Wedding flowers

I wrote a post here last September talking about wedding bouquet inspirations. Do you remember that post? Of course you do! Are you curious how it all turned out? Of course you are!

If you haven't already seen it, I have posted details about the flowers that I made over on my craft blog, Transcraftinental. Here is the post about my bouquet and here are the corsages and boutonnieres.

I am really happy about how all of the flowers turned out -- quite possibly my favorite wedding craft.
-kelly

Photobooth photos!

Yes, we are woefully behind on updating this blog with honeymoon posts. Don't worry -- we've got plenty to show you and tell you about. We'll get to it... soon-ish.

In the meantime, we have a link to the online photobooth gallery. Whee! It's only available for 80 more days, so if you came to the wedding and you'd like to see it, email one or both of us (either at our personal email addresses or the one listed in the sidebar here --->) and we'll send you the link and the password.

It's worth shooting us a note -- they're great.

Montreal treats

When we checked in to our hotel in Montreal, I suggested to Bill that we start "dropping the H bomb." Of course, he knew just what I meant -- not "Hydrogen," but "Honeymoon" -- and we did just that.

It paid off when the staff dropped chocolate covered strawberries off at our room later (as well as a card that apparently said "Best Warshes" -- ooookay.)


Mmmm!

Today we went to find the delicacy everyone recommends in Montreal: Poutine. (For non-Canadians, that's fries with gravy and cheese curds on top. Really. Read more about it here.)

We have never had poutine before and we looked online for the best in Montreal. There are many favorites, but the one that caught our interest is called Frites Alors! -- mostly because the name is funny.

It was really good. Even, surprisingly, to me.


Not sure I'd eat it all the time, but it was certainly a tasty treat. Also, a great way to kick off my claim that I am going to eat my way across Canada!
-kelly

YAY! We are MARRIED!

Everyone probably says this about their own wedding, but... that was the Best. Wedding. Ever.

We had such a great time at our wedding! The Hockey Hall of Fame was fantastic, the food was amazing, everything went perfectly... but the key ingredient was all of our friends and family joining us and the love we felt.

Thank you so much to everyone who attended and also to everyone who was there in spirit -- we felt you there too.

We are on a train right now to Montreal (isn't the Internet amazing?) and we are going to do our best to blog along the way as we honeymoon. We'll be in Montreal until Tuesday, then it's off to Calgary. Stay tuned!

Live from Toronto!

We arrived last night in Toronto. Whee! We haven't done too much exploring yet, but so far the area downtown near the Hockey Hall of Fame is looking pretty clean -- there is some garbage around and the bins are all full, but it's not too bad. It's mostly noticeable that you see any garbage on the street at all here because usually Toronto is just the cleanest city.

Today, we are off to run errands -- grab some last minute items that we did not want to drag from home. Also, get the dress pressed and, um... maybe do some last minute crafting (that's Bill, of course.)

We'll be married in 5 days! Super exciting!

Oh, garbage.

As you may have heard, Toronto is experiencing a city workers' strike right now. This means no garbage pickup. Whee.

According to our officiant, the city is doing a good job of keeping the downtown area clean (right where we will be getting married), but as they are now passing the two week mark, I'm sure things will get worse.

I have read several articles about this and it sounds like some of the popular shopping/touristy destinations are suffering some garbage pileup (the Distillery district, Queen Street West, etc.) Businesses are open, but if the strike continues, we will not be seeing Toronto at its finest.

The strike story apparently "tops of the list of travel warnings" this week, but I think the most important part of that article comes at the end: "Going to Toronto? There's a garbage strike, so you might see signs of uncollected garbage, a smell in the air in certain neighbourhoods. Not a big deal, just a simple awareness.''

In the Lemons-into-lemonade category: if you haven't yet booked a hotel (or you are not locked into your rate), this may be a good opportunity to get a deal.

In addition to the garbage pickup issue, parks and recreation services are currently suspended, as well as ferry service. So if your vacation included those things, it may be time to reconsider your plans.

They're supposed to be negotiating again tomorrow (Wednesday), so fingers crossed this will all be behind us in 11 days!

No -- it's not formal

We never realized that having a 7pm wedding automatically made it "formal." Oops. The only reason we are having it that late is because we cannot have it at the Hockey Hall of Fame until they close at 6pm. They need an hour to get set up and then we descend upon the place.

If you would like to dress formally, you may. But if you don't want to, that's fine by us. And if you want to wear a hockey jersey, then YAY!

So come as you are. We love you wearing whatever you want to wear. Seriously.

French Fry Bar!

After my last post about my seamstress trying to kill me, I want to focus on something positive and happy:

FRENCH FRY BAR!!


We will have several food stations at our wedding, but the one I am looking forward to most of all is the French Fry Bar. We will have both Yukon gold and sweet potato fries (they are so good -- I took that photo at our tasting), plus all kinds of dippin' sauces: American ketchup, vinegar, fancy aiolis, and something else I cannot recall because my mouth is watering and making my brain not work.

Don't worry -- there will be "real" food there, as well. Would you like to hear about the menu? Of course you would!

Immediately following the ceremony, Bill and I run out for photos and you all get to enjoy passed hors d’oeuvres:

- Tiger Shrimp with cocktail sauce
- Caprese Skewers with tomato, mozzarella, and fresh basil
- Potato Skins with bacon, cheese, and chives (we requested potato skins and they sort of "reinvented" them -- they're gooood)
- Bacon wrapped scallops
- Roasted lamb chops (I love lamb chops -- I wish Americans ate more lamb)

Just look at this beautiful lamb chop:


Don't get too full on appetizers, because then we move on to the food stations...

Carving station
Certified Angus Beef sliced in front of you and served onto onion dinner rolls with condiments (caramelized onion aioli, horseradish, and prepared mustard) accompanied with mixed vegetable slaw.

Here's a photo of them before you pile a bunch of stuff on top:


Pasta Station
Spinach & ricotta cannelloni served with hearts of romaine salad with caesar horseradish dressing, focaccia croutons, and grated parmesan. Accompanied by assorted dinner rolls, whipped butter, and extra virgin olive oil. (Even though we are big carnivores, a few guests will be happy to know that these are vegetarian.)

I don't even like spinach and I thought this was delicious:


Tex-Mex: Build your own fajitas
Cajun chicken with sautéed mixed peppers and red onions cooked in front of you and served on soft flour tortillas, accompanied with condiments of guacamole, sour cream, black bean puree, shredded lettuce, and cheddar cheese. (This one is also vegetarian friendly, if you don't get the chicken.)

and, as I mentioned before...

French Fry Bar (!!!)
Yukon gold and sweet potato frites, served in small takeout boxes with assorted condiments: roasted red pepper mayo, basil aioli, rosemary aioli, American ketchup, and vinegar.

If can't find the bride, be sure to check the french fry bar!
-kelly

Is my seamstress trying to kill me?

For the most part, I think I have been a pretty calm bride. Honestly, we have been so distracted for the past few months taking care of Kaesea (details on that here) that the wedding planning has sort of been happening in the background.

But I now understand why perfectly normal women become "Bridezilla" -- and, you know, it's not always their fault. For instance, my seamstress is trying to give me a heart attack. My last fitting was supposed to be yesterday, but she had to postpone it until today. Fine, fine. Sure. Today. A week before I leave. Okay. No problem.

When I got there today, the dress was still not done and the shrug (yes, for anyone wondering, I abandoned one of my early plans of knitting my own shrug. I tried a few times, but it just didn't work out -- it looked awful) is giving her trouble. The fabric is not behaving correctly. She just showed me this today and said, "So, do you have a backup fabric?"

I looked at her and said that no, I didn't have a backup fabric (thinking: Why couldn't you have told me I should be looking for a backup fabric when you saw this coming... like, before I came in today) and she said, "Well, I'm pretty sure I can make it work..." So I tried it on and it was too big, so she put pins in it to take it in, but the question still remains: Is it going to work? And, more importantly: Will I find out if it's going to work more than one day before I'm leaving for my wedding?

So I said, "When can I come back for another fitting?" and she suggested Thursday. I am leaving Sunday. I said, "That seems like it's cutting it a little close..." so we made it Wednesday.

As a person who works well under pressure, I do understand that maybe that is how she works as well. But as a bride who is trying to get everything finished before I leave, I wish I felt more confident about the state of my dress and my shrug. Whee!
-kelly

Toronto = crafty

Being a crafty gal myself, I know I have many crafty friends reading this who are heading to Toronto in just a few. short. weeks (!!!) I haven't done a thorough research of every little crafty detail there, but I want you to know: Toronto = Crafty.

If you enjoy fabric, head to Queen Street West. There are several blocks from Spadina to Bathurst where there are tons of fabric stores. You'll find everything from home dec to fashion to quilting fabrics. There are also several stores selling notions, beads, and buttons. I wish we had a district like this in SF. I don't have specific links, but just go down there, start heading down the street and you'll see the fabric stores.

There are also many shops for the yarn lovers. If you're on Queen Street checking out the fabric stores, stop in at Romni Wool -- they have a huge supply of yarns and they're having a big sale for the month of July. (Danger! Danger!) There is also Americo -- they make their own hand-dyed and hand-spun yarns. Gorgeous stuff.

Your friend Google can help you find additional yarn stores in the area, but one great place to look is the Yarn Harlot's Toronto Yarn Crawl post, which includes reviews and photos of the shops.

If you like paper crafting, check out The Paper Place -- it's also on Queen Street West, but further down. Either take a long walk, or hop on the street car that goes down Queen. If you have the public transit Day Pass, just show that to the driver and you're good to go.

In addition to shops, there is the Textile Museum of Canada. My mom and I went there last month and really enjoyed the exhibits (and gift shop!) there. If you've got a bit of time to spare and you like textiles (fabric, yarn, clothing, thread, etc -- it's quite comprehensive), I would recommend it. It's near the corner of Dundas and University -- about a mile's walk from the Hockey Hall of Fame area (in the direction of Queen St. W, if you were already over that way) or take public transportation to the St. Patrick station (map here).

A good resource for check out other crafty goings on in Toronto is Toronto Craft Alert. They have crafty happenings listed there, as well as links to many crafty shops (selling both supplies and handmade goods).

Sorry this post is not a more comprehensive guide, but, um... wow! We're getting married in less than 3 weeks! Just wanted to give the crafty peeps the heads up: There is much craft to be found in TO!
-kelly

Public transit: Day pass!

More information for anyone planning to use public transportation in Toronto -- the Day Pass is the way to go (especially on weekends)!

On weekends, for $9 (CAD), 2 adults + up to 4 children (or 1 adult + up to 5 children) can ride public transportation all day long -- including subway, buses, and streetcars. Jenny and I used this on our trip and it's quite a bargain! Otherwise, each trip is $2.75 per ride per person, so it paid for itself in one round trip for us.

On weekdays, it's also $9, but only good for 1 person. Still a good deal if you are planning on using public transportation everywhere, as each individual fare is $2.75, which means that the pass pays for itself in 2 roundtrips on one day (out and back twice = $11).

So how do you get one of these Magic Tickets? At any subway station, tell the person working in the ticket booth that you want a Day Pass. They'll take your $9 and give you a ticket that looks like this:

(But with the current date scratched off, of course.)

As you travel the rest of the day, simply show that card to anyone taking fares -- that's the guy in the booth at subway stations and the driver on buses and streetcars. It was remarkably easy to use the pass, and I highly recommend it.

Again, if you have any questions at all about this, feel free to drop me a line or post a comment here. I am no expert, but I'll try to help.
-kelly

Public transit: To and from the airport

I went to Toronto this past weekend with our Best Woman (hi, Jenny!) We used public transportation the entire weekend. Personally, I love good public transit and Toronto definitely has it, so I highly recommend it.

We took a bus from the airport downtown and back again. You can find a lot of information on the TTC (Toronto Transit Commission) website, but I thought I would share our first-hand experience here for those who are considering using it for the wedding.

The bus we took to and from the airport was the 58 Malton (it is listed as "58A" on their site, but the one we took just said 58. You can take either.) This bus takes you to the Lawrence West station, which is on the Young-University-Spadina line (there's a map coming up in a few paragraphs to better explain that).

To get to the bus, follow the signs in the airport to Public Transit and Voila! Buses! Once on the bus, put $2.75 Canadian into the machine by the driver. I do not know if they can make change -- we had exact change. More precisely, we had $5.50 (a 5 dollar bill and 50 cents) for the both of us and we just put that in.

The driver will give you a transfer pass that you may or may not need to ride the subway (take it in case you need it, although we did not).

The bus ride is about 45 minutes through the suburbs of Toronto. You can take this opportunity to look around and say, "Hey! We're in a foreign country!" Or read a book.

The bus terminates at the Lawrence West station. Get off there and head on down to the subway. The station you want will depend on where you are staying.

To help you figure out which station is closest to your hotel, here is a Google map of the downtown area surrounding the Hockey Hall of Fame. There is an "M" indicating stations (as well as the station names), so if you enter in the name/address of your hotel, you can see what station is closest to you.

If you are staying at the Fairmont Royal York, the Union station is directly beneath it. The Hotel Victoria is closest to the King station. Novotel is kind of between the two.

The following map shows the downtown portion of the subway system -- you can see where you get dropped off by the bus (Lawrence West). You can then get an idea of which direction you need to go in for your hotel. For the entire subway map, click here.



To get back to the airport, you go in reverse -- take the subway to the Lawrence West station, then follow the signs up to the buses. Get in line where it says 58, then hop on that bus to the airport. It's handy to know your terminal ahead of time, but you can also ask the bus driver -- if you know your airline, they'll know the terminal.

You pay when you first get on the subway, then you just get straight on the bus without paying again (it's $2.75 CAD for the entire trip). Again, you may or may not need a transfer ticket to get on (we did not), so just grab one when you enter the station to be safe.

It's about 30 minutes on the subway (depending on what station you start at) and 45 minutes on the bus, so I would recommend you leave yourself 1.5 hours to get back to the airport. I'm sure there are faster ways to get to the airport, but none as cheap as $2.75 CAD.

For more information on all of the buses from the airport, see this page here on the TTC site. For more information on the 58 line, here is a map.

If you have any additional questions about this, please let me know. I'm no expert, but I just did it this past weekend, so it's fresh in my mind right now. You can post a comment here or email me and I'll be sure to edit this post with answers.
-kelly

Cupcake-ity

Blog? What blog? Oh, yeah -- this blog!

Unfortunately, the last 6+ weeks of our lives have sort of disappeared into a black hole, since our beloved kitty Kaesea has been so sick. But that's not what this blog is about -- this blog is about wedding stuff and we've got plenty of that. (If you're interested in the Kaesea stuff, check The Kaesea Report for updates.)

My mom and I went to Toronto a couple of weeks ago to do some wedding-y stuff, including the super fun activity of cupcake tasting! We plan to have red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting (red and white, see?) and also vanilla cupcakes with red frosting (the reverse! Cheesy and I love it!)

Bill and I had found some places selling red velvet cupcakes, but they weren't very red. So I contacted someone else to ask how red her cupcakes were and she said they were pretty red.

So my mom and I stopped by to check it out. She delivered! Check it out:


And if that's not red enough for you, look at the inside of this cupcake. Aw, yeah:


Not only that, but they tasted amazing. SO good! In fact, I am drooling writing this post. The cake was fabulous and that frosting was fantastic.

We also tried the vanilla cupcakes there. They're good, but not as stellar as the red velvet. We're going to go ahead and get them for the folks who don't want red velvet, but I gotta say: this red velvet kicks butt.

Meanwhile, now that I've written this, no one is going to eat the vanilla ones, right? They're good too, I promise!

Mmm... cupcakes.
-kelly

Shoes

Goodness! So much time has passed since our last post! Time is really flying -- it's so hard to believe there are now less than four months until our wedding! Eeep!

I will try to catch up a bit on what's been going on (yes, we have been working on stuff -- we just haven't been updating the blog) over the next week or so.

First topic: The critical issue of... Shoes!

People keep asking me if I'm going to wear Converse All-Stars. As much as I love 'em, I gotta go with pretty heels to go with my big fancy dress.

So I am currently shoe shopping. This has been a fruitless hassle for the last several weeks, but I have finally had a break-through this week and am now actually trying to decide between a few pair. Would you like to see them? Of course you would!

I would say this first one is the frontrunner right now. The heel is the right height (not too high) and it's really adorable. It looks kind of coral-ish in this photo, but it's quite red in person:

Pink Studio "Violet" in Red. I bought them at Nordstrom right here.

Next up is a very cute pair -- slightly lower heel, which may be good for all-day wear (I know! I know! I can change my shoes at some point. Honestly, though, I don't want to have to worry about it. I don't want to have a "Gee, my feet sure hurt" moment at our wedding where I then have to scare up a pair of more comfortable shoes. I just want to wear and go. It's just how I roll.)

I would definitely have to embellish these if I went with them -- they need flowers or some kind of shiny clip or something. That, of course, doesn't bother me since, you know, I like to make stuff. I like the shininess of them:

Perlina "Pamela" Pump in red. These were from endless.com.

The final contender would also require some embellishment in the front and, realistically, it's too high for me. From the front, it looks like a plain red satin pump. So why am I even showing it to you? Oh, the fabulous jewel-encrusted heels, of course (this photo does not do them justice -- they are very sparkly in person):

J. Renee "Bridget" pump in Cardinal Red. Also from endless.

Honestly, I'm pretty hooked on the first one -- I'm a sucker for a cartoon-ish shoe. I guess I was envisioning something a bit dressier and maybe with an ankle strap so that's my big holdup, but when a shoe makes you squeal when you put it on, I think that's a good sign.

Aaaand... if I do decide to change into shoes later in the evening, I think that these are probably the ones I'd have to get for that:

They're not just Chucks. They are red, sequined Chucks. Um, yeah.
-kelly