The past couple weekends Steve and I have been viewing some condos with Steve's uncle who is a real estate agent.  We've been looking at the 2 bedrooms and 2 baths condos to get an idea of what's available and at what cost.  We've seen a few condos we may potentially be interested in, so yesterday Steve and I went to the bank to talk to someone about applying for a mortgage.  We went to see my dad's contact who is probably not much older than I am and who had a wealth of information to share.  We didn't apply for a pre-approval yet but he did say that we're perfect candidates and based on our combined incomes we should have no problem qualifying for the amount we are asking for.  I feel relieved to know how much we can be approved for and am now more excited to go condo shopping b/c I won't have a doubt whether or not we can actually afford the place we're looking at. 

Last weekend I went to this home decor wholesale store to look for my centrepiece vase.  It's open to the public but you a business permit is required to purchase their goods.  Luckily Steve's co-worker who owns a home decor business leant us her permit.  I have been looking everywhere for this particular vase and have not been able to find it anywhere.  I was getting so desperate and almost willing to pay an arm and a leg for it but finally found it at this store.  It's not the exact vase I was looking for but it's definitely close and will do.  The best part is the vase was right in our budget which made Steve very happy!

Anyway, we were told they didn't have enough in stock and the next shipment would only arrive mid-May.  That was fine with us since our wedding is not until the end of June.  But today I received a phone call from them and they explained there was an error in their inventory count and they actually do have enough for us to pick up right away.  That just put my mind at ease b/c that is one less thing to have to follow up on and be panicked whether the shipment will arrive on time.  Now I just need to figure out how to pick up 45 vases and where to store them!

This is what the vase looks like.  Can you guess what I'm going to do with it?

Vase

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After an entire month of going back and forth with proofs and edits, I have finally given my approval to print the wedding invitations.  I have to say it was a bit of a challenge having to explain all the changes I wanted through email.  It would've been a whole lot easier to meet with the invitation people once and point out the changes in person.  But this is how their operation works so I guess they are willing to exchange 30+ emails with each client to obtain the final product.  As long as my invitations turn out exactly the way I want them, I'm not complaining.  I also have high confidence in the invitation people as their sample invitations look flawless and are superior in quality.  Trust me... I did my research!

The other day at dinner my dad said "Lynn, I woke up this morning and realized there are only 4 months left until you move out."  I can tell my dad gets sad thinking about it.  Double =(

It's starting to hit me that I will be leaving the house I grew up in for the past 18 years and the people I've woken up to for the past 27 years.  I have bittersweet feelings about it.  I'm going to miss this house, my room, my parents, my comfort zone and safety net.  However I'm extremely excited to live in a home I can call my own, filled with things only Steve and I have chosen.  I also can't wait to be Steve's roommate as he claims he is "fun to live with" and I'm sure he is, but I can really be the only one to determine this! 

While it seems my dad is slowly trying to let go, my mom is becoming over-protective and wants to make sure I have everything I need to survive in my new home.  So far she has bought me a non-stick frying pan, a roasting pan, a set of stainless steel cutlery, and a non-stick wok.  Very nice... too bad Steve and I don't cook!  LOL

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I think the hardest part of the wedding planning process is tying together the colours so the wedding decor and fabrics are in perfect harmony.  We met with the wedding decorator this past weekend and after seeing a bunch of colour palettes, I feel as though my ability to match colours just went out the window.  Why does everything look so bad to me now??  Can I not match two simple colours or is it all just in my head?  Maybe they do look good together but I just can't see it right now b/c choosing the colours is just a tad overwhelming?

We went to visit the church first and at the top of the list was to create a backdrop behind the ceremony site to cover the ugly balcony railing.  We also wanted to decorate the middle aisle and the door frame.  My colour is purple so I choose 2 different shades of purple (light and dark for contrast) and the floor runner will be white.  But now I'm second-guessing the purple.  How will it look in pictures when the bridesmaids walk down in their darker purple dresses?  Should everything be white with some purple accents such as the flowers? 

We then headed over to the banquet hall to choose colours for the chairs, backdrop and head table.  The one thing I am concerned about is the table linen being white and the chair covers being ivory.  I'm surprised the wedding decorator only has ivory chair covers, instead of white, and she doesn't have her own table linens.  Should I spend more money renting ivory table linens?  Or is this a minor detail that guests will overlook especially if the lights will be slightly dimmed?  Personally speaking, I think I would notice.

Steve's wedding band has finally been ordered so I feel good about that.  It was so funny when we were in the jewelery store and he had to try on some rings for size.  His hand looked so weird with a ring on it b/c he never wears any jewelery!  Anyway, now we just need to look for a ring pillow.

We also went to visit Steve's old high school b/c we're interested in taking our wedding pictures there.  At first I was a bit skeptical b/c the venue didn't seem like it had a lot of interesting spots for picture taking.  Boy was I wrong.  I don't know what it looks like in the summer but it's absolutely breathtaking in the winter!  The best part about it is the wonderful view of the lake in the background which I like a lot!  Check out all the ducks that are still hanging around.

And the last bit of wedding planning we did this past weekend was go to the travel agency to grab some travel brochures to check out honeymoon spots.  Okay, I thought this was going to be the easiest part of wedding planning.  I was wrong b/c there are so many different resorts and places to choose from.  After going through all the mags and visiting travel sites online, I found a luxurious hotel in Antigua that I'm pretty much sold on!  And now I'm waiting to receive the price quote that could potentially burst my dream honeymoon bubble.  If I can't go to Bora Bora, then I need to go to this resort! 

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I finally sat here for a good hour and cleared the emails in my hotmail inbox.  My god it was such a chore and I was dreading it.  Within the last 2 months I have come to HATE email yet I'm overly obsessed with it at the same time.  I was tempted to open a new email account altogether and only forward the address to a selected few who do not clutter my inbox with useless spam.  I am now down to 13 messages from 294 which is not bad but let's see how long it stays this neat.  Notice I said "cleared" and not "organized".  The number of folders on the left have grown to such a ridiculous number that I actually need to scroll down to see the last folder.  I barely look at these folders so I know they are not needed.  Yet still, I can't manage to delete everything without going through each email first.  It's the "what if one day I'll need that" mentality that is prolonging the cleaning process.

My work email is even worse.  It is such a pain in the ass when I open my email on a Monday morning and have 3 emails telling me my inbox is reaching full capacity.  So before I can do anything else, I need to sit there and clear my inbox or else I won't be able to send out any emails all day.  First I don't understand why I am being copied on some of these emails when it really doesn't affect me or my work.  Second, did you know that when you receive a meeting request and it's saved on your calendar that it also takes up space?  I actually had to go back and delete all my meeting requests for the past year.

The only positive thing about email is that it's been very useful during my wedding planning process.  Since I work full-time during the week, most of my planning is done on the weekends when most of the vendors are closed.  So in this sense, email has become my best friend because it allows me to keep open communication with my vendors.  Other than that, email is evil.

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Why doesn't caffeine keep me awake?  A whole mug of tea later and I still can't keep my eyes open.  I would be sleeping right now except I'm waiting again on someone else so I can finish up my work for tonight.  Anyway, maybe blogging will keep me up.  I'm going to do a wedding planning update especially for the ladies... namely Reg who loves weddings and any kind of wedding news ;)

January was a very productive month for our wedding planning.  We booked a videographer, ordered wedding invitations, ordered tins for the wedding favours, decided on a centerpiece, decided on a colour scheme, decided on a menu card design, and booked a limo bus.  Yes, a limo bus!  Have you ever been inside one?  They're not the best-looking on the outside but once you step inside, it's a whole new world.  It seats about 30 people, has a full bar, plasma TV, a fridge stocked with drinks, a bathroom, and 3 complimentary bottles of champagne.  It's going to be a blast riding around town in that all that luxury!

On Saturday I went to the downtown area where all the textile stores are located.  Whoever set up all those stores on that one street was definitely thinking about brides-to-be!  There are all kinds of stores that sell fabrics, ribbons, threads, zippers, wedding veils, tiaras, and a whole lot of other wedding accessories.  The purpose of the trip was to find the fabric for my bridesmaid dresses.  I'm having them made by one of my bridesmaid's mom who is an amazing seamstress.  I had brought along a picture of this purple satin clutch purse that I found in an In Style mag because I wanted that exact colour but it proved difficult to find an exact match.  After an hour of mixing and matching different fabrics and colours, I finally found the right combo of a satin and soft organza mix where the colour came extremely close!  We even took it outside and took a picture to see what it looks like in daylight and on camera.  It looked exactly how I imagined it would so I ordered it and will be picking it up next week.  I love when things come so easily together like that.  And I also love when people work with me to get things done quickly :)

Next we went to the ribbon store to find the ribbon sash for the dresses.  Again, we were lucky to find the perfect sash for a great price.  Here's a tip to anyone who will be planning a wedding at some point in life: always ask for the "cash" price.  If you pay cash, most vendors are willing to knock off the tax which can be a huge cost savings.  I haven't had to pay tax for anything related to the wedding so far! 

After the ribbon store I went to this wedding accessories store where I found my tiara... since then I've probably tried it on at least once a day b/c I love it so much!  lol... I also bought material for my wedding veil and swarovski crystals to glue to the veil.  The swarovski crystals sound expensive but they were only $13 for 144 crystals.  Okay, I'm no expert at how much they should cost but I thought it was pretty reasonable.  Especially since the veil material only cost $9... $22 + $10 for the veil trimming is not a bad price for the veil considering most veils cost $175 and up. 

I also got a ribbon sample for the wedding favours.  Here's another tip... try not to use ribbon wherever possible b/c it is DAMN expensive!  Steve and I measured and we will need about 215 yards at $0.65/yard.  Of course the lady will have no choice but to give a discount b/c there is NO WAY I'm paying $140 for ribbon!

And finally, on Sunday, we finalized the guest list of our friends and co-workers.  Our parents are still working on the guest list but their first draft has already been created.  So far we are at a grand total of 460 people!  Our limit is 400... so as you can see we have a huge problem here.  The guest list will have to be revised probably more than once, but how do we decide on who to leave out?

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I wish I had written down my 2007 resolutions so I could see how well I did this year, but I deleted my old blog and didn't back up any of my old posts.  Here are the resolutions I came up with, and hope to keep, for 2008:

1. Spend less, save more
2. Get back into Pilates
3. Stay up to date with current affairs (Read at least 1 world or business news article a day)
4. Watch less TV
5. Use my free time more wisely
6. Eat more fruit (I don't eat any fruit!  I know... very bad)
7. Spend more time with family
8. Read more books
9. Try to follow the above resolutions throughout the entire year!

Looking back on 2007, I feel it was a great year for me b/c I accomplished a lot.  I got to travel to Vegas this year for my sister's bachelorette party and got engaged there in the process!  I was the maid-of-honor at my sister's wedding on 07.07.07 and challenged a personal fear of mine by delivering a maid-of-honor speech in front of 300 people.  I bought my very first car which I am absolutely loving right now b/c it drives wonderfully in the snow.  I paid off my student loan in full, which was a huge weight lifted off my shoulders.  I opened an RRSP account with the help of my dad's push, but I'm glad I did it for my future.  I finally made the trek to the States to do some shopping since our dollar went up.  Okay, this wasn't really an accomplishment, but I feel as though I was the last Canadian here to take advantage of our rising dollar!  And lastly, I got both a promotion and a raise at work.

What I am most looking forward to in 2008 is marrying my best friend, Steve, on June 28  =)

Happy New Year!!

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IMG_0061

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This is pee-in-your-pants HILARIOUS!!

The Coolest Wedding Dance

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I'm STILL awake.  Why you ask?  It's definitely NOT because I'm a night owl.  It's because I'm working.  Well trying to work except a few issues have been found which is preventing me from doing my work.  So now I wait... and wait... and wait.  God this is brutal.  I've been sitting here waiting since 10:30pm and I'm exhausted.  At least I have company though.  The other 2 people on my team are awake with me and every now and then we IM each other to bitch about how long we've been waiting.

I'm in serious need of a vacation.  I wasn't planning on taking one in December but to keep my sanity I've decided to ask for THREE whole days off.  I didn't have the guts to ask for a whole week b/c I know there are many projects happening in December.  But now I wish I did so I could go somewhere down south and bask in the hot sun and not have a care in the world. 

But the alternative is not so bad either.  Steve and I are going to the States to do some shopping.  I've been wanting to go ever since our dollar went up but we've been too busy.  I'm curious to see how great the deals are down south.

My mom is driving me a little nuts.  It seems every time she goes to the mall she brings back a piece of jewelry (necklace or bracelet) that she thinks I could wear for my wedding.  It's a really nice gesture but the two of us have completely different tastes.  The thought of her spending an hour at the jewelry counter picking out a necklace for me makes me feel extremely guilty when I have to tell her I don't like it.  How do I tell her nicely without hurting her feelings? 

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I've been tagged by Reggy so I've decided to play since I haven't participated in a blog tag in such a long time.  So here you go... here is my desktop:

Desktop

It's a picture I took the last time I went back to Mauritius in 2004 for my cousin's wedding.  I've had it as my desktop wallpaper ever since b/c I love the beach and I love Mauritius!  Now I'm curious to see other desktop wallpaper.  On my tag list... Ce, Janice and Jeff

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