Two Weeks Notice

I am here to advise you all that in two weeks I will no longer have the same last name. I will be not only a daughter and sister, but I will be a wife. And that I may spend the majority of the morning having the makeup artist reapply my mascara. But it will be worth it. I will have a wonderful husband, and all the people we love will be there to celebrate with us. I am BEYOND excited, but at the same time, I am a little sad that this 2 year process of planning will be over. At first it will be a relief, but I am sure that I'll miss having something to occupy myself with at work when things are slow. :oP

Our goal for this weekend is to relax a bit... but we also have to get some cleaning done around the house, so when our house sitter gets here, they won't know that sometimes the laundry only gets done once a week (instead of my intended twice), and that sometimes we run out of forks because we both hate to do dishes. One bonus about us having to relocate - I can demand a dishwasher in the new house. She is coming to get the feel of the land today, and to meet the puppy (again), and that alone is a scary thing sometimes (depending on how much energy Jupiter has - and it's been pouring rain the last few days so walks have been non-existent... wish us luck). I'm just happy someone will be in our house when we're not, it's such a relief that we're not heating it for no reason other than to keep the pipes from freezing - because I hear that the Farmer's Almanac is predicting snow, and lots of it, while we're away.

Depending on how the weather is tomorrow, we might be doing some engagement photos with my Aunt Boo. I am kind of excited about that - but it also means that we have to run out and find some new jeans for Daryl, and some dressier shirts for us both - it's really shocking how many clothes we have and how little of it is dressy.

We've had great success checking things off our to-do list in the past few weeks:

• My mom is currently working on a few additional things that we want to add to the decor at the hall (a few planter boxes, tin candle holders, and tin planters for the guestbook table).
• We finished the centrepieces - they are a long way from my original vision, but they're cute, and DONE, so I am happy.
• My final dress fitting is on Thursday, and I will be so THRILLED to be done with this dress fiasco. Piece of advice: when a bridal shop owner tells you to order a certain size, DO IT, even if the size you have on fits JUST FINE; do what she says and everything will work out much better in the end. However, they are magic - so even if you don't listen, it will turn out just fine anyway, but it SUCKED finding that out the hard way.
• Tuxes are ordered too. I think attire was the one thing about this whole process that had me stressed. But it will all be fine.
• I picked up my shoes yesterday - I took them in to be dyed. I LOVE THEM. They aren't your traditional white or ivory shoe anymore, and it's perfect! I am trying to get as far away from the cookie-cutter wedding as possible, while still trying to keep to the traditions that are important to Daryl. Although, not getting married in a chapel/church is all on him.
• My engagement ring is back on my finger. It was stressful having it gone for a week, but it looks beautiful. I love that white gold can be refinished - the BIG bonus of not going with platinum. So now it's all shiny and new looking for the big day.
• The tanning process is well underway. Daryl isn't red like a tomato anymore, and I am darker than I have been in probably 7 years. Although - I am not a big fan of laying there under lights, sweating buckets. It's not my thing, so when our 2 month membership is up, I'm pretty sure I will be going back to my super-white self. :o)
• Gifts for our wedding party, etc are TH-----IS close to being finished. I just have to finish a couple of projects, purchase a couple little things, and do my wrapping. Daryl's gift has been done for a long time, it turned out fantastic, and I'm sure he will like it very much.

Anyway, off I go to help my dear friend, Daryl - he's playing with the puppy, and I think she may have just licked his nostril. It's always nice to have help when that happens - it's a gross experience. :oP

'Til next time!

PS - Adding a couple bridal shower pictures to this post, they are also on our wedding website if you want to see more!

Above: My wonderful bridesmaids (left-right), Laura, Shannon, & Marie-Terese.

Above: Me and my wonderful girls (and yes, this is a grammatically correct sentence, "my bridesmaids and I" would be wrong - trust me... I hated that class too).

Space/Time Continum

Umm... Hello out there. Where has all my time gone??? Last time I was here was WAAAY back in July. I thought I had a million days to go until the big day. It's a little bit shocking waking up and realizing there are only 28 more days left. After that I will have a new last name. I will not only have the title of daughter, sister, and friend, I will be a WIFE. Whoa... it's trippy, bizaar, and oh so strange to think of it like that. But I am so excited.

As far as planning goes - we are pretty much go for launch. The centrepieces were completed last night. They are far from glamorous, but they are rustic, and cute, and that's all I wanted. Daryl is working on groomsman gifts as I putter away here at work. [[If I didn't know better, I would say I was having a quiet day (being able to blog and all), but it's been friggin' hectic around here. People tend to do stupid things on holiday weekends - all I can say is that I'm glad that I'm no longer working in Emerg.]] We have to call all the outstanding RSVPs, make up a seating chart, 2 more dress fittings, speech writing, attending our bachelor(ette) events, and other miniscule stuff, that really doesn't matter. If it doesn't get done, none of you will be the wiser, and I will be pleased as punch on the big day either way. And then I will be pleased and plied with rum on the Jamaican honeymoon. :o)

So - I predict snow on November 7. I still think it's crazy that it was 27 degress on November 7, 2008... and we were swimming on Thanksgiving, and in 2009... we turned our furnace on the first week of October. We shall have to wait and see what happens.

That's all for this quick update. I hope all is well with everyone out in interweb land. HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO YOU ALL!

What would summer be without...

... bubbles???

Though, I have never considered them a snack.

Fur Babies

I love my dogs.

There was Cody (of whom I have no digital photos and therefore cannot post).

There is Abby, who we all know is the Diva (the ol' gal is 16, she deserves it).And there is the 'monkey', Jupiter.

You have to get pictures of her while she's sleeping, or catch her in a moment of calm, or else you get this:

Talk about a Diva - "Please... no pictures!"

Jupiter's first birthday (March 2, 2009).

This is why my dog is crazy:

Two things:
1) This will be my evidence if Jupiter ever gets diabetes and Daryl wonders why.
2) By the time the dog's head is in the carton, Daryl has finished the ice cream... there is no salivary exchange (to save those squeemish people from having dry heaves).

The joy of wedding planning?

I am a planner. I love to organize things - I find it therapeutic. I hate surprises. I am, nor ever will be, a fly by the seat of my pants kind of girl. BUT, for the most part, I've been pretty laid back about this whole wedding thing. There have been moments (like July 7th when I realized I only had 4 months to go, and I ended up staying up until 4 a.m. addressing wedding invitations), but, so far, I have been relatively calm. Even though said invitations crippled my hands for days (cutting down cardstock is not easy, neither is embossing, but I am pleased with the final product, and that's all that counts).

Until today. Today is a rainy, blah kind of day, and maybe that's affecting my mood more than I care to let on, but I feel like I'm in a funk. It's not that I'm in a panic, or worried, or stressed, I'm just... in one of those blah kinds of moods. For example, it has been WEEKS since Daryl and I finalized the guest list, and everything was A-okay. We had whittled it down (his mom has a very large family - like 10 siblings), so we had to cut people out. We compromised, we recompromised, we whittled, we argued, compromised once again, and then finalized. And yet I know, am absolutely certain, that there will still be hurt feeling about who is/is not invited (especially on my side of the list). I know, rationally, and realistically that there was just NO WAY I could invite everyone I wanted to, so I cut... and then cut again, and then shrugged it off, and cut some more (then I snuck a couple people back on... and then cut it again). Now I'm sad. I don't want people to be offended, but on the other hand, I can't help it.

Then there is my other worry, photography. I know so many skilled and talented people, but we decided to book a location where our photographer is included in our package. Sure, they're reputable, and I'm sure the photos will be lovely, but I wish we could hire someone personal, who would take the candids, the fun "behind the scenes" shots... and sure, we'll likely get a few of those, but this photographer is #1) not staying for the reception, and therefore doing POSED cake cutting/first dance photos (um... yuck???) and #2) only includes approximately 80 proofs in the package. I wanted to upgrade, but, I am pretty set on keeping to the budget (which is already kind of bursting at the seams a bit). Is it rude to ask guests/friends/family who you know are talented in that field to come (early) just to do special photos for you? Yes. Do I want to do it anyway? Yes. Am I going to? No... but on a funky day like today, I am seriously considering it.

My planning personality is taunting my sanity. I don't have shoes (yet), gotta get on that. A bridesmaid and groomsman have requested to DO something for the wedding (so far, it's all been Daryl & I... and immediate families), so I've given them duties. They are to a) help us make the 'bathroom baskets', and b) help me make the drink tickets (yes, we're doing drink tickets... we're tacky, but I personally, don't like open bars, and really, think that paying for people's dinner, wine, and a couple drinks, is suffice, n'est pas? Hello etiquette hell, I have been a bad hostess). Also, grammar police? Please be kind.

On the bright side, want to see my flip flop basket (for the reception guests who wear pinchey shoes)? Voila:

Ten more things we need to do? 1) Finish buying/making the bridal party gifts (we're halfway there), 2) figure out what we're going to give our parents, 3) finalize must-have photos list, 4) finalize our music 'deets' (please don't ask why I regress into a highschool reject at times - at least I didn't call you homie... wurd) for the DJ, 5) figure out the menu for the rehearsal dinner/day after brunch, 6) engagement photos, 7) decide on tux styles, 8) pick up wheat the my FIL cut for us and make the centrepieces, 9) win the lottery, 10) survive camping for my birthday/the long weekend.

Today's mantra:

Destination wedding? What we should have done. Elopement? Would have been even better.

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If anyone wanted to see, this is the cake topper (minus the background, because it was in the oven). The finished product won't be posted until after the wedding.

DIY

Apparently I was mistaken when I thought I had posted the link to Daryl's and my wedding website. So, here it is... http://www.mywedding.com/darylandainsley. Because I'm fearful of the internet, I have a privacy filter attached to the site, so if you want to take a look, you're more than welcome, but you will have to create a 'myWedding' account to get access to it. A pain in the rump, I know, but I hate the idea of strangers creeping around and seeing where/when the wedding is. Not that it would happen, but how weird would it be to have randoms show up at your wedding because the deets were posted online? Paranoia, I know.

Anyhow, this weekend is my first of three working weekends in July (bummer). Daryl is in Trenton with his parents, visiting his sister, Corinne & her hubby, Derek. I was pretty bummed that I couldn't go, especially because I got stuck working instead. But, I was able to get a few things done today, so it wasn't a total loss. Jupiter and I went to the dog park when I got home from work. She's so much fun to watch, she is such a happy dog. I got a couple loads of laundry finished (things were starting to pile up because I was afraid to turn on the dryer for even a moment when it was so hot that last week). Tonight, the plan is to finish the maps/directions and the accomodations inserts for the invites. With only 126 days to go, the date to send out the invitations is fast approaching! I'm excited about how the paper stuff all turned out. They are hand made, right down to having cut the paper to the correct size. They are incredibly simple, kind of plain, but that's what makes me like them so much. I'd like to think I'm not a fussy person, but I do like things to be elegant, simple, and pretty. I think we've been successful so far.

Other DIY projects - the cake topper. It is 100% finished now (I had the characters done, I just needed to create the backdrop for them). It has been delivered to Joanne at JoRa Cakes, and I'm so excited. We went over all the details, and the cake is 100% taken care of. Yay! One last detail to worry about. The next challenge - the groomsmen. Daryl and I have two projects in mind for them. (I hope they don't read this, because it'll ruin it) #1) Personalized beer glasses, and #2) custom cufflinks. I was scavanging Etsy for wedding party gift ideas and found the custom cufflinks that several vendors were selling. I was floored and immediately fell in love. They are so unique, and cute, and fun... all the things I'm hoping our day turns out to be. So, instead of ordering them from vendors, I ordered the cufflink blanks instead, and have decided to make my own. So far, I have a plan for Daryl, his best man, his brother, his dad, and Bryce... the two other groomsmen and my dad have me kind of puzzled, but I will figure out something personal for them soon. The girls' gifts have been partially purchased, and I'm excited about those too. Not as personal, but cutesy and special non-the-less.

The next wedding to-dos are to get the outfits for the guys decided and ordered (I think we'll hold off until August), purchasing of my shoes, and finishing the must-have photos & music list for Barb. These two lists have been my least favourite part of wedding planning so far... besides dress shopping. If I never set foot in another bridal store, it will be too soon (minus the fitting appointments).

Anyhow, Daryl and I did get to spend some time together yesterday. He took Friday off instead of July 1st, so we went to Wonderland. I am a little bit burnt in the facial region, but we had a good day - I'm still totally zonked though. It's amazing how lots of sun and fun take it out of you! So, for the sake of my printing abilities and the hope that the maps/directions turn out properly, I will scamper on.

Hope all is well with you all out there and you had a lovely holiday this past week!

Happy Wednesday!

The braces went on November 5, 2008. The goal: to have them off by October 2009. Pushing it... yes. But, there was good news today at my ortho appointment, things are looking good! The spaces are closing well (for those who remember, you could have stuck a twoonie between my front two teeth - AT LEAST a toonie, probably enough for a couple double doubles anyway, and now - the teeth touch!!!). Things are just a weeeeee bit sensitive these days (I haven't been able to eat properly in at least 6 months), but when Dr. Lee (my orthodontist/dentist) said that he goal is to have them off for the last week in October so that we can have retainers ready for the wedding/honeymoon, I was FLOORED.

Besides that, we got our tax return this week. We weren't going to claim together, but then Daryl would have owed money and I would have gotten a fairly good return. We decided to do it together, and he got a good chunk of change... and I got a big whopping $2,000. I was excited. Our wedding fund was singing the "Hallelujah" chorus. Anyway... YAY!

Plus, it's sunny and warm and SPECTACULAR outside. It's a good day!

Where have you been all my life?

After a lengthy delay, I am back on Blogger and creating a new post - yay! There really is no explination for the absence, except laziness/business around here, and not having anything of real interest to blog about.

As far as life goes, Daryl and I have been busy working. Daryl is now doing his OWN maintenance route, which was his goal within the company. He was recently offered an opportunity to expand his route, but it would require moving to the GTA (Milton being the closest option). So after a long debate, we decided that wasn't what we wanted right now, but would consider it more if the company made another offer. My job isn't nearly as exciting, I have been working lots as we've had several girls off sick, but besides that, nothing is new on that front.

The wedding plans are going well. We met with our co-ordinator from our venue last weekend to confirm that we are doing the ceremony and reception at the same location. I am so happy that we chose to do everything there, it's so low-key and casual, it suites us very well.

Our invitations have been printed, and I'm busy embossing them and adding the finishing details. I'm glad we decided to do them ourselves, ordering them would have been such a hassel, and even though cutting down cardstock to the correct size has been a drag, designing them to be so personal and having my hands on everything has been a lot of fun. I also finished the cake topper, which I made out of polymer clay - and it's too cute! I'm excited to post all the pictures once everything is said and done.

My dress was ordered in early February and has arrived at the store. I was going to keep it a surprise from everyone until the wedding day, but when we were bridesmaid dress shopping, I was excited and tried on the sample for my girls. It will still be nice to keep it from them until the day of, once the alterations and everything have been done. As far as their dresses go, we have decided to go with different designs for each lady, but same colour and label (we have two chosen already, and one more girl to go). My goal for the day is to have everyone happy, comfortable, and enjoying themselves. I don't want anything fussy or overdone, heck, if I could have convinced everyone else, I would be wearing JEANS!

This past weekend, as well as enjoying Sunday with our families (Daryl's parents and grandmother drove up and we had my parents and Bryce over), we went to discuss honeymoon options with a travel agent. The discussions went well, and I'm super excited. We ended up booking a week at Couples Sweptaway in Negril, Jamaica. We're under budget, booked, and stoked to go! Check out the website http://www.couples.com/12sw/index.html if you're interested in taking a look. It seems like it will be a beautiful resort. The honeymoon inclusions are great, and we're hoping to do an excursion or two, but we'll have to see. I think once we're down there, just relaxing will be just fine (Daryl has never flown and I haven't been on a plane since France, so THAT should be an experience in itself). Apparently people are starting to 'register' for their honeymoons, I guess you can pick different things that you would like to do (like have chocolate covered strawberries delivered to the room, a his/her massage, etc) and your friends and family can purchase them as wedding gifts. I'm not sure if I like this idea, but I thought it was kind of neat that you can do that now.

This Thursday we are meeting with Dave, our minister. He married my parents 29 years ago, and we're so happy he's able to do the same for us. We are doing the pre-marital seminars with him, so we should be learning a lot over the next little while. We're also doing a private pre-marital workshop on our own, so hopefully we will learn some great skills to carry us through a long, happy marriage.

Besides updating here, I'm also trying to keep updated on our wedding website. If anyone is interested in taking a look, there is a link on my Facebook page (on my Knot application).

Hope everyone out there is doing well! I'm off to finish up the laundry for now. Here's hoping I make it back on here again soon!