Bahahaha

I went to visit my parents last weekend and while going through some old photos to find family wedding photos to display at our wedding I found this gem:


It's a guest photo from my parents' wedding and I kind of think it's the funniest thing ever. In the middle of the photo you can see my parents' fabulous 1970s style cake complete with plastic columns and styrofoam tiers, and then just to the right you can see that they also displayed a whisky bottle of THE EXACT SAME SIZE (if you ignore the cake topper). That's right, while we're all considering how to diplay the cake with family wedding photos, gorgeous floral arrangements, or as part of a fantastic dessert table, my parents got right down to business with a giant(wedding cake sized) bottle of whisky.

Amazing.

Is anyone else having a wedding cake sized bottle of booze at their wedding? Miss Glasses I'm looking at you!

I Want!

I really love paper and all things paper related. I think gorgeous stationary is so much fun and I love going to stores like The Paper Place or Paper Things in Toronto and browsing through all their fantastic papers, cards...etc. I love picking out new thank you notes and I may or may not have random blank inviations stored away in my closet that I bought because they're pretty and I might have some use for them in the future.

However, one of my favourite things to look at in paper stores are wax seals. Don't know what I'm talking about? Here's a few examples:


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Guess why I included this one?


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I think these would be so much fun to include on our invitations. I especially love the ones that look a bit messy. Those are the ones where you melt the wax yourself and then use a stamping tool to imprint the design. The perfect ones are pretty too and are definitely a lot easier as they are of the peel and stick variety, but the imperfect ones give off a very vintage homemade vibe which is perfect for our cozy Christmas vintage wedding.

Look, they even make Christmas specific ones:


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I'm still not sure if I'll end up using these on our invites. I love them a lot but I'm not sure how me + hot wax + envelopes will work out. I see this as a recipe for potential disaster for me. I think more research is in order for me. If any of you are a bit more brave/talented than me and feel up to DIYing wax seals there's a great tutorial here.

Have you used wax seals on your envelopes? How did they work out?

Yum...That Is All: Part 3

Haha yes I'm still talking about food today. I can't help it. It's so much fun looking at pictures of amazing food!

Every single wedding I've ever been to has been either in the afternoon or the evening and has been followed by a dinner and dance. My wedding is no exception, and I love this type of wedding, but I'm dying to attend a wedding that follows a different format. One of my top choices would be to attend a morning ceremony followed by a brunch. I actually considered this for our wedding for a while, but ultimately decided it wasn't the best choice for us. I still think it's a fantastic idea and would be so much fun. (hint hint all my friends!)

Mmm...brunch:


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Brunch is very cozy and comforting in my opinion. Whether it's meeting your girlfriends in a restaurant, snuggling at home with your SO, or, you know, at a wedding with 100 other people, brunch is pretty fantstic. Since I'm still talking about comfort food, I'm going to give you a run down on some comfort food that I would love to see at a brunch reception (or a morning after brunch!).

Banana Chocolate Chip Pancakes


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Pesto Scrambled Tofu with Grape Tomatoes
I currently have a bit of a pesto obsession, so anything with pesto looks amazing to me right now.


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Smoked Salmon and Rosti


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Sticky Buns
Caramel + pecans on/in anything = amazing.


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Baked Brie


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Sushi
I know sushi isn't everyone's idea of comfort food, but it's definitely mine. I'm especially partial to the spicy salmon rolls from Tokyo Sushi in Toronto.


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Pumpkin French Toast


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Eggs Florentine with Homefries


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Avocado-Pesto Potato Salad
I told you I have a thing for pesto!


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Scones with clotted cream and jam (preferably strawberry rhubarb or something involving ginger)
I realize these would be more appropriate for a post on afternoon tea, but I'm personally pretty flexible about what counts as brunch food. These feel brunchy (it's a word!) to me today.


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I also can't forget to mention a few amazing brunch drinks.

Tea
I'd include a whole bunch of different kinds (chai is my current favourite) and serve them in adorable mismatched tea cups.


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Bellinis


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Orange Mango Smoothies


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Pink Grapefruit Mimosas


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True story: when I asked Mr. Knitting for a suggestion for a comfort food brunch food he replied, "Cantaloupe!" really confidently and right away. I don't think he quite gets the concept of comfort food. I also had no idea he had such strong feelings about cantaloupe...

What's your favourite brunch comfort food?

Yum...That Is All: Part 2

This is part two of my comfort food series and today I'd like to talk about hot chocolate. As you might recall one of our main goals for the wedding is to make it as cozy as possible and what could be more cozy than offering our guests hot chocolate?

Look how yummy:


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My favourite way of incorporating hot chocolate into our wedding is by having a hot chocolate bar. Basically we would have mugs of hot chocolate available along with a variety of toppings and garnishes, so our guests would be able to craft their ideal drinks. Here's a few toppings I think would be amazing:

Marshmallows


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Whipped Cream


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Candy Canes


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Cinnamon Sticks


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Chocolate Shavings


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Baileys and/or Peppermint Schnapps:


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I am now pretty in love with the idea of a hot chocolate bar and think that this would be so much fun. I'd love to serve this to our guests as a late night snack along with some gingerbread loaf. However, I suspect my venue would be worried about this potentially being too messy. I'm thinking as a compromise it might work to serve this before the ceremony when no one will be the slightest bit drunk and therefore there will be less risk of my guests flinging whipped cream at each other. I have been planning to serve apple cider at this point, but I think I might look into the possibility of serving the hot chocolate bar.

On a side note I'm finding it a bit frustrating that I can't just go ahead and plan whatever I want because my venue is worried about things getting too messy. I'm pretty jealous of brides with backyard ceremonies at the moment!

Another fun way to incorporate hot chocolate into a winter wedding is by giving out hot chocolate mix as a favour. If I hadn't decided on jam as a favour, this is definitely what I would have gone with. Look how adorable it can be:


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And now, despite the fact that it's the middle of August, I could really go for a mug of hot chocolate.

What toppings would you include in a hot chocolate bar?

Yum...That Is All: Part 1

It's not a very nice day in Toronto today. It's kind of cold and rainy and just all round not so nice. It's making me feel a bit blah, so I've decided that it is the perfect time to talk about comfort food. While I love comfort food all the time, there's something about a gross rainy day that makes looking at pictures of yummy food feel especially appropriate.

Random picture of a recipe I want to try soon:


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I love the idea of having some type of comfort food appearing at our wedding as a late night snack and over the next few days I'll be sharing a few of my favourite ideas. I'm not sure if any of these ideas will be making an appearance at our wedding, as I'm still in the brainstorming stage. I actually suspect they might not because I think they're all as potentially messy as a DIY cupcake bar and I'm not allowed that. No I'm not bitter about that at all...Anyway, on to some amazing food! Today I want to talk about french fry bars.

Despite my generally healthy diet, I love fried food. I don't eat it very often but I pretty much think everything fried tastes amazing. Knowing this you can imagine how excited I was when I heard my friend's sister was having a french fry bar as a late night snack at her wedding. I had no idea people did this. I'm quite sad I've never been to a wedding with a french fry bar.

Amazing:


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I'd also never say no to some sweet potato fries:


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I love this idea. One of my favourite summer treats is having french fries from a truck. Ideally I get them from a truck on the beach, but I often settle for The Blue Chip Truck in Toronto.


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Suffice it to say, I'm not one to turn down french fries. French fries plus amazing toppings? Even better.

Here's a few toppings I'd consider serving.

Aioli:


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Cheese curds and gravy (I am Canadian after all!):


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Pesto Mayo:


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The classic:


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What kind of toppings would you include in a french fry bar?

I'm a Little Bit Nervous...

Originally when we started thinking about our wedding I imagined we would have a DJ. We weren't really interested in a band (especially since we can't afford one!) and I was convinced using an iPod or a laptop was a recipe for disaster. However, Mr. Knitting has always wanted to use a laptop because he likes the idea of us having complete control over the music and he also finds DJs irritating.

What Mr. Knitting thinks all DJs are like (p.s. if you haven't seen the video of this guy yet click on the source link to watch. It's pretty hilarious):


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After a few months of him badgering me (read: mentioning it once or twice) about using a laptop, I have finally given in. Here's (pretty much) how that conversation went:

Him: Seriously, a laptop will save us money and there won't be an annoying stranger in the middle of our wedding.

Me: No one other than you thinks DJs are annoying. If we use a laptop we'll have nonstop technical problems, there will be no music or it will be too quiet, and everyone will hate our wedding.

Him (out loud): I'm pretty sure that won't happen.

Him (in his head): Why am I marrying such a crazy person?

Me: If that does happen can I blame you completely? Will I also not have to have anything to do with renting equipment or setting it up?

Him: Yeah, I guess...

I'm still pretty convinced we'll have technical problems, but since this was one of the only things he's asked for I figured I should give in. I think the big problem for me is that I'm so unskilled at anything remotely technology related so if anything did go wrong I'd have no idea how to fix it which is a problem for my control freak personality.

That being said, my sister used a laptop at her wedding and it worked perfectly and I've also been to another wedding where the DJ was so bad almost no one was dancing. Having a DJ doesn't guarantee we won't have any problems, just like using a laptop doesn't guarantee that we will have problems. I think this is just one of those things I'm going to have to flow with.

What wedding decisions have you made that you're a bit nervous about?

My First Etsy Purchase

Until very recently I was pretty scared of buying anything off the Internet. I basically thought if I bought anything off the Internet my identity would be immediately stolen, I'd have to pay exorbitant shipping fees, and whatever I bought would arrive in terrible condition. Anyway, after reading about everyone else in the universe having really positive experiences with Etsy, I figured I needed to see what I was missing.

I have now made my first Etsy purchase and I could not be more thrilled with it.



However, before I actually show you what it is Mr. Knitting needs to stop reading. This one is not for you. Go away please.

Okay, now that that's taken care of I can tell you all about it. As you may recall, at our wedding I'll be wearing a locket Mr. K gave me many years ago. Here's a refresher picture:



What you don't know is that my dress has a pretty low back (no I haven't show it to you yet) and that I am a huge fan of back jewellery. I've loved back jewelry ever since I saw those Nicole Kidman Chanel No.5 ads a number of years ago, but I've never actually owned any.

My inspiration:


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That's where Etsy came in. Here's what I ordered from Cathy5591


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It's called a Graduated Rhinestone Ball Backdrop Add-On (try saying that 10 times fast!) and it's basically a strand of a necklace that I can attach to the clasp of my locket. I tried it on with my dress and my locket and it's kind of perfect. I love it a ridiculous amount and now want to buy a huge amount of backless dresses so I can wear back jewellery all the time.

Oh, and in case I'm not the only one who's still a bit scared on Internet shopping, I can report that so far my identity has not been stolen, shipping charges were reasonable, and my back necklace arrived in perfect condition!

How has Etsy been a part of your wedding?