Dresses!

My wedding dress arrived.
I tried it on, and I love it as much as I did when I bought it. This is a MAJOR accomplishment for a girl who changes her mind more often than her socks.
The bridesmaid dresses are in too! They definitely need some altering, and the fabric threw me off. Mind you, we bought online, so what was I to expect? I gave the bridesmaids full creative freedom with them; I want them to alter them whatever way they want to make them their own. Consistency is over-rated!
Planning a wedding in a different province than the ceremony/fiance is proving to be slightly more difficult than I had expected. Honestly, I don't know what I'd do without all of you. Everyone who's been so willing to give a hand. Every time someone loans me something, or finds me something at a yard sale, my heart swells and I'm yet again amazed at the power of community.
Anyways, dab your eyes, we're moving on from the sappiness.
My aunt Linda has agreed to bake our wedding cake! She's the best baker I know. She's so passionate about it. I love everything she makes and I love her. I'm very happy that we didn't have to get an actual company to make the cake, it's so much more special this way. We're going with the simple cake, no tiers, no fondant. Just yummy.
Cakes are over-rated!
Lace has started taking over my room. Though I'm unsuccessful in finding round lace tablecloths (much to my dismay), I seem plenty capable of finding lace material, so I'm buying it as I find it. Right now, I have yards of it hanging over a guitar case. Between disposable cameras and lace, my room is full-up!
We're getting married in less than 8 months. Excuse me, I have to go change my pants now.

MY DRESS IS IN.

It's in. It's sitting at Winchester's bridal in Halifax RIGHT NOW.

This is torture. I want to go pick it up ASAP, but I'm in Fredericton without a car! I'm going to see if someone can pick it up for me.

Until then, I must be patient.

I walked by a bridal boutique that's moving to a new location and everything was 50% off in the store. So guess what? I bought 23 disposable cameras for the tables at the reception! They cost a little over 2 bucks each, not too shabby. I also bought a huge oversized vintage inspired feather pen, but I'm not sure if I like it enough to even use it yet. The feather has a weird gap in it that I don't know if we can fix. If not, I've got a huge novelty pen to write exams with that cost me 3 dollars. I'm alright with that.

WOO TO THINGS MOVING FORWARD!

Hit me. Punch me. Help me.

Contrary to popular belief, I did not fall off the face of the earth. I wasn't eaten by polar bears in the Torngat Mountains, and Fredericton didn't reject me. The excuse of "I've been busy", while by times true, is probably trumped more by the "I've been lazy" alibi.

So, you get one hit/punch for not only not blogging, but not planning at all. Please make sure I have at least a month before the wedding to recover from the bruises.

The Eastern Kings Rec Centre is booked. The Church is booked. The minister AND priest are booked (does that mean we are double-blessed by God?). The wedding party is chosen, all dresses are ordered. Things are coming into place.

Things that still worry me: 

1)The cake.
Recently, I've been thinking, "NOBODY REALLY EATS THIS THING ANYWAYS, WHY ARE WE EVEN BOTHERING GAAAAASH!" Then, I finally realized I was kind of right. Why are we bothering trying to make/buy a 3-tiered, fondant covered cake that'll end up costing more than my school books this semester? Jacob and I aren't fancy. We don't need no dramatic reveal of a cake higher than our heads. It's only going to be shoved in each other's faces anyways.

Something like this is much more our-style:

It looks delicious in its simplicity, doesn't it?

One tiered. Buttercream icing, Betty Crocker icing, who cares. It looks pretty. It looks like it won't break my bank account, and it looks doable a day or 2 before the wedding. Horray!

2)Hair/Makeup.
Because for some obscene reason, Jacob's mom Doreen doesn't want to do 6 girls' hair the day of her son's wedding. PSH. (I'm SO joking.) This will eventually work itself out in the near future; we've got it narrowed down to a few hair stylists, and I don't know if we'll even bother with makeup artists. We've got a few talented ladies in our bridal party.

Probably just something low-key, like this. 

3)Transportation.
My dad said "let me worry about that". I'm worrying about that.

This might be a possibility.

4)Decorations.
I just tried to order some round paper lanterns from a site, but it messed up. I'll try again tomorrow. Besides that, I'm thinking that if we don't have enough "things" around to hold flowers, good ol' mason jars will come to the rescue.
Though a bird cage would be amazing, I think an old piece of luggage is more achievable to hold cards.

Cute, non?

I'm also thinking that maybe for outside while we get our pictures taken, having a couple of games of bocce ball and washer toss would be acceptable outside of the rec center. 

5)Where's everybody gonna stay?

We've got friends from out of town staying during the wedding. Camping is an option, but what if it's cold? Souris has 2 motels, which are handy. Unfortunately, the reception is up east. Should I book the (only) Souris taxi to sort of come up east every once and awhile and give people rides, or would it be more practical to hire DD's to drive people around? 

Those are the big 5 things that I'm worried about, generally. Things are coming together, and I feel like a lot of this stuff won't get done until 2 months before the wedding anyways. 

I work better under pressure. 

EEEEEEEEEE!

New websites that get me make me so so happy. 

I follow @bridetide on twitter and they tweet some very useful information. The most recent thing they've tweeted is a site that listed a bunch of extremely useful blogs, including Ruffled. Ruffled is a vintage blog that has given me so many ideas that I'm pretty sure I may just buy out every yard sale/value village item. 

Here's a few examples of how the simplest designs and ideas can turn absolutely beautiful. (click to enlarge)

I guess I know why they say "cute as a button" now...

Loving the pictures on the clothesline. 

GIANT ROUND WHITE BALLOONS!

Also, we had a meeting of the bridesmaids last night, and it went swimmingly. THEY CHOSE THEIR DRESSES! they're ordering online from an awesome shop. The dresses are simple but beautiful and vintage. They'll compliment mine beautifully, and I think they're perfect. I would link you to them but.... I think I want to leave dresses as a surprise. 

Ok, what we've learned today: Wedding blogs = good inspiration (Katharina's Bridal, get on it! :D ), and Marsha gets over-excited and possibly passes out from combined heart rate and heat. 

SORRY SORRY SORRY SORRY SORRY SORRY

I'm a terrible blogger these days, and I do hope you forgive me. I'd like to say that nothing has developed wedding-wise in the past month, but that is simply not true. One big thing happened this month.

I found THE dress. This is taken from my daily blog on the day I bought it:

Today, I bought a wedding dress. 

Chrissy, Stephanie and I met Doreen at Wood Islands to catch the first ferry of the day "over across't". We got to Halifax shortly after 9 and immediately went to the first and most important stop on our wedding tour: Winchester's.

Before I continue, let it be known that I did not expect to like a dress. He'll, I didn't expect to find a lace dress that fit me. But I found it. You know, IT. "the" dress that everyone talks about finding. I've had on dresses I really liked in the past, but nothing like this. I won't lie and say the clouds opened up and a beam of light was cast upon thy dress while a heavenly chorus sang. It was somewhat more ordinary than that. 

I saw it on the wall, and tried it on. Like a glove. I left knowing that it wouldn't be the last time I saw it. All day long it clung to my thoughts. The way it poofed when I spun in a circle. The way it hid my imperfections. The perfect mix of old and new. 

I went back and bought it, and got to ring the bell at Winchesters.


Wanna see a picture of the dress? Here you go! 

That's all you get, MUAHAHAHAHAHA. MUAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. This much power can go to a girl's head. 

We've also sort of pseudo decided on the Rec Centre up east for the reception/dance. Jacob doesn't want people who don't care about us to come to the party for a free place to drink, and I want to keep with my roots since I'm being married in Souris. Nobody's going to drive up east unless they love us, and I have fond memories of that centre from the time I was a wee child. My mom's also got a tree in her memory beside it, which might be nice for pictures. I think it feels right.

Thank you everybody for all of the lace tablecloths, doilies, single flower vases, and teapots. You just don't get a community like this in bigger places, and Jacob and I are so grateful for what we have. I can't wait to have a beer with you all on June 11, 2011. 

Keep your eyes peeled!

The wedding talk drought officially ended this weekend.

First, a teapot update: I have 10 beautiful perfect teapots in my possession, one at Doreens (It just looked too good above her cupboards that she decided to store it there until the wedding), and one in Banff that Kim brought back from IRELAND for me. How lucky am I? A teapot from Ireland!

Next, an update on a few ideas of things that I'm going to need that you very well might consider junk and want to get rid of.

Junk item #1: Lace doilies or table cloths. Stains do not matter. light wear and tear is fine too.

Something like this one would be perfect. 

Junk item #2: Milk glass, or clear glass, single flower vases. If they're clear glass, they'll eventually be spray painted white.

Something like these beauties would be amazing. 

Here's the idea for the vases: suspend them with a bit of twine or yarn and put a single flower, possibly a gerber daisy to match the colour scheme, in them and put them along the wall to make the walls look more interesting. 

Kind of like this, but with actual flowers in them. 

Junk item #3: floral or vintage looking wallpaper. If your folks papered their hallway in the 60's, search their attic. I guarantee if they're anything like my family, they'll have some left over that they couldn't throw away because it was 'perfectly good wallpaper' and 'they might use it sometime'.

So there you have it. That's all the junk items I need to make the wedding unique and pretty.

Here's a warning to you right now though; If you do want this stuff back, it's best not to give it to me for a few reasons, the most dominating of them all is that I'm the least organized person in the world, so I'll forget who gave me what and not keep track. Another reason is that I'm probably going to tweak items a bit, like dying the doilies in tea to give them a nicer colour, or spray painting the vases. You've been warned! *ominous music*

Besides the fact that we STILL haven't picked a venue for the reception and dance, everything else is going swimmingly. My aunt has given me permission to use my great grandmother's serving trays for cake. I need to incorporate more of Jacob's family in the mix. Any ideas, Doreen?

Mystery money.

Yesterday I picked up the mail. Bill. Bill. Junk. AN ENVELOPE. ADDRESSED TO ME. 

I opened it, and found a pretty card and 10 dollars. All that was written on the card was "$10 for dress". This was the sweetest and most intriguing piece of mail I've gotten in the longest time. Firstly, someone loves me enough to not only give me 10 dollars, but give me $10.57, including the price of a standard Canadian postage stamp! 

To whomever mailed me the money: Thank you. It's gone into the dress fund and you've put me that much closer to looking pretty in lace on the biggest day of my life. I write down the name of every dress fund contributor, so for yours I'll write down "Anonymous ♥"

I haven't updated in a few weeks because I simply haven't had any time to make any further wedding plans! As most of you know, I was the recipient of one of Canada's Greatest Summer Jobs, and honestly the last 3 weeks have been some of the busiest and most incredible of my life. I'm doing a daily blog about my experiences in the program in my Canada's Greatest Summer Blog, linked in the sidebar. Or for ease of use, right here:

Click here to be magically internetically taken to my other blog not about weddings!

And that's the last I'll say about that blog! Shameless self-promotion, tsk tsk Marsha. 

 By no means am I putting wedding planning on hold for any longer. I'm going to Souris this weekend. We always talk weddings in Souris.