Elsa's & Arthur's Wedding @ Rprm 2014.12.08

[calgarybride2015]

@@calgarybride2015, I know! I have less than 1 month! I'm excited at the same time just wanted to get it over with! I have a lot of updates coming up soooon!

Yay can't wait

Ps - hope the move went good!!!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[tygrrlily]

Happy one month to the wedding!! Can't believe we're almost finally into December

[Icis]

@@tygrrlily Thank you! It is so surreal! I don't think I will believe I'm going to get married (and have a vacation) until I get off the plane. 

[Icis]

OOT Baskets

 

Hello fellow BDW Brides,

 

I haven’t forgotten about this forum. I had a busy month and an even busier past weekend, and I thought I will start posting about what happened soon before I forget everything.

 

I'm very glad I'm done with these darn baskets. Some of the items have been living in my den for almost a year and I am really glad to be able to get rid of half the bags this weekend. I can finally see my den’s floor and can maneuver around.

 

I started compiling a list as to what to purchase with the help from other brides’ discussion on this forum. I know that I have to balance gifting things that nobody uses and gifting enough to be thoughtful. I know that I wanted to have at least the following items:

 

·         First aid kit

·         Medication

·         Bookmark

·         Aloe vera gel

·         Tissue

·         Alcohol sanitizer

 

Things that my fiancé thinks it is a waste of money, but I wanted to buy extra items for the guests such as:

·         Tumbler

·         Fan

·         Vitamin

·         Beach bag

 

I want to use the least amount of money for the most amount of things, so timing and waiting for sales are key. We decided that each couple should have 1 OOT bag since they can share the bag of goodies together. Single guests will receive a separate OOT bag, but with less medication and first aid items.

 

The first thing we bought for our bags were alcohol sanitizers at Bath and Body Works. They had a sale during boxing day and we got those small sanitizers at $0.50 ea. They had about 8 kinds on sale, but I only like the smell from 4 of them. We picked up 30 bottles.

 

Things got out of hand when we happened to pass by a Dollarama in Richmond on a rainy January day. I saw these really pretty beach bags and they have a nice water-resistant lining inside. I argued with my fiancé and he caved. I bought 1 beach bag ($2 ea) per female guest. We bought 12 bags.

 

My fiancé was adamant that we do not buy tumblers because nobody will use it or remember to bring it or want it. Dollarama has these tumblers that has a flip straw ends. My fiancé finally agree to let me buy them for each guest because the tumblers can help guests keep their drinks cold and free from sand. AND they are BPA free! They are $2 ea and we bought 1 for each guest.

 

We have friends and family that can get us samples of medication and first aid items so we started collecting: Bandaids, alcohol pads, adhesive tapes, gauze, cough drops, Glysomed, Benedryl, Gravol, Tyleno, Advil, Immodium, and Tums. This part really help us save a lot of money.

 

We bought handheld electric fans from eBay for guests. $1 ea. We gave one fan per room.

 

My fiancé said no one will use luggage tags, but I said some really cheap ones from Dollarama ($1.25 for 5). So against his objection, I bought them.

 

Over the course of 2014, we (again, more like I) purchased and collected more and more items for the OOT baskets. Each OOT baasket now contains (taxes not included):

 

·         First aid kit (no charge):

o    Bandaids, alcohol pads, adhesive tapes, gauze, Glysomed, cough drops

·         Medication (no charge):

o    Benedryl, Gravol, Tyleno, Advil, Immodium, Tums

·         Deck of cards – 1 per couple, 1 per single ($0.25 each – mom bought them from Hong Kong)

·         DIY bookmarks – 2 per couple, 1 per single ($0.15 each –scrapbook paper from home)

·         Jeweled Bookmarks – 1 per couple, 1 per single ($1 – DollarTree)

·         Chapstick – 1 per female guest ($0.25 each – used to work for Avon)

·         Nail filers, lipliner, eyeliner - random selection of 1 item per female guest ($0.25 each – used to work for Avon)

·         Mini Tic Tacs – 2 per couple ($0.07 each – Duty Free)

·         Hand sanitizer – 2 per couple ($0.50 each – Bath & Body Works)

·         Aloe Vera gel – 1 per room ($1 each - mom bought them from Hong Kong)

·         Paper fan – 1 per couple ($0.50 each - mom bought them from Hong Kong)

·         EmergenC - each couple gets 6 packets, single gets 3 packets ($0.20 each packet – Costco)

·         Earplugs – 2 per couple, 1 per single (no charge)

·         Beach bag – 1 per female guest ($2 each – Dollarama)

·         Tumblers – 1 per guest ($2 each – Dollarama)*

·         Sewing kit – 1 per couple, 1 per single ($1 – Target USA)

·         Spanish beginner pocket guide – 1 per guest (no charge – printed with home printer)

·         Luggage tags – 2 per couple, 1 per single ($0.25 – Dollarama)

·         DIY passport to Riviera Maya – 1 per couple, 1 per single (printed with home printer)

·         DIY “Survival kit” labels (printed with home printer)

·         DIY “To have and to hold” cardstock for tumblers (printed with home printer)

·         DIY luggage tag inserts (printed with home printer)

·         Box of Ziploc bags ($1 – Dollartree. This is to bag all the first aid and medication)

·         Keycard holders – 1 per couple ($0.28 – eBay)

 

*Except for bridesmaids and groomsmen. They received a different tumbler

 

 

 

 

 

Putting medications together:

 

 

 

We put extras for the bridal party. Aside from the attire for wedding day (dresses and suits):

 

Bridesmaids each received:

·         Jewelry box - $10 (bought it a long time ago from Cathay Imports)

·         Barefoot sandals - $3 (AliExpress)

·         Pearl bracelet - $3 (Ardene)

·         Sunglasses - $2 (Ardene)

·         Sarong - $8 (Hawaii)

·         Earrings - $10 (Online shopping website)

 

Groomsmen each received:

·         Tie - $20 (The Bay)

·         Pocket squares - $10 (The Bay)

·         Sunglasses - $2 (Ardene)

·         Socks - $8 (The Tie Bar)

 

 

 

I will talk about our DIY Passport to Riviera Maya, bookmarks, and other printing jobs in the future posts. We stuffed all the items into a basket that we purchased a long time ago from Cathay Imports. The beach bags were folded up and slipped in at the back of the basket for presentation.

 

We used the Ziploc bags we purchased from DollarTree to bag all the first aid, medication, Tic Tacs and hand sanitizers. We then stapled on a “Survival kit” label on each bag.

 

The resulting Survival kit bag:

 

 

 

The sewing kits, makeup, chapsticks are all put in a little organza/mesh drawstring bag.

 

Each tumbler is filled with EmergenC’s and a “To Have and To Hold” cardstock.

 

Key card holders were inserted with a “I Take You, My Holder” cardstock.

 

The resulting OOT baskets:

 

 

 

This is the list of things that I wanted to also buy, but fiancé strongly said no:

·         Moist wipes

·         Insect bite relief

·         Stain remover pen

·         Sudoku and crossword books

 

My pictures are right side up on my computer, but for some reason, some of my pictures are not correct when I upload them. I apologize if you have to turn your head a bit to look at these pictures.

​​

[Icis]

Oct 31 to Nov 2: Halloween/Birthday Party, Convocation & Dinner Party, Dance Rehearsal

 

As mentioned in the previous post, I had a very jam packed weekend (Oct 31 to Nov 2). My fiance’s birthday happens to land on Halloween so it is the perfect time to throw annual bday/costume party. Since I now live in Kamloops, I have to allow time to travel back to Vancouver to see my family and friends.

 

 

October 31:

My supervisor was nice enough to let me leave early on Friday, Oct 31 so that I can celebrate my fiance's birthday. I worked early in the morning (6:30am) because I still have a lot of things to finish at work. I got off work at 10:30am and took the taxi to Kamloops Greyhound station. I arrived at Coquitlam Greyhound at 4pm and the first thing after my fiancé picked me up was to go to have my eyebrows threaded for $5. We went home and I started dealing with the OOT baskets that we were planning to hand out tomorrow.

 

 

We picked the Halloween theme this year to be slumber party because it is easy and fun.

 

 

 

We asked everyone to bring some type of Asian food. We had Thai, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Taiwanese food.

 

 

 

November 1:

We wanted to provide a nice dinner for our bridal party. We entertained the idea of having dinner at a restaurant, but it is quite expensive. We decided to have the dinner in our party room downstairs and so everyone can walk around, mingle, talk, and play some pool.

 

 

We searched and decided on a caterer named Emelle’s in Vancouver. My fiancé asked the caterers to come by at 6:45pm and the guests to come by at 6:30pm on November 1.

 

 

I graduated from my accounting designation and, of course, the convocation had to happen the same day as our dinner party. With my fiancé, one of my bridesmaid, and my mom being shift workers, we have no other choice than have our dinner party the same day as the convocation.

 

 

 

The convocation took longer than we expected. We arrived back home at 6:10pm. The caterers were already downstairs waiting for us. We had to bring our things down. I brought stuff down and then started decorating and putting things together. My fiancé brought things down and went back upstairs to change. Guests started showing up before we had time to set up. I’m a very hands-on-I-can-do-it-myself kind of girl, and I just wanted to set up the party room myself. But with my fiancé being MIA for the longest time, the guests now stepped in and said they will help me put up the decorations. I asked some guests to fluff up the flower pom poms that I made myself and tape them around the room.

 

 

 

 

My fiancé finally came downstairs after 15-20 mins. He said he had problems tying his tie (Sigh…). He began setting up our slide show on the TV. We scanned pictures from our baby stage to university. We also included our pre-wedding photos in the slide show so that guests can look at it.

 

 

Once we finish setting up everything, my fiancé and I made a quick speech and invited everyone to enjoy the night and be merry.

 

 

 

The food was pretty good. However, we found the food portions seemed small. Some of our guests were still hungry after dinner and were eating chips.

 

 

After the slide show repeated several times over, we changed the channel to Canucks. Some guests ended up watching the game, while others played pool.

 

 

 

The party room unfortunately does not have an oven. My brothers and I went upstairs to warm up the blueberry tarts.

 

 

 

When we came back down, some guests had to leave early. We handed them their OOT baskets and said our farewells, and see-you-on-Dec-3’s.

 

 

 

As the night comes to an end, our remaining guests helped with cleaning up and putting away tools for us. At the end, we once again gave thanks and the OOT baskets were handed out to everyone. We gave a brief explanation and details on the OOT baskets. I also said to our guests that, “Should you be a forgetful person, just don’t open the OOT basket. Stuff the whole thing into your suitcase, and you will be fine.”

 

 

November 2:

In the morning we had another rehearsal for a couple of hours with our dance instructor (more about this in future posts).

 

 

In the afternoon, we completed a walkthrough with our centrepieces (more about this in future posts).

 

 

I packed as much and as quickly as I can and I am off to Greyhound travelling back to Kamloops at 7pm. I got back to Kamloops at midnight and went to work early the next morning.

 

[Icis]

More DIYs: Passport to Riviera Maya, Bookmarks, Tumbler Inserts, Luggage Tags, Keycard Holder Inserts, and Something Special for You Inserts

 

DIY Passport to Riviera Maya

Almost 90% of our guests (including ourselves) have never been to Mexico before. We wanted give our guests as much information as possible. 

This is one of the bigger DIY projects. I first wrote out an outline of the things I wanted to include in the booklet. Second, I type out all the information I wish to include based on my outline on word. After that, I conceptualize how many pages I will need to get all the information in on Publisher. I then create a Publisher file to fit all the information. Since I wanted to print double-sided in a booklet format, I have to make sure the text placements make sense.

In Publisher, I created Master pages for the background and the cutting outline. I then type in the headings and make sure the words fit into the small booklet pages. I designed it so that 1 letter size page can fit 4 booklet pages.

I had to finish the final touches on the Publisher file when I’m already living in Kamloops because we didn’t finalize the dates on the special events page until after I moved. I uploaded the file on to Google drive so that my fiancé can print the pages in Vancouver. We purchased our paper and cardstock a while back from Papers & More.

I know my fiancé is not the craftiest person so I tried to explain to him how to properly score and cut the papers so that the booklet pages align, etc., etc. I advised him to print one booklet and finish the whole process of cutting and stapling the pages together before printing all others out.

He didn’t do as I advised, of course. So some pages had to be reprinted and paper got wasted. He had a hard time cutting and aligning the papers. A part of my perfectionist side cringed (and cried a little inside) when I saw some misalignment, but I really didn’t have time to fix it when I went home this past Halloween weekend. I had to keep telling myself that guests will love whatever we gave them and they won’t see the minor defects.

 

Sample of some pages:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DIY Bookmarks

We found a tutorial that gave us ideas on how to make some inexpensive and easy-to-make bookmarks for our guests. We thought it will be funny to add some cheesy pick up lines that aligns with books or guests’ professions. For example, “You had me at Page 1”, “Baby, you are such a page turner”, “I hope you know CPR, because you take my breath away!”

Instead of cloth for the heart portion, we used scrape book paper. We used our 1 of the 3 holes in the 3 hole puncher to punch the ribbon hole. We bought some ribbons from Dollarama to loop it and complete the look.

My fiancé, again, tested my perfectionist side. The edges misaligned and the edges were glued only on certain areas. Obviously, my fiancé was overlooking these details. I had time to clean this project up (and frankly it was done worse than the passports) so I sat there and cleaned up the edges and re-glued them.

 

 

 

 

 

DIY Survival kit Labels

I used a similar label as other BDW brides, but I used Publisher instead of Powerpoint. I also changed the color to match our theme. One side of the label is white background with black letters, while the other side is black background with white letters. We printed on cardstock purchased from Target about a year ago.

 

 

 

 

DIY Tumbler Inserts

I used a similar insert as other BDW brides again. I used Publisher instead of Powerpoint.

 

 

 

DIY Luggage Tags

We had extra gold cardstock left from the passports and I decided to make tags in gold paper.

 

 

 

DIY Keycard Holder Inserts

I used a similar insert as other BDW brides again. I used Publisher instead of Powerpoint.

Each Letter sized paper can make 8 tags.

 

 

 

DIY Something Special for You Inserts

My fiancé just decided to make this for our bridal party that has extra items in their OOT baskets. Props to him for conceptualizing and seeing the project through.

 

 

That's it for now. I will post more items tomorrow.

Edited November 9, 2014 by Icis

[calgarybride2015]

Everything looks fantastic. You've done a great job!!

 

I've been wanting some of that shimmer card stock. Quickly looked at michaels but will check again

 

Glad your move went well. Look forward to seeing it all put together in your wedding photos!!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[acw271011]

More DIYs: Passport to Riviera Maya, Bookmarks, Tumbler Inserts, Luggage Tags, Keycard Holder Inserts, and Something Special for You Inserts

 

DIY Passport to Riviera Maya

Almost 90% of our guests (including ourselves) have never been to Mexico before. We wanted give our guests as much information as possible. 

This is one of the bigger DIY projects. I first wrote out an outline of the things I wanted to include in the booklet. Second, I type out all the information I wish to include based on my outline on word. After that, I conceptualize how many pages I will need to get all the information in on Publisher. I then create a Publisher file to fit all the information. Since I wanted to print double-sided in a booklet format, I have to make sure the text placements make sense.

In Publisher, I created Master pages for the background and the cutting outline. I then type in the headings and make sure the words fit into the small booklet pages. I designed it so that 1 letter size page can fit 4 booklet pages.

I had to finish the final touches on the Publisher file when I’m already living in Kamloops because we didn’t finalize the dates on the special events page until after I moved. I uploaded the file on to Google drive so that my fiancé can print the pages in Vancouver. We purchased our paper and cardstock a while back from Papers & More.

I know my fiancé is not the craftiest person so I tried to explain to him how to properly score and cut the papers so that the booklet pages align, etc., etc. I advised him to print one booklet and finish the whole process of cutting and stapling the pages together before printing all others out.

He didn’t do as I advised, of course. So some pages had to be reprinted and paper got wasted. He had a hard time cutting and aligning the papers. A part of my perfectionist side cringed (and cried a little inside) when I saw some misalignment, but I really didn’t have time to fix it when I went home this past Halloween weekend. I had to keep telling myself that guests will love whatever we gave them and they won’t see the minor defects.

 

Sample of some pages:

 

IMG_20141031_181856.jpg

 

IMG_20141031_181908.jpg

 

IMG_20141031_182200.jpg

 

IMG_20141031_181946.jpg

 

IMG_20141031_181952.jpg

 

IMG_20141031_182024.jpg

 

IMG_20141031_182037.jpg

 

IMG_20141031_182101.jpg

 

IMG_20141031_182118.jpg

 

IMG_20141031_182132.jpg

 

IMG_20141031_182140.jpg

 

 

DIY Bookmarks

We found a tutorial that gave us ideas on how to make some inexpensive and easy-to-make bookmarks for our guests. We thought it will be funny to add some cheesy pick up lines that aligns with books or guests’ professions. For example, “You had me at Page 1”, “Baby, you are such a page turner”, “I hope you know CPR, because you take my breath away!”

Instead of cloth for the heart portion, we used scrape book paper. We used our 1 of the 3 holes in the 3 hole puncher to punch the ribbon hole. We bought some ribbons from Dollarama to loop it and complete the look.

My fiancé, again, tested my perfectionist side. The edges misaligned and the edges were glued only on certain areas. Obviously, my fiancé was overlooking these details. I had time to clean this project up (and frankly it was done worse than the passports) so I sat there and cleaned up the edges and re-glued them.

 

IMG_5738.JPG

 

IMG_20141102_152434.jpg

 

IMG-20141108-WA0013.jpg

 

 

DIY Survival kit Labels

I used a similar label as other BDW brides, but I used Publisher instead of Powerpoint. I also changed the color to match our theme. One side of the label is white background with black letters, while the other side is black background with white letters. We printed on cardstock purchased from Target about a year ago.

 

 

IMG-20141108-WA0009.jpg

 

 

DIY Tumbler Inserts

I used a similar insert as other BDW brides again. I used Publisher instead of Powerpoint.

 

IMG_5720.JPG

 

 

DIY Luggage Tags

We had extra gold cardstock left from the passports and I decided to make tags in gold paper.

 

IMG_20141102_152538.jpg

 

 

DIY Keycard Holder Inserts

I used a similar insert as other BDW brides again. I used Publisher instead of Powerpoint.

Each Letter sized paper can make 8 tags.

 

IMG-20141108-WA0008.jpg

 

 

DIY Something Special for You Inserts

My fiancé just decided to make this for our bridal party that has extra items in their OOT baskets. Props to him for conceptualizing and seeing the project through.

 

IMG_20141102_152456.jpg

 

That's it for now. I will post more items tomorrow.

 

I love your passports!! Wow! If you ever decide to go into the business... lol let me know!

 

If anyone else knows of a company that will do something like this for you, I'd be interested in knowing. We're only going to have a really small group so I'm only going to need like 6 of something like that. If we were going to be a big group I would get into the DIY, but since I'm so useless at stuff like that it just seems like such a lot of work for a tiny group. Any help would be appreciated!

[kmk2016]

I love your passports!! Wow! If you ever decide to go into the business... lol let me know!

 

If anyone else knows of a company that will do something like this for you, I'd be interested in knowing. We're only going to have a really small group so I'm only going to need like 6 of something like that. If we were going to be a big group I would get into the DIY, but since I'm so useless at stuff like that it just seems like such a lot of work for a tiny group. Any help would be appreciated!

Weddingpassports.com will do them for you and they look beautiful. I think they are

The best at them. (They have templates too for those willing to DIY)

[AmorDeMiVida]

@@Icis

Wow!  Everything is beautiful and and I love your passports.  Thank you for blogging all of your planning details which is very helpful to us brides-to-be who are in the beginning stages of planning.