J and I went to pick up our marriage license today and it was a breeze! We hopped down to the North York Civic Centre (by Mel Lastman Square) and contrary to prior warning, there was no line and the whole process took no longer than 15 minutes.

A marriage license is required in Ontario if you want to get married, so you don’t want to forget to do this little thing before your big day. It’s the thing you sign during your ceremony, along with 2 witnesses (usually best man and maid of honour) and the person who performed the ceremony. It’s pretty easy, download this form and fill it out with your fiancé. One thing to note is that you must bring ID to the office that shows the full name that you put on your application. For example, if your name is John Michael Smith, but all your ID says “John M Smith”, then you can only apply as John M Smith on your marriage license.

Only one of you needs to go (but you both can if you want); just make sure to bring the other’s ID with you.

The cost in Toronto is $130 flat, in Markham $129.50 and in Richmond Hill $125. Best place to go? Pickering, where it’s only $100. Don’t ask me why the prices are different, but I wish I knew this before we went. We could have saved on lots of time and a bit of money (including parking). Grrrr! At least Toronto is better than Mississauga, where it’s a whopping $140.

City of Toronto marriage licenses
Town of Markham marriage licenses
Town of Richmond Hill marriage licenses
City of Pickering marriage licenses

My bridal party, with the help of some friends, threw an awesome shower for me 2 weeks ago. It was a mix of friends, my family and J’s family, and contrary to what you may think, we had a riot.

The girls planned out some fun games for the afternoon, and I know you bridesmaids and maids of honours are always looking for shower games to play – so here are a few of my selections, from my own shower and ones I’ve been to.

What’s In Your Purse

What you need: something to keep track of points (a tally, or as my BP did: a bunch of little Ikia pencils), a list of items
Set up: this is best played in a big circle, with the bride sitting in the middle

How to play: Each guest grabs their purse. The host of the game has a list of items that the guests need to have in their purse. Each item has a point value. The more common the item, the fewer the points. The rarer the item, the more points it’s worth! To start, the host will name out the point value for the item she’s about to call out, and then she’ll name the item. The first guest who has the item in their purse and hands it to the bride in the middle, gets the points.

Suggestions for items to name: American Express credit card, tampon, MAC lip gloss, ballpoint pen, a receipt with the value of over $100, used tissue/napkin, iPod, USB key, Starbucks gift card, a photo of the bride

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Ball Buster

What you need: water bottles, pantyhose, oranges
Set up: you need a bigger space, enough to form 2 lines of people with bottles on the ground between them

How to play: Playing against one other person, the aim of the game is to be the first to knock down the water bottle on the floor, using your “ball”.  Pairs stand across from each other, in 2 lines. The bottles are lined up on the floor, with one bottle between each pair.Each player has a pantyhose with an orange inside the foot, and the pantyhose is tied around the waist. Using the orange (or ball), you have to swing it until it knocks the bottle down.

This is played by elimination; the winners from each pair move on to play each other, until the last ball buster is standing.

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Two Truths and A Lie

What you need: just people
Setup: Sitting in a circle would probably be best

How to play: This is more of an ice breaker than a game, great for the beginning of the party. Each guest takes a turn introducing themselves, and has to tell two true facts about themselves, and one lie. Everyone has to vote for which fact was the lie. The guest who faked out the most people wins a prize.

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Granny panties

What you need: people who wear underwear (and bras)
Set up: no set up required, this can be played at any point in the shower

How to play: The person with the least sexiest panties wins a prize! Basically the host asks the guests who are wearing granny panties to come up and show their underwear. The bride is the judge, and picks the worst dressed. This can be played throughout the party, also with the sexiest panties, the sexiest bra, and the least sexiest bra (I’ve been at a party where a guest was wearing a nursing bra! She won that category.).

Months ago, when we were still looking for our venue, we fell in love – no, make that lust – with the Board of Trade, exclusively catered by O&B. You may remember? I never gave you the scoop on what happened with Mr. Oliver and Mr. Bonacini.

J and I visited the BOT a good 3-4 times (once was for Eight Chefs, one of the more delicious foodical events of ’09), which I would say makes us pretty good candidates for booking a venue. The final meeting with Lisa, the event co-ordinator, was to talk about what kind of menu we were looking at. Going back through my emails, that was on May 1. After we discussed all our wants, Lisa was going to have a chat with the chef, and see what he could come up with in our budget. On May 11, I followed up with an email, and was told it had been very hectic but she was going to sit down “with the chef tomorrow morning”.

On May 12, the next day, she emailed me with a few questions, to which I promptly replied. And then we waited. Loads. Believe it or not, I received a final menu from Lisa on the 26th of June. By this time we had already signed a contract and paid the first deposit to the Westin. I couldn’t believe how long it took for them to get us a menu to just take a look at!

We had pretty much forgotten about the BOT after our first visit to the Westin, because we fell in love, not lust, at first sight. But we still wondered where on earth Lisa went with our menus to take 6 weeks to get back to us?! As delicious as their food is, I’m totally disappointed in the way Oliver & Bonacini handled this. Damn them for making yummy brunch that keeps me going back!

The typeface you use on your invitation says a lot about the feeling of your event. I find that many non-designer brides and grooms overlook this important part of their wedding – too many times have I seen bad fonts happen to good people.

If you have absolutely no idea what to do and how to start, then take a look at the following examples (all Papertalk approved typefaces, ha ha). What kind of moods do the following type combinations create?

Play with different fonts and see what looks good together. Keep in mind the following pointers, IMHO of course:

Please…

• don’t use more than 2 typefaces on your stationary together, unless you’re going for the ransom note design
• don’t use a script font for any main text – it is hard to read
• do a bit of research and see what other invitation designers are doing with their work to see what you like
• don’t assume that the fonts that come on your PC (or even Mac) are the only ones out there and you should use them
• don’t be shy to spend a bit of money on your fonts

A great place to start is Veer. A most delightful selection of fonts that you can purchase awaits you here! If you’re looking for freebies to play around with, I am faithful to one of my favourite freebie font websites, dafont. Just remember that most free fonts are not created by typographers, which means they may have funky spacing, unclean edges, or missing parts of the alphabet.

As you all know, I’ve been talking about venues for the past 3 months – you’d be unhappy to know that J and I still have not booked our venue. And as the title of this post says, the pressure is ON. We’re going into wedding high season, and people are booking their places while we’re still left behind.

There’s a few things I’ve learned in this process, so new to-be-brides, take heed.

Choose a space you fall in love with…
You certainly should choose a venue that makes your jaw drop the first time you see it. Why go with something anything less?

…but don’t be too picky
Being too picky has faltered our decision to make a decision. The more we prolong, the more spaces get booked up by everyone else.

Try and keep your guest list small
This is only if it’s possible, and if you’re looking for unique downtown venues. Once you go over 200, your list of gorgeous potential venues get cut in half (at the least). And of course, the smaller your guest list, the lower your overall cost. That venue takes up a huge chunk of your budget!

Make compromises
There are a lot of great venues in the city of Toronto, at all different price points. If you start well ahead of time, you will find a space that’s perfect for you. Don’t necessarily go somewhere you don’t like because it’s super cheap, and don’t go somewhere you can’t afford just because you love the location of the venue. Take all aspects into consideration – give and take, and you can make a space that was just ok into gorgeous..

It’s never too early
I feel like we’re really learning this lesson the hard way. There are still quite a few venues available that we like, but our original laundry list of selections have definitely shrunk. If you fall in love with a space, book it. Even if it’s 2 years away (just make sure you’re engaged first).

For those who are looking for Toronto venues, here are a few links that have been extremely helpful:

Biz Bash – event planning industry website with lots of Toronto venues and reviews
Venue Source – excellent venue site with contact information, capacity listings, images and virtual tours
Boston Avenue – venue listing (and portfolio with images) of Boston Avenue Photo Co.
Chow Hound – website all about eating; great for forums and reviews on caterers/wedding venues and their food