Cakespiration–The Topper

This week I had one of those, “Wow, I really need to get a move on some things!”  One of those things has to do with cake.  We are having our cake tasting soon so I thought it would be a good idea  to get an idea for styles of cake that we both like.  Plus if we are going to get a custom cake topper then we probably better get that started!

I went to my number one source for all things custom – etsy.  There are some amazing cake toppers out there!  There was one for $180 we both liked, but add in shipping (and most likely duty) to Canada and it just seemed like too much to spend no matter how cool it was. 

We both agreed that we loved the custom love birds from Bent Branch – hand made, customized, and well within our budget.  I contacted the shop owner Krista and she was in touch with me quickly with fabric colours and options.  Here is an idea of what we will be getting:

Image by Krista Eytchison of Bent Branch

The female bird will be white, the male bird will be grey.  These are our fabrics, ribbon and flower colours that she’ll be using:

Image by Krista Eytchison of Bent Branch

We’ll also be getting glasses for the girl bird, plus a top hat for the boy!

Image by Krista Eytchison of Bent Branch

Krista has been great to work with so far.  I can’t wait to see how our cake topper turns out!

How are you topping your cake?

February To-Do List

Is it seriously February already?

In January I hoped to:

• Finalize the guest list. Check!
• Polish up our wedding website. Oops, not done yet.
• Send the Save the Dates. They haven’t been sent yet because the website isn’t done. But, the STDs have all been stamped and addressed…
• Register. Not done yet. I think Future Hubs was working most weekends in January and into February, but I’d also like to get in on one of Crate and Barrel’s registry party shin digs. They started back up again this month and are being hosted on February 13, 20, 27 and March 6 here in Calgary.

Maybe I failed on most of my January To-Do’s, but I have been busy in planning mode lately. We just booked a trip out to Vancouver in March to tackle some of the big things!

We arrive in Vancouver in the early afternoon and we’ll head straight from the airport to our baker’s for a cake tasting. This has to be one of the things I have been looking forward to the most!

That night we visit our venue for our food tasting! We can have up to four people taste so my parents will be joining us to make sure we can sample a wider variety of items.

I have scheduled hair and make up trials. My stylist in Calgary suggested that I get my hair trial done on this trip rather than waiting until a few days before the wedding. While I had originally thought I might DIY my make up I’ve been thinking more and more about having it done. I don’t wear make up every day and I think someone else may be able to help my eyes pop from behind my glasses a bit more than I can. The salon where I’ll be getting my hair done also has make up artists so I figured it wouldn’t hurt to see what they can do.

I’m also planning to meet with our Day of Coordinator while we are there.

It is going to be a busy trip and there is plenty to get done ahead of time! Things like finding cake inspiration photos, hair and make up photos, plus I need to hurry up and finish the silk flower I’ve been making for my hair. Plus I should probably finish up those things from the January To-Do list as well, eh?

Wedding or Big Booze Up?

On Friday night I was watching Four Weddings Biggest Wedding Blunders.  Now, I admit that I don’t care for the competition aspect of the show or how catty the brides get, but it is interesting to see what works well or what can go wrong at weddings.  With that in mind I was curious to see what the big blunders would be.

One thing that really struck me was when the question of alcohol was brought up.  The competing brides complained if:

• Alcohol wasn’t being served at all.
• If you had to pay for your alcohol.
• If you had to pay for soft drinks.
• If it was open bar but only wine and beer was being offered.

You name it, if there was a complaint to be made about the alcohol situation it was made.  Apparently the alcohol debate really stirs up some heated feelings.  One thing that has always bothered me about weddings is the odd person expecting to get drunk on your dime.  Weddings are expensive affairs and alcohol is a pretty huge contributor to that cost.  We can’t necessarily afford for our wedding to be your great big booze up especially since our venue doesn’t allow us to bring in our own alcohol.

Our venue offers a reception package that includes:

• One hour of open bar: offered before dinner; unlimited regular hi-balls, domestic beer and house wine
• Non-alcoholic fruit punch, iced tea or lemonade: choice of one, available all night
• Wine with dinner: ½ bottle of house private label Peller Estates Chardonnay or Merlot, per person with dinner – served by wait staff
• Sparkling wine toast: one flute per person

After dinner we then have the option of hosting the bar or going to a cash bar and I’m fairly certain we’ll go the cash bar route.  If anyone wants any pop, beer or hard alcohol during dinner then they will have to pay for it.  I think the drink package is pretty generous but I imagine there still might be the odd gripe since we won’t be covering everything.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not a teetotaller.  I enjoy a good glass of wine or a beer.  This is pretty well an economic decision for us, but I’m still worried that despite what we are offering people may not be happy.  And do we give people a heads up that we’ll be having a cash bar later in the evening?

What are your thoughts about booze at weddings?

Fitness Friday (on a Sunday)

I decided to hop on the Fitness Friday bandwagon!  Oh boy, in the fall I went from being super active to super sedentary.  Not so good for my waist line!  If I’m not careful I won’t be able to wear the wedding dress that is hanging in my closet.

I’ve got a plan of attack for how to get back into things:

1. Set a goal: I’ve signed up for the Calgary Police Half Marathon in April and I’m thinking about signing up for the Calgary Half Marathon in May.  I find I need something to work towards to keep me motivated to run.  I’m an engineer and I like spreadsheets and schedules…which leads me to…
2. Come up with a plan to reach said goal: My plan involves running three days a week.  One day is a fun 30-45 minute lunch run.  Another day will be either hill repeats or speedwork.  Not only will hills or speed help my running, they will also be great for kicking up my metabolism.  The final day will be a long run building in duration towards my half marathon.
3. Mix things up to keep things interesting: My schedule isn’t all running.  I am doing TRX bootcamp one night per week.  Class is an awesome mix of cardio and strength training.  I’m also going to spin class one day a week for a high powered anaerobic workout.
4. Don’t be afraid to ask for help: My awesome BM Debbie gifted me with a one-on-one session with a personal trainer for Christmas.  One of the best presents ever!  I met with my trainer last week to discuss my goals and I gave him a copy of my running schedule leading up to my half marathon in April.  We talked about how to structure my schedule and then he worked up a strength training plan for me to do on my own one more day a week.  He gave me a great mix of upper and lower body exercises that would recruit multiple muscle groups in one exercise that would also help my running. 
5. Keep track: And finally, keeping track helps a lot with motivation.  This includes keeping a little notebook where I jot down my weight and measurements so I can track my progress.  I also keep track of all of my physical activity on Buckeye Outdoors, an online training log.  I’ve tried a lot of different training logs out and this one is my hands down favourite.  You can easily keep track of different activities and you can create personalized activity types (like core, TRX bootcamp or cross country skiing).  And since I run with a GPS device I can upload directly from that device to Buckeye Outdoors. I highly recommend it.

What keeps you motivated?  I’d love to hear your tips!

Changing my mind?

Just in case I haven’t inundated you with enough shoe pictures lately…guess what, I’m posting about shoes again!

I picked up a pair of Nine West Jojus in purple ages ago, plus a pair of flat Nine West Zaltas to wear while dancing the night away.  To refresh your memory:

Well…and then I’ve fallen in love with Fluevogs.  Fluevogs are designed in Vancouver and made by hand.  In fact, if you want to watch an amazing video of one of their shoes being made by hand, check it out!  They are quirky, and they are some of the most comfortable shoes that I own!  Plus, Future Hubs will be sporting an awesome pair of Vogs so I may be a bit jealous…

I love both of these…

Bellevues Belle Star in Aqua Blue

Miracle Fatima in Turquoise and Grey

So dear readers, what do you think?  Which shoes are your favourite?

1. Purple Nine West Shoes
2. Bellevues Belle Star in Aqua Blue
3. Miracle Fatima in Turquoise and Grey

Feel fee to weigh in on the comments section or on the poll on the right hand side of my blog!  Oh, and I should mention that I wouldn’t be at risk of “aerating” the lawn as I walk down the aisle with either pair of the Fluevogs.  The heels on the Nine West shoes however are rather skinny.

Shoes, shoes and more shoes

I had a few questions about what shoes I actually purchased.  I didn’t include links since most of them are sold out now, but here we go anyway!

John Fluevog – Bellevues Pearl Hart

Target – Kachiri Boots – finally boots that fit my calves and for a steal of a deal!

Miss Albright – Anticipation Heels – Anthropologie – Sold Out, but similar here

Miss Albright – Slinking Frills Pumps – Anthropologie – Sold Out but watch for popbacks here.  Runs half a size large.

Miss Albright – Prized Rose Peep Toes – Anthropologie – Sold Out

Seychelles – Glad Rags T-Straps – Anthropologie – Sold Out, but similar here, here

Schuler & Sons – Linnaean Pumps – Anthropologie – Sold Out

Stylish Blogger??

Thanks to Kelly at the IKEA Bride and Manda Mack for tagging me with the Stylish Blogger award!I’m supposed to list seven random things about myself, so here goes…

1. I have a definite thing for shoes!  In fact I acquired these around Christmas and while I was down in the States.  Thank goodness I had packed lightly and could accommodate all of these shoes in the suitcase on the way home.
   
   Plus I have these ones coming in the mail…
   Yup, I love shoes.
2. The majority of my good shoes have never seen the outside elements.  I keep them all in a filing cabinet at work.  I had a picture of said filing cabinet somewhere but I can’t seem to find it.
3. I have caught – on more than one occasion – the heel of my shoe on the cuff of my pant.  I was walking through the Whole Foods Parking lot, caught my heel, and went splat on the ground!  And…of course there were people watching.  I solve that problem by wearing mostly skirts these days.
4. I am genuinely concerned about tripping and falling while walking down the aisle at our wedding ceremony.
5. My brother used to love coming up with witty names for my boyfriends.  In high school I dated Chicken Little (because he worked at the chicken place Swiss Chalet), Little Caesar (because he worked at Little Caesars), then I moved on to Peg Leg Ray (long story) and Porn-Shoer (because he had a pornstache and we talked about going snow shoeing). Neil – the Future Hubs – was nicknamed No Car Nick - because he didn't have a car and my brother couldn't remember that his name was Neil.
6. The longest I have lived in one place is five years, and that was in London, England from 1988 to 1993. I estimate I have moved a total of 27 times however it is possible the number may be slightly higher than that.  That being said I will have been in Calgary for 5 years come July!
7. We had to keep a journal in grade four that would involve writing five sentences down every day. I couldn't always think of five sentences, so often my journal entry would go like this: "I have a ham and cheese sandwich for lunch today. This afternoon I am going to ride horses. Weeee! Weeee! Weeee!" Thank goodness my journaling skills have improved or else I would have no blog readers if my entries mostly consisted of "Weeee! Weeee! Weeee!"

If you haven’t been tagged yet, then consider yourself tagged! 

Although I will tag you Meg at Worth a Tri…