Engagement Photos

Last weekend Ian and I FINALLY got to meet our photographer Elaine! She's such a doll and we had a great time shooting in gas town.

The weather had been gorgeous all week and I had high hopes but as the date approached the only day they were predicting rain was the day that we had arranged with Elaine months ago. DOH! This was especially disappointing for me because I had planned on wearing the shoes that Ian had bought me for my wedding present (more on those later) and they were not made to get wet.

So we travelled over to the mainland praying that the rain would hold off. I spent the day reading my insurance manual (yes that's right I am now gainfully employed as a Financial Security Adviser with Freedom 55, more on that later too) and getting ready for the shoot.

At about 5:45 it was still kind of gray but it wasn't raining so I made the executive decision to pack the shoes that I really wanted to wear and hope for the best. We made it to gas town and the weather was holding out. YAY!

We met up with Elaine at 6:50 and immediately got to work fearing that the rain would start any minute. She had already scouted some locations for us so it was super quick getting going. Ian and I had a great time being cuddly and a bit silly at times. We also got to get to know our photographer which is awesome considering we are going to be spending a good portion of our wedding day with her.

We shot in at least 4 different locations and I had one outfit change and JUST as we finished the rain started again. PHEW! I was so relieved that it didn't rain on us because that would have been NO GOOD!

Anyway, about 10 minutes ago she posted some of her favourites on her blog and I LOVE them. She did such a great job I can't wait for the wedding, I know she's going to get some great shots!

Here is the link to her blog so you guys can have a peak!

Jen and Ian's Engagement Pics

Invites

Over a month ago, the invites went out. Basically I just wanted to put up pictures of the finished invites. :)

The Outside

The Inside

RSVP Card

Stacked ready to seal and stamp

Ready to send!

Bridal Shower

So let me just start this by saying that I am way behind on my blogging, there are about 100 things that I need to blog about and haven't quite gotten to (okay maybe not THAT many but you get the point) but I feel that the bridal shower needs to jump ahead because it was so fun!



So, months ago I sat down with my calendar, my future mother in law and future sister in law to figure out when the best time to do my shower was. There was no pretext of a surprise with me being on the island and having a mad crazy schedule. It didn't really allow for one, so we finally decided on April 30.

As you know, April 30th was this past weekend (well it was a few weeks ago when I started this post) and I was so excited that I went and bought a new dress and shoes. (PS, totally worth it)

The new dress and shoes

Mother and Daughter ready to go

I arrived a little later than I had anticipated but was so excited to see so many familiar faces! My only regret was that I wasn't able to talk to everyone there and properly catch up. I have a distinct feeling that this is a common regret among brides though - the shower would have needed to be 3 days long to really properly talk to everyone that was there.

After I arrived the "attendance" prize was given to my Aunt, who funnily enough was actually on a cruise but my lovely cousin was quite happy to accept the prize on her behalf.

Then my favourite bridal party game got under way: the make a wedding dress out of TP game. BEST GAME EVER!

I got to run around snapping pics while everyone got to work on their creations.

Dressing Stasia (the flower girl)

Dressing Grandma

Dressing Selina (a relative of Ian's, it's too complicated to explain)

Dressing Kathy (the Maid of Honour)

My Brides, they all looked so great! I was amazed at what could be accomplished with toilet paper and tape!

After this I was given the job of choosing my favourite. I loved all of the creations of course and was very impressed at the high quality craftsmanship, but I thought it would be nice for my niece for me to choose her dress. So I did, and she was so excited!! (It was super cute)

The next task was to start on the mountain of presents that was sitting in the corner ready and waiting to be opened! I had given each of my bridesmaids jobs because every bridal blog I read said to put your bridesmiads to work so that things don't get out of control with all of the paper and presents and info that needed to be taken down.

So here is how it broke down:

• Kristy - in charge of writing down who gave what
• Kathy - in charge of keeping track of all gift receipts, cards and gift cards (generally all small things that could easily get lost in the mountain of paper)
• Reiko - in charge of making my fantastic bridal hat (pics below)
• Sydney - in charge of documentation - ie, my camera

I then got to work on the stack. I got some fantastic and beautiful gifts - I wish I had my list with me because there really were some amazing things.

Here are a few pics for your viewing pleasure:

Opening Presents with Style!

The First Present!

I look like I'm going to kill someone with my new pie server...

Bridal Sanity in a bottle

The worlds most amazing (and heaviest) frying pan

Adorable apron made by my sis-in-law to be from tea towels she got at her bridal shower!

So as you can see I started this whole process a "bride" hat which disappeared. This is because it was used as the base for my bow hat made by the lovely Reiko. She did an amazing job, don't you think?

After all the presents were opened (and there were a lot!) it was time for cake. A cake that I could actually eat too!

The very pretty (and delicious) cake

Smile pretty for the camera

Cut Cut Cut!

After there was cake I was able to mingle a little bit and then it was time get everything packed up and ready to go. And there was even one more surprise, Megan had ordered thank you cards that matched all of the other stationary for the shower.

Thanks so much to my Mother-in-law and Sister-in-law to be, it was such a wonderful day and I have such a amazing time!!!!

2 Months (to the day!) to go

Bridal Shower posting issues

I'd written a post about my bridal shower but for some reason it didn't post :(

EEGADS!!

So bear with me I will get it up soon.

i have a cake!

So since the cake catastrophe a couple months ago where our "Cake Designer" bailed on us, a lot of progress has been made in this department.

I actually have a cake now!

I spent one morning emailing no less than 15 different bakers and waited patiently (ok, not so patiently) for responses. I got a few right away that said that they were not set up for gluten free... awesome. And a couple more responses that said they were not available... FANTASTIC!

Then there was a light: Cake Eaters!!

I got an email back saying that she could do our recipe and was available, so far so good. I emailed back and gave a few more details and asked for a quote. Within the next 20 minutes I got another response from her saying that she could do my cake for 1/2 the price that I was quoted from the "Cake Designer". At this point I did a happy dance and tentatively reserved her until I could get to the mainland for a consultation.

A couple weeks later I went to visit the lovely Wendy to hash out the details and set down a deposit. I brought my parents with me so that I had someone to sample the "normal" cake that will make up the bulk of my cake. In case you are wondering, the top layer of our cake will be Jen and Ian friendly cake and the other two tiers will be normal people cake to save on a bit of money because our ingredients are so expensive. SO, the flavours were chosen and the design was decided and two cheques were written and drumroll please.... I HAVE A CAKE!!!