Sweet Love

Just some images I found off of Google of "candy buffets" - a trend in weddings nowadays. I think it's a really 'sweet' idea. Guests get to pick an array of candy at the reception, and you can even make the candy fit into your theme by playing with different colours, containers, ribbons etc. I think it's a really neat idea and I would love to have one, I think, at my reception! :)

From the Mouths of Children...

When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You know that your name... is safe in their mouth.

When my Grandma got arthritis, she could not bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my Grandpa does it for her all the time... even when his hands got arthritis, too. That's love.

Love is when someone hurts you and you get so mad, but you don't yell at them because you know it would hurt their feelings.

Love is when Mommy sees Daddy all smelly and sweaty... and still says he is handsomer than Tom Cruise.

Prose poetry...

"Beauty is Everywhere."

Life is beautiful sometimes.
Except when it's not.
But most of the time it is. Most of the time God paints the sunrise in such beautiful colours that, even though the sun rose yesterday, it seems like something brand new and exciting. And in a way it is. In a way, the sun has never risen on that day before. And the start of the new day is always beautiful. No matter what. Even when God decides to hide his canvas behind a layer of cotton batting, you know the sun is there. And that is beautiful.
You know what else is beautiful? Beauty is the calm intake of breath, proof that you live. Serenity. Just sit there and breathe and write and look out the window. Breathe in. Breathe out. That lovely gasp of life that we don't even notice normally. Isn't it a beautiful thing?
Beauty is walking down the aisle, surrounded by people, but with eyes for only one person. Beauty is brushing your daughter's or your sister's hair. Beauty is finding a lady bug. Beauty is laughter. Beauty is knowing we are all brothers and sisters holding hands without ever touching. Strangers meeting strangers. Beauty is the web of true beauty, of friendship and love and faith, that connects countries to countries, hearts to hearts. Beauty is everywhere because life is beautiful.
And even when it's not, all we have to do is open our eyes. Because beauty is everywhere.

Letters of Love

Read this recently. SO adorable...

A couple celebrating their diamond wedding anniversary have shared the romantic story how they fell in love in the aftermath of World War II - by writing 600 love notes to each other.
Geoff and Pat Bunyan, now 83 and 82, met as teenagers in 1945 and became friends but he was posted abroad before love could blossom.
The couple wrote to each other nearly every day and their friendship gradually turned to romance as their letters became ever-more amourous.
When Geoff was finally demobilised in 1948 they married and bought a house - which they still live in today.
The couple have kept all 600 letters, which they shared with family and friends as they toasted 60 years of married life.
Mr Bunyan believes the letters are the secret to their long and happy marriage.
'We became friends before we became lovers and those letters helped us get to know each other properly,' he said. 'I think that's why we're still together today.
'I guess you could say we're the last of the ultra-romantics. Those letters were my lifeline while I was miles from home.

'It soon progressed from 'cheerio' to 'all my love'. I guess we did fall in love by letter.
'They were up in the loft for a long time but in the past ten years or so years I've been reading through them again.'
The couple met on the Clifton Down fields in Bristol when Pat was 18 and Geoff, then a 19-year-old Londoner, was doing his medical training at Bristol's Southmead hospital.
Wiping away a happy tear, Mrs Bunyan said: 'I was just 18 when I met him on the Bristol Downs, but I was a very innocent 18-year-old.
'We got on straight away and became best friends, spending every day together but before anything could happen he was whisked away to war.'
The war in Europe had ended but Geoff, then Private Bunyan, was drafted to India and then on to Japan for two years in the aftermath of Hiroshima.
Their letters progressed from casual chats to declarations of love sent across 6,000 miles. They numbered each one to make sure none went missing in the post.
Just after Geoff had arrived in India, he wrote to Pat on 19 October 1945 and said: 'My dear Pat. Today I had one of the greatest moments of my life.
'We arrived in smelly Bombay early this morning and after dinner, to everybody's surprise, a couple of dozen mail bags came on board. Mail! What a glorious word that is.
'And how lovely to have six letters of yours waiting for me! How excited I was! I ripped open the envelopes and read them through quickly. Tonight I feasted on them again.'
Two years later their love had developed and the tone of their letters became more romantic.
On 19 January, 1947, Mrs Bunyan wrote a letter to Geoff which read: 'I'm glad you think yourself lucky but I can't think why.
'I'm quite ordinary really darling and it's only because you love me that you think I'm wonderful. It's wonderful loving someone like you. I'm so glad I fell in love with you first.'
Mr Bunyan wrote back on February 10, 1947 by saying: 'You have the nerve to say you're quite ordinary and point out that it's only because I love you that I think you're wonderful.
'Maybe so, but have you thought that perhaps I'm in love with you because you are wonderful... I am lucky to have such a girl as you in love with me.'
The couple kept up their letter writing until Mr Bunyan was demobilised in January 1948. He moved straight to Bristol and they got married on August 13, 1949.

Later that year they bought a house in Horfield, Bristol, for £450 where they still live now - after 60 years, three children, eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Mrs Bunyan, who worked as a school secretary for 28 years, said: 'Our secret is that we both have a love of laughs. And we still talk a lot and are the best of friends.
'I had a terrible fall and broke my pelvis a few years ago and he has looked after me so well.'
Mr Bunyan, a retired sales manager for an engineering company, said: 'We have both worked hard, and believe in the division of labour, but we have always shown integrity and respect.
'We have never gone to sleep on a quarrel, and when we were young we had a great sex life, and have been very lucky with children.
'Meeting her is still the best thing that ever happened to me and we are still going strong. She is my rock.'

From http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1207125/Couple-wartime-romance-blossomed-600-love-letters-celebrate-60-years-marriage.html

Dress to Impress

So, I started today's wedding dress search, looking for 50's-inspired dresses. I have always loved the 50s, probably one of my favourite decades. And I found this dress. Isn't it cute?


Then, I just kind of broke out into looking at other vintage dresses, and I found this picture. Love. So pretty. Her dress isn't my absolute favourite but it really works in this photo, and wow - love her hair. Such a romantic picture, in general!

Then, I was thinking that I'd like to look at some dresses with lace on them, for a bit of an old-fashioned feel. The dress in this picture isn't really old-fashioned, but I thought it was gorgeous still. Very elegant!

This next dress comes from one of my favourite wedding dress designers - Augusta Jones. Such a simple dress, but so, so, so lovely. In fact, I THINK this is the kind of style that I would like for my eventual wedding... for now anyways! Love the pearls around her neck, too!

Dresses just make me so happy.

Worldwide.

Wow. I was just watching "Julie and Julia" today, a movie (for those of you who haven't seen it) about this woman named Julie Powell who decides to cook some recipes by the famous cook Julia Child. Julie starts a blog to document her jouney. Soon, the blog takes off and she has a lot of readers. It got me thinking to my blog; I didn't really think anyone outside of my immediate circle of friends - Shell, Leigha, Sydnee, Abbey-Shae etc - read it. Until I found a little link where I could see the "audience" that this blog is reaching. And here are the results, of how many views my blog has gotten to date by country:

United States 520
Canada 417
United Kingdom 108
Russia 105
Germany 39
Australia 32
Poland 32
Finland 28
South Korea 26
Brazil 25
Netherlands 7
Philippines 5
Sri Lanka 3
Malaysia 3
Bahrain 2
Norway 2
Puerto Rico 2
Singapore 2
Denmark 1
Georgia 1

Hello out there to all of you! Wow. I don't know how many of those views are actually people READING this, or how many of those numbers are just "oh, what's this... Wow, this girl is nuts. Get me out of here." Haha. But still! Could not believe it! Very strange to think these words are not just being thrown out there and heard by no one! Thanks for reading, everyone! :)

Dressed to the Nines.

Just some dresses I found on bridalweddinggowns.ca. I have to say, I'm not AS in love with empire-waisted dresses as I once was, but here are some that I liked off their site. There is also a magnificent ballgown thrown into the mix here. But yeah. Kindda uncertain as to what style of dress I want to wear for my far-away wedding. I still do really like empire-waisted dresses, though, but we'll see if I find anything better out there in the coming days, weeks, months, years...

La Créativité!

Just some creative ideas I found on Etsy, about guestbooks! This first one is a puzzle, and you can pick whatever colours you want, to correspond with your wedding colours. Cute, huh? Then, guests can sign the different puzzle pieces!

Another creative idea - you make a picture of a tree and then let your guests put thumb prints as leaves on it! They can sign their names or a short message around their thumb prints, too.

Creative, non?

The autograph of love.

So, I posted a while back a cute picture of a couple kissing, and Shell brought up how much she loves kissing photos - and I agree! Some of them are super cute. She posted this one on her Facebook page:

Adorable, isn't it? It got me thinking of old fashioned kissing photos, from the 40s, where the man is either going off to war and kissing his sweatheart, or is just coming back after a long absence from home. I think these are just some of the most emotional, poignant photos out there, and so I went looking for some online. Here are the results...

This next one has a kind of interesting story. This was during V-J Day, and apparently this sailor was so overjoyed at the war being over that he went around kissing random women, here kissing a nurse. A famous photographer happened to get this shot, and apparently it's become a famous photo since then.

They even made a statue commemerating the photo, to celebrate some anniversary (sorry, can't remember which anniversary. It might have been the anniversary of V-J Day). The woman in the red pants is widely believed to be the nurse in the original photo. There is some dispute as to who the man is, as many people have come forward claiming to be the one in the photo.

Aww. Just so adorable. I love it. (No pun intended!)

Big News

Sooo. Yesterday was a fun day. It was my friend Krystian's birthday party yesterday. My friend Abbey-Shae and I were both invited. Now, Abbey has had a big crush on Krys for a while now, and I've been trying to convince her that he likes her back (because I was pretty sure he did). They'd text each other practically 24/7. They'd talk on the phone together for hours. And there was just a certain way they'd act around each other... Well, anyways, Abbey was totally in denial, and I could tell it was killing her. But then along comes Saturday, and the birthday party. First, we went to Krystian's house to hang out and open gifts. It was funny, though: Abbey pulled a prank on him. Earlier, she had asked him what he wanted for his birthday, but he said he didn't know. So, Abbey said that if he didn't tell her by November, she'd buy him a pony. A really cheap, plastic, My Little Pony. And guess what? Krys didn't end up telling her what he wanted. So what did Abbey-Shae do? She did exactly what she said she would. She bought him a pony. A really cheap, plastic, knock-off of My Little Pony (she said the real ones were really expensive). And so, that's what he got when he opened his gift, with a big "You've been warned sign" taped to the front of it. Haha. And that's it. Or so he thought. She hid his real gift in his pillow for him to find later: Season 1 of Battlestar Galactica, which he didn't find until really late, once we had all gone, just like Abbey wanted it.

Well, anyways, after going to his house, we went to his friend Trent's house for food. Wow, his family sure knows how to host a party! There was so much good food! Spinach dip, chips and salsa, bruschetta, all sorts of pizzas, veggies.... Yum! We started watching Transporter, but the girls, who weren't into it as much, went to go get ready for our next activity... SWING DANCING! All us girls-- Abbey-Shae, Acacia, a girl named Raina, Trent's sister Mariana, and I-- decided to wear dresses, so we went to go change. We drove about forty minutes to get to our destination, where we payed $5 (Krys covered the rest) to get in. We arrived a few minutes late, and so the lesson portion had started already. But we joined in, and man, was it so much fun! After the lesson, we had free time to dance. So fun...

Everyone who was invited to Krystian's birthday started to notice, too, how much Abbey and he danced together. I was talking to Reece, Raina's boyfriend, and he was basically hinting that he knew, as Krystian's good friend, that Krys liked her. So I outright asked him if Krys did, and Reece replied, "why else do you think he brings his dog to play practice?" (We all are in the same play at our church and every week, Krystian brings his dog, who Abbey just loves.) I tried telling Reece without words that Abbey liked him back. (Because of course I was sworn to secrecy!) But he got it. And soon everyone in the party knew that they liked each other. Everyone except Krys and Abbey haha. But they continued to dance a lot together (Abbey cutting in when the DJ called Krys to the center of the dance floor to dance with other people celebrating their birthday), and people started making comments towards Abbey... Stuff like, "So I heard Krys wants to dance with someone." And Abbey would reply, "Who? Acacia? Mariana? Marian? You?" To which she'd get the reply, "no..." with a smile on their face. I also told her that I needed to talk to her, but she told me to tell her later because it was quite loud on the dance floor, and she was obviously having a lot of fun. But anyways, I was dancing with Trent and he told me to look over to Krys and Abbey, who were making they're way to sit down at one of the tables. "I gave him the bro talk," Trent told me. Now, I'm not an expert at guy lingo at all, so I asked him what that meant, even though I had a good idea. He said he told Krys finally that she liked him etc etc, and so now Krys was making a move. Soo.... long story short, he nervously told her he liked her, and she nervously told him the same and now, basically, Abbey and Krys are courting each other. They're not "dating," but following the model of courtship that Abbey-Shae always wanted to follow: no kissing or anything, but seeing if you're compatable for marriage and stuff. Her dream has always been for her first kiss to be at her wedding. They talked for a while, and hugged each other a long time. It was kind of funny, though, because soon after, Krys was driving everyone back home in his van, and obviously the two of them wanted to talk. So the rest of us, Acacia, myself, Reece and Raina, all pretended to talk to ourselves to give them some privacy. It was really hard to do, but we mostly were respectful and let them talk as Krys drove. ;) And I also knew that Abbey would fill me in with everything, because I was staying over at her house that night. :P It was so sweet, though. Abbey was completely pinching herself, certain the whole night had been a dream. I am so happy for her, though. And Krys, too. I hope it works out.

But yeah, that was the big news of the night, the week, the month.... I probably forgot some details, but that was the best I could remember it!

Eeeee! Still so excited for them!

Green with Envy

Right now I have been loving emerald green, black and white for a wedding colour scheme. I know I have been saying that yellow is my colour, but I don't know. Green is threatening to take its place. The green/black/white combo is classy, I think, but also fun, with the bright emerald hue thrown in there. Here is my inspiration photo, from Etsy... Isn't it gorgeous? (It's a wedding guest book.)

And here is a bridesmaid dress in emerald green. Love it! And I like her hair! Kind of a vintage style, non? Love the whole look. I think I could add my own flair to it, too, by adding maybe a string of pearsl (gotta love pearls) and rhinestones or something, and maybe white gloves? I can just see the reception as slightly extravagent but still simple and chic, if you can imagine that. I don't know. Yellow is still a forerunner, but green is catching up!

There is also the option of green AND yellow, though I think it would have to be a more subdued green, as in this picture. Very pretty, though, I think. And I love the bride's hair! I think my friend Leigha told me she wanted a yellow and green colour-scheme, though. Is this what you were imagining, Leigha?

I love this next photo. I think they're poses are really fun - all different, and more natural looking than the traditional look-at-the-camera-and-smile-on-three-everyone look. I definitely would like to have a few shots like this when I get married. Also love these bridesmaid dresses, and their hair, and the flowergirl, and the bouquets... Sigh... I love weddings. Interesting, though, as to how many bridesmaids there are here, though, huh? That's a lot, I think!

And this is one of those inspiration boards made of yellow and green. Lovely! :)

Two pretty photos.

I really love this dress. I think it's the kind of dress I'd like to eventually get married in. I love the flowy-ness and the lace, and even the colour I don't mind. Just a very pretty dress. ;)

I also love these flowers. Calla lillies are one of my favourite flowers, and I love them in this bouquet with the white roses. Stunning.

So This is Love.

Just a lovely, old-fashioned themed photo. :)

Put a Ring on it

I realized just the other day I didn't have any pictures of engagement rings on this blog yet. Quite peculiar. Perhaps this is because I view it as the man's job to pick out a ring so he can propose (I always do wonder how he knows your ring size haha), though I do think it's cute when a couple picks out a ring together. Anyways, here are a few from my travels around the internet. I should have written down where they're from, but I didn't. Bad me.

This first one is a very unconventional ring, but I really love it! It's unique and yet not too wacky, I think. And the ring below it could be for the groom. :)

Here is another slightly unconventional engagement ring, with a pearl in it. I really love pearls, though admittedly not on all rings. But I think this ring is really gorgeous.

Another pearl one that I like. It kind of reminds me of my mom's engagement ring for some reason, though I'm not sure why, because her's doesn't have a pearl in it at all. But what a beautiful ring.

One of the more 'standard' engagement rings. I like the simplicity of it, though. Very classy.

Another simple ring. I really like the circular cut of the diamond. Square ones just aren't my thing at all.

This is a slightly unique wedding ring - and it's two in one! (I'm pretty sure anyways!) One is the engagement ring and the other is the wedding ring.

This is a bit of a flashier ring, but I think it's really stunning. Though, I'm totally not expecting this kind of ring for when I get engaged. But it's still nice to look at! ;)

Some Pics.

Hey-lo todos.
Sorry, it's been a while since I blogged again. Life is really crazy, as always. But here are some pictures to cheer you up. :) I actually can't remember where I got these from, but I think it was from OnceWed. The colour scheme reminds me of pink lemonade. And I like the bride's dress. though, I would never wear that hat thing myself. But still.

Kindda cute, right?

Pom-Pom, Can You Do the Pom-Pom...?

Here's a kind of neat Do-It-Yourself project I found on Martha Stewart that would be great for a wedding! It looks pretty simple to do, as well, and I think they could add some colour to the reception (or ceremony even). And they'd probably be pretty cheap to make since all you need is some packages of tissue paper and wire!

Here are the steps, as per Martha Stewart's website:
1. Stack eight 20-by-30-inch sheets of tissue. Make 1 1/2-inchwide accordion folds, creasing with each fold.

2. Fold an 18-inch piece of floral wire in half, and slip over center of folded tissue; twist. With scissors, trim ends of tissue into rounded or pointy shapes.

3. Separate layers, pulling away from center one at a time.

4. Tie a length of monofilament to floral wire for hanging.

And here's a great idea - you can make them into napkin rings! Here are the directions to to that:

Napkin Rings
With just a few changes, these follow the same steps as the hanging pom-poms.

1. Stack four sheets of tissue. Cut a 10-by-5-inch rectangle, going through all layers. Make 3/8-inch-wide accordion folds.
2. Fold an 18-inch piece of floral wire in half, slip over center of tissue, and twist to secure. Trim ends of tissue.
3. Separate layers, pulling away from center one at a time.
4. Bend wire into a loop to fit around napkin, and twist end around loop to secure.