this moment

THIS MOMENT: a friday ritual. a single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. a simple, special, extraordinary moment. a moment i want to pause, savor, remember & cherish.

The newly married Mr. & Mrs. C's wedding highlights... the fruit ice cream was the Lil' Man's favourite part. He didn't know which one he liked more so he had both. Luckily the orange one wasn't near by or he probably would have had all 3!

this moment

THIS MOMENT: a friday ritual. a single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. a simple, special, extraordinary moment. a moment i want to pause, savor, remember & cherish.

JULY 25, 2015 - R + M's wedding.

We had a great time celebrating an amazing couple (Mr. & Mrs. R) Saturday evening as they tied the knot. It was my first time attending an outdoor wedding ceremony and it was so beautiful. Such a wonderful wedding - a gorgeous bride, a lovely venue and the food was great! I felt a little lost not having my little side kick with us. It was so hard leaving him at home sick when he needed us but we are so glad we were able to witness Byron's cousins say their I do's! I Aren't these handmade flowers the bride made just stunning?

It's been a long week at our place with a very sick Lil Man. Sunday he had a fever of almost 40 C and he just wasn't breaking it even with taking Advil and Tylenol so we took him to the ER. The doctor figures he had an ear infection and possibly a throat one too. He's been up through the night a lot more than usual and it's been a very exhausting week.  When I look back at the month of July, I'm glad to see it go. It really did not treat us well.

I WON THE CENTREPIECE!

I'm back!  Looks like this week is a successful blogging week. This past weekend was the first time I won the centrepiece at a wedding and I almost didn't get it. We left the reception earlier in the evening because the music was way too loud for the Lil Man's ears.  Since I left early I didn't want to take the centrepiece so I arranged for my parents to bring it when they headed home. 

 

 

When the servers set up the late nigh buffet tables they came and removed the centerpiece and did not bother returning it when they were done with it. Long story short it went missing and my cousin had to hunt it down and luckily found it as someone had tried to snatch it {people these days}.

 

 

 

The flower arrangement is HUGE



 

 

And so very beautiful...

 

 

 

I started snapping photos and almost could not stop.

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry about the picture overload, but I just had to share these beauties.  I can not wait till the peonies and hydrangeas in my garden start to bloom. 

 

  

And so it Begins... Wedding Season

This past weekend we attended our first wedding for 2014. It took place at Le Jardin Banquet Hall in Woodbridge.  As we drove up to the building it reminded me of all the other banquet hall buildings in the Greater Toronto area and I thought to myself "this is going to be fun trying to locate the reception room". However, once we arrived, a not very friendly parking coordinator directed us where to park and which door to enter through. This made it super easy to locate the banquet room which was really nice as there was a lot of wedding receptions taking place and it was a very big building. Everything looked very pretty including the bride of course. The colour theme was a very soft pink and gold.  I hope the Bride and Groom's wedding day was everything they dreamed it would be.

 

Before we left the house I tried to get a family picture and this is the best I could get.

 

 

 

From a guest's point of view I was extremely disgusted with the service at this banquet hall and would NEVER recommend it as a venue for ANY function. Over the years I have attended a lot of weddings but I had never left a reception feeling as irritated and annoyed as I did this past weekend. I have never encountered servers like the ones at this venue.  They were so incredibly rude and inconsiderate. They were clearly unhappy with their jobs and it reflected in their work.  The table setting looked beautiful and included a lot of dishes, cutlery and cups.

 

 

As a result, the table was extremely cluttered and there was not much room for anything else (i.e.  platters with food). However, this was not the guest's problem. Perhaps they should seat fewer people at each table or get larger tables. At one point in the evening,  a server wanted to place a hot platter of calamari directly in front of the Lil Man because according to the server the table was too full.  First of all how was that our problem and second was he sleeping? Who in their right mind would put something that hot in front of a child let alone a toddler. 

 

The evening seriously just continued to get worse as the time past. The poor Lil Man had to sit and watch everyone eat three different dishes (the antipasto dish, the cream of collard soup dish,  and a pasta and rice dish) before his kids meal finally arrived at 9:00 p.m.  By that time he was past starving,  he was ready for bed. Seriously,  if they do not want children attending functions at their Banquet Hall perhaps they should only offer adult parties. I asked a number of times before hand when the children's dish was coming and they just kept telling me soon and eventually they said when the main dish arrives. When I informed the server that the Lil Man was hungry they starred at the bread basket implying that was food. There's only so much bread a kid can eat. To say I was one pissed off Momma would be an understatement. I was ready to let someone have it. When they came to collect his plate they made a point of mentioning that he did not really eat any of it so I made them aware that kid's need to eat earlier, but I'm sure it just fell on deaf ears. Either way that's enough complaining for today, as I know it will not accomplish anything. The food they served wasn't very appealing nor was it tasty. I guess it's your typical banquet hall food. If any of our readers ever have a function at this banquet hall in the future and your kids are coming also, you may want to feed them before you head in.

 

On another note,  here's my two most favourite guys in the whole entire world, don't they look handsome?

Have a lovely Tuesday Everyone!

 



5 Years Ago Today...

... we were saying I Do! I can not believe 5 years have past already. 

Seeing as I was not blogging then I thought I would share some photos from our wedding day -- it was a cool windy fall day, mainly overcast (which was perfect for photos) and it spit a bit while we were heading to our reception location (Tangle Creek). The fall colours surrounding Tangle Creek were beautiful as you can see in the following photo.

 

 

 

I can not believe it was 5 years ago that I married my best friend, an amazing husband and father. So lucky to be able to call you my husband!!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

 

A Country Glam Wedding

If you are looking for some Country Themed wedding inspiration than you are in the right place. A year ago today a very special little boy invited us to attended his mom and dad's wedding - it was my good friend Shan's special day, and there was no way we were going to miss this big day. It was beautiful! The theme of the wedding was Country Glam. This was their invitation. Isn't it cute how their son invited the guests? Such cute wording for the invite.
 



It was a wonderful day. The party was great and the bride looked absolutely stunning. Since I did not blog about it last year (we did not start the blog until November) I thought I would do it a year later. My friend found a lot of inspiration online and brought it all together to create a beautiful country themed wedding.  There were a lot of wonderful ideas!

 

I tried to help out whenever possible. The Thursday before the big day I went and helped set up.  One of my jobs was putting together the seating chart. I really like what she did it was such a great idea - she attached the seating chart list of each table to some old windows and placed them on top of some bails of hay. Here's the finished product ...

As guests walked into the venue, the seating chart was directly to their right.

Right after the ceremony I was asked to head to the reception site to look after some last minute details -plug in all the lights around the venue and light up all the candles on the tables.  Once I was done  I had a bit of extra time before guests started to arrive so I took some photos of all the details as a lot of time and planning went into them.  The lighting in the building was not the greatest so I must apologize in advance as some photos are not the greatest quality.

The wedding reception took place at the GNE Fairgrounds (Great Northern Exhibition).  Just outside of Collingwood, Ontario, Canada.  A beautiful country setting surrounded both the ceremony location and the reception location which was perfect for a country themed wedding.

The bride and groom had a sign welcoming guests at the entrance gate and then there were signs throughout directing guests were to go. Guests were able to bring campers and tents and camp out after the big party, which was perfect for out of town guests!

As guests entered they were instructed to sign the guest book and a "Rough Road Ahead" sign. Such a great idea!

 

Men With Knives catered the wedding. They prepared a very delicious meal consisting of pork roast, roast beef, assortment of salads, and roasted new potatoes. They did an amazing job on the meal especially the pork roast!

 

The flowers used on the cake (artificial) and in the bouquets and centerpieces were Gerber Daisies. They looked beautiful!
 

The cake was created by a friend of the couple and was served right after dinner for dessert. Such a great idea. At our wedding we served ours during the late night buffet and not much of it was eaten {meant we had more of it to bring home and freeze}.
 

The reception venue was decorated with antique items throughout. The Bride and Groom each had their corner were something significant to them was displayed.

The past meets present was the theme of the bride's corner.  The corner was decorated with antique items that her father collects, mirrored dressers, and handmade quilts. When you were in the bride's corner it was like you were stepping back fourty to sixty years, but when you looked into the mirrors you were back in 2012 looking at her wedding day celebration! It was very interesting seeing some of the antique items, especially the old camera.

The Bride's Mother's and Grandmother's wedding dresses were on display along with the Bride's Mother's and the Bride's christening dresses. It was such a neat idea and a beautiful way to decorate the hall!

The Grooms corner had an old John Deere tractor ...

 

The tables were decorated with burlap runners down the center, Gerber daisy centrepieces, candles, and different coloured gingham napkins which added a splash of colour to the tables. Each table also had an anniversary card in the center. Guests were asked to write a message in the card and when the couple celebrates their 1 - 14th anniversary they will open the card and see all the messages. For example, on their 4th anniversary they will open table number 4's card. Another neat idea!

 

Along the top of the following photo you can see the photo display they had which worked nicely to fill up the empty wall space. Initially the bride was going to do a slide show, but then decided to take this rout, which I think worked out perfectly (this was another thing I helped with setting up).

 

 

The bride did the table numbers herself. They looked good on the tables. The burlap flowers were cute.

 

In the back right corner of the above photo you can see the candy station. It was a big hit for both the kids and of course the kids at heart! I really like how the bride chose to display it!! An antique scale sat on top of the dresser and it was labelled perfectly for guest to see!

Here's the head table.
 

 

 I absolutely loved the bridal party's wine glasses. Perfect for a Country themed wedding!!

 

The bride had these beautiful candelabras also on the head table, aren't they just gorgeous, I believe they were from Michael's?

 

At each place setting guest had a s'more treat. Such a GREAT favour idea for a country wedding!! The bride hand wrote each tag.

 

The Details throughout we're impeccable and I just had to do a blog post about this wonderful day! It was such a lovely wedding. We are so happy we were able to be a part of Shan's special day!



 

A Special Day

I don't normally blog on a Sunday, but today is a Special Day. One year ago today, my little cousin J married his high school sweetheart. It was such a beautiful wedding!

For our little family it was one of our mini vacations for 2012. It was Hugo's first time staying in a hotel (he was 5 1/2 months). Unfortunately I do not have many photos of this special day.  I only brought my little purse camera that I have, which I discovered does not take the greatest inside photos. I was also in-charge of looking after their guest book and snappy Polaroid pictures of guests as they arrived, so I did not have a lot of time.  I managed to find a couple photos though.

Hugo after the awesome party and
spending his first night in a hotel.

I just love weddings (we attended two beautiful weddings in 2012 -- the following one and a Country themed one. In 2014 we will have another wedding which Byron & Hugo will be in).  I find there is always an abundance of love in the air on a wedding day and there are so many things to look forward to.

Dressing up in something Fancy - I personally like an opportunity where I get to do my nails and dress up all nice and fancy.

The last time I gave myself a French Manicure

I find when you have a kid you just don't have time

for these things any more.

 Byron, on the other hand, hates it.  Hugo, on this particular day was ok with being in a suit. He just did not want anything to do with wearing his shoes.

Getting dressed and being naughty

sticking out his tong.

 I found a place online were I was able to get Hugo and Byron matching ties (I ordered them from My Favorite Pal). I did not get a good family picture of us, but before we headed to the ceremony we snapped the following pictures and I am so glad we did.

The Ceremony - the moment when you get to witness two individuals express their love for each other and give each other their hearts for a lifetime.

The importance of a wedding ceremony did not sink in until I got married myself. Before then I barely ever went to the ceremony. The wedding ceremony was always earlier in the day and seemed so impossible to get to on time. Plus there was always the question -- what to do once the ceremony  was over and you had to figure out how to spend the four hours between the ceremony and the reception? After our wedding my view completely changed and I quickly realized that the ceremony was the most important part of the entire wedding day, next to the beautiful bride of course. Without the ceremony there would be no wedding. I now try really hard to get us to the ceremony.

J & N's wedding ceremony took place at the following church. I found this photo online on the photographer's website (Samantha Erin Photography) - this was not the photographer they used but I thought it was a great shot of this cute little church.

Photo from Samantha Erin Photography website

I am not one to get all teary eyed (I usually leave that to my mom) but at a wedding ceremony there are usually three parts when I get a tear or two in my eyes. The first is when the bride walks down the aisle towards her Knight in Shinning Armour (I think it's because of the music). The second part is during the following reading which was one of the readings at our wedding and is so often used at weddings we have attended.

The third part is when I hear the couple say their vows. In all three cases they are tears of joy of course. I guess these three parts always bring me back to the wonderful memories of our own wedding day (which was almost 5 years ago) - a day that we planned for months and past by so fast.

J+N's transportation for the day

The First Dance - J & N did an awesome job with their first dance. They had all their professional dance moves down to a "T".  They danced to such a beautiful song by  Ingrid Michaelson - The Way I am (I am actually listening to it as I write this post).

The Meal - another thing I look forward to at a wedding -- usually a very delicious one.  One year ago today our meal consisted of a traditional Portuguese soup - Caldo Verde (starter). I will have to post the recipe one day. Followed by a mouth watering delicious Prime Rib Roast Beef served with grilled veggies and potatoes. Then we were served a chicken piece stuffed with a pistachio & goat cheese filling and a salad. (I was quite stuffed by this point but it was delicious. I have searched online for a recipe that replicates it but have yet to find one that is similar- I really want to try and make it at home. To be honest I'm not a fan of goat cheese or cheese in general, but this chicken was so tasty). For dessert we were served crepes and ice cream. By that point I was stuffed like a turkey, but some how managed to finish my dessert. Later in the evening there was more yummy food.  I did get the following photos of the yummy dessert and the late night buffet table.

  

The Details - The final thing that I look forward to is seeing all the details - the dresses (bride and bridesmaids), the flowers, the favours, the centrepieces, etc. The items that require so much time planning, but bring the wedding together and make it outstandingly beautiful and perfect.

I thought this was a neat idea. As guests arrived at the reception this is what they saw next to the framed seating chart. The wedding photos from the bride and groom's parents and grandparents.

The beautiful white hydrangea centrepieces. Hydrangea's are one of the top five flowers I really like. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the ones in my garden do better this year.

 

At each place setting there were these cute little boxes filled with Hugs and Kisses from the new  Mr. & Mrs. At the bottom of each chocolate there were little stickers with the couple's name and wedding date.

 

 

 

These are the details through their photographers lens (Shawn Bettencourt Photography) ...

 I absolutely loved the bride's dress and shoes -so pretty.

 

The reception took place at a Yacht Club and was a beautiful venue with lots of windows to let in lots of natural light. Since the wedding was in April there weren't any boats in the water but it was still a gorgeous backdrop behind the head table.

As guests left they were given a cute little  seedling.

Here's the custom card I made for their very 1st Anniversary (traditionally known as the Paper Anniversary). The 3D tree has the lyrics from their first dance and is affixed to premium cardstock.    The two hearts have the couple's initials. The inside reads "Happy 1st Anniversary" followed by their names and their 1st Anniversary date. The envelope had part of the sheet music of their first dance.

While I was working on the above card I also made the following card ...

The roots of a Family - 3D Tree Card

 

Close-up of verse and heart embellishments

 

This card will work great for either another anniversary card or even a wedding card. The 3D tree has the verse ... The Roots of a Family Tree begin with the Love of two hearts. It is affixed to premium cardstock. There are two small heart embellishments hanging off the tree. The inside of the card is blank for your own personal message.

(This card is currently available for purchase)

I seriously can not believe its been a year already since J & N tied the knot. We are so happy we were able to be a part of their special day. It was a gorgeous Spring Wedding! We wish them many years of happiness together filled with a lot of wonderful blessings!

The Happy Couple 1 Year Ago