Friends, Finale & Feathers – Part 2 – FINALE

It was announced that this finale would be in Sydney about 12 weeks ago,

OMG to say we were a little excited about this is a huge UNDERSTATMENT, the previous finales had been in Perth and Melboure so we were MEGA excited about SYDNEY

Preparations and excited plans starting being formulated immediately,

There were SO many things to think about…. what to wear… where to stay… how long to stay for…. makeup…. hair…. nails…. waxing… spray tans…. shoes…. handbags…. accessories…. where to eat…. limo.. ( hot pink of course ) etc etc etc  luckily we had 12 weeks to plan it all..  I was announced that Emazon would be doing her Stand Your Ground session in the city that weekend too, Perfect timing!

Now for those of you who know me, I am NOT normally a girly type girl, but even I was excited to get all glammed up

There were a few hiccups along the way, I bought a beautiful dress in week 4  with the faint hope of fitting into it in time………  well that did NOT happen, but  me being me and being anal about  being organised – I had also bought a beautiful 2^nd hand dress from St Vinnies for a whole $6 just in case….

So we got a group of amazing girls together and booked a luxury 2 bed room apartment at The Star , and a stretch hot pink dodge limo and the countdown to our Girls Night Out started.

We started a facebook group for finale plans and the hot topic soon turned to FOOD!!!…  Adriano Zumbo macaroons to be exact,  It was hilarious, one of the posts about these macaroons turned into a frenzy with hundreds of responses, we were like a bunch of school kids, So a trip to Zumbo’s was added to our list of things to do.

We got down to about 2 weeks to go and Teresa still did not have a dress… so in times of need we did what was needed … WE WENT SHOPPING… for 2 whole DAYS!!, We hit every shop from Penrith to Blacktown  and tried on EVERY dress in EVERY shop…  only stopping for coffee and lunch.

( bit off track but this was the first time I had gone shopping as a “normal” size – I LOVED IT I was super excited to be able to walk into any store and try things on, something I had never been able to do before )

now back on the subject finally after an agonising but fun filled 8 week countdown the BIG WEEKEND ARRIVED….

Poor Kyleanne had been sick and was still not feeling the best, but we had all been looking forward to this weekend so much that she was determined to soldier on….

Kyleanne Teresa and I headed into the city early Friday morning, First stop Adriano Zumbos!!! For some of those macaroons….  HOLY CRAP… $30 for 12 tiny little biscuits……..which I am disappointed to say are extremely OVERATED!!!…    not that great ..never mind… its all part of the experience, and we can now say we have had Zumbo macaroons..

 

 

 

 

 

Kyleanne needed to buy shoes and a handbag, so naturally next on the agenda.. MORE SHOPPING!!,  and of course being 3 married ladies let loose with no husbands in the city we had a BLAST!!, we even managed to stumble across Lulu Lemon by accident and bought matching pink headbands, for the group

workout the following day, cause that’s how we roll..

Friday night we went and met up with some of the girls from the 30+ face book group for dinner, the plan was to find somewhere nice to sit and eat but as it turns out it was pouring rain, so we ended up going to the first place that looked big enough to take our group of 16… and turns out the food was amazing… We then h

eaded back to the hotel with a pit stop at a gourmet ice cream place called Messina’s …. OMG… peanut butter chocolate ice cream… devine..

There was a point at some stage during the day that Teresa and I decided that we might skip the workout… you know to conserve our energy for the finale…. but Kyleanne even as sick as she was would not hear of this…. bugger… oh well… well just go. It will be hot and lame and boring but we will JFDI …..

Saturday morning arrived and we headed off to the Group Workout – in our matching pink ninja headbands – now I had been pestering our WS crew for weeks to make sure as many people as possible turned up wearing our Western Sydney Crew Hot Pink shirts – we wanted to make an IMPACT!! – and we did… it was amazing there was a sea of hot pink,  the workout was great fun, over 1000 people and loads of stalls full of goodies to sampl

e and check out…  After the workout we hung around and got a great group shot with Michelle,

The workout was AMAZING, so much fun, and to see so many people from our Western Sydney crew was awesome. Kyleanne and I managed to photo bomb Michelle a few times, and I even managed to push my way through the crowd to run beside her during the workout… So pleased we went it was so much FUN!

Time to head back to the hotel and start getting ready for the big finale…

Teresa and I had decided weeks earlier we were going to treat ourselves to a full glamour makeover and had booked in with the salon at the hotel for both hair and makeup… so quick lunch and shower after the workout and it was time to head off to our appointment…

Heres our before shot ..

 

So we headed off to  The Star salon for our glamourising.. Marion had her hair done and Teresa and I stayed and had our makeup done too, OMG that makeup women was AMAZING , I would have liked  to take her home with me, although not sure I could afford to pay her THAT AMOUNT on a daily basis….  She fussed and powdered primed and painted, both Teresa and I to perfection, including the most luscious eyelash extensions you have ever seen…. we left there feeling like princesses….  and a little bit broke $$$ wise… but it was worth it.

By this time the limo had arrived made it back to the room with just enough time to throw on the $6 vinnies dress, slip on the shoes and accessories, and its time to go…. We didn’t even have time to take an “after” shot of us all glammed up before we left the hotel so heres a selfie taken in the car

The limo ride was AMAZING, we stopped several times for photos, alt

hough I must say the driver was a little excitable and kept asking us to do cleavage shots… hmm…   at one point we were under the harbour bridge where there were several couples having there wedding photos done, and a gorgeous Jaguar was just sitting there parked on the side of the road, so of course we had to have some pics…

 

Arriving at the finale was AWESOME, everyone looked SO GLAM, it was hard to find all the people I wanted to catch up with because Im not used to seeing everyone all prettied up in dresses and makeup….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The finale itself was a bit of a letdown, the food was slow to come out and there was no real organisation, don’t know if they are all like this or if I had just built up an image of what I was expecting regardless it did not live up to my expectations, not that I was too dissapoinnted, I still had a fantastic time with my friends, and I can now say I have finally been to a 12wbt finale

I did however manage to meet two amazing ladies whose progress has inspired me for the past 3 years, Amy and Tanya . These 2 ladies have achieved amazing results I started following these girls on the biggestloserclub years ago, and have been facebook friends with them for years, so to finally get to meet them was one of the highlights of my night.

 

 

 

 

So In all my plans for the weekend, I thought I had it all worked out,  Friday /night was great and turned out pretty much as planned.  Originally I was not fussed on the workout but it turned out to be AWESOME… and as excited as I was for the Finale Party, It was no where near as good as I was expecting …  The last thing on our weekend checklist was Emazon….