Today, my wedding is a week away. My mother and grandmother will arrive tomorrow evening and then comes complete insanity. Don’t get me wrong, I am excited, but having the 3 of us together in my tiny house is going to be interesting. You see, they asked me to wait on some things until they got here so that they could help out. Such as my shoes, my hair appointment, make-up, and my flowers. Now I am starting to think this was a bad idea.

Since the end of November, I keep having extremely vivid and disturbing dreams about my wedding. Like that my fiancé will ditch me on our wedding day, that my family won’t make it because of the weather, that my dress gets ruined just before I get to the aisle. Now, I don’t worry about these things during the day, but my subconscious is taking advantage of my exhaustion and stress over other things and has decided to attack. I know, in my logical mind, that these things won’t happen and that everything will be fine, but to be honest, at this point I can’t wait until the day after.

I am also feeling excited, which I didn’t think would happen. I am not an overly excitable person. In fact, I have a fairly dry sense of humour and a very logical mind. I take things on with a plan, and usually come out just fine. So, now I am all out of sorts because I have had butterflies in my stomach for a month. Perhaps it’s because we tried planning our wedding about 5 times before we actually made a solid plan, and this time it’s really happening. Maybe, somewhere deep down, I thought that we were just going to stop planning it and never actually get married. Now that we are and it’s so close, things are starting to sink in.

There are still a number of things that need to be done, and I can’t get my mind around how such planning is necessary for a 20 minute ceremony and, after that, a small dinner. There are so many different people involved in a wedding and you have to rely on all of them to contribute their part perfectly or else it will cause a domino effect. And at the head of it all is you, the big boss, the orchestrator of everything that is your wedding. If anything falls apart, ultimately it comes back to you. For you brides out there who are planning large weddings, I feel for you. For you brides out there having small events, I share your pain. Although I have had a lot of fun picking out my dress, ordering a cake, and deciding on all of the details, it hasn’t all been kittens and gumdrops.

I am sure that it will all be worth it in the end, and that it will be everything that we wanted. I know that all of this planning and stress and perfectionism will pay off in the end. I just hope that the next week flies by and that with the added support of my mother and grandmother, I will make it through with a smile and a spring in my step.

After deciding the date and the province, my fiancé and I moved onto planning the more intricate details. We started with an officiant. Neither of us are particularly religious and we wanted a small, simple ceremony. I set to work contacting all of the Alberta officiants in the Edmonton area and quickly learned that their prices vary quite radically.

Eventually we found the one that would work for us. Her price was right, and her personality and ceremony ideas matched ours. She suggested we do a sand ceremony after saying our vows, which we both thought was a great idea. Next we picked our guests. We both have large families and step-families to boot, so we decided to keep it small. All in all, our guest list for both the ceremony and reception includes 7 attendees—my mother and grandmother, and my fiancé’s mother, father, and three younger sisters. So very small, but precisely what we want.

Now, I had to find a dress. My budget was small ($200.00!) and when I called some dress stores to inquire about their price ranges, I thought I was going to faint. I considered having one made, but I wanted to look around first. As I mentioned in my first blog, I’m not much of a girly-girl, so I thought that I was going to stay away from poof and sparkle. The third dress that I tried on was poofy and sparkly and when I looked in the mirror I felt like I never wanted to take it off. Big surprise for me. Even bigger surprise for my mother and grandmother who were almost certain I was going to wear jeans and a t-shirt. The dress was within my price range, but it needed to be taken in. I went to a local tailor and they quoted me $285.00 to take the dress in and to hem it. Again, I thought I was going to faint. So, I turned to the internet and poured through seamstress ads. I eventually found a great seamstress that is very close to my home who is only charging me $85.00 for everything. Remember ladies, if you ever feel like anything to do with your wedding is overpriced, don’t shy away from looking at different options. Just make sure that in your planning you allow for some extra time to explore those options.

Since I had found my dress and seamstress, we decided that my fiancé needed to find clothes too. After looking over our choices, we decided to rent a tux. At the store, I almost died laughing as they measured him and asked him what he thought about certain colors and cuts. He’s not one for fashion, so he turned to me to answer just about every question and the expression on his face was one of awkward compliance. He almost ran out of the store when we were done.

But where oh where were we going to do it? Since our wedding is going to be so small and we would like to have a bite to eat with the guests afterwards, I thought that a nice little private room in a restaurant would be perfect. After emailing at least 40, a family member mentioned The Moose Factory. I had never been there, so we went to check it out. It’s very beautiful inside and only costs $40.00 to rent a private room for an evening. We chose the Bordeaux room for our ceremony, in front of a big fireplace, and then rented the Chardonnay room for our dinner. The event planners for the facility have been both extremely helpful and considerate, which was a nice change from some of the other aspects of wedding planning.

This was the point in planning where everything started to come together. After almost 5 years together, (3 of those engaged), we were actually going to get married. For real. And I started to feel that excitement about our wedding for the first time. Like a little kid at Christmas.

The date has been set, the invitations mailed out. The bridesmaids and groomsmen have been chosen, and colors decided upon. All of these things provide you a general idea of what your day is going to look like, but when your guests walk into that ceremony, what do you want them to see?

Over the years I’ve gone to my fair share of family weddings, and as I’m getting older, I’ve started getting more invites to dear friends of mines special days. And the one thing that remains consistent throughout is the ceremony decorations.

When people typically get married in churches, the decorations tend to be simple in order to emphasize the grand decorations that are typically seen in churches. The pews may be lined with bows and organza, in order to emphasize the center aisle for the bride, as well as the alter being decorated with the flowers that the bridesmaids may be carrying; there typically is no decoration other then that. However, if you’ve ever seen the opening scenes of my favorite movie, The Wedding Planner, or if you’ve seen pictures from the Royal wedding, you would have seen live trees being placed within the church. Although this tends to be expensive, it gives a lovely earthy feel to an otherwise sometimes stuffy place.

However, when you get married outside of a church, it gives people a little bit more freedom. Last year I went to an outdoor backyard ceremony. The bride had chosen to line the aisle she would be walking down in mason jars with white candles on the inside, to light her way, as well as white twinkle lights in the trees surrounding the guests. At the alter, she was surrounded in flowers and more white candles. A dear friend is getting married next year in the mountains and has decided on tartan decorations (because of her husbands heritage) to be tied on all the chairs.

My biggest thing when it comes to decorations at ceremonies though is too keep it simple. You’re there to focus on the love being solidified by you friends or family, not to notice all the million decorations within the setting. Save the wow factor for the reception, and make the ceremony about you and your future partner. Just keep it simple.

Two more busy days of looking at all the new bridal trends for 2012; capturing the romance and fashion to make these shoots timeless and bring our 2012 brides the latest upcoming styles and fashion trends. Watch as we are bring you more fashion, more details, more colours and more big style trends. We have so much incredible talent and polish and fashionable things to share with our brides. So they look totally elegant and beautiful on their wedding day.

Most importantly, a big thank you to all of our amazing staff!

Wedding bells will be ringing and your outfit will be swinging. Be sure to pick up your copy of our Bridal Fantasy Magazine 2012 this January.

Venues

Thanks to Mike and the wonderful team over at The Ranche Restaurant

Thanks to Fraser and his fabulous team at Hotel Arts

Photographers

Thanks to our brilliant photographers for capturing our dream

Andras Schram Photography & Chantal Milaine Photography

Our Décor Details

Thanks to our glorious Décor Details from:

Special Event Rentals & Details

The Bridal Shops & Derks

Thanks to our wonderful bridal shops and Derks for lending us some of their most popular and gorgeous dresses and tuxes.

Beautiful Bride & The Bridal Boutique

Ethos Bridal & The Lily Pad Inc.

Wedding World Bridal

Derks Formalwear and Derks Menswear

The Flowers Shops

Thanks to our brilliant flower shops for giving us their stunning creations.

Flower Fusion & Avenida Growers Direct

Make-up and Hair

Thanks to our dazzling makeup and hair artists for giving us their best work.

Accentric Salon & Spa and The Modest Kingdom

Jewellery

Courtesy of Bridal Fantasy Jewellery: shopbridalfantasy.com

Cakes

Thanks to our cake designers; we received some spectacular cakes.

Crave Cookies and Cupcakes & Panino Bakery

Models

Thanks to our wonderful models and their hard work:

Bronwyn & Brooklyn
Annika & Alexis
Brianna

Now that you’re engaged, don’t be surprised if your mom pulls out a dusty box from storage with her old wedding dress in it to reminisce.

When you’re styling your bridal gown, keep this saying in mind: “Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed and Something Blue.” Finding something new, something borrowed and something blue is the easy part; but finding something old can be a little trickier.

Brides are putting a modern spin on this trend by incorporating either their mom’s and/or grandmother’s wedding dress into your dress.

It is the perfect something old to complete your wedding gown. You don’t need to use the whole dress but, if your mom and/or grandmother are comfortable with you cutting up their gowns, use pieces from their dresses and sew them onto your gown/ veil in a creative way. Use a piece of lace, an embellishment and/or fabric from their dress and make it your own. Even if you would rather not add it in your gown you could tie it into your wedding bouquet, use it as a hair piece or as a handkerchief. Now your modern look will have an heirloom twist!

Inspired by this wedding ritual, Malene Grotrian Design helps brides to restore their mom’s or grand’s wedding dress and turn it into a modern couture wedding for the new bride-to-be. Each vintage dress is altered to each bride’s exact desires to create the wedding dress they’ve always dreamed of. Malene has brought a fresh and new approach to a beautiful tradition.

Not only are Malene Grotrian’s brides walking towards their groom wearing the gown of their dreams; they also have something that is both old and new - a wedding dress that is truly special. The beauty of Malene’s art is that the special memories of the past and present will carry on for another lifetime through each wedding.

Resources used:
http://www.somethingoldsomethingnew.co.uk/