The Well Fed Newlyweds

Gimme the deets! All the stuff I spent hours on... Details details details...

2011-05-19T14:10:00.001-04:00

I have to admit. I'm a little sad this is my last "official" wedding recap post for you. I've slowly been reliving our wedding vicariously through these recaps and it's been wonderful. I loved everything about our wedding, and I was so happy to see that when it all got laid out it was exactly what I wanted. Better actually. I had a few moments when I was 3/4 of the way through a project and thought "oh god, what am I doing?! How does all of this tie together?! This is going to look like crap! I've gone too far though!!!". I think we all have those moments. But I stuck it through and I'm glad I did. So. Here you are. The little details that made our wedding about "us" and not just "a wedding". Please let me know if there's anything I missed or that you'd like to see a tutorial on, I love hearing your feedback! These are in absolutely no particular order (the majority of these photos are from Stillmotion, they're amazing!):

Food

I've already said how we basically booked our wedding around our photographer and caterer. When they were available = our wedding date. Dan and I each got a priority, mine was photography, his was food. I think the two worked well together no? So anywho, the incredibly talented Ezra Title worked in a lot of what we loved from previous meals with him and from our own favourites. For example, the prosciutto and melon above. When I lived in Italy I don't think there was a day that went by when I didn't eat this eat least once. Usually twice. Or more. Don't judge me. We also LOVE organic beef, so Ezra did us the organic flank steak for dinner. The salted caramel ice cream was a favourite from Dan's birthday dinner the year before that we both would like to eat by the gallon. And the cake. Well come on, it's pretty evident by now that that was all me!

I think our guests really appreciated that we shared our infamous "Ezra meal" with them and appreciated every mouthful. Since the wedding we've gotten a number of comments about it being the best meal of their life, so mission accomplished I think!!

Teapots & Creamer/Sugar Pots

Once I found my inspiration with the teapots I went whole hog on them. I scoured thrift shops, Craigslist, and friend's parent's silver cabinets for old unused clunky teapots that no one loved any more. I would not spend more than $10 on a teapot (I had one exception but it was worth it and balanced out with some other bargains I got). In the end, I amassed something like 30+ teapots and 50+ creamers. I spent hours with bridesmaids, parents, and my parent's neighbours polishing those puppies up and making them gorgeous again. They were so pretty and added such a unique touch to the tables, they were totally worth the effort. Plus I think the fact that half our guests had had their hands on them at some point made it all the more special ;) I still have them all in the basement, somewhat unsure of what to do with them. Maybe a rental company is in sight?! LOL!

A quick note about the flowers, the white roses were for my Omi (grandmother) who had passed away the summer before the wedding. She had the most gorgeous rose garden you've ever seen. I DIY'ed the baby's breath cream/sugar pots to save a good few hundred dollars off the floral budget. Totally worth it. Our florist, Pink Twig, was incredible to work with and I think they enjoyed the "outside of the box" edge the teapots brought to the arrangements.

Papergoods

I designed, cut, and assembled all of my papergoods myself. What a task that was! But it was full of love! My handy dandy Cricut worked late every night cutting my menu backers, place cards, and little placecard birds. I used Sure Cuts A Lot in conjunction with Illustrator to break out of the Cricut cartridge box. I love that program and the world it opens up for you! For the corners of my menu and placecards, I used a corner punch and emboss from Fiskars that added a bit of a vintage flair.

Table numbers were the bane of my existence for about a week. I would sit and think and google search for ideas. Nothing seemed just right. I eventually gave up and ended up slapping these together at the last minute with a lace border and the same font we used on our invites and programs. They were simple and functional, and looked cute with our vintage flair.

Our programs I designed, printed, assembled and sewed, to coordinate with our elevator invites. Whew. Those were a lot of work! More than our invites!!!

Can I just say how much I loved our escort cards? I realize they got tossed out, but I freaking loved them. We sat them in flats of wheat grass spread out on a barnboard table Dan made for me. Each table got their own pattern of fabric covered button which coordinated with the fabric on their caramel favour. Yes. I am that anal retentive and I think it was worth it :)

I'm not going to lie and I'm going to totally toot my own horn, my banners were amazing. LOL! They made for my favourite shots of the day. They were actually on my DIY projects to-do list and I had scrapped them because I thought I didn't have enough time. One night we were sitting around and I thought "Oh screw it, I'm going to give it a go" and put together the banners while we watched a movie with a friend. The Just Married banner came out so well I thought I'd try the Going to the Chapel as well! I am SO SO SO happy I made that push and got them done, I think it just completed the Winnebago and put that polished touch on our photos.

Flip flops & Pashminas

Love your guests. Treat them like royalty. They've come a long way, gotten all dressed up for you, sat through the speeches, given you a gift, throw them a good party and make sure they're comfortable in return! I smashed the Old Navy $1 flip flop sale and bought as many sizes as I could get my hands on. I think I ended up with about 50 pairs (both mens and womens), and honestly, I likely only needed about 25. I found another bride who bought my leftovers off me though, so that was great news for me!

The pashminas I bought at a little cash and carry shop for $5 a piece. I bought 30 of them and I should have bought 50! They went like hot cakes! It started pouring rain halfway through our dinner, so I think the ladies snapped them up to cut the chill. I still get compliments from our friends and family who say they're the nicest pashmina they have and still use it all the time!

I put little tags on both the pashmina's and flip flops just to personalize them rather than just shoving them all (artfully) in a box. The baskets I bought in Chinatown for about $15 and worked really well and looked very cute and rustic. The flip flop tags said "nice shoes" around the edges. That was the first thing Dan ever said to me, so it was a little inside joke to us.

Guest book

I made our guestbook using Photobook Canada and I loved it! The quality was fantastic and they had a special linen paper specific to guestbooks. I used our engagement photos and created a 12 x 12 book about 30 pages long. I loved reading through all the comments from our guests after the wedding. Every page had at least one note and some of our guests got creative with little bubbles over our heads, etc. It was fantastic and adorable!!!

Hangers

What bride doesn't want a Lila Frances hanger?! When I showed the hangers to Dan he was so excited about them he wanted one for himself AND all his guys. Our entire wedding party each got their own hanger, including the kids. Lila was great to work with and since we ordered early (and in bulk) she gave us a great deal!

Okay. I seriously have to take a break. I have so many more details to share with you, and I'm afraid of making this the post that breaks the site! I'll be back with details part two ASAP!

Go me!! The little Etsy shop that could!

2011-05-14T09:23:00.000-04:00

I know I owe you one more blog post about the details of the wedding and it's ready to go, I'm just not ready to say goodbye to my wedding yet. SO on a happier note, I have big news! Well big news to me anyways! I was mysteriously getting tons of hits to my Etsy shop, LoveAndFound, the other day and this morning I checked my Google Analytics. Unbeknownst to me, I was in the Etsy Finds newsletter!!!! YAY!!!!! I'm so excited and so proud! And happy I hadn't deleted that email when I realized where the traffic had come from! I have more big Etsy news coming as well, but it's uber top secret for the time being, but it is incredibly exciting!

Check me out! The second photo on the page:

I'm going to have my cake and eat another one too! The late night buffet.

2011-05-01T13:24:00.000-04:00

Quite possibly, the late night buffet was one of the things I was most excited about while planning our wedding. I freaking love anything baked. Cake, croissants, breads, cookies, you name it, I'll eat it. So when it came to planning our late night buffet, I went a little nuts. I wanted a cake in every flavour. Dan was slightly revolted though, so we turned it into a sweet and savoury buffet to make him happy too since, you know, he was the groom and all...

It started pouring rain halfway through dinner, so we had to move inside a bit earlier than we had intended for our late night buffet and dancing since our outdoor dance floor got pretty damp. The father/daughter, son/mother dance was to Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World". It was very sweet. I thought I would be a wreck dancing with my dad since I'm such a Daddy's girl, but I'm pretty proud of myself that I held it together!

And now, the food!!! We didn't get any shots of the savouries, but here's what we had for the people who aren't as obsessed with cake as I am: Mini Grilled Cheese with Paradiso Cheese, Bacon & Caramelized Onions, and Roasted Fingerlings with Braised Short Ribs, Roquefort & Veal Jus. And then of course we had my favourite sweet from Ezra, the “Coffee & Doughnuts” Mini Coconut Doughnuts with Coffee Crème Anglaise. *drool*

Our cake and cupcakes from The Wedding Cake Shoppe. So tasty!!!

The topper I made of Dan and I and the cats.

We met waiting for the elevator on the 9th floor.

On the left, a strawberry chiffon cake with our lobster claws cake topper (five points if you get the Friends reference) I made from fimo clay that I just noticed are on the cake wrong, LOL! Oh well. On the right, a lemon meringue pie with our Value Village vintage topper I got for less than a dollar. All the cakes (other than our wedding cake) were from Frangipane Bakery in Toronto. Hands down best cake of my life. True story.

Chocolate cake with chocolate icing and beautiful piping work. The cake topper is salt and pepper shakers which were a gift from the lovely couple in Chinatown where I bought all my paper lanterns.

My favourite "transformers" tray (it folds up like a clam!) with my homemade chocolate chip cookies using my mom's famous chocolate chip cookie recipe (*cough tollhouse cough*), a tradition with my friends. I made the cookies the night before the wedding and my girlfriends thought I was nuts! It really helped me relax though :)

Our cake and cupcakes were from The Wedding Cake Shoppe in Toronto. The cupcake picks and wrappers were handmade by me!

The picks said "Gimme some sugar" or "Veronica loves ~~cake~~ Dan" written on them and our wedding date on the other. The wrappers have "eat drink be married" cut out along the top.

We put out the cheese left from the cocktail hour earlier.

Handsome men dig in.

I was obsessed with these napkins I bought. I still have some left and I think they are the funniest things ever.


I had some caramel left from the favours so I poured it into a mason jar for the buffet.

I was dying to get a shot of me in my dress with these napkins. I made our photographer go get his camera out after he had put it away just so we could take these. Honest truth, I hate these paintings. I made the Mill remove them from our reception area. Sorry. LOL! But they look cute for these photos ;)

And a little bit of dancing to close off the night. We used Laura at Sounds of Distinction for our DJ and she was AMAZING. We danced non-stop start to finish. When it came time to turn on the lights and head home, no one wanted to go, we were all having too much fun!

Well folks, that it! We got married, we ate, we danced, we laughed, we cried. It was incredible. More than I could have dreamed of! One last post about our details and we'll get back to real life!

The Reception was well received

2011-04-17T15:40:00.000-04:00

After we made our way through that ridiculous receiving line, we moved over to our tent for our first dance, dinner, and speeches. At the end of our receiving line, we had a barnboard table top that Dan and a friend built and then put on some old wooden workhorses we borrowed from our venue. On there, we had our florist place a sheet of wheatgrass where we put our escort cards with each guests name, table number, and a fabric covered button that coordinated with the fabric skirt I put on each little jar of homemade caramel. Each table had its own fabric. Yes, I am that anal retentive, there was no need to make it that complicated, I just did :)

Escort cards in situ.

A close up of my handmade fabric buttons and the cards I made. Each of those corners was punched by me!

Our homemade caramel favours. The tags either said "Love is Sweet" or "From our kitchen to your belly". You can see the coordinating button escort card in the background on the right. We also made a contribution to the Alzheimer's Society of Toronto in honour of my grandmother who couldn't be with us to do the disease. They gave a packet of Forget-Me-Not seeds for each of our guests which I thought was a beautiful gesture.

Can I just say how gorgeous our friends made our tent? I was overwhelmed by it. I bought all of our lanterns in Chinatown for a pretty good deal from this sweet little couple who gave us a cake topper as a thank you and good luck for our wedding! They were a mix of solid and eyelet white paper lanterns. They didn't get strung up exactly how Dan had envisioned because of how the tent fiasco went, but it looked pretty nonetheless!

One of the eyelet lanterns at night

At the table: One of the teapot floral centrepieces, Evian bottled water, and the lace wrapped votives I made.

One of my teapots

Our guestbook table. We designed our guestbok with photos from our engagement photos. It turned out amazing!

Our curly willow accent arrangements that went around the perimetre of the tent.

The menus I designed, printed, and assembled.

Dan and I had a little sweetheart table in the center of the tent. Our venue decided to build this giant canoe shaped firepit in the middle of our event space which sort of threw out floor plan for a loop, so we tried to make the best of it and just managed the space as best we could. It wasn't ideal but what can you do?!

Behind our table, was the canoe firepit. What do you do with a canoe shaped fire pit? Fill it with rocks, a corkscrew hazel tree wired to the hilt with orchids, moss, votives, and thank your friends profusely at the end for their patience, creativity and love building it for you!!!! It was like a fairy land behind us. Seriously, it took my breath away when I saw it, I couldn't have pictured anything so beautiful if I had tried. It was beyond what I had hoped for and one of my favourite things about our wedding!!!

The lovely talented ladies who created my fairy land tree!

Seriously, how gorgeous is this?!?!


The tree lit up at night. It wasn't this blue in person, it's just the way it looks on camera for whatever reason.

The rocks with moss, orchids, and the lace wrapped votives I made. The orchids and moss I bought a a flower wholesaler.

Our sweetheart table with a bit of the tree behind me there. I can't stop emphasizing how pretty it was! Sorry!

Okay, onwards. So we came in and had our first dance to Joshua Radin's "Today". It's such a beautiful song. It was actually Ellen Degeneres and Portia De Rossi's wedding song and when I heard it it gave me goosebumps. When Dan came home we listened to it while we danced and I started crying. That's when we knew it was the right song.

I'll just throw in a couple of snaps of a few of our friends, parents, etc giving speeches because since most of you don't know them this holds no relevance to you! Everyone gave us beautiful speeches/toasts and there were a lot of tears flowing. It meant so much to Dan and I to be surrounded by so many people we hold close to our hearts. Every person who was invited was someone who had made an impact on our lives, there were no frivolous invites of friends of friends of friends.

What do you do when you have a groomsman who's a professional stand-up comedian? Make him your MC of course! Tim did an amazing job! He did the perfect balance of humour and sentimental touches.

My father-in-law sending along some messages of love and well wishes from family who couldn't make it.

Stacey telling silly stories of our childhood and travels together. We've been friends since we were six!!

Carson likely embarrassing Dan ;)

A few good laughs

My gorgeous aunt and her husband. The camera loves this woman, we should all be so lucky!!

My parents share a few words

My mother-in-law shares a moment with me after her speech. I'm so lucky to have her!

My sister and I are criers. I think my MOH speech at her wedding sounded more like a drowning animal than anything resembling the English language. She did far better giving a speech at our wedding ;)

My brother-in-law gives a thumbs up to marriage!

While we were doing the speeches, we were also eating. And eating. And eating. Oh my gosh were we ever spoiled!!!! Our caterer/chef really focused on local, in season foods which is how Dan and I like to eat as much as possible. It was such an amazing meal, everyone loved it and proclaimed it one of the best meals they'd ever had.

Let me back up a second and tell you why we chose Ezra to cater our wedding. When Dan turned 30 I wanted to something spectacular for him. He's a hard working guy, a terrific father to his son, and a wonderful partner in life. He rarely does anything just for him. We spent the weekend up in Muskoka parasailing, kayaking, playing shuffleboard, and enjoying some quiet time for once. When we got home, I had arranged for a private chef to make a quiet dinner for the two of us out on our back deck overlooking the river. Some of our friends had come to the house to let in the chef and set up some lights, flowers, etc. It was perfect. I found Ezra through a google search looking for "private chef+Toronto". His name kept coming up attached to rave reviews. I took the plunge and decided you only turn 30 once right?! Well let me tell you, that night was the best meal of my life. Every single penny was worth it. Ezra is charming, talented, and attentive to the most minute detail. We booked him for Dan's birthday dinner every year in perpetuity that night! We told all of our friends and wished there was someway we could afford to share such an amazing experience with them.

Fast forward a couple of years and a couple dinners later. We approached Ezra about the wedding, worried that maybe our budget was too small. Ezra was wonderful and suggested some incredible options we didn't think were possible and bingo bango, we had a wedding meal! Having Ezra with us made it all the more special. We were finally able to share that beautiful, intimate meal with all the people we love most so that for once we wouldn't be teasing them all with descriptions of how amazing his food is! So Ezra, if you ever read this, know how much we adore and cherish you, and how happy we are that we've discovered your genius!

I'd also like to give a shout out to the amazing staff of servers we had. It started pouring rain halfway through dinner and our kitchen tent was a good 40 feet away from the main tent. Our servers sloshed back and forth in the rain, always with a smile and a kind word. I don't know where these angels were sent from, but from the first second of our wedding until well after the last guest left, they were watching over everyone, taking amazing care of us, and I never heard a gripe or complaint. I have no idea how they pulled it off but I am forever thankful to them!!!

Without further ado, our meal and the wonderful people behind the scenes who brought it to us!

First course:

Heirloom Tomato Gazpacho with Lobster Salad & Basil Oil

The incomparable Ezra Title. Quality checking each plate before it leaves the line!

Some of our sous-chefs with the plan for the day pinned to the wall behind them. Such hard working guys!

Our main veggie dish:

Herbed Carnaroli Risotto with Haricots Verts, Cherry Tomatoes, Fontina Cheese, Pine Nuts & Balsamic Reduction *drool*


Our main meat dish: Cumbrae’s Flat Iron Steak with Fingerling Potatoes, Local Corn, Summer Squash, Chimichuri & Bordelaise Sauce

How many chefs does it take to perfectly plate a wedding meal? Their attention to detail was just outstanding! And keep in mind, this is not a kitchen. This was in a storage room that we added tables to and we had to rent all the equipment!

Dessert was Poached Peaches & Financier (buttery almond cake) with Sea Salt Caramel Ice Cream. That freaking sea salt caramel ice cream is my favourite thing on earth. I could eat it all day every day. I'll have to bribe Ezra for the recipe...

I'm pretty sure there are no pro photos of the food actually on the tables because our hard working photography and cinematography team were wolfing it down before it occurred to them to take a shot of it! There were a couple of no-shows at their table and rumor has it they were fighting over who got the extra meals ;)

So, next up will be the conclusion of the night, our late night dessert buffet and dancing, and then I'm going to do one more recap post of details. I had a million tiny details that I want to share with you, but I also wanted to keep these recaps moving along, so I've saved them for last! Enjoy and happy weekend everyone!

Cocktail hour! We deserve it!

2011-04-14T15:47:00.000-04:00

So even though we built in an hour of "grey zone" over run time, we still needed to take some formal photos after the ceremony. Formal is not my style, but we realized we did need a few with our families. Here's a few just for fun and then we'll get on with the cocktail hour!

I added a vintage WWII French Air Force locket to my bouquet. Why? My grandmother served in the British Air Force in WWII and I thought that having a locket to pay homage to her service would be pretty cool! She has Alzheimers and couldn't be at the wedding with us. My other grandmother passed away nearly two years ago, and I know she was excited for Dan and I and I couldn't have gone through our day without her with me.

Both my grandmothers. When Dan and I got our photos back from Stillmotion, this is the one that made me cry.

My sister and I. I think this is the only photo in existence where you can see that we do look alike, LOL! It's the nose and smile. The red vs brown hair, not so much, LOL!

Me and my Poppa. I'm not sure I told you, but I wore his WWII regiment pin on my dress which was a surprise for him. He loved it and I think was very touched when I showed him :)

Checking out the pin.

Dan with his brother and mom.

Me and my parents. I don't look like either of them, I was convinced I was adopted for years!

So once we got that over with, we moved on to the cocktail party. By now, unfortunately, I think the "hour" was just about over, but I insisted we take a few minutes to enjoy the jazz musicians we had hired for Dan's benefit (which he pretty much missed) and eat some of the amazing appetizers from our caterer!

This one's not a pro photo, but I love that the venue made this little sign for us. So sweet. It was the first thing I saw when I went down to the cocktail hour.

Guests mingle in the courtyard while enjoying a drink.

My gorgeous aunt, her husband, and her beautiful daughter (and one of my bridesmaids) Sami. They came up from Kansas to be at the wedding. I'm so thankful they were with us, it meant the world to me.


Mmmmmmm this food is tasty!!!

Behind the scenes! Organic scrambled egg tartlet with fresh herb salad.

The amazing Ron Davis provided our jazz cocktail hour music. Take a look at the awesome piano at our venue! I had no idea it looked like that, when I saw it I guess it was all closed up and just looked like a plain old black upright piano!

Cheese, bread & fruit buffet.

Another non-pro photo, but too cute to not mention. Dan LOVES cheese. LOVES IT. He is also lactose intolerant and never carries lactose pills with him. When I found this little bowl with the ~~shovel~~ spoon, I had to have it to put lactose pills in it as a joke for him. Anyone who's been around my husband has experienced the ill effects of his lactose issues!


I think they liked it...

Catching up for a minute with my cousin who flew in from England for the wedding. I was SO happy she was able to join us. I'm pretty sure I cried when I saw her.

My dad grabs some prosciutto and melon, my favourite thing on earth and a must have for the wedding. How do I know that's my dad? See that wonky pointer finger? I jumped on it when I was a toddler and broke it. Yep. That's all me.

Potato Scallion Galette with Georgian Bay Smoked White Fish. I'm not a fish person. I was skeptical when Ezra proposed this. They are like heaven on a potato cake I swear to god.


I love the little touches. Ezra put so much thought into our service, it was perfect.

It's time for the receiving line!

I'm going to interrupt here for a second. Future brides, pay attention: Be very clear with the other people in your receiving line (*cough cough mother-in-law cough cough*) that this is not the place for a ten minute conversation with each guest!!! We had 150 guests and it felt like our receiving line took two hours I swear to god. Seriously, Dan and I were standing there with no one in front of us because they were stuck at the parents! We started waving people AROUND the parents because it was taking so long. I started wondering if people had lined up twice! Seriously, folks gotta eat, let them through the line!!! LOL!

Note the lack of people in front of Dan and I.

We took down the "Going to the Chapel" banner and put up the "Just Married" one :)

Fist bumps for gettin' married!

My gorgeous friend Kelly lookin swank in her dress! She and another friend did such an awesome job on my corkscrew hazel tree!

Okay well that's that for now! Next post will be the reception! We're on the home stretch!!!

Toronto Bakes for Japan this weekend. Be there!

2011-04-08T18:48:00.000-04:00

I interrupt these wedding recaps for an important PBSA (Public Baking Service Announcement): This weekend is Toronto Bakes for Japan around the city. Join us Saturday and Sunday raising money for the Red Cross of Japan by purchasing some delicious baked goods made by caring people (such as moi and my sister!) donated for the cause! Win win! You get a happy tummy, Japan gets some help!

As a teaser, I'll let you know what I've made: Easter cake pops (bunnies and chicks, super cute!), baklava (most requested dessert around this house), bacon thyme cornmeal muffins (sooooooooo delicious!), and ale & pretzel soft caramels. I'll be dropping my goodies off to the Brick Works tomorrow morning if any of those pique your interest!

When & Where:

Saturday, April 9, 2011, 9 am to 1 pm

Farmers’ Market at Evergreen Brick Works, 550 Bayview Ave, Toronto

Sunday, April 10, 2011, 11 am to 3 pm

Liberty Noodle, 171 East Liberty St, Toronto
The Rivoli, 334 Queen St W, Toronto
Cafe Diplomatico, 594 College Street, Toronto
Amaranto Café, 809 St. Clair Ave W, Toronto (New!)

Sunday, April 10, 2011, 10 am to 5 pm

Yoshi’s Sweets, 2359 Queen St E, Toronto (donating 100% of the day’s sales)

We do! The ceremony pics!

2011-04-03T14:11:00.000-04:00

The day had already gone by far too quickly for my taste, but waiting those last twenty minutes before the ceremony could possibly have been the longest twenty minutes of my life... My bridesmaids, parents, stepson and nephews were sequestered inside the Mill while our guests were seating outside and waiting. My amazing hairstylist David and his partner Peter gave me some final touches, words of encouragement, and clipped my veil into place. I waited somewhat patiently to get the show on the road. I remember a lady from one of the stores in the Mill talking to me and I sort of just wanted her to go away, LOL! The kids were getting restless. It was all taking too long for my taste! Soon enough though, it was time to go. I just wanted to get down that aisle and get married for the love of Pete!!!!

As a side note, I've avoided posting photos of my nephews and stepson for privacy reasons, but this post I just had to break the rule because they were so darn cute in their little suits and there's a funny story I need to share. When I told the kids about the wedding and we discussed what a wedding was, they got out of it that it was a big party. Immediately each of them asked "Will there be balloons and cake?!" because duh, when you're 5 that's what happens at every party. I had to say yes, how could I not?! So each of the kids got their own big white balloon with their initial hanging off it and everyone was very happy. Including me because no one tried to smack the bejesus out of each other playing "balloon wars" until after the ceremony. They were good little listeners for me!

Before you look at these photos, go to this link and press play, then come back and look at the photos while listening to the music. You'll understand why in a sec.


My bubbles which I painstakingly decorated the bottles of, one by one, and my handsewn programs.

One of the initials I hung off the kids balloons. Thank goodness they all have names that start with different letters!


My father-in-law and stepmother-in-law with my grandfather behind them

My mother-in-law with my youngest nephew.

My mom escorted by my older nephew

My stepson being SO careful with his ring nest. He took his job so very seriously, it was adorable.

As promised, a swap for the rings with Uncle Ryan (Dan's best man)

Sara, who was a touch nervous about what was coming...

Kathe, look at those sexy legs!

Sami, imported for Kansas and leaving the next day for Edinburgh!!!

Alena walkin' the walk

Stacey, my best friend of nearly 25 years!

My sister and matron of honour, relieved to not have a child attached to her for 10 minutes.

Sara is an incredible singer and sang me down the aisle to Ingrid Michaelson's "The Way I Am". So. Amazing. Did I mention how much my friends love me?!?!

Thanks daddy!!

We laughed a lot in the ceremony which was so true to the way we live our life together. There is always laughter in our home. I was so excited and so happy though I barely remember a thing, so I can hardly wait to see the footage from our cinematographers to remember what the heck I was laughing at so much!

I'm a crier. Thankfully Dan had remembered to put Kleenex in his jacket pocket. My vintage handkerchief from my grandmother was missing with my purse... I found it in time for the speeches at least!

Dan totally looks like he's going to keel over in this shot, LOL! He's fine though I promise!


This is one reason why I was laughing. This is my youngest nephew, he can be a handful at times but mostly adorable overall and he knows it! My brother-in-law was holding him in the front row and whenever he'd chatter, my brother-in-law would quietly say "Shhhh Dysan" to which Dysan would loudly respond "SHHHHH DADDY!!!". It was hilarious!!! I'm not sure if anyone else could hear it, but it kept making me crack up! I love that our photographers caught that moment!

Your ring sir!

Yay!!! First kiss!!!

Bubbles!!! I seriously forgot all about them and it was a huge wonderful surprise to me when it happened! I loved it!

Dan calls this my "Bridal War Cry". Thanks honey.

Awww they look so cute and happy! I love this shot! I also love my dad dancing down the aisle behind them.

I'll finish up by sharing the reading we asked our officiant to do. We're not religious people, so we had to search a bit to find exactly the words to describe what our wedding meant to us. The first time I read "Union" by Robert Fulghum I cried and I knew that was it. Who am I kidding, I still can't read it without crying! So without further ado, Union:

You have known each other from the first glance of acquaintance to this point of commitment. At some point, you decided to marry. From that moment of yes, to this moment of yes, indeed, you have been making commitments in an informal way. All of those conversations that were held in a car, or over a meal, or during long walks – all those conversations that began with, “When we’re married”, and continued with “I will” and “you will” and “we will” – all those late night talks that included “someday” and “somehow” and “maybe” – and all those promises that are unspoken matters of the heart. All these common things, and more, are the real process of a wedding.

The symbolic vows that you are about to make are a way of saying to one another, “You know all those things that we’ve promised, and hoped, and dreamed – well, I meant it all, every word.”

Look at one another and remember this moment in time. Before this moment you have been many things to one another – acquaintance, friend, companion, lover, dancing partner, even teacher, for you have learned much from one another these past few years. Shortly you shall say a few words that will take you across a threshold of life, and things between you will never quite be the same.

For after today you shall say to the world –
This is my husband. This is my wife.

Let's (wedding) party!!!!

2011-04-01T13:16:00.000-04:00

Alright, quick recap in case you missed the lead up: So Dan, his guys and a crew of incredible friends assembled the tent, set up the stuff, saved the day. Oblivious I got ready with my girls. He picked me up, we took some awesome shots, and then we headed over to our venue to get a few shots with our wedding party before getting that whole "getting married" thing over with.

We were about to start shooting when I realized that no one had flowers. No bouts, no bouquets, nothing. Crap!!! Someone ran to find them and we distributed and pinned accordingly. Whoops!

I had little heart charms put on each of the girls bouquets. They may or may not have been a free giveaway from Purina cat food....

Is this thing on right?!

Annnnnndddd.... stay on there.

Stacey and my sister's faces in this are priceless!!!

Alena look gorgeous and happy!


Nice bout!

Crisis averted. And then our officiant popped by so that we could sign our license and the registry since we didn't want that to be part of the formal ceremony, we wanted the ceremony to be quick so we could get on with the eating!!!

There's no turning back now!

Sami signs as a witness

And so does Kathe

Now, on with photos of our favourite peeps!

This is the closest I have to a photo with all our wedding party I think. We were pretty rushed at this point so unfortunately we didn't get a "formal" shot with all of them. Oops.

This pop was a local brand when I was growing up in the 80's. My favourite is the black cherry soda, mmmmm!!! They disappeared off the market for years and recently became popular again. I bought up a few cases and had to have it for the wedding. Everyone loved it and the striped barber pole straws were a hit too!

Dan and his guys lookin' handsome as ever!

As seen on tv. You may recognize my brother-in-law from an HGTV show!

Tim's a popular comedian and that made him perfect to act as our MC for the reception. He was amazing!

I've never met a bunch of guys so obsessed about their shoes...

I don't know how in the world they got us all to look so serious. As you'll see below, my gorgeous gals like to laugh!!!

Why am I making this face?!?!?!

Well. It's time. Gotta move onto the ceremony. Dun dun dun!!! See you on the flipside!

Pro photos: Here's lookin' at you kid!

2011-03-23T21:55:00.000-04:00

Hands down, these are my favourite photos of the day. So Dan ran out of gas and had to get an emergency refill. I waited by the hotel for the photographers to give me the go ahead. I was so excited I forgot to put on perfume and my mom ran back upstairs to get it for me. I also wanted to bring my purse, a balloon and I can't remember what else, and my photographer Justin told me to give it all back and just GO. Thank god for having a good team around you. However since it all happened so quickly I forgot to tell someone to bring it all with them later and by the time my purse arrived at the venue my vows and thank you speech were gone. Oops. Ah well. So back to it shall we?

I had to walk across the parking lot and up a big ass hill to find Dan and the Colonel. My mom offered to come with me, but I felt it was really important to do it in my own. Sort of symbolic looking back on it.... Do you like the little montage I made you guys? I love this paparazzi-esque series!

This was the spa and yes there were people in there. I'm pretty sure they were surprised to see me walking by outside!!!

I was so excited and nervous I couldn't stop laughing.

Hello over there???

Hi honey!!! Can you see me waving through the windows???

Ready? 1.... 2.... 3....!!!!!

Dan was speechless at first and then said "Awwww you look beautiful!!!" and I started crying before I could even get "hi" out of my mouth. It's on our highlights reel.

To quote Dan's first words to me ever: Nice shoes!!

I like to fold myself up into Dan. Arms against his chest. It's so comfy.

Kiss on forehead! I insist on these and often just shove my head against Dan's lips forcing him to kiss me ;)


Now to get into the Winnebago... Uhhhhhh that's harder than it seems. Dan ended up lifting me in and out, LOL!

See? Enforced kiss on forehead.

Now let's hit the road jack!

I realize you can fully see our photographer Justin in the reflection, but I still love the look of pure happiness and excitement on my face in this photo. We'll call it a Hitchcock-esque shot ;)

"Oh my gosh we're running so late... What the hell took him so long?!"

"Thank god she doesn't know I ran out of gas. She'd kill me."

Keep the white dress AWAY from the greasy dirty motor!!!

We drove to Newfoundland and back with me holding the bunk like this. We were both terrified we'd hit a bump and it would be the one that snapped the belts that held it up there, LOL!

I LOVE this shot of my girls!!!!

Bye ladies! See you over there!

We were crossing a bridge and I was checking to make sure we were lined up correctly (it was a small bridge). I love the moodiness of this shot.

I told you he had to lift me in and out!!!

Okay. So I think I'll leave it here for now, this has been a LONG post!!! Next post will be photos of the wedding party! Thanks everyone! I hope you enjoyed it!

Pro Photos: The boys!

2011-03-18T16:56:00.001-04:00

So while we primped and preened, the boys toiled and slaved getting the venue ready. Eventually someone forced them all to stop and made them go back to the hotel to get showered and dressed for the day. I love how the guys have room to lounge and relax while the girls were crammed into our tiny room on top of each other. I'm pretty sure I got high off all the hairspray.... Anyways, without further ado, here are the boys!

Dan gets bristle free for me. We had a beard vs no beard debate leading up to the wedding.


A couple of his groomsmen lounge. Dan had to be ready 2 hours before them, so they had some time to hang out.

This is very important: Which shoes??!?! The grey complement my eyes, but the green laces are so much fun!


Orange laces? Maybe orange would work...


Now ties. Oh the choices. PS - I bought everything on the bed from The Bay two days before the wedding. My husband is the king of last minute and had NOTHING to wear with his suit other than his shirt!!!

Don't forget to write your vows!!! I love that he has the emailed to himself on his iPhone. How cute is my husband?!


Presents time! This tied into our invitations (one boy, one girl, one elevator). I suppose I could have been a bit more fancy and printed it on, but I ran out of time and it was sort of a last minute "Shit! What am I going to do for a card?!?!"


I keep thinking it says farts at the top rather than parts. I'm 12 years old inside. And yes, my nickname for him is Pantsis. It's a long story.


Fancy chips along with some dip called "Dan's Dip". Seriously. Good find huh?!


Scotch for him and the boys.


These special ladies are 1970's vintage Penthouse stir sticks I got at a flea market. Rumour has it that when you put them in liquid their clothes dissolve!! Shocking!!! Am I the best wife or what?!


I did boudoir pics as a surprise for Dan. I love the look on his face in this photo and his hand shielding the album from the camera! I think he likes them....

Good choice honey! Awesome shoes!

The groomsmen still relaxing. They deserved it though, they all worked so hard!!!

Ready to hit the road to come pick up his bride!


Reconnecting the battery.


A little bit of TLC for the engine. The Colonel has attitude otherwise.

Yay! The banner I made looks SO cute!!! (Sorry for the shameless self promotion but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do! The sock wrap/labels are also in my shop.)

That yellow rope may or may not work our brake pedal.... I mean... Our vehicle is totally safe...

I'm pretty sure this is the cutest photo of Dan ever.

So at this point Dan was like 45 minutes late. I was ready to go. Like bouncing up and down because I was so excited READY to see him. It was horrible. This is why he was so late:


It wouldn't be a trip in the Colonel without running out of gas!

Next post will be my favourite photos. Our first look. I love love love them!!! I hope you're enjoying these so far!!!

It's bake sale day!!!

2011-03-16T09:40:00.000-04:00

Today is the big bake sale. I was just scouting it out and, man, there are some delicious treats over on Operation Layla 's site today getting auctioned off for the cause! Go check it out and make a bid! My toffee bacon shortbread cookies are calling your name and you know you want them....

Who wants Toffee Bacon Shortbread???

2011-03-13T19:00:00.001-04:00

Alright lovely readers, if your answer to the above question is "I DO I DO!!!!!" then look no further. Pop on over to Operation Layla for a bake sale auction full of yummy treats and sweets with proceeds being donated towards fellow blogger Layla's heartbreaking medical issues. I'll let you read up on their blog for the full story, but suffice it to say, my heart went out to the lovely Layla and I donated some delicious treats hoping they would raise a few extra dollars for her. The saying is true, everything tastes better with bacon, including short bread :) Please join in and help out!

Getting Our Pretty On - Pro photos

2011-03-12T13:02:00.000-05:00

While the world crashed down around the guys at the wedding venue, I was blissfully unaware getting ready with my ladies. Okay, maybe not blissfully unaware... I had stopped at the venue in the morning to drop off some flowers, and I couldn't see the top of the tent over the stone walls where it was supposed to be set up. I guess my brain went into protective mode and I remember thinking "It's okay, the walls are just taller than you remembered, that's why you can't see the tent....". I realize that literally makes no sense but at the time I fooled myself into thinking everything was fine. I mean, it was better to leave it in the hands of my very capable friends and husband-to-be than to throw myself into a stressed out tizzy worrying about it. So, bridal protective brain prevailed, and I carried on to our hotel to start getting ready for the day.

I realized later that room 119 was perfect for us since we were getting married on the 11th of September :)

I came in, hung up my dress, and opened my gift from Dan. He bought me a Frank Gehry ring from Tiffany which was gorgeous but a touch too small, so we ended up exchanging it for a Paloma Picasso necklace and a pair of earrings. The little blue bag was a BIG surprise, and his note was so sweet. It made me even more excited to see him. Awwww.

The rest of the girls trickled in and it was time to get to work with our amazing hair and make up team! I will say, it was a pretty small room for over a dozen people, but we made it work. The whole place was alive with laughter and fun (and a bit of champagne). When I look back on my photos, I love that I'm always laughing!

A moment with my mother-in-law. She was beside herself with excitement.

My mom. I think she looks like a happy kitty in this photo. Too cute.

I love this shot of Kathe. She's so freaking adorable.

Stacey has an evil smile about her GIANT curly hair. It's exactly how she wanted it! I'll admit, I freaked out a little, it was pretty huge. But the stylist was right, it settled down as time went on.


David. My stylist. My dear friend. Ahhh I love you. You are simply wonderful.

I went upstairs to get dressed. I'm very proud of myself that I made it until about 1:30 before my first cry. My Auntie Jeanette came upstairs to tell me that she had seen Dan. He was driving around the parking lot yelling "I'M GETTING MARRIED!!!!!!!!!!!!" with a huge smile on his face. She said it was the cutest thing she'd ever seen. That made me cry!


This is my grandfather's WWII dress regiment lapel pin. He gave it to me on my 20th birthday and kept the matching one. I think it's my most treasured possession. I wanted to wear it for the wedding, but I wasn't sure how. He and my grandmother recently moved out of their condo and my mom and I were cleaning out the leftover "stuff". I came across this lace shoe clip which happened to match my dress perfectly, so I sewed on a brooch pin, pulled a fake pearl off the front, and attached my grandfather's pin. I loved having elements of both of them on my dress :)

So at this point, Dan was late to come get me for our first look. I was really ready to see him and was just about peeing my pants in anticipation.


If you look closely you can see me on the right side of my dress peeking out looking for him!


Maybe if I go out front he'll show up....

Alright, let's do this thing!

My mom and sister get me zipped and buttoned in. Note to brides: If your dress has tiny buttons, bring a crochet hook to do them up!!! You'll never get them done by hand (never mind undoing them at the end of the night!).

This is one of my favourite shots of the day. The love on my sister's face makes me tear up every time I see this photo. We're so different in so many ways, but our relationship is so deep and loving, I don't know what I'd do without her.

Lessons learned while getting ready that I'll share with other brides to be:

Make sure you eat! Have lunch brought in by the hotel you're at, or order sandwich trays from a local supermarket. I didn't eat tons, but I forced myself to eat a little and I'm glad I did!!!
Allow yourself a bit of gray zone time. There was terrible traffic jams due to road construction that we couldn't have predicted getting to the hotel. Thankfully we had a bit of buffer time and managed to take some side roads (what did we do before the iPhone with Google maps?!?!?!) and get around it. A few of my other girls didn't have GPS though and had to wait it out. Life is unpredictable, give yourself some dead time because it'll get filled in, trust me!!!
Have a drink. Seriously. I don't drink, but having a glass of fizzy champagne put a smile on my face and marked it as a really fun special day. I wasn't nervous, but I'm sure the champagne helped with that feeling too ;)
If you're doing a first look, remember that your girls can finish getting ready while you're off shooting your photos. That way you don't have to get up at 6am for hair and make up appointments. I think we got started at a very respectable 11am. It was heaven especially since our venue and hotel was an hour away. I'm not a good morning person, so it was perfectly timed for me.
Stick on bra. Yep. I said it. The cups in your dress won't do much for your ladies. I spent $75 on this Victoria's Secret sucker (literally) and I'm so happy I did! They gave me a bit of oomph although Dan was a little confused/scared when he saw them later on, LOL!
Lose your self consciousness. So when I was getting dressed, I realized that there were two photograhers, two cinematographers, my mom and my sister standing there watching and helping me. Uhhhh dropping your robe and getting into your dress wearing very little in front of strangers is a slightly disconcerting. I never thought of that moment until I was in it. Remember that the people shooting your wedding have seen literally hundreds of brides before you, some in better shape, some in worse shape, in their underwear get into their wedding dress. Swallow your pride (or lack thereof) and get on with it, LOL! It was weird, but whatever. They're professionals!!
Double sided tape will help to keep everything in place. Nuff said. My hair stylist's boyfriend is a wardrobe designer for movies, thank god he was there!!!
The aforementioned crochet hook. Do it.
Assign someone to be in charge of your purse, a change of shoes for dancing, and any other items you're going to need for the rest of the day. Pre-pack your purse with copies of your thank you speech, vows, and tissues. Trust me. Oops....
Stop. Breathe. Enjoy it.

See you in the boy's room!