Wedding Shoes

Some days are just fun, like the day you buy you're wedding shoes. I decided to go shiny because everything else will be pretty laid back and I need to shine!

Also my dress came in and it fits, with even a little bit of wiggle room HOORAY!

Music, Music, Music!

I have an extremely strong opinion about my wedding music and other people's wedding music I just choose not to share those views with them because, to each their own. This is the only subject that I become Bridezilla on... so far.  I will say it now, there will be no requests at my wedding or Jack and Jill, i've heard too much shitty music at other weddings to want to hear it at my own (yes I am a bitter bitch on the subject). One thing that bothers me is when I see grandparents at a wedding watching the younger people grind to Usher on the dance floor, I think there is a place for that and its not at an event with all ages, but again people should have whatever they want at their own wedding.

Planning the music for the Jack and Jill, which is coming up in three weeks has been the absolute most fun part of wedding planning to date. I've put A LOT of thought into the music, there is no new crappy music in the playlist, it is all classic "fire hall" music with a celtic, Cape Breton flare. Having a father who plays in the band and being brought up looking at set lists, I have a pretty good eye for which songs work and dont work and the order songs should be put in. People who are new to planning set lists typically put WAY too many waltzes in their lineup there should only be 5-6 waltzes in a dance.

It is important to me that this is a party for everyone, old, young and in between. I chose songs that are classics, from a variety of genres, that are easy to dance to.

Here is the draft of the set list (The #s are off and the highlighted ones are the waltzes, feel free to steal this for your own needs):

1. Some Kind of Wonderful- Grand Funk Railroad

2. Long Train Running Doobie Brothers

3. My Own Way To Rock- Burton Cummings

4. My Sharona- The Knack

5. Pocket Full of Gold- Vince Gill

6. Brown Eyed Girl- Van Morrison

7. Here for A Good Time- Trooper

6.  Only The Good Die Young- Billy Joel

7. Keep your Hands To Yourself- Georgia Satellites

8. Spirit in The Sky- Dr. Hook

9. Johnny Be Good- Chuck Berry

10. Taking Care of Business- BTO

11. Doin It Right- Powder Blues Band

12. Shakey Ground- Delbert McClinton

13. Rock and Roll is King- ELO

13. Better Be Home Soon- Crowded House

14. Movin’ On – Rankin Family

15. Rock This Town- Stray Cats

16. Lager and Ale- Kim Mitchell

17. You May Be Right- Billy Joel

18. Sharp Dressed Man- ZZ Top

19. Brick House- The Commodores

20. Magic Carpet Ride- Steppenwolf

20. Black or White- Michael Jackson (short version)

21. I Want You Back- Jackson 5

22. Kiss- Prince

23. Summer of 69- Bryan Adams

24. Look at Us- Vince Gill

25. Fat Bottom Girls- Queen

26.  Old Black Rum- Great Big Sea

27.  Heave Away- Fables

27. Sold- John Michael Montgomery

28. Boot Scootin Boogie- Brooks and Dunn

28. Chattahoochie- Alan Jackson

29. Twist and Shout- Beatles

30. Aint Too Proud To Beg- Temptations

31. Don’t Bring Me Down- Electrolight Orchestra

32. You Make My Dreams Come True- Hall and Oates

33. I wish- Stevie Wonder

34. The Way You Make Me Feel- Michael Jackson

35. Make You Feel My Love- Adele

36. Footloose- Kenny Loggins

37. Oh What A Night- Four Seasons

38. Play That Funky Music- Wild Cherry

39. Superstition- Stevie Wonder

39. Hurt So Good- John Cougar Mellancamp

40. Mony Mony- Billy Joel

40. Born to Be Wild- Steppenwolf

40. Tush- ZZ Top

41. Pour Some Sugar on Me- Def Leppard

41.  Night that Patty Murphy Died- Great Big Sea

41. 500 miles- The Proclaimers

42. Home For A Rest- Spirit of the West

43. Shook Me All Night Long- ACDC

44. Crazy- Aerosmith

44. Authority Song- John Cougar Mellancamp

45. Old Time Rock and Roll- Bob Seger

46. Callin’ Baton Rouge- Garth Brooks

47. SHOUT- Isley Brothers

48. You Feel The Same Way Too- Rankin Family

49. Mull River Shuffle- Rankin Family

50. Friends in Low Places- Garth Brooks

Bouquets

Another great tip for all you brides to be: BE FLEXIBLE. One of my bridesmaids and I were going to Michaels just to get ideas about flowers and there was a great sale on so we bought all of the flowers for my bouquets (please see previous post on my extreme hatred for real flowers). A real bridal bouquet typically can range anywhere from $100-400 (ridonculous), I got all of the flowers for 6 bridesmaid bouquets and my huge bouquet for less than $200.00 so I saved a butt load of money! We got really eager and decided to make the bouquets that day as well, here is my cheap DIY Bridal Bouquet:

Engagement Photos

I know I've been slacking but it has been a crazy month. This was a treat, to say the very least. On our last trip to Cape Breton, Josh and I, along with our extremely talented photographer Shoshanna Fraser decided to do a little engagement shoot. People seem to have varying opinions on engagement photos and I can understand the hesitation if you are paying a lot of money or dont particularly enjoy having your photos taken, but Shoshanna recommends it and now I definitely recommend it. Having professional photos taken at a location other than Walmart or Superstore can be slightly intimidating, of course, if you have the model personality that I do it is a breeze (jokes).

It is, in all honesty, slightly awkward at first trying to not look posed while posing and I'm happy that we got that awkwardness out of the way before our wedding photos. It is a great way to get that lucky man used to having a camera all up in his grill too, because Josh was certainly not prepared and was certainly not a fan, as most straight men of the world are not. It was nice for us to get together with our photographer in a more relaxed setting than what I would imagine our wedding day will be like and tell her what angles we like, dont like, which photos we are pros at and which ones we suck at. It helped us and Shoshanna get more comfortable with each other, understand how she works and we learned quickly that she's the best. Having a photographer that you can have fun with, I realized very quickly, is so important for the photos not turning out posed; all of the smiles and laughing photos were genuine because I was either laughing at Josh or laughing at the fact that Shoshanna swears just as much as ... well ... Josh and I.

The results are simply the best; we have gorgeous photos of us in our normal clothes in a beautiful setting that we can treasure forever and it got us very excited (Josh slightly less than myself) for our wedding photos.

Here is the link to Shoshanna's Website: http://www.sfraserphoto.com/ and you can find her photography group on facebook by searching Shoshanna Fraser Photography. She is the BOMB.