Monica & Tuan

So the holidays are in full swing and I'm about halfway through my Christmas shopping list. It didn't help that Ottawa was "gifted" with 38cm of snow yesterday! But at least we are assured of our first white Christmas in several years :) Yay!

But Christmas isn't about snow or gifts under the tree. It never has been and this year is no exception. In fact, Tuan and I decided months ago to forgo Christmas gifts in order to save up for our house and wedding. After some more talk though, we decided we'd actually buy our "gifts" on boxing day when everything goes on sale. I say "gifts" because we're actually buying ourselves a flatscreen LCD television ... something that we'd actually need (well we need a TV, but not necessarily a flatscreen one!) when we move into our new house next summer but could get at a far better price on boxing day.

So how many of you out there actually wait until Boxing Day to buy big ticket items instead of paying more for them before Christmas in order to have them wrapped under the tree? And what do you think of this idea?

Labels: Christmas

So my next DIY project was to make my own cards asking my friends to be part of the bridal party. From my save the date adventure, I new I wanted to incorporate stamps into the design. And I wanted the cards to be in my colours, pink & red.

First I ordered the cards and envelopes from Paper Source. I bought the A7 folded card in Luxe Blush and their matching A7 envelopes. If any of you are looking for light pink stationary just a word of caution, I was somewhat disappointed that Luxe Blush was more a peach pink than a baby pink. But it was close enough and I worked with it.

Next I went on the hunt for some nice dress stamps I could use for the bridal party dresses. Addictedtorubberstamps.com has a huge selection of stamps and scrapbooking materials. I couldn't decide on just one dress stamp so I bought two! One for the maid of honour and the other for each of the bridesmaids. I just couldn't resist the adorable fairy like dress! Plus the fairy dress was on sale and I used a coupon for 50% of the solid dress stamp.


Once that was done I bought my remaining supplies at Michaels: round corner punch, butterfly paper punch, cranberry ink pad by ColorBox, red/pink ribbon, red and pink patterned cardstock, and the red glitter alphabet letters.

I scoured the web for what to write inside the card and came across several poems for bridesmaids, maid of honours, and even flower girls at: NYcityWeddings message board and this website. I modified them slightly to suit each girl better.

So when the project was all said and done, here is what the final products looked like:

The girls were touched and loved the cards so all in all a successful and very fun project!

So I previously blogged about my reception decor ideas in this post. What I really loved and wanted was lit up lanterns hanging all over the ceiling of our venue, just as Huinita had at her gorgeous reception. The challenge was how to light all the lanterns up (from within and their cords) without having a whole bunch of electrical cords running across the ceilings and down the walls.

Not too shabby, though the colour of the inner lantern lighting was a little more cool toned than warm toned (like the cord lighting) ... but I was trying to save battery power with LED lights. Now in theory the hanging battery terminal isn't supposed to dim noticeable until 5 hours after it's turned on. However in practice this isn't the case. After only 2 hours, the lanterns dimmed A LOT. So much so that there really wasn't any point in having a battery terminal attached.

The time it takes my Day of Coordinator (DOC) to hang up all my lanterns will be 1-2 hours alone. By the time the guests show up no one will know they are lit up. However, the cord lights stayed on the entire night.

So it seems as though I won't be lighting up my lanterns from the inside unless I come across another cordless method of doing so that will last more than just a couple of hours :(

Labels: lanterns, lighting, reception decor

In the process of making our own wedding invitations, I discovered that not every printer is suitable for the job. My original printer was an HP inkjet all-in-one. It has a single paper tray located at the bottom of the printer. For printing on plain and photo paper, as well as scanning, it was (and is) fabulous. But when it came time to print on cardstock, this printer would eat up all my pretty paper! Try as I may, I could not get it to print on carstock (even text weight) without a paper jam occuring, streaks appearing on the paper, or slanted text and images occuring.

And so I set out to research a printer that could print on heavier paper. I perused and inquired on message boards, researched on cnet.com, and finally came to the conclusion that what I needed was a printer that could load paper from the back of the printer (that is have a back loading paper tray). And if I was going to go out and buy myself a whole new printer, than it would have to be one that prints excellent quality and colour. And one brand of printer really stood out in the reviews. The Canon Pixma series. Based on positive reviews and availability at my local electronics store I decided to purchase the Canon Pixma ip4500.

So what's so fabulous about the Canon Pixma ip4500? Well first off, it prints beautifully on 105 lb (285 GSM) paper. No paper jams, no funny streaks, and perfectly straight. It is also capable of borderless photo printing. Picture and text quality as well as colour representation is amazing, which I think is mostly attributed to its 5 individual colour cartridge system: cyan, magenta, yellow, and 2 black cartridges (1 for photo, 1 for text). Having a separate cartridge for text makes for crisper, cleaner text printing. Separate ink cartridges also saves you money.

Also for price, it cost $149.99 Canadian at Staples. It's somewhat costly for a stand-alone printer without a scanner ... but I think it was worth it. If I had had more money, I would have bought the Canon Pixma Pro 9000 ($500) but that's an investment for another day. So bottom line is if you're looking for a printer that will print on heavy cardstock, look for one that has a back loading paper tray.

Just one last note, the Canon Pixma ip4500 did print on Stardream metallic cover cardstock but certain colours look quite dull due to the sheen on the paper. Black was fine, but red and pink were washed out.

Labels: canon pixma, printer

I have a confession to make. While I love doing crafty things and do it yourself projects, I'm not one of those people who's imaginative enough to always come up with my own ideas. I usually look for inspiration from other sources such as the internet and magazines. So in fact, almost all of my DIY projects actually come from other people ... I just put a little twist on it and/or modify it to make it my own. But in the world of wedding blogs, Knot bios, and wedding websites where people share ideas for the purpose of inspiring others, I think that as long as you give credit where credit is due than all is good :)

Totally "borrowed" this idea from the amazing Mrs. Pootiekins over at The Knot. Tuan and I had tons of fun taking photos of ourselves on our web camera (I think we had to take each shot over about 5 times because we couldn't stop laughing!). Then we just cropped and edited the photos in Photoshop to make them look like they were taken in a photobooth, added a red background with white text, and had them printed by VistaPrint.com (100 free large postcards was the deal at the time!). Each STD was mailed out in an Ivory A7 envelope purchased from Staples. Mailing labels with a butterfly (one of our themes!) were used for mailing addresses while the return address was printed on the back using my inkjet printer. To add a little pizzaz to the envelopes, I adorned them with vintage Cavallini Parisien stamps (purchased from eBay) in cranberry coloured ink.

Labels: DIY, save the date

Throughout high school and university, while my girlfriends would oh and ah over shoes and stock their closets full of sandals, wedges, pumps, stilettos, and boots, I would wonder what all the fuss was about. I mean how many pairs did a person really need? One pair for everyday wear, a pair of runners, a set of winter boots, a nice pair for special occasions, and sandals for the summer. I didn't really see what all the fuss was about.


But once I entered the working world, slowly but surely the shoe bug bit me. It started as a trickle. First it was the sparkly sandals (I'm a glitter girl at heart), and then the pointy toe pumps. Uggs and fur boots soon followed. As I blog this today, I estimate about 50 pairs of shoes in my closet! So what's a converted shoe girl to do for her wedding glass slippers?

Well in my research for the perfect wedding shoes, I came across designers such as Prada, Manolo, Louboutin, and Stuart Weizman. Names I only ever heard of while reading The Devil Wears Prada and watching Sex and the City. And here are a few I really loved:



From left to right: Monolo Blahnik Brooch D'Orsay Pumps (silver version made famous by Carrie from Sex & the City), Prada Beige Sequined Satin Bow Pumps, Christian Louboutin Mussilina peep toe pumps.

And while I loved the Pradas the best, they no longer sold them anywhere and so I had to continue my search.

Which is when I discovered Choos ... or rather Jimmy Choo's bridal collection. And it was love at first sight. There were so many to choose from and while I absolutely adored all his open toe pumps, the heel heights were much to high. So I ordered these sandals by calling their London store (the best customer service!) and in a few short days they arrived:
Simple yet its got some bling to it :) And while Jimmy named them Rye, I call these Choos my babies!

Labels: Jimmy Choo, shoes

So I didn't think I'd be blogging again. Not because I didn't enjoy it, but because I didn't want to spoil all my wedding ideas for guests who might be reading this. What fun is it when your guests show up at your wedding and already know what all your decor ideas look like? But I realize I can blog about many things, and revealing bits and pieces will not spoil the full effect seen in person. And truthfully, I did miss having an outlet vent (or rather express ... ahem) my feelings.

So I'm back, and in my first blog after the break I thought I'd share some of our engagement photos. The one vendor we felt the best about signing was our photographer, Josh Brown. And after receiving our engagement photos the day after we went to Montreal to take them, were were absolutely sure we made the right decision.

These photos were taken at the end of October, in and around Old Montreal and Old Port. I think he made us look pretty good don't you think?

Labels: Engagement Photos, Montreal, Photography