one month later....

I can't believe it's been a month since I've posted. This is not a good way to keep faithful readers!

Tyler moved into our place on Thanksgiving Monday. It was a little later than anticipated, but our landlord didn't care, as he was being paid anyway, and Chadley (Tyler's sister, who he was living with) was gracious, turning down our offer to pay her for the extra week. Phew!

So, I still don't have pictures, because I have been lazy with the photography. I didn't get much in the way of pictures of the kitchen before we re-did it, so you'll have to do with my highly descriptive and excellent prose instead. ;) I hope to get the new pics up when I post again (which will hopefully be in less than a month's time).

Tyler moved in with the living room still incomplete - the walls were painted but the carpet was not down. In the way of painting, we just have touch ups and our bedroom closet to paint/carpet. That'll be good.

We don't really have a dresser, so all of Tyler's clothes are in piles on the floor. *thumbs up* He has a dresser at Chadley's still, but it's basically just filled with junk and I'm relatively sure he's never kept clothes in there. Apparently his Grandpa has a dresser for us, so we're hoping it fits in the room. If not, it's another trip to IKEA on pay day.

We carpeted the week after Tyler moved in (he had to get more scrap carpet tile from work ... we were pretty impressed with how good it looked in the end), and then my parents donated a couch & two chairs to our place, and our friend Brenda offered her couch cover, so that room actually looks like we planned it color-wise. Yay! The only other thing that needs to be finished is lighting in there - that'll probably happen Sunday, as we need to turn off all the power to do it and it's typically too dark by the time Tyler gets home.

OOOOOH, and we got the vacuum from Grandma. Thanks Grandma! I can't wait to post pictures of that.

In terms of wedding stuff, my final dress fitting is supposed to be the end of the month. You may be wondering, "didn't you say you already had a final dress fitting planned?" the answer is yes, but, well, the dress still didn't fit. So ... End of this month. I'm glad we got that started early when we did.

Invitations have gone out, mostly. There are a few addresses that Tyler and I have been slow in getting so those invites will go out soon. We've got lots back, almost 50, and so that's good. 50 back with 2 weeks or whatever until the RSVP date is good.

We have a cake decorator, which is good, so that's underway... There's probably a lot of other things that need to be done, but I think we're in good shape (even though my mom seems a bit nervous).

10 weeks, 2 days! yay!!! Almost to the single digits...

~R

Rachel's Survival Guide (& wedding updates)

I've realized that all students (at least "this-is-my-last-year-I'm-getting-this-done-so-help-me-God" students) need to have a university survival guide. Here is mine:

First 2 Weeks of September:

these weeks suck, just drink more coffee.

Third Week of September:

everything's cool, I've done this a million times before! I'm a veteran!

Fourth Week of September:

remember, just two more weeks til Thanksgiving, and I can catch up on my reading

Thanksgiving Weekend:

catch up on sleep, and really don't read at all.

The Rest of October:

is spent reminding one's self that there are only 4-3-2-1 more weeks until reading break

November Reading Break:

catch up on sleep....and do some reading.

The Rest of November:

Remind oneself that it'll all be over by December...less than one month to go.

This is the guide. Stick faithfully to the guide, my padawan learners!

Of course, deeply imbedded in my survival mentality is the fact that in 14 weeks and 3 days I will be a very happily married woman who will lounge around for at least one week with her husband in a state of wedded bliss.

Speaking of which, our honeymoon got cancelled. :P Turns out our hotel is being shut down. What are the odds? So we have to find a new hotel for the first week of January (and December 31) in Canmore. Suggestions anyone?

Dress fitting: next Saturday, with the lovely Kristen - the seamstress said she could alter Kris' dress too so that's a good thing.

Pew Bows: Mom and I solidly hung out with our friend Marilyn and made pew bows for a couple of hours last night. The highlight: actually being better at something crafty than mom. That never happens, so I will bask in the glory. I was not the black sheep yesterday evening! (although truth be told, I think Marilyn re-did over half of my bows)

I think that's honestly it from a wedding perspective. School is good, working is good, life is good.
OH YES, the basement suite. The countdown is on, we need to get it done so Tyler can move in next weekend. HAAAAAA. He assures me it's all under control. Pictures to follow.

~R

Engagement Photos!

We have engagement photos tonight by the river...I'm really looking forward to it. We're doing black & whites. I still haven't picked out an outfit. I guess I still have 2.5 hours. Mom wants us to dress up a little, but Tyler and I are authentic ragamuffins, and I can't justify us pretending we aren't! Don't get me wrong, we won't be in our sweats or anything, but yeah. Normal people clothes.

I have a dress fitting on Saturday, I'm looking forward to that ... I think. There isn't too much else to report at this point!

final pics from make over evening 1

Obviously, this is Lyden and Tyler pulling up tile, and below is Lyden and I after a good night's work - as you can imagine, that subfloor was pretty sticky, and we have glue and tile all stuck to our pants.

...I'll post pics of the kitchen once we start working on it. :)

After #1: Living Room Wall

This is the living room wall minus the not-so-hot wood paneling.

Before: More Living Room Pics

This is the rest of that wall, with more of those lights. We're hoping to put in some fun track lighting instead. That glass door is the one that enters into the kitchen.

Yup, it's solidly a car window opener.

Before: Living Room #1

Here you can see how our living room and bedroom connect. You can also see some pretty harsh lighting near the ceiling, and if you look carefully, yes, that is a car window opener on the wall, which at one time moved the curtain.

Bedroom After, #1

This is the bedroom after we un-tiled it. The wood subfloor is exposed, and that's a big pile of tiles in the middle there. You can see Tyler holding back that curtain that divides the rooms.

Bedroom Before, #1

This is (part of) our bedroom and its closet. You will notice the lovely lino tile, some tiles of which were pulled up by my dad on Wednesday, as he was examining the floor. You will also notice that there is wood panelling on our closet. Did I mention wood panelling is a bad idea? You'll also notice a wood divider of sorts on the ceiling. This is where a big curtain is pulled to separate the big room into two little rooms. It's also where we're putting a wall and doors (perhaps french doors, if possible).

Belated Update

The other day I had a weird wedding dream but now I can't remember what it was about. The point is, I'm already having weird wedding dreams.

On to the updates!

Master of Ceremonies

My "aunt" Sally has agreed to be the MC at our reception! We're really excited, as we know that she's going to do a great job. Thanks Sally!!

HOUSE!!!

We are so excited that God has provided us a basement suite to live in. It's small, and the decor needs some work, but we're up for the challenge. It's in Ogden, and the rent is VERY reasonable. Last night, Lyden, Tyler and I went over to start the renos. I took lots of pictures, so I will post the "before" pictures on here, and then some pictures showing the progress.

Tyler took down some wood panelling on the wall (never a good idea to put up wood panelling...), while Lyden and I pulled up the attractive lino tile. After Tyler was satisfied with the destruction he had done on the wall, he helped us pull up tile. We worked for about an hour, maybe hour and a half, then called it a night. We don't want to be making a bunch of noise too late into the night; I think we left at around 8:40. Tonight Tyler and I will be cleaning up the piles of tile we left on the floor (again, pictures to follow), and working on some other stuff.

Oh, and the silly registry is finished.

I'll post some pictures when we have them developed.

A Tardy Post

Here are the latest updates:

Registry

It's almost DONE!!!! One more trip just to add a few things and we are done done done. I'm excited about that. The most humorous part of the last registry trip with my grandmas, mom, and Chantelle, was accidentally putting a $900 set of pots and pans on the registry - turns out we saw that price after we scanned it. They're taken off of course and replaced by a much cheaper set which I think was around $250. I don't remember though.

Vacuum

My grandma is hooking us up with a vacuum deal, so we're excited about that. Yes, that's right, excited. ... ... about a vacuum.

Invitations

Making the invitations was by far the funniest 4 hours (or was it 12?) that I have spent in recent memory. Grandma T was going on about how it was a Japanese sweatshop, and lamenting the fact that she couldn't go out into the garden to practice her yoga. That was really just the beginning. It was a lot of fun. We're not done the invitations by any means, but I'd say we're 80% of the way there. That's my conservative estimation.

Flowers

It looks like everything is lined up in the flower department, so that's some good news.

Guest Book?

We're not having a guest book, we're having a guest ... table. I won't ruin the surprise (not that it's some extremely exciting thing... I guess it's just more laziness actually) for y'all by explaining it... but my lovely cousin Chantelle is going to man the table. This is good.

Suits

Believe it or not, I think that it was actually harder to shop for suits than bridesmaid dresses. we don't have anything lined up yet, but I do believe Tyler will wear a vest with his suit, which I think will look really nice and help him to stand out from the rest of the men in the party. :)

Well, that's about it for now...not very exciting.

Seamstress-ness

Yesterday my mom and I went to the seamstress with our wedding dress - it was not nearly as awkward as I expected, AND I really liked the seamstress! To add to all that, the hair pin thing that I really like will work well to hold my veil on my head, so that's exciting. The whole alteration should only be $60-80. This is a very good thing.

I'm supposed to go back at the end of August to try it on. I'll keep y'all posted!

Complete Day of Wedding Craziness: Confirmed

That's right, ladies and gentleman! Come close, gather round, do not! be afraid, though this is quite the spectacle. Here's Rachel's zany schedule on Saturday, July 8th:

9:00-9:15 - Meet with the gramster (the Calgarian grandma)
10:00 - Add Chantelle to the gramster/Rachel duo
10-1 - Shop around and be the 3 delightful ladies that we are, have some lunch
1:00-??? - add to the fantastic trio GrandmaT (from England) and MOBster, add cookware/kitchen stuff to the registry, hopefully finishing off the kitchen portion of the registry
3:30? - convoy back to the house, make some delicious snacks, hopefully add Erin to the amazing quintet and....
4:00? - start making the wedding invites....

Now we will do that...until they're done. My suspicion is that with 6 people it shouldn't take TOO long at all, and that a wonderful day will be had by all! Tyler will probably come by at around 4 provided he gets off work at around 2:30 or 3, but, provided Lyden is home and available, he will probably end up playing FIFA 2006 downstairs (or perhaps NHL. It's a toss up). However, if Lyden is not home and available, he gets to make invites with us, which I'm sure he'll enjoy more than most (less confident) men would like to admit.

Oh the joy.

Now for today's update:

Stationery

I'm sure you've been sitting at home, biting your nails, wondering "how did Rachel's tiara time with her mom go today?" ... well, maybe not. But I'll get to that in a minute.

At lunch time today mum and I went first to get the stationery needed to make our invites. She had her mock invite created already, and while the template will change somewhat from what she initially created, what we ended up with will be quite nice and perhaps EVEN BETTER than her demo. We had to go to 2 places, the second place much better than the first. I won't mention what the first is, but the second very helpful and cheerful place we went was Scrapbooker's Bliss. I shall confess it immediately, this will never be the type of place I would hang out, but that is because I am not a scrapbooker. However, if you are, you're going to want to go there. I have linked it on the side! I must say, with all this advertising I'm doing for these various places, I should be getting paid.

Tiara?!

Did she do it? Did she cave? A lesser woman may have, but I entered and exited the tiara store without a tiara. It's not actually a store dealing ONLY in tiaras, they have other hair stuff and jewelry and all sorts of stuff I'm not particularly interested in. However, after receiving some considerably terrible service, I did end up with two hairpieces. One is a headband with all sorts of diamonds (not real of course) on it, and the other is this great piece for the back of my head/hair/whatever. It was too beautiful not to get. I don't know if I'll use them both, but I figured I'm not doing this trip twice, so I'd better get both just in case. With tax and everything they cost me under $50 (but not much under), so I thought it was worth it - ESPECIALLY considering the exorbitant prices I have seen for tiaras - $100 (AT LEAST) +!!! I was like "what kind of mental case spends that much on a ridiculous tiara that they will wear once?". I got 2 nice hairpieces for $50, and I'm proud of it.

Hopefully this evening over dinner Tyler and I will confirm that our pastor friend will be doing our ceremony. If not, we're in quite the fix...

That's all for now, folks!

Long Awaited? Update

I haven't written much lately just because nothing much has been happening with wedding stuff - lots of wait and see at this point. I'll give what updates I have though...

Seamstress

It looks like my mom and I are going to see the seamstress on Sunday (enter scary music here). Nothing like standing around in your knickers in front of a stranger. However, it needs to be done, so I'll just have to deal. Now, if for some reason the dress can't be altered, then I "get" to go wedding dress shopping, which is NOT my idea of a good time.

Photography

On the photography front, it seems as if we will go with Jenni Shores Photography, which is good. It's not a complete lock, but it is looking that way.

Registry

As for the registry, there's a never-ending joy :P ... we're going to add on to it on Saturday July 1st, I've made an appointment, so off Ty and I will go. After scrounging around the Bay, we're also going to check out a travel agency and see if we can register there for our honeymoon. Some people would rather just give money/contribute to our honeymoon, so I say, why not let them. Also on the docket that day is suit shopping with Sean (the best man/one of Tyler's brothers) and Lyden (my brother/one of the groomsmen). So that's Saturday July 1.

On Saturday, July 8th, it will be off to the mall again! - this time with my Grandma (from Calgary) and my cousin Chantelle in the morning - we plan to hang out, shop a little, then have lunch. After lunch we'll meet up with my mom and my other Grandma (from England, she arrives in one week [June 28th] with my grandpa and they're staying until July 18th) to add cookware to the registry. Tyler won't be joining that little hen party, he'll probably be working.

At that point, hopefully we will be about 80 or 90% done with the registry, and only have to make one more trip. Hopefully.

Invites

My mom has been making up mock invites for Tyler and I to look at. The first couple of invites were nice, but not really "my" style, but the latest one is exceedingly fantastic and I think we'll go with it. I'm excited about it! Who ever thought I'd be getting stoked for wedding invites? Not me. Anyway, then we have to make them all - I don't know what that party will look like but we'll have lots of help no doubt - Grandma from Calgary has said she wants to help make them, and perhaps Grandma from England would be willing to help as well, then of course Chantelle if she wants, and Tyler and me, and maybe one of the bridesmaids, Erin. I don't know ... I've basically just volunteered all of them :p. Of course they can say no though. If we have that much help, I'm sure they'll be done in no time. If not, it'll take a little longer, but I'm not worried about it.

Tiara?

This Friday mom and I are going to look at tiaras. Yes, that's right, tiaras. You may be thinking "Rachel couldn't wear a tiara, it's just not in her to do it", and you're right. But apparently they have other hair pieces too. We're also getting the stationary for the invites that day - it'll be quite the lunch break (minus the lunch).

Well, I think that's it - I guess more has been happening than I thought!

cake ideas

Imagine those cakes smushed together. Sorry they're different size pics - didn't know how to fix that...

Wedding Band & Potential Photographer

Today we picked up Tyler's wedding band :) If you really want to see it, you can take a look online: www.benmoss.com, then hit the "wedding bands" tab, then on the left hand side, hit "engraved", and then it's on the first page, in the right hand column, on the very bottom: # 420110043009. We like it. :)

We were also referred to Jenni Shores Photography: http://www.jennishoresphotography.com/content.html, so we're going to get a quote.

On the flower front, we got the quote and it was more than we anticipated, so we're changing some things to get it back down to the price we want. However, that's almost a lock.

That's pretty much it, I'm back to having 2 bridesmaids in town (Erin and Chadley), Christine is now in Saskatoon, and Kristen is in London, Ontario. I hope to see Christine and especially Kristen (haven't seen her for the longest), very soon.

More updates as they come!

The Countdown....

At this time in exactly 7 months, we will be officially married, and just sitting down for dinner at the reception.

:)

:)

The Bay Registry

Today Tyler and I worked on our registry. We added some plates/place settings, flatware, stemware, a kettle, a colander, knives, a salt/pepper grinder... stuff like that. We were lucky, because we hadn't made an appointment, but there was a scanner that they let us use and they helped us out A LOT. We were happy to get over that hurdle. There's still tons of kitchen stuff we should put on the registry, but that's ok, we accomplished a whole bunch today, and at least we've put a dent in it. Apparently someone at our church already went and checked out our registry and commented that there wasn't much on it! lol - at least people want to buy us gifts... that's a good "problem" to have!

I added the website of the flower place to the side bar...I didn't even know where it was til we checked it out, and I've been in Douglas Square countless times.

I also added a link to the Bay Registry site...