Scanning Party!!!

On Thursday, Shaun and I had a very busy evening!  We were invited to a scanning party at the Bay, but we also went and played Tennis, then I had a video chat with one of my groomswenches in Toronto, and then I met up with a friend for coffee.  It was a whirlwind of an evening, and I've been pretty busy since then, but now I shall impart my wonderful experience at The Bay.

So, you are probably saying to yourself "Scanning party?  What the **** is that?"  (Depending on your own personal taste, it could have been a "damn" or a "hell" or something else.  No judgement.)

A scanning party is where you go, and scan items AND THEN GET GIFTS FOR IT.  Wait, that's normally how the scanning thing works...EXCEPT YOU GET THEM RIGHT AWAY!

We went to the Bay, and they gave us a scanner, and said to us "You don't have enough items!  You're supposed to have 86 items on it, and that's just for a wedding!"  Shaun and I departed from them and went skipping around the store, scanning items as we went.  According to the Bay people, we STILL don't have enough items, but this is why we would rather get money for a house than items, because we have most of the stuff that we need!  (Apparently our "want" list isn't huge either.)


After we finished scanning, we went to go give back the scanner.  The lovely lady behind the counter gave us a gift bag!  She told us it contained a pair of champagne flutes, and some Lancome stuff.  After we walked away, I said to Shaun "Oh, awesome.  At least we have the champagne flutes, but what the hell are we going to do with a bunch of stupid make-up?"


Shaun and I arrived at home, and after going and rallying at the local tennis courts for about an hour, we decided to open the gift bag.  I took pictures, so you can follow in our excitement!

The Gift Bag, untouched!

Man, they really used a lot of tissue paper...

Our beautiful new champagne flutes!

The mysterious Lancome make-up package.

What, ho?!?  This is not make up at all!  It's samples of Lancome's "For Men" line, including Anti-Aging serums, cleansing gels, moisturizers, and cologne!

Our glorious bounty!

I am so please with this bag.  I found it to be very thoughtful, because I had assumed that we would get make-up, since it was a gift bag for married couples...typically male-female.  My experience with The Bay keeps on getting better and better!

Well, that's all for right now!  Thanks for following the blog (if anyone is...) and don't forget to leave me a comment.

Don't forget!!

If you got an invitation, don't forget to respond!  You need to send us an email to traunwedding@gmail.com.  We need to start getting the actual numbers in, so if you are coming, even if you think we already know, if you haven't sent us an email, do that.

I want to thank everyone that sent in their responses already!  It's really helpful to have preliminary numbers, so we can start inviting more people if you kids say "No thanks, we don't want to have an awesome time at your wedding.  We just prefer to sit at home and cry knowing that we are not in your presence."  Okay, maybe you won't say that...maybe...

So, over the weekend, Shaun and I got a bunch of wedding stuff done, and I didn't blog about it, because I've been a little preoccupied this week.  With sleeping.  I can't sleep through the evening, and it's been making me very tired during the day.  Plus this week has been super long.

Ahh!  I keep digressing!  The lack of sleep is destroying my mental capacities!!!  Wedding stuff!

Sunday, we went with my sister to the dress shop and ordered Kari's dress.  Steph and April are going in this week to get theirs ordered, and then we just have to wait for the other ladies to order their dresses from their respective dress shops in their respective cities.  In any case, one of the dresses is ordered!  Let's hope it gets here well in advance of the wedding!!

After that, Kari left, and we picked up Stephanie and went shopping at Queensborough Landing.  I went into International Clothiers.  It's that store that exists in every mall, but no one really knows the name of it.  It's that Men's Only store where you can buy a suite for 99 bucks.  I didn't think I'd find anything, but I bought 2 cute shirts that makes me look all "Mad Men" like with my 50's style hair.  (It's fairly long, for those of you who read this from out of town, or just haven't seen me in a long time.)

We then travelled to meet up with Stephanie (as she wanted to check out the Closing Sale that was going on at Suzy Shier next door.)  Steph managed to find a sweater, pants, a skirt, and I think she also bought two leggings, or maybe it was two shirts...either way, it came to less than what I paid for two dress shirts.  Stupid cheap women's clothing!!

DC was next on the list, and Shaun bought two pairs of shoes and a really nice black hoodie for like 85 bucks!

After that, we went to a store, and I won't tell you which store we went to, but we found the PERFECT wedding favour!  So, we managed to purchase almost all of our wedding favours already!  (We only have 80 of them, so I think we should go get some more, just in case!)  We may leave them as is, or we may re-wrap them so that they are more personalized, but it's so nice to get another thing done off the checklist!  Woots!

That completes the Sunday story.

Last night, Shaun and I met up with the photographer and signed the contracts and gave him the deposit, so that is all done too!  One more thing done!

The wedding moves along nicely...

Sigh...

So, yesterday, I think my "gay" quotient went up about 15 degrees.

I was at the drugstore to pick up some stamps so I could FINALLY send out the last of my mailed invitations, when I saw that Lady Gaga was on the cover of Vogue magazine.  You heard me, I bought a copy of Vogue because Lady Gaga was on the cover. 

Now, I've never actually bought a copy of Vogue before, but I always wondered what the big deal was.  That thing is less of a magazine, and more of an epic tome of fashion!

When I went to go pick the thing up, I only grabbed the first 50 pages or so, 'cause I figured it wouldn't be that big!  It must be at least 2 inches thick, and is pretty much filled cover to cover with ads of all of the major fashion houses around the world.

I must admit, it was definitely interesting to flip through the "magazine" and see all the different styles that the major fashion houses have.  It was also fun to see the actual clothing/shoes/make up that you always hear about from places like Gucci, Prada, Michael Kors, DKNY, Cover Girl, Juicy Couture.  Mixed in were the hilarious ads from KMart.  That was definitely unexpected.  I don't normally pay all that much attention to how clothes are made, but when you put a KMart ad next to a Gucci ad, you're bound to notice a difference in craftsmanship...and man was there ever a difference!!

Anyway, back to the topic at hand, the wedding!  I have always said to my good friend April that I would walk down the isle in nothing less than Vera Wang.  Well, my copy of Vogue magazine has a spread of Vera Wang outfits, and man, that woman can design a dress!  (As well as flowers, plates and shoes.  Her name sells things, I guess...)  The next time you see a copy of Vogue, open it up and see if you can find it.  It is absolutely gorgeous!

If only my budget were a little bigger...

Wedding Registry

Before I go any further, I would just like to state that after my last post, we contacted the Bridal shop, and we can have the dresses sent to wherever we like.  We have to get them to send it to the Bridal Gallery, but then they will forward that to wherever we need it to go.

So yay!!!

Today, Shaun and I went and had a lovely breakfast at Eighties Restaurant, and then decided to go do some fake retail therapy.  Wedding Registry fun was to ensue!

I had no idea that pointing and shooting a laser at something that was not moving could be so much fun!  Of course I'd like a set of wine glasses!  I could definitely go for a food processor!  Sure, we definitely need some new towels.

Ohhh, so much fun!!

Now, we are only putting up a gift registry because a lot of people will not give money for a wedding present.  The only reason why we would prefer money to presents is because we are looking to buy an apartment within the next year or so, and we've been together for such a long time that we have a lot of items already.

Anyway, I think that's all for today, I should go work on the website so all of you who are invited can know what the details are for the day of the wedding.

Groomswench Dress Drama

So, the Bridesmaids' dress situation is interesting...

I was at work earlier today, when I got a text message from Shaun asking me to call him right away.  I felt rather alarmed at that, because Shaun rarely texts me, and it's even more rare that he ask I call him right away.

When I called, he had said that one of our bridesmaids was freaking out over text message about getting the dress altered.  Apparently, the lady that she had been speaking to said that she doubted the bridal store would have been able to alter the dresses in time.  

Now, we had spoken with the consultant when we asked about the dresses because we wanted to make sure they understood that most of our ladies would not be getting into town very far in advance, and our consultant said that was okay.  Shaun was not so convinced that we had made it very clear to her, so I told him "Well, go call her and ask!"

Shaun called, and while the consultant was busy, he spoke with the receptionist, and she said that she doubted we would be able to get it done there in time.

Well F**K!

So, we are going to call them tomorrow to see if we can just ship it directly to the people in Montreal, rather then coming here and wasting time sitting about, waiting for our other ladies to get in from out of town.

Hopefully everything will come together soon...

Time to go work on the website, and actually let everyone know what's going on!

New Blog Location

So, I have been having issues with the blog that I originally created on www.traunwedding.com.  It looked good, but if I had the inkling to update the blog, I had to be at home.  iWeb has no interface that you can use to update it when you are not at that specific computer.

I was annoyed at the fact that I couldn't update from wherever I wanted to, so I decided to change it up, and put a link to an actual blogging site.  This way, I can update the blog when I'm at work, and things generally happen more often during the day than when I'm at home and merely vegging out.  You can also comment on these postings as well!!!  FINALLY!!!

I forewarn you.  This will be a fairly epic posting because it's been such a long time since I have updated the blog.

SOOOOOO much has changed since I last updated the blog.  The last time I actually updated the blog was almost a month ago when we received the invitations.  Well, most of the invitations have been sent out.  Don't worry if you haven't received one yet, they are not ALL sent out.  (If you live in Vancouver, the likelihood is that I am going to give your invitation to you personally.)

Having sent out some of the invitations, I have actually recieved some responses!  We have received 2 yes's and one no thus far.  One of the yes's came from a good friend of mine who I am VERY excited to see!  He lives in Ottawa, and moved there before I left Montreal, so it's been a while since I've seen him.  As it turns out, he was planning a trip out to BC anyway, so said that he'd just make sure it coincided with the wedding!  How awesome!  I'm super stoked!

About 2 weeks ago, Shaun and I met up with April and Stephanie to go try on some of the dresses for the ladies in the wedding party.  We went to Bryan's Bridal, and had quite an interesting experience.  We just went for a casual visit; take a look around, see what the prices were like, and what the dresses were like.  We didn't bother booking an appointment, because we didn't think we were going to get anything.

Stephanie ended up being our model, and what a fabulous model she was!  She tried on 3 different dresses.  I would post pictures of the rejects, but you are not allowed to take photos of the dresses which I find quite stupid.  The first two dresses that Steph tried on were okay, but there were a couple of things that we didn't like.  The first one was cut a bit awkwardly, and we foresaw issues with the dresses, and the second one had a nice front, but a frilly back, which didn't look so nice once it was on a person.

The third was just right, as the story goes!  It is a gorgeous dress, and I can't wait for you all to see it.  I won't describe it in much detail, but it will be an amazing European Wine with a white...hmm...sash is the only word I can come up with, but that's not correct.  It goes around the waist.  Beautiful dress.

Anyway, after we found that dress, the lady who was helping us (who was quite nice) had disappeared.  I went to go find her, and she was up at the front speaking with the receptionist.  I said that I had a few questions, and she came to help me.  When I got back to the group, Momma Bryan was there, and man, she looked angry!  Apparently she was super annoyed that the consultant left us alone, and took over for her.

This lady was an epic bitch.  The best way to describe her would be to call her a used car sales person.  She was practically trying to get us to put down a credit card right then and there for these dresses, which we loved, but weren't sure if we were going to get the ladies to wear the same dress.  Then she tried to tell us to get our tuxes from Western Tuxedo Rentals.  Stephanie went with Western Tux, and they totally screwed up the grooms tux.  Even after telling her about the story, she was still trying to tell us to go there and get them from there.  No thanks.

Leaving that store left a bitter taste in my mouth.  I talked to April, Steph, and Shaun, and everyone else agreed that the associates handled themselves very poorly.  So, Stephanie, being the weddinator that she is, went and found us a deal at another location.  A better deal than what Bryan's was offering, so it worked out in the long run anyway.

TUXES.  Man, again, a super ordeal.  I've been to tux fittings, and I've been to tux fittings where there are 5 men to get fitted.  I have not been to a tux fitting where 5 men get fitted and it takes 2 hours to do so.  EPIC.

So, it started off by me being totally stupid.  I had invited everyone to the tux fitting, or so I thought.  Lo and behold, I forgot to invite my best man to the freakin' tux fitting.  I am SUCH a jerk.  I also didn't realise this until 1am on the day of the tux fitting.  Luckily, I have about the bestest friend in the world, and he changed his plans around for me!  (Yes, Stephan, you've passed the test!!!)

Now that we are all there and ready to be fitted, we walk in Moores.  We are greeted by a nice man, and an even nicer lady.  They take us to the back of the store, and then we go over to the middle, and the lady starts taking measurements.  She asks her co-workers if they could help her, because there are 5 of us, so then we won't be standing around doing nothing while the others are getting fitted.  A very old associate comes over, and asks me to follow him.  For some weird reason, I had my tux fitting on the other side of the store.  Why I couldn't get fitted with the group is well beyond me.  I do my fitting, and in that amount of time, everyone had been measured, and Sameer and Stephan had tried on the products.

Then, something happened.  A whole bunch of people came into the store and all of the representatives that had been helping us disappeared.  They went to go help the new customers.  After about 10 or 15 minutes had passed, we went and asked someone for help, as Shaun and Paul had still not tried on anything.  They came and got products for Shaun to try on.  (He looks SUPER sexy in a tux, btw!!)  I went to go and choose exactly what extras we wanted with the tux while Shaun tried it on.  After a few questions, I went to go confirm something with Shaun.  We talked about the tie vs. bowtie, (it's the tie), and then were talking about the other accessories.  Paul still had not tried anything on.  I went over to the guy who was helping me before and said, very angrily but politely, "A member of my party still has not tried anything on.  Please send someone over to help him.  Right. Now. Please."  They ran to help him.

Stupid...

Anyway, after Paul finally tried something on, they took forever entering the information into the system.  Stephan had said that he needed to go, since he had changed his plans for me, and nothing was happening, I told him that was fine.  The guy then asked me for the deposit.  Sameer wanted to pay for his whole thing right away, which was fine.  Then Paul took Shaun's and paid his deposit, so I was going to pay for Stephan's deposit, and my suit.  The guy entered all of the suits on one bill, despite Sameer having already paid.

All in all, as you can tell, I was very unimpressed with the service that I received from Moores.  I think that the tuxes will look good, and I like the styles that Shaun and I chose, but overall, not too keen on them.

Well, this has been a very epic blog.  I'm sorry it's been such a long time coming, but as I say, I will be a bit more free to write them now that it's using a more open source! 

I'll let you know what else is going on later...hopefully it will be only awesomeness!

PS:  Write a comment to let me know that it worked!