My new blogging home(s)

I’m amazed at how many visitors still somehow stumble upon this blog, considering I haven’t updated it in so long. Looks like there are a lot more purple wedding afficionados out there than I thought. What incredibly good taste you all have!

If you’re looking for more purple wedding inspiration, head on over to my posts on Weddingbee… I’m Mrs Sea Breeze. (Yup! That’s ‘Mrs’, not ‘Miss’… the purple wedding of the century has happened!)

Or, come visit me at my other home, Good Finking! I can’t promise tea and biscuits but maybe a smile or two?

Find your own wedding style

I got a lovely email today from Candy over at Carrie & Danielle Inc. (you know you’ve made it when there’s an ‘Inc.’ following your name!) giving me a heads up that the lovely ladies have a fresh new look for their website, carrieanddanielle.com:

I just had to mention it because Candy took the time to personalize her email to me, going as far as referencing the Nine West shoes I was talking about recently. As Communications is my day job, I know how much time and effort it takes to do that. So kudos to you, Candy, for being authentic.

Speaking of authentic, I still think that when it comes to deciding your wedding style, you really have to first know thyself. There is so much wedding inspiration out there that it can be quite overwhelming. However, if you know who you are and what your own Style Statement is, making all those decisions won’t be that difficult. The bonus? The wedding will be a true extension of your and your groom’s personal styles – and that is what will make it special and memorable.

If you are just starting your wedding planning (or not–these are not just for brides but for everyone, all the time), check out their website or better yet, the Style Statement book.

I’ve actually been meaning to find the time to sit down and work out my own Style Statement for awhile now. One more thing to add to the ‘To Do After the Wedding’ list. 

Note: Rereading this just before hitting ‘Publish’, I realized it could come off as quite promotional. I just want to add that no one made me write this nor did I get paid for it (though hey, talk about dream job!); I just really liked their website when I first stumbled across it and think that their message is great, so my natural instinct is to share it. I hope you enjoy it too.

Have you ever?

Ok, that’s it. I’m totally sick of looking at Miss Boobie Bride 2008 every time I happen to come back here and I bet you are too, so here goes.

Um…

Erm…

The problem is, every time I think up something rad to write about, I always think, ‘oooh but I should save that for Weddingbee!’.

Arghh.

I’ve contemplated copying my posts from there to here to pass the love on to non WB-ers but I dunno, that just doesn’t feel right.

So here’s the best I can do for now while I think about it s’more: I will take a page out of Sparkly to Single’s book (love ya, btw) and play a little ‘Have You Ever’ with you.

Have you ever…

1. gone on a blind date? Nope. Hmm, opportunity missed I guess, since I’m getting married an’ all.

2. skipped school? I had this girlfriend Sommer in university, and we used to ditch out on our poetry class all the time to go shopping at Winners. But I always was flooded with guilt afterwards (for the cutting class part, not the purchasing part. That came later with age and wisdom and, er, budgeting).

3. watched someone die? *shivers* No.

4. been on a plane? More times than I could count. And I’m not exaggerating – I was a flight attendant for one (gloriously fun) year.

5. been on the opposite side of your country? Yes – my fiance took me to Green Gables on Prince Edward Island last year. It was THE BEST TRIP OF MY LIFE! Gilbert makes me swoon.

6. swam in the ocean? Yes – see above, but also off the northern shore of France (ok that was more wading than swimming), and the Indian Ocean off the coast of Madagascar.

7. had your booze taken away by the cops? No, I must drink it too fast (insert Polish joke here).

8. lettered in high school sport? I don’t even know what this means. Maybe because I’m allergic to sports.

9. cried yourself to sleep? Duh, of course. Isn’t that what teen angst and wedding planning is all about?

10. played cops and robbers? I do have a younger brother, but we preferred throwing G.I. Joes off the roof of the barn.

11. sung karaoke? Oh yeeeeahhh baby. The latest installment was at a work function. Note to self: no more singing New Kids songs at work functions.

12. paid for a meal with coins only? Here in Canada we have one dollar AND two dollar coins so this one is easy.

13. done something you told yourself you wouldn’t? My first reaction when I read this was, Pffftt! Of course! But then I seriously could not think of even one thing. And of all the semi-crazy things I’ve done, I never actually said to myself I wouldn’t do it. So… *shrugs*. I guess this will kick into action the day I go sky diving.

14. cheated on an exam? Definitely not.

15. made prank phone calls? If finding the airwaves channel of some local truckers on our big a$$ walkie-talkie and telling them our name was Malibu Bob counts, then heck yeah.

16. laughed until some sort of beverage came out of your nose? Yes and it was bubbly. But that was a long time ago. More recently, I saw expired milk come out of my fiance’s friend’s nose. It was a dare. He’s coming to our wedding and something tells me I will soon see Dominican rum make the same voyage.

17. caught a snowflake on your tongue? I live in Canada. I’ve eaten entire snow men.

18. watched the sunrise with someone you care about? Yes.

19. been kissed under the mistletoe? Oh man. This was SUPPOSED to be my very first kiss ever, how tragic. I bought a real live sprig of mistletoe, wrapped it up and kept it in my car for like, a month. Sadly, I was waiting for juuuuust the ‘perfect’ moment… which never came to be. I never did kiss that guy. Now he’s married to a be-yotch. I hope the two things aren’t related.

20. ever been arrested? Nope.

21. gone ice skating? For sure – best skating moment of my life was a couple years ago, gliding around the frozen river at my parent’s ranch. Awesome.

23. been skinny dipping outdoors? I’ve seen so many coming-of-age movies and shows (I love you, Pacey Witter) that I think I have, but I probably imagined it.

24. had a nickname? My best friends and I call each other ‘Sius’ (pronounced shoosh) – literal translation: little squirt of pee. The fiance calls me Lunchbox. Romantic, I know.

25. been on TV? I auditioned for and got a role in a bunch of videos that a production company made for students doing their Biology 30 course by correspondence, and a few years later, they ran them on public television. I’m so glad I’ve never had the pleasure of seeing my knee jerk when someone hit it with a rubber mallet (that was the episode on the nervous system).

Well that was fun. And more importantly, the boobies have been banished!

How about you? Have you ever…?

Bride in Moscow

My future father-in-law has quite the sense of humour, which is no surprise if you know the Fiance.

Today, he emailed me this:

By coincidence, I recently received the enclosed photo from my old friend X. I’m sure that your readers would love to see the newest wedding dress trends in Moscow.  I’ve been told by authorities in Russia that it is an old custom for the engaged couple to share a litre of vodka before embarking on a wedding dress purchase & you can see the results in this jpg. (follow the email trail below & you can see it does originate in Moscow)

Xo Pops

I replied:

Wow-zahs. Really too bad I already bought my dress.

The rest of the story

The other day I wrote on Weddingbee about how this random guy sort of hit on me while I was walking down the street to work.

I didn’t include the funniest part of the story though, because I didn’t want people to think I was being snarky or whatnot; I’m totally not trying to be anything even close to that, I swear. But I still think there MUST be some people out there that think this is funny…

After we parted ways (me: very relieved), I turned the corner and walked into a Starbucks, and while I was rifling through my purse looking for change, POOF!, he magically appeared beside me again.

It would have been kind of creepy, except that he wasn’t at all smarmy or too forward or anything like that. He actually seemed sort of shy, which was endearing.

And as he passed me his business card, he said, “I just wanted to give you this…”

(are you ready for this?)

“… I’m a relationship consultant.”

Am I the only one out there that thinks it’s mighty hilarious that a guy who’s a relationship consultant would hit on a gal wearing an engagement ring??

Poor, sweet guy.

I’m still chuckling about it.

Nine West Girltime shoes on sale

I was just writing a post for the hive and stumbled upon this fabulous Nine West Girltime shoe in one of my bookmarks…

… which is now ON SALE for an amazing $29.99!!! If they strike your fancy, run and DO NOT WALK to Nine West.

If I didn’t love my purple Loubs so much, I just might have been tempted by these metallic peep-toe darlings. Too cute.

About the shoes…I don’t know if I should cry or throw up

Omigosh I’m sorry, sorry, SORRY for leaving you hanging for so long.

My stress levels have been at their peak since before the trip to Seattle (largely work-related) to and I didn’t think it was possible but they have just ESCALATED.

For those of you dying to know, in short, the trip to was disastrous. We did NOT find bridesmaid dresses, or pants for the groomsmen or cute dresses even a frickin’ HOTEL ROOM in Seattle. Oh yes, you heard me right. It was a thoroughly depressing situation. We came home a day early.

But that’s a story for another day.

The other thing we did NOT find was backup shoes… which I did not think was a big deal since, as we all know, I fell in love and ordered those purple Louboutins from Net-A-Porter…

… until now!!! Because suddenly, YES, it IS a big deal!!

Because I got the lovely Louboutins finally.

And adored them.

Until I went to pull the stickers of the soles today.

The sticker on the right shoe was stuck on the sole underneath the ball of the foot. Normal.

The other one, however, was stuck wayyyy up by the heel.

Hmm, that’s weird, I thought.

Then I went to pull it off…

… and GAAAAASSSSPPPPPPPPPP…..

My darling purple Louboutin wedding shoes are… DEFECTIVE.

I am absolutely APPALLED that these shoes passed quality control. That sticker was placed way up there ON PURPOSE TO HIDE THE BIG GASH IN THE SOLE!

COME ON. You spend frickin’ $600 dollars on a pair of shoes… you expect them to be absolutely PERFECT, no??

Just when I had finally swept away all the the pain and suffering that came with convincing my fiance and my guilty conscience that I loved these shoes/needed these shoes/deserved these shoes, and had finally felt the joy that should come from a purchase that is totally frivolous and yet so amazing and for which I was soooo grateful… THIS HAPPENS.

I just sent an email to Net-A-Porter, complete with above photos, demanding–no, requesting (I’m saving my mean, nasty words for later in case I need them)–a replacement.

The thing is, I’m TERRIFIED that it’s been longer than the “7 days from receipt of shipment” that is noted in their return policy and that they might dare to refuse me.

And even MORE TERRIFYING is the fact that I’ve been monitoring their website over the past week and…

I am so nervous and stressed I feel like I am going to throw up.

I so did not need this to happen right now.

Any advice, anyone? Has this ever happened to you?? Any similar experiences with Net-A-Porter that you can share???

If they don’t have another pair left, do I shut my mouth and keep these ones, gash and all???

I’m too excited to sleeeeeeep

Only one more sleep until the legendary (it hasn’t even happened yet and it’s already legendary) trip to Seattle.

All day I’ve been hearing the voice of this funny little guy playing over and over in my head:

Although I’m ecstatic to be going, the timing couldn’t be worse in terms of work; we have a huge deadline to hit so while I should be dancing around my place and singing and making shopping lists and printing off Google maps, instead I’m stressed out (and writing about being stressed out, d’oh!).

On top of that, I’ve been running around all day like a chicken with its head cut off… or is that, like a Bee with its, er, stinger (…?…) cut off (oh ok, so the analogy isn’t great).

Because of course when it rains, it pours, and guess what other excitement is going on?

This Miss has a new home in the hive.

A friend of mine planted the idea in my head some time ago and I thought about it for a long while. I only got into Weddingbee early this year but it didn’t take long for me to get addicted to the friendly vibe and honest sharing. I knew that to be a part of it would be enormously fun but I also knew it would be a lot of work. Plus I sort of liked having my own little corner of the ’sphere.

But lately I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on why I started this blog in the first place.

While yeah, I really like having somewhere to just go and dump everything that’s buzzing (that time it was unintentional, I swear) around in my brain, the high moments of my experience thus far were when I’ve gotten an email from a girl who is just starting out on her destination planning wedding and she’s turning to me to try to help her navigate through her million and one questions. And ALL the questions are the exact same ones I had.

It gives me such an enormous sense of satisfaction to be able to pass on all I’ve learned about planning a DW. If I can save even one bride from the mental anguish and stress I went through at the toughest moments of the planning process, then not only has it been a really, really great day but all the pain was WORTH IT.

So at the end of the day, it’s about making a difference (cue: rainbows/unicorns/Lennon). Being part of the hive will allow me to share my experiences with a much, much larger audience.

Consider this your very warm invitation to come visit me at the hive from time to time. But not to worry, I’ll still be coming back here.

The dress search goes on… the road

(Thanks to everyone for their advice regarding the dream Loub shoes. I have decided to order the half-size larger and am just awaiting a response from an American based friend-and-hopefully-co-conspirator (shipping/customs/taxes are ridiculously unfair for us Canucks) before I make the click and they are mine!)

———————————–

Remember when I was all depressed a couple weeks ago because the plans I had made with my MOH Pepperpot and my (non-bridesmaid) sister-in-law… we’ll call her Mrs Nenny… to go on a shopping trip to the States fell through?

Yeah, well, it’s back on. For real this time.

ROAD TRIP!!!

Pepperpot and Mrs Nenny are flying into Vancouver from Toronto and Calgary this Thursday, and I will pick them up at the airport and make a mad dash for the border. Destination: Seattle (and surrounding areas).

I am almost as excited about this trip as I am for the actual wedding. That’s how much fun I am anticipating!

Since she lost her Westjet buddy flying privileges last fall, I haven’t seen Pepperpot nearly as often as I used to. In fact, the last time I saw her was when she came for a visit last September, bringing my engagement ring with her (I didn’t find out about that part till after Mr Purple popped the question), and I miss her like crazy!

Not only do I foresee many multi-coloured martinis, mani-pedis and hours of some seriously high-quality dishing sessions, there will be shopping. And oh, what shopping it will be!

Apart from spending time together and making memories, the object of this trip is to purchase some very important wedding-related items, namely:

• Bridesmaid dresses
• Groomsmen attire (possible just pants… more on that to come)
• Wedding shoe back-ups (in case the Loubs don’t work out… oh dear God I hope that’s not the case but a girl has to be prepared)
• Cute dresses/outfits for the rehearsal dinner, the day-after event (more on this to come, too) and and other photo-heavy moments (er, that might be the entire week)

It’s no secret that our friends south of the border are much, much more blessed in terms of stores, labels and general availability of clothes and shoes, so I’m looking forward to a smorgasmord of orgasmic shopping delights.

There’s only one problem.

Apart from one short day trip to Bellingham and the Seattle Premium Outlets near Tulalip last year, I’ve never gone shopping down there.

I don’t really know where to go!

We’re thinking of staying at the Tulalip Resort & Casino our first night (after hitting the outlets, natch) and trying our hand at winning back our purchases (wish us luck!) but that’s about as far as we got, planning-wise.

Anyone have any recommendations for other places we should check out in and around Seattle for shopping (or other fun girly activities)?

I’ve found the dream shoes… almost. Help!!

Oh my Lord. My heart is racing and my palms are sweaty and I think I might be hyperventilating.

Because of this:

My book club friend Sam–to be herewith forever known as Samantha, Patron Saint of the Heavenly Shoes (God bless her soul!)–just sent me a link to these shoes at Net-a-Porter.

And when I saw them, these spectacularly magnificent, exceedingly ravishing Christian Louboutin Mauresmo chiffon slingbacks I promptly swooned.

It was like the heavens opened up and the angels began to sing.

They are the absolute picture-perfect incarnations of all my deepest, wildest desires. They are everything I’ve been looking for–sexy, summery, comfortable and deliciously purple. I don’t even care how much ridicule and derision I will have to suffer at the hands of my thrifty and penny-wise fiance. I’ll promise him ten years of back rubs or something, so help me God!

As soon as I caught my breath, gingerly clicked on the Choose Your Size drop-down list.

And that’s when the panic set in.

Of ALL the sizes, mine is sold out!!

A rapid online search revealed that they are only available at Net-A-Porter, or at least that’s all I could find.

I’m putting out a call of desperation. Anyone know of any other place to find these amazing shoes? Do you think it would be worth it to try the half size smaller or bigger??

(Helpful leads will be rewarded with your very own Patron Saint name and undying gratitude for the rest of my days.)