Getting There!

There's still a lot to do... but I feel like we've made some progress. Check it out!

To do:

• Finish centerpieces--partially done
• Create seating chart--partially done
• Liquor license--proving to be a pain in the &%#!!!!
• Invite wedding party to rehearsal and dinner
• Confirm details/numbers with caterers, bartenders, photographers, decoration rental, wholesale flower farmer, etc.
• Write a loose "script" for the MCs
• Make a wedding day agenda
• Make a list of important phone numbers
• Pack!

Ooohhh!! The list is getting shorter! (And so is the deadline!!) 

Whirlwind Wedding Weekend: Day Two

Okay, I barely have the energy to relive this right now, but if I wait any longer I'm sure I will forget all the details.

DAY TWO:
 Day two started off great. We had set our alarms for 7am so then we got up and Adam's cousins (and their adorable little 1 year old boy) were already up. We were lucky to have almost 3 hours of visiting time! They made us a delicious breakfast of oatmeal pancakes and fruit and we just talked and talked and played with their little guy. It was possibly the best way to start our day - very relaxed and comfortable.

From the cousin's house, we headed off to the dentist. I had a cavity to get filled that I had been putting off for months. I had this image in my head of the cavity being totally out of control due to my procrastination, so I was more than a little anxious. When I got into the dentist chair, the dentist looked for a minute before determining that I don't even have a cavity! She did an x-ray to be sure, but apparently my last dentist was seeing things! So that made for the best dentist visit ever!

While I waited for Adam to pick me up (he had gone to do a work errand) I wandered over to a used book store that was giving away free books. I'm sure I made Adam's day by picking him up a huge stack of books (and a small stack for myself). That little stop wasn't on the list, but oh well!

Then we finished Adam's work errands and stopped for coffee before driving to our reception venue to do a walk through with our friend who will be setting up the hall for us. Naturally, the reception venue person didn't even show up (they've been a bit flaky... it's not fun to work with) but we managed to find an open door so we could still show our friend around.

After the reception venue, Adam dropped me off for my hair trial appointment while he went to his old work to visit with people. I remember feeling like I was going to fall asleep while I was getting my hair done, but nonetheless, it was fun and turned out pretty!

Lastly, we swung by a dollar store, the tailor (to make some adjustments to Adam's suit), two shoe stores (I needed work shoes and wanted to look for different wedding shoes), a store where I got hair accessories and nail polish and finally, lunch.

Then, 4 exhausting hours later... we were home!

Whirlwind Wedding Weekend: Day One

Although the last couple days weren't technically the weekend, they were for us. We took two days off to go to the city we're getting married in and get a bunch of wedding stuff done (as well as some visits). Since this was days were pretty jam-packed, I'm going to fill you in over the course of a couple blog posts. So here goes!

THE NIGHT BEFORE:
It wouldn't be fair to start telling you about the first day without a quick explanation of the night before. Adam worked 7:30am til 9:30pm with only a short break to gas up the van and put air in the tires. I got off work at 8pm. When Adam finally called it a day at 9:30pm, we still had to pack, plan the music for all aspects of the wedding day and work on our ceremony. We finished the music around 2am and decided the ceremony would have to wait.

DAY ONE:
The alarm clocks went off at 6am... after less than 4 hours sleep. Fun. We started getting ready, Adam took the dog for a quick walk on the beach, and I quickly printed our ceremony (or what we had so far at least) and then we rushed out the door shortly before 8.

Our first stop was the dog kennel, where we dropped off our pup for a couple nights. He was fairly distracted by all the new smells, but still jumped up on the gate to watch us leave (*tear*). Then we drove... and drove... and drove for about 4 hours. The tricky part about this drive was that we also needed to use this time to write our ceremony. So, about half way through the drive, we worked out our wedding ceremony, vows and all! Not the nice, typed version I had hoped to be passing on to the officiant, but heck, it was done!

We actually arrived a little ahead of schedule so we quickly called my mom and my brother to try to get my family together earlier than anticipated for a visit. It was great! We got to visit with my mom and stepdad, celebrate my mom's birthday, and visit with my brother and his family. Quite the productive hour and a bit!

We went straight from this visit to my final dress fitting where Adam was able to visit with our friends while I tried on the dress and had the last little bits worked out with our friend's mom, who is doing the alterations.

From the dress fitting, we hurried over to Adam's cousin's house, where we would later be spending the night. We had a (super) short visit before we had to rush off to the officiant's house.

20 minutes late, we got to the officiant's house. Thankfully, she didn't seem to mind so much. We went over the ceremony, gave her the marriage license to hang onto and complete for us, and just generally told her bits about us (since this was our first in person meeting).

Next we were off to my bridesmaid's house to get ready to go out for the evening. Her spouse is our DJ, so while the ladies went out for dinner, the guys talked music. Our DJ just synced my ipod to his itunes and uploaded everything! Lucky guy - he now has more Britney Spears than he knows what to do with!

Dinner with the ladies was so relaxing and fun! I missed my friends since moving and it was great to see them and catch up a bit! They also surprised me with a gift certificate for a manicure!!!! Aren't they so incredibly sweet?!

After dinner, we continued to visit with my bridesmaid and our dj (aka our friends!) and then quietly snuck into Adam's cousin's house sometime after dark.

Ahhhh... then we collapsed on to their super comfortable guest bed and were out like lights in seconds.

Plugging Away

I've been making some serious effort to tackle this list lately. It's been more work than I thought it would be because 'finish centerpieces' really didn't take into account the half dozen tasks it actually involved. So now I've realized I don't have enough (working) battery operated tealights, I need to make more candle holders, and I need to wash a few more jars.The list seems like it will never be complete... and yet, in less than 3 weeks, it better be because finished or not, we're getting married!!!


To do:

• Finish centerpieces--partially done
• Suit alterations--will be done May 26 or 27
• Have the groom's shirt cleaned and pressed
• Create seating chart--partially done
• Book dog kennel/adventure camp and cat sitter/kennel
• Make playlists--all done except the song for the groom and his mom!
• Meet with officiant--will be done May 26 or 27
• Liquor license
• Write ceremony script--partially done
• Make a floor plan/seating plan--pretty much done
• Walk through of the reception hall with our friend/decorator, Tia--will be done May 26 or 27
  
• Invite wedding party to rehearsal and dinner
• Invite the groom's relatives to Sunday tea/lunch
• Figure out how to put up sign that points to the chapel, designate someone to do this
• Confirm details/numbers with caterers, bartenders, photographers, decoration rental, wholesale flower farmer, etc.
• Package groomsmen and bridesmaid gifts
• Purchase 'other' gifts and thank you cards--partially done
• Figure out an MC! 

Hmm...

Can you tell the wedding is coming up quick? I've been far too busy to even think about this blog, let alone to write something for it. I'll try to keep you posted in these last few weeks leading up to the wedding day!

Kripalu Yoga

We have officially moved into our new suite and I am now nowhere near a Bikram yoga studio. I'm a little sad (although I hadn't gone in since we moved to the cabin) because Bikram yoga is such an amazing work out. It's also the only yoga I've ever done and I like it. I think I'm nervous about trying a new type of yoga because I don't like that feeling of not knowing what I'm doing. I'll have to set those feelings aside though because there is a once weekly yoga class mere steps from my door and it's Kripalu Yoga. I'll let you know how it goes!

Say Cheese!

Doesn't this look delicious?? Over at Progressive Pioneer there's a great post about making your own cheese (see the results above!). We're definitely planning on giving it a try someday soon. Have you ever made your own cheese? Any tips?

Honeymoon Stop: O.Noir Restaurant, Montreal QC

If you walked past this restaurant, would you assume it's closed? It's dark inside... pitch black to be exact. Usually a sign that a place isn't open. Well, not quite. This restaurant offers a pitch black dining experience. You literally pick your food from the menu, and are then seated in a pitch black dining room. What's cool about it (beyond the awesome think-outside-the-box qualities it obviously has) is that part of the proceeds of your meal go to a non-profit organization that serves the blind.

Sounds pretty awesome... but I'm not sure if I can do it! We might just have to give it a try on our way through Montreal though! Click here to view the restaurant's web site, and here to view a list of other pitch black dining experiences!

Honeymoon Stop: Spotted Lake, Osoyoos BC

I've been looking up interesting places to see on our cross Canada honeymoon road trip, and Spotted Lake in Osoyoos, BC caught my eye!

Spotted Lake is a rare natural phenomenon. The site is culturally sacred to local First Nations who call it Kliluk. The water contains high concentrations of epsom salts, calcium, magnesium, sodium sulfates, etc and during the first World War the minerals were harvested for use in munitions factories in the states. Apparently the mud from the lake also has healing properties. In the summer, the water evaporates and crystallizes causing the circles in the picture above.

Pretty darn cool! Definitely worth a stop on our trip!

Tackling the To-Do List, Long Distance

We definitely didn't make any of this wedding stuff easier for ourselves by moving 4 hours away from where we are having our wedding. As you can see from my crazy schedule, we have a two day (one night) trip planned during which we are attempting to accomplish a dress fitting, a suit fitting, a visit to our old place of work (where we met, and apparently I forgot to put that in the calendar), a visit with my mom, a meeting with our officiant to finalize the ceremony, dinner with my favourite ladies, a dentist appointment for me, a tour of the reception venue with a friend who is doing the set up for us, and finally, my hair trial. We also need to fit in time to drop the dog off at the kennel and drive 4 hours each day. And we'd like to be home by a reasonable hour because Adam works fairly early the next day. Sound like fun?

I don't recommend planning a wedding in a different city unless you have a wedding planner or other such magical people in your lives that you can hand over most of your tasks to. I have great friends that are willing to help, but there are still a bunch of tasks you just can't delegate. Bummer!

"We speak our values with our dollars."

I'm constantly trying to make better choices when it comes to the things we buy and the foods we eat (I type this as I just threw my reuseable, homemade, bamboo toilet paper in the dryer). That's why I'm recommending everyone read this great post over at one of my favourite blog's - Clean. She talks about the value of buying locally and being conscious of what you're actually buying (specifically when buying organic). It's so well written that I'm not doing it the least bit of justice, so you must go over there and read it now!

Honeymoon Road Trip!

Well, we have finally decided what to do for our honeymoon. We had no shortage of ideas. We wanted to explore the south of France, have a tropical vacation in Costa Rica, go off the beaten path in Ecuador, explore culture and enjoy the tropics in Cuba. Like I said, no shortage of ideas here! Well, our first idea is the one that won us over in the end. We're doing a cross Canada roadtrip in a campervan!

So, the catch to this is that our country is HUGE. Seriously, look it up. If you're American and think your country is big, no offense, ours is bigger. I think maybe only China and Russia have us beat. This makes a roadtrip more of a challenge than ever. And not only is it big, but vast amounts of it are pretty incredibly remote. Take one of the first legs of our trip: Prince Rupert, BC to Whitehorse, Yukon. Apparently it's something like an 18 hour drive, so probably needs to be broken down into a couple long days. Here's the catch: where the heck do we stay/eat along the way? Yes, I know I said we were bringing a campervan, but I'd much prefer a legit campground to pulling over on the side of the highway for the night.

That brings me to the motive behind this post! I'm looking for your tips! Any recommendations of:

• sites to see
• cities or towns to visit
• places to camp
• hostels to sleep at
• restaurants to try

Bring it on! We know very little about the places we're visiting along the way, so your help is not only welcome, but needed!

To give you a vague idea of some of the stops we're tentatively planning to make, here's the list:
Vancouver Island, Prince Rupert, Haida Gwaii, Whitehorse, Okanagan, Banff, Calgary, Badlands, Ottawa, Quebec City, Montreal, Bay of Fundy, Cape Breton, Niagara Falls.

Also, the trip from East to West will probably go through the northernmost states to save time. We don't plan to stop a lot, but if anyone has any must sees along the way, we could probably do a bit of sightseeing there too!

Forming Community

In choosing our wedding vendors, I have to admit, personality played a role in our choices. Sure, budget was up there as one of the top factors in our decision making, definitely. But all in all, if the vendors personalities were overbearing, unorganized or just plain lackluster we avoided them. What does this mean? Well, we ended up with amazing, happy, friendly vendors that we feel like we have good working relationships with! Take our photographers for example - they are a married couple who recently welcomed their first daughter into the world (after we met them). They are so lovely that they actually sent us a birth announcement card! It feels great to have chosen such wonderful people to be involved in such a special day of our lives.

The reason I thought of this today is because we went to get our marriage license a few days ago. You see, this is the legal technical aspect of which you have no control. You simply cannot choose who you deal with when you walk into a government office. This was evident in the surly attitude we received. I was completely taken aback. Usually when you tell people you are getting married there is some flash of a smile or at least a congratulatory message, but nooooo, this woman looked at us as if we were there to have our driver's licenses suspended. Adam had planned on making a joke about how we had met that morning and thought we should just go for it... but clearly, that would not have gone over well with this particular woman.

Experiences like that just make me even more grateful for the wonderful wedding vendors we get to work with! Luckily, we never have to see miss sourpuss government agent ever again!

Happy Birthday Husband-To-Be!

Today is a special day! Today is the birthday of the man I will soon call my husband! The future father of our children. The love of our dog's life. My mouse-catcher. My spider-killer. My fire-maker. My love.

Happy Birthday Adam, I love you!