179 days!

I am getting so excited for next summer to come, but with that is the stress. from day one I have never wanted to skimp on the decorations I am a very visual person and I love to create so this was a perfect opportunity for me to let my imagination soar. after about a billion times of changing my mind Rob and I settled on the colors we were going to use, so we went about getting quotes from decorators and EEKK! no way not on the budget of two students thats for sure. DIY it became! I googled my heart out, the venue we chose is awesome except for a few tacky little parts the mural behind the head table being one, so I wanted a back drop and of course not one of those simple white satin ones I wanted one with pink satin and up lighting and 15 feet tall to cover the mural..... ya $800 for a back drop is NOT in our student sized budget. It was very hard to find a DIY style back drop but in the end I found one idea. PVC pipe its rather cheap and very easy to fit the pieces together. I don't have real instructions as I have not tried to do it.

i'll try to explain.

   pvc pipe can be used to build the frame(use elbow joints for connecting the top part with the sides) when you first put it together DO NOT glue the pieces all together. make it as tall as you will need it (using smaller pieces attached together rather then one long piece) and then find large heavy weight flower pots putting the bottom of the frame into the pots one for each side, the flower pots will be the base that will hold it up. you can use anything in the pots to keep the pvc frame standing like dirt or regular old gravel even basic cement from a home hardware store if the frame is heavy and needs it(fill it full but make sure there is a connecting joint somewhere not to far out of the pot). 

   next go get your material make sure you measure how much you will need to drape from the top to the bottom and cover all the way across. also get enough to wrap around the flower pots so they match and just sew it around the top of the pvc pipe stand (make sure to hem the edges first so you don't get loose strings on the sides and bottom)  pull in on either side to go down the elbow joints at the top just a little bit this should cause it to cover the pvc frame so it isn't noticeable. 

   now the reason you don't want to glue it and you want to use smaller attached pieces rather then one large one is so you can dismantle it obviously for transportation if necessary. if you made it so there is a connecting joint just above the pot sticking out of what ever you filled it with then you can break it down from there and not have to lift super heavy pots with huge pvc pipe poles coming out of it.

If this made any sense at all lol.

Turns out after all this googleing I could have just talked to my reception site because they have a backdrop....free of charge at that! now it is not as large as I would have liked but I also know that you can't always get what you want and that its not worth 800 dollars to have a backdrop for one night. now that, that is figure out I am e baying for some other stuff I found table runner (cheaper then table clothes and site provides white ones) 60 dollars for 10 pink and 10 purple around the same prices as renting in my area and you can re sell them after to make some money back! 

centerpieces are total DIY getting plain small wooden boxes from the dollar store spray painting them pink and purple, alternating, and arranging pink and purple Gerber daisy's in them (silk can be ordered in bulk on line cheap!) with simple tea candles around them lit, nothing like candle light. there was also the idea of doing 8 margarita glasses filled with pink and purple candy and one silk flower sitting on top which can also double as favors for everyone at the table.

the more and more I realize how expensive the vendors are the more and more I realize how DIY this wedding will have to be. 

Reception site...check, dress...check, officiant...check, ceremony site...oh boy!

I feel like things are finally coming together! I am so excited we went to put another payment on my dress and its almost paid off only about 1 large or 2 small payments left to go and it will be all mine....once it gets here that is. The brides maid dresses have been chosen and two of my girls measured they don't have to be ordered until February but I know if there anything like me they will like to be able to put small payments on the dress until they have to order them. I am absolutely in LOVE with the dress we chose its a new style from Alfred Angelo and it looked fab on my maid of honor and my one bridesmaid who could make it. my maid of honor Elizabeth will be wearing the plum colored one and my three bridesmaids will be wearing the pink.

(second strap can be added for my more modest bm's)

We also have managed to get our officiant booked which is a load of my shoulders, you cant have a wedding without someone to marry you. we were having a hard time picking an officiant because I feel like its a personal thing, I had a hard time excepting that some stranger was going to marry us and that we where going to have almost no connection to a person who is playing such a big role in our day. neither of us are religious so we don't have a trusted pastor or minister to marry us so we are having a civil ceremony. the one thing I have found a little unsettling about the whole wedding planning is how little you actually know your vendors before they expect you to fork over your money, when picking our officiant it was the same way we got a list of people from the city who perform marriages spoke over email twice and that is all the contact we were giving from any of the officiants we emailed before we were told how we could put a deposit down to book them. I have had to suck that up and we have booked the person we think will be the best for us based off there little bio in there site and hopefully when we meet them a month before the wedding our meeting will prove that we have chosen well.

we may have our reception site booked, dress almost paid off, and officiant booked but we are far from done as anyone who has planned a wedding before would know. the next on my list of things to do is book the ceremony site (I know I know I probably should have done that by now). we originally wanted to book a courtyard at Robs University but unfortunately they wont book just the courtyard we would have to pay for the whole venue all day *Sigh* but we have another location in mind. A little "park" by my parents house in the country also not far from the reception venue the Kingston Mills Locks. The only problem with this venue is.... its parks Canada who are HORRIBLE for answering your calls...or returning them. heres hoping we can get this ceremony site.

Aha My computer is back!

So just as I start my wedding blog and my school year my computer craps out! lucky for me my fabulous Fiancé has been more then generous with his so my school work was done in a timely manner. unfortunately I cant remember passwords at all so I waited and waited...and waited some more until my laptop was returned to me with all my prized passwords still stored in its memory!.

at this point in wedding planning I am at a loss of what to do next everything seems to have a hold up of some sort and the biggest one is finding out if we can have our ceremony where we want it, this cute little courtyard surrounded by limestone in the center of my Fiancées university its cute, its quiet, its private and its located in one of the nicest areas of our town.

                                                 (sorry there small)

Originally this is where we wanted the whole reception to take place have both the inside and outside but being the university there prices for food and beverage where a little out of our budget. We have requested just renting the courtyard for the ceremony but it seems impossible to get a hold of anyone or for anyone to return my phone calls and at this point everything is on hold until we decide where we are having the ceremony.

In the mean time I have been keeping busy with the little things, the flowers, candy buffet, menu cards, name cards the do it yourself stuff. I love crafts so this is mostly enjoyable for me but the one thing i have been itching to order is our invitations...I don't know why but I feel like everything will seem more "done" if I have the invitations but yet again waiting for a reply from the university event services ladies.

Decisions Decisions....

Unless I am asking him weather he wants a cupcake or a chocolate bar my dear Fiancé seems to be an opinion-less drone these days..especially when it comes to wedding planning!. He was all gung ho at the beginning It was nice to have someone as excited as I, is it possible all my wedding jibber jabber has worn him out?. truthfully, I wouldn't blame him...I don't know how many times i can change my mind about two different shades of pink?!.

Our venue is so versatile i could put almost any idea I had into it and it would work, the real problem is not all of my ideas work together...taking a peak into the "decor" section of my wedding binder you would think I was planning maybe three or four different weddings, which is why I could really use my mans input but of course he likes all of them....as long as there is going to be cake he will be happy.

When I picture our wedding I see pinks, purples, silver and glitter elegantly done of course (he knew what kind of girl I was when he proposed hes comfortable enough with his manhood to have a sparkly wedding lol). Tall centerpieces and tons of twinkle lights oh and tulle cant forget that!. When I picture my wedding Pictures (ya weird I know) I see Vintage a birdcage veil, 1950's inspired bridesmaid dresses and the colours of the era pastel pink and a teal green, my candy buffet would fit perfectly into this vision!. Then there is the outdoor wedding....something i gave up on when we booked our hall but I wont get into that as it will only make me doubt our decision to have an indoor wedding.

I think at this point "we" are leaning more towards the silver,purple and pink color scheme...but well see.

                                          Loving the use of different shades of pink and purple here!

Dear Diary.....

I have decided to start a blog to document my wedding planning and to talk about the only thing that is on my mind the last few weeks without driving my friends and family insane. so far I have gotten most of my hints and tips on wedding planning from forums, websites and other peoples blogs so I figured I would contribute my journey to the world wide web.


Rob and I have been together for two years, we moved quickly from being friends to shacking up together. It was pretty clear from the beginning he made me happy and I him. Rob proposed on march 19th 2010 and I have been planning my wedding since that day, changing my mind on everything at least two or three....maybe seven times a week. everything I wanted my wedding to be at the beginning has changed and then changed back, the one thing I have managed to keep the same is my wedding party I have three bridesmaids Celeste (one of my besties), Kelsey (my younger sister), and Melissa (my older sister (who is also planning her own wedding)), then Elizabeth as my Maid of Honor (my oldest friend more like family to me)


In the few months I have been engaged I have learned a lot about myself, family, friends and wedding planning. I am way more indecisive then i ever realized, I am the first of my friends to get married so my experienced help is limited, No one in mine or future husbands emediate family has had a wedding so no one understands just how long it takes to plan one....hhmm this could be an interesting ride.