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

It's been a while (and not the crappy song by Staind)

I'm back new and improved by popular demand.. well it was really the request of my mom, and the fact that she reads this makes it totally worth it to sit down a write it.

I've moved the blog from wordpress to blogger because my craft blog is here and I like the layouts better. I found a pretty layout and added a nice counter and even moved most of the posts rom the old one to here to make it easier, yay!

Now for the updates!
I chose bridesmaids dresses and they look like this:

Except purple.























My bouquet looks like this:

Bridesmaid's bouquets look like this:
Yes those are Jirah's hairy legs, not mine.

Mom's corsages: Ignore the blue bracelet

Groomsmen flowers:

Ringbearer flowers:

All of these flowers are silk so I can keep my bouquet forever! Mine is more purple and the maids are more white to offset our dresses.

Going to find a bakery and possibly hire a DJ sometime this week. More info to come but my wrist hurts from the odd angle of having my laptop on my lap and searching and trying to make this new blog work out for a few hours. Break time!

Ginny

(P.S. sorry about the weird spaces, I'll fix them later)

Updates and the final lady

It's been a while since I was able to blog. Life issue got in the way and the wedding planning stopped. Now that summer is coming I have had time to sit down and think about the wedding and what we want with it. So here are a few updates.

1. I have chosen my final bridesmaid. My best friend Rena snags my last spot and here's why.
Rena and I have been friends since grade three. She has always been one of my closest girlfriends and as time went by and friends started to drift apart, Rena was always there for me. When I needed to get out of the house her place was my second home. It got to a point where I would sleep over, go to work for the day, and when I got back her mom, Amanda, had dinner saved for me in the fridge.

Now that I've moved away from my hometown one of the people I miss most is Rena. I miss having a girlfriend to talk to and someone to go shopping with. A friend who looks out for me and who I can look out for as well. I believe we will always be best friends and this is why I chose Rena.

I had two other people who I could have asked to be in my wedding party but it wouldn't have been fair to ask one and not the other as we were all friends as kids but haven't been as close as we used to. The fact that Rena and I have stayed in contact means a lot to me.


     The next update is what's going on this weekend! Riss had some time to come to the city so we have wedding appointment booked! We're going to a flower consultation, to try on sone dresses, look at invitations and center piece ideas, try a bakery and see if I want to get my cake there, and possibly look at my ceremony venue again to try to get some decorating ideas for. It should be fun and a great way to spend time with my sister-in-law to be. :)

There shall be plenty of updates coming soon.
Ginny

Maids, Matrons, and Men

I have chosen my maids of honor and my matron of honor and I have finally gotten Ji to somewhat commit to his men while he hasn't yet chosen his best man.

My maids and matron:
I have chosen my matron of honor to be Rissa, Ji's sister. We had a rocky start when we first met but as we got to know each other a bit better we have really gotten along. She's my designated wedding planner and is crazy organized and filled with so many great ideas and being Ji's sister she has a lot of the names and addresses I'll need for the invitations and had already out this information and this has probably saved me an argument. She's been available for any questions about the wedding or married life. She's the older sister I've always wanted.

My maid of honor is my little sister Karlie. We fought a lot as kids, and we still fight a good amount now but we've always been there for each other, and maybes her more than me. When I snuck out of the house, had a broken heart, or didn't clean up she would always be there to either cover for me or comfort me. She's never really gotten along that well with anyone that I've brought home, except for Ji. I value her opinion and I know that I may have not set the best example for her to live by but I hope that she will learn from my mistakes and will follow the good things I have done. We will probably still fight but she's my sister and that's what sisters do.

My third lovely lady is my cousin Sarah. She's the one that I looked up to as a kid. She would come over to babysit and I couldn't wait for my parents to leave. She let us turn the cushions upside down and we would pretend the couch was a spaceship and that we had to save our toys. She was the one I wanted to grow up to be like. Her hand-me-downs were the coolest thing ever because then I could try to look like her. My most beautiful cousin.

Depending how the numbers pan out I may have to ask someone else to be in my wedding party. I'm holding off on this until Ji has decided how many people he is going to have in his party but I know who I'm going to ask. So this place is reserved for her.

The Men:
Ji has not yet picked a best man, nor has he asked all of the people he wants. Two, however, have already confirmed so I will spill the beans on them.

The first he asked is Gord. They have been friends since high school and I know that Gord helped Ji through some of his childhood issues and what not. I'll let Ji write more about Gord because he knows his better but this s what I know... Gord is a super nice and caring guy who has been there for Ji when he needed it. He will definitely be a life long friend of Ji's and I'm glad he has someone to talk to when we have any conflicts.

The next guy he asked is his best friend Jer. I don't know Jer as well because he has been off in far far away Edmonton with the love of his life but the times I mer Jer he was a very kind and fun loving guy. He must definitely get that from his mom. I'd love to sound some more time to get to know Jer better but we shall see how the next few months pan out. And hopefully I can convince Ji to blog a bit and write sone lovely things about Jer here as well.

He has two other men to plans on asking but I won't reveal names until he does and they confirm. So again, I'm stuck waiting on Ji to move his butt and get some wedding stuff done so that I can ask my other lady. I seem whenever wedding things are mentioned Ji runs away and hides or avoids the subject. Hopefully I can get him to sit down in a few weeks and get a lot of things done so that we can move onto the part he's looking forward to: the dinner and cake sampling.

Xoxx
Ginny

My plans on wedding plans

By the end of February I plan to have our photographer booked. By the middle of this summer (hopefully before my dads wedding) I hope to have my dress, shoes, videographer, dj all picked out and have spoken to the flower and cake people. That just leaves me a lot of small details to finish later on.

I'm going to try to get Ji to work on a guest list and have that finished by the end if February so that we can have our engagement pictures taken and then made into save the date magnets (money and luck permitting). I figure that magnets are more practical than paper save the dates and since most people will use a magnet to hang them on their fridge anyways, this saves them the trouble. Also, why would I want to pay $3-$5 for paper when I can pay $2.50 for magnets? But we shall see how it pans out.

My goal is to have most or all of the wedding details finished 6-3 months before the wedding date. If I have all of this extra time I might as well use it for planning.

Until next time,
Ginny

Why am I writing this blog?

What are my reasons for writing this blog you may ask. Well if you don't know me, then you should know this: I'm engaged! So throughout my year and a half-ish engagement I will use this blog as a way to help myself organize for the wedding, as an outlet for stress and rants, and to let my family know how I am doing and what my progress is with my wedding plans.

Here's a quick run-down.
Ji asked me (Ginny) to marry him on Dec. 4, 2010. We were together for just over two and a half years at that time. We met online in World of Warcraft and met in person a few months after that. We moved in together only six months after having knowing each other.

Now:
We have booked the fort Garry place (connected to the fort Garry hotel) for our ceremony and the crystal ballroom in the Fort Garry Hotel for our reception. We are looking into booking Manuel Sousa for our photographer and are considering home video instead of a videographer. I know where I am getting my flowers, have started a guest list, and tried on a few dresses already.

I will attempt to post weekly updates as this blog is to be about our lives but will focus mostly on our wedding plans for the next year and a half.

Until next time, or until something big happens!
Ginny