The #SundayFunday (#superhappyfunmagictime) Wedding

On the Sunday of the August long weekend, John and I went to a beautiful wedding to watch two friends say "I do" and then to party the night away with them.

 

John was the best man and had spent the week leading up to the big day worrying about his speech and wanting to get it just right.

 

Me, I was busy trying to find a hair-do.

 

I amalgamated a few that I found on pinterest and did a test run...

 

...Which went too successfully that I figured I would never be able to recreate it.

The night before I set my hair in 3 french braids to make sure my hair would be as voluminous as I could make it without teasing it beyond recognition.

The effect made it look even cooler.

 

 

I did a reverse french braid starting at the top right side of my head and moving down to the bottom left. A reverse french braid is what I call it when you braid the hair under instead of over the other strands.

When I ran out of hair to add to the braid I tied it into a ponytail. Then I used a sock bun to keep the hair off of my neck and out of my face.

Essential for dancing at summer weddings.

 

Perhaps the ease with which my hair went up was a good omen because the wedding was absolutely beautiful.

The venue was great, the bride looked stunning and the groom very handsome. The bridesmaid's dresses were also something I would have worn and the flowers were so lovely that I made a frantic bid for a centerpiece at the end of the night.

And the band that they had really got the crowd going.

 

And the food...

 

Delicious.

I don't remember exactly what each course was but the first was reminiscent of a spring roll but in a much flakier, tastier shell.

The salad was wrapped up in a cucumber lead and came with a grilled mushroom and a toasted slice of baguette topped with an avocado spread.

The main was roasted potatoes and vegetables with chicken and beef.

Desert was two types of fruit sorbet in a sugar cookie-esque bowl with a chocolate dipped bottom.

The wedding cake was pink velvet and we were treated to a late night buffet of mini hotdogs, sliders, fries, and grilled cheese sandwiches.

 

Everything was delicious.

 

I just finished watching the newlywed's wedding video for the 10th time... what a beautiful wedding.

 

I can't thank them enough for letting me be a part of their day and for throwing hands-down the party of the summer.

I wish the newlyweds nothing but love and happiness for the rest of their lives.

 

Wedding Wednesdays: A gift for when you've agreed on no gifts

One week from Saturday my best friend gets married.

I didn't realize how much I was looking forward to this day until it started to get this close.

I'm so excited for her and cannot wait to be there with her to celebrate the marriage of two people I love and admire.

 

Since both of our weddings were/are this year, we decided to forgo the traditional gifts for one another, as whatever monetary gift they gave us would likely be given right back to them.

 

So we agreed: no gifts.

 

I obviously did not want to follow that agreement to the full extent and had planned on getting her some kind of bracelet charm, or a gift card for her and the new hubby to go for a romantic night out.

 

She also disregarded the rules and put together an amazing photo book of the incredible journeys we've been on during our 14 year friendship.

 

I had an idea.

I wanted to do this for her shower but we sort of combined her shower and her bachelorette into one so the idea got set aside.

 

Since I'm pretty sure she doesn't regularly read this blog (leap of faith, hope it doesn't end badly), here's what I'm trying to put together for the soon-to-be newlyweds:

 

A Book of Recipes for a Happy Marriage

 

 

 

I've started the scrapbook, now I just need participants to send me recipes that remind them of the couple as well as some words of advice for marriage, or wishes for a happy life together.

 

I'm starting the ball rolling with this recipe:

 

Gluten free Blondies

(from www.celiacteen.com)

 

 

Gluten-Free Blondies

Ingredients
1 stick (1/2 cup) salted butter, melted
1 cup packed brown sugar (7.40 oz / 210 g)
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup tapioca starch/flour (1.10 oz / 32 g)
1/4 cup sweet rice flour (1.25 oz / 35 g)
1/4 cup millet flour (1.35 oz / 37 g)
2 tbsp brown rice flour (0.70 oz / 20 g)
3/4 tsp xanthan gum
1/4 slivered almonds
1/4 cup shredded coconut
1/4 cup chocolate chips

 

Steps

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and grease an 8 by 8 inch pan.
2. Whisk together melted butter and brown sugar in a large bowl, until smooth. Add the egg and vanilla, and whisk until smooth.
3. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the flours and xanthan gum until uniform in colour. Stir the flours into the batter, a third at a time. Once combined, fold in the almonds, coconut and chocolate chips. Scrape into prepared pan and even the batter out through the pan.
4. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out with a crumb or two sticking to it. Let cool, in the pan on a cooling rack. Cut into squares and enjoy!

 

 

Wedding Wednesday: Personal touch extras

I was a very hands on, DIY bride. And I wouldn't have had it any other way. There's something very rewarding about having a hand in creating your day and being able to incorporate the little things hat make you unique as a couple.

Several people jokingly asked if we would be including our cat Murray in our wedding. Most had visions of our lazy cat sauntering down the aisle with our rings tied to. Little pillow on his back.

No way was I letting that happen. I love my cat but he might be the worst cat ever. He has never really been outside save for short jaunts to the vet in his carrier and when we let him Lou ge on the balcony. He would be so overwhelmed he wouldnt know what to do.

So that was out of the question.

What I did though, being a bit of a crazy cat lady and all, was to include Murray in a way that didn't require his physical presence and in a way that ended many of our guests leaving with a smile.

Murray, MD, provided guests with some morning after medications. I used a photo of him that I had taken when he was still a cute little kitten and I added in a stethoscope in Microsoft paint. I added some typewriter font in picmonkey and sent off the image to be printed. I bought Tylenol and tums and made little packages with 2 pills of each included. As a nurse (and one who works with palliative patients) I don't believe people should be made to suffer when pain relief is available to them.

I didn't want our guests to be regretting the beverage choices they made the night before.

I think it's a great idea for anyone who wants to add in a personal touch to their wedding.

The Tylenol and Tums were fairly cheap so this is also a budget friendly idea!

Wedding Wednesday: Vows

Writing our own vows was not something I was completely set on but it was something I did want to include. It's a nice way to personalize the ceremony and to let your soon-to-be spouse know all of the things you love about them and what you promise to bring to the relationship.

 

To ensure we didn't go in complete opposite directions with our vows since we were keeping them secret from one another, we followed a format where we started with a little introduction, the things we loved about each other, and what we wanted to promise to each other.

 

Since we got married outdoors by the water without a microphone, not everyone got to hear our vows.

My aunt asked if I would post them so here they are!

 

Currently our vows are up in a frame on our wall surrounded by pictures from that amazing day.

It's a nice way to remind ourselves of how incredible our wedding was and how excited we are to spend the rest of our lives together.

 

 

 

John's Vows

 

Jamie,

We've done so much and been on so many adventures together, and we always manage to have a great time. Whether paddling a sailboat for hours and hours because the wind died, or wandering lost around Venice at night, we've always made it through together.

I could never hope to find anyone more perfect to travel through life with. We've alays fit together like puzzle pieces and it's incredible to think that our next adventure together will be as husband and wife.

While I don't regret a single day I've spent with you, I can honestly say that if I had my life to live over again I would only change one thing: I would have found you sooner.

I vow to do everything I can to make you happy. I'll make you tea when you're cold, save you the end piece of bread when you're hungry. Give you confidence when you feel insecure. And always make you feel appreciated and beautiful.

I vow to be everything I can for you and spend everyday from now til the end building an incredible life together with you -

as long as you stop cracking your knuckles.  

 

My vows

 

I knew a month into our relationship that I loved you. I thought for sure I was crazy but with every day that has passed since then I've found something new to love about you. I love you because you make me laugh, you make me feel safe, and you make me feel important. I love you because you genuinely care about how my day was and because you make the best scrambled eggs in the world. I love that sometimes we slow dance in the kitchen and sometimes we end up on the floor laughing. I even love that you know most episodes of mash by heart as well as several movies in their entireties. And I don't just mean scripts, I'm talking describing commercials within the movie and when tape 1 of Braveheart ends and tape 2 begins.
You've been my boyfriend, my roommate, my fiance and in moments you'll be my husband. No matter the title, you'll always be the person I can't wait to see when I get home and the person who knows all of my weird annoying habits and still loves me despite them. You make me happier than I ever knew I could be and you are more than I ever dreamed I deserved.
I promise to be true to you, to always be there for you and to support you in everything that you do. I promise to be your cheerleader, your #1 fan. I promise to watch biologist and extreme angler Jeremy Wade fish for river monsters with you and to only ever watch Jersey Shore or anything with the Kardashian's when you're not home. I promise to try and make you laugh every day and I promise to keep discovering new things to love about you. I'll even let you be little spoon more often.
I promise that no matter where we go or what we do, everyday will be an adventure and that I'll be just as excited in fifty years as I am today knowing that I get to spend my life with you.

 

Wedding Wednesday: Pictures!

I'm married!

Friday was hands down the best day of my life to date.

Everything was better than I imagined and went off without a hitch.

Even the weather was beautiful, if not a little too hot, but we even had the most incredible sunset during dinner.

 

John and I rented a car (a Chevy Impawlahh cause it sounds more gangsta), packed it to the gills, then set out for Niagara.

Not before we spent about an hour in a park cutting Queen Anne's Lace, I should admit.

Free flowers. I make no apologies.

 

Thursday night we met up with most of the guests in our parties.

We headed out to a pub for a big meal of  ribs, onion rings, burgers, and nachos.

We ran through a very confusing rehearsal in my parent's hotel suite then packaged up the s'mores favours for the next day.

 

Here are the ladies and I in our favour assembly line.

 

 

The next morning we got our hair and makeup done and tried to stay calm without crying.

Meanwhile the boys and my mother- and father-in-law were busy setting up the cootie-catcher programa (pinned on the bows on each chair but unfortunately missed by most of the guets) and stringing tuille across the fence and gazebo.

 

Both of my parents walked me down the aisle.

We came down between rows of grapes.

I had already cried about 3 times before this moment.

 

 

 

Then John and I got married!

We exchanged our own vows and then some of the more standard ones.

I promise to post the vows next week as requested, since they weren't heard by everyone.

 

 

 

I mentioned it before, but here's proof of the incedible sunset we had.

 



I cannot thank my beautiful bridesmaids enough - they were such big helps and I love them all to death.

 

 

And here are a few pics my new big sister took of me getting ready.

She has an incredible eye for shots and these are so beautiful I forget that it's me I'm looking at.

P.S. A shot from Andrea of the table and the favours!

 

Wedding Wednesday: Getting Pampered

This is going to be an unfortunately quick post because I'm heading out to be pampered today.

Spa followed by a nail appointment with my mom and sister.

Then home to finish all of the last minute things that need to be done.

Like the favour box items.

Originally I had this lofty plan to bake 240 graham cracker cookies but because the first batch I made worked really well, the three batches I attempted last night all crumbled apart and failed.

So store bought graham crackers it is!

There is one package of homemade crackers in there but the rest are store bought that I'm artfully disguising with some baker's twine.

Time to go get ready to lounge around here all morning/afternoon:

Photo from bodyblitzspa.com

Wedding Wednesday: Favours

This time next week I'll be at the spa with my mom, being totally pampered in preparation for the big day.

One more week til that, 9 more days until the wedding.

Wow... where has the time gone?

With our time dwindling away, I started to put together the favours for the wedding.

I went to a wonderful store in Toronto called Creative Bag and found these awesome window boxes. I was originally walking around the store with a wheely basket full of small Chinese takeout boxes but they would have run about $100 for 125 of them. The boxes I ended up with cost me only $30 for 150 of them.

I bought them in 2 colours - white and chocolate. I was cutting out the ***** that we're using as programs (to be revealed after the wedding) and had some scrap paper left over. Inspired by the tags that my cousins used during the long weekend on their wine bottle gifts, I started to cut little flags out of green and purple paper scraps.

I also pulled out a stamp I had purchased for $1.50 at Michael's, bought a grey ink pad, and got to stamping.

I spent Saturday night curled up on the couch with a box of Hot Tamales, watching the entire first season of 'Girls' on my new birthday ipad (soooooo good - I love you John!), and gluing the flags onto the favour boxes.

Then, because I am le crazy and always need to have some sort of project on the go (what am I going to do after the wedding is over??? WEDDING CRAFTER/HELPER FOR HIRE!) I've decided to try and bake the graham crackers that we'll be using for the favours.

So I created a recipe card with an abridged version of the recipe I used and printed off a whole bunch of them.

I bought some bakers twine from Michael's on the weekend and tied up each recipe card with a piece of it.

 

I also bought several hundred (not an exaggeration) chocolates and wrapped 252 of them with labels that I had custom made.

We now have a very hard-to-resist giant bowl of chocolate sitting on our coffee table.

My mom can attest to how good these chocolates are, as we ate almost half a bag sampling each of the variations.

Costco - each bag cost $5.99 and contained roughly 50 - 75 chocolates.

The finished product won't be available for photographing until Thursday the 23rd!

Wedding Wednesday: Bachelorette Edition

Wedding Countdown: 16 days.

2 more pre-big day Wedding Wednesdays after this.

Since the big day is rapidly approaching and I'm running out of crafts that I don't mind giving away before the wedding to post, I thought I'd share some of the photos from my Bachelorette Party 2 weekends ago.

My sister and friends threw me an incredible party filled with many many laughs, some majorly embarassing moments, and memories that I'll cherish forever.

My sister really went all out to make sure I celebrated my "last wild night" properly and for that I love her.

I only hope when her time comes I can plan something equally as incredible!

So, in (safe to view) pictures, here's the basic steps for planning a bachelorette party.

1. Organize fun games, such as 'Never have I ever', and pin the manhood on the stud.

2. Have your best friend (who you love to death) bake and decorate an incredible and delicious bachelorette cake.

There was red velvet cake under that hot corset, FYI.

3. Drink. Champagne cocktails, wine spritzers, strawberry shots, champagne shots, and shots shots shot.

 

4. Take a SUV Limo and have the driver lift you out of it. Go to a club with lots of dancing and catch a Drag show. End the night with street meat that the driver won't let you eat in the limo.

Wish you could do it every weekend.

But be excited about the 5 upcoming weddings and the potential for more bachelorette parties to come!

Wedding Wednesday: Getting down to the nitty gritty

It makes me kind of sad to think about, but there are only 3 more Wedding Wednesdays to go before the wedding!

There will still be a few afterward, as I can blog about some of the things I wanted to keep secret from guests (and John) and can share with you some of the pictures from the big day.

With only 23 days to go until the wedding we're really getting down to the nitty gritty.

All the little DIY things we talked about doing now need to be done.

For this Wedding Wednesday I'm going to share with you some 'snapshots' of what we've been busy doing.

I bought a beautifully bordered corkboard from Winners and on Monday I finished writing names of our guests on the escort cards and organized them onto the board.

You may recall from a previous WW post that I stamped 120 escort cards to look like this:

John got busy in his parents' workshop cutting boards of wood into wine bottles and then painting them with chalkboard paint. He crafted stands for them too so the chalkboards will stand on top of the laterns on each table. We will write the table numbers on each one and then figure out a game to give away the hand-crafted chalkboards to one lucky guest at each table!

We've also been playing around with the seating arrangements.

This sucks.

Plain and simple.

If you've ever planned a wedding, you understand.

At one point we had 2 tables with 4 people because we didn't think those groups of 4 would get along. So we've taken a breather and will attack it again as the reply cards continue to come in. 

And finally, something that makes me happier than happy.

I've scrapped the guest book scrap book idea and gone back to my original idea for a guest book - the puzzle pieces!

I was wandering DeSerres looking for fancy push pins for the escort card board when I stumbled across blank puzzles! The 12-piece puzzle of bigger pieces was $3.75 so I bought 9 of them. 108 pieces should be enough for about 120 people to sign. Some people will sign as a pair and some will forget to sign all together.

I also bought fine tipped Sharpies in mint green, purple, black, and silver.

And then bought some letters to use for both the puzzle book and for the escort board.

My hope is that guests will sign puzzle pieces (laid out like this on a table) then once everyone has signed, the pieces will be put individually into a large mason jar for us to reconstruct and frame once we get home.

23 days to go.

Bittersweet countdown - I cannot WAIT but I also don't want it to all be over.

At least I'll have my best friend's wedding to help with!

...and by 'help' I mean force her to let me craft things/plan things for her.

Wedding Wednesday: Bridesmaid Gift

As my gift to my bridesmaids I'm putting together a few things. I won't give them all away in the off chance that any of them read this blog but I will share one item that I've been working on.

I was inspired by this picture on pintrest:

I went out and bought some nice hangers for their bridesmaids dresses.

I bought some letter stickers from Michaels as well as some acrylic craft paint from the Martha Stewart collection (in Hydrangea Purple). I spelled out each bridesmaid's name in stickers on the hangers.

Then, using the paint, I painted one coat over top of the letters. I also applied scotch tape over sections of the hangers to ensure a nice crisp border. I let the paint dry (give it a few hours) before carefully removing the letters from the hanger.

Some of the letters didn't turn out quite as nicely as I was hoping for but I am going to go back over them and clean them up a bit. With the exception of the last hanger (which was drying at the time of the picture) - The finished product:

It's as easy craft and a nice way to personalize a hanger for your bridesmaids to keep their dresses on.