first dress fitting

I brought my wedding dress to this great seamstress a couple weeks ago. I told her I want all the work done ASAP because I don't want to be leaving thigns to the last minute. She understood completly and said she would start working on it in January and be done by March. As I was leaving she said she may even start sooner because it's such a gorgeous dress and she was excited to start!
I got a phone call on Monday from my seamstress and she said the pinning was done (she wasn't going to cut any fabric until I approved) so I could come try it on.

It was exciting:) Hopefully she finishes just as fast!

oh, and we are getting married in exactly 10 months+2 weeks:)

flowers and music

I recently went into several florists in Lindsay to obviously talk wedding flowers. Naturally, they want to set up appointments to further discuss what we are looking for but almost every single one said I should wait several months. Seeing as how our wedding is (exactly) 11 months away they said I have plenty of time. But people that know me well will nod their heads when I say I like control and organization (David and I both want as much done as possible as soon as possible so that we can focus on finding a house). I wanted to pick out flowers now but order them later and only one florist was willing to meet with us about that. We really didn't know what flowers we wanted but I knew the style of bouquet I was looking for. The florist showed us several options for flowers and was very helpful. We have decided to go with her but won't be seeing her again until the summer when we will finalize what flowers she will order for us.

On Saturday we had a meeting with a DJ company that I heard about at the Peterborough Bridal Show. We went on their website first to get an estimate and I was very surprised to get a call from the owner a few days later. I asked him a lot of questions which he answered very well. I told David about this and we ageed to meet the owner and book him if the meeting went well. We walked out of the meeting with one more thing checked off our to-do list.

In exactly 11 months from now I will be waking up to my wedding day:)
sosososososososo excited!!

christina

venue: check!

Exciting news! We had a food tasting on Sunday and were super impressed so we booked our venue (they cater)!!  It's an awesome feeling to have crossed something else off the to-do list:)

Oh, and apparently it's socially acceptable for us to post where have registered for gifts...so, we are currently registered at Home Outfitters under DAVID FLEMING and CHRISTINA YOURKIN (there is another David Fleming registered and the spelling of my last name is super important). We had hoped to register at some other stores but they stopped offering registries (BOOOOOOOO).

I think thats all the news I have to share for now.

thanks for reading,
christina

engagement session!

here are some pictures from our session with Jenn Austin-Driver!!

so much has happened!

At the end of September we booked our wedding photographer and I'm so excited to be working with her (here's her website)! We are doing our engagment session on Friday, which we are also excited for:)
A few weeks ago we went to visit the venue we like and seeing it set up for a wedding made us like it even more! They cater as well which we find to be a plus. We are going to set up a tasting and hopefully book it very soon. I've decided on my dress but it needs alterations so I found a seamstress whom I'm meeting with shortly. She is actually one of my teachers from high school and she worked on my friend's wedding dress a few years ago.
Hmmm, what else? Oh! We registered for a bunch of amazing stuff:) It was so fun making lists of things to pick and seeing all the great stuff the store had (I kept imaging how we could use each piece).

More updates:
*David told me his ideas for what the guys will wear
*We went to look at rings
*The search for a house continues

that's all that I can think of right now. But so much will be happening in the next few weeks so come back and see what we have posted!

christina

it's starting to come together

Yesterday I went shopping for brides maids dresses with my besties. We went to Yorkdale Shopping Centre and looked in several stores. One store had about 8 or so different dresses in the same colour and fabric so the girsl each grabbed their sizes and all tired on the same dress at the same time. Then they ranked the dresses in order of most fav to least. After much debating and a few definete NO's everyone found a dress they liked. We also went shoe shopping! It was a super fun and busy day of bonding and merriment:) Over lunch I obviously talked their ears off with wedding stuff and it feels like all these abstract ideas in my head are finally coming to life. David and I have talked a bit about what the guys will wear and we have been out to look at invitations. I consider myself crafty so our invitations will be awesome!

I hadn't planned to have a "theme" but it seems like a lot of our ideas will create something cohesive and fantastic!

christina

two months and one day

This update is probably long over due but there's not much to update about.  Here's the list!

*We set up a date/time to take another look at the venue we like
*The search for the perfect photographer continues
*The guest list is almost complete
*I've begun collecting brooches for my brooch bouquet
*David has been collecting seeds for something that can not be disclosed yet:)
*We bought a slow cooker with a gift card from David's grandma
*Etienne gave us a coupon for Home Sense which we used to buy an awesome clock and a neat tray

We've been engaged for about two months and it seems to have flown by. Hopefully the next year and 59 days will go by just as fast!

christina

uber productive

the day after we met the photographer (see previous post), Kaitlyn and i went to look at more dresses. i didn't see anything i liked...except my 'wedding buddy' (jessica) from work in her gown! she was modelling it for her family and Kaitlyn and i got to see all the loveliness. the gown is big and poufy and flowery...its so pretty. jessica is getting married in October of this year so we have been comparing plans and she has been sharing a lot of ideas. it's pretty fun:)
on sunday David and i went to look at a venue for the reception. i'm not giving any hints about it so that if we choose it, the small group of people coming for the dinner can be wowed! we like it a lot and the owners actually make all the food fresh that morning.
i thought i knew what colours i'd like for everything but i changed my mind this weekend...the new colour scheme is also a secret! only David, our mothers and my girls know:) speaking of the girls: we're going to look at bridesmaids dresses next month.  YAY!

that's all for now.

christina

he uses canons

Yesterday after work David and I met one of the photographers we're interested in.  He's the first of any 'vendors' we have actually met so I was excited. He showed us a sample wedding album he can make and a slideshow of selected pictures/video clips of another wedding.  He actually asked us a lot of questions, which was kind of unexpected. He said we both seem really calm and not nervous about marriage and he's right! I'm so ready and excited to be married and I know David is too:)  As we were concluding out meeting the photographer said our wedding sounds like it will be nice and intimate (small guest list) and he would love to work with us.  We didn't book him though because there are other we are considering.

Finding the right photographer is so important to me because I'll look at wedding pictures for the rest of my life.  While David and I certainly know enough people with digital cameras who could take pictures there's something so awesome about a picture of top quality.  I want to look at the pictures and forget they are still images because they look so real.  I believe wedding photography is the number one thing to pay top dollar for.  That being said, it's no wonder my photographer to consider list has about 6 different people:)

I'm going to look at more dresses today with Kaitlyn; hopefully we find something!


*Christina

feathers and sushi

This past Friday I went dress shopping again with my mom, my sister-in-law Kaitlyn and my mother-in-law Lois.  We all drove seperate cars coming from various parts of the city, which I found a bit funny:) I tried on about a dozen dresses of varying styles but I didn't find THEONE. Kaitlyn picked out a lovely dress that had an extraordinarily long train that was covered in little feathers. The bodice was beaded and applique-flower adorned and everything! I even toppped the whole thing off with a furry cape (confession: the cape was really soft and I kind of liked it)! After we had some giggels at the store we went across the road to get a late dinner of sushi. I had never eaten it before because raw meat grosses me out, but I was pleasently surprised with my cooked salmon rolly thingy.
In other news: David and i are meeting with a photographer next Friday and scoping out a venue next Sunday.  We also talked to his parents and they've agreed to loan us their amazing CORVETTE (or maybe it's a porsche...I'm pretty sure it's a corvette). The car belonged to Lois' dad and now it's Joe's. It's so cool and retro, so we are pretty excited to use it.

That's pretty much everything for now, stay tuned!

*Christina

men in suits

David has chosen his groomsmen! His childhood friend Todd is the best man and Todd's brother Dave is a groomsmen (David has known these two since primary school!). David also asked his coworker Etienne to be a groomsmen. 
I'm presonally looking forward to seeing these guys all dressed up! David and I have gone to semi formal events together (one where Etienne was present) but I have yet to see him in a suit.  And I've only seen Todd and Dave in jeans and baseball hats, so this should be interesting.  I have no doubt they will all look very dapper:)

*Christina

the ring!

thoughts

Last weekend David and I went to the wedding of an elementary school classmate of mine. I absolutely love weddings and everything to do with them, so I was excited to be attending the wedding of somebody I have known since grade three. She got married outside on a gorgeous ranch with a barn and a covered bridge (the pictures show the reception was in the barn!). I've been looking at some of the guest's pictures from the day on Facebook and I almost get choked up...Pathetic, I know. But this is a friend of mine whom I've known for so long and seeing her get married was a big deal. I've been to weddings in the past but mostly because one of my parents were going; this is the first one David and I have gone to alone (we've already gone to one with my dad). This wedding was particularly significant because it's the first I've gone to since being engaged. I was looking at every detail from the groom's boutonniere to the white flower petals strewn along the aisle. It all reminded me that soon I'll be the one walking down an aisle to my own groom (which is a thought that gets me a little misty eyed even as I type this!).
I'm told it's easy to get caught up in planning the perfect wedding and it's stressful and blah, blah, blah...but I'm confident David and I will both enjoy this process and keep everything as simple as possible. After all, our wedding isn't about the dress or cake or flowers or venue or food...it's about who's waiting for me at the end of the aisle.

-Christina

A date, a dress and some girls

We set a date! We are getting married October 28, 2012.
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Last Thursday after work I went dress looking with my mom.  I tried on a bunch of different dresses and found one I really like. I'm not going to describe it because I don't want David to know what it looks like:) I will say that it's ivory in colour and not what I imagined wearing...I haven't bought it yet because I'd still like to look around.
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I've talked to the people I want to be in my side of the bridal party and I'm happy to say they are all in! I've asked my future sister-in-law Kaitlyn to be my Maid of Honour and my best friends Kate and Sarah to be brides maids.
I'm so excited for everything!

The beginning...

Most of the people reading this blog will probably know David and I but I will give a brief recap of our story.
We met in 2008 at Fleming College where we were both taking Environmental Technology. We spent the first semester as friends but over Christmas break (December 28, to be exact!) we decided to become an official couple. We were inseperable for the rest of our first year. I mean literally always together! We had 5 days of class together, spent most Saturdays together and went to church together. We continued to spend abnormal amounts of time together over the summer and had people expecting us to be engaged by the following September (which was weird because we hadn't even been together for a year!).
On December 28, 2009 David made me a promise ring out of a rock we found the first day we met. It was so beautiful and I wore it every day for the next year and a half. I graduated from my two year program the following April and managed to find a job for most of the summer. Obviously this took a toll on our relationship because we weren't used to being seperated.
Once fall came around again David went to school for an additional third year and I continued to work full time.  Between school and work we found it hard to spend time together.  To celebrate two years together I invited him to my place to enjoy a home cooked meal of stuffed pasta shells:) It was really nice to spend time together, just the two of us, for a few hours. Over the next few months we continued to be seperately busy while missing each other like crazy. We spent a lot of time talking about how great it would be when we are married.  Neither of us was scared by the thought of marriage and we knew early on in our relationship that we were aiming towards that. My contract at work ended in February and David continued to be busy with school, work and his co-op placement. He did manage to find time to drive me to Toronto for my laser eye surgery appointment, though:)
Once he graduated in April the pressure was on to find a full time and permanent job in his field. The poor guy was constantly bombarded with job postings from both me and his mother, but he never freaked out.  I started another contract at work in May while David kept his part time job.  He sent his resume to a really good company in Peterborough and was asked to come in for an interview a few days later. This past Monday (June 27) was his interview date and I'm proud to say he was offered a job right on the spot!since I had the week off, on Tuesday we went to Niagara-on-the-Lake for the day to celebrate two and half years of being together. We had a great time and the weather was great right up until we decided to go bike riding. We couldn't find the rental store so decided to head back to a park where David insisted on collecting seeds and leaves. There was this really neat tree that had leaves shaped like a kitten face, so we went to pick one. After I picked the leaf and turned to face him he said "I know you said not to get you anything..." and got down on one knee. He followed with  "Christina, will you marry me?" and presented me with the most gorgeous ring (As soon as he lowered to the ground I yanked off my promise ring which was on my ring finger and jammed it in my pocket so he could put the engagment ring on). I was so surpised and obviously said yes!! After we hugged for a while I had to go sit down because my legs were shaking.  I then had to text my parents, best friends and co-worker to tell them the news! My parents knew it was going to happen but I text them anyways with pictures of the ring. 
We eventually headed home to show his family and then mine.  Everyone ooh-ed and ahh-ed over the ring and there was a lot of squealing. That was four days ago and I'm still on cloud nine! I wake up every morning smiling and filled with excitement at what's to come.  We're both looking forward to planning our wedding, but even more excited to actually be married!
As something new in our engagment happens (bridal party announced, dress found, date set, etc...) I'll make a new post to keep everyone updated. Thanks for wanting to be in the loop!

Christina