Yesterday was the final day to vote for your favourite bride blogger. It’s been a long journey for our brides, which started in January, with some of them even getting married before their blogging finished — including Heather, Lara, and Mai. For Emily, Judith, Carrie and Jessyca, their big days are just around the corner. We thank everyone who followed the brides-to-be and we hoped you enjoyed following their experiences. Now that the voting is officially over, we will be announcing who our grand prize winner is August 3rd. All of the brides will have their Real Weddings featured online (with the grand prize winner being featured in the magazine), so stay tuned for that as well!
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blogger search
Blogger Vote Complete
fun
Blogger Vote Has Begun!
Illustration Nathalie Dion.
You voted for your top seven bride bloggers. Then followed their wedding planning adventures for six months. Now it’s time to vote for the grand prize winner (we know it’s not an easy task, which is why we’re leaving it up to you!). How it works is every day you get one chance (that is one vote per user registration) until July 27 and the blogger with the highest percentage of votes, will win a trip for two to the El Dorado Casitas Royale in the Riviera Maya, Mexico, plus a ton of other amazing prizes. Every bride blogger is going to win some fantastic goodies, so no one goes home without something sweet (we’re talking Peoples Jeweller gift certificate and Clinique makeup). Just joined us? No worries, you can read all of their posts to make an informative decision. What are you waiting for? Vote now!
blogger search » luxury
As it Comes to an End…
I couldn’t even really believe that this is my last blog post! I was about to write as if I had another one coming. But I guess not only am I writing like normal, I am also saying good-bye. I have really enjoyed this time with everyone. The other brides-to be, you’ve all been wonderful, and the time just flew by!
As I write this, I am watching Say Yes to The Dress and I can’t help but think about my fittings coming up in July. I will be heading down to Kleinfeld’s for a three-day, three-fittings, round of appointments. After more than a year-and-a-half of waiting for it to arrive, now I can’t believe it’s sitting there waiting for me and when I go for the appointment the wedding will be less than a month away! I’m really looking forward to our wedding day, and I hope to hear about all the other bloggers days as well! I feel like I know you all now and I feel very lucky to have had this opportunity with you all. Read the rest of this entry »
blogger search » destination
Parting is such sweet sorrow…
Photography courtesy Stacey Clarke.
Wow, I really can’t believe that our six-month blogging journey has come to an end! It has been so much fun sharing my wedding planning experience with all of you, and Karlo and I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone again for reading along! We truly appreciate each and every one of you…
Now, since the wedding ceremony in Jamaica has passed, and our Vancouver reception just took place last weekend, I feel the best way to wrap this up is to give you my Top 10 “If I could do this all over again” list. Here goes:
If I could go back and do this all over again, I would:
1. DEFINITELY still get married in Jamaica! Our wedding ceremony, in fact our whole trip, was absolutely perfect in every way and was even more than we’d ever dreamed of. For those of you considering a destination wedding, I would recommend Jamaica (specifically, the Riu Palace Tropical Bay in Negril) wholeheartedly.
2. Definitely still write our own vows. I can’t imagine what our ceremony would have been like if we hadn’t had the chance to say our vows in our own words. If you have the opportunity to write yours from scratch, I’d highly recommend it.
3. Make sure to hire a travel agent who has extensive knowledge and experience with booking group travel arrangements, specifically wedding trips. Sadly, our experience with our travel agent was not a good one, and this was pretty much the only stressful part of our planning experience.
4. Hire a local photographer based on peer recommendations. Since we were hiring a photographer from so far away, we didn’t have the luxury of meeting her ahead of time. All we had to go on was her online portfolio and the reviews of her work that I found on the Best Destination Wedding Forum. In the end, we couldn’t have been happier with our decision—our photographer Stacey Clarke did a magnificent job and she was so incredibly wonderful to work with throughout the whole process.
5. DIY as much as possible! Towards the end, I ran out of time and had to let go of some of the DIY projects I had planned. So if I could go back, I would definitely have planned my time better and gotten a few more DIY’s in there. Read the rest of this entry »
blogger search » intimate
The Big Day
We finally did it! It took several years, two children, and another on the way, but I am happy to report that Bojan and I finally tied the knot!
I had mentioned in a previous blog that we wanted to get married at city hall. What I discovered months ago was that the city no longer performs ceremonies. They are re-introducing this in about a month (go figure!) so we had to figure out what alternative arrangement we could make for the ceremony. I never wanted anything too big and the thought of saying our vows in front of everybody we know made me absolutely nervous. So in the end, we found an officiant with Kettle Creek Weddings and last Thursday, went to her home to get married. Her husband, also an officiant, and son, served as our witnesses. It was absolutely perfect. I wouldn’t want it any other way. Read the rest of this entry »
blogger search » alternative
Pulling off the Circus Theme at our Wedding
{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! Read the rest of this entry »
blogger search » eco
Final Details
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. Read the rest of this entry »
blogger search » bride again
Mabuhay!!*
*pronounced mah-BOO-hi and is an expression used to exclaim “long live”.
It’s hard to believe that six months ago I introduced myself and Mark to the Weddingbells online community and now I’m saying my farewell. In that time, you’ve learned quite a bit about our Filipino heritage from the ceremonial traditions to the superstitious beliefs. You’ve followed me through the gong show that was the hunt for my dress, hopefully received some makeup inspiration and learned about the difficulty of coming up with a cake design.
When I entered this contest, my head was still floating high in the clouds from the proposal. You know what I mean: the perma-smile plastered on your face, you walk as if you were part of a ballet and you find every excuse to talk about the proposal. I couldn’t help but jump at every opportunity to tell my proposal story and this contest was just another chance to relive the proposal. I was completely gobsmacked when I was contacted by the Weddingbells staff and the rest is history. Read the rest of this entry »
