The Wedding Journey Continues: Wedding Party Meet and Greet

Let's have a party!.  What better excuse, as if I need an excuse.  I love parties especially if there is wine and cake :).  The easiest part of this get together was the guest list.  32 in the wedding party. Family is very important to Jay and Rachel so they decided to include their siblings in the wedding party.  Also meant there weren't any good excuses for them not showing up.  It helped that I kept sending Andrew and David pictures of the food, always the best way to their hearts.

Picking the theme was a little more challenging and then I remembered Pinterest and Google.  Seriously how did we manage before the internet.  And then I remembered that Jay and his family are big MOVEMBER supporters and get right into the spirit of the mustache growing event every November so why not support mustaches at this party too.

I must admit by the time I cut out 32 mustaches and lips for the name tags I was starting to feel like a brownie leader again.

   

The menu, again back to google, just type in Wedding Brunches and tons of ideas come up.  Rachel and Jay came up Friday night (pizza night of course) so I had 2 little helpers to put the final touches on everything.  

 

I LOVE finger food.  Pop it into your mouth, oh look another one, in it goes.  It's like those little egg salad and salmon sandwiches with no crusts cut into triangles.  I would never eat more than 1 sandwich for lunch, but those little triangles amazingly I can eat about 12 of them.  

Rachel recommended a Mimosa Bar and we definitely needed a "Beer Boat" for Jay.  Poor Jay, his groomsmen and future brothers-in-law just happened to have an all day event on the Saturday (which meant we were just glad they got out of bed on the Sunday).  Being a little cool, we loaded up the bottle bins with ice and then Jay had to cart the beer and champagne up the stairs from the cold cellar.  (I do think he likes this kind of stuff - at least I hope so :))

Everyone is here and the table is ready to go.  Tinkle the beer bottle to get everyone's attention and give a little speech.  LOL - yep throat locked, face went red, started waving my hands but with a little help from Jim made it through it.  Luckily when I do a little welcome it is never very long :).  I'm practicing wearing heels and giving speeches to get ready for the wedding.

Rachel's Maid of Honour Annie and her husband Jordan couldn't make it they were back in Michigan after the weekend bridesmaid shopping and Jay's groomsman Matt and his wife Kelly are living in London, England so they had to pass as well.  Looking forward to meeting them at the wedding.  

Being a wee bit sentimental whenever I host a family or holiday party I think of my mom and mom-in-law and fond memories of their celebrations.  Nana's cheese and onion pie and Victoria sandwich cake and Granma's country style potatoes had a place of honour on the table.  

The Dad's - what do you thinking. Talking about the tux or suit they will be wearing, what kind of shoes  lol.  I'm betting - golf, blue jays or some sporting event.

Amazingly it was actually nice enough to sit out the back.  The sun felt wonderful.  

Dessert is served.  

The Ladies

The Men

The Wedding Party (less Annie and Matt)

Couldn't have a party without a loot bag - just a little fudge to sugar them up.  :).

The Menu

Deviled Eggs

Asparagus Wraps

Ham & Swiss Cheese Croissants (a big hit)

Sausage Rolls

Country Style Potatoes

Salmon with Dill Cream Cheese on Baquette

Tomato and Bocconcini Skewers

Bacon, Cheese & Tomato Skewers

Jay & Rachel's Spicy Tortilla Pinwheels

Mini Quiches

Fruit Salad (thanks to Becky)

Limoncello Cake (thanks to Becky)

Yogurt & Fruit Parfaits

Victoria Sandwich Cake

Mrs Allen's Chocolate Chip Cookies (another famous neighbourhood Granma)

Thank you everyone for attending and helping to add some wonderful memories to Rachel & Jay's Wedding Journey.  

The Wedding Journey Continues: Bridesmaid Dress Shopping

Little did we know that when we welcomed Rachel into our arms 26 years ago that it would open up the door to a group of giggly squealing little girls who have turned into the most amazing young ladies.  Beautiful, Charming, Funny, Sweet and oh so confident - what a generation of women this generation is.  

The day starts off bright and early.  I was expected to be there by 8:50, hello it's Saturday.  Mom wasn't involved in scheduling, My camera and I were just along for the ride.  And what a wonderful ride it was.  We started off at Rachel's with latte's and a light breakfast (berries, yogurt and muffins - yum).  My arrival time of 8:50 was with a strict admonition from my daughter of "DON'T BE LATE".  Seriously I never push the limit.  All I know is I had to beat Annie there :).  Which I successfully did.  

Rachel has known Annie since the Aurora United Church's nursery school program and then proceeded through kindergarten to Grade 12 together.  Annie went off to Michigan to school while luckily for me Rachel stayed in Ontario.  In 2012 we traveled down to Michigan to celebrate Annie's wedding to a lovely young man (Jordan) she met in school and today before we went off bridesmaid dress shopping the girls had a little baby shower for her.  So exciting for everyone and so enjoyable being a part of this little celebration.  

Our first stop is "Best for Bride" on Dundas St in Etobicoke.  Shoes off, slippers on and off we go downstairs where there are wall to wall dresses.  The young lady asks Rachel if she is looking for anything specific re designer, dress and colour.  (FYI - the dress and the colour are not in this blog you will have to wait for wedding day pictures for that.)  Rachel then picks through designer colours to find the exact shade she was looking for and off the girls go.  

Like seriously, how fun, pick a dress and put it on.  The girls were off and running.  

 The Top 3 dresses were picked and then each girl had a chance trying them on.  All the dresses were way to large so the clothes pins came in handy.  You also had to picture it in the colour you wanted as there were only certain colours in each style.

  Yes I had to try a MOB (mother of the bride) dress on and no this isn't THE ONE.  But it was fun, now if it was a spring wedding - maybe LOL.  

  

 LOL, do females ever get together without taking a foot picture.  

 Off to a quick lunch at Magic Oven. (best pizza everywhere thank goodness I wasn't trying any more dresses on :))  Everyone was a little hungry, it's hard work trying on dresses.  I should have known better too, here I am expecting them to order a light white pinot, but nope - pints of beer all around lol.

The next and last stop was "Jealous Bridesmaids" on Bloor Street.  Kathleen had to head off to work so we were down to 5 models.

Dress off, dresses passed around and dresses on.  Annie and Rachel were tough judges, with lots of laughs and critiquing.

The list was whittled down and off the girls went back to Rachel's.  I headed home for a nap, this is hard work.  I gave them my memory card and I am sure there was a fair bit of laughter as they went through all the dresses over a bottle or two of champagne.

Thank you ladies for letting me be a part of your day.  Thank you ladies (Annie, Amy, Bre, Claire, Elise, Kathleen and Stephanie) for being such good friends to Rachel.  Laughter, hugs and so much positive energy from 8 beautiful successful young ladies - it made my day.