Friday, January 28, 2011

FRD - Daddy's Little Girl - Deborah and Barrett

Welcome to the final installment of Deborah and Barrett's beautiful day! It was my second last wedding of the season and a nice way to wrap up a great year of wonderful couples and unique and special weddings. It was my first full year of planning and I was so happy with all of my experiences! Deb and Barrett's wedding was extremly special to me, since it was the first wedding where I got to see it from start to finish, the proposal to the "I Do's".

Congratulations my friends, and all the best in this coming year (hopefully we can welcome some little mini Deb and Barrett's, he he!). All my love to you both...

Deborah and Barrett, October 9, 2010
The overall theme/colour/feel for the wedding: The colours were navy blue and fuchsia with a hint of white. Navy blue and fuchsia are my two favorite colors. I wanted classy but elegant for the colour scheme.

My dress was simple but classy without too much bling bling. It was strapless with a sparkly brooch on each hip and one just under my chest. It was shoe laced in the back which was probably my favorite part and my train was nice and long. My hair was all up with a veil that came to the small of my back. My shoes were fuchsia suede flats with ruffles on the heels and I wore drop earrings. My garter was hand made from a girlfriend of mine. My father in law had to have the best of the best for flowers so the bridal party and flower arrangements at the reception were from a very high end florist here in town, Itinerante in Bankers Hall. The groom wore a black suit, with a white shirt, a white vest and an white tie. He had a fuchsia handkerchief in his jacket pocket. The groomsman wore black tux's with a white shirt, navy blue vest and tie with a fuchsia handkerchief in their jacket pockets. The father of the bride wore a fuchsia handkerchief in his jacket pocket and the father of the groom wore a white one.

The bridesmaids wore matching navy blue dresses, fuchsia shawls and silver jewelry to match their shoes. Their bouquets were fuchsia roses, cockscomb celosia, white freesia, and wax flowers.

For the reception the tables were square with white linen and sterling silver flatware. The chairs were left uncovered to show off the beautiful natural wood. The centre pieces were a mixture of loose fuchsia rose petals, full roses, silver candle holders, different size vases with roses and petals and on each table was a picture of one of our engagement photos. Beautifully done!

How we met: We have a mutual friend that just happen to invite us out to a get together the same night. We actually never said a word to each other until hours later when I wanted to dance but no one was interested in dancing. I later found out that our friend whispered into Barrett's ear and said " If you don’t go and dance with her, your an idiot " So we went to dance but we ended up standing in the middle of the dance floor just talking. When the song was over he said " come with me, I need to grab my jacket from coat check" so I went with him and waited outside the door while he went in to get his jacket. A guy approached me and I wasn’t interested in talking to him so when I saw Barrett come out, I said to the guy " Oh there is my boyfriend, gotta go " and I went a grabbed his hand. We both instantly felt this shock like we had both just been electrocuted. It was the most amazing feeling that I have ever felt in my entire life. We talked for a little bit, about golf and how much we both love hockey and we even argued over the fact that he is a Calgary Flames fan and I am a Vancouver Canucks fan. The night was coming to an end so he asked for my phone number. Two days later (on Monday), we talked for five hours on the phone, Tuesday it was four hours, Wednesday it was two hours and on Thursday we had our first date. By the weekend, I just knew he was the one for me and that I was going to marry him. We have, for the most part been inseparable ever since.

Proposal:

From Barrett's POV – We had already been ring shopping so she knew it was going to happen but she didn’t know when. I made arrangements with Alberta Diamond Exchange to pick the ring up once it was ready without her knowing. As soon as I got home that day, I phoned her father to ask for his blessing; that was the easy part. Now I had to decide just where and when I was going to purpose. After some thought and hearing some of my friend's suggestions, I thought of asking her at one of my hockey games since hockey is a big part of both of our lives and Deb never misses one of my games so I knew for sure she wouldn’t suspect anything. I made some calls to some of the guys on my team to bring their girlfriends and wives to celebrate with us. With everyone knowing except for Deb what I was going to do after the game, I had to make sure she was going to be waiting for me to get off the ice so I asked some friends to make sure that happened. Having the ring in my glove, coming off the ice I was really nervous and wanted it to go has planned. She was there waiting for me to give me a kiss and that’s when I told her that I had something to tell her. I took off my helmet, looked her in the eye and told her that I loved her. She gave me this weird look and that’s when I got down on one knee, equipment and all and asked her to be my wife. With some choice words, she asked if I was kidding and I said no. With my hands shaking, I managed to put the ring on her finger and she then said “Yes". One thing I didn’t plan was to get this on video but luckily Brittany was a smart thinker and taped it. We have watched it many times since.

From Deborah's POV- That night was nothing out of the ordinary. I came home from work; we had dinner and then got ready to leave for Barrett's hockey game. I make a point to go to every game because for me, God forbid I miss a really good game or miss out on seeing Barrett get a really good goal. I look forward to his goals because he skates past me and secretively blows me a kiss or shoots me a smile and all I can see is his mouth covered by a big black mouth guard. Those moments make me giggle every time. We had gone ring shopping and were referred to Darren from Alberta Diamond Exchange. We had spent a lot of time with him, learning all about diamonds, you know, cut, color, clarity etc and figuring out what was important to me and also what style of ring I wanted. So once we got that all figured out, it was just a matter of Barrett purchasing the diamonds so that they could go ahead and design my ring. I knew he was going to ask me, it was just WHEN?? It was almost three months later and that night I saw Brittany, who I knew was a wedding planner so I just had to talk to her and ask her a million and one questions. I pretty much spent the entire game complaining of the fact it’s been so long and Barrett still hasn’t asked me. Not knowing that she was there because she knew that Barrett was going to ask me after the game. I had no idea that everyone knew about it so I was quite embarrassed that I spent all that time complaining. I was in complete shock when he got down on one knee and didn’t know if it was really happening but managed, after a few choice words to say “Yes". We are super happy that Brittany got it on video because we laugh every time we watch it.

Wedding Drama: With never meeting our Pastor before, we had made arrangements to meet him a few weeks before the wedding so we could go over what was to happen that day and things that we wanted and just a chance to get to know him and be comfortable. So I got a few pots of coffee on the go and picked up some timbits from Timmy's and made a cheese and crackers spread. We were looking forward to finally meeting him. We had no idea that, that was the day he was going to have an emotional breakdown and spend two hours at our kitchen table telling us about his horrible childhood and his screwed up family. Now I cant go into great detail but some of his stories could be told on Oprah and the others on The Jerry Springer show. When he finally left, we just sat there with our mouths wide open in complete shock and wondering if this just happened. We were so mentally drained that all I could do was phone the director of the church to tell her what had just happened and that we in no way shape or form wanted him to marry us. Are you kidding? She was pretty upset and told us that she would take care of it and find us someone else. I then spent the next few days wanting to pull my hair out from leaving message after message with her, wanting to know what was going to happen and why she hasn’t returned my phone calls. She finally called me back to tell me that there she couldn’t find anybody to take over because it was Thanksgiving weekend and the other Pastor were going to be out of town. It was to late to try and find a pastor that we could bring in ourselves so our only option was to try and put this behind us and meet with this Pastor again and see how things go. We decided to meet him in a public place this time so that if I needed to scream, someone would hear me. The meeting went better than we thought and this time it wasn’t all about him. We got done what was needed to be done and we left there feeling a bit better and that everything was going to work out and that day was going to be beautiful as long as we could forget about the stories he had told us. That day went smoothly and even the days leading up to it. My dress got picked up on time, my family all arrived from out of town on time, safe and sound, everyone that needed to be at the rehearsal was there. I woke up feeling calm and excited. My bridal party all got up and started to get ready. My two hairdressers arrived on time and started doing our hair. Things were perfect!!! The only thing that happened that really upset me was that instead of a candle ceremony, we chose to do a sand ceremony instead. We spent a lot of time picking out our verses and prayers that were very special to us. We gave it to the pastor the night before at the rehearsal and he didn’t say a single word during the sand ceremony and we were so upset but I wasn’t going to let it ruin the rest of our day but it took me weeks to finally be able to let it go. Oh and we accidently paid the pastor and extra $25.00 to boot!

The whole day was amazing for us! We had the warmest day of the year; all of our loving friends and family were there. Special moment’s i.e hiding behind a fence watching Barrett get out of the car and seeing how handsome he looked in his tux, it instantly made me cry. The look on his face when Barrett watched me walk down the isle. The moment I shared with my dad and that he did everything he could not to cry in front of me. We both loved the feeling of us holding hands during the ceremony, the love and kind words from everyone. Our amazing wedding planner that made our special day more beautiful than we could ever have imagined and our very gifted and talented photographer who captured our memories that we will cherish for a life time.

Ceremony : McKenzie Towne Church
Reception: Sirocco Golf and Country Club
Wedding Day Coordination: Urban Vows
Photography: Shutterbird Photography
Flowers: Itinerante, Bankers Hall
Wedding Dress: The Bridal Centre
Tux's: Moore's Clothing for Men




















Monday, January 24, 2011

The Calgary Wedding Fair

Oh where do I start with this!?


My passion for weddings runs deep and has done so since I knew what tulle was. Everyday, white dresses and dreamy venues float around in my head and have come to the conclusion with my fashion forward friend, Danielle of Death by Shoe that the number one leading cause of divorce is not money, nor infidelity, but colour palettes. The wide array of them that make us wedding freaks go crazy, needing to have multiple weddings to get these pretty colour combos out of our systems.


This past weekend, all my favorite vendors were anxiously getting revved up for Calgary's biggest bridal event, The Calgary Wedding Fair. I rounded up a few girlfriends (thank you Din for being my unofficial Wedding Fair photographer and providing this posts lovely snapshots!), armed with four complimentary tickets and four VIP fashion show tickets and hit the road. When we walked in we had no idea where to start, so we chose the fashion show, and what a treat that was! I must say, the variety of dresses was lacking, especially the way bridal fashion is heading, in a couture direction and with sleeves making a comeback, I was a tad disappointed seeing ball gown after ballgown of strapless varieties, all with a bit too much bling for my taste. But can we talk about the "grooms". Holy mother of all things wonderful, the guys did a spectacular job. The Wedding Fair hired these models based not only on looks, but talent and I know that many of these fine specimens were professional dancers. They were entertaining and there was not one lady in the audience that wasn't grinning ear to ear (if there was, I am convinced they may not have a soul...). The stage was also impressive, the best I have seen in Calgary as far as fashion shows go, we are not the most fashion forward city in the world by any stretch of the imagination!. It was backlit, and very chic. I also would have loved if they identified the designers, so that I knew who NOT to look for when wedding dress shopping, ha ha!


After the fashion show we took in a little bit of wine tasting - which we tried to do before the show - in which we got the comment "ladies, it's not even 11:00, that's when we start pouring". Who the heck says there's a time limit on alcohol consumption, we were ready!


We went from there on to the table top decorating competition. This is actually where I think I could be a contender. I love creating a different look to each wedding - and I think the whole room can be transformed with well done table decor. One thing that seems to be on the trend upswing is not so much covering chairs, but changing out chairs all together. The girls moaned with embarrassment that I knew what chiavari and ghost chairs were, they would rather refer to them as "clear" or "gold fancy", ha ha!







Next, onto winding around the hundreds of booths. I have to say, it was a tad bit awkward not being engaged as I got asked multiple times when my wedding date was, had I picked a venue etc. Although - before heading to the show, I gave fair warning to Josh that our "wedding date" on my ballot entry stickers was September 15, 2012, and that I hoped this was alright with him (like he had a choice, right!?).





I was in wedding heaven, this was my mecca and I squealed with delight when seeing my form of "celebrities". When you love weddings as much as I do, and stalk blogs, wedding sites and magazine racks constantly and then get to meet these vendors in person, well, it's pretty exciting. The Social Page had great wedding stationary, Lynn Fletcher's booth was definitely something to write home about and deservedly won best booth, Ed Ross was his usual humble and friendly self and Great Events with their table top waitress decked out with delectable looking desserts was very innovative. I love seeing different things presented, with the amount of research I do it's very refreshing.



The edible treats displayed were super droolworthy! M for Macaron (love that name!) had such a beautiful, fun display - and confirmed what I already had a feeling about, that macaron's are quickly replacing the cupcake trend. Another trend I find coming back is good old wedding cakes. There were beautiful cakes displayed by Cakery Bakery, Buttercream Bakeshoppe, and Cakeworks.





The whole show really exceeded my expectations, thousands of brides had so many options of everything from dresses and venues, to flowers and cakes. I loved the variety and knowing that all these brides-to-be are able to choose the vendors that are perfectly suited to them.


Congratulations to all the vendors, and a huge thank you to Calgary Wedding Fair for putting on a spectacular and very successful show!

Sunday, January 16, 2011

It's All in the Details

Deb and Barrett - Part Two




I am going to let the pictures do the talking in this post, so just a few words to explain the overall feel and theme of the day. The bride was adamant, as she should have been, that she wanted a gorgeous wedding despite the short timeline and limited budget. When I brought them their wedding outline, I had also created a colour palette for them to peruse. I was elated when they loved everything about the navy, fuchsia and white scheme I had drawn up for them. I have always wanted to combine these colours for a preppy chic look and was so excited to get to work on this one! The dollar store was my best friend, and I was dead set on the centerpieces being a "cluster" format - high impact, low price. Their day turned out so beautifully, it was a wedding I was so proud of, a lot of work but well worth their reaction!

A huge thank you goes to Chelsea of Shutterbird Photography for all the amazing images, as usual, they are spectacular and as unique as the couple!




For table runners, we rented organza chair sashes at $2.50 a piece. The table numbers we created on a photo machine at Superstore using their engagement photo's and superimposing the numbers onto them using the font application on the machine. Frames were purchased at a dollar sore for $2.00. The mirrored candle holders were also purchased at the dollar store for $3.00 a piece. Proof that if you are crafty enough, you don't have to spend ridiculous amounts on the smaller items involved in the reception.



Ring shot on the bottom of a wine glass


Absolutely stunning views of the valley and gorgeous giant bouquets by Iterante


Card box created by yours truly, from a box, scrapbook paper, and a few scrapbooking decals and lettering, photo guest booked also created by myself on Shutterfly, using their beautiful engagement photos.


As the sun set outside and the room dimmed - all the candles in the room really created a gorgeous glow.


One blossomed fuchsia rose at each place setting.


The centerpieces were what I call "cluster" format, in that each table had different sizes and styles of vases with petals or full blooms of fuchsia roses and floating candles. Many times brides get hung up on each table looking precisely the same, but doing this, having them coordinated but not matching creates an interesting look as well. Between the glass jars, which I already had, and some were borrowed, floating candles and wholesale roses, each centerpiece cost about $10, and looked absolutely beautiful


Their mini wedding cake with fresh irises and roses made by Allison LaFrance of Siraia at Sirocco .


A close-up of the stunning bouquets by Iterante in Bankers Hall. These bouquets weighed around 50-60 pounds - I know, I re-arranged them several times, ha ha!


The afternoon sunlight in this room creates beautiful images like this one.


The happy couple and their colour coordinated balloons (all the way from Granville Island!).


The bouquets done by Iterante were some of the most beautiful I have ever seen.


Fuchsia flats - shoe choice of a smart bride!


Because the engagement was so short, the bride had to buy "off the rack" and I believe this was only the 2nd dress she tried on, but we all knew it was the one! She looked amazing in it!