Oh, the Wedding Show season is upon us!

Over the past couple of weeks I've made it out to two bridal shows, each at complete opposites of the spectrum.

I was so ridiculously excited for The Carlu Wedding Show on the 8th of January and it turned out to be everything I had expected it to be. Let's start with the Venue. For obvious reasons I thought it was fantastic - I LOVE The Carlu. The variety of rooms made it easy to remember which vendors you had seen where and gave visitors a great overview of the entire space. Vendors were actually spaced well enough apart so that you weren't tripping over the next and there were enough vendors to accommodate the number of visitors, so they weren't stuffing your pockets with garbage. Being a reputable business is important to me and only the best of the best were participating. Prices were accommodating to every budget - from moderate to over the top and most of the vendors had something very unique about them.

Last Sunday, the 24th, my future mother-in-law and I went to The Burlington Oakville Wedding Show. The venue itself was your usual conference centre and they did use as much space as possible, but here's where we get to the messy bit. There were too many vendors for the size of the venue, many of which had huge booths or were so blended with the next, I couldn't tell who was who!  A huge runway took up such valuable retail space and the fashions were all things we'd seen before in 100 other retailers. The vendors were extremely aggressive, but there were a few diamonds in the rough that I am extremely interested in follow up on. Oh, and the odd vendors - weight loss clinics and financial planners. I understand that every bride wants too look her best, but having someone shove a pamphlet in your face telling you about weight loss can certainly leave a girl damaged!!

And really, if I wanted a financial planner/investment banker, I'd find one. I'm planning my wedding right now, I don't really want to negotiate the perfect wedding dress for a retirement plan....

Here's a quick list of the vendors I wanted to find out more about at both shows:

Invitations!

I've been working hard to tie all of my ideas for invitations together and I think I've finally done it! These Art Deco invitations and rsvp cards by HelloTenFold are perfect and the mustard yellow colour carries over brilliantly from the bridesmaid skirts by SarahSeven.

I found this slightly metallic peacock feather patterned paper by Cristina Re and love the idea of using it as an envelope liner, which will be easy to do, but will take plenty of time and patience. A perfect Saturday afternoon craft! The amazing peacock feather framed monogram is a stamp that available from AssPocketProductions on Etsy and we'll use this on the back of the envelope and in place of the skyline at the top of the invitation.  Depending on how much I spend on the invites, whether I hire someone to do them, or do them completely myself, we may have some cash left over to do some custom stamps via CanadaPost. So excited and I'll be sure to post the final product!

Print Your Own Invitations

I found this awesome paperie online today called MaeMae Paperie and a great way to save some cash on some unique designs - she offers the option of printing on your own! As with any paperie, options for ready-made stationary suites and custom are available, but she's got prices starting from USD160 for the 'print-on-your-own' option. So really, there's no limit to how many you can print if you've got loads of guests!

She's paired the sweetest designs with incredible detail in which every thought has been followed through. Suites include table numbers, save the dates, escort cards, and more.

For a sample of her 2010 designs, click here.

Vintage Hats

My future mother-in-law loves to sew and be crafty.
Correction: LOVES to sew and be crafty.
So when she came up with this wicked idea to make vintage hats, I was immediately on board.  What a cool accessory for our lady guests if they feel so inspired to wear one!

Found in the VintageVogue section of the Vogue site, these patterns are so perfect for our vintage themed wedding. Not sure how hard these will be for a beginner sewer, but they sure are fantastic and I am so excited to see how these turn out!

Paper Buildings

I have absolutely fallen in love with the idea of using these paper building templates to build rad decorations. They are fantastically perfect for the 1930s Art Deco theme of our wedding and I am on the hunt for more!

I found free ones at Paper Toys and SkyscraperModels which seem to be as simple as having them printed to the appropriate size on cardstock and following the instructions to glue them together. Templates on Paper Toys seem to be easier and less detailed, so probably best to practice on these before tackling the one from SkyscraperModels.

Here's an example of the Empire State Building in NYC, completed in 1930.

And hey, if these don't work out, I've learned a thing or two about being incredibly crafty with foamcore and double sided tape from my visual merchandising days ;).

Oh my goodness. So inspired!

This has become a bit of an obession overnight. I've now spent almost my entire last day of the holiday vacation creating inspiration boards (without saving and had to restart...twice...). I have discovered this sneaky little thing on Style Me Pretty called the Style Circle. How did I miss this before?! I use this blog religiously! This could be the most fantastic, but frustrating, thing I've found for wedding planning so far. Frustration is likely due to user incapability (twice...) but once mastered, this has become a fantastic find.

One can upload images to create your own story board all while viewing others to find more inspiration. HA!

Take a look at my first inspiration board, which is saving me MUCH headache now that I have tamed this animal and no longer have to deal with silly Word and its text wrapping tools.

Let the Wedding Planning Begin!

So, I am ridiculously excited! Wedding planning can 'officially' begin! Of course, like any girl, I have planning my entire life, but now I can pull out all the secret files on the computer and clippings from magazines I've been collecting and get started.

We got engaged while on vacation in Disney World in September and immediately started deciding on when and where. I've always wanted to do a 1930s inspired Art Deco - Old Hollywood - Glam Vintage wedding and had my mind set on The Carlu - a fantastic venue here in Toronto that had been restored to its 1930s splendour.

Wanting to cut costs (big city weddings can be expensive especially with venues like the Carlu!) and keep things intimate we began thinking about ways we could politely do without a full dinner reception. Byron, my fiancé, suggested that we do an evening wedding and cocktail reception. Even though the idea sounded great, I didn't want to sacrifice the wedding day experience, I scoffed at the idea and started to think about a destination wedding instead - a strong family suggestion! We researched a number of properties in Mexico, and I had myself somewhat convinced that it was what I wanted, too. I knew it would be a lot of work and that I wouldn't have as much creative control, but had planned on doing a fantastic 1930s cocktail reception when we got back for all of the family and friends who couldn't travel with us. It wasn't until I bought The Knot's Guide to Destination Weddings book that I really understood that it was going to cost more than doing something here at home for something that I didn't even love! This book is a must for anyone thinking of doing a destination wedding for more than a few guests.

So! We've decided that we're going back to the evening ceremony and cocktail reception idea! I love the idea of doing a weekend event, so it's still a mini getaway forr everyone as well. We'll stick with a Friday evening to cut costs, do a day at the spa for the girls that morning so we're not stressing about being anywhere by 2 and a ceremony at 7 or 8 pm with a cocktail and h'or d'oeuvres reception to follow. We'll have other things planned for the weekend, like croquet in the park on the Saturday afternoon and brunch and dinners.

I'll share my inspiration boards and things I learn as they develop!

tweetcheeks Welcomes You!

Starting a new year is always exciting, but I've never really been all that committed to making resolutions. Maybe it's the fact that we've turned a new decade, but new beginnings and opportunities, a fresh look on life and a chance to start over are really appealing to me at this point in this rollercoaster ride called life!

I have always been a huge do-it-yourselfer looking for easy ways to make beautiful things (and to make things beautiful), and have always intended to share these ideas. Ready to recharge my life, I figured there was no better opportunity to start a blog to share these ideas with you and to revisit my love of writing.

So far, I've no real intentions as to what route this blog will be taking, but am looking forward to seeing it blossom. We'll start with sharing my wedding ideas (both fails and ideas that are worth keeping!) and enhances to my apartment and we'll go from there!

Thanks for visiting and I'm looking forward to your thoughts and feedback on my ideas.