tkuzma

More still to come!...

Monograms One of the first purchases I made on Etsy, very early in my planning before I finalized my exact theme and concept, was two monograms from Mary Ellen from Digital Bunnys Designs (http://www.etsy.com/shop/DigitalBunnysDesigns). She was great to work with and nicely incorporated my ideas into two cohesive designs. I used these designs in various crafts for the wedding.

Pre-Departure Mailout Approximately 3 weeks prior to our holiday we mailed our guests a letter to remind people to refer to our website regarding things to pack and events occurring during the week; I primarily wanted to do this so as to decrease the number of phone calls with similar questions I would likely get, which I thought would likely increase my stress and anxiety levels at that time Nothing fancy, but they did the trick! I had them printed at Staples. We also included a luggage tag for each guest that The Paper tree designed for us in similar style to our travel themed STD.

Wedding Website I used Wedding Wire to create our website. I thought that for free they had a great selection of templates, it was easy enough to use and personalize, and I appreciated that I could add music and use their wedding planning tools. A screen shot of our website…

Save The Dates & Invitations I accidentally found The Paper Tree in Edmonton one day as I was driving by in the area. So glad I did! Quality and personally designed products and great service at the cheapest prices I’ve seen. Our Save The Dates…We wanted to get our guests excited about a DW. Our invitations…I think they did a great job of incorporating my theme of Beach Elegance with our colours of ivory, gold and champagne.

Flowers I fell in love with a picture of an all-white bouquet containing roses and tulips. For my bridesmaids, I wanted a bouquet of white roses. My bouquet on the actual day was not as full as in the picture, but it was still nice. My groom’s boutonniere contained one white rose and one white tulip. The groomsmen wore a single white rose, as did the dads. This picture was the inspiration for my FI’s bout… We ordered mini white rose corsages for our moms.

The Bridesmaids The dress I selected for my girls to wear was Bill Levkoff, style 165 in Champagne. This comes to my 2nd negative review section in my planning process. DO NOT ORDER FROM House of Brides!!! (www.houseofbrides.com)! Originally my sister placed her order in May and was told she should expect her dress by mid-September; her dress arrived ahead of schedule in mid-August. After a bit of shuffling of individuals of the bridal party, I asked a friend to be a bridesmaid later in August. She promptly put in her order in mid-August, and she was given an estimated delivery date of late November. Well come the end of December, and still no word about the dress. In January we began panicking and attempted multiple times via email and phone to get a hold of someone to help us guarantee the arrival of the dress. The House of Brides customer service phone agents are not located on site of the company, and they will not put you through to someone on site, nor will they give you the direct phone number. We managed to finally pull the number out of about the fifth person we spoke with, and the main site was just as useless. The woman on site kept saying she “guaranteed†arrival of the dress prior to our departure date; I told her to guarantee arrival, I needed the dress shipped via Fed Ex to make it through Canadian customs on time as it was now about this time 1 week prior to our departure. After being promised this, it ended up that they did not ship via priority mail, and therefore, no surprise that the dress never arrived prior to us departing for Mexico. I was more than slightly anxious and angry about the situation, and my BM had to run around last minute to find a long champagne coloured dress. Now begins the process of us attempting to get our money back from the unprofessional company with absolutely awful customer service! Thank you so much to all the brides on this site who offered me suggestions and helped search for alternate dresses during this stressful time!!! Part of my BM’s thank you present were lovely Swarovski crystal earrings I purchased on Etsy (http://www.etsy.com/shop/MARTALILY). The Boys The boys rented their tuxes from Moores- BLACK by Vera Wang Two Button Notch Lapel in Grey. My groom purchased his tie and all the pocket squares from http://www.bows-n-ties.com/.

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue… My “new†was my dress. My “old†were ribbons from my mom’s wedding bouquet. My “borrowed†was a pin that my grandmother wore pinned to her wedding dress on her big day. My “something blue†was a customized dress label that I purchased on Etsy (http://www.etsy.com/shop/MondeDesign).