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  

Wedding Photos on A Practical Wedding

Last year while I was planning our wedding there was one website that became rather essential. A Practical Wedding is a wealth of inspiration, knowledge and advice and I also immensely enjoyed the book of the same name written by Meg Keene, editor-in-chief.

I've been dying to share wedding photos on the blog, but was waiting for them to be posted elsewhere!

After our photos came back I wanted to submit our wedding to my favorite resource and my patience has been rewarded today as our wedding has finally been posted! It feels pretty good to see us up there, and of course my ego doesn't mind all the kind comments. I hope that someone sees our post and is inspired to hire one of our amazing vendors (Genevieve Renee Photographie, Amy Robertson Makeup for example), or try a pink dress. ;)

If you want to check out the post, you can find it on their website here!

First Wedding Posts

Hello all! Not sure how many people are following this blog and not Light A Candle so I thought I would stop in to let you know I've started posting about the wedding (which really did happen apparently) on my main blog.

You can find my posts so far:

The Morning of the Wedding 

and

The Dress

If you would like to follow Light a Candle you can do so on Bloglovin' here, or Facebook here.

Thanks so much for following along! Now that the wedding day has passed I'm not sure what that means for this little side blog, but I'm thinking I will continue to post occasionally about marriage and relationships and perhaps the odd wedding inspiration. I also plan on doing a question and answer post should any followers have questions about my wedding or how we executed specific details.

Thanks for following along.

<3

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. 

Updates and Purchases: 2

 This past weekend was a very productive wedding errand weekend! First, Nick and I took a trip to the Amedeo Exclusive shop in City Center Mall to order Nicks custom, made to measure suit and dress shirt. Guy is tall and all legs so I really wanted him to have something custom. Above you will find my colour choices! Hazahh! Light grey for the vest, and dark grey for the suit. Shirts will be white. Nick is planning on going back with his boys to get matching custom vests created.

 Next stop, Micheal Hill where we picked out my wedding band! This has been weighing on me heavily for months as I waffled between designers and alternative bands, but in the end, this was one purchase I just couldn't make online. I really needed to see the ring with my engagement ring. Micheal Hill had this sweet little half eternity band, with a fan configuration that nestled right up against the curve of the pear center stone. I love it.

 Sunday and Monday carried over my enthusiasm and sense of productivity and I ended up working on some other little wedding projects! My mum and I elected to do all of our florals for the bridal party in silks so that they can be assembled ahead of time, and I put together some boutonnieres using some greenery and baby's breath type buds from Micheals, some pink paper roses from Carmelos on Etsy, and some feather flowers from Petershams on Etsy.

 Nicks not a flower guy so he really likes the feather flower. He even requested that I add some gold pips (also from Petershams) to the center of the feathers. This will be his boutonniere, and the pink flower will be for the groomsmen. I used my custom stamped ribbon (it says Kait & Nick) to wrap the groomsmen boutonnieres, and I'll be using the "I Love You" Ribbon to wrap Nicks. The ribbons are from The Lonely Heart on Etsy.

Below you will see an assembled bridesmaid bouquet! These were super easy, my mum and I decided on a central flower and then bought one bunch of greenery for each bouquet. I just wrapped them together! I think I'll let the girls decide on their own ribbon since I am spoiled for choices (read, have a custom ribbon obsession).

 The last project of the weekend was to make a few small adjustments to my wedding favors! Each person can look forward to taking home a little ribbon wand or flag after the ceremony. I can't wait to see these guys waving at us from down the aisle! The only adjustment I had to make to these after receiving them from Larkspur and Linen on Etsy, was to add some gold sequins to half of the ribbon wands. I just wanted a little sparkle.

 Still left to do:

Lots.

HAHA.

Not kidding.

• Bridal bouquet 
• More groomsmen boutonnieres 
• Corsages
• Bridesmaids bouquets
• Programs
• Print
• Assemble

• Pick up another berry basket for the programs 
• Print applicable signage and find frames 
• Build and decorate last pinata (so far I've finished two and purchased one!) 
• Chalkboard signage for reception 
• Delegate and make sure all other tasks are done! These include: 
• Wooden wedding signage (for directing guests driving to the ceremony) 
• Building Photobooth 
• Dip dyed table runners
• Baking for Ceremony refreshment table