To Do Items

It's really fun how, the more you check off from your "To Do" checklist, the more stuff starts popping up on it. I remember first going through the list thinking 200 items?! That's insanity!!! And now we are scamerping through them, only to find, that we need to add more?

Yesterday I got to check out a bridal show with my Mom (now you know where I get the procrastination from). I had gone to it back in September, but thought it would be cool to bring my Mom to check out what's there. Now I thought I was slow, and anylitcal, considering different possbilities, as I stroll through a show, or even mall. But, my Mom is actually SLOWER. Yup, that's right. I got to consider and calculate most options twice before I managed to get outta there. lol Now we even have to consider birds - lol. My Mom is so cute and hilarious. =)


Anyway, I later checked out a bridal event that they were hosting at Micheal's. And there's so much cool stuff that you can make! =) This spells trouble though, since I of course want super cool decorations, and hand made stuff. So anyway, I've had to add a few more things to the checklist now: buy fabric for guest box, make place table settings, get vases from ikea, etc. I think it will be well worth it though. =)

Cheers,
Nora

Checking off items from the Checklist

Yay! I can see things falling together now, with more and more items being removed from the checklist.

The cool thing, is that I get to go to a wedding this weekend! =) I think it's the only wedding in between now and Ours, so I'll have to take a lot of pictures. Girls you better watch out - 'cause I might come back with like 50 ideas, and 50 days to do them in.

Oh yeah there are 89 Days to go until the Big Day. I'm still really happy that the 1 finally got removed from the countdown. =)

1 week until I get the invitations! =)

Sorry, I gotta get outta here for teaching tonight. So it's gonna be a short post.


Cheers,
Nora

Fantastic Favours

ooooh I am sooo excited! I have to get this out now, so that maybe I'll be able to get some sleep tonight. =)

My parents/aunts/cousin have found us the perfect favours! Yup, that's right - the perfect favours! My mom brought back a sample, and it looks like they will be amazing! One of a kind that's for sure hahaha =) I just know you'll love them! We hope that you'll get to use them after too - that's the plan anyway. =)

There are a couple of favours that I got to use after the wedding, one of which you might have seen at my apartment in Chesterville - it looks amazing. Favours truly are my favorite thing to look up online for the wedding - there are a multitude of options. It's awesome that we managed to find the bestest favour ever! (Thanks Mom & Dad) =) I can't wait to see the real thing in 5 days!

Okay, not much else is new, but I just wanted to share my excitement.

Hope you have a Happy March!

Cheers,
Nora

More off of the "To Do list"

Okay, with a lot of things already finished, I don't really have much to update on. Do you have some ideas for things that I can add to the blog?

Late Update

Hey everyone, sorry for the late update, but now I have even more to update =)
So there's a lot going on!

For starters we've ordered the bridesmaid dress! =) Is that awesome or what?! Yay, and the girls look great! I like the styles that they chose, and they look fantastic! It's really interesting going shopping with girls of various shapes, sizes, and colors. I've discovered that different styles and colors actually do look better on certain people, and that girls didn't just make that up. All this to say, that I think that the girls look fantastic in what they chose.

I also ordered my dress! But you already know all about it - I just wanted to throw it into the update. =)

Jeff and I started our registry at the Bay . We really like it, but with one item already discontinued, we might have to go back in a couple of months to update it with the new 2007 items. We also have a few items registered at Canadian Tire. Even though we weren't sure about making one - since we have a lot of stuff already except the big stuff (couch, TV, Bed Set, Washer/Dryer), we decided to make one to upgrade our stuff, and get cool dish sets and stuff.

Making a registry is actually a lot of fun! It's like going shopping, but not having to pay for anything. And the zapper makes up for the boring spiel we had to hear at the start.

Our DJ search is over! Hurrah! We found one - and it'll be awesome! Again, keep the Music requests coming.

How's that for an update? Not bad for one month eh? I'm sure that February will have a little less excitement, since most of our big stuff is done now. I like that since the next few weeks are going to be crazy busy. Anyway, I hope that all is well for you so far, and that 2007 is the awesomest year yet!


Cheers,
Nora

Hurray a Dress!

Well I finally found a wedding dress! =)
So you can all get off my back now ;) lol

It looks awesome! The funny thing is that I tried like a dozen dresses on, so I can't remember Exactly what this one looks like, so I'll be equally as surprised as you guys - hahaha.

152 days to go!

2006 Update

Well, I can't believe how fast the time flies! Can you believe that it's already 2007?! Wow!

I'm now realising that this whole wedding planning thing is kinda interesting in the sense of variance. Like I could spend 3 hours/day from now on planning the wedding, or one third of the time, and POSSIBLY even end up with a similar result. How?

Well, let's take looking at photographers for example. So you need a photographer; you can go through lists online (or at a bridal show), pick out five of them, look at their portfolio's, price lists, availability, etc... interview them; then choose a photographer. Or, you can simply just go with one that a friend used, meet with them once, and then go for it. I'm sure Jeff and I will probably find a balance in between the two, but we'll see what happens.

Okay, so back to the updating portion of the entry, it's titled "2006 update" afterall. We've managed to announce our engagement to just about everyone now - even my cousins in Egypt and Kuwait know about Jeff & I getting married in June. My mom has also told the whole Egyptian community, and the last of the congratulatory emails trickled in today (well I might still possibly recieve some tomorrow, but hey, I think this is it). Our families have met (well most of them), it's hard with some of his living in another province. We've picked our wedding date (166 days to go - but who's counting?), and venue - so that's awesome! =) We've even figured out a florist (http://www.anikaartsandflowers.com/)!

It seems like Lavender ( a light bluish-purple for our male reader), will be the color, this is subject to the availability of the wedding dress though - my Mom wants me to wear a style that I absolutely don't like. So anyway, the plan is to order the dress soon.

Jeff and I have been thinking about a registry. And well there are pro's and con's to having one. The thing is, it's a good idea because then you don't end up with like 10 gnome lawn ornaments or something crazy like that. But the reality is... Jeff lives in a townhouse, and I also lived on my own in a 2 bedroom apartment. I also worked at Eatons - where I managed to get a bunch of stuff for a fraction of the cost! So together we have 3 microwaves, 4 sheet sets, 8+ towels, a slow cooker, 2 fondue sets, a fire extinguisher, placemats, blender, ... and you get the idea. The funny thing is that all my stuff is new - since I only lived in Chesterville for 8 months. So like the slow cooker was only used once, the blender 5 times, and well you get the idea. I guess the thing is, that we can use a nice set of dishes, nice glasses, and probably a few other minor things, but there's no way we can come up with enough stuff (that we need) for 150 guests. So should we really make a registry? (Will people get pissed off that there's nothing left to buy?)The things that we do need are a washer, dryer, couch, television, bed suite (apparently I need to leave my childhood bed, might table, and dresser behind), curtains, lawn equipment (not that we'll have much lawn), and a honeymoon. One good thing about the registries though, is that apparently most stores have a buy out plan. So if there's something on your registry that you didn't get, you can buy it for yourself and they'll cut you an extra 10-15% or something so you can finish off the plate sets and stuff. Hmm - I wonder if they'd give an extra discount for the washing machine too. Hmm - so it might be worth getting a registry after all. The whole concept of a wedding registry is kinda weird though too - I guess that everyone does it, and that people like buying wedding gifts - so why not get something the couple picked out? =S If you have any cool home decor mags lying around - pass them along my way. ;)

I guess there isn't really that much more to update. And looking for favors is a lot of fun, so I probably will never update that - since I like to keep checking them out. =)

Well I hope that 2007 is the best year ever!

Cheers,
Nora

November Update

Well there are 28 weeks to go until the wedding. I actually have a lot to update though! =) Jeff and I finally figured out our wedding party (Allison, Jumoke, Juli, Adrian, Charles, and Chris - we had to fight over Chris, but he ended up being on Jeff's side.) - though we didn't really ask them all yet. We also met a photographer! We still have to meet another one to compare. The other good news, is that I got a teaching job that goes full-time until April. So March break will be spent doing a lot of wedding planning. But luckily we'll have some more income coming in to do it with.=)

I have an idea of what I want for flowers now, but not totally yet. I'm going to go to an open house on Sunday at anikaartsandflowers.com.

The other cool thing is that we heard from another Nora & Jeff =) Is that hilarious or what?! They're getting married this Sunday - so good luck to both of them! Jeff and I still have 196 days to wait. We also have 199 days to wait for the new home we just bought - hurrah, we finally found a place to live (we won't be homeless). =)

How's that for an update?

Cheers,
Nora

Invitations

Invitations are really cool actually, I just can't believe how many are out there! Wow - it's crazy! =)

It's really interesting how they price out invitations. Like if you want 50 it'd cost around $75 (like no envelopes or reply cards, etc.). How much do you figure for 100? Well actually almost $100, not $150 like you'd think. And for 200 invitations $140. I mean you can get ones that cost more than this - but it's just to show that the more you buy the more you "save". So considering we are probably going to need more than 100 invitations, it's actually cheaper to buy them. Yeah, believe it or not I'm actually going to save more money buying the invitations than making them. So I don't get the whole "we saved money by making our own invitations" thing. That's just craziness! I mean unless of course you only made 20 invites. In which case, yeah making your own would be cheaper (you'd probably save 25 cents on each invite - besides I think that you can only order a minimum of 50 cards anyway). So if I were inviting less than 50 people to the wedding, I'd definately consider making invitations, it'd not only save about $20, but it would be fun to make!

Creating things is always a blast, but it doesn't look like it will happen for the 120 invitations that need to go out, but definately for the centrepieces and the favors -spelt the Canadian way Jumoke ;). Now to figure out a theme....

Venue Victory

Hurrah! We have booked the Chateau Cartier! =) *fireworks exploding, trumpet fanfare plays* So save the date - June 16th at 5pm. =) We also might have found a home for around that time, with the closing date being June 19th. Talk about a busy month!

October Update

Likely Date: June 16th
Likely Venue: Chateau Cartier
Colors: Maybe Blue - although I still really like the lilac color, it's like blue with a hint of red thrown in the mix.

Next Steps: Finalising a Wedding Party, Finding a Photographer, then finding a florist after I figure out if we want flowers as a centrepeice, or a mix.

=)

Venue Hunt Finished!

Hurray! We've finally leaned so much towards Chateau Cartier, that we've decided to do it! =) June 16th it is! yes! =) That's in 228 days! That gives us 32 weeks to get everything together! oh yeeeaaaah!

Top Two

Alright, so Jeff and I have limited to a top two list!

Hurrah! *still jumping in excitement*

The options are:
-the Chateau Cartier on June 16th, 2007
pro's include an excellent rain plan, a beautiful place, and a dancefloor wherever we like (read central), free parking...! But it's mid June (maybe a bit early if I have a teaching job)

- the Villa Lucia on July 7th, 2007
pro's include having a larger reception area with nice decor (on walls etc.), the date we wanted, proximity to Andrew Haydn Park (nice place for wedding and wedding pics), free parking ...!

Alright, so that's pretty much it for now, a huge update in my eyes, but we'll see. Now to figure out an exact wedding party.

Cheers,
Nora

Another update (I'm not sure what number I am at now) =)

Well yesterday, Allison came by to take me dress shopping. For both the wedding dress and bridesmaid dresses. She's so cute, she brought a list of stores to visit. We were headed to one in Stittsville, but stumbled accross another one and went in for a visit. Wow!

Yup, the dresses were beautiful! Allison and I each picked a few out, and headed to the dressing palace, err I mean room. It was huge! Anyway I tried on the dresses, and the first one I tried on, looked amazing! Wow - it looked beautiful. The train was a little longer than I expected though, but it looked amazing. So we practised dancing in our dresses (She tried one a great bridesmaid's dress too.), it was a lot of fun. The second dress looked pretty good too, it had a hint of lilac in it - and I loved that. (It's still one of the colors I am considering) The third dress I tried on was just hilarious - definately not for me. All in all, bridal dress shopping was about ten times more fun than I anticipated. One thing is for certain, "banana" is out. ;)

We then headed to another store in Stittsville, when we got there, I told the saleslady about the two designers I really liked after my online search. We browsed through a couple, and then she lead me to the "Perfect Dress". It was amazing trying it on, and Allison was super excited when she saw it too. It had the exact features I had described for what I was looking for, plus an extra one (which I haven't decided yet if it makes the dress better or not). I'll have to check it out again, when the store isn't closing. Two bonus's though - 1 - it's cheaper than the other dresses, AND they give the bridesmaids a 14% discount (no matter how many bridesmaids there are), AND the bridesmaids dresses were a little (about 5-10%) cheaper than where I had bought mine last year. =)

It was a great outing! Much better than what I anticipated. Did you know that you have to order the wedding dresses more than 6 months in advance?

Cheers,
Nora

Wedding Party

Whoa -
it's kinda of funny, my friends are asking "What do I do?!"

They are even looking up their duties online. Little do they realise that their duties start now. Get ready Allison, I'm going to call you tomorrow, to try to talk some things out. =)
Yup, even though there's no exact date set yet- your duties started already! Thanks for being such great friends. =)

Nora

Wedding update and ideas

So, I went to another wedding. It was fantabulous! I got to go to Boston, and see family members I haven't seen in about 2-10 years. So that part was also great! =)

Anyway, the wedding was awesome - less people than I expected, but great food and service - it was at the Ritz Carleton. I also managed to pick up a few things that I can use for the wedding:

- Photo guestbook
- Gift baskets
- Cake as dessert

Bassem - my cousin, had a tasty wedding cake, that also served as dessert. I usually don't end up eating the wedding cake at weddings (twice out of 21 weddings in the last few years), since I am usually good with the dessert they provide, and then get too full for cake. So having an excellent cake, and serving it as dessert - was great!

There's more I can say, but I have to keep it short for now , since I am working on moving out, of both the classroom and my apartment. Talk to you guys soon.

Cheers,
Nora