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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.

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

Hi, my name is Miss Bloom.
I’m a cocktail-taster-a-holic.

Yes, I’ve hit the drinks.  I’ve been trying to find a signature drink for our wedding.  It seems to have been a hit at the weddings that I’ve attented.  Not only with the women, but the men have been drinking the concoctions especially if the cocktails are blue. 

On my quest for the perfect Martini, I’ve been ordering various drinks from the pub, bar, or restaurant that I’ve found myself in.  I always give Mr. Bloom a sip but he can’t drink these mixed drinks. He prefers his microbrewery or Czech beer!  At each of these restaurants, I would snap a pic of the cocktail menu with my camera phone.  Sometimes, I’d be lucky enough to bring a cocktail menu home.

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I’ve also taken the opportunity to drink a little more of my favourites (okay, a lot more! *hiccup*) to see how my guests would feel the day after.  Basically, overimbibing the stronger liquor with more sugar content especially in a mixed cocktail results in the worse hangovers.  High sugar content liquors include schnapps, jaggermeister,
I had a yummy Martini with vodka, cointreau, cranberry juice and pomegranate juice.  It was so tasty, almost like Kool-aid.  Unfortunately, it gave myself and my friend a dull headache that lasted the entire day.  We’re both not light-weights so we were very surprised.

I’m still searching for signature drinks recipes.
Does anyone have any good cocktail recipes they could recommend?

I’m thinking of having a tent card bar menu with a drink representing ”Something Old”, “Something New”, “Something Borrowed”, and “Something Blue”.

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Here are pics of our Bridal Shower Giveaway prototype.
The glass is from our collection of glasses and not the IKEA snaps glasses.
It’s funny how the grapes and vine etching makes the beaded accent look like a snake!
Or perhaps I’ve been reading too much from the Book of Genesis looking for a reading for our wedding ceremony. =)

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From the moment Mr. Bloom said: “Why’s your hair tied up? You look like your brother!” I knew that my hair would have to be kept down for the wedding. I wouldn’t want Mr. Bloom to see me emerge through the church doors and mistake me for my brother! =P

Keeping my hair down would have been my first choice anyway. I tend to get headaches when my hair is pulled back.
The only issue with having my hair down is the length of it. I’ve had it shoulder length in various styles for many years.
I once had super long hair down to my waist with a perm.

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Me at my 21st birthday costume party with Guzman,
my huge stuffed gorilla, that my brother gave me.

Knowing that I’d have to have longer hair for my wedding, I started growing it out. It’s been 3 years. *LOL* I’ve been seriously waiting for Mr. Bloom to pop the question since then. Ah, patience is a virtue!

Here are some hairstyles that I’d like my hairstylists to recreate:

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We’ll be having my bridal shower in a week’s time.
We’re having the shower and the bachelorette party on the same day.
There are so many weddings, bridal showers and baby showers to attend this year that I thought this would be the most practical.  Unfortunately, the only weekend available is the August long weekend so some people aren’t able to make it.  =(

 The theme of the bridal shower is “June Cleaver’s Tea party & Luncheon”.
The bachelorette party follows right after with the younger set.  The theme is “Burlesque Dolls”.  We’re going to have a pole dancing / lap dancing class.  More on that in a later post!

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One of my bridesmaids, Miss Amaranthes, came up with an awesome idea for the Bridal Shower favours.  We didn’t want to go with the usual candy, candle or soaps giveaways.  My girls know me well.  I’m all for doing something a little more creative.  More fun that way for everyone!  Of course we wanted to do something that didn’t take forever to do either.   Her idea was to give martini glasses filled with punch as the shower guests arrive.  The glasses would have a beaded charm on each with the favour hang tag on it.  We would then let the guest know that this is their shower favour thank you gift.

My bridesmaid, Miss Amaranthes, scoped out IKEA for cheaper stemware.
The cocktail glasses came out to about $2 CAD each. Their budget is $1 – $1.50 CAD per glass for 40-45 guests.  So, she found the cordial glasses below:

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SVALKA Snaps Glass
$6.99 CAD per 6 pack

We used beads from Mrs. Peony’s (my other bridesmaid and sister of Miss Amaranthes) young daughter and thin wire from Miss Peony’s crafting supplies.  Other beads were purchased at Michael’s Craft Store in Coquitlam http://www.michaels.com at $4.99 per pack of a few hundred tiny beads.  The hang tags were made on photo glossy paper using Adobe Photoshop and MS Publisher.

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Here are some other examples:

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Will post photos of the finished product soon!

I’m sooooo incredibly relieved!
I have finally mailed our wedding invitations.  I originally planned to get them out early in June but it took some time to complete them.  Plus, by the time I got them over from my dad’s house to my place, I have to admit that I totally procrastinated.  Staring at a pile of invitations knowing that I had to number the back of each RSVP response card, matching the number to the guestlist entry, and then sealing the fat envelopes was so unappealing to me.
I had been working a lot of overtime hours so all I wanted to do when I got home was rest and veg… or play golf!
At last, they are submitted to the post office!

I went to my local post office a few blocks away.  I was walking so I had this double bagged white garbage bag full of mail.  I attracted some attention, perhaps because the bundle was almost as big as me.  Luckily, it wasn’t that heavy and the double bag didn’t rip.

When I got to the post office which doubles as a newsstand, the attendant did not seemed too thrilled when he saw my bundle.  I hesitantly smiled at him and asked if I could hand stamp/hand cancel my mail myself.  Boy!  Was he quick to hand over the stamp and ink pad to me. 

Hand stamping or Hand Cancelling means to cancel the postage of the stamp using the post office’s official numbered stamp.  Usually, mail is fed through a machine.   My invitations are quite puffy so I didn’t want my invites to be squashed or ripped by running through a machine.  Some postal outlets do not allow this.  Luckily, most Canada Post outlets have no problems with hand cancelling… especially when us senders do the labour ourselves.

I thought I’d be there about 45 minutes stamping these things.    However, it took me only 15 minutes to stamp 150 invitations!  I guess I could have spent longer making sure the ink coverage was all even and perfectly straight.   I just made sure that the postal outlet number was clear, the stamp right side up, and that the imprint was not very crooked.  I’m particular but I’m all for efficiency and practicality!  I wanted out of there, get the task done, so I could go to Urban Fare next door and make me some dinner!  The hand stamp was rectangular and kind of big.  I did wish they were the circular imprints.  Those would have looked much cuter!  Regardless, they are mailed out! Phew!

Last month, Mr. Bloom and I finally had our engagement photo shoot after two rain-outs.
It is Vancouver, BC afterall!

Our photographer for our engagement portraits is Hamid Attie.  He is also our wedding photographer.
I have known Hamid for a few years now.  He had shot amazing group portraits of my very close friends, my brother, and I.  I highly recommend him for his photo-journalistic style and also his calm personality.
His website is here:  http://www.hamidattie.com .  Book early with Hamid as he is usually fully booked all weekends of the wedding season!

We had our photo shoot around the Roundhouse Community Centre and the Yaletown seawall.  We were aiming for urban, casual and relaxed.   The entire shoot took about an hour and fifteen minutes.
Hamid’s turnaround time for proofs and development is very quick.
Something to note… Hamid shoots digital for his engagement portraits.  He uses film for all his wedding photography.

Here are some proofs of our engagement photos.  We had fourteen proofs to choose from!
* Please note that some of the photos have “P R O O F” watermarked on them and have not yet been retouched.
** Our apologies for not being “Canada’s Next Top Model”!  We’re kinda shy!

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Today, Mr. Bloom and I went to Moores Clothing for Men on Granville St. between W. Georgia and W. Hastings St.  Their website is here:  http://www.mooresformalwear.com .  It’s walk-in service, no appointment required.  Surprisingly, it was a busy day for them on this very rainy day.  After waiting for about 15 minutes, we were helped by one of their consultants, Colin.  He is great!  He escorted us to their tuxedo rental consulting desk area where he proceeded to show us their picture catalogue of tuxedos.  We went through the catalogues.  Afterwards, he asked us what struck us the most.  After Mr. Bloom gave his opinion, Colin let us know that the catalogue was ordered by most popular.

The most popular tuxedo were the two newest brands to hit the tuxedo market, Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren.  I really like the 100s series Calvin Klein 2-button notch tuxedo.  Mr. Bloom likes the cut of the 3-button Ralph Lauren but did not want to be in pin-stripes for our wedding.  So, Mr. Bloom chose to go with the Joseph & Feiss 3-button notch tuxedo in solid black with pleated pants.  I thought he’d go with the flat front pants because it looks more relaxed, but Mr. Bloom surprised me by selecting the more formal pleated pant.  Here is a photo of his tuxedo that I recreated using Moores “Create Your Tuxedo” website feature:

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