Our "Lucky" Dance

While we're away, here's a short photo memory.

When we return I'm sure there'll be more. Feel free to email us some if you'd like us to use them.

Special Car

We're happy to announce that our friends Rob and Helen have kindly agreed to drive Christine to the wedding in their electric car - the Nissan Leaf. It will also be the car in which we take our first trip as a married couple.

Getting there on the day

The wedding ceremony, and afternoon tea reception, will be at Indooroopilly Uniting Church. There's a nice location map and picture on their website to help you on the day.

If you're arriving by train, it's 3 blocks from the Indooroopilly train station.

If you're arriving by bus (practically every bus that starts with 4 goes through Indooroopilly) it's even shorter. Step off the bus at Indooroopilly, look right, and across the road you should see this.

Why we do the things we do

As you follow our wedding planning journey, you may find our plans a little 'different' from what you routinely see with weddings.

One main way is in our attempt for a simple, low-waste wedding. This helps our environment, and also helps us avoid our celebration becoming a profit making exercise for the multi-billion dollar wedding industry. By avoiding unnecessary purchases, we also reduce the risk of buying items produced in a sweatshop, or other forced-labour conditions.

We try (with varying levels of success) to live these principles in our everyday lives, and believe that our wedding can reflect these values. So this is why you'll receive digital invitations, why you won't see 7 bridesmaids with identical dresses (never to be worn again) and why much of the stuff on our gift registry is mostly practical assistance rather than expensive tangible gifts.

I (Chris) have always been one to question tradition, and the idea of doing things 'because it's always been done this way'. Especially as we try to action our above values, it's been interesting to discover the basis of many long-standing wedding traditions. Whilst some may seem sweet, others are just plain weird, culturally outdated, and most are unnecessary.

It may surprise you (as it did me) that groomsmen are a remnant of the days of marriage by capture, where a man called his friends to assist in lifting or kidnapping the bride, or to protect the bride from would-be kidnappers. Talk about absurd (in today's society)!!

And did you know that the custom of bridal bouquets originates from ancient times, where women carried aromatic bunches of garlic, herbs and spices to ward off evil spirits?

And that wedding cakes were apparently thrown at the bride, not eaten??? (mmm now I feel like cake....)

[See more on wedding traditions.]

While many traditions are no longer culturally relevant, some are still fun and symbolic so you'll likely see a few of them at our wedding (still pondering the cake-throwing... what do you think???). And let's face it, 8 weeks is not a long time to completely re-invent the wheel.

We look forward to celebrating with you in our meaningful way, that respects God's creation (people and planet).

Three things will last forever--faith, hope, and love--and the greatest of these is love.

[Related post - Some things may be different]

Where to stay?

If you're coming from out of town and looking for somewhere to stay, here are some suggestions.

We love AirBnB where you can rent anything from a bed to entire homes for great prices. airbnb.com.au

Alternately, we suggest staying in Toowong, close to the wedding venue, city, & all amenities.

In Toowong there are a number of hotels within walking distance of the shopping centre and public transport (including buses and trains every few minutes to Indooroopilly Uniting Church where our wedding will be held- travel time 5-7 minutes). It's also very close (3 trains stations, 2 ferry stops) to the city/southbank area, if you have time to explore Brisbane during your stay (we hope you do).

My recommended Toowong hotel is www.toowonginn.com.au which is across the road from the shopping centre, train station, and around the corner from my house ;)

Other nearby hotel options:

www.toowongcentral.com.au

www.jephsonhotel.com.au

www.toowongvillas.com.au

Still in Toowong but a little further away from the main area is this great value hotel www.bensoncourt.com.au

We hope you enjoy planning your Brisbane long weekend holiday and please let us know if you have any accommodation/planning questions :)

Flight Information

We've heard from a number of people who will be coming from interstate to be here for our wedding. We really love that they desire to be here - and are going to all that effort.

But you know that we also really love this gorgeous planet we've been blessed with, and want to take care of it. :)

Fortunately these days you fly carbon neutral by using carbon offsets - and they're very cheap. For a Sydney to Brisbane trip it's just $0.78 per person ($1.56 return) to offset the carbon from your flight. And Qantas's carbon offset program also helps the health of people in Cambodia.

So if you're flying to Brisbane for us, please use the carbon offsets. In terms of the happiness it brings for a very low cost, it's one of the best value gifts you can give.



PS. While I've given Qantas links here, Virgin and Jetstar also offer a carbon neutral program.

It's a date

We can now announce that 6 June is our wedding date.

This means different things for different people.

For us we're a bit excited, and a bit nervy, at how close that seems.
For NSW people it's the chance of a long weekend in sunny Queensland.
For numbers nerds, it's nice that the month and the date are equal.

Disclaimer: it wasn't David who picked up the numbers thing, but an accountant friend.

When's the day?

This is one of the main questions we get asked, and rightly so. Especially people that want to be there are interested in keeping that date free.

So far there's not a final date, but we're got our eyes on the first two weekends in June.

Too Much Stuff

Something Christine and I are really noticing (as we contemplate life together) is how much stuff we already have. Even though we consider ourselves to be fairly non-materialistic and non-consumerist, there's still quite an amount to reckon with.

Stuff seems to fall into a number of categories
1. useful stuff
2. sentimental stuff
3. stuff we don't use but have kept because it 'might come in useful someday'.

Despite its name, even useful stuff can be too much. Combined, we own over 50 drinking glasses (yes Christine this blog post was the reason I was staring into the cupboard with my counting face on) and 30 mugs - and I don't even drink coffee or tea.

Sentimental stuff is tricky. Some stuff is just too meaningful to throw away. But then there's the stuff that's already lost it's emotional value. Like the greeting card I found today. Despite the first name on the card, I'm not entirely sure who it was from. Into the recycle bin.

Miscellaneous stuff is probably our hardest thing. As fans of recycling, we (especially I) have developed somewhat of a landfill-aversion. Today's example is a toolbox of spanners I was left by a friend heading overseas. Haven't used them once.

Fortunately there are some great solutions - especially for items from categories 1 and 3.

A. Streetbank.com - Primarily for sharing items with neighbours, it also has a function for giving things away. Already a fellow Taringa-ite has one of my excess clothes airers.

B. Freecycle - I'm in the Brisbane group. On Sunday I put the toolbox on freecycle and got 8 replies that night.

C. Freewheelers - A freecycle-style group that operates on facebook.

D. Facebook itself - Keep an eye out for my posts of giveaway items.

E. Gumtree - for stuff that's probably to valuable to just give away - even for generous souls like us ;)

Hopefully with all these options we can reduce our belongings without excessive use of the waste wheelie bin.

Some things may be different

People who know us know that we're quite ethically-conscious, including caring for the environment we all share. Also, that we aren't really the kind of people who follow tradition for tradition's sake. Our wedding will probably reflect this in some ways.

Some interesting articles we've read today include:

11 ways to have an ethical wedding
"Donate the money you were going to spend on bonbonniere (wedding favours) because, let's face it, no one really needs that keychain with the cute photo of the two of you in it.

6 ways to keep it simple on your wedding day
"A wedding dress is the single most ridiculous splurge that many brides insist on making for their big day. Hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars go into purchasing a piece of clothing that gets worn for, literally, 12 hours. And there is nowhere else you could ever wear that dress without looking absurd. Just think about it – would you spend that much money on a single article of clothing, even if you could wear it indefinitely? Probably not."

"...everyone gives physical gifts that are supposed to help furnish a new home. But nowadays many couples get married later in life and often live together already in furnished homes, which makes those items often superfluous, not to mention that you might not share style tastes with Great-Aunt Martha."

Proposal Story

Hi Everyone,

Just starting up our blog.

While Christine writes up her full version of the 'proposal story' (apparently lots of people are asking for it) here is my short version. Men, feel free to skip this one and come back for more interesting posts in the future.

Christine and I went out for dinner, at a little local Italian place we'd been meaning to try out. After that I had a plausible reason to go for a walk (well, plausible enough). The eventual destination was a meaningful place of ours. We got to talking about our relationship. I mentioned a few thoughts I'd been having recently - which related to song lyrics (that's Christine's second language) and rounded out these thoughts with a proposal.
Christine's response was very enthusiastic.

Update: Here is Christine's slightly longer version:

One Saturday night, at the end of a very stressful first week back at work, David took me out for dinner. We went to a local Italian restaurant we'd been meaning to try out for a while. It was a cosy and relaxed atmosphere. After dinner David suggested we go for a walk, and although I was a little worried that my injured knee wouldn't cope, I decided to give it a go. My curiosity was piqued as David would not tell me the destination, only that there was something he wanted to show me.

After a nice walk, we arrived at a park where David showed me some exercise equipment he had recently discovered - not exactly the kind of thing I had expected that he wanted to show me!! But when he explained that he thought I may like to start using this whilst my knee was injured, his thoughtful intention became clear. He knew I liked being active outdoors and had been frustrated that my knee was preventing me from doing my preferred activities of jogging and riding. So we hung out at the park for a while, and then David suggested we continue walking onto 'our spot'. I hesitated as it was getting late and I was being eaten by mozzies!

But eventually I did end up going along with his suggestion (luckily!), and we headed for an alcove by the river in Toowong where we have spent many hours together over the years. We sat watching the river boats whilst reflecting on years gone by. David told me that he had been thinking a lot about our relationship and had heard some songs that had made him think of us. He then quoted lyrics from a few songs (super sweet), the final one being "and all of my dreams would come true if I'm spending time with you" (Diana Ross) and then asked me to marry him. I was crying a lot and so I'm not even sure that I managed a 'yes', but nevertheless my answer was clear! The proposal was simple, beautiful and perfect - by the river (I love water), using music (my 'second language' as David says), and with no ring (as I'm not a fan of rings, for various reasons which I may post about in the future).

So there you go- the unabridged version!

Hope some of you enjoyed reading of the wonderful night that showed just how thoughtful my fiance is :) And sorry to those who may have fallen asleep with the length of post (although David did warn that you may want to skip)!