Why didn't I think of her earlier???

Success!! I've already planned out the song my girls (and Kalen) will be walking down to. Everytime I hear it in that arrangement and picture how it will go, I tear up. Well, in an attempt to secure Dawn Langstrath (Jer was on tour with her) to sing it for us, it's too hard with a musician and the unknowns of what they will be doing in advance. (Same issue with the band .. but it's Jer's problem, not mine)
The other thing is that our other musical guests are friend's of ours; people who are there as our guests and not a vendor.

So it hit me last night while Jer and I were driving home from Dance Registration. Shelby sings, Shelby is probably the coolest dresser in Toronto I know (Meghan has NL covered, Hilary has QC, and Hayley has BC), and she'd fit in perfectly with My Rockstar Wedding!!

I asked her, and she said yes!! woo hoo!!

Here's Shelby ....



And while I'm posting pics of my cool dressing (and amazingly wicked to hang out with) friends ....

My good friend Meghan (always 6 months ahead of the newest trend).



Meghan's older sister Hilary (the only person I know who within the first 5 sec of meeting her you feel like you've known her forever).
Also the queen of Halloween (as seen here).



And sadly I don't have a pic of Hayley. But trust me, she is the "mod queen of the year"! You can see her style by her collection at "Birds of North America"

I am so thrilled Shelby can sing at our ceremony. She is perfect for the job :)

77 days (I think)

Craft Day!!

Hello all!! I am back from my 4 day vacation, complete with zero email, internet, and a CRAZY migraine. Funny thing about the migraine, it went away the minute I woke up this morning. Is it some sick sign telling me that my job has become my life and taking 4 days off is a big no-no? If so, BOO!!

Anywho, I have some peeps asking about invitations.

Well, a few Saturdays back, I had a craft party. This party was hosted at my bridesmaid Robin's house, and was attended by each of my girls, Jeremy, Brian (AKA hubby of Kelly), my mother, sister-in-law and nephew Jakey.



(Brian's taking the picture, Jer is off picking up burgies and beer)

The plan?

1 - 500 rhinestones on invitations




2 - 15 centre pieces to be figured out



3 - funkifying my cake cutting set



The result? everything completed in 2 hours!! woo hoo! Well, except Robin's cake knife (tisk tisk Robin)

We decided to send the invitations in the next couple of weeks to allow a least 2 months for our guests to rsvp and book hotels. Well, if they know me they'd RSVP ASAP!!

This also gives me time to get everything else we're sending with the invitation done (ie cut the invitations and print the map). Then voila!! Off they go!!

79 days until I attend the best party I'll ever throw myself!!

What's under that dress?

I talked about potentially wearing pink crinolin under my dress. As much as I LOVE the thought, it won't go with my style of dress.

I wanted something fun under the dress :(

I picked up a stunning pair of shoes ....



I love these shoes and they go perfect with my dress. BUT .. the stupid straps that go across the toes friggin kill. I've tried stretching them, but without success.

So .... check out these coloured shoes under a white dress.

Following photos by photographer Amy Squires



Love these green shoes. Tried to find them (well, half ass) but could not find these nine west beauties in green.



Then I saw these on one of the bridal message boards I scout regularly.



Did you see the heart on the babies?

Well, I found these in green :)



So I bought them yesterday, and they arrived today!! woo hoo! They're the same heel height as my silver ones, but WAY more comfy!

Can't wait to show these babies off.

a little zen please!!

You are now looking at the Wednesday night "trade" at Moksha Yoga, Danforth.

What's a trade you ask?
"It works like this...You volunteer four hours of your time on the same day at the same time once a week helping to clean the studio (collect mats, vacuuming, washing the floors etc...) and in exchange you can receive unlimited classes"

unlimited classes!!

So yes, I spend my Wednesday nights cleaning up after nasty, smelly, sweaty men and women. Washing grime off the shower, pulling hair from the drain. Yep, in 4 hours I clean more thoroughly than I ever have at my own apt!!



I have a plan. Robin is scared of my plans. But I have a great plan that will eventually bring an abundance of happiness to my life. I can't tell you my plan, yet, but stay tuned!!



So if I take free yoga 3-4 times a week, I'll look pretty yummy for my hubby in 86 days!! so 12 weeks x 3 classes/a week = 36 classes x 90 min = 3240 minutes of yoga = 54 hours of escaping myself!! woo hoo!!

Bring on the escape of my daily madness!!

stop and smells the roses ....

.... or in our case, any flowers.

After a rocky relationship with our florist, we broke up. The lack of communication and lack of confidence in the quality of service and product led to the end our relationship. So here we are, on the hunt for a new florist.

What now?

Do we continue to go with our calla theme and get the moms, dads, grandmothers, bridal party simple, white calls?



Or for the girls do we take a trip the morning of to Avenue/Dupont and pick fresh flowers and wrap them ourselves?



Do we contact Princess Lasertron and have her whip up some wicked pieces?



Do we get all our flowers at one place ensuring we get all the same flowers?

Do we take the chance and get all bouts and coursages from one place and pick fresh flowers the day of? Hopefully there will be callas? Maybe something else?

Don't worry mom, I'd totally go with Princess Lasertron so you would forever have my wedding flower, but Jer doesn't want to go that route (boo).

87 days to figure it out!!

10lb of felt for $10!!

I love Princess Lasertron. If you follow my blog, I dedicated an entire post telling you why I love princess lasertron.

Well, she's done it again. Princess Lasertron created a "how to make my wicked ass flowers" video and posted it on her website. So, while out doing some craft buying with Robin yesterday (for the wedding), she point to a bag full of felt. 10lbs for $10!!! So, I grabbed a bag of felt, buttons, floral wire and I was off to make my own "Princess Lasertron felt flower" hair clips. Robin is VERY afraid.

Here is the final result of my first (OK second) attempt at these crafts.



Bonham was quite interested (I think somewhat impressed as well).



So I took the hint and decided to let him wear it.



And I couldn't let Bonham have all the fun. So here's his older bro Pickles sporting the flower clip.



Thanks Princess Lasertron for sharing your secrets. Best part about these flowers is not only are they fairly simple (for us craft challenged folks) but they can be whipped up in under 30 min. Perfect for someone who lacks patience :)

www.myrockstarwedding.com

I love my wedding website. Sorry, "our" website :)

I looked at all the free wedding weDsites (yes, "weDsites"):

Wedding Announcer

My Wedding

Although these would do the job, there are way too many pages to choose from that we don't need.

Then there's wedding weDsites that charge a fee:

Wed Quarters charges $29.95 a year.

Again, too many pages to choose from and for a fee, I'd rather have a personal website than www.wedquarters/alisonandjer.com

So what did we do?

So, I went with a website that did cost a small fee, allowed be to customize as much/as little as I want, AND I could choose my own web address.

I present to you from Go Daddy ...

www.myrockstarwedding.com

I love our website. I spent hours on this and had many eyes look through this to tweak it here and there.

Our website has all the info our wedding guests need without indulging into the nitty gritty. It has the basics. The date, start time, venue info, hotel info, who's who (ie our "rockstars"), links to our vendors, RSVP and a guest book. As my dad would say "Bingo, Bangom Bongo" (aka done and done).

Best part, is after the wedding, I can rework this website to whatever I want. Maybe talk about how great of a wife I am? To be determined :)

Go check it out! You'll only get to the home page (unless you know the secret password) but at least you'll water your tastebuds craving more!!

For you boys ... "Stag Perfection"

Let's talk stags. One upon a time this was known as the "last day of freedom" for the groom. It was the last time to get inebriated upon recognition with "the boys".

I've heard of friend's being whisked away to Vegas, New York, Halifax, St John's. All awesome, but WAY expensive and limits the number of boys who can attend due to taking time off work and/or finances. Then I've heard stags that consisted of 6 men, and a LAME time. I blame that to lack of prep work by the Bestman.

I introduce you to what I call "Stag Perfection"



It has a little something for everyone: food, video game, bowling, pool, booze, and ending the night with the traditional visit to the nuddie bar.

BOYS, did you notice that each venue had an associated time attached to it? This is called planning! This is what you do so those who cannot attend for the entire day know where you will be and at what time. Crazy concept hey?

I heard back from Jane on this event (Jane is the groom's bride). She told me he had a blast and almost every guy that went, went for the entire day. That's what I call a successful, well planned out Stag.

Top 6 things to do while planning a stag (if done by a woman):

1 - Pick a date 2 months in advance and let the grooom and attendees know that date so they can keep it open.

2 - Plan the day or night's schedule. That doesn't mean pick something the day of. CALL the venues and see what they have to offer. Perhaps they have specials? or maybe they're even associated with another venue? Try not to limit just one place (ie nuddie bar) cause you will find not everyone who can come, will come.

3 - Communicate the times you will be at each venue to the attendees so they know where you will be when. This will also let those know where you will be going in case Grampa Joe doesn't want to go to the nuddie bar. This upfront honestly can also be seen as "no surprises" and you're boys will appreciate this. TRUST ME!!

4 - Make sure that there is LOTS of food to counter the booze in-take. This will ensure everyone can enjoy the entire night.

5 - Ask each guy to chip in a set amount of cash to cover the costs for the groom. Nothing sucks more then being out $200 at the end of the night while others chipped in $0. This ensures the groom has a good time and everyone contributed to his happiness.

6 - Don't drink and drive. Have a DD, take the TTC, rent a limo. Whatever you do, don't be an idiot when there are options, options, options.

At the end of the day, the day is about the groom. Don't plan a stag you'd want if it doesn't interest the attendees or the groom. You will have a disappointing turnout.

DIY: Map .. update!!

You may recall my post a while back talking about attempting my DIY wedding map. Well, after talking about my frustrations with this task with one of my frugal bride friends, I started from scratch this morning based on tips from her.

I took the general idea from Wedding Mapper and the stunning maps created by Snappymap and here's what I came up with.



The key: I used MS Visio which was WAY better than MS word or powerpoint. Since visio is used for technical drawings etc, they have a feature for creating maps. This was a tip from my friend.

Chances are this isn't the final product (as the boy was suppose to make this) but I think it rocks.

Productive weekend! I RULE!

A home for the cards and the words of our guests

Every card needs a home. My parent's friend Betty loaned us this white card box that her daughter used at her 2007 wedding. This was only one of many items I picked up at "Betty's Boutique". All I did was pick up some brown ribbon and tack it on. It's simple, and perfect for what I envisioned.



Jeremy and I have also had many chats about a guest book. Some ideas included:



A polaroid guest book where each guest takes a picture of themself (and their HOT date), attaches it to the book and signs next to it. Our friends Kelly and Brian did just this and they love it to this day. Kelly even loaned me the camera!! The problem, polariod film is:

1) Expensive.
2) Only available online and I don't trust spending quite a bit of cash on "Joe Schmoe Cameras" to get expired film.

Jer really wants to do this to ensure we have a picture of each guest. So, I compromised with Jer. We have our photographer take a picture of each guest as they migrate from the cocktail area to the main floor. SOLD!



I love this wish tree. Problem:

1) Expensive for all the materials.
2) Too much work and I would still need to buy a guest book to insert each wish into.

So, although Jer was cool with this idea, I decide to nix it.



I then saw this amazing idea where one couple had a friend outline a paint-by-grid on a canvas and each guest painted a square at the reception. LOVE this!! However ...

1) We lack the artistic abilities to outline the grid (despite what Jer says about his drawing abilities).
2) It would either be a huge HIT or a huge MISS.

We decided that regardless of how cool this idea is, it's too much work for it to be a huge miss. I'll tuck that away for another time. This will happen one day :)



Next up, having each guest sign a guitar. PERFECT!!! Well, I thought so. Jer was keen not sold to this idea. He didn't say why, but I think he feels it's too tacky. But, I love it. LOVE IT!! Look how cool that Les Paul looks!! But, boy wanted a book that we can put pictures of our guests next too (or something like that).

So, I decided to pick my battle. I got him his book and personalised it.



This just means my genius idea to replace Kalen's ring pillow will happen. Or, I will just get a guitar anyways .. ya, I think I will do that. (shhhh .. don't tell Jer)

97 days to DA WEDDING YO!

Our Mini Moon

We get married on a Friday. That following Sunday, Jeremy and I will be boogying up North for 4, highly anticipated nights, at Couple Resort. This resort was actually referred to us by my mothers co-worker after I told my mother Jeremy and I were just looking for a cabin in the woods.



Some have asked why we aren't going away for a full blown honeymoon. I have 3 reasons:

1 - $$$. We just spent $x on the wedding, now we're expecting for fork out $4 - $10K+ for a week or 2 away? On top of the wedding? no thanks.

2 - hot resorts. I've been away to South American resorts 4 times in the last 7 years. Each time I've gotten sick from either the sun/food/dirty pool water. Again .. no thanks.

3 - exhaustion. If I go away, I want to go AWAY. Europe, Asia, where ever. And when I go away, I want to be full of energy to take it all in. Waking up at crazy hours to make that impossible train to the next adventure. After planning our wedding in 9 months, I imagine I will want to do a whole lot of nothing. So that's what we're doing. Nothing. And I CAN'T WAIT!!



So Jeremy and I agreed, that for our 1 year anniversary, we're going away away. What excites me about this, is that after the wedding, I will have something else to plan that I can look forward too.

Ireland?


Greece?


Portugal?


Endless opportunities. I can't wait to plan that!

But first, 100 days until my mini moon!!

100 days until ...

.. the San Francisco Green Festival kicks off



... Rodney Carrington performs at the Chicago Theatre



... Toronto's new AGO opens!



... I become a ROCKSTAR BRIDE!!! Woo hoo!!



.. 100 more days of this blog

the coolest ring bearer EVER!!

Why is Kalen our Ring Bearer? Besides being my nephew, there are many other reasons:

1 - He is WAY cute and loves the camera.



2 - Sports a mean mohawk.



3 - He doesn't let a little water scare him away.





He actually LOVES the water.



4 - He's a music GENIOUS.



5 - He loves his uncle. Scary mask and all.



6 - He practices his rockstar pose.



Kalen makes me laugh. He can't stay still which means he's the perfect Rockstar Ring Bearer. I have no idea what he'll do the day of, but whatever it is, it will be perfect.

101 Days until Kalen struts his stuff!!

Rockstar weekend for this Rockstarbride

This weekend was by far one of my most favourite and overwhelming weekends to date. On Saturday, Anne and Mike hosted an engagement party at their country home in Stirling. A mere 100+ friends and family stopped by. There was tons of laughs, food, RAIN and all the other elements that made for a perfect day.

Here are a couple of pictures. The clouds. Oh the haunting clouds.



The sign Mike made for us. Sadly, it spent most of the time in the garage to avoid being ruined (and in turn ruining the freshly painted garage).



My Martha Stewart-like flowers decorations.



The downpour. Really was awesome. Forced everyone into the garage to mingle. Really, as much as it would have been great to have a clear sky, I wouldn't have wanted it any other way.





Here's Jeremy amd Kalen after his 2nd escape into the rain.



To finish the night, the Dad and the Lads featuring Jim and Max boys played some Irish tunes to the crowd



The next day was my shower. This was hosted by Jillian (my bridesmaid) with help from my hometown friends Mandi and Megan. They went all out to throw me a rockstar shower. They even had a rider!! haha. Many of Jeremy's aunts and cousins rented a room in town so they can attend this. He has a tremendous family.

This cake was made by Mandi. She told me that once she left the e-bbq, she was up until 130am finishing it.



Of course, the traditional hat. At this time, the boy was calling. Stupid boys!! I have to say, this was the coolest hat I've ever seen made. Seriously. My friend Melissa has mad skills. Notice the birdcage veil?? Hellz ya!! I don't think she even knows I have one :)



The hat was so great both Grandma Foran and Jeremy wanted to try it on





Me and my friends



As I started this post, I mentioned this was by far one of my most favourite weekends. To see how many of our friends and family came out despite the crappy weather was shocking. We are way too lucky.

Too see more pictures, visit our photo sharing site here