Should I take legal action?
Below is our bridesmaids’ dresses saga.
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The kicker - Our bridesmaids dresses were not ready for pick-up until the DAY OF my wedding. (!!!)  Dresses were ordered and paid for IN FULL 9 months prior to the wedding. (!!!)

Three dresses were picked up night before. Worse still is one of my bridesmaids dresses was not ready until 10am the morning of my wedding. We were to leave for the church at 12:30pm!

I have filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau.
My bridesmaids are doing the same as the alterations that they paid for at full price were rushed and unprofessional. Hemming was off. Boning was removed instead of doing a proper alteration, etc.

The BBB already have several complaints regarding this shop.

Excerpt from my BBB complaint:
Delivery date was supposed to be in August, 6 months after purchase. I called a few times and they said first week of September. No explanation as to why the dresses would be arriving late. No time to assess the risks of late delivery and mitigate the problem(s)….

I was amazed by how much prices differed between the US and Canada.  Our Canadian bridal shops mark up their prices by double or triple but the kicker is the items are still almost double the marked-up American item!  Even our Michaels’ craft stores are much more expensive than our US counterparts.  I visited the bridal shops here in Vancouver and also Canadian websites across Canada.  Crazy prices.  $50 for 50 miniature bottles of bubbles???  Specialty paper prices?  Insanely high!  Even our selection of wedding items is minimal compared to the US shops. *SIGH*

To keep from going broke or sacrificing my wedding ideas, I did my research and bought most of my decor and accessories including veil, shoes, ribbons, tulle, CD jewel cases, unity candle, etc. from eBay or reputable online shops in the States.  I got the items shipped from the US.  The bonus was most of the items did not even get charged duty!  Even our Custom Gobo was still $50-75CAD cheaper than having it made in the US and courriered to Canada.  Oh!  Another charge I…

Below is a link to our wedding photos that were taken by a few of our awesome guests.  More to come!  Enjoy!

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I just had my final wedding dress fitting!
It was a surreal experience yet again for me.  I can’t believe that I’m the bride and not just organizing someone else’s wedding.  I hope I can shake off my daze so I can remember and enjoy every single moment of our wedding days.

I brought my veil and tiara with me to try on with the dress.  My veil is a two tier fingertip-length veil with crytals lining the edges.  It was another eBay purchase.  I got it for $75.  This same veil with less crystals was $300 at the bridal salon where I purchased my dress.  Once I got into my dress, I pulled the blusher over my face.  After a few minutes, I was starting to feel hot and uncomfortable.  I don’t think I would be able to spend over an hour and a half hot under a veil.  In addition, I couldn’t really see through the tulle mesh.  It’s not a super fine tulle mesh so it’s not almost transparent.  However, I do want to go down…

Hi!

My florist and wedding event coordinator, Cecilia “CC” Roa of RoaDesigns.com, recommended this website as a great source for Local Canadian Wedding Resources.

Urban Weddings
http://www.urbanweddings.com

View the Mini Website pictorials of various local weddings by clicking on the Pink box on bottom of Right column.
Also visit the Resource Directory for the directory listings of various vendors.  The site also encourages users to vote and rate vendors they have dealt with….

With only 33 days before the wedding, I have finally bitten the bullet and started working on putting the Ceremony programs / missalette together. Actually, I only started working on it because our officiating priest asked me to prepare it so he can take a look at our reading selections and the Filipino/Hispanic parts of the mass that he is not familiar with.

We’re having a full Roman Catholic mass. Yes, the longer one with communion and everything. I hope people enjoy music because my goal is to keep people from falling asleep with beautiful music. Not everyone attending our wedding is Catholic including Mr. Bloom so I hope to keep it interesting. Luckily, my priests and the parish are not as strict with their music requirements. It doesn’t have to be all hymnals! However, I’d still rather avoid it being like a Broadway show!

I digress! First thing to be done is to select our readings for the ceremony. My main reference is a…

My dad went to pick up my brother’s suit at Moore’s Clothing for Men tonight.  To kill two birds with one stone, we decided to have my dad fitted for his tuxedo at the same time. 

The consultant was very helpful to point out that we should pick colours and styles that will compliment the bridal party as my dad will be in the formal group wedding photos.  Good thing she mentioned it as I was curious about the mossy green vest colour!  Our wedding photos would have looked kinda like Christmas with the green and the cranberry red.

Here is my dad’s choice of tuxedo:

All the ivory coloured Point-collar shirts were all rented out.  So we had to select a Wing-tip collar shirt.  I actually prefer the Wing-tip collar because it looks quite debonair and elegant.  I’m hoping my groom changes his mind about the point collar and have him and his groomsmen wear the wing-tip. 

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My flower girl baskets are here!
They are absolutely gorgeous.  At $12 CAD a piece + combo shipping, it was a great deal.  Yes, another buy from eBay.  I was going to make the baskets myself.  However, after tallying the cost of satin, satin and organza ribbon, charms, fancy edging, and the basket itself, it would have cost closer to $22 CAD a piece.  So this time, I decided to forego the DIY project.  I’m so pleased with them!  They are the perfect size for my very young flower girls to carry yet still big enough to hold flower petals for the girls to sprinkly down the aisle.

         
My stepsister holding up the basket and a flower girl tiara to show the scale of the basket.

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