Lua

well let's just say that i am SO GLAD that our AHR is O - V - E - R. there were good parts and bad parts and am just glad that i can finally breathe. long story short (although this may be long in the end lol), hubby and i only agreed to this AHR at the hall if it was a dinner only. since his parents wouldn't go for the idea of a bbq (which is what we wanted) they said they'd pay for the entire thing if we could have it at the hall. again, we agreed on this to be a dinner only....no dj..no dance.. no speeches.. etc. we had our wedding and this was just to be a night to get together with friends and family (and for my inlaws to invite their friends to). hubby and i aren't dancers either and really aren't party people.... anyway, decor-wise, I was pretty happy with how all of my diy projects turned out. unfortunately no pictures yet as they're on other people's cameras lol ... they consisted of a smallish vase that had shells on the bottom and a big green spider mum floating on top.. i also got frames from the dollar store which i spray painted blueish/turquoise and in those i put the table numbers... for the numbers, i took 13 different photos of us from the wedding (we had 13 tables) and photoshopped the numbers on the picture... we then spread out some little turquoise beads and additional shells on the tables.. it looked pretty good. the cupcakes turned out to be perfect! i manged to get the icing the exact colour i wanted and everyone couldn't stop saying how good they were - score! the food was fantastic and everyone loved that as well. it was great to see everyone and meet some of the in-laws friends... BUT then there was the music issue... gAH!!! i spent HOURS last week downloading songs to put together our playlist. earlier saturday afternoon, hubby set up our laptop with our stereo and we tested the sound and everything having it all ready to go. WELL...... after going home to shower and get dressed for the event, we return to the hall just after cocktails were served to find our friends up on the stage where we had our stereo and laptop set up. our stuff was pushed to the side and they had huge speakers with their music. we had absolutely NO IDEA this was going to happen and didn't get to pick songs or anything. FIL went BEHIND our backs, took our friends out and told them he wanted music and asked them to take care of it. Grrrr my blood was boiling Saturday night and it's boiling again now as I think about it. Saying I was livid is almost an understatement! FIL saw that we had set up our own stuff earlier in the day and said nothing. I sought him out at the hall and asked what was going on.. explained that i had spent hours making our own playlist and why did he do this behind our backs.. it was then when i told him - NO DANCING it's not what WE wanted. FIL promised me at that point, no there wouldn't be dancing..... our friends new that i was pissed and agreed to put our playlist on during dinner... and then ... well low-and-behold, after dinner, dance music started being pumped. omg guys i was SO UPSET i was shaking. yeah some of the guests got up and started dancing, BUT that's not what we wanted for our party.... i know there's nothing i can do about it now but i am SO SO mad at my in laws for doing all of that behind out backs. yes i'm appreciative for the party, but it just wasn't a reflection of us and our wishes... i loved my in-laws before this whole wedding party thing and now i am just so upset and annoyed about their lack of caring about what my hubby and i wanted that i just don't even want to see them. yes we did end up coming out of this with a lot of $ from their friends in the end, but geeze... i wish it had gone differently. thank goodness hubby and i are going away for the weekend so i don't have to see the in laws for 2 weeks at least... maybe my blood will settle by then...

yup! the spider mums were 5 for $5! the regular price now that the sale is done is $7 for 5

I ended up getting the rest of the flowers at Loblaws of all places! Yesterday was the last day of their sale -- 3 bunches for $15, so i just grabbed 6 bunches. there are 2 more pink gerberas, but sadly the stems broke during the transport home, so their in a measuring cup right now awaiting a smaller vase tomorrow lol

well i'm happy to say that i purchased all of the flowers last night for our AH (the blue and white on the left are my leftover silk ones from my bouquet) --- total cost: $33! These are going to be floating in vases with shells in the bottom as part of the centerpiece And we're going to make 3 vases with the others -- 1 to go in the ladies bathroom and the others will be in the room somewhere. Our weddding video/slideshow is complete 5.5 hours worth of music is ready to go Candy is bought! we actually go to the hall tonight to start hauling stuff over such as all of the alcohol (we all lugged home Jamaican rum from duty free lol) and glasses, etc. etc.... I think we're also organizing the tables tonight too. Tomorrow morning, I have to be up bright and early to frost 90+ cupcakes and then back to the hall to decorate!! I'll report back sunday or monday!

thank you! thank you!! i'll give that a shot tonight.

on another note, we're not getting a dj or doing a dance or anything, but do plan to have music playing throughout the night via our laptop. I started working on the playlist last night but am having trouble with getting songs??? I only have 3.3hrs worth so far (need at least 5 i think).. anyway, I have been using frostwire, but like 85% of the songs i want, I can't find or the files just have the voice saying "blah blah this file is illegal" ..... what have you ladies been using to get music?? i'd rather not spend more $ lol

OH there will be desserts galore!! lol We're doing a cupcake table that will be covered in dark chocolate devils food cupcakes frosted in turquoise and white vanilla butterream (to carry our turquoise colour into the AHR). My mom so graciously volunteered to make the cupcakes this week so they'll be ready for me to frost Saturday morning with my vanilla buttercream. I got a pretty kick ass turquoise stand from Home Sense last week that will be the 'main' cupcake stand and I've also gotten 2 different cake stands from the moms then 2 stainless platters (found at value village) so we'll have the cupcakes displayed on all different levels. Oh and my mom is making the cakes in silver papers. ... can you tell I'm excited about this part of the AHR?? lol my mom also thought candy would be a cute touch so we got an equal amount of every blue candy we could find at Bulk Barn lol. My mom already has a nice big clear jar, so we're going to put all the candy in the one jar. I found turquoise tongs at the dollar store for people to use to get the candy out. My mom also got some white peppermints and chocolate covered cranberries that will also be on the cupcake table. LOL she's having a ball getting all of this stuff. And that's not it... there will also be an actual dessert table covered in various bite sized polish desserts. Not sure what they all are, but i know cheesecake is included so i'm happy. As for the rest of the menu, we have... garden salad steamed baby carrots mixed veggies (broccoli/cauliflower and i think more carrots) roasted potatoes pierogi cabbage rolls pork kabobs chicken breast All made by little Polish grandmas lol. honestly there's not going to be any lack of food at this thing. We'll be rolling our guests out at the end of the night.

hubby thinks i'm crazy for looking at going back so soon (we were thinking for a 1 yr anniversary) but i'm just dying to be back there with no family around!! LOL it's an 'option', but as bad as it sounds, we're waiting to see how much we have $-wise after our AHR on saturday. We really were thinking of re-doing our kitchen this summer if we had enough $, so i think that will be first on the list. However, maybe.. just maybe we'll have enough for another trip too?? a girl can dream right?? I love the idea of smores!!!! is it bad that we're not doing favours at our AHR???? we're trying to keep is away from being an actual 'reception' but more of just a big meal.. we're not having a dj or anything.. hopefully people aren't peeved that we don't have favours for them. At least there will be a TON of food!

great deals!! although i think we're going to wait to do ours until after the AHR this weekend. p.s. I think I may be crazy!!!! I've been searching like MAD to try and find a last minute deal to go back to the Riu Negril for a week in July!!!!! LOL .. i'm so stressed over this AHR i just want to go back the two of us and relax on an actual honeymoon!!!!! .... too bad the last minute deal would still cost us $2600!! yikes :S

My hubby and I were married in Jamaica this past april and DID NOT need a long form of our birth certificates (I've never heard of that actually) all we needed were the notarized copies of our wallet sized birth certificates along with notarized copies of our passports. All that extra work is not needed!! We've since recieved our official marriage certificate and it's all legal here!

wish i could go to the toronto get together but it's too far for me - esp for a work night. being in bowmanville, it would probably take me almost 2 hrs to get to square one with rush hour on a weeknight. boo! another time!

Lisa i just sent you a PM i found a great list today in regards to name changing over on Service Canada's website. http://www.servicecanada.gc.ca/eng/lifeevents/marriage.shtml work, facebook and the bank have been so easy to change a name!! lol the rest are a bit of a pain. i think you can actually call to change your name with revenue canada, but then you have to go to a Service Canada location to change your SIN and then to a Service Ontario location to change your license and health card.

that's pretty awesome brandy! lucky you! now that i have my paperwork i just need to figure out when to go to get everything taken care of because of course i need to go to 2 different offices that are only open 9-4 and i work 8-5. go figures!

We came home with our temporary marriage certificate that we actually signed on our wedding day, but here in Ontario (i'm assuming all Canada) you can't officially do the name change with the temporary certificate. Or I guess I should say, I can't change my SIN, licence, or health card without the official document (which I just got). It's been a bit of a pain. Yet.. I emailed my bank and basically said 'hey this is my new name' and they changed it for me. I still can't change my mortgage though without going to the lawyer with the marriage certificate, so i'm just going to hold off on that one. We need a few months with no wedding-related bills!

yes ours is in english --- one of the big reasons we chose Jamaica because we wouldn't have to worry about translating. you're going to have to get yours translated into english unfortunately (i assume it's in spanish?)

on a REALLY GOOD NOTE --- we finally got our official marriage certificate (2 copies) in the mail on Tuesday!!! Literally the day before Canada Post started their full out strike. Phew!! Now I can finally get my name officially changed on everything!

mocha - i wish we could keep everything from my in-laws, but they're the ones paying for the whole thing (because they're the ones that wanted it) so we feel kind of obliged?? i'm hating the whole situation though because i always loved my inlaws before and this crap is making me start to resent them and yes, i'm going to do fullsize chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream - some in turquoise and some in white my work does have a projector and i'm going to ask tomorrow if we can borrow it. might be a long shot though but we'll see. (fingers crossed!)

hubby's going to have to help with the playlist and video ... everything else pretty much me, myself and i... i honestly just want it to be over. i'm not even excited for it at all. oh and we need to also get cheese and veggie platters together too lol (at least my mom is helping with that)

p.s. Welcome back Lisa! AHR update: - i spray-painted all of the frames i bought and they're looking great - made up a seating plan that of course MIL didn't agree with and she went and changed it all around leaving tables of 4/5/6/7 ... meanwhile i had all tables of 6 and only one of 7. thankfully I talked to hubby about it and he's going to tell his mom we're sticking to our seating plan or else there will be NO seating plan. she kept moving things around keeping families all together. i was so frustrated thinking are hubbies aunts and uncles 10 and can't sit with some of my family??? grrrr MIL seems to think they all have to sit together. Anyway.. that is that - as for cupcakes, i was going to do all 80+ from scratch, BUT still have yet to find a recipe that is just what i want - ie. nice and light and fluffy and moist. SO.... I'm going to do the unspeakable.. make the cupcakes from boxed cake mix GASP!! But, then I still plan on frosting them with homemade buttercream frosting What's left to do: - finish table number photos and get them printed - finalize seating plan and figure out how we're going to display it - get a disposable camera for our AHR whiteboard guestbook station - bake all the cupcakes and get them in the freezer so all i have to do next saturday am is thaw them and frost them - get a playlist together for music that we're going to play in the background all night - figure out and get vases/shells/flowers etc. for centerpieces - edit the video from the wedding so we can play it - find a PROJECTOR! ahhh... so much to get done and only 9 days to go!

i'm going to try adding you tonight! (my work blocks fb)

correction - the frames i got are like what Teira used (her pink and orange ones) .. i found a ton of clear ones so hopefully the turquoise spray paint holds up well

glad your AHR went well lesee!! We did a lot of talk/planning for our AHR yesterday and I feel a bit better now. We got to go look at the hall again as it was all set up for an afternoon wedding. They only had a setup for 60 people (we're going to end up somewhere close to 80) so it was nice to see that it didn't actually look to bad in the big room. We're just going to spread things out by putting only 6 people per table. As for centerpieces, we did find some vases at dollarama which we're going to go back to purchase. Then we're thinking putting a layer of sand, some seashells and floating a large flower in them... maybe a green chrysanthemums perhaps? I also bought some frames at dollarama (i think they're the same ones you got mocha) which we're going to use for the table numbers. We didn't originally plan on doing a seating chart, but after discussing it, figured it would make things easier the day of. I got some turquoise spray paint at michaels for the frames and for the numbers, I plan on just picking different photos from our trip/wedding and incorporating the number into them on photoshop. And to finish up the tables, my mom and I found some sparkly turquoise jewel/stones which we'll sprinkle on the tables. We're also going to have white chair covers just to keep things clean looking. As for a cake, I've decided that I will make chocolate cupcakes and frost some in white butter cream and some in turquoise butter cream. I found a wicked piece at Home Sense yesterday which I'm going to use as a cupcake stand, along with a few other cake stands and trays. MIL also has some really cool conk shells and other big shells which we'll use to decorate the cake table and other areas. We still have a lot to figure out, but with less than 2 weeks to go, I'm glad it's finally starting to come together a bit better. It's going to be such a busy few weeks though. Can't wait till it's done and we can relax!!

oo thanks mocha! i'll check out michaels this weekend too then!

thanks for the tip meg!!! i'll give my mom the job to check out some dollaramas tomorrow

mocha --- i'm looking for something like these for vases.... or this: