It’s finally warming up here in Ottawa, which is nice but somehow feels like too little, too late. Last year, Brian had his bike out in February and was riding full-time by March; this year, we went to Walmart tonight on her and I’ve had a chill ever since. Anyway, with weather inclement and frigid, you’d think we’d have tons of time to be indoors and working on P:P…not so! The spring season seems to bring so many types of awakenings, and suddenly every project is coming to a head. Well, enough is enough; Brian is working on the dishes, we have a Kevin Smith movie playing in the background, and so allow me to present our latest round of offers…worth the wait.
FASHION
Linda from Hopes & Dreams Bridal in Kanata (where I got my dress: http://www.hopesanddreamsbridal.com/ ) has gotten creative to help me find a tea-length crinoline to go under my amazing Vivien of Holloway dress for the engagement photo shoot. Unable to find a supplier with short crinos, Linda improvised and has ordered in a children’s crinoline. We’re hoping this will work out, and I’ve got a good feeling about it! I’ll update you all soon, but regardless, Linda: thank you for trying so hard to help out. I can’t wait to come by this week and try out the crinoline!
Our bridesmaids are going to be beautifully dressed, thanks to Karen of So-Fine Designs. So-Fine is a Canadian-based company that focuses on being ‘fashionable, functional, comfortable, and fun’. This is exactly what I wanted for the bridesmaid dresses! Not something overpriced, awkward to wear, and never reusable. We happened upon So-Fine’s dresses when we happened into a boutique here in town called Workshop; I saw a flash of apple green on a rack, pulled out the dress, and realized it was pretty much perfect. An email chat with Karen resulted in four bridesmaid dresses being ordered, in our apple green and purple. The Scube dress that we went with is reversible and can be worn as two different skirts or a dress…this means that my girls will get tons of wear out of this dress/skirt and should even love the colours. Karen, thank you for helping us find dresses that met our wedding vision of avoiding the matrimonial industry hype and sticking to great items that aren’t marked up by the wedding retailers! Visit So-Fine at http://www.so-fine.ca/ .
We also have four necklaces for the bridesmaids, custom-made and awaiting pickup, designed by Isobel from Frash (aka Bel, her wedding collection). You can check out Isobel’s work at http://frashfemme.com/ . We haven’t seen these puppies yet, but I am very excited to see what she’s come up with. Frash, thanks for being a part of our special day and helping my girls feel gorgeous!
Wonder of wonders, and miracle of miracles: I finally found an apple green crinoline. Well actually, I found a woman who makes them, and is going to make me one. Ann of Swank Underpinnings (http://SwankUnderpinnings.Etsy.com) makes absolutely amazing crinolines and has the most amazing array of colours! I connected with Ann through her Etsy shop and I’m so very, very glad I did. She’s send me some samples to be sure we choose the right colour and type of fabric (again—we are learning about different kinds of fabric!) When Ann confirmed her offer, I felt a weight lift off my shoulders. Our long-term readers know that my outfit is one of the few things I have been pretty insistent on having ‘just right’; thanks to Ann at Swank Underpinnings, this can be a reality now!
STAMPS, STAMPS, STAMPS
Very special thanks go out to Crystal, who has sent us yet another bundle of stamps in the mail. Crystal, thank you so much for helping us out with this! Crystal sent us a bundle in the last round of offers, and we were touched to find another envelope in our mail box. Crystal, if you mail us anything else, consider including something that we can put on the In Spirit table (see the ‘In Spirit’ project in the tabs above) that will remind us of you…even just one special stamp, or a little drawing.
And thanks go to Fran, Brian’s mom, who has offered to help us out with the last of the stamps we’ll need to send invites and RSVP’s. Fran, the invites you’re crafting are looking amazing and we appreciate so much your effort…and now we also thank you for the help with the stamps!
TATTOOS
Another wonderful and miraculous thing happened to us recently: my tattoo artist, Sarah, and I finally connected. It’s been a while. Sarah is pretty notorious around Ottawa for her killer tattoo work, and she did a great job on my last one. Sarah works at Living Colour here in town (http://living-colour.com/wordpress/ ) and yes, she is the Sarah who was here, then moved to Calgary, then (like Brian) came back! Anyway, Sarah and I connected to have a consult on an old tattoo of mine that needs some sprucing at some point, and we ended up talking about the wedding tattoos…and Sarah offered to trade for them: we’re gonna tutor her in social media/marketing in exchange for them. Ah, such relief and joy! The offer from the other studio was very kind, of course, and we are still forever grateful; but I know Sarah, I love Sarah, and Brian has been dying to get some work done by her. If you want to see some of Sarah’s work, head on in to Living Colour and look through her portfolio; tell her that Brian and Jordan love her!
RANDOM GOODIES
First off, a special thanks to Jim, who answered our call-out for old, cool-looking liquor bottles on Freecycle. We will use them to make our table look amazing! And to the stranger who dropped a box of bottles off for us but left no note: thank you also for your contribution! We are getting closer to our goal.
A huge, warm thank you goes out to Penny, who also answered a Freecycle request for tea cups and saucers. Penny has given us oodles of both cups and saucers, and we will use these to craft lovely pretty things for the wedding shower, that we will reuse at the wedding. Penny, thank you; you’re amazing! Another kind person had donated a small box of cups and saucers to us, but I cannot find the name…lovely person, thank you as well, and if you read this feel free to remind us of your name!
A big thank you to Lte. Judy L, who cooks for our military, and is gathering cans for our candle holder crafting, for centrepieces. Judy, we look forward to connecting with you and are very grateful for your gathering of 40 cans and counting!
As well, a shout-out to Andrea of Signature Ceremonies in Omaha. Andrea has offered to help us plan out our ceremony. You can check out Signature here: http://signatureceremonies.net/ . We love that our project is so far-reaching…Omaha! Imagine! Andrea and Signature Ceremonies: thank you so very, very much!
DÉCOR
Another lovely offer towards our décor has also come through. Chris of CRL Construction (http://www.crlconstruction.ca ) has offered to build our wedding arch. This will be so beautiful and we’re so excited to have something just for us. We’ll chat more about this as we’re able to give him measurements for the ceremony spot, and then we can really start planning this lovely project with Chris!
That’s it for our offers today; we have quite a few more lined up, just waiting for final confirmation, so stay tuned! More should be up as early as next week.
We’re getting so close to the finish line now, and the next step will be revisiting offers and artisans as we wrap up all the logistics…just a couple more things to find! Check our wishlist posts for details on what we still need, if you’re curious.
It’s taken a global village to get us so close to our goal, and we’re certain you’ll all help us reach it. And what a wild ride as we go along.
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