I think the tradition of the bride and groom (or bride and bride or groom and groom!) spending the night before their wedding apart is really sweet. Even if the couple has been living together, I think there's something really sweetly symbolic about spending their last night as an unmarried person with their family or close friends. For me, it would have been a great way of acknowledging the ties I have with my family. I'm sure it would have also heightened my anticipation for the next day.
However, for us this was not to be. I briefly considered this idea and then realized logistically it wouldn't really work for us, but more importantly, emotionally there was no way I could deal with that. Despite how much I loved our wedding and how much fun I had working on it, our wedding and the lead up to it was really stressful for me to the extent that I feel I've almost recovered now two months later. I was by no means a crazy stress monster, but I was definitely feeling a slow build up of stress, as well as night before jitters.
Mr. Knitting is my absolute best emotional support and to have spent the night before our wedding without him would have been a terrible idea for me. I don't think he would have been too happy about it either, although he might have been a bit more stoic about it than I would have been. We really needed each other there to keep each other calm and happy. I also had the sense that even though lots of other people have been married, he was really the only person would understood what I was experiencing (which is sort of true in that we were the only bride and groom of our wedding!).
Two months later, I have no idea what we did the night before our wedding after we got home from our yoga class, but I definitely know that spending the night together was the right choice for us. We may have watched an episode of the Daily Show, complained about family members (not any of you who read this!), played on our computers separately (because we're really romantic), or spent some time talking about the next day. Whatever it was, it was a good idea. I would have felt very alone and probably a bit scared if I had spent the night away from him, no matter who I had stayed with.
How did/do you plan to spend the night before your wedding?
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Goals
I've been reading a lot about goal setting recently (the Lululemon blog is particularly helpful if any of you are interested!), so I thought I would write about goal setting and our wedding today. I'm not a crazy goal setter or anything but I had a few goals in mind for myself for our wedding. Here they are:
1) Don't freak out
2) Eat food
3) Send excellent thank you notes in a timely manner
Here's how I did:
Don't Freak Out
Despite my worries, I am proud to say I didn't freak out about anything on my wedding day. There were definitely moments of stress and I wouldn't go so far to say I was completely zen, but overall I think I did pretty good.
Not quite me, but close enough:
Source
The moment I really could have freaked out was when we arrived at the Faculty Club to take pictures before the ceremony and absolutely nothing was set up. I'm proud to say I didn't freak out at all. I just kicked off my shoes and started running around getting things done and assigning tasks to the wedding party. I really wish someone had thought to take a picture of this, because it's kind of hilarious. There was no pre-wedding lounging with my BMs for me. We were all hard at work.
I'm pretty proud that this is how I reacted. I'm still a bit upset that we didn't get to take any pre-ceremony indoor photos because we were busy setting up the things that I had been told would already be set up, but I totally kept my cool and I think that's pretty great! If I had freaked out at that moment I think I would really regret it now.
Eat Food
I didn't do quite as well on this one, but I'm okay with that because I didn't eat a lot of food because I didn't have much of an appetite and not because I logistically couldn't. I really planned to ensure that Mr. Knitting and I would have an opportunity to eat because this was important to me. One way I did this was by having a selection of appetizers delivered to us right after the ceremony.
Food for us:
This way we could eat some food privately without having to talk to any of our lovely guests and then we could go downstairs and completely focus on them without trying to search out a waiter.
Another strategy was to have a receiving line so that we wouldn't feel obligated to go from table to table during dinner, and instead would be able to eat our food. These were excellent plans, but when it came down to it, I just couldn't really focus on eating and ate much less than I usually would. Oh well...I'll make up for it at other people's weddings.
Send Excellent Thank You Notes in a Timely Manner
This one was important to me. I felt really grateful that we had such lovely people at our wedding and I wanted to make sure to acknowledge that. My parents once received a thank you card that said, "Thank you for your monetary contribution" and that was it. I wanted to do the opposite of that and took my time writing what I hope were pretty thoughtful cards. My desire to do this was definitely also helped by the fact that I was really excited about these gorgeous cards (ours said Thank You):
Source
I sent the cards out in waves and I sent the last one just about a month after our wedding. I definitely could have done it more quickly, but I'm ultimately really happy with that since.
I highly recommend goal setting for your wedding. These were all things that were important to me and identifying them, being aware of them, and coming up with strategies to achieve them was really helpful. I know that sounds a bit crazy and rigid, but for me it wasn't. For me, particularly with the not freaking out goal, by just being mindful of the potential problem I managed to avoid it, and that definitely helped me have a more enjoyable wedding day!
Did/do you have any goals for yourself for you wedding?
1) Don't freak out
2) Eat food
3) Send excellent thank you notes in a timely manner
Here's how I did:
Don't Freak Out
Despite my worries, I am proud to say I didn't freak out about anything on my wedding day. There were definitely moments of stress and I wouldn't go so far to say I was completely zen, but overall I think I did pretty good.
Not quite me, but close enough:
Source
The moment I really could have freaked out was when we arrived at the Faculty Club to take pictures before the ceremony and absolutely nothing was set up. I'm proud to say I didn't freak out at all. I just kicked off my shoes and started running around getting things done and assigning tasks to the wedding party. I really wish someone had thought to take a picture of this, because it's kind of hilarious. There was no pre-wedding lounging with my BMs for me. We were all hard at work.
I'm pretty proud that this is how I reacted. I'm still a bit upset that we didn't get to take any pre-ceremony indoor photos because we were busy setting up the things that I had been told would already be set up, but I totally kept my cool and I think that's pretty great! If I had freaked out at that moment I think I would really regret it now.
Eat Food
I didn't do quite as well on this one, but I'm okay with that because I didn't eat a lot of food because I didn't have much of an appetite and not because I logistically couldn't. I really planned to ensure that Mr. Knitting and I would have an opportunity to eat because this was important to me. One way I did this was by having a selection of appetizers delivered to us right after the ceremony.
Food for us:
This way we could eat some food privately without having to talk to any of our lovely guests and then we could go downstairs and completely focus on them without trying to search out a waiter.
Another strategy was to have a receiving line so that we wouldn't feel obligated to go from table to table during dinner, and instead would be able to eat our food. These were excellent plans, but when it came down to it, I just couldn't really focus on eating and ate much less than I usually would. Oh well...I'll make up for it at other people's weddings.
Send Excellent Thank You Notes in a Timely Manner
This one was important to me. I felt really grateful that we had such lovely people at our wedding and I wanted to make sure to acknowledge that. My parents once received a thank you card that said, "Thank you for your monetary contribution" and that was it. I wanted to do the opposite of that and took my time writing what I hope were pretty thoughtful cards. My desire to do this was definitely also helped by the fact that I was really excited about these gorgeous cards (ours said Thank You):
Source
I sent the cards out in waves and I sent the last one just about a month after our wedding. I definitely could have done it more quickly, but I'm ultimately really happy with that since.
I highly recommend goal setting for your wedding. These were all things that were important to me and identifying them, being aware of them, and coming up with strategies to achieve them was really helpful. I know that sounds a bit crazy and rigid, but for me it wasn't. For me, particularly with the not freaking out goal, by just being mindful of the potential problem I managed to avoid it, and that definitely helped me have a more enjoyable wedding day!
Did/do you have any goals for yourself for you wedding?
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
A Cozy Christmas Honeymoon: The Fun
While we spent a pretty big chunk of our honeymoon eating, we did do a few other things!
We went skating by the river:
This was really great because there was a 2km skating path right next to the lake so it was really pretty and scenic. It was also really nice to not have to go around in circles over and over. I was a bit concerned about how I would do on skates, but was pleasantly surprised with my abilities (i.e. I didn't fall).
We also went snowshoeing:
Despite the fact that the trail we were on was really poorly marked and I was worried about getting lost, this was really fun. The trail was gorgeous and we had a great time.
We spent a lot of time reading and relaxing:
Thanks so much for all your book recommendations. Unfortunately, none of my library holds became available in time for the honeymoon, so I ended up reading Wicked while we were away. It was really good, but I wasn't prepared for how different it was from the musical. Since coming home I've been slowly starting to work my way through your recommendations and loved Pillars of the Earth. I'm currently in the middle of Outlander and can see why so many of you recommended it! As for those that recommended Lauren Willig or Phillipa Gregory, you know my taste pretty well as I've already read all their books!
We went walking:
The most exciting thing I'd say we did was when we went to Nordic Station, which is a Nordic spa. This place was gorgeous. It was located pretty much in the middle of the snow covered woods of Quebec.
How it works is you go through a cycle of hot, cold, and relaxation over and over again until you are thoroughly relaxed. For hot we had the choice of an outdoor hot tub, a steam room, or a dry sauna. The idea is to stay in the heat for as long as you can manage, usually 20 minutes or so.
Source
Sauna overlooking the river:
Source
You then are to cool down really quickly by dunking yourself in ice cold water or the frozen river.
Source
Source
Next you go to a relaxation room to relax until you body temperature has normalized. You repeat the cycle as many times as you like. We did the cycle a number of times and then lost interest in torturing ourselves with the cold and just hung out in the gorgeous hot tubs for a while.
We then had our couples massage in a cabin in the woods. This was kind of hilarious because we're not exactly the type of people who are interested in things like couples massages. However, that's all they had available when we booked our massage so we figured a honeymoon is a great place to try a couples massage.
Our verdict was that while our massages were excellent, they were not enhanced at all by having each other in the room and we're not likely to book any other couple massages in the future. I spent too much time worrying about whether or not Mr. Knitting was enjoying his massage and that took away some of my enjoyment.
Anyway, that's a pretty good overview of all the things we did on our cozy Christmas honeymoon!
We went skating by the river:
This was really great because there was a 2km skating path right next to the lake so it was really pretty and scenic. It was also really nice to not have to go around in circles over and over. I was a bit concerned about how I would do on skates, but was pleasantly surprised with my abilities (i.e. I didn't fall).
We also went snowshoeing:
Despite the fact that the trail we were on was really poorly marked and I was worried about getting lost, this was really fun. The trail was gorgeous and we had a great time.
We spent a lot of time reading and relaxing:
Thanks so much for all your book recommendations. Unfortunately, none of my library holds became available in time for the honeymoon, so I ended up reading Wicked while we were away. It was really good, but I wasn't prepared for how different it was from the musical. Since coming home I've been slowly starting to work my way through your recommendations and loved Pillars of the Earth. I'm currently in the middle of Outlander and can see why so many of you recommended it! As for those that recommended Lauren Willig or Phillipa Gregory, you know my taste pretty well as I've already read all their books!
We went walking:
The most exciting thing I'd say we did was when we went to Nordic Station, which is a Nordic spa. This place was gorgeous. It was located pretty much in the middle of the snow covered woods of Quebec.
How it works is you go through a cycle of hot, cold, and relaxation over and over again until you are thoroughly relaxed. For hot we had the choice of an outdoor hot tub, a steam room, or a dry sauna. The idea is to stay in the heat for as long as you can manage, usually 20 minutes or so.
Source
Sauna overlooking the river:
Source
You then are to cool down really quickly by dunking yourself in ice cold water or the frozen river.
Source
Source
Next you go to a relaxation room to relax until you body temperature has normalized. You repeat the cycle as many times as you like. We did the cycle a number of times and then lost interest in torturing ourselves with the cold and just hung out in the gorgeous hot tubs for a while.
We then had our couples massage in a cabin in the woods. This was kind of hilarious because we're not exactly the type of people who are interested in things like couples massages. However, that's all they had available when we booked our massage so we figured a honeymoon is a great place to try a couples massage.
Our verdict was that while our massages were excellent, they were not enhanced at all by having each other in the room and we're not likely to book any other couple massages in the future. I spent too much time worrying about whether or not Mr. Knitting was enjoying his massage and that took away some of my enjoyment.
Anyway, that's a pretty good overview of all the things we did on our cozy Christmas honeymoon!
Friday, February 4, 2011
A Cozy Christmas Honeymoon: The Food
One of the reasons we chose Hovey Manor for our honeymoon was because of the incredible food. They are very well known for their local and regional gourmet cuisine and we were so excited, since we've pretty much never eaten a meal that could accurately be termed gourmet. We like our meals out to cost less than $15 each please.
Each day began with their "full country breakfast". This included a buffet of things like amazing Quebecois cheese, croissants, homemade granola, freshly squeezed juice, smoothies, muffins...etc.
Me enjoying a mini smoothie:
In addition, we also got to choose something from the menu which included options like omelettes with brie and smoked salmon, oatmeal, bacon and eggs, pancakes...etc.
Here's Mr. Knitting trying to decide:
Here's my first breakfast choice. French toast with butterscotch sauce. Amazing:
Mr. K was especially partial to the omlettes:
Lunches were not included so we would go have lunch in one of the small villages nearby. Here's a look at our favourite lunch.
Poutine (we were in Quebec after all!):
I also spent some time searching out some amazing food souvenirs like local honey (I just ran out of it and am very sad even though we do have lots of delicious Ontario honey available) and maple butter, which I think is one of the best foods of all time. I'm sort of kicking myself that I didn't buy a case of it!
Our dinners were definitely a major highlight. Mr. Knitting and I were a bit worried about how we'd do with long, multicourse dinners since in our normal lives we never linger over dinner. At our favourite restaurant, Tokyo Sushi (at Bay and St. Joseph Toronto ladies), we're usually in and out in about 45 minutes tops. However, I am happy to report that the dinners were amazing and we had no problem enjoying 2 and a half hour dinners every night. Who knew?
They won me over right away with the salt. I'm (sadly) a salt addict so to be provided with 3 different types of delicious salt made me really happy right away.
Here's a few of our favourite things we ate. While they all had fancy long names that indicate pretty much every ingredient in the dish we'll be using simplified versions of the names made up by me!
Appetizers
Scallops and artichoke puree:
This was probably Mr. Knitting's favourite dish from our honeymoon. He is now obsessed with scallops.
Salmon Gravlax with beets:
Main Course
Sable fish and risotto:
This was my favourite dish. That fish was just completely moist and flavourful.
Christmas lobster:
Dessert
White chocolate mouse dessert amuse bouche:
Wouldn't these be so cute at a wedding?
Chesnut macaron amuse bouche:
Rocky Road dessert, complete with a macaron and homemade marshmallows:
My favourite dessert:
This was basically chocolate cake with peanuts, homemade vanilla ice cream, and that little jug is full of fleur de sel caramel sauce. I wish I had ordered it every night.
I also ordered the cheese tray one night and it was fantastic. The cheese guy (no, that's not his official title!) comes by your table and helps you select 3 cheeses. Here's what I ended up with:
The goat cheese on the far right was my favourite and it actually won Best Cheese in the World 2009.
So, as you can see, we definitely ate very well on our honeymoon. Mr. Knitting was especially happy because he got to ate great food 9like at home!), but he didn't have to do a single dish after (I might be not so good at household duties like cleaning!).
Up next: what we did when we weren't eating.
Each day began with their "full country breakfast". This included a buffet of things like amazing Quebecois cheese, croissants, homemade granola, freshly squeezed juice, smoothies, muffins...etc.
Me enjoying a mini smoothie:
In addition, we also got to choose something from the menu which included options like omelettes with brie and smoked salmon, oatmeal, bacon and eggs, pancakes...etc.
Here's Mr. Knitting trying to decide:
Here's my first breakfast choice. French toast with butterscotch sauce. Amazing:
Mr. K was especially partial to the omlettes:
Lunches were not included so we would go have lunch in one of the small villages nearby. Here's a look at our favourite lunch.
Poutine (we were in Quebec after all!):
I also spent some time searching out some amazing food souvenirs like local honey (I just ran out of it and am very sad even though we do have lots of delicious Ontario honey available) and maple butter, which I think is one of the best foods of all time. I'm sort of kicking myself that I didn't buy a case of it!
Our dinners were definitely a major highlight. Mr. Knitting and I were a bit worried about how we'd do with long, multicourse dinners since in our normal lives we never linger over dinner. At our favourite restaurant, Tokyo Sushi (at Bay and St. Joseph Toronto ladies), we're usually in and out in about 45 minutes tops. However, I am happy to report that the dinners were amazing and we had no problem enjoying 2 and a half hour dinners every night. Who knew?
They won me over right away with the salt. I'm (sadly) a salt addict so to be provided with 3 different types of delicious salt made me really happy right away.
Here's a few of our favourite things we ate. While they all had fancy long names that indicate pretty much every ingredient in the dish we'll be using simplified versions of the names made up by me!
Appetizers
Scallops and artichoke puree:
This was probably Mr. Knitting's favourite dish from our honeymoon. He is now obsessed with scallops.
Salmon Gravlax with beets:
Main Course
Sable fish and risotto:
This was my favourite dish. That fish was just completely moist and flavourful.
Christmas lobster:
Dessert
White chocolate mouse dessert amuse bouche:
Wouldn't these be so cute at a wedding?
Chesnut macaron amuse bouche:
Rocky Road dessert, complete with a macaron and homemade marshmallows:
My favourite dessert:
This was basically chocolate cake with peanuts, homemade vanilla ice cream, and that little jug is full of fleur de sel caramel sauce. I wish I had ordered it every night.
I also ordered the cheese tray one night and it was fantastic. The cheese guy (no, that's not his official title!) comes by your table and helps you select 3 cheeses. Here's what I ended up with:
The goat cheese on the far right was my favourite and it actually won Best Cheese in the World 2009.
So, as you can see, we definitely ate very well on our honeymoon. Mr. Knitting was especially happy because he got to ate great food 9like at home!), but he didn't have to do a single dish after (I might be not so good at household duties like cleaning!).
Up next: what we did when we weren't eating.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Toronto Meet Up
Hello Toronto and GTA Bees! I hope you're all surviving this endless winter. In an attempt to escape winter we're planning a meet up on February 9th at 7pm at Snakes and Lattes.
Source
If you'd like to join us for some hot chocolate, wine, or board games (they have Dream Phone!!!) please RSVP here.
Source
If you'd like to join us for some hot chocolate, wine, or board games (they have Dream Phone!!!) please RSVP here.
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