A documentary of the pre-wedding life.
*I do not own any pictures unless otherwise noted. Please contact me if the photo is yours and would like it credited or removed.
Ceremony & Reception
Wedding Day Coordinator
Decorations Coordinator
Ushers (x4)
Guestbook Table (x2)
Wedding Gift Reception + Transportation (x2)
Clean Up Crew (x4)
Ceremony Only
Officiant
Musician(s)
Wedding Program Designer
A/V
Reception Only
MC (x2)
Menu Designer
DJ
Wedding Bands
As with most parts of our wedding planning, the wedding ring shopping started online. We visited local jewellery company websites to see what styles and designs there were, and then visited the stores at the malls to see them in person. It wasn’t until January when we took a really close look at what rings we wanted, and eventually made the purchase.
After we ordered the “symbols of our love,” we had the option to get our rings engraved. I am not sure how the conversation started, but my fiance and I came to the conclusion that it’s not an absolute necessity to have our rings engraved. Instead of having fancy inscriptions on our rings, we might be able to get a microwave for our house. Or stock up on toilet paper, maybe? If anything, we could use that money for our mortgage payments. I mean, we are tied to a mortgage for the next little while (30 years).
Anyways…I love my wedding band so much I wish I could wear it already!! :)
Wedding Music
A week before the proposal February of last year, my fiance and I made dinner reservations at a little Italian restaurant on the west side of Edmonton called Il Forno. As usual, we like to check out the restaurant website and menu ahead of time. After sort of deciding what we would order from the online menu, we found out that Thursday evenings were special nights because they have a harpist who plays at the restaurant! How cool is it to have live music as part of the dining experience!
We had such a good date. The food was good. The service was a little slow, but acceptable (likely due to the good mood set by lovely music played on the harp). The music was good. It was so good that my fiance said the harpist could play at our wedding! And that’s how the search for a harpist started. It wasn’t a long search, though!
We are so happy that one of our friends agreed to play for us! She is even going to play some of her original compositions at the wedding, because she is just awesome that way :) I probably said this multiple times before, but I just have to say it again - it’s so great to be surrounded by amazing and talented people!
Love keeps you close even when you’re not.
The planning continues…
*Feel free to hover over some items as they link to blog entries with more detail!
Guestbooks! I think this will be the first thing that our wedding guests will see when they arrive at the ceremony location, aside from other good looking guests :)
Anyways…there are SO MANY options to choose from! If I could, I would have 10 different “guestbooks” because they are all just so neat!! But our guestbook will be pretty neat too. Can’t wait for our guests to sign it!
Remember how I refused to pay $200 for a veil, which I thought was the least important thing in my bridal look? And remember how I tried to make my own veil, but was not successful? And still, remember how I liked another more expensive veil when my wedding gown arrived?
Well, you wouldn’t believe this.
Knowing a local bridal store had a 30% off all in-stock accessories promotion going on, I walked in with hopes that I’d get some hairpins, a hairpiece, and a veil. When I saw that all the pins and hairpieces were still out of my price range, I went to check out the veils. A bridal consultant came to see if I needed help, and suggested that I pick out a few favourites to try on with my wedding gown.
I picked out my very first favourite, the new favourite, and one I just saw that day. I was glad my two favourites were still there!
Trying on the dress again was wonderful. It has been about 5 months since I last saw it. I missed it. I tried on the veils with the dress, and made sure the blusher did not look funny over my face, and made sure it did not take away from the dress. My first favourite did not look good over my face because it was too heavy - my nose was poking at the blusher! The new favourite did not have a blusher, and had too much bling. The last one…
It’s plain and lets the dress shine. The colour is right. The length is right. It has a blusher. And…it’s new! It’s handmade. The in-store seamstress made this simple veil a couple days ago because they did not have anything like that in their inventory. And to top everything off, because the veil was not attached to a designer label, the veil was $70 original price, and cut down to $50 with the promotion!
I can’t be happier with my veil :)
As you may already know from a previous post, the inspiration for makeup and hair is simple and natural. So when I looked at Makeup Artists’ (MUA) portfolios, I looked for ones that
And after picking a couple favourite portfolios, I had to make sure they were easy to contact, easy to discuss options, and easy to look at—JUST KIDDING! But I had to make sure they appeared to be organized. The last thing I would want is to have people scrambling and panicking around me!
And my decision is to go with Edmonton Makeup Artists. They will be taking care of my own, my mother’s, and my bridesmdaids’ makeup, and I can’t be more excited :) They have a fairly diverse portfolio, and that’s what got my attention - all of their clients looked great!
For hairstylists, I was a little more hesitant to go with commercial stylists because my inspiration look was simple and relaxed. Many portfolios out there had super fancy hairdos that were nice, but were not what I was looking for. This was when I thought of people who styled their own hair in a simple and relaxed way. I asked a friend of mine and my sister-in-law, who both loved to style hair as a hobby, and guess what…they agreed to help! This is one of the perks of having amazing and talented people around you :) Besides, I think that since they know me and my bridesmaids personally, they would be able to style their hair in a way that suits their personality.
The reason why I looked at MUA & Hairstylists separately is because it was recommended to me. People who are more specialized in one thing tend to be better at what they do! It worked out that EMA only offers makeup services, and I knew people who were talented with hair styling! :)
For the Groom
The initial plan for my fiance’s suit is that he would get a custom tailored suit. It was his idea!! (I enjoy it when he cares about how he looks, hehe.) We were only able to do a little bit of research because it seems that this kind of business isn’t that popular anymore, and nobody had websites! There were a couple of online coupons that offered custom suits BUT they looked a bit sketchy. In the end we did not want to get a suit over the internet. Too risky.
So the next plan was to get one from a local suit shop. We checked one store, but they didn’t fit him very well - the jacket was too long, and the pants were too wide. At this point we thought we would have to get a regular suit and then send it to a tailor to make it fit better.
But our DJ saved the day!
No, we don’t personally know our DJ, and no, he isn’t a tailor. When we went to meet with our DJ, he was very nice and asked us about wedding planning and all that. When he learned that my fiance has not found a suit for the wedding yet, he did not hesitate to recommend Derks Formals. I should mention that when our vendors recommend other vendors, they automatically get bumped up because we know they left a good impression to get recommended!
So a few weeks ago we decided to check it out. It looked a little sketchy from the outside because it’s tucked away in a street corner, and the outer appearance of the store was definitely aged. But their suits were really nice! The one my fiance picked was a European fit, meaning it was a more tailored fit than regular suits.
HE LOOKED SO GOOD :)
Everything fit him very well. And to make it even better, the store had a 30% off promotion so his suit was under budget!!!
We are going to look amazing on our wedding day. Just saying :)
The planning continues…
*Feel free to hover over some items as they link to blog entries with more detail!
