A day in the life of a rockstarbride

Thank You!

2008-12-22T14:28:00.008-05:00

131 posts later .. and it's a wrap. The final stamp on being a bride is the thank you cards, which 95 were mailed and delivered this morning.

That being said, this will be the last post on this blog (Kelly, it was not because you put a deadline in place). But have no fear, I will have 2 running blogs:

1) A Hot Pink Petticoat which will track my side biz in event planning.
2) New Life As New Wife which will be randomness. As of yet, there is no posts, but stay tuned!!

Now, onto the cards: If you were at the wedding stop reading this unless you want to ruin the surprise

Background: When first checking out etsy back in May, I came across this amazing designer who made poster invitations. Unless Someline Like You

When it came to our thank you cards, we wanted something funky and reasonable-ish. So, I contacted Unless Someline Like You and she created this wicked design for us, borrowing an existing design of hers and modifying it a bit to be more us.

I took the image, uploaded it to vistaprint and took advantage of the free postcards (pay for shipping).

We included 1 - 2 pictures in each card taken from the wedding. One of Jer and me and the other of the guests in the photobooth.

Anywho, wanted to share cause I think they're kinda cool.

PS - we used that quote cause my brother used the actual quote as part of his toast. It made me laugh

So, here is the card:

And this is the picture of us we used. We choose it cause it was less booby and really shows off the coolness of Berkeley Church.

I hope you enjoyed following along during my journey to my wedding bliss. I enjoyed writing and sharing my thoughts with the blogger world.

Thank you for your support and I look forward to seeing you again :)

1) A Hot Pink Petticoat
2) New Life As New Wife

Love, Rockstarbride

My Rocker Wife Hair

2008-12-19T20:56:00.005-05:00

I did it!! The day of a wicked snowstorm, I took the 90 min TTC trip to see Marleen and got my hair done.

Here it was before at the night of our wedding rehearsal:

And here it is now:

I love all the fun colours in it. And my dearest hubby likes it too so that's a bonus.

Marleen at the colour room. You should all call her if you too want some Rocker Wife hair!

Ringing in the new year as a wifey

2008-12-18T10:46:00.004-05:00

I am so excited for New Years. In past years, New Years always appears to be a bust.

Let me recap:

NY 2005: New Years at the Frankford Legion. This was my first new years with Jer. Jer was playing in his family band, to a crowd of ... maybe 30? Jer was in a mood and yelling at his brother's, I made the mistake of stepping in and telling him to stop being such an ass, that he didn't have to come down and play. Well, let's just say when the ball dropped, I had no kiss. NY 2005 SUCKED!!

NY 2006: This was a pretty good one. We went to Belleville with Tara and went out with Jillian and friends. We went to a house party followed by a visit to the bar. Nothing to crazy, but it was fun.

NY 2007: We hosted a New Year's party at our place. Jer had his toe-fecto and spent the night upstairs in bed. I had a blast, drank a whole lot of Sangria, but dear Jeri had a bummer New Years.

NY 2008: Jer has a gig with this disco band he plays with the odd time. It was in Ajax at some old person bar. The lead singer didn't show up so one of the girlfriends (not me) had to step in. I was dateless watching my boy sing. Not a bad New Years, but not a great one.

NY 2009: I CAN'T WAIT!!! 8 of us are getting dressed up and going for dinner at Coco Lezonne in Little Italy. After that, we are going dancing at the Orbit Room. My outfit will consist of my revamped wedding dress (shortened to cocktail length), hot purple Mary Jane pumps, a hot purple clutch, and a fun purple hair band to match.
(note, these are not my pumps .. I WISH!!)

Why am I so excited? I get to spend time with my friends, enjoy great food and drinks, look uber fun, and best off, spend it with my husband :) And you know what? Who knows what next year will bring so this may be my last chance at a killer new years.

Front Bum ..

2008-12-16T16:11:00.002-05:00

.. you all know what those are. It's when you let yourself go, and the ponch below your bellybutton grows. So when you look from the side, it looks like you have a bum in the front and the back.

So now we've reviewed the front bum, I had the realisation yesterday, that I'm not far away from having my own. NOT COOL!!

As of this AM, I am back to writing down what I eat and keeping track of point (weight watchers strategy). I will also start back at yoga on Friday, and get into my 3 times a week routine.

NO FRONT BUM FOR ME!!!

Found a cool site called F.A.T (fit at thirty) to inspire me and with all our new fancy cookware, here starts my life as a wife that cooks!! Or maybe I'll hire a hunky cook. I bet Jer won't mind :)

If you know any sites that will encourage me to deny the front bum and live a healthier life, shoot em' my way.

Let the countdown begin!!

Day 1: Denial of the front bum!!

Pikto Photobooks

2008-12-15T15:28:00.006-05:00

Thanks to my friend Janice for introducing me to Pikto as a place to make my wedding photobook.

I've tried Shutterfly, Kodak, Blurb, and Pikto is my fav by far.

Top 4 reasons why:

1 - It's local (Toronto). Love to support my local businesses AND it's a way to possibly save on shipping costs.

2 - It uploads pictures incredibly fast!! 800 pictures in less than 10 seconds? You've won me over.

3 - It uploads pictures period!! The other 3 sites didn't like my pictures for whatever reason.

4 - Janice is the expert of research. If she's going Pikto, then I'm going Pikto :)

GO PIKTO!!

Bou .. Bou .. Boudoir

2008-12-12T20:56:00.004-05:00

A LONG time ago I posted about the trend of boudoir shots. Well, as my wedding gift to my hubby, he got himself a whole book of me looking el-hot.

The Place: Robin's bachelorette pad
The Photographer: Lisa Mark

Step 1: Pick your most judgemental friend, with a brand spanking new house to be your support person. CHECK

Step 2: Find a wicked photographer who has a stunning portfolio of boudoir photos. CHECK

Step 3: Visit your hair stylist and ask for hot bedroom hair. CHECK

Step 4: Grab some booze and make your way over to the "photoshoot set". CHECK

Step 5: Get your friend to make you up all smokin' hot. CHECK

Step 6: Drink a cooler and wait for the photographer to arrive. CHECK

Step 7: Display your "outfits" to your judgemental friend and have her choose the outfits. CHECK

Step 8: Photographer arrives, she has a drink, and off you go. CHECK

Step 9: Make use of LOTS of natural light to make you lose at least 50 lbs. CHECK

Step 10: Make use of your friend's HOT black boots. CHECK

2 hours and 300+ pictures later, this is all you will get to see. My dad does actually read this :)

For those in the GTA or surrounding areas, you need to contact Lisa today and hook yourself up with you own hot shots. Ladies, if I can look hot, then you can look UBER va-va-voom.

DO IT!!

Puppy for Christmas

2008-12-11T14:22:00.006-05:00

This is puppy.

Puppy needs a home. Puppy is a Scott/American bulldog and only 7 weeks.

He's been vet checked, dewormed and has had first vaccinations.

For $450, you get the love from this beautiful dog, a bag of high quality (Origen) puppy food and a dog crate.

You know you want him. Look at this face.

Email me at tapstar@gmail.com if you are interested and I will pass your information onto the seller.

Chop Chop Time!!

2008-12-09T15:22:00.003-05:00

Yep, say goodbye to my long flowing locks. hahaha. This Friday, my friend Marleen is going to create something wicked for my "I'm Just Married .. you so missed the boat buddy" hairdo.

In response to my mother and father saying "but it just got so long!! Keep it!" it's time to say good bye due to the following reasons:

1 - I'm lazy and maybe blow dry my hair once a month. Seriously.
2 - I'm lazy, and spend maybe 5 minutes a day getting ready to go to work. And it looks it!
3 - I'm lazy. Period.
4 - I'm bored.

So, here's what I'm thinking. "Rock n' roll meets girl in denial of turning 30 in 6 months".

I love Gina Gershon's hairstyle sense. Way hot and not too young:

I also LOVE Gossip Girl Taylor Momsen's new 'do (in season 2). Grrrr......
Marleen is also a fan of Gossip Girl, and states this hair style will be too high maintenance for me. I think she meant the blonde, but not sure. Anywho, it's hot.

And look how great it looks in a pony!

I can't wait!!

Review: Berkeley Church

2008-12-07T08:58:00.009-05:00

My review our spectacular wedding venue.

- We attended the wedding of our friends at the Berkeley Church back in 2007. That night, before the ceremony even started, we realized this was where we would be getting married. The day after we got engaged, we picked a date and put down the deposit. There was no other venue we were going to get married at so there was no point looking. THIS WAS THE FIRST THING WE DID. We didn't have a ring OR tell our parents we were getting married. We wanted this venue.

Leading up to the wedding:
- My day-to-day vendor coordinator was Liz and she was a dream. Organized, friendly, and very accomodating to my nit-picking ways :)
- We had an incident where I screwed up our tasting date. It was that night Berkeley showed how professional they are. (Read here).
- They allowed us to leave some stuff and set up the PA the night before the wedding. They also allowed us to come back the day after the wedding to pick up the rest of the stuff. All without an extra charge.

The Wedding Day:
- Andrew was our coordinator for the ceremony. It was great having him there telling me to just relax and enjoy. That and he was there to flag down our sound guy who didn't know to turn off the music (another post for another day).
- The day of the wedding there were both Liz and Alison (night coordinator) and Andrew, artistic director to make sure our party went smooth.
- Tables, chairs, candles, couches, staff, GRATUITIES, plus many other things I know I'm forgeting were included in the venue cost. We only needed to pay for linens, flatware/glassware and extra cruiser tables.
- Catering is in house. We opted for stationed dinner and had Italian, Sushi and Carving. Everyone we've talked to raved about how great the food was.
- Greatest part, was how the staff were amazing hosts to our guests. Whether it was food, cake or a beer, they always made sure our guests, hubby and I were well taken care of. And we were treated like royalty by everyone at Berkeley. "Alison, here's a beer ... but this one is half full ... you've been drinking it too long" .. hahaha
- Over all we are thrilled we went with our gut and went with Berkeley. My guests were in love with the venue and it's uber coolness and still talk about how awesome our wedding was. There is no way our wedding would have been right if it wasn't for Berkeley.

Don't waste your energy seeking out venues. Call Berkeley today and just do it. You'll be sooo glad you did.

Now, for some Berkeley Porn (click picture for better quality)

These are just a handful! Be sure to read my past posts for more pictures from this fantabulous venue.

My WICKED Musicians

2008-12-04T20:17:00.007-05:00

For those on frugal bride you've already read my review. This is for those who want to get the goods who may not be a babbling bride.

Ceremony Musicians

- Daniel Cockburn is an old friend of Jer's who brushed off his key skills just for our wedding. How perfect for someone who was there when Jer got into this music thing, be there, on his birthday, to play our wedding. I didn't hear Dan, but I imagine he was fab.

- Shelby Richardson is a friend of ours from Dance Fusion who agreed to sing "I Want to Hold You Hand" (Across the Universe version) while my girls walked down the aisle. I heard her sing, and I trying really hard to catch my breath before it was my turn. She looked and sang beautifully.

- Chris Caddell came in last minute to accompany Daniel and Shelby. Chris was also playing with our wedding band, Stifler's Mom.

Cocktail Musician

- Jonie Lament is a friend of ours who did us the honour of entertaining our guests during the cocktail hour. From what we heard, he was fantastic. Check out his facebook page

Reception Rockstars

- Stifler’s Mom (1/2 are Thornely’s band, guitar player is Sass Jordan’s guitar player). We hired Stifler’s Mom to be our wedding band, and what a great decision that was. Even with the soundguy sucking, they kept kicking ass. Jer has said a couple of times, that it was these guys who brought the party back (after speeches .. which can be hard). We even got feedback from his mom that his family loved the music. They were friendly, and hugged me all night. I love rockstars! They were real pros, and had the dance floor packed the entire night.
- Check out their My Space

- Driver. Driver played a set at the wedding and did not disappoint. They learned a whack load of new songs just for me. Yep, I am loved. But I should be! Jeremy is a member as is my BIL Scott, and one of the groomsman, Ryan.

- They even went as far as to get Bruce Gordon (member of I Mother Earth) to come up and play with them for one of my fav IME songs, Another Sunday. IT WAS AWESOME! After their set, Andrew from the Berkeley told DH that he loved their band and would like to get them in there for future Berkeley events.

- Don't be lame and hire them for your wedding. Check out their website

Special Guests
- first there was the Kelly clan who sang their version of "We Will Praise You" (think "We will rock you")

- next up my father who sang a snippet of some song {What A Difference You Made in My life - Ronnie Milsap) at the conclusion of his speech:

- then Jer's parents. Mike did a "welcome" sing song and him and Anne ended their speech with a rap/limmerick

- last, Jer and I sang the song "Anything Else But You" from the Juno soundtrack. We couldn't let those before us outshine us could we?? Nah ...

- Of course, dad and the lads performed a tune or 3 :)

It was AWESOME!!! I have a feeling there was a lot of laughter at the wedding. Especially from my gals back home who would never see this at a Belleville Wedding. They are so lucky to have me!!

"My baby, she wrote me a letter"...

2008-12-03T11:54:00.006-05:00

My wedding gift from my hubby was a song.

The song: Ode to Alison (note: I've asked him for years to use the album name "Ode to Alison")

The lyrics:

The words, I keep saying mom nothing at all without you
The only thing I ask is to forget the past
Start out new
All of the moments come into me
Try to take it in.

All I can do for you
All I can be for me
All we can do is be
A perfect Harmony

Find myself wondering what has come and gone
and what is true
Same old song known all day
about me and you
I dreamed of this moment to say it all
I need you

I loved my song, and it sounds WICKED live. Once we get the video back from Jawad, I'll post a link.

"Say Cheese!!"

2008-12-02T13:59:00.006-05:00

Our guest book was polariod picture-book inspired. We wanted to have everyone's picture alongside their wonderful comments, so we decided to have a mock photo booth. Here are some of my favourite silly ones. All pictures by Greg Tjepkema

And the best one of the bunch. Our FLA friends and Original Rockstars!!

I am thrilled how these turned out and can't wait to line them up with all the comments. I think that will be a project for this upcoming weekend.

It's here! It's here! It's here!

2008-11-29T16:21:00.004-05:00

Here's the teaser from our videographer. We did not choose this music (not rock and roll enough for us) but we did have a say in the music for the final video.

You can see it on facebook or on our videographer's website.

Please contact Jawad directly at contact@filmstyleweddings.com for quoting as I know his prices have been adjusted since we snagged him.

Enjoy!

Dress Shopping as done by a Rockstar Bride

2008-11-28T13:18:00.012-05:00

The dress process for me was .. whatever. Anyone who knows me, know that I hate shopping when I:

1) I don't know what I want
2) I know what I want but I can't find it

By the time I went dress shopping, I already knew the dress I wanted.

Let me take you through my wedding dress process:

Step 1: Look through wedding magazines. The first wedding magazine I bought after Jer and I got engaged, was a Martha Stewart Wedding Magazine. I flipped through the magazine and earmarked all the dresses I liked.

Step 2: Go back through the dresses I liked and logon on to each dress maker's website and mark, in the magazine, the store and phone number to the store.

Step 3: Keep going back to that one dress, that for whatever reason, keeps drawing you in. This was the picture of "that dress".

Step 4: Call every store in the GTA and ask if they carry "that dress". FAIL

Step 5: Take a trip out to a few stores with your maid of honour and mother and try on every freaking style possible. Fish and Chips before the dress search is a must.

Step 6: Call every store on the website and ask if they carry "that dress". SUCCESS! result: 1 store in Windsor, and one store in Waterdown.

Step 7: Make an appointment with The Coach House Bridal Salon to got try on "the dress".

Step 8: Stop in a couple of more stores, just in case.

Step 9: Grab your maid of honour and mom and take a trip out to The Coach House Bridal Salon, first stopping for fish and chips.

Step 9:Try on "the dress" and hear from your maid of honour, "That's it. That's your dress" and reply with "I know".

Step 11: Entertain your mother by trying on more dresses, just in case.

Step 12: Order "the dress"

Step 13: Contact your bridesmaid with the mother-in-law who is a costume designer, to see if she can hook you up with her mother-in-law for alterations. "Please shorten and make me less booby please". SUCCESS!! (pic below is before the alterations)

Step 14: Day of the wedding, put the dress on and look DAMN HOT standing next to your hot and crazy Newfie friend. SUCCESS

And that's the story of how my dress, my poor partied hard in that it's dirty, holey and missing gems dress came to be my rockstar bride dress!

Slidey Sliderson

2008-11-27T18:39:00.007-05:00

One gift to Boy Wonder and me we got at the wedding was a "surprise" slide show given to us by Mama-V and her hubby Daddy-V.

I say surprise cause we knew it was coming BUT not what they were doing. Normally not a fan of slide shows (many reasons not needed to be stated here), I knew that if these 2 were behind it, it would be fab. How right was I!

Mix of emotions overcome each time I watch it:

Embarassment - gawd, those bangs!!
Lust - Yes, i said Lust (hee hee). Seeing my boy as the hottest rocker ever
Horror - is that me singing? KELLY!!!
Delight - my gawd I love this man soooo much and you an actually see that in my eyes

See for yourself!

** For brides/grooms needing a wicked slide show like this **
Email me and I'll hook you up with the V's.

This is how to boogie

2008-11-26T14:57:00.008-05:00

I'm my father's girl.

As my largest fan when I danced as a kid, it was only fitting that we do something special for our father/daughter dance.

Our secret weapon, by bridesmaid Robin, dance studio owner and award winning choreographer.

** picture by Greg Tjepkema**

Robin choreographed a number to the temptations "My Girl" that contained many snaps, spins, and star jumps. Here are some pictures of us busting a move.

Ya, we were AWESOME!!! Hopefully I have some of the dance on video that I can share on another post.

Review of my flowers

2008-11-25T17:06:00.006-05:00

Now that I'm married, I can finally show you my stunning one of a kind flowers made by Princess Lasertron

NOTE: Click picture for better quality

These are my flowers

Jer's Button-niere

Other button-niers for the brothers

Aren't they stunning!!! I can't wait to see pics from Greg how fantabulous these look the day of. Best part, is I get to keep them forever!!

Cool, Green & Shady

Now, the bridesmaids, groomsmen and the family got flowers by Cool Green and Shady. Amber was a dream to work with, and delivered way beyond my expectations. She found pods that looked like buttons!!! ARE YOU SERIOUS!! She knew how much I loved my bouquet and created the perfect compliment.

Here's a picture of the girls with flowers. Cort is going to die when she see's her rockon/loser pose. hahaha. I heart Cort. This was taken by Greg

If you want quality flowers and quality service, Megan of Princess Lasertron and Amber from Cool Green and Shady are you gals to call!!

Almost like we know what we're doing

2008-11-23T15:49:00.007-05:00

I'm back from our honeymoon feeling well rested. We slept an average of 12 hours and watched about 3 hours of CSI: NY .. a day :)

Wanted to post a couple of more teaser pics from our friendographer Greg Tjepkema

This week, I will take you through my PERFECT wedding attire and fill you in on who made me so friggin hot! I'll also share some amazing dancing pictures and talk about Rockstar Hubby's gift to his Rockstar Bride :)

So stay tuned!!!

PS - Tomorrow is Rockstar Hubby's bday. My gift to him, a tattoo. Well, pay for him to get a new tattoo. Ya, I'm awesome

"I now pronounce you ..."

2008-11-15T22:30:00.007-05:00

"...Rockstar Wife!!'

It's true, I'm now married to the love of my life, Rockstar Hubby :)

The day was perfect. Couple of hiccups, including running behind 45 minutes (leaving me to stress just a wee bit), but all in all, it was a success! I wanted to post a couple of teaser pics of our day.

These I stole from my friend Nancy.

My father and me

Jer and me signing "the" papers ... so much more than joint insurance :)

And this is from our photographer Greg. Notice the wicked "button-niere" Jer's wearing!! Yay Princess Lasertron

I'm off tomorrow and will be back next week. Once back, I will show you some more.

I can't believe I'm married!

My last post as a Rockstar Bride

2008-11-10T22:31:00.007-05:00

Tonight is my last post until after the wedding. Holy frig! Did I just say that?

The rest of this week will be super hectic (crappy way to spend my vacation) but it is completely worth it. I can't wait to return and show you all the good stuff I haven't been able to share (ie. hair trial, button bouquet) and other little tidbits.

I will however, show you some pictures of our engagement session with Greg. These are my favourites. Enjoy!

Friday is the day I become a rockstar wife. Wish me luck!!

Tito Jeremy

2008-11-08T16:07:00.008-05:00

Yesterday Jeremy went over to Rocker Boy's house for the date. See, Jeremy and Rocker Boy were heading to get hair cuts. When Jeremy got there, Rocker Boy came to the door yelling "Tito Jer".

Tito is the Tagalog word for Uncle. Tita means Aunt. So I am Tita Ali. It's pretty cool.

I asked Jer to get a picture of him and Rocker Boy, but, it didn't happen. Jeremy + Kalen + haircut = chaos!! Kalen also decided against a faux hawk, instead asking for a skater dude haircut. Yes, my 2.5 year old was quite specific ;)

Here's Uncle Tito with Rocker Boy last summer.

And last Halloween.

I wish we had pics of Tito Jer with Jake "the Snake" (Rocker Boy's side kick) but I can't seem to find. But here he is sporting a faux hawk in the pool.

I love my nephews. They rock pretty hard.

6 days!

Don't miss me too much!!

2008-11-07T15:50:00.010-05:00

Today is my last day of work for 2 full weeks!! Woo Hoo!!

As everyone knows, the last day is great but also crappy cause you have to tie up every loose end before you turn on the "Out of Office" on your email.

I promised Adam I would make him a CD of some of my classic songs.

Here is his top 3 songs:

"Table 5" - Alison's version
"Spider Pig" - Alison's version
"do do do" - random do do do's

Here is Adam.

Here is me and Adam fighting.

Meet Andrew, he's my friend and my co-worker. He's helping with some of my larger projects while I'm away. What a nice fella (AKA sucka!),

This is the message I left on my white board if people come looking for me. Well, with Andrew and Adam's help.

Good bye work! Good bye naked people in the Sheraton Centre. I will not miss you.

Practice Rocker Boy!

2008-11-06T13:58:00.012-05:00

Rocker Boy is the coolest 2.5 year old I know. Click here to watch him practice his important role on Nov 14th.

TIP: Turn down the volume as I can be loud

Tonight is my night off. Wine, bath and Grey's. Can't wait!

8 days!!

zzzz...

2008-11-05T11:38:00.004-05:00

I'm so tired.

I wish I can just curl up into a ball and sleep for about 17 hours.

To sleep and wake up knowing everything was done would be awesome.

Ya, that would be pretty darn cool!!

9 days! SINGLE DIGITS PEOPLE!

So Kelly, what did you see?

2008-11-04T11:11:00.009-05:00

These pics were captured through the lens of Mama-V-to-be

The gang minus a few girls who met us at the bar. UPDATE!! I just noticed the penis straw in the shoot. THANKS JANE, KELLY, MARG and HEATHER!!

Our true feelings about the night ahead of us. Look us Gracies!!

I sure am cute!!

The Ally's. This is Ally's first Staggette. I think she'll be back for more!

"ROCK ON!!"

10 DAYS!

Girls, Girls, Girls

2008-11-03T13:15:00.009-05:00

Saturday was my staggette hosted by my wicked wedding party.

The place, Pantages Hotel. Stunning boutique hotel provided as a gift from my friend Robin.

This was the room.

This was the room full of food, drinks and GIRLS!!

All in all, there were 17 of us. Yep, 17 hot ladies out and about. I don't have pics from the bar as I was told not to bring my camera. So, I am patiently waiting for 17 girls to send me some pics.

11 days!!

Happy Halloween!

2008-10-31T13:27:00.005-04:00

I love halloween. I wish everyday was Halloween. How can you not love dressing up and eating candy?? Today, I got dressed up as the best 90's rocker I could, and went to my customer site. The occasion? Yours truly was the lead singer of a "rockband" rockband. Yes, I sang for 60+ strangers wearing fishnets and my hot wedding pumps. How did we do? Well, we didn't win, but I scored 96% for my vocal chops. I RULE!!

For Halloween, I decided to post pics from what I would consider a cool Halloween Wedding.

Let's start invitations. I love these from Butterfly Kisses. Prrrr...

Next up, wedding dress. Look at this stunning custom wedding a saw on Offbeat Bride a while back. Love everything about this dress AND it goes with the yummy invitations.

Vintage Glam Blog featured these poison lables from Spook Shows. I would use these as part of the favours. Perhaps get some taffy and wrap them in these. Oh yes I would.

I need a venue. A wicked, scary venue. ah ha!! I'd use MINE!!!

Any mabe something like this for the decor

Halloween isn't complete without sweets. This would be my cake from Pink Cake Box .

I heart Halloween!!

I also heart Jer who I will be marrying in 2 weeks!! Yes, 2 weeks today!

I'm marrying a Scientologist

2008-10-30T13:37:00.013-04:00

DISCLAIMER: I am not a hater of Scientology. I don't know much about it except that South Park is said to have done a pretty good job on explaining it. Again, I am not a hater, so please, no hate comments.

I'm marrying a Scientologist?

.. ok, not really. Or am I? You decide.

Evidence A: Jer receives some random email yesterday some from guy who Jer played a gig with once, 10 years a go. Yes, 10 years ago. Don't forget, Jer is on his 3rd email address since we've been dating.

Evidence B: The emailer claims "... you were truly the finest guitar player I ever worked with." Yes, our Jeremy. Let's call this flattery.

Evidence C: In the video, you will see a guitar played VERY high. The last thing I thought I would ever see on Jer.

Evidence D: T-shirt tucked in. Oh yes he did.

Evidence E: The event is sponsored by Scientologist founder L. Ron Hubbard

My guess, Jer was converted back in 1998. This random guy is actually his mentor, and has been stalking him. Knowing we're getting married in 15 days, he decided this rockstar could not marry a non-scientologist, and reached out to him via email in an attempt to remind him of his roots.

So? What do you think?

Dressing for Weather

2008-10-29T09:32:00.004-04:00

So update on my girls ...

1. Mama-v-to-be. As you may recall, she ordered a dress online. Well, the company contacted her last week to tell her that the dress was noted the wrong size online, and that it's really 10 sizes smaller!! So, Kelly and the man behind the belly (Brian) boogied off to the mall and success!! A hot dress!! Fingers crossed baby-to-be chills out in the growing factor in the next couple of weeks :)

2. Robin. Not sure if it arrived yet, but she tells me she picked up hot pumps.

3. Tara. I actually found a dress at Le Chateau on Orfus Rd (a street in Toronto that houses many outlet stores). Tara came to visit at Robin's dance studio to try it on, and success! Another off the rack winner. THANK GAWD!! I bought this dress knowing it was a final sale :)

Weather Network

Anyone else wake up to snow today? I did. Starting Friday, I will be able to track the weather forecast. Sure we all know how accurate the forecast really is, but it'll give me something to do. It will also force those travelling in from out of town to anticipate crappy weather and get on the road early so they make the ceremony. PROMPT START!!!!

16 days!

Shoe saga continued ..

2008-10-28T10:27:00.010-04:00

Who would have thought shoes would drive me this crazy???

OK, first off, here are the boys boots:

Robin's jaw dropped when she saw them (in the WTF? way) and said "You know you're getting married in those right?" hahah. Robin is so Robin.

Last night Robin told me that I need hot pumps for my staggette (which is this weekend). All I could think of is "what do I wear?? I need bar pumps!!", which got me back to stressing somewhat about my wedding shoe sega. Well, I've got news my friends. We have a winner.

First off, I was thinking about these robin's egg blue Anne Klein sling backs that I bought a while back for $40. Hot, comfy, but not the right colour.

Then I was heading down for a coffee this morning and the shoe store where I bought my silver shoes AND the blue sling backs, was having a sale. Look at these babies. Comfy, lower heel, works with the colour scheme, and WAY HOT!

Best part, got them for $42. Oh yes I did.

YAY!! I have shoes!!!

Now, for the staggette, I will have to ask Robin if either the blue sling backs or plain black pumps are preferred.

17 days!!

sssssss......

2008-10-27T13:51:00.004-04:00

Let's talk snakes. This comic, made me giggle.

Check out this car. Can you image you knew someone who drove this?

Why am I talking about snakes? No, I am not incorporating snakes into the wedding. Well, not really. How about some snake wine?

I would die if I ever saw this in person.

Or how about these for my cake toppers?

Ok, you all know Boy Wonder had quite a list of to do's. One of those tasks was to find footwear. Well, success!! Boy just called me to tell me he just picked up his wedding footwear. Python Boots!!

I haven't seen them, but all I know is they are all black. Maybe they look like these?

or these?

When Jer was paying for the boots, the salesman threw in some boot cleaner as a congrats for Jer's upcoming wedding. Pretty cool if you ask me :)

Shoes .. sigh .. shoes

2008-10-26T20:22:00.008-04:00

So I have shoes. 2 pairs actually.

These were the first ones I picked up.

Love these. But .. the strap across the toes kill me and the height, well, a tad high for me.

Then I found these. HOT!!

But the height. I can get used to the height, but I think the thin heels will cause trouble the day of. If only these heels had a little more thickness to them.

Sigh ... I also have the problem of my dress being altered to accomodate the height if the green shoes. So .. do I:

1 - wear the first ones I bought, knowing I can deal with the height. I just need to get the stupid toe strap worked in.
2 - wear the green ones (same height as first pair) and risk falling flat on my face?
3 - buy shorter ones and risk my dress being too long?

What do I do?

19 days until you see :)

How I met my Rockstar

2008-10-24T14:01:00.009-04:00

3 weeks today I will be marrying my rockstar.

I met Jer 5.5 years ago on June 7, 2003. It was the day before my 24th birthday, and I was piggybacking off my birthday twin's planned party. He's too good to me :)

So there I was at Fionn McCool's at Yonge/St Clair with the Ryerson gang (Cortney, Kevin, Jenn, Colin, Dan .. and others I cannot recall at this time). And all of a sudden the coolest dude walked in. He had spiked hair, tats, and looked way out of place. He was this guy ...

I watched him walk around and he stopped at our table. Why was this guy at our table? Well, he was friends with my birthday twin.

Dan: Alison, you know Jeremy, his younger brother is your age
Alison: Oh ya!! You're Ian's brother?
Jeremy: Ian who?
Alison: Ian Mc(Someone) (yes, I'm horrible! I can say his name but can't spell it)
Jeremy: No. I'm Mark Kelly's brother
Alison: Oh ya!! You played in the school band! You had a mullet!

Ok, I don't know if I said that last line but he did have a mullet.

At the end of the night, I decided I deserved a birthday smooch and so Jeremy was the lucky guy (sorry Dan). Everyone crashed at Kevin/Colin's place, and I gave Jer a ride home the next day as he lived near me. He told me how he was in a band and so that's how he got coined "Rockstar". Jer took me out for breakfast and I dropped him off at home.

Jeremy: Can I get your phone number?
Alison: sure, I guess.
Jeremy: Do you want mine?
Alison: Oh, ok, sure!

A week later, my phone rang, and low and behold, it's was "Rockstar". I haven't been able to shake him since :)

I end this post with some pics of us when we were young and weighed less. Good thing we have love :)

Notice the 2 layer beard? ya ... not cool

This was the year long stage Jer went into after I threw out his hair gel:

This is us in our first apartment with my furry alarm clock Pickles

21 days until we have some KILLER pics of the 2 of us :)

Who needs a dress?!?!

2008-10-23T21:49:00.006-04:00

These girls do!!

Exibit 1: Kelly, AKA Mama-V-To-Be and my hot married with babe in belly bridesmaid.

Kelly was the first to buy her dress. Kelly is ALWAYS ahead of the game. Well, this time it failed her. FAIL!!! See, Kelly decided to try her dress on last night and had a problem. Baby Gingerbread is too big for the dress. So our dear Kelly is awaiting her new dress via FedEx. Good luck Kelly!!

Exibit 2: Robin, AKA owner of many dresses and my hot single bridesmaid.

Robin has a great brown Marc Jacobs dress she was thinking of wearing, but found another dress while shopping in the US. Success. Well, Monday night Robin decided she wanted another dress. Cause 2 hot brown dresses in her closet aren't enough for this brown haired beauty. So like Kelly, Robin's dress will arrive in 8ish days via FedEx. Here's to 3rd times a charm Robin!

Exibit 3: Tara, my maid of honour.

Tara bought a dress a while back. Now she thinks it too short and doesn't want a strapless dress. Probably a good idea seeing as Tara is my boobie friend :)As of yet, there is still no dress. So today is the day we find one and get it en route. If not, you may see my MOH looking like this ...

3 weeks tomorrow until Jer becomes my eternal side kick!

birthdays and swings

2008-10-22T11:05:00.005-04:00

Happy Birthday Andrew!

Today Andrew was blessed. Truly blessed. Maggi, a co worker of ours, sang her rendition of the Beatles "Happy Birthday Song" while I performed an interpretive dance. Such a good dance that Andrew asked mid song "Are you the go-go dancer?". Yep, the best birthday wish EVER!!!

Andrew will be the one at the wedding with 3 dates that I set him up with. Sorry Dan, if you were around every day, you'd have 3 dates too :)

Dang we're hot!!

Here's a pic Greg, our photographer, took during our engagement photo session at the CNE. Pretty kick ass huh? Yah, we rock!!
NOTE: click picture for better quality

23 days!! oh my!

It's like Christmas at our place!!

2008-10-21T15:33:00.009-04:00

Lookey what came for me today from Princess Lasertron!

(the following 3 pictures are complimentary of Mrs P-L herself)

I also got 2 barrettes:

button bouquet in my wedding colours (which I didn't even ask for):

We got other treats as well, but I can't post them as they will ruin the surprise :)

Check out this packaging. Pom poms!! And if you look closely Princess Lasertron attached a button which reads "I heart me"!! That will so be in the wedding somehow!!

Jer was the one to point out the one-of-a kind drawing on the box itself. Princess Lasertron draws just like me!

What made this the most fun, was reading the great card Megan (P-L) included in the package. Such a cool, cool lady!

For those with bad eyes, the card reads:

Alison:

I can't thank you enough for all the support you have given me as I have begun to grow my business. Let me know if there is anything else I can do to help you!!
I know that you and Jeremy will have a lifetime of happiness and I look forward to hearing about your married adventures as a Rock Star Wife!!
Thanks again and congratulations.
xoxo
Megan

I can't wait to show Megan all her goods in action!!

Fancy Signs

When I saw these on Vintage Glam Blog I had to have them.

And now I do :) They came today

24 days!!

it's so hard to be beautiful .. or is it

2008-10-20T15:09:00.006-04:00

First off, I am so not digging Blizzards at Dairy Queen. My coworker treated me to one today, and now I feel like death. I haven't had one in at least 10 years, and now my body is kicking my arse. Not good ..

Also decided my out of whack eyebrows needed to get tamed. The solution .. eyebrow threading.

Threading as defined by Wikipedia: "Threading is an ancient method of hair removal which originated in India, spread to the Middle and Far East, and is now gaining popularity in Western countries ... Practitioners use a pure, thin, twisted cotton thread which is rolled over untidy hairlines, moustaches and so on, plucking the hair at the follicle level. Unlike tweezing where a single hair is pulled out each time, threading can remove an entire row of hair, resulting in a straighter line."

10 minutes lady, my eyebrows look much cleaner, and no red marks. BONUS!!

Off to dance!!

26 days!

when is enough a enough?

2008-10-19T10:35:00.006-04:00

(no, the cow is not taking a poo .. that I know of. haha)

At what point do you say "no more!". If I haven't thought of it by now, then it's not an option. Right?

I'm fine with regard to food, drinks, vendors, centre pieces etc. I'm talking about Bridal Party gifts.

I've had my gifts done for at least 3 months. But I feel like it's not enough. I've asked gals on my message board, and they all told me they'd love the gift, but I feel like it's missing something.

Maybe part of that is cause my girls spoil me rotten and I feel I can never thank them enough for how supportive and great they've been? Or maybe it's cause everything else is pretty much done, and I'm getting stir crazy?

Anyone other past brides out there find themselves in this place? How did you decide "enough is enough"?

26 days
138 will be ready to PARTY!!!

"90 bottles of wine on the wall ..."

2008-10-17T11:39:00.016-04:00

Last night I met mama-mia, papa bear and Judy the "wine lady" to bottle our wedding wine.

The place: Bloor West Winery
The wine: Austarilian Shiraz and Italian Pinot Gris

Here's papa bear filling up the bottle.

Next, getting the cork in the bottle.

After the wine is safe and secure, mom adhered the fancy seal to the bottle.

Slap on the lables ...

.. and voila!! Some fancy shmancy wedding wine.

I took some leftover wine home to the hubby-to-be. Jer thought it was yummy.

As did I.

4 weeks today my guests will get to taste the wine for themselves.

Pants and birthdays. What else?

2008-10-16T14:04:00.005-04:00

Success!! Boy wonder is no longer pantless!!

Le Chateau to the rescue!!

Did you know my good friend Meghan, who is also today's BIRTHDAY GIRL used to be the head honcho designer for menswear at Le Chat? Maybe he's wearing a Meghan original!

Happy Birthday Meghan!!

I heart Meghan. Meghan and I were roomies 10 years ago in Uni. Meghan is stuck in St John's and will not be able to make the wedding, BUT, she will definately be there in spirit through her crazy fun big sis Hilary.

ya, I have cool friends.

29 days!

Jeremy's Classic Kelly Way

2008-10-15T09:15:00.005-04:00

I'm so excited!! My Princess Lasertron goods are en route, all but 3 people have RSVP (all Jer's friends by the way), and I have maybe 8 hours worth of work left for the wedding!! woo hoo!!

Jer on the other hand has A LOT to do. Not sure how much time he thinks he has, but TICK TOCK MISTER!!! What does the boy have to do ....

1 - buy his wedding pants
2 - buy his footwear

To go with his wicked jacket

3 - put together the playlists for dinner, band breaks, my other side project etc ..
4 - schedule practices for musicial performances at the wedding
5 - pick up some gifts for peeps

6 - finish MY wedding gift
7 - strangle Scott for NOT returning emails of those needing his help (so on my black list)

Somebody has A LOT to do!! So maybe when he reads this blog entry he'll realise he only has 30 days to get er' done.

My target to get EVERYTHING done is by Oct 31. I don't want to think about having to do this or that the 2 weeks leading up to the BIG day. That and I'll sit back with a glass of wine, watching boy wonder pull his hair out screaming "I don't have enough time!!"

TICK TOCK JEREMY!!!

Amy ELIGH and 31 days ...

2008-10-14T11:35:00.006-04:00

.. today's bday girl!!

This is Amy's very first birthday as a married woman. Photo courtesy of HRM Photography

Happy birthday Amy Baby!!

31 days later

Yep, 31 days .. 1 month .. holy smokes the wedding is coming quickly. Tonight Mama V and I are heading to the venue to fine tune the wedding plans. Table layout, number or chairs, timing etc etc.

3 more Tuesday's until I go on vacation. GAWD I NEED IT!!!

Mama-V-to-be is 30!!

2008-10-13T22:10:00.002-04:00

Here's Kelly on her 26th bday ..

On her 27th bday ..

Kelly's 29th bday ..

And her 80th bday!!

HAPPY 30th KELLY!!

Rocker Boy!!

2008-10-13T08:15:00.014-04:00

Happy Turkey Day!

Yesterday Jer, Scott and I took our Rocker Boy (AKA K, bubes) to Vaughan Mills.

First stop, Bass Pro to see da fishes (FYI: Fishies go "gobble, gobble").

Up next, we went to "build-a-bear".

First Rocker Boy choose his bear (AKA a Moose), then he took it to the stuffing machine.

He gave the heart to the girl at the stuffing machine ...

.. and helped put the heart inside his new BFF.

Next up, giving his moose a bath. While Rocker Boy was first afraid of the blasting air, he came around.

When trying to find moose an outfit, Rocker Boy didn't like anything. "Do you like this for your moose?" I would ask, and each time I would get "No?". Yes, almost like he was asking a question. So, Moose got no clothes, but he needed a name.

Moose needed his birth certificate, and to start off the process, K swiped the barcode on the moose's tag.

Then we asked Rocker Boy to bang on the keyboard. The result: DFDS. Well, that's not much of a name, so Jer added "UAIU" to create the name "DUFADIOUS" (Du-fad-e-us).

After the we left build-a-bear, Jer and K found a photobooth (although no pics were taken by the machine).

And last, we made our way to the "NASCAR Speedpark" where we ate pizza, drank pop, and K ended his day on a ride with Jer

He had a blast. Rocker Boy knows how to have a good time. As long as there are buttons to press.

32 days!

JONIE LAMENT

2008-10-12T08:56:00.005-04:00

Our friend Jon (AKA JONIE LAMENT) is doing us a HUGE favour by taking on the role as the cocktail hour musician at the wedding.

He asked me what song I would love to hear him perform at the wedding, and it was an easy choice. Dr Hook's Sylvia's Mother.
Joni made an EP of covers for his parents for Christmas 2005 (I think) and this song was one of them. I didn't even know of this song and was in awe.

You'll all love Joni. He will be fabulous at the wedding. Hopefully we will be able to sneak in some listening ourselves!

33 days!!

Off to build-a-bear with bubs (aka rocker boy)

"I said ... ARE YOU HAVING A GREAT TIMEEEE"

2008-10-10T11:33:00.003-04:00

Meet Jane. Jane is Jeremy's older cousin and one of my most favourite people. She emails me at least 3 - 5 times a week, reassuring me that Wayne doesn't RSVP anyone, asking how she can help out, and making always me laugh.

Jane rocks my world:

Meet Dan. Dan is one of Jeremy's oldest friends and also one of my most favourite people. Dan will send me random messages about how he's still a diabetic, and about "Pop Rocks & Diet Pepsi". He's also the one who invited Jeremy out to our joint bday the night Jeremy fell heads over heels for me.

I heart Dan.

When do you get when you put Jane and Dan together?

OUR WEDING EMCEES!!!

Dan is the loose canon who may say whatever/whenever, and Jane is the straight woman to keep Dan in-line.

Perfect Dynamic Duo!!

35 days
147 yes
18 no
12 MIA (grrrr)

Makeup and pillows

2008-10-09T21:20:00.003-04:00

Pillow Fight

Forgot to show you the amazing pillow my sister-in-law Regilyn made for our Rocker Boy.

Here's the pillow sporting our bands:

And of course, our Rocker Boy himself!!

Makeup trial

Here's before Luisa got a hold of me:

And after ..

Gorgeous if I might say so myself!

My rockstarbride goodness!

2008-10-09T11:16:00.004-04:00

Princess Lasertron

You all know how much I heart Princess Lasertron. Well, after she made a cupcake hoodie for my coworker's fiance ....

I decided I needed a hoodie for getting ready on Nov 14th. OK, did I need this? No, but I sure did want one!!

Here it is!!

Cassette tapes, vinyl, music notes!!! Andrew at work said to me that it'll be great when I have kids, and they point to the cassette tape and say "what's that?".

Lightening bolt, guitars with hearts on them!! This is THE craziest hoodie I'll ever own. And it was made just for me :) Robin will hate it. She will HATE it!! But I don't care .. so there!!

RSVP update

126 YES
17 NO
16 MIA (BOO!! You're soooo late!!)

Tonight's mission

My makeup trial! woo hoo! I'll take some pics and get your thought.

36 days!!

THE plan

2008-10-08T12:48:00.004-04:00

Holy frig, I have a plan. THE plan.

This plan is a breakdown of the entire wedding. From the Wednesday pre wedding date, to the day before the wedding, through until the end of the wedding. I have it broken down to the hour (some things the minute).

I went through the plan with my parents. "6 pages??" mom asked. Yes, 6 pages.

But not everyone will get all 6 pages. The emcee's got the plan condensed to 2 pages as did the photographer and videographer.

The best thing about having such a thorough plan is that it draws attention to the details you missed. ie, if we do this first, then this person will be distracting blah blah blah.

Sure I'm crazy, I know that the wedding won't go exactly to plan (which I'm OK with. Really), this just helps make sure that everyone who has a role in the wedding knows when to be where. I hope to eliminate questions the day of.

Who will have THE master plan? Well ... hmmmm ... I'll give it to Cortney :)

Here's a snippet of the work in progress agenda

Don't worry. I know many of you are thinking I'm delusional about things going perfectly as planned. I'm a project manager people!!! Things NEVER go as planned! So please know, this will not be me the night of our wedding...

And after the wedding, I have new plans to focus on, so there will be plenty of blogging to come for this Rockstar Bride.

Holy Frig!! I'm SO IN LOVE ..

2008-10-07T12:41:00.006-04:00

Looks at these pics (they were featured on offbeat bride) that I just .. I ... speechless.

I want these for mine!! So I sent the link to theblog of the photographer who took these pics to our photographer and said:

Greg, saw these WICKED pics of a rock n' roll wedding in the US. I love how these are like a band photo shoot. This is what I want for us. We don't need sappy boring posed pics. We want something that we can hang in our living room and have people saw "holy f!! That friggin rocks!" No pressure :)

So ya ... so in love!!

Update, on the videographer:

Jawad was the first person to answer our craigslist ad. He was the only one Jer and I were both impressed with enough to set up a meeting. Well, Jer met him today and looks like we have our guy. Phew!!

38 days! 23 guests MIA!! NOT COOL!!

You're invited to enter a Jerison Curly contest - Deadline is TODAY

2008-10-06T10:12:00.005-04:00

As you may recall, last week I sent a reminder email to those who need to RSVP which I posted.

Today, is THE deadline for RSVPs, so I sent out my 2nd email reminder.

This one was sent to his family. A similar one was sent to my friends. Let's see who wins!!

SUBJECT: ** You're invited to enter a Jerison Curly contest - Deadline is TODAY**

It's easy!! All you need to do by the end of today, is RSVP!!! yay!!

Do this by sending in your RSVP of yes/no 1 of 3 ways:

1 - logon to: ______________
2 - email us at rockon@myrockstarwedding.com
3 - call my mom Jackie at _________

FACT: All my family and Jer's moms family/friends have RSVP'd
FACT: Our friends are CRAZY competitive and huge in numbers
FACT: Derek and Paula beat you all to the punch by RSVPing .. oh yes they did
FACT: It's between our friends and the Kellys.

Sure I want you to win, but I really need you to do this for the obvious reasons of making sure we have yummy food and drinks for you to enjoy. I would hate to have one of your nephews/cousin show you to the nearest pizza joint (Dominos is across the street) and/or tims while we eat and drink like kings/queens. Sure you can come in with your pizza or tims, but keep your tim's cup cause you'll need it for tap water :)

Who will win? Who will be entitled bragging rights? Who will get the bum rap when we announce the last Kelly to RSVP? Or the Kellys who didn't RSVP (which you'll know by the pizza and coffee stains)?

You did see this is an open bar right?? So you don't want to miss out ...

Great food! Great drinky poo's! LIVE music all night! Surprise performances from ??? !

If you have already RSVP'd and booked your hotel (DEADLINE TODAY), thanks :)

GO TEAM KELLYS!!

Email me is you have any questions or concerns ..

xoxox
Alison

Told you I'd mention Dominos Pizza.

Anywho, 10 minutes after ! sent this email Jer's Uncle Sean RSVP'd. I hear he has a bad habit of not RSVPing. He's met his match (enter Rocky Theme song here)

Also just heard from Jer's Uncle Chris who can't make it. I guess the following does really apply to him.

Guess we don't need to set up duck hunt at the wedding after all!! Don't worry Uncle Chris and Aunt Pauline, we'll send you a copy of the DVD so you can pe part of the fun :) We'll miss you!!

A messy topic

2008-10-05T09:01:00.007-04:00

WARNING: Men, this is a topic you will not be comfortable with. This is your out to STOP READING ... you have been warned.

Today I'm talking about good ol' menstration. Yep, our monthly friend that stops by just to annoy you then boogy off until next month. Some times she can be tolerated, others a real pain in the arse. So, for my wedding, I didn't want her anywhere near me.

Some obvious reason:

1 - I don't want to be in wicked pain and swallow 8 pain killers like the older sister in "sixteen candles". Although it would make for some funny video

2 - I don't want to risk it being a BAD flow and having a multi colour dress. THAT would suck!! Would also suck for Tara who plans to wear my dress for her future wedding.

3 - the obvious I won't state here :)

Well, after doing some math, she won't be here! woo hoo!! success ...

40 more days, one more period before our wedding day!!

A massage ... mmmmm

2008-10-03T14:45:00.005-04:00

Jer's cousins Jane and Jarrett spoil us. We helped out at their wedding (Jer as the token rockstar and me as the token "get it done" gal) as our wedding gift. Remember that, as our wedding gift . So what do Jer's cousins do? They give us a gift of thanks. So yes, we got a gift for our gift (shaking head).

Anywho, Jane and Jarret spoiled us with a couples spa package at the Elmwood Spa .... woo hoo!!

We get to soak in a wicked whirlpool, swim in pool (too much effort thanks), suffocate in a steam bath and/or lounge poolside. This also referred to as "water therapy".

This is where I will be:

Next up, a 50 minute couple massage ... mmmm. Last time we had these was in Borocay on the beach. That did not suck (in case you thought an hr massage on the most stunning beach was horrible).

This may be where I'll be getting my arse rubbed.

The appointment has been made (the Wed before our wedding) and the wine picked out for us (thanks Mama-V-to-be) for our post massage date.

I heart Jane and Jarrett. They spoil us :)

43 days until something ...
41 days until I get my arse rubbed!!

"let me see that thonoonnnngggg...."

2008-10-02T10:28:00.006-04:00

No, this post is not about undies. This post is about songs that make me giggle and dance in the car, in my work chair, wherever. These are songs that I want to hear at the wedding, but I know I won't unless Stiffler's Mom (our band) is this cool. No one is this cool to have these WICKED songs.

Up first, "Thong Song" by Sisqo. This song entirely about booty and underwear reminds me of when I went to the Dominican with Sondra, Fred and Farzad back in ... 2000? Anywho, every disco we went to played this song.

Ah, the thong song

Next up, "Mmm Bop" by Hanson. Oh yes I did. This song takes me back to May 2-4 weekend 1998, when my friend Nick Foley walked into our cabin with a boom box blasting "Mmm Bop" and singing as loud as he could. This started an hour long cabin crawl recruiting everyone he could to walk from cabin to cabin singing "Mmm Bop" over and over. I heart Nick. Hahaha. I emailed Jer and his brothers asking they learn it for the wedding. I don't think this will happen.

And how about Eurpoe's "The Final Countdown" featured in "Arrested Development" whenever GOB performs one of his magic shows. Hahah .. Arrested Development. Great show.

Would this not make for an awesome ending the night song? Hmmm

There are so many good songs out there. Anyone have any recommendations?

5 days until the RSVP deadline!!

2008-10-01T14:29:00.006-04:00

For my readers. An email I sent out to a number of guests:

Hi everyone, I wanted to remind you that the hotel booking deadline is fast approaching .. Oct 6, 2008

HOTELS

Renaissance Toronto Hotel Downtown
http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/yyzbr-renaissance-toronto-hotel-downtown/

Marriot Courtyard
http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/yyzcy-courtyard-toronto-downtown/

After this date you will be subjected to the regular rate. If you forget and don't book by the deadline date, and you want me to negotiate the wedding rate for you, please email me a 2000 word essay on why I should. Jeremy will be the judge. :)

RSVP

For those who have not RSVP'd yet , please do so by Oct 6th. My bad for not noting this on the RSVP info card.

There are 3 ways you can do this:

1 - go to our website and reserve online: http://myrockstarwedding.com/ [login: ########; password: ######
2 - call my mother Jackie at 111-111-1111
3 - email us at: rockon@myrockstarwedding.com

Please do not assume I know you are coming. Even our family and wedding parties were told to RSVP. Seriously. No really, I'm serious.

For those who have already RSVP'd and booked a hotel room, thank you sooooo much. And for those who are away from home, and wouldn't have got our invitation, here's your heads up!!

44 days!!! Not that I'm counting :)

UPDATE: Since this email was sent at 12:08pm today, we have received 7 RSVPs. See, sometimes people need a little elbow shove :)

My next email reminder for RSVPs will mention the Domino's pizza across the street, which those who attend unannounced can enjoy while my RSVP'd guests enjoy prime rib, veal and pasta. And to water down their pizza, they can enjoy the church's tap water.

I'm not kidding ..

44 days!! ahhhhh!!!!

If I have a pig ..

2008-09-30T14:03:00.008-04:00

.. he too would be spider pig!!

Sorry, I get songs stuck in my head (usually random Simpson songs due to my coworker Adam quoting them all day). So when trying to decide what can to chat about today, I decided pets in weddings!

Now before you assume, no, my cats will not be in the wedding. Well, not physically. I did though get wedding charms made for my bouquet with my cats on them.

These are the charms I got off etsy

And these are my precious children:

Zombie cat:

Humper cat:

No way these cats would survive the day. Zombie cat would freak out and hide somewhere, and humper cat would .. well, he could hack it.

If they came, they'd look like this:

And if Lola (Kelly and Brian's dog) came, she'd look like this:

Pemeal (Tara's ex pig .. no, he was not eaten) would wear this:

And if a cow was to get married, she'd look like this:

45 days!! holy frig!

And rolling ....

2008-09-29T13:31:00.010-04:00

So after not wanting a videographer, I was chatting with Cort ages ago about not seeing the point to having one. Cort told me to think about it, and not to dismay the idea right away. She reminded me how they had her brother set up his camera on a tripod for the ceremony, and all the hilarious moments that were caught on tape. She mentioned she loved watching it over and over and that she wished she had the speeches caught on video too. (FAIL .. As The Hog would say)

Hmmm .. good point. Cortney always makes a good point (remember the flowers? ya ..)

FYI, If Rawson Vint lived in TO, he'd so be hired.

So, I decided, again, that I want a video, but not a plain old 2 hr long snore fest. I want (sorry, WE want)captured:
* the cermony
* snippets of our musical guests
* first dance
* dad/daughter and mom/groom dances
* and highlights of our featured bands.

So maybe 2 hrs on video edited into a 15-20 min rock-like video (fun and quirky like Beastie Boy/Blink 182 videos) capturing the day. We also want the raw footage.

Not too much to ask for I don't think. Well, I posted our want on craiglist (see our ad here).

So far I've gotten 2 worth while candidates, and a few that I won't bother responding too. Anyone that sends me a one liner of "$500 flat
See if these samples interest you" goes right into my trash. Loser.

So, if you know anyone that wants to hang out with a bunch of cool people, eat food and videotape the coolest party in town, have them email me at: rockon@myrockstarwedding.com

46 days .. I think

Sex in the city ... and cake

2008-09-28T21:44:00.004-04:00

Today started off with a meeting with Lida and Gil. Lida is our cake maker so my morning started on track with Starbucks and cake. M'm cake.

Our decision was to go with this style, with the brown ribbon, minus the flowers and monogram cake topper.

Our cake will have 3 tiers:

bottom tier: Vanilla
middle tier: Chocolate
top tier: Carrot or Marble

The entire icing will be butter-cream based. M'm M'm

In the afternoon, I headed to ... drum roll please

My "Sexy in the City Wedding Shower" ...

Here is the welcome sign to Mama-to-be V's apartment (Thanks Papa-V!!)

There was soooo much food! Tara had some sort of dip, but it was gone long before I was able to take a picture. I think the ladies liked it.

The girls went way out for this. Jill came down from Belleville, Cortney stopped by in the AM, then went to a shower in Bradford, came back for the shower, then was heading off to St Catharine's later tonight. Tara and Robin got stuck in traffic due to the run in Toronto shutting down the DVP/Gardiner, and Kelly was the Kelly I know and love by making over her love nest to look like this:

Then there was the cake Cortney made. LOVED them! (if you look to the right, you can see Carrie's hair. Kelly's added to the mood by playing SITC on the tv. Such details ...

No shower can be called a wedding shower without games. Here's Jill, Regilyn and mama-mia partaking in games. Let me tell you a secret ... my team always lost. FIXED I SAY!

The winners got a prize (again, FIXED!)

The day was great, and I couldn't be more thankful for the amazing work that my friends and family put into today. I must be loved :)

(psst - 47 days!!)

bake me a cake as fast as you can

2008-09-27T22:44:00.006-04:00

Jer and I got an early wedding gift of a wedding cake. This is great especially since Jeremy and I weren't planning on getting a cake in the first place. There are a lot of very cool wedding cakes now a days, but Jeremy and I decided to go with simple, clean and classy. Here are some samples I will be taking to my cake maker tomorrow:

Love this, minus the flowers. The flowers are a tad over the top. Beautiful but too much.

This cake is stunning. Not sure about the circles and squares though. I think I'd got with all circles. And the fondent. Not sure about that.

I love the brown and white contrast on this cake. With my wedding colours being brown, ivory and gold, the brown ribbon would look stunning. But no flowers

Now fondent or no fondent. I love the sleekness of how fondent looks, but ... I've had some really bad fondent. I'd refer plain old icing, but I fear that it won't have the clean look I'm looking for. Hmm ...

And of course, whatever we go with, it must go with my custom cake topper made by my MOH Tara. I love it!!

Guess I'll figure that out tomorrow!!

M'm m'm .. cake

48 days!!!

chat, cats and cakes

2008-09-26T11:18:00.007-04:00

I thought I would share with you my daily blogs and websites that I read religiously.

Up first, Babbling Bride

This website is a living message board where us crazy brides get to interact and share our excitement, our frustrations, everything. This is the perfect outlet for me to talk wedding and avoid annoying my friends (which I still do by the way).

The bonus, I've actually made some great friends from this site that had I met them in college or at work, we'd still be friends. So yes, I am in internet dater :)

Next up, my fav etsy vendor, Princess Lasteron

Young, smart, talented, what else do you need!! If Princess Lasertron lived in Toronto, she would so be my new best friend (not to replace my currents ones). I heart Princess Lasertron. Megan's blogs talks about everything from her current projects, her studies, her tiara wearing cat .. you name it, she talks to it. And I love seeing her post my stuff :)

This site makes me pees my pants caused by laughter every time I read it. Cake Wrecks

Jen gets pictures of professionally made cakes that are 100% disastrous and I love them. Her wit is icing on the cake (pun intended).

These are just 3 of my daily visits. Good ol' internet.

49 days!

hair ... yeowzers!!

2008-09-25T14:01:00.010-04:00

Last night while on my way to the yoga studio, I picked up a great magazine. I mean, of all the BILLION wedding magazines out there, 50 days before my wedding I stumbled across the best. It's an Australian magazine called "Creative Weddings". This magazine had DIY instructions on how to create your own bouquet, centre piece and they were CRAZY awesome!!! One day post wedding I may have to try it out. Just because.

Anywho, the magazine (which was 3 issues behind what is currenlty released in AU) they were promoting a hair and beauty magazine. Well, I found it online and found the hairstyle for the big day. While I won't post it here, I will post you some wicked ones they had online.

I wasn't even looking for a hairstyle and now I have one picked out. 50 days until I sport it!!

Give me a B-E-R-K-E-L-E-Y !!! yay Berkeley!!

2008-09-24T11:38:00.008-04:00

We went tonight for my tasting. My tasting crew were:

Mom - the detailed one
Dad - meat and potatoes please
Tara - the flirty one
Kelly - the time manager
Scott - compares everything to pizza

Each were provided a special book I made which they were instructed to write down anything and everything. Jer couldn't make it so this was even more important.

I had a feeling they forgot about us, but nah .. that wouldn't happen.

Anywho, they escorted us to a wonderful secret dining room.

Check out this room!!

Tara, Dad and me being silly

The food was taking a long time to come, and then it hit me ... I had the wrong date. I was a week early and my 5 guests all chimed in "ya, I thought it was the 30th".

When the Kevin the chef came up, I said "I have the wrong date don't I". He said, "why do you think that?" I responded "cause I think I'm a week early". He fessed up .. I was a week early and they didn't want to tell me. So instead, they ran out to get more food, and between 2 chefs pumped out enough food to satisfy all 6of us. Kevin invited us back for "a proper tasting". What? I graciously declined as I screwed up, not them.

Can you believe that? Instead of telling us to go away and come back, they accommodated us AND invited us back? Tom, one of the managers, told us they took it as the opportunity to be reactive to ensure their customer's happiness.

Anywho, some food pics. These do not do the food justice as my crappy camera hates me. YUMMY!!

pasta:

bruschetta:

veal and prime rib:

Even Scott ate EVERYTHING!!!

This experience has proved to me that they can handle anything. I definitely made the PERFECT venue choice for my rockstar wedding.

I have complete trust in the staff at the Berkeley Church and can't wait to see them in action the day of.

I leave you with a picture of Hank. The Berkeley's famous dog.

NOTE: For whatever reason, the crappy quality of my pics + blogger = not a good combo. So, go to flickr for better quality pics

You what?? ahhhh

2008-09-23T09:30:00.003-04:00

phone rings

Alison: Good afternoon Alison
Caller: Hi Alison it's Marleen
Alison: Hi Marleen
Marleen: Has the salon called you yet?
Alison: No why?
Marleen; Well, I no longer work there.
Alison: ahhhhhhhhhh

Well, it's all good my fellow readers. Marleen is looking to open her own business (which is why she was fired. Someone found out at the salon where she works that she's been looking to branch off). So she gave me her cell number, and told me she will call me in 2 weeks to let me know where she's set up shop. Worst case (well, in her opinion) is that she will come to me for the day of the wedding.

THANK GAWD she had my number! Where would I be without Marleen? She's been there through new jobs, weight gain and weight loss, and helped me from my $1 Philippines hair cut! I heart Marleen.

More Inspiration

As promised, more pictures from Bruce and Ola's March 23, 2007 wedding to get you geared up for a wicked party on Nov 14, 2008. All pictures taken by Denni Russel

Tasting today, pickup engraved rings today, taste cake on Sunday, enjoy my wedding shower on Sunday.

52 days with so much to do!

m'm m'm .. tasty

2008-09-22T12:59:00.004-04:00

Tomorrow is our tasting at our venue. I decided to show some pictures of the food we had at BrOla's March 23, 2007 wedding to get my taste buds prepped for tomorrow. These pictures were taken by Denni Russel Photography:

53 days until our guests are privied to this YUMMY food!!

Tomorrow I'll post more pics from BrOla's wedding which will illustrate why we "borrowed" Berkeley Church from them.

Muskoka Wedding

2008-09-19T10:44:00.005-04:00

Today at 1pm, I am on vacation for 2.5 days. I'm heading off to Port Cunnington Lodge, Lake of Bay, Dwight ON to witness the wedding of my friend Jacquie. My hot date is Michelle and we're going relax, relax, and relax.

After hearing about this wedding for months, I still had to look back on email threads to see where I'm going. All I can remember is the Muskokas. Jacquie and Michelle think it's funny that I have no idea where we're going.

Here are some pics to leave you jealous. While you're hanging out in the city, I'm going away to forget everything ..

See you on Monday!

Why I still love Princess Lasertron

2008-09-17T14:40:00.016-04:00

I while back I did a post on why I love Princess Lasertron. Well, she's done it again.

Lets recap some of her work:

This is her wedding bouquet:

some of her other work for other non traditional brides (like me):

This one is available on Etsy

Maybe you want a wicked "Just Married" sign for your car?

Or maybe you want a one-of-a-kind custom hoodie to wear on your wedding day to wear while getting ready. This is mine in progress and I love it. If you don't, don't care!

P-L also made a cupcake hoodie for my co-workers fiance's birthday. He was he hero for sure!!

See more of her work at I while back I did a post on why I love Princess Lasertron.

57 days until I sport all of my Princess Lasertron creations. WOO HOO!

Our own little gingerbread ..

2008-09-17T14:40:00.008-04:00

.. ok, not mine, but our friend AKA my bridesmaid.

My friend Kelly is having a baby!!

Come time of our wedding, Kelly will be approx 22 weeks/5.5 months preggo!!

So, to congratulate my friend, this post is dedicated to her. Why should you have an expectant mother in your wedding party?? Cause they look stunning! And, they're actually smuggling in a guest that you DON'T have to pay for!! woo hoo!!

From Studio Tran:

From Breast is Best:

(what's with the pig nose?)

See, bridesmaids with bellies are hot. And they help bring down the cost of booze.

Congrats Kelly and Brian!!

Visit Kelly's blog the The Gingerbread Journal and enjoy her journey. She's whitty and cleaver so always a good read.

58 days!

license to wed

2008-09-16T06:46:00.005-04:00

Yesterday Jeremy and I went to get our marriage license. We knew we had to bring ID, but what we didn't know is that if you don't have a government issued ID with your middle name identified in full, you will become registered as First Name Initial Surname.

During the registration process, and between pokes me of referring to my hubby-to-be as "Jeremy S Kelly" he kept saying "From this day forward, I will be known as Homer Jay Simpson". Simpson fans out there will know what I am referring to, but for those who did not get the full reference (such as me) a quick sidetrack to the episode: "D'oh-in In the Wind" is the sixth episode from the tenth season of The Simpsons.

Plot: After appearing in a short promo for Mr. Burns and the Nuclear Power Plant, Homer realizes that he does not know what his middle name is (he has always just used the initial "J." before). Abe takes Homer to a commune where Homer's mother lived "after life with me became a living Hell," as Abe puts it. They meet Seth and Munchie, two hippies who knew Homer's mom back in the '60s. Homer finds out that his mother painted a mural on Seth & Munchie's barn, and dedicated it to him using his full name: Homer Jay Simpson.

Anywho, back to our day. Ya, we can now get married

The first signing (we had to sign 3 documents in total):

Me modeling with the official license:

And me and da boy .. Jeremy S Kelly

Also found a place near work that does hand engraving. As you may recall, Jer and I made our own rings. My ring is only 1.5mm so no machine can engrave in such a small surface. So finding Ron at Batten Hand Engraving was a reall success. Our rings will make their over to see Ron tomorrow. Woo hoo!!

Mom got her outfit on the weekend. I'm heading over to her place tonight to make crafts and have her model her sexy outfit.

Until tomorrow!!

59 days and still counting!

How much booze?

2008-09-14T21:05:00.005-04:00

Today is Sept 14th. Our wedding, Nov 14th. 2 months!! holy frig where did 7 months go?

We have quite a bit of work to do. Ie, how much booze do you need?

Some online liquor calculators I found:

The LCBO has the table. For 150 people they recommend (for 6 hours)

24 cases of beer
60 bottles of wine (750 mL)
18 bottles of liquor (750mL)

they also have this LCBO calculator:

For this you enter the percentage of beer/wine/liquor drinkers. But, I have NO idea!!

Based on a Monitoba's Liquor Marts Online:

25 cases of beer
30 bottles of wine
9 bottle of liquor

Problem with this, is you can't enter how many hours booze will be served.

According to evite, we need for 150 guests:

11 cases of beer
53 bottles of wine
14 bottles of liquor

Problem with this calculator, is you have to specify light, average and heavy drinkers. Again, no idea.

So, after my research, I am a fan of the LCBO reference table. Sure it states the most amount of booze, but, you can return unopened bottles so I'm sure the parents are ok. Don't want to throw a rockstar wedding and run out of booze!!

61 days!

Update to my florist situation ..

2008-09-12T13:32:00.005-04:00

.. my friend, wedding coordinator and bridesmaid (Cortney) referred me to Amber from Cool Green and Shady who did Cortney's stunning wedding flowers a couple of years ago. Now, Cortney did recommend Amber day 1, but I was playing stupid bride. NO MORE!! Maybe :)

Here's how the meeting went:

Amber: So, what were you thinking?
Alison: Well, here's my bouquet (insert you own image here) so I want something to compliment it
Amber: Well, how about (insert fancy flower names here)
Alison: You're the expert! I just want something that's rock and roll
Amber: laughs
Cortney: She's not kidding

Then there, 30 min later, my deposit is down, I feel WAY happy! And I know they will be perfect.

Next big thing on the list! Wedding license which we are getting Monday. Woo hoo!

so here it is ...

2008-09-10T14:36:00.010-04:00

... our invitation. Those guests invited to our wedding should have or will be receiving an invitation in the mail. So, if you haven't yet, and don't want to ruin the surprise, then stop reading here!

1. Our inspiration. I saw this picture online at Uniquity Invitations and fell in love. So, we decided we could make these ourselves.

2. We found the perfect chandelier via google. Then Jer found it on istockphoto with a much higher resolution. PERFECT!

3. I ordered cardstock from Paper Source which worked perfectly. The colour we choose it unique and perfectly us.

4. Robin took me to her 2nd home, John Bead. 1000 rhinestones later ... sexy chandeliers.

5. Instead of the traditional RSVP cards, we got business cards made at vista print directing our guests to our wedsite.

6. We also got made at vista print our "load your photos here" postcard. This card asks our guests to load their pictures onto flickr so we don't get email after email after email of pictures. Also, everyone can see everyone else's pictures. This will also be where we post our professional pics.

7. We had labels made on etsy by Modern Moments. We love how they turned out.

8. We couldn't have any old stamp. When I saw these, it was game over.

So here it is, the final product.

Jer finishing the cuts

Everything (minus the photocard)

Bohman doing a quality check

83 envelopes ready to go

Phew!! One MAJOR thing out of our way.

PS - Got our first RSVP! woo hoo!

65 days to go!

158 ... 158? yes, 158 ..

2008-09-08T13:32:00.006-04:00

160 people invited to our wedding.

1 groom
1 bride
4 parents
3 siblings
1 sister in law
2 nephews
4 grandparents
34 aunts and uncles
22 cousins
23 friends of the parents
1 officiant
4 band members
1 photographer
59 friends

83 invitations handed over to Canada Post to deliver our DIY invitations. 415 rhinestones finding a home in the house of another.

now we wait .. and wait .. and wait ... and ... CRAP!!

67 days and so much left to do!!

Our pre wedding course

2008-09-03T23:10:00.003-04:00

No, we did not take a course nor are we going to. Jeremy comes from a Catholic background, while little ol' me is non denominational. It wasn't hard for us to agree that a non-denominational spiritually driven ceremony was right up our alley.

To give you some background, Rick's son Tim used to play baseball with my brother. Rick and Dad coached for a bit, then retreated to the sidelines, lounging in the lawnchairs like (as mom says) the grumpy men in the muppet show. At age 40, Rick decided he wanted to be a Pastor.

We met with Rick months back at his church in Stoneycreek. It seemed everyone there knew we weren't part of the congregation and reached out to say "hello". They offered us coffee (yes please), and we went to sit down at a round table to the right of the stage with Rick and his wife Ellen. The service kicked off with a Christian rockband playing 3 rock hymns, had references of the Princess Bride (with a video clip) and ended with Jeremy and I heading back to Rick and Ellen's place for Chilli. m'm m'm

In lieu of attending a wedding course, Rick recommended 2 books for us to read:

The first one, being "Making Love Last Forever" by Gary Smalley

Now, I must be honest. While I did get the book, I downloaded it on audio.com. I listened to it in one drive and thought it was great. Balancing every componant of your life? WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT (haha)

Taken from Barnes and Nobel: "Best-selling author and relationship expert Gary Smalley presents three of his time-tested favorites in one quintessential volume. In Love is a Decision Smalley outlines practical techniques for keeping your marriage alive, and in Making Love Last Forever he reveals the proven secrets behind his love guarantee. In The Key to Your Child's Heart, Smalley offers simple principles and workable ideas for raising confident and responsible children while maintaining a close-knit family."

I give this, 2 thumbs up.

Book number 2, The Complete Financial Guide for Young Couples, by Larry Burkett.

I'm about half way through this, and ignore the fact it's 19 years old, it's quite good. Hmm, have a budget, spend less, be happier!! Sign me up!!

Barnes and Nobel summarizes it as "This book provides young married couples with a wealth of biblical and commonsense advice for building a solid financial foundation. He also focuses on common financial pitfalls."

In my opinion, these books are books all officiants should recommend couples to read. Sure I've lived with Jer for 2.5 years, but the common sense of these 2 books are the kick in the arse we both need.

Go pick them up through amazon!! Married, single, who cares!! These are great reads for everyone.

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Financial-Guide-Young-Couples/dp/1564761304
http://www.amazon.com/Making-Love-Last-Forever-Smalley/dp/0849940869/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1220499095&sr=1-1

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

2008-08-29T09:28:00.008-04:00

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!!

2008-08-27T10:55:00.009-04:00

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?

2008-08-21T17:05:00.003-04:00

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!!

2008-08-20T23:23:00.003-04:00

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 ....

2008-08-19T18:44:00.005-04:00

.... 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!!

2008-08-16T08:44:00.010-04:00

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

2008-08-14T14:09:00.003-04:00

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"

2008-08-12T14:18:00.010-04:00

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!!

2008-08-10T17:44:00.018-04:00

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

2008-08-09T21:04:00.006-04:00

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

2008-08-08T08:22:00.003-04:00

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 ...

2008-08-06T15:05:00.005-04:00

.. 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!!

2008-08-05T11:09:00.017-04:00

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

2008-08-04T21:00:00.005-04:00

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

Brides that fart

2008-07-31T22:04:00.004-04:00

I have a confession to make. I'm a gassy gal. Yes, it's true, and I'm not ashamed of it.

After an "episode" in the car tonight, Jer told me that if I was gassy during our ceremony, then ..... he never finished his sentence actually.

So onto youtube I go and search, "brides that fart". The results ...

One. I found one good video. How pathetic. Either...
1) brides don't fart.
2) no one captures these.
3) or my best guess, no one is mean enough to post them on youtube.

In this video, we see the same people that do the wedding flowers and wedding cake skit. Funny, but not real.

I want a real one!!! Not easy to find. But you know what, I will find one!!

106 days!

Musician = Comedian

2008-07-29T22:25:00.003-04:00

While at the jays game with Jer tonight, he mentioned a video where John Mayer does commentary at a ball game. Hilarious!

I dedicate this post to Jeremy. My Rockstar Groom.

Then he told me about John dressing as a bear and interviewing the fans before the show. Chances are once the fans found out who the bear was (on you ube) they freaked!!

To see more of John's videos, check out his youtube profile here.

To end this post, I bring back my fav british wedding couple in "wedding flowers".

"I see London, I see France ..."

2008-07-29T13:39:00.003-04:00

Underwear. Who would have thought choosing wedding underwear would be such a task.

At first I was thinking "something blue".

But, that's kind of predictable.

What about a sexy thong?

But do I really want my arse being flossed all day?

spanx? good old sucker inner's?

Nah, I want to be able to breathe all day.

How about no underwear?

Nah, too raunchy (as if I would tell anyone anyways)

Boy shorts .. I love boy shorts.

Yes, I think boy shorts.

Someone on frugal bride made a great point. COMFY UNDERWEAR!! One would think to find a pair which fits perfect. However, she poined out that cause she was sweating all day, they were starting to slip during the ceremony. NO THANKS!! So she recommended starting with a pair slightly snug fitting.

Well, I was picked up a pair of HT Natural underwear at Grassroots after yoga last night. FRIGGIN AWESOME! Most comfortable underwear I have ever had on my body. Sure they cost a few bucks, but SO WORTH IT!
Not only as these comfy, but good on the environment. According to their website, these undies are made out of "organic cotton, bamboo, soy, hemp AND are eco-friendly". So there all you green people!!
I think these will become my "rockstar bride undies". But YOU will never know.

Funny part, they are "Made in China"? hmmmm ... so close. So close.

Foam Party!!

2008-07-28T10:47:00.009-04:00

Jeremy and I were in Belleville this weekend (Jer had a gig). We boogied up Jer's parents place Saturday night and spent yesterday at their home. Anne and Mike have been doing work on their house. I think the fact they are hosting our engagement BBQ is a driving force, but maybe not :)

Anywho, when I asked how many people they expect, they said "I don't know, about a hundred." A hundred!! Holy smokes! Guess that's what happens when I marry into a family where there is 29 aunts and uncles to start with.

Today's post, pictures off the web to get me in prepped.

Cooking nescessities:

The food

the party .. pool party

Not to mistaken for a foam party (definition: A foam party is a social event in which participants dance to music on a dance floor covered in several feet of suds or bubbles dispensed from a foam machine

Games

Bonfire

Music

Dancing

And of course, family and friends

** No, these are not our family members :)

109 days until Our Rockstar Wedding!!

John "Dear"?

2008-07-25T07:33:00.007-04:00

A girl on the Frugal Bride message board talks about her farmer fiance's love for John Deer. So, here's my take on what I would have for a John Deer Wedding. Of course, using my obsession Etsy as my source.

I start with, the shower favour. If I was throwing this gals staggette, these wedding favours would be a must. Pink tractors!! Awesome!! I would contact the etsy buyer Sweet Lollipop Shop, and see about doing them in her wedding colours.

The wedding favour. These are way too cute!! I imagine if I was having a John Deer theme wedding, it would be held outside. So I would hang these around and ask the guests to take one home with them. Etsy seller: BlueMama

The centrepieces. I would have something yummy in these and use this as the focus of my table. Seller, Wags Creations

These are so cute!! These would definalty be part of my bridesmaid's gift. Esty seller, My Mom Madelt.

And these by Sunset Sign Design would be part of the groomsmen gift.

For the groom's eyes only. These, by Bodylish, without a doubt, would be butt warmers

And this, by Bellarosa Garters for the garter. For sure

And just in case "Aunt Flow" comes for a visit. I will contact seller Pleat for some of these.

Don't worry mom!! The wedding you will be attending in 112 days will not carry any of these components. Or will they .. hmm

"Little news flash, Pop.Ha ...."

2008-07-23T22:01:00.004-04:00

"...Harold ain't so perfect. Remember that time in Puerto Rico when we picked up those two, uh... well, I guess they were prostitutes, but I don't remember paying."

Ah the wedding singer, my FAVOURITE wedding movie of all times.

Tonight went to see Mama Mia with my own mama mia. Was a fun movie to see with my mom.

Today's blog? My 5 top wedding movies ....

#5

27 Dresses. This movie is about a girl who is always the bridesmaid and never the bride. Actually, I was on my way to pick up my friend Kelly (to go see this flick) when I called Jer. I told Jer I wanted to get married ... this year. He said OK, and that we'd talk about it when I got home.

#4

Father of the Bride. A good old Steve Martin classic. That and I'm a daddy's girl. The way Steve's Character pouts in the end when he thinks he missed his daughter? Ya, that's my dad.

#3

My Best Friend's Wedding. Only thing I HATE about this movie is that she doesn't get the boy in the end. BOO!! But, LOVE the singing family at dinner (what a riot) and love how her BFF showed up at the end to be with the broken hearted.

#2

The Wedding Crashers. Great cast, many laughs, just 30 min too long. This reason alone bumped it from the top spot.

#1

The Wedding Singer. Love Drew. Love Adam Sandler flicks. Love the 80's. So really, this was an easy choice. The best man speech alone was awesome! And John Lovitz creepy wedding singer character COME ON!! Ahh, the wedding singer.

One movie worth an honourable mention:

1. Old School - sure it's not a wedding movie, but Vince Vaughn's one liners kill me. So funny .. so funny

Ahh .. love a good wedding flick.

Any good recommendations?

"Big Girls Don't Cry"

2008-07-22T21:34:00.006-04:00

I sure do, and I sure did today. Without getting into what triggered this all I know is the waterworks were WAY over due. My job, my weight, the wedding. You name it, it's stressing me out HUGE!!

I was googling "wedding stress" today, and came across this great list of what to do to help ease stress .. for the extrovert bride.

1. Take up salsa dancing --- ummm, how about yoga?

2. Join Taichi -- join what? ohh.. Tai Chi. No thanks

3. Take a break and go on a tour .. WOULD LOVE TO!! But, no money + no vacation time = thumbs down

4. Dine at a high class restaurant with your bride .. they mean my groom right?

5. Go for a picnic with the whole family .. BBQ, next week. CHECK for the good guys

6. Go skiing .. where would I go skiing in July?

7. Go for karaoke singing sessions with buddies .. GREAT IDEA. Must make a desperate call into my good friend Cortney

8. Go parachuting .. cool. But doubt it

9. Go on a shopping spree like there is no tomorrow .. Ya, I live 2 doors down from my shopping spree. Wanna see my new dress and shoes?

10. Go sky diving .. again, cool. But doubt it

Anyone else have any great tips to de-stress?

As mentioned, I needed a good cry. Poor Jer was so shocked and kept saying "your breathing is freaking me out". Ya, I cried like a little kid who can't catch their breath. Was awesome :) and I'm sure the first of a few more

See here for more de-stressing ideas.

What a minute! Did Jer actually offer me a back rub which I turned down??

115 days to go ... ya

So many parties ....

2008-07-20T20:20:00.004-04:00

We all know that weddings don't just include the wedding. Nope. There's engagement parties, wedding showers, and the anticipated stags and staggettes.

Last weekend I attend my good friend's Amy Staggette, and Boy Wonder planned and attended the stag for his buddy (and one of his groomsman) Ryan this past Friday.

First off, Amy's wedding shower.

LOCATION: Belleville, ON
HOST: Mrs Mama Sue (Amy's Mom)

Mama Sue's in the stripped t-shirt. The woman to her right is Amy's grandmother.
FACT: a couple years ago when Amy went to get her nose ring, both her mom and grandmother went with her. And also got nose rings!! CRAZY FRENCH LADIES!!!

Hot panties are a must have!!

The customary ribbon hat

The Staggette

LOCATION: Belleville ON, Little T's
HOSTS: Suzanne (MOH) and Tanya (HMOH)

Rule #1 of a staggette to remember (after the obvious ... A PLAN!!). Matching shirts. These are fun yet presentable. I remember when Jill got married (about 6 years ago) we dressed her up like Brittany Spears on a bad day. We've gotten better as the years go by

These shirts were made by Tanya and were perfect.

Rule #2 - transportatation.

This may be a car (with DD's of course), TTC, taxi, or limo. Mama Sue went for the limo

Rule #3 - fun bar and fun gals who love to laugh and have a good time

Rule #4 - make sure the bride gets home in a fun, coherent state

STAG

LOCATION: Toronto ON, Polsun Pier, Detroit Eatery, Grace O'Malley's
HOSTS: Matt (BM) and Boy Wonder

Rule #1: Awesome matching T-Shirts

Rule # 2: An activity where "boys will be boys"

Rule #3: Hot transportation

Rule #4: Good friends

Rule #5: Getting the groom home in a waken state (with a blow up doll .. dead by cigarette)

At the end of it, the stag/staggette should be a night the bride and groom remember as the best night of their lives with their closest friends. Key phrase: night the bride and groom remember. Nothing bums a good party more than a night with no plan, going to places the bride or groom would never normally want to go, and a drunk beyond recognition lady/man of the night. Not fun for anyone, and the bride or groom will be left with great disappointment.

117 days until I'm a Rockstar Bride!!

A hot trend for Bride to be's ...

2008-07-18T13:03:00.004-04:00

I was talking to my mother this morning about Boudoir shots.

Mom: "Boud-what?"
RSB: Boudoir mom. They're sexy shots that brides give the their future husbands
Mom: What!!
RSB: Think classic pinup girls. Not "Playboy" mom!!
Mom: Just the same

I went to to explain to mom that this is a hot trend in the wedding business where the bride gets all dolled up and surprises their groom with the pics as a gift.

A little history of Boudoir. According to wikipedia historically "A boudoir is a lady's private bedroom, sitting room or dressing room". When talking photography, "Boudoir is also used in photography as a term to describe a revealing style of photography. Implied nudity is common, as is the subject showing part of their undergarments while still dressed. There is now a very clear blurring of the lines between soft porn and boudoir images, where it is more than just the undergarments peeking out."

Let's look at Wikipedia's definition of Pin-up girl: "A pin-up girl or pin-up model is a model whose mass-produced pictures see wide appeal as pop culture. Pin-ups are intended for informal display."

Some famous pin up gals start as early as the 1920's - Greta Garbo

1930's - Jean Harlow

1940's - Rita Hayworth

and who can forget the 1940's introduction to the Notorious Betty Page!!

Now, I know you're saying "these women were sex icons. HOLLYWOOD sex icons".

Ya, so ... look at these hot women!!

From Lisa Mark Photography

Who says you have to be stick thin? Look at these HOT women taken by Jessica Blaine Smith

And look at these steller shots by Kelly Hsiao

This is a HOT trend, and I hope it stays!!

119 days until I'm a MRS!!

3 ... 2 ... 1! Yay!!

2008-07-16T17:49:00.006-04:00

That was the only way to get Kalen, my nephew, to stay somewhat focused during family picture night.

For my mom's 60th birthday, the family got together for some well overdue pictures. These were shot by our friend (and wedding photographer) ,Greg Tjepkema.

Here are some pictures from that night (NOTE: these were not touched up)

The family!!

Being a little crazy ...

My bro and his beautiful family

My nephew and FAVOURITE ring bearer

If you like Greg's work (and I sure do). Visit him online here.

Crinoline or no crinoline .. that is the question

2008-07-15T21:44:00.004-04:00

I bought a HOT coloured crinoline off of a frugal bride.

It's stunning. I have no yet tried it on with my dress to see what it looks like, but I hope it works out. Also don't want to tell you the colour and ruin any possible surprises.

I started looking online for other brides who wore fun coloured crinoline under their dress. Here's some neat pictures i came across:

This dress is just overall stunning!

"Something Blue"

love Love LOVE ... did I say Love?

Not crinoline, but look at this dress! Wowzers!! Totally want this dress. TARA!!! Pick purple when you decide to marry k?

I'd love to show you my dress and get your opinion, but I can't :)

Guess you'll have to wait and see come November!!

122 more days!!

Hot designs for the Rockstar Bride

2008-07-11T15:02:00.003-04:00

I have to confess. I LOVE etsy. You all know that.

I was checking out etsy last night came across this

I started poking around Bonzie and feel in love with her stuff. Way too cool for the ordinary. Here are some I totally dig:

Can you imagine wearing this wedding dress? Way too rock and roll for me. Not a chance I could pull it off

El HOT corsage. STUNNING

Love this shrug.

So Bonzie also has a blog with even MORE stuff!

stunning wrist cuff

And the detail!!!

And, Yvonne also has DIY site

Check out this shrug!!!

And this arse kicking masterpiece!!

There's so much greatness on all 3 sites. 3 sites!!! Can you imagine trying to maintain 3 sites!!

Go check out this Irish gals serious skillz!!

10 degress Celcius

2008-07-10T12:51:00.006-04:00

That's the average high on Nov 14 for the past 3 years according to Toronto's Weather History

According to this site:

Nov 14 2005 = high of 8
Nov 14 2006 = high of 7
Nov 14 2007 = high of 15

All 3 dates were SNOW and RAIN free!!!

So really, if I look at history, I should be looking a a clear, autum night.

However, remember the weather we've had this year?

Dec 20 2008 - Wedding of Amanda and Jason (no, I don't know them)

Mar 8 2008 - Winter wedding shot by Wild Orchard Creations

June 16 2008 - Outside my friend's place in Markham. He mentioned he got whacked by hail and it left a welt. Wicked ...

July 8 2008 - King St at Sudbury. NOTE: I was stranded on the Tarmac in Boston cause of "a storm". At least it was worth it!!

So you know what this means right? I need to start my contingency plan to ensure I get the proper outer wear for anything and everything Mother Nature throws at me.

Bring on ETSY!!!