This is sohappytogether's Pink Wedding!

So it's time to confess one of my weird compulsions: whenever I have an important event or exciting plans coming up, I can't help but check the long-range forecast to see what the weather will be like (or won't be like, since it's almost never accurate).

In particular, I look at www.theweathernetwork.com's 14 day forecast. Our wedding day just appeared on there today. Apparently it will be 25 degrees Celsius, with a mix of sun and cloud. Not too bad! However, obviously this is subject to change.. and therein lies my compulsion. I know I will drive myself crazy checking the stupid thing over and over, maybe several times a day as the date gets closer. I know, I know, why drive myself crazy? It's obviously completely out of my control.

Anyway, it's been a particularly rainy summer, so although I'm hoping for the best, I'm preparing for the worst. I even bought a HUGE hot pink umbrella today (which would look fun in pictures). Plus, they say it is good luck if it rains on your wedding day, and, as a friend recently told me, that "rain will make the knot tighter". Cute, no?

Something old: "Symbolizes continuity with the bride's family and the past". My something old will be my late grandmother's ring. It's too big for me so I am going to attach it to my bouquet somehow.

Something new: represents "optimism and hope for the bride's new life ahead". A bunch of stuff! But hopefully a pretty necklace from my FH!

Something borrowed: "Something borrowed should be an item from a happily married woman. The borrowing will give the new bride good luck, (which is why the “loaner” needs to be a happily married woman). Something borrowed also reminds the new bride to look to her friends and family when she needs help".
I will be wearing my Matron of Honour's veil :)

Something blue: blue symbolizes "love, modesty, and fidelity". My bridal undies that a friend gave me at my bachlorette.. they are so cute! They have "Bride" written in blue on the front (not in a tacky way.. very pretty).. and two small blue bows.

After much time and consideration, I think we have chosen the song for our first dance: 'You are the best thing' by Ray LaMontagne. We've been playing it over and over and practicing, haha. I have to be careful not to kill it (I tend to do that with songs I love, oops).



We wanted something not too slow, with meaningful lyrics, that would give us that 'wow' feeling. We love 'Stay with you' by John Legend, but it just felt too slow.


Then we were thinking "Have a little faith in me" by John Hiatt, which I LOVE (makes me cry) but again, a little slow.


Anyway.. I think we are both happy with our choice.. can't wait to dance with my new husband! :)

How is it possible that there is only one month left until the wedding!? We have so much left to do. I know it will all work out (trying to stay positive), but let me tell you, our to-do list is still long. Too long.

I'm doomed.

Really though, I'm excited! We will be married in a month! Dave keeps randomly humming "Here comes the bride" and I keep daydreaming about our ceremony and trying not to cry. Honestly, if some stuff on our list doesn't get done (do we really need a ring pillow?) it's not the end of the world. I could marry him today in my pjs and still be happy.

That said... the procrastinator in me is freaking out just a tad.

We got the pictures back from our engagement shoot; here are some of our favourites. There are many that I will not be posting due to the fact that they are extremely cheesy and/or our poses are ridiculous. Now don't get me wrong, I love our photographer, but he brought the second photographer to our e-shoot so that we could meet him, and this guy was doing a lot of the directing "put your hand here, stand like this" etc. Barf. I know we will have to some posing for our wedding pics but I am all about candids and natural-looking shots.

Last night I went to see "The Proposal"! A friend of mine got a bunch of tickets to the sneak preview. It was a cute movie... and I must say that my boyfriend Ryan Renolds looked delicious, haha.

Although I generally prefer a movie with a bit more substance and better writing/acting, as I have mentioned before I love watching wedding movies. They are fun and lighthearted and kind of brainless, which is always nice once in a while. So I was thinking that I will have a couple of my favourites on hand to watch the night before the wedding if I am nervous. I will be having a sleep-over with most of my bridesmaids and so it will be fun to throw on 27 Dresses or My Best Friend's Wedding while we chat and such.

Here are some pictures of our wedding bands.. they are just what we wanted! Mine was designed and made by our jeweler and so I didn't have a definite idea of what it would look like but I love it.

Dave loves his too.. it's Tungsten, which apparently doesn't scratch and stays shiny. I had it engraved with the word "home" (there is a story behind this but essentially it's because whenever I'm with him, no matter where we are, I feel at home... hahaha cheesy but true).

The only thing I'm worried about is that my wedding band is pretty snug; It fits perfectly but it sticks a bit on my knuckle, especially if my hands are warm (hello, we are getting married in August!!). What the hell are we going to do if he can't get it on during the ceremony?? Has anyone thought of this? Anyone have any solutions aside from having the ring resized?

We sent out all our invites a few weeks ago, it was good to cross that off our to-do list. Who would have thought there would be so much confusion with addresses and etiquette. Dr.Mrs. blah blah blah. What a nightmare!

Our RSVPs are now trickling in and it's so much fun! We've asked people to request a song to be played at our reception and there have been some pretty good ones so far. I also love the little notes people write on the RSVP card. I will definitely be keeping them and putting some in my scrapbook.

We've started thinking about our seating plan and made up a mock one.. it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. BUT.. of course that all depends on who is coming or not. So far everyone has said yes! Getting so excited.

I know I haven't posted in a while.. things have been so busy. But I'm going to try write updates a little more frequently, especially seeing as there are only two months until the wedding Aaahhhh! Craziness.

At the beginning of May, I came home from work on a Friday and was just hanging out when the doorbell rang. I had no idea who it was going to be, but I knew something was up because as soon as the doorbell rang, my FH made a funny face and ran away. Anyway, I open the door and there are my bridesmaids yelling "surprise"!! I couldn't believe it. So they pretty much kidnapped me (Dave had packed a bag for me in advance) and off we went. They wouldn't even tell me where we were headed.

It was such a nice weekend, the cottage was great (there was a hot tub!) and the weather was beautiful. They had packed my favourite foods, great music, wine, board games, Sex and the City dvds.. it was the best! My sister gave us a yoga class outside by the water, we read girly magazines and laughed and talked all weekend. I love my bridesmaids so much, those sneaky little devils!

My bridal party organized an engagement dinner for us this past weekend. We had an amazing time! My Matron of Honour and her husband planned for us to go out for dinner, but when we got to the restaurant both our families and the wedding party were there to surprise us! It was so nice to have everyone together, and for some of them to meet for the first time.

It was the first of our wedding celebrations, and since both of us are a bit uncomfortable about being in the spotlight, it was good practice! We felt very lucky to have such great family and friends! A big thank you to my girls for planning it all xoxox

So the other day we went to set up our registry at The Bay.. at first it seemed a little weird to be asking for all this stuff, but it makes it easier for guests, no duplicates etc.. anyway, we had fun! Lots of laughs as Dave tried to put funny stuff on our list. We took a long time though, and didn't get it finished. We have been living together for three years so we already have most of our household items, but there are some things we don't have e.g.: panini grill (so excited about this!), martini glasses, slow cooker (also very excited about this one!).

We also went to choose our wedding bands this week, and our invitations are looking good and are almost done (thanks to my sis and her boyfriend who owns a design/advertising company). We are very happy with the progress we're making.. could my procrastination days be over? Ha, not likely.

I have seen this idea on a couple of different blogs and websites and I love it. I think this is what we are going to do instead of having a traditional guest book. It will be fun to see what our guests write to us, and I'll probably put some of them in my wedding scrapbook.

I am wondering whether to put some instructions next to the jar... something like: "please share your words of wisdom for a long and happy marriage", or will people just know what to do on their own? Also, I'd like to make sure people sign their wish. Hmm... maybe I'll create a template for the cards themselves, so people can just fill it in.

Here are a couple of pictures of flowers that I think will be more complementary with my dress than my original bouquet of bright pinks and yellows.

I think they're pretty. I'd still like to have some yellow incorporated into the centerpieces though, and I am still hoping to go with the brighter pinks for my ladies.

So my mom and I went to pick up my dress yesterday... It's now hanging in the closet, and I am repeatedly being tempted to try it on! I think I will bring it to someone else's house for safe keeping until I have to go for alterations.

When I first saw it again I was kind of shocked. I still loved it, but when I put it on it looked a little different on me compared to what I remembered (has this happened to anyone else?). Anyway, one of the things that I was unsure about is the colour.. I got it in ivory, but because of the material it seems pretty dark. I kind of feel like it looks beige, eeeeek! It's since grown on me but I am still worried that it won't look as nice as a whiter version of the dress. Maybe it's because I am super pale right now? Also, I am unsure about the colour of my flowers; I was originally going to go with hot pinks and yellows and maybe oranges, but now I'm wondering if those colours will clash with the dress. Sigh. I wish this stuff didn't worry me but it does. I somehow think that softer pink would look nicer.. but then there goes my colour scheme. Does anyone have ideas of what colour flowers would look nice? I finally found a picture of my dress (I hope no one sees this that shouldn't!). The folds look a little weird in the picture.. they fall much nicer in person.

To be fair the dress does look whiter in natural light (compared to the lighting at the dress shop last night), but I still don't know. I was a bit sad last night but I'm getting over it.. I'm just hoping that I will feel good in the dress on the day of. :(

On a happier note my dad was so darn cute when I was talking to him today he was very excited that I had picked up my dress, he said that he can't wait to see me in my dress at the wedding, and that he knows he is going to cry!! It's definitely not like my dad to even give two seconds of thought to fashion or clothes, so I was very touched! He's a cutie. I just hope he likes my beige dress hahaha. Geez.

Ahhh... the art of procrastination is one that I have truly mastered! Our wedding is less than 5 months away and there is still so much to be done. I am still excited about planning, and I'm not really feeling too much stress about it, but I am really not on the ball with all the small details that I should be working on. I mean, most of the big stuff is all figured out (except the florist, eeeek!) but I have all these ideas that are, well... so far just ideas. I need to get my butt in gear.

I guess I don't really know where to start, so instead I just continue to look for ideas without making any real progress. Anyone else have this problem? I guess I should pick one or two things a week and focus on getting those crossed of my list. Incidentally, does anyone have a good checklist that they use? I am using the one from The Knot, but I find I need one that is more detailed. I guess maybe my first step is to create my own list. Sigh... looking at blogs and pictures is so much more fun.. haha.

We are excited to finally have our honeymoon plans figured out. We were thinking of going down south, but the weather is so nice around here in August so we decided to rent a cottage for our honeymoon and then go somewhere hot next winter. Can't wait to relax there after the wedding!

I should really be finalizing our guest list, but it's stressing me out so instead I decided to procrastinate by going on WBC and posting something that is a little more trivial.

It's a small detail, but just for fun I was wondering what type of perfume people will be wearing on their wedding day. I was wondering whether to buy something new, or to use an old favourite. I think I will be going with Ralph Lauren Romance, which I used to wear, and still do sometimes.

So we checked out a few cake places today. At one place we tried about six types... ug, felt kinda sick after. The cake was good, but not THAT good, and so expensive! We do want to have a cake because we like the cake-cutting tradition.. but honestly, does anyone really like eating it? I don't think I've had a piece at any of the wedding's I've been to. Why? Too full from the meal? Busy dancing? I don't really remember. What are everyone's thoughts on wedding cake? Is anyone not having one?

My FH and I just came back from a meeting with our wedding coordinator. We decided against hiring a wedding planner, but our venue's event coordinator is simply amazing! When we first booked our venue the coordinator was someone who was quite young and inexperienced. We later found out that she took another job, so we we're a bit worried about who her replacement was going to be.

Well we are very happy! She is experienced, efficient, accommodating, and SO nice! Anyway, I have been feeling a bit stressed lately with planning and budgeting, but I feel so much better after meeting with her. Yay!

So we've picked out our meal choices and our wine, one more thing we can cross off our list. We tasted a lot of wine... maybe that's why I'm in such a good mood, haha.

I must admit, I am a sucker for wedding movies. Even though most are pretty cheesy, I can't help but want to see them. It's kind of like wedding magazines.. even though I know that they are mostly advertisements and variations of articles I have read a bunch of times, I still have this strange pull to want to buy them (although I usually can resist).

Anyway, I saw 'Bride Wars' yesterday... it was pretty silly and sometimes unrealistic, but I still liked it. My friend (who is also getting married this year) and I laughed a lot, and thankfully did not related much to the on-screen bridal battle.

My favourite wedding movie of all time is still 'My Best Friend's Wedding'.

I'm not too sure what shoes I'm going to go for.. I like the idea of pink heels, but I'm not sure if it will complement my dress. I also want to choose something comfy, and not too much of a heel (my FH is only a few inches taller than me). I also like the idea of flats, but I think they would be too hot for an August wedding! Arrgggg.. who knows. I think I will end up going for a kitten heel, probably in ivory, and I like the satin look, with a bow maybe? Has anyone seen something like that?

As I mentioned in an earlier post, my girls will be wearing black dresses. At first I was worried that it might look too dark/gothic for a summer wedding, but I am starting to really like the black with the bright flowers to contrast. My grandma asked me what colours the bridesmaids dresses were going to be and when I told her black she was not impressed.. haha.. I think she thinks black is for funerals, not weddings. She's cute in her old-school ways! Anyway, the girls are all going to choose their own dress, all I would like is that they look formal enough (i.e. no clubbing-type party dress) and are around knee length. I'm excited to see what they pick!

Has anyone else read this book? It's a collection of essays about "bewilderment, big love, breakups, and what women really think about contemporary weddings", edited by Colleen Curran.

My MOH bought it for me, and I really enjoyed reading it. The essays are funny, honest, and insightful. It made me think about how much energy we focus on our one big day, and sometimes get so caught up in the details that we may forget that it "isn't really about finding the perfect wedding dress or getting the perfect font on a monogrammed matchbook cover". More important than any of that, it's about celebrating the years of marriage to come.

I am so excited! I just ordered my dress. I couldn't find an exact picture online, but it is very similar to the one in the picture, except a little more fitted around the bum and the skirt is a little less full at the bottom. I can't wait to get it! I feel like such a girl, haha!

I really need to go get my hair trimmed but haven't been able to find the time... anyway, I guess that has got me thinking about wedding hairstyles. I think I want to have my hair half up. My hair is naturally curly but I think I may go with a looser/bigger curl, although I don't want to look too different. Love Carrie Underwood's hair!

These are pictures of what I would love our ceremony set-up to look like. Our ceremony and reception are going to be at the same location, and we have the option of getting married outside on the grounds, or on the covered balcony/veranda. Either will be pretty, but I've always wanted to get married outside with trees, etc. We'll see. At least we have a back-up plan in case it rains.

Well, after interviewing 5 photographers, we finally made our decision! We have booked Troy St.Louis Photography (www.troystlouis.com), and are very happy with our choice, not to mention relieved to be able to cross that of our list! He is such a nice guy.. we really wanted to find someone who made us feel comfortable. His style is also in line with what we want.. lots of candids, photojournalism, captures emotion... and to top it off his prices are really reasonable. The only potential downside is that he hasn't done too many weddings compared to some of the more experienced photographers... but I I have seen the proof books of some that he has done and they are amazing.

Here are are some jars that we have bought so far, and the 'love' signs that will be on the table too. I think we're going to aim to buy a couple more big jars and then a few smaller ones. I have found these at Winners and Michaels and some other home stores. We're still trying to figure out if we want to use bags or boxes (maybe take-out boxes in a fun colour?)

Like many other brides on here, we are going to have a candy buffet at our wedding. We are really excited about it as we love candy! We are going to have candy in all ranges of pinks and yellows. Can't wait to see how it looks!

Here is a link I found about building your candy buffet: http://www.favorideas.com/wedding-blog/candy-buffet-ideas/

So, my question is, how early can you start buying the candy? I know some brides have been talking about stocking up on candy that's on sale after Halloween and Christmas.. but how could I be sure that it would stay fresh and yummy (even if I look at expiry dates, I'm a little scared of buying it too early). I'd be grateful for any advice/recommendations. Thanks!

I've been trying to come up with a wedding theme... and it's not really happening. Some ideas: my FH and I both want a big focus of the wedding to be on our guests, so we are thinking of trying to incorporate photos of our guests as part of the decorations. Also, we really want something different for our table numbers.. I like the idea of table names being "I love you" in different languages.. so we'd have a "Je t'aime" table and a "Ti amo" table, etc... So what's our theme?? Love? Is that lame? I don't really want hearts or anything as part of the decor... do we have to have a theme? Any ideas/suggestions, let me know!