this is why i love love LOVE etsy.

Etsy has become my go-to place for all details wedding. So far I've found my shoes, my wedding dress label, bracelet, and these adorable chair sashes! and i'm still looking for a headpiece too. there's just such a great variety, and {most} things are so affordable! Plus, I love that I'm supporting independent artists & sellers. 

 rhinestone bracelet by AYANSI 

{ don't have this yet, just ordered it yesterday! }

chair sashes by floratouch 

{ the trim is eggplant purple, just like the bridesmaids dresses. and they'll look lovely on our mahogany chiavari chairs :) }

my something blue shoes by Parisxox

{ I've posted these on here before. but i love them so much, i can't help but share them again! } 

wedding dress label by MondeDesign

{ I haven't received this yet, so those aren't our initials. but such a cute idea! }

I'm still on the hunt for that headpiece, as well as favour tags. please suggest any amazing sellers you've worked with / ordered from that sell these sorts of things. or, other adorably unique ideas that you've seen while stalking browsing Etsy. 

And happy friday! enjoy the eye candy :)

xo

yes, i'm still alive. here are pics of me to prove it.

wow, this is me basically re-learning how to blog. i pretty much disappeared, thanks to a) new 9-5 job that leaves me too exhausted to think at the end of the day, and b) wedding planning taking over my life, seeing that it's five months away. I KNOW. where did the time go?
so Isa and I went and got our engagement pictures taken, and Yaira of The Last Forty Percent Photography did an absolutely fabulous job! {well, at least i think so. but i'm biased.} something else i also learned: i LOVE having my picture taken. seriously, could have done this all day :)
Here are a few of my favourites. enjoy!

and now i'm going to use these pics as a cop-out post. you know, ease back into it :)


xo

{ all pics via LFP }

this is {sort of} a repost: wedding music

i blogged awhile back about first dance songs. now that we've booked the ceremony string trio and the dj, i've got more decisions to make!

we've booked Festivo Strings for our ceremony music, and I can't say much about them yet, other than they came highly recommended from both our officiant and the hall we've booked, and that they were very prompt, helpful and professional during our correspondence. I am not at all traditional when it comes to music, so i've been trying to pick contemporary music that can be played instrumentally for the ceremony. i absolutely love that on friends monica walked down the aisle to 'groovy kind of love' when she and chandler got married. i'd love oldies songs from the 50s/60s/70s that are immediately recognizable. so i'm looking for suggestions. some ideas {but i'm totally open here}:

• processional of wedding party: "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", that hawaiian-sounding version...ya know? {i'm not sold on this though}

• bride+father processional: "Something in the Way She Moves", the beatles; "Can't Help Falling in Love", Elvis {also a first dance option}

• signing of licence: ??? suggestions please!

• recessional: "All You Need is Love" chorus, The Beatles; or "Wouldn't It Be Nice", the Beach Boys

i know we've got lots of time, but i've been told to start thinking about it in case the musicians need to learn the sheet music....

I mentioned before that we've also booked our DJ - Rob at Music Central, another local vendor who was recommended by our photographer. I blogged awhile ago about first dance songs, and we still haven't decided, goddammit. the list is pretty much the same:

• Make You Feel My Love, Adele
• Just the Way You Are, Billy Joel
• Maybe I'm Amazed, Paul McCartney
• I Can't Help Falling in Love With You, Elvis Presley
• Follow Through, Gavin Degraw
• Heaven, Bryan Adams

And some new additions {as if i need more choices, gahhhhh}

• Everything I Own, Bread
• Wonderful Tonight, Eric Clapton
• Angel Eyes, Jeff Healy

So, YA. helpmehelpmehelpme! my fiance is no help in this department, he'd have us dancing to Tupac if it was up to him. {and this is not an option, sorry}. i have such an eclectic collection here, i'd love some input.

this confirms that i am the worst blogger EVER.

you know when you put something off for so long, that coming back to it seems more and more difficult, and the longer it gets the more you think 'damn, i have to come up with something really kick-ass now', and this cycle just perpetuates itself until you end up in the hole i now find myself in. it sucks. 

to be honest, i used to blog first thing when i got up in the morning, and now i get up before the sun {for the love of god, i'm not exaggerating} because i have a 'real' job now. which is, actually, going really great, i have to say. it makes going back to university as an adult {or so they say i am} seem worthwhile. but it has hindered my blogging abilities in a way i didn't see coming. TOO TIRED I AM. the days go by so fast! 

but wedding stuff: we took our engagement photos! and they were so much fun. i will definitely be posting them here when i get them from the photog. considering i've stalkedfollowed their blog for years now, it was pretty surreal being the subject, since i've seen so many engagement shoots and imagined what ours would look like in similar poses and settings.

{i know, i'm a huge corny nerd. i don't care.}

OOH OTHER AWESOME NEWS. my wedding dress arrived, and i went to pick it up, and IT WAS TOO BIG. yes, my halfhearted attempt at working out and eating healthy has paid off, and i've lost inches, people! not a lot, by any means, but enough that my dress had to be reordered in a size smaller. i could have died and gone to heaven right then and there. but now one small thing - i can't put any weight back on. david's bridal will have my head otherwise. eek.

other wedding stuff....booked the dj, the string trio for the ceremony, my shoes came in {!!!}, and i've got three invitation mock-ups to decide between. we're into the monthly countdown now {9 months to go, people} so i expect i'll be busy. if i disappear again, just assume i'm buried somewhere in a pile of RSVPs and tulle. 

xo

this is way way WAY overdue.

OMG i haven't blogged in a month. i think i actually forget how. my life has felt upside down and inside out and being able to form interesting and somewhat witty sentences was not an option. i barely even tweeted. that was weird. and the longer it goes on, the harder it feels to start again. i couldn't just write a wedding entry or post a pretty picture with a quote. i had to make a comeback with a damn good excuse. 

well, i got the job. 

{happy dancing, with a stomach full of butterflies}

today [well, tonight actually] i head in to MY LAST RESTAURANT SERVING SHIFT EVER. feels unreal to even type that. i have worked in the restaurant industry for fourteen years! insanity. and monday morning i will take the first baby steps into my career.

or maybe the interviews were the first steps. my first real work day feels like a giant leap, somehow.

i won't post a lot about my job or the company [for fear they may find it and fire my ass] but i will say that i've been hired as a financial analyst at an engineering company. it probably sounds mind-numbingly boring to you, but numbers are kinda my thang. 

so ya. i'm already freaking out in a nervous-excited way about monday morning, and YES i am already planning my outfits in my head for the first week. i even went and drooled over cute pant suits at RW and Co. yesterday. [although i'll have to wait for my first paycheck to actually afford one.] the thought of wearing cute work clothes excites me i'm sure this will wear off quick because for years i've been stuck in some sort of black-pant/white-shirt/coin-pouch/ugly-black-shoe uniform hell. 

i've also been busy around the house and with wedding stuff. i promise to update you in posts to come:

- i've booked a few more wedding vendors

- i've discovered young house love, and subsequently blatantly copied been inspired to organize certain areas of my apartment

- scheduled, then rescheduled our engagement shoot, and it's coming up at the end of the month! [this means more outfit planning. YESSSS.]

- i watched the first four seasons of dexter in, and i'm not exaggerating, A WEEK. this is no excuse for not blogging, except that it is cuz when i wasn't glued to my computer screen [i downloaded it] i was hiding under the covers from serial killers.

so happy friday everyone! and i'll {hopefully} be back here next week! 

not hopefully. i will. i've missed you too much.

xo

this is me getting impatient, plus other random updates.

 i know i haven't blogged in over a week {again} and i'm sorry i've been MIA. i feel like i've just had so much going on that i'm not mentally able to blog! even with free time, my head has been a-swirl with planning, wondering, stressing, etc. 

i got a call for a second interview for that job {woo hoo!} and so i've been fretting over what questions they could possibly ask, what to wear this time, should i give two weeks notice at the restaurant... i went on that interview today, and {i think} it went okay! i don't want to jinx it, believe me, but it was much less formal than the first one, and {hopefully} harder to screw up. but nothing was said at the end about when i could expect to hear or anything. so basically i am just super impatient and want to know now, either way. waiting for a job offer has got to be the most anxiety-ridden activity one can endure.

{well i don't know, maybe pregnant ladies waiting for the birth is worse. but more happy anxiety, not my gutwrenching-pull-out-my-hair could-go-either-way kind.}

it's as if i can't plan anything in my life for more than a week in advance just in case my schedule changes. working in the restaurant industry - i'm free all day, and work at night; working as a financial analyst - um, the complete opposite! i just want some stability in my life, and i want to know what my schedule will be further than say, tomorrow.

on a more blissful note, my weekend was a lovely two days off work, with people who make me smile in all different ways. on saturday, my sister surprised me with a phone call that she was in town at my parent's place! we haven't seen each other in a month, so that made my day, literally. i picked her up, armed with my camera, and we went to look at the wedding location [windermere manor] because she still hadn't seen it. i don't care how many times i go look at this beautiful property, i get excited EVERY.TIME. we then spent the evening with my fiance and my parents playing boardgames. who doesn't love taboo?!?

sunday i got to satisfy my inner child again {to be honest, i do this a lot because i don't feel like a grown up!} because my fiance and i and our friends took off to canada's wonderland - this awesome theme park full of huge rollercoasters and a kick-ass waterpark! i don't care how old i get - i will always love the feeling of waving my arms in the air as i plummet down at a ninety degree angle with only a lapbar holding me into a little steel cart. please don't tell me i ever have to give this up. 

oh, and i'm still whitening my teeth. i tried to take pictures and do another update, but damn teeth pictures are hard.

oh, and i just realized today is tuesday, not monday. so i have no excuse for monday. except that i spent it watching tv and eating an entire bag of dill pickle chips. 

xo

{pics via}

and

{via}

this is just because it's important.

"we must care about a world we will never see..."

- seen on a church sign on my way to work

i know it's not earth day or anything, but i saw this while driving through the city today, and its message stuck with me. being environmental isn't about quick fixes or immediate results. it's about making sure our great-great grandkids can enjoy the world they way we did growing up. 

xo