Almost Done

This past weekend I had a rare Saturday off so we went to the island and basically all the big stuff is done and planned, YAY!

So we finally were able to set up a meeting with our cake girl and that is all organized, so haza! it was the last big thing that needed doing and its done. It looks as though it's going to come in cheaper than the flowers.

The flowers are being organized by one of my bridesmaids and she's super on top of things which is great. She's also doing my make up so yay, one less thing to worry about.

My maid of honor is on top of the hair so that's almost done too, yay once again.

and i know you're all interested in the ever controversial ring situation. So i went at bought one that i like and its getting sized this week and I'll be back over the the island again for thanksgiving so i can pick it up on the weekend. YAY the ring is done.

Guess who i got an email from this morning!! ugh! "ok, lets get this project up in the air!" why could you not have told me MONTHS ago that we wouldn't be getting started until October. I like the ring bought, and i was really happy with it and then stupid ring maker emails me and says lets get going. now i don't know what to do! well yes i do, i just don't want to do it. I need to e-mail the ring dude back and tell him, sorry but you're too late. how do i do it politely as possible. Sorry buddy but i got impatient waiting for you to get off your ass and bought a ring i like better than one you designed.

and then on Sunday we met with our priest and got the paper work underway.

anyway. the wedding is basically planned!!

only another 68 days

On a Roll

Once again darren and I have had a burst of wedding planning activity.

The other weekend we got Bridesmaid dresses, and damn they look hot, infact im worried that my girls are going to over shadow me. And I'm jealous of their dresses, so i went out and got one from the same store in a similar but different style and colour and Wow the dress is awesome!

last weekend we also booked our DJ! His fee is very affordable and he's really excited to work our wedding which makes me really happy. Especailly because the DJ was one of those massive things that hadn't gotten done yet, but now it is, Yay!

Darren and Paul got a fitting done last weekend too, now all we need to do in that department is pick what we want from Moores, which will be done in the next couple days.

Our cake is under way too, we have a friend making it at cost, so yay more saving! Darren and our friend need to get on it though, however its the thing i'm the least worried about. We actually have enough included in our menu that if we don't have a cake i don't think anyone would notice. (except those who are reading this and will now be looking for the cake at the reception)

We also sent out our invites yesturday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! so happy!! Now im just nervus that they're not going to get to everyone :-S

Ok so the ring. Yeah thats not happening. I'm moving on from that and going to find someone else to make it. I'd e-mail the guy and he's say next week, then a month would go by and i'd e-mail him and he'd say next week.... you get the pattern. I feel like i should tell him i'm moving on to someone else, but no one else (including the parentals) agrees. I think the idea is, he might eventually come around in the end and bring something awesome, and if i say bye bye he wont work on it. not that he is now (that i know of).

So we also need to register which we're also doing in the next couple days. Everything is getting done in a timely manner which makes me super happy. so YAY!

wedding ring

so in updated news my wedding band isn't getting underway at all.

i keep email the guy with no response! why don't i call you say because i'm trying to send him pictures of ideas of wedding bands to go with my engagement ring. and when i eventually get in contact with him he says he never got them. so we reconfirm his email and start again and again i get zero response.

i'm getting a touch annoyed.

Bridesmaids

So i've been having a bit of trouble trying to figure out who my 4th wedding party member is going to be.

At first i was trying to decided between two really good friends, boy A and boy B. For help i asked boy C and boy C jokingly complained, "what about me" so then are started to think, "what about boy C". Then i decided that boy B was out because we had grown apart and i wasn't as comfortable around him as i use to be.

So now the choice was between boy A and boy C. I decided to pick boy A. boy A was very touched, but told me when he told his friends they made fun of him because he'd be standing on the brides side of the wedding party. But thats not my problem because none of those people are invited, haha.

So when i asked boy A it was still a ways away from the wedding, like a year or more. Come January 2011 boy A tells facebook that he's going on a tip in 11 months and wont it be exciting. So i ask "boy A, when is this trip exactly?"
and boy A replies "oh crap, i forgot"
at first that was kinda of frustrating, but it's not his wedding and when i asked him it was still a year+ in advance so it was understandable that he'd forget and now its kinda funny. Also missing a family vacation due to one day thats important to me and my fiance, and not to his family is an unrealistic expectation.

So boy A has to bow out, but thats ok because there's boy D, thats right, i didn't revert to Boy C because I grew up with boy D and he means a lot to me. Boy D is also delighted and deeply honored, but i find out that boy D is going away for school and doesn't know if he'll even be able to make it back to the continent for the wedding. So he gracefully bows out even though he wants to be standing up there with me.

So when i asked boy D i had an alternate for him already planned out. Which was good thinking because I evidently had to ask the alternate, girl A. Thats right im being conventional and asking a girl, its very weird i know.

girl A is awesome, she's super funny and a very calming presence. she's one of those people who you can just talked to about anything, and i usually do. Poor girl A probably feels overwhelmed at times by my venting and frustrations, but she always manages to make me laugh which is all that matters. I know she'll be able to keep me and everyone/thing else under control and calm.

So yay! i finally have my fourth party member cemented down. And if for some reason girl A can't do it, Darren and I already have a back up plan.

Invites and stuff...

So!

Darren and I now have our invites picked out and ordered, YAY! Thank you Jenna for showing me etsy.com. We haven't had them sent or anything yet we're going to wait until closer to May or June. If you're invited you'll see them when you get them. If you're not, I'll most likely post a picture of them once i send them out.

We've also picked out and picked up our centre pieces, thank you Ikea! I'm very excited about them, they're really cute candle lanterns. We're probably going to put some sort of ceder or holly wreath around them, however they look pretty darn good on their own.

Also my wedding dress finally came in! I tried it on, it fits half an inch away from perfect, so hello spanx. I love watching "Say Yes To The Dress" on TV and they often show brides who are in for a fitting and don't remember what their dress looks like, or hate their dress with the second look with fresh eyes. Or i guess they wouldn't be fresh eyes if they've been thinking about it for a long time. ANYWAY I was worried that because I hadn't seen my dress since June last year I'd not like it when i saw it again. Nope! Still SOOOOO in love with my dress! I so super happy! and theres really no need to take it in at all, like i said it's about half an inch away from fitting perfectly. All that needs to be done is some major hemming, I'm rather short for this dress, lol. But that requires me to find wedding shoes.

And finally (pathetic fan fair)....
....I have made a wedding website.
http://www.mywedding.com/darrenloveslaura
Darren has yet to write anything about his wedding party members, but thats ok 'cause he's taking like 6, possibly 7 classes right now. However that doesn't mean i haven't asked him to do it a bunch of times, lol.

If you read this blog, and i think no one does, you're welcome to visit the wedding website. and IF you visit the wedding website please leave a comment on our guest book.

so the last post was actually an accident, i meant to post that on my other non-wedding blogg, but if anyone actually eventually reads this blog besides me they may be interested to know what has been going on.

So in updated wedding news:

my wedding band is getting under way. to the right is a picture our wedding photographer took on our engagement shoot (courtneyclarke.com). I love this photo because it captures the blue of the ring, eeee.

So a old school friend's dad designs and makes jewelry and they are making my wedding band because my engagement ring is so unusual. He made a mock up photo of what his thoughts were for my wedding band that i really like, but i also have ideas too which i happened to have draw a while ago. so after he sent me his idea i sent him mine and when he gets how we'll pow-wow. no matter how it turns out its going to be gorgeous and unique which makes me over the moon happy.

Darren and I are discussing having him make Darren's wedding band too, but decision hasn't been finalized yet.


I also called the London Taxi in our area the other day to find out about their rates but i haven' heard back form them yet, im not entirely sure the phone number is right :-S but i'll just have to try again.

Vancouver so far

On the 2nd Darren and I moved me and my stuff to Vancouver, so now I am living with Darren and our room mate Alex. so far its been pretty good. Because I didn't bring over much stuff i was able to get it all sorted and put away fairly quickly on the 2, which was nice. On Jan 3 Darren and I went night skiing at Cypress which is about an hour drive away from where we live. It was a lot of fun. However there were a couple hic-ups before we were actually able to get on the slopes.

I have new ski boots which must be fitted to my ski's by adjusting their bindings. Unfortunately my ski's are 5 or more years old. So the guy at the shop said that the manufacturer had just put out a list which has deemed a lot of older bindings no longer safe. And my bindings are of course on this list, therefore he is not allowed to work on my bindings. Therefore I can’t use my ski’s to go skiing so I have to rent a pair of ski’s. On top of that the manager of the shop tells me he wouldn’t work on my bindings anyway because they are child’s bindings and wouldn’t hold me. This confused and frustrated me because I’ve had the ski’s for 5 years, I haven’t been a child for 10 years and I have NEVER popped out of my ski’s, they have always worked just fine. But doesn’t matter because I had to rent regardless.

The last time I went skiing, which was last year, we had just bought my new boots and I forgot what they looked like, so when packing I grabbed what I thought were my boots. Turns out the ones I grabbed were Dad’s boots so they didn’t fit me and they didn’t fit my ski’s, so I had to rent boots. Which means my boots and my ski’s have never actually met. Haha.

So back to last week when I rented ski’s, because I have new boots I haven’t broken them in yet which means my feet HURT! Because we are night skiing there are no line ups to wait for the chair and very few people on the hill, which is lovely, so we got quite a few runs in in the 3 hours we paid for. But my feet hurt so much they go numb, I can’t feel them at all, except my arches, which I think are trying to detach themselves from my feet. On top of that because I haven’t been skiing in a year my thighs are also killing me. But I do my best to ski through the pain because I love skiing, the snow is perfect and the conditions are lovely, night skiing with not a cloud in the sky is heaven. But my thighs and feet get the better of me and I eventually have to call it quits, but Darren was still able to get 3 or 4 more runs in before we decided to go home. All in all it was a lot of fun and we hope to do it again.

Last Friday, Jan 7, I finally hear back from all my references and am able to hand out my resume. I printed off 15 resumes and wasn’t able to hand out 1. NO ONE was hiring. It was very depressing. Then I went into a convenience store to buy a bus pass, because I rarely have change and was planning on going more into town to look for jobs later. A bus pass for one month in Vancouver is $110.00. I am now very depressed. But its ok, Darren took my out for a friends birthday and we had a lot of fun watching the hockey game.

On Tuesday, Jan 11, I muster up the courage and the happy attitude to go out and look for a job again. This time I was able to hand out 3 resumes. On my way home I stopped into a pub called “The Cheshire Cheese Inn” and I asked if they were hiring. The owner said yup and took my resume then asked me to sit down and he’d be with me in a minute. So he interviews me on the spot.

“have you had any waitressing experience?”

“No, but I did work at McDonalds for 3 months”
“are you a fast learner?”
“I think I can be, but it really depends on what I’m doing.”
“we’re looking for someone we don’t have to train and we’d like them to start in a week. So why don’t you come in on Friday and will give you a two week trial run and see how you do”

Just like that I got a job I have no requirements for, haha. So Friday I start at 9:45am and he mentioned id be working in the evening too. I’m not sure when I’m off but they close at midnight, so at the moment I’m expecting the worst but hoping for the best. I’m expecting to work from 9:45am to midnight with an hour and half brake (he mentioned I’d get an hour and a half brake) and it’s a game night, which means the place could be filled with a lot of hockey fans. But I’m hoping for the best in that I learn quickly and hoping that it wont be too hard. I keep telling myself that if I can work at McDonalds at their busiest times and the Butchart Garden’s coffee shop at their busiest times I’ll be able to work in a small British pub. This pub that I’m working at really reminds me of the local pub where I lived in Wales.

In the mean time I’ve been being a bit of a house wife for Darren. It’s fun in that I know it will end soon, so I’m enjoying taking care of him as much as I can. Right now I’m waiting for Darren to get home from band practice. Darren’s playing trombone in the UBC Godiva band which is just a volunteer school marching band but he really enjoys it.

And that’s pretty much all that’s been happening with me since I moved over here. I’m still looking for a Job with better hours and decent pay, I’ve applied online to a lot of banks and other businesses and today I sent an e-mail to the head of the Classics department at UBC to see if he could suggest anything or had any work for me. So even though I have a job I wont stop looking until I have a good job.

So Far...

So far Darren and I have booked our ceremony venue, our reception venue, bought my dress, ordered his kilt, booked out photographer, chosen our wedding party, booked the priest and set the date. What could possibly be left you may ask? Well quite a few things actually but i won't bore you with that here and now.

When Darren and I first got engaged Darren requested a Catholic ceremony, which was fine by me. Then I found out we couldn't technically have it outside, which I was kind of sad about because originally i wanted an outdoor wedding in the spring or fall. But then we found our ceremony venue and I fell in love. Its a beautiful chapel that i couldn't be happier about. Unfortunately its non-denominational and when searching for venues I saw this one first and fell in love and then nothing else was good enough, but Darren was a hero and told me we'd make it work. Which we have, so yay.

We started a long process of looking for our reception venue. Many places were great, however many places were too expensive. Mom and Dad found a place through a favor from a friend. The meal will be pricey but that's all that we'll be paying for, there is no room charge, yay! Also it has the same classic vibe as our ceremony venue. I am a happy camper. Unfortunately Darren has yet to see the reception venue, but like the prince that he is he said go for it :D

So many who may read this blog may remember in June-ish that i THOUGHT I found my dress; a mermaid/trumpet, tight, strapless, ivory lace thing with a long trains. Then mom and I went to luz bridal on Hillside and Quadra and we found THE dress. I won't describe it in detail here for the hubby-to-be may stumble upon the description. All I'll say is: plain, classic elegance and Audrey Hepburn and that should be enough of a hint. It's gorgeous and met all my criteria for a dress: made mom emotional, is comfortable and was the perfect price. And no I don't have any photos, sorry.

Darren's family were great with getting on board with the kilts. We told them that we wanted Darren to have a kilt for the wedding, and Darren's father offered to pay right off the bat, which is fantastic. We can't thank him enough for that, we really appreciate it. Not only that, but now Darren's whole family are getting kilts. And by whole family I mean immediate family, ie father, and both brothers. At one point there were two uncles who were interested in getting kilts, but unfortunately that fell though. But just as well, for it would have been majorly expensive. I'm very excited to see Darren in a kilt; I think he'll look ridiculously good.

At our friends, Chris and Angela's wedding the past August we met their photographer, who happened to be a school band-mate of mine. We hit it off with her right away and pretty much booked her right then and there before seeing any of her work. On Dec 28th we have our engagement shoot which could not have gone better. We all had a fabulous time. Then the next day mom arranged to have the family photos done by our photographer as well. So we have the great benefit of having two shoots with her before out wedding, however the wedding is still a year away. As of today there are 10 teaser photos on facebook of our engagement shoot and Darren and I are both very happy about them. (photo above by our photographer courtneyclarke.com).

I'm not going to tell you about the wedding party now. You'll have to see when you get there. I will tell you however that the wedding party is 10 people including Darren and myself, so four party members a side. There are going to be 6 boys and 2 girls. We each have 3 boys and 1 girl. Don't take this the wrong way ladies, but when i was thinking about people who i'd want standing by my side and who i knew would be by my side in the future I could only think of one girl and the rest were boys. And all that matters are the relationships with those people, not their sex or gender.

Our priest is actually one of Darren's old high school teachers and has in fact married a few of my mom's friend's children. All the feedback has be just wonderful. He's a lovely man and incredibly nice. I think he's going to do a wonderful job.

We also got wedding favors and table decorations at the end of December. For our favors we were looking for something specific that all stores seem to have around the Christmas time of year and we couldn't find them ANYWHERE! I was slightly bummed but we had a backup plan all ready to go so it wasn't the end of the world. Then Dad found a pile of them at the grocery store! and they were prefect and went perfectly with out table decorations. Super ironic, super happy.

So that's all the news so far. December 10, 2010 was our "one year, pre-wedding, anniversary" as my maid of honor put it, and now it's crunch time (*whimper* yay).