Wedding post, part 1: Leading up to the wedding
So! I have now been married for two full months, and I know that I promised a wedding post a long time ago...sorry! So here we go. Warning: This is in ridiculous detail because it's for my memories too. I've made headings under the cuts so you can skip to whichever parts may actually interest you, heh.
Wedding, part 1: Preparations
Last-minute problems
I never want to organize anything like that ever again in my life. Seriously. Every moment of it was a chore, and I hated all the meetings, all the uncertainties, all the last-minute problems...ugh. It sucked. On top of the issue with the officiant, there was the fact that we had to initiate every follow-up meeting with all of our service people (is this normal that none of them follow up at all themselves?), only to find last-minute problems.
Most of this lay with the caterer. The first issue was that by the time we asked her when we were supposed to be having a follow-up meeting regarding our choices of certain things, it was almost too late for her to book a bartender for us. She did manage to, but we only found out then that we had to supply all the glasses and such for the bar, which meant extra money. The second issue was confusion over the menu, which I thought had included a 10pm dessert table, but that was a mistake on her part (she'd accidentally left it on the menu that she had copy/pasted from a previous wedding), but she hadn't included it in the price, so only a few days before the wedding, there went an extra $500 that I hadn't been expecting. On top of the officiant issue, which cost us an extra $425, well...let's just say that the words "wedding" and "budget" do not go together. There was also the issue of the hall seating, wherein we found out a week before the wedding that the tables did not in fact seat 10 people comfortably, and I had to rework the entire seating chart to make tables of 8 instead. FFFUUUUUUU--
Preparations and arrival of online friends
Anyway, that got sorted out, but I was all in a mood and hating everything. Thankfully, on the Monday before the wedding, NE (bridesmaid) and Ly arrived. I credit them with bringing me back to myself again. We went shopping for the candies to put in the favour jars, and assembled the jars together. And in between the preparations, we played games and watched movies and has some LOLs and did the things that I needed to do in order to just calm down.
On Thursday BC arrived in the afternoon, and Phoenix in the evening. Unfortunately Phoenix had to stay in a hotel due to cat allergies while everyone else stayed with me, which meant shuttling her back and forth, but actually that was okay, because it also meant that she and I had time when the two of us could just talk and get to know each other in RL. And now I can say for sure that both BC and Phoenix are definitely real people who match their photos! And sweethearts as well. ^_^
Dresses, flowers and favours
I found this website through a Facebook ad called www.bridesmaidtailor.com, wherein you can choose any of the styles shown, submit your measurements and colour/fabric preference, and have the dresses made to order...even with slight alterations to the original design with respect to dress length and straps. This worked out great, since physically shopping for (affordable) dresses was impossible when my maid of honour lives here but my bridesmaids are coming from Toronto and California. I decided on the bridesmaid dress (a classic style that I hoped would work for both of their body types), and let Kel choose her own dress style as long as it was in the same colour. The dresses were made and delivered within a month and it all worked out really well.
When I was deciding on the dresses for the bridesmaids, I gave them the choice of burgundy or cobalt blue, and they unanimously chose blue. I was happy about that, because I'd always wanted to get a wedding dress with a bit of colour in it, and the bright blue would have been perfect. It turned out that it wasn't possible to add colour into my dress without ruining the look, and it was more important that I look awesome in my dress, so I didn't get to match my bridesmaids. In any case, this blue became the accent colour for the decor.
My dress had its own issues. Unbeknownst to me, it had never fit quite right in the first place (when tied, the sides were still too far apart at the top in the back...it’s not like skin was showing, but it was pretty close). Unfortunately, the dress was the last of its kind and only came in that size, so there was no trading possible. However, it also meant that more alterations were necessary than we’d originally thought, doubling the price of the alterations. The top of the dress was actually slightly changed, although I doubt anyone could tell. Sigh…the curse of having a giant rack :P. And even after the changes were made, the dress was still way tight.
Personally I have little interest in flowers. I don't know anything about them and they don't hold my interest aside from a cursory "that's pretty", so I thought that choosing the flowers would be really difficult. But when I was looking through the florist's photo albums, one picture just jumped out at me. The bouquet was made of orangey-yellow flowers, with some red, and I thought that it just worked beautifully as fall colours for a fall wedding. They would also contrast amazingly against the blue bridesmaids' dresses. I thought that the bouquets looked gorgeous. The florist also provided us with a rented white archway and the red plants with which to decorate it so that we would have a bit more of a focal point during the ceremony rather than just the plain hall curtains.
I had decided that the favours would be little jars filled with candy (delicious now, useful later!), and had intended to fill them with Smarties (the Canadian kind: candy-coated chocolate similar to M&Ms but more colourful), then attach the favour tag using blue ribbon. While out at the Bulk Barn to pick up said Smarties, we discovered what I think was Almond Joys in Smartie format--a brand-new candy in Canada. This was awesome, because quite by chance, these candies were only three colours: cobalt blue, beige (close enough to the colour of the writing on the tags), and brown. So our favours matched the colours!
The day before
On Friday Mellie (bridesmaid) arrived, and I hadn't seen her since like 2003, so we tried to catch up even as I put her to work right away helping me create the seating charts, table numbers and little menus. She was staying in a hotel with her parents (also invited), which lightened the load on my guest-laden house, and thankfully was right next door to the hotel where Phoenix was staying. Convenience! Mellie also gifted me with the silversmithed-just-for-me tiny Autobot symbol pins that I would wear on my gown and Paul on his lapel. :D
That evening we all--Paul and I, my bridal party and other out-of-town guests, one of Paul's groomsmen and most of my family--trucked all the stuff (booze, pop, bottled water, plastic glasses, disposable plates/utensils for the dessert table, centerpieces, favours) over to the hall. Thankfully we were allowed to do some setup the night before, because it took some time to figure it all out!
The hall is a brand-new community centre, all modern inside, and big enough that we could close a wall down the center of the room so that we could set up the archway (rented from the florist) and chairs there and have the ceremony in that half while the reception tables were set up in the other half (a couple of tables had to be moved once the wall was open and the ceremony chairs removed, but no biggie). Without the officiant and half the wedding party, we couldn't have an actual rehearsal, so the best we could do was give everyone an overall idea of how it would go and hope it all turned out right!
My parents and brother went home, and all the rest of us went out to dinner. That was a great time, and definitely helped loosen everybody up, I think. At least it did for me! Like the calm before the storm, just good times with friends. It all felt very relaxed, as if the next day would be just another day. It was nice.
I dropped off Mellie and Phoenix at their hotels, Paul went to sleep over at his best man's house, and the rest of us played video games until a unanimous bedtime was declared. The next day was to be Paul and the guys' day of stress, as he had to pick up the flowers and drop of the bouquets at our house before going to do all the last-minute setup at the hall. For the girls, it would be a day of worrying about nothing but making ourselves beautiful!
To be continued in part 2...
Wedding, part 1: Preparations
Last-minute problems
I never want to organize anything like that ever again in my life. Seriously. Every moment of it was a chore, and I hated all the meetings, all the uncertainties, all the last-minute problems...ugh. It sucked. On top of the issue with the officiant, there was the fact that we had to initiate every follow-up meeting with all of our service people (is this normal that none of them follow up at all themselves?), only to find last-minute problems.
Most of this lay with the caterer. The first issue was that by the time we asked her when we were supposed to be having a follow-up meeting regarding our choices of certain things, it was almost too late for her to book a bartender for us. She did manage to, but we only found out then that we had to supply all the glasses and such for the bar, which meant extra money. The second issue was confusion over the menu, which I thought had included a 10pm dessert table, but that was a mistake on her part (she'd accidentally left it on the menu that she had copy/pasted from a previous wedding), but she hadn't included it in the price, so only a few days before the wedding, there went an extra $500 that I hadn't been expecting. On top of the officiant issue, which cost us an extra $425, well...let's just say that the words "wedding" and "budget" do not go together. There was also the issue of the hall seating, wherein we found out a week before the wedding that the tables did not in fact seat 10 people comfortably, and I had to rework the entire seating chart to make tables of 8 instead. FFFUUUUUUU--
Preparations and arrival of online friends
Anyway, that got sorted out, but I was all in a mood and hating everything. Thankfully, on the Monday before the wedding, NE (bridesmaid) and Ly arrived. I credit them with bringing me back to myself again. We went shopping for the candies to put in the favour jars, and assembled the jars together. And in between the preparations, we played games and watched movies and has some LOLs and did the things that I needed to do in order to just calm down.
On Thursday BC arrived in the afternoon, and Phoenix in the evening. Unfortunately Phoenix had to stay in a hotel due to cat allergies while everyone else stayed with me, which meant shuttling her back and forth, but actually that was okay, because it also meant that she and I had time when the two of us could just talk and get to know each other in RL. And now I can say for sure that both BC and Phoenix are definitely real people who match their photos! And sweethearts as well. ^_^
Dresses, flowers and favours
I found this website through a Facebook ad called www.bridesmaidtailor.com, wherein you can choose any of the styles shown, submit your measurements and colour/fabric preference, and have the dresses made to order...even with slight alterations to the original design with respect to dress length and straps. This worked out great, since physically shopping for (affordable) dresses was impossible when my maid of honour lives here but my bridesmaids are coming from Toronto and California. I decided on the bridesmaid dress (a classic style that I hoped would work for both of their body types), and let Kel choose her own dress style as long as it was in the same colour. The dresses were made and delivered within a month and it all worked out really well.
When I was deciding on the dresses for the bridesmaids, I gave them the choice of burgundy or cobalt blue, and they unanimously chose blue. I was happy about that, because I'd always wanted to get a wedding dress with a bit of colour in it, and the bright blue would have been perfect. It turned out that it wasn't possible to add colour into my dress without ruining the look, and it was more important that I look awesome in my dress, so I didn't get to match my bridesmaids. In any case, this blue became the accent colour for the decor.
My dress had its own issues. Unbeknownst to me, it had never fit quite right in the first place (when tied, the sides were still too far apart at the top in the back...it’s not like skin was showing, but it was pretty close). Unfortunately, the dress was the last of its kind and only came in that size, so there was no trading possible. However, it also meant that more alterations were necessary than we’d originally thought, doubling the price of the alterations. The top of the dress was actually slightly changed, although I doubt anyone could tell. Sigh…the curse of having a giant rack :P. And even after the changes were made, the dress was still way tight.
Personally I have little interest in flowers. I don't know anything about them and they don't hold my interest aside from a cursory "that's pretty", so I thought that choosing the flowers would be really difficult. But when I was looking through the florist's photo albums, one picture just jumped out at me. The bouquet was made of orangey-yellow flowers, with some red, and I thought that it just worked beautifully as fall colours for a fall wedding. They would also contrast amazingly against the blue bridesmaids' dresses. I thought that the bouquets looked gorgeous. The florist also provided us with a rented white archway and the red plants with which to decorate it so that we would have a bit more of a focal point during the ceremony rather than just the plain hall curtains.
I had decided that the favours would be little jars filled with candy (delicious now, useful later!), and had intended to fill them with Smarties (the Canadian kind: candy-coated chocolate similar to M&Ms but more colourful), then attach the favour tag using blue ribbon. While out at the Bulk Barn to pick up said Smarties, we discovered what I think was Almond Joys in Smartie format--a brand-new candy in Canada. This was awesome, because quite by chance, these candies were only three colours: cobalt blue, beige (close enough to the colour of the writing on the tags), and brown. So our favours matched the colours!
The day before
On Friday Mellie (bridesmaid) arrived, and I hadn't seen her since like 2003, so we tried to catch up even as I put her to work right away helping me create the seating charts, table numbers and little menus. She was staying in a hotel with her parents (also invited), which lightened the load on my guest-laden house, and thankfully was right next door to the hotel where Phoenix was staying. Convenience! Mellie also gifted me with the silversmithed-just-for-me tiny Autobot symbol pins that I would wear on my gown and Paul on his lapel. :D
That evening we all--Paul and I, my bridal party and other out-of-town guests, one of Paul's groomsmen and most of my family--trucked all the stuff (booze, pop, bottled water, plastic glasses, disposable plates/utensils for the dessert table, centerpieces, favours) over to the hall. Thankfully we were allowed to do some setup the night before, because it took some time to figure it all out!
The hall is a brand-new community centre, all modern inside, and big enough that we could close a wall down the center of the room so that we could set up the archway (rented from the florist) and chairs there and have the ceremony in that half while the reception tables were set up in the other half (a couple of tables had to be moved once the wall was open and the ceremony chairs removed, but no biggie). Without the officiant and half the wedding party, we couldn't have an actual rehearsal, so the best we could do was give everyone an overall idea of how it would go and hope it all turned out right!
My parents and brother went home, and all the rest of us went out to dinner. That was a great time, and definitely helped loosen everybody up, I think. At least it did for me! Like the calm before the storm, just good times with friends. It all felt very relaxed, as if the next day would be just another day. It was nice.
I dropped off Mellie and Phoenix at their hotels, Paul went to sleep over at his best man's house, and the rest of us played video games until a unanimous bedtime was declared. The next day was to be Paul and the guys' day of stress, as he had to pick up the flowers and drop of the bouquets at our house before going to do all the last-minute setup at the hall. For the girls, it would be a day of worrying about nothing but making ourselves beautiful!
To be continued in part 2...