Tonight, Claire and I drove back to Brisbane (again) to go and see a photographer for our wedding.

We’ve been told that there are a few things you absolutely can’t leave till the last minute for a stress free wedding. A condensed list looks something like this:

1. Venue
2. Photographer
3. Women’s stuff

Well, we’ve already sorted the venue, it is at the Stamford Plaza. Claire has decided to get her dress made by the wonderful Brisbane dress makers at Airs and Graces. It isn’t completed, however it is at the dress makers and under control. I’m told she looks breathtaking in it, yippee! So that leaves a photograher.

Without really knowing what separates a good one from a bad one, we decided to ask around a little. As it turns out, the wife of one of my brothers used to do photography. Their wedding album was superb, so it seemed logical that we’d start there.

We then booked an appointment to see Jason from Studio 60 and what we saw was nothing short of awesome. He had a fantastic variety of albums on hand in a multitude of different styles. Claire and I were thrilled with what we saw and his pricing scheme (although a little expensive), seemed very logical.

We had a good chat about everything and when we were leaving, he gave us the names of three or four of his colleagues (I know, who would have thought he would give us the names of some of his competitors!).

Turns out, I honestly think he is in it to try and deliver a great product. If we don’t go through him, he still wants us to get a good product, which is a testiment to his character in my opinion.

Hopefully, we’ll be seeing more of him in the future!

Well it took us about 6 months, but it finally happened. On Saturday 29^th January, we had our engagement party at the Avanti Cafe in Brisbane.

We had the choice of a couple different types of meals, so we ended up selecting a combination which consisted of:

Starters
A trio of Italian Dips served with fresh focaccia, garlic pita and crispy lavosh bread.

Main

1. Spaghetti Bolognese: Rich authentic meat sauce
2. Penne Ai Funghi: Fresh button mushroom, garlic, onion, white wine and a dash of cream.

Dessert
An choice of Brisbane’s best N.Y. Baked Cheesecake or Rich Double Chocolate Mudcake served with cream and strawberry garnish.

When the food was bought out, I thought there was honestly not going to be enough to go around. Ohh how wrong I was! By the time everyone had finished eating, there were two or three platters that were barely touched; which equates to a whole lot of food.

The night went off pretty smoothly I think, however we did have a hickup upon arrival with the power in our area. Apparently something had happened that required Ergon/Energex to come to the restaurant and repair it. For our apparent inconvenience, we were given a couple bottles of wine. It was fine really, we were drinking regardless, but the gesture was nice.

The party was just close friends really, so about 20-25 of us turned up. If I had of had more time and such things, I would have invited some more friends. A little bit of a shame, but they are hopefully coming to the wedding; so that is ok.

Well, next on the agenda will be a wedding; the clock is ticking for the 24^th September 2005!