i've found the perfect.... DRESS

 dress: tyler by amsale (photo via amsale)

... but it's not that one. although it was one of my top 3 dresses. i won't be posting my dress up just in case Will sees and really i want it to be a surprise!

i must have tried on 30+ dresses and i ended up deciding on the 5th dress i tried on my first trip out. every other dress just didn't compare. i've said yes to the dress... style.

i'm actually going to be getting a replica of the dress i want, which would cost 5% of the actual dress. yes, i said 5%. i got the idea from my friend, who had one of her wedding dresses replicated by the same company. her dress is exactly like the original so i'm pretty confident that mine will be too. it is a risk, but i think the pros definitely outweigh the cons. i am not the type of person to spend thousands on a dress, i could only wear once so this seems like the best of both worlds. Beautiful designer inspired dress at the cost of a pair of expensive jeans on sale.

i'm expecting the dress to be sent to me in april; in the meantime, they will keep me posted with pictures of the dress production. SUPER EXCITED :)

side note: getting measured by a seamstress was NOT super exciting! i think all the holiday foods i've eaten are finally starting to show...=/

M.I.A

sorry folks. i've been totally MIA and neglecting my blog. HTB is back in town and i'm getting ready to go to AUSTRALIA for 2 months. Getting things ready for work and procrastinating about getting my Australian visa has really taken up my time but post coming soon regarding some EXCITING news!

hint: i've found the perfect......

mission: impossible...ring in a haystack

needle in a haystack... try a RING in a haystack. yup. it happened to me..

I work with kids and on thursday we went to the pumpkin patch in richmond. after picking pumpkins, we took them over to the hay area to have our usual hay fight. during the hay fight, my left hand felt a little different and when i looked down...MY...RING..WAS...GONE!!!

it was by far the scariest moment of my life. it was completely surreal, stuff like this only happens on tv, people! i immediately told my friend/coworker M that i lost it, THANK GOODNESS she kept me calm. we asked the parents and people there to help out, which some immediately started doing. it's really nice to see that people are willing to help out a total stranger. texted HTB, who was not happy about the 5:30am aussie time wake up but this was SERIOUS!

one parent, who was there with his kids told me i should probably get a metal detector. GREAT IDEA! we searched for a while but i had to drive the kids back to our center so they could have lunch and go to class. after i dropped off the kids, i went to go rent a metal detector at A&B tool rental which was right by work (THANKS A for looking it up!!)

Let me say. i was a little skeptical but at this point i was desperate. the poor guy helping me at a&b must have thought i was insane. i was literally covered in hay. hay was in my hair, hay was on my hoodie and hay sticking to my lulus. a crazy woman.

drove back to the pumpkin patch and 2 of my friends met me there to help. every time that thing beeped we were on our hands and knees. the thing even beeped for juice boxes (i found 2)!! 15 minutes go by and things didn't look good but i sweep it over the area where i thought i lost it and it starts beeping a lot! S, me and a random lady start digging.......... BINGO. S finds it!!!!!!

phew. insanely happy. relief. insanely happy. o.m.g. so happy.

needless to say i was ecstatic. sigh.

funniest thing that happened during this traumatic event: one of my kinders saying to her friend in a very serious voice "we have to find pauline's marrying ring or she'll have to marry someone else". awwww....

moral of this story: loose fitting engagement rings and large areas of loose hay are NOT friends.

with my new bff, inspector gadget, right after i found my ring

this girl has learned this lesson and will not be within 5 feet of hay. EVER.

will you be my bridesmaid?

a while back i made cards to ask my friends to be part of my bridal party. i felt like i should somewhat make it special instead of asking them during one of our regular pigging out sessions. being the google queen, i stumbled upon this awesome tutorial for bridesmaid cards at oncewed!

Anna of Rifle Design, the person that made the tutorial actually makes really cute hand painted wedding programs, invites etc. i HEART her calligraphy. i would LOVE invites made by her but it's another thing to add to my fantasy ultimate wish list =/

There was no way i would be able to duplicate hers perfectly so i tried my darnest to find a font similar and did my best to make them as cute as hers. here's my finished product...

(photo credit: jeanie- bridesmaid jeanie, not photographer jeanie)

my cursive writing leaves much to be desired but overall, not too bad. what do you guys think?

a new alternative to photo booths?

Now, i love photo booths and i do plan to have one at my wedding (yet another thing i need to book..) but while at the grand wedding show a couple of weeks ago, i discovered the new alternative to photo booths...FLIPBOOKS! it's similar to cartoon stick flip books we all made when we were kids. what they do is take a short video and instantly make flip books out of your video! the book itself is about 3.5' by 2. it's a pretty nice keepsake and oodles of fun for wedding guests. My MOH and i gave this contraption a go and i must say it's pretty awesome! definitely something new and fresh for weddings instead of the usual photo booth.



In a perfect world where i have unlimited funds for my wedding, i would definitely book these guys AND a photobooth! but vancouver flipbook will cost quite a bit more than a photo booth and take longer to assemble, which means you would have to book them for longer. with 200+ guest on my guest list, not exactly budget friendly. So it's either one or the other for me... booo! But for the brides out there with a huge budget.. definitely look into it!

say yes to the......

PHOTOGRAPHER!!! jeanie of STUDIOjeanie!

it was a long time coming and HTB finally let me do what i would have done 5 months ago. but of course i'm glad that he is the voice of logic and reason during my VERY early fanatic wedding haze. going to see other photographers and other options really made the decision easy for me. one a side note... i say i made the decision instead of we, due to the fact that HTB couldn't tell the difference in quality of photos/ artistry between any of the photographers i sent him!

since HTB is in aussie, i decided to enlist the help of my bridesmaids, friends and cousin to go to photographer meetings with me. boy, was it great to have a bunch of opinionated friends with me. i remember going to one meeting with my bridal party, and the meeting went along fine. the photographer was very nice and explained the services great but everytime the photographer turned his back to get something, they would all throw do-not-hire-him or that-picture-was-NOT-nice looks at me. thank goodness i can count on honest opinions from those girls.
anyway i'm ecstatic about my choice! she's pretty darn awesome! have a look!


i LOVE ring shots

back in the wedding groove

i took a long break from looking at wedding things after my HTB (husband to be) told me it was MUCH too early to do anything else. hmph. fine. But now i'm back in the wedding groove! thanks to his best friend's wedding!

alfred and mijung's wedding was at the fairmont pacific rim. it was such a beautiful space. alfred had to do a lot of the planning himself since mijung was still based in korea but being the wedding loving person i am, i helped him out with minor things like scheduling, printing/designing menus and programs. for their program and menus, i used this awesome free monogram from wedding chicks. they have such awesome freebies there, including DIY invitations and stickers! gotta love free!








alfred had some great cupcakes made by Something Sweet for You. they were absolutely delicious, my favourite were the earl grey tea cupcakes with lemon butter cream. yum. i'm drooling just thinking about it.

to celebrate me getting back in to my wedding groove, i'll be going to the grand wedding show at canada place on saturday with my moh and another friend who's getting married next year =). hopefully i'll get some much needed inspiration!

shoes make the outfit

one of the things I was worried about when it came to my wedding were shoes. not the dress but shoes! my lovely little feet are a size 4. not only is it hard to find shoes that fit, it's hard to find shoes that don't look like grandma shoes. But i've done it!

i knew from the beginning that i didn't want white shoes. i wanted a colored shoes that would match my bridesmaids. Plus, i'm more likely to wear them after the wedding.  i actually already have this pair in a black and a champagne. the violet was out of stock for so long that i didn't think they would bring the shoes back but thankfully they did. i haven't been able to find a shoe as cute as these. they're on order right through zappo and i have to pick it up from the states. i'm so relieved =))))))

one thing done, another 200 things to do

it's done. i've booked the queen elizabeth park celebration pavilion for our wedding ceremony. it took me a while to find a place i really liked and met my requirement of not having to decorate or rent chairs from another vendor. at first, i was thinking of having our ceremony at the UBC rose garden. i always loved walking by it during my long treks to the dreaded anso building. but when i found out you could only book the year of your wedding, it was an instant no. booking a ceremony venue 6 months in advance is a little unnerving for me, especially since i have 2+ years to plan this darn thing! 

will and i went to check out the pavilion before he left for sydney back in january. my favourite part of the space: the huge doors that open up to show the view of the city. i love that even though it's an indoor wedding, we still have that element of it being outdoors with those huge doors open and if it rains we are still okay! i found a lot of gardens i was looking into didn't offer a rain alternative, which really doesn't help.  

planning early definitely had it's benefits. since contacting them in january, they had raised their rental prices but i was able to book the pavilion for the price i was told in january =). another added bonus... no hst! just good old GST!

got the bling, now for the dress

 
honestly, who can deny the excitement of walking into a store filled with wedding dresses? i can't. but being practical, i know any dress shopping i do now is considered wedding dress research. i won't be ready to buy until a little more than a year before the big day. seriously though, i could not wait to try on dresses!


recently, my bridesmaids and i went to bryan's bride in brentwood mall. now when you first look at the place, one of the first things you notice is that they have rows and rows of dresses and on top of that, their dresses are pretty affordable. unfortunately, right off the bat our bridal consultant made us want to leave. the moment she heard my wedding date, she saw us as a waste of time and barely said anything to me. when i was trying on dresses she stood there silently, while the bridal consultant next to us was telling her bride-to-be about the cut of the dress she's trying on, and offering her opinions, etc. at one point, though she told me that i was shopping to early and dresses would start to look the same. VALID point but was moot after how she was treating my wedding dress experience. we had gone to blush bridal in west vancouver awhile back and were not treated like we were at bryan's.