14 posts tagged “wedding”

One of my best friends is getting married next year to her boyfriend of 7 years. She was one of my bridesmaids at my wedding and now she's asked me to be hers. We've been friends since we were 11 but only developed a real friendship when we were 14 and started high school. Since then we've had more ups than downs and we've pretty much been inseparable.

During high school she used to work for a video store chain and with free movie rentals as a perk, she became a huge movie buff. It's so fitting that she chose an old, beautiful movie theatre as the venue for her wedding reception, and is planning a whole movie theme for her wedding.

I came up with the idea to do a movie scene slate money box. She loved the idea but was stumped as to how to make one.

Next weekend is her engagement party and I thought we could surprise her by making the money box. So yesterday my sister, her hubby, Steve and I had an arts and crafts day. The money box turned out exactly how I had envisioned it. I can't wait to show my friend.

Money Box.jpg

How nice of one wedding guest and one wedding vendor to send me a thank-you card for the wedding thank-you card I sent them. Makes me feel so appreciated for those long days, nights and weekends hunched over the table and cramping my hand writing thank-yous to all our guests!

Thank-you.jpg

I wasn't sure on the exact design of my wedding cake but I knew I wanted something all white and elegant.  I spent hours browsing the net for the most spectacular cake but it was my mom who was flipping through a magazine and came across this one:

Cake Original

My wedding cake

After writing 220 wedding thank you cards, I am FINALLY done! It only took 9 months but hey who's counting except for Steve's aunt who actually said "it's about time"! HAHA! I never want to see or write another freakin thank you card again! Lucky Steve only had to write a grand total of... *drumroll please*... NINE! He so owes me a Gucci purse, don't you think? I feel so free now, like a heavy weight has been lifted from my shoulders and I can move on to bigger and better things.

This officially closes the wedding chapter as there are NO outstanding wedding items left on the wedding to-do list.

How sad.

Wedding thank-you cards.jpg

Seven months later and our marriage certificate has finally arrived which means Steve and I are officially married!  I had registered for the certificate a couple months after our wedding and when it didn't turn up after three months, I called to follow up and found out our pastor did not send all required documents.  Anyway, that was fixed so now I'm in the process of changing my name on all important documents. 

Today I went to change the name on my driver's license and I had to sign my new signature on a piece of paper.  My old signature was just my name in my normal handwriting which was pretty legible and probably not hard to forge.  So when I began creating my new signature I tried out different possibilities to make it look a little more interesting.  I tried some with many fancy loops that didn't make my name recognizable, my whole first and last name, the first letter of my first name with whole last name, etc.  Finally I decided I wanted to keep part of my old signature so I could hold on to a piece of my old identity.  So my new signature has my first name written the same way as before, with my new last name merged together so I don't have to break the pen away from the paper.  My old signature had two breaks which I hated because it always took so long to sign it.  I also added four fancy loops which my mom says looks like a flower and doesn't understand how that's a letter 'Y'.  haha... hey I had to make it look pretty somehow!

So the lady at the transportation office asked me to sign my new signature on a piece of paper.  I had already started practicing my signature last week when the credit card company requested it as well, but I've nowhere near perfected it.  I started getting nervous in case I messed it up and then became stuck with a crappy signature on my new driver's license.  So I signed it and sure enough I messed it up!  Luckily the lady thought it was extremely funny when I asked for another form because the signature is still new to me and I signed it wrong.  She encouraged me to keep practicing and gave me another form and this time the signature was almost perfect.  Finally she took a new photo of me in which I was not allowed to smile due to new protocol so I'm pretty sure the picture is going to turn out dreadful. 

Oh well... at least I'll have a great signature to stare at =)

I think the one thing I regret most about this past year is not taking the time to blog during my wedding planning.  I started to but then got so wrapped up in the excitement of things that I forgot to stop and take a moment to blog about it.  But hey, it's not too late.  I had the most wonderful time planning my wedding and I love remembering this time in my life, so I've decided to capture my most memorable moments and favourite details about my wedding in my blog.  You will soon discover, one day at a time, how my wedding turned out =)

Let's start with one of the most important details... MY DRESS!

I had so much fun going to bridal shops and trying out tons of elegant wedding dresses.  I think I must have tried on more than 70 dresses before I finally decided on this one.  You know how they say "You'll just know it's the one as soon as you put it on"?  Well I kept waiting for that moment but that didn't exactly happen with me.  I went to the same bridal shop where my sister bought her dress the year before.  I probably tried on 20 dresses there and was ready to call it a day b/c the store was about to close. 

As I was standing there in the last dress I tried on, this dress which was hanging in someone else's dressing room caught my eye.  By this time the saleslady was probably sick of me and doubting whether I was actually going to buy a dress from her, but she happily went and brought over the dress when I pointed it out.  I tried it on, loved it instantly and put down a deposit.  Later though I started having second thoughts about it and continued shopping for another dress.  It was only when the dress came in and I tried it on that I fell in love all over again.  It just looked so different because this time it was actually in my size and fit like a glove.

I love my dress!  If I didn't pay $200 to have it drycleaned and neatly packaged away in a box, I would pull it out right now and wear it for the hell of it!

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

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

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!