I smell something.

Something I've been thinking about is what scent I'm going to wear. Some girls have a signature scent, a classic go to that they wear either daily or seasonally. I on the other hand have a perfumery. At one point I had about 50 or so perfumes all of them kept in a dark box in a cool spot and rotated at my whim. Theres the perfume that I was wearing during our early courtship, Lolita Lempicka, along with a subtle violet scented body cream from Boots which I've never found after that first jar. I had a variety of Demeters, which were great because they were cheap and cheerful and wore off somewhat fast so if I tired of smelling like a cinnamon bun in the morning I could easily smell like gingerale(everyones fave, people would stop me and ask what it was!) in the evening.


My next "real" perfume was from MOR which I discovered in one of my favorite lady stores (as the Mister calls them) it was the bottle which caught my eye, then the name and then the scent.

Marshmallow oddly enough is a floral. Go figure. It has a slight sweet candy smell too it but nothing that would hint at actual marshmallows. But isn't the bottle so purty? They just recently relaunched it and although the bottle is still the same the label is different. Hopefully they didn't mess with the formula.

Did I mention that other than the Lolita Lempicka every single other perfume I have ever received has been a gift from The Mister?

Currently I'm wearing Estee Lauder Pleasures Delight. Which was bought for me even though I had only read the notes! I knew it would smell wonderful and mentioned the notes to The Mister and it magically appeared! Every time I hug someone they tell me I smell so good and go in for another hug, so I obviously made a good call.

Wow I ramble.

The point(yes there is a point!) of this is I'm wondering if I should get a new perfume to mark the occasion. Something truly special that will remind The Mister of the day we got hitched every time I wear it. I recently tried on one of the Tom Ford Private Blends, Neroli Portofino, and it was glorious. It blended down into a warm sensual smell that made me want to wrap myself in silk and cashmere and drink champagne. At 200 dollars a bottle though...might be something to put on my Christmas list. Then theres Bvlgari Jasmine Noir, with notes of gardenia, jasmine and licorice just smells sexy.

Then theres the coveted Chanel Exclusifs Boutiques range...that I have only smelled once but was enamored at first smell. Or the many Bond.no9 that I have exhausted my nose smelling.
How is a girl to choose?

Two good things in two days!

Right now I'm dying. Sick, sick, sick. My face is full of grossness and I'm cold and then hot and then cold and seeing bright lights due to the cold medicine I've taken. Weeeee!

Yesterday The Mister cheered me up by surprising me with a gift certificate for a very fancy lingerie store! I'm going to be rocking some fine french underpants on our wedding day!
Going there next week for a proper bra fitting. I've had it done before but it's been a while, should be interesting to see if theres a difference.

Today we went and picked out rings. At first it looked like we would have to have mine custom made which was going to cost $$$. The guy helping us was the owners younger brother(I think) and they were just opening when we went in. It looked like we were going to be dropping some large bills on my band(dang custom engagement ring!) then The Mister points into a box and goes "what about that one?" and of the little brother pulls it out for me and it fits perfectly and looks perfect with my ring! Hooray!

The Mister went with titanium. Small thin band. He decided on titanium due to it's strength and durability. It's plain and simple just like he wanted. My band is a white gold knife edge to match the band on my engagement ring. Both rings came in at.......240, the fact that I found something that was in stock and didn't have to be custom made just resized saved us about 400 bucks!

So thank goodness for The Misters eagle eye!

Twenty Four (it's a good show I hear.)

Twenty four days.

About this time 10 years ago I was writing sappy, love struck, melodramatic things in my journal. Something about his blond curls or blue eyes or his perfect lips. Oh and I was moving back home in a few weeks. We both knew this but it didn't stop us from hanging out all of the time. It was a feverish end of summer affair. I think at first we both thought that I would leave and that would be the end. Except by the time I did roll out of town I was praying to every God that would listen that he would call me soon. He called the next day.

My friends and my mother told me to forget about him, move on etc. But I knew. I knew already.

He asked me one night during one of our hours long phone calls if I'd be his girlfriend, something a guy hadn't done since...hmm maybe early high school? Heck it might have been even grade school! I giggled and said yes.

We declared our love about a month after that, the first time we saw each other since I'd moved.
We moved in together 5 months after that. We haven't been apart since.

Ten years. Not always perfect or easy but what relationship is? We have our problems and issues and we work through them because we love each other so very much.

Ten years and 5 days after he asked me to be his girlfriend he's going to promise to be my husband.

Let there be music!

On Friday we got a registered letter in the mail confirming that we are indeed getting married on September 19th. It had some useful information (seriously that's what it said!) like we should arrive 10 minutes before our ceremony, bring two witnesses and ID and that we could bring a cd of music to play! MUSIC! OF OUR CHOICE!!!


I already know what the first song on the cd is going to be.


A string version of Morrissey's "Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want"


I love this song with the lyrics but they are a touch too....maudlin for a wedding. Without lyrics and with strings it becomes incredibly beautiful and perfect.


I'll also include "Time After Time" no, not that one from the 80's that we all know and love but the older jazz standard sung here by Chet Baker. We have a version of Dusty Springfield singing it that is phenomenal.


I remember being young and thinking the Beach Boys were a lame band. Of course this had to do with my limited knowledge of them and thinking all the songs were like Kokomo or Barbara Ann. The Mister opened my ears to Pet Sounds and Smile(put out by Brian Wilson.) if you have never heard either of these albums do yourself a favor and give them a whirl. The most heartbreaking of songs though has to be "Our Prayer" to think that this is the same band that later put out the schmaltz that it Kokomo is flabbergasting. (apologies if you happen to like Kokomo.) The Beach Boys also have the song "God Only Knows" how perfect is that for a first dance?


Then some classics from MGM musicals...


"Love Is Here To Stay" sung by Gene Kelly from An American in Paris...

"All Of You" sung by Fred Astaire from Silk Stockings...

"Moon River" sung by Audrey Hepburn(who else?!) oh and "He Loves, She Loves" from Funny Face of course!


Oh and then some Big Star "I'm In Love With a Girl"

I could go on and on and on but I'll save it for another post!

I'm not sure how long to make the cd, I think I'll only need about 30 minutes but just to be safe I'll probably put about an hours worth of music on there, then when we have our reception party next year I'll already have an hours worth of cocktail music!

31 more days!

I had a semi wedding related dream last night. I was looking for the perfect lipstick and I had found it, it was a little pot of glossy rosy/brown/gold colour and when I tried it on it made my lips full and perfect. It was magical. So of course I was going to buy it but then the sales lady gave me the wrong one. She gave me a glossy Barbie pink pot and told me it was the one I had tried on. I was so distraught, mostly because I had of course left this until the day of the ceremony.

Of course I haven't found the perfect lipstick. Although it might be somewhere in the suitcase sized makeup case I have or the smaller (but still bigger than a shoe box) sized case. I have a lot of makeup.

I've had this photo in my folders for a while now. I'm not sure where it's from, I had Googled "Classic makeup" and it came up.

It's a pretty straight forward look, easy to pull off but also easy to mess up. The lips could be too red and the eyes too dark instantly giving off an 80's vibe. I'm fairly confident in my makeup artist skills, I have after all done the wedding makeup of all my friends for the last ten years as well as all the special occasions that have come up in the past...oh 15 or so years? Not to mention all the ladies nights where I plastered on the slap to various girls working from books and magazines to achieve a certain look. These nights were sometimes disastrous as a few drinks in I find I start going a wee bit over board!

Makeup is something I enjoy doing. I don't do it professionally, although I did go to school for hair and makeup I found I didn't really enjoy dealing with strangers. Guess all those years of being told not to talk to them really etched itself into my brain!

The next photo(from the same folder, from the same search.) Is a variation on the look above. It's obviously more glam but really the only difference is a darker lip and eyeliner. Perhaps a different shade of eyeshadow. I love that the simplest changes in tone and colour and such make for a completely different look.

It's classic. It's glamorous and it's sexy. I'm a big fan of a dark lip. This look is also much more matte than the previous. Something that may be hard to pull off mid September when the weather can still be hot and humid. I wear matte foundation in the winter months only. Once summer comes the slightest hint of humidity and that results in a weird cakey mask of oil and sweat and makeup sitting on my face fighting each other. No one wins that war.

Once summer comes I mix up an spf moisturiser with some foundation and a pearly highlighting cream. It's sheer and illuminating and keeps the cancer away.

Ahh the smokey eye.

Who doesn't think it's a sexy look? If done properly it looks stunning...if not...well I see a lot of girls who don't do it properly and I want to scrub their faces clean. A proper smokey eye shouldn't look like you got into a fight with a can of black paint and lost. Eyeliner is not a right it's a privilege! You can barely, barely see the thin line on the top lip. and the bottom is just smudged with the same grey silver shade. It's lovely.

The lips are barely there, a shimmery gloss is all that's needed and there's a hint of blush.

It is sadly probably a bit much for a 1:30 elopement but perhaps a quick trip to change right before dinner that evening could be arranged. Although a trip to the hotel after were married...well...uh..er..I might have to do my makeup.

Dress hunt continues.

The dress hunt continues....
T minus 5 weeks to go.

My friend E (who is also one half of our witnesses) saw the dress in the previous post and confirmed what was already swirling in my mind, that although it was a lovely dress that cut was bound to just make my large hips look even larger, she didn't say it like that of course.

Sigh.

Then today I went and tried on a similar dress at BCBG and it was not nice so it's vetoed.

I know exactly what I would like just from all the various dresses I did try on.

• Sweetheart or V neckline.
• corseted back.
• A line or empire waist.
• Something floaty and swingy.
• Not much bedazzling(a little bling is nice.)
• Something with dots would be extra nice.
• Knee length or floor length.

If you know of a dress that has at at least two of these assets please point me in the right direction!

On a whim I went into a bridal shop near my house that has samples for sale. I wasn't going to try one one but I did. It was beautiful. It was also half price! Unfortunately the original price was 2700 dollars. Sigh.

Signed, Sealed, Delivered.

The form that the Montreal court sent back needed to be signed by a witness in front of a notary. The Mister called a few places and they were all in the 40-50 dollar range. Thank goodness for Google because I did a search for a notary near my work and found one that was close by AND only charged 12 dollars.

The forms were signed and stamped in about 3 minutes. Imagine paying 50 dollars for that? I'd feel robbed!

So it's official. We elope in Montreal in just over a month! EEEEP!

I have a confession though. I cannot stop looking at dresses. This Mori Lee on the right recently popped up on my screen and I kind of love it. It's plain as can be and floaty. As we all know I will be retrying on the dress I bought next week. If I love it again then HOORAY!!!!! But if I still want to cry then....well this Mori Lee might be getting get an owner.

Photo from Mori Lee

Backyard reception!

Oh my sweet Sunday! This wedding is everything I want my reception to be!
Sweet, lovely, small.

Seriously check it out....

Once Wed

and from the source....

Scout Holiday

Photo from Scout Holiday

I love seeing backyard weddings like this. It gives me hope for planning ours!

How does your garden grow.....

I have always known that I would do my own flowers. Flower arranging is something I've always been rather good at right up there with flower growing. For years I even arranged flowers for the office I worked in, I was given a budget each week and I would trek out to the flower markets on a Monday morning and then make a different arrangement every week. Clients always asked what florist we used. When I was a kid I would check out books on flower arranging from the library on a regular basis. I would love to be a professional florist maybe that's my calling.

In spring I planted a whole bunch of dahlias and in the past week some of them have started blooming. And boy are they beautiful. As an organic gardener I'm never sure how something will turn out, I'm constantly at war with various critters who think I've planted a delicious buffet just for them. I use companion plants that are known to repell inscects and other beneficial bugs that come in and eat the bad bugs. I'm the captain of my own lady bug army!

I should be able to use all flowers from my garden for my bouquet(fingers crossed that theres no freak hail storms!) flowers a grew myself that will be back every year around the same time so I can create my bouquet every year for free!

Got a letter in the mail...

This morning as I got off the subway my cell rang. The Mister is home this week installing our new wood floors(YAY!!!) and he was calling to tell me that we got some mail.
From Montreal.

Apparently we need to fill out one more form, one that when we called before they told us NOT to fill out. Sigh.

BUT...we have lots of time to get it back AND more importantly we have a date and time booked just for us!

September 19th at 1:30pm!

Only a half hour before 2pm, the time I dreamt we had! Ohhh!

We are going to call them tomorrow as I am also home and sort out this mystery form, but other than that slight(please, please let it be slight!) snag it's all a go!

Wow.

I'm getting married.

In 44 days.

Day by day.

Since not fitting in my dress a few weeks back I have been looking a backup. Just in case. Which led me to this dress. From BCBG. You cannot tell from this photo but it has polka dots. swoon.

I said I'd give my dress a month to fit. So I still have two weeks to go, but everything feels so urgent and well in my case it is!

We still haven't heard from Montreal. Every time I check my email or my phone rings I think "Please let it be someone french."

I'm getting increasingly anxious by the day!

Luckily Mother Nature has decided ease my nerves by springing into action in my garden. It's bursting with blooms! Did you know Chocolate Cosmos smell like chocolate? Brilliant! The dahlias are delectable! And it's all going to get better!