anoisette

I was just playing around with the fantastic pattern maker at bgpatterns.com and was pretty impressed at how easy it is to make nice patterns I’d actually want to use! It would be the perfect place to make a quick background for say your wedding website. If only they let you download the patterns in a higher resolution so you could use them on your invites as well… Anyway, the site is super easy to use and you can pick from a very nice selection of patterns, pick the color, the size, the texture, and a whole lot of other stuff that makes it so easy to end up with something you like! Even if you don’t have an immediate need to make a pattern, it’s a lot of fun to play with.

I thought it was a neat coincidence that two of the blogs I follow posted about the same designer in the same week. Vancouver based Henderson Dry Goods creates these gorgeous wood jewelry pieces and “an interesting assortment” of other things. See more photos at Nokomis (hi Jessica!) and poppytalk.

Last week while on my way to meet my friend to go dress shopping, looking out the bus window The Wall Flower Modern Diner caught my eye. It looked like a good brunch spot, so I filed a mental note to check it out some time. Anyway, just today I came across a few reviews on it from vancouverisawesome.com and vancouverslop.com. Looks kind of hit or miss, sadly.

One of the things I hate about flying is how you have to get to the airport so far in advance of when you are actually leaving that you always end up sitting around waiting. Well on my recent trip to Calgary, I actually didn’t mind waiting at YVR so much because they now have free wifi that I was able to use on my iPhone, and also I found a really sweet spot to wait around in the international terminal. There’s a quiet little upstairs part to the food court with plenty of empty tables and natural light. The perfect place to sit back and catch up on your rss subscriptions before you have to mosey on over to your gate.

Ok, it was totally a mistake to put off dress shopping no matter how much I was dreading it. I’m now starting to feel a wee bit stressed about actually finding one. The first thing bridal store staff tell me when I walk into the store is that since the wedding is in August we are Out Of Time and my only option is to buy a dress off the rack and have it altered. It is too late to order one. Wedding dresses take 6 months to make! Or something.

Anyway, here are a couple more I tried on (and liked):

This Venus dress is pretty cute, my friend found it and told me to try it on. It’s simple and I think it would suit our garden wedding nicely. I wish it had a little bit of a train though, just a little bit, because I kind want one. It’s the only time in my life I will ever be able to wear a dress with one!

And this one is Brookelyn by Maggie Sottero.

I’m really drawn to dresses with those ribbons at the hem it seems, and this was no exception. I tried it on in white/white and it was pretty nice. The skirt is really really really full though, and it has a big gorgeous train. That to me made it seem a bit over the top for a small garden wedding. It’s a gorgeous dress, but too formal for me.

I’m going to Calgary for a few days and I think I will do some power-dress-shopping there. Crossing my fingers that I will find something!

The other day I picked up a lovely letterpress wedding card for some friends of the boy who just got married. It’s by a Canadian outfit out of Montreal called That Sky Blue Stationery. While browsing their site I noticed that they have a line of Letterpress Invitations for weddings. Invitations are another thing I need to tackle soon. Anyway, I wish they’d show more of their wedding invitations line on their website. It’s annoying to have to track down a retailer and then make the trek out there if you’re not even sure what the offerings are.

One of the first dresses I ’saved’ from my online browsing is this one from the Vineyard Collection by Priscilla of Boston.

Asides from the fact that it’s probably totally out of my budget, I don’t love it in its entirety. But there are elements that I really like a lot. Namely the neckline and the horizontal pleating happening on the bodice.  Later, while browsing patterns at Fabricana, I came across this vintage Vogue  1950s dress pattern that has some of those same elements that I like.

I’m just not really sure about the off-the-shoulder look though. I have a feeling this pattern would have to be modified if I wanted a definitely on-the-shoulder look and that’s enough to keep me looking. But I’ll keep this in mind. I’d have to modify the skirt as well, because I tried on a very full skirted dress and wow that’s a whole lot of poofy, Poofy, POOFY white. My mom actually burst out laughing when I walked out of the change room. I think I’d rather go with an a-line or slight trumpet bottom like the Vineyard dress.

I’ve really been procrastinating on dress shopping because I’m just not that excited about it. I think my first experience going to a giant Mississauga bridal dress warehouse a number of years ago with a friend who was getting married kind of left me a little bit weary. It was too much like a big explosion of poofy white. Poofy white and more poofy white as far as the eye could see. There was no escaping the poofy white.

Two weeks ago I finally started on the much dreaded task by going down to Washington state to David’s Bridal. I’d found a few dresses online that I thought were ok and really reasonably priced, so I figured it would be a good starting point. Here are some of the dressed I tried:

I liked the simplicity of this one, but when I tried it on I thought the top looked a little too ‘adidas’ and sporty with the three bands and halter combo.

This one was similar to the first one in a strapless version. But I don’t think I really dig the strapless look. Plus it’s practically starting to look like a wedding dress uniform.

This last one I tried on a whim in the store even though it’s totally not my style with the lace and all, but the fit and cut were surprisingly flattering. I think it’s a very nice dress but the lace just isn’t me.

So that was my David’s Bridal experience. It’s definitely worth the trip if you are a dress hunting Vancouver bride. I didn’t have an appointment, but the staff were pretty accommodating, although if I had to do it over I would make one. My consultant was really nice and helpful and helped me with the dresses (dive in to the white poof).

If I’d found The Dress For Me there, I’d definitely be taking advantage of their infamous $99 dress sale. There’s one currently happening until March 23rd.

How cute are those save-the-date pencils?! They’re only part of the save-the-date package that Vancouver bride Amber put together. Her whole school theme was beautifully executed. Check out her wedding bio page to see her full wedding and all the fun ideas she had. I also love her little monogrammed magnets.

That reminds me of an alternative I thought of after I had already ordered my save-the-date magnets: pinback button style magnets. Local outfit, The Mustache Press does magnet back buttons for very reasonable prices. I found them while perusing the Indie I Do exhibitor list.

I think I have the last of the Save-The-Dates addressed and ready to go. Just had a few addresses I was waiting on or had to verify. Here’s a photo of them before we assembled them and sent them off. I ended up using assorted colored envelopes my mom had gotten for free. At first I wasn’t crazy about the assorted colors, but then I realized they were free and that’s hard to say no to. The green polka dot card is what we mounted the magnets on to mail.

To make the addressing manageable I used the form feature of Google Docs, as per this post on WeddingBee, and my parents and the boy entered the addresses. It saved me tons of time and now the addresses are all in there for when we send out the real invitations. From Google Docs I imported the list into MS Office did a mail merge to print the addresses. And my printer handled those freebie envelopes like a champ.