Setting the Stage

There was not a lot of DIY in our wedding but there were a lot of cool details that I was wishing I could blog about before, but didn’t want to ruin the experience for our guests. So I stayed silent.  Now I’m left with a whole bunch of detail information that seems silly to share but since I know there are those out there following along looking for detail help – I’m doing it.

I didn’t want to go crazy with the crafting. Which I don’t think I did.  But I did want those personal touches – of course, everyone does, that turn the wedding into our wedding.  It started with the colour scheme, Orange and Gray as picked by The Boy.  We got so many complements on that choice and I would like it to be on the record that I gave him full credit every time. I may not be big on the crafty crafty ideas but I do LOVE typography, so I included a lot of that, which I wasn’t sure people would notice, but apparently they did.

Again, trying to figure out the most logical way to present this, I think I’ll take you on a virtual tour of our venue.

The yarn balls – unfortunately in the 1000+ photos we have, I don’t have one of the front entrance where they were hung, but imagine them in two bunches flanking either side here.

As guests came in they were greeted by our two lovely bridesmaids, BFFs Kristyn and Kate, and encouraged to drop any cards in the orange bird cage, and “leaf” their print on the guest tree.  We had our bridal party and all those at our rehearsal dinner preprint using red for VIPs everyone else had their choice of orange, yellow or green.  I loved how this turned out btw, it is awesome! Instant art that we will love forever. I have visions of it hanging in a kids room one day – you know, kind of a product of all of this love kind of thing. I got it from Bleu de Toi on Etsy, Love love love. For now it hangs in our living room – the Boy says he likes that it will help him remember our anniversary.

Now, I had made the decision about the tree, and Sista and I decided that guests shouldn’t sign their print because if they did that’s all you would see when looking at it – black scribbles everywhere = boo. And while the Boy agreed, he was pretty adamant that guests have something to sign like a traditional guest book.  I hate traditional guestbooks. I don’t think you ever really look at them again and if he was going to insist I wanted something cool.

Enter The Lover’s Dictionary.  This was a book Sista found at Anthropologie that is a novel, but written as dictionary entries.  Each entry if read on it’s own is a quirky definition of love.  Awesome right?  Well, almost.  It turns out that because we bussed most people in from the hotel, having two things to do in the line was confusing and causing quite the backlog.  So most people skipped the book.  Some did sign it and we love the messages they left.  I’m considering carrying the book around with me for the next year and getting people to sign it as we see them.  Love the book in theory, and in practice the messages that we did get are really sweet.

While I stationed Kristyn and Kate at the guest book/tree table I knew that some might skip it and come back to it later, so I wrote a little poem about how the whole thing worked.  I don’t actually think that many people read it but nonetheless here it is.

From the front entrance people I presume made their way directly to the bar where they were greeted by our wonderful bar staff and a complete list of all that was available for their enjoyment.

And given the length of time they spent in line and the beautiful weather outside, many (I’m sure) headed directly to the bathroom to freshen up.  There they found baskets with various odds and sods to help them on their way, as well as more poetry.

Drink and appetizer (didn’t get any but heard they were delicious) in hand guests were encouraged to head on in and find their seats.  An alphabetical list of names and corresponding tables was at the end of the guest table, as well as a seating map, (Sorry no picture of the map – I was overzealous in my throwing away post-wedding and didn’t think to take a picture of it first!)

The tables were named after all things the Boy and I love (besides each other of course – barf). I may have stolen the idea from my cousin Stacey’s wedding but ours were less lovey, zen and peaceful (like her) and more alcohol, sports and knitting related (like us)!

Can you tell which tables belonged to whom?

• Kiki and Denba
• Lucky Cans
• Steamwhistle
• Toronto Maple Leafs
• Anthropologie
• Sugar Maple
• Richmill Farm
• Urban Farmers
• Western Mustangs
• The Twenties Roar
• Birdie
• The Color Purple
• Come Here Often?
• Hand Dyed Yarn
• Muscle Beach

Inside was a whole lot more orange and gray… we’ll get there, next week.

Catching up part 2 – 365 Photos

As promised we’re getting caught up with the photo challenge!

January 26 – Cheeks

January 27 – Preparation

January 28 – Tradition

January 29 – Terror

January 30 – Memory (okay you got me this one was taken on the 28th)

January 31 – Temptation

February 1 – Shiny

February 2 – Old Fashioned

February 3 – Rough

February 4 – Sport

Still Taking Photos – 365 Photo Update

I know you thought I didn’t get past two weeks of taking a photo a day.  You’re incorrect – I just picked a poor day for photo day since Sunday is laundry day and that means I’m never home to go through my photos and title them on Sundays.  Then the week starts and then… it’s February.

So without further adieu I give you January’s photos.

January 16 – Felted

January 17 – Signs

January 18 – Warmth

January 19– Quality

January 20 – Puzzle (Or – Why is there corn on my windshield?)

January 21 – Extreme Close-up

January 22 – Big and Small

January 23 – Custom

January 24 – Crooked (intentional of course!)

January 25 – Resourceful

Tomorrow January 26 – February 3 + Wedding Wednesday!

365 Photo Challenge

So this was on my 101 in 1001 list.  And I tried it when we got engaged – I thought, I’ll have so many things to take pictures of this will be so easy. Lies.  Not easy.  Not easy at all.

Here is why this photo challenge is just that – challenging.

1. Some days I don’t do anything.
2. I don’t always remember to bust out my camera
3. iPhone photos while pretty good are not always all that great – especially daily.
4. Using strictly my iPhone doesn’t teach me anything about our real camera.

But it’s on the list for a reason, so I’m determined to make it work.  I found a theme list, that is a list of 365 photo themes that I can try to capture over the year.  I think what got me frustrated the first time I tried was I was looking for some way to capture the whole day in a single photo… and some days I just don’t do much that’s photo worthy in my humble opinion.  Get up, shower, make breakfast, go to work, come home, make dinner, knit, blog, talk to The Boy, read, go to sleep.  Sorry, call me boring but that’s just life some days.

This is why I like the theme idea. It takes the pressure off capturing my whole day in one photo. But of course I need to put my own spin on it so this is my plan.

See the new tab – 365 photos.  I’ve listed the themes there, and I will hyperlink them as I cross them off to my weekly photo challenge update, which will happen on Mondays.  I’m not holding myself to those themes specifically and you might find that I add a new theme if one that is there really doesn’t capture the picture I’ve taken.  Some will be on my iPhone but I’m really going to try and take as many as possible with our Nikon. What’s more – I’m hoping this forces me to take the plunge and switch the camera off automatic – prepare for some terrible pictures.

I started January 1.  And if all goes well, by December 31, 2012 I should have a decent handle on how our camera works.  I’m going to try and get the Boy to participate too – I know he won’t take one everyday, but I’ll let you know which ones are his.  I’m totally fine with the 365 being a somewhat joint effort.

So without further adieu – here is week one

January 1 – Glass

January 2 – Determination

January 3 – Anticipation

January 4 – Kitchen – (or the day I wished we had a dishwasher!)

January 5 – Purge

January 6 – Heat

January 7 – Skating

January 8 – Jealous

More than a Piece of Paper

I’m Back!

I’m married!

I’m officially Mrs. Boy.

I’m different.

You may recall from my post from the night before that I was feeling a little unsure about what would be different once The Boy and I said “All the days of my life.”  I decided we would officially become the F word.  A family.  To be honest I wasn’t exactly sure of the words as I was typing them. I mean, he’s been my family for a long time. Would I really feel any different?

I’m here to tell you friends the answer for me, and for The Boy is an emphatic, absolute,  no doubt about it, bolded, underlined and italic YES!

It took only a few hours I think, adrenaline is a crazy thing and despite a distinct lack of sleep all week, terrible pillows at the hotel, and a really just a series of naps the night before I must say I rocked it all day.  The nervous stomach subsided as soon as that ring was on my finger.  My first words beyond “Thank you” to the 140 people congratulating us outside the church were to my beautiful Sista, “I’m starving! Can someone get me something to eat?!”  Pictures, dinner, dancing, smiling, a small toe cramp situation, more dancing, clean up, a bus ride back to the hotel and finally a moment alone with my new husband. (hehe)

We were lying on the bed in the hotel, after exchanging our gifts and he asked, “Do you feel different?” I said, “Yes. I do. Do you?” He answered, “Yes.  This feels different. I feel different.” and “I’ve never been so happy.”

We agreed, it’s more than a piece of paper. It’s definitely something worth celebrating.  I’m someone’s wife.  The Boy, he is my husband.  The past few days we keep saying it to each other as if trying it on for size.

“Hello husband!”

“How was your day, my wife?”

Our day was perfect. Honestly, aside from a toe cramp on my end and a green finger on The Boy’s end (we’re visiting our jeweler on Sunday!) absolutely everything went off without an issue.  Our venue was beautiful, our venders were awesome, our w-party was everything we needed them to be.  We danced all night long, it really was a perfect day and a perfect wedding.

All of the work, and 10 months of planning, the stress the week or two before, all of it – totally worth it.

I am someone’s wife.  The Boy, he is my husband. It feels different.  It’s a feeling in my heart and in my gut. It matters. The piece of paper matters. It’s different. I’m different. We’re different.

It’s more than a piece of paper.

Housekeeping notes:

This is one of two sneak peek pictures I have from our second photographer, Brian Van der Pryt, if you have photography needs in the Windsor area – let me know I’ll hook you up!  I’m so excited to see them all I can hardly stand it!

A full recap to come, but I think so as not to overwhelm I’ll stick with my plan and tell our story through Wedding Wednesdays.  That should at least give me a few weeks to get more pictures from people!