breeze616's Planning Thread - tons of pics!

[breeze616]

OMG! Its my turn!!

 

First of all I have to thank Tammy and all the BDW Mods and Contributers! This site has made my wedding 4561768374367167683143 X easier, I would’ve have been pulling my hair out without it. So thank you thank you thank you!!

 

Special shout outs to the ol' shoutbox peeps. You girls are totes awesome and I know that the friendships I have made there will be enduring long after my wedding is said and done. Who would’ve known I’d meet such wonderful non-nerdy people on an internet forum? Love you hooks!

 

Ok, so about my wedding….

 

Engagement

 

After 7 years of dating, I knew my time was close. He started hinting and we looked at rings together and it became very clear that his taste in Erings was ABHORRENT! I mean, if it was the ugliest, gaudiest ring in the display, he said ‘oh that one’s nice…’ :sick: So I quickly went to work googling and found this New York designer I LOVED: http://www.maevona.com/bridal-jewelry/2 and picked out the ring I wanted:

 

 

The ring design is called Eriskay. I had mine done in all white gold.

 

So, once I had picked the design, I called my Mom (she now works for a jeweler, and FI and I knew when he was ready he’d call her cause obv he’d get a great deal) sent her the design and told her that I think Steve will be calling you soon for my ring and she said ‘I’ll take care of it’ and she did!

 

Best thing was, I got the ring I wanted, but wasn’t sure when it was going to happen, so still was surprised, best of both worlds!

 

 

My ring

 

May 23, 2009 my FI asked me to go out for dinner. In the restaurant, he took off his sweater to reveal his custom TShirt while I was opening a loving card signed "Roses are red, violets are blue, you're the love of my life - can I marry you?" of course, I said "YES!"

After dinner we met some friends at the movies and they took these pictures.

 

 

 

 

Wedding bands

 

 

I obviously had to have a custom band made for my e-ring, and I totally love it. My ring looks nothing like a typical wedding band and e-ring and that is what I like about it. I cant wait to get the matching band for my one-year anniversary that will go on top.

 

Resort

 

After much consideration, we decided on the Iberostar Rose Hall Beach resort in Montego Bay, Jamaica. It was affordable for our guests, had none of the headache that come with marriage in Mexico and it was highly rated on Trip Advisor. I am so happy with our choice.

 

 

Travel Agent

 

We went with Romantic Travel, a Candian Travel Agency that specializes in destination weddings and honeymoons. We had a pretty good experience with them, nothing to rave about. She will be reviewed separately.

 

Photographer

 

I was soo lucky to book my uber-talented photographer just before she blew up and became very well-known and respected in Toronto (not to mention expensive!). She also happens to be an old friend from Elementary School so she gave me an amazing deal to travel with me to Jamaica, do my Eshots and my TTD!

 

Her deets: Tara McMullen: http://taramcmullen.com/

 

Engagement Photos:

 

We wanted our photoshoot to reflect how we are - We love living in the country, but you wont find us in scruffy jeans and plaid shirts. We always look fly, we always bring the party, and we always, always, are madly in love ♥

 

Here are a few of our favs…

 

 

 

 

Those shoes are my favourite Jimmy Choos. I will wear them for the reception as my 'something blue'!

 

 

 

Colours/Theme:

 

A beach destination wedding was always our dream, so I knew I wanted the décor to be beachy, yet classy and romantic. My colours were inspired from the paua shell:

 

 

Lots of greens and blues and purple, I wanted everything pearly and iridescent with lots of shell accents and a feel of the blue ocean water.

 

Save the Dates

 

I DIY’ed my save the dates and sent them out one year before our trip. I posted a thread about them here: http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/thread/52916/breeze616-s-diy-stds

 

 

 

 

We asked for an ‘early-bird’ RSVP, which was very helpful during the planning process. Remarkably, we have about the same amount of people booked who RSVP’d a year ago!

 

 

 

 

A good tip – I wrote the person’s name on the back, so I knew who was RSVPing. You wouldn’t believe how many people forget to do that when you ask your guests to do so.

 

Invitations

 

I’m not gonna lie. These invitations were the bane of my existence. I wish I hadn’t said ‘formal invitation to follow’ on my STDs cause I would of blown the whole thing off. They are pretty awesome though, if I do say so. My fantastic bridal party helped a lot with DIYing these puppies.

 

 

This is the outside front with the pearly envelopes I used.

 

I used dark purple ribbon, white card stock and an iridescent paper I got at the Paper Place in Toronto. The ‘birds & hearts’ design I created then cut it out using my trusty Silhouette SD. I heart my Silhouette!

 

And this is what it looked like from the inside

 

 

I designed the invites as well, then I cut the ‘froth’ at the top of the waves from card stock and covered them in iridescent glitter glue!

 

 

The other side was a pocket with the wave design on it, and different sized inserts with all the information they could need, specifically cut and designed so they show the titles and look symmetrical.

 

 

 

Finally, I glued the ‘frothy waves’ using a puffy double sided tape to give them a 3D look.

 

They actually turned out really nice, and I used the ‘bird and hearts’ theme a couple other ways in the wedding, so it was a useful exercise.

 

Dress

 

Ahhh, my dress…

 

I came up with the design for my dress on my own and my uber-uber-uber talented Moma made it for me. My Mom’s career includes fashion design, working for the Toronto Theatre, and making us the ultimate Halloween costumes ever. I always knew she’d make my dress and that it would be an amazing couture gown. And that’s what I got!

 

Here is my design:

 

 

We documented the entire sewing process from the beginning to end. That story will be featured on my blog, if you are interested in reading about it.

 

Here is the real thing! (on the dress form, sorry no time to put it on and take pics!!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So we changed the original design a bit - I took off the hip swag because it would have been too much. The gathers in the stomach/hip area are more noticible and even looking on me then on the dress form.

 

Sorry these pics are on the dress form and not me! It looks a lot better on me. I guess you’ll have to wait to see it on me in my review. I hand made all the flower embellishments but the rest was all Moma!!

 

Wedding Jewellery & Accesories

 

I have THREE pairs of shoes to wear for my wedding day. Ya, ridic right? But it makes sense…. no really….

 

I got low wedges for the ceremony because its on the beach, which means sand and no heels. Also, my FI is only a few inches taller than me so I didn’t want to wear my usual 4 inch stilettos.

 

 

Of course they were a too plain for me so I whipped up some shoe flowers for them.

 

 

ahh, much better! For a tutorial on how to make these, follow my soon-to-come blog!

 

Here is my jewellery.

 

 

I also handmade this hair shell! I really love how it turned out.

 

 

 

Excuse my nasty hair... this was VERY late at night.

 

Knock-Off Trash the dress

 

I knew we’d be doing a Trash-The-Dress shoot in Jamaica, but no way was I jumping in the ocean in my couture silk gown. So a Chinese made replica dress just made sense. Actually, my design for my dress really jumped off from this dress from the Disney wedding line:

 

 

So I had Gianinar Bridal in China create a knock off version of the dress for me, with a corset back. It fit perfectly when it arrived by courier.

 

 

First Dance Dress

 

My sister is a ballroom dance teacher, and she choreographed our first dance and my father daughter dance. So I wanted a cute dress to wear that wont hinder my movements and show off our fancy footwork.

 

This is not what I had originally wanted. My dance dress was delayed in shipping, so I had to run out and buy this. But its pretty, looks good on me and has a nice skirt that spins nicely for dancing. Sorry for the crappy pic, but I need to get packing!!

 

 

Here are my dancing shoes, they have suede bottoms for ballroom dancing.

 

 

 

Bridesmaids Dresses

 

For my bridesmaids, I wanted something flowy and beach-wind friendly. I saw this dress on revolve clothing, and decided it was perfect.

 

 

I have a nerdy love for crosswoven fabric and when I found this one in my wedding colours, I had to do it. My Mom also made the BMs dresses. Here is the final result:

 

 

 

 

 

To be continued.....

 

 

[breeze616]

Groom & groomsmen

 

We ordered the Grooms and Groomsmens suits from Studio suits. They are linen in English Beige. Sorry I didn’t get a pic.

 

 

 

 

Those are the silk ties that I had one of our lantern designs heat transferred onto. I wanted it to be tone-on-tone, and not like a loud design, I think they turned out great. Sorry they are a bit wrinkled. These are part of their gift, along with the shirts for their suits.

 

Sand Ceremony

 

 

 

I just love my nautilus shells! We will use these to pour the sand from into the glass vase. Once were back, I plan on glass etching our date, etc on the vase – but I want to wait to pick the best side of the vase to etch on

 

 

I also created this little box to hold the nautilus shells full of sand until we are ready to pour it.

 

 

 

To be Continued....

[Tina5978]

Breeze I love all of the detail thus far.  Your dress is amazing.  Can't wait to read more.  You should be leaving any day now so if I don't hear back from you.  I sure wish you all of the best!

[breeze616]

Bouquets

 

 

The BMs will carry white bouquets made of white cymbidium orchids and white roses. Kinda like this one.

 

 

My bouquet will be similar to the above, with blue hydrangeas and irises but instead of the white orchids, I’m getting blue orchids like in the arrangement below.

 

 

I love blue orchids, I know they’re dyed that way but they are still stunning.

 

Reception

 

I ordered my flowers from Boulevard Florist in Negril Jamaica. She gave me an awesome quote, so hopefully it all turns out as planned! This is the centerpiece inspiration I sent her:

 

 

I later changed my centrepeice flowers to ones similar to my bouquet, but in the same vases. Instead of the floating candles, I am bringing a TON of lumieres that my sister designed and I cut out on my lovely Silouhette SD.

 

I will also bring a ton of shells that my BMs helped me paint for the table

 

 

Lumieres

 

My other sister drew the patterns for these lumieres and I designed them and cut them out on the sillhoutte.  We made a ton of these for the table tops and to sit on the railing of the reception area. We made a bunch of LED throwies to put inside to light them up. Great thing is they are paper and can be packed flat and popped up once we get there.

 

 

Hanging Lanterns

 

 

 

I created these hanging lanterns and cut them out on silhouette. This one is a rough draft, it doesn’t have the tissue paper behind the cutout and the tabs need to go inside, but you get the idea. These will hang on trees near the ceremony location and the reception location.

 

Huppa décor

 

We will use the resort huppa, I made sheers to hang from it in our wedding colours. Sorry no pic of those, but here is our inspiration pics:

 

 

I also made these flower arrangements to hang on the corners of the huppa, they match the chair swags.

 

 

They will also hang on the corners of the awning above the head table and the same sheers will hang behind the head table like this (inspiration pic):

 

 

 

I will also be bringing a ton of starfish and painted/decorated shells for the table.

 

 

 

To be continued......

[breeze616]

DIY Chair Swags

 

 

Aren’t my chair swags sick?? The resort has white chair covers and silver chair bows, I plan to use them to pin my chair swags on.

 

These were actually really easy to make.  I bought the shells at http://www.qualityshells.com/ then me and my BMs put clear craft glue on the shells, making it look like it was dripping from the edge, then we dipped the shell in a bowl of multicoloured seed beads. Voila!  The beads stuck to the glue and looked great! Then just glue some pins to the back and your good to go.

 

The fabric is simple to do as well, check my soon-to-come blog for tutorials!

 

 

Menu Cards

 

 

Guest Book

 

 

 

 

I made a guestbook using our Engangement Photos - People can sign throughout the book in sidebars and in thought bubbles.

 

Guest Favours

 

 

I DIY’ed the favours as well. Since we are leaving so close to Xmas, I made sand dollar Xmas decorations.

 

Bridesmaids Gifts

 

 

I sewed my BMs their own silk robes with lace trim. I had my embroidery guy embroider their names on them.

 

 

 

I’m also giving them each a clutch. I got two Kate Spades, one LAMB and one Coach.

 

 

 

 

OOT Bags

 

 

I love how our OOT bags turned out. In them there is:

 

Beach bag

Tide to go (personalized)

Sewing kit (personalized)

Bottle opener (personalized)

Postcards (I designed)

Bookmarks (I designed)

Ear plugs

‘Water Proof Wallets’

Welcome letters

 

Not shown here are Beach Balls and Immodium packets – they are coming with my BM from the USA.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I wanted to post more pics of my trip clothes shopping, but I’m running out of time!!

 

As I said – I’m starting a blog/wedding business on my return. I will be in touch regarding this soon!! And now, I’m back to packing!

 

 

[janapana]

WOW! What an awesome planning thread! very artistic and very beautiful. Good luck and congratulations.

[butterflyaniam]

Wow, that's great planning thread - you have lots of awesome ideas. Can't wait to see pictures from the wedding

[eholt]

Love this planning thread!  You have done a great job!  I think your guest book is a fantastic idea!

[mochamakes3]

Amazing stuff! You're wedding will be beautiful and all your guests honoured to attend. Good luck with the new business when you get back.

[Sallee]

wow you have been so creative !! everything looks fantastic !!