Wedding Shower Planning

Last Saturday I threw my first ever wedding shower, and I am so happy with how everything turned out!

My brother-in-law, David, is getting married in July and J and I are both standing in the wedding. In a short period of time David's fiancée, Tracey, has become one of my favourite people. They've decided to have their wedding in our church which is older and hasn't had many updates over the past 15 to 20 years. In order to get the church ready for the wedding without spending a fortune David and Tracey have been doing a lot of the upgrades themselves. The church is looking amazing, but it's taking a bit of a toil on them and their wedding planning/preparation is a little bit more stressful than it is for the average couple. Because of the added stress I really wanted to make sure Tracey's shower was perfect and something she would really enjoy. (I like to think I was pretty successful.)

I decided to go with a morning shower and serve breakfast type foods. I think this surprised some of the guests, but it worked really well. Months ago Tracey had pinned an image of a yogurt bar to her wedding planning board on Pinterest but in the end they decided to go with a candy bar. Since I knew she liked the idea of a yogurt bar I knew that was something I wanted to incorporate. I served vanilla yogurt with three different types of berries and granola. I love the chalk board easel and galvanized pail that I picked up at Micheals. The serving dishes all came from Dollarama. It was a big hit! We also served four different types of muffins made by my mother-in-law, some fresh fruit, and mini cinnamon rolls.

For the decorations I tried to go with a bit of a rustic theme. I made two banners (one said "Thank you" and the other said "From Miss to Mrs") using a free printable. (You can find it here.) It was so simple, and I love how they turned out. One of the other bridesmaids painted the "62 days" canvas and I just love it, it worked perfectly.

I also made a display of pictures of David and Tracey using paper doilies, twine, and clothespins. (I totally got that idea from Pinterest, you can see the original post it came from here.)

I painted mason jars and filled them with artificial flowers for centre pieces, and I covered water bottles with pretty duct tape so they'd look a little classier sitting on the tables. (I used this tutorial for help painting the mason jars. I ended up deciding not to distress them because I liked how they looked as they were.)

For the favours I bought little bottles of shower gel and stuck tags on them that said "From Tracey's shower to yours" and for the guest book I had everyone sign a white plate with Sharpies. (I used the oil ones as I've found they tend to fade less than the regular ones.)

And of course we played games! Tracey's sisters created a "Who Knows her Best" game and a "He said, She said" game that used their past Facebook statuses. We also played wedding pictionary,  "What's in Your Purse" and of course we played the clothespin game. I put all of the prizes in brown paper bags with purple tissue paper so they would match the theme of the shower.

I will admit that the shower may have consumed my life for a couple months. I work full-time so it felt like every day off was spent doing something shower-related but I didn't mind in the least. It turns out I really love planning events like this! Luckily one of the girls at work is going to need a baby shower soon and my brother is getting married next year. ;-)

I hope that this post helped a little if you're planning a shower! Let me know if you use any of these ideas, or if you have any ideas for the next shower I'll need to throw.

Grateful for In-Laws

This week J and I spent a lot of time with his family since his sister was home visiting for the first time in over a year. My relationship with my mother-in-law got off to a rocky start, but this week reminded me of how thankful I am that we have a good relationship now. I don't think I'll ever be as close with her as I am with my own mother, but I think that's pretty normal.

I am very fortunate to have married into this family. J's brothers and sister are all really wonderful (and really different!) people. There is so much laughter when the whole family gets together, and hours pass without anyone realizing it because the conversation flows so easily.

I have friends who don't speak to their spouse's parents or siblings, or who have very strained relationships with them. You hear so many "in-law" horror stories, but that hasn't been my experience at all. I am so grateful that it's as easy to spend time with J's family as it is to spend time with my family. (Though the conversations are pretty different!)



{ Photo by Tammy Orr }

For both mom's this year we arranged family portraits as a mother's day gift. On Friday night we did our shoot with J's family. Four of his six siblings were able to be here, along with their significant others. (Two married couples and two engaged couples.) We used the photographer J and I always use and we had a fantastic time. It was probably one of the best parts of our vacation.

Have a great week, and remember to take a moment to remember something you're grateful for. :-)

PS: Live in the Halifax area and need some pictures done? Tammy is very easy to work with and she does an amazing job. You can check her website out here, or check her out on Facebook.

Favourite Vacation Snap Shots

I've been trying to figure out how much I want to post about my vacation. Part of me wants to share every little detail, and every single picture. Part of me doesn't want to share anything because they're my memories. I've decided to compromise with myself and I'm sharing five of my favourite pictures from the week so far. (A lot of them are portrait orientation, so this post is going to look a million miles long.)

The first one is J and I on the wharf in Lunenburg. I know I've already shared this one, but it's my favourite picture of the two of us from this week. It was the first real day of our vacation and we were so happy to be spending the day together, just us. I really love the colours too, Lunenburg is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a National Historic Site so the downtown core looks like you stepped back in time.

This second picture is Daisy and I at Taylor Head Provincial Park. Not the most flattering picture of me but I love the clouds and the waves rolling in. Earlier that day J tried pulling Daisy down towards the water but she didn't want anything to do with it. Midway through the afternoon she was loving the waves and the wet sand. There's something about walking along the beach that just makes me really happy.

This is J's sister, Rachel and her boyfriend, Jesse at Grand Pre National Historic Site. These two are absolutely precious. I love that they're not actually looking at me in this picture. J was taking a picture using Rachel's camera at the same time so that's where they're looking. I don't actually know Rachel very well, she moved to Florida for university the year before J and I got married. She's come home at Christmas, but it's such a busy time of year that it makes it hard to really spend time talking to people. This week we've spent a fair bit of time with Rachel and Jesse and I've really enjoyed it.

This is J's brother, David and his fiancee, Tracey. They obviously had no idea I was taking this picture. I just looked over and there they were. I love the scenery in the background. We've been spending a bit more time with these two lately and I love it. They're a lot like J and I in some ways. Tracey is a few years older than David, they met at work, and she's the chatty one while he's the listener. J is six years older than David so it's only been recently that he's seen him as someone to hang out with as opposed to just being his little brother.

I love the self-timer on my camera! My camera is propped up on a sun dial (of all things!) on the grounds of Grand Pre National Historic Site. The six of us had a great day together yesterday. We went to the zoo, had a picnic, visited Grand Pre, and checked out a local coffee roastery. Family is very important to J and I and I love that we were able to spend some time with his family during our vacation. (Not gonna lie, I also loved that we were able to spend some time together just the two of us!)

Hope everyone has had a great week, and I apologize for not commenting as much as usual! I should be back on track next week.

Silent Sunday

Happy Father's Day Dad!

He asked, she said Yes!

Last Wednesday was the 10th anniversary of my younger brother's leukemia diagnosis and I wrote about how grateful I was for his health. (You can read it here.)

My brother & I in 1987

This week I'm pretty freaking excited to announce that I am grateful for my new sister-in-law to be!

We've always "celebrated" Jon's cancer-versary. We give him little presents, and he usually gets pretty drunk with his friends. This year he told his girlfriend, Nickie, he wanted to celebrate the night by getting a hotel room and having a really nice dinner out. Well, they did that, but before they left the room for dinner he got down on one knee, told her he wanted to stop celebrating the worst day of his life and start celebrating the best. He pulled out a (beautiful!) ring and asked her to marry him.

She said yes.

The idea of my little brother getting married makes me feel old, but the fact that he is still around and healthy and thinking about the future... I can't even put in to words how grateful I am for that.

Weekend Update

I've been lucking in to a lot of Saturdays off lately, it's kind of nice! This weekend I was off Saturday and Sunday. We didn't do anything too exciting, but it was nice to spend a couple days with J.

Saturday we slept in, then headed to the mall to try and find a birthday present for my Dad. There's a store at Mic Mac Mall called RUA Sports Fanatic that sells all kinds of "fan gear." J loved seeing how much Avalanche gear they had. (His birthday isn't until June but I think I already know what I'll be getting him.) We picked up a Blackhawks t-shirt even though Dad already has tons of them. Nothing else really jumped out at me unfortunately. And everybody can always use t-shirts...

We spent some time roaming the mall trying to find jeans for J too. He hates shopping, and hates spending money on himself so it was a bit challenging. In the end we gave up. I think he's going to have to go out some time by himself.

Supper Saturday night was at my parents with my brother, his girlfriend and my uncle to celebrate Dad's birthday. Mom did a feast of ham and scalloped potatoes and attempted a berry flan for dessert. Now that it's just her and dad in the house Mom is getting adventurous with cooking and baking. Every time we go over she's trying something new. It's nice, but I wish she had done more of it when I was home. :-)

After supper J and I headed in to the city for a Moosehead's play-off hockey game. (The Mooseheads play in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.) Our seats were in the upper bowl but it was an AMAZING game. Super intense. We ended up winning 3-2 in overtime. Probably the best Mooseheads game I've ever seen. They're playing in Val D'Or, Quebec tonight and if they win they're off to the next round. Fingers crossed!

Hockey game selfie. Go Moose Go!

Sunday was the usual flurry of church, dinner with J's folks, and grocery shopping. I actually did up a meal plan for the whole week so hopefully that will help keep me on track with Weight Watchers.

Hope you had a great weekend!

xo,
Sara

Happy birthday Daddy!

Today is my dad's birthday.

Dad has always been there for me. Always. Even now, if my car won't start I know Dad will drive me to work. Need someone to feed and walk Daisy because I'm running late? Dad will do it. Need to borrow fabric softener to try and get paint out of the carpet? Dad will do it. (That's a story for another time...) Need someone to call and get tickets for an event because we're working? Dad will spend 45 minutes on the phone to get us tickets. And these are just examples for the last month or so.

Every girl thinks that her dad is the best dad in the world, and I'm no exception. Happy birthday Dad!


xo,
Sara

A Very Good Friday

Whenever I have a "bonus" day off I like to make sure I take advantage. The store was closed today and so was J's work. J's brother (David) and his fiancée (Tracey) both work for Sobeys too so we thought it might be nice to do something with them since days that all four of us are off are super rare. 

We ended up deciding to visit one of our favourite parks, Long Lake. And instead of it being just the four of us two of Tracey's sisters came and of course we brought Daisy. :-) Long Lake is one of our favourites for a few reasons. It's beautiful to start with. It's close to home too, it's only about a twenty minute drive.  But once you're in the park you can't tell how close you are to the city. It's also one of the least developed parks in the area. The trails are a little more rugged and not marked well, so you really feel like you're exploring.  After our hike we headed back to our place to play a game and then have a barbeque for supper.

Other than deciding we were  going to do something today, we didn't make any plans until lunch time today. Usually I'm all about planning things in advance,  but it was nice to play things by ear for a change.

Hope your weekend got off to a great start!

xo,
Sara