Dress Shopping

Two posts in one? Well now aren't you a lucky reader!

Yesterday I visited Amanda Lina Sposa Boutique in Woodbridge ON. What an emotional experience it was for me. I was greeted by the owner of the boutique Sam, his wife Rachelle and an absolutely wonderful woman named Maria. Maria took one look at me and said "I'm going to pull some dresses for you to try on, that I think will look great on you." Maria has one keen eye because she knew my size and the exact style that I was going for.

If there ever was a time that I would feel like a celebrity it was certainly right then. The camera person from City TV had come along with me, Kelly and Laura to film some of the shopping so that they could show it on Breakfast Television. It didn't take long to find THE dress. I fell absolutely in love with it the moment that I put it on. It fit like a second skin on me and I swear I was absolutely on cloud nine!

Maria and Rachelle explained to me that it was Sam who had contacted Breakfast Television when he had heard our story. He sent an email to them stating that he would like to provide the dress for our big day. Sam is also a very kind and generous man. I wanted to make sure that they were more than welcome to come and celebrate the day with us.

I'm not going to show you, dear friend the actual dress. (that is just tempting fate!) But I will post here and now some pictures of the dresses that I did try on.

Papaya Breadcrumb

On Thursday May 15 I had a visit with a wonderful gentleman named Adam. Adam does custom made invitations with handmade papers. His work is absolutely beautiful.

Kelly, Laura and myself had an appointment with Adam of Papaya Bread Crumb Invites. He is a super amazing man who was extremely helpful and generous by donating his services to help Harry and I have our dream wedding.

After much deliberation over papers and colours and style, the decision was finally made and now we just have to wait for the invitations to be complete. With the wedding being June 20 2008, Adam has advised us that there will be no problems having them printed to be sent out within days!

From Camera to a Wedding?!

Hello there. I've decided to give this blog thing another try. There are so many available on the web and I think that blogger has thus far been the most user friendly site.

I want to give a little introduction of myself before I get into the title of this post. My name is Mandy. I'm currently 30 years old, SAHM of two very beautiful girls ages 10 & 6. I live a relatively simple life with all the normal drama that comes with raising children. My S.O is named Harry. We have been on a whirlwind ride for the past couple of weeks. We are getting married!

Now here is the story:

We live in Toronto Canada. A couple of weeks ago, after waking up by my computer consistently making a beeping sound, I struggled to remove a stubborn virus from it. Four very frustrating hours later I turned on the television to our local morning tv show Breakfast Television and heard an opportunity for a contest to win a SONY Cybershot digital camera. In order to qualify to play a game I had to send in an email describing my proposal story. Here is what I wrote:

"Hi there, My name is Mandy. I wanted to send you the email regarding the proposal.8 years ago I proposed to my significant other on Speaker's Corner at City TV. Unfortunately Harry has never seen the footage. Nor have I. Every month somebody recognizes me from the footage that they have seen on City TV."

I received a call back from the show and they quickly put me on hold in order to participate in the contest. Kevin Frankish (the host) asked me to explain the story and then because Harry was home, he had me propose once and for all to Harry. This is where the whirlwind begins. Kevin had asked what had been the holdup and I explained that my father had passed away last year and I didn't have him there to give me away. He then said that when we choose to get married, he would be honoured to play that role for me.

I'm not certain if it was Kevin or his lovely co-host who first indicated that they would host the wedding for us! We were invited down to the show the next morning (view the footage here) Harry and I were told that there was such an outpouring of offers to help us with the wedding by donating their services. It was absolutely overwhelming.

As I didn't want Harry to have to remember another date (he, like many men, has a hard time remembering the days that women never forget!) I stated that we had thought that June 21 was perfect because that was the day that he had asked me to be his girlfriend so many years ago. Because the show would want to feature the wedding, the day was moved up to June 20 2008. This day is coming up very quickly and now we are in full wedding planning mode.

One of the companies that offered to help us create a perfect day is our wedding planners. Laura and Kelly of Laura Kelly Wedding Design have been amazing with us! These two wonderful women are helping every step of the way!

I can't wait to share more with you on this whole process!

Mandy