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!

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!

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.

Tomorrow (which will be two weeks in the past when you read this) I will be assembling my invitations with my two bridesmaids. They arrived last night, packaged beautifully wrapped in tissue paper and placed carefully in brown boxes. Thank goodness for our dining room table, since we’ll need a lot of space to spread everything out. My invitations were created by Anita at Creative Expressions and to save on costs I also printed map inserts and the reception cards myself.  Joseph was kind enough to pick them up at 10 at night after work so we would have them in time to work on for the weekend!

While the girls assemble invites, the guys will be off to get fitted for their suits at Waxman in Montreal. Joseph has already tried on his. We both went together to make sure the style was right for him. We are going quite formal by choosing to have the men wear morning suits with ascots. But we really feel it suits the venue and I think it will definitely match with the style of my dress. Of course, Joseph doesn’t know that yet.

I think now that I am in this stage of the planning process that is when it really starts to feel like it is real. When you book the reception hall and the DJ, I don’t think it really hits you. Because most of the time the wedding is still quite a while away. Once booked, you have some downtime and now it is more like crunch time. Haha. But I still don’t feel too stressed, and I’m still enjoying everything, which I think is important.

What really hit you while planning? What was the thing that made you realize it was all getting down to the wire?

So I guess this is it. I want to thank everyone who read and commented on my blogs. To everyone planning their wedding I wish you all the best! Enjoy every minute of it, and may all your dreams come true. Thank you to Stephanie for taking care of all of us and good luck and all the best to all the other bride bloggers!

Take Care! Xoxox

Jessyca

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.

6. Go for real touch flowers! I love having my bouquet in our living room, looking as lovely as it did the day we got married. Plus, all of the bouquets travelled quite well—even though they got squished in our suitcases, they bounced back to shape right away as soon as we unpacked them!

7. Have the bridesmaid dresses custom made. That’s what we did, and they turned out amazing! I guess it depends where you live and who you have make them, but our gal did a fantastic job and we couldn’t be happier with how they turned out.

8. RELAX! The night before the wedding, Karlo and I were relaxing and chilling out with our friends in our room at the resort. At one point, someone said, “You would never guess that tomorrow these two are getting married” because we were so at ease and relaxed. I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

9. Wear flats for the ceremony and the reception. I decided to wear flats because I know myself, and there’s no way I would have made it through the whole night (or even part of the night, for that matter) in heels.

10. Savour every moment of the planning period. Our entire engagement, from that snowy day in 2008, right up until the night before the wedding, was nothing short of a fairytale. I loved being an engaged, and I’m glad Karlo and I got to enjoy the whole wedding planning process together the way we did. Karlo was definitely not a “hands off, show up at the altar and that’s it” type of groom; in fact, Karlo did as much, if not more, of the planning than I did.  From designing our boarding pass invitations, to creating our bright, fun wedding website and even being in charge of the seating chart, Karlo was truly amazing.  I am the happiest, proudest wife in the world, and I am still pinching myself that I get to call him my husband.

So that’s it. That’s my list. I wish I had more time and space to keep telling you all about the wedding, but alas I do not. I’d like to say thank you again to all of you for reading along, and to all of my fellow contestants, I wish you nothing but love, laughter and happiness with your fiancé/husbands for the rest of your lives. Cheers, everyone!

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.

This past Saturday, friends and family gathered in our home for hors d’oeuvres, cocktails, wine we had made ourselves, and karaoke. It was such a blast and everyone agreed that it perfectly suited us. The weather was perfect, kids had fun and the food was delicious. The party lasted until 3 a.m. for some brave souls, but I think it is safe to say that everyone had a good time.

To my fellow bloggers and future brides, be sure to enjoy your day. I know I did.

Thank you to everyone who has read my posts and commented. I really do appreciate all of the support.

Cheers!

{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

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

*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.

This has been such an amazing experience; one that I will cherish forever. Almost every bride has given me the same advice, “Enjoy your wedding planning and take it all in. It’s over far too soon.” Well this experience has not only given me a place to document my wedding planning, but to help me really appreciate so many little things in life that we often take for granted. In preparing my dedication post for Mark, I spent quite a few days looking back at how our relationship had begun and how it evolved. A few posts later, I was dumfounded that 20 years ago, Mark and I were in the same church dressed in similar outfits as we’ll be wearing on our wedding day – it was fate!

As this journey has been shared with Mark, he’s written a few sentences of thanks:

Hello everyone, this is Mark. I just wanted to say a brief thank you to everyone. To all of Judith’s faithful readers, we appreciate you all following along for the last six months. Judith and I are nothing but thankful for all the support you have given us. Whatever the outcome of this contest may be, this has been a great experience for us both.Thank you all again!

To the staff at Weddingbells: Thank you for such an amazing opportunity. You’ve given me such a great wedding gift; one that I can proudly say is one of only seven across Canada, the chance to document such a crazy journey. May the next 25 years be filled with great success, ever growing popularity and prosperity. Thank you.

To the readers: Thank you for sharing this journey with me! It has been so much fun interacting with you. I will truly miss it.

To the six bloggers: CONGRATULATIONS ladies! Your posts were so entertaining to read and I’ve learned so much from them. I wish you all the best for whatever the future holds and may your marriages be filled with an abundance of laughter and the “butterflies in your stomach” kind of love.

To my friends and family: I LOVE YOU ALL! The amount of encouragement either in the comments or in person have truly humbled me. I could not have done it without your encouragement and support. Maraming, maraming salamat po sa inyong lahat.

To my daughter and Mark: I cannot thank you enough for loving me like you both do. I am looking forward to such a bright future and I’m so excited that it is with you both, that I get to share it with. Love you Bey and Booger :).

“I would thank you from the bottom of my heart, but for you my heart has no bottom.”  ~Author Unknown