Wedding Wednesday – Table Numbers..Yes, They Get Their Own Post and Other Things Too!

 

Happy Wednesday everyone! Oh, happy last day of February as well! Wait a second, hold the presses…Tomorrow is the first day of March?

Holy moly! That makes the wedding seem so close! Infact, did you know that as of today there are only 74 days until the big day? Lately, I’ve been feeling anxious for the day to get here but not unprepared.

A while back I was mildly worried about getting everything done but now I feel good. I feel excited and slowly working on the DIY details at night. The great part of working on these projects at night? I get to hog the TV.

You see, while working on said projects I turn on my gushy/girly shows. Ryan will arrive home and immediately take the remote away to change it to something sporty because he says "I’m only half watching the show.”

I proceed to tell him that I can’t fully concentrate on doing lovely projects for OUR wedding if I’m watching some MAN show! :-) I usually end up winning that battle!

The theme of our wedding is coming together so well!! Family members from both sides have come forward with special family artifacts that are going to act as both decor and as a family history! They are old items which add to our vintage theme.

I saw this picture and LOVED the table number.

Knowing that my Dad saved all the old barn board from when we torn down the old barn on the farm, I knew that material would be perfect for table numbers! He is also a very handy fellow and loves to work on carpentry projects here and there. When I approached him about making the table numbers he was hesitant but thought he could do it.

2 hours later, BAM! 20 table numbers without even batting an eyelash! Told you he was talented!

I still have to paint the actual table numbers on them with leftover white paint but that’s minimal. I just LOVE the little extra detail the old barn board table numbers are going to add. The wood it self use to be part of the farm and now is a part of my wedding.

In other news, I have been REALLY enjoying getting the response cards in the mail!! It’s really exciting opening each one and then also seeing what song people requested!

Also, I got another piece of special mail the other day! A bridal shower invite in honor of me! WOW!

My amazing cousin Sheila is hosting a family shower for me in April. How exciting!!

Happy Wednesday!

xo

Weekend That Flew By

 

Happy Monday everyone! Seriously, didn’t the weekend just fly by?

It SNOWED!! And, on Saturday it was so windy that some of the back roads had drifts that not even my trusty little jeep could plough through!!

Friday night started out right! Getting together for our first book club meeting of 2012! It was a small crowd because of the weather but those that were there had a great discussion about our book, The Help. Highly recommended!

Saturday I was up early and cooking 3 pounds of bacon and all the fixings! My parents, Ry’s parents and the two kids came over for breakfast in honor of Bev’s birthday!

After breakfast Ryan took the two kids out for a rip around the fields on the snowmobile! They all looked like little snowmen covered in snow, from the crazy wind they drove through!

The best part of my whole weekend!? FINALLY getting to meet Tanner. My cousin and friend, Stacy and her Hubby Ricky welcomed baby Tanner Cole last week. Of course I had the flu and wasn’t able to visit them in the hospital but I got a good snuggle with him on Saturday! He is so adorable!!! Just love him!

How was your weekend?

xo

A Lesson In Babysitting. What Ever Teen Should Experience!

 

First and foremost, happy Friday! This week has been kind of the pits! The week started out great by sending out the wedding invitations but late Monday night/Tuesday morning I woke up and continued to stay on the cold floor of my bathroom for 24 hours. Bleh! My flu has finally passed and I am feeling SO much better!

Secondly, I’d like to give a shout out to my future mother-in-law, Bev on her birthday today!!

Happy Birthday Bev!

I mentioned last Friday about how Ryan and I aren’t too big into the whole Valentines Day thing. We like to have random date nights any day of the week. Because we do this, Valentines day isn’t special to us and never really has been.

That’s why this year for Christmas, we gave my brother and his wife a dinner gift certificate and our babysitting services for Valentines night!

I thought I was pretty swift. I made supper the night before so that I didn’t have to cook. Jared and Holly headed out and our babysitting experience from Hell began!

The meal went off without a hitch! Clark and Faith both loved my special potatoes. Ryan and I were up clearing our down dished at the sink when the next time we turn around Faith is giggling…not a good sign.

She had taken her drink, which was full, and gulped it ALL down. After her innocent little giggle she let out a burp and special potatoes were everywhere!

I’m trying to catch the worse of it in my hand and clean it up while Ryan is gagging in the background. Thanks for the help hun!

After that mess was all cleaned up and supper was over we headed to the living room for some T.V and play. Not even 5 minutes into it a weird smell came into the room. I actually blamed it at first on Ryan when all the sudden Clark came crawling towards us with poop all the way up his back and down his leg!

Thankfully, I’ve changed my share of diapers in my day and it was all good. Clark went down to bed shortly after the explosive poop incident but Faith had other plans.

Her plan was to torture her Uncle and Ti-Ti by crying for the next 2 hours straight. Ryan and I couldn’t even turn on the T.V without making her cry. We ended out the night by staring at eachother from across the kitchen table. We never said it but I think at that moment we both agreed, we can wait a little longer to have kids.

I really think EVERY teen thinking about how great having a baby is should experience what we did. Even though we absolutely adore both of these little people and cherish the special moments like this…

and this…

that you also have to realize that kids aren’t always perfect and are sometimes downright gross and cranky!

Happy Friday!

xo

Wedding Wednesday – You’re Invited

 

Happy Wednesday everyone! Around these parts it has been so sunny and relatively warm. Very unlike our Canadian winters! I actually confessed to Ryan yesterday that I have enjoyed this winter. Not too cold, not a lot of snow and relatively sunny. Weird.

It’s probably no secret to anyone that I have really enjoyed the wedding planning process. It is like the ultimate dream for an organizing, list making, OCD freak like myself. There have been few issues and few things that I have troubled with.

At the beginning of this process I thought that my wedding dress fears were going to be the worse of it, HA! In reality, the dress picking process was very enjoyable and the least of my worries. Who know that the wedding item that I had the most difficulty crossing of the list was the wedding invitations!

I have mentioned to everyone on here before that when Ryan and I started planning our wedding we wanted to keep things as local as possible. That meant that at the best of our ability we wanted alot of our resources to supplies locally.

When it came to the wedding invitations I knew exactly who we were going to get to supply them. Our local newspaper, The Equity is a fantastic printing and office supplier. In fact, it’s who we go through for all of our office needs at the farm.

I knew that they did wedding invitations too so one afternoon I went to pick up their sample book…yikes!

There were so many choices it was seriously overwhelming! Paper, finish, color, font, size…AHH!

I delayed the process as long as I could until I finally settled on one that Ryan liked.

Yup, you read that right, Ryan picked our wedding invitations!

Thankfully, my man has great taste and when I saw our invitations, with our names on it, I got super giddy and the process became more fun! I love our invites and I am so glad Ryan did get to make the decision and it made my life super simple!

The invitation is a folded card stock inner envelope that holds the invite, reception card, response card and response envelope. It’s a neat little bundle.

My favorite aspect, something that I personalized, is the response card. On it we ask for the name(s) of the guest that are coming or not coming. Below that, there is a line that says “Now’s your chance to tell us, what song will make you want to dance?”

The outer envelope was extremely boring until my wonderful bestie and MOH offered to her calligraphy skills! So talented!

Being that Ryan and I were both off of work on Monday we get all of the invites stuffed, stamped and sealed. We finally got those babies IN THE MAIL! Woo hoo!

It’s felt real for a long time that Ryan and I are getting married but there is something about sending out invitations to make you think, “Oh ya, there are actually going to be people at this wedding too!”

Thank goodness my groom has such wonderful taste and was able to look after choosing the wedding invitations. It was a job I really didn’t enjoy but I did love seeing our names on print with our wedding date! It’s like putting it in print made it official! There’s a wedding happening!

Happy Wednesday!

xo

God Bless Landyn

 

Happy Monday everyone! It’s hard to believe that this awesome weekend is over already. Kind of makes me a little sad. I’m sort of looking forward to the next two weeks but again, not wanting to wish the days away!

The weekend passed by in a blink! Friday evening was spent putting new furniture together by Dad and Ryan. Mom and I tried to help too but were more in the way so we went and picked up pizza instead!

Saturday morning Ryan and I were up with the birds and headed to Pembroke for the 2nd annual Snowmobile Ride of Dads. Ryan attended it last year all by himself because it was something we felt strongly about. I agreed to go with him this year as his passenger.

The army was out in full force for safety reasons and to support the cause!

All 180 snowmobiles lined up and then hit the trails to Chalk River. There, we had a yummy (and warm) lunch then detoured back to Pembroke.

Once back they handed out the door prizes and announced the total of what was raised. This year we raised $60,000!! All going towards prostate cancer research!

We loaded up the sled and then headed to Ryan’s parents place for supper! It was special supper because his Aunt Lynn, cousin Michelle and the two girls Charlotte and Amelia came from North Bay for a visit!

The girls surprised us with a fashion show before supper.

We celebrated Bev’s birthday, ate delicious stew and Ryan and I got our butt’s kicked at Rummoli!

Sunday morning I was off to church and then headed to another church for a very special baptism!

Evan and Josee had invited us all to watch the baptism of their baby boy, Landyn. It was a great service and yummy luncheon afterwards but the best part was being able to watch this important step in Landyn’s life!

So looking forward to many life milestones with him down the road!!

It was a whirl wind of a weekend but I am so thankful to have today off! I feel rejuvenated, rested and ready to take on another busy week!

Happy Monday!

xo

Valentines Day, Not So Lovey – Dovey

 

Happy Friday….yippee!! Looking ahead, there is a great weekend approaching and I can’t wait to get it started!

It seems like every blog around went into description as to what went on for their valentines day. Some got flowers, romantic dinner and just special time with the one they love.

While I did get to spend Valentines day with the one(s) I love I don’t think it was in the conventional way.

Ryan and I have never been that couple that is all about romance. Or, maybe we do and our definition of romance is something totally different then anyone else's.

Forget flowers and chocolates what gift makes me excited? When I come home to see that Ryan has vacuumed the whole house!

A fancy dinner out where you can’t recognize the food? No thanks! Bring me home pizza, rent a movie and let’s fall asleep before 9 PM!

This Valentines was no different. On Monday the 13th, Ryan gave me a great gift. He gave me a snowmobile day rental for the day that he got as a Christmas gift a couple of years ago. The idea of the gift was that he was suppose to give it to a friend and they could go out to rip on the snowmobile trails for the day. Instead, Ryan wanted to go with me so we picked up the sled early in the morning and hit the trails for a day of fun!

We stopped in a Connie's for breakfast in Campbell’s Bay and then rode around till lunch time where we hit one of my favorite spots, Ladysmith Hotel.

We both ordered some of their amazing wings and I had a Caesar, I mean it was red, and it we were celebrating Valentines day!

The best part of the day? Spending time with Ryan. Sure, lots of girls wouldn’t think driving separate snowmobiles and going for wings special for Valentines Day but it was. There was literally no one else around for most of the day, just the two of us ripping around the Pontiac.

It was a great day out on the trails driving my own machine and stopping in at one of my favorite restaurants with the man I love. Perfect way to celebrate a day of love, not everyone’s cup of tea but totally us!

Happy Friday!

xo

Wedding Wednesday – Random

 

Happy Wednesday everyone! I checked my Duration Calculator yesterday. It is an application that I used quite often to see the wedding days go from months to weeks and do you know what it said yesterday?

12 weeks!

Is it just me or does that REALLY not seem like a lot of time?

These days I am giving my poor mother stress. You see, I have all of these DIY projects marked and ready to start when it get closer to the wedding. There was a lot of things I wanted to do myself, put my craftiness to work.

Well, in order to do these things they require supplies. This supplies I have been slowing accumulating over the last month and there it was been sitting.

For example, that program paper. I have all intent on getting these programs made but I can’t yet. I have to wait until the order of service is done for the actual ceremony. I keep telling Mom to chill out because I am sure it ALL will get done but her lack of confidence is making me wonder…Will I really get it all done in time?

My wedding central room, formally known as the sunroom threw up and spewed wedding stuff ALL over my house! Particularly, my basement is seeing these effects. The handy-dandy little island area as become my ideal working location while watching sappy t.v shows!

Working on wedding stuff while watching chick flicks…perfect!

In this little basement I was able to complete one very important project! One item that I knew I could get done ahead of time. While meeting with the florist I had discussed with him using mason jars instead of vases. I saw this picture

and this one too

I loved the combination of raffia ribbon and the mason jar.

I got to work and ordered A WHOLE whack of raffia and began tying all the jars with pretty little bows. After much trial and error I decided the jars needed 6 individual pieces of raffia to make one bow. It was a task but it feels nice to cross this item off of our list!

In our local paper, The Equity, they send out an annual Bridal Supplement within the regular scheduled paper. As a girl, I love getting this and looking through all the weddings from the past year and ones to come.

As I’ve gotten older the faces and names have become more and more familiar. They are people that are around my age, even ones I went to school with which was always very surreal.

This year, Ryan and I had an engagement announcement in this years addition.

It was pretty special seeing our picture and details right there along the other “engagee’s”. I kind of got flutters thinking about all the people looking and reading about us getting married. The official paper announcement made it seem really real!

There’s lots more going on in the wedding front so stay tuned! Hope everyone has a wonderful Wednesday!

xo

Amanda & Lukes Wedding

 

Happy Monday everyone! The end of a very, fun and busy weekend! One filled with friends celebrating the marriage of Luke and Amanda.

On Saturday, it was a beautiful sunny day for a wedding. In these parts, a winter wedding isn’t all that common because of the fear of having a blizzard on the day of your wedding. This past Saturday was the absolute PERFECT day to have a wedding.

Friday evening a dusting of show fell and on Saturday the bright sky and relatively warm temperature made for a wonderful wedding day.

The commute to the church was simple, just down the road at Wesley United. Dad was asked to play the piano for the wedding and I was asked to sing and so we both got AMAZING seats at the front of the church to watch the beautiful ceremony.

It was a great ceremony. Ryan and I met up with Mom and Dad for a before dinner cocktail and then headed to the reception hall.

I don’t mean to brag but I do think Ryan and I were seated at the BEST table! We all laughed and laughed throughout supper. Not to mention I think if there was an award for “best song with Love in the lyrics” our table would have totally taken it!

One of the highlights of my night was when Gary got everyone up singing The Coconut Song, a Young/MacKechnie Christmas eve tradition.

After supper and really funny, heart felt speeches the bride and groom danced to their first song as husband and wife.

Then Amanda joined her Dad for their dance.

And Luke with his Mom, Elizabeth for their dance.

The party REALLY got started then! The D.J was awesome and between dancing and visiting the night went by in a flash!

It really was a wonderful day and a great wedding. We (Ryan and I) are so happy for Luke and Amanda. Thank you for having us there to help you celebrate your marriage!

How was your weekend?

xo

I’m A Trader

 

Happy Friday everyone! It is very believable, again, that Friday is here.  It’s been a touch week inside and outside of the office but I am looking forward to a beautiful wedding this Saturday.

Speaking of work, a big change happened here. For YEARS our crew of about 40 always had Mike phones as a means of communication. They have been a great tool for us. To be able to communicate like walkie-talkies with just a click of a button!

In fact, I had a Mike phone for years and then in the last year and a half upgraded to a Blackberry with a Mike.

It was the best phone! I loved it! I loved the BBM feature, checking my e-mail, the whole board used for texting, it was my little sidekick!

I was a little distraught when they told me that I had to trade in my wonderful phone and get something new.

You see, the whole Mike system is becoming obsolete in the next year or so. There will be no Mike phones this time in a couple of years. The towers aren’t getting repaired so the reception has been increasingly getting worse and worse. We all made the decisions that now was the best time to switch everyone's Mike phone to standard phones. Get everyone use to them before the busy summer season.

That included me.

At first, of course, I was going to get a blackberry, my other one had been so great to me. Then, the sales people gave me another phone to try for a week. An iphone 4S.

After that week of trying out that phone I was hooked and knew as great a blackberry was the iphone was now the phone for me.

This is my baby phone!

I’ve only had this phone for 3 days and already it has been so helpful! I am LOVING the apps! They FAR exceed those of the blackberry.

I’m still learning my way around this new phone and new technology but so far it has been great. Any tips or Apps you would recommend?

Happy Friday!

xo

Wedding Wednesday -Reception Hall

 

One of the things that I’ve never talked about on here was where our reception was going to be taking place. I’m not really sure as to why I wanted to skip over this little detail. It’s an important one. I mean, it’s where we are going to go to eat and celebrate the fact that we are married. Maybe it’s because even though I am SO thankful to be able to have a nice big space, I am still a little sad about the fact that it is not in my own hometown.

In our little hometown we have a lot of events! A lot of REALLY fun events where pretty much the whole community shows up to support various people and charities. Where are these events held? In our beloved “Beachbarn” or “Lion’s Hall”, the place goes by both names.

This poor little building originated from army base where it was purchased and place in this place to be used for storage. Over the years, the need for a hall became great and they turned this bunker into a hall adding a floor, lights and bathrooms. It’s held up so well and if the walls could talk I am sure it would have many a story to tell!

Unfortunately, our little hall has seen better days. It’s is well past it’s expiration date and a new one is needed, badly! The ceiling leaks when it rains, the septic system is on it’s last leg and the lack of windows can make for a VERY warm event.

That’s why, this small town girl, had to move her reception to another town. 

Luckily, in Shawville, on the same grounds where the beloved Shawville Fair is held is a beautiful and spacious building! There is the Shawville Agricultual Hall and Arena. Yup, this building is attached to the same arena where we took Ryan’s niece and nephew skating!

It’s a great space and we are SO fortunate to have the ability to have our wedding reception there! But, of course I had a sense of guilt for not doing it in my own town so I came up with a win/win solution.

A couple of years ago a committee formed called The Quyon Waterfront Committee. It’s a group of very dedicated members of our community who have been working diligently on raising enough funds to build us a new hall. They have done such an amazing job and the thought of a new building is no longer just a dream, it’s around the corner, they’re almost there!

My dad is a member on this committee and Ryan and I approached him. You see, at our reception venue, you have to provide your own bar. It would be a big job for Ryan and I, license, enough booze and getting people to work it.

Instead, we thought we would ask the Waterfront Committee to organize and run the bar at our wedding and any profit made goes back to our own community, into the future hall.

It was very sad for me not to hold my wedding reception in my own small town at The Beachbarn. Luckily, we have another great alternative that helps everybody. We have a wonderful venue to hold our reception and still found a way to give back to our future town hall, where hopefully we will be enjoying many events soon!

Happy Wednesday!

xo

Hockey Game + Birthday Party = Perfect Weekend

 

Seriously? The weekend is over? It feels like it passed by in a blink!

I can’t complain at all though! I am off of work today and I had Friday off for our annual Mountainview snowmobile trip! Which Ryan and I both got to go on for the first time this year!! It was a blast!

I’ve talked a few times on here about the renovation project that I am currently working on…The Study. Last week, I finally got the new desk and shelves installed. It looks kind of bare so while getting groceries early Saturday A.M I found some baskets that were over 50% off!! I picked up 8 of them and because they were so cheap I didn’t have to break the bank to buy them! Of course I had to browse through the Joe Fresh clothes too and got two sweaters for $4.94 (each) and both were regularly $24! Oh, and I got groceries too, ha ha!

Saturday afternoon Dad and I headed to the city to meet Bekk and Josh for supper. A while back Bekk (who is a Sens fan) and I (the leaf fan) talked about going to a game together! We decided to get tickets for the February 4th game!

It was a great supper and visit! It turned out that it was D.I.F,D night and money raised that evening would go to youth mental health awareness.

It was a GREAT game to be at if you were a Leafs fan. The Leafs took it 5-0!!!! It was a great game and Dad and I left the arena happy little fans!! Bekk and Josh….not so happy! :-)

Sunday morning I headed to Mom and Dad’s for breakfast and then Ryan and I went to church. After church we took a LOVELY afternoon nap!

We had to be rested because Ryan had a curling game that afternoon and I had a special 5th birthday party to attend!

I was so excited to see little Landyn who was attending his very first party!

Maddy opened all her gifts and then blew out the birthday candles! Her Princess cake was adorable and tasted so good! Her almost 9 month pregnant Mom, Stacy, hosted a great Princes party for her!

It was busy but great weekend where I got to spend ALOT of time with family and friends!

How was your weekend?

xo

Snowmobile Trip 2012!

 

Being from a VERY small town, with not a whole lot to do, one has to make their own fun. The good thing about living in a small town, especially a farming community, is there is a vast amount of space to run around and have fun!

I remember being a kid, walking the fields around the farm. Through the bush and down by the pond. I really knew how to use my imagination. As I got older Jared and I would take Dad’s old 71’ snowmobile out for a rip around the fields. One person driving and the other on a G.T being whipped behind the sled.

It was loads of fun! But, then you grow up and you begin “real life”. Luckily, for Jared and I this means working on our family farm. In our business we have a lot of clients from around the Ottawa area. Some of these clients have become are very good friends. They are mostly golf course superintendents and city park’s managers.

One Friday out of the whole winter, when things in the green industry are a bit quieter, we like to invite them up to our next of the woods for a little small town fun!

All of the boys get on either their own or rented snowmobiles and for a day they take in the scenes of our little Pontiac, Quebec region.

Today is that day yet again. So, Mom and I have set out a yummy breakfast for the men before the depart and now they are off!

We’ll meet up with them again at our local watering hole, Gavan’s, to end the day and thank them all for coming!

It’s the perfect way to start a weekend. Out having fun in the snow. It’s an event that many of the guys look forward to all year around and it’s an honor for us to be able to show them a little piece of what this small town is about!

Happy Friday!

xo

Wedding Wednesday – Man Bling and My Bling Too

 

Happy Wednesday everyone! And, Happy 1st day of February! Wow! I remember around the time of my birthday thinking, “Well, when February get’s here, it will really feel like the wedding is just around the corner!”

Now, that we are actually here, it really does feel like in just a few short weeks the wedding will be here!

When Ryan surprised me with my engagement and put that beautiful ring on my finger I also got another little surprise…a matching wedding band.

I love my engagement ring. Three stones with two baguette diamonds on the sides. Being that I hardly EVER wear any jewelry it was a weird feeling having an engagement ring on my finger all the time. I have grown use to it of course and now feel naked without it.

Being that my engagement ring was custom made it would have been virtually impossible to find a wedding band that would match. So, Ryan had the jeweler design a matching wedding band at the same time.

It has multiple smaller stones and two more diamond baguettes to match the engagement ring. I love both of my rings, I love what they symbolize and I can’t wait to wear them both for the rest of my life.

Ryan was a WHOLE lot picker. Yup, Mr. Manly-Man had LOTS of opinions when it came to his ring. In fact, we looked online and in stores (off and on) for almost 3 months.

Finally, when I went to the wedding show in Ottawa there was a vendor there from Kanata who had over 5000 different styles of MENS wedding bands!

Ryan and I went to their store and it was impossible for him not to find something, there were so many choices.

Ryan didn’t want his ring to be gold and no gems. He wanted it to be plain but with a little bit of detail. He wanted it to have a wide band but not too thick. He wanted it to be quite flat against his skin so that it would be harder to get caught on things….Told you, picky! :-)

Finally, he spotted this ring…

We both agreed that this was his ring. He kept saying how much he loved it and how it looks like a car’s air filter? Whatever that is….? ha ha!

I am glad that Ryan put so much effort into picking out his own ring. It is something that he plans on wearing every day and I am glad he has something he (and me too!) loves!

Can’t wait to put that ring on your finger Ry!

Happy Wednesday!

xo