This is amcs76's Green Wedding!

A few weeks ago, I found a pretty necklace, bracelet and earrings at Claries. Well I couldn't really try on the necklace in the store, and I thought it was medium length necklace, but when I took it out the other day, I realized it was a choker. I'm not a big fan of chokers, because I hate necklaces too tight around my neck. So I decided to return them. Then last week, my MOH and I went shopping for wedding stuff and she found this store called Bitter Sweet (for those in the GTA, it is located in the Scarborough Town Centre). What a great store it is!! One of the store associates spent about an hour with us showing us different necklaces and bracelets. I told her my budget and she found this gorgeous flower crystal necklace with matching earrings and bracelet. It was just my luck, because they had a 20% off sale on all their necklaces. So I got the necklace for $38 (reg $48), bracelet $16 and earrings $14. And they look gorgeous! I also found bracelets and earrings that have a similar flower on them and bought them for my bridesmaids. My MOH also found this really pretty cuff bracelet that she bought to wear to the wedding. They didn't have the bridesmaids' bracelets and earrings I wanted in stock, so they ordered them from another store. Then I found out they have a loyalty points card, and were having a triple the points promo that week (you get a point for every dollar you spend). So she said if I got 250 points, you get a $10 coupon for a future purchase. So between my MOH and I's purchases we got 250 points and got the coupon! So I can use the coupon towards the bridesmaid's bracelets when they get delivered to the store! It was a good day, and I love that my jewelry and all the girls' jewelry has a similar flower design, but are all different.

A while ago I bought a plain silver cake topper on ebay. I found this pretty photo of a cake topper with rhinestones on it, and decided to add rhinestones to mine. I haven't glued them on yet. What do you think?

Our high school religion teacher is an ordained priest, and he will be marrying us. We pay a fee to the church we are marrying at, and they give a percentage of that to our priest. We would really like to get him a gift, as we really appreciate him marrying us, and the church doesn't give him a large percentage. We just really want to show him our gratitude, and I was wondering what an appropriate gift would be for an officiant? Any ideas?

Ughh...so two things that I have been obsessing over lately are my shoes and a song for my father/daughter dance. I bought these shoes a month or so ago, and it said they were white. Well when I got them they looked more ivory than anything, but it was pointless for me to exchange them because it would cost me more than i paid for the shoes to ship back to the seller in the US (I bought them on ebay). I love the shoes, but I can't help but obsess over how my dress is diamond white and my shoes are ivory. i know most people will not notice, but it drives me crazy! I'm considering buying a new pair, but I don't know what to do with these, whether i should sell them on ebay and buy a new pair, or just keep these. I found a couple pairs I really like that are silver...I don't know what to do.

**UPDATE**
I love the idea of dyeing them, anyone know how to do this?

Here is my final mockup of my menus! What do you think?

My new wedding inspirations!

I had chosen "Landslide" by Dixie Chicks as my father/daughter dance song, but now I'm thinking of changing it. I'm not really into the slow mushy songs, nor is my dad. He loves classic rock, and I like alternative rock, top 40, etc. I'm trying to find something unique and not mushy, absolutely nothing like "wonderful world", "you look beautiful tonight", etc. I've checked tons of father/daughter dance websites, and most are the same sappy songs. Any ideas?

Here is a list of unique first dance songs that I found on RealSimple.com:

# "All I Need," Mat Kearney
# "All I Want Is You," Barry Louis Polisar
# "All You Need Is Love," Nada Surf
# "Better Life," Keith Urban
# "Better Together," Jack Johnson
# "Bless the Broken Road," Selah
# "Bring It on Home," Little Big Town
# "Change in My Life," the Persuasions
# "Come Away With Me," Norah Jones
# "Crazy Little Thing Called Love," Queen
# "Dixie Chicken," Little Feat
# "Dixieland Delight," Alabama
# "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic," the Police
# "Everything," Ben Harper
# "Everything," Michael Buble
# "Fade Into You," Mazzy Star
# "Feels Like Home," Chantal Kreviazuk
# "Free Fallin'" Tom Petty And the Heartbreakers
# “God Only Knows,” the Beach Boys
# “Have a Little Faith in Me,” John Hiatt
# “Here Comes My Baby,” the Mavericks
# “Hold You in My Arms,” Ray LaMontagne
# “I Got You Babe,” UB40
# “I Melt With You,” Jason Mraz
# “If Not for You,” Glen Campbell
# “In Your Eyes,” Matt Ketteman and Cameron Mizell
# “Into the Mystic,” Van Morrison
# “In the Moment,” Sister Hazel
# “I Walk the Line,” Johnny Cash
# “Just Can’t Get Enough,” Depeche Mode
# “Just Like Heaven,” the Cure
# “Lean on Me,” Bill Withers
# “Loving You,” Paolo Nutini
# “Making Memories of Us,” Keith Urban
# “One Fine Day,” Natalie Merchant
# “On the Sunny Side of the Street,” Jane Hart
# “Our Finest Year,” Better Than Ezra
# “Peaceful Easy Feeling,” Eagles
# “Perfect Day,” Duran Duran
# “Romeo and Juliet,” Dire Straits
# “Shelter From the Storm,” Bob Dylan
# “She’s Mine,” Brett Dennen
# “Someone Like You,” Van Morrison
# “Something About Us,” Daft Punk
# “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” Israel Kamakawiwo'ole
# “Spend My Life With You,” Eric Ben”t
# “Sunshine,” Matt Costa
# “Thank You for Loving Me,” Bon Jovi
# “The Day Before You,” Matthew West
# “The Luckiest,” Ben Folds
# “This Year’s Love,” David Gray
# “The Glory of Love,” Jimmy Durante
# “True Companion,” Marc Cohn
# “Wave on Wave,” Pat Green
# “When You Feel It,” Brett Dennen
# “Within You,” Ray LaMontagne
# “You Are My Sunshine,” Ray Charles, with Chris Isaak
# “You Are the Woman,” Firefall
# “You Make Me Feel So Free,” Van Morrison
# “You Make My Dreams Come True,” Daryl Hall & John Oates
# “You’re My Home,” Billy Joel
# “Your Song,” Elton John

I got an email this morning from KodakGallery, and both the US and Canada sites are having a sale on their 4x6" prints. So I thought I would let you all know in case there are some of you who want to order your engagement photos or photos for your save the dates, or even your wedding thank you cards. Here are the promo codes:
Canada- Buy 150 4x6" prints for $15 code: CA15PRINT
www.kodakgallery.ca

US-Buy 4x6" prints for 10cents each code: LABORPRINTS
www.kodakgallery.com

Hey Ladies,
I found another great website that offers wedding accessories for cheap! It's called {Huge Wedding Savings}

They have a lot of products similar to Wedding Star, and they even carry a lot of the same stuff, but cheaper. The best part of it is, they have warehouses in Montana, US and in Calgary, CAN, that they ship from, so US and Canadian brides won't have to pay duty!

Ok I need some serious help from my fellow Ontario brides. I was browsing the ServiceOntario website trying to get info about changing my name when I get married. I am sooo confused!! I don't understand it. From what I understand, there are two options: assume his last name, or elect to legally change to his last name. I know I want to elect to change to his last name. It says you have to wait 10 weeks before you can apply for a marriage certificate because it takes time for your marriage to get registered. But then it says you have to elect or assume your name within 90 days of marriage, in order to not have to pay any fees for that. I don't get it, how does that work. You need a marriage certificate to change your name which you can't even apply for until after 2 1/2 months, but you have to assume or elect your name within 3 months? I don't understand, can anyone clarify this for me? I'm very confused.

This is what my menu's will look like. I'm trying to decide if I should have a menu at each place setting or just one or two per table. There will be 10 people at each table. The menu's will also have a black ribbon tied under the heading. I'll put up pictures once i have finished printing them.

So this week I got quite a few things done. I went to Bulk Barn to pick up a few different types of candy to fill the shot glass favours with. I picked up Hersheys Hugs, Green Apple mini jelly beans, white scotch mints, and spearmint scotch mints. I ended up deciding on the spearmint scotch mints. They will look a lot nicer than my mockup, my grandma is going to be helping me assemble them and she is as much a perfectionist as I am, lol. I also picked up "I DO" letters from Michaels for about $5, that I'm going to paint and add rhinestone to (I love this idea, thanks ladies for the inspiration). I also picked up crackle glass tea light holders for my guestbook table for 97 cents each from Mega Jysk. I am almost finished my table numbers that have rhinestone numbers on them. Word to the wise, if you are considering doing this be prepared to spend a good hour and a half with a pair of tweezers applying each rhinestone one by one, lol. I picked up an autograph mat from Michaels for $6 thanks to their 40% off coupons :) And I got frosted glass candle holders for the pillar candles I'm putting on the table that I bought from Michaels for 75cents a while ago. And thats it for this week!

I'm looking for glass votive holders and candles, but everything I find is in the US, and shipping to Canada is ridiculous. Anyone know where I can buy these cheap in Canada, or a Canadian website to order them?

I was in Wal-Mart last night and saw that they carry Martha Stewart Craft wedding invites and decor, and Wilton Wedding Accessories. I don't think all Wal-Mart's carry them, because I've been to two in my area and only one of them carried this stuff. Just wanted to let you ladies know, because had I known Walmart carried this stuff I would have bought my stuff there. It was cheap!! Way cheaper than Michaels!

We went last night with almost the entire wedding party (girls included) to pick out the groomsmen's tuxes. Two of our groomsmen are returning to school in a week, so we wanted to get this out of the way before they leave for school.

So here they are! i also picked out my dad's and brother's tuxes as well. Our groomsmen had the *brilliant* idea to buy hats from Moores to wear. They want to add in a feather to the hat....lol. Ohh it's going to be interesting lol. I told them the only condition is they can't wear them in the church, because they don't allow hats. It will certainly make for some interesting pictures.

It was a fun night, we went for all you can eat ribs after they finished getting measured for their tuxes. I'll post more pics once my bridesmaids email them to me.

Hey Ladies, I got a couple of emails this morning with coupons!
Wedding Solutions (sells wedding accessories, invitations, etc --I believe they are based in the US, so any fellow Canadians, you may end up paying customs/duty) have a 20% off coupon for their online store.

Mypublisher.com also has a promo on for 40% off orders of $100 or more, or 20% off orders of $50 or more.

Coupon for both: VOL2040

I know I've been "Asking A Question" a lot lately, lol....but I was wondering if anyone else is having a long engagement? My FI and I got engaged in April 2006, when we both were still in college. We decided to wait to get married because we were both still in school and wanted to save up money. By the time we get married we will have been engaged for over 3 years. Is there anyone else having that long of an engagement or longer?

I really love the look of these water storing gel beads. I've found some online on ebay and other sites, but shipping to Canada is ridiculous. Does anyone know where i can get these in Canada for a reasonable price?

**UPDATE***
I checked Michaels, they only had this cracked ice stuff, not the water gels :( Don't know where else to check nearby...

Ok, so I made the mistake of going on Expedia and looking at different Honeymoon packages, lol. We were planning to go to Halifax, Nova Scotia for 5 nights. But now after looking at other destinations, I am seriously considering going to Las Vegas! It looks amazing, and neither of us has ever been anywhere like that before! Best of all, it is actually pretty reasonable. It will only cost us about $200 more to go to Vegas than to go to Halifax. So what do you ladies think, should we go for it? Anyone ever been to Vegas before? Now the hard part is convincing my FI, lol...he doesn't like to travel.

***UPDATE****
I called my FI at work this afternoon to ask him what he thought, and surprising he loves the idea!!! So I think this is where we're going! My FI and I have been fighting about this for months, so finally sooo psyched we've made a final decision. Thank you all for your advice and thoughts.

I know it will be hot in June, but we have freezing cold weather here in the winter, and even the weather throughout the rest of the year is subject to change at any moment, so it will be nice to go somewhere HOT!

My finds of the day!
Love Quotes-Free (I designed them and printed them with paper i had)
White Sandals-$8.00 from Claires
Earrings-$10.25 from Claires
Bracelet-$12.00 from Claires
Necklace-$16.50 from Claires

I'm looking for a nice love quote to put on the bottom of my wedding programs....but all I can find are cheesy quotes that don't reflect who we are. I also need help with favor tag wording. We have personalized shot glasses, so I want to have a thank you on there that uses a play on words with "shot". Any ideas?

I've decided to change my cake. I had one picked out, but have found so many others that I love! And the problem is I love all of them! Soo I really need your help, please tell me which one is your favourite!

**UPDATE**
Ok so it looks like 2, 3, 5 were the most popular! Lol....now to narrow it down from there...why is it so hard to choose a cake? I removed the one's I didn't like as much, so the one's that are left are the cakes I really like.

I think this is where we are staying on our wedding night. We're flying out the following day to Halifax. It's called the Sandman Hotel. Looks sooo nice and very reasonable.

**UPDATE** We're no longer going to halifax, but I'll leave the photos up there because it does look beautiful.

I've been looking for little rhinestones for the longest time now for my table numbers, and came across this ebay store. They are based in Canada, and t their shipping and product is really cheap (shipping to the US is very cheap too)!

If you're looking for different coloured rhinestones, check out their store:

The Crafts Outlet

These are the things I'm thinking about getting for my girls. I made little black tote bags with their names in rhinestones, and am going to put these things in the bags. I've already bought little flower candles, little notepads with their initials, and a DVD Friends The One with all the Weddings.

My FI and his mom do not have a very close relationship because of some bad decisions she has made in her life. But my FI still wants to honour his mom by having the traditional mother/son dance. The only songs I can find are all really gushy songs, and since they aren't that close, he doesn't want something like that. He wants to dance to "It's Not Over" by Daughtry, but I said it's not really appropriate for a mother son dance because of part the lyrics:

"Let's start over.
I'll try to do it right this time around.
It's not over.
'Cause a part of me is dead and in the ground.
This love is killing me,
But you're the only one.
It's not over.

Let's start over.
It's not over, yeah...
This love is killing me,
But you're the only one.
It's not over."

So we're looking for something that's appropriate and not gushy. Any suggestions?

This is our music selections for the rest of the reception:

Bridal Party/Bride and Groom Entrance Song-
What Is Love- Haddaway

Bride & Groom First Dance-
I’m Here without you-Three Doors Down

Father Daughter Dance-
Dixie Chicks-Landslide

Garter Removal-
The Offspring- I want you

Bouquet Toss-
Gretchen Wilson-Red Neck Woman

I bought this tiara over a year ago, and i just pulled it out of the tissue paper it was wrapped in to take a look at it, and saw that it's tarnished! It was not overly expensive so I'm assuming it is either sterling silver, or silver plated brass or something like that. I really really love it. Does anyone know of a way to remove the tarnish?

(In the pictures, where you see the gold areas, that is where it has become tarnished...it was silver)

I just checked on the status of my shot glasses I ordered from www.discountmugs.com, and they shipped out on the 5th from Miami, FL and are being delivered today!!! Whoo hoo, can't wait to see them! Shipping was pricey, and on top of that I got a $42.16 customs/duty charge....ugh UPS! lol.

These are some necklaces I like. They're all custom made, from a business called Blush Jewelry by Tara, check out her website: Blush by Tara. She does a fabulous job, and will custom make whatever you like. Which necklace do you like?

I added my photoshop attempts of both necklaces with my dress, so you can see what they would look like.