*Nadine*'s planning thread

[*Nadine*]

I know we all say this, and it’s so true, I cannot believe its my turn! We have been engaged for over a year and a half and I am more ready than ever to marry my best friend. I stumbled onto this forum somehow last summer and really became more active this year (shout out to the SB ladies). It’s been beyond fantastic getting to know you all and I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart for helping me plan, for your advice and opinions, and most importantly for always being as excited about my day as I have been. Hearts.

 

THE ENGAGEMENT

J & I dated for 3 and a half years-almost to the day- when he proposed on April 18th, 2008. He had an elaborate plan to take me away to the Fairmont in Lake Louise for my birthday but a huge snow storm hit Calgary and the highways were closed. So instead of cancelling our getaway he booked us the presidential suite at the Fairmont Palliser in Calgary and we had a vacation within our own city. It was one of the best weekends ever and I truly thought it was just my birthday gift until he proposed after dinner on the Friday night. We came back to the suite to find champagne, strawberries, chocolates, rose petals, the works! I was not expecting it AT ALL and he completely blew me away. I of course said yes!

 

THE RINGS!

Both my rings were designed by a jeweler in town (Jewels by Design). We had never talked about engagement rings so my ring was a complete surprise-I heart it. My wedding band is not ready yet, hopefully by Friday, so I am attaching a pic of the computer rendering my jeweler did. The outside diamonds will be pave set though, not just set in the band like shown in the pic. And they will go ¾ of the way around, not the full way.

Mine:

His:

We bought his ring at Maggies diamond boutique here in Calgary

 

SAVE THE DATES

We sent these out about a year and a half before our wedding date, hence why the actual wedding date is not on the magnet.

 

WILL YOU BE MY BRIDESMAID?

I have four bridesmaids in the USA and four in Canada. To ask my girls in the USA I sent them a little set from Adorable Cookie Pot Bouquet when your cookie gift delivery has to be spectacular! that included a dress shaped cookie, hot cocoa, and chocolates with a little card that said ‘Will you be my bridesmaid’. Looks like the set has changed but this is the most recent one:

For my girls in Canada I couldn’t find anything like this so I sent them each a bouquet of flowers to their work with a card.

 

BACHELORETTE PARTY

I ended up having two bachelorette parties. As I went to school in the USA I have a lot of friends who are American and I meet up with them once or twice a year in Vegas. So 17 of us met up in Vegas in July for 4 nights and stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel. I thought it would be overwhelming with so many girls (high school friends, college friends, family, and new friends) but it wasn’t at all. Everyone just dove right in and all got along great, it was definitely the best weekend of my life. A few pics (they planned to all wear green bathing suits one day and gave me a white bikini with Bride on the a**)

 

I also had a bach party in Calgary with 21 of my girlfriends (most of which could not make it to Vegas). Everyone wore a black dress except myself who wore color. Fun!

Only ones left at the end of the night..I love this picture

[*Nadine*]

RESORT

There are 62 of us staying at the Dreams Resort & Spa in Huatulco, Mexico. Flying in on either Christmas eve or Christmas Day and home on New Years eve or New Years day!! We chose Huatulco b/c it is an area of Mexico that none of our guests have been to, the dreams resort just opened this past January and it was by far the cheapest five star for this time of year.

 

OOT Bags

To this day I still do not know what my colors are, other than they will incorporate green since my girls are wearing green. Because of this our OOT bags have no rhyme or reason with their colors.

I got these bags from a seller on ebay, and they are fantastic! I love that they also came with the little coin purse, perfect for holding room keys and money.

Everyone will get a travel mug – which I forgot to take pictures of before I sent them with my aunt to take down for us. So here is the proof (www.4imprint.ca):

We will also put in them anti bac lotion from B&BW, spf lip balm, suduku/crossword puzzle book, pen, pencil, some meds and a welcome brochure (vista print).

We also bought pashminas for the girls at the reception and will be getting cigars for the guys. I couldn’t find the right color of green for pashminas so I just bought fun colors that I thought people would like. Looking back I should have just got purple and gold but oh well, hopefully people like that teal color too!

[*Nadine*]

ATTIRE

Dress

So, I had a REALLY hard time finding a dress. I went dress shopping in Chicago, NY, Philly, Saskatchewan and Alberta and couldn’t find anything that made me scream ‘THIS IS IT’, like I was told was supposed to happen. Finally I was set to design my dress with a Canadian designer here in Calgary. I had an appt on a Saturday to go and put down 50% and to start the ordering process (design sketch was already done) and the day before, Friday, I got an email about a sale at Evalina Couture here in town. It was a ‘Flea Market Pricing’ sale so I figured what the heck, I’ll go there on my lunch hour and see about jewelry or whatever. I go there, and its madness. I poke through the dresses for fun and most were too big or too ‘bridey’ for me. Then I came across a section of Nicole Miller dresses and saw one that had a dif material-it’s a metallic taffeta. So I took it, dropped my clothes in the open room and tried the sucker on. It was the FIRST dress in the probably100 I had tried on that was actually long enough for me (I am 6’1â€) and it was just a size too big. I asked Evalina how much it was and she said $100. I said, SOLD! I was pretty much that lady on the Ikea commercial who runs out of the store screaming ‘START THE CAR!’. The dress is not exactly what I wanted, but its pretty and it will do the job. So now the cheapest outfit I will wear all week is my wedding dress.. go figure.

 

These are my earrings (Banana Republic)

 

I got a one layer elbow length veil ( veilshop.com )

 

This is my hair flower (Thank you Jess - I used the same lady who made hers off of Etsy- arbie goodfellow). It is even better in person, I am absolutely thrilled with it!

 

And here are my shoes (Free People Clothing Boutique > Welcome to Free People) & flip flops for whatever

 

Groom

This isn’t the exact suit J got, I don’t think anyways, but it looks super similar and its Perry Ellis as well. He will wear a white button down shirt with a neutral tie and loafers. It looks very yummy on him.

[*Nadine*]

Bridesmaids

I have 7 girls standing up with me in Mexico. I let them pick whatever style of dress they wanted in the color clover from J.Crew. I purchased all their dresses and then shipped them out to them since they live everywhere but near me! There are three wearing the strapless, and two of each wearing the two different strap dresses. They will be wearing whatever shoes and jewelry they want, in gold.

 

Groomsman

J is also having 7 guys stand up with him. They are wearing linen/cotton pants and a white button down dress shirt, both from Banana, with brown flip flops and belts. We bought them their outfits as well. This is a picture of J trying on the outfit and taking a pic with his phone to show me. It’s the best I have!

 

GIFTS

J and I are not doing gifts for each other. Most likely just give each other a card the day of the wedding.

 

For the bridesmaids, along with their dresses, I got them each a spa wrap from smarty pants boutique and a Lodis clutch (I am a clutch fanatic!). I bought three dif colors of the clutch because there wasn’t one color that would work for all of them.

 

For groomsman gifts, J also bought the guys these bags from Cutter & Buck. They were a hit when he handed them out

 

HAIR INSPIRATION

I have crappy thin hair so I think my hair will be a coin toss on the day of the wedding. My sister used to be a hair stylist so she will be putting extensions in my hair, for volume not length, and probably pulling it half back.. Similar to this pic I think. Although my hair doesn’t hold curl so it probably won’t be similar at all, meh.

 

FLOWERS

I am the worst bride ever and still don’t know 100% my color scheme. I think I will decide when I get down there but most likely will go white, green and purple. Here are some bouquets I like.. Ill carry the white (with maybe a bit of green) and the girls will carry purple (and probably white and green). We will all put our bouquets in vases at the reception to be centerpieces. Hope it works out!

[*Nadine*]

PHOTOGRAPHER

In late October I found out from another bride on here that the photographer I had booked passed away. Thankfully, I was able to book Nate Cordova just two months before our wedding on the recommendations of some of the shout girls (Jess, Steph and Autumn). Seriously, what would I do without BDW??

 

HONEYMOON

We will leave Huatulco on January1st and then fly to Cancun to go stay at the Excellence Playa Mujures for a week. We got a two story roof top terrace suite 

 

Dresses

And because my planning thread wouldn’t be my planning thread without dresses, here are just a few that I will be taking! Apparently I like jcrew, or at least they were the ones I could find pictures of online easily

(in bright alpine green)

 

I think thats it.. Ill post my ring when it comes in and if I think of anything else!

[Married_In_Maui]

Great Job Nadine; thanks for sharing!!! You leave so soon; YIPEE!!!!

[*Linds*]

Aww I love everything! I love the BM dresses! I was just looking at jcrew today for my girls! I'm so excited for you! I'm sure you will have the time of your life! Congrats!

[NaM]

I love it all!!!!!! So cute. Can't wait to see it all come together.

Wait, where are you invites? jk

 

You are going to make an absolutely beautiful bride. Congratulations and have a blast during the wedding and on your honeymoon!!!!!

[*Heather*]

Yesssss! It's time! Love love love it all. Your wedding is going to be awesome. I hadn't seen your ring before...love it.

 

There's just so much amazingness in this post!!! Hehe

[stacey]

Nadine, great planning thread. You are more on the ball then you know!!! Your wedding is going to be amazing, congrats!