Online Shopping Saved My Life

Hey everyone! As you can see from my lack of blog posts, I am busy and stressed.  This time of year is always a killer.  BUT, it's April 30th, which means I am close to the light!  Normally I would have reached the light by today but because of the good old Heartbleed Virus, the tax deadline has been extended to May 5th.  Yayyyyyy. 

 

My thoughts exactly.

 

Between dealing with tax season, trying to wrangle RSVPs out of everyone, spending the last five days shuttling between a dance competition and work, and tackling our wedding to-do list as the weeks fly by, I've been more than a little frazzled.  We do have a huge support system around us and people are always offering to help, but there are some things you just can't delegate and I seem to be smack in the middle of a giant list of those types of to-dos.  I even took this selfie the other day when I was right in the thick of accomplishing wedding tasks like a boss:

 

Straight up.

What has been my saving grace throughout this experience has been the magic of online shopping.  If there's two things I have very little patience for, other than the flagrant misuse of the words "your" and "you're", it's shopping and running around.  I'm not someone who likes to spend an entire day driving from store to store, meandering around inside looking at things, humming and hawing over what to buy, and coming home with carefully and painstakingly selected purchases.  I like to get in, make a beeline for what I want, haul ass to the cash register (bonus points if I walk extra fast to beat someone into the line) and get outta dodge.  And nothing gets my blood boiling faster than if a store doesn't have something I want, or worse, they do carry it but are out of stock.  ANGER. 

This is why online shopping is the single greatest thing ever.  You can peruse from the privacy of your own home, where your path is not blocked by people who are too lazy to support their own body weight so they lean on their cart and sloooooowly amble through the aisles.  If something is out of stock, it's listed right there on the website and you know not to buy it, instead of driving all the way to Polo Park only to make it out of the parking lot, through the mall, into the store and to the devastating sight of an empty shelf, only to be cheerfully told that the store on the other side of the city has one in.  You click on a few things, enter your credit card info and it's sent right to your doorstep.  Heaven.

 

WIN.

So here are some of the things that have been delivered to me and some that are in transit!


Guestbook, Schmestbook

I'm not sure why I abhor the traditional wedding accessories so much.  Maybe it's because I am naturally rebellious, maybe it's because I hate the idea of being the same as every other bride out there, maybe I just want to be different for the sake of being different. I dunno.  But when I thought about a guestbook, I just thought, for what?  Yes, absolutely it's nice to have the names and well wishes of all the people you invited to your special day.  But in an ugly white book with lace and ribbons on it that you're never going to look at again ever in your life?  No.  Enter the magic of online shopping.  All you have to do is Google "guest book alternatives" and voila!  You have access to every creative idea that every creative bride has ever come up with.  So I ordered this:

 

Awe!!!

It's a shadow box that has our initials and wedding date personalized on it, and inside are paper hearts that guests and sign and put their well wishes on.  Then when the wedding is over, there is this insert that you can arrange the hearts on into one big heart, and display it in your home!  Comme ca:

 

Super sweet.

The only problem was, these paper hearts are literally the size of a quarter.  There isn't enough space to write a first name on one, let alone anything else.  So luckily I enlisted the talents of a very awesome lady with a Cricut to cut me out some decent sized paper hearts.  Yay!

 

So cute, but WAY too small.

Bridesmaid Swag

I've said it before and I'll say it again.  Being a bridesmaid is the worst.  It's a thankless, expensive, tiring pursuit of nonstop work and even if you are lucky enough to be in the wedding party of a bride who's not batshit crazy, you still want to tear your hair out at the end of it all.  So at the very least, you should walk away with some decent presents.  I bought these bags from The Wedding Shoppe to hold the gifts:

 

These totes are totes awesome.

 

And these robes from Wedding Prep Gals to wear the morning of the wedding:

 

Anything with rhinestones and I'm in.

And not to leave my buddy Grambo out, but he doesn't have any use for a white tote bag or a satin, bedazzled robe (and least I don't think he does).  So I got him this ultra masculine initialed man's toiletry bag:

 

Super manly.

And then I'm going to fill the totes with all kinds of cool gifts!  And probably just fill Graeme's with a bunch of liquor bottles, because that's kinda how we roll.


Sparkle Sparkle

My "something new" is coming from my grandmother (GOB....I guess?) and she graciously offered to buy me my earrings for the big day.  This one was a no-brainer.  To the Swarovski website I went!  Gah....my love for Swarovski knows no bounds.  And when I saw these Talesia drop earrings, I was smitten.  

 

Even the packaging is lovely!  Sigh...

 

 

 

 

Squeeeee!

 

I love sparkly things!


Pillow Schmillow

Again, the idea of the normal white pillow being carried by the ring bearer didn't appeal to me.  I honestly cannot put my finger on why.  It's not that I don't like the pillows.  I like them okay.  I just want to be different.  It's weird!  Anyway, I found this ring box for Matthew to carry that I LOVE, from Flowers and Favors.  It's sleek, it's personalized with our names and wedding date and has a cute little Mr. and Mrs. division in there.  It didn't come without its challenges, because of all the sites I found this on none of them shipped to Canada and I was getting ready to send FOB down to Pembina to pick this up.  But then I got reckless and paid $33 for shipping on the last site I found because some tasks just need to get DONE already.  Like Eric told me, it's a good thing I'm cute.  ;)

 

 

 

Adorbs.

 

That's all for now!  But there is more coming in the mail so stay tuned!  ;)

And just because I'm feeling SO EXCITED because I just came from a dress fitting, here's a peek at the blingy hairpiece I got for my wedding ensemble:

 

Wheeeeeeee!

Happy Wedding Wednesday!!!



~M

Progress!

It feels like I have been in a flurry of wedding planning activity lately!  So I just wanted to give a quick update on some of the progress we've made so far!


For starters, we have booked our reception décor, lighting, invitations and stationery with Ashley from Sweetness Stationery and The Little Linen.  When I went to Ashley's home studio I was amazed at all the beautiful displays she had and her flair for creativity.  And when she told me she can do all those things for my wedding in a one-stop shop, I was sold.  She had so many wonderful ideas, and I just loved her sample invitations.  I know she's going to do an amazing job on our wedding!

 

 

 

I love the way the design flows through every aspect of the wedding...

 

 

Then we went ahead and booked our flowers with Academy Florist.  Lauren was such a lovely person, she too is very creative and you can tell she loves her job a lot.  She taught me a lot about flowers just in the short time I was there!  For example, this is a lisianthus bloom:

 

 

 

It smells divine, it is very floaty and soft looking, and comes in purple!  Aside from roses, carnations and callas, I had no ideas, so it was awesome to look at everything she brought to the table.  They are also going to do all the centerpieces for the reception, and all the ceremony décor, including the flower petals design I love so much!  Squee!

 

 

So pretty and interesting...

 

 

 

Love love love this...it looks so amazing against the plush red carpet of the Convocation Hall!

 

 

 

So now it's onto bridesmaid dress shopping!  The girls and I are going out in a few weeks to check out the Vera Wang line at David's Bridal.  We're going for something in black, fashion forward but not too weird looking, and beyond the shiny satin strapless dress that seems to be all the rage these days.  Definitely excited for this aspect of the planning, because I want my girls to feel as beautiful in their dresses as I do in mine!  Yay!

 

 

 

Short?

 

 

 

Long?

 

 

 

Unique?

 

 

 

Chic?  Love them all.

 



 

 

And finally, I am taking this little doll to D'Ella for flower girl dress shopping soon!  She needs a princess dress to go with her princess shoes! 

 

 

 

Oh, she is going to look so pretty....

 

 

 

...and she is doing so good in dance class!  (Proud Auntie Moment)

 

 

So we have made a lot of progress lately!  Stay tuned because I will be blogging about our fabulous social prizes very soon as well!  And if you don't have your tickets yet, send me a message on Facebook!

 

 

 

Happy Wedding Wednesday!!!

 

 

~M

 

 



Details, Details

So I've been dealing a lot with wedding vendors lately.  I've had countless emails, phone calls, and meetings with all sorts of people regarding our wedding.  It's been hectic dealing with all the vendors, trying to ensure every aspect of the wedding is covered, trying to ensure it all fits in the budget, and making sure everything coordinates together.  I am not even going to lie about my feelings.

I LOVE IT.

Faaaaaabuloussssss!

 

 

I posted a FB status the other day about how my favorite part of wedding planning is meeting with vendors.  For who else can you sit there and talk about the smallest details of your wedding, your vision, your overall theme, how you want ostrich feathers in your bouquet because you feel their uniqueness, texture and movement matches with the soft yet fashion forward quality of your dress, how your 3 year old niece is going to wear a pair of Swarovski crystal-encrusted shoes, and how you prefer pintuck to plain and eggplant to indigo.  And they don't judge you.  They don't try to change the subject.  They don't think any of your ideas are bad or disagree that you should actually send out Save the Date cards because their friend Cindy from work didn't and she regretted it.  They sit and listen as you babble on about your day nonstop, only interrupting to excitedly agree with everything that you've planned and tell you how perfect it is.  I know that they're probably hiding any negative opinions they may have and their primary goal is to get my business and my money, and I don't care.  They are a captive audience and I.  Love.  It.

 

To be truthful, I can tell which vendors love their work and which vendors are going through the motions to make a buck.  I think it takes a special type of person to be involved in the business of weddings, where cash is king and women are crazy.  I have such a respect for vendors that love what they do so much, that putting up with bridezillas week in and week out is worth it to them.  So when looking for people that are going to be in charge of HUGE parts of our special day, personality matters as much as price.

 

 

 

 

"Yes Mickaela, I agree, the vintage trend is SOOOO overdone..."

 

 

So in talking a lot about all these little details, I've come across several (and I mean several) opportunities to spend just a little bit more here, and a little bit more there, to get these extra things, and upgrade to that, etc.  It becomes a little overwhelming to dissect a quote and figure out what's going to mean enough to you to spend the extra cash and what you can do without.  When I'm not sure about those details, I usually use the Google machine to see what other brides have said about it.  In doing so, I found a very interesting article about the top 5 biggest money wasters in wedding planning.  So I thought I'd share that today with some of my thoughts!

 

 

5.  Meaningless and Expensive Wedding Favors.  "Your guests' presence is a present, indeed, but you don't have to pay them back with custom-printed tchotchkes that you might end up lugging home or tossing in the trash."

 

I do agree with this one.  When Eric and I were first looking at favors, we really wanted them to be representative of us and our shared love of wine, and something that our guests would actually use.  But at $6 to $10 a pop, an engraved corkscrew for every guest was putting our budget in the stratosphere.  So we looked at bottle stoppers, glasses, all sorts of things.  But when we finally decided on the cookies that you can read about in this post, it was the perfect fit.  They are Eric's favorite, people love to eat, and with how delicious they are there is less of a chance they will end up left on the table at the end of the night.  But if they are, it's okay because we didn't break the bank.  And fine, maybe we will find a good home for them.  ;)

 

 

 

LOL.  Cookie Monster DOES do that...

 

 

 

4.  The Dress.  "On one hand, it's a once in a lifetime occasion. On the other, it's just that -- once -- that you'll only be wearing your wedding dress, so do you really want to spend a couple of mortgage payments on it?"

Um, YEAH.  Next.

But seriously though, I do understand some people's stance on this.  Yes, you only wear it once.  But while I don't believe that your wedding day is the happiest day of your life (at least I hope it's not!), I DO believe that your wedding dress is the most important garment you will ever wear.  It is also a day where ALL EYES are on you.  So an ill-fitted Kijiji purchased satin disaster will not suffice.  I don't think this is a place to skimp.  A bride should look and feel her best, so I don't think spending a little more is a "waste".  To a point, of course.  When you're just paying for the designer label then yes, it's a waste.  Like this Pnina Tornai monstrosity, which was $34,000..............

 

Mother of God.

 

 

 

3.  Huge Wedding Cakes.  "Some couples only invite 50 guests, but they still order a cake that serves 300. With cakes going for $2-$15 a slice, that extra size adds up quickly."

 

I don't have this problem because my MOB is a Cake Boss and is making us a glorious wedding cake made of dummies, with a real tier on top just for us two.  But even if she wasn't, I still don't think we would be having real cake.  Nobody loves wedding cake.  Nobody walks away from a wedding going, "Damn, that cake was the best damn thing I've ever had in my mouth.  I would get a room with that cake.  I would show that cake a good time."  And now, with most meals served at weddings that include some kind of fancy dessert, there is no need to double-dessert and also serve wedding cake.  So agree.  Big waste of cash.

 

 

 

Am I actually seeing this?

 

 

 

2.  Printed Programs and Menus.  "Everyone there is there for your wedding, and if they don't know who the bride and groom are then they shouldn't be there.  Spend less money telling them what they're going to eat and more money on the actual food!"

 

Okay hold on.  I'm all for cutting costs, but this is going a little far.  Yes everyone that is going to the wedding should have some working knowledge of the bride and groom.  But what about all the other people standing up there?  Hey, who are those chicks in dresses?  How do they know the bride?  Why is there a guy standing on the girls side?  Which one of them is Eric's brother again?  Who is that lady marrying them?  She seems to know them.  Does she know them?  I know Eric's parents, what are Mickaela's parents names?  Wait, who is this MC guy?  How does he know the couple?  If ONLY there were some way of figuring all this out!  Our programs are like $1.75 each or something.  Not a huge price to pay to introduce our guests to all the people that are most important to our day.

 

And menus, well, I like to know what I'm going to eat.  And same thing, they are not that expensive.  I would hardly say this is the #2 money waster!  Unless the menus are being printed on $100 bills.

 

 

 

Come on, this is freakin' cute!  And fun!

 

 

 

1.  Endless Mementos.  "The wedding industry loves to sell you on keepsakes.  Does your wedding album need to be preserved in a 50 pound, leather bound book with a glass cover?  Do you really need a personalized pen to sign the guest book? Is preserving your dress and bouquet worth the money and the space in your home? And does every toasting glass, picture frame, and photo album need to be monogrammed with your wedding date?"

 

I can totally see this one.  Wedding albums especially.  When we were meeting with photographers, they would bring out the big kahuna album to show off all their best prints, and while the album was beautiful and looking at the pictures through my misty bride eyes affected my judgement ($3,000 for a book of pictures of the wedding?  Seems reasonable.) I have to admit that I feel like this is a place where couples get absolutely gouged.  I do want a nice album of our wedding photos and some framed photos of us and some special items to remember the day, but I don't think it needs to go into overdrive with preserving the dress and making your home a shrine to your wedding.  As I said before, I don't think your wedding day should be the happiest day of your life!  It should be all the days after!  I'd rather spend money on more happy days with my boo!

 

 

 

He's going to be horrified that I called him my boo.

 

 

 

Happy Wedding Wednesday!!!

 

 

~M

 



Flower Power

Hello all!  Sorry for the blog hiatus and brevity of today's post.  Eric and I had an absolutely amazing time in Ireland, and now I am playing catch up at work for taking those two weeks off!  If anyone is thinking of a vacation to Ireland, but you are on the fence about it, I strongly recommend you get off the fence right now and get your ass to a travel agent to book the trip.  It's one of the most beautiful places in the world, and it is so fun.  And if you're like me, and you love bread, meat, potatoes and beer....well then it's basically heaven on earth.  :)

<3 this boy.

And now that we are back, it's back to wedding planning!  I took a look at our to-do list of 135 things a couple days ago, and I'm proud to report that we are 34/135 done.  Which doesn't seem like much, but most of the to-do items are like 1 week before the wedding.  There isn't anything that is in the "9 months before" category that isn't done, so I don't feel behind!  Right?  Right?  I SAID.  I DON'T.  FEEL.  BEHIND.

One of the things I'm working on right now and have a couple upcoming appointments for is the flowers.  I'm very excited about flowers, but I'm not excited about how long they last or how much they cost.  I read a lot of wedding websites and watch a lot of wedding shows, and I find people fall into one of two camps:  they either love flowers, insist they must be real for a wedding, and spend a huge chunk of their budget on them, OR they hate flowers and the fact that they die so fast, don't care if they are silk or plastic, and spend barely nothing on them. 

 

Soooo yeah.  Those look natural.

I hate silk flowers.  Like a lot.  What's the point?  You're not fooling anyone.  They don't look like real flowers, as much as some brides like to think they do.  Some brides are like “But if they are silk, they will last forever! And we can use them for other events!  Frugality and sensibility rule!” But honestly, who wants that? Who wants to store a bunch of tall silk centerpieces that will get dusty and smushed and then haul them out again 8 years later for your cousin’s wedding. No thanks.  But while I do prefer real flowers, but I don't want to break the bank.  I see no reason to have big elaborate sprays and huge flowered centerpieces and flowers hanging on every chair and crevice in the place.  But I do appreciate beautiful flowers, and I wanted to share some of my ideas with you!

The first aspect of the flowers is the bouquets and the boutonnieres. I want them to be subtle and complement the wedding party, and not draw too much attention away from my lovely ladies and handsome men.  Since our wedding "color" (if you can call it that) is purple, that limits our choices of flowers.  I do love me the purple calla lily though.  It's dark, dramatic, elegant and gorgeous. 

 

Something like that for the ladies...

...and I like these for the men!  But that will be up to Eric.  :)

As for my bouquet, I definitely want it to be white, no color at all.  And without giving away too many details, I want the bouquet to match my dress.  The dress I chose is a little more fashion forward, more couture looking, and a bit more unique than your average shiny white satin bridal gown.  So I want a unique bouquet as well!  Something that I really love for the bridal bouquet is feathers!  Not too many, but just a little fluff to add some texture.  I also love the little blingy inserts that go into bouquets.  Bling it on.

 

 

 

Love these bouquets!  So floaty and romantic.

 

 

 

 

I could do without the orange roses, but I love that little sparkle!

 

 

As for the centerpieces and other floral decorations, I am hoping to find a florist that will just do everything.  I have learned from all these appointments that the fewer vendors I have to deal with, the better.  I even found a girl that does reception décor, lighting, invitations and stationery!  4 in 1!  When she told me all she offers, I wanted to hug her right then and there.  So I'm hoping our florist will also bring centerpiece vases and all that other stuff, and also bring the vases and flowers from the ceremony space to the reception space and just basically be awesome.

 

 

Love the idea of lilies in a tall vase...

 

 

I'm also hoping to find a florist that can do this at the ceremony space, instead of us having an aisle runner:

 

 

 

LOVE THIS.  So gorgeous and romantic!

 



 

 

And since my blogs aren't complete without just a hint of snark, here are some wedding flowers I'm not such a fan of!

 

 

 

Baby's breath and red roses.  Just no.  Unless it's 1989.

 

 

 

Weirdo mangled stick centerpieces.  I don't get it!  It reminds me of the dead of winter.

 

 

 

Big old hipster flowered head wreaths.  Why.  Just why.

 

 

 

 

Brooch bouquets.  Ew.  And I hate the word "brooch". 

 

 

 

And that's all for today folks! 

 

 

Happy Wedding Wednesday!!!

 

 

 

~M

 

Deco Disaster

I have been working on the decorations for the venue and ceremony space as my next wedding task, and I've been finding this one a little more difficult than everything I've encountered so far.  With the venue, ceremony space, photographer, videographer, and dress decision, it's pretty cut and dry.  You like it, you buy it.  You don't, you keep looking.

But with decorations, it's becoming a month long process now with no end in sight.  Research different deco ideas online.  Contact a few different decoration providers.  Wait five days for anyone to get back to you.  Receive form letter response email with standard pricing and few details.  Email back asking for more specifics.  Wait five days for anyone to get back to you.  Receive another response with vague information, mostly focusing on how they can't accommodate your requests but they do partner with this other business that you should contact to get half your services from, and they will provide the rest.  ARGH!  I just want some decorations!  I'm just like...

 

I'm pretty sure this is why people hire a wedding planner.  The thought of bringing all these different moving pieces together to form a seamless presentation to the guests on the wedding day is starting to feel super overwhelming.  So I'm at home on the computer thinking about how I am ever going to make sure that Centerpiece Rental Business A arrives before Florist B both of which have to arrive after Deco Company C but stay out of the way of Lighting Man D so he can set up the cake spotlight for Cake Lady E who also happens to be the MOB who will be dealing with Relatives F, G, H and I who Printing Company J needs the correct spelling of names for the seating plan which we can't finalize until we receive RSVPs for the invites that Invitation Printer K hasn't started yet, because I want those to match the decoration theme but I want quotes from Deco Company L and M first before going with Deco Company C. 

And I'm all...

 

And meanwhile my cat is flomped beside me thinking...

I've also found that each business that deals in some way with providing wedding services has their selling strategy down pat.  This involves one key point and that is, "make the bride feel like her wedding is going to be a crappy piece of shit ugly horrible event unless she buys the most expensive package".  And I'm like....

Case in point, Eric and I decided that some uplighting would look nice at the Millennium Centre.  You know, create some ambience, tie in the color scheme, all that jazz.  I'm looking at all these great photos on Pinterest of uplit rooms and I'm all...

 

 

 

 

So then after the aforementioned runaround I get from the deco company that says they don't do lights but they partner with this other light guy, I contact him and he sends me this pricing structure (paraphrased from actual pricing structure):

 

 

Package 1:  $295

Includes:  Don't even bother asking.  If you're looking at this package, you should just forget about the whole thing.

 

Package 2:  $595

Includes:  Okay I guess I'll talk to you, even though I don't need your business or your measly 600 bucks.  You'll get a couple lights, but all your guests will leave early because your wedding will suck.  Also I'll be turning them off and taking them home at 9:30 pm.  And I won't shower before I come and do that.

 

Package 3:  $1,095

Includes:  10 wall lights (keep in mind this isn't enough to make an impact on the room, but it's your wedding), Custom monogram display of your initials (obviously this is a MUST so do not even THINK about saying you don't need one), a cake spotlight (but judging by how much you're considering spending on lighting I don't even want to imagine what your cake looks like so maybe you shouldn't put a spotlight on it) and set up (showering) fees.

 

PACKAGE 4!  BEST DEAL!  EXTREME SAVINGS!  $2,495

Includes:  40 amazing lights that change color throughout the night!  3 intelligent moving spotlights that follow the bride throughout the night and only shine on her good side!  Wall texture lights!  Dance floor lights!  Ceiling and draping lights!  Custom made monogram and family crest lights!  Lighting controller!  Lightning technician!  No, those are not the same thing!   We will work with you and design the most beautifully lit space your mind could ever imagine!  After all, it's your wedding day!  You're worth it, beautiful!

 

 

And that can pretty much be applied to any wedding service there is. I read it, and I'm all...

 

 

But, I'm not going to let this get me down.  I'm determined that I can find gorgeous decorations and lighting that will fit my budget and all my guests will be all...

And I'll be like...

Happy Wedding Wednesday!!!

~M