Wedding Details – The Candy Bar

 

WARNING- READING THIS POST MAY CAUSE INCREASED HUNGER AND UNCONTROLLABLE DROOLING. SMALL TOWN KIND OF LIFE IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY READERS ACTIONS (AKA: GOING OUT TO BUY AND EAT OBSCENE AMOUNTS OF CANDY).

Happy Wednesday everyone! Today in this little town there is a winter storm warning. I guess Mother Nature didn’t read my “I’m Over Winter” post! Geez!

On one of the final wedding blog posts I’d like to share with you our candy bar! Having a candy bar at the wedding was just something that was on the list when we started planning. Both Ryan and I love candy and wanted to make sure that our candy buffet was big!!

When I started looking into costs I realized that one of the most expensive things was the jars. Who needed all of those jars after the wedding? So I looked on a “used Ottawa” site and found a bride selling her jars! She said she had over 15!! The next day we went to see them and purchased them on the spot!! We got an amazing deal! We would have paid 4 times the price if they were new! They even threw in the little candy scoops! 

Above the candy bar was a sign I had purchased from an etsy shopped called, Taylorsboutiquesigns. At first I looked and tried to make it but with little time left before the wedding and the sell price was only $30, I thought it was better to buy!

I didn’t want out guests snacking on the candy before it was reception time so I put out this little sign!

I ordered little gift bags in our wedding colors online. They came in packs of 100. I then made a label that read “Love Is Sweet. Thank you! Lindsay & Ryan May 12th, 2012”.

I knew they were pretty big bags to fill and we did have a lot of candy but I wanted something a little extra to fill up the bags and for guests to enjoy! So, I ordered little 1 oz. bags of blue and pink cotton candy as well! They were a big hit! I had very little left over! I borrowed this old Pepsi crate to hold the cotton candy from a friend!

I also made a “Love Is Sweet” sign to hang on the table out of burlap, black paint and blue ribbon.

The “L-O-V-E” was part of the jar set that I purchased from the other bride! I loved the little candy scoops that came with it!

The other brides husband had also made a candy necklace stand that we purchased as well!

Part of the table.

What’s a candy buffet without some giant lollipops? I found those buckets at a dollar store and just put a florist frog and shavings to stick the lollipops in.

To identify what candy was in what jar, I made these custom labels. I printed all the names on computer paper and modge podged it on to stock paper. Using blue or yellow ribbon I then tied all the labels around the jars.

Ryan and I purchased all of the candy from the Bulk Barn a week before the wedding. We had a BLAST going around the store like little kids picking out candy! Skittles, swedish berries, jolly ranchers, rings pops…just to name a few! It was one of the highlights of the wedding planning. We just had such a good time! We had bought ALOT of candy. We thought we had MORE then enough. We were expecting to be eating candy all summer with the leftovers!

But, we were happy to find out when we got back from our honeymoon that there was hardly any candy left at all! It was what we wanted, no leftovers! We wanted our guests to take what they wanted and leave with a nice full bag of treats! We were a little sad that we forgot to grab some before we left. Out of the corner of my eye all night I enjoyed watching the guests as they made way through the candy buffet line with smiles on their faces, picking out the candy they wanted. It’s satisfying to watch your guest enjoy something that you planned and put so much work into!

Happy Wednesday!

xo

Weekend of Birthday Celebrations

 

Happy Monday everyone! I hope that you all had a good weekend! I feel as though the weekend was about 2 seconds long because it was so filled with fun activities!

First, on Friday I attended one of my favorite events! Book club! The first meeting of the 2013 year was held covering the book, Middlesex. Even though I didn’t love this book, I did love sharing and discussing it with a wonderful group of ladies. There is something so refreshing about sitting around on a Friday night with snacks and some great girls. I feel renewed after every meeting.

Saturday morning it was off to celebrate the 1st birthday of Tanner!! It is so hard to believe that this big guy is already 1! It’s been great watching him grow over the last 12 months!

Birthday Boy

Friends having fun on the bouncy castle

Landyn and I at the party.

Another birthday guest and buddy Daniel! Loving his big blue eyes and big smile!

Unfortunately, Ry and I couldn’t stay too long at the birthday party because we were expecting some special guests at any minute!

When we got home we were greeted with Ryan’s cousins Dean and Michelle as well as their girls, Charlotte and Amelia. We had a great visit and catch up and the girls had a good time dressing Tucker up in all of his clothes!

Tucker loved having the girls at our place and they were so good about spoiling him! He loved all of the extra treats and attention!

Saturday evening we all packed up and headed to Renfrew to celebrate the big 5-0 for Ryan’s mom, Bev! It was a great supper with family and a great after party celebrating the life of a wonderful woman.

Happy Birthday Bev!

Amelia and Katelyn at supper!

Sunday morning we all woke up and enjoyed a visit over breakfast. By late morning Ryan’s cousins were back on the road to their home and we were kind of stuck with what to do with the rest of our day. We were kind of tired but opted to pack up and head to the city to do our February date envelope! But, more on that to come!

This weekend was so FULL of family and friends! Nothing is better then that! It was also nice to spend the whole weekend at with my husband! After Ryan being away all last weekend it was nice to have that time to do things together! How was your weekend?

xo

I’m Over Winter

 

Happy Friday everyone!

This is that time of year where I go ahead and write my “I hate winter” speech. And really, in reality, I should be the LAST person to complain about winter. I’ve hardly even been home!

Between spending almost 2 weeks in 27 degree weather in Florida….

And then a week in chillier temps but still no snow San Diego….

I shouldn’t even care. I should be ready for a little winter. But I’m not. Because I really hate it that much. After spending about 2 weeks solid at home now in the cold and snow, I am ready for spring.

I’m ready for random trips for ice cream.

A weekend night BBQ and swim at the pool.

And pool parties.

Golfing.

Gardening.

Chipstands.

And not having to wear socks and bundle up everywhere you go!

So what brought on this Friday rant? Well, the other day I was walking home from the office for lunch. It was a cold, windy and snowing day! Pretty much miserable to be outside at all in. I was speed walking to get out of the cold as fast as possible. Then, I looked down and saw this…

A sign of spring maybe? A little hope for me that is for sure! I haven’t seen pavement on the walk to and from work in a long time. Truthfully, it brightened up my spirits. It made me think of the next season to come.

Hopefully sooner rather then later.

Come on spring! I’m ready for you!

Happy Friday!

xo

Wedding Details – DIY Style

 

Happy Wednesday everyone! It’s a snowy day in this small town today with snow squalls to boot, yuck! But the good news is that I only have a 30 second walk to my heated office! It’s day’s like today that I REALLY appreciate my place of work, home!

I am officially getting towards the end of the wedding recaps! Weird to think that in a few months Ryan and I will have been married for 1 whole year! I can’t necessary say that the year flew by but it was so full of amazing moments that I can’t help but look back fondly.

When planning the wedding I knew I wanted to get my craftinesss in there and make some things myself for the big day! It was important to me to have a more personal touch to our wedding.

One of the items that I made that I was MOST proud of was our wedding programs. It took a long time to specially cut all the different lengths of paper but I loved how they turned out!

For the church I found a picture a long time ago of a stump of wood used to hold candles! Well being that this farm is surrounded with wood I had no problem finding material to make this candle holder for the back of the church.

I can’t really say that I “made” these but I did assemble them! Mason jars wrapped with raffia ribbon for vases and candle holders!

We also made the white and red wine that was on every table! Again, long process but very rewarding!

We had torn down an old barn on the property years ago and saved all the old barn board. It REALLY came in handy for some wedding projects! Don’t worry I asked permission first! :)

I made a sign for the church that said “Wedding” and one for the dinner and dance venue that said “Reception”.

As well as this one that was hung on the back of an old love seat from the original farm house.

Not to mention all the hard work my Dad put into making these table numbers for the reception out of the barn board!

I also decided on a small project for the seating tags that were hung on an old farm ladder! (Old tricycle found in farm house attic)

While re-doing the old basement and making it into a laundry room, we decided to replace the windows. The windows that we were replacing were ORIGINAL to the house (about 1912)! As old as the windows were they were still in great shape and I loved the look for them. So, we gathered old family photos from family and made three window pane frames. One for Ryan’s side of the family, one for mine and then one of our parents and ourselves. Thanks to Eugene for finding us the third window pane!

I loved how these turned out and they now hang in the hallway leading to our bedroom! So special!

I’m not going to be humble here…because truthfully I am friggin’ proud of all of the things that I made for the wedding. It was a lot of work but it was so satisfying to make things for our day. To have my own special touch around the venues and for our guests celebrating with us to enjoy! I am very happy that I was able to use materials from around the farm rather then going out and buying something mass produced! Having all the homemade touches made it from being any other wedding to being “ours”.

Happy Wednesday!

xo

Family Day Weekend 2013

 

Happy Tuesday everyone! Around these parts, some people were off work and some people were not. Family Day is a long weekend for the private sector in Ontario. Being that we live right on the Quebec/Ontario border, some people take it and some don’t.

On our farm, we don’t take Family Day off but being that I have Mondays off in the winter, it felt like I celebrated the holiday.

It was a VERY exciting end of the week around these parts! After many, MANY days searching, Ryan has found a new truck. We have only been driving one vehicle since the wedding to save some money. Increasingly this winter we have discovered that it wasn’t working. That Ryan needed his own set of wheels. We also decided that a used vehicle is what was right. Ryan walks to work and hardly would put a lot of miles on a vehicle. With that in mind, buying used made a lot of sense practically and financially!

Here’s his new baby!

2006 Dodge with only 90,000 KM on it.

Another exciting thing about the end of the week was that Friday was our annual Snowmobile Trip. Every year, we invite good clients who have their own sleds (and we rent a few for those who don’t) for a day of fun around the Pontiac! We treat them to lunch back and Ladysmith and then supper and drinks at Gavan’s. It’s always a great time!

Ryan was away this past weekend on a snowmobile trip. As much as the trip sounded fun, after being away so much, I just wanted to be home for once. So, I spent my weekend with this guy…

We puttered around the house doing chores, watched ALOT of movies with our feet up…

I had a delicious and OVERDUE lunch date with some wonderful friends and made a meatless homemade marinara sauce from canned tomatoes from my garden! Yum!

It was exactly what I needed to do this weekend. Have some “me” time. I really feel like things are back to normal after my crazy travel schedule this winter.

Being that Monday was my day off I headed to the city with a long list of errands to run! Luckily, Mom joined me and we had a yummy lunch at Montana’s! Perfect ending to the weekend!

How was your weekend? What did  you do?

xo

Lent 2013

 

Happy Friday everyone! Hope everyone’s Valentines day was filled with love! I certainly got spoiled! Ryan shows his love to me everyday with special little things but on Valentines day he goes out of his way to do something extra thoughtful.

As a Christian, we are currently in lent. What is lent? According to Wikipedia:

“The traditional purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer—through prayer, penance, repentance, almsgiving, and self-denial. Its institutional purpose is heightened in the annual commemoration of Holy Week, marking the death and resurrection of Jesus, which recalls the events of the the Bible when Jesus is crucified on Good Friday, which then culminates in the celebration on Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

During Lent, many of the faithful commit to fasting or giving up certain types of luxuries as a form of penitence.”

I am pretty faithful every year and give up a luxury. Whether it be sweets, swearing or something else. This year is no different. This year though, I am giving up something that I have never done for an extended period of time…

Meat

Yes, for 40 days, I will not be consuming any form of meat. A lot of people ask, and yes meat to me includes fish and chicken.

Will it be hard? Oh heck yes! My husband is a “meatatarian” and I have some form of meat at least once a day! But, being hard is kind of the point. I’m suppose to pray for strength and guidance to get through the next almost 6 weeks.

That being said, I’ve taken an “a-type organizing freak” approach. I’ve pretty much planned every meal for all of lent. There’s a lot of new vegetarian recipes that are coming into our home and alot of meatless takes on some old favorites!

Today will be one of the hardest days. Today is our annual company snowmobile trip that takes us to one of my favorite restaurants, Ladysmith Hotel. Their wings are some of the best around! Today, I will snack on a meat less lunch as I watch others enjoy one of my all time favorite treats!

Wish me luck!

What have you given up for lent?

xo

Wedding Details – Flower Decor

 

Happy Wednesday everyone! I hope you all are having a great week so far! It feel so good to be back at home and starting to get back on schedule! It’s been hard keeping to normal daily things because just as I was getting into the schedule it would be knocked upside down with a work trip! But, no more work tips for a while! I can start living our normal and boring daily lives. I’ve missed boring. I like boring.

It’s hard to believe that the wedding recaps are coming to a close. Yesterday, we were married for 9 months! Wow! Time, at first, was slow. But now, the months are flying by!

Being that I work in a nature related industry, flowers and gardens have always been a big part of my life. I truly love flowers and I couldn’t imagine not having any to decorate with!

For the church, we went with tall flower arrangements matching the style of the bouquets. All my vases I had put together using mason jars and raffia ribbon.

There were two beautiful wreaths to adorn the two doors at the back of the church. They were later moved to two doors that were at the reception hall! Just loved all the Gerber daisies in the arrangement!

A few Gerber daisies were set aside for the cake baker to use for decoration!

Each table had a beautiful mason jar centre piece with coordinating yellow flowers.

The 6 window flower arrangements were moved to the reception hall and placed around all the other decorations.

To decorate the head table, there was an empty mason jar for each girl to put her bouquet in.

I loved our flowers! I am SO happy that I went with the local florist (Hardy’s)! He took pictures that I liked and made sure they were exactly as I wanted them! They were all delivered on site and the quality was phenomenal! They lasted so long even after the wedding! 

Happy Wednesday!

xo