been writing my vows...

So, I've been feeling a bit creative lately, what with making my centerpieces and name plates for the tables and random origami flowers to use as decorations, but I've been moving towards being creative writing creative, too.  I've always loved writing, whether it's short stories, non-fiction, poetry... whatever I'm feeling at the moment.

Robyn and I decided that, as well as using the vows that the Government of Alberta requires to be included, we would also write our own vows for each other.  I started working on mine probably a month and a half ago, and I think I was looking for a little spark of inspiration that just wasn't happening.  Writing this paragraph suddenly seemed like a daunting task.  It wasn't until I saw a piece of poetry being performed that that spark finally ignited a fire.  I knew that it had to be poetry.

So, I sat down at my computer, erased what I had written so far, and my vows just started pouring out of me.  I had honestly not felt that creatively inspired for a long time, and with the words just pouring out of me, writing seemed like freedom.

I've decided to share with you all, what I have written for my vows so far.  It will probably change a bit as the date draws nearer, but I'm pretty pleased with what I have.  So, without further ado, here are my vows:

I never stopped.
Stopped looking.
Stopped hunting.
Stopped searching.
Stopped trying.
Until you stopped me
Dead.
In.
My.
Tracks.
You surprised me,
And delighted me.
You felt like the perfect fit
The first time I tried you on.
You’re my one.
You’re not one in a million,
You’re one in one,
Because there is no other one
In existence
Who can measure up to all you measure up to.
In my eyes you are perfect,
And I hope that you can see that reflected
In.
My.
Eyes.
I kissed a lot of frogs
Before I found my prince.
Charming.
Because that is what you are.
My prince charming,
My charming prince,
Just plain charming.
I am in love with you,
And I could not find a way to say it plainly.
Maybe I just wanted it to be said aloud.
And loud.
You give me goosebumps.
You give my goosebumps, goosebumps.
And let’s not even talk about the butterflies.
Still.
Every time I look at you,
Or think about you,
Or hear about you,
Or talk about you,
Butterflies.
I hope they never go away.
Loving you,
My one and only,
Is the sweetest sensation
That I can imagine.
You hold me up
And never let me down,
And I will never stop thanking you
For being so perfectly you.
So, on this day,
Our wedding day,
I promise to be your equal.
No lesser.
No more than.
Your true equal.
I promise to stand with you,
Even when it seems like the world isn’t.
I promise to hold your hand,
Even when mine are freezing cold,
Even though it’s summer.
You warm my hands like you warm my heart.
I promise to walk beside you,
And match you stride for stride,
Even though my legs are shorter.
I promise to invest in you
My love, my happiness, my pride,
Because investing in you
Is the best investment I could make.
I promise to make you laugh,
When something has darkened your day.
I promise to be worthy of your love,
And to let you know
Daily
That you are worthy of mine.
I promise to tell you I love you.
A hundred times a day.
But,
I’m sure you’re used to that by now.
I promise to forgive you,
In any situation that asks forgiveness,
As I am sure we will run into this at least once.
There are a million more promises
That I could make to you
On this day.
But, I find it best to end with this:
I promise to love you.
Forever.

Yup :)

Oh!  Another little wedding update: my dad got a brand new suit and shoes and everything to walk me down the aisle!

Doesn't he look great!

Well, that's all for tonight!  Toodles, lovelies!

meal planning...

I guess one of the benefits of being unemployed is that I can make dinner every night for fiance and I...

I used to hate cooking, but that's because I was cooking for myself.  Now that I'm cooking for myself AND Robyn, it's not so bad.  I like to switch things up and try new recipes every now and again.

Robyn takes me grocery shopping at the beginning of the week, and we buy everything we need to make meals throughout the week.  So, my big task is to figure out what we're going to be eating.

I made our grocery list and meal plans for the week this morning, and now I'm waiting for Robyn to get off work and meet me downstairs to take me to the grocery store.  Our meal plans for the week look like this:

Baked pasta with Italian sausage
Sweet and sour meatballs
Mini hamburger patties with mac and cheese and veggies
Beef stroganoff
Slowcooker pulled pork sandwiches
Seafood alfredo

I will admit that I'm going to cheat a bit and use a jar of pasta sauce for the baked pasta with Italian sausage... but to balance it out, i'm definitely making homemade alfredo sauce!

I kind of like planning out our weeks like this, it's a nice change from never knowing what to make.

On a completely unrelated note, I've been trying to transfer all of my photos from Instagram over to Facebook.  I have been unable to find a way to just download copies of the photos, so I've been print screening each one, cropping it in MS Paint, and saving it as a jpeg from there.  it's time consuming when you have like 550 photos to go through.  This wouldn't be necessary if I hadn't accidentally deleted all of my photos off of my phone in the first place, but, here we are, print screening and cropping.  Oi.  I've decided to download Picasa, too, to keep all of my photos in one place.  Expect an Instagram favorite photos post in the future!

Toodles, lovelies!

hair and makeup...

So, the big question I've been asking myself about my wedding lately, is what do I want to do with my hair and what do I want my makeup to look like.

I THINK I'VE FIGURED IT OUT, GUYS!!!

So excited...

My gorgeous sister is going to be my maid of honor, and, because the wedding is so small, she's the only bridesmaid I'm having.

Gorgeous sister alert!

That's my amazing sister and my cutie pie little niece when she was almost four months old!

Anyway, where was I?

Oh!  Yes!  Hair and makeup!

I think I finally have it figured out!

My sister and I are going to have matching elements to our hair, namely, a swooping fringe braid.

My sister's will look something like this, since her hair is long:

And, my hair will look something like this, plus my veil:

Also, I won a contest that was run by a lovely lady named Sherri, where I get my makeup trial for my wedding done for free!  So exciting.  She just recently posted a 1920's inspired makeup look on her facebook fan page, and I just KNEW that that was what I needed for my makeup!  Something sassy and bold, but also really classy:

I'm so excited for her to do my makeup!  You should check out her Facebook fan page, she is really talented!

I forgot to mention my jewelry for the big day in my last post!  But, that's okay it fits in here, too!  Here's a quick little shot of the matching sterling silver and Swarovski pearl necklace and earrings I will be wearing:

On an unrelated note, I've been super swamped with making my place cards for the reception dinner.  I got the bright idea to make an origami flower, and attach one to each place card.  They look really good, but they are so much work!

Here's what the finished products are going to look like:

Half will have blue flowers, and the other half will have yellow flowers.  I really like how they look, but I'm getting sick of origami, haha.

Speaking of... I'd better get back to my origami adventure.  I'm so glad I only have to make 24 of these flowers, and not 150...

Toodles, lovelies!

wedding bells...

Can I just say, I am SO EXCITED to get married!  We have a great venue for our little wedding, and everything seems to be working out according to plan so far!  Fingers crossed things keep going this way...

Our guest count for the wedding is 24, including ourselves, so it's going to be a nice little intimate wedding, which I am so excited for!  Robyn and I both wanted a small wedding, so we chose the venue to suit what we wanted to do with our wedding.  We're getting married in a Japanese garden outside of Edmonton, and we're having our reception in the traditional tea house that's on site.

We have pretty much everything arranged, all we really have to do is get our marriage license and our liquor license, and we're golden.  I'm slowly putting the finishing touches on everything else that needs to be done before May 18th.

So, here's a few details about my wedding, so far!

The engagement ring

The fiance

The location

The dress

That's obviously not me wearing the dress, haha... but it is the dress I chose!

The veil

My bouquet

The maid of honor bouquet

Both bouquets

The flower girl bouquet

The flower girl

Well, that's probably more than you wanted or needed to know, haha.  I'll keep you up to date on more details as we get closer and closer to the date!

Goodnight, lovelies!

world's worst blogger...

That's me!

Seriously, sorry guys... every day I wish I was working on my blog, yet I never do it.  It's getting ridiculous, so I am here to say that I'm going to start, again!

First and foremost, my "enter" key only works 35% of the time, so if I miss a few capital letters and whatnot, I am SORRY! (I had to correct that ! from a 1 to a !... it begins...)

So... what have I been up to?

Lately, not much!  Hmm... well... I guess I withdrew from the education program with a semester to go before I graduated.  I was really stressed out, because, as it turns out, teaching in Canada is NOT what I want to do.  I hate the Canadian education system, and Canadian students are the ABSOLUTE WORST!  Seriously, talk about entitled little brats that place no value on their education.  Terrible.  I'm not going to go on a huge rant about it, because that would be pointless and just rile me up, and, damnit, I need to go to bed sometime!

So, not being in school, I've decided I need to find a job.  A real, adult job.  Not adult adult, but grownup adult.  So, I'm applying for government jobs right now.  So far, there have been no phone calls (c'mon guys, I'm pretty awesome.  I have wicked taste in music and makeup and hair and movies and TV shows and stuff!!!  Oh, and I am proficient at typing and filing and being awesome in general).  WHY DOES NO ONE WANT TO HIRE ME?!?!

Ahem...

I'll probably throw myself into it more aggressively after I get back from my honeymoon, 'cause, I have a feeling, that when an employer sees that I need to book off three weeks for my honeymoon like right after I start working there... they're going to go with Joe Schmoe instead of me. :/

Oh, that's right, I'm getting married in just over a month!  Excitement city!  I took my dress in today to get tailored.  Hai, I'm 5'4, everything is too long on me.  $200 and four weeks later, and that sucker is going to be mine, again!  I love my wedding dress sooooo much, I can't wait for you all to see pictures!

Back on the honeymoon theme... I am seriously so excited for mine!   Future hubs and I are going to Indonesia!  Bali, Lombok, and the Gili Islands to be exact!  We leave on the 20th of May, two days after the wedding, and get back June 9th!

Funny story: we've booked out honeymoon through an adventure travel company called G Adventures (click here to view the info about the exact trip we have booked).  The trip was, initially, a 14 day trip.  But, being the lover of Asia that I am, I decided I needed to try and figure out a way to make our trip longer, so I started extending the arrival dates and departure dates, and added a full five days onto our trip, and, including hotel, the price of our trip actually decreased by almost a grand!  What's this, you need me to stay in paradise for five days longer, because it makes our trip cheaper?  Oh, jeeze... twist my rubber arm!

Okay, well, I am a bit sleepy right now, seeing as how it's almost midnight, so I am off to bed.  However, I do promise to write a blog post tomorrow!  I will fill you in a bit more on details about my upcoming wedding!

Goodnight, lovelies!