One of the requirements of getting married in a church is that we have to attend a marriage retreat where we'll be discussing a variety of topics related to being married, including sexuality, money, family, etc. It's to designed to get us talking about the "big" issues and make sure we're on the same page for our future together. This is in addition to the PMI (pre-marital inventory) test that we took back in January and scored 93% on it. Fr. Mark pointed out that we are one of the oldest (or did he said oddest....) of the 8 couples going to the retreat so it's not surprising that we scored so high. One of the other couples at the marriage retreat scored 20%. I can't wait to meet them tonight....
I just hope we're not stuck with any real churchy people.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Engagement photos
Our fabulous photographer Chelsey included engagement photos as part of her photography services for the wedding. Since it was included in the price, it'd be stupid not to do it! We agreed that after Christmas would be better, and then I got busy in January with my defense and my thesis revisions, and then the weather turned horrible, and then...well, there was always something that would come up. So, I emailed Chelsey and said "How about next weekend? Let's hope that the weather is nice." It was a random weekend that the three of us were free, so we met at Kil-Cona park, just off the Harbour View Golf Course in Transcona. The photo session was surprisingly fun. Chelsey's really laid back so we could just be goofy. I didn't really want lots of stylized posed photos of us looking awkward. I'd rather us look like us, so we have pictures of him throwing snowballs at me, me slipping on the ice and him "helping" me up (but more like pushing me around), me jumping on him for a piggy-back ride, playing on the swingsets, etc etc. She had some great ideas too, so we brought out mugs of hot coffee had close-up pictures of us canoodling in a tree with the steam coming out of the cups. I haven't got the proofs yet, but I'm sure that in the hour that we were knee-deep in snow, she managed to get a few pictures of us that don't make us look too dorky! One of the neatest things was the frozen pond next to the club house. The ice was perfectly clear and there were sections where a column of bubbles had frozen in the ice. Chelsey took photos of the frozen bubbles with my ring on top. I can't wait to see that picture!
The reason we drove across the city to go to Kil-Cona was that it was the site of our first "real" date. Not that we hadn't gone out on a date, but our first date was to Pizza Hut and renting movies from Blockbuster, and having a bbq at Derek and Faith's house for his birthday. Going to Kil-Cona park was our first romantic, out in public, new couple in love, afternoon together. Here's a pic from that afternoon taken in the paddleboat with his cellphone camera. Paddleboating with someone that can squat 200lbs isn't easy. The boat keeps going in circles!! :)
The reason we drove across the city to go to Kil-Cona was that it was the site of our first "real" date. Not that we hadn't gone out on a date, but our first date was to Pizza Hut and renting movies from Blockbuster, and having a bbq at Derek and Faith's house for his birthday. Going to Kil-Cona park was our first romantic, out in public, new couple in love, afternoon together. Here's a pic from that afternoon taken in the paddleboat with his cellphone camera. Paddleboating with someone that can squat 200lbs isn't easy. The boat keeps going in circles!! :)
Monday, January 26, 2009
And the winning continues!!
One of Brendon's tasks in helping with the wedding plans was to find the dj. At the wedding show, I picked up many brochures from different djs around town. Topps music was one of the booths I'd stopped at had a contest to find the hidden link on their website and email the secret code to their webmaster. The first email in to their office on Jan 25th wins free dj services at the wedding. He had everything ready ahead of time and found the website that tells the exact time. At 12:00:02, he hit send.
AND WE WON!!
Very exciting!!! Ron, the dj, called right away and I babbled incoherently about how happy we were to win this! Ron told us that people had been emailing 6 or 7 times trying to win. Brendon sends in one email and we win!
So my $15 investment into the wedding show has netted us a free dinner for two at Pineridge Hollow and a free dj. For all the craziness, the show was worth it!
AND WE WON!!
Very exciting!!! Ron, the dj, called right away and I babbled incoherently about how happy we were to win this! Ron told us that people had been emailing 6 or 7 times trying to win. Brendon sends in one email and we win!
So my $15 investment into the wedding show has netted us a free dinner for two at Pineridge Hollow and a free dj. For all the craziness, the show was worth it!
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
I'll try not to rant too much...
I joined a group of friends at the annual Wonderful Wedding Show on the weekend and I have to say, it's more crazy, more intense, more crowded, and more surreal than you can even possibly imagine. I wish I could have taken a picture of the throngs of people surging through the Convention Centre, pushing and shoving to get brochures and enter draws for the free stuff. By the end of the three day show, over 10,000 people had gone through (at $14.50 per person) the main doors and into wedding craziness. It really was bedlam with laser shows, djs blasting music, PA announcements for prize winners (including me!!), girls running around in ball gowns and wedding dresses, getting accosted left-right-&-center by salespeople vying for your attention. At some points, I said to Kathy "I'm starting to feel anxious and claustrophobic". It really was overwhelming the number of people and the amount of noise!
I went Kathy and with another bride, her fiancee, her three other bridesmaids, our shared maid of honour, one of her flower girls, and I think a sister(?). Kathy and I had a plan. We mapped a route (counter clockwise). We synchronized our watches and took off, ditching the rest of them to manage on their own. Sorry, it's evil to ditch, but a necessary evil when you're in crowds that rival a Bejing marketplace.
I needed to find a dj and a florist. It occured to me about half way through that Brendon might want to wear a tuxedo, so I picked up brochures for him. I entered contests at many displays, hoping to win something else. We were done seeing everything in about three hours. Exhausted, sore, bruised, and hungry, we flopped into the chairs and tucked in for the fashion show. The fashion show was entertaining, and not in the "Oooooh ahhhh" good way. It might have been the low blood sugar and the blistered feet that brought out the snark in me, but I know I said "Oh sweet merciful crap, what the???" more than once. We had to keep the language PG because there were kids around in earshot. The highlight of the fashion show...ok, the two highlights for me, were 1) the extra long veils and skirts that kept getting stepped on or stuck onto the runway and watching the models trip and get yanked backwards while maintaining a fake smile. And 2) the overly tanned, silicon enhance, pouty model trying to "strike a pose" at the end of the runway which may work if she wasn't wearing 40lbs of crinolins and satin and lace. It's hard to jut out a hip and look all Tyra Banks ANTM when your dress walks into a room 5 minutes before you do!!
After getting home, I dumped out my goody bag of brochures, recycled 90% of them and kept the info on djs. There weren't very many florists there, but I did get a chance to see House of Silk's bouquets. What I want, a simple daisy/sunflower bouquet, is about $160 at one of the florists. House of Silk was $38. Our $200 budget for bouquets/corsages/boutonneires (sp?) is really tight so House of Silk might be a viable, but still gorgeous, option. Kevin and Jamie used their services and Jamie raves about how realistic and beautiful her bouquet was. Hmmmm, something to ponder.... We have to decorate the church and if we decide to go with flowers for the church, they have to be alive and stay at the church afterwards. I don't know what we're supposed to do. I'm planning on wearing my mother-in-law's veil during the ceremony, but remove it for the reception and replace it with flowers in my hair. Live flowers may not survive a night on the dance floor but silk ones will!
The upside to the show is threefold for me....
1) All the vendors you can possibly think of are under one roof. It's one stop shopping but it's easier if you have only a few things you want to look for. It's not the perfect place when you're indecisive or thinking you can plan for everything all at once.
2) I met a financial advisor and we're meeting her next week to discuss retirement planning strategies. It seems dumb to some people, but long-term financial well being is more important to me than $160 bouquet I'm supposed to (but not) throw away at the end of the night!
3) I won a door prize for a dinner for the two of us at Pineridge Hollow in Oakbank, which will be lovely in summer when their massive gardens are in full bloom. Very romantic!
We're going to premarital counselling next month. I'll post more on that later. Should be fun. We're the oldest couple going (ugh) but also, according to Fr Mark, the best matched. Can't wait to see the young, poorly matched couples!!
I went Kathy and with another bride, her fiancee, her three other bridesmaids, our shared maid of honour, one of her flower girls, and I think a sister(?). Kathy and I had a plan. We mapped a route (counter clockwise). We synchronized our watches and took off, ditching the rest of them to manage on their own. Sorry, it's evil to ditch, but a necessary evil when you're in crowds that rival a Bejing marketplace.
I needed to find a dj and a florist. It occured to me about half way through that Brendon might want to wear a tuxedo, so I picked up brochures for him. I entered contests at many displays, hoping to win something else. We were done seeing everything in about three hours. Exhausted, sore, bruised, and hungry, we flopped into the chairs and tucked in for the fashion show. The fashion show was entertaining, and not in the "Oooooh ahhhh" good way. It might have been the low blood sugar and the blistered feet that brought out the snark in me, but I know I said "Oh sweet merciful crap, what the???" more than once. We had to keep the language PG because there were kids around in earshot. The highlight of the fashion show...ok, the two highlights for me, were 1) the extra long veils and skirts that kept getting stepped on or stuck onto the runway and watching the models trip and get yanked backwards while maintaining a fake smile. And 2) the overly tanned, silicon enhance, pouty model trying to "strike a pose" at the end of the runway which may work if she wasn't wearing 40lbs of crinolins and satin and lace. It's hard to jut out a hip and look all Tyra Banks ANTM when your dress walks into a room 5 minutes before you do!!
After getting home, I dumped out my goody bag of brochures, recycled 90% of them and kept the info on djs. There weren't very many florists there, but I did get a chance to see House of Silk's bouquets. What I want, a simple daisy/sunflower bouquet, is about $160 at one of the florists. House of Silk was $38. Our $200 budget for bouquets/corsages/boutonneires (sp?) is really tight so House of Silk might be a viable, but still gorgeous, option. Kevin and Jamie used their services and Jamie raves about how realistic and beautiful her bouquet was. Hmmmm, something to ponder.... We have to decorate the church and if we decide to go with flowers for the church, they have to be alive and stay at the church afterwards. I don't know what we're supposed to do. I'm planning on wearing my mother-in-law's veil during the ceremony, but remove it for the reception and replace it with flowers in my hair. Live flowers may not survive a night on the dance floor but silk ones will!
The upside to the show is threefold for me....
1) All the vendors you can possibly think of are under one roof. It's one stop shopping but it's easier if you have only a few things you want to look for. It's not the perfect place when you're indecisive or thinking you can plan for everything all at once.
2) I met a financial advisor and we're meeting her next week to discuss retirement planning strategies. It seems dumb to some people, but long-term financial well being is more important to me than $160 bouquet I'm supposed to (but not) throw away at the end of the night!
3) I won a door prize for a dinner for the two of us at Pineridge Hollow in Oakbank, which will be lovely in summer when their massive gardens are in full bloom. Very romantic!
We're going to premarital counselling next month. I'll post more on that later. Should be fun. We're the oldest couple going (ugh) but also, according to Fr Mark, the best matched. Can't wait to see the young, poorly matched couples!!
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Happy New Year!
Hoping that everyone had a wonderful holiday and celebrated in their own way with the people they love! Cheers!
Friday, December 19, 2008
So unique that everyone's got it!
I made my final payment on my dress yesterday (yes, I braved the -40 windchills and ventured outside to pay it off!). I was so pleased when I picked the dress because, as the salesperson assured me that my dress was unique, original, the only one they have like this, "designer" (though I can't remember which designer is it, not that it matters), and is only carried by their store ;-) ;-)
Once I bought my dress, I immediately went online to find dresses similar to it so I could show people what it looks like. Well, I couldn't. Not that I didn't try, really I did. Brendon can attest to the fact that I spent more time online on wedding dress website after I bought it, than before. And he still catches me looking online! But I couldn't find ANYTHING like it at all anywhere. That made me feel great! The dress really was original and unique!
Yeah, I've got a great big "SUCKER" written across my face now. I've started seeing dresses like mine all over the place now. The feature of the dress that I liked the most, which is the asymmetrical drop waist and the halter top making my torso look 9' long, is everywhere. And I mean EVERYWHERE! I can't go past a single wedding dress store in the Downtown (in the eyeglass and wedding dress district, not to be confused with the hammock district...) without some type of copy of my dress in each display window. So much for unique and *only* being carried at their store! (If you're really dying to know what my dress looks like, the closest I can find online is Mori Lee style 4507. It's not exactly the same but it's pretty damn close.)
On the upside, I am glad that the "Baked Alaska" look
is slowly disappearing from stores. Some people (like Rilla) can pull off this look, but not me.
My sister comes home today (assuming the blizzard in Toronto isn't too bad) so at some point in her vacation, we may go to the store and try on the dress again letting her, my mom and my nieces have a look since the only people that know what it looks like are Kathy, me, Liane and my saleswoman. And since I switched to a new cell phone last month, I don't even have a grainy blurry pic to show off.
Once I bought my dress, I immediately went online to find dresses similar to it so I could show people what it looks like. Well, I couldn't. Not that I didn't try, really I did. Brendon can attest to the fact that I spent more time online on wedding dress website after I bought it, than before. And he still catches me looking online! But I couldn't find ANYTHING like it at all anywhere. That made me feel great! The dress really was original and unique!
Yeah, I've got a great big "SUCKER" written across my face now. I've started seeing dresses like mine all over the place now. The feature of the dress that I liked the most, which is the asymmetrical drop waist and the halter top making my torso look 9' long, is everywhere. And I mean EVERYWHERE! I can't go past a single wedding dress store in the Downtown (in the eyeglass and wedding dress district, not to be confused with the hammock district...) without some type of copy of my dress in each display window. So much for unique and *only* being carried at their store! (If you're really dying to know what my dress looks like, the closest I can find online is Mori Lee style 4507. It's not exactly the same but it's pretty damn close.)
On the upside, I am glad that the "Baked Alaska" look
is slowly disappearing from stores. Some people (like Rilla) can pull off this look, but not me.My sister comes home today (assuming the blizzard in Toronto isn't too bad) so at some point in her vacation, we may go to the store and try on the dress again letting her, my mom and my nieces have a look since the only people that know what it looks like are Kathy, me, Liane and my saleswoman. And since I switched to a new cell phone last month, I don't even have a grainy blurry pic to show off.
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Theme song?
We've booked our photographer, the beautiful and insanely talented Chelsey Goodman of XOX photography. She also happens to have a MSc in Medical Microbiology... some people are just too ambitious eh?
Our next step is to find a dj, so I was online looking at different dj's in the city, which lead to websites on the top wedding songs , which lead to websites on just how many songs we're supposed to dance to. There's the First Dance Song, the dance with our wedding party, my dance with my dad, his with his mom, one for cutting the cake, another for when he throws my garter (which we're not doing), yet another when I'm throwing my bouquet (which we're also not doing), and apparently, another song when my maid of honour (Jenny) and the best man (Derek) are supposed to go around collecting money from all our guests to help us pay for our honeymoon. Huh? The last one is where I just started laughing. That's a ridiculous number of songs for us to be on the dance floor before the party's supposed to start!
Now we're discussing what our "First Dance Song" should be. We don't have an "our song". It's not like we met at the bar and this was playing in the background. We had our first kiss at work in the loading docks so there wasn't any music there either! We have to find something we both like, and that's proving to be a bit difficult.
His favourite song of all time is Threat Signal's "When all is said and done". Go ahead, click the link...ummm yeah, you can see why that's not going to be a particularly good "First Dance Song". I like bands like BNL, GBS, and Blue Rodeo so my pick would be something like "Dark Angel". Course, I'm a sucker for love songs so Josh Radin's "Today" and Amanda Marshall's "Marry Me" are on my list too. He's veto'd all my songs so far (booo!) saying they all sound like soundtracks to a bad teen romance movie! :-(
So far, the only one we can agree on is Nickelback's newest song "Never Gonna be alone". I have a feeling that it's going to be a very popular song when it's *officially* released on the radio.
We still have 10 months to decide, but it may take that long to come up with something we can both live with! LOL
Our next step is to find a dj, so I was online looking at different dj's in the city, which lead to websites on the top wedding songs , which lead to websites on just how many songs we're supposed to dance to. There's the First Dance Song, the dance with our wedding party, my dance with my dad, his with his mom, one for cutting the cake, another for when he throws my garter (which we're not doing), yet another when I'm throwing my bouquet (which we're also not doing), and apparently, another song when my maid of honour (Jenny) and the best man (Derek) are supposed to go around collecting money from all our guests to help us pay for our honeymoon. Huh? The last one is where I just started laughing. That's a ridiculous number of songs for us to be on the dance floor before the party's supposed to start!
Now we're discussing what our "First Dance Song" should be. We don't have an "our song". It's not like we met at the bar and this was playing in the background. We had our first kiss at work in the loading docks so there wasn't any music there either! We have to find something we both like, and that's proving to be a bit difficult.
His favourite song of all time is Threat Signal's "When all is said and done". Go ahead, click the link...ummm yeah, you can see why that's not going to be a particularly good "First Dance Song". I like bands like BNL, GBS, and Blue Rodeo so my pick would be something like "Dark Angel". Course, I'm a sucker for love songs so Josh Radin's "Today" and Amanda Marshall's "Marry Me" are on my list too. He's veto'd all my songs so far (booo!) saying they all sound like soundtracks to a bad teen romance movie! :-(
So far, the only one we can agree on is Nickelback's newest song "Never Gonna be alone". I have a feeling that it's going to be a very popular song when it's *officially* released on the radio.
We still have 10 months to decide, but it may take that long to come up with something we can both live with! LOL
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