Wafflesmom

@@Janjin I love your bridal party outfits. I love the rich purple tone, very elegant. AND I love the grey pants and suspenders with the custom converse sneakers! That's great that you were able to find both moms' outfits and make a day out of it. As for your decor vision, it's all very beautiful. Again, I love the dark purples! Now with the flowers you'll have during your ceremony, would you be able to repurpose those for the reception? Maybe you can use them as your sweetheart table decor. And I've seen photos of that gazebo and have always wondered where that was. It's gonna look beautiful with the paper lanterns and string lights. And I agree with @@calgarybride2015, which Groupon vendor? I love that!

@@Meandhim I'm so sorry to hear about everything you've been going through. Big hugs coming your way from Vancouver. Your Nan sounds like such a strong woman, just like her grand daughter. I love your positivity despite the adversity but you are absolutely correct, your Nan lived a happy and full life. I will keep you and your family in my thoughts and prayers. Your brother in law and his partner sound awful! To be so selfish during such an important time in your lives? Well you don't need them! You are surrounded by so many loving people, they can go to their "bear" vacations and spread their negativity there

@@snswedding2016 thank you so much for joining, even with your hectic schedule! I'm glad you and Sean have been tackling this goal together. You have plenty of time to accomplish your goal. You're such a determined and motivated person, I have no doubts you'll rock your health goals and your new business venture too @@dreamweddings I just started the thread but this group would be nothing if it wasn't for all the beautiful women who have already been so supportive of each other. Thank you very much for the well wishes and thank you for helping out brides who may want to go through this in a less public forum ☺ @ I should really try out a barre class. Maybe I'll get my bridal party to join me, it should be tons of fun. Now I wonder if anyone has that Beyonce class? Lol @@Janjin you're not late at all! The Thursday mark us just a day to post the steps you've taken in the week to accomplish your health and wedding goals. I admire your determination and congrats on losing 30lbs, that's amazing! And wow, the nyc marathon? That's awesome!

@@TinkerSofi thank you so much for the wonderful compliment. You're absolutely right in that nothing else compared to it. The bridal consultant said she was reluctant to put it on me first because she knew my mind would be made up already lol. I'm gonna do exactly what you did and try to wear my dress as long as I can that day!

@@yycbride2016 I bow down to your amazing talent!!! Wow, you are one talented woman! You're ring box is beautiful, very professionally done. I've seen ring boxes like that on Pinterest and thought about buying them, it never dawned on me to make one!

@@acw271011 of course you can join! As I said at the start, health comes in both physical and mental form. I understand your physical limitations with working out but you can always set goals that doesn't have to include working out. With your busy workload, you must need some mental rest. Perhaps a goal for you would be to make sure you take at least a 30 minute health break while at work to relax your mind. It could include you reading, or even just going outside for fresh air. I know you get really bogged down with work and get stressed out....we can be here to support you get some work-life balance ☺️

Thanks @@calgarybride2015 for the encouragement ☺️

I just got caught up on your thread and I'm sorry but your DIL angers me! You are such a supportive, understanding and beautiful woman and to say no to receiving your shipments is such a bitchy thing to do. It's not like you've made her pay for your purchases. Ugh, ppl like her anger me! Hugs and love your way. As my mom always says, you just can't fix stupid lol. And ladies, our dollar is awful! I keep updating our wedding budget spreadsheet and it's so depressing to see the U.S. price and the CAD price side by side. I'm hoping it will get better. I've never read so many financial forecasts in my life!

I've been away from the forum this afternoon and have missed so much already. @@deecol woohoo, you've joined! Sooo glad you're here. With your enthusiasm for working out, I think you'll be such a great resource for everyone when it comes to workout tips. And here's the fist pound for you Way to kill it on your workout!! I love spin and actually really miss my old classes. I used to join my friend's spin class at work but since my schedule changed, I don't go anymore. I've replaced it with Pilates so at least I've replaced it with some fitness activity....but definitely not as fun as spin! @@yycbride2016 I'm gonna creep your Instagram too! I'd advertise mine but all you'll see are posts of my dog lol. And I love TRX! I attend TRX bootcamp twice a week and it's such a great workout. @@JoannaBanana, I'm glad you're gonna join but this is honestly not meant to shame anyone. I've just come back from dinner with my family and I had something called "chicken nugget fried rice". And it's as unhealthy as it sounds lol @@Meandhim I'll check out the 21 day fix. I've done the usage is cleanse twice and that really worked for me. I lost 14lbs on it. @ I've always been intrigued with aerial yoga. That must work out your abs like crazy! I've been meaning to try barre fitness. Have you heard of it? It's probably bad for your knees though @@calgarybride2015 great idea with having my mfp profile open. I'm gonna apologize ahead of time for the copious amounts of junk food intake lol

@ the classes are so fun even though it's intimidating at first. You kinda feel out of sorts when you don't know the dance moves but I'm sure you burn more calories just trying to keep up lol By the second song, you come to the realization that only the instructor looks good doing it ad no one is watching is judging you lol I'm definitely sweating buckets during dance classes.

@ yay, welcome to the group! Oh I'm so sorry to hear about your knee. Having knee injuries is really hard so I'm glad you're looking into something like hot yoga. And I'm glad to hear the juicing is going well. I'll have to bug you for recipes. We have a juicer that's currently collecting dust lol @@Meandhim thank you so much for the instructions. If we can get the group going, I think it would be a great way of keeping in touch with each other too. I hear you about food tasting so good. Why do all the bad things taste so good? Congratulations on losing 9 lbs and 4 inches, that's a big accomplishment What's the 21 day fix? And I agree, Zumba or any type of dancing is a great way to burn calories. I join Zumba class every now and then but sometimes the classes are too full and I find it difficult to move around. My fave was Zumba step!

@@vancouverpetunia welcome to the group! That's actually a perfect start because you've set a realistic goal and have still maintained accountability by setting a date to post your goals Have fun on your wine tasting trip! Going to Kelowna?

Oh I'm so glad you're gonna join us @@calgarybride2015 ☺️ I think everyone on here is more than grateful for all of your support and kind words. I know I am! The BDW group is supposed to be on myfitnesspal. @@Meandhim how do you join a group on there? I can't figure out how to do it, or even how to add contacts. My MFP name is also wafflesmom

@@yycbride2016 yay, welcome to the group! I'm glad you've decided to join, especially since you have always been very supportive and encouraging I'm glad you've reignited your fire and motivation! I will look into my username for myfitnesspal and join the bdw group

@@calgarybride2015, @@Meandhim and @@yycbride2016 I started a support and accountability thread for all of us. I had promised to initiate one and I finally got around to it! Maybe we can all do this and myfitnesspal?

Far too often on this site, I’ve seen many brides beat themselves over weight gain, lack of wedding planning or just a general lack of motivation. I’ve spoken to a few brides on here (@, @@deecol and @calgarybride2015) and have come up with the idea of starting an accountability group. Accountability has been proven to be successful in achieving any goal as it helps one keep focus and achieve the goals set forth. Most importantly, it lets you know if you’re getting off track and not staying true to your plan. An accountability group is a small group of people checking in with each other, minimum once a week. Now this accountability group is for two things, to set health goals (both physical and mental) and to set wedding planning goals. If you would like to join this group, you basically just need to do the following: - If it’s your first goal, write a little blurb about yourself and why you would like to join. Then write an overall goal you would like to achieve. This is for the health portion, we all know what we want to achieve for our wedding planning goals LOL. For example, a first blurb goal would be to lose 10 lbs in 4 months. - Then every Thursday of each week, “check in” by writing down steps you’ve taken in the week to achieve both your health and wedding planning goals. For example: o Health goal: I attended two yoga sessions and have given up junk food this week o Wedding planning goal: I booked my photographer - If there was anything that hindered you from progress that week, feel free to use it as an avenue to vent. Perhaps you’re stressed at work, sometimes finding an outlet to vent is a good cathartic way of getting your frustrations out. - Most importantly, be honest. We will have obstacles to our goals and that is completely fine. In the end, we are all here to support each other. I hope this doesn’t sound cheesy at all. I was initially going to start a Facebook group with those who have expressed interest but I thought that this forum is actually a great venue to host this group. Everyone on her has been more than supportive of each other and that’s exactly the atmosphere I’d like to foster in this group. Since I’ve started the group, I’ll go first. My name is Jerilee and I’m getting married on January 23, 2016 at Moon Palace. I was never the type to workout and have a love affair with food. Fried foods are my kryptonite. I’m Filipino, we fry everything LOL As I reached my 30’s, my love affair with food started affecting my waistline. I never quite noticed the weight gain until 2010 when we were all measured for bridesmaid’s dresses for my friend’s wedding. My measurements were the same as my friend who had just given birth! I was absolutely horrified. So right away, I signed up for bootcamp at this small studio near my house. After a year of working out, I was still not seeing the results I wanted. I spoke to my bootcamp instructor and she told me that exercise alone won’t do anything; I also had to change my eating habits. Naïve me thought that if I workout, I could lose weight while continuing to eat junk food. She had me on a strict diet and cleanse for a few weeks and I immediately noticed a big improvement! I am now at my ideal weight for my height and have been working my butt off to maintain it. I’ve already bought my dress and that has motivated me to continue on my path to health, I will be honest in that although I try to eat healthy, I still can’t get over my love affair with food. I do have the occasional cheat days and don’t deprive myself. So here are my health goals: I would like to maintain my current weight but tone up in a few places, including my stomach. I would like to try to eat more vegetables and fruits and make sure that I don’t skip any meals.

Aww thanks so much @! I'm glad you and I found our dream dresses

Thank you so much @@maybeoneday @@vancouverpetunia thank you so much! I went to Champagne and Lace. They're actually having a sale right now to make room for their new Fall merchandise. They recently posted that they marked down 81 wedding dresses and have a number of short dresses marked down too. The staff there is really helpful and friendly. We love the store so much that since buying my wedding dress, we've bought all our dresses for my brother's wedding this year. I think between my mom, sister and I, we've bought 8 dresses from them in 8 months ???? It was definitely worth the drive to Abbotsford

Thanks so much @@yycbride2016! Isn't it funny how many brides say they chose the first dress they tried on? I was just so happy in it and can't wait to wear it down the aisle. I love the ruffles, it definitely fits my personality.

Aww thanks @@acw271011 ☺ I also love the crisscross detail on the top and how it's slightly off the shoulder. And it's not your computer, my dress has multiple layers of ivory organza and one of the layers is peach! The added colour is my favourite part @@calgarybride2015 thank you so much! @@maddjax thank you ☺️ Your dress is beautiful! I love the delicate edging on the skirt, it makes the dress so delicate and flowy! My shoe selection is my next post lol

My beautiful wedding dress: Ok so as you can tell from the caption, I absolutely love my dress! I actually found it last October and was the first dress I tried on. I know some brides get overwhelmed with the thought of wedding dress shopping but I on the other hand could not wait to go dress shopping. I love shopping and have a pretty good sense of what looks good on me. With wedding dresses, I had no clue what would look good on me. I've watched countless episodes of Say Yes to the Dress and followed their advice of trying on every style of dress as you'll never know what will look good on your body. So right away I researched different designers and saved photos of dresses that interested me. One dress instantly caught my eye as it was different and was very ethereal. It was a new dress from the Sophia Tolli line and I knew I had to try it. I showed the photo to my sister and mom and they agreed that it was a beautiful dress. In my eagerness to find the dress, I started looking to see which bridal salons actually carried Sophia Tolli. During my search, I came across a store in Abbotsford, BC (almost an hour away from me) that carried Sophia Tolli dresses. I browsed their Facebook and Instagram pages and found out that they were actually going to have a sample sale in two weeks. Now this was over a year away from our wedding date but I thought, why not try on dresses, including the Sophia Tolli gown (not necessarily buy anything) and see what the discounts are like during sample sales. So mid-October, during their first weekend of their sample sale, I booked my first bridal appointment. I booked for the first appointment in the morning and was so excited. I brought my mom, sister/MOH and nephew. I didn't bother asking my bridesmaids to come with us since I wasn't expecting to find my dress that day. I was assigned the sweetest bridal consultant and I quickly showed her the Sophia Tolli dress I was looking for. She informed me that there was a delay in receiving that particular dress but asked what style dress I was looking for. I had told her it was my first appointment and I didn't have any set style of dress and would actually like to try on as many different styles to determine what would look good on me. She said that she would pull some styles for me but said that I was free to walk the store to see if there was anything that caught my eye. She was telling me where the sample sale dresses were located and where the regular price ones were. As she was talking, a dress immediately caught my eye. I excused myself for interrupting her and asked if I could grab the dress that caught my eye before anyone else grabbed it (it was in the sample sale section). She grabbed four additional dresses and that's when we decided five was a good number to start. As she grabbed one of the dresses she selected, I asked if we could actually try on the dress I found. She helped me get into it and as I turned to face the mirror, I fell in love! As my bridal consultant opened the door to show my dress to my family, both my mom and sister started crying. SOLD! LOL She placed me on a chair to show the full dress to my family and my mom instantly said, I can tell you love this dress. I felt like a million bucks in it and didn't want to take it off. I walked around in it to see if it was heavy and it wasn't. I sat down to see if I could move in it and it was so easy to maneuver in. And best of all it was exactly my size (minus the length) and it was on sale!!! As much as I loved the dress, I thought that I should be logical and try on the other 4 dresses. Perhaps it was a case of falling in love with the dress since it was the first wedding dress I tried on. When I tried on my second one, I wasn't impressed. When the doors opened, my mom and sister stared at me for a good minute then said, take it off LOL The other three dresses were also nice but I wasn't as happy in them as I was in my first dress. So with that I said yes to the dress during my first appointment. I have since tried on the dress twice and am so happy I found my dream dress. I can't wait for Derrick to see me in it

@@yycbride2016 that's such a great list! Thanks for reminding me that I should start my list too so I know what else I have to do. Now I don't know how far into the weeds you want to get with your list but don't forget about personal grooming appts like wax, haircut and colour, nail appts, and such. Oh and gown alterations if you need any

@@diadiamond your bachelorette sounds fabulous! You have such wonderful loved one to plan such an awesome surprise. And you know you've had tons of fun if you can feel it the next day lol @ don't feel bummed, you'll have plenty of things to look forward to after your wedding like planning your anniversary trip, finding a house and helping other brides with their paper design needs @@acw271011 that pic is priceless! Let's hope he never study blew across this forum lol @@calgarybride2015 walking around with a yard drink in your hand is a must in Vegas! Last time we went there, my friend established a two drink minimum before leaving the hotel room. By 11 am, we were buzzed already

@@Danielle1 I hope you won't have to resort to contacting their supervisor. I have heard of locations being changed, even down to the very last minute! Well good luck, I hope it all turns out well in the end

@@Danielle1 I'm so sorry to hear about your concerns! Did Yanet provide an explanation as to why they keep moving your party location?