Stay Tuned!

Wedding post-mortem to come! I might just need a few non-wedding days to recover. Lots to share about the event and all of the insanity that ensued leading up to our big day. With no time to write during those last precious hours, I have a lot to catch you up on. More soon!

Measuring Up

GOAL: To plan a DIY, budget-minded, and eco-friendly wedding in under 7 months.
How are we doing? Read on...

We are desperately trying to stay under budget. Well, at this point, since we already blew it with the BBQ caterer and an extra unanticipated tent, we're trying to at least keep our budget reasonable. It's tricky. I admit that I have misplaced receipts and lost track of some of the little purchases - craft supplies here, paper there... - it can really add up. We have managed to save a lot by borrowing (serving trays, etc.), making (invites, placecards, decor) and repurposing (old mason jars). When we come out on the other side of this thing, I hope we manage to net out. We are holding a wedding/garage sale after the event, to sell off all of our DIY supplies, accessories, old housewares that may be replaced by shiny new things (gifts), etc. I do hope that helps the cause! Regardless, however, of being over budget, we have still managed to keep it reasonable. I checked a few online sources, and the average wedding in Canada in 2009 is expected to cost between $19K and $25K. We are certainly well below average, and that makes this thrift-store-bargain-hunting girl very, very happy.

Two things that don't often go hand in hand are bargain and eco-friendly. Truth is, buying local, handmade or organic products can be quite pricey (trust me, this is my job!). Rightly so, however: it costs more to make something by hand rather than machine, to pay people fair wages, and farm without the use of pesticides. Through our stores, we attempt to educate our customers on this point everyday. We have been criticized in the past for our prices. But, until you realize that locally handmade/organically farmed/fair trade certified products can never compete (in a dollar sense) with goods mass-produced in China, you'll always have this opinion. I have learned, over time, the benefit of spending more on things, for better quality, peace of mind, and a sensitivity for the earth and other people. We really wanted to practice what I preach 9-5 each day. We strived to consume less, reuse, and choose environmentally responsible sources for our purchases. All while staying within budget. I think we have mostly succeeded. Here's how our DIY, somewhat-budget wedding is also green:

• Our beer is local
• Our wine is carbon neutral/organic
• Much of our food is fresh, local and organic
• The invitations were printed at home on post-consumer recycled paper
• Much of our decor is recycled or repurposed (antique glass bottles, old cans)
• The favours are useful, and were made by hand from local strawberries and rhubarb; the jars are reusable/recyclable
• My dress is new, but my alterations involve vintage lace and notions, natural undyed linen and organic cotton thread
• Our boutonnieres and corsages are handmade, and reusable (made from ribbon and fabric)
  
• We purchased beeswax and soy candles (as opposed to polluting paraffin)
• Of the serving items we could not borrow from family, they are mostly second hand or made from sustainable materials (bamboo)
  
• Along with registering at two retailers, we are also including an environmental charity option (The David Suzuki Foundation), to allow guests to make a green contribution to our day
• We are looking into purchasing carbon offsetting credits
• Our wedding gift to ourselves? We are adopting a rescue dog (a pal for Mr.D) after the dust has settled!
  

I suppose we could have been much greener still, but we were low on time and budget and still wanted some of the beautiful extras (flowers and miles of twinkly lights, etc.). I am pleased though, that we managed to be somewhat mindful during an event that is typically quite wasteful. I have minor guilt over a few purchases, like paper cups (for back-up), non-eco napkins (they were cheap and JUST the right colour), and my overpriced shoes that will likely be tossed aside by the time the dancing begins. But, with only 8 days to go, I suppose I should save my anxiety for bigger fish!

As for the DIY aspect, if you've read our previous entries, it's about as do-it-yourself (with a little help from our friends) as a wedding can get, we think!

Our scorecard:
Staying on Budget B
Being Green B+
DIY A+

Wardrobe Meltdown

Aha, betcha thought it was me, right? Not so. Not. So.

Little known fact: my scruffy, unshaven, indie-rocker-meets-cowboy hubby-to-be is actually quite particular when it comes to clothes. Sure, his jeans may be unraveling at the hems, and he may still wear that t-shirt that was stained by our possessed washing machine, but the boy cleans up quite well. And he does it all himself. My mother buys everything for my father, down to his socks (no shame Dad; it's pretty common, I hear). This would not fly in our household. I've lucked in a few times, buying him tees that he actually wears, but that's as far as I go. Buying shoes is quite another story (a frustrating one, I might add).

Yesterday, after a wedding checklist marathon, we thought we'd get some fresh air and scope out Bloor street for some last minute accessories for Alex's wedding wardrobe. He had, until this point, planned to wear his pinstripe H&M suit with the chartreuse gingham shirt we bought last week at Club Monaco. The gingham, we supposed, warranted a bowtie accompaniment. We picked up a cute pinstripe version at American Apparel, along with some white suspenders.

Alex also bought a grey suede belt from H&M (I was not too fond of the canvas belt he had planned on wearing). We were only missing argyle socks (which we also felt to be appropriate for the outfit).


After arriving home, I busied myself with finalizing the menu, while Alex fussed in the bedroom. He emerged in outfit #1, the aforementioned suit and shirt with our newly purchased accessories and his pinstripe sneakers. He shifted and squirmed, pulling and tugging at corners and hems. #1 was not happening. Alex proceeded to have a full-blown wardrobe meltdown (a la Dayna) while I tried not to meddle. Better that way - trust me, I am generally on the other end of this scenario.

Outfit # two involved a shoe and tie change (we decided that the dog could wear the bow tie instead). He had affixed a white sock to his collar. "Babe, just imagine that this is a white tie, and that my shoes are not falling apart". He feared looking too much like a member of The Vines. I argued that he was in fact a musician. If the shoe fits, right? No dice.

Nearly 20 minutes later, outfit #3 is presented to me with some ta-da (finally) and Alex seems pleased with himself, yet apprehensive. You see, the suit was ditched in favour of jeans and his scuffed motorcycle boots. The bowtie and suspenders were back, but they finally made sense. Adorable! He was nervous about not wearing a suit to his own wedding, but we vowed to buy him new denim, polish up the boots and find more masculine suspenders (the current "unisex" pair from AA were a tad flimsy).

He said he was inspired by this photo that we had saved as an idea for our photographer:



I dug up this photo, too:


"Look, babe, it's totally been done", I said. My dress, although not as flouffy and formal as most wedding gowns, is still quite pretty and dressy. This couple seems to have pulled it off nicely, and I quite like the juxtaposition. I am also pushing for him to buy Cons, as above, too!

My dress is still a work in progress, but I will actually reveal the "before" picture now, as I am making significant changes to it. You won't even recognize it! I'm actually considering shortening it after all.

[ BEFORE ]

So far, I haven't entered meltdown country, but that might be reserved for my hair. I am, after finishing my dress, attempting to make myself something like this for my head (yes, in this scale):


I clipped a Martha Stewart article about making fabric flowers, and I might just have enough craftiness in me to pull it off. Ability is not so much of a concern as time. 19 days!!!!!

Diversions

Shhhh...don't tell Alex. I am supposed to be working on my dress (which, by the way, is going to be amazing, I just know it!). I just needed to write a couple of wedding-related emails before I started. Before long, I was checking Facebook, browsing through Youtube and now committing to a blog. I am seriously lacking discipline. I did however make some progress today: after breakfast, Alex took off for rehearsal and I hit up Honest Eds and Midoco for some wedding related supplies. I cleaned the house (somewhat) and emailed my Wedding Squad about an upcoming crafting marathon. I will finally admit it: I need their help. If my B-party was any indication, these sisters-from-another-mister can really get things done!

Things are coming together, especially with the 30-day countdown timeline that Alex and I put together. It's on paper (and on the fridge) so we're committed. On that note, my to-do for today - "Work on Wedding Dress" - will never happen unless I pry myself away from the computer.

Ta-ta!

What happens in Toronto...

Can I just say, that I love these women?


My bachelorette rocked...from what I can piece together (hey, totally appropriate in this scenario, right?). From High Tea and Manicures to Fancy-Schmancy Drinks and Raunchy Party Games to Drag Bingo and Cougar Bars, it was oh-so ridiculous and so-so-so much fun. All with a cowgirl theme. Yee-haw! The rest is in the vault (sorry), but I will be posting a sampling of PG-rated photos on Facebook shortly. For now, however, I have a dress to sew! eep.

Thanks, Team Wedding XOXO

Be Our Guest!

I work for a paper company. We have suites upon suites of gorgeous letterpress wedding invitation packages available in our custom shop. Our Pistachio invitation album is full of designs to suit any style, contemporary or modern. The best part: they're customized and printed in Canada with soy-based inks on eco-friendly recycled cotton paper. I would have loved to have given the business to the company - it is, after all, my bread and butter. My job depends on the profitability of our two little shops.

However, never being one to turn down a creative project (even if it's not in my best interest), I decided that we would design, print, trim and assemble them ourselves. It was not a question of whether we could achieve this no-small-feat, it was whether we'd survive the whole ordeal. And, we did!


We bought recycled, process-chlorine-free paper and envelopes from Pistachio and some new ink cartridges for our little printer. After a full Sunday of sitting in front of Photoshop working on our design, we spent the next three evenings cutting, sewing and assembling. Thursday, we addressed envelopes, licked seals and stamped them in time to mail them Friday. I hear that they are beginning to arrive, and we even have our first RSVP already! Thanks Charlie!

Had we decided to have someone else do the work, the whole shebang could have cost upwards of $600 plus postage. We did it all for $160 (plus postage). I love that they are so personal, too. So "us". It was totally worth the papercuts, blisters, and bloodshot eyes.

Welcome to our print shop:

[finishing the design]

[printing...]

[hubby-to-be is such a good sport]

[I may just love this little gadget!]

[sewing paper!]

[fini!]

Red and White ...and Green?

We took inventory of our booze needs for the wedding, and have come up with a hefty shopping list. For beer, we are sticking with one type: Steam Whistle in bottles. We chose this beer for 3 reasons:

• We like it
• It's locally brewed in Toronto - there's the green factor
• It comes in great retro bottles, a perfect aesthetic fit for our day (we know a keg would be slightly more eco-friendly, but glass is fully recyclable, and we won't have any waste like we would with a keg which could only be half consumed)

As for wine, this was a slightly more involved process. We wanted our wines, red and white, to have some sort of a "green" story. We considered local and organic varieties, as well as those with an environmental/charity tie-in. Weddingbells magazine's current issue published a piece on picking wines and suggested a brand called Plantatree. The producers of this wine would apparently plant a tree for every bottle purchased. Perfect! Unfortunately the Weddingbells fact checker didn't do her job: the wine has been discontinued by the LCBO, and is in fact no longer in production. If you're lucky, your local LCBO may still have a few bottles, but we certainly weren't able to get our hands on several cases.

We scoured the web looking for options, and found that many of the organic varieties were out of our budget, but there seemed to be several good local options, and some with other green aspects. Other important factors we considered were price and label design. Our shortlist:

• 20 Bees (Ontario, local)
• Cave Spring (Ontario, local)
• La Vielle Ferme (France, not really green at all, but we love the wine, the price and the bottle)
• Cono Sur (Chile, a carbon neutral wine, with some organic varieties)

(Runners-up: Simply and XOXO)

We bought all four bottles and attempted to coerce a few of our friends to come by and help us. No takers, though. So, it came down to me, Alex, a large ancovy pizza and 4 bottles of red. We had hoped to buy the same variety in all brands, but found that our local LCBO didn't stock much variety. Maybe the results were a bit skewed, as we were comparing apples and oranges (or in our case merlots and cabernets). Our taste test was blind, so as not to be biassed (I was already leaning heavily in favour of one of our picks based on the bottle). Luckily, we both picked the same two as our favourites. Here were our findings (keep in mind we are not connosseurs):


1st: Cono Sur Merlot - bold and smooth (the WINNER!)
2nd: La Vielle Ferme Récolte - lovely not-too-bold wine that we both liked, but not as much as the first
3rd (tie): 20 Bees Cab-Merlot - tasted more like Apple Cider Vinegar
3rd (tie): Cave Spring Gamay - Disappointingly watery, although to be fair, I have had their other varieties and love them. Not sure I've ever had a Gamay before...This was also the priciest of the bunch.

Alex's parents have offered to help us out with the wine purchase (Thank you!) and we are ever so grateful: getting the caterer has put us over budget. This extra help will hopefully ensure that our costs stay somewhat reasonable.

Cheers!

Crunch!

We're really in the homestretch now. I told myself that as of August 26th (exactly a month before our wedding) that I would blog every day. Ridiculous, really. This will be hands-down the busiest month for us, and if I haven't managed to be consistent with writing yet, I sure won't be any better during September. I do have quite a lot to share since my last entry, so maybe I'll try to write few blogs today while being a tad hung over from my Bachelorette party last night. That, my friends, will require a whole blog all to itself.


NEWS:

We have a caterer! So we haven't officially signed or paid a deposit, but we were happy with the quote and we've said "I do" to Western Cut, a catering company that I originally bypassed, thinking that their offerings were a tad casual for what should be a more formal affair. Really, though, it may be a blessing that the original caterer didn't pan out - we have a better cost, and a company that understands our vision. They may be a tad rough around the edges, but Jill assures me that kitchen-types typically are. I won't get my panties in a wad over this one. We do have food, after all!


We have wine! Alex and I held ourselves a little wine tasting of sorts and picked our wine for the event. See next blog for details.


Our invitations are out! We did them ourselves from scratch, and spent hours upon hours getting them from conception to physically mailed in 4 days. Whew! Again, more on this in an upcoming blog.


We have the best friends EVER! Everyone came through with amazing suggestions for caterers, and some went even so far as to offer up their family members to get the job done. Special thanks to Kim, Liz, Leah, Jodi and Lesley. My friends have been particularly supportive, and are still practically begging to help us out. While I still don't have much to delegate, I know that they will be oh-so-valuable in the coming weeks. They also threw me the absolute greatest "last hurrah" as an unmarried woman last night. More to come on this subject! Alex's brother Charlie threw him a bachelor party of sorts this weekend, and the boys headed up to camp near Wasaga Beach. While we are both quite rough today, we both had an amazing time. We know that we are so lucky to have such incredible friends.

Have Tongs, Will Travel?

Wanted: Cook for hire. Must-haves: Pity, Muscles and Mad Grilling Skills. Nice-to-haves: you look (and cook) like Jamie Kennedy.


We are verging on desperation. After much deliberation, we conceded defeat and decided to go with a caterer for the BBQ portion of the dinner. We had been working with a restaurant in Kingston, and just as we were confirming, they backed out, claiming that another couple booked ahead of us. There had been no previous mention of the urgency to confirm during the 18 or so back-and-forth emails. It would have been handy to know that we were in contention for the date, especially the very night before when they sent us an updated quote. Fishy.

Possibly this is for the best. The catering manager didn't seem to quite grasp the concept of our uber-casual affair, and we were fighting them on every detail. The problem now, is that we are left one month before the wedding with no Plan B. Hiring a caterer was always Plan B, as we really thought that our Plan A - do-it-yourself with a little help from our friends - would pan out. Now we're scrambling to make it work again. I have placed a near-nervous-breakdown call to my sister (Queen of the Bar-Resto Industry and friend to many a spatula-wielding gent) to find us some muscle for hire. If only we could find two capable, pleasant chaps to stand over steamy smoky meat products for a few hours, we'd be set. I am dangerously close to a posting on Craigslist. While Jill chats up her boys in the kitchen, we are reaching out to a few more caterers. We have even stooped so low as to email The Lone Star in Kingston. Really though, it's just meat. I hope my mom's deviled eggs, and my Grilled Veggie Orzo Salad and lemon cupcakes will outshine BBQ chicken anyway.

While we scramble to work out our Plan C (I suppose), I beg you: if there is anyone you know - anyone at all - who is trustworthy and familiar with a grill (and possibly in need of a few bucks), let us know. We will pay gas, hotel and a wage.

Worst case scenario? I'd better use ALOT of hairspray, because I may be sweating over a hot grill myself.

The good news? We have actually just secured a bartender for the day, which means that our siblings are off the hook (Thanks Liz and Stephanie!).

Ahhhhh, Freak Out!

Le freak, c'est chic?

Um, not in this case.

I am currently spending my sick day at home working myself into the seventeenth tizzy of the week over wedding this-and-that. My newly dubbed wedding Fairy Godmother (hallelujah, Tanya!) seems to be on the side of my mother in the case of Bride VS. M.O.B.: To cater or not to cater. OK, so my mother's advice should hold more weight than that of a person I have not really seen in 8 years. However, we are predisposed to initially reject our Mothers' wisdom, aren't we? At least that's how I am programmed. I called Alex in a panic (it's daily now) and admitted that if our last ditch attempt to avoid catering didn't pan out (hiring some of my sister's bartender and cook friends), we should break our budget and shell out the extra cash for some professional help.

*hangs head* You might win this one, Mom. How about a plea bargin: I plead defeated and you hold off on the "I told you so's"?

To cool my jets, I will now leave you with some inspriational images of perfectly-pulled-off picnic weddings. *Le sigh*:


Ahhh, much better.

Oh, I need 50 yards of cheap pale aqua or chartreuse gingham cotton or cotton/poly lightweight fabric. Any suggestions?