Tim got home from San Francisco today and we finally got our “new” barbecue out. It was a fairly late engagement party combined with a very late house-warming party, which is what we bought the barbecue for at the end of last year.

With only 5 months to go, lots is going on now. On the other side of the world, my mum has booked the flights and accommodation for my family to stay in Sydney, and has bought her fascinator. Helen is continuing her attempt to find a bridesmaid dress and is looking into day-spas in Sydney for my “hen day”. Tim’s niece has agreed to be our flower girl and Christine and I have been looking at potential dresses for her. I’ve been looking into gift registries and although Myer don’t offer any sort of online service whatsoever, they might still be our best option. Next week, we’re going to Epping to look for flowers.

See also the post about our first engagement party, in England

I found my perfect wedding dress today! Obviously I can’t show you a photo yet since Tim can’t see it before the day, but I can say that it’s a very beautiful ivory-coloured dress. I went dress shopping in Sydney with Christine, my future mother-in-law, and lost count of how many dresses I tried on. I ended up buying the one I’d tried on first!

It’s 5 months today until the wedding! I got back from a conference in Korea on Thursday and now Tim is in San Francisco for a staff meeting, so finding time to plan this is starting to look tricky. A lot of what we need comes as part of a package with the venue, and I don’t really want to hand everything else off to a wedding planner, but I also don’t have time right now to do all sorts of small tasks that need doing. Reading a blog over the weekend, I found what might be a good solution. I’ve opened an account at AskSunday and for less than $1 a day, I now have a virtual PA who can do tasks like “find addresses of bridal shops in Chatswood”, “find out if I need an appointment at Farina Bridal in Sydney and make me one for 1pm on Tuesday if I do”. They also handle flight bookings - which is a task I hate - as well as online shopping, reminders, directions, research, and pretty much anything you can do with access to a phone and the internet.