Wedding Post Masterlist

Going through the archives I found a few wedding posts that made it up on Light a Candle but were never posted here, I thought that, as a retrospective, I would set up a master post for easy navigation.

Engagement
- Announcement 
- Story
- The Ring 
- Engagement Photos with Genevieve Renee Photographie  1 2 3

Planning  
Liability 
Confections (food for a cocktail and desert reception)
Decor 
Venue and Save the Dates
Photographers

11 Months

6 Months
5 Months
4 Months

2 Months 

Purchases 1 2 3  4

DIY's 

Florals

Self Tanning for Brides 

Han and Leia Star Wars Wedding Printables 

Pinata Making

Dress Shopping 

Inspiration

1

The Shopping Experience
1 2 3 4

The Dress



Wedding
The rehearsal  
The Morning of the Wedding  

Liability

Being that we're holding our wedding ceremony on a family property and not in a traditional venue, we felt it would be mandatory for us to purchase wedding insurance. I struggled for a few weeks on how to go about this.

All of our insurance, excepting only my life insurance which is through work, is currently bundled with Nicks car insurance (I don't drive). Therefore, I have never before had to find an insurance broker or research such things.

First, I asked Nick if we could get wedding insurance through his current provider. He complained they don't open policies via email or phone, so we would have to make a trip to their office on the other side of town. I decided to research other options.

Fast forward to the other day when I'm combing through my emails looking for a specific message, cleaning things up as I go with that handy delete button. I came across an email that had been sent to me after the Bridal Show in the fall from PAL Insurance Canada. They have a wedding insurance plan, called Wedding Guard,  designed specifically for that purpose that you can choose, file, and pay for all on the website in less then fifteen minutes. Done and done. We're now covered in case of cancellation, failed services from any of our vendors, and of course we receive the all important liability insurance we needed to host our own party.

Confections!

Guess what? We finally met with our baker at the Yellowhead Brewery!

After finally getting in touch with her (she apparently works several jobs and odd hours so contacting her by phone wasn't easy, I recommend to others to ask for several contact methods and which is preferred by the vendor), we were a little worried as she confessed she was taking some vacation in July and didn't know our date! Luckily she's in town for the day and she expressed delight at the fact that our wedding is on a Sunday and thus, she won't be too busy and can really devote her time and attention.

We chatted about what kind of desserts we like, and came up with a shortlist:

• Pies 
• Peanut Butter 
• Peach
• Apple 
• Cherry

• Tarts
• Lemon 
• Butter 

• Cookies (chocolate chip of course) 
• Cupcakes (red velvet is Nicks favorite) 
• Cheese cake (New York) 
• Strawberry Shortcake (another of Nicks favorites) 
• Creme Brulee 
• Tiramisu

 She seemed pleased with our picks and the varieties. When asked to quote a price she even came in under our original estimate. We still think the cost sounds too good to be true, but that's the joy of working with smaller local businesses who haven't been consumed by the WIC! If we have enough left in the budget we would love to also have macarons from Duchess, and cheese of course.

Overall, we're really happy and excited to work more with Molly as we get closer to the day! I don't think an official tasting is in our future (darn) but I am more then confident to leave this in her capable hands. ;)

Two Months

Where the heck did that mysterious three months update go? Well, my guess is it went the same way as our 3 month mark. Way too fast. As a recap:

So far we have:

• Hired our photographer,
• Put a deposit on the venue,
• Done our engagement photos,
• Launched our wedding website,
• Registered for gifts, UPDATE: It was expressed by my relatives that a cash online registry and a request not to bring gifts to the shower is just not gonna cut it so I did a hasty registry at The Bay. It was kinda awesome in that I was able to do it all online and within an hour.
• Chosen our officient,
• Ordered my wedding dress
• Purchased three out of four of my bridesmaids dresses and much of the accessories, 
• Purchased/collected a few decor items, and the beginning of what shall be my bridesmaids gifts. I can update this point now to say that I purchased additional decor items and I've now purchased all of my bridesmaid gifts!
• Met with our decorator/coordinator at the reception venue to discuss available decor, rentals, theme and colour, etc.
•  Printing has begun on our invitations! My goal is to send them all out in the next couple of weeks. UPDATE: Invites are now all mailed out and hopefully will be in the hands of our guests soon if not already. There's still a few people who we plan on handing an invite to if we see them. The thing I was most dreading, collecting mailing addresses, turned out to be easy with the help of my mother in law and my mum!
• Hired a wedding band. Last month I mentioned our musicians fell through, now things look all fixed again. Nick and I had the privilege to go and listen to a performance at a local pup and we happily decided shortly after.UPDATE: Signed the contract and provided the band with five requests. We also decided on our first dance song, and separated the bands song list into please and please don't play.
• Received a quote from our baker on a price per guest for dessert. UPDATE: Nope. No update. HAHA. I've heard a lot of great things about the Yellowhead brewery but I am a little frustrated that we're two months out now and haven't settled on the food. 
• I am pleased to say that I have secured chairs for the ceremony, this was a hugely satisfying step in that no matter what happens we pretty much have a wedding now (dress, officiant, place for people to plant their butts).
• DIYS: Since my last update we have completed one of the two DIYS (attributed to me) in the form of our awesome pinatas. It might be fair to note that I made two and bought one. Haha.
• Ordered Nicks suit. Nick is a super tall guy and all legs so we ordered him a custom made to measure suit from Amedeo Exclusive in City Center Mall. They threw in a discount off the dress shirt so we also purchased that.
• Purchased all of our flowers. After much wiffle and waffling we went with silk flowers and I'm already pretty excited. My mum helped me make this decision and the actual flower choices. When we put together the bridal bouquet (loosely) I actually got teary eyed.
• We purchased the Wedding Guard policy through PAL Insurance Canada. It was important to us to have liability insurance for our ceremony since we're not hosting it at a traditional venue.
• Purchased my wedding band! 
• Began dress fittings! This was the most awesome experience of ever. Honestly. It was so so much fun to be in the dress again, and to start to see it taking shape (the shape of my body in fact). I was also able to add some customizations to the dress that will make it feel more unique to me, which is a thing I like. ;) 
• Booked our Honeymoon! After a little bit of drama (never good, but it happens) we were able to book The Clark House at the Fairholm in in historic Charlottetown PEI. Couldn't be happier.

The boutonnieres I'm working on! You might have just seen this pic in the previous post, but this time it's in black and white! Be amazed!

 Next Steps:

• Meet with our baker. We have a quote, now we need to work on finalizing a list of confections. 
• DIYS: Still left in my wheelhouse, programs. They'll be tedious to print and assemble I'm sure but they'll be awesome when they're finished! I've gotten a lot of compliments on my prototype. ;)
• I also have one more pinata to make BTW. PINATAS FOR EVERYONE.
• Left for Nicks outfit: Shoes and a tie.
• Assemble Bridal bouquet, boutonnieres, corsages and bridesmaid bouquets.
• Purchase marriage license. 
• Purchase Nicks wedding band.
• Baking for the ceremony munchies 
• Signage (this covers a lot, haha). 
• Decide on Day of Coordination. 
• Start beautification (of me) including:
• light therapy for my acne scars
• spray tan 
• my last cut and colour
• booking my mani-pedi
• booking of hair and makeup for the day

Wow, you don't really realize it until you type it all up, but that list of "So Far we've..." Has gotten a lot longer and my "Next Steps" list has shrunk dramatically! Man, that's a pretty good feeling. I'm very much looking forward to completing everything and enjoying our fabulous day, but in the meantime shrinking to do lists keeps the stress at bay pretty well. 

4 Months

Wedding Planning Update. 

So far we have:

• Hired our photographer,
• Put a deposit on the venue,
• Done our engagement photos,
• Launched our wedding website,
• Registered for gifts,
• Chosen our officient,
• Ordered my wedding dress (!)
• Purchased three out of four of my bridesmaids dresses and much of the accessories, 
• Purchased/collected a few decor items, and the beginning of what shall be my bridesmaids gifts. I can update this point now to say that I purchased additional decor items (I think our centerpieces are starting to come into focus) and I've now purchased all of my bridesmaid gifts!
• Met with our decorator/coordinator at the reception venue to discuss available decor, rentals, theme and colour, etc.
• Finally decide if we want the videographer (I'm leaning yes, he's leaning no). If we decide yes, book that sucker.  Nick won this one. We won't be hiring an official videographer, but we will be asking some of our friends to help by filming during the day, we'll also be purchasing a go-pro camera to record the ceremony in glorious HD.
• Cemented our seemingly ever changing guest list. We decided to have a few "maybe" guests, so we basically have a cemented "Definitely" list, plus a few people who we are hoping to try and get together with before we have to send out invites. We have some people we haven't seen in a long time but would like to have them attend, but we made a rule, no one who we haven't seen in over six months.
•  Priced out Invitations Printing has begun on our invitations! My goal is to send them all out in the next couple of weeks.
• Hired a wedding band. Last months I mentioned our musicians fell through, now things look all fixed again. Nick and I had the privilege to go and listen to a performance at a local pup and we happily decided shortly after.
• Received a quote from our baker on a price per guest for dessert. 

One of many paper designs I've been working on.

Next Steps:

• Collect mailing addresses of guests.I think I'm going to break our list down into three and have my mum's help out with this task since making phone calls is about my least favorite thing.
• Meet with our baker. We have a quote, now we need to work on finalizing a list of confections. 
• Reserve chairs for the ceremony.This week I started getting quotes for chairs and am currently waffling between two chair options. I was pretty set on 'limewash' chivari chairs but the seat cushions they come with are kinda ghastly. SO either we choose a less ornate chair or we just hope every last person RSVP's yes and we don't have to look at any seat cushions.
• Finish centerpiece design. 
• Start on DIYS! I have three main DIY's to complete for the day, we're building a photo booth out of PVC, I have to construct three pinatas for the ceremony, and I'm printing the wedding programs at home and they require a lot of tedious assembling. My plan is to schedule a DIY day with my ladies as soon as my paper comes in for the programs, and the pinatas will be next. The photobooth is up to the boys, but I'll do some prompting I'm sure. 
• Take the guys to the mall. Haha, or they will never get their outfits sorted out. 
• Decide on flower options. I can't for the life of me decide whether to purchase flowers the day before from the supermarket or order paper flowers from Poland (or be ambitious and learn to make them myself). Why is this so hard? I think I'm leaning towards paper just so I can get them done in advance.
• Purchase wedding insurance. 
• Purchase marriage license. 
• Purchase wedding rings. 
• Begin dress fittings! 

5 Months

Wedding Planning Update. 

So far we have:

• Hired our photographer,
• Put a deposit on the venue,
• Done our engagement photos,
• Launched our wedding website,
• Registered for gifts,
• Chosen our officient,
• Ordered my wedding dress (!)
• Purchased three out of four of my bridesmaids dresses and much of the accessories, 
• Purchased/collected a few decor items, and the beginning of what shall be my bridesmaids gifts.
• Met with our decorator/coordinator at the reception venue to discuss available decor, rentals, theme and colour, etc.
• Finally decide if we want the videographer (I'm leaning yes, he's leaning no). If we decide yes, book that sucker.  Nick won this one. We won't be hiring an official videographer, but we will be asking some of our friends to help by filming during the day, we'll also be purchasing a go-pro camera to record the ceremony in glorious HD.
• Cemented our seemingly ever changing guest list. We decided to have a few "maybe" guests, so we basically have a cemented "Definitely" list, plus a few people who we are hoping to try and get together with before we have to send out invites. We have some people we haven't seen in a long time but would like to have them attend, but we made a rule, no one who we haven't seen in over six months.
•  Priced out Invitations -- I finished my design, and I started ordering supplies for this project! So far I have purchased:
• Washi tape
• Two custom stamps (a return address stamp and a "deliver to" stamp for the front of the envelope. 
• Envelopes
• Paper
• Best decision ever, I hired a calligrapher to do just our names. More on this in another post.

Some of my inspiration (and purchases) for our invites.

This month (March) we must: 

• Get out the rest of those save the dates! So far we've only handed them out in person. Addendum: I have no idea if we'll bother mailing save the dates, it seems oftly silly to pay twice for postage...
• Collect mailing addresses of guests. 
• Research musicians. We thought we had this one down, and then at the end of February Nicks band dissolved. We're back to the drawing board and will hopefully be booking a new band this month.
• Meet with our baker to discuss menu options. In February I sent some ideas for them to look at but I haven't heard back.
• Book rehearsal dinner vendors (we'll be having our rehearsal dinner at Nicks parents farm, but I'm considering having it catered by a BBQ company) 
• Finalise honeymoon plans. Nicks parents and grandparents are generously covering our honeymoon.
• Reserve chairs for ceremony.

6 Months

And two weeks, but who's counting. ;)

This new year is special and exciting, for the next six months we'll be fully immersed in wedding planning (and puppy rearing), then the day where it all comes together (or doesn't, whatevs) and then the next 5 and a half months will be spent honeymooning and hopefully decompressing from all the excitement. Seriously, I'm planning for a very relaxed second half of 2014. Best laid plans right?

By FirstSnowFall on Etsy

With the planning getting serious, I've decided to share a list of To-Do's each month until the day off. Keeping me honest right?

So far we have:

• Hired our photographer,
• Put a deposit on the venue,
• Done our engagement photos,
• Launched our wedding website,
• Registered for gifts,
• Chosen our officient,
• Ordered my wedding dress (!),
• Purchased three out of four of my bridesmaids dresses and much of the accessories, 
• And purchased/collected a few decor items, and the beginning of what shall be my bridesmaids gifts.

This month (January 2014) we must:

• Meet with our decorator/coordinator at the reception venue to discuss available decor, rentals, theme and colour, etc. 
• Meet with our baker to discuss menu options, 
• Finally decide if we want the videographer (I'm leaning yes, he's leaning no). If we decide yes, book that sucker. 
• Cement our seemingly ever changing guest list! 
• Get out the rest of those save the dates! So far we've only handed them out in person. 
• Collect mailing addresses of guests. 
• Price out Invitations (I've designed our invites, but we'll need to price out printing and mailing options), 
• Research musicians and ...
• transportation.
•  Look into hotel options for out of town guests (June is wedding season so it doesn't hurt to book these things early).

Decor Inspiration

I keep making these things. I don't know what to call them, inspiration boards? Wishful thinking? Mood boards? Every couple weeks I make a new one and throw the old one out. ;) In any case, here are my current 'inspiration boards' for the ceremony and reception.

With the ceremony site having been chosen, I've included a couple pictures of the barn as well as some inspiration.

• For the alter, some kind of vintage dresser or side board. I love the look of all the drawers open and filled with flowers! 
• I definitely want to display pictures from my parents wedding, and my in-laws wedding! Nick and I both come from long, successful marriages and we want to celebrate and honor that history. 
• Pinatas. I love them. Outdoor wedding? Great excuse to break something with a stick. 
• Lemonade! 
• Vintage mismatched seating is a dream of mine. 
• I got the idea to string a laundry line with lace hanging from it to block the guests view of the 'aisle'. A big reveal is a must for those of us with a flair for the dramatic.
• I want to incorporate gold into the whole day and a great way is through sparkly wands! Haha. That sounds weird? I'm thinking they wave them in the air during the recessional in lieu of messy confetti.  

For the reception:

• A cheese wheel 'cake'. I have always loved this idea, and Nicks family are crazy about cheese so I think it will be a hit. 
• Sparkly dessert table. 
• Simple cocktail table covers that look romantic and classy.
• A board game station! 
• Gold streamers! 
• Nick and I came up with the idea of displaying romantic comic book art as an homage to his geekery. 
• Himmelli chandeliers (in gold of course).
• One idea we've been bouncing around is that of a DIY photobooth strip kinda like the Halloween version seen above. We really want to incorporate a photobooth, but they're quite expensive to rent.

Obviously these ideas are still evolving! We'll see more in January when we speak with our decorator! 

The Barn

In August Nicks parents moved to a property just outside of town, a two-ish acre almost rural home with an adorable barn and a huge field.

It's always been our dream to have an outside ceremony and honestly, they can get quite pricey unless you have a friend of a friend or family member with the perfect property they're willing to offer up cheaply.  We are so excited to change gears a little from our evening only brewery wedding, and start planning our ceremony at the barn.

There's still a few logistics to work out, but we're really considering this possibility and we're loving the idea! Some things to consider:

• is there sufficient plumbing for fifty people who suddenly all wanna pee? 
• is there parking for everyone? Will we need to arrange transportation between venues? 
• are there any permits we will have to aquire? 

Not sure what else, but I can't wait to consult with a wedding planner on this subject. Any insights in the community?

Below are the pics of the actual ceremony location. I chose this side of the barn because the field has enough room for chairs, but also leads to the house and disappears behind some trees, so I'll have a covered 'aisle' to approach from (you can see the trees from the first B&W pic above). 
 

And a lightly photoshoped mock up of the sight for imagination purposes. ;)

First Purchase

I made my first wedding decor purchase yesterday and I'm pretty stoked about it!

This awesome poster will be adorning out dessert table, and I think I'm pretty witty.

Last weekend I attended Bridal Fantasy at Northlands Expo Center. I was excited about it, but it turned out to be a bit of a bust. Not a morsel of food on the property, and everybody was pushily trying to sell me things and judge me on my choice of tradition-bucking whatever. Get over yourself wedding industry, you're so, like, over.

Silver lining, I took a look at some of the packages offered by a friend's event design company, and I think I will go ahead and have her work with me on the decor and coordination. I find, in this overwhelming world of one-ups and pinterest, I have too many ideas. I hope she can help me narrow things down and create a cohesive experience!

Starting with this poster which I find hilarious (so far everyone surveyed finds it unfunny and at least one person threatened to cross out the word 'yo' and write 'your').


Hilarious.

Photographers

We looked at a lot of them.

People are constantly telling us "get this person to do it" or "this person will do it for cheap!" but not being interested in having someone cheaply shoot our wedding on the Canon Rebel they just bought from Costco, I insisted on meeting with several photographers who's work impressed me and met my aesthetic!

First of all, for a guy who apparently couldn't care less about capturing memories of the most expensive day of our lives (he literally said he didn't care about the photos, "they just get stuffed in a box to never be looked at again right?" LOL), Nick was an absolute prince charming throughout the consultation process. Once he got it in his head we were going to be spending a quarter of our wedding budget on photos he took to meeting everyone, and being a supportive future groom like a duck takes to a pond -- graciously and with verve. I felt really supported by him.

Secondly, there are a lot of talented photographers among our family and friends and I don't want my Rebel crack to be misconstrued. I really wanted a photographer who has a lot of experience shooting weddings specifically, who would know how to get us out of our shells and direct us to get the best photos possible, and again, who fits a specific compositional and post processing aesthetic. Not only that, but I wasn't interested in having our friends and family busy taking pictures instead of living in the moment! Haha, I'm even considering making it an 'unplugged' wedding where everyone is asked to turn off their cell phones at the door.

Anyway, we contacted six photographers or photography companies, and met with three.

Our top three were:

• Diamond Cake Photography

•  Jessica Fern Facette 

•  And Genevieve Renee Photographie 

All three of them are absolute artists and I'm a huge fan of all of their hard work and dedication to shooting amazing weddings.

In the end we decided to go with Genevieve, for a few key reasons. First of all, when we chatted with her she kept it light and informal, and genuinely seemed to want to hear all about our wedding plans. Not only did we spill everything to her, but she started immediately coming up with ideas as to how to shoot our wedding, timelines that would work best, even decor tips. She was just so knowledgeable and  there wasn't a single moment when we were stuck as to what to say next. She prompted us along and always knew exactly what to say. That kind of intuitiveness really showed her professionalism and experience to us. We ended the call (she's from Calgary so we chatted over Skype) feeling like she would know exactly how to shoot our wedding. I could envision her having the same intuitiveness when  she's shooting with us, knowing exactly what to say to make us smile, and what shots to take to make us happy. That's what I wanted.

I would highly suggest any of these talented local photographers, one thing I kept saying was that I had no idea before starting our search how many extremely talented professionals we had at our fingertips. It made deciding very difficult for us.

If I could share one tip with people about choosing a photographer I would say choose someone who you click with on a personal level. That's maybe not the most practical advise, and yes, we also love her photography, but the biggest deciding factor ended up being  -- this is someone who I wouldn't mind having at my wedding as a friend and a guest, this is someone who I think will reduce stress on the day, rather then add it, and who will be professional and also have fun!

The Venue And the Save the Dates

Since before this wedding planning business began, I had it in my head that my top venue was The Yellowhead Brewery. They have a great tasting room and event space full of exposed brick, pipes running along the cieling, and a full sized bar of course. Windows look on to the stainless steel brewing equipment, and the space feels both elevated and casual. They also have a full sized stage with sound equipment perfect for the live band we want.

I was super pleased to discover, after officially contacting them a week or so ago, that thie rental rate is extremely affordable! We set up a time to meet this past weekend and again discovered that not only was it affordable, but the rental agreement is transparent and straight forward, they have a baker on staff who will work with us to create the perfect dessert menu for our dessert only wedding, and the event coordinator will do all of the set up and take down for a small extra fee. Uh, hello, dream space.

With every single Saturday already booked for next summer, we jumped on an availble date in early July (which was a necessity for visiting family members who will already be here in July and are not able to fly out again).

With our date booked and our deposit paid, I quickly ordered our save the date 'business cards' from online printer Moo.
 

Once our save the dates have gone out, we can happily shift our focus from wedding planning to settling into our new home and puppy searching! Haha, it's going to be a busy, but amazing year! I don't plan on doing much wedding related stuff until we move to the next consultation faze in January!

A couple things left to do before then:

• Interview and book a photographer
• Have our engagment photos taken 
• finilize the guest list 
• and go dress shopping!

First Bridal Appointment

I am soo soo stoked to get to post about my first bridal appointment!

As many might know (either from me talking non-stop about it, or taking a casual glance at my pinterest), I'm kinda obsessed with bridal boutique BHLDN owned by Anthropologie. The gowns are unique and different, come in many gorgeous styles, and are almost all within my price range. Hello.

The only problem with BHLDN is that the gowns are carried only in their brick and mortar shops, and online. Being that their two locations are in Chicago and Texas, I knew from the start if I was going to walk down the aisle in BHLDN it would be because I had the cinchonas to order my bridal gown online. That's a big deal. I do a lot of shopping on the web but even I am not that brave. The only other option would be a girls weekend in Chicago which would add to the wedding budget.

Well Nick and I have been planning a trip to Seattle in June for my birthday and our dating anniversary, and lo and behold BHLDN makes an announcement they're doing a series of trunk shows across the states as they prepare to open a third location. I casually check out the trunk show dates and OMG Seattle, June 3rd and 4th!

Needless to say I am freaking out at this point. I email Nick and ask if it's OK if I hijack our vacation for one itsy bitsy bridal appointment, and he's all "Ya, I don't see why not", and I'm giddy because apparently not being engaged yet is not a reason to not try on bridal gowns. After telling him "babe, you made my day" I proceeded to nervously book a time block during the second day of the trunk show.

All I can say now is I am INSANELY excited, but just a little (read, a lot) nervous about attending my first appointment alone (Nicks not actually keen on coming with me to the thing) and most notably without my sister or mum. The point of the whole thing is mostly to try on the dresses and decide if any of them will be flattering, or look half as lovely as they do on the models. The point is not to come home with a dress. However, if I fall in love with one I may certainly purchase it online at some point in the future.

I know it's still early, and no, we're not engaged yet, but this is the first time my pre-planning has led to something concrete and it certainly makes things just a little more real. I told Nick, "don't let me embarrass myself by going in there with no ring", so hopefully he can get this whole proposal thing together sometime in the next three weeks...