Offers, snowday, and a bonus for you, the reader

Today is a snowday here in Ottawa; and what a snow day. This morning when my alarm went off, I opened one eye and saw Brian standing by the window, peering outside like a kid, with all the excitement of one waiting to hear that school’s been cancelled. “You have got to look outside,” he whispered, and so I did: all the dark, dirty snow had been carpeted in a thick, fresh blanket of virgin white loveliness. I smiled, glad that today was only a partial workday for me, and that we live so close to Brian’s work, I wouldn’t have to worry about him driving.

I had forgotten, of course, about my doctor appointment—an appointment for which I have been waiting weeks and weeks, and an appointment that will possibly cost me 50 dollars to cancel. So here I am, sitting in the cafeteria at the medical building, where I am calming my racing heart after driving through the worst winter conditions I have personally yet driven through. It seemed like a good time to do a blog entry…that way, regardless of whether or not I make it home again, you will all have something to read.

I kid.

Well, we haven’t updated you all on offers in a while. We’ve seen a decrease in offers over the last few weeks as most of the ‘broad strokes’ of the wedding came together: the venue, the cake, the dresses, etc. We are, however, getting down now to a lot of the nitty-gritty, the hidden expenses, and the spots where a lot of wedding waste is created…things like escort cards, cutlery and flatware, and decorations. The offers that have come in lately, however, are really awesome and exciting ones! Here they are:

PHOTOGRAPHY

Caitlin Hennessey has offered her shutterbug talents to our wedding—a while ago, actually, but somehow we missed her in our blogging! We are meeting with her this month, along with the other photographers, and are looking forward to putting her on the task of assisting Sam Jazzy on the big day with capturing all the nuances of the wedding. Caitlin’s site is http://hennesseyladyart.blogspot.com/ and we are super grateful to have her along.

Aiden Wolf Photography has offered us a unique photography session: a couple’s ‘wedding night’ shoot, which is a boudoir shoot for the two of us. I love this idea and Brian is intrigued. And Aiden Wolf’s work is really quite cool, with an ephemeral yet moody style. Thank you, we love the offer, and we may even post one or two photos after our shoot…something not too cheeky. No pun intended! The link: http://aidenwolf.webs.com/

And this, by the way, is the last of the photography requests we'll be accepting. Truly, we just had way too many to be able to give everyone a really good opportunity to add to their portfolio without tripping on each other. We have, however, started to get some other brides writing to us, asking for help with some areas of their wedding; if you're interested in helping one of our bride connections, we'll blog about it...so let us know.

STATIONARY

Vistaprint is a pretty famous online printing company, and if you haven’t heard of them yet, well, we’re surprised. They offer a lot of cool products for free (business cards, pens, etc) on a regular basis, and they have helped us out by printing up our Save the Date postcards at no charge (double-sided, full colour, and 100 of them)! We’re so excited about these. Brian and I worked on them—I provided the concept, and Brian made the computer wizardry happen—and have created cards that are a spoof of the Obama HOPE poster. Really, really cool and unique. Vistaprint actually noticed us first, having read our tweets and then viewed our blog entry where we’d done up some mock Save the Dates on Vistaprint; we’re shouting big thanks to Vistaprint for the awesome offer! Annnnd, even more fun: Vistaprint has given us a code for you ALL to use to get 25% off your next purchase: go to http://www.vistaprint.com/postcardoffer when you go to order any Vistaprint product, and get 25% off your purchase plus some other sweet deals. There are always some products to find on Vistaprint for free, but if you're looking for something a little upgraded (full colour both sides, stuff like that), this discount is going to help out your pocketbook! Thanks, Vistaprint! Link to them here: http://www.vistaprint.com Or directly to their (more traditional, haha) wedding items here:  http://www.vistaprint.com/event/wedding.aspx,

EDIBLES

A former work colleague and long-time friend of my mom’s, Marta, has offered to bake us cookies. Marta’s cookies are famous, though I hadn’t yet tried them, myself. Well, we went by reputation alone and said, yes! Bake us cookies if you like! Marta then dropped off a heaping plate of two flavours to try: a white chocolate vanilla type cookie, and a chocolate orange cognac cookie. (I may have these names a little wrong, but basically, there was a ‘vanilla oh-my-gaaaahhhh’ cookie, and a ‘choco-orange droooool’ cookie.) And she has more flavours for us to try! I sent Marta an email, explaining that to avoid stressing out Isabelle, our cake lady, by needing enough cake to feed 200 people—plus, just because cookies are FUN—we were hoping she’d be able to make enough to get a goodly number of guests fed. Marta replied with effusive praise for my mother’s awesomeness and said she’d happily make enough for everyone. Marta, we are overwhelmed by your generosity and by your delicious cookies. Thank you soooo much! We will now have wedding cookies to serve, and that makes us both incredibly happy.

PRE-WEDDING EVENTS

A woman named Rita Dean offered to have me host a Tomboy Tools party for my bridal shower. As we’ve recently decided to hold a co-ed shower, we declined her offer, but it was a cool idea for those who would enjoy the opportunity to buy a pink hammer and learn some basics in household repair. Thanks for the offer, Rita! Here’s the link: www.tomboytools.ca and her email is cooltoolparties (at) gmail.com

A HUGE, CRAZY OFFER OF ASSISTANCE

We got an email a few weeks back from a woman named Charlotte from UsedEverywhere.com, which is the hub of the many local Used___ sites, like UsedOttawa.com. The ‘Used’ sites are places where people can post used items to trade, sell, or give away, and others also post when they’re in need of something. We have posted ads on usedottawa.com since we started this wedding project, and will no doubt be posting many more before our work is done. UsedEverywhere had noticed Project: Priceless, and wrote us to ask if there was anything UsedEverywhere could do to further assist us in our goals with the wedding. We spoke on the phone this week and brainstormed some ideas, including helping us get our remaining wishlist out to the world, and assisting us with spreading the word about the ‘In Spirit’ project. Also—and this is a big deal--UsedEverywhere.com is offering us banner ad space on their site to barter with: if there’s an event coordinator, for example, who would offer their services on our big day (something we are desperately hoping for), UsedEverywhere.com will give them banner ad space as a ‘trade’ for that P:P offer. Cool, huh! There are more cool ideas brewing, and as we get on them, I’ll update you all. For now, let us just say a huge and happy THANK YOU from Bri and I, to UsedEverywhere.com. We have used the UsedOttawa.com site for years, and it’s really the best way to find or sell used items in the city. What a cool offer and cool connection with a cool site! Check out UsedEverywhere here: http://www.usedeverywhere.com/ , and check out UsedOttawa here: http://www.usedottawa.com/

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All in all, some really cool offers there. We’re just finishing up our list of needed items, and will be posting that soon. We hope this hideous winter isn’t getting anyone down too much. We’ve rounded the corner and are now well on our way back to the seasons of warmth, green growing things, and ice cream. Oh my…which means we’re that much closer to the wedding…okay, deep breathe!