Jake & Candice - August Wedding, St Catharines, ON

It was a gorgeous, sunny day in beautiful Jordan, Ontario and Candice and her girls are all a-buzz.  I just love the way the light pours in, it was like Nature was all thumbs-up for how pretty Candice looked.

During the ceremony, there was a lot of singing, which is wonderful because its like all of their loved ones are singing them into their new life together.

After the ceremony, there were lots of hugs – this picture is actually one of my favourite pics of the year.

Next it was time to head over to Lakeside Park in Port Dalhousie. They have this awesome old carousel there, fully restored – and still only 5 cents to ride!  The carousel was carved between 1898 and 1905 and is totally awesome. Candice and Jake rented the carousel for half an hour and we had a blast snapping pics and gettin’ dizzy.

Dudes.

A little walk down the beach and we found a troupe of ragamuffin beach boys.

I love the deep purple that Candice chose for her bridesmaids, so elegant and yet the long dress style is flowy and light so it totally worked with the warm weather and beachy theme of the pictures.

Next we went to an park near Brock University that used to be quarry but has since been reclaimed into a beautiful natural oasis.

This is place where Jake asked Candice if she was interested in starting to date - she was ;)

It must be noted that Candice is a farm girl at heart and had no problem walking over the gravel road in her bare feet (check out the hot pink toenails, peeps) 

but a little later on it was time for her new husband to come to the rescue. Rocks are one thing, brambles are quite another.

Finally it was time to head on over to the Four Points by Sheraton in St Catharines. One thing I have to mention – the bridal party had the most creative entrances we’ve ever seen.  

The following picture is not a picture of a bridesmaid falling and being embarrassed – it’s a picture of a bridesmaid doing the inchworm and totally rockin’ it. Talk about hidden talents!  

And not to be outdone, the best man totally surprised us with a fabulous leap forward. (Actually just as a note, this best man did something amazing later in the night  - he actually wrote, played and sung Jake & Candice a romantic song, just especially about them and it was really amazing!)

It's fun being married. :)

During the speeches, it can get kind of emotional. Candices sister stepped in to help Candice with the rest of her speech here, sweet huh?

And then this happened. :D This was a game, not sure what it was called, but something like ‘Guess which one is your husbands butt’. Too funny!! : )

This was arranged by a very helpful and talented flower girl :D

After the first dance,

It was time to party on down.

Just about every guest got their groove on, especially Jake with this classic gettin-on-down dance face.

Candice and Jake are a lovely couple who are just starting their lives out and are going to grow beautifully together in love and life. We wish them all the best! 

Shout out to the Sash! (the wedding sash that is!)

Hey guys!

Since posting the blog on Marina and Steve's wedding yesterday, I've been on a little mission to find the coolest and most unique wedding belts I could find. But first things first - apparently they are not called wedding belts, they are called wedding sashes. Excuse-moi! But I do agree that wedding sash is a much more fashionable term, so I stand corrected.

So what does one do when they want to find creative, unique wedding accessories? They go to Etsy.com of course!

Within the first 20 seconds of my search, I was already squealing - I came across this shop, Rosy Posy Designs. Not only are these all handmade, but they have such a unique flavour to them - kind of boho, kind of earthy girl, very romantic. You could put this on any lace dress and have it work perfectly, or for you summer-time beach casual brides, white eyelet cotton or linen. A few of my favourites:

Something blue!

You could even incorporate the guys' corsage colours with the colours in the sash, and your bridsemaids too!


This last one is a great compromise for those of you who dont want to go all out there with the colour, but want to have something unique and feminine.

And wait, I totally just thought of something - after your wedding day is over, you can still have these brooches / sashes afterwards, as a keepsake that is not tucked away in a box in the basement. Yay!

I came across these two that I really liked, mostly because I'm still obsessed with gray bridesmaids dresses, and I've seen these colour combinations before and it just works so well in photographs. The following two pictures are from Brown Eyed Girls Boutique.

Loved this one for the very boho look, from Lukamoda.

For a little more of a refined look, elegant and clean but still unique, I stumbled across this shop called Elite Women. I love the placement of the interesting feathers on these ones, and was surprised at how low the price was.

 Another great thing about handmade wedding sashes, is you can save a lot of money with buying a simple dress, and enhance it for under 200$.

There are tons of options out there though, you can really bling it up:

From Ingenue B

From Star Trim

So there you have it :) Most bridal shops these days have a small assortment of bridal sashes, but I always recommend checking out craftspeople first. Have any of you guys seen some awesome wedding sashes? Feel free to share in the comment box below!

Marina & Steve- Wedding Hamilton, Ontario

After a serendipitous meeting at her mother’s hair salon, Steve and Marina were well on their way to creating a beautiful life together, with a beautiful August wedding to kick the whole thing off. It was kind of rainy that day, but as with most weddings we do, the rain has a way of either washing everything clean for us, or staying out of the way for the really important parts.  After hanging out with the groomsmen for a few minutes, we headed on over to Marina’s house, full of hustle and bustle and all around gorgeousness. 

Marina looked every bit the princess bride in her fabulous, multilayered gown – simple, yet so feminine and pretty.

One of my favourite parts is the awesome belt that perfectly customizes the gown to match Marina’s style , yet still remains elegant and not over the top.

And check out these sexy hot pink shoes…!

Finally it was time for a beautiful ceremony at the Holy Cross Croatian Roman Catholic Church.

  

After the ceremony, we headed over to the Royal Botanical Gardens for some formals.  

A little behind the scenes on this next picture, as Marina was getting her fine self situated on the bench, Steve was standing beside me, with this look of just pure love and adoration for his bride. He just shook his head as he gazed at her, and said (or rather, sighed) “isn’t she just beautiful?” It was so darn sweet and he walked over and gave her a very prince charming kiss, and I swear  the birds just started a-singin’. 

 Before  we headed to Pier 4 Bayfront Park for a few more pics, a little break for a smooch in the elevator ;)

Now it was time to head over the the Croatian National Home, for some delicious food and some nerve-wracking excellent speeches.

Notice the gleam of mischief in Steve's eye? :)

What a fun idea for bonbonierre’s, don’t you guys think? Honestly, after the wedding, I ate so many gumballs, I couldn’t  open my mouth properly for a couple days my jaw was so stiff, tee hee. : )

To top the beautiful day off, Steve and Marina danced like professionals…

 ....and then everyone else followed suit! Patryk from Liquid DJ Services was great, he got everyone involved and everyone was bustin' a move.

These two are so in love, it was so fun to hang out with them for the whole day.  It’s stuff like this that makes life so good!