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?