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?