One week to go!

The big day is next Saturday! I can't believe how fast time flies! Our families are starting to arrive, and all the final details are falling into place.

Here are some of the things that will be a part of our special day!

Our "welcome" sign for the ceremony:

I went through a lot of pins before I finally decided on this program.

We also have fans for our guests during the ceremony.

I ordered a 5 pound bag of M&Ms in purple and green, but what arrived was 25 pounds, that's right, TWENTY-FIVE pounds of gold, cream, and pink M&Ms. I called M&Ms and it was easily rectified. My correct order was mailed and received within 5 days.

I also bought jelly beans and sour keys from Costco, and macarons from Gourmand Macaron for our dessert bar.

The aisle cones were initially inspired by this pin. I toyed with the idea of using burlap to make the cones, but after talking to experts at the fabric store, I decided it would be easiest to use paper. The instructions for the cones can be found here.

A few months ago, we made these signs for the reception.

Here are our wedding favours! They are 2 oz. jars of honey from a local beekeeper, Mellifera Bees. We got the jars from Michaels, and the honey is flavoured with cardamom and cloves. We had the stickers printed in China when we made our invitations.

We have over 100 twine flowers ready to go. I'm still not sure what they will be used for, but I trust that my day-of coordinator, and decorator will find some use for them.

I have pictures in their frames ready for the mantle at Hillside. We used some pictures from our childhood, and also a couple from our engagement shoot.

I ordered our burlap table runners from Debbie Jordan on Etsy. They are packed, and labeled.

I always knew that we need a hashtag for our wedding. We decided to go with #mcwedding13. I bought a chalkboard to display our hashtag, and while I was researching creative ways to write on the chalkbard, I came cross this amazing post! So of course I had to use the templates provided!

We have our wedding bands, marriage license, dresses, suits, shoes, accessories, and.....I don't even know!

There are so many other things going on in my head, that I can barely keep track. I just keep looking over my list of things to bring and hope that I won't forget anything.

We bought a lot of our smaller items, like the honey jars, fans, and paper for the aisle cones, from Michaels. That said, NEVER pay full price at Michaels. Download their app, and there are coupons every week. Also, keep an eye out for their flyers, there are always coupons there too. I was able to find most of our frames and chalkboard from HomeSense.

I taught myself Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator so I can save some money on the programs. I designed the whole thing, saved it as a PDF, and sent it to a local printer to print. They came out to $1.50 each, with 10 pages.

How do you keep track of everything for your big day?

xoxo
~meesh

Engagement pictures are done! FINALLY!

We've been engaged for over a year now, and we JUST got our engagement pictures done. We didn't book Justin from Three Sixty Photography until June last year, and by them he was knee deep in wedding season. We thought about doing our photos during Winter, but we're not really winter people.

It was a beautiful morning when I went out to get my hair and makeup done. My regular hairstylist needs a couple months notice, and we booked our date so late, I had to find a "random". I was debating between Blo or Holt Renfrew Salon. Since the prices were pretty much the same, I decided to go with Holt's. I was not disappointed! By the time I finished hair and makeup, which took about two hours, the skies were beginning to cloud over. By the time we got to our first location, 49th Parallel, it was a MASSIVE downpour. At least we were inside was all I could say. Justin made us feel so comfortable, and he was able to make Chris laugh, which is no easy feat. When we were done at 49th Parallel, it was still pouring rain. But we decided to go on with our second location anyway, Queen Elizabeth Park. I'm so glad we decided to keep going because by the time we arrived, it had stopped raining, and was just slightly overcast, which is the perfect lighting for photographs!

We received about 100 photos to print, and share as we wished. Here are a few of our favourites!

Here are the obligatory "engagement photo" poses for the family.

Do you know what to look for in a photographer? Check out my previous post!

xoxo
~meesh

Engage Wedding Show at The Vancouver Club

I was lucky enough to get free tickets to go to Engage, The Bridal Show, at The Vancouver Club on Jan. 20th. It was the best wedding show I have ever been to. Upon entry, we were greeted by flowers, particularly orchids, EVERYWHERE! I had never seen so many orchid arrangements!

After browsing the florists in the main lobby, we headed to the fashion show right away. The show was hosted by Blush Bridal in West Vancouver. I didn't get very good pictures with my little camera phone. Here is a picture from Blush's Facebook page.

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Sweet Pea Photography has almost 100 pictures of the show on their Facebook page! You have to check it out! It was hard to pick just one that I loved, but I definitely like the sheer, sparkly top of this dress:

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I'm still looking for a dress for the reception. I was just going to buy a white dress from wherever, maybe from BCBG or something, but I decided I should go shopping for a short wedding dress after seeing this one.

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The dress is just so adorable!! AAAH

Okay, moving on. We went upstairs to the Grand Ballroom where we were greeted by some lovely caviar and champagne. Check out this ice bar. There are orchids IN the ice!

We then moved on to see what the various vendors had prepared. I couldn't get over how elaborate all the flower arrangements were.

Check out these gorgeous cakes by Anna Elizabeth Cakes! The flowers are all made of sugar!

Here's the AMAZING dessert bar! Everything was pink! I love it! There were cakes by Ganache Patisserie, Anna Elizabeth Cakes, Beta 5 Chocolates, cotton candy (clearly), nanaimo bars, pink ombre cake, carrot cake cupcakes, and so many others. It was delicious!

 We followed up desserts with a free mini manicure from Luxe Beauty Lounge. Check out the colour I chose: Don't Give a Rotterdam

Lastly, we got our pictures taken by The Collective You. They're kind of like a photo booth, but with a real photographer, and an editor that will touch up your picture right away. They pictures are then printed, and guests can take them as keepsakes, or the guests can write a message to the wedding couple as a sort of guest book. Super cool idea. We took a bunch of pictures, but only this one was printed. I really would love to see the "outtakes".

All in all, I had a blast at this show. I think we ended up spending 3 hours here. I've never spent 3 hours at a wedding show before. If you get a chance to go next year, DO IT!

Engaged...sort of

So it’s been almost 6 years, and we’re almost 30. There was no romantic set-up leading to our [sort of] engagement. We discussed a few years ago that Cal was ready to get married when he was 30. Let’s back up a bit here…..

Cal and I met (supposedly) at a driver’s ed course when we were 16. I still have no recollection of this. The first time I remember meeting him was at a mutual friend’s party a year later. We kept in touch over the years, and started dating in our 20’s. We dated for about a year and a half, and called it quits. But alas, we got back together 6 months later. We discussed marriage back then, and agreed that we were committed to each other for the long haul. The only hiccup - Cal didn’t want to get married until he was 30…meaning until I was 30 too.

Anyway, we were celebrating our 29th birthdays (our birthdays are within 2 weeks of each other - hence the same driver’s ed course - allegedly), and the “M” word came up again. I was pushing for an answer…or a question I guess, and all I got was an affirmation that we will get married soon.

I let it go at that. After 5 years, I knew when to pick my battles. However, we were at the weekly Sunday family dinner with Cal’s family, and our conversation came up. His family said his re-affirmation of his commitment means that we’re engaged….so here we are a few months later, no ring, and kind of engaged.

My goal for this blog is to detail the details of planning the lead up to the engagement and also the wedding. Along with other things that are going on in my life.

xoxo
- gossip girl…? naaaah

- Meesh