Wow! The last post! I feel like I’ve barely shared all of my ideas with you and now I have but 500 very valuable words left to fill you in on the rest of the details. Here’s how we’ve put our own personal twist (keeping in mind the 3R’s-reduce, reuse, recycle) on some wedding essentials:

1. Website–First, of all, thanks for all of your suggestions! We decided to go with mywedding.com for our wedding website. It IS really easy to use! Check it out: www.mywedding.com/carrieandgergely.

2. Party Favours–Like we’ve mentioned before, instead of party favours, we’re putting that money into sponsoring a child through Compassion Canada. Since I spent a summer volunteering in Tanzania, we’ve decided to sponsor a little girl from there. On each plate, we’re placing a teabag (Tanzanian rooibos), wrapped in a small envelope with our sponsored child’s picture and a blurb about Compassion Canada.

3. Guestbook–Instead of the traditional guestbook, we’re making a picture wall of black and white photos of us with every guest at the wedding that will be clipped to strings hung from the ceiling. This will serve as the backdrop in front of which our guests will write a message on a whiteboard and take a picture of themselves using our Mac’s “Photobooth” application and remote.

4. Centrepieces–We, along with our friends and family, have been collecting glass jars for the past year to use as vases for our wedding. We plan to dress them up with a bit of ribbon or twine and fill them with local flowers, potted pansies these beautiful dried grasses that we found in the river valley. We’re also arranging stacks of our favorite books and framed photos on the tables. There’s a fireplace at our venue and we’re going to decorate the mantel with frames, candles, and souvenirs from our travels. My goal is to make the venue look like our home and make our friends and family feel like they’re just coming over for a big dinner party.

5. Head table–Again, to go along with the theme of making the venue feel homey, the head table is going to be in the middle of the room in front of the fire place and it’s going to look like a big dinner table. We’re combining four long tables together to make a big wide table and we’re going to be seated all around it. The rest of the guests will be seated in a U shape around the head table.

6. “Seating cards” –Ger’s mom and grandma have collected a bunch of smooth stones in various shades of cream and grey and we’re going to use these as the seating cards! We’re going to write the guests’ names on them with permanent marker and stamp on a little design (to be decided still).

7. “Table runner” –I wanted to add a splash of color/design to our white tablecloths, so I’m going to get rolls of either wrapping paper or wallpaper and roll them down the middle of our long tables.  And once the wedding is over, I can use the paper to make “Thank you” cards!

8. Collecting photos–Instead of asking our friends to burn us CDs of the pictures they took at the wedding, we’re collecting a bunch of camera USBs so that at the end of the night, our guests can directly upload their pictures from their camera to our laptop.

Although I never thought that I would be a blogger of anything, I have to say that it has been a great experience. I will forever treasure these little stories to which I can come back and read when Ger and I are 60 and reminiscing on our younger days.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my little writings and offering your thoughts and ideas.  I wish you the best of luck, love, and happiness in your upcoming wedding, and more importantly, marriage!

Blessings,

Carrie

I just got back from a great long-weekend trip to San Francisco with my bridesmaids! I knew I really wanted to go somewhere for my bachelorette party and Vegas seemed like the obvious choice, but my friends and I don’t really drink or gamble…but we do shop and eat! A lot! So San Fran seemed like a perfect choice.

I decided to do this trip with just my bridesmaids because I figured it would be a nightmare to coordinate everyone. Plus my bridesmaids don’t know each other well, so this was a great opportunity for everyone to bond!

Five of us (Kim, Mariko, Sara, Clarissa and I) took the long weekend off from the office/the lab/the hospital/the books to hit up what I think it the funkiest city south of our border. The only one missing was Isanne who was busy graduating from Med School in Winnipeg (Congrats Isanne!).

Clarissa made us all colourful, animal embellished, personalized name tags to wear on our flight, ensuring everyone knew exactly what we were on this trip for…because the tiara and bright pink boa that Sara brought for me to wear didn’t make that obvious enough!

We checked into our hotel in Fisherman’s Wharf at 11 p.m., put on our finest and hit a club called “Kel’s” to dance the night away. It was packed, but so fun!  Walking home in our heels at 3 a.m. was not so fun though…

The next day, we stopped for breakfast at “Hollywood Café”—sounds cheesy but they serve the most amazing breakfast! There’s always a line up, but definitely worth waiting for. Then we headed for our boat ride to Alcatraz. The island was surprisingly beautiful and full of flowers and birds and displayed a breathtaking view of San Francisco. We strolled through the penitentiary, listening to our audio-tour and learning about all the attempted (and failed) escapes.

Our second day was all about shopping! We hit up a boutique district, but boutiques close on Mondays in San Fran. Oh well, onto the next district-Chinatown-the largest in North America-full of little run-down shops selling randomness. We refueled at the Café in MoMA (Museum of Modern Art). This was on the way to Union Square, where you find both small independent stores to classics like Marc Jacobs Theory, and Victoria Secret. Once our feet/wallets couldn’t take anymore, we went for possibly the best meal EVER at “Ducca” —the Westin’s restaurant/lounge. If you’re in San Fran, you must check this place out.

Now, I’m running out of words, so I must summarize the rest: super sweet matching T’s, super tall Golden Gate bridge, super friendly taxi driver, super friendly Trolley car operator who gave us our own private Trolley ride at midnight, super delicious Clam Chowder in a bread bowel and finally…super sad to leave this awesome city.

I think we all need to remember to spend time with our girlfriends, not just for our “last hurrah,” but as part of our everyday lives.

What are you doing with your girlfriends to celebrate your wedding?

Finding our photographer was probably the easiest part of the wedding planning process.  I already had a fairly clear idea of how I wanted our pictures to turn out, so when I came across the Photobolic website, I knew right away it was the right fit.

Photobolic is an independent photography studio in Calgary run by Wei Quek: a young, energetic and extremely talented photographer. He takes organic, interesting and PRETTY photographs that you fall in love with like a great pair of shoes! His pictures tend to have an editorial feel to them—pictures that you can hang up on your wall like art.

I was so set on having him photograph our wedding that we changed the date of the wedding so that we could book him!  After seeing our engagement photos this week, I would say that was one of the best decisions we made for our wedding.  Honestly, we weren’t even going to get engagement photos done, but after seeing all the amazing engagement pictures that keep going up on Photobolic’s blog, I couldn’t help but want a set of my own.

The engagement session we shot with Wei was so much fun! We started off in Calgary’s river valley on a hillside of beautiful white tree trunks and dry golden tall grasses. Ger and I felt a bit awkward at first because Wei doesn’t give you poses—he tries to just capture natural moments. I spent the first 15 minutes or so giggling (sorry Wei! That must have made it hard to get any good shots), but after that, we settled into it and became more comfortable just hanging out with each other while Wei snapped away.

After the park, we went to a café to grab a bite for lunch, and then we took the rest of the shots in front of random people’s garages and fences while wandering down a few quaint back lanes. Wei so obviously loves what he does and is always experimenting and trying out new techniques. For example, he brought along a Polaroid camera for us to play with and have a few instant souvenirs of the day to take home with us. As well, Wei doesn’t set a time limit for his engagement session like most photographers do. He just books one session a day and let’s the day unfold naturally.

We feel so blessed that Wei will be capturing the most important day of our lives! He is so talented, but humble, kind and generous and we just can’t say enough great things about him! Check out his website at: www.photobolic.com, where there are links to his main page and blog.

As part of our plan to reduce our impact on the environment, we had to think hard about out wedding invites. Sure, the most environmentally friendly way to do it is to send out evites, but I’ve always loved receiving the beautiful wedding invites from my friends in the mail. There’s something antiquated and traditional about getting an invitation (or anything other than bills, for that matter) in the mail.

The compromise: send out postcard invites. That way we can reduce the amount of paper that would go towards envelopes and RSVP cards (and their envelopes), and maps, and registry info, and so on, and so on. The problem with a postcard is that there is little room for text, so the invite has the basic minimal information, and then it directs people to our wedding website for more information.

This sounds easy, but being totally technologically un-savvy, I didn’t really know how to turn these ideas into an actual postcard. Enter: Kim Sparks.  She is one of my super-duper bridesmaids (who happens to be getting married this summer as well!) and a brilliant graphic designer.

We basically gave her a picture we liked (us in a canola field near Canmore) and she came up with several different versions of our invitations for us to choose from. Kim puts so much thought and care into everything she does and it showed with our invitations. And that fake “stamp” on the front of the postcard? She went on Facebook and found pictures of our profiles, which she traced to make silhouettes of our heads! Isn’t that creative of her? Plus, she was able to find a printing company that carries post-consumer paper and vegetable-based ink!

Now we just have to make our website!  Any suggestions on easy-to-use sites?

PS:  If you need a great graphic designer, Kim Sparks does free-lance work.  Her email is: sparks.kimberly@gmail.com.

At Tegan and Sara concert.

If music be the food of love, then we shall feast on our wedding day.

Music is very important to Ger and I, so we want to make sure we have the perfect mix playing for the big day. We also want to make sure our guests enjoy themselves (and shake their booty too!!!). That’s why we are asking one of our good friends, and music expert, Patrick, to serve as our personal DJ. Here are some of the songs we are asking him to play for us:

First dance: Our first song will likely be the “First day of my life” by Bright Eyes. This sweet tune knows how to tug at your heartstrings. If you haven’t heard it you should listen to it right now. Conor Oberst’s lyrical genius effectively conveys how meeting the one you love is like starting your life all over again with a fresh perspective:

Yours is the first face that I saw
I think I was blind before I met you
Now I don’t know where I am
I don’t know where I’ve been
But I know where I want to go

We chose this song because this is how Ger and I felt when we first started dating and still feel. Everything is fresh, everything is new and nothing else matters. We love it! What songs do you recommend for a first dance?

Dance-mix: We want our guests to get up and dance and forget themselves, so the dance songs will probably be the most important part of the night, after Ger and I getting married.

A few of the songs that will get people out the chairs are: “Feel it in My Bones” by Tiesto featuring Tegan & Sara; “I Got a Feeling” by Black Eyed Peas; “TiK ToK” by Ke$ha; “Electric Feel” by MGMT; “Take Me Out” by Franz Ferdinand; and “Heart it Races” by Architecture in Helsinki. These are just a few of our faves.

{Franz Ferdinand}

Ambience: Now, everyone knows you need to pace yourself through the night to make sure you don’t peak to early. So between those hot dance hits, we are going to let people recharge their batteries with some nice mellow tunes. One of the best chill-out bands we know is Morcheeba (we especially like “The Sea”). Death Cab for Cutie also has some good relaxing songs, like “Soul Meets Body,” and you can’t have a party without playing Grizzly Bear. What kind of ambient tunes will you play?

Local talent: Since we have many friends who are talented in the performing arts, we are going to ask them to play some live music at the wedding. This will make the night all the more special and interactive for our guests. We can’t wait!

In my last post, I shared some of our travel photos and wrote about how Ger and I are the most in sync when we are on one of our adventures. The thing we always look forward to most is travelling. We’ve both done a fair bit of travelling, but there is still so much of the world we want to see. We love being exposed to new foods, cultures, traditions…the whole shebang. Here are some of our dream destinations:

1) The Moon: The brilliant Richard Branson of Virgin is now taking reservations for space! For the very modest price tag of $200,000, we could celebrate our marriage at 100 kilometres in the air, travelling at over three times the speed of sound, and watch Earth spin on its axis. No, it’s not quite to the moon, but if ordinary people can now fly into space, it’s only a matter of time before the moon will be just another honeymoon destination.

2) Spain/Morocco: These two countries seem like a great fit for one trip given their proximity, but very different cultures. Trekking the Camino

Morocco

de Santiago—a pilgrimage route crossing the North of Spain—would be an epic way to spend a vacation (this could be followed by soaking our weary feet in the Mediterranean Sea). Then we can cross the Strait of Gibraltar to Africa and immerse ourselves in the richness of Muslim culture and eat ourselves silly on spiced lamb and couscous while attuning our ears to Arabic.

3) Tibet/Nepal: I think there is something really mysterious about Tibet—its countless monasteries and palaces, including Potala Palace, the palace of the Dalai Lama; it’s recent years in the spotlight (“Free Tibet”); and the amazing landscapes that you often see in National Geographic or the Discovery Channel. Nepal is fairly close by, and I’d like to visit now before it becomes too touristy, because I’m sure it will as people realize how diverse its landscape is and how much there is to do there—jungle safaris, rafting, great (and cheap) shopping and of course—Mt. Everest!

Tibet

4) Cambodia/Vietnam: We really like to visit places that have yet to build up a massive tourism industry because 1. It’s way cheaper to travel there 2. It’s more raw and the culture is unspoiled and 3. They’re usually places we don’t know too much about, which is exciting! That’s partly why Cambodia and Vietnam really appeal to us. Plus, Angkor archeological park looks amazing and I’d love to try Cambodian food (I already know I love Vietnamese food)!

Angkor Ruins

So, where do you think we should go for our honeymoon? Any other suggestions?

Ger and I spend Valentine’s Day weekend in the basement of our church. Sounds like fun right?!  Well, it probably wasn’t the most fun thing we could have done with our rare weekend off, but it probably was the most worthwhile…

We attended a “marriage course” that was offered at our church called “Saving your Marriage Before it Starts,” which is based on a book by Dr.’s Les and Leslie Parrott. There were some things that Ger and I already knew or had figured out, but there were also some great gems that we’ve started to apply to our day-to-day lives. I thought I’d share some of them with you. I realize they don’t apply for every couple, but we find the following points useful and worth thinking about.

1) There of three essential components of a healthy relationship:

a. Passion is the biologic component of love
b. Intimacy is the emotional component of love
c. Commitment is the willful component of love

2) Miscommunication can occur because men and women have different “talk” methods. Men “report talk” and women “rapport talk.” Men tend to report the facts-straight to the point, devoid of details and emotion, while women tend to talk in order to build rapport-full of details, interpretations, and emotion.

3) Fighting is normal and even healthy for a relationship to grow; however, when the following tactics are used: criticism, contempt, stonewalling, and defensiveness, you’re no longer building, but instead breaking down your relationship.

4) We have different ways of creating intimacy. I feel intimate when Ger and I have a great talk, whereas Ger, as with many guys, feel intimacy in “shared activities.” So when Ger wants to go skating or climbing with me, it isn’t just to make me exercise, it’s his way of bonding-just like he does with his friends. I think this is why we feel the most “in-sync” when we’re travelling—a time when we can have great conversations and share great adventures.  Here are some pictures from some these adventures.

We’re looking for more ways to be as prepared as we can be heading into our marriage.  What are you doing to prepare for yours?

a) Talking through important issues on your own

b) Reading books (share with us!)

c) Marriage course

d) Marriage counseling with your Pastor/officiate

I love flowers. This is why it was a bit sad to have to give up the beautiful orchids flown in from Singapore, and the fleshy tulips from Holland, because of course, it wouldn’t be environmentally friendly to have to ship in my flowers across multiple oceans.

So I had to look around for flowers in the famous flower-producing capital of the world: Alberta…in September.

Impossible? Almost. Thank goodness though for the canola oil industry that paints the rolling hills of Alberta a vibrant yellow even while birds are contemplating their flight south. A bouquet of small delicate yellow flowers would go perfect with dark purple dresses! And the scent? Well, it doesn’t smell like a bouquet of roses, but it certainly doesn’t smell bad. The only problem I foresee is these bouquets wilting prematurely, but I figure if we can keep them in water until the very last second before we all walk down the aisle, they should hold up. Canmore also has some hearty wild flowers, so I may pick some to include in our bouquets.

So I have the bouquets figured out. Now for the centrepieces. Along with the other unusual details that we’re putting on the tables (lamps for example…more on this later), we’ve decided to go with potted pansies in a variety of colours. Ger’s mom is going to plant them mid-summer so that they’ll be perfectly in bloom in September. What could be more environmentally friendly than planting flowers from seed?

For a touch of extravagance, my parents are friends with an orchid farmer in B.C. and sadly, they regularly have to throw away bags of cut orchids that weren’t able to sell. My parents have asked them to keep those for us if they have some just before our wedding, and they’ll bring it down when they come for the wedding. That way, there will be some accents of luscious orchids amidst the canola.

As you can see, a lot of these ideas are a little bit risky, and one or all of them could easily fall through. Do you have any other ideas for eco-friendly ways to fill our wedding with flowers in case these don’t work out?