Blushing Bride

Stumped...

Well, it looks like I'm stumped with planning again. People keep asking me how the planning is going... and I haven't done much in the past two week.
New dresses will be arriving at Bliss Bridal soon, so I will be going there in the next week to see if they have any new wedding dresses. I haven't ordered one yet. Time is ticking...

Table layout...

    We have a big wedding party.  Including Scott and I there will be 14 of us sitting at the head table.
At Heydenshore there is a stage for the table to sit on.. but I think its still going to look super big.
To make it look not so huge, I thought we could have some other long tables in the mix.
    We'll have the big head table up on a stage, then in front of it on the floor there will be two long tables where we'll have some close family members sit.  The rest of the guest tables will be round.
    At the family tables we won't have big centerpieces. It'd be too hard for people to see across to one another so I thought we'd have these...

... they are called igloos. I love the way it looks. We could have a couple of these along each table and then have candles in between and some shot glasses holding gerbera daisies.

A visit to another bridal show...

    My mom and I visited the bridal show sponsored by Metroland on Sunday.  This time the wedding show experience was much more positive.
    It was nice to see vendors I had talked to and have booked recently for the wedding.   
    Nancy from Bunny's Catering was there and we had a moment to talk.  Scott and I need to set a date to go and try lot's of yummy food so we can pick out our menu.
    I saw Donna and Rose from Roses again.  I had just seen them the day before, but again I was completely blown away by their floral creations. 

    The bridesmaid dress I picked out was worn by a model in the fashion show.  It was nice to see it fitted properly on someone.  Its hard to get the picture of how a dress is supposed to look if your bridesmaids are swimming in it when they try it on in a size far too big.
    All in all, it was a good day and kudos to everyone involved.  It was a great day! Aren't you surprised I said that?  Yes, I actually had fun at a bridal show... although I will admit I didn't wear a "bride to be" sticker.  I went incognito.

Flowers galore...

    I went to pick out our flowers yesterday at Roses in downtown Bowmanville.
Donna helped me pick out the perfect bouquets. I can't even explain how beautiful the flowers are going to look.
    A mixture of gerbera daisies and roses for each of the bouquets. The bridal bouquet will have white gerbera daisies and sahara roses.

The bridesmaids will have bright orange gerberas, sahara roses, and little touches of fall flare. All of the bouquets will be round.
    Donna also designed beautiful centerpieces for the tables; tall vases filled with bamboo, curly willow branches, and gerberas in bright fall colours.
    Thanks Donna @ Roses. I love my flowers!!   

Bridesmaids dresses...

    I went to a bridal shop in Port Perry to look for bridesmaids dresses today.  Everlasting Memories carries Alfred Angelo dresses and I really liked two dresses for my girls.
    Allison and Melissa came along with me and tried on both of the dresses, and once they tried each on it wasn't difficult to figure out which dress was the best.

    Lace.. all the way. The satin on the dress with the bow was far too revealing. You could see every flaw. It came in taffeta, but there was only a few colours to choose from in that material.
    The lace dress looked beautiful on both of the girls. And to give you a hint.. the wedding dress I've fallen for has some lace...
    Now I've just got to send out the picture of the dress to the rest of the bridesmaids. No pressure on ordering though.  I still would like to shop around to see if I can find the dress for the cheapest price.  I don't want to break anyone's piggy banks.

Homemade invitations...

    Thanks for the tip on how to make homemade invitations Lindsey.
    Lindsey commented on a thread I had asked people to comment on about what they wish they had done for their wedding.    

    She suggested I make homemade invitations for the wedding like she did for hers the past October.
    This is the website she gave me.  Its a Toronto based company, which I think is great. The more local the better.
    I actually can't wait to go home and look at all the different design ideas.
    Thanks again Lindsey.    
    And if you're a bride who may be taking this advice as well, but you don't feel crafty, Lindsey says you can order the invitations you've chosen through the company's sister site, www.stephita.com.
    I'll let you all know what I've decided. At this point in time anything that can save us a few bucks will help.   
    FYI, our furnace broke down last night... finally. We managed to get a repair man to fix it for the time being, but we need a new furnace installed asap.

Still in love....with my dress

    I'm becoming wedding dress obsessed.  I went back to Bliss Bridal and tried on my dress again yesterday after work. Its still as beautiful as ever. I really need to order it soon. I can't imagine finding another dress I'll love more.
    I'm still waiting a little bit though. The size of the dress I tried on in the store fits me almost perfectly so it shouldn't need many alterations if they order that same size.
    My aunt came along this time to see the dress.  She likes it too. That means a lot.
    My mom and Allison, my maid of honour and one of my many bridesmaids, Melissa came along as well.       They were on the hunt for bridesmaid dresses.
    I'm pretty flexible. They can order whatever dress they want, I just want to okay the colour. Right now it looks like the dresses will either be black or chocolate brown. There is an expensive but absolutely beautiful long black dress that they both tried on at Bliss. But I've also ordered a couple dresses for them all to try from sears that are half the price. So we'll see what dress will win..

Getting things done...

        I feel so much better.  My mom and I met with my cousin Pam yesterday to go over some wedding plans. We went over to Heydenshore and looked at the hall again. I'd only seen it once before. We talked for more than 2 hours over dinner. There are a lot of things that need to be done.. but Pam's made a list of items and we're going to all work on plans one by one. 

    One thing we decided is to go and pick our own wine.
    Scott and I haven't gone over to Bunny's (our caterer) to decide on a menu yet, but once we do that we're planning on going over to Archibald's Winery to pick out our wines.  And I'm crossing my fingers that they'll make labels for us. I'd love personalized labels. 
    I've ordered a few cocktail dresses from the new Sears catalogue. I told my bridemaids that I would try to find inexpensive dresses for them.  The new colour seems to be chocolate brown so instead of grey or silver dresses I think the girls will wear brown.
    I'll keep you posted on how it comes along. I tried to find pictures of the dresses I ordered but sears.ca doesn't have them online.
    If we do end up changing the dresses to brown, I think I'll change the colour palette as well.  Rich colours like orange, brown, gold, and cranberry.  I think that'd look so nice and classy. And it would work well with the fall theme. 
    I just feel so relieved to have some of the planning done.  We have a lot of things to cover still but at least I know we will get to it.

In the planning stages...

    I'm meeting with my cousin Pam tomorrow after work to sit down and talk wedding planning. I have thought of a lot of things, but I haven't really done anything. With 9 months to go, time is starting to run out.
I have a long list of items I need to do.
If you can let me know, I'd like to ask one thing... for your wedding, what's something you wish you had done?

Dress shopping...

    Is it "the dress" if you can't stop thinking about it? If you can't stop smiling when you think about it? If you wish you could have a job where you could wear it all day long?
    I think I may have found it. "The dress!"
    I went wedding dress shopping for the first time yesterday after work with my mom and two maid of honours, Danielle and Allison. We went to Bliss Bridal in Whitby. Cynthia was very helpful.
    I think I tried on 8 or 9 dresses. Most of which were Mikaella Bridal or Paloma Blanca dresses. Here are a few pictures taken by my mother, the amateur photographer :)

This is a top of a dress I liked. I loved the sweetheart neckline.  The bottom of the dress was more of a mermaid style.  It didn't fit me. Far too tight for my hips.

This is the very first dress I tried on.  I really liked it. I love the flower detail.

This is more of a retro style dress. Very plain.  I like plain for the most part. I'm not into the bling. If you see in the mirror behind me the detail in the back of the dress is beautiful. I think spanx would have to be worn.  Very slim fitting.

And...I would show you "the dress" but I can't. If I don't end up buying it, I'll post the picture... but I'm just waiting a bit to decide. There were two other dresses by Mikaella I wanted to try on that Bliss Bridal didn't have in stock yet. I would like to try on those two before I make up my mind.  But, I think my mind is pretty much set on the Paloma Blanca dress.

I keep picturing Scott's face when he sees it.  And I know he'll love it!