Progress in the Fat Department Sort Of...

I wont lie, I wasn't really doing anything to ward off fat for most of the winter or spring except for the occasional soccer game, but even that didn't last long when I hurt my leg a couple games in to Summer League. I decided I wouldn't try my dress on until my bridal shower on the august long weekend partly because I was dreading it because I didn't want to know if I didn't fit into it and because I wanted to wait until my jewelry and shoes were purchased. Luckily I fit into the dress, so much so that I dont need alterations, however, poor jenny had to literally stuff my butt cheeks into that sucker similar to stuffing a sausage into its casing. It was mixed emotions at that point, I fit, but it could be more comfortable. Then I got on the scale three weeks ago and realized I was the heaviest I have ever been in my life, I had a minor breakdown, and then I headed straight out for a run. The rest is history I guess. Ever since I've been running and doing a weight program 5 days a week.

When I say I am non-runner it is the biggest understatement of the century. I haven't ran more than a sprint on the soccer field since Sue Smith used to chase us up the hill with the mini bus in junior high cross country practices. I dont run. That is until my soccer coach taught me how to start running again. He put me on a slow running program which is exactly what it sounds, you run slow. The point is that you never walk, so your slow run pace may take you the exact same amount of time as walking the distance would but your working harder by doing the running motion. When you start to feel gassed you slow down essentially. As much as I love it, it will drive you insane at times that you are so god damn slow because people will look at you funny. With that said, I only was slow running for about a week when I noticed that my endurance was improving dramatically and I was able to keep a much faster pace without getting tired.

My weight training comes from a girl I work with, I'm doing mostly legs and abs. I had a major fuck up my first time doing the legs. You start with three sets of weighted squats with each set the weight increases and the reps decrease. When it said three sets I assumed this meant three sets of each weight level so I did nine sets total and about 100 weighted squats that day. Needless to say, I was wrong and the next day I felt as though someone had ripped every muscular thread in my ass. Seriously it hurt so bad.

The sort of in the title comes into play here. Although I've been killing myself at the gym lately. The scale says the same thing. I'm praying its broken but I'm pretty sure that I just develop muscle easily and muscle weighs more than fat so its just balancing out in some evil way. I feel better and look better and thats all that matters.

One Week Left To RSVP

Things start to feel very real when you realize that your rsvp's are all due back in a week. Holy mother of god this thing is 2 months away! We're still getting more and more responses every day and I think that right now we are hovering at around the 135 range for a head count. I expect we will be up to 150 by the time the deadline comes around which I think is a good number. Its seems to be the people who are our age who dilly dally with invitations and I have to say that I have developed a new pet peeve when it comes to wedding planning and I have to admit I was guilty of this once in my life as well, but in planning a wedding I have realized how frustrating it is for the bride and groom. So here it is: Even if you aren't coming (which really doesn't hurt mine or Josh's feelings in the littlest) you still have to rsvp not attending because in one week if we have no response from people we will start harassing you for an answer. This isn't because we are dying to know, but our hall has given us a date by which we need a confirmed number and that date is rapidly approaching. When you're planning a party for 150 people, it is a major pain in the ass to have to call and harass people about whether or not they are coming especially when its as simple as clicking a button on a website. So I speak for all brides when I say to just respond, we really dont care and wont be hurt if your not coming, we will be ticked off if we have to hunt you down.

My Shock at their Shock

Over the course of planning the wedding I've had a lot of people who were genuinely surprised by certain things about the wedding that I really didn't twice about, dare I say some were even appalled. Is it wrong that it makes me happy on the inside when people dont like something about they way I'm planning my wedding. Here are some of the things that have surprised me that surprised or annoyed other people. 

1. You're not getting married in Bridgewater? Apparently unbeknownst to me your "supposed" to get married in the Brides hometown and I'm supposed to get ready at my parent's house. Obviously the decision was between Cape Breton and Bridgewater, but in the end Cape Breton is prettier in the fall so we decided on there. I have really not had that many regrets since choosing to do it in Cape Breton. The hall has given me a couple of headaches along the way but nothing crazy. The only reason why I would have wanted to get married in Bridgewater  would be to get a photo at the golf course in Lunenburg overlooking the harbour. 

2. You're having your reception at a fire hall? My initial internal reaction to this question is you live in Nova Scotia, no one in NS is wealthy enough to have a prejudice against a fire hall, especially no one that I associate with. With that said, if I was getting married in Bridgewater a firehall wouldn't have been my first choice, because none of them are overly nice or big. However, I also hate the idea of a reception at a hotel, i've been at too many where when the dance starts 90% of the guests are up in rooms drinking and I'm the type of crazy biotch who would hunt them down and yell at them. For the record my hall doesn't even really look like a hall which apparently allows them to charge me 2 dollars more a plate than every other fire hall on that island but I will deal.

3. You're getting married in the fall? Contrary to popular belief, not everyone gets married in the summer and for good reason. For one you're competing with like a million different weddings every weekend and for two I have no idea how any woman wears a wedding dress in this kind of heat. I was sweating half to death just trying on my dress for maybe ten minutes two weeks ago at my shower!

4. You're not walking down the aisle to the bridal march? Yes, that god awful song has a name and no i'm not walking down the aisle to it. I'm walking down the aisle to the beatles. It will be simplistic and romantic and I cant wait. 

Believe what the people tell you!

This has rang true when it comes to invites for me. We sent out 230 invites and were hoping for between 190-210 guests. Every wedding website you see tells you that one third of the people you invite will not come and for some reason we just could not fathom that this would ever be a possibility. Apparently we think we're more popular than we actually are, who knew! Right now we're expecting our number to be in the 150-165 range, which is great because it saves us money but if we really wanted that big wedding that we were planning for, we could have invited WAY more people. That being said, I've made a habit out of inviting people to our wedding when I'm drunk, so who knows there may be 200 yet!

What am I most looking forward to

Here is the grand list:


1. This may seem sad, but Josh and I have both been quoted saying that we cant wait for it to be over. This is not us wishing away our wedding at all, I'm beyond excited for the big day, however, I can't wait to feel the weight lifted off of my shoulders the morning after. The wedding is going to be fun but I think that if you are most looking forward to wedding as opposed to the marriage then you may be getting married for the wrong reason. I'm excited to have a hubby and I'm excited to move on with our lives after the wedding day.

2. I'm excited to see Josh's reaction when I walk down the aisle. Dont get too excited here, it would be far fetched to think he will shed a tear (he's not that type of dude). However, most of the days of my life I think I look like a troll; I dont have good style, my hair is almost never brushed, much less done in any nice way, I never wear jewelry and yet that guy still tells me I'm beautiful every day. When I try on that wedding dress, I feel gorgeous like I cant even describe. It doesn't matter if I have no makeup on and unshowered hair in a bun on the top of my head, I feel awesome in that dress. It hugs all the right places, it sparkles and the fabric is just to die for. So I'm excited to see Josh's reaction to me all dolled up and feeling like a queen.

3. Words cannot even begin to describe how excited I am to dance with my dad. I've been looking forward to marrying Josh since we basically started dating, but I've been looking forward to dancing with my dad at my wedding since I was a little girl. I'm the biggest daddy's girl in the entire world, we are the same person, which is probably why most people either love or hate both of us equally. I truly feel that this will be the most special moment of the wedding and I can't wait.

4. I'm so excited to get drunk after those first waltzes and just enjoy my night with everyone. There is a reason we invited 230 people to this wedding and its because we wanted a huge party so you guys better live up to our expectations.

5. I'm excited to change my name on facebook. Yup there I said it.

The End Is Near (What Would I Have Done Differently In Retrospect)

With the wedding a mere 3 months away and things starting to ramp up, I find i'm often looking back at the last fifteen months of wedding planning and thinking about what I would have done differently.

1. My absolute biggest regret of my wedding is not hiring a videographer, I am heartbroken that I dont have one. That being said, its not that it was a detail that was overlooked in the littlest, they are just so expensive. I'm not trying to devalue their work at all, I think that having those moments captured on film in a professional way is invaluable if anything but being on a tight budget means that you unfortunately have to make those sacrifices here and there. This really is the only thing that eats away at me because of our low budget. Everything else I am very satisfied with.

2. I should have numbered the response card envelopes and recorded the number with who it was sent to somewhere in my records. It is really inconvenient to get a response card back and have absolutely no idea who sent it lol.

3. I should have put stamps on the return envelopes although I really can't say I regret not doing it because what is 60 or whatever cents for a guest would have been 200 bucks for me to do all of them. I've been really shocked by the amount of people who have sent back response cards when it clearly says you can rsvp on the website and that's way more convenient (at least I would have thought).

4. And we both agree on this one, but looking back if we had known what this process was REALLY going to be like and not what pinterest told me it was going to be like, we probably would have saved our money, flown to a gorgeous island and eloped. Planning a wedding and I mean planning it, not hiring someone to plan it for you is probably the most frustrating task in the entire world. Part of the reason is money, part is the numerous opinions that you get that you really dont care about, the guest list, the food, it all just wears you out after a while. If I didn't see the value in a wedding planner before, I certainly do now.


With all this being said, the big day is three months away. Its going to be a beautiful wedding, I can promise that but there were certainly some things I would change looking back!

Great News

The thought of September had me panicking until very recently. As a substitute, September is basically a write off because most teachers dont take sick days during the first month of school. I didn't have very high hopes of getting a position next year since the HRSB is so competitive but I managed to land a pretty awesome job for the whole year. Panic is now gone, but now I get to add lesson planning to my lovely to-do list :)

Jewellery

Another fun part of the process. I've never been the type of girl who is big on accessories, and its not that I have anything against accessories, but i'm broke and that shit is expensive. That is why teaching back home has been so great because I could steal some of my moms stuff, who is like the accessory queen.

Regardless of whether you love jewellery or not, I've found that with the wedding it has brought out the little lost girl who loves sparkle deep inside of myself. So I've had a lot of fun shopping for my jewellery and in the process I've picked up a few good tips that I am now going to share.

The one enormous and most important piece of advice that I have for Brides is for the love of god do NOT buy your jewellery from a wedding dress shop, this includes any hairpieces too. Holy mark-up batman. Seriously you wont find one piece of jewellery for less than $150. I shopped around a bit at the beginning looking at different jewellery stores (also overpriced) and then someone suggested I check out Etsy.

(Cue birds singing, sun shining, rainbows and lollipops here) Etsy is heaven on earth. I LOVE ETSY. For those of you who dont know what it is. Essentially it is like an online marketplace for very small businesses. So these businesses set up a shop on the website and you can find them by searching for a product or by searching for the shop. Most of the stuff is handmade, there is a butt load of vintage stuff as well. You can buy multiple things from different shops or you can do like I did and buy multiple things from the same shop and save on shipping.

I found this great shop called DivineJewel that solely does wedding jewellery, and mostly with a vintage feel which will work well with my dress. The best part of Etsy is the price. Everything that I have found has been reasonably priced. I got my bracelet, necklace and bracelet, plus a gorgeous hair piece all for 190 dollars including tax and shipping. BAM DEAL. The hair pieces alone at Winchesters were around 200 dollars. And I wanted a hairpiece because for the ceremony I have a cathedral veil, but obviously I'm not wearing that to the reception so i like the hairpiece to spice up my hair for the reception.

Here are the items I got:

 hairpiece

 necklace

 earrings

 bracelet

Staying Organized, For The Unorganized Bride

I like the idea of being an organized individual, however, I have found that in practice, I tend to fail miserably at ACTUALLY being organized. When it comes to the wedding, I dont have a choice, but to be organized. So I've been a control freak for this wedding. Everything has a place and everything has been recorded in a number of different places.

For instance, I have a guest list on my wedding website, and I also have a detailed excel spreadsheet with all of the guests names, email and regular addresses etc. So every time I sent an invitation I would change the colour of their row on excel to blue and every time I get a RSVP back I change the colour to green.

Next I have printed out a bunch of circles to represent tables with 10 blank squares around them to represent the 10 seats at each table. I print out each guests name when I receive an rsvp and using sticky tack (because that's not PERMANENT) i'll assign them to a table. It is a lot easier to do seating plans with a visual.

Ta Da Organization!

The Tuxes are Picked!

We went into Tip Top last week after work one day and decided on the Tuxes. It was one of the easier choices we've made throughout this whole process and here is how it all went down: 

Before we went to Tip Top I looked through a Freeman's Formal Catalogue, which if you go through Tip Top, Rofies and a bunch of other menswear places with the exception of Moores who orders from the US, this is the company you will will be renting your tuxes from. Now there are some pros and cons to this, the pros are that they have a lot of options because they are the largest and only formal rental place in Canada, the cons is that you cant try on tuxes in the stores because they dont bring them in from Freeman's because it would cause chaos during the prom season etc. So you are ordering from a catalogue. I didn't mind this because Josh has stood in a bazillion weddings and has never had a huge problem that couldnt be fixed with the tuxes. Like one time the sizes were a bit off but they were able to handle that. 

Our biggest issue with choosing the tuxes was in order to match the groomsmen with the bridesmaids we would have to find a very particular colour purple which I hadn't seen in the catalogues and I didn't want them to wear non matching purples. I also have a things with the male side of the bridal party where I dont like the Groom to wear the exact same thing as the groomsmen because I dont like having to guess which man is the groom in pictures. So I wanted Josh to be wearing a Black Tux, with a black vest and Black Tie with a white shirt and pocket square. HATE BLACK TUXES WITH BLACK SHIRTS, makes the boys look like they are mobsters. So I wanted the boys to wear Black Tuxes with Black Vests and some variation of purple tie and pocket square. I ended up going with a polka dotted purple tie, sounds tacky but it isnt. It has a number of shades of purple so it will easily pick up the purple shade from the girls dresses. 

Here are two important things I learned from this experience: 

1. Choose them early because men can be slackers when it comes to getting sized. I know this because I always had to light a fire under Josh's ass to go get measured for his two best friends' weddings. Also if the boys put in their measurements before like 3 and half months before the wedding they get thirty dollars off their rental. Also there is a plus to having a large bridal party. If you order five groomsman tuxes the Grooms is free. AWESOMENESS.

2. Not all of your men have to wear the same tux. This sounds weird but when I was looking at the prices and stuff I wanted the older guys to get nice two button tuxes that were the most expensive ones but were still around 150 bucks which is pretty standard for formal rentals. However, I thought that was a bit much for the two ring bearers who are 4 and 8 years old. So they had a one button tux which would work fine for them for 89 dollars that I could get the same tie and stuff for as the bigger guys. 

Here are the tuxes

 groomsmen

 Josh

Ceremony Music

This is yet another post about how important it is to call in all of your favors for your big day. Little costs add up quickly and being able to get those little costs for free can help a great deal!

One of the ways I'm cutting costs and also making my ceremony more unique is by calling in a huge favor for the ceremony music. For those of you who dont know, my dad plays in a band, he can play the guitar better than most people in the world in my opinion and his band who have been together in some form or another for around 10 years have become like my crazy fake uncles whom I love to death. Over the years some of the members of the band have included my own family members, my uncle Louis was in the band for a bunch of years and now my brother Joe is in the band. So when it came to ceremony music it made no sense for us to go out and hire people we dont know to do it, when it would be so special to us to have people we love doing it. So we decided to ask Joe (one of the million favors he is doing for us this day) and Derek, who is basically family now and has been the lead singer of the band for a number of years to do the ceremony music.

So for the songs we wanted to choose timeless songs that obviously we like but that also are kind of related to the events. Most people might be in shock that I dont want to walk down the aisle to the Bridal March or to Canon in D, but to be honest, I feel like the Calvary should be coming down the aisle not the bride to some of those songs. At the same time, I can understand why brides want to go down the aisle to those songs because they are grand songs and make you feel like a star, so I get it, but they wouldn't be a reflection of me or what I want this wedding to be, which is: Romantic, Intimate (as intimate as you can get with 200 people that is), Simple, Elegant.

So here is what we are working with now: The bridal party will come down to In My Life by the Beatles (you'll notice a pattern here). I think this is just a very appropriate song for the people who mean so much to you to walk down the aisle to especially if you look at the lyrics. Then ta da me and dad and going to walk down to Something by the Beatles (note the pattern). I honestly just love this song, I love the way it makes me feel and I love everything about it. Its a good speed for a walk down the aisle song as well.

During the signing of stuff, dad is going to join in with the boys and the three or however many of them will be doing a version of Hallelujah. They do this as a band and it is literally breathtaking how beautiful their rendition is so I'm very excited for this.

And then lastly for when we are officially married and walking back down the aisle we are coming back down to Here Comes the Sun by the Beatles. No I did not plan for three out of the four songs to be by the Beatles it just so happens that they all worked so much better than our other ideas. Here Comes The Sun is a song that is filled with so much joy so I think it is beyond appropriate for that matter.

There she be!

Dont Trust The Schedules

When you first become engaged, most brides look for guidance in a schedule to follow for the planning process because there are so many things that we just dont think about. While I think these schedules are useful, they are also at times unrealistic. I've seen a lot of my girlfriends posting planning schedules on websites like Pinterest and there are times when I look at them and am like "are these people frikin crazy?" and I mean the websites, not the people posting because they dont know any better. So I decided to take a sample schedule from the Knot, which is probably the most popular one i've found and show you some good things and bad things about it!  This is all working off a one year planning schedule. I stand by my belief that if you choose to go with less than a year of planning you are crazy.

All of my comments will be in this lovely purple colour!

12+ months before

Date: ______________________

• Envision your wedding and draw up a budget. (This is important, knowing your budget from the very get go will help you plan out everything. Use a wedding budgeting tool, you can find them online everywhere, because there will be things that you will need to pay for that you would have never thought about.)
• Assemble your "planning team." Consider hiring a wedding consultant. (I dont have a consultant but I'm going to trust that this is the right time to do this)
• Pick a wedding date and time. Select several options, then check with your venues, officiant, and important guests before finalizing. (Dont wait any longer for this. When I called to book my venues it was a year and a half in advance and they were already booked for the original weekend that we had planned to get married. Places book up super fast, especially in touristy places and small towns)
• Start planning the guest list. (This is a good time to start this because the list that you start a year in advance will change a lot leading up to when you finally send out your invitations)
• Ask friends and relatives to be in the wedding party. (I did this around this early, but if you are uncomfortable with choosing people this early then I would say put it off to no longer than six or seven months before the wedding)
• Optional: Have an engagement party. You may want to register beforehand for gifts. (We did this a year in advance and it was really helpful for our budget, we bought both our wedding bands, paid a chunk on our photographer and paid a few other little things with money we made from our Jack and Jill which made this part of the planning a lot easier on us financially.)

8-10 months before

Date: ______________________

• Bride: Think about, shop for, and order your gown. (Unless your weight fluctuates an insane amount, order your dress early. It took 4 months for my dress to come in so bank on a wait.)
• Envision reception food. (We didn't have to do this until now which is less than 5 months from the day so it may depend on where the reception is)
• Decide what type of entertainment you want. A pianist for the cocktail hour, strolling violinists, a DJ, or band? (Luckily we have a friend DJing for us but if you are hiring someone, book early especially in rural locations)
• Think about your floral decor. (We aren't having any real flowers so this wasn't of relevance for us)
• Research and book your wedding professionals. Interview vendors: photographer, videographer, reception band or DJ, florist. (Firm believer this should be done a year in advance. Basically once you get engaged and set a date start booking these people fast. We weren't able to get a videographer because I waited until 8-10 months before the wedding to start looking and they were all booked for our date)
• Research a wedding insurance policy to protect your deposits. (unnecessary)
• Research and reserve accommodations for out-of-town guests.(This is more of just a curtesy to do early. A lot of my guests from Bridgewater wanted to book their rooms early and have it out of the way so we booked off blocks of rooms around 7 months before the wedding)
• Register for gifts. (We are still doing this with less than five months to go and I hate doing it. I'd rather just get money than one of the over priced gifts I registered for)
• Contact rental companies if you need to rent anything for ceremony/reception, such as chairs, tables, and tent. (Another area that books up early so as soon as you know your venue and date, book this.)

6-8 months before

Date: ______________________

• Book ceremony musicians. (Can be hard to come by in rural locations)
• Order bridesmaid dresses. (UBER IMPORTANT because again they take around 4 months to come in. I would also add start searching for these dresses in the 8-10 month range because it can be a daunting task that will take a long time)
• Start planning honeymoon.
• Send save-the-date cards. This is a particularly good idea if you're marrying during a tourist or holiday season or having a destination wedding.  (We sent these out 8 or 9 months before the date so close but a little earlier than this suggests)

4-6 months before

Date: ______________________

• Attend prewedding counseling, if required.(We got out of having to do this but typically if you get married in the Catholic Church you have to do this so make sure that you get it out of the way before things get crazy with planning)
• Shop for and order invitations and wedding rings. (I would also suggest sending out your invitations four months in advance. Because  you want to get them back a month early to let your hall know the numbers.)
• Shop for formalwear. (Next on my to do list)
• Renew or get passports, if necessary.
• Envision your wedding cake and research, interview, and book a cake designer. (I'm making my own cake so this is irrelevant to me)

3 months before

Date: ______________________

• Order wedding cake.
• Hire a calligrapher, if you want your invitations professionally addressed. (I didn't do this) 
• Attend your shower. (It may be earlier, depending on when hosts decide to have it.) (Mine is August 4th which is really only two months before the wedding
• Groom: Rent the men's formalwear. (At tip top they need AT LEAST 90 days for your order but they prefer four months
• Hire wedding-day transport: limousines, other cars. Look into transportation sooner if you're considering renting streetcars or over-the-top travel. 

2 months before

Date: ______________________

• Mail your invitations. (Way too late, you'll be lucky if Canada Post can even get all of you invitations to where they need to go in a month and then you need to get them back)
• Write your vows. (We aren't doing this but I feel like this is a personal discretion item)
• Purchase gifts for parents, attendants, and each other. (I would suggest doing this earlier because it can be stressful to have that added cost this close to the wedding)
• Book your stylist and try out big-day hairstyles. ( I would not have a hair and makeup appt if I waited this long to get it. I barely got one when I booked it 8 months in advance SO DO NOT TRUST THIS!)
• Book a makeup artist and go for a trial run. (Same as above)

1 month before

Date: ______________________

• Apply for a marriage license. Check with the local bureau in the town where you'll wed.(You can do this up to 90 days in advance of the wedding)
• Bride: Have final gown fitting. Bring your maid of honor along to learn how to bustle your dress. Have the dress pressed and bring it home. (Mine also needs to learn how to tie up the corset on my dress, not as easy as you might think)
• Call all bridesmaids. Make sure they have their gowns ready for the wedding.
• Make last-minute adjustments with vendors.
• Create a wedding program to hand out to guests.
• Order and plan in-room welcome baskets for out-of-town guests. (I am so not that considerate)

2 weeks before

Date: ______________________

• Review final RSVP list and call any guests who have not yet sent a response. (We will need to do this a month in advance because that is when the hall needs our info)
• Deliver must-have shot lists to photographer and videographer. Include who should be in formal portraits and determine when portraits will be taken.
• Deliver final song list to your DJ or bandleader. Include special song requests and songs you don't want played.
• Bride: Get your last prewedding haircut and color. (I am so very hesitant to do this)

1 week before

Date: ______________________

• Give reception site/caterer final guest head count. Include vendors, such as the photographer or band members, who will expect a meal. Ask how many extra plates the caterer will prepare.(We have to do this a month in advance)
• Supply location manager with a list of vendor requests such as a table for DJ or setup space needed by florist.
• Plan reception seating chart. 
• Print place and table cards, or finalize list with the calligrapher you have hired to do so.
• Call all wedding vendors and confirm arrangements.
• Give ceremony and reception site managers a schedule of vendor delivery and setup times, plus contact numbers.
• Groom: Get your hair trimmed.
• Attend bachelor/ette parties. (My bachelorette party is a month before the big day)

2-3 days before

Date: ______________________

• Bride: If you need to, have your gown pressed or steamed.
• Groom: Go for final fitting and pick up your formalwear. 
• Groom: Ask the best man to make sure all groomsmen attend fittings and pick up their outfits.
• Determine wedding-party positions during ceremony and the order of the party in the processional and recessional.
• Hand off place cards, table cards, menus, disposable cameras, favors, and any other items for setting the tables to the caterer and/or reception site manager.
• Reconfirm final details with all vendors. Discuss any necessary last-minute substitutions.
• Call the limousine- or car-rental company for pickup times and locations.
• Arrange for guests without cars to be picked up from the airport or train station. Ask friends, attendants, or relatives to help.
• Deliver welcome baskets to the hotel concierge; make sure to include names and delivery instructions.

Day before

Date: ______________________

• Provide all wedding professionals with an emergency phone number to call on the day of the wedding.
• Write checks and/or talk to wedding hosts (usually your parents, if not you) about any final balances to be paid at the end of the reception.

Night before

Date: ______________________

• Rehearse ceremony. Meet with wedding party, ceremony readers, immediate family, and your officiant at the ceremony site to rehearse and iron out details.
• Bring unity candle, aisle runner, yarmulkes, or other ceremony accessories to the site. 
• Give your marriage license to your officiant.
• Attend rehearsal dinner.
• Present attendants with gifts at the rehearsal dinner. You'll want to do this especially if the gifts are accessories to be worn during the wedding.

Day of

Date: ______________________

• Present parents and each other with gifts.
• Give wedding bands to the best man and the maid of honor to hold during the ceremony.
• Give best man the officiant's fee envelope, to be handed off after the ceremony.
• Introduce your reception site manager to your consultant or maid of honor for questions or problems during the reception.
• Assign a family member or attendant to be the photographer's contact so he knows who is who.

Postwedding

Date: ______________________

• Prearrange for someone to return any rentals.
• Preplan for attendants to take the bride's gown for cleaning and return the groom's tux to the rental shop.
• Write and send thank-you notes to gift-bearing guests and vendors who were especially helpful.

The Ride

For some reason I didn't think this would be as challenging as it has been. When it comes to finding transportation for the day, I've hit a few road blocks. The first is the obvious one: I dont have a lot of money to spend on transportation on the day. Its not a huge priority for me, but at the same time I dont really want to roll up to the church in my 2007 mazda3, IF I'M BEING HONEST!!!!!

We looked into the limo option and it sucked. There are no limos on Cape Breton Island that can fit our entire, which, to be fair, is quite large. Apart from that to rent a limo for like four hours is $600 and that is ridiculous in my opinion. Then I looked into like specialty limos, they dont exist in Cape Breton apparently.

My next thought was too look into antique car rentals, which are next to impossible to find in rural areas. So then I had to put my thinking cap on. I wanted something that looked sharp but wouldn't cost me an arm and a leg.

Finally the idea came to me to look on rental car websites. I found premium car rentals (I would have preferred a premium SUV, but they dont carry them in small cities) on AVIS and Enterprise for a decent price. So I think what we are going to go with now is a premium car, which will likely be a Black or Silver Chrysler 300 and it will be about 150 bucks for the two days, which isn't bad considering the alternatives.

The Summer Of No Fun

Now before I begin, I dont want to give you the impression that Josh and I live a grand life any other year, by any means. We can usually afford to go to the movies once or twice a month and if someone is going away we'll splurge on a night downtown. But other than groceries, gas and bills we dont spend a lot of money on ourselves. This summer we will be even more boring then ever before. We still have to save about two grand to pay off the rest of the stuff that we need to pay off before the big day! This includes but is not limited to, the last 500 bucks for the photography, the wine on the tables, the flowers for in the centrepieces, the transportation and lodging expenses and the list goes on.

So if you ask us to go out for a beer or dinner or anything this summer, the answer will likely be a hard lined no. This is not because we dont love you, this is because we will be living like hermits for the summer.

The invitations are complete and ready to go!

Once we finalized the meal situation and the guest list was cut down a bit more, I could finally go ahead with the invitations. You will read a lot of websites that give you wedding invitation etiquette and it will bore you to tears unless you are into doing things the traditional and apparently polite way. This, on the other hand, is the "I dont give a shit" method of doing invitations. So as you may remember I got my invitations from homesense and got an excellent deal. For a set of 50 invitations, with response cards envelopes and all that jazz it was $9.99 comparable to about $50 at Michaels and they aren't ugly, they're actually quite nice.

Most people ask for help with invitations and I'm here to tell you that would have been a good idea for me to try. Unfortunately I went it alone, and by alone I dont mean Josh helped me, I mean ALONE. It took me about two solid days of printing, writing, stamping, licking, tying to get to them all finished. I worked from an excel file that I started when I got engaged with everyones names, partner and children's names, email addresses and mailing addresses. I highlighted each person green when I finished their invitation and when I get the RSVP back I will highlight it some other colour. Why? Because I am the most unorganized person in the world.

How our invitations are working is that everyone is getting an invitation. Some people say we should have done e-vites but lets be honest the older population just dont get that and dont appreciate it. People like paper invitations. With that said we are asking everyone who has access to the internet to rsvp on our wedding website under the rsvp page. For those without the internet, yes those people still exist, they can send back the response card but if i'm being honest I didn't include a stamp, because as far as I'm concerned they can call me and i'll put them in the website.

Three pieces of advice when doing invitations:
1. Buy extras because you will screw up on some of them
2. Buy an address stamp for your return address, I didn't do this until after all the response envelopes were addressed. BIG MISTAKE. 23 bucks at London Rubber Stamps for a personalized return address stamp on Kempt Road, saving your wrists from Carpel Tunnel --- Priceless.
3. Hand deliver as many as you possibly can. I made my invitations a couple weeks early (they should go out 4 months prior to the date) because my graduation is this week and my nephews birthday is next week, which means I can hand deliver a huge chunk of the invitations within the next two weeks. Its a little earlier than the norm but I trust that people can protect that one piece of paper with the website they need to rsvp on which I will remind them of on facebook. NO BIG D.

 Finished Product

The food is confirmed!

We've finally made a decision on food. Can I get a hallelujah?

Originally we wanted to do finger foods like I mentioned in a previous post. That idea was just doomed from the get go. The hall didn't have options for us, they couldn't really give us a price to work with and it just became too frustrating. So I made the first not so budget friendly decision of the wedding. Unless you dont feed people at your wedding, which people dont seem to take kindly to, it is challenging to make food cheap.

We decided to do the full dinner after a lot of conversations and frustration so tada if you're coming to the wedding you will be getting a roast beef dinner. The price per plate is $15.95 which compared to the city is like heaven on earth, but compared to Cape Breton is pretty steep for a hall meal. We cut down our guest list even further so that we could pretty much guarantee that no more than 200 people will show up so we should pay around $3000 for the meal and that doesn't include the wine on each of the tables.

Will it be an extravagant meal, I would highly doubt it, but its a meal and its confirmed and I couldn't be happier that I never have to think about it again!

Dollar Store/Kijiji Decor

Dont hate on the cheap ladies. If you want to walk away with no debt from your wedding the decor is one of the easiest ways to cut costs. Now I'm not talking linens here because thats basically a guaranteed cost and a necessary one in my eyes. It just doesn't look like a wedding without linens. I always have to suggest my main lady love Caitlyn Dorey-Conrad and her company Table For You Linen Rentals and Decor, here is her business facebook page https://www.facebook.com/tableforyou?fref=ts. Caity's prices are extremely reasonable and she has very modern linen options like damask and burlap which are huge right now along with any other colour under the sun. All in all, she's the bomb and she will make your wedding look incredible. We decided to do Burlap table runners which I am beyond excited for since it is a fall wedding and burlap SCREAMS fall.

As for the centrepieces the plan is as follows:

LOTS OF WHITE LIGHTS- Try to get them right after Christmas if you can, mainly because they are on sale, but also as I learned the hard way they are hard to find any other time of year. You literally can't have enough white lights so overspend on these rather than cheap out on them because they just make the space look more romantic and warm. Make sure that you buy the one with white cords as opposed to the christmas tree ones with dark green chords because that wouldn't be a very nice standout colour in your wedding.

Dollar Store Centrepieces- Okay at the dollarstore they have at least 7-10 different styles of vases that are $1 each. This made me happy because nothing makes me more pissed in this world then when something at the DOLLAR store costs 2 bucks. So I got 22 large cylindrical vases for 22 dollars at Michaels this would have easily cost me over 200 dollars. I will eventually also buy my candy bar jars from the dollar store since you literally can't go wrong with a dollar. Are they perfect quality, nope, but really if anyone is going to criticize my $1 vases i'll probably just puck 'em in the face in my wedding gown lol. I have faith that my guests aren't that caddy. I also bought stones to put in the bottom of these vases. 1 bag of stones fills 2 vase bottoms so I only bought 11 of those at $1 each.

So what am I going to do with said vases? Well I am going to buy a long stemmed fake flower for each one from Michaels. Why Michaels?  Because the Dollar Store flowers are atrociously hideous. If you aren't going to buy real flowers (which I think are a huge waste of money) then you need to buy nice fake flowers. I haven't bought the flowers yet but it will probably be around a 100 dollar price tag. Now if you are a bride and you have not signed up for Michael email list, you are not doing yourself any favors. At least once monthly they send out 40% off coupons and those can make or break the more expensive purchases you can only get at Michaels. With the vases I plan to hot glue a long stemmed flower to the bottom of each vase, extra secure it with the stones fill with water and top with a floating candle.

But that's not it:
I am going to be putting these vases on top of square mirrors. I am getting the square mirrors from Kijiji, there are ALWAYS brides selling their old decor on kijiji and always a stockpile of these mirrors because they are so popular as part of centrepieces.

I will also be putting smaller vases around the large one on the mirror for more lighting. I haven't decided if I want to go with smaller vases or with mason jars, it will depend on the deal I can get. Mason jars can be found cheaply on ebay and amazon.

So that is my dollar store/kijiji decor guide!

What to do with my hair

Let me start this by saying that what I am most looking forward to in being married is getting to cut off all my hair the day after the wedding. I kid you not, my fine hair which there happens to be a ton of does not like being long and is punishing me by making me spend like a half hour daily brushing it. In the meantime though I need to figure out what to do with my hair for the wedding. I'm not wearing it down or half down or any variation of down so get that out of your head, my hair frizzes at the first little smidgen of humidity in the air and I am not looking like a lioness for my wedding so here are some updo options that I like comment below on which one is your favorite:

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The Food (Cue Evil Music Here)

The food, the food, the food. What I like to call the worst part of the wedding for the bride and groom. Originally we had planned to serve the full meal of roast beef at 15.95 a plate for 220 people. I dont know why we ever thought that was a good idea. For one, I've never had a meal at a hall that was actually worth that kind of money because I've never had a meal at a hall that was really all that good at all. Hall food is usually bland and nasty. So we scratched the idea of the full meal.

So we opted for finger foods because after all, this is supposed to be the debt-free wedding. We pushed our reception time to later so that people could have a light supper before coming to the reception and since then we have been in a constant battle with the hall, to the point where if it wasn't so late in the game I would probably consider switching halls. The hall claims to do buffet style finger foods, yet they cant give us a price for it. They can't even give us options for what we can have as finger foods. We need to tell them what we want and then they come up with a price, in other words, we are likely going to get severely ripped off. So now we are considering bringing in separate catering. I'll keep you posted on how this battle goes for us!

Bridesmaid Dresses

Oh buddy, let me tell you, there was not a happier day in my life than the day that we found the bridesmaid dresses!

Bridesmaid dress shopping is probably one of the most unholy practices in the world. We had literally been looking online for dresses for months. Its difficult because obviously you dont want them to feel ugly or uncomfortable in their dresses and if you are like me and have girls with a wide array of heights, sizes, skin tones, hair colours etc it is really challenging to find one dress that will suit each and every one of them. I know what you are going to say, let them wear multiple different styles of dresses and yeah sure for some brides they dont mind doing that and to each their own, but for me, I have a minor obsession with weddings looking uniform.

So four months ago we set out in the city of halifax looking for the dress. We went to Always and Forever because I had been to Felicity and Winchesters before and they are crazy over priced like nothing under 250 bucks.

I made the girls try on a bunch of dresses and FINALLY we found two possible contenders by the same designer, Bill Levkoff, that were contenders. One was short, one was long. Going in, I was convinced that we would get a short dress but seeing the long dress made me realize that they screamed fall wedding. So we went with the long ones and we are going to add straps for those who want him. Here's a look at the dress:

Why I Took A Break From Blogging

I know, I know... It's been like six months since my last blog post. Why the break? There are a number of reasons why I took a break from blogging, here they are:

1. Not a whole lot has been happening. You'll find this if you take a year or longer to plan a wedding. The start of the process is busy and the end of the process is busy but the six months in between are pretty slow. There hasn't been a lot to do over the past 6 months but I will catch you up on some thing in the next post.

2. I've been busy finishing my degree and doing my last practicum block which was fantastic but a busy 5 months.

3. The stress was starting to catch up to me and to be honest I went through about a 3 month period where I seriously considered eloping. But as frustrating of a process as it can be, I want my day. So I took a break, I stopped thinking about the wedding and starting focusing on myself and my career and it was a great break. Now that there are only six months left, I dont really have the luxury of doing that anymore!

So I'm back, true Eminem style and ready to motor through these last six months.