Crossing the Atlantic

I am sorry I haven't posted  much lately, but I have been a little busy packing. On top of the normal packing, I have to do wedding packing! And it is not easy. I had to pack normal cloths, wedding clothes, wedding papers, immigration papers, wedding ribbons/ bells/ menus/ maps/ favors... and the list goes on and on.

I managed to pack everything in 1 big suitcase, 1 small suitcase, 1 backpack, and 1 special bag for my dress and Rich's suit.

Leaving tomorrow at 10:50am arriving wednesday at 11:30am in Rennes. Talk to you from the other side of the pond!

Veggies in your centerpieces

I love the idea of mixing food and flowers. I found these pictures on epicurious and love the ideas of adding asparagus and grapes.

Another Hat

My sister dragged her feet on getting a hat, but she finally did. She got a lovely pink hat which I am sure will be awesome with her outfit.

Look

More cake!

Really like the design of those cakes:

Laying out on the table...

Our work of the past months. We are missing a couple of things, but most of it is here! I have decided to put most of it in my carry on in case they loose my suitcases. 

Craft discovery

I am a good baker, like doing stuff myself, but I am still discovering craft stores... 

Last week end, we got some stamps to personalize all our paper goods. We used the M&R and heart on either the menus, phrase books, ceremony booklets, contact sheet... and we will use the different letter for the place cards.

Then we got a corner rounder.. after doing all the favors with a pair of scissors there was no way I was going to do that for everything else. 

More shoes

Here is a piece of advice:

Ballroom dancing shoes are the most comfortable, light shoes ever! I will probably switch from my wedding shoes to my dancing shoes once we start dinner... I wear those shoes for dancing, my feet never hurt, I don't loose them, they are really light, and closed toes! Yes, closed toes is a good thing to get if you are a beginner... and if he is too!

Stupid machine

We bought fabric a while back to make runners for the tables, but I didn't have a sewing machine. My FMIL did, so one day we went down to Colorado Springs to get it. For a little bit now I have been trying to use it, but even after asking my dressmaker for advice, I was stuck. The machine hasn't been used for over 10 years, needs to be serviced and has tension problems. Unfortunately I couldn't deal with all that at the time, so I gave up. I will hopefully do the runner once I am home on my mom's machine. 

Registry Gifts

We have been receiving gifts for over a month now, and have been keeping them in a pile in the hallway waiting for the wedding and maybe moving. But there was one we had been looking at with "hungry" eyes. So one day we decided to go ahead, open it... and make a fondue!

Groom Fashion

We decided to buy him a really nice suit, because he could keep it and renting was too hard (3 days wasn't enough as he is staying in France for 3 weeks)... now I am really happy of our choice because I saw some rented tuxes at other weddings and you could see it was rented, not a really nice quality, and not well fitted. For the tie and inside vest we asked my dress maker to make them. We picked the fabric for the tie together, and for the vest my mom told us to use my dress's fabric as we had plenty extra. I am really happy how it came out, it is gorgeous. 

Fabric for the tie and vest:

Tie and vest:

All together:

A little souvenir from the dressmaker:

Public Transportation

As public transportation seems to be a total novelty to our guests from the midwest, we will add to the welcome package maps of different bus and metro lines...

Ceremony Booklet... taking a little longer than planned.

We are having problems with our organist. My mom called him last week to tell him our songs (following the church's advice), and he was more than rude. He couldn't do anything we had picked... and even though we didn't mind and asked what he could do, he said that he had a repertoire... but didn't tell us what it consisted of. My parents have been trying to get someone else... cross fingers, hopefully this week.
This is what has been delaying the printing of our Ceremony Booklets. In the meanwhile here is what will go IN the booklet:

Prêtre/Officiant
Père Jean B

Parents de la mariée/Parents of the Bride
Georgina & Michel L

Parents du marié/Parents of the Groom
Susan & George Jr. M

Grand parents de la mariée/Grandparents of the Bride
Marcelle Bax
Denise & Eugène L

Grand parents du marié/Grandparents of the Groom
Dorothy Beavers
Theresa & George Sr. M

Témoins/Maid of Honor & Bridesmaid
Elizabeth L
Fiona L

Témoins/Best Man & Groomsman
Anthony B
Michael M

Presents en pensées/Present in thoughts
Dorothy B
Alex B

Prélude & Procession

Chant d’Entrée - Entrance Song (French)
Debout resplendis - Standing Glowing

Première Lecture - First Reading (English)
By George M Sr.
Reading from the first letter of St Paul to the Corinthians 12:31- 13:8
If I am without love, it will do me no good whatever

Chant de Méditation - Meditation Song (French)
Je n'ai d'autre désir - I don't have any other desire

Psaume 23 - Psalm 23 (English & French)
By Elizabeth L & Fiona L

Alléluia (French)

Evangile - Gospel (French)

By Pere Jean B
A reading from the holy Gospel according to John 17, 20-26

May they be completely one

Célébration du Sacrement - Vows and Ring Ceremony (French & English)
By the couple

Chant de Louange - Hymn of Praise (French)

By Marcelle B & Fiona L
Devant Jésus - In front of Jesus

Prière des Epoux - Prayer of the Couple (English & French)

By the couple

Prière Universelle - Prayer of the Faithful (English)
By Anthony B & Michael M

Notre Père - Our Father (French)
By Assembly

Lord’s Prayer (English)
By Michael M

Ave Maria (music only)

Chant d’Envoi - Exit Song (French)

By Assembly

Couronnée d’étoiles - Crowned with stars

First trip to the US

That was me 20 years ago at the Miami Airport - first trip to the US.. we went to Disney World and visited Florida. Who would have guessed that 20 years later I would marry an American? To make my parents happy I posed in front of a taxi and a police car...

Cake disaster

I had promised to bring a cake to our dance studio on monday, and I was also planning on bringing one to the office as tomorrow is my last day. I planned on doing a 6" and 8" on friday, and frost them on sunday....

• I took friday off, and started cooking. I opened my brand new Wilton 6" springform, removed the wrapping.. and as it didn't seem connected too well, I put the form in water... LEAKING all over!
• We went shopping on saturday morning, didn't find another 6" 3" springform so I gave up and decided to do 2 big cakes.. the 8 and 9". We went home and I started baking.
• The recipe was going to make 17 cups of batter... no need to mention that it is WAY too much for my kitchenaid mixer, but I did it anyway.... how stupid am I.
• I put it all in the oven... and it soon start to smell burnt. I opened the oven, my cakes were overflowing in the oven.. GREAT. I put something under it and left it in the oven.
• After half the cooking time, it really smelled burnt. Open the oven.. it was still overflowing, I had cake in the whole oven as well as on the filament. I got really worried, open the windows, open the oven and turned it off... I heard a beeping noise in the apartment.. God, the alarm of the buiding is going to go off and the firefighters are gonna come.. what a disaster.

The alarm didn't ring, but it was really close... My oven was a mess, I wasted tons of products, the apartment still smells like burnt, and I had still promised cake!! I ended up redoing one on sunday... finished it around midnight... gosh what a week end.. and all of that because of a springform and mistaking teaspoons for tablespoons of baking powder+soda.

Another accomplishment!

Yep, we were really really productive this week end :). We also finished everything needed on the tables, meaning: place cards, table numbers, and a paper for each table with every guests seating on that table. They look awesome... each table is represented by a different rooster of a different color, so we don't really have table numbers or names... just roosters.

First, listing the guests seating at that table (I will handwrite our guests' names), next to it is the table "number":

Table "Flower Rooster":

Table "Married Couple Roosters" (our table):

Table "Gift Rooster":

Table "Family Rooster":

Table "Chef Rooster":

Table "Wine Rooster":

Table "Simple Rooster":

Then the placecards: we are going to wrap this strip around the napkin.. and I am going to handwrite our guests' names on it:

Not too bad for a week end!

Welcome package

One good thing done during the week end! We really did do a lot this week end as I am leaving next tuesday. We finished the welcome packages, and just have to round up the corners and stick the covers of the phrasebooks and welcome booklets to the "bodies". I am really proud of our accomplishment, it definitely feels good to have something totally done. Here it is:

Welcome Booklet - printed on white paper... accordeon style:

Front:

Inside - a welcome note that we both signed, information about Brittany and things to visit, and information about the different means of transportation and the bus system:

Map - printed on white paper, folded in half:

Front:

Inside - general on top, zoomed in on the bottom (done with PPT):

Timeline - printed on light green paper:Contacts - printed on brighter green paper, size of a business card:Phrasebook - printed on white paper...accordeon style:

Front:

Inside - general sayings, how to buy things, food, numbers, time, places... anything english speakers would need to go about Brittany.

I heart maps

I found those hearts on etsy from the seller Bombus. I still have to find a way to include them in the wedding. I was thinking maybe putting them in the envelopes when I will send pictures of the wedding to people who couldn't make it... or maybe in the welcome package ... or include them with the maps???

Hair dilemma

I change my mind every new picture I see, so I decided not to pick a hairdo until the last minute. But here is what I collected so far.

The headbands are from Jennifer Behr... I love them, especially the last one. If only it could fit with my outfit. Oh well...