{Photography Kim Lovell.}

It’s been great fun blogging and I really appreciate everyone who has taken the time to read the blogs, post a comment or vote for me. In this final blog, I want to share the details that made our circus wedding come alive. I can definitely say that I’ve had my dream wedding in every way imaginable.

The Save the Dates–We gave a hint of what was to come by using a double trapeze shot of us on the “Save the Dates.”

The Invitations–The invitations were designed like a ticket, good for admission to our “Cirque D’Amour.”

{Photography Kim Lovell.}

The Venue–We booked the Centre of Gravity. A circus training space in Toronto where we met. One concern that I had about using the Centre of Gravity, is that the space wouldn’t transform into a suitable wedding venue. I was worried that it would look like we were eating dinner in a gym. We dressed up the room with Paper Lanterns, a vibrant colour theme and theatrical lighting. It turned out fabulous!

Photography Kim Lovell.

Ceremony–We got married on the stage in Centre of Gravity. A spotlight followed the Wedding Party and the Bride (me!) onto the stage.

The First Kiss–After we said our vows, we were lifted up for our “first kiss.” The groomsmen filed off the stage to hold the rope that would pull us up. Maleke went into a catcher’s lock on the trapeze and pulled me into the air to kiss. It felt magical.

The Champagne Girls–During the cocktail hour, two of my talented friends from Femmes Du Feu performed a Champagne Hoop Act. Holly and Sabrina were suspended from aerial hoops and they poured champagne for toasting to the guests below. They looked absolutely fantastic!

The First Dance–Maleke and I spent months working with a choreographer on our First Dance. Although we are trained acrobats, we are not trained dancers, so it was fun challenge. We kept the dance a secret leading up to the wedding and it was a surprise for everyone!

Photography Kim Lovell.

Performances–During the dinner we had some more surprises for the guests.  My bridesmaid Sarah performed aerial silks. The best man Peter performed a straps act. A friend of ours Kalen, put on an amazing fire show.  The performances added so much to the night and I feel so grateful to everyone who contributed their talents.

The Centrepieces–My Mom is creative and can DIY like no other. We named our tables The Breakdancers, The Silks Artists, The Trapeze Artists, The Acrobats, The Coaches, The Hoop Artists and The Hand Balancers. She found turquoise stands, picture vases, turquoise material, LED lights and whipped it all together to make stunning centerpieces.

Photography Kim Lovell.

The Place Cards/Favours–I decided that masks would be the perfect favour for this event. It plays on the theatrical side of things and makes a unique favour. We bought tons of masks around Halloween and my Mom spent hours decorating them and making each one unique. The masks also doubled as place cards.

I wanted to really be able to share the wedding with you, so I made a little video with all the circus elements of the wedding and highlights of the First Dance.  I’ve posted the video on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMWa2UMwXxo

Let’s talk about chair covers. They seem like a tiny little detail in the grand scheme of things, but they sure do dress things up. Our venue was providing the chairs and our caterer was arranging the chair covers. We assumed that the chair covers from the caterer’s preferred rental company would fit just fine. However, when we called, they suggested that we try one out on the chairs. We put it on the chair and… definitely not a fit! The cover didn’t even stretch to the bottom of the floor and it looked awful. Good thing we tested it out before the wedding. So, my Mom went on a chair cover search.  She scoured Toronto for chair covers that would work. Here is what we learned:

1. Getting a chair cover is not as straightforward as you might think.

2. There are different types of chairs and different types of chair covers. We had a fan back folding chair that was very hard to fit. One size does not always fit all. There is a universal chair cover, but…

3. All chair covers are not created equal! There is a huge difference in the look and feel of many chair covers, so take a look at the ones that you’re getting.

4. If you don’t know which company to rent from, I would strongly recommend Micki’s. The staff was knowledgeable and arrived on time for the set-up. The chair covers were high quality material, spotlessly clean, perfectly pressed and the bows were tied so neatly.

A wedding present for the groom! What to get? I wanted to give Maleke something really unique on our wedding day, something that he couldn’t just go out and buy himself in a store. I racked my brain trying to think of the perfect gift. When I saw Kristi Holtam’s artwork, I was sold! She brings out the bombshell in everyone by transforming the every day bride into a pin-up girl. I think this is such a fantastic idea and since I’m a circus artist, I requested that she do my portrait on the trapeze. In our first meeting we discussed concepts for the portrait and she presented a number of sketches. I told her which ones I liked and made some suggestions for alternate poses. She sent me more sketches based on my feedback. I chose my favourite sketch and she began to work on my portrait. Since it’s a portrait and not a photograph, she was also happy to play fairy godmother and embellish features you like and tone down others. The whole way through the process, she sent me photo updates so that I could approve it as she went along. The finished portrait was fabulous. Everyone was so impressed by her attention to detail and her artistic abilities. Most importantly, Maleke loved it. Check out other examples of Kristi’s artwork at Bombshell Artillery.

The wedding was fabulous and I loved every moment of it.  Here is my advice to you.

1. Don’t plan on leaving any tasks for the day before or the day of the wedding.

New last minute things that you don’t even think of will pop up and you might not have time to do everything.  We forgot to buy markers for our “guest book”!  We had these really cool pages for the guests to fill out, but only about ¼ of the guests filled them out.

2. It is totally worth it.

All the planning, hard work and money that goes into the wedding is truly worth it. In the final stressful weeks of planning, I was questioning whether we should have just planned a casual or destination wedding…  However, I had no idea how special and meaningful it would be. I’m so glad “we” put in all the work (and by “we” really I mainly mean my Mom, there’s no way the wedding would have happened without all of her hard work.)

3. Make enough time to see all of your guests.

I’ve always thought receiving lines were kind of a waste of time, but now I totally understand why people have them. We didn’t start walking around to see our guests until after dinner and it was really hard to get around to see each guest once people were up and moving around. If you aren’t having a receiving line, then I would suggest walking around tables during the dinner while guests are still seated. Especially if you have a big wedding…we only had about 65 guests!

4. Take it all in.

This advice was given to me from a former bride and it really makes sense. Everything goes by so fast, and if you don’t make a point of remembering the night, decor, faces, moments, the whole night could just pass you by in a flash.

5. Splurge on a few things.

Some of you might remember how I was considering making my own cupcakes. I ended up scoping out the cupcake scene in Toronto. I found a fabulous company by the name of Cupcaketionery. Their prices were a littler higher than some of the other quotes I got, but the cupcakes were worth every penny.  Every time I looked at my cupcakes during the wedding, they made me smile. They were so gorgeous and very delicious. The other splurge was the dress. It was really worth the money. I felt like a princess all night and you can only wear a dress like that once in a lifetime.

6. Go with a professional photographer.

We had considered using a student photographer to cut on costs, but definitely go with a professional photographer. Kim Lovell not only took fantastic shots, but she was great at giving direction and letting us know what to do next.  She posted a glimpse of our wedding on her blog at http://kimlovellblog.com.

7. Dance, dance, dance.

I had so much fun dancing at my wedding. We stayed dancing right until the very end of the night. Ladies, get some Dr. Scholl’s Ball of Foot Inserts, they made a huge difference! I wore my heels all night. We ended up hiring a DJ and it was nice during the night to be able to give requests and have him do some announcing. We used a company Bounce Entertainment and the DJ was fantastic. I ran out of time to give them a song request list, but they played fantastic music anyways.

8. Don’t over-rehearse things.

Our officiant Gordon Kushner told us not to practice our vows because they’d come out sounding rehearsed. We took his advice with regards to the vows and also the whole night. We skipped a rehearsal dinner, and let the events unfold naturally.

9. Count your blessings.

Both of my Grandmothers were there for my wedding day. Maleke and I had family and friends travel to come to our wedding. Our wedding party worked their butts off before and after the wedding to make it all happen. Our families get along great. I found my “better half” and married him. The list goes on, but seriously take a moment to realize how lucky you are.

10. Live happily ever after :)

I have so much more that I want to share with all of you. I’m really looking forward to writing a future blog all about pulling off our circus theme wedding. I’m also going to be sharing with you one of the most unique gifts that you can give to your husband on your wedding day.

Until next time!

Maggie Sottero's "Capri Marie"

I’m writing this blog two days before my wedding and by the time you are reading it, I will be married! So exciting! Anyways, now I can finally tell you about my dress.

I thought I knew exactly what I wanted… I spent months looking at online listings on craigslist and kijiji for a used wedding dress. I have no problems wearing a used dress and I thought it would be a great way to keep the cost down. When I saw this dress, it was exactly what I’d been looking for.

I called the lady who was selling the “Capri Marie” and made an appointment to come see the dress. I put on the dress, and… it looked okay, but not at all how I expected. Since I had convinced myself for months that this is the dress that I wanted, I bought it. It was only

I am too short for this dress and it does not flatter me at all! I'm sure it would look great on the right person though!

$350 and I figured since it was a Maggie Sottero it would be easy to sell it again if I changed my mind. On the ride home, I kept worrying about how it looked on me. When I got home, I got my sister to take some pictures of me in the dress and then cried when I saw the pictures. It just wasn’t flattering on me at all! It looked great in the pictures, but awful on me.

I decided I was going to resell it and try again. Unfortunately, when I went to look at the tag, it wasn’t even a Maggie Sottero! It was a knockoff. I didn’t even think to check since the woman had advertised it as a Maggie Sottero. I realized it might be harder to resell the dress than I had originally thought and the woman refused to take it back.

Do not buy a wedding dress without trying on lots of dresses!!!  Your favorite dress in the pictures is not necessarily what is going to look good on you.

Casablanca "1920." I love all the sparkle in the skirt! The dress had a halter neckline, but I tucked it in because I love the sweetheart neckline.

So, my mom took me shopping with my maid of honour Jennifer and my bridesmaid Sarah to find the perfect dress. We tried a few different stores and I tried on so many dresses. I was so relieved that all wedding dresses didn’t look terrible on me! It was at Jealous Bridesmaids that I found the perfect dress. It wasn’t what I had been looking for at all, but when I walked out of the fitting room, everyone went silent. We had a great experience shopping at Jealous Bridesmaids, the staff were so helpful and I never felt rushed. To celebrate our purchase, they brought out some champagne and we made a toast to finding the perfect dress.

{Toasting to the dress!}

By the time you are all reading this, there will be one day left before the wedding! I can’t believe how fast the time has gone by. Before I get to my blog topic, I would just like to say, I have enjoyed being one of the Weddingbells bloggers so much. Getting feedback on the planning every week has been fantastic. Thanks to all the readers who have read my blogs and told me what they think. Reading all the other bloggers’ entries has been so much fun… and of course I’ve gotten some excellent ideas from them too.  Thank you everyone for all the advice and tips!  It has been so helpful! I’ll be sure to give you my post wedding feedback on what works and what does not!

Schedule, schedule, schedule… and then schedule some more.  This is really the key to sanity in the final weeks. A “To do” list helps, but it can be really overwhelming looking at a huge list of tasks. (If you are in the earlier stages, check out this super cute “I do” list that I got from my sister at my bridal shower.  FYI—(My “I do” list is not empty, haha, but I thought it would be nice to see the design without my chicken scratch all over it.) In the last couple weeks, I would recommend taking your “To do” list and scheduling those tasks into specific timeslots on your calendar so you know you have the time to get the jobs done. There is a feeling of relief, once all the remaining tasks are scheduled in and you know that everything will get done in time.

I am also going to plan out my every waking moment for the day before and the day of. The day of the wedding, we have to be there early in the morning to set-up. I’m hoping that by being organized, everything will go smooth and I’ll still have time to actually get ready for the wedding! There are some things you can get done the day before, like your nails and that is one less thing to have to fit in on the wedding day. When everything is scheduled in, you can turn off the “worrying brain” and just enjoy each scheduled item as it comes. I think that makes it much easier to enjoy the excitement and look forward to the wedding day without any stress.  This is the route that I’m taking!

What are you doing to keep your cool in the two-week countdown?

So, I have a problem. There is less than one month to the wedding and I still don’t have a wedding band. Maleke has his, but I haven’t found mine! Maleke picked out my engagement ring and it is beautiful, but I am having a really hard time matching it to a wedding band because of its shape.

It would really like to find a nice smooth wedding band that I could just leave on all the time. I actually don’t wear my engagement ring half the time because when I’m coaching it could scratch someone (when I’m “spotting” them) or snag on the aerial silks. So, I would really love to find a wedding band that looks great without the engagement ring. There was a matching band at Spence Diamonds, but it had scratchy diamonds and doesn’t look good on its own. I find that many of the sets have to be worn together to look nice.

This leaves me with three options that I can think of:

a) Keep searching for a matching ring

b) Get a wedding band of choice and wear my engagement ring on my right hand

c) Get a wedding band of choice and wear my engagement ring with it even though they won’t match

Should I go with a, b or c?

Anyone else have any trouble finding a wedding band to match their engagement ring?

How Maleke Stays in Shape

Okay, so I’m not exactly out of shape. As an aerial artist and coach, my job requires a high level of athleticism. However, I want to be sure that I reach my own personal best shape for my wedding day.

I think the wedding day can be a great motivational push. Once the day is set, you already have your deadline, so all you have to do is set your goals. It’s important you start your exercise program in advance. It takes time to tone your muscles and lose weight safely. I decided to give myself six months to tone up some trouble areas. As a personal trainer, I was able to create my own exercise program.

My workout started out like this.

3xs/Week

- 30min Cardio (Jumping rope or Silk Climbing/Stairs/Mini-Tramp)

- Single Leg Squats

- Squat Jumps

- Leg Kicks – front/back/side

- Single Leg Heel Raises

- Push-ups

- Shoulder Raises with 5lb weights

- Rotator Cuff exercises

- Triceps Dips

- Bent Over Lateral Raises with 5lb weights

- Stability Ball core conditioning with lots of variations of plank

Keep in mind that the exercises above compliment my existing training program.  It’s not a total body workout, but meant to target some weak areas I have and correct some imbalances.

Exercise is only half the battle. Don’t forget that if you want to see improvements, you might have to change the way you eat. Healthy eating is key to success.  If you don’t know much about nutrition, you may want to consult a nutritionist.

If you are planning on getting in shape for the big day, I would strongly recommend working out with a personal trainer.  A trainer can come up with a personalized plan for you and help keep you on track. Yes, it can be expensive, but out of all the things you’ll spend money on for your wedding, shouldn’t your fitness take priority?  It’s not just about the aesthetics. With exercise you can increase your energy, reduce risks of cardiovascular disease, prevent injury, boost confidence and so much more!  I know it’s hard to get started, but once you commit yourself to it, you will see results!  The results will motivate you and you’ll keep it up.

Three exercises every bride can benefit from and do at home with no equipment

1. Plank – This exercise is great for your core and it help can narrow your waist

I like the variation in this video, but an easier version would be to hold it on the hands or the elbows.

2. Dips – These can be done off your couch at home and are great for toning up the backs of your arms. You can straighten your legs to make it harder.

3. Arm Circles

What are you doing to get in shape for the big day?

a)     I’m cutting out junk food and eating healthier.

b)    I’ve started a workout program and I’m seeing results!

c)     Absolutely nothing.  All my free time has been eaten up with wedding planning.

There are only 50 days left until the big day and I’m ready to knock one more task off of the “to do” list.

My dress is supposed to arrive in February and I know it’s important to bring your wedding shoes to the dress fitting. This means I have to go get shoes! I have never been a shoe person. I always thought I would just wear running shoes under my wedding dress and go for comfort. My mom has convinced me that I could use a little bit of extra height though.

I know it’s all the rage to get a brightly coloured shoe, but I just don’t know if I’ll feel comfortable with a colourful shoe peeking out from under my dress. I’ve also heard that an open toe shoe can look weird with little naked toes peeking out from under the dress.

I definitely want to buy them in person. I think it’s a big risk to order shoes online… even if they fit, they might not be comfortable.

So what shoes do I buy?

Should I go with a:

A)   A white open toe shoe

B)   A white closed toe shoe

C)   A brightly coloured shoe

No matter what shoe I go with, I will definitely have a cute white ballet flat as a back up (in case my feet hate me by the end of the night).

Invitation update—I ordered my invitations from Vistaprint and they look fabulous!  I would definitely recommend Vistaprint (vistaprint.ca). The quality is good and the prices were very reasonable. I know the picture looks a little grainy, but it’s actually glossy and much richer in colour.