My Man's Look

This is a detail that started way-back-when... I dunno if you remember, but I had some issues with an etsy seller (catch up on the rant here). I didn't want to specify the seller in case something terrible had happened, and as it turned out, there was apparently some sort of 'family emergency' that made it difficult to fill the order. I tried to overlook everything, but was hoping at least for some sort of apology for being totally MIA for over a month, but alas, I didn't get an apology, and after another 2-ish weeks, I finally got our... ties!!

We ended up going with etsy's Cyberoptix ('Ties that Don't Suck'). Because I have been in such an 'execute' mode lately, I hastily gift-wrapped these suckers to give to our groomsmen before I got a picture, but the picture shows you what my man's tie looks like (gold on beige). The three ties for the guys were printed on khaki, which is slightly darker than my groom's, and they were printed with ink matching the girls' dresses... remember?

The ties really do look great... we are both really happy with how they turned out, and hopefully the boys will love them too! The engine print really suits my man, who is all about cars, and swears one day the Alpha Romeo that is sitting in our garage will be spiffed up and we will drive to the coast in it with the top down!! I had my eye on a fiddlehead print, but let's face it, this is one of his only ways to show his style, and he loves the print! I wish that everything had happened more smoothly with the seller, especially since I know how great of reviews she has had from so many of you blogging-brides. I have already purchased one of her ties for my man as a stocking stuffer last year, and, well, it did not make it in time to get stuffed. To be honest, I'm not sure if I will buy from her again, but rest assured, those of you willing to wait will end up with a product you love... the ties really do rock!!

Another quick note about bridal-party-fashion... my sis, MOH, best friend, and now... MOM TO BE... can't fit into her bridesmaid dress?!?! We both knew there was a good chance she would be pregnant at the wedding, but the dress she got was well suited for a small baby-bump. Well, as this is her 2nd baby, her 'small' baby bump is a little bit bigger than expected, and, yup, last week, with less than 30 days till the wedding, she broke the news... the dress simply did not fit. She had already been out shopping, and found a cute maternity dress she liked (which fit in with the color scheme), but then I found out the price... $250+. Now, considering the cost of bridesmaid dresses, this isn't bad, but one of the main reasons my girls were able to pick out their own dresses, was to give them the opportunity to stick to their own budget. If you remember my post about their gorgeous mis-matched dresses, my sis originally paid something like $60 for her dress... so I was really not keen on the idea of her spending nearly $300 on a replacement. Well, next to etsy, my favorite wedding shopping store is ebay!! And yes, I found her exact same dress, one size bigger, brand spanking new, for around $60 including shipping!! WAHOO... crisis averted!!

The best part... the tie that I got color-matched to this exact dress, still matches!!

So, with the ties, the groomsmen are taken care of (easy-squeezie, they're wearing their own black suit, white shirt, and black shoes!), and my groom was one step closer to being dressed!! Check and Check!

2 the North Tuesdays... Edition #2a

Hi All! First off, I just wanted to thank all of you for leaving messages of support (read: excitement) for this new weekly feature! I have been getting more and more excited as I continue my search for Canadian wedding elves... and have some great interviews planned for creative canucks that I think you all will enjoy!! But for today, I need to share the Canuck spotlight with two a-ma-zing wedding elves to the north... these two are no strangers to the wedding blog world, and maybe I never read the fine print, but I didn't know that these elves were Canadian. I know, I know, this in no way changes/elevates/redefines their skill/talent, BUT, I think it is important information! Why?! you ask?? Well, a couple of reasons... the go-green trend in weddings is a great one, and buying locally is often very important for the eco-conscious brides. I'm not gonna lie, we have tried to make choices along the way that reflect our love of our planet, but we have definitely trucked/flown some stuff in! While I LOVE my veil/flower from Myra of Twigs n Honey, it's also nice to know that there is a vendor closer to home that could have been used! And let's not forget about SHIPPING rates from the US to Canada, and that little devil called 'exchange rate'!!

You may also be wondering why I am sharing two Canuck elves today... well, let's face it, most of you know of them already, and this isn't their premier event on the wedding blog circuit, so I thought they wouldn't mind having co-stars!! Here we go...

2 the North Tuesdays - Edition #2a

Kasia Fink Veils

All about Kasia... well, I don't know her personally, but when you're a bee... you feel like you know them right?!?! Yes, Kasia is the infamous Mrs. Seabreeze over at weddingbee, so most of you will likely know her, and her work. She creates all the flower and veil loveliness from Vancouver, Canada (shout out WEST COAST!!), and was recently married in the Dominican Republic. That means she gets it... us, brides, weddings! And I love this quote from her website: "On the day I wore a birdcage veil and fascinator, I’ve never felt more sassy and gorgeous"... and you can see why... check out these pictures from her wedding... definitely gorgeous and sassy!! (NOTE, all pictures shown are from kasiafink.com)

My favorite fascinator is the Marisa... in all its feathered glory:

And here's some trivia... where did the Marisa fascinator get its name?!?! Well that was from bride Marisa (or as most of you know her, Mrs. Cheese, also from weddingbee) who put in a special request for a feathered number... and here she is wearing her gorgeous piece:

One other of my fav brides wore Kasia too... yep, it's Jessica (aka Budget Savvy Bride):

So, we know her bride accessories are swoon-worthy, but she also does mini fascinators for bridesmaids: (so sweet, classic, stunning!!)

BUT WAIT... don't leave yet... you haven't seen it all!! This is possibly my favorite of them all... the black fashion-ator (I just made that up, don't hate on Kasia for dorky plays-on-words!!). I love how the creative and talented women out there can just whip up a custom accessory for a night out on the town!! Doesn't this just scream chic?! I love it!!

So, for those of you up here in the north looking to support the Canadian bride-conomy (oops... I did it again!), get your order in with Kasia!! Beautiful work, amazing talent, and, yup, she's a Vancouverite!! http://kasiafink.com/

2 the North Tuesday Edition #2b coming later today!! stop by again :)

Smack it!!

I just found this awesome site via a comment thread over at Green Wedding Shoes (another one of my fav wedding blogs!), and boy am I glad I did. Her name is Donna, and her blog's name is Shiny Happy Weddings. A bride who loves old school innocent fun as much as I do... yup, I dig this girl!! Feast your eyes:

Can't you just imagine taking a blind smack at a pinata to get the party started?!?! LOVE IT!! This would be a great way to relieve any wedding day stresses that you weren't easily able to brush off... you know, like a drunken best-man speech, or hot soup served luke warm, or your mother in law greeting your guests like it was her own wedding... yup... smack that pinata and I bet the stresses would just melt away!!

Here's another great shot from Donna's blog... dontcha just love the whimsy in these colorful flags?

And speaking of Green Wedding Shoes, today Jen did an awesome post about one of my favorite topics... bridesmaid dresses of the non-matching varieties... My favorite pic from her post is shown below!

Tie One On

In the midst of my overwhelmingly stressful work situation (that is, 33 days until proposed submission date of my PhD dissertation, with a LOT of work still to be completed), I have been trying to win mini wedding-battles to at least maintain a rolling momentum. To be honest though, the wedding is NOT my priority, which, considering the short 3-ish months to the day, is slightly scary.

One of the items on the to-do list is to order ties for the groomsmen. I knew from way-back-when, that I wanted the geniuses over at the Cyberoptix Tie Lab (shout out to etsy!!) to create some magic for our men. I mean, not many people can make ties look original... think about it... you can head over to Banana Republic and get some nice ties for your boys, or splurge and go to Holt Renfrew or Harry Rosen (yup, I am a Canadian!!) to get the creme de la creme, OR, you can rock it out with some kickin ties that will make your boys look like they have a bit more personality than a young and cocky investment banker... ya, that sounds like a better option!!

Take a look at some of the beauties...

So, what's the battle then you ask?? Well, the biggest issue (in my bride-eyes) is the fact that her color selection for the ties themselves are not rocking my world... she has a decent selection, but considering our girls' different dress colors, I wanted to keep things pretty simple... I don't need people getting dizzy when presented with our bridal party!! Well, when I saw this...

... the battle was more of a slight conflict! Color matching people... this I can work with!!

So, I figured it would be simple enough to clip a tiny piece of fabric off each of the girls dresses from an inside seam or something, send it to the Lab, and order some rockin ties... not so much!! Clipping fabric was NOT an option. Bethany at the Tie Lab told me that digital pics would not be the best option, since, as we all know, the colors don't necessarily translate from reality to computer screen, let alone from one computer screen to the next. WELL, what to do?? I don't live in the same city as the dresses, but my mom (I LOVE YOU MOM!!) offered to take care of it... she came through, BIG TIME!! Bethany mentioned that a Pantone # would tell her all she needed to know... a wha?? I didn't even know what a Pantone was, and neither did my mom, but without stressing me out with the details, a few days later my awesome mom emailed me the Pantone numbers!! Victory!!

So, here they are... the official colors of the girls dresses (keep in mind that these are the colors, but in reality they each have their own unique metallic finish to them, but the colors are as shown) (SIDENOTE: the color palettes were all created over at ColourLovers.com)

Beautiful right?!?! You might remember my post about my color inspiration, where I showed you this palette:

Well, although none of the girls dresses match exactly to my inspiration palette, I think they look amazing. Actually, I think they do a better job of capturing the colors of the mountains than I did with my palette... yep, that's me, I'm a happy bride!

Ok, so I digress. I now have the Pantone #s for the girls' dresses, which means that I can (and have) ordered ties that won't cause dizzy spells with our guests (at least with the color anyway... stay tuned for the ties we chose). sigh. of. relief. I can now work work work, knowing I will progress through this wedding planning process one mini-battle-victory at a time!! I repeat... sigh. of. relief.

What online/long distance vendor required you (or your wedding helpers) to step outside the box and problem solve? Or, a more fun question, what off-the-wall wardrobe decisions are you contemplating?!?! Or, even better in the name of gratitude, who pulled one out of the hat for you and relieved some serious wedding stress??

Colour Combos Considered

Created over at colourlovers.com

OK, I considered, and selected, mostly by default, and then I made a gorgeous image!! Here's the evolution of the colors that will be seen at the wedding...

You will notice I refuse to say my "wedding colours", instead hinting that different colours will be seen, incorporated, or suggested. One thing is for sure, my dress is IVORY. After that, the colour choices have been somewhat organic, inspired by our setting.. the mountains!! We will have greys and indigos (think mountains and river rock!), browns and greens (think forest and meadows), and wheat!! Yes, I have a thing for wheat!! It has no doubt popped into the whole planning process once or twice. I am a prairie girl, so the wheat is mandatory!!

this makes me swoon...

The story of my three bridesmaids definitely needs a bit of explanation. Here's the family tree: I have an older sister, Candy-Cane. Candy-Cane (or CC for short) is the 2nd oldest cousin on my dad's side, preceded by Jelly-Bean (JB) by9 months. JB's sister is Pea-ah (P-ah), who is only 2 months older than me. Did you get that... JB (32, my cousin), CC (31.5, my sista), P-ah (28.5, cousin, JB's sista), then me = 4 Musketeers!! OK, you got that sorted! CC got married first, 3 years ago, followed by P-ah who got married 2 years ago. The bridesmaids in both weddings were the remaining 3 of the 4 musketeers... and the same will hold true in my wedding.

So, the point of this discussion, is of course, bridesmaids dresses! Well, in CC and P-ah's weddings, the 3 girls wore the same dresses, and while some considered one or the other pretty nice, there was also a few very negative responses to wearing named dresses... and I should know, cause I wore one that made me look like a stuffed sausage (see if you can spot the dress I didn't like, below)! Of course, all my whining and complaining (to non-involved parties of course) is coming back to haunt me, but I am fighting off the demons with one chosen defense: PICK YOUR OWN DRESS GIRLS!!

moi!, JB, CC, P-ah

P-ah, CC, Moi, JB

Seems like a fair approach right? Well, it has gone extremely well, the girls each chose a dress in one of the three named colors (brown family, purple family - but more on the greyish side, and the grey family). P-ah just had a baby, and was 8 months pregnant when the other two girls were buying their dresses, so I picked one up for her on a whim... in the grey family. It was $99. Not bad right?!?! Well, fast forward three months, she has a beautiful baby boy, and the dress fits, but more importantly she, she like it!! YAY!! CC picked up an off-the-rack (ie. CLEARANCE-RACK) Banana Republic dress in the brown family... and it is STUN-ning!! How much you ask?? $65!! YEEAAHH!! And finally, when CC and I were out shopping for my mom's dress, we picked up a gorgeous little number for miss JB, the pickiest of the bunch. It is sexy, stylish, and the most beautiful purplish-grey colour ever! And the final number... $68!! WHAT?!?! Three dresses for $233!! This of course was less than the cost of ONE of the dresses in each of the prior weddings!! SCORE!!

So, here is the lineup of dresses:

CC's dress... it looks purple here, but in person it looks brown from afar, and on closer inspection, has a metallic purple undertone

Next in line, the gorgeous P-ah... Charcoal grey silk with sequin embellishment

And then we have JB and sexy little number... love it!! It's the grey-purple, and JB is getting the neckline adjusted to a V-neck to match the other girls.
So, those are the dresses... I wish I could figure out my cheap digital camera so I could show the actual colors of the dress, but I think you get the idea. In the end, I will have 3 bridesmaids that look amazing, are comfortable in their dresses, are NOT broke after having bought them, and, if they like, can most certainly wear them again... I know, every bride says that, but I think they will!!

Whatcha think??