First the Dress Then the Wedding

Today is the day! I found the one, and so now the most important thing in a wedding (next to finding a groom) will be cleared up.
That's right I found the dress!
After tirelessly shopping at FIVE bridal salons (It doesn't sound like a lot till you try on nearly 30 dresses each with a weight vareying between a pashmina scarf and a small cow), we stopped at a Beautiful little place in Stittsville called WITH LOVE and boy did I love it. They have feather fascinators (not a sex toy as I originally tought), and some of the most beautiful dresses and I had seen thus far. As I was searching through the racks, the one stood out from the rest and I knew before even trying it on, trying it on only cemented the deal even more! So now, today I am headed back to try it on once more and then purchase the love of my life...uh second love of my life!
Now we just need to plan the rest of the wedding....

Wedding Dress (First you love them, then you pay for them)

Dear Blog, I have been wedding dress shopping and I have come to the realization that this is extremely distressing. Not only do I look fabulous in every dress I try on, but designer fashions hug my curves like a chocolate dipped strawberry at a fondou party. Now this may sound spendid, GREAT, the hot yoga and refusal to eat unheathy (excepting rum and coke dipped chicken nuggets) have been paying off. But NAY! I want these dresses to bulge in all the wrong places and make my butt look like a small, yet un-named planet. Why? Because these wedding body gloves are FREAKIN expensive! Upwards of $4000! Thats a years tuition (yes I still judge things in tuition, a pair of LuLu's are appoximatly one classes reading material (I didn't really need to do the readings for that class)). So alas I have been to two stores and have three more to visit this week before I need to narrow down the choices and bite the bullet (silver with gilded gold bullet). Right now the top of the list is a lovely little Vera Wang mermaid dress with lace inlays....Oh my.

Long time no see, BUT a lot done

So lets re-cap, the guest list has been finalized, the venue is booked, the Groom is still on board, we have a complete wedding party. Lets start with that one!
Bridesmaids:
Alison Almeida (maid of Honour)
Keely Porter
Lauren Mead
Jane VanRooyen

Groomsmen:
Shawn Trask (Bestman)
Alec Forbes
Mike Kosowan
Drew McFadyen

So we are four for four! Next on the agenda is our save the date cards, which hopefully will be going out within the next week. I'm think postcards with a cute couples photo on the front. The guest list is huge, too much family (TED) but the more the merrier. I have booked wedding dress shopping for the 19th, 23rd and 24th so if anyone wants to come and convince me I do not have to loose more weight your more then welcome. MWP (Mom the wedding planner) and I have been gathering and storing wedding decorations like tiny dragons hoarding shiny objects. DWC (Dad who writes the Checks) is now trying to build a storage room of sorts for us to keep everything in.
We found a spa that we most likely will be attending the day before the wedding (the girls I mean) and the significant others of the groomsmen are more then welcome to come and partake in some treatments of their choice.
Peruse and let me know what you guys may be interested in so I can let the wedding co-ordinator know approximate plans...
http://www.mahoganysalonandspa.com/Carletonplace/

As well the hotel information for Codes Mill Inn in Perth
http://www.codesmillinn.com/
The wedding is the FORBES/TREMBLAY wedding and as of right now we have a whole floor booked so the sooner you book the better so we can get more rooms if we need. I am going to check around and see if there are more hotels in the area so my peeps will have a few options.

We have also booked our Videographer, check her out at
http://www.firstkissfilms.com/
We are currently trying to think of extremely beautiful songs that suit us that we can put into the movie

Right now the most important thing we need is our officiant. I would really love to have someone who is familiar with Wiccan rituals, or is at least familiar with us...if anyone has any leads on that I would greatly appreciate it.

On a more personal note, I am NOT freaking out...everything is falling into place really well. I watched Blue Valentine this week though and that has kind of ruined marriage for me, hopefully some old chick flicks can restore my faith (A.K.A the first Die Hard movie).
Ted is doing well, very busy, but I would really love him to focus a tiny bit more on the wedding, I really want it to be about us and not just me....well mostly me.

I will keep everyone updated on bridal showers, stags, does, rabbits and all the rest of the farm as they come up

Guest Lists

How close does a friend need to be before they get invited to your wedding? Also is it cool for people to keep asking if they are invited to your wedding. Friends in class when they're like "I'm invited to your wedding right?", thats rude....right...RIGHT? Just a little stressed about the wedding list, Ted has about a fifty bjillion people on his stide and I think I have twenty, those are going to be some unbalanced pews!
Ted's parents now know that the wedding has been pushed back and that it will be in October, and they're cool. As well the grandparents (mine) found out that the date is during their snow bird season, hopefully Florida can wait a couple more weeks.
Okay, so any guest list advice? Lauren I'm looking at you!

The Begining of the End (For Ted)

So today we finally, finally booked our venue. After the loosing the last one, because they booked someone else on our date and didn't bother to inform us, I've been going a little crazy. We had to push the wedding back until the end of October because everything else was gone. This is kinda awesome though because now we can play with the season and the Halloweenyness! The wedding reception and dinner is at Codes Mill on the River and the hotel is Codesmill Inn.
http://www.codesmillinn.com/
We visited Fiddleheads the restaurant at this location for our 7 year, the food is made by the chef who will cater our wedding...It was amazing, we had snail and emu. Emu tastes like turkey but is brown like beef.
We did a tour today and everyone (Wendy and Vince and Ted) seemed pleased. Its an old mill with vaulted ceilings and a lot of beams and a huge fireplace, so lots of decorating options!
We still need to make our guest list ( and I suppose this blog is a little pointless until then...but lets call it cathartic) and send out save the date cards!
So far I'm not too stressed...just as long as everything keeps smooth. Ted could be a little more involved but I understand thats hard for guys, I just want it to be our wedding not just mine. Also two of the bridesmaids are still abroad and one groomsman is still TBA. AND we're still fighting over whether Riko gets to be ring bearer or not (he will).

I guess thats all for now...