Our 'Wedding Party' is over, done and dusted! It turned out to be a very fabulous night and 70-ish guests all said they enjoyed themselves greatly.

My dad, stepmum and little sister boarded their plane back to Victoria today and now I'm sitting at home by myself, waiting for DH to get home so we can make dinner.

There were a few stressful moments leading up to do with family, but in the end everyone behaved themselves and got along, which we were very thankful for.

It rained during the night but was misty and grey for the photogrpahs. I can't wait to see them, I think they are going to look amazing. It suits DH and I as we love that grey, rainy, wintery weather, so we are SOOO pleased that the day was like that, and the backdrop to our outside photographs will have gorgeous mountain ranges with misty air!

And so now it's time to tally up our costs. Probably the only place where people are interested in the money we *saved* on an event like this, is here!

Costs:
Spanish Paella: $1225.00
Other Food: $80.00
Drinks: $82.63
Hall Hire: $150.00
My clothes: $175.90
Accessories: $34.40
DH Clothes: $172.40
Wedding Favours: $14.50
Tableware: $87.69
Canvas: $24.95
Total Cost: $2047.47

We had friends & family chip in/provide for free some items:
- cake
- honeymoon stay (2 nights hotel accomodation & breakfast)
- hair styling
- hall decorations
- champagne
- photography

and recieved $2000 in cash & $100 in GC's. I'm depositing it in the bank tomorrow. Of course money isn't the reason we decided to throw a party - but money WAS the reason we decided to have a party INSTEAD of a fully blown wedding, so in a way I am really relieved at the outcome. We do have the money to cover the costs (otherwise, we would not have organised it!) but it is nice to know that money can now be absorbed and/or go into savings.

June will mark the start of a ruthless savings plan! We need two new cars and want to start organising some failry major renovations to our house, so it means hard work & not much play. Or at least, cheap play!

My exam is June 16th, I have a lot of study to do over the next three and a half weeks! Then a bit of a break before I am back into it again. Eeep. Would love to have the summer semester off, but I think I will do an extra subject over the break to make myself feel better for only doing one this semester.

From my dads side for our wedding present, we were given a Stephanie Alexander gardening/cookbook which is about 2000 pages of gardening tips and instructions, and recipes for once the produce has been grown, and is *amazing*, as well a piece of artwork my late grandfather completed in 1951, a sketch of the Irish countryside he made when he was travelling with my late grandmother. It is something that not only has huge financial value but is most importantly a piece of my grandfather that I will never let go and treasure for our lives. I think DH also feels as though this was a huge welcome to the family gesture. We are going to get it framed shortly.

In other news, I have discovered some paypal/credit card fraud. Only around $120 worth, in five small payments (so weird!), but it makes me feel uneasy. I have deleted my details from paypal, which will be a pain in the future but makes me feel better. I have changed all passwords and security details for paypal, emails and banks. Argh.