Daniels 7th Birthday Party

Yesterday Sarah and I accomplished something great, yes, yes, working on the guest list.  We -think- we’ve got everyone but we’ll see how that goes when Brian and Sheliah come and visit in a week Monday.  I think my mom has some extra ideas for invites.  We’ve also worked out some favours details, we’re pre-ordering the ones for adults this week as there will be about 4 months prep time and it will take 2 months for the stock to arrive in from the supplier.  The youth / young one favours are far less an ordeal and will be prepared a few weeks before hand.

Yes, among all of this yesterday, we still managed to make it to a trampoline land birthday party in the Kamloops Tournament Center for a good friend of the families son, Aiden had a blast, some video below!  And yeah, the lawn got done yesterday as well.  As the heat goes down, the darned thing grows faster.

the Trampoline

help i’m stuck in the foam pit

Well its been a while. Sorry..

I was trying to not blog until Sean did, and then I realized that my attempts were futile and it just wasn’t going to happen. He just doesn’t have the time lately; work has him running around like a blind chicken with its head cut off.. Just Thursday he put around 150km on the car, and din’t leave town. CRAZY!!!

I am looking for a job, and still trying to figure out some health issues while planning the wedding and organizing a community event. Unfortunately the job hunting and health has taken precedence,  so my planning is a little behind. Ahh well what can you do!!

Looks like I have found a caterer. Quote looks great, menu looks phenomenal, and they want to cook onsite BBQ style It took me some time to find out if we would be allowed to BBQ onsite and I just got the email back with a yes so now its deposit paying and tasting. HOORAY

http://www.firefightersclub.com/ I went to school with the head chefs wife, I was under the impression for the year that he was a fire fighter. Silly me!

I also went and tried on wedding dresses the other day and it looks like I may have found the one!! I still want to go down to Vancouver and try on a few more.. but I have a funny feeling its the one. Its an Alfred Angelo and its sooooo pretty. I want to post pictures but I suppose that is against the rules!!

Lastly I will post some engagement photos that we took the other day, for your enjoyment. It was so much fun!!

Enjoy your weekend you guys!!

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!

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!

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?

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!

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!

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?

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?