A Bit of History...
The Western bridesmaid tradition is thought to have originated from Roman law, which required ten witnesses at a wedding in order to outsmart evil spirits (believed to attend marriage ceremonies) by dressing in identical clothing to the bride and groom, so that the evil spirits would not know who was getting married. (quote directly from Wikipedia)

Here are the profiles of my "Protectors" who will be by my side on our big day in order to protect me from danger (in chronological order).

It can be said that Veronica and I have known each other for a long time. We met just before Nicole was born when we were 3 years old. Our mothers brought us to Nursery School and we’ve been friends ever since. We always enjoyed playing together and even managed to get the Chicken Poxs at the same time “coincidentally” so that we could play during our sick leave from school! Recently, she has been my Martha Stewart Wedding expert and has been pouring over magazines on my behalf and passing on all the good stuff.

Nicole is my younger sister and will be my Maid of Honor in July. While we were kids we spent our time playing with dolls, watching Disney movies, running around the neighborhood, and dressing each other up in our mother’s clothes. Now that we are older, we have different ideas of fun. For Nicole it is scouting out the nightclub scene in the club district of Toronto, while I enjoy the quaint Martini bars of Little Italy. Even though we have different tastes, she is always loads of fun to have at a party and it will be great to have her by my side on the big day.

Kate and I swam together for the UofT varsity swimming team for 5 years and lived together at Borden for 4 years. We initially met in New College Residence where we bonded over Cafeteria food and commiserated about our sore muscles from swim practices. We have learned many life lessons over the years, for example: that burying things under rugs is always a bad idea, how the offering of pizza can be utilized to have dead mice removed (Thanks Scott!) and for moving furniture (Thanks Dave and Scott!), and finally the importance of having dozens of Arrested Development jokes on hand at all times. She is guaranteed to bring “sexy back” to the dance floor in July.

Sarah and I met during the 2^nd year of our B.A. degrees at the University of Toronto in the campus student group Athletes in Action. She moved into Borden house the next year where she lived with Kate and I for 3 years (technically a three way common law deal). While living together we always encouraged each other to aspire to greatness, such as: flossing our teeth on a regular basis, daily abdominal workouts, evening bible readings, and giving up sugar for a week (my least favorite one!). She is also getting married this year (June 26^th) and so I have a wedding buddy to share ideas with!

Friends.

The holidays are coming to a close, 2010 has started... the big day is coming soon!

Nathalie and I are very excited for 2010, we're excited for the wedding and details are really coming together pretty fast.

Already done...

• church booked
• reception venue booked
• wedding party chosen
• wedding dress ordered
• preliminary wedding guest list put together and agreed upon

Objectives we need to address this month...

• identify a photographer
• start to brainstorm about putting together invitations
• finalize guest list
• map out the schedule of the big day
• work with Knox to schedule our pre-marital counseling sessions

Lots of busy fun stuff.

This month you can look forward to a blog post series of introductions to those in the wedding party! These fantastic eight people are the most important people in our relationship and we want you all to understand what those people in our wedding party mean to us!

Talk to you soon!

Dave

YEP! IT'S A TOILET PAPER DRESS!

You did not actually believe we were going to give out pictures of Nathalie in her wedding dress already in the middle of November? C'mon. You're going to have to come out on July 24th to see what the real thing is going to look like :)


Special thanks to the ladies of Laurence Hall in New College last year who put together this beautiful toilet paper creation in honour of Nathalie and I getting engaged!

So after a lot of contemplation, Nathalie and I have decided that we want to share a picture of Nathalie in her wedding dress with all of you. A sneak peak if you will.

To build it up properly we plan on posting a picture up here next Friday. Mark it in your calendar. Friday, November 20th. Here. Book it.

Next Friday. November 20th. A limited sneak preview of Nathalie's in her wedding dress.

See you then!!

Hello Friends!

A mere 264 days before the big day and Nathalie and I are super excited after a week that has gone a long way to completing a framework for what our wedding is going to look like next July.

Nathalie has been settled on her wedding party for months... yeah, true story. Months. She knew immediately. On the other hand, I was slow in coming to a final decision on the gentlemen that will stand beside me, and only because I have so many fantastic friends that could be excellent in a groomsman role.

On Monday I took out the four men that will serve as my groomsmen for the wedding. Nathalie and I will unveil our wedding party over the coming weeks on the blog to give them their due as to what they mean to us and our relationship... some great stories, I promise.

Fast forward to Thursday, Nathalie and I were joined by her parents and we put a down payment on a reception venue. The venue is fantastic, Nathalie and I have both been there before and have a great deal of fantastic memories from the venue. Future blog entry on the venue to come.

Finally today, Nathalie went to visit the great people over at Becker's Bridal & Formal. You can check out Becker's at their website. Nathalie made the decision on the dress she will wear on the wedding day, sorry no preview pictures (I haven't seen the dress either). Mackenzie over at Becker's Bridal did a great job helping Nathalie and we serious recommend her to any of our friends and family who have wedding or formal needs in the future.

Traffic on this site is blowing up, we promise much more content to come!

I wanted to post this beautiful cake that my grandmother made for my parents' wedding. There are some beautiful flowers on top!

I found this picture on the internet and thought it was a great idea!!! Just kidding. I don't really understand the appeal of cutting up your own dress or eating a life size cake of yourself but I guess to each his/her own! I am curious though how many guests there were, that is a lot of cake!!! Nonetheless, it is pretty funny.

While I don't want to divulge all the secrets about the wedding, Dave and I recently decided upon a color scheme which would be used for the bridesmaid dresses, flowers and centerpieces. It will be a plum or dark purple color accented with silver and maybe some touches of lighter purple. This deep purple is so elegant and classic, I love it!

Here is a flower which helped inspire me. It is called a Cymbidium Leodogran orchid. It looks a little more pink here than I am looking for, but at least you get the idea.


While I am not set on the style of the dress, this is color.

Yes. Nathalie is still very tall.

Yes. Nathalie's bride's maids are still very tall.

Yes. My hair is still really blonde.

No... I'm not sure if that's supposed to be my brother beside me.

... and YES, those two little girls and the one little boy are evidently now in my wedding party so Nathalie can up the cuteness of the wedding pictures...

Look at how tall she is? Look at how small my wedding party is? Something tells me we have some details to fill in...

Neither of these were bought but it's amazing to see how amazing Nathalie looks in these dresses in her first wedding dress shopping venture from a few weeks ago.

Hopefuly there will be more wedding dress pictures in the coming weeks and months but there will be no premature pictures of the dress she ultimately chooses... sorry :)