... More engagement photos ... are you bored yet?

If you are bored of engagement photos ... well, you're out of luck. These posts were pre-done and set up to post later, and I already prepared this final post of engagement photos. Because I'm probably not checking my blog from France, you can't expect any edits at this point!























(All engagement photos taken by Unveiled Photography.)

We're lucky to have a 3 week honeymoon, so there is another week of posts, on a few random loose ends I'll share with you.

Even more engagement photos!

(All engagement photos taken by Unveiled Photography.)

The rest of the engagement photos will be posted on Saturday!

More engagement photos

Our engagement session was in the winter, in order to be a contrast with our late spring / early summer wedding. Here are some more pictures from it:




(All engagement photos taken by Unveiled Photography.)

Next up ... more pictures on Thursday!

Engagement Photos

We're still on our honeymoon (hopefully), so coming up are posts from our engagement session in the winter:






(All engagement photos taken by Unveiled Photography.)
Next up ... more engagement photos on Tuesday!

More thrifty jewellery options!

Remember my post on crystal engagement rings? These rings, costing a couple hundred dollars, have been usurped by Marks & Spender in the UK:



Can you believe - £18 (about $50 Canadian) for a tin and platinum-plated with crystals and an undisclosed fake diamond (presumably cubic zirconia, but who knows) engagement ring and wedding band set? The only problem I would have is I don't know how sturdy tin is. But if it lasts as well as gold or solid platinum, then why not? Upgrade when you can afford it ... or not at all ... whatever you want!

Thanks are owed to The Professional Bridesmaid for doing the intel and sharing this story with me!

(I will post on the blog award I've recently been nominated for. I thank you so much for the nomination, and will respond on Sunday or Monday).

Thrify engagement ring, or cheap fiancé?

I was on the Swarovski website looking for inspiration, and found some lovely rings. Swarovski crystal is la crème de la crème of crystals, and the price reflects its quality and design. It has stunning crystals, most often set in gold or white gold (also known as rhodium plated gold). Its workmanship certainly matches that of gemstone jewellery.

I was drooling over some cocktail rings, when I saw these three rings, two of which look like engagement rings, and one like a wedding band.

(A traditional looking engagement ring.)

(A very large ring ... one that is probably too large for most people's tastes.)

(A popular style of wedding band.)

Think of the pros of crystal:

• Avoid diamonds, which avoids all the potential social issues surrounding diamonds (though I did this post a while back to address socially responsible diamonds, crystals are another way to ensure you are avoiding "conflict diamonds")
• Actually be able to afford the ring (particularly a bonus for couples on a restricted budget)
• Have something a little different without skimping on quality

The biggest con? It isn't a diamond. Or even any precious gemstone. And that is a big deal to lots of people. The diamond on our fingers is, to many of us (if not most of us) a social symbol, a status of what our fiancé can afford, the equivalent to a man's muscle car or model train collection or whatever other expensive collection or trinkets some other people (often, though not always, men) use to show off status.

So I ask ...
Do you think a crystal engagement ring would be thrifty and creative in these times, or just plain cheap?

Want to win a Martha Stewart Wedding Planner?

Do you like contests? Me too. I entered about four contests for Bella Figura, but didn't win any. Boo. But, if you like Martha Stewart (come on, admit it, you do!) and you like wedding planning (and I'm thinking at least some of you do), here's a contest for you!

Now, I must say, I'm not cool enough to have my own contests. You'll have to go to Once A Bride's blog to enter. But so far, the odds are pretty good: just one entrant.

So click here to go enter. Good luck!

Engagement Party

So, at the suggestion of Jane, I downloaded the program for my camera. And I can update you on two projects: engagement party invitations (today) and centrepieces (tomorrow).

Wade & I hosted an engagement party on the Sunday of the long week-end in February (called "Family Day" here). We invited most of our aunts & uncles, some of our cousins, and most of our closest friends. It was a good, but exhausting, day, and I couldn't have done it without the help of bridesmaids Kristy & Emily. They were god-sends that day.

I applied my scrapbooking skills to card-making. I can't break down the cost, but I bought pearlized pink cardstock and heart images. Then I cut the cardstock in half and folder it in half to make each invitation. I glued the heart images onto the front and wrote a note inside each card inviting that person to attend.

Each invitation was unique:

I chose to go with pink because the engagement party was just days after Valentine's Day. Plus, I like pink, but would not subject Wade to that much pink for our wedding.

I love the way these invitations turned out!

I loved these invitations so much that I almost hated to mail them out. But I did - reluctantly! Our parents were invited to arrive at 1:30 p.m., the rest of the family was invited to arrive at 2:00 p.m. - we did that so our parents could meet each other without the complete chaos of everyone else. I also put an end-time on the invitation of 4:00 p.m., so people had an idea of what to expect. Unfortunately, Wade's parents showed up closer to 2, so there was very little time for my parents to chat. Oh well!

We invited friends to arrive at 3:00 p.m., and again put an end time of 6:00 p.m. (or maybe it was 5:30 p.m. - it's hard to remember now). I wanted an overlap of family & friends, but I knew we didn't have enough room in our house for everyone. I was trying to create a flow of people arriving and a flow of people leaving, so it would only be crowded for so long. Most of our friends arrived around 3ish, as requested. (1 couple was late, but they're unfortunately always late. I think I may tell them the wedding is starting an hour earlier than it actually is so they'll be on-time!)

Bridesmaids Emily & Kristy were there from the start - actually they came up the night before! They helped me prepare, cook food in advance, and were staying with me for the week-end. I intended to be cooking - putting things in the oven, pulling them out, on a schedule all afternoon. I wrote out the schedule so there was going to be a steady stream of food, but I ended up being so busy introducing everyone & making sure everyone else was entertained. Bridesmaids Kristy & Emily stepped up and kept the food coming, and even dealt with a few unexpected requests!

Our family started to leave around 4:00 p.m, with the last family member leaving close to somewhere between 4:30 - 5. Kristy headed home around 5ish, because she was going to drive 2 hours to get home. Friends started to leave around 5:30.

I had a pink heart theme, as I mentioned, and I bought the decorations (a heart shaped wreath, red and pink "Chinese" style lanterns and pink helium balloons) right after Valentine's Day - everything was on sale! I'm trying to remember the menu. It involved two large veggie trays, one fruit tray, a shrimp ring, various baked foods from M& M Meatshops (puff pastries, spring rolls, spanakopita, etc.). The pièce de résistance for Wade was the mini hamburgers that we made - Wade had fun looking after that portion of the foods. You should have seen Wade's face light up when I suggested we have mini-hamburgers! There was white wine, beer, fruit punch with heart-shaped ice cubes (some ice cubes were just water, others were cran-raspberry juice). My favourite part was the heart-shaped pink cupcakes that Kristy, Emily & I baked in the morning! Emily was spending the night again.

When all was said & done, Emily, MOH & I went to Kelsey's for appetizers & drinks - not that we needed more food, but just to hang out & relax!

I wish I'd had the time (& had remembered) to take pictures of the actual party and food!

"Apparently we've started a trend"

On Christmas Eve, my friend and bridesmaid Crystal got engaged. In October, my friend and bridesmaid Kristy got engaged. And on New Year's Eve, my cousin T (who, according to family legend, at one time vowed to never get married) proposed to his girl-friend J.

I told Wade about this latest engagement, and his response was that he thinks we've started a trend.

Yeah, Wade, it was all us.

J showing off her ring:

Engagement Story (final)

And to finish off the Engagement Story (you can read the "cliffhangers" from parts one, two, three and four):

Well, let me lead up to Christmas (remember how I didn't want to be proposed to on Christmas):

Usually the week-end or two before Christmas, my parents have a big Christmas party. There's lots of food - veggie trays, shrimp trays, pastries, cheese, followed by either a roast, cold cuts or lasagna for dinner, then chocolates, baked goods, and various other dessert items. They've been doing it as long as I can remember. Family, friends, family-friends - everyone's there. Well, last year it was two week-ends before Christmas (Saturday, December 15).

Wade lives in my hometown, so while I lived 180 km, I was home (well, at Wade's our house) for that week-end. The day of the party, I had picked up most of my Christmas gifts and was going to wrap all of them (or as many as I could!) before it was time to head over to my parents' house. I really enjoy wrapping gifts, but I'm not that good at it. Oh well! I sitting on the floor, almost done wrapping, when Wade came down to have me "chat" with my stuffed giraffe, Twiga (named after one of the giraffes at the Toronto Zoo). Yep, we're nuts, we play with a couple of my stuffed animals.

(This is Twiga, in case you wanted to meet my beloved giraffe. My Twiga has lopsided ears, like the real Twiga.)

Anyway, I'm wrapping, and Twiga wants a kiss. This may seem odd to you, but it was in fact quite normal for us. So I give Twiga a kiss and go back to wrapping. And Wade's pretending to talk to Twiga. Again, normal for us.

I don't remember the entire conversation, but here's an exerpt from Wade's conversation with Twiga (Twiga whispers into Wade's ear, apparently, and Wade repeated her answer to me):
-What's that, Twiga?
(Pause and listen)
-Krista's going to be the centre of attention at her parent's party tonight?
[My birthday had been 6 days before, and I hadn't seen anyone in my family in about a month.]
-What's that, Twiga? What?
(Confused look)
-Krista can't call me her boy-friend anymore? Huh?
At this point, I looked up. I had been sitting on the floor to wrap the presents, so I sat on the couch next to Wade. Wade shows me Twiga, and points at her horn. Yep, the ring was there. And had been there for the past 5-10 minutes.

So that's how it happened.

Engagement Story (Part 4)

I've already told the beginnings (parts one, two and three) of the engagement story. If you hadn't guessed, we did pick the setting I loved and told you about. We put in a different diamond, you know, one that was a good quality but not perfect (the diamond that was in the setting was 0.67 carat nearly perfect diamond, clarity VVS1 and a D colour). I overheard the jeweller tell Wade my ring would be ready in 2 weeks. So I couldn't resist almost a month later asking about the ring (well, Wade says it was less than 2 weeks later but it felt longer than that). I was informed procuring the diamond took longer than initially estimated. I remember only asking once more about the ring; Wade says I asked a few times. Funny how we remember differently? :)

I should also mention we lived 180 km apart. I was working on the last month of a contract, so we were a 2-hour drive away from each other! We saw each other about every-other week-end.

About a month after he got the ring, my birthday was approaching.

Let me now quantify that I had told him I didn't want to be proposed to on my birthday, Christmas, Valentine's Day, or any other such cheesey occassion.

But my birthday was fast approaching, so guess what I was thinking? We went to The Keg two days before my birthday for my birthday dinner.

Nope, no ring.

The day before my birthday was the staff Christmas party, so I knew he wouldn't propose then.

I was a little tired on my actual birthday as I had had a good time the night before.

I never dreamed Wade would propose on my birthday ... and he didn't.

And home Wade went, because the week-end was over.

To be continued ...

Congratulations, Crystal!

And Congratulations, Crystal! My bridesmaid, Crystal, got engaged on Christmas Eve. Two of my good friends and bridesmaids are now engaged (Crystal and Kristy).


P.S. Yesterday, during the Boxing Day Week sales, I bought a new camera. Woohoo! So I can actually start using a camera and putting pictures my computer again. The only downside is I have like 100 pictures on my old digital camera that I have no way of getting off my computer. In case I haven't mentioned it, I have no way to get pictures from my camera onto my computer. I lost the program for my computer to recognize my camera, and it was only on my parent's computer, and their computer had a meltdown, so I have no idea how to get these 100 pictures off my old camera and printed.

The camera is 4 years old. I was told 2 years ago that it was "obsolete" (which pissed the hell out of me, because frankly something that's two years old is "old" in technological terms, but it should not be obsolete!).

Engagement Advice?

This is my blog, so I can offer advice and opninions. If you don't want my advice, please stop reading this post.

I wrote this post because I was thinking "what advice would have been helpful for me to know a year ago?" So here are some things that would have been helpful to know when Wade & I started planning:

1. Don't buy anything. Not yet, anyway. It may be a great price, but it's a waste of money if you don't use it. You shouldn't buy anything until you have an idea of the date (or at least time of year), location, and what both of you want for your wedding!

2. Enjoy the initial excitement of your engagement. Don't worry about planning anything for at least 2 weeks, but even 1 or 2 months (or more) is perfectly acceptable. People will ask questions, but just explain that you're just enjoying yourself now and will start planning in the spring.

3. Go to bridal shows and do all the bridal things you want to do. Take your fiancé if you want to get his opinion (I dragged Wade to one show, and he didn't mind it). Then go to another show with a friend. Then go to another show with the same or other friends. If you're into bridal shows for the ideas you can get, go to as many as you want. But many friends have limited excitement for your engagement. Unfortunately, most of your friends are just not as into your wedding as you are. This won't be true of all friends, but if you have a friend who has gotten / is getting wedding-overloaded, don't drag that friend to multiple bridal shows.

4. Read magazines. My favourite, by far, is Martha Stewart Weddings.

5. Visit (free) websites, such as: Martha Stewart Weddings, The Knot and Brides.

6. Go to blogs. For a starting point, look at "My Blog-Stalkers" (aka bloggers who follow me, all of whom I also follow), as well as my blog roll ("Who I Blog Stalk", aka blogs I read). Then go to The Bride's Café, The Bride's Guide (the blog of Darcy Miller, editor of Martha Stewart Weddings), Something Old, Something New and finally, Snippet & Ink. I follow all four of those blogs, but they are not in my blog-roll because they are pretty much all updated every week day, so I read them every week-day.

7. Of course, there's also WeddingBee. There was quite the controversy when it was bought out by e-harmony earlier this year, and since the change I don't find the quality of comments on the boards to be as good. My favourite blogger was Mrs. Lovebug (who no longer posts for WeddingBee, but her original posts are still available), but I'm now partial to Miss Glitter (aka Carly from Westside Bride, my "blog-twin" who appreciates organized messes & messy organization)! If you read the WeddingBee boards, take what you read with a grain of salt.

8. Don't buy anything yet. Not until you've discussed with your date, theme (if any), colours (if any) and desires with your fiancé. If you've always envisioned a bubble gum pink coloured tea party, and your fiancé hates pink and tea parties, you may have to nix that idea. If you've wanted to get married on the beach somewhere south, and your fiancé wants to get married in your hometown, again, you're going to have to discuss compromises, such as getting married down south then having a reception in your hometown or getting married in your hometown then honeymooning down south. Either way, don't buy a thing, no matter how good the deal, until you have an idea of the date (or at least time of year), location, and what both of you want for your wedding!

9. Enjoy the first few weeks of your engagement! It's such an exciting time.

Although it's been said many times, many ways, Merry Christmas to you!

Wade & I have been dating since October 2002. Our first Christmas together, only 2 1/2 months into dating, Wade came to my grandparents' dinner. And I went to his family dinner, too.

(His family's Christmas dinner consists of aunts, uncles and cousins. everyone does their own thing on Christmas day. The entire family dinner is a day or two or three before Christmas, to accommodate shift working and other schedules.)

We continued this pattern every year, until 2005. When I came home from grad school that year, I stayed at Wade's house the entire break, for the first time. It was weird not waking up in my bed at my parent's house on Christmas morning. But Wade & I got up and went to my parent's house around 9:30 (before my brothers woke up anyway), so I was able to do my Christmas morning ritual at my parent's house (with Wade there).

After my morning ritual, we'd go to Wade's parents to open gifts. We'd get there around 11:00.

My mom would always do brunch after the gift opening, but so would his mom. So how did we decided where to go for brunch? His mom's house. My mom's brunch was a fun tradition, but his mom's brunch was steeped in memories and tradition because it used to be Wade's beloved Nanny (grandmother) who would host a brunch. Wade's mom took this tradition on a couple years after Wade's Nanny passed away. Given the memories and sentiments in this brunch, I felt it more important to have brunch there. Especially since we went to my parents first-thing.

After brunch at Wade's parents, we go to my grandparents for Christmas dinner. Grandma does an early dinner (4:00), so it's quite the filling day.

And that's been our Christmas tradition since 2005. This will be our fourth repetition of it.

It was very hard to change things a little, especially since I absolutely adore traditions. But it is nice now that I've developed a tradition with my (then) boy-friend (now fiancé, next year husband).

Do you have any Christmas (or other holiday) family traditions you love? Have you changed any traditions to form a new tradition with your your boy-friend / fiancé / husband / spouse? What traditions do you now share?

Engagement Story (Part 3)

"And now temporarily back to our regularly scheduled programming"

I emailed the jeweller with a ring that I liked. This is the exact image that I emailed him:
I sent it one week, and we were going in that Saturday to discuss different designs.

The wax ring is an outline of a design. It is used as a cheap mock-up of the design. It can be easily made and changed until you get the design you want. Here are examples of wax rings:

The jeweller showed me a wax wax ring. The side of the ring was perfect, but the stone was "sideways", which I didn't love. In case you aren't sure what I mean by sideways, this is what I mean:

After explaining what I was looking for, the jeweller said he'd look for something else. Frankly, I was impressed by how quickly he was able to get the wax ring of different designs. I went back to swooning over that incredibly expensive ring with the amazing setting that Wade would not pay for. (Don't think this is one of those fairy tales where he saves us and buys the incredibly expensive ring for his beloved. Wade doesn't work that way.) Anyway, it was a pretty ring.

That's when the jeweller reminded me that I could get the diamond in that ring changed. The diamond in the setting was a 0.67 carat nearly perfect diamond. It was VVS1 and around a D or E colour.

As the jeweller had told me before, the diamond in the settings can all be changed. The diamond in that ring, he explained, was nearly perfect. A diamond with a lesser clarity and colour would still look perfect to the naked eye if the cut is done properly. He gave the example of an SI2 or I1 clarity with a colour of H, I or J. You or I wouldn't be able to tell the difference, even under magnification. He said a trained eye would be able to spot the difference only under a magnifying glass.

But the ring didn't have the side profile I liked. It had little diamonds in the side, kinda like this ring from Charm:
The jeweller took the ring away to look at it, but I wasn't quite sure what he was doing.

He came back saying that he could remove those little diamonds and expose the side of the ring.

To be continued again ...

Update: This ring looking started in September or August 2007. I emailed the jeweller November 5, and we met with him on November 10. Remember our "engagiversary" was December 15. What happened in the meantime? You'll have to wait until after Christmas to find out! This week will be devoted to Christmas posts!

Engagement Story (Part 2)

Well, from the last post, you can guess which jeweller I felt most comfortable with. I had done my research, and knew the 4Cs of diamond. In fact, I've liked jewellery for as long as my mom can remember. (Even long than I can remember! In grade school, we had to do a speech every year from grade 3 to 8, and in fact in grades 6, 7 and 8, I did 2 speeches each year (1 in English, 1 in French). It was some public speaking program. The point I'm not-so-eloquently making is that my grade eight English speech was on birthstones.)

Anyway ... I'm off topic. (As usual.)

I felt like a valued person in TresOrs. I did not feel pressure. The saleslady's eyes did not flash dollar signs when she found out what we were looking for. She did not pressure us to buy. She just answered our questions, and asked some questions about my/our preferences.

I did find one ring that I loved ... then found out the ring cost $10,000. Sigh. A lot over Wade's budget. (I'm not exactly sure what Wade's budget was, but I know it wasn't that.) Plus, the ring wasn't exactly what I wanted. Close, but I'm picky. It was a princess cut diamond with just a few small diamonds along the shank of the ring. I was looking for a princess or other square cut (princess cut is the most popular square cut, but there are other cuts, such as asscher and radiant.

Anyway, the feature that I just looooove is when you can see the side of diamond. Like these ring examples:











So we went back once to keep looking and talk with the jeweller. He indicated that he could either bring in other rings for me to look at or design a ring. He indicated that there are many one-of-a-kind (or very few-of-a-kind) rings out there, but the fact that it's already been designed means we don't have to pay design fees.

He was quite honest in discussing ways to save money. He reviewed the 4Cs again (cut, colour, clarity, carat), and explained why cut is the most important. (A good cut can make a lower quality colour and clarity appear better.) He seeks out only well cut diamonds. When I expressed my desire to get Canadian diamonds to avoid conflict diamonds, he explained that jewellers purchasing from reputable sources that rely on reputable processes cannot get conflict diamonds. It's just not possible.

Anyway, at this point, the jeweller asked me to send emails of rings that I liked (not a problem - I had a whole folder of saved rings.) Then he'd see what he could find that's similar, and let me know when we could go back in.

(Note: in the end I decided to get a Canadian diamond, due to their quality, to reduce my carbon footprint and support the (kinda) local economy (well, local being 2000 km / 1250 mi away from the "local" Canadian diamond mines versus over 10,000 km / 6000 mi to the African mines).)

To be continued ...

Engagement Story (Part 1)

Wade & I had discussed getting married. We knew we would get married, it was just a matter of when. Eventually, we started looking at rings for a few months, on-and-off, by popping into a jewellery store every now and then. We started off looking at the mainstream chains. I liked very little of what I saw of these rings, but I found a couple that I liked at Charm. We kept looking, but there isn't exactly

Then we started looking at small jewellers in the area. We had heard good things about one well-known local jeweller so we went downtown. This is the kind of store where the owner is on-site. We had many questions, and he was very enthusiastic in showing off his custom work and answering our questions. We were in the middle of asking a question when another customer entered the store. The owner excused himself, explaining that he would only be a moment because this customer was just picking up a custom-made ring. However, the owner and the customer proceeded to discuss the features of the ring for several minutes. I think the customer was a doctor, that cocky kind of doctor that no one wants to see in the emergency room (and none of the nurses or other staff want to work with). But I digress.

When the owner finally returned to us over five minutes later (for something that would only take a moment), we finished up our conversation and left. The owner encouraged us to look around, because he was sure we wouldn't find anything better. When we left, I told Wade that even though his rings were gorgeous, he was rude. But, if his rings were the best ...

We decided since we were downtown, we should take his advice and look around.

The next place we went to was another small locally owned and operated store. Neither of us had heard of it, but it was charming. The lady working there was so helpful. Her eyes did not light up when we told her what we were looking for. (If you've ever been shopping for an engagement ring, you know the look.) She was kind, showed us their collection (from several designers, as well as from the owner), modify existing pieces, or completely design something for us. She answered our questions, showed off their existing jewellery, and made us feel truly welcome. We never felt the same "salesmanship" we felt from the previous jewellery store.

We continued on our trek to one more jeweller. This place was another small, individually-owned jeweller. Two ladies appeared to be working there, and the lady who helped us was very friendly. And there was a sale, with almost the exact ring that I wanted. However, when we said we weren't purchasing that day, we got the subtle sales pressure. The sale was ending very soon (in fact, at that point, we noticed the sign actually said the sale was ending that day) and we shouldn't pass up such a great sale.

So we left.

There was lots to think about.

Snow Day?

Evidentally, it's Snow Day in blog-o-land. Or so I've been informed by Rachel at Girl Learning Along The Way, who was informed by Sabrina at Introverted Wife.

Need proof? Click here.


P.S. There's no snow on the ground here. Oh well! Someone stoke that fire in the fireplace (the one that I wish I had) for me!


Oh, and Wade proposed to me exactly a year ago yesterday. One of these days, I'll write about it. Promise. Just not sure when I'll get around to it.

Congratulations Kristy!

My friend, former roommate, and bridesmaid recently became engaged to her beau Eric. Congratulations, guys!

L-R: Kristy, me & Emily on Canada Day (July 1) 2007 in our nation's capital

Photography

Our photographers are a husband and wife team, Katie & Steven, of Unveiled Photography. There are so many benefits to having two photographers! When we were initially looking at photographers, I had my short list of about 4 local photographers, including Unveiled Photography. Then friends of our mentioned that Unveiled Photography were their wedding photographers, and they were thrilled with the results. We were sold. We didn't even ask Katie & Steven for references - we already had a glowing review from friends of ours!

As part of our photographers' package, an engagement session is included. I didn't initially want an engagement session, but they gave some very good reasons for getting one. In their opinion, an engagement session allows the photographers to learn how we photograph before our wedding. Plus, as Katie mentioned, if we love another season, we get can professional pictures in that season. I was sold at that point!

Many people love the fall. For many people, it's their favourite time of year. Many people get married in the fall. Many spring/summer brides get fall engagement sessions. But I'm not like most people. The fall initially depresses me: it's the end of the summer, the days are getting shorter, and it gets colder.

Once autumn has actually arrived (there is not a hint of summer), I love the warm autumn days, the crisp nights, the colourful scenery, eating fresh apples and enjoying apple cider. But the initial depression I always get at the end of summer / start of the fall always bums me out.

I also love the winter. I love the beautiful light that is reflected off the evening snow. I even love winter weddings! We got engaged in December of last year, on December 15th, so let's have a winter wonderland engagement session!

Click here for images of our photographers' recent engagement sessions.