Planning our Ceremony

Our wedding ceremony will be held at Oakview Terrace in Richmond Hill. Yesterday, there was an "open house"; Colin and I thought it would be a good idea to attend in order to start planning the details related to our wedding ceremony. My initial expectation was that the property would simply be open to guests. However, the "open house" ended up being a mini-bridal show with several exhibits showcasing preferred vendors and endless samples of refreshments and drinks (including wine) . Just moments after we arrived, we caught the tail-end of a bridal show and the emcee announced winners of door prizes. To our pleasant surprise, we were the first winners. We won this lovely flower centrepiece.

At the open house, we met our wedding officiant, Frank Folz. We also talked to representatives from vendors located near Oakview Terrace, which we may consider because they have worked with Oakview Terrace in the past. Most importantly, Colin and I met the Site Wedding Coordinator, who seemed nice and helpful. We'll be speaking to her later on to finalize details and timing on the actual wedding day.

Additionally, Colin and I took this opportunity to really look at the property and assess what steps we need to take in planning the ceremony part of our day. Here are some photos of the grounds (albeit under snow).

Exterior of the Outdoor Chapel

Interior of the Outdoor Chapel

Gazebo at Oakview Terrace

Unfortunately, one of the negative aspects of having our ceremony at Oakview Terrace is that we have to be off the property by 1pm. This might be problematic when it comes to the photo session after the wedding ceremony. As a possible solution, we investigated other nearby places suitable for wedding photos with our guests. We learned about Richmond Green Park, which is only a 10 minute drive away from Oakview Terrace. It's still covered in snow but we snapped the following photos:

Waterfall Gazebo
" Interesting" Structure

On the positive side, the park is nearby and there are lots of spots suitable for taking wedding photos. On the negative side, there doesn't seem to be much shade, particularly at mid-day. This could lead to a lot of squinting eyes in photos. Anyway, once we finalize the details of the morning, we can figure out if we want to take photos here or at another location.

Bridal Accessories

Last week, I had lunch with two friends of mine: Donna and Linda. There is nothing like talking to other brides-to-be about wedding planning stuff. Donna is a little bit further ahead of both Linda and I in terms of wedding planning. So, most of her focus right now is on finding the right accessories, which made me realized that I should start thinking about some of these things too!

After lunch, Donna went shopping for shoes. Lucky for me, I already bought mine last fall. It's another Jcrew item: the Lucie high heel in pale gold.

These high heels are fairly neutral so I can definitely re-wear them again. They are 3 1/2", which should give me sufficient added height. In the weeks leading up to the wedding, I plan to wear them in a bit so that my feet won't be too sore on the actual wedding day. Even though this will be my main shoe, I am looking to buy some kind of flat shoes. No matter what, my feet are gonna be tired towards the end of the evening.

I'm still on the hunt for bridal accessories. Probably some dangly earrings and a nice necklace to match. Stay tuned.

I have thought a little bit about how I would like to wear my hair. It is definitely going to be an up-do because I would prefer my long hair to be out of my face. I am also thinking for some nice hair accessories similar to those shown in the photos below. At the moment, I've decided against a tiara. (I've never really been into the whole "princess" girly thing.)

Who knew flowers could be so complicated?

I am fortunate to have a wonderful team of bridesmaids assisting me with various tasks including my search for wedding flowers. As I mentioned previously, I am not particularly picky with what the flowers looked like. To keep things "simple", I indicated that I would like to have roses, which are classic and widely available. The only other criteria was that the flowers complement the bridesmaids' dresses.

My bridesmaids requested that I search on-line for photos to give them a better idea of floral arrangements and colour. Well, that opened up a can of worms. Who knew that flowers could be so complicated and that there could be so much variety?!? I almost got caught up in my on-line search because I found several elaborate and creative arrangements that were just so beautiful. Of course, reality kicked in and I realized that these elaborate and creative arrangements would likely be expensive. And since I started off with not caring too much about the flowers, I am going back to my original plan for something simple yet elegant.

So, here's what I had in mind.

For my bouquet, I was thinking of having a bunch of roses in at least two different colours arranged as shown in the photo below.


But instead of the bright pink flowers, I was thinking of a purplish colour roses as shown in the photo below.

For the bridesmaids' flowers, I believe it is standard for the bouquets to be smaller. I would like it to be the same colour rose. I am thinking either white or some other neutral colour. I will need to give it some more thought. In the photos below, I like how the green berries accent the bouquets themselves, which is another way the bridesmaids' bouquets could be distinguished from my own.

First Visit to a Florist

Since we were in Toronto for Easter Weekend, Colin and I tried to do some wedding-related stuff. Today, we went to a flower shop in Commerce Gate called, Amazing Florist to inquire about flowers for our wedding. We have a voucher for this shop when we booked our reception, so we thought it was worth checking out.

Neither Colin or I are particularly picky about our wedding flowers. Our flower needs are quite "basic":

1 x Bride's bouquet
3 x Bridesmaid's bouquet
1 x Groom's boutonniere
3 x Groomsman's boutonniere
2 x Mother's corsage
14 x regular boutonniere for fathers, grandparents, and siblings
2 x altar arrangement for ceremony

The store itself is small and unassuming. When we first entered, a woman and her daughter were in the back of the shop on the computer. After explaining what we were looking for, the woman gave us two photo albums to look at and a list identifying their price packages. She basically left us alone to peruse the albums at our leisure but did answer specific questions when we asked.

The store's portfolio of bridal floral arrangements seemed fairly standard but nice. Included in the portfolio was a photo of a traditional Chinese wedding carriage that is available for rent at a rate of $500. (For a split second, we thought about it...but quickly came to our senses.)

Even without the voucher, the price packages offered by Amazing Florist fits our budget. Plus, the location of the store is relatively close to our ceremony location and the store would be willing to open early in the morning so that flowers could be picked up on the wedding day. We would still like to shop around and check other places. If you know of other flower shops in the GTA to check out, we would appreciate any recommendations.

Wedding Music

Last fall when I started planning this wedding, one of the first things I was looking into was music for the wedding ceremony. Given that we are getting married at an outdoor chapel, we originally wanted a string quartet or something similar. After some preliminary research, I found most instrumental groups to be quite expensive (~$500 and more). The cost of labour is probably appropriate but there was no way I was going to spend that much money for music. Then I got to thinking about how my parents invested so much money in piano lessons for me and my sisters as we were growing up. And what better way to personalize our wedding then by having my very own sister perform wedding ceremony music? So I asked my sister, Valerie to play piano for our wedding ceremony and she graciously accepted.

Early on, she pressed Colin and I to decide on the wedding music so that she could have ample time to practice. Initially, Colin and I had slightly different views about the type of music. He wanted classical music whereas I preferred something more contemporary. However, it really didn't matter to me too much. Here is what we have worked out so far:

Processional (Parents and Bridesmaids' entry): Pachebel's Canon in D
Processional (Bride's Entry): Bach's Air on the G String
Signing of the Registry: Bach's Prelude in C Major
Recessional: Handel's Water Music (Allegro Maestoso)

The timing of the pieces still need to be worked out. Colin and I have to do another site visit to Oakview Terrace before the pieces can be finalized; but it is more or less decided. Now, we have to agree on a song for our first dance...

Yes, the wedding is still on!

In case you were wondering...Yes, the wedding is still on. Colin and I would like to apologize for the lack of updates. We have just been so busy settling into our new home as well as keeping up with our work stuff. However, we have now unpacked most of our boxes and thoroughly cleaned up our apartment. (In fact, we are looking forward to hosting our first houseguest, Bullpen Larry, who will be in Ottawa later this week.) Anyway, now we can start focussing on wedding planning again. So, expect more regular updates from now on.