Today..? Not as successful. Tried so hard to do the ‘Suzy Homemaker’ thing when I got home from work this morning. Started doing dishes, made breakfast for everyone, put on coffee, started to work out…. then I got tired and had a nap. Now dishes aren’t finished, still have to work out, still have to grocery shop and I have company coming from Vancouver in a little under 3 hours. Booo!!! So what am I doing?Sitting in front of the Food Network and blogging.

Why? Because I am super cranky about this wedding thing.. AGAIN. (Thank God for Roya and her margarita’s tonight!!)

I have asked for probably around 8 different quotes from catering companies all around the GVRD. The average price back so far for 125 people is $8,000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Who are you people kidding!! The one.. ONE place I have found that doesn’t want my next born child is charging around $4,000 not including grat’s or taxes ( so add another 30% on top of that) and I have been asking  for references for around 3 weeks, she didn’t get back to me then went on vacation. I am fine with waiting, but if I loose my date because she SUCKS. ( I am trying really hard not to be bitter, think I am failing) So unless this shapes up, the wedding will be a BBQ with hotdogs, veggie dogs and BYOB!

So I am going to phone the planner. Phone another cater who happens to be my friends husband. Please please please Wish ME LUCK!

Its 11:00 and so far I have finalized wedding colours, though of some great decorations for the venue, though of some gifts for my maid of honor and enlisted the help of friends to get names for caterers, photographers, and bakers. HOORAY. I still need to find a good spot for hair and make up thats reasonably priced. Then I need to confirm where we are actually having the ceremony and go from there. My friend Taqueesha showed me a few phenomenal websites: weddingbells.com and etsy.com which has started to give me some good ideas. Plus I have been googling all morning for decoration, cake and flower ideas. Hopefully things will start coming together even more once I talk to our wedding planner this week. Its all sooo exciting!!!

Oh for any family or friends in the Vancouver area, curious if you or anyone you know has a Serving It Right ticket, we are going to need a bartender for the big day!!

Some colour scheme ideas What do you think? Gun metal grey and yellow accents!

Sean’s been bugging me to post something because its been a while, but man oh man have we been busy. Nothing new on the wedding front, but Sean has re-painted the living room, been working like a madman. I have been working, and been sick for a few days so I’ve been lazy! Next week I am hoping to get started on my Deaf Awareness breakfast, find a caterer, and continue working. Plus potty training has begun ( OY!!) so we will be doing that. A friend of mine from VCC  is coming to visit this week so we are going to catch up, and I will pick her brain about some deaf Awareness stuff. Im really hoping everything clears up health wise for Tuesday. I already lost one shift at work much to my boss disapproval so, a second lost shift if not recommended for me in any way.

I still have a ton to figure out about the wedding and hopefully I get to meet with the planner this week or next. there is catering, hotels, hair/makeup. Not to mention set up, decorations, gifts, favors, invites, dresses, and tuxes. AHHHH

My Maid of Honour asked me a little while ago what exactly was in the job description and I read this really cute thing yesterday: “this gal offers an assist to the bride- addressing invites, shopping for favors, and mixing margaritas when wedding stress runs high.” That part of it should be coming soon…

My mom has mentioned something about wedding insurance. Something where is the wedding is postponed or canceled for any reason  we get our money back on our vendors. I have never heard of this.. Any one know anything?

Ugg.. I am so tired Im not to sure what to write. If this job doesn’t kill me at least everyday I am there it makes me realize how much I can’t wait to see Sean, and how sure I am that marrying him with be the the best thing ever. As long as I can make it through the planning stages !!

Next on the agenda wedding wise is a possible re evaluation of the colours, and invites!! Again coming into play my total lack of understanding as to the rules for all this mayhem. We started with an idea of silver, navy, and dark green colours to mesh with the formal atmosphere, but now I am realizing that it is a SUMMER wedding, and I think that it will all be a little too dark. I suggested Silver and Yellow ( I love that scheme) but then I realised it will be really hard to find flower arrangement to match that.

As for invites, Sean is telling me we need Save the Date cards, which doesn’t make sense.. if we send the invites out around 5 months before the wedding and ask for an RSVP 3 months before the day.. that should be enough no?

As I have now been up for 3 hours and it is only 8am I am realizing I am not to sure all that I have written :/

More to come later!

MEN ARE JUST HAPPIER PEOPLE…..

NICKNAMES

• If Laura, Kate and Sarah go out for lunch, they will call each other Laura, Kate and Sarah.
• If Mike, Dave and John go out, they will affectionately refer to each other as Fat Boy, Dickhead and Shit for Brains.

EATING OUT

• When the bill arrives, Mike, Dave and John will each throw in $20, even though it’s only for $32.50. None of them will have anything smaller and none will actually admit they want change back.
• When the girls get their bill, out come the pocket calculators.

MONEY

• A man will pay $2 for a $1 item he needs.
• A woman will pay $1 for a $2 item that she doesn’t need but is on sale.

BATHROOMS

• A man has six items in his bathroom: toothbrush and toothpaste, shaving cream, razor, a bar of soap, and a towel .
• The average number of items in the typical woman’s bathroom is 337. A man would not be able to identify more than 20 of these items.

ARGUMENTS

• A woman has the last word in any argument.
• Anything a man says after that, is the beginning of a new argument.

FUTURE

• A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband.
• A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife.

SUCCESS

• A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend.
• A successful woman is one who can find such a man.

MARRIAGE

• A woman marries a man expecting he will change, but he doesn’t.
• A man marries a woman expecting that she won’t change, but she does.

DRESSING UP

• A woman will dress up to go shopping, water the plants, answer the phone, read a book, and get the mail.
• A man will dress up for weddings and funerals.

NATURAL

• Men wake up as good-looking as they went to bed.
• Women somehow deteriorate during the night.

OFFSPRING

• Ah, children. A woman knows all about her children. She knows about dentist appointments and romances, best friends, favorite foods, secret fears and hopes and dreams.
• A man is vaguely aware of some short people living in the house.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

A married man should forget his mistakes. There’s no use in two people remembering the same thing!

Originally we were going to be booking the All Saint’s Parish hall until we found out the Parish Priest wasn’t going to be around to confirm or provide booking information until the end of Summer.  Seeming with the MADNESS down in the GVRD / Vancouver over selecting the Reception Halls, ceremony locations and all the other funness we couldn’t risk being unable to get the particular locations we wanted.

The options were, a Hall In Queens Park New Westminster, In Burnaby’s Deer Lake Park, In Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam.  I will post the names as a update to this post later.  The only important item is that it looks we booked the last and best hall!

As it turns out, the Theater was due for maintenance the weekend we wanted and they were holding it for this purpose instead of renting it out.  The technicians will only be in the Theater for a couple of hours.  As it happens, we’re not interested in the Theater and only want the Grand Galleriea.  With this in mind, the wonderful staff at Port Moody City Hall Parks and Rec were able to speak to them, confirm the maintenance requirements and rent us one of the most beautiful locations we could find, oh how Wonderful!

It sounds like Port Moody is our reception location and we’ve already picked the location / date / and apparently colours too (Sarah).  Anyone with thoughts or comments on the Reception Venue is more than welcome to post a comment.  Is there anything else that we can get – equally as good?

So, how can you tell I am planning to marry a nerd. I have been asked to blog about the wedding fiasco, and planning etc.  Where to start….

The engagement was a total surprise. I was shocked.. I kept teasing Sean saying I couldn’t believe he had finally asked me, I mean it had only been 4 and a half years!! So it was shiny rings and hugs all around and then reality hit. I have to plan a wedding. I have absolutely NO idea how to plan a wedding. I have only ever been to three weddings, how the heck am I supposed to figure everything out; not to mention do it from a city four hours away from the festivities. Oy!!!

Its been about three weeks, I have found a spot for the reception after far too many long distance phone calls, and around 6 different decisions that needed to be re-evaluated because the places had already been booked ( crazy go getters!!) All the pictures I’ve seen of the Inlet in Port Moody, have been beautiful, and I am probably going to send my friend in Vancouver to check it out for me, but I am satisfied. An added bonus with the location is we can hold the ceremony there if the church falls through.

Now, its a re-evaluation of the theme colours, because it is a summer wedding and as much as it was be semi-formal I refuse to have it be dark and dreary.  Silver and Yellow anyone? I’m going to try to setup a meeting with the wedding planner Monday, and tackle the catering nightmare- I mean who wants to spend $6000 on food!!!

As I go through all this the words of my mother echoing in my head, ” take the crazy amount of money you are going to spend on 1 day and put it on your mortgage.” Sound advice… but I’m old enough not to HAVE to listen to my mother.. aren’t I?

Sarah today received the catalogue of Invitations I so graciously ordered from somewhere on some internet site.  We have yet to receive the samples.  Well, did I get a phone call that went something like this “I’m heading out to Michaels to see if we can get the for less than a kings randsom”.  Apparently, envelopes, RSVP cards, Invitations and Reception Cards in a package are a little expensive!  Who knew …

Personally I still like the idea of ordering them, simplifies the process, all we need to do is address, seal, and send.  Oh well, it’s as much her Wedding as mine, hah, who am I kidding, it’s all about her.

We were working on putting this day together ourselves (oh who am I kidding, this is all her).  After a period of time, um, a short period of time it became apparent that just like all Weddings, we were going to have some major cost overruns and other related Wedding – issues -. 

A Dream Away Wedding Planning in Kamloops stepped up to assist and provide knowhow, decorations and ongoing assistance.  A little later we’ll describe our thoughts and details for how we went through the planning and selections process for “our” big day.  Right now, just know that we have selected them for a great many reasons, the main one being, they do Weddings – the right way.  Experience always helps.

So, it was decided that All Saint’s Parish was the place to be.  It turns out there’s a caveat – the parish priest isn’t back from Africa until the end of August!  Oh oh, can’t set a firm date or anything really until we know we can get the permission we need for our ceremony to be held there.  That isn’t even the big problem.

The issue remains with the hall, we called must have been 15 different locations in Vancouver, Coquitlam, New Westminister, Port Moody, and Port Coquitlam.  This isn’t an issue, but apparently if your in the GVRD, you start planning for a date two years from “the day”.