First though, I want to say thank you to all of those that commented on my last post and offered up congratulations and their opinions on goma-chan`s sex. Also sorry to Heather, Nay & Gaijinwife`s whose comments somehow ended up in my spam folder but I have now rescued them!!

It has been more than three weeks since Shun & I married- hard to believe since the time has flown by! We had such a magical day and we really couldn`t of asked for a nicer wedding day. I think everyone had a great time and I think the best thing was that the Aussie guests and international guests all got on so well despite the language barriers that many of them faced. Everybody was snapping away, taking photos (and yes, both Shun & I admitted our faces got sore from all that smiling) and enjoying themselves.

I started the day at my mother`s- we got up early to a bit of a breakfast buffet (as in my, Cat, Erika & my Thai friend Panni as we all stayed at mum`s the night before- Mandy, another bridesmaid arrived around that time also) before heading to get our hair and make-up done (and mum took Panni & Erika to the wedding place).

The day went by quite fast, as most say it does, but I got to enjoy most of it (and goma-chan gave me a break and I did not throw up on my wedding day- WOOT!) and managed to get around to speak to most people who had come to share our special day!

The photographer met the boys at the hotel (also where the ceremony and reception were been held) to take some photos there first before coming to mum`s place.

Then onto mum`s place to take photos of me and the girls and also a couple with my parents.

Arriving at the venue… (in Rolls Royces!)

Saying our vows and signing the certificate

Everyone who made it

Shun & I with his family

Shun & I with my family

With friends

Wedding party shots down by the beach…

Now the important part- THE CAKE!

Those edible people on top- those are Shun & I!

There are quite a few more shots over at flickr- and when I get more time I will probably add more but due to the size of the professional photos it does take time.

The reception went well until about 11pm, by which time I was exhausted! Some of the guests, who were staying at the hotel, partied on until morning. Many of the boys from Japan flew out on the Sunday morning (their taxi came at 4:45am), two of whom had only been in the country for 24 hours. We were so lucky that a lot of our friends from overseas and interstate could make it over for the wedding!

My bridesmaids, (and Shun`s groomsmens of course) did a wonderful, wonderful job. Shun & I are so lucky to have such wonderful friends, we really are. Catherine & James both made speeches- James, being the best man, put in a lot of jokes but he pulled it off okay (and I take my hat off to him because he translated the whole thing as he went and most of the jokes came across loud and clear to the Japanese that were there!). Cat,  also gave a lovely speech, which nearly made me cry (in fact I may have dropped a tear or two-nothing compared to her though!)- she spoke about her own parents who are also in a mixed marriage and how they had made their life work so well.

My father gave the first speech, and while he was incredibly nervous he did very well. He thanked Shun & I for putting up with him for this last year (and how me moving to Japan at 19 caused an international disaster when I met Shun!). Shun`s father, also gave a wonderful speech, in both English in Japanese, that he had been practicing for several months I think.

Shun also spoke- thanking the bridesmaids, and all our friends and family who came for the special occasion, many of whom had to travel. He also talked about how lucky he was to have met me (Awwwwww!).

There was a lot of dancing- and Shun & I danced to “Song bird” by Eva Cassidy (but the band sang it) for our first song. If you don`t know it- here is a youtube version.

I have to say, that for a wedding day, I think one of the most important things is for the bride and groom to have a good time and Shun & I can both say we had a faboulous day- we really really could not have asked for a more perfect day to celebrate our love and marriage.

• We got back from our honeymoon on Monday afternoon- it was a lovely 4 nights away and below is the view from our hotel room. Nice huh? I will eventually do a proper update on the honeymoon (I hope!) but I will say we had perfect weather, we snorkelled on the great barrier reef, relaxed on Whitehaven Beach and ate a lot of yummy food! Oh, and I read three books, it was great!
• We leave for Japan Monday night, quick stop in Sydney before transferring to a plane bound for Narita Airport. We arrive in Japan early Tuesday morning (26 May- Shun`s birthday!)- we spent today packing up the rest of our stuff except for some limited clothes to pack into our suitcases on the weekend. The shipping company picks up our boxes tomorrow. I have lots to look forward to when we return to Japan- Sarah and Nay come that first Sunday to visit Shun & I in Chiba and on the Monday Shun will return to work while us girls with two other friends will head off on a picnic at Ueno! I will see Cat, James and co over the weekend before that and hopefully fit in some karaoke! I will also do the good gaijin thing and apply for my alien registration card! After Nay & Sarah head back to their places I will get stuck into looking for a job and an apartment/house (although due to money constraints I doubt we will be able to move from Shun`s parents place until August- yes, you heard right, we will live with the in-laws)
• I am lacking veggies in my diet and am going to make a ham and veggie soup tomorrow- never had much success with soup so wish me luck (due to lack of success I am going to Mum`s so she can help me )
• Oh yeah, I changed my name, I am now officially L.Marushima ! My passport says it and all! I can pick up my spouse visa on Friday (yeah, we are cutting it a bit fine!) – it wasn`t until I was filling in my passport application that I realized “oh crap, gotta come up with a new signature” – apparently I should of been practicing it sooner!
• News flash- getting a hair cut tomorrow! It will all go!
• These last couple of days in Brisbane will be spent avoiding the floods (yes, South East Queensland got 300mm of rain, just today and rain is expected to last til the weekend), saying out last good byes and having dinner with my family on Saturday night (what my brother refers to as “the last supper”) and lounging around doing not much at all. Oh and picking up spouse visa, having lunch with my dad, having a haircut and making veggie soup!
• Oh yeah and Shun is doing great!

Here are a couple of photos to tide you over until I get back to Japan (now in less than 2 weeks) and have a faster internet connection and some time to go through them all.

These are a couple photos my brother took on the day…

The boys waiting for us girls to arrive.

Bridesmaids walking down the garden path…

Dad & I as we got ready to walk down the aisle (My dad almost didn`t make it to the wedding due to health issues- I am so glad though he could be there on the day)

We are married in this pic below!

Family shots! Shun & I with his family…

With my family

I am sorry there are not more- I promise to get onto sorting them out before I leave and upload them once I return to Japan. I am really looking forward to getting the professional photos as well.

It was the most perfect day- Shun & I were grinning ear to ear!

I can not believe it is only one week away. These past couple of weeks since I finished work have gone by so fast. I think we have almost everything under control now though.

This next week is going to be insane- Nay and Mandy have already arrived in Australia but they are staying with their families so that is all fine. The others all start arriving from Tuesday onwards….On Tuesday I will be out at the airport once, Wednesday we will be out there again, Thursday I will be out there twice (once in the morning and again in the afternoon), Friday I will be out there twice (again in the morning and afternoon) and then Saturday Shun will be out there picking up the last of the guests (I put my foot down on going to the airport on my wedding day)….Sunday the majority of people leave early, then a couple more on Monday after, then the last of them leave on the Tuesday. Shun and I leave for our honeymoon on the Thursday so as you can see there will be at LOT of trips to the airport and back.

We will expect some delays too for those coming on international flights since the Swine Flu hysteria has hit Australia a bit now. We have actually had one friend cancel his trip as his company is refusing to let him travel (they reimbursed him for his tickets- we found out yesterday)- actually they warned him not to travel and he said he would anwyay and then they said, fine he could go but he would need to take a months unpaid leave when he returned to Japan to make sure he did not bring possible Swine Flu to work. Two of our groomsmen are in similar situations- one flies out tonight and if there is no confirmed cases in Japan or Australia before 7pm he is in the clear…Toshi, the other, is having some issues but said at this stage he is fine to come however he does not fly out til Thursday night so complications could arrise.

Hard to believe on Monday I was worried about rain…I was totally not thinking that there would be a world crisis over the flu.

One week to go, one week to go!

So here it is- It is pinned up at the moment but I didn`t really cut much off anyway since I need to be able to pin it up again for the wedding.

I took my birdcage veil (yes it is done!!!) to try on as well at the hairdressers. I love it!!!

Well better get changed (and put some make-up on seeing as in the picture above I have none on) because Shun & I have a date! Movie & dinner. Who knows maybe he will get lucky…(especially if he is paying! hehe)

These are are all medium res images so the real things are so much better- If you like them and live in my area and wish to get in contact with the photographer please contact me via the contact form. Her name is Sylvie and she is just gorgeous and she does fantastic work!!!

That said, I do want something small to adorn my hair with I suppose you could say. I would also like to incorporate the cherry blossom theme perhaps into a hair piece, comb or birdcage veil. So after a visit to the milliner and a walk around the shops for some inspiration I came home and started the search for what I want. The most likely option is that I will get something made that appeals to my tastes and coloring. I need to go back to my dressmaker and get a swatch of fabric (I know, I know, I don`t have one- bad bride!) and  go from there. In the meantime I have been scouring the internet for inspiration and below are some images I have found that I like. I have also pulled out some handmade cherry blossom hair things (mainly from etsy- I am terribly sorry that I might not credit you if it is you that made them, i basically dragged the images to my desktop and moved onto the next page however if you ever come here, see your image and want me to link to you the please let me know!) to also take with me when I go to perhaps get something made.

So far I am liking the look of this last one the most- Except I am thinking instead of a big flower, three little cherry blossom flowers made from material & lace with pearls in the middle of them?

Thoughts?

The list consisted of things like

- Decide on a costume for Dani`s 80`s birthday party next weekend and come up with something for Shun

- Tidy my room and start sorting through stuff that needs to be sent back to Japan

- Go see a movie with Shun

- Email/facebook message about seven different people (so if you are reading and waiting for a return message from me I am sorry!)

-Complete the wording for invitations and inputting all the names and addresses into an excelt spreadsheet to give to the invitation lady (Thankfully this one is almost done, just need 4 more addresses)

- Walk twice and do some hooping (I did a bit of hooping yesterday- but no walks for the weekend)

- Add more to my recipe book so that I could return the books I borrowed from mum.

- Do two loads of washing including sheets and towels (okay I did these, except the sheets are still waiting to be hunt out and it is after 7pm)

- Sit down with Shun and figure out what documents we will need from Japan to register our marriage and apply for a spouse visa for myself. Also start filling in the forms for a new passport for me.

- Do a food shop.

Instead I did the following

- Go shopping with mum and meet with a milliner (in case I decide to get  birdcage veil or facinator made for the wedding) and to get some ideas

- Bought bridesmaid shoes for the bridesmaids (and they are cute!)

- Bought some cherry blossoms to incorporate into the decorations at the wedding reception.

- Surfed the net for birdcage veils, cherry blossom flowers, facinators and other inspirational wedding type things.

- Blew my diet- okay this is not true, I stuck to points except for the choclate today perhaps, but I barely did any exercise. I did walk just under 10,000 steps though yesterday because of the shopping and I did some hooping last night.

- Watched some soccer on TV and then some My Name is Earl with Shun.

- Bought 25 books or so at the lifeline bookfest for just over $100 (more stuff to ship to Japan- GAH!)

And now it is after  7pm and I really do not feel like doing anything much. In fact,  I will probably spend the rest of the night on the net and/or watching TV. Hopefully next weekend will be more productive. Or perhaps I could try and get some of the stuff on this list done during the week (food shopping is a must- I did manage to get some fruit, bread and yogurt though for lunches!)

Next weekend is a long weekend in Australia for Australia Day. Apart from Dani`s party on the Saturday night we have no plans but I guess what I don`t get done during the week on my to-do-list will then become next weekends to-do list. I just feel that sometimes the to-do lists are never ending though…(as much as I love a good list!)

Shun and I met four years ago today. We always take our anniversary from the day we met (which may have been on the 14th just before midnight but we take it from the 15th)….

It is hard to believe sometimes that we have been together that long and other times it seems like we have been together forever. I can not imagine not having Shun in my life, nor can I imagine never having lived in Japan. It just seems like it is part of me now, part of my history.

So when we get married we will have been together for four years and almost six months.                                                                                                                                                                                               
We did have a small tiff today though regarding the wedding invitations and the fact that the RSVP will probably not be til the beginning of April, six weeks before the wedding and about the fact I have booked four rooms at the reception (has hotels!) and that is it which won`t be enough if others decide to come. He said we should find out who from Japan is coming way before April. I totally agree and have been telling him for months to remind his friends to book tickets if they are coming so that we could arrange accom if neccessary, but so far nobody has. They were to let us know so we could book places. I assume they are not coming OR that if they do come they don`t mind where they stay. I told out other friends before we left Japan (and again when we sent save the dates) that I would book accom for them if they let me know if they were coming and the sooner they let me know the more likely I would be to get them good accom near the reception etc. Anyway we had a bit of a tiff but we kissed and made up and all is good again. If worst comes to worse and more friends from Japan are coming than I anticipated then I will  book more rooms at the hotel. If there are none available I will book a group somewhere else. It is no big deal & luckily we are all good now.

Oh and by the way, it was weight watchers weigh in today and I have lost 1.6kg this week. I hope to lose another kilo by next Thurday.  Only 8kg or so to go until I reach goal! Yay!

I have spent the last couple of hours trolling the internet for fake (silk?) cherry blossom branches (anyone want to send me 30 branches or so from Japan?) as we are now onto the “decorating” stage- I would like something like the pictures below for the centre of the tables.

We have an engagement shoot coming up the first weekend of February (I need to convince Shun to have a haircut!), a meeting next week with the invitation place & the venue

It has also gotten to the stage where we now have to start paying for everything- luckily my parents have been more than generous with this side of things but there is still a fair bit we will need to pay off ourselves.

Clare is in town at the moment ( lucky her having four weeks holiday in a row!) so we met with the dressmaker today also and she took our measurements. I will go back to see her early next month for my first fitting (!) and the bridemaids, Clare, Mandy & Cat, have sent there measurements through but they will only be able to do a fitting the week before the wedding (Having bridemaids in three different cities is difficult- especially when two are overseas!). Now that the dress is underway I realized that shoes & accessories were the next step so we spent the day shopping. Found a great pair of bridesmaid shoes but due to it been sale time, they had only one size left. Will keep my eye out though. I also realized that I better start looking at veils if I decide I want one.

I am kind of in love with birdcage style veils but I am not sure if it would suit…There are heaps of pretty ones out there although none of them seem to be in Brisbane!

I am almost falling asleep as I write this- I think I have been staring at the computer screen for too long. Anybody have any suggestions of how we can incorporate the cherry blossom theme better? Or veil ideas?

It is hard to believe it is all coming together & that the wedding is so soon…….