Weddingbee Blog

Fabric flowers seem to be up-and-comers in the wedding world (see Miss Chick, Miss Dachshund and Miss Moonbeam), but I swear I’ve been working on this DIY project since I got engaged last August.

When I saw this idea in a past Martha Stewart magazine, I knew that it would be a beautiful addition to our wedding!

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I loved these fabric flowers as escort cards, and wanted to make some of my own. Unfortunately, Martha was a tease… she gave the idea, but no tutorial. Thank goodness for the Internet! I found a tutorial for fabric flowers on a wonderful blog called Wise Craft (find detailed instructions and templates here).

Here is the process through my eyes:
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I am so excited about the photographer that we hired for our wedding. I spent months and months researching photographers trying to find someone who took artistic wedding photos and didn’t charge an arm and a leg. Our wedding is on a very strict budget, but that doesn’t mean that I am willing to give up on quality.

Enter Clint from Renaissance Studio Photography. I had been checking his website for months, looking at the pictures and pondering whether or not we could afford him. When Sister Pudding and I went to meet him, we were both blown away by how easy going and professional he was. We definitely clicked, and he totally understood the vision that I have for our wedding. When he mentioned that he loved taking pictures of broken down barns, I was completely sold! (I’ve been obsessing over barns for years now… ask Mr. Pudding!)

Without further ado, here are some lovely wedding images captured by Clint and/or his partner Shawn:

Let’s start with some engagement shots:

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Those who know me realize how important the dress is to me. I LOVE dresses, and I wear them a lot. I have had the opportunity to wear many a fancy dress, and I feel the most beautiful when I am wearing one. Suffice it to say, I was very intent on finding the perfect dress for our wedding. Having a two year engagement ensured that I had a lot of time to do my research, and I was very diligent about it. Here are some dress trends that I LOVE:

1. Mermaid Silhouettes

This one isn’t exactly a shocker, but I love the mermaid/trumpet style gown. Not only is this style sexy and classic all at the same time, but I think that it will accentuate my very particular set of curves.

Beautiful example of a mermaid by Perla D

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Have you ever done one of those quizzes in teen girl mags that claim to educate you on how to “Dress for your Shape”? Usually, your answers result in one of these four possibilities:

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Once you know your “basic shape”, the magazine goes on to educate you on the perfect date outfit for your body type, or a prom dress that will highlight your “positive attributes”. Equipped with this knowledge, you can go on to be your most fabulous self!

But what about those of us who don’t quite fit into these four standard types? Are we doomed to never find out which outfit will look best on us?
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The changing of the last name is something that most brides-to-be spend a lot of time debating. Should I take his? Should I hyphenate? Should I just keep my own? Coming from a Polish family that I like to refer to as “hardcore traditional”, some conventions are not to be messed with. One of those traditions is the name change; even if I decided to keep my maiden name, my stubborn grandmother would still refer to me by my husband’s surname. Why fight city hall? Also, I like the symbolism of sharing a name with my husband. To me, it represents the coming together of a new family unit (although I agree that you do not necessarily need to take the man’s name for this to happen - he could just as easily take yours). Also, as a teacher, I hate the fact that sometimes a mother and child do not share the same last name. I know that this is a pet peeve based purely on my laziness, but looking up the proper name of the mother is a pain!

Nevertheless, to me, the process of changing my name is particularly bittersweet. This is in large part due to my quite complicated and impossible to pronounce first name. You see, my name is a very, very popular name in Poland. In 2004, the name was the 5th most popular baby girl name in Poland. My name is the equivalent of a Jessica, Jennifer, or Amanda in Poland. My name is hard to pronounce and impossible to spell. Somehow, the “z” in the middle always throws people off. Nevertheless, it is a very pretty name, and once people get past the shock, most of them love it.

When I came to Canada in 1992, I didn’t speak a word of English.
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Our wedding is a go! With the booking of a church and a reception venue, we are officially getting married in July, 2010! It’s exciting and scary all at the same time.

So, here is what we have so far:

We will be getting married at my childhood church. It is a Polish Roman Catholic church, which means that most of the congregation is Polish. There are many churches like this around the Greater Toronto Area, as there is a very large Polish community here:

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When I first shared our colour scheme of navy, white and yellow with Mama Pudding, she went on a little rant about how in Poland yellow flowers symbolize unfaithfulness. Even though I am not very superstitious, I don’t really know how I feel about our wedding making all of our Polish guests think of cheating. Mama P then suggested that I change the yellow to bright pink. So, I (quickly) made two inspiration boards to get a visual as to what a navy and white wedding with yellow or pink accents would look like.

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The way I see it, damask is the undisputed champion of weddings these days. Wedding blogs are full of inspiration for the “damask bride”. I have to admit, I love the idea of damask. It’s romantic, it provides a theme and central focus to the wedding, and gives texture to the decor. However, I had a problem with jumping on this bandwagon. I really wanted to find a theme that had a similar feel, but was a little bit more unique.

After deciding on the ivory and navy blue colour scheme, I began searching for inspiration. I had this idea in my head to find striped table cloths. I didn’t manage to find any, but I did find this:

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This is Toile de Jouy, and according to wikipedia:
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After we got engaged, it was time to plan our civil ceremony, or our “Engagement Party” as we liked to refer to it. We had to get legally married to begin the immigration process, which we wanted to start ASAP. It was really important to us (or rather me) that we have a big and beautiful Catholic wedding, and it was just not possible to plan the type of wedding that I (we) wanted in a short amount of time. So, we decided to have a civil ceremony first, and then the wedding of my dreams at a later date. Also, we wanted to make sure that our first days and weeks as newlyweds were spent together, which would not have been possible if we didn’t have a civil marriage first. So, we got to planning!
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Our journey to the altar officially began on August 21, 2008. That is the day that Mr. Pudding proposed. Of course, we had been chatting about getting married for a while, but we both wanted to have that perfect moment to remember. Our “perfect moment” turned out to be quite spontaneous, but it was nevertheless perfect.

I had been sending Mr. P pictures of the types of ring I liked, but we both wanted him to have the final say. I had some grand visions for the type of ring I wanted… it turns out, I have expensive tastes! I really loved the bezel setting, and had spent too much time checking out the engagement ring advertisements in Martha Stewart. This is what I wanted:

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Just like many little girls out there, I had been thinking about the romantic moment when the man of my dreams would propose to me for a long, long time. I knew that Mr. Pudding had purchased a ring way back in June of 2008, so I was certain that an engagement was coming at some point during the summer. But as June, July, and most of August went by, I was getting more and more impatient.

The time before an engagement is a scary, scary time for a woman. Being a bit of a traditional girl, I wanted him to do the asking. Because of this, the independent, strong, decision making female in me was raging! For the first time in my life, I felt like I had no control over my life! I really was an emotional mess. Mr. P and I had been dating for over 5 years, and I felt like I needed the ring to cement our relationship. I was caught between telling all of my friends and relatives (who were all getting engaged before me) how much I didn’t care about being engaged, and internally feeling like maybe I wasn’t worthy of the “honour” (believe me, I know that this is completely irrational). Can any of you “waiting” gals relate?

Because of my clear emotional imbalance, Mr. P had told me that he had some problems with the ring.
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When Mr. Pudding and I first began to think about marriage, we had some issues that most couples do not experience. You see, we had the misfortune of being in a long distance relationship.

We met at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. Mr. P’s family, although based in Vermont, has a history of attending university in Canada. Both of his parents graduated from a Canadian school, so Queen’s was a natural choice for him.

Mr. Pudding and me during Homecoming at Queen’s University in 2004.
(photo taken by a kind stranger with Mr. P’s camera)

When we first met, I thought that the fact that he was from Vermont was the coolest thing ever… I had images of snowy mountains, hot chocolate, and beautiful scenery. I loved going to visit him. Vermont truly is one of the most beautiful places that I have ever been.

It didn’t take long for me to change my tune about Vermont, however.
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Well, it goes without saying that I am absolutely thrilled and humbled to be here. I was home alone when I got the email from Pengy, and did the only thing I could think of to celebrate – I cleaned the bathroom. Now, usually I’m not the one to clean for fun, but I just had all of this energy that I needed to burn! Of course, when it came time to write my introduction post, all of that energy mysteriously disappeared. The pressure to write the perfect introduction overwhelmed me. After all, I have big shoes to fill!

I am a High School English and History teacher who absolutely loves her job. I particularly enjoy teaching Shakespeare because, well, his dirty jokes make me giggle. I am slowly adjusting to my new life in Vermont with Mr. Pudding, although I am still fiercely patriotic when it comes to my adopted home land of Canada (think Robin Scherbatsky). Mr. Pudding and I met in college, and had a long distance relationship that lasted for two years after school ended. We are so happy to have that part of our lives behind us.

Our wedding will be heavily influenced by our common Polish heritage. When you come from a Polish-Catholic family, there are some conventions that you do not break. I kid you not, when I mentioned colourful (yes, the “u” is Canadian) shoes to Mama Pudding, she said: “That’s a wonderful idea, how about a nice gold or silver?” We are trying to incorporate unique and special details into the wedding without giving Mama Pudding a heart attack.
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