We're the Kings of the Castle

Back in the summer I wrote about our dilemma as to who we should sit with at our wedding. Thanks to WB readers futuremominlaw and glitterashley23 (who pointed me in the direction of this post), we decided to go with a King's Table.

Here's a look at how the club will be set up:



Mr. Knitting and I will be sitting where those to Xs are and then our wedding party and their dates will sit on either side of the table. This image isn't quite to scale, since the King's Table will be quite a bit longer than shown, but it gives you a pretty good idea.

I'm really happy with this plan. They've never done a King's Table at the Faculty Club before, so we'll see how it works in the space. However, I'm really happy with this plan because it means we get to sit with all our favourite people, but they still get to sit with their dates, which was really important to me.

Who will you be sitting with at your reception? Did you struggle with this the same way I did?

Time for our Tasting

Today I got to have one of those lovely yay we're getting married moments! During lunchtime today, Mr. Knitting and I ducked out of work and headed to the Faculty Club for our tasting and to have a look at their Christmas decorations. The Faculty Club gets all decorated every year which means we barely have to do anything!

Were were greeted by these lovely garlands:



The always lovely club manager Leanne greeted us and sat us at a table that was located in a pretty similar location to where we'll be sitting for the wedding, so we could get a feel for what it will be like.

You'll notice I indulged my love of headbands and matched my headband to the Wedgwood walls:



We were then served some delicious chardonnay which Mr. K really loved:



You'll notice I used my excellent photography skills to match Mr. Knitting to the walls.

After that it was time to hit the buffet. Since we're serving turkey it made the most sense for Mr. Knitting and I to come to the holiday buffet at the club. This means we got to try all kinds of delicious foods.

Here's what Mr. K's plate looked like:



Obviously, this is not how the club plates dinner. This is how a hungry 24 year old tries to cram as much food as possible onto a plate. I tried to get a review of the food from him, but he kept saying it was "insipid." Not because it was bad, this was just his "hilarious" way of pretending to be a food critic. I gave up trying to get a real answer out of him after a while. He did go for seconds and said that it was the best stuffing he's ever had, so I think our guests can look forward to a pretty good meal.

Since I eat a mostly plant based diet with exceptions for salmon and dairy products on very rare social occasions (haha what a mouthful), I was not going to try the turkey, but instead had a sampling of the vegetarian and salmon options.

Here's a look at my plate:



We won't actually be serving any of the items that I ate at our wedding, but if what I had is any indication of the quality of the kitchen then I'm happy. Nothing insipid about my food! It was definitely a delicious lunch.

Lucky for us we got dessert too. Mr. K got some trifle which he calls splarf for some reason. Unfortunately we only remembered to take a picture once he was half finished:



I guess trifle does look a bit splarfy...I was assured it was highly delicious.

I couldn't decide on one thing and went with a little cake, half a mincemeat tart (which I was hoping was a butter tart), and a little nibble of blue and brie cheese:



Definitely all very delicious. We then decided to take a few photos around the club for fun. I'm a little obsessed with our venue. This isn't the first time I've taken a bunch of random photos of the club. It may or may not be the second time either...

Here's the view we had of the balcony that I'll be tossing my bouquet off of:



A sweet little tree by the buffet:



Look, it's our future dessert table:



Mr. Knitting decided to model how cozy the club will be (I think this is his attempt to look scholarly):



All in all, it was a really great tasting. The food was great and the staff and service were impeccable. For the servers at the Faculty Club this is their full-time well-paid job so they take their jobs really seriously, which means they are fantastic at what they do and could not be more nice and helpful. It was also really nice to spend some time in the club and the tiniest bit surreal to realize that the next time I'll be eating a meal in that dining room, I'll be sitting next to my husband.

I can't wait.

What was your tasting like?

Secret Life of Bees: Knitting Edition

My secret is pretty embarrassing, but secrets are only fun if they're juicy, so here goes. I love Sweet Valley books, particularly Sweet Valley High and Sweet Valley University. I think I read my first Sweet Valley book when I was in grade 1 or 2 and I was hooked. I started with Sweet Valley Kids, and then as I got older I moved on to Sweet Valley Twins, Sweet Valley High, and Sweet Valley University.

Jessica and Elizabeth = awesome:


Source

I was so excited every time I found a new book at the library that I hadn't read. Following along on the adventures of Jessica, Elizabeth, Todd, Enid, Lila, Bruce Patman...etc was fun. I knew at the time I was reading them that they were a bit silly and dramatic beyond words, but I liked them. I could suspend disbelief for a while. Plus they taught me things like to not do cocaine, date rape is bad, and that's it's totally reasonable to expect that you will fall passionately in love at least 15 times during high school.

I read these books longer than you might think. I'm not entirely sure when I stopped reading them, but it was definitely well into high school. I always knew they weren't exactly paragons of literature and hid my love of Sweet Valley books from my friends. I even did a book report on one in grade 6 and then pretended I thought the book was stupid when really I loved it. Oh me...

The book in question:


Source

Anyway, I had forgotten about them for a while, but this past summer my sister and I started reading them again and they are the most hilarious, ridiculous, bizarre books ever and I still love them, but in a different way. I love them partly because they remind me of my childhood, also just because they are so insane and crazy that it's hilarious. Jessica is clearly a sociopath, Elizabeth is annoying, and the story lines are INSANE.

Here's a pretty good example of the ridiculousness:

At prom Jessica is worried that Elizabeth (you know, her twin and best friend) will get to be prom queen so she spikes her sister's drink. Elizabeth then goes driving (because she is somehow unaware that she is super drunk) with Jessica's boyfriend, gets in an accident and kills Jessica's boyfriend. Jessica then blames Elizabeth for killing her boyfriend and proceeds to date Elizabeth's boyfriend in revenge, even though the boyfriend still likes Elizabeth. I think the story is resolved when an evil twin tries to kill Elizabeth.


Source

All is forgiven and the twins are still best friends. I have no clue how these two are possibly friends after all the stuff Jessica does.


Source

Apparently I'm not the only Sweet Valley fan out there and the books are slowly being updated for the Gossip Girl generation. I'm not really a fan of this in general because I think people should develop new ideas and not just remake old books. Recently I was browsing through one of the new books and was horrified to discover that the twins have shrunk! For those of you who don't know (although I be shocked if anyone who was not a Sweet Valley fan has gotten this far), pretty much every single book begins with the narrator announcing that Jessica and Elizabeth have matching gold lavalieres and perfect size six bodies. In the new books, they're now size fours, because I guess a size 6 is just way too big now and not perfect enough. What a great message to send to young girls.

Anyhow, while writing this post I've just discovered that a new Sweet Valley book is being published and it features the twins ten years later (they're probably perfect size 0s now).


Source

I'm so excited.

What are your favourite "embarrassing" books to read? Any other Sweet Valley fans out there?

Smooches or You Know You've Been Thinking About Weddings Too Much When...

Since my brain is a bit obsessed with wedding details at the moment I've recently been spending some time thinking about our first kiss. I suspect this is something most people don't actually plan (or, um, make their fiances rehearse. I may or may not be kidding.), but come on, I don't want us to have an awkward first kiss.

What not to do:


Source

Here's a few of our options:

The restrained yet lovely Mr. and Mrs. Taco:


Source

I saw this in Mrs. Taco's post thought this looked gorgeous. Restrained yet very elegant and sweet.

I love this one:


Source

It's so sweet and this particular picture reminds me 1940s war time romance. The problem is that Mr. Knitting is actually quite a bit taller than me so I'm not sure this would work for us. Also, if I put my hands anywhere near his face he's going to assume I'm going for the "Susan Lucci on Friends Kiss" and he'd probably do the same and then our kiss would just be silly (but hilarious!).

This is pretty much our normal kissing position so I suspect we'll end up with something like this:


Source


Source

Something we will not be doing anything like is this:


Source


Source

I love these kinds of kisses, but there's no way we could pull this off without looking ridiculous and/or me falling. I have a tendency to throw myself into a back bend and then be shocked when Mr. Knitting hasn't realized that he's supposed to be holding me up. Oops...Not so much what I have in mind.

All that being said, I don't think we'll actually plan out our first kiss. That seems like one moment that does not need to be scripted. It's just nice to have thought about it a bit so we don't freeze and do nothing or do something really awkward.

One thing we have decided on is that we don't want our officiant to tell Mr. Knitting he can kiss his bride. I don't have a huge issue with this more traditional wording, but it just doesn't feel like us. I'm the in charge go getter in our relationship, so for Mr. K to be told to kiss me just seemed odd. Instead our officiant will be saying "...I pronounce you husband and wife and invite you to kiss one another."

What was your first kiss like? Did you go with the more traditional wording or did you try something new?

The Final Round Up

As you might recall, my plan was to let my MOH, BMs, and grown up FGs pick whatever dresses they wanted with the guidelines that it be pink, grey, or burgundy. For me it was really important to let them wear a dress that they genuinely liked and at a price point that they were comfortable with. They now all offically have their dresses and I couldn't be happier with them.

My MOH's dress:



Gorgeous right? I love asymetrical dresses and think this one has such a unique cut. If it was floor length and white I think it would make a gorgeous wedding dress.

My FGs:



My little sis on the right is wearing an adorable dress she bought when we were on this adventure. My FG on the left is wearing one of my dresses. In case you're curious about what they're doing in this picture check out this post.

BM Rachel (the one on the left):



She already had a grey dress in her closet that she wore as a guest to another wedding so she chose to wear this one.

BM Mel's dress:



I know it looks blue in the picture, but I'm told it definitely is grey.

I don't know how well these are all going to look together, but I'm really happy with this because I love that each dress is completely reflective of each of my lovely ladies. They will be wearing dresses they love and hopefully ones that they'll be able to wear again. I also think it's kind of fun because my two BMs chose grey dresses, but my FGs and MOH (the family members) chose shades of pink, so there's some element of cohesion.

Now they just all have to figure out how to stay warm during our outdoor photography...

Decadent, Delicious, Delectable, and Vegan

No don't go! I promise this post is filled with incredibly scrumptious looking pictures, even if they do lack animal products.

As you might remember, instead of a wedding cake we're having a dessert table with desserts baked by some of our friends and family. This is one project I have delegated to my baby sis so I haven't spent much time thinking or worrying about this. We bought some decorations for the table last night and I'm so excited to see what she comes up with. I have also contributed to her cupcake making by purchasing these adorable cupcake wrappers:



Cute right?

However, the one thing I do have to figure out is what I'm going to make. I know I absolutely don't have to bake anything, but I really want to. I love baking and am really excited about the idea. Our table is going to be approximately half vegan and half non-vegan and it's really important to me that the vegan options be completely delicious, both because it's fun to fight stereotypes and because I want the vegans at the wedding (i.e. my immediate family and aunt and uncle) to have great options. The cupcakes and cake my baby sis will be making are going to be vegan and my aunt is going to be making something else vegan (I'm not sure what yet). I'd like to round these out with a yummy vegan recipe or two.

Here are the final contenders (all recipes come from one of my all time favourite blogs Oh She Glows).

Pumpkin Pecan Brownie Pie:


Source


Source

Pumpkin Gingerbread with Spiced Buttercream:


Source


Source

Pumpkin Spice Whoopie Pies:


Source


Source

And now I'm drooling...

I'm pretty sure I'm going to make the whoopie pies because they're so different. No one else will be making anything quite like them. I've also never seen them served at a wedding so I think that might be fun. I'm also leaning towards the gingerbread because nothing says Christmas like gingerbread. That being said, that pumpkin pecan brownie pie is also incredible so I'm torn. Very very torn. Oh and if you're looking for a great Thanksgiving dish this year you must look at this post. Amazing.

What do you think I should pick? As a non-vegan would you try any of these?

There's No Set Formula

I'm in a bit of a mood today. Consider yourself warned!

Mr. Knitting and I were chatting with a new acquaintance the other day and, when discovering we were engaged, she inquired as to how long we'd been dating. When we replied six and a half years, she replied, "Yeah, I guess that's long enough." I had to hold myself back from saying, "Thank you for your approval," in a snide tone.

To be fair, the woman making the comment didn't mean it rudely. I think she was just trying to make small talk. However, this exchange got me thinking. I just don't have patience for comments that imply there's a right or wrong way to go about relationships and marriage.

Here's a few examples of what I mean:

Length of Relationship

I firmly do not believe that a couple needs to be together for a certain length of time before getting married. Mr. Knitting and I happen to have been together for a significant amount of time and that's what has worked for us.

In contrast, my parents got engaged before even going on a date. I thought this was the most hilarious and bizarre thing ever when I first heard this. They met while winter camping (which is hilarious because my mom is not the winter camping type), and became friends. A few months later my mom proposed to my dad and he accepted. When he told his parents he was getting married his mom asked (very nicely) if they had met his fiancee (they hadn't!). Two months later they got married, and 31 years later they have one of the strongest and happiest marriages I know. They are my absolute proof that you don't need to have a 10 year relationship with someone before marrying them. Sometimes you just know.

Living Together

I know people who think it is absolutely essential to live with your SO before marriage. They think it's a huge risk to marry someone without knowing what it's like to live with that person. In contrast, many other people think the opposite is true.

Mr. Knitting and I will have lived together for almost 3 years by the time of our wedding and that has worked really well for us and our situation. That being said, in hindsight, I know I could have easily married him before living with him. There wasn't really much of a change in our relationship aside from the fact that it was convenient that our stuff was in the same place and I learned that if he likes a song he plays it over and over and over again until he's sick of it. I'm being flippant, but living together just felt so natural and like we'd always been doing it.

Proposing

I also know some people think it's the man's job to propose and if he doesn't then he's a failure of a man and has deprived you of an essential life experience. Okay, that's a bit extreme, but you get the idea...

My mom proposed to my dad and I don't think she's ever regretted it. I don't think my dad has felt less manly for not proposing. I didn't exactly propose to Mr. Knitting, but I did initiate us getting married in December 2010. I don't feel like I'm missing anything. I don't feel deprived of a necessary life experience and am quite offended by comments implying that I should.

Again, that's just us. I fully recognize that for many couples it is important for the man to propose and I absolutely think that's a valid opinion, despite the fact that that's not what worked for Mr. Knitting and I.

These are all valid opinions, but that's all they are, opinions. They are not definitive truths. Each of these things work for certain people and they don't work for others. I am perfectly happy to have a discussion about people's opinions and what works for them in their relationship, but I find it really frustrating when people talk about their opinions like fact (i.e. the man must propose, you must live together before marriage...etc). Doing so is irritating and it also denigrates another person's experience. I would never ever say or imply to someone that their experience is less valid than mine because it's not what I want. Different things work for different people, end of story.

Stepping off my soapbox now...

What "definitive truths" about relationships aren't so definitive to you?

One Month To Go Reflections

My wedding is in just over a month and I currently have really mixed feelings about it. My number one feeling is that I'm so excited to be marrying my favourite person and to be able to get to go around making references to "my husband". However, that's kind of boring to talk about since I'm sure you all feel the same way too, so I'm moving on to my other feelings.

My next feeling is that I'd like it to be my wedding day already. I've been planning this wedding for over a year and I'm looking forward to just getting to enjoy the day. I'm actually a bit surprised that I got to this point because I've had such a great time planning. We've definitely had some stresses like being told no one will have fun at our wedding because it's during Advent and no one is allowed to have fun during Advent (yeah, we'd never hear that before either), but overall it's been a fun process. Now I'm ready for it to be the week before our wedding so I can just enjoy all the fun of that final week and, obviously, the actual wedding day already.

On the other hand, I'm freaking out (in a very minor way) that I only have one month left. When did that happen? I'm not behind in terms of a schedule or anything, but it just feels like I've run out of time. I need more time! Or I need to start getting more things done...

[note: after writing this paragraph I ran and redid my wall calendar so I can make a huge schedule on my wall of all the things I need to get done between then and now. Yay me feeling productive and organized!]

Similarly, I appear to have developed wedding stage fright and would prefer if I had a bit more time to get over it. I'm pretty surprised by this since I spent my high school years performing and always loved having an audience. While I am pretty quiet, I'm also pretty confident and am not exactly a hide in the corner kind of person (Haha that makes me sound so obnoxious! I blame my parents). I'm not sure what I'm so worried about. I'm pretty sure everyone there is going to be wishing us well and doing everything they can to ensure that everything is perfect. This may be just a momentary reaction to finding out that there are going to be more strangers at my wedding than I had hoped. I'm using this opportunity to practice my "letting go" skills. Anyway, I'm hoping the stage fright leaves soon because it's not so fun.

So there you have it. A whole bunch of mixed feelings. Overall though I'm excited if only because I refuse to freak out and stress big time about the wedding out of principle. Weddings should be fun. I realize this is a pretty naive statment because a lot of times they aren't all that fun, or they include a lot of stressful and/or hurtful moments. We've actually had quite a few moments and conversations that could be deemed really stressful, but so far I've managed to see them all as funny (could be all that confidence again!). Despite my stage fright and one month away worries, I'm overall determined to be excited and happy and looking forward to the month ahead.

Did you have mixed feelings about your wedding?

Look What Came for Me!

I've been sick with the flu for the last week which has sucked a lot. I've been pretty much incapable of doing anything including work, wedding stuff, applying for grad school, or finding a new job. It hasn't been the best week. Luckily I was hugely cheered up when I opened my mail box yesterday and found and envelope from my sister/MOH. I opened it up and found this:



I think maytryoshkas have just officially become one of the visual motifs of my wedding. I may have squealed when I got this, which is embarrassing since I live in a condo building and my mailbox is not so private.

Opening it up I found this:



I love the picture of the salsa dancing! For my bachelorette we're having drinks and snacks at BM Rachel's house and then going out salsa dancing. I'm actually really shy about things like going to clubs, but with a group of my favourite ladies there I suspect I'll be well taken care of! I'm so excited.

I knew my MOH and Bridesmaids were planning this, but it feels so nice to know that I have people in my life who care enough to plan me an event like this. The only thing that could make it more perfect would be a tight belly baring "Bride With No Pride" t-shirt (KIDDING, or am I?).

What was your bachelorette like?

Giveaways = Awesome

Knitting wedding guests: If you don't want to see your thank you cards ahead of time, don't read this post.

I used to be one of those people who said I never win anything. However, once I started reading blogs (specifically wedding and vegan related ones) and entering blog giveaways, I win stuff all the time. Okay, not all time (I wish), but in the last year I've won 4 times, which is a lot when you consider that it's more than I won in the combined rest of the years of my life.

The things I've won have definitely covered quite a range. From The Wedding Co. I won this lovely flowergirl cone:



From Silver Hills bakery I won coupons for free bread, a few t-shirts, and a bike helmet. Hilariously, I have yet to try the bread but I love my Max Flax t-shirt and wear it to yoga all the time. I think it's the funniest thing, but it also fits really well.


Source

However, the best giveaway I've ever won is this one from Wedding Bee. Seriously, I was shocked when I won, because I've never won anything nearly as awesome. This giveaway was so generous and I'm having so much fun getting exciting new boxes once a week full of prizes for me (I know you all hate me now).

While every last part of the prize is amazing, the part I want to talk about today is the wedding invitations from Hello Lucky. As you might recall we had already sent our invites by the time I won this prize so I asked if I could get thank you cards instead, and was thrilled when they said yes.

My original plan had been to make my thank you cards. I had no clue how I was going to do this and was just starting to get nervous when I won this giveaway. Now I am lucky enough to have far better thank you cards than I could ever imagine. I know it's weird to post about your thank you cards a month before the wedding, but they just arrived here last night and I'm so excited that I can't help myself.

Choosing a thank you card was not easy because there were so many choices. I really wanted a holiday themed one so here's a few that I considered.

I loved this one, but didn't love how it featured a ham, so I moved on:


Source

This one was practically perfect, but didn't quite have the colours I wanted:


Source

This is the one I ended up choosing:


Source

The lovely and helpful Kelly changed the "Seasons Greetings" to say "Thank You" for me and I could not be more thrilled with the cards. They are gorgeous and about a million times better than anything I could have come up with. They really communicate the cozy Christmas vintage feeling of our wedding.

In addition, I still had some funds to spend on my order so I got a second set of thank you cards for any pre-wedding events.

Here's what I picked (ours say "Thank You" instead of our names):


Source

Obviously these aren't particularly holiday themed. I just love peonies and thought these were pretty. I also loved the Art Deco font.

This was the runner up:


Source

I love these because they're so sweet and simple.

While picking out my cards I literally looked at the entire Hello Lucky site. Seriously, every last page. For those of you interested in something free from Hello Lucky, it turns out they also have this awesome template for these donut hole bags:


Source

I don't think these would really work for Canadian brides since I'm pretty sure everyone would be confused as to why you're calling Timbits donut holes, but I think these are so cute and could work well for non-Canadian brides!

I still can not get over how lucky I feel to have won this giveaway. The generosity of these vendors in amazing to me and I feel so grateful. I'm also just plain giddy about these cards!

How have giveaways played a part in your wedding planning?

World's Easiest Escort Cards

Okay, since we're still waiting on a few more RSVPs it's a bit silly that I went ahead and began making these. However, it makes me feel better than get things done so now I have half finished escort cards.

Anyway, here's my inspiration:


Source

And here's what half my escort cards look like:



The other half looks like this:



Yay for matryoshkas! There's no elaborate reason that I have two types of escort cards. I just love that original inspiration picture and I love matryoshkas and I didn't want to have to choose between them.

I'm really happy with them but they aren't finished as I still need to figure out seating arrangements and table numbers, but it makes me happy to have at least gotten a lot of them done.

Here's how I made them. I first (with Mr. Knitting's help) cut card stock into gift tags and punched holes at the top. I probably could have just bought tags, but where's the fun in that?



I then stamped the gift tags. I found the silhouette stamp at Michaels and the Matryoshka stamp at Paper Source:





Next I enlisted by lovely BM Rach to help me write names on the cards as I don't have the nicest handwriting.

Rach hard at work:





While she did that, I added some green and white twine given to me by my former residence don and Wedding Bee reader, supergeek.

Here's the twine in action at her wedding:


Source

And here's the twine in action on our escort cards:



Rach and I will have to go back and finish the cards once I have everyone's RVSP and have figured out table numbers, but it does make me feel better to have a chunk of them done.

My big issue now is figuring out how to display them. I like the idea of hanging them on a Christmas tree, but am concerned that it will be really hard for anyone to find theirs.

My new favourite ideas comes from Snippet and Ink. Look how awesome this is:


Source

I love this so much I can't even say. I'm not sure that laying my cards out is the best option, since our cards are not tented, but I really do love the way this looks. I think another trip to the St. Lawrence Market to find me a matryoshka is in order. I currently own a few, but they're all too small to be used like this.

What are you doing for escort cards?