Luck of the Bride

Well, my first post and it is about the bridal party dresses. Fear not boys...it will be of interest to you too!

I must start by saying that I am such a low maintenance bride. Honestly guys, for those of you who have not taken the plunge yet, I reckon I am a dream bride. Firstly, I have let Josh organise (I should say disorganise) the whole show and not really complained or nagged until the event Josh refers to as Bridezilla right before Christmas (only because reality set in and I had panic attack). Secondly, I am not into the traditional whole extravaganza wog or otherwise wedding. Thirdly, I am well and truly fitting into budget conscious Josh's finances-this is demonstrated by today's post. Fourthly, I dislike diamonds and traditional wedding bands (fellas- my engagement ring is a simple but very cool stainless steel band that was all of $95 but very practical for me). And I guess lastly but most importantly for your average Aussie male, is I am not expecting romance or sapiness on Josh's part, nor do I have unrealistic expectations that a ceremony (although it has meaning to us) is going to alter our existing relationship in some earth shattering way.

Onto the luck of the bride...
My good and irreplaceable friends Carolyn (self appointed Mistress of Honour) and Chrissie (one of the bridesmaids) took me up to the fabric shop last week and chose a pattern for mine and the bridesmaids dresses. The dress design is the same for all dresses- a halterneck dress that drops to our feet. Very tropical and unconventional.

Next we had to chose the fabric. Amazingly all three of us agreed on the same fabric. Mine is a different colour (bronze, gold, green) to the bridesmaids (bronze, gold, raspberry). The fabric is called Bling Crushed Chiffon (anything with bling in the name must be good).


There was a hitch- the shop did not have enough to make the 3 dresses I calculated (3 bridesmaids including the mistress of honour). So they had search other shops down south and order it in. They found a role of 15m (what we needed) and also informed me I was lucky because the fabric had been discontinued.

All seemed as though it has worked out... Until I remembered on New Year's Eve that I forgot to ask my oldest and one of my girlfriends in Darwin to be a bridesmaid (she will read this and know who it is and probably would expect nothing less of me). Believe me when I say I completely forgot and it was not intentional (she will believe this knowing me for so long). So I needed another 5 metres of the same fabric!!

I rang the shop yesterday afternoon and let them know and they spent this morning hunting around other shops for the fabric. The news was not good at 12pm today and I was about to go to the shop with Chrissie and pick up a lighter pink version of the fabric for Carolyn.

But luck of the bride...just as we were about to leave they rang up saying they found another 5 metres!

So, Carolyn is coordinating making the dresses (gotta love the girl). If you are reading this Carolyn you will realise there is an extra dress to make, but don't stress, she is pretty small.

The budget for our dresses to date is:

Bridal Party Dress Budget
Cost of pattern = $15
25 metres Bling Crushed Chiffon @ $19.95/m = $500
Total to date = $515

Sorry unwedded girls if your fella is reading this:)

The Villa

When we arrive in Phuket on the evening of the 5th Feb we will be picked up from the airport and taken to our accomodation(we have organised a mini bus, costing about $45 for 9 of us - the lonely planet indicates that taxi's will cost $15-20 or less if it is metered). We are staying at The Coolwater Villa. The Villa sleeps 9 people and is situated on or near Kamala Beach (which is about 10km or 15mins from the main tourist area of Patong Beach). We have booked this Villa for a 5 night stay, but nfortunately all the spaces have been taken by those that got tickets eartly (Me, Renee, Chrissie, Carolyn, Craig, Ek, Kim, Jankle and Steve).
We may be able to squeeze a few more into the place (depending on how strict the company renting it our is and how hard the floor is), but we probably wont be able to suss this out until we get there. If there are enough other people going, there are also other Villas in the Coolwater complex or there are plenty of other options for hotels in Kamala Beach or in nearby Patong.

Here is a pretty crappy map showing the location of our Villa. Unfortunately google maps doesn't have high rez imagery for this part of the island, but its worth a look if you want to get to know Phuket. This map is slightly better showing the whole island and you can click and zoom in on different section. It also has links to other hotels in the area, so might be a good starting point if your looking for somewhere to stay. This site also has a list of hotels in Kamala Beach.

I'll keep adding information on accomodation, transport and other logistics to the blog over the next few weeks. If you have any questions send them through to me or Renee and we'll try to get some info together and blog it.