Unsuccessful Knitting Day #2

We left yesterday shortly after dinner. This meant that there was no way I was getting at knitting done since I like to be able to see my stitches if I need to. I'm not quite so pro as to be able to knit in the dark...yet. (Movie theatre knitting, here I come!) We ended our first day of driving around midnight. 

This morning we left pretty early, which I was pretty excited about. (A whole day of knitting) I started strong and soon faltered. I decided to start on my shawl with the goal to finish it today. It turns out that bumpy Saskatchewan roads are not conducive to lace knitting. I then decided to work on my llama hat. Apparently I brought the wrong cable length. If it was shorter I could knit circularly and if I'd have brought a longer cable I could have used the magic loop method. I thought about working on my Monkey socks but the ssk and other stitches I needed to knit together wouldn't  be easy to work on the bumpy road. So I'm stuck working on the second So Square sock. There will be no shawl or hat for me, but there may be a new pair of socks for Ji. I'm a little upset about this. 

Oh well. Look, a wheat field. 

 

5 weeks and counting!

The time until the wedding is getting very very short. Oh my! Next week is the Bridal Shower/Social which will be fun, but that date also marks the 4 week mark until the wedding, eep!!

There aren't a lot of things to do really. Which makes the month issue less threatening but still slightly terrifying. The invites have been sent out and we're already getting RSVP's back, so it's nice to know that people are actually coming to this. We've also just moved into our new house and are in the process of unpacking. We need to get this place presentable before a few guests arrive for the wedding. My dress alterations are one and all my accessories are here.

When I think about it, the to-do list is quite short. I just need to choose songs, get my hair trial done, make up a seating chart, write escort cards, and make sure we pick up the rings and get my ring cleaned before the wedding. It's short, but will still take time.

I'm pretty excited and can't wait, but I'm also really nervous as I'm terrible with names and will be meeting a lot of Jirah's family I've never met before, and also becoming reacquainted with some of my extended family. So far, I'm ok and I'm hoping to get a lot of the music picked out next week before the shower, but we'll see how I'm feeling after that.

Ginny

Updates!

It's been quite a while since I've posted but there's a good reason for that, I promise. Firstly, there's less than three months so it's getting down to the crunch. Also, we have a big move to look forward to at the beginning of April, so we're getting ready for that. We're also dreading the unpacking since the house will need to be presentable for the wedding so those unfortunate few who are staying with us will actually have a place to sleep, and possible sit and stand.

Lots has been done in the past few months. I'll do a quick recap.

We went for our cake tasting (yumm!) and decided on hazelnut cake with hazelnut butter cream between the two slabs, but wait, there's more! The two slabs will be cut in half and chocolate ganache and salted caramel will be between those. I can't wait to get more of that in my mouth! While we were there, Nina of Cake Studio taught us how to properly pose for pictures while cutting the cake. I just hope we can remember by the time the wedding rolls around.

We chose our wedding favours! Cakettes from Cake-ology (another Yumm!) They're going to be a dark chocolate and a white chocolate one with purple drizzle on top and filled with red velvet cake and cream cheese filling! Although we may change our minds since there are too many great options of cake flavors.

We have ordered this from Unity in Glass. We will mix glass shards instead of sand for our unity ceremony. Then send the crystals away and they'll be melted down and made into this sculpture. We thought it was a much nicer way our unity ceremony. As in, a lot prettier than a jar of sand or a candle or some knots.

 I found my shoes on zappos.com. They're Nina's which are supposed to be super comfortable. This pair was too big so I couldn't find out how comfy they are but I tried them on with my dress and they're perfect. I'm just waiting for the right size to be shipped here so I can get my dress fittings done and start dance lessons, yay!

Our cake cutting set. Not a lot to say about this.

I'm going for my hair trial in May and this is what I want to get. I'll have a ivory flower in my hair on the side and then also have a veil either in the top or bottom.

 Here's my mom in the dress she'll be wearing. So pretty and it will look awesome.

My grandma in a dress that's so her. It's blue with flowers and maybe a butterfly. Looks great!

Here's my rings! Top left is just my engagement ring. Top right is my wedding band (which is really a jacket) in the case. And the middle bottom ish is them together. The engagement rings slips in between and fits snugly. I'm a huge fan of it.

Here's Ji's ring (kinda). He got Epsilon (who also made my band) to custom make this Carlex band. The outside bands are thicker and the middle band is thinner and it looks slightly different than this but very similar. He's super happy about it.

We also got out awesome guest book from The guestbook store. It has pages for our invitations and a page for our reflections on the day itself. The guest pages have places for your favourite memory of me and Ji, where you came from for the wedding, advice for us and any favourite memories of the day. We're really looking forward to this because it will have more meaning to us than a signature on a page.

We've also chosen the meal options, picked some songs, and are working in invitations. There's also a lot more finished as well and only a bit more left to do but it's going to be a busy next two and three quarters months.

The elusive details

I've got the big things down. The venue, the dress, the flowers. But the smaller details are starting to creep up on me! I've got favours to order, music to choose, vows to write, centre pieces to arrange, hotels to book, a honeymoon to plan now and a billion other things.

I'm so glad I'll be going to the Wonderful Wedding Show in Winnipeg this Saturday. This means I can try to get a good chunk of this list finished. I'm hoping to of with Trudy (future-mother in-law) and if not, I'll be dragging Jirah along with me so he can actually help in the planning.

My goals for February are to have the honeymoon booked, hotel blocks saved, a wedding timeline plotted out, and to work on a few other details here and there. I'm going to try to not freak out about it too much because I only have exams in April, and no classes and then I'll have all of May to finish up my planning and get everything into place. It's really hard to remember I'll have a whole month or more where I can just focus on wedding stuffs. Wooosaaaa and don't panic.

P.S. I'm SOO EXCITED!!! :D:D:D:D

Updates!

Hurrah for getting things done! (Yes, my school work was finished first mom...) So we have decided on some things, thought about others, and investigated and sampled others (yumm). And the verdict is:

1. We are getting cakettes from Cakeology for our wedding favours. One will be brown chocolate and the other white with a white J or brown V on them and hopefully purple cake. We'll see about the colours. If you don't know what cakettes are, you're missing out! It's basically cake that has been dropped on the floor (kidding!!) then munched up and mixed with icing then dipped in chocolate or fondant and are amazing!!

2. We had a cake consult with High Tea Bakery last week and are checking out Cake Studio Monday, November 15th. I have a feeling we'll go with Cake Studio but they're both great bakery's. Just Cake Studio doesn't charge PER sugar flower while High Tea wants $35+ PER FLOWER!! Ouch! But their cakes are beautiful and almost worth it. Hopefully Cake Studio tastes better somehow then it will be ok.

3. We have a consultation with Platinum Productions to be our DJ. Included in their package are 2 LED lights too. Oooohhh shiney :D At the wedding show they were the most professional. Although, the first time I called them to ask questions they were kind of rude and thought I was crazy for wanting to book so early. They were much better this time and we'll see how the consult goes but we'll probably book them.

4. I'm probably going to skip the harp for the ceremony and just get a mixer and other thingy from the hotel  so we can play music with an iPod. That way we can have nice songs and not worry about what the harpist knows how to play and finding a singer.

5. We are doing save the date magnets. Just pricing them now. This also means we need to work on the guest list some more and have a rough draft so we know how many to get. This is the hard part, not because I don't know who to invite, I'm already done, but because Ji's family is huge and he's not sure to invite or who's kids are who's and what not. So when I can drag him away from his games, I'll get him to go over his rough draft.

6. Rena has been a huge help in starting to find some songs for the wedding. I have my first dance and a few other big moment songs picked out.

7. There's probably more but I can't think of it right now. Just so many details swimming around. Sorry there aren't any pictures this time but it's hard to take pictures of a DJ or stuff I've booked. Hence the links, they have the pictures.

There are still quite a few things I need to work out but a bunch of those I won't have to worry about until January. Like chair covers, centre pieces, invitation wording, my shoes, earrings, hair (though Rena has found me some awesome hair styles already) gifts for everyone, and stuff. Right now I'm worrying about Christmas and knitting my little fingers off to get some gifts finished. I'm surprised how ahead I am in wedding planning and Christmas gift making. Everything is going quite awesome this year :)

I'll blog again when I know more.

~Ginny

Abbreviations

I've been reading a lot of wedding websites, blogs, and forums and there are a few abbreviations that come up a lot and that I'm used to using by now. I'll keep a list here so you can refer to them if you're unsure of what something means.

FH - future husband

DH - darling husband

MoH - maid of honour

BM - bridesmaid

GM - groomsman

FG - flower girl

RB - ring bearer

MOB - mother of the bride

FOB - father of the bride

MOG - mother of the groom

FOG - father of the groom

FMIL - future mother-in-law

FFIL - future father-in-law

FSIL - future sister-in-law

STD - Save the date

HM - honeymoon

That's about all I can think of for now. I'll add more and try to use these as little as possible. The one I use the most is fh, but that's silly because it's as long to type as Ji so I'll try to change that.

Bakery and STD's (no not the deadly kind)

I have chosen my bakery but not yet booked it. I'm going to go with High Tea Bakery because I love the designs they do. They seem a bit more modern and do the damask look very well. I really want a square cake with a damask look at purple ribbon on it and I feel they can pull it off the best. Hopefully they aren't booked by the time I get to talk to them about it next week.

We recently got our engagement pictures taken and they turned out amazingly! Our photographer is Manuel Sousa and he is phenomenal! We are thinking about sending a STD (Save the Date) our around Christmas time in magnet form with a little Christmas letter so everyone can remember when the wedding is before we get around to sending the actual invitation. (I have the blank invitations sitting downstairs ready to be printed when we're ready)

This means I need to go over the guest list and try to get Ji to go over his side again. I get to be the one to retype it on a spread sheet and then enter it into the knot.com Thankfully, Carissa has already addd a few people and their addresses to the list on the knot so that saves me a bunch of time. :)

I'll post when I have more pictures, ideas, or things finished.
Gin