It's so good it's a monopound.

Get it? Because an imperial pound is bigger than a metric gram? So we have a monopound which is greater than a monogram. Too far? Ok, moving on..

I present you with our monogram:

Or sans damask, for applications where the background won't work:

Awesome, right? We created the monograms using Copperplate Gothic Light for the R and N (a standard font from MS word) and the font English for the C (a font from dafont.com). I'm super happy with the end result.

Have you considered making a wedding monogram? Where did you look for inspiration?

"My rule is, if it's not moving, monogram it." - Reese Witherspoon

Before I started planning my wedding, I didn't really understand the appeal of monograms. Why put your name on everything you own? Isn't that something you do when you go to summer camp to avoid losing your socks and underwear? It all seemed a little too pretentious for me.

My opinion of monograms has certainly changed as the wedding planning experience has progressed. In a never-ending attempt to make my wedding scream me, I've realized that monograms are pretty awesome. In fact, I have realized I want (no, need) to make a monogram to adorn items such as our programs, OOT bags, menus, pumpkins and table runners...you know, pretty much everything that doesn't move (oh Reese, how right you are).

Once I decided I wanted a monogram, it was to the interweb for inspiration. Some of my favourite designs follow.

I like this one a lot (it's simple, yet elegant), full names in the foreground and the last initial in the background.

Image via Pink Frosting

Or, to go with our damask theme, what about this beauty:

Image via Pink Design Events

We could also go with just the letter of our new last name (and some very ornate borders):

Image via Documents and Designs

Or our full first names and no last initial:

Image via With This Ring Weddings

Or finally, we could opt for the most traditional monogram, the 3-letter design:

Image via Jennifer Alison Studios

Yeeee! I love monograms. My FH and I couldn't afford to have one commissioned, so we opted to create one ourselves using free fonts from dafont.com and good ol' Microsoft Word. You'll have to wait to see the finished product, but I assure you it's fabulous.

Is it weird that my views on many wedding related ideas (i.e. monograms) are changing as the planning process goes on?

When there are no words to say.

Last night, something tragic happened. One of my best friends (also one of my bridesmaids) lost a parent. Her mother passed away after dealing with a serious illness for the past month.

I feel completely helpless.

I don't know what to tell my friend that can ever console her. I know she is destroyed, and I'm not sure how she is going to pick up the pieces and carry on.

I do know that I will be the best friend I can possibly be. I will be there for her when she needs to talk, and I'll sit beside her in silence when she just needs to think. I will show her that she's loved by all of those around her, and I'll attempt to help her find the courage to deal with this tragedy.

Who's the (cake) boss?

As I admitted in a previous post, I adore cake shows. As a result, I adore cakes. As a result, I took a cake decorating course, bought tons of cake decorating books and now decorate cakes like it's my job (which it's not, I'm a chemist, remember?).

Since FH and I are baking and decorating our own wedding cake, I thought I'd show you some examples of cakes we've made in the past. Hopefully this eases your fears (and perhaps my own) and makes you realize that my DIY wedding cake will be awesome.

I present you with some of our cakes:

 BM C's going away cake (fondant)

FH's aunt's 60th birthday cake (our first tiered cake)

My dad's 60th birthday cake (buttercream/fondant)

FH's chemistry research group cake (fondant)

 

 Annual cottage trip cake (buttercream)

FH's friend's (he's a paramedic) birthday cake (fondant)

Summer BBQ cake (fondant border)

My own birthday cake (buttercream)

Thanksgiving / My mom's 60th cake (ganache and fondant)

My sister's birthday cake (buttercream)

Do you think a DIY wedding cake is crazy? Or do you think we (the cake bosses) have it under control?

The Invites, Part One.

It's about that time when we need to start worrying about the invitations.

I'm excited to start another DIY project, but also a little apprehensive. I mean, invites are the be-all and end-all of wedding stationary, right? To start out, we purchased an invitation kit...

Image via Gartner Brides

I know, you're shocked and horrified that I'd do such a thing. I'm such a bad DIY bride. But, in my defense, they're really nice invites and we're going to add things to the invitation suite to make them our own, and we wanted pocket invites but that wasn't in our budget unless we bought a kit, and you'll soon see they're great.

The first order of business was to determine the wording for the actual invite. Easy, right? Not so much. You see, we're footing the majority of the bill for our wedding, but both sets of parents are contributing a solid amount to the budget. Also, our wedding isn't overly formal, and neither are we. That seems to make things more difficult. I can't use the traditional "Mr. and Mrs. Bride request the honour of your presence at the marriage of their daughter Ms. Bride to Mr. Groom..."

So, what can I use? Here are some examples of wording that could work:

Together with their families

Bride Name

and

Groom Name

request the honour of your presence

at their marriage...

Mr. and Mrs. Bride Parents
and

Mr. and Mrs. Groom Parents

request the honour of your presence

at the marriage of their children

Bride Name and Groom Name...

Miss Bride
and

Mr. Groom

together with their parents

request the favour of your presence

at their marriage...

Or for something more unique:

We joyfully invite you to our wedding celebration.

On this day we will marry the one

we laugh with, live for, dream with, love.

Please join

Bride Name

and

Groom Name

with our parents...

This day I will marry my best friend,

the one I laugh with, live for, dream with, love

Bride Name

and

Groom Name

together with their parents,

invite you to share in the joy and

celebration of their marriage

and the joining of their families...

Love was meant to be shared

with parents, family and friends

Bride Name and Groom Name

together with our parents

Mr. and Mrs. Bride Parents and

Mr. and Mrs. Groom Parents

Invite you to share our celebration

of lifelong love and commitment

in the ceremony uniting us in marriage...

I'm kind of torn when it comes to the invitation wording. I prefer the less formal, more unique versions, but I'm not sure how much text will fit nicely on our invite cards.

Do you think the invitation wording sets the tone for the wedding? Or do you think it will generally go unnoticed?

I'm STD free

Well, it finally happened, we sent out the save-the-dates.

They took way longer to put together than I ever anticipated. But, in the end I am extremely proud of the result.

The entire process started with my FH and I conducting our own photo shoot in the stairwell of the building where we met. We used a timer to take the shots, and after 2+ hours we had some usable images. Here's an example:

I didn't want to use the full colour images, so my FH used photo shop to convert the image to black and white (leaving the brightly coloured wall behind us in all its orange glory). The orange backdrop was what brought us to use the stair well in the first place - it matches our colour scheme!

We attached the photos to the front of the card stock using photo adhesive squares. We stamped the card stock using our save-the-date stamp and white embossing powder, and then heated the embossing powder with a heat gun such that we were left with a perfectly embossed image. We were going to finish here, but I realized that the front of the card didn't indicate for whom they were saving the date. So, using a nice big hole punch, we created circles that contained our names, wedding location and date. 

 (Names blurred for privacy)

Inside we typed our save-the-date poem in a great font (called Just Another Stamp) that we downloaded from dafont.com and attached two stickers we made (that were inspired by the great Martha Stewart). 

We didn't do anything fancy with the envelopes - we decided we'd save that for the actual invites. Instead, we just used address labels that were made snazzier with some free damask clip art that we found online.

So here's the final STD:

 All images in the post are taken by me.

I'm excited to be free of these save-the-dates. It's so nice to be able to cross items off of our long DIY list.

Is it strange to be happy to be free of the save-the-dates? Shouldn't I be sad to see them go?

Flower Power

Image via Creative Uncut

No, not that kind of flower power.

This kind of flower power.

Image via Silverpencils on Etsy

I think that hair flowers (or fasinators, as I've found they're more often called) have the power to change ho-hum wedding hair into fabulous wedding hair.

I knew from the beginning that I didn't want a traditional veil. I don't think most veils would match the style of my dress (birdcage veils excluded), so I began looking for other headpiece options. 

In the first Sex and the City movie, Carrie Bradshow (played by SJP) rocks a beautiful blue hair fascinator.

Image via Polly Singer

From the moment I saw it, I was in love. Now I'm no Carrie Bradshaw, so I knew my fascinator couldn't be nearly as big, nor as blue, but I was inspired. After searching Etsy for quite a while, I came across this:

 

Image via Silverpencils on Etsy

Beautiful, right? I think this champagne fascinator is going to be the perfect addition to my wedding day attire. Plus, it comes at a very reasonable price.

Do you think it's okay to forego a veil? Will I still look like a bride without the more traditional headpiece? 

Hakuna Matata

So, FH and I finally booked our honeymoon!

We're going to Disney, baby, and it's going to be incredibly awesome.

We've decided to stay at the Animal Kingdom Lodge (on the Disney property) in a water view room. We're scheduled to leave the Monday after our wedding and return one week later.

 Image via about.com

I'm so excited, I can't contain myself. Eeeeeeeeeeee! (my squeal of joy) You see, my FH and I haven't really been on a vacation together...well, ever. We've spent weekends in Ottawa and Niagara Falls, and a few days in Montreal, but that's it. So this trip is 3x the fun of a normal trip, because a) it's our first time traveling internationally together b) it's DISNEY and c) it's our honeymoon.

In addition to the fabulous accommodations, we've also arranged for a 5-day park pass and the Disney dining plan. I love the dining plan option, because it means we won't have many extra costs once we're there, meaning we'll have few (if any) worries (hence the title of this post).

Is it strange that I'm more excited for the honeymoon than the wedding?

I cheated.

No, not on my FH, on this blog. You see, my time has been going to another website, my wedding website!

I wasn't going to make one at first, because: a) they often seem redundant, stating much of the same information as the invitation, b) the templates available are often very cheesy/poorly constructed, and c) I don't really have much time to do the things I need to do for the wedding.

However, I changed my mind because I realized that: a) I'll have less to put in the invitation this way (which means easier invitation construction), and b) I want people to be able to see pictures of the wedding events (engagement, bachelor/bachelorette parties, bridal shower, rehearsal dinner, photo booth) which I can easily post on the website.

So, I searched the good ol' web for a bit and came across Wedding Wire, a most fabulous wedding site. Not only can you create wedding web pages, you can create to-do lists, a budget, guest lists, even seating plans. Plus, the wedding website templates are gorgeous and fairly easy to manipulate.

See...

Image created via Wedding Wire

I've blurred out our names at the top to maintain some level of anonymity.

Notice how absolutely gorgeous the template is. The black and white damask-like theme matches well with the look of our wedding. Plus, the wedding website builder provides great apps, such as an RSVP form and a reception music request form. You can even add a carbon calculator if you're a green bride that hopes to offset the environmental cost of the big day. LOVE IT!

Do you think wedding websites are a valuable tool? Would you read the website of a wedding you planned to attend?

I'd give anything if I could just touch you.

Hello! Remember me? I used to post here all the time. No honestly, nearly everyday!

What happened? Life.

Not that I'm one to complain (okay, I kind of am) but life is hard. I have a lot going on. I have my first 10 km race of the season on July 25 in Toronto, so I am training like a crazy person. I am finishing up my PhD (actually, swear, almost done!). I am doing wedding stuff (finishing save-the-dates, booking rehearsal dinner venues, designing invites). I am working part-time (morning and night) at my university cafeteria. I am doing everything around the house (dishes, cooking, cleaning).

I am running a one-woman show. What, where is my FH you ask? Well, see, here's the thing....it's like this....

Image via Manny the Movie Guy

He's a ghost. Not in the Sam Wheat from Ghost kind of way, but close.

You see, my FH has an amazing career in which he synthesizes drugs that detect cancer. He's saving lives! The problem is the nature of these drugs requires that he start his work day at 2am. Which means he wakes up at midnight to get ready and then tackle the hour long commute. He then works between 9-11 hours, drives an hour, and arrives home between 12-2 pm. He's in bed by 5, which is when I get home.

So, we rarely see each other. Normally we can deal with this, but the wedding has made our complicated schedule tough to handle. We can't visit with vendors, because FH is sleeping. We can't work on invites because FH is sleeping. We can't choose music because FH is sleeping. I can't work on wedding stuff because I have to do laundry, clean, cook, etc. because FH is sleeping!

And, to top it all off, the majority of our weekends this summer are filled with friends' weddings (3 of 'em), stag and does (3 of 'em), wedding showers, birthdays, and bachelorette parties.

So, I haven't really been blogging. Nor have I really been wedding planning. But I will try, I promise.

Do you ever wonder where time goes? Should it really be this hard to plan a wedding with your FH?

A woman's right to shoes.

Way back I had my heart set on cute gold peep toe pumps. Very cute. Not very pratical. The nearly 3" heel would make the night a long one, as I refuse to be one of those brides that loses her shoes at midnight (Cinderella, I am not).

So, it was back to the drawing board. Two weeks ago, me and BM C headed to the mall to search for the perfect shoes. After trying on another pair of cute (but deadly) peep toes, I spotted a beautiful pair of shoes with a modest heel and a reasonable price tag (apparently Carrie Bradshaw, I am not).

I tried them on, and they were perfect, though slightly small. The helpful sales associate ordered me the next size up, and they arrived less than a week later.

TA DA!!

Image via Sterling

I love them. They're comfortable. So bridal. And, well, cheap. Plus, since they're fabric covered, I'll be able to dye them after and perhaps wear them again.

Is it crazy to buy the second pair of wedding shoes you try on? Or do you think I just lucked out and found my sole-mates early? (sorry, I had to...)

Everything is booked, so now we're booking it...

We're moving.

Image via Boyo Movers

Not anywhere far away, in fact, we're just moving to the other side of our small city. Nevertheless, the move is eating up ALL MY TIME. Packing, arranging to purchase used furniture, selling some of our old furniture, repairing nail holes, painting the new place. It's absolute craziness!

The move is happening this Saturday, hence my absence from the blogging world. I'm sorry, I really am, but life really does get in the way sometimes.

I'll be so glad once the move is over, as the basement is going to be converted to my 'wedding crafting station'. I'm sure my FH will also be relieved as our coffee table will no longer be covered with save-the-dates, tissue pom poms and address labels.

Once the move is done, I'm going to go wedding crazy. I have plans to go dress shopping with my mom and sister (for their dresses, I already have mine, fear not) on Mother's Day weekend. I will send out the STDs. I will finish the wedding pom poms. I will test out fudge recipes. I will make water bottle and wedding program templates.

But for now, I will pack.

Yikes.

Tie a knot? Pour some wine? Light some candles?

No, that's not the order of the events for the day. That's me trying to figure out what special ceremony we can include within our marriage ceremony.

Candle ceremonies are one of the most common ceremonies. The bride and groom each take a lit candle (often lit by their mothers) and simultaneously light a third larger "unity candle." They may blow out their individual lights, or leave them lit, symbolizing that though they are now united, their individuality remains.  You can purchase a personalized unity candle, allowing the candle to be a keepsake.

Image via An Unforgettable Wedding

Wine ceremonies are good if you enjoy wine, which the FH and I do not. In a wine ceremony the bride and groom pour wine from two separate carafes (usually one white, one red) into one glass, which they both drink from.

Image via Flickr

Water and sand ceremonies are similar to candle ceremonies. The bride and groom take different colours of water (or different colours of sand) and pour them into a large container making a third colour of water (or a mixture of the two sand colours). With the sand ceremony, there's the option of having the sand-filled vase as a keepsake.

Image via Little Wedding Guide

Tying the knot or handfasting is a ceremony in which a number of colored ribbons or cords are used to tie the bride and groom's hands together before the vows are made.

Image via Rose Haven Designs

I'm at a loss as to which ceremony we should include. I am leaning towards the handfasting, but I think my FH wants to have the sand ceremony (I'm convinced this is partly because of his hoarding nature, as the sand would result in a keepsake).

Which do you think we should include? Should we go the traditional route (i.e. unity candle) or create an entirely new ceremony (perhaps related to our chemistry backgrounds)?

You need my license and registration? Well, I have the registration...

My FH and I used the holiday weekend to cross off one of our most highly anticipated tasks on the wedding checklist. The registry.

You may recall from a previous post, that our 'main' registry will be a honeymoon registry, but we figured we should make a more traditional registry as well, in case people don't like the thought of helping to pay for our honeymoon.

We set up our more traditional registry at Sears. Why Sears? Well, they're everywhere, their items are moderately priced (we're sort of hippies, if you recall), and they have quite a large inventory (i.e. many choices).

It was actually a pretty painless experience, excluding the 30 minutes my FH spent deciding on a cookware set.

So, what'd we ask for? Lots of boring things that we need, like towels, fabric napkins and a shower curtain. Plus, some really fun items (though due to their cost, we're unlikely to receive many, if any, of these items) including:

Beautiful copper-lined Lagostina cookware:

A Dyson-ball vaccum (the salesperson accused us of being lured by the great advertising, which we are, but so what):

A beautiful Tommy Hilfiger bedroom ensemble:

A very awesome, very skinny, 32" Samsung LED television:

All images via Sears

Do you think I'm being greedy, or is it okay to ask for higher-priced items on your registry?

Looks like your bride is in need of a tune-up.

I've mentioned in previous posts that I am a runner. I haven't always been a runner, in fact less than two years ago I was a couch potato. But, several things made me change, including: a) weight gain b) lack of energy and c) The Biggest Loser (yes, the tv show...I said I was a couch potato....).

The running is great and all, but I'm a goal oriented person. It didn't take long for me to realize I couldn't just run everyday and be happy. I wanted a goal. I wanted to run a race.

I've decided to run my first half marathon on October 17 (13 days before the wedding). But recently I realized my first real race shouldn't be 21.097 km! So, I'm going to run a tune-up race (it's meant as prep for the Toronto Marathon) on July 11.

Image via Canada Running Series

The race is only 5 km, and I run much further than that on a daily basis, but I'm still nervous. I guess it's just the pressure to succeed.

I really like the idea of this race, because it'll motivate me to keep up with my workouts AND it helps support the Canadian Cancer Society. Plus, the race will allow me to think of things beside wedding details for a few days.

Is it weird that running calms me down? Am I crazy for running a half-marathon less than two weeks before my wedding?

Pom-poms...a good thing?

I haven't really talked much about my tablescape yet, truthfully, because I don't have a vision of how the tables should look. My decorator is looking after most of the decor at the venue, but not everything, because: a) I'm anal retentive like that, b) cost, and c) I want to feel as though I contributed to the feel of the day in some way.

My colour scheme is black and white with orange accents, as I've mentioned before. The tables will be covered with white linens and black (or possibly black and white damask) overlays and the centerpieces will either be manzanita trees or black candleabras. The chairs will be done up in black chair covers with orange satin sashes.

Sort of like this, but with orange instead of yellow accents, and no flowers:

Image via Bride

Our decorator will be setting up all of these elements herself. Now, we're not doing flowers on the tables due to cost, but when I started thinking about the overall look of our tables, I felt they needed something. So, like any good bride, I turned to Martha for some DIY inspiration and found these:

Image via Martha Stewart Weddings

Napkin pom-poms! I die. Martha provides step-by-step instructions for these cute napkin additions, and they're actually quite easy to make. YAY! I can contribute to the tablescape after all.

So now, my only dilemma is whether to make the poms in black or orange. I'm leaning towards black because I want to use orange sparingly (so that my wedding doesn't look too Halloween-y), but they'll look more like flowers if I do them in orange.

What do you think? Orange to add some colour to the table setting? Or black to stick with the overall vision?

Say Cheese-y!

I think I'm sort of a wedding photo snob. I don't know how this came to be (perhaps it's the 5+ hours a week I spend internet stalking other people's weddings). Whatever the reason, I dislike traditional, stiff wedding pictures. I don't want my bridal party lined up like a bad prom photo (see below). I mean, it works for some people, but I just find it cheesy.

Image via John Partridge Photography

Luckily, one of my co-workers has a partner that runs a small photography business specializing in the kind of wedding photos I like. I am in love with her work, and with her personality. Plus, since she's my friend's partner, she's giving us quite the discount. Awesome.

Here's a small sample of her work:

All images via Green Apple Photography

I adore all of these photos especially the last one, as my FH and I spend a lot of time on the couch in exactly the same pose. I can't wait to see what magic she pulls off at our upcoming engagement shoot!

Is it weird to be in love with your photographer?

Will you be my friend, my ribbon-tier, my favour-maker, my hair-holder, my sanity-saver, my shower-thrower and my day-of-coordinator?

When I got engaged, I asked all of my friends if they were up to the task of being a part of the bridal party. But, the conversations were very informal and unofficial, like I tend to be. Being a bridesmaid or a MOH is a really tough job. I fully respect that. So, I wanted to ensure that all of the ladies were indeed prepared to handle the bridal party duties (ohhhh...intense!).

So how did I do this? I sent out "Will you be my bridesmaid?" cards. My first wedding DIY project!

Here's how I did it:

I started off by buying some scalloped cardstock from Staples. Then I used an awesome dress stamp I'd purchased, to stamp the front of the card. Beneath the image, I printed out "Will you be my bridesmaid?" in a pretty font that I downloaded for free called KissMe.

Image via me

I split the back of the card into two sections. One section had a short poem I wrote and the other outlined some important info, such as: wedding date, location, rehearsal dinner time, the first and last names of the bridal party members, and the bridesmaid attire guidelines (since they'll pick out any LBD they choose).

I was originally going to try to print on the envelopes (but apparently our HP printer wasn't up to the task) so instead I addressed the envelopes by hand (I have quite the handwriting, I'll have you know) and then jazzed them up with a tree stamp I purchased for another project.

Image via 1-2-3 Stitch

Here's the final product (with names blurred for privacy):

Image via me

And the poem, if you're interested:

Now that my wedding day is coming up fast,
I think of the people who’ve helped form my past.
You’ve been a great friend to me over the years.

Together we’ve shared smiles, laughter and tears.
I know that I’ve asked this at least once before,

But I want to ask again, so we both can be sure.
On October 30th, ______ and I will tie the knot.

Will you be my bridesmaid? It would really mean a lot.

All of the bridal party really enjoyed receiving the cards, and it makes me feel a lot better knowing we're all on the same page.

Do you think it's a good idea to formally ask your bridesmaids to be a part of the wedding? Or is an informal conversation over the phone/over coffer/in a bar enough?