anoisette

That’s kind of along the lines of what I have been looking for. I wanted green shoes but gave up, blue shoes seemed easier, yet when I find them, they never have my size! It’s incredibly frustrating. I guess that color is last season.

These Nine West shoes are cute but it’s not quite the right shade of blue. They’re an option for settling.

My search has at least pointed me to some good sources for evening shoes in Vancouver. After 5 is an evening wear (I actually saw a dress there that I thought would make a very nice wedding dress, strapless lace with a full skirt, and it was only $300!) store in Oakridge Mall that carries Nina shoes, so does Romia Shoes in Richmond Center and the best selection I found is at Lord’s Shoes on Granville.

I just got an email about this Nifty for fifty sale happening this week-end, featuring designer and vintage goods all for under $50. It’s this Saturday and Sunday, April 18 and 19 from 12 to 7 at the Pacific Palisades Hotel (1277 Robson Street @ Jervis). Read more about it in this blurb at the Straight.

So the invitation road, like the dress road, has been a long and twisty one. When I was in Calgary I went to a very lovely shop called Box Paper Scissors. The person there was really nice and helpful and they had absolutely gorgeous designs and ideas for wedding invites of the pocket fold variety. The only problem was if one wanted to DIY, the materials were standard sized card that one would have to cut to size themselves. I balked a bit at the work involved in that, having gotten a taste of it from doing our Save The Dates. However I still wanted to DIY as much as possible because after getting a quote from Zing Paperie here in Coal Harbour for a lovely but very simple invitation that was a lot over my tiny little budget, I figured DIY is all I could afford.

I got tired of trying to talk myself into going to Bridal Row all the way in New Westminster again to go to Paper Poet again, because the first time I was there they didn’t have any information I could take home (or on their site) and mull over, figure out what I wanted based on what sizes and colors they offer, how much it would cost, etc. And the second time I tried to go there, they were closed. Enter Cards & Pockets, which I found out about through Style Me Pretty, where another Canadian bride used them for her super gorgeous invites that she designed herself. After reading a little bit more about them on the Weddingbee boards, and also seriously loving that their papers and mats come cut to the right size, I decided to order a sample kit and some extra color swatches. Well it only took about a week for it all to arrive and so today was work on the invitations day.

I bought the corner punch a while back, and wasn’t sure how I felt about it anymore but the boy decided he wants punched corners, so that’s that. I just happened to have the ribbon from a different project so I played around with it a bit, but I’ll probably go with a blue or a green for the ribbon color. I still have to come up with something for the RSVP cards, but I’m pretty happy with my progress so far!

I just found out about these awesome wall decals by a local Vancouver outfit called Surface Collective. I just love wall decals; they’re really quite easy to apply and they can make such a dramatic difference to a space. And the best part for us renters is that they also come off fairly easily. You can check these guys out at their studio in Gastown, or retailer near you. Anyway, I am now off to Granville Island to enjoy the sun and hopefully find some cherry blossoms.

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.

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.