Gradually whittling away at that to-do list.

Flowers: Most of the wedding flowers have finally been bought!  In the end we opted to go with artificial flowers from Michaels, for a variety of reasons:

1. In order to get real blue flowers, we probably would have had to dye them.  Fake flowers offer many more available colors without the risk of dye rubbing off on dresses and hands.
2. Waaaaaay more selection.  You don’t have to worry about what season it is or how much some sort of fancy flower costs or how long it will take to order in.  Michaels flowers are available all year round!  We were able to get a large variety of very nice white and blue flowers for all of the bouquets.
3. They’re cheaper!  It helped even more that Michaels had a sale going on and we had big discount coupons.  :B
4. They last forever!  This way the bouquet won’t wilt and die and I’ll be able to keep it as a keepsake afterward.

I think the plan is to use one of the big white flowers from pic #1 below as the centerpiece for my bouquet, then accent it with some of the cute little pearl flowers from pic #2 and some of the various blue ones from #2 and #3.  The bridesmaids will be carrying the the lily-looking ones from pic #2, again with accents of various blue flowers.

We bought some really nice pussy willow branches and stuff for the vases too.  We’ll have to look at actual flowers for the corsages and boutonnières, but that’s it.  WIN!

Bridesmaid sashes: Have been ordered!  …From Australia!  (That’s right, they’re exotic sashes~)  ^^;  I checked some of the boutiques for the typical Alfred Angelo sashes but they go for like $50 a pop which is frankly absurd in my opinion.  o_O  Instead I did some hunting around on eBay and found some nice royal blue satin sashes — the three of them together with shipping cost pretty much what one Alfred Angelo sash would have been.

Transportation: We are indeed having a limo.  I let Mason make the final decision on whether he wanted one or not, and apparently we were one of six names drawn from Bridal Fantasy for a discount from PT Limos so we booked with them.  We’re having an eight person Mercedes stretch limousine that we and the bridal party will get for three hours shuttling us around after the ceremony for pictures and then to the reception~  :3

Hair and makeup: I’ve decided to go with Studio 107 in St. Albert who were highly recommended to us by my sister’s hairstylist and close friend.  Conveniently enough, when I called to book and appointment for the hair they mentioned that one of the women who works there also does bridal makeup.  I talked to the lady in question and her prices seem pretty good.  May as well kill two birds with one stone, eh?

Photobooth: Nothing new, just a bit of an edit.  To save a bit of money we’ve opted to reduce our package from four hours to three hours, as well as drop the online photo hosting and the photo CD, which in the end I didn’t really see as something we particularly needed.  I’m assuming most of the good photos will end up being pasted into our guestbook by people, and I think I’m going to put a little box on the table for extra/unwanted photo strips and I’ll just look through them afterward and keep any that I like.  The photobooth will probably be set up while everyone’s busy listening to speeches, so then it can be up and running as soon as the dancing starts.

GAAAAAH!  Only 63 days left!

Let’s kick it up a notch, Chef Emeril style!

Some stuff that I keep meaning to make note of here on the blog but never remember to, so here’s a quick catch up list:

• I’ve added the new link to our gift registry on the sidebar.  BAM!
• A while ago I was discussing ideas for some sort of symbolic gesture to include in the ceremony that wasn’t sand pouring or candle lighting, and we decided that we’re going to have what’s called a “rose ceremony.”  Basically it involves firstly us giving a rose to each of our mothers as a way of showing our appreciation and respect for all they’ve done for us in our lives, and then exchanging roses between ourselves as our first gift of love in our marriage.  Very simple, very classic~  BAM!
• I’ve had no luck so far finding a nice, affordable birdcage veil.  *Sad face*  The ones you buy in bridal boutiques are stupid expensive, and I’ve been combing through sites like kijiji and etsy instead.  My amazingly wonderful sister has volunteered to try and make me my own custom veil if I’m unable to find one online.  BAM!
• RSVPs are slowly coming in and so far we officially have 56 guests confirmed attending, and 6 regrets.  I let out a little squee of joy every time see a new RSVP arrive and excitedly update my seating chart.  BAM!
• If you haven’t bothered looking at your invitation yet, the official go time for the ceremony is 1:00 p.m.  The reception will follow at 4:40 p.m.  BAM!  BAM!

I think that’s all for now…  It’s so hard to believe there’s only 67 days left!  I’ve started having horrible dreams where it’s our wedding day and I realize I don’t have anything done — the halls aren’t set up, we haven’t arranged for transportation, I haven’t picked up my dress yet, we have no where to go to get our hair and makeup done…  Ugh.  Horrible dream stress and drama! :x

Still alive and kicking!

Wedding preparations are still happening, I swear, they’ve just slowed down a lot.  (Besides, all of the really exciting planning stuff is done already.)

Where we stand as of now and what’s next up on the to-do list:

• Sent an email to a local wedding commissioner who advertises on his site that he offers legal-only packages.  I’ve explained to him that we want my brother, Sean, to be the one to wed us at the ceremony, and asked how we can go about taking care of the legal half of things either on the day of or on the day before.  Still waiting on a reply back from him.
• Have had first dress fitting and chosen winning pair of shoes (for anyone who was wondering, I decided to go with the second pair, though I was still rather sad to return the other set to the store.)  Fitting went okay, though I was a little startled when I discovered they actually have to let out the dress instead of taking it in.  Shouldn’t they be ordering a size larger for me and tailoring down? It was super tight around the chest and middle, so despite the seamstress’ promises it will fit in the end, I can’t help but be paranoid that when I go back in March the dress will still be too small and panic will suddenly set in.
• Will be booking our honeymoon cruise soon!  *Glee!*
• I should get in touch with Claudia and start talking about wedding cupcakes, and ask if she can make me up some quick samples.  I’d like to have a plan regarding what they’ll look like and a final cost.
• Must book our engagement photo session with Scade Photography!  I want to make sure we get them taken before it starts to snow again (you can never be too careful here with our crazy Alberta winters.)  Maybe we can set something up for later in the month or for September.

There’s still nine months to go, but all of a sudden it feels like if I’m not careful I’m going to start falling behind on the to-do list.  It’s amazing what the difference a few months can make.  D:

Two dozen stores later, I finally have shoes.

Finding suitable wedding shoe candidates was a lot harder than I thought it would be.  I swear, I think I visited every single shoe store and bridal boutique in West Edmonton Mall and ended up walking the length of WEM three times.  *Rubs sore feet*  Fancy off-white heels are not easy to find in your average shoe store; and as far as the bridal shops went, they were either super pricey or didn’t have any at all.  (Apparently a lot of boutiques are phasing out their bridal shoes due to them not selling well.  I can’t imagine why… oh right, because they cost a small fortune! }:c  *Scowl scowl*)

In any event, one of the nice bridal consultant ladies finally took pity on me and suggested I go to The Shoe Company, and it turns out she was spot on because I not only did I find a good pair of bridal shoes, I came home with two pairs of adorable heels.  And by two, I mean that I couldn’t decide between my two picks so I bought both of them and the store was super nice and they said I could return one of them within 14 days when I decided which ones go better with my dress.

They’re both so cute!  The first ones are much closer to the color I need, I think; though they don’t really match my dress style at all.  They’re also super cute and I could easily see myself wearing them again after the wedding~  The second ones are too dark to go with my dress as far as I can remember, but the style of them matches the looks of my dress really well, and they’re super comfy.  I could wear them after the wedding too, but they’re a little more fancy than I’d want to wear out every day.

I can’t decide which ones to go with!  It doesn’t help that I haven’t seen my dress in months so I hardly even remember what it looks like or what color it really is.  I’m going to take them both to my first dress fitting and try them on with the gown to make the final decision, then sadly return the loser to the store.  *Hugs both pairs of pretty shoes while she has them*

Prettifying those feet~

I need to start looking for (affordable) shoes!  I’d prefer something with a bit of an open toe with a style along these lines:

I like how they sort of emulate the ruching effect.  I think they’d look really cute with my dress~  :3

I also need to find a second pair of more comfortable flats in case my feet object to my pretty ceremony shoes later on in the night.  I don’t want to go the ballerina shoe route because I think they look goofy, but maybe something like these?

Question: if you buy dyeable wedding shoes, can they be re-dyed again after the wedding?  Or is it a one-time only thing?  I’d love to take what ever shoes I end up getting and dye them a more wearable color afterward.

Yes to that dress! X3

So, I thought I had found my perfect wedding dress.  I got the tingly *glee!* feeling when I walked out in it and it swooshed nicely and sparkled in all the right places a dress should sparkle — but Mom with all of her parental wisdom convinced me to wait on the decision until we went to one more place.  I was still excited when I got home, but yet when I woke up the next morning I felt the need to look at the picture again to double check that it was The Dress.  I figure… you should never have to double check if it’s The Dress.

And sure enough, when we later went to a little boutique called Career Girl Bridal downtown the cute little ADK swooshy dress I thought I loved so much got its ass kicked.  :3

I’m refraining very hard from posting a photo of it right now in an attempt instead to keep it a surprise for when I walk down the aisle.  >_<  But rest assured that my gown woven from 100% pure win, some hand-stitched awesomeness, and with a touch of the sparkly ooh ooh ahh~ I love it.  No double checking required on this one.

Now I need to start looking for a hot little pair of ivory-colored shoes and some accessories to pair it with.  (Where I do look for wedding shoes…?  Your typical retail shoe stores don’t exactly stock a very large selection of ivory heels.)  Apparently I also need to have which ever various undergarments I will want to wear underneath in time for my first dress fitting in four months or so…  I can’t say I’ve given that part much thought.  *Sweatdrop*  In the coming weeks we need to arrange a day to go shopping for lacy-type things I think.