Deceivingly Different

We've been married for close to six months now.

Our marriage has lasted double that of a certain an infamous Kardashian marriage.

Going into it I expected being married to feel no different from our lives before the wedding.

We had been together for over five years.

Yup, I have five years worth of photos making silly faces like this!

We'd been living together on and off for about four years.

In the eyes of the law we were Common-Law so nothing legally changed.

Our families were already acquainted.

Hanging out with my Nan on the ferry boat, circa 2011

I didn't plan to take his last name.

Jay already referred to me as his wife at work.

We were already those mushy, too-in-love-to-be-true, newlywed wannabes.

Yet, since the wedding everything has felt just a little different. Outwardly everything looks the same, but there is just a feeling that wasn't there before.

The knowledge that we are, 100% in this together and that we acknowledged this in front of everyone we love created a feeling of certainty in our relationship.

His sister now refers to me as her sister, our families now a truly shared entity.

I can't help but smile when I see his wedding band on his finger, knowing that I put it there.

This silly grins, ALL THE TIME! 

We are more intentional in our interactions now. A little more inclined to cuddle a little longer or hug after a long day. Little habits that had been lost in the later years of our dating relationship.

More than all of these reasons, there is a feeling that I am struggling to fully describe. Just a huge feeling of contentment and pure joy. 

Wedding Photos courtesy of our lovely photographer, Sam

I didn't expect to feel as though anything had changed and instead, I feel like everything has changed. 

I hope this little, I love being married mush-fest wasn't too barf inducing. It's been on my mind, well constantly, lately so I couldn't not mention it. 

Keep Smiling :) 

I Made My Wedding Bouquet [Out Of Buttons!]

Before we had decided on a venue, picked a day (or even a season), I was convinced of one wedding detail. I didn't want real flowers. 

I've never been big into flowers, I don't know anything about them and I'm notoriously cheap. I couldn't bring myself to spend hundreds of dollars on something I wasn't in love with. 

I also had a sneaky suspicion that I might wreck the bouquet before the night was over, as I am not exactly graceful. Before I ever made it into the car before Prom I managed to completely destroy my wrist corsage. 

So, I hit up Etsy searching for alternatives to real flowers and was amazed at the possibilities. Silk flowers, paper flowers, broach bouquets, felt flowers, and button bouquets. I immediately became fascinated with the idea of button bouquets. To order the bouquets would have been too expensive, it was about $300 for what we would need. 

I talked it over with Jay and realized we could probably make our own. I watched a few YouTube videos to get the idea and then went off in search of buttons and floral wire. 

Making the flowers was incredibly easy (though time consuming) but was something I did while watching TV and quickly had more stems than I could use. 

Stems can be bound together to make a bouquet in a variety of ways. The simpliest would be to tie them together and wrap the end of the wires in ribbon. You can also use floral foam to create the circle shape (pushing the stems through the foam each time). 

We discovered the floral foam trick after we had jammed hundreds of stems through a kitchen sieve. The stems fit through the tiny holes in the sieve and then we wrapped the metal edges with ribbon. For comfort we then wrapped all the stems in pipe foam, cut to fit and then wrapped in ribbon. 

I haven't offered a step-by-step tutorial for a couple of reasons. If you need one there are many available on other sites, but we worked on it for months and there aren't many photos to pull from. We also figured out many of the steps by trial and error, so if this is something you want to try I would just figure out what works best with your vision. 

Buttons In Action (Photos Courtesy of our Photographer, Samantha)

After we finished the bouquets (one for me, one for my MoH, and small ones for gifts), Jay helped me fashion boutonnieres with the remaining buttons and ribbon. Then we used large sized safety pins for attaching them to the jackets. 

We couldn't figure out, the best way to make button wrist corsages, so we decided to order flower corsages for our moms and grandmas. 

Materials Needed

-Buttons (various sizes) 

-Floral Wire

-Wire Cutters

-Ribbon

-Hot Glue 

-Sieve or Floral Foam 

-Safety Pins

I always add a little disclaimer at the bottom of these wedding posts, because I think all weddings are magical. If you chose real flowers for your wedding I'm sure that were beautiful and the right choice for you! If you think these button bouquets are tacky, probably they aren't the right choice for your wedding. But, the great thing about weddings is, every one is tailored to the couple! 

Linking up for Wedding Wednesday!

Keep Smiling :) 

Creating The Ceremony

Our wedding was far from traditional and full of DIY's but none were more challenging than writing our ceremony.

We opted to have my younger sister officiate, and looked into all the possible ways she could become a wedding officiant online, but where we got married (Nova Scotia), none of those online ordinations are recognized.

Still, we didn't want to give up on her officiating so we hired a Justice of the Peace to perform the legal ceremony the morning of the wedding and then have J-Dar (my sister's well loved nickname) perform the ceremony for our family and friends.

Courtesy of our lovely photographer, Samantha

We wanted to keep the morning legalities as low-key and unauthentic as possible, so not to tarnish the actual wedding for everyone (including us). Jay & I, along with the Best Man & Maid of Honour were the only people there for the ceremony in Jay's hotel room. No photos, no fancy clothes, just us making it legal.

For the real ceremony, since we were having my sister officiate we had to create our own ceremony basically from scratch.

We scoured the internet for ideas but eventually had to revert back to using a good old fashion book to build the ceremony from. This book was the best resource I found, it has information about all kinds of different ceremonies, traditional and more modern so we picked from a variety of ceremony styles and then edited and re-wrote parts to create one perfect for us! 

We opted to include a blessing from our guests, a reading by Jay's sister (Captain Corelli's Mandolin) and to write our own vows. The whole ceremony was about 15 minutes long and much to the dismay of my button bouquet, it was the part of the wedding that people complimented the most.

Courtesy of our lovely photographer, Samantha

Having my sister officiate and his sister do a reading meant so much to Jay and I. It was important to us to have our siblings involved and took the stress out of the day, knowing that the people who knew us best were the ones responsible for getting us hitched! 

For us, writing the ceremony and having my sister officiate was the right choice. I don't begrudge anyone for making a different choice. I understand other couples chose churches, spiritual leaders or non-denominational officiants because the lovely thing about weddings is they are yours, and yours alone. Researching for our wedding allowed me to peek inside so many weddings and it is amazing how personal each one is!

Linking up for Wedding Wednesday with Meredith from Belle In Boots and Mary from a Little Bit Of Class, Little Bit Of Sass!  

Keep Smiling :) 

A Handmade Wedding: Part 2

Last week I shared a few of our Wedding DIY's and now I've got a few more, simple (I promise) projects you can totally manage! I am not crafty at all and I did it, you can too! 

Centrepieces

We opted to keep things simple, with mason jars and paper flowers.

Photos Courtesy Of Our Lovely Photographer

Jars: Mason jars, wrapped in wide yellow and thin grey ribbon (hot glued in place). We then glued initial tags, printed on coloured cardstock to the front and filled the jars with white tulle. We also used the jars to store pens in for the Guest Book. 

Pinterest inspiration found here.

Paper & Button Flowers: We made paper flowers (link to tutorial below), using sheet music purchased from a thrift store ($2) and secured to floral wire with hot glue. Button flowers were made by sliding buttons onto wire and twisting (too easy)! Flowers & buttons were of different sizes. 

Paper flower tutorial on Pinterest found here. 

Table Numbers

We spray painted $1 Ikea Tolsby Frames and put a photo of each of us at similar ages on either side. We opted just to do similar ages, rather than for the pictures to be of us at the age of the table number (ex. Us at 3 for Table 3). Guests could find their seating assignments in framed signs (8x10) near the entrance. 

Pinterest Inspiration found here. 

Cake Stand (Our Epic Fail) 

We were having mini cupcakes in place of a wedding cake and thought we could totally make our own stand. So off to the dollar store we went, and bought 3 square plastic plates of varying sizes. We had a hard time finding something to put between the stands but eventually found (ugly) candlestick holders at our local thrift shop. Jay glued it all together and we considered spray painting it, but it would have held about 12 cupcakes, and we planned to have over 100. So we would have needed way too many stands, plus it was uglier than spray paint could have helped. 

For a smaller party or to display one type of dessert I think it would work, but for wedding cupcakes it just wasn't big enough. Sadly, no photos, but here are a couple of successful stands via Pinterest. 

Source // Source

Candy Table 

Candy tables are becoming increasingly popular on Pinterest. They're an easy way to give your guests a little late night treat- plus who doesn't like a little candy?!?!?! 

Jars: We decorated jars of various sizes, as per above instructions. 

Jar Labels & Sign: Designed by a friend and printed on patterned cardstock.

Candy Banner: printed off from here onto plain white cardstock (the grey border already matched our colour scheme, but any cardstock would work)! 

*It's obviously not clear in the black & white photos, but below you can see we bought yellow & blue candies to match our colours and layered them to add interest. 

Have you attempted any DIY's for a wedding or any other big party? How'd they go? 

Linking up for Wedding Wednesday! 

Keep Smiling :) 

A Handmade Wedding

Confession: I am not very crafty, I don't live in a Pinterest inspired home. I have few projects that I could call a success, and a list of half-finished projects that were far from successful. 

Yet for the wedding we decided to make almost all the decorations and details. Surprisingly, with the exception of one project (details to come) we were successful on all counts. 

Card Box 

We bought three different sized cardboard boxes with lids from the Dollar Store, wrapping paper and ribbon. The wrapping paper was actually adhesive so we could stick it to the box easily. Jay taped the box lids on and cut the card slot before he began wrapping.  We hot glued the corner pieces down and then added ribbon and glued the boxes together. Voila, a simple cardbox you can make in any colour, with added designs! 

Pinterest inspiration and instructions found here.

Guest Book 

We opted not to have a traditional guest book and instead had guests fill out Mad-Libs and advice cards that we are going to bind into a book. 

Courtesy of our Wedding Photographer

Mad-Libs & Advice Cards: We printed cards (links below) on patterned cardstock, bought on sale at Michael's (3 Packs/$11). 

Free Mad-Lib Printables here.

Flower Pens: We cut the excess plastic branches off fake flowers ($2 for a dozen at the Dollar Store), hot glued them to the end of the pens and then wrapped pens with floral tape. 

Pinterest instructions and inspiration found here. 

Jar: Details to come. 

Sign: We had a friend design all of our signs, printed them on coloured cardstock and placed them in a simple frame we had spray painted silver. 

Sign Inspiration found here. 

Bathroom Baskets

Sadly, no pictures of ours exist but we made baskets for each of the bathrooms with essentials to make our guests more comfortable. 

For baskets we used Ikea Garnityr Boxes, decorated with a ribbon and sign printed on yellow cardstock. 

We included travel sized moisturizers, mouthwash, advil, deodorant, etc. Bobby pins, hair elastics, clear nail polish, Q-Tips, Baby Wipes, combs, mints, kleenx, and more. There was a lot left at the end of the night, but much of it had been used (kleenx, baby wipes, deodorant, lip chap, bobby pins and mints were taken or used). A few guests commented on the boxes, so I'd consider this a worthwhile DIY. It can be as simple or elaborate as you can afford. A few mints and bobby pins could easily be enough! 

Pinterest Inspiration found here. 

Ok, that's all for this week. Next week, I'll share a few of our reception DIY's and our one epic fail! 

Did you, or would you, undertake any DIY's for your wedding? 

Linking up for Wedding Wednesday! I never thought I'd blog much about my our Wedding but it's kind of fun! 

Keep Smiling :) 

Why I Gave My Wedding Dress Away (2 Weeks After The Wedding)

So, as I've mentioned just a few dozen times- Jay & I got married at the end of April. You can read more about it here and here.

I decided before I ever bought my dress that I didn't want to spend a crazy amount of money on it, as I went a little overboard with my twelfth grade prom dress and didn't want a repeat of that. I also decided that I would find a place to donate my dress following the wedding.

With a few internet searches I found the perfect organization to accept my loved dress, The Valley Cinderella Project. They're work specifically to help match women in the military or with spouses in the military with gowns for special events, including of course, weddings! Best of all, dresses are given FREE of charge which was a key factor for me in choosing where to donate it.

Two weeks, almost to the hour from the day Jay & I said "I Do" I loaded my well-travelled dress into the car, and dropped it off to the coordinator of the program.

I'd be lying if I didn't admit a little emotional, I thought I had completely accepted this choice but when I walked out without it, I felt a twinge of remorse. Knowing that instead of sitting in my closet for the next sixty years it might help get another bride down the aisle helped me bounce back quickly.

I'm not completely without nostalgia, we kept my veil, sash, bouquet and some of Jay's stuff for a shadow box of memories. For us, keeping the dress just wasn't the right choice. 

In case you need more convincing on why it was the right choice for me, or why it might work for you, a blogland favourite, a convincing list for you. 

Photos courtesy of our lovely photographer, check her out here

Five Reasons For Donating A Dress So Soon After The Wedding

1) It is still in style. Most programs accepting donations place a cap of about 5 years on dress donations, as styles can change dramatically and if not properly stored 5 years can be quite hard on a dress. Donating it soon after the wedding ensures it is an "in style" option for the next bride.

2) I don't have to store it. We live in a tiny apartment, storing the dress for 8 months prior to the wedding was enough hassle, the thought of keeping it indefinitely was stressful! 

3) It gets a second chance. My wedding day was lovely, and the dress was comfortable (and beautiful in my humble opinion!) but the opportunities to wear a wedding dress a second time are limited so this way my dress gets a second chance at love!

4) It helps close the chapter. Sure, this reason is a little sad, but the days after the wedding were emotionally charged. Donating the dress helped created some positive feelings during a bittersweet time, and started the motions towards "regular" life again.

5) It feels good to help. Weddings are expensive and in a way self-serving, (exceptions of course exist!) but this creates an opportunity to do something kind for someone else, as part of the wedding! 

Would you donate your dress? If you're married, what did you do with you dress after the wedding? 

Linking up with Belle in Boots & Little Bit of Class for Wedding Wednesday! 

Keep Smiling :) 

Disclaimer: I am throwing no-shade at any of you lovely ladies who kept or plan to keep your wedding dress. The wonderful thing about weddings is that they are completely personal and the choices related to them are entirely our own! 

This Happened...

...at our wedding!

I have shared very few details about our wedding in my blog(s), beforehand because I didn't want to spoil any surprises for guests and now because I was hoarding all my wedding secrets. We just got our photos back so it seems like time to share! 

- The ceremony and reception was all held at a restaurant right on the water in Halifax. Surrounded by windows everyone had a view of the harbour and ocean. 

- My sister officiated and did the most amazing (and professional) job. We wrote the entire ceremony ourselves and she brought it to life beautifully. She memorized it, so before the wedding she would practice it as a rap song, with a British accent. It was incredible. 

- Jay & I made the bouquets and boutonnieres out of buttons. It took a long time, but was totally worth it, still one of my favourite parts of the day. 

- For our grand entrance we decided wearing Moustache sunglasses was the best idea, and did so without warning any of our guests or family. 

- We had a "Kissing Menu" for guests, rather than clinking glasses, they could chose to sing us a song, act out a movie or give us some advice to have us kiss. All but 1 table participated (and most sang more than one), the waitstaff even got in on it. 

My 95 year old grandma even got up to sing us a song

- We had a Conga Line to Shaggy's It Wasn't Me, started by my lovely and adorable father. How that song even made it on the DJ's playlist I'm not sure, but everyone got in on it. 

- Between the two of us, Jay & I didn't even finish one cupcake at the reception. We over ordered to the extreme and then because of the dance fun almost none were eaten! 

The tower of uneaten cupcakes, later enjoyed by the restaurant staff

- At the end of the night we walked back to the hotel, and I decided the best choice was to cut through a dirt garden patch, no big thing. "Wedding dress off-roading" I called it (and the strongest drink I had all night was gingerale)!

Photos courtesy of Sambino's Photography 

Linking up with Molly for Funday Monday. 

Keep Smiling :) 

Back To Reality...

So, I've been more than a little absent around here for close to a month now.

I promise, I have a list of good excuses.

1) I've been eating salad and it takes a while to make.

2) Sweeping the floors keeps a girl busy.

3) Pinterest exists.

4) It's now Spring and being inside is hard to justify.

5) Our apartment was a HOT mess of junk and needed to be cleaned.

6) I spent two weeks on vacation and half of that in the car with Jay, so not a lot of exciting details to share.

I mean, if you looked this good at 9am before hitting the road to drive across the country- wouldn't you consider hiding it from your blog friends?!?! No need to be jealous! 

7) The Good Wife on Netflix. I'm caught up now though so this excuse becomes invalid.

8) I was having another one of those "blogging crisis of faith" trying to decide if I should come back or abandon it all together.

9) I just got married and wanted to savour all the little moments before sharing them with my internet homies.

A sneak peek at our wedding fashion choices. 

10) I haven't quite mastered enough self-control to avoid the word homies. I also considered saying Y'all (I'm from Eastern Canada, Y'all is not a thing I grew up saying).

There you have it, totally legitimate reasons to abandon blogging at the exact moment when I probably had the most interesting details to share. Let's be real weddings make for great blog posts- but fear not friends, I promise to share way too many posts about my nuptials over the next few weeks, you should probably jump ship now!

Linking up with Meg for Mingle Monday and Molly for Funday Monday (a day late- because today is Tuesday. Seriously.) 

Keep Smiling :) 

Wedding Talk With 5 Year Olds

So, at this point it's no secret I teach Kindergarten as I seem to work it into just about every post. 

It's also no secret I'm getting hitched very soon. 

So, to morph the two together I bring you a post on my kindergarten kids talking about my wedding:  

"First you get married, then you get the baby in your belly" 

"Are you going to take a kissing picture?" 

"I want to see a picture of you kissing"

"Did you kiss the first time you met?" 

"Did he ask you to get married the first day you met him?" 

"So, once you have the baby, like, will it stay home when it's 1,2,3 and then come to school?" 

"When you come back after you get married you'll look different... *pause*.... because of the baby"

"You'll be wearing different clothes after the wedding." 

"You are going to look up at the window and I'll be there."

"I'm going to break into your wedding and sneak up on you."

"Here's a map of how I'll protect your wedding so they can't break in- I'll be your security."

"Do you have the baby in your belly yet?"

"What happens if you get the baby in your belly before the wedding?" 

"Can you write down the address for your wedding (it's 5 provinces/15 hour drive away) my mom and I are going to come!"

"So, like is it going to be a short dinner? Or a long dinner?" 

They also sing "Kimberley loves Jay" and "Kimberley and Jay getting married" constantly and then they burst into fits of giggles- like it's the most shockingly hilarious news ever. Which it is if you're five. Sometimes there is even an accompanying dance. It's pretty fabulous. 

I've given as many answers to these questions as I can- and tried to discourage the idea that I am going to come back 9 months pregnant but so far it's not quite sinking in. I think they'll be disappointed, but at least it will give them some interesting stories to tell their parents at dinner! 

I am so excited to be getting married to Jay. I am also so thankful to have a job that I love, and amazing kiddos that I can share little bits of this moment with. 

Keep Smiling :) 

*This are all things they actually said to me, as best I could remember. I tried to accurately recreate the way they talk so you would get the full effect. 

Stuff And Things 4/17

Full disclosure, I wrote this whole post then me and blogger got in a fight over picture formatting so I'm starting over again (a little angrily)! 

Linking up with Kristin today! I'm going to take this as an opportunity to share some of the pictures that I've been hoarding on my phone for the past few days/weeks. 

My coworkers threw me a surprise wedding shower last week. I thought we were having a staff meeting, so it really was a wonderful surprise! It was so kind and thoughtful, I wasn't going to have a shower before the wedding (the joys of getting married in a different province) so it was so lovely to get the experience. Afterwards I of course had to wear the bow hat all day, which the kids found hilarious. 

It was an awesome day! 

My outfit for the day// Wine from a lovely parent //Some of the shower gifts
& decorations taking over our dining room

Jay & I saw one of our favourite musicians, Joel Plaskett, in concert on Saturday night. We bought the tickets online months ago, thinking we were 3 rows from the stage. We arrived at the show to find out the first 3 rows get taken out so we were front row! We've seen Joel in concert about a dozen times, but this was the closest we've ever been and his biggest show ever so it was awesome all around. 

Possibly my 10th attempt at a pre-show picture of us, it wasn't going so well. 

The concert was at the National Arts Centre (left side of the photo) so we had a few minutes to check out Parliament Hill (centre of photo) beforehand. I never get sick of looking at those beautiful buildings, even if the canal looks pretty nasty with all the ice melted and no fresh water coming in!  

I've had this photo on my camera for at least a month, waiting for the moment when nature truly said, "Hey Ottawa, Let's Party!" It's getting a little depressing the constant switching from Spring to Winter and back again. 

I am so ready for this long weekend. We are thisclose to getting married, but also to seeing all of our lovely friends and family again! It's been a few months so we are ready to get home for a few days to see everyone and the beautiful ocean! 

Speaking of the wedding- I've got to get off my computer and go be productive before work! 

Keep Smiling :)