I already blogged about the candy buffet, but here is more of the details on that project. I borrowed all of the jars. When I asked around, so many people had candy jars! This definitely cut down on the costs. The candy was a bit pricey ($80) but I did buy a lot of candy and considering how little I spent on jars it was totally worth it. Finding scoopers was a bit of a challenge, but my mom ended up finding them in a discount kitchen store in Dixie Outlet Mall in Mississauga. She also found nice stickers to seal the candy bags.


For the candy bags, I dragged Kate Plyley and Emily Springgay up north (past Yorkdale Mall) to a bulk craft store in the middle of nowhere to find the kinds that I wanted. It was quite the adventure! I spent way too much time worrying about those bags! When it came down to labeling the candy jars, I gave my cousins, Lisa and Chantal, some paper and pens and they did them all for me (as well as the "Love is Sweet" sign).

On the day prior to the wedding, Lisa, Chantal, and Kayla set up the table. We used a box under some of the jars to elevate them, which looked really nice. For some finishing touches they added lights and tool fabric. It was definitely a hit as almost all of the candy was gone by the end of the night.

In an effort to give wedding ideas to my engaged friends, I thought it would be fun to write a blog series about the different crafts and projects that me, my family, and friends put together for the wedding. The first post is the seating chart put together by my aunt Kim. She has quite a talent for Calligraphy penmanship, so Dave and I sent her our lists and she made it look beautiful! She also wrote out everyone's name card and matched all the colours to the Bridesmaids dresses! Thanks Kim for your hard work!!

Name Cards

A family shot!

Thanks to the entire Nickson family for helping out with setting up the reception hall!

When I first started researching flowers, I had no idea what I was doing. I spoke with Ginny Schnurr (Kate's Aunt) months before the wedding and told her that I was considering doing them myself in an effort to save money. She laughed and told me that I may want to reconsider as I will be very busy already on the day before. She agreed to help me out and after going through some of my favorite flowers and the theme of the wedding, I left everything to her and just trusted that it would work out. When her and Gail (Kate's mom) brought the flowers on the morning of the wedding, I was speechless! They were so beautiful! I could not have been happier with them! In fact, after the wedding we kept those flowers around for a full week until they finally started wilting away. Dave had to throw them away when I wasn't home because I wasn't able to part with them on my own!

Sorting out the bouquets.

My bouquet was primarily white and green with accents of purple lisianthus. Ginny was able to use orchids which was amazing!

Lining up the bouquets for a picture.

After temporarily misplacing the corsage, here I am helping my mom put it on her wrist. Hers was an orchid.


Karen's corsage was a pin-on orchid.

Gran's corsage was white fresias.


Kate's bouquet had a little snack tucked inside! Her favorite treat: Real Fruit Gummies.



Nicole and Kate with a bouquet.


Church centrepiece. It was a more modern design, "L" shaped. Very fitting.

More flowers were on the signing table. Another beautiful arrangement!

Bouquets flowers doubled as head table centrepieces. They looked really good!

Thank you Ginny for all your hard work!

When I first started thinking about my wedding dress this was my initial idea. It seems to have been influenced by ancient Greek dresses which I liked. I never did find this dress, so never in fact tried it on. However, I did try on a similar style...unfortunately it looked a whole lot better on the model than it did on me.














The second dress that I thought about was one that was 100% homemade! Yes, it was the toilet paper dress! Thanks to the Laurence Ladies of New College 2008-2009 for the lovely party and the fun dress!














The first time my mom and I went wedding dress shopping was in August 2009. It was fun to get started and share the experience with my mom. I tried on lots of different styles and even some with different colours. These below are the best ones I found that day. Nothing really made me think "WOW this is it!" so the search continued. Although I did start to notice myself gravitating towards certain styles.














Next time we went shopping we brought along my sister Nicole and went to Beckers Bridal and their sister store The Dressroom in Toronto. We started at the Dressroom which carries discounted and last season dresses. There were some really nice ones there, but again nothing which really stood out to me. Down the street was Beckers and the very first dress I tried on there was beautiful! It did not have any beading or lace, and had a really unique neckline. I immediately loved it, but continued trying on more dresses (might as well be thorough!).

As most of you know I am a "thinker." I like to put my brain to work before making decisions. So I went home that day to think about the dresses I tried on. After a week, I was still thinking about that dress I tried on at Beckers and then knew it was the dress. I went back for a final time a few weeks later with my Mom, my Bridesmaid Veronica, and Mother in law Karen, just to get a few more opinions. And just like the TLC show that I continue to watch even though the wedding is over, I said "YES to the dress."

It took several months for it to get ordered, so I did not see MY dress until April. Veronica and Emily came with me this time to pick it up. Emily took some pictures. As you might notice, It did not fit me properly yet, but it was all mine and I was so excited!














On July 24th I absolutely loved it! It fit me perfectly and I loved the way I felt wearing it. Here are a couple of my favourite dress shots.

Even though weddings are a lot of fun, they are also very serious events full of very serious moments that call for some very serious photos. This is a catalogue of some of those moments. For those reading this blog who have not yet been a part of a wedding, beware!

(#5) The Polish Hall showdown between Kate and Dave over the giant purple poof. Apparently the poof was so amazing that they resorted to a staring contest in an effort to decide who gets to put the poof out of its misery by crushing it to bits!

For those who don't know, this is a poof (see below).


(#4) Dave's Bachelorette memorabilia...at least he got some good advice!


(#3) Saturday swimming double. In honour of Byron Macdonald (our former Varsity Swim coach), we made a sign for the pool deck. No, we actually mean your attendance is required for both swim practice and the wedding ceremony!

I would like to make a special mention to Andrea Jurenovskis who actually carried her swim gear inside her clutch (yeah, that's right...a clutch! Not even a purse!).



(#2) Ring Practice. In an effort to distract me from the stress of the wedding Dave invented something brilliant. It was called "ring practice." This was a chance for me to wear my wedding ring for a brief period of time under two important rules:
1. Do not wear it outside the apartment
2. Do not let anyone except Dave see the ring

I was a very happy fiance during ring practice =)


(#1) Getting stabbed by Cam with a light saber.

His punishment...hold the bouquet!

Some pictures of our rings. Our friend Mira created them for us and we could not be happier! My ring used diamonds from the late Dorthy Ling (Dave's grandmother) which made it extra special for me. Dave's ring was also pretty cool I guess ;)

Wedding ring + Beautiful bouquet of flowers + Nice dress + Dave
= Awesome day

My grandmother helped me pose for this picture. She said that it was a Dutch tradition to take a picture of the wedding ring in front of the bouquet.

Gran...this one is for you!! Beautiful shot!! The Dutch clearly know what they are talking about.

Kathryn captured this picture of my ring while I was giving Dave a hug. She definitely has a talent for capturing special moments.

Dave showing off his ring to the Bridesmaids. They are obviously very impressed!

The candy buffet was one of my favorite parts of the reception. Apparently it was a hit since Dave and I ended up with no leftovers! I put my cousins Lisa and Chantal in charge of making the signs and labels, and Kayla helped them with putting it all together. Even though I missed out on actually eating any of it, it was very fun!