I’m almost finished designing the blog. As you can see, most of the site now has the same look and feel as the home page. So what do you all think?

Secondly, wedding plans have pretty much come to a standstill as we haven’t had much time for any of it, what we me changing jobs and also organising the purchase of our house.

Lastly, Karina and I are going away on a marriage encounter weekend to Constantia in the middle of August. Its a Catholic organised thing, and its for all couples thinking about and planning to get married. I am really looking forward to it, as we haven’t been away since December!

That’s it for now!

We thought it would be a great idea to send out something to a few guests that would already start to build up some excitement around the wedding. The “save-the-date” cards are in the process of being sent out even as I write this post. There are also a special, limited edition version for all those involved in the wedding, like the bridesmaids, bestmen and Godparents. So I guess the question is… Have you received one?

After irritating me enough, Karina eventually got me looking for a house for us. Nita did a great job in carting us around from one complex to another and area to area. When you first start looking for a home, its quite a daunting process as the first few houses we saw I really didn’t like. I went home feeling really depressed about this whole finding a house thing. These days the rooms are so tiny, you can just fit a double bed and 2 bedside tables, never mind anything else! There are always pro’s and con’s to every place, but most of the places we came across had way to many con’s.

So after looking a while, we came across what we are going to call River Cottage.

River Cottage

I actually can’t believe houses like this exist in the price range we were looking at. We had to put up a fight for this place as the day after Karina and I saw it, they had an offer come in. Luckily it was a subject to the selling of their place, so we jumped in and applied for a straight bond, which gave the first offer 72 hours to sell or come up with the cash. But when they heard of our offer, they gave up… which meant the place was ours!

What makes the place so special?

• Its in a really quiet area in Somerset West
• 2 bedroom, 2 bathrooms, kitchen, living room, dining room, automatic garage and parking bay
• The main bedroom takes up the entire top floor of the home – so OUR room is massive!
• The back garden opens up onto a large grassy area that….. wait for it…. wait for it…. opens up onto a flowing river!
• The main bedroom overlooks the river and that is the only noise you can hear. The sound of flowing water is so calming.
• Anyone want to come around for a trout braai? There are even fish in the river!

For me, the house has this holiday type of vibe to it. Especially when you walk out into the back and can hear and see the river. It really is amazing. Our cats are going to love the grass!

With that said, it is going to be exciting as well as nerve racking. With the way cost of living is increasing almost on a weekly basis, it might be Salticrax for supper all month, not just at the end of the month, but with God’s Grace and blessings, Karina and I are really going be happy living in River Cottage.

Another checkbox off the list – The Wedding Cake.

I can’t stand those boring old stuck in the corner only for decoration white cakes that you see at weddings. Although times are changing, and the chocolate cakes are starting to come out, people don’t really get to eat your cake… until my wedding!

We have ordered a custom designed wedding cake from Charly’s Bakery in Cape Town. They are the Willy Wonka from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory of cupcakes, wedding cakes and all things baked. We tasted a piece of their chocolate brownies that makes up a wedding cake and it is by far one of the best pieces of any type of cake I have ever eaten! Jacqui – who runs Charly’s Bakery is amazing! She really has a passion for weddings and baking. She must do 100′s of cakes and she treated us as if we were one of her close friends that were getting married – which really makes choosing her and her bakery to make our cake so much easier.

So, remember to save some space in your tummy for our wedding cake, its going to be awesome!

Looking for a person to do our invitations and all the other stationery has been a really interesting experience! We initially found 3 people we wanted to see for quotes, but after seeing just 2 of them, we knew exacty who we are going with.

1 person came with a decent recommendation – the other, a reputation…

Paper Garden

Funny enough the lady that runs Paper Garden in the “Cape Town” area runs it from her home right opposite our church in Strand! This at first we thought wasn’t really such a good thing, since how good could a person be in creating wedding invitations if they came from the Strand?

Well we were mightily impressed. We sat at her table that was covered in left-over invitations that we got to play around with to see exactly how our invitations would look like. Chop this, change that, use that colour, or maybe this insert… it really was a lot of fun. She went through the entire process with us from the invitations, to the ceremony list, to the seating arrangements and confetti ideas. We came away from her really having a sense that we knew exactly how our entire wedding would be branded – which is something I am big into. Verdict: Very chuffed, but we hadn’t seen anyone else yet – but the standard had been set.

Elsje Designs

We went to see Elsje after work one evening. This was an experience to behold. The following is my account of events.

Arrive at Elsje Designs. We are greeted at the door by one of her 3 assistants. She comes out of her studio to greet us and I am given a 3 page document regarding our wedding to fill in. We are told to choose a few – “Not more than 4” invitations up on the walls to start with. Elsje leaves us alone and I fill in the paper work and Karina start to look around. Eventually I am looking all of these other peoples wedding invitations and getting very confused. I don’t want someone else’s wedding invitation? She comes out and I explain to her that she is making us choose another weddings invitation and that we are slightly confused on how this works. She sits us down and goes through our documentation. One thing I made a grave mistake of doing was ticking box 2 out of 4 when it came to price we are willing to pay. Elsje then takes us as a cheap couple wanting a lot, but not paying much for it.

I eventually just take a boring invitation off the wall and say “well this is ok-ish, but its not the right colour”. After spending roughly 20 minutes with us going over the invitation – we have gone with this exact invitation in a white envelope and white invite. Everything we try and suggest gets the disapproval of Elsje so eventually I am sarcastically agreeing to EVERYTHING she says so we can get out of there!

So once we finished, she wants us to pay a R200 consulting fee, which I decline since no one even told us about it!

Anyway, the experience was extremely strange and off putting. Elsje comes across very cold and methodical about the entire process. Not once is she even trying to sell her self or a design. She also kept on bringing up words like “cheap” and “too expensive” which really puts Karina and I off even more.

All I can say is that after telling this story to a few people, Elsje designs seems to have quite a reputation for late delivery as well as some of her staff leaving because they cannot put up with her.

I am not knocking Elsje, all I am telling is our experience with her and that I cannot recommend her services. With regards to the R200 fee, I have a feeling that for her to charge a fee for a consultation means she probably has a high rate of people declining her services, thus the reason for the charge. If you were doing 10 quotes a day, and 8 of them were buying your services, you would never even consider charging a consulting fee, not so?

So, Paper Garden are now officially one of our recommended service providers. And expect something small from us very soon.

This is probably the most difficult thing Karina and I will have to do. Try and find a home.

Everyone wants to live in a cosy and spacious home with a garden, double garage with friendly neighbours and a half decent view to have drinks outside in the summer. Ok, maybe not all the above criteria applies to everyone, but it applies to Karina and I!

We already own a flat in the Strand that we are currently renting out. The flat is really an investment more than anything else because I wouldn’t want to live in my flat. (It’s not that its old or anything, actually it is a very neat flat, just way too small with only 1 parking bay and it is a FLAT. Also the neighbourhood isn’t really somewhere I would consider living.)

So, there are few of options that we could look at. Sunday, Karina and I went to look at a neat townhouse complex in the Strand. The houses are definitely larger than normal sized Strand townhouses. I.E. these homes were 2/3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms with 1 on-suite and single or double garage to choose from. Then there were options of a small backyard for a braai. The prices ranged from R800k – R1m. You select a plot and then have a few plans that you can choose from.

I “liked” it, but my idea of my first home is I think way over our heads. Even though these houses were, as I said, larger than normal, they still are small compared to what I actually would like. I think my Mom is right when she says I always aim for the top/best of everything. I wanted to run before I could walk type of thing.

The big plan

Then there is the “big plan”, which is a dream that I “will” turn into a reality (think positively Jason!). I really want to live on a golf estate one day, and they are currently building a brand new Golf Estate on the N2 called Sitari Fields. My idea was to put down a deposit on a place there (once they eventually released pricing), rent a house/flat from the end of 2008 until the houses on Sitari are completed near the end of 2009 and then beg, borrow and steal the money to afford the house if it came to that. I would obviously try and predict what size bond Karina and I could afford by then, so as to know what house to put a deposit on. If things totally fall apart, well then I won’t loose anything, except the chance of owning an amazing house in an amazing area! (With, I might add, a golf course membership!)

Then things sort of came crashing down. Well only slightly in my mind. They released pricing on phase 1 plots (there are plots ) this week and they the prices are way over what I anticipated, but also, maybe I was being optimistic. 500sqm plots are going for 1.2m, with the 1000sqm plots currently priced at 2.4m. So, with that in mind, I am now awaiting the prices on the plot and plan areas. Those plots I know are smaller, so maybe their pricing might be within reach.

Buying a house / choosing a place to live is one of the most difficult decisions that Karina and I have to make. I have always set myself lofty goals and I almost always make them, so maybe if I have those figures in my head as my goal, you just never know. (Never underestimate me pal! )

Do you have any ideas or wise words for Karina and I regarding buying our first home? Leave us a comment below.