Melissa, principal behind Design Box, is a fellow entrepreneur like me, and recently got married to her sweetheart Sonny in a super charming backyard wedding.

The stunning couple hosted a wedding inspired by French flea markets and the beauty of handmade and vintage. The little details had Melissa written all over them, and they were perfect to a T. The fabric + button bouquets and boutonnieres were made by Megan Hunt of Princess Lasertron – read about them on her blog here. They’re incredible! The flowers got held up at the border for a bit, but luckily they were released by customs before the wedding.

Apparently it rained all day and all night, but that didn’t stop the newlyweds and their loved ones from partying into the evening. Photography is by Darren Rigo.

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In the spirit of Canada Day, it’s all about the red!

I had been looking for a while now for my wedding shoes, and it seems that it’s come down to an art. Your wedding shoes are special; they have a certain criteria to meet unlike any other shoe you will purchase. Mama Tai Shoes can vouch for this I know, as she went through 3 pairs until she found her perfect Shoes. I mean, Choos.

For me, the criteria was as follows. My wedding shoes had to be:

• fashawn
• sexy
• affordable
• wearable again
• not any shade of white

Boy. This task was harder than it appeared to be at first. One day in January, I went to Town Shoes and came across a few pairs of heels that seemed to have potential. First were the cutest pairs of Steve Madden platform peep toes. The fact that they were Steve Maddens made me cringe (blister city) but they were hot!

Too bad I almost twisted my ankle taking my first step in the store. It was like putting my foot in a wooden clog with a heel.

Next up was a pair of David Dixon’s for Town Shoes. How awesome! They weren’t what I was initially thinking of, but they were Something Blue and pretty cute and classy. I especially liked how they had low heels (sort of), and they were actually comfy!

They didn’t carry my size in blue, so I had to get one transferred in and wait to try them on again. Sadly, the next time I tried them, things just weren’t the same. They were hurting and they weren’t fitting right. Next!

A couple of months later, I thought I’d give it another go. I somehow ended up in Town Shoes AGAIN! I immediately saw a pair of Enzo Angiolini gold snakeskin ankle wraps which seemed more appropriate for clubbing than a wedding, but I thought I’d try them on anyway. I fell in love with them the moment I put them on! J absolutely loves them, too.

They meet each one my criteria, and best of all, my feet will be having a party of their own underneath my big ass wedding dress.

This weekend, MOH and I finally got off our asses and headed out to the shops to find some accessories for the bridesmaids and herself. The girls are all wearing relatively simple, but lovely, classic dresses. MOH is wearing an espresso brown while the rest are wearing what I can best describe as “paper bag” with a subtle sheen (can you imagine my FMIL’s face when I told her the bridesmaids are wearing paper bags???). We came up with the idea to differentiate the hair pieces for each of them, so they wouldn’t look identical or as some like to say, matchy-matchy.

If you’re from Toronto and not living under a rock, you must know what it’s like to tackle Pacific Mall on a Saturday afternoon. It was bonkers! It’s worth it though; they have the best accessories in the city, hands down. Asians have the best accessories in the world! Anyway, parking was insane as per usual, but we managed to score a good spot. I had been wanting to go to the loo since we were at Fairview Mall (our previous stop) so the first order of business was to go the the restrooms, which happen to be in the basement of the mall.

How many of you actually use the underground parking at Pac Mall? And in the case that you don’t, how many of you actually visit the lower level of Pac Mall? I never do, but we ended up there and found a kiosk selling pretty much everything we were looking for. Score!!

After going gaga over all the eyelashes we got, we immediately saw the perfect accessory for MOH: a beautiful feathery flower. $12? Sold. We looked around some more and kept a few things in mind (in particular this jeweled linen flower), but wanted to go upstairs to check out the other stores. Next was this gorgeous ribbon headband for Mama Tai Shoes. We both immediately agreed that it would be most fitting for her. $18? Sold.

We walked around for another 2 hours but found nothing else. We finally went back to where we started and found the rest of the items. The linen flower for Chelle ($10), and a jeweled barrette with a very appropriate LV for our very own LV ($10).

In total, we spent less than $50 and got amazing hair pieces for everyone!!!

It has been a while hasn’t it? I’ve been so busy with life and work, and now all the wedding stuff is creeping up. I was waiting for this time to come so I would have more to write about, but it seems that there’s no time to blog about all the current events! I can’t believe we are down to double digit days now… we were over 400 days away when this blog started.

Last week was our tasting at the hotel, and J and I both took our mums and had an absolute blast. Why couldn’t every meal involve nibbling off everyone’s plates, unlimited beverages, customized desserts and perfect service?

Overall, the food was quite tasty and we were happy with our selections of entrées. Of course, how the food will turn out on the wedding night is questionable – I’m not that naïve to think that a meal for 5 is the same as 250, but it’s still good to know that food was yum at the tasting and the presentation was nice. I’d be on the right track to think that I won’t be eating much that night anyway.

I know everyone loves food photos, so here are a few of the desserts that the chef made that night – and I’m only showing them because we aren’t going with any of them. From top to bottom: Lemon Meringue tart (it was so fun plucking off each one of those spikes and eating them), Key Lime tart and Warm Apple Blossom.

Problem was, as lovely and sweet they looked, the desserts really left something to be desired. After discussion between us and the hotel, we’re heading back for a dessert re-tasting. Yessss!!!! If anyone has any good ideas for dessert, please pass them over to me because I can give the chef some suggestions for our next tasting.

Time is really flying by and J and I haven’t thought about who will be officiating our wedding. Last time I checked our to-do list (5 minutes ago), we were about 30 check marks behind. Yikes – quite a few things overdue, with a few catching my eye: “Start looking for an officiant who suits your style and spirit”, “Start interviewing officiants who suits your style and spirit” and “Book your officiant who suits your style and spirit”.

Officiants aren’t usually the people brides dream of when they start their wedding plans, and if you’re of a particular religious persuasion, it’s pretty much determined for you already anyway. But for non-denominational folk like us – we get the challenge of picking and choosing a person who probably knows nothing about us but are to play one of the most important roles in our life.

My brother and sister-in-law had (who I assumed was) a random perform their civil ceremony when they got married, and I must say it was something that I don’t want repeated at our wedding. She was robotic/scary (“everybody sit!”, “no pictures!”, “everybody stand up and clap!”, “everybody leave!”) and sped through the ceremony so fast I was barely able to catch their vows. But, for someone who’s only met you once or twice for a brief get-to-know you, and to go through logistics… is it realistic to expect much more?

Let this post be a cry out to my friends who I may not have known to be ordained ministers or Justice of the Peaces (is that how you write that in plural?), or even priests/rabbis – show your faces and help us on this sort of special super important day!

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By the way, here is the dreamiest wedding ceremony I have ever been to (and it took place right in my living room):

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.

My MOH recently asked me about our colours, and for some reason I couldn’t commit to the Emerald, chartreuse, aquamarine + whites scheme. So, surprise surprise, I came up with one last inspiration board. Here it is. The final, final colour scheme for my big ol’ wedding:

shades of jadeite, bark and white

YESS! I love this board. The ballroom has a brown walls, so I thought this could be a great way to use the walls as a backdrop to our colours. MOH can now start looking for bridesmaid dresses (see girls in upper left corner – love, love, LOVE the look).

Apologies for having been MIA for the past few weeks. Life has been extremely hectic, and this weekend, it culminates with the marriage of my two dear friends, Ken and Tiff!!! Theirs is a story that spans over 11 years (you can read about their engagement here), and this wedding has seriously been 11 years coming.

Friday I’m putting on my bridesmaid’s cap for them, but also, for my readers – I’ll be doing a bit of scouting and bringing you some of their best wedding details. How exciting! Tiff is a big DIY queen, so you dont want to miss all the handywork she did for the big day!!

posted by: misspronails

My name is PRO!!!!

Hi. I’m the Maid of Honor. I’m single. I like long walks on the beach, a good sense of humour and a sensitive side.

I don’t know too much about weddings, but I’m an expert at male strip clubs, male strippers and private nude male dancers.

That is my contribution.

The end.

JUST KIDDING!

Just want to say HELLO! We are the hottest bridal party in the universe, and boy do I have a big role to fulfill! M, that proposal was THE best birthday present ever, and I will always remember it. I’m honoured, excited and emotional about being the Maid of Honor AND being part of a bridal party for the first time! This isn’t just any regular bridal party. It’s a bridal party that I have grown up with since high school and still remain absolutely close friends with. I’m so excited to help plan and be part of this amazing day to come. I can’t wait to get started!

So where do we start?