This is futuremrst's Red Wedding!

I don't have the average bridal party... I mean that nicely! I was surfing ebay to see if they had anything that might make a good bridal party gift, but then I thought to myself... these girls aren't the Victoria Secret, make-up bag, pink bow type. Well, that's not entirely true either, my sister definitely is. And I am, so based on what I like, I know what to get her... but the other girls I don't! Tianna and Naomi are the outdoors-y, hacky-sack, laid back type and Sandra is a wine conaisseur and into documentaries...

Thoughts anyone??

I forgot to post this, I bought a cake server and knife from super store, it's completely plain and I wouldn't want anything else. I mean really... half of it is going to be covered by FH and my hands, and the other have will be in the cake... and the cake we aren't even eating until the gift opening. And the server won't really be used except to help us get a slice out to do the "cake photo". So really, I didn't see a point in getting a fancy one. And besides that, the plain one already was $11, which is more than enough considering it's going to be used for all of 20 seconds, I wasn't about to pay over $30 for one from Michael's!

Nine months to go! I feel like I've almost planned everything I can except for things that have to happen closer to the date... like 3 or so months before hand. And just when I was starting to have fun with it... lol.

There are still favours to order!

Once again we revisited the food for the reception because we realized that we were only have a small number of people come so pay the extra money and have a really nice dinner for everyone?

The menu now is officially the Barbeque Buffet

Traditional Caesar Salad, Tossed Green Salad, Coleslaw with carrot and apple, greek style tortellini salad, potato salad, thai vegetarian salad, garden veggies and dip, imported and domestic cheese, fresh fruit.

Chilled Salmon, Shellfish, Bistro prawns, Pasta Primavera with marinara sauce, rice pilaf, baked potatoes with fixings, fresh mixed veggies

Fresh Salmon Filets 6oz and Ribe Eye Steak 'AA' 28 day aged 6 oz

and for dessert...

Mousse, squares, cheesecake, tortes and creme caramel

I got this from Michael's craft store, it comes with little white pompoms, streamers, window clings and and a magnetic "Just Married" sign for the back of the car.

We decided we would use our own car and then we aren't stuck having to use (AND PAY!) for a limo for 4 hours when we don't need to.

The bridesmaids and Maid of Honour are going to have white flowers

I think I've decided to have all of my hair down, not in tight curls, but relaxed waves and larger curls

No Peaking Kyle!!


I got it last night and it's currently being sized... I'm particularly happy that I was able to pay for it myself :)

6:00am - Wake-up and eat breakfast, get dressed (button down shirt or zip up)
7:00am - get everyone to meet at our house
7:00am - eat breakfast together after loading decorations into assigned vehicles and making sure everyone has their dresses and shoes/accessories, hand out timelines
8:30am - depart for appointments (women) + men shave
9:00am - women arrive for hair appointments
9:00am - Crescendo Hair Salon
10:00am - men shave, get dressed and relax
10:15am - Depart from Crescendo and head to mayfair for make up application
10:45am - Depart from Mayfair and head to Hatley Castle, pick up bouquets from thrifty's on the way
11:15am - All ladies get dressed
11:15am - Depart from home (men)
11:30am - Arrive at Hatley Castle (men)
11:45am - everything set up for ceremony
12:15pm - guests arrive and are seated
12:30pm - ceremony starts
1:30pm - ceremony ends, sign marriage licsence
1:30pm - Closing announcements
1:30pm - 2:00pm - cleanup
1:30pm - 4:00pm - Photos
4:00pm - Photos end
4:00pm - Head to McMorran's Beach House
5:00pm - Arrive at McMorran's and Set-up
5:45pm - finish set-up
5:45pm - freshen up quickly
6:00pm - Guests Arrive and find seating
6:10pm - Guests seated & announcement of Mr. and Mrs.
6:20pm - Thank-you to guests and open mic
6:45pm - Dinner is served
7:45pm - Cut Cake
8:00pm - First Dance
8:15pm - Irish Dance
8:30pm - Father/Daughter Dance
8:45pm - Mother/Son Dance
9:00pm - Dancing and Mingling
10:30pm - Departure
11:00pm - clean up must be finished

This is what they will look like! Just imagine that the tea lights are in place and lit and that the floating flower is lit :)

I got 105 glass votives off of usedvictoria.com. The plan is to put 4 of these on each guest table at the reception (that's 32 votives), then the rest are going to go onto the head table and cake table. I'm going for the look I posted a few entries down.

I also got 8 floating rose candles that are going to be in the centerpieces.

This was thanks to my 20% off entire purchase coupon printed on the current reciepts Michael's is printing out.

While we have photographers at the wedding it would be nice to have them enjoy our reception a little (they are kyle's side family friends). So thanks to Michael's and their 50% off coupon, I now have a camera for each of the tables at the reception. I know people will have digital cameras, but for those people that don't think to bring them or w/e. We can get them developed and put onto a cd and then sent off to people after we get back from the honeymoon of course! Which has been booked today and we leave on July 18, 2009 for Barbados!! YAY!

I was browsing through this website http://www.myweddingfavors.com when I stumbled upon exactly what I wanted for wedding favours. These are so cute and I love that the company prints your name and wedding date on the front with a picture that you get to choose from their selection. They're cute, perfect for a summer wedding, fits nicely with where we are having the reception, and we both love lemonade :)

I've been flipping back and forth about wedding favours lately so I'm going to sleep on it for a few days and then decide officially if I will order them. (But to be honest, I love them and I'm sold 100% I just have to make sure I'll feel that way right up to the wedding, lol).

I am so excited!!! I found a ring that is perfect for Kyle and he loves it, but he doesn't know it's the one I'm getting for him. I had a folder on the computer of all the ones I thought he'd like and showed him some websited too and he rated this one the highest. So some point this week I'll be off to Ben Moss to get him sized and then shoo him off so I can pay for it and take a picture. I won't put a picture up on here because I like showing Kyle what I've planned and it's hard to remember where I have posts that he can't see, lol, so it's just safer if I don't put it up. But it's quite the handsome ring!

The head table I would like to look a little something like this. I think the flower petals and the candles look great.

So I did a mock of what I would like the center pieces to look like and this was the result. I just want to put a few more tea lights down around the base (each center piece will have 4 tea lights at the bottom on the mirror base). And there will also be a floating red rose candle (where am I going to find these in Canada??). I think they look really pretty!

I found this box at Winners and thought it would be pretty to have up on one of the tables for people to put their cards into. After the wedding it'll be one of those boxes that you tuck under your bed and pull out and get to read all these beautiful cards on a rainy day on an anniversary or something and it'll bring back all the happy memories of that day.

Kyle's aunt is having her wedding in 11 days and she gave us a box full of these ... it's something like 120 in total. How nice is that! I think we're going to fill them with.. I don't know yet, lol, Kyle doesn't like chocolate so we'll find something else but beyond that I don't know, and then I'll put one on everybody's plate.

I'm going to get some red ribbon and make a cute little tag for them too :)

So it's officially been decided that we have 1 maid of honour, 3 bridesmaids and 1 MC (my best girlfriend) and 1 flowergirl.

The bridesmaid are Naomi, Tianna and Sandra. There was a little bump in the road (that has now been averted) because Naomi was leaving the province for Katimavik for the next 9 months and she would be getting back 2 weeks before the wedding! So we needed to find a dress fast. After only having to go to Angela's fashions and trying on a bunch of dresses we found a beautiful dress! The lady there was soo helpful and because she decided that we were 'nice people' and because we were ordering 3 dresses, she gave us $100 off our order!

They're shown here on Naomi in champagne, but they're going to be ordered in claret :) It's an Alfred Angelo #6308

Update
This is too perfect. Apparently the oldest bridesmaid bought a dress just because she thought it looked nice about two years ago for $20 and never wore it.... it is the identical dress to what is being ordered! It still fits her and looks great so now we have one dress we don't have to order or worry about for sizing! YAY!!!

This suit isn't for our wedding it's for Kyle's aunt's wedding. We went to Moore's and Tip Top Tailor. The people at Moores were sooo nice, professional and were helpful all the way though (picking out different ties, measurements, etc). And Tip Top Tailor? They were just rude, the woman there was incompetent and I wasn't impressed at all... they kep trying to tell us that he needed a small suit jacket (which came with size 38 pants and Kyle takes a 32) and that we'd just have to pay to get them taken in (and it wasn't cheap!). So we went back to Moores and they just did up all of his measurements to extend the sleeves on his jacket and hem his pants. I got some pictures of him in it and he looks fantastic! I can't wait for his aunt's wedding so he can wear the suit :)

Here is the link for the 50% off coupon at Michael's, they are having a sale all this week!

http://www.michaels.com/coupons/1000thstore/coupon.html

Tomorrow my MC (Master of Ceremonies... we're best buddies :) and I are going to the Vic Bridal Expo at the Empress Conference Center. When I had been at Moore's (a men's clothing store) to pick up a suit for Kyle (for another family member's wedding!) they told me that they were going to have a booth there and that if I give them $10 at the show then I get a $30 gift certificate towards a tux! I can't wait to see what other stuff there is. It'll be nice just to see some new ideas and possibly stumble across something I hadn't even thought of yet.

I'll update tomorrow to say how it all went :D

Oh! And I'm going to go to a place called Chintz & Co. to see if they have their sale on silk flowers on.


*Update*
So I went to the bridal expo and apparently this is the smaller one and the larger one is this january. Oh well! Elaine and I had fun and there was a Moores vendor setup and if you give them $10 you got a coupon for $30 off your tux rental! (which I know is really $20 because you're paying 10, but still!). Overall it was pretty blah.. but I did get the deal for the tux and I'll get a free bridal planning something or other that's coming in the mail. Oh! and I also found out how much my bouquet is going to cost from thrifty's... I believe there's a post of it on the next page or so, it's $129.

They had been marked down at Aldo's for $79.99, and although I still don't feel good about spending that much money on shoes I'll wear once, they said that because I was ordering them I had a year to return them because they hadn't been in stock in my size... SOOO... if I find a pair that I like even more then I'll get those and return the pair bought today. They should arrive in 6 business days!

Finally, I have shoes yay!!!

http://www.aldoshoes.com/eng/storeSection/redirect.cfm?sectionID=
b2c/style/productDetails.cfm&itemID=
68401599&&var=d&ckey=CA&colorid=81

(In silver)

Update
My shoes came today! They look great and they fit!! I was worried they wouldn't, but they do! They were really quick to get here, it took 6 business days and they were at my door.

So roughly we have 80 people coming to the reception. What are 80 favours that would be affordable to buy... or my original idea was to make cookies. But then I thought maybe something else that would be less time consuming... I mean I like making cookies and all, but I don't know how long they would last in this house (kyle WILL eat them, lol). What is everyone doing for their favours and how many guests were you supplying them for??

*UPDATE*

I think I am going to hit up costco, buy a stack of cds and burn a bunch off. My cousin (once removed or something funny) did that for his wedding and it was a cd the whole family enoyed listening to for going on drives... with some up beat and slow tunes.

Update
I decided that I would give Cd's to the family/wedding party and that I will have lemonade mix as the actual favours for all the individual guests.

I used one of my 40% off coupons to get Reese a pomander. It's super cute!

Prelude
- All I Ask of You - Andrew Lloyd Webber (piano instrumental)
Processional
- Wedding March - Wagner
Signing of Registry
- ???
Recessional
- ???

This is what I have so far on the list of photos that I want taken (exerpt from Martha Stewart's wedding magazine)

Portraits
- Bride
- Groom
- Bride and groom
- Bride with detail of back of dress
- Groom with Best Man
- Groom with Groomsman
- Bride with Maid of Honour
- Bride with Bridesmaids
- Flower Girl
- Entire wedding party
- Bride and parents
- Groom with parents
- Bride and Groom with groom's parents
- Bride and Groom with bride's parents*
- Bride and Groom with Groom's family
- Bride and Groom with Bride's family*
- Bride and Groom with both families*

Pre-Wedding

- Bride and attendants getting ready
- Groom and attendants getting ready
- Mother or maid of honour helping bride get ready
- Bride leaving for ceremony
- Groom leaving for ceremony
- Groom getting ready
- Reception site set up
- Guests being seated

Ceremony

- Signs directino guests to wedding
- ceremony site, with guests arriving
- ushers escorting special guests to their seats
- parents entering
- groom walking down the aisle or awaiting bride
- bridal party at ceremony spot, awaiting bride
- flower girl walking down the aisle
- bride walking down the aisle
- special guests watching ceremony
- wedding kiss
- bride and groom leading recessional
- signing of wedding certificate
- bride's groom's hands displaying rings

Reception

- friends signing guest book
- guests at cocktail hour
- reception site, set for dinner
- seating cards display
- center pieces
- place settings
- people giving toasts
- bride and groom listening to toasts
- group pictures of guests at each table
- bride and groom's first dance
- bride dancing with her father
- groom dancing with his mother
- guests dancing
- wedding cake
- cake cutting
- departure

Do any of you girls have anything planned for things to have in your dressing area/room before you get married? I think I remember seeing someone say that they were going to order in a pizza and just have a few last relaxing moments before all eyes are on the happy couple.

At Hatley Castle there is this huge room that my attendants and I have for getting ready. When I'd been in to do the site inspection there had been all the ladies bouquets and a full length mirror, but I'd like to have something else in there (I have no idea what).

So as you can see these center pieces are sitting on my counter. They have pink ribbon that swirls around them and fake grass and a stagazer lilly that sticks out of them and there is rocks and glass pebbles inside. I really love how they look, but they aren't red! What flowers do you ladies think would look nice that I can add into it?

*Sigh* I was enjoying the summer so much because it let me get a lot of my planning done. But the time has come to head back to school... essays, exams, case studies, and STRESS. At least I'm at the point where I'm wrapping up my degree, if I had 3 or 4 years left, I think I'd give it up! My courses online aren't even setup yet, apparently they go up tomorrow and then it's full steam ahead until december, then it's Christmas break... I'm already counting down the days till reading break!