The Days Before Mr & Mrs.

The last month or so, I've been blogging less & less leading up to the day of the great Rapture... I mean wedding.  Krista & Brian's wedding to be exact.  What happened with that Rapture anyways?! Is it rescheduled for October?!

Krista has given me the honour of being one of her bridesmaid for this celebration.  There's a lot of stress when putting together a wedding.  Personally, I didn't experience first hand but saw and a second-hand sense, felt what that stress was like through Krista.  

The best way to deal with stressful times is to find chances to have fun and laugh.

All above pictures taken by Krista

One of my favourite parts about being a bridesmaid was getting together to do DIY favours for the guest. In my last post, entitled Visiting Home Base, I talked more about the tedious task of separating jellybeans.   Every hour spent was worth it.  Not only did we have a fabulous finished project but we adequately caught up on life & home-town gossip.

The afternoon before the wedding was spent finishing up the last touches, practicing the ceremony along with hanging out.  It was great seeing people from the wedding party along with meeting family members of Krista and Brian.  

Smile from the Bride-To-Be (that's her proud dad in the background)

The rehearsal dinner that evening had great food and I learnt what Haggis really is.  The educational video that I have will not load, however it is a little gross and Jaclyn's reaction at the end is priceless.

Photographs below have been taken by Krista.  

For more pictures, check out her flickr photostream.

Serving the surprising crowd pleaser: Haggis

Along with eating, we got to learn how to do two traditional Scottish dances.  Let's just say, the first one was a total fail and we ended up doing the easiest one for the wedding.

For more pictures, check out Krista's flickr photostream.

Like a kid on Christmas, it was hard falling & staying asleep the night before Krista & Brian's wedding.  I couldn't wait to see my two friends and high school sweet hearts wed.  I finally decided to stop trying to sleep at about 5 a.m. which gave me lots of time to get ready before having to met up with the bridal party for hair & makeup.  Getting pampered and dolled up is always fun.  Getting to do it with great friends makes it so much better. 

More to come....

Visiting the Home Base

As I head to Kingston for my second visit of the month, it feels like I never really left. Keeping in touch with family and friends via twitter and Facebook made these three days in Ottawa fly by without feeling out of the loop. Some may have noticed that I've been MIA from blogging and there's good reason for it. My good friend Krista is getting married this weekend and I have the honor of being one of her bridesmaids. With the upcoming love event, trips to Kingston have been necessary.

Thankfully my parent's live in town, so I have a place to crash in between madness and appointments. I adore their home and the beautiful view from the backyard. If only every morning could start with a perfect cup of coffee (via Tassimo), an adorable pug named Ferris, family and being so near to the water. All that was missing was my little monsters and Chris.

That's Ferris, the most adorable & selective hearing dog out there. Yea, she's cute. But she will also cause embarrassing moments by running away from you towards an old highschool colleague while you look like shit: greasy pony tail, sans makeup and wearing shoes two sizes too big. Of course Ferris proceeded to play with his dog so avoiding conversation would just be rude. Urg. Lesson: always look chic, especially when visiting your small home town because you're bound to run in to someone you know.

One thing I love about being back at home is the oportunity to play dress up in my sister's closet. I love all the colours and fun patterns she has. It makes me miss my pre-professional days, before conservative items and dark colours took over my closet. Right now I've decided to take on the mission of convincing Sarah to start a fashion blog. She'd be great at it.

The most important mission of the weekend was trying to catch some rays before the rain came in for the week. These fun sunglasses also came from Sarah's collection. I convinced her, a.k.a. whined, to give them up to me.

The bridesmaid task of the weekend was to do the favours. Krista, Jaclyn and I broke the unwritten rule of picking out the undesirable jellybeans. The things we do for weddings. Much time and giggles was spent at the Bulk Barn.

Even more time was spent sorting and filling jars full of jellybeans. All 115 of them. Whoever came up with the great idea of separating the colours, you caused many dreams of dancing jellybeans. But the product was worth it. And I can't wait to see those darling jars on the tables this Saturday.

A quick and easy DIY hair pieces were whipped up on Saturday morning. How easy?! Well if you can pop off flowers from the steams and glue, you can make these too. The idea is for the bridesmaids to wear then and I hope they look as darling as planned.

Wedding Crashing

Jaclyn and I really felt like we crashed her cousin's wedding Saturday night. Other than her parents, there wasn't too many people that we knew. But it was a beautiful and fun celebration. Plus I got some practice dancing with my new pumps. The best part of weddings is that you can pull moves from "Grease Lighting", Spice Girls and LMFAO's Shuffling... And you know we did all of the above and more because we are cool like dat.

{Military inspired navy mini dress gift from Marilou of 20 York Street, pumps and clutch from Aldo}

{Dress from Forever 21 & wedges from Aldo}

During dancing breaks, Jaclyn and I would either steal a refreshing time outside in the light rain or up in the restricted loft section to play vogue.

Fun times are always had with Jaclyn.

Messy main is the result of time out in the rain, a girl has to cool down after shuffling.

Now back to some form of reality. Soon I'll be arriving in Kingston for one last good night sleep before I devote all my time and energy to Krista. There's so much for her to do and I know that she'll need proper harassment before delegating tasks to the girls ready to take on anything for her.

For me, excitement is kicking in. It will be a wonderful day. It will also be web-cast so all who cannot be there in person can see it. I got to promise to not make faced or shake my booty while in front of the camera...

Colour Blocking... What?!

What is this thing they call colour blocking?

Colour blocking is a bold and fun statement by layering cololurs. The use of bright accessories is a good way to do this trend. Who knew it could be that easy?  Checking out what fashion bloggers are doing is my favorite way to get inspiration on how to turn runway into street fashion.   Alicia Fashionista did it in a post entitled "and i won't try to fight in your weekend".

Blogger Alicia Fashionista

 Erica Ward did it in a post entitled "spring trends with Erica on Fashion".

Blogger Erica Ward

Thankfully I have Krista in my life to take candid pictures, otherwise my first attempt at colour blocking wouldn't have been captured. 

 An Aldo fix... loving the patterned wedges of this beauty, they are next on my wish list...

{sun glasses & socks - Ardene's, blazer - Stiches, floral tank - Sirens, skinny jeans - Target, shoes - Florida outlet store}

The awesome floral and mustard blazer combo comes from my sister's closet.   As do the sun glasses,  however, I am happy to report that my whining has resulted in her giving them to me. One of the great things about spending days with the family, is being able to raid my sister's closet.  She has an awesome sense of style.  

{image found on Google Search at http://dressesshoesandmore.wordpress.com/2011/02/24/colour-blocking/}

Lessons learned: 1) colour blocking isn't as easy as previously thought and 2) no patterns.  A google search gave me a lot of ideas including some visuals from Vogue 2009.  Is there any beauties out there who have tried colour blocking?  I'd love to see or hear about your experience with this trend.

Viewer Discretion Adviced....

.... I must thank the very patient and very serious men at Mac for helping out with my iPhoto disaster.  After just a week, I managed to screw up the program.  Thankfully the guys were able to help.  Sadly, they didn't laugh at my awkward tech jokes to fill in the silence as things rebooted.  The Senior Geek gave me a good lecturing on deleting files that I didn't know what they are.  My main feared was that old pictures were lost forever.  Thank goodness they were found and restored. It's always a joy to look through old pictures.  Even if I regret seeing how much I've aged since high school, the memories can be good & fun to reflect on.  Here's just a few of the ones that continue to make me giggle.  

And if you have a problem with a hilarious photographs being posted of you, take it up with my comment section!

 

"case cracked" hehe 

The creeper "jumping into the shot" move  

 Soon to be Mr & Mrs. Krista *awe*

 True romance.

 Sexy Jaclyn...

 ... Not-so-sexy Me.

 Booty to booty ;)

 LOL 4 Eva!

 Pogo down.

 Birthday hats have really gone downhill.

Best creeper picture yet. <3 u Krista

 My sister is the bee-yatch who will take the cute one, after you call him to leave you with the beer gut

Still bitter about this one little sis!

 hehe, oh yes, I still have this one ;) it was someone's birthday!

That is really shock, as Mo shoots me in the EYES... those cap guns sparks FYI

Not cool Mo, not cool

 Vogue.... Or something like it?

The childish pout when he was told "no"

 Grabbing ass is a common theme for JACKASH

Everyone have a wonderful weekend xo

An After Published Note: I must apologize in a way.... Thanks to Shybiker (tone in sincerity not sarcasm) this post might have some people thinking "wow... she's mean" Well yes I am, but everyone has some kind of mean streek.  These photographs are with old and dear friends.  The silliness is a normative thing when we get together.  Hopefully they are not hurt, and if you are... please give me a call or email.  OR as Krista says Your turn is coming!!!! Which is just fine by me :-P <3 u all