth, and Tasmania to fly in since they can travel on Saturday rather than taking Friday off work, yet still get home Sunday night if we hold the ceremony early in the day.
6. Flights from England are considerably cheaper in November than December.
7. October would be too cold, and too soon to organise everything.
8. December would be too near Christmas when everyone has other plans.