Something Borrowed and Something Blue

Hopefully you remember my first post on this subject, "Something Old, Something New..." because this is the continuation.

So first things first, my something borrowed. I am very blessed to have a wonderful sister and a wonderful sister-in-law-to-be (wow that's a lot of hyphens!) who both have been married. So I thought it would be a nice touch to have a something borrowed from each of them.

My older sister had this amazing veil that goes so perfectly with my dress, I don't have a photo of it but I can tell you it's fantastic!

My sister-in-law-to-be generously offered me her tiara that she got all the way from the Tower of London for her wedding. This one I have a picture of:

Isn't it amazing?!

I am so happy that it worked out for me to have something from each of them and the whole look together is going to be amazing. Added bonus, both of those pieces would have cost a fortune so borrowing them is saving me a bundle!

Now think back to my last post. I had asked for opinions on garters and got some great responses. Yet after looking at my choices again I just wasn't sold so I did a bit more looking. I came across http://mygarter.com/ and was totally excited to literally piece together the exact garter that I wanted. They even have this nifty thing called the garter design center where you can see what your garter is going to look like. I finalized my order and it finally arrived a couple weeks ago and I couldn't be happier!



Please note: these pictures don't do the items justice. I'm no Ian with a camera... sorry

My first creation!

I was so excited to make something with my new mixer that on Monday when I got home from school I busted out my recipe books to figure out what I wanted to make. I decided on blueberry muffins but had a small set back when I realized I was out of milk. So I make a quick "pick up after school on Tuesday" list and put the mixer back in it's home feeling somewhat disappointed.

After school of Tuesday I ran around the grocery store picking up the missing ingredients for my muffins (plus a few other things) and got to work as soon as I got home. I did my reading to make sure I was using the correct mixing tool (it came with three!) and got to work on the muffins. Since I can't eat real food I have gotten used to cooking with alternatives. They tend to be difficult and never turn out quite the way you want them to, at least so far that has been my experience.

I put my muffins in the oven and waited, happily distracted watching season 1 of Glee. When they finished baking I was pleasantly surprised. They were beautiful. I waited for them to cool and then sampled one... quickly discovering I had not waited long enough for them to cool. The burnt tongue was totally worth it though, because even though I've made this recipe a lot these were by far my best batch!

I was so excited I took a picture. You have full permission to laugh at my incredible geekyness.

Don't they look yummy!!!

Wedding Fair

I've been engaged for over a year now and thus have been to quite a few wedding fair's. They are so much fun and actually pretty useful. I've found many things and gotten some serious gift certificates.

Last April I was super excited and wanted to go to wedding fair's left, right and center so one weekend my mom, sister and I had planned to attend the Vancouver Wedding and Honeymoon show at the trade and convention center. I went online to purchase tickets so that we could save a couple bucks and after going through all the steps I received an email confirmation that said, "Thank you for purchasing tickets to Wedding Fair 2011". Turns out they are run by the same company and I had clicked on the wrong show.

Doh!

Needless to say I was determined to not waste that $80.00 (yes $80.00) so this past weekend when Wedding Fair 2011 finally came around I dragged my Mom, my Sister, my Nieces, and Sydney downtown. Oh and did I mention that Ian got two complimentary tickets to the show as well? Ya... double doh! I didn't expect to find much because I've got so much booked but I still managed to walk out with arm loads of stuff. I was actually pretty pleased because I found a smokin' good deal on chair covers. I also got more free stuff and gift certificates so all was not lost.

I entered this hilarious content with escapes.ca that required me to have my photo taken and Syd decided to jump in with me. So for your viewing pleasure my picture with Sydney.

My last Christmas as a "Vaness"

After I handed in my last exam on July 17 I was free to enjoy the Christmas holidays. Hazaa!! By the 19th I was on a ferry home and enjoying some much needed R&R at Hotel Mom and Dad. Ian was still working but he had the week after Christmas off so we decided to spend that together.

Our Christmas was somewhat hectic because Ian and I are at the phase of our lives where we go to everyone else. Christmas Eve after I picked Ian up from the ferry we went to his parents house for dinner with Ian's parents, Grama and the Maedel family. The next day was early morning presents with Ian's parents followed by more presents with my parents and then Christmas Brunch. Ian squeezed in a could visits with friends while I relaxed with the women in my family (all the men had disappeared for naps).

After Christmas dinner and a female victory in a Men v/s Women Cranium and a much needed good nights sleep we were off again. This time to Port Alberni for Christmas: Round 3 at the Reddick household and dinner in Cherry Creek.

Finally the next day was Cade's 5th birthday with more celebrations and fun ending with Ian and I getting a ride to Nanaimo and then driving home. We were very glad to get home but the whole four days were amazing fun.

So Ian and I have had our eye on a certain kitchen appliance for some years but it has always been out of reach for us. We put it on the registry because "you never know" figuring nobody would buy it for us and we told people that an easy Christmas present would be to purchase something off one of our registries.

Well under one of the three trees this year was that very appliance. The famous kitchen aid mixer in RED!!. Needless to say we were VERY excited!!!!
We were also surprised by fantastic spice rack that I thought was just the rack and the bottles when I registered, but was actually filled with a huge range of spices! Thanks so much everybody!!

With all this new cooking paraphernalia I was inspired to get into the kitchen. However because of the size our new mixer it didn't fit in the car the first time. It had to stay on the mainland until this past weekend. haha! So now it's home and because it doesn't fit in any of our cupboards it's new home is on top of the fridge which is fine by me because it's so darn pretty!
And for your viewing pleasure I really like this pic of me and Ian on Christmas morning - I think it's cute!

Sad Face

This past week Ian has been off work and I have been off school. Together we have had the most wonderful "stay-cation", we have played games, cleaned up our apartment, cooked and just relaxed. It has been blissful.

One of things we did one day was go and visit Roberta at Barclay's to finally get the ball rolling on the wedding bands. Since my engagement ring is so unique a generic band was out of the question. I tried many on and not one looked good. My engagement ring is a really unique shape and all of the normal bands produced a massive gap between the rings that looked really stupid.

So because my ring is so unique and I want the wedding band to fit the ring I had to leave my engagement ring with Roberta so she could construct a wedding band. I also didn't get a loner ring this time because she has to hang on to it until... FEBRUARY! I am really rather sad about that. So I busted out the ring that Ian gave me for Christmas a few years ago just so I had something to wear on that finger but it just doesn't have the same weight and it makes me sad. I can't wait to have my ring back.