This is retrobride's Black Wedding!

Hey all! I finally finished my event and wedding planning course! Pheww.

I already have a great event coming up - a high profile book launch party for over 600 guests! I'm so excited! I don't start working on it till June as the client is away on business and don't have all the details yet.

If any of you ladies in the GTA or Toronto area are looking for wedding planner, contact me @ 416 436 0050 or check out my temporary webpage (on the school's website). WBC BRIDES GET 10% OFF!! Not including the Full Coordination Package (Silk). For a limited time only.

http://www.qceventplanning.com/qcdesign/websites/profile.asp?q=11843

You can also "like"/become a fan of my facebook fanpage and keep informed on upcoming contests, promotions and services.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Toronto-ON/Couture-Events/114188918612948?ref=ts

and you can follow me on Twitter
http://twitter.com/chrissyscouture

I will have a website soon...hopefully by mid-July. I'll keep you posted.

Hey ladies!! I've been working on my last assignment for my event planning course - setting up my web-page on the schools site. I'm almost done with the web-page (i'll post it when it's done) and decided to start a fan page on facebook also.

Join my fan page here (by clicking on the "like" icon)...
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=564301690&ref=profile#!/pages/Toronto-ON/Couture-Events/114188918612948

Thanks for your support.
Happy Planning!

I can't believe it's almost been a year since we got married! Time just flew by! Yes, we waited till the last minute to send out our thank you cards. I don't feel so bad cause i just got my cousins Thank you card and his wedding was a month before mine.

Anyways, here it is. It matches the style of our invitations, menu cards, and programs. We're having them printed over the weekend...so guess what i'm doing next week - Addressing about 85 thank you cards.

Even though this was a 1976 theme party, i think some of these DIY projects can be used for weddings or pre-wedding parties. I had a lot of fun planning this event (you can see pics of my past events in previous posts), not only cause it was for my husband, but it was also a challenge to do something "wow" with little to no budget. I used a lot of stuff that i had kicking around at home, and I had all these little square mirrors that were donated to me from a special effects shop, so i used them in a lot of my decor. You can also buy them in bulk on ebay or at the dollar store.

- I made the STRINGS OF MIRROR by taping each end of the measured fishing wire to a flat surface (i used my dining table) and leaving a bit extra to tie it to the pipe or hang from the ceiling.
- next lay the mirrors upside down centered under the string
- add a dab of glue (i used a glue gun)
- place another mirror on top before the glue dries
- then repeat

i always left one finished string on the table so that all the mirrors line up on all the strings.

I also used the mirrors in vase's, added them to ribbon on votive holders and throw pillows, and even added them to serving trays.

You can find the templates i used for the MUSTACHES here -
http://www.marthastewart.com/article/mustache-on-a-stick

I found a bunch of disco balls at the dollar store and put them everywhere. Gotta love the dollar store. I also picked up a bunch of fibre optic lights there too!

I made a deal with my friend for the cakes. I planned an event for her @ cost and she did the same for me for this event. She made an amazing 2-tier cake (vanilla/buttercream/strawberry and vanilla/buttercream/lemon) with a spinning disco ball on top, and she made DISCO BALL CUPCAKES. They were freakin adorable!! And we had a custom made lite-up cake-stand made by a friend.

My husband was a happy boy ;)

Bridal & Beyond in Mississauga is having a Sales EGGstavaganza!! And a contest for the most romantic wedding proposal.

Details here...
http://www.bridalandbeyond.com/

Hey ladies!!! I'm almost done my event planning course and have been lucky enough to plan a few small events - A fairy winter wonderland b-day party (my first event! pics in earlier post), a 20th anniversary dinner for my sister & BIL, and i have a 70's glam b-day party in a couple weeks, and a grad party for my oldest niece coming up in June. I learn something new on every event, so this is great experience for me...although it's leaving me less time for school work..lol. it's okay, it'll get done too.

I can't believe it's been 20 years since my big sister's wedding!! The dinner was @ our new loft (which we're still decorating..can't wait till it's done). I rented a platinum table cloth, platinum rim plates, and white linen napkins (platinum & green & white are the colors for 20 year anniversary). To add color i added the green ribbon to the napkins and peacock feathers and also added feathers to a few votive holders. I served a similar menu to the one they had on their wedding day, which was ordered from a Portuguese restaurant...but i cooked the appetizers :) I ordered a beautiful wedding type cake with peacock feathers, but my friend who i hired to make it (she's a fabulous cake decorator) couldn't finish it cause her mom died the day before the event. How sad!!! I completely understood and everything turned out great without the cake. We had plenty of other sweets anyways. I kept the kids occupied with activity books and cartoons, while the adults watched our wedding video after dinner.

I'm happy with how everything turned out, even with such a small budget. Now i'm working on decorations for the 70's party....stay tuned

Okay, i was having trouble editing my wedding video, so i made a shotty photo slide show..lol. Enjoy! I'm still trying to edit the wedding video..stay tuned.

1940's wedding from chrissy surmeyan on Vimeo.

Hey girls! It's been a while. I'm trying to figure out how to edit my wedding video without asking my husband for help...it's not working out so far, lol. I tried using onetruemedia.com, but it's not letting me edit the way i want (i want to pick short clips and put it all together to make a 5-10 min vid with music). I also tried some software that my husband has, but i'd have to reformat the vid which i really don't know how to do.

Can anyone suggest any online video editing sites that are easy to use?..i'm not so good with computer stuff.

Hello ladies. I went to the Toronto bridal show last weekend to research vendors/contacts (I'm entering the event planning biz) and to meet an event planner who i may work for...hopefully. It was actually my first bridal show...yeah, i didn't go to one when i was getting married...lol.

My Top 3 Faves...

1. Video Guest Book (and video speeches) - Liberty Group

Only Liberty Group offers this amazing feature. My friend/photographer came up with concept - using a touch-screen guests click on record and record a message to the bride & groom, then they make you a video of all the messages for you. Guests can have a lot of fun with this and i much rather have a video (and see everyone who was at my wedding) than a guest book i'll probably never look at again. They can also prerecord speeches from family and friends, ask them all the same questions and then edit it all together to play at the wedding....much more entertaining than guests listening to a bunch of boring speeches and those who had to do speeches won't be so nervous, lol. I will ask my friend/photographer more about this (price, website etc) and post the info in a new post. If you're really interested in the info before i get a chance to post it, email me chrissy991@gmail.com

2. Custom Chocolate Favors - Cocoa Mosaic
These chocolates are like art work. So beautiful. I actually had to ask what they were, they looked too pretty to be edible. You can have your logo, names, or special print on them wrapped in a pretty box. They would also look lovely on dessert table or candy buffet. Check out their site - http://www.cocoamosaic.com/

3. Custom Bridal Gowns - Shkank
I have been shopping at Shkank for over 10 years (although i have not done much shopping in a while) and always drool over their window displays. I forgot that they did custom bridal dresses till i saw the designer at the bridal show. They had some of the most beautiful dresses i've EVER seen on display. I wish i had one of them when i got married. If you're looking for a truly unique, stunning and one of a kind gown go to Shkank Toronto - http://www.shkank.com/wp/

As some of you know, I'm currently taking a course on event/wedding planning...i just did my first event! It was a fairy winter wonderland themed b-day party for a one year old. It all turned out great! It was a lot of work cause the budget was very small (as it should be for a one year old's b-day party). I used a lot of stuff i already had at home, borrowed from friends, and the guys at my husbands work (special effects shop) donated over $300 worth of snow (which we had issues fitting into our Mini..lol) cause it was my first event...they will not be so generous in the future. They also let me use their shop to make the snowballs..i didn't wanna make a mess of my place, plus they have all the right tools there. The client bought tons of snowflakes, dragonflies, and branches etc, to decorate with and she's taking a cake decorating course so she made the cakes herself...they turned out GREAT. My FIL lent me his mini photo printer so we could do instant photos in front of the tree...everyone loved that they had a keepsake to take home. Our good friend who owns a print shop gave us a 30% discount on her b-day poster too. My first event was a success. I hope it always is.

We just got the keys to our new loft yesterday!!! We're so excited to move in...i can't sleep!

Here's some pics of the place - we still need to paint, and do a few minor renovations...and add furniture and decorate..lol. My FIL is there painting right now, and most of our new furniture will be delivered next Friday, which is when we're moving in. But we'll be without sofa's till they are delivered - the fabrics we picked for the sofa & chair & ottoman are on backorder. So, we're just gonna use inflatable sofas till they arrive..lol!! I'm hoping the couches arrive by the holidays...or sooner.

Can't wait to move!!

I saw these chalkboard candles in a Style at Home mag and thought it would be a great DIY project with a bit of chalkboard paint on a votive holder. You can also buy them already made (with a matching mini box of chalk) on kaboodle.com or @ Gowens The Shop in Toronto, for $35 each. But if you make them yourself it'll be much much cheaper. I also saw some chalkboard coasters on beau-coup.com...which can also be a DIY project.

I can't contain my excitment right now!! When i got the call that we got the loft i was walking across a busy intersection (during rush hour) and started screaming with excitment and jumping up and down...everyone must have thought i was crazy. I just said " this is was happy looks like people"..LOL! Then i rushed home and gave our landlord our 60 day notice. My FIL is trying close the sale by the end of this month, so we'll have a full month to paint, add lighting (there's only floor lamps there now), add a backsplash in the kitchen, measure & plan out furniture options, etc..

I'm so in love with this place. The building was an old clothing factory. It's downtown Toronto, penthouse level (8th floor - but it's not the "penthouse"), only 10 min walking to my husbands work, high ceilings (with exposed pipes), floor to ceiling windows, 2 bedrooms, 1 1/2 bath (with bowl sinks - love it!), laundry room, stainless steel appliances, gas stove, large balcony with a nice view, dark wood floors, fireplace, tons of closet space,gorgeous lobby & 24 hour security, plus we get a locker and parking spot.

The best part is about to come - buying new furniture and decorating! EEEKKKK!!!!! * doing a happy dance*

My friend wants to take over the apartment we have now and she needs furniture, so we're leaving behind most of our furniture for her (couches, bed, dinning set, chopping block island, a few side tables, desk, shelf, glass cabnet). So hopefully that happens, then we wont have to deal with people coming in and out to look at our apartment, and we wont have to deal with throwing out all that furniture.

I'm soooo excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OUR FIRST PROPERTY!!

Wish me luck! I just enrolled yesterday and start the course next week. We're gonna be pretty busy the next several months with school and looking for a house, loft, or condo, where i'll have my very own office to run my business out of. I'm so excited! YAY!

Hey ladies! It's been a while. My honeymoon was amazing! I will blog about it soon.

So, we've been married for almost 4 months and still have not sent out our Thank You Cards!! Is that really bad? Well, we've decided to design our own to match all our other art deco wedding stationary. We also decided we wanted a layout kinda like this...
http://www.cqcards.com/viewcard.php?g=1&i=3&f=1
...so we can pick out a few different pics rather than just one. We want one shot of us on the front cover, a small one of us inside, one with our bridal party on the inside, a small decor pic inside, and one with our marquee on the back cover. Can you help me decide which pics i should use? I have already decided on the bridal pic (pic # 3), i just need help with the others. Thanks :)

YAY!!

Here's the link...

http://offbeatbride.com/2009/07/art-deco-wedding#referrer

btw, we googled our names the other day...and a bunch of stuff from our wedding comes up....LOL! Andre thought it was funny.

La Senza is having a sale on Bridal Lingerie! There are some great deals! They're also having a $9.99 Bra sale. You can get free shipping on orders over $89 if you order online.

If anyone is using feathers in their decor now is time to buy. Ostrich.com is offering up to 60% off selected products with this promotional code - SUMMER2009

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If anyone is interested in knowing which vendors we used or a look @ our DIY pojects, you can see them in part 2 & 3 of our wedding feature on never a bridezilla blog....

http://neverabridezilla.blogspot.com/2009/06/chrissy-and-andres-old-hollywood.html

I'm staring school soon to be a wedding/event planner as some of you know. Well, i'm helping a couple friends with their weddings already. They just started planning, so we're still throwing some ideas around...most likely they'll go with a jewel tone wedding (which i'll post about when i have more info). She has decided that she wants a retro housewife theme shower though. So here's some ideas we have so far, but we're still working on it...

- favors - Anne Taintor retro housewife gift bags with a retro apron inside, which the girls will wear at the shower, and vintage milk bottles filled with bath salts

- centerpieces - vases with utensils & a few small flower arrangements in vintage watering cans

- serving the classic milkshakes, homemade pies, fried chicken, mashed potatoes, cup cakes, etc

- 50's housewife invites from bumpercards.com

- Anne Taintor retro housewife cocktail napkins

- vintage dishware

This time on a Canadian wedding blog...here's the link to part 1...

http://neverabridezilla.blogspot.com/2009/06/chrissy-and-andre.html

Part 2 will be up soon (which i think will include DIY projects).

After a few days in Barcelona, we are going to Rome...we were going to rent a car and drive to the Amalfi Coast/Positano...but Andre was not really into the drive (over 3 hrs away - some of it a difficult drive - windy roads on cliffs). So i found a flight to Venice (from Rome) for only 20 Euros each (including taxes & fees - RYANAIR) and it's only a one hour flight!!!!! So i booked it! LOL! Now we'll have an extra day in Rome, which we needed to get to see more sights...and we're only spending one day & night in Venice. We arrive in Treviso @ 7:30 am and take a bus (only 10 euros return) for an hour to get to Venice's center...we could get there in half the time if we took a water taxi or drive, but it'll cost way more than the flight, so we'll settle for the bus and see the scenery along the way. We'll have ALL DAY and night to check out the sights and do a bit of shopping...thankfully most of the sights we want to see are within walking distance. We'll be staying right in St Marks Square, so everything is right there. After seeing sights all day we can have a romantic dinner, have a couple cocktails...then fly back to Rome @ 8am the next day. We'll be arriving in Rome a bit early for our flight back to Barcelona (where we're spending our last 8 nights).. so we'll spend the morning & afternoon seeing sights we missed or do a bit of shopping before flying to Barcelona @ 8pm. We plan on leaving our luggage in Barcelona and just bring backpacks to Italy...don't wanna lug around luggage with all that traveling around in Italy, or have to think about what to do with it on that last day in Rome we wont have a hotel to store it in. And this also saves us almost 50 Euros cause we wont have bags to check with Ryanair...plus it's only 5 days in Italy , we don't need that much stuff. Even though we wont be in Venice very long, we'll get to see most of the sights we want to see, and we'll get to stay in a gorgeous classic renaissance hotel overlooking the canals & gondola's...EEEEKKKKKKKK!!!! EXCITING!!!!! I've always said i'd finally go to Italy when i'm on my honeymoon (even before i had a boyfriend)...and now i'm going! YAY!!!

Ahhhh...it's done. I've been on the compuer all day trying to finalize all our honeymoon plans....

Starting in Barcelona, staying at a friends house from Thursday to Sunday..most likely we'll just be doing a lot of partying that weekend, lol. Sunday morning we leave for Rome (got an amazing deal from ryanair.com) for 2.5 days to check out all the sights and go to Vatican City also. We have a view of the Coliseum from our hotel, which is pretty sweet..so, we're in walking distance from a lot of the sights we want to see. Then we're renting a car (that's the only thing left to book) and driving past Naples to the Amalfi Coast, we'll stop in little towns along the way. I'd love to get some pics of the olive & citrus grooves. We'll settle for 2 nights in Positano (in a cute hotel with a balcony with seaside views) and take a day trip to Capri island before driving back to Rome for our flight back to Barcelona. We'll arrive back in Barcalona in time for the weekend...got more partying to do, lol. Then we'll spend our last week taking in the sights of Barcelona and heading out of town to see the Dali museum. Our friends there also have plans for us. we'll see what they come up with.

One month away! Can't wait! I really need to tan before i go there and blind all the Europeans with my white legs.

Here's pics of the hotels we'll be staying at, and the names are listed below if anyone needs hotels in any of these places. They were all booked on the ryanair.com site.

Woohoo! I had noidea it was up already..till sapphire2009 let me know, lol. I did know she was going to feature it though :)

You can see it here..
http://vintageglamblog.com/2009/06/chrissy-andres-old-hollywood-wedding/

One of the best idea's i had while planning our wedding - registering for Sear's travel gift cards. With all the cards, we only had to pay $300 for 2 tickets to Barcelona, Spain! Now we have to book our tickets from Barcelona to the Amalfi coast in Italy...we'll be in Barcelona for the first weekend, then spend 5 days in Italy, then back to Barcelona for a week. Our friends in Barcelona are helping us find an apartment to rent there and they're helping us find a cheap flight to Italy. I'm so excited!!! Just a month and a week away!!!! Now i got some shopping to do, lol...need some hot outfits for our hot getaway.

UPDATE - We got a call from the travel agent - we overpaid!!! LOL! She gave us a hundred bucks back!! We only paid $200 total for bot of to fly to Barcelona!!! I immediately spent it on a bikini (sailor/blue & white stripes - with free bikini bag & flip flops) and a pair of shorts...we were at the mall anyways, lol.

I spent about $3.50 on each camera (18 cameras) plus shipping, and $80 to process the film and put the files on a disc.

Out of all that film we maybe only got 100 *clear* photos, and a couple of the cameras only had one pic cause the camera broke after just one shot. Some will say this is a waste of money, but i'm actually glad we had them, even though they are not the greatest quality...it showed us a glimpse of what was going on each table, and some guest took "special" pics just for us, LOL.

What do you think, are disposable cameras a waste?

Here's a few of the pics from our disposables...i didn't post any of the "special" ones, lol. Everyone looks like they were having a great time....

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=95971&id=564301690&l=7ef8d524ea

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=95973&id=564301690&l=87603ab8af

Saw this on marthastewart.com and thought it was adorable.

it was not in my budget to add a photo booth, so our photographer (a good friend) offered to do instant photos. We had a 6 foot table with his laptop and small printer, and a bunch of accessories (hats, boas, cigarette holders, cigars, costume jewelry, clap boards, etc) for the guests to use as props in their pics. (Thankfully there was a nice backdrop @ the venue already and i didn't have to come up with one.) They were all printed while we were having dinner, then placed on the escort card table, and guests just grabed theirs as they left. It was a hit! I totally recommend it! It only cost us a total of $125! It makes a great favor that people will actually keep.

I could only post a few pics...i don't want to post a bunch of friends pics without them knowing, lol.

I'm just reposting a few of my old posts that were erased....

We designed and made our own Programs...we wanted them to be like a film premiere program to go with our 40's film theme.

We found a few Art Deco Invitations online and got our inspiration for our wedding invites from that..we had to redraw it and tweek it a bit. We also included rehearsal dinner invites with the wedding invite...only to those who were invited to the rehearsal dinner. Everything was printed on cardstock (even the map) that was purchased @ Kinkos. We ordered the vertigo black tie pocket folder's from cardsand pockets.com..along with the envelopes. We did all our printing for the invites @ Northern Artists (on St.Clair/Yonge) and we printed the programs at home. We decided to include a movie ticket to add in the film part of the theme again and it had some extra info that i didn't want on the actual invitation. I ordered the feathers from Ostrich.com and just used a glue gun to apply it to the ribbon (the ribbon was also glueed together on the back - it just slides right off the invitation) and then added a crystal in the center.

For the shower Invitations, i found a cute retro pic online and my husband just tweeked it a bit, and made the guy in the background bald (cause he's bald) and changed the car to a Mini, cause that's what he drives....so cute!!

The menu's, we wanted then to match the invitations...we did them in B&W though, instead of the antique effect we did with the invites. I added 2 crystals to the the top (around our logo) and one at the center bottom.

We named our tables as well as number them...all after actors of the 30's 40's & early 50's. They looked great on the tables, very glam.

It was a whole lotta work, but it was soooo worth it in the end.

Woohoo, what a great night! We decided to have a co-ed bachelor party cause for one, we wanted it that way, and two cause a lot of our friends flew in early to make it in time to the bachelor party so that we can ALL hang out together...plus it allowed some people to get to know others (those who didn't really know anyone) before the wedding day. Everyone had a fabulous time. We started with a Burlesque show...fun! Then we went to Toi Bar, where our Bestman was DJing that night...i danced my ass off!

Here's some pics...
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=94247&id=564301690&l=ccb50cea64