Money Saving Wedding Ideas

So I've been planning Nice Guy's and my wedding for about 5 months now, and I got some really good deals that I thought I'd share, just in case anyone out there is planning a wedding as well.

1. Bridemaid Dresses = $26.99 CAD each

I saw this dress in Ricki's, loved it then bought and wore it to a friends wedding. It is my favourite colour. I saw it a couple months later and it had dropped to clearance price ($26.99) and I decided to call up all my bridesmaids and tell them to go to their local Ricki's store and see if they liked it. All three of them went that weekend and even though they have very different body types, all of them said they loved how it looked on them. So I said done! That's the dress. We had them before we had my wedding dress picked out.

2. Bridesmaid Gift = $29.99 CAD each

After we had gotten my ring resized I kept getting emails from People's Jewellers. Which ended up being a good thing because they had a huge sale and these blue diamond necklaces were regular $79.99, so now I can get them a really nice piece of jewellery, plus a little something extra.


3. Favours = ~$1.50 CAD each



We decided to make jam and jelly for our wedding favours, which is great if you have A LOT of time before the wedding. I kinda knew Nice Guy and I would probably be getting married in 2013, so in the summer of 2012 we had a talk and decided to go berry picking. We got Saskatoon Berries and Chokecherries from a local public woodlot, and Evans Cherries from a neighbour who had a few OVERLOADED trees that she couldn't possibly use all by herself. Then we washed and froze everything (which apparently makes better jelly!) and then waited till the end of the season and got all the mason jars and Certo on sale. I also got a 10 kg bag of sugar on sale, which made 140 jars (125 ml) perfectly! We've already made the Saskatoon Berry Jam and the Chokecherry Jelly using recipes we found online and both turned out perfectly. Adding a teaspoon of lemon juice to the jelly worked great and it was setting almost before we could get it all in the jars. I'll have to let you know how the Evans Cherry Jelly goes. I found blank business cards on sale at Staples and then used scrap booking scissors to cut off two corners and a hole punch to make the label. On the back the flavour is printed. On the front I found a stamp from Michael's and ink in my colour and will lovingly be stamping every one of those. Then I found twine at the dollar store and voila! Since our flavours aren't very common (none of my family have even heard of them before), I think this little present will go over very well.

4. Invites = ~$0.50 CAD each

I don't have a picture of my invites but I got them from Michaels for $9.99 and they came in a box of 30. There were envelopes, reply cards, guest information cards and the invitation itself which had a ribbon and little circle you stuck on that had your initials. I changed the ribbon to better match my colour scheme (which I also got on sale at Michaels) and I found a stamp that had our initials while we were on a trip a few months earlier that I liked a lot better, so we used that instead. And then you just use the program they give you to print your invites. My good friend actually made them all for me because she was so far away but really wanted to help me out, so all I had to do was write out the addresses and stick on the stamps. We also made a wedding website with The Knot (www.theknot.com) so we had them reply by either going online or calling my friend who would keep track for us. That way we saved on postage for the reply cards.

I'll leave it there for now and I'll let you know if I find any more good stuff!

Post Christmas Scare

So while playing with our new christmas gifts and eating some Russell Stover truffles, I happened to look down at our coffee table and see that we had run out of chocolates. So I asked Nice Guy, "Did you eat the rest of the chocolates? That was like half a box of chocolates!"
And he said no, I haven't had any since before lunch.
Just then, my Pride (aka my dog, Nice guy's dog is my Joy now that I've moved in with Nice Guy and have pretty much adopted all his animals... sorry, need to update more often) puked up a little brown puddle of mostly water.
SHIT!!!
So then I'm on the internet research chocolate poisoning in dogs and all the websites say to call the vet because the amount, type of chocolate and weight of the dog are really the determining factors in how serious it could be. So we called Nice Guy's vet since I haven't switched my Pride to the one here in town yet. And this is a super nice vet who I won't actually acknowledge on here but is going to get a very nice Thank You note.
After a bunch of questions about how long ago he ate the chocolate and what exactly the chocolate was and how much he probably ate she told us we can either bring him in or we can get a syringe and shoot 1 ml of hydrogen peroxide for every pound of body weight of the dog down the back of his throat. *if you try that at home by yourself, you are trying at your own risk and all I'm saying here is what I was told to do and am no way shape or form condoning or suggesting that you do this*
She said he should start throwing up in about 10 minutes. So we did, although we were smart and did it outside because we only had a 20 ml syringe and he needed 38 ml. After the first dose he walked away and puked a giant puddle of brown liquid goop. And then he seemed okay, so we were wondering if we should give him the rest. We decided to do that and after the second dose he started throwing up like that episode of Family Guy where they drank ipecac. I can't believe how much chocolate he actually ate. He was really mad at me but I tried to tell him it was for his own good. After a few minutes of petting and cuddling he seemed to forgive me and then he drank some water so I think he's all good now. I'll be keeping an eye on him for the rest of the night though.

Falling In Love is Like Owning a Dog

I found this poem and I love it so I want to share it.

Falling in love is like owning a dog
an epithalamion by Taylor Mali
www.taylormali.com

First of all, it's a big responsibility,
especially in a city like New York.
So think long and hard before deciding on love.
On the other hand, love gives you a sense of security:
when you're walking down the street late at night
and you have a leash on love
ain't no one going to mess with you.
Because crooks and muggers think love is unpredictable.
Who knows what love could do in its own defense?

On cold winter nights, love is warm.
It lies between you and lives and breathes
and makes funny noises.
Love wakes you up all hours of the night with its needs.
It needs to be fed so it will grow and stay healthy.

Love doesn't like being left alone for long.
But come home and love is always happy to see you.
It may break a few things accidentally in its passion for life,
but you can never be mad at love for long.

Is love good all the time? No! No!
Love can be bad. Bad, love, bad! Very bad love.

Love makes messes.
Love leaves you little surprises here and there.
Love needs lots of cleaning up after.
Sometimes you just want to get love fixed.
Sometimes you want to roll up a piece of newspaper
and swat love on the nose,
not so much to cause pain,
just to let love know Don't you ever do that again!

Sometimes love just wants to go for a nice long walk.
Because love loves exercise.
It runs you around the block and leaves you panting.
It pulls you in several different directions at once,
or winds around and around you
until you're all wound up and can't move.

But love makes you meet people wherever you go.
People who have nothing in common but love
stop and talk to each other on the street.

Throw things away and love will bring them back,
again, and again, and again.
But most of all, love needs love, lots of it.
And in return, love loves you and never stops.