This is futuremrst's Red Wedding!

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!

Also thanks to usedvictoria.com I was able to snatch 6 boxes (that's 6 boxed of 300 petals = 1800 petals!) for $20. In Michael's Craft Store where they sell these things they sell for $22 PER BOX! I'm so proud of myself for discovering all these great finds. I am determined to have a beautiful wedding that doesn't break our bank account. So far so good!

Usedvictoria.com has been so good to me! I was able to find a woman who just had her wedding and was selling her 10 tall glass vases for $40 PLUS I get the clear stones that she put in them, and grass that sprouts up out of the center piece and some stargazer lillies! I'll be picking them up on tuesday.

We got our Vista Print invitations for the reception today and they are wonderful! I was so relived because I wasn't loving the finished product, but they look great in person!

I LOVE usedvictoria.com!!!! I just got 8 huge red lanterns and 23 huge white lanterns, total of 31 lanterns for $39!! I have slowly fallen in love with paper lanterns. Originally I had wanted to drape white billows across the ceiling, but at the reception venue we already have ivy and lights so really I figured why fight it, and instead make it pretty!

So I decided to give bootcamp a try! I've registered and will start september 17 and go for 7 weeks. I hope I don't have some crazy trainer who yells at me :S Oh well, it'll be a good learning experience.

Has anyone here done bootcamp? What was your experience? What kinds of things are you doing to get in shape?

Now that we're paying for the wedding we had to re-visit the food served at the reception. We decided we're going to go for a seated dinner instead of a buffet... it seemed like there would be a lot of food payed for that wouldn't get eaten

Roast Leg of Lamb

- Rost Leg of Lamb with minted demi sauce, fresh seasonal vegetables and garlic mashed potatoes

Dessert

- Chocolate cake with whipped cream and blackberry coulis

For drinks we haven't decided yet if we'll give wine to the tables and then have everything else run on a cash bar.


(Looking forward to garlic mashed potatoes... YUM!)

Wow what a rip off from Michael's... I bought their large box of red rose petals and it was going to be $22! That's ridiculous! I was lucky to have seen septbride08's post for the 40% off Michael's coupon! I was crossing my fingers to make sure it would work here in Canada. I am going to go to Michael's every day up until the 30th with a new 40% off coupon :P muahaha!

Kyle and I have wittled away at this guest list for some time now and we've got two catagories now it seems. Because our ceremony site can hold 150 people we figure we'll invite whoever to the ceremony (that's the important part anyway), and then just have our really close family and friends come to the reception (this is where we needed to cut back because food gets expensive!!). So the grand total for the reception has been minimized to 78. I am so much happier with this number now... I had really started to panic before that we were going to have too many people that we weren't even that close with show up at our reception with people (dates) that we'd never met before either. So I'm quite happy and Kyle is too (it means less people to give a speech in front of!)

I got the wedding site co-ordinator to send me a picture of what the garden looks like with the chairs all out. I am relieved to know that the chairs aren't just crappy things that might break when someone sits on them, but rather clean bright white chairs.

By having the wedding here we get...
- exclusive use of one of the outdoor garden locations for our wedding
- pre-site inspection and meetings with event co-ordinator
list of preferred suppliers (florists, phtographers, decor companies, etc)
- outdoor public address system and mic
- set up and tear down of 150 chairs
- registry table and chair
- accress to garden location and japanese garden, neptune stair case and italian garden
- access to castle washroom
- dressing room for bridal party
- coordinating tent rental as a back up plan for rainy days
- free parking
- co-ordination of all rented items for decor

Plus a stunning view out onto the ocean and a beautiful garden!

I found this DIY on weddingbells.ca from another bride...

Step 1.
- Paint styrofoam ball the color that most of your flowers will be so that when all your flowers are in you won't see any white gaps
- let dry

Step 2.
- Cut ribbon to length desired and pin it in a loop to the ball and hot glue it for extra security

Step 3.
- poke flowers into ball, remove and fill hole with hot glue and then hold flower back into place for 10 seconds... repeat until you run out of space or flowers :)

That's it, you're done!

I'm looking forward to making one of these for my neice, I just have to figure out what flowers I'm gonna stick in there..

When I saw these in person I thought they were perfect. I'd seen them on the internet but they didn't look all that impressive (www.everythingengraved.ca) --> YAY canadian website! They even have a little crystal right at the end of the top curve of the heart. I got them (ON SALE!) for $29.99 down from 49.99 and I can take them back in to be engraved (they have a bunch of messages you can get or you can put whatever you want on it. I think we are going to opt to just get our names and the wedding date.

I'm so glad I'm finding things I like here in Canadian stores because I refuse to pay the shipping costs (usually around $70) to bring stuff up here. And best of all stuff has been on sale :)

I got this yesterday at Hallmark cards for $29.99. I really lked it because Kyle is always picking me up and he'll carry me places, lol, sometimes without warning! When I showed Kyle he just had a big smile on his face... I think he's starting to see things fall into place too, the more little things we get the more the bigger picture comes together :)

I ordered this from www.everythingforweddings.com

I had a previous post that had somethings I liked from there, plus they're canadian so they take it easy on the shipping thank goodness!

It even has the little claddagh charm that I wanted. I decided against the green and went for the white just to make it feel a little more 'bridal'.

This was on sale from Michael's, it was $70 and I got it for $8!!! I like it much better than the other one that I got, even thought it was a deal too. This current arch is now lying in two giant pieces (it's 11 feet tall and we don't have 11 foot tall ceilings!) in the living room because I got excited and went to work with an allen key :D It's missing a few screws which is probably why it was on sale, BUT I can just get some from Rona easily enough! (I am going to wrap red rose garland into the the sides) and maybe hang something from the middle of it like some stars... you know those little metal ones that would let shine through where there are little cut outs? Anyway, I'm excited that I was able to put it together... but what shall I do with it until next july?? haha.

I decided that flowers were going to cost too much and I was also able to find these glasses for $1 each at the dollar store which I intend to fill with those little bead thingys which suck up 100 times their size in water and have a candle smack dab in the middle. It will also mean that I won't have to care about any wilting flower centerpieces.

I saw this photo at Hatley Castle where there were bubble being blown in the background and it added a playful feeling to the photos that were done. I think the kids would like it and they look pretty. I'm sold on them. I don't think I should get everyone bubbles though, I'm thinking more a bubble machine in the background... we already have bells that will be at the reception so I think that will all be more than enough.

*Update* - I went to Michael's Craft Store during their sale and bought a bubble machine!

Speaking of M.A.C.... I found this look on their website and think it would be more or less the look I'd want to go for. With pale skin I can't have flaming red lipstick or heavy blush so I have to be a little more creative.

So I decided that the guy that we were going to hire from Shimon Photography had an attitude I didn't like and he didn't really make me feel like Kyle and I could take pictures with him... he just wasn't it. So I kept hunting and found this other woman (I wanted a woman in the first place), who had a cheaper package and had waayyyyyyyyyyyyy better photography skills and an awesome portfolio. She has a spot open on sept 30, but we were planning on being away then so then it would be in september... and i'm going to be busy for 2 weekends out of the 4, plus school is back in for me. So it would be smarter to push it to october. So I'm going to e-mail her back and hope that we can find some nice weather in october for some shots.

I wouldn't want to get my photos done right now anyway. I used a makeup primer on my face from M.A.C. makeup and it totally wrecked my face. Within 24 hours I had blemishes all over my face and everything stung and it was horrible.. now i'm just waiting for them to go away. *sigh*

We have a file called "Potts & Topelko Garden Wedding" and I just about died. I was buzzing all the way home... then I stopped at Winner to check out what they had in the way of center piece vases and based on speculation, I could do really well! So now once again, it's leaning more towards vases with floaty candles :) And I got to see the bridal room again at Hatley which was nice as I'd sort of forgotten what it looked like. The co-ordinator was also telling me that with our rental we have private use of the Croquet Lawn (where the ceremony is) as well as the Italian Gardens (where smaller wedding are held). It's all going to be fabulous for photos!

So cute! I love it! They have a little table outside of the main reception room where I am going to put something like this in a frame with a table runner, some kind of floral something and candles :)