I've Fallen In Love...

With a veil. My mother's veil, to be exact. So here's the scoop. I've been away in Vegas, with my dad, schmoozing with clients. While we were there, Dan & my mom were cleaning out the master bedroom in preparation for new carpet. I'm talking MASSIVE cleanout, everything must go, right to the back of the walk in closet.

They found her veil, and I adore it.

My parents got married in the late 70s, and, while mom's veil fit perfectly with her 70s dress, I think it is truly a classic. It is double-layered, waist-length with a simple rolled edge. It is exactly the fullness and length I wanted with my own dress. I love the slight vintage look of the lace appliques scattered throughout. I love the sentiment behind wearing my mom's veil.

Here I admit that Dan has seen me with it on my head, completing an outfit of jeans and a hoodie. I was on my way out to meet my MOH Michelle, and my hands were otherwise full. He laughed at me when he looked at me strangely and I simply said "I'm going out," but I assure you I did NOT wear it to the shopping mall.

So, what's the problem? It's a little old and dusty, but that can be fixed. It's also very white, and my dress is not white. I'm trying to figure out whether it can be dyed, but I don't want to risk ruining it either. I'm conflicted -- do you have any advice? Do I have myself a project, or is this beyond what I should attempt?

The Easiest Shopping Ever

So... I'm shocked.

Selecting bridesmaid dresses is literally some of the easiest shopping I've ever done. I really didn't expect it to be, I thought it would be one of the more difficult tasks. Looking through www.realbridesmaids.com, I was worried to choose something that the gals hadn't all managed to try on. I'm aware that most bridal shops don't carry much in a range of sizes, and knew that we couldn't go by catalogue picture alone.

I knew what I wanted for the basics: deep chocolate brown, tea length, summery material like chiffon.

A couple of the girls knew what they wanted for sure: straps that provided a bit of support (and who can blame them, really?).

We tossed around ideas including having them made, but it turned out to be much simpler than that. My friend & bridesmaid Heather & I stopped at the bridal shop to put the deposit on my dress (YAY! Another post coming soon!). I literally pulled this chocolate brown, chiffon little beauty off the rack and said "see, I was thinking about something sort of like this."

She tried it on, and it looked fabulous. We both fell in love with it right away. We wanted to capitalize on the same sale that I was taking advantage of for my gown, so we had to move fast. Within a couple of hours, photos had been shown to the other 3 girls online, and we had unanimous approval! Deposits were placed the very next day, and I even had measurements ready to go all the way from Newfoundland.

Did anything you expect to be hard turn out to be really easy? 

Guest blogging from Dan: 

Having now done the engagement photo session with our photographer of choice, I have come to the conclusion that some couples must get married just to have their pictures taken. It's surprisingly fun! Someone follows you around all day oohing and ahhing over how good you look together, what a great couple you are (etc. etc.), and basically makes it their mission of the day to make you look like the perfect pair of people. What's not to love?

Done right, the whole experience becomes an affirmation of your decision to get married. By the end of it all, with a photographer as great as ours, you and your intended should both be feeling chipper, refreshed and more on track toward wedded bliss than ever. Or you might just find yourself exhausted with straw in your pants, but either way it's worthwhile.

Notes from Kate:

I loved doing our engagement shoot! I had so much fun with this whole day, and am grateful to Christine for making it such a great day. We started out in Fort Langley with the requisite train station, tracks & coffee shop shots. We then spent some time at the Fort Wine Co. (one of my favourite places for a rainy afternoon), and headed over to my family's farm. Dan's quip about straw in your pants is not much of an exaggeration.

We don't have any official photos to show you yet, but Dan & I played around with my camera phone (I know, I know) before the photographer arrived, so here are a couple of shots of us being our usual goofy selves.

Searching for China

I have a secret. I adore dishes. It really does border on obsession. I love pretty homey things in general, and beautiful dishes are just about one of the most wonderful things I can think of. Ranks as high as having pretty stationary.

I've started my gift registry (fairly early, at the good advice of one of my bridesmaids), 

and so far finding my kitchenware as been the most pleasing task. I already have started to collect a set of casual dinnerware, because my grandmother thought it was important to start this collection off years ago. So yes, I picked dinnerware at 18, and yes, I still love it. It is Royal Doulton Cinnabar (see right), and here it is in all it's glory. Doesn't it just call up images of home-cooked casseroles straight out of the oven? I still think it was a wonderful choice.

So, I really only needed to find formal china to complete my collection. I've looked through almost every Mikasa, Noritake & Royal Doulton pattern we could find. The first one we chose 

was this lovely set by Noritake. It's called "White Palace" (see right) and I still adore it. In addition to the beautiful gold rim, this set has a cream textured border. Texture really is important to me, and it was definitely the selling point on this set. That all said, I thought it was a little too formal and a lot too expensive for what we needed. 

Next, I fell in love with Challinor by Royal Douton (see left). If for whatever reason I ever needed to choose a second set, this would be it. A rich blue and gold, it's beautiful and luxurious. I especially loved how every piece in the setting was a little bit different. Even with the blue it was still a very warm set, as the border was a lovely cream colour. It was a very close choice, but it wasn't quite right. 

We finally settled on Noritake's Glenrose Platinum. I love it. It reminds me just slightly of my mom's pattern (she chose Noritake when it was still new and unknown), but is different enough too. Silvery blue with a textured rim, I think it will be perfect for all occasions and can be set with many different colour schemes. It is truly perfect for us in every way, and I am excited about our choice. And here it is, in all it's beautiful glory:

Did you have a hard time selecting your dinnerware, or was it an easy choice for you? Do you think you picked the right one?

I Won!

I already mentioned that I adore Weddingbee. Well, one of the cool things about this website is that they have great giveaways to enter! I was pleasantly surprised this morning to have received an email from Mrs. Bee herself. I won a giveaway draw I entered last week -- a custom canvas print by GeeZees!

Mr.s Bee connected me right away with Stephanie, the owner of GeeZees. I'm super excited to be working with her! We'll talk about what I'm looking for and create something really special. GeeZees prints words, pictures, or a combination of the two onto their canvas. I swooned when I saw all their beautiful colours. I think their work is just beautiful.

So, what am I doing with this wonderful prize? I'm not telling. Dan, Michelle, and Mrs. Bee know... the rest of you will have to stay tuned until the surprise is unveiled.

Oh, and exciting news for YOU, my dear readers. Stephanie has been kind enough to allow me to offer you 5% off an order from GeeZees! Just let her know you found her through my blog, augustvows.

Say Cheese!

We have a photographer. Christine Vantol from Bluehaze Photography will be recording our big day, and I think she's absolutely wonderful. Please check out the Bluehaze Blog for a sampling of her talent. I am ridiculously excited about this.

Picking a photographer really wasn't that hard for me. I was really looking for somebody with a photojournalistic style to their wedding photography, and with this vendor more than any others, I felt it was extremely important to choose somebody we got along with. After all, our photographer will be with us all day long, so I figure we should like each other! Dan and I both liked Christine as soon as we met her at the Milsean Shoppe in Aldergrove. She spent a good hour chatting with us, really taking the time to get to know who we were as individuals and as a couple. We did some checking around, got good feedback on her work, and enjoyed looking at the photos from weddings she's done in the past. Bonus, her package was a pretty good deal! However, Dan (ever the responsible one) thought we should shop around a little. Many websites and one short meeting later he was totally convinced, and I booked my dream photographer!

Since I was already deep into investigating photos, I've also been stalking other blogs (I particularly adore Weddingbee), and collecting files of photos that inspire me. The one here is by Rock the Wedding Photography in Victoria, and it felt so much like fall on our rainy West Coast. Isn't it beautiful? I just love it, and I'd really love for our engagement photographs to have the same cozy feel.

Speaking of which, we're planning our engagement session for November 1st! I really can't wait. The only big decision left to make... what do I wear?