maybe australia isn't for us...

I'm feeling less and less like I want to get married in Australia, and more and more somewhere with scenery like this:

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Um, hello Mountains!

Or somewhere like this:

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Or, hello awesome circle of friends-and-family:

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Uh... I'm picking my jaw up off the floor now. Can you see this scenery? Realistically, these places are all a little 'dry', hence the pictures higher of the couple near the lake with the tall, tall evergreen trees, deep and green and damp and beautiful.

Cos here's the thing. I want people to come to our wedding. I want my family and friends, and Nic's family and friends to come. So, realistically, this means we can't really go more than 2 hours out of Melbourne. Most people are already going to be travelling as it is. But... I don't know. We love mountains, and water... How important is scenery? How important is it compared to having as many people as possible there? How far will people travel? What is a reasonable drive to expect of people? (because places we would consider wouldn't have airports nearby)...

And oh-em-gee this whole wedding is in the most spectacular place. Oh, BC, I miss you :(

And, um, YES...

I would so love a wedding shot, cliff-top, like one of the favourite ones of Nic & I... but only imagine if we were wedding-dressed and being awesome. Shyeah.

Now get me up there in a wedding dress!! Ok so we had to climb a mountain to get where we were, but it wasn't that difficult...

Anyway, I love mountains.

Nic loves mountains.

I would love a mountain wedding.

(Mountain marriage!?)

Edit: Compromise!? What if we were to take a friend who is a photographer-of-sorts up to the Grampians (National Park where above photo was taken), with our wedding getup, and do like a post-wedding-photo thing... Though, then my hair won't be as pretty, I guess. But it could be done! We could hike up the mountain with packs full of wedding dress 'n stuff.
Maybe....
Maybe that's a silly idea. Idunno.

i am not a bride...

What's up with all the super melodramatic post titles??

So...
The wedding is still about 21 months out. But I'm a bit of an obsessive planner and have already figured that I'm probably not going to find my 'perfect dress' at a bridal store- especially considering the lack of any interesting, affordable designers down here (at least from what I've found/what I like). But, I thought that since this means I'll probably be designing the thing, I'd better figure out what looks good, and what I like. Which is difficult, because when it came to it, I didn't really like anything.

Nic and I went to a new bridal store today that also hires out the dresses, doing minor alterations, etc. My goal is to find/make/have made a dress under $800. It seems the average cost from a store in Australia is about $2k. So, ha, that isn't so hot. Not only that, but I'm of the simple-whimsical-flowy-chiffon-semi-vintage type thing and have just looked at so, so, so many dresses online that I feel like I've lost a sense of what I like. Plus I'm trying so hard to figure out what is going to be my 'style', but how can you possibly do that with a dress you'll wear for the big daaaaaaaayyy? I don't know- I can't see any of us wearing the dresses we buy as part of our 'style'. But anyway, at this store I probably tried on about 8 dresses. The two ladies there were very helpful and not pushy (hurrah), but ultimately probably got frustrated with me. Hell, I got frustrated with me.

But it came down to the fact that I felt awkward in them, I didn't feel like they were 'me', and that I was playing bride. So I have about a million photos of 'dresses I kinda like', so I think maybe I'll go through and make a list of common 'themes' and try and mash them together and see what I get. ;)

 Meet cynical-Em, post dress trying on many dresses and becoming disenchanted.

i have no interesting title...

Alright, a general sort of update-post, and musing about work, which I understand isn't the most exciting subject but so it goes.

So, I work for a health insurance company- one of the country's biggest. I'm at a call-center, outsourced by that company, and usually I act as a sort of soft-core debt collector. Since people don't go into debt with us, it's more a friendly reminder that their bill is outstanding, which is fine. Though, the reactions of people when I call can be somewhat hilarious if they think I AM a debt collector, and I have to gently let them know that I'm not. And they appologise and try to convince me that they're usually good at paying, and appologise some more... but that's ok. Hey, I wouldn't want a call from someone telling me I hadn't paid my bill...
But sometimes, I have to try and retain members who want to close their policy.
We used to be able to freeze their membership for 2 months, effectively giving them '2 months free' where they didn't have to pay. Awesome. Just lost your job? No problems. On a pension? Have some saving time. Going through a rough patch? This should help... But not any more.
So here's a scenario: Dear old Betty calls up. She's 83.


There she is. She looks peeved. I'd be peeved too. Remember how I said I needed more pictures on here?

 The main things she'll need would be dentures, heart surgery, and a hip replacement. Maybe a hearing aid, too. This makes for a very, very expensive cover. I'm talking $130 a month expensive, assuming she's had cover since 2000, which I'll assume she has, because most of them have, and have been paying a fortune for years. Now $130 isn't TOO bad... but it's pretty bad on a pension. So my job is figuring out what Betty needs... convincing her how her membership will provide her with these things, adjust her membership accordingly, and thank her very much for her time. But often, for Betty, the recently or long-term unemployed, the single-parent with 3 kids, or whatever... it's a case of eating... or paying for health insurance. And you know what, it's INSURANCE. It's a just-in-case. It's not something to sustain your family. Hell, if the single parent told me they wanted the money to take their kids to the movies and a game of mini-golf, I'd say go for it.
But I'm not supposed to.
And I can't do what they want me to do because it's not right to do that. I'm meant to put up a fight. To 'handle' their 'objections'.
"Oh, Betty, you won't be able to afford your groceries and medication this week? But at least, if you get sick in the future, you'll be able to go into the private hospital... If you have an accident? No, then you'll go through the public system. What's that? If you don't tell them you have insurance? Yes, your treatment WILL be free... no, there's no guarentee that by having insurance you won't pay anything. In fact, you're almost guarenteed to have something to pay. Yes, I know that it makes no sense that you're paying monthly for something just so you can pay again when you need to use it, but that's the system we're dealing with here."

Ugh.
And it's not so bad now, but we used to get paid based on how many of these people we could convince to stay. We still do, to a degree, but it's nothing as bad as it was.

So that's a rant. And I will take the moral highground and close Betty's membership, management be damned if they don't like the way I operate.


On a more positive, and possibly interesting note (more interesting than me rambling on about my morals? Unimaginable!), we had quite a good weekend. Saturday was too hot to do much, but Sunday was cool, a little drizzly, but good for a drive.
We hit up probably 8 or so 'potential' venues. We liked one town hall (that I thought would be scummy but had awesome windows and surrounded by a bit of bush), found one winery, and right across the road were some 'formal' gardens...
The winery, Acacia Ridge, in the Yarra Valley is run by a husband and wife team. On wednesday, they're erecting a permanent gazebo next to the 1850's miner's cottage they have on the property. It's almost like being in their backyard in a lot of ways, but in that, it feels very relaxed, casual, and cool. The outlook is spectacular. It was a cloudy day, and most of the mountains were obscured but the view was STILL awesome.
The owner told us he made money by selling wine, not through weddings. I get the feeling that enough people (including his kids) approached them about holding a wedding there that they caved, and do it 'on the side'. I like that they're not trying to gouge people their money. In fact, if we did our own catering, he'd charge $10p/p for the use of the grounds... which, with what I've heard is a 'good caterer', would mean we could be looking at $45p/p which is MUCH more reasonable than $100. It also just felt like a family thing. He was talking about how he could cater, but he'd be getting Dad, and Father-in-law to help with the steaks, or do this and that, and wanted to involve OUR families in the day... which was really nice. Plus there was a really nice open grassy space for umbrellas and blankets, and it just felt really nice. Plus, me, the picky wine drinker, LOVED their pink wine- sweet, delicious.. we bought a bottle, and a bottle of muscat...um, I forget.. but it's like strong wine. Anyway, very tasty stuff.
We also went to Alowyn gardens, which we saw by accident as we drove away from Acacia ridge. Nic managed to sweet-talk his way in for free (usually a $9 admission) by telling them about the wedding. There's a looooooong arch looking on to a fountain, with speakers in the arch... and it's a semi-formal garden with some little hedges, but also a grove of fruit trees, and lots of flowers... and it's not the ideal thing that I wanted (under a big tree!!!) but... it was still nice. $750 for the ceremony for 3 hours, so time for drinks in their courtyard area... apparently the archway thing is quite waterproof so is VERY outdoors/indoors in a cool way...
Plus, maybe, the flowers would still be out!

The archway from the little hedge thingie, Wisteria flowers out... preeeeety!

From inside the arch, in Autumn, looking to the fountain, where we would stand (I guess). Guests would sit in the archway area.

This is all very exciting! It means we have potential venues (!!!!), though I still want to look at the Mornington Peninsula, I'm not feeling so depressed now about the whole thing costing many many moneys. If we were to do it at these places I reckon we could keep it under 10k without too much trouble. Which would be really nice!

my brain is fried..

So, I had a neat idea for a post.
It wasn't too long. Or deep... it was just interesting.
And then I was going to prattle on about how maybe I needed more pictures so people would stick around, but now I've forgotten what it was.
Apart from the pictures bit, I remembered that.
But the actual 'important' bit, I can't remember.

Oh! Aside from the fact that I told 2 girlfriends from Uni last night that I was thinking of having our wedding at a school camp and we could all go canoeing, and hiking, and on ropes  courses, and their faces were of concealed ... horrified...ness... Horrific..ness? horrifiedal... I don't know. Maybe that word doesn't exist. Anyway. They were trying to look like they thought it was an ok idea, however they did warm to the idea when I told them they could sit on the banks of the river and drink wine while I canoed (preferably, according to them, in my wedding dress).

And now, since I think my blog might be too 'wordy' for people to stick around, here are some pictures of animals doing awesome things.
They are from cuteoverload.



Maybe I should sprinkle some text in here so it looks like I'm discussing the awesome merits of these animals. But, I mean, that cat is pretty cool.  I wonder if somebody photoshopped his feet and legs out. DAMN! Now I think I ruined it for myself.


 
A panda walks into a restaurant, sits down, and orders a sandwich. He eats the sandwich, pulls out a gun, and shoots the waiter dead. As the panda stands up to go, the manager shouts, “Hey! Where are you going? You just shot my waiter, and you didn’t even pay for your sandwich!”
“Hey, man, I’m a PANDA!” the panda shouts back. “Look it up!”
The manager opens his dictionary and reads:

Panda: A tree-dwelling marsupial of Asian origin, characterized by distinct black and white coloring. Eats shoots and leaves.

And I think I'm done for now. This project is going downhill, fast. I need some followers. ;)

venue shopping, cost madness...

So my mother seems to be in good spirits based on her most recent FB messages.
Nic had suggested that we go, all three of us, in a car, for an extended period of time, while we visit some wineries and venues in the Yarra Valley, and try and suss out if she's contibuting anything, and if my grandparents are, and to give her the idea that we don't want a BBQ wedding in our backyard.

In a way, I'm still reeling over the expense of the venues- and they're not even that bad! I've seen places FROM $160 p/p. Imagine if you had 150 people. That's $24000, just on food/venue. THEN you probably have to add booze, dress, invites, suits etc etc etc etc... blah blah... I just... Nic found a figure online the other day, that the average cost of a wedding in Australia is $40k.

40...
thousand
dollars.


In the US, the story is a little different with most people apparently spending between $14,000 and $25,000... not including engagement ring and honeymoon. So... that's VAGUELY better... But it's just insane here.

Eg: wedding dresses. I've seen people on US websites picking up nice-looking dresses for $250, or $450 from David's Bridal. I think you'd be lucky to find a dress here for under $800. Really lucky. It makes me want to order a whole bunch of styles from some Chinese wholesalers, put them in a shop, order them from China for people, sell them for cheap (and make a profit along with it)... Surely there are brides in Aus... in Melbourne who want dresses on a budget. Who want to TRY those dresses on before they buy them. I'm all for buying online but I think wedding dress shopping is a) fun, and b) important to know what looks good, and c) a great way to bond with girlfriends and family in the lead up to the wedding. Maybe I just haven't looked in the right places, but I can't think of any stores that are anything like DB's in the US, where you can get 'standard' dresses in different styles for like, $450. I think we need that.

But that wasn't the point of this post. I've gone off topic. So in order to get friendly with my mother again, we're going venue shopping, and maybe she'll realise the actual cost of this thing. And we can talk with her about other important stuff, such as fixing my car, and my not being on her health insurance any more, and so on and so forth. Luckily the Yarra Valley isn't too far from home so if she becomes unbearable we can just go back and she can leave.

But! I have a very long list of wineries, and barns, and reception centers (tending to be more expensive) and camps! School camps. With bunks and fire pits and canoes and ropes courses. And I think, if we found a good one, that this could be such a kickass option. All our cool friends could stay the night, we could adventure all day, party all night, have a campfire, wake up late, go canoing, or walking, or exploring, or whatever. Just a matter of finding one that will let us- and a lot of them do corperate retreats so I wouldn't imagine it would be too different- and that we like, that's pretty, and has the appropriate 'scenery'. The look & feel of the place is so important to us...
But...! Lots of exploring to be done! Through Yarra Valley, Macedon, Daylesford and the Mornington Peninsula. Good times ahead.

venues & flying blind without a budget...

Yesterday we were going to go for a hike somewhere, but I'm a bit sick, so instead compiled a list of town-halls and other 'potential' hopefully not-too-over-the-top expensive places. I must say though, community halls are fairly uninspiring from the outside. I'm sure you could jazz them up, but really they're a bit blah.
We ended up visiting a restaurant, an archery range (blah) and a farm...