Ten days until the big day

The countdown started long before the wedding day itself. Our engagement was pretty long and the numbers decreased slowly initially. Now things changed and the days are going by really fast.

Most preparations have been done and it's actually been quite relaxed these past few weeks on the wedding front. I know though that once we land in Malta in 3 days we will have the final rushing around the island to get every last thing done.

In only 10 days I will be walking down the aisle!

 

Control freak

I'm quite a control freak and my life at the moment has many things in it that make this part of me very happy. I have an endless list of checklists for the wedding preparations, the honeymoon and the move to Australia that I can work my way through!

Unluckily there are many things that are out of my hands and that I cannot control. So really although I'm really loving this period I am quite looking forward to the next month to pass by quickly to enjoy the wedding day I have been preparing for for so long! And what I'm also really looking forward to is the honeymoon that comes right after! This is long enough for us to relax again before coming back to a short few weeks of routine in which we will make the final arrangements before our move.

For now however in the evenings I'm either working on the final preparations for the wedding, reading the Peru lonely planet or looking for jobs in Australia while watching football matches or a number of my beloved series' episodes.

I have learnt throughout the years that sometimes it's best to relax and have faith that things will work out. Letting go and let life happen. I'm trying to relax as much as possible and not stress myself out. Sometimes I manage, on other times a bit less. Usually in those cases my super relaxed fiancée tends to know to remind my to breath in and relax!

[Image Source:Alamour]

Our website

This is what kept me busy in the past weeks and away from this space.

I spent the past evenings setting up a wedding website and I am very proud of the result. Initially I just wanted to give more details about Malta for my friends and my fiancee's foreign family. I kept adding more and more information and now it is quite extensive. I'm now actually looking forward to having some free evenings although not sure that it will last long!

The bride to be

In exactly one year it will be my wedding date. It's still a long way to go but from now on it's just a few months left which  will now start rolling by quickly.

We are one of the few couples I know (and I'm talking about the Netherlands now and not Malta) who have a very long engagement. We've been engaged for more than half a year and there is still a year to go. This means though that we can take the wedding preparations easily and we save a little bit more cash. People at work expected me to be marrying this summer when I mentioned that I was going to get married next summer. Many colleagues have come up to me and asked me about my wedding expecting it to be in a few weeks time!

There's been quite some progress and while in Malta next week we're meeting a lot of the vendors. It's really exciting but unluckily this will eat some of our beach time.

The dress cliche

Around a month ago both my mum and my sister were visiting us. We used this opportunity to spend some girl on girl time checking out wedding dresses for me! This is something that most girls dream about when young, I most probably did as well when I was a kid. And even though I'm not the most romantic and girly of all women I loved trying out all the dresses.

In the first shop I had no idea what I actually wanted and I did end up putting on some dresses which were not really my stlye. By the end of the session I started to notice what I like and what actually fit my body shape. Being just 5 foot 1 means many styles made for the tall Dutch women don't fit nicely on me.

A few days later we went to a bigger shop. I was not expecting to buy a dress on the day. However after putting on another few dresses I put on a dress which was just perfect. It sounds like a cliche but one dress did stand out from the others and after a lot quickly thinking about it I said yes to the dress!

I had a smile plastered on my face for a few days know that my wedding dress, quite an important item for the day is done and dusted. Now every once in a while I find myself browsing around the photos I have on my phone just to check that I still like the dress!

[Image Source: Maga-Scene @ Pinterest]

Hiking and diamonds

Last weekend was a long weekend so we packed  our hiking and camping gear and drove to  Luxembourg. The weather wasn't exactly what I hoped for and it was quite cold on the first night. I was wishing for sunrise so that I could finally manage to snooze off.

On our first day we had our first hike on the Ardennes hills in the area. The place was lovely and after my  complaints due to the first steep hill I started to enjoy myself. There was nearly nobody around but we did meet the occasional cow who seemed to want a taste of the apple I was eating!

The next night we made sure we were warm enough and this time I wasn't looking forward to sunrise since I was really stiff from the day before and knew that once awake I would be hiking for at least another 4 hours. Unluckily the weather for the second hike was not optimal and it kept raining for most of the day. So by the end I was looking forward to reach our car and feel dry again. 

I also was looking forward for the second part of the trip in Antwerp in which we were going to check out wedding rings at the diamond street in Antwerp. I was very excited to check all the shops lined up one after each other full of rings knowing that on of them will be mine! I had heard that Antwerp is a very good place for jewelry but it's a quite different when you experience it. We didn't buy our rings yet but we did find out what we were looking for.

Setting a date

So the wedding preparations have started. On our last trip to Malta we continued checking out venues. It was exciting trying to imagine the wedding day at the different locations. Choosing a venue is quite a big thing, it feels much more real when you reserve your wedding date!

We now have a date which is exactly 40 years + 1 day after my parents wedding day. As a person who loves numbers this coincidence was something I really enjoyed.

The date is still very far away, especially to Dutch standards. So we don't really need to rush the planning. The planning pace is enjoyable at the moment.

My parents on their wedding day