Showing posts with label Wedding Ceremony. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wedding Ceremony. Show all posts
Friday, July 15, 2011
The feeeet...
After my post on the shooooes, I saw this post of a Filipino wedding on a beach, and the bride and brides maids are barefoot. Looks so nice!
Thursday, July 14, 2011
In honour of...
Part of the reason I've been so swamped and unable to really focus on the wedding is because my grandmother is very sick. In fact, since 2008, both of my grandmothers have suffered from strokes. My grandmother on my mother's side suffered a stroke in 2008. It was days before anyone realized it was something serious and took her to the hospital. At the time, she had lost some of her language ability (especially with her 3rd language, English, and includes reading) and she didn't recognize family members. Her physical ability was not that bad - she could still walk with assistance. Luckily, she spent a month in the rehabilitation hospital, recovered and returned home. She is very active, and all her regular functions have returned. She is 86 years old, but you would think she is only in her early 70s.
My other grandmother however, suffered her first stroke in the Philippines in January 2010. She immediately returned home to receive care. Since then, she has had 3 other strokes. This past April, she suffered a more massive stroke that left her completely paralyzed on her right side, and unable to speak and swallow. After months in the hospital, she did not improve and was returned home. It was crazy because she was paralyzed, it meant she needed assistance in everything : from changing her diapers, to administering medication, feeding through a tube in her stomach, and even changing positions. My grandfather, 84, was the primary caregiver, and after he collapsed with the sheer volume of responsibility, my grandmother was moved to a nursing home by the province. Here, she is rapidly deteriorating, and suffering from dementia.
It has been difficult to watch, and all of the family is constantly thinking about her. However, because of this, our family is closer. My dad side has always been close, and have all helped each other in any way they could. But our ability to communicate with each other has increased, and I was able to connect with my cousins in the Philippines for the first time. My eldest cousin especially, I haven't seen since I was 10 and at her mother's funeral, is so excited about coming to the wedding to be with family. It's a wonderful thing actually.
Anyways, I always knew my grandma would not be able to come to the wedding. Even when she first got sick, and my cousins would say to her, "grandma, get better, so we can all be back in the Philippines for Camille's wedding", I knew she would want it so bad, but wouldn't be able to. Same with my other grandmother. I always knew they wouldn't be able to make it.
An aunt I haven't seen on my mother's side for months, I saw last weekend at a party, and she plopped back down beside me and said, "so you don't want anyone to come to the wedding". I guess referring to the fact it was in the Philippines, and obviously, people like grandma, couldn't go even if they wanted to. But, it's not that we didn't want them there, or didn't care if they weren't. At the time, I honestly thought Rodney and I would be bordering eloping and just going to the Philippines to do it alone. So the thought of the Philippines, and all the magic, seeped in, even as the reality kicked it that we would have guests.
Anyways, the point is, I want my grandmother's there. If not physically, but spiritually, and most importantly in my heart. In honour of my grandmothers and of our wedding, Rodney and I recently gave some money to the Heart and Stroke Foundation. In addition, on my bouquet I hope to be carrying a picture of each of my grandmother's in a locket. If I could find it, I want to find a picture in black and white when they are young, when things like strokes were so far away from their minds.
So I've narrowed down to these ones on Etsy:
I'm so torn!!! These are all less than $25 a pop, and from the U.S., so I MAY even get two, one for each grandma, and then include an older and a more recent pic. Decisions, decisions!
My other grandmother however, suffered her first stroke in the Philippines in January 2010. She immediately returned home to receive care. Since then, she has had 3 other strokes. This past April, she suffered a more massive stroke that left her completely paralyzed on her right side, and unable to speak and swallow. After months in the hospital, she did not improve and was returned home. It was crazy because she was paralyzed, it meant she needed assistance in everything : from changing her diapers, to administering medication, feeding through a tube in her stomach, and even changing positions. My grandfather, 84, was the primary caregiver, and after he collapsed with the sheer volume of responsibility, my grandmother was moved to a nursing home by the province. Here, she is rapidly deteriorating, and suffering from dementia.
It has been difficult to watch, and all of the family is constantly thinking about her. However, because of this, our family is closer. My dad side has always been close, and have all helped each other in any way they could. But our ability to communicate with each other has increased, and I was able to connect with my cousins in the Philippines for the first time. My eldest cousin especially, I haven't seen since I was 10 and at her mother's funeral, is so excited about coming to the wedding to be with family. It's a wonderful thing actually.
Anyways, I always knew my grandma would not be able to come to the wedding. Even when she first got sick, and my cousins would say to her, "grandma, get better, so we can all be back in the Philippines for Camille's wedding", I knew she would want it so bad, but wouldn't be able to. Same with my other grandmother. I always knew they wouldn't be able to make it.
An aunt I haven't seen on my mother's side for months, I saw last weekend at a party, and she plopped back down beside me and said, "so you don't want anyone to come to the wedding". I guess referring to the fact it was in the Philippines, and obviously, people like grandma, couldn't go even if they wanted to. But, it's not that we didn't want them there, or didn't care if they weren't. At the time, I honestly thought Rodney and I would be bordering eloping and just going to the Philippines to do it alone. So the thought of the Philippines, and all the magic, seeped in, even as the reality kicked it that we would have guests.
Anyways, the point is, I want my grandmother's there. If not physically, but spiritually, and most importantly in my heart. In honour of my grandmothers and of our wedding, Rodney and I recently gave some money to the Heart and Stroke Foundation. In addition, on my bouquet I hope to be carrying a picture of each of my grandmother's in a locket. If I could find it, I want to find a picture in black and white when they are young, when things like strokes were so far away from their minds.
So I've narrowed down to these ones on Etsy:
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Attempting the Details
Sometimes I wonder if by posting things about the wedding, I'm diminishing the surprise element? What do you think?
I love discussing it, and don’t have someone with me all the time to hear me ramble about my wedding plans. If I did, gawd, poor them! I feel like only other brides can really deal with your wedding ramble, and its only out of respect because you'll listen to theirs. Also, maybe it will be a source of ideas for some bride bouncing around the internet and reading other bridal blogs.
On the one hand, I feel like I'm getting rid of the element of surprise. But then again, I have 20 people attending my ceremony, who most, don’t even read this blog. So they're still going to be somewhat surprised, and those who can't make, it can bask in my vision.
Ceremony spoiler alert, for those that want to be surprised!
The ceremony is really coming together. We've so far started to paint the picture of what we want the scene to look like by discussing the type of arch, chairs and bench we want. We've booked a violinist. We've discussed an officiant, who hasn't been booked, but we could probably do that soon enoough. I've started an outline of the actual ceremony (more on that later) and asked one of my good friends of mine to help put the ceremony together…since he's very progressive and very well connected with his progressive Church, he'll be able to contribute in a big way. Now for some smaller ceremony and décor details.
We don't have any cute little boys to play ring bearer, so likely someone else will be bringing the rings. We decided to add to our ceremony a Ring Warming Ceremony, where we will pass our rings around at the beginning of the ceremony so that our guests can say a little prayer or blessing for us. We're so lucky that a few people will be making the trip to our wedding, and we want to include them in the ceremony.
But rings are small, and we're going to be on sand, so we want it to be attached to something someone can keep an eye on, and can't be dropped very easily. So we thought of the Ring Book. Rather than having a little tacky pillow cushion, we are going to use a book with a secret compartment that will hold the rings.
Off weddingbee.com, I found this great tutorial on how to make one. Martha Stewart's got one too, but I'm going to support the non-corporate-brand of making a Ring Bearer Book. I really like the vintage feel of the ring book here.
R loves the idea, but we were also thinking of making the book significant too. We came up with Carlos Bulosan's America Is In The Heart. A well written, honest bibliographical account of struggle of migrants in agricultural work in the U.S. during the 1930s. He also talks about labor politics and the attacks on unionists. He describes horrific discrimination, starvation and ultimate struggle. Anyways, its our kinda story.
Unfortunately, we'll have to cut up the book to make the Ring Book. But we were hoping that we would stop and highlight a really deep thought provoking line, that people will see when they open it to see our rings. Even more unfortunate, is our inability to find a copy of this book in Hardcopy. Honestly, no one sells it or appears to have ever published it. I looked online at Amazon, and some other places, but also scowered Kijiji and Ebay to see if someone internationally wants to part with it…. For under $40.
So, our options is are (in order of easiest, to hardest, which also happens to be worst to best case scenario)
- find another generic book that has absolutely no significance but is pretty.
- look for a book binder who can magically make a paperback to a hardcover. (As I wrote, this I googled a bookbinder in Toronto, called them and found out that they can do it - after checking the book first - but it cost $60, and they cannot emboss images, just text. So in addition to actually buying the book $20, we're looking at almost $100 to destroy the book)
- look through my contacts to find that business card of Carlos Bulosan's editor who I met in 2007. Maybe he has an extra hard copy he can sell me?
The last option would be to figure out how to make this a paperback into a hardcopy. I'm sure someone crafty can help me with this…
Ugh. Gotta figure out our options with this one!
I love discussing it, and don’t have someone with me all the time to hear me ramble about my wedding plans. If I did, gawd, poor them! I feel like only other brides can really deal with your wedding ramble, and its only out of respect because you'll listen to theirs. Also, maybe it will be a source of ideas for some bride bouncing around the internet and reading other bridal blogs.
On the one hand, I feel like I'm getting rid of the element of surprise. But then again, I have 20 people attending my ceremony, who most, don’t even read this blog. So they're still going to be somewhat surprised, and those who can't make, it can bask in my vision.
Ceremony spoiler alert, for those that want to be surprised!
The ceremony is really coming together. We've so far started to paint the picture of what we want the scene to look like by discussing the type of arch, chairs and bench we want. We've booked a violinist. We've discussed an officiant, who hasn't been booked, but we could probably do that soon enoough. I've started an outline of the actual ceremony (more on that later) and asked one of my good friends of mine to help put the ceremony together…since he's very progressive and very well connected with his progressive Church, he'll be able to contribute in a big way. Now for some smaller ceremony and décor details.
We don't have any cute little boys to play ring bearer, so likely someone else will be bringing the rings. We decided to add to our ceremony a Ring Warming Ceremony, where we will pass our rings around at the beginning of the ceremony so that our guests can say a little prayer or blessing for us. We're so lucky that a few people will be making the trip to our wedding, and we want to include them in the ceremony.
But rings are small, and we're going to be on sand, so we want it to be attached to something someone can keep an eye on, and can't be dropped very easily. So we thought of the Ring Book. Rather than having a little tacky pillow cushion, we are going to use a book with a secret compartment that will hold the rings.
Off weddingbee.com, I found this great tutorial on how to make one. Martha Stewart's got one too, but I'm going to support the non-corporate-brand of making a Ring Bearer Book. I really like the vintage feel of the ring book here.
R loves the idea, but we were also thinking of making the book significant too. We came up with Carlos Bulosan's America Is In The Heart. A well written, honest bibliographical account of struggle of migrants in agricultural work in the U.S. during the 1930s. He also talks about labor politics and the attacks on unionists. He describes horrific discrimination, starvation and ultimate struggle. Anyways, its our kinda story.
Unfortunately, we'll have to cut up the book to make the Ring Book. But we were hoping that we would stop and highlight a really deep thought provoking line, that people will see when they open it to see our rings. Even more unfortunate, is our inability to find a copy of this book in Hardcopy. Honestly, no one sells it or appears to have ever published it. I looked online at Amazon, and some other places, but also scowered Kijiji and Ebay to see if someone internationally wants to part with it…. For under $40.
So, our options is are (in order of easiest, to hardest, which also happens to be worst to best case scenario)
- find another generic book that has absolutely no significance but is pretty.
- look for a book binder who can magically make a paperback to a hardcover. (As I wrote, this I googled a bookbinder in Toronto, called them and found out that they can do it - after checking the book first - but it cost $60, and they cannot emboss images, just text. So in addition to actually buying the book $20, we're looking at almost $100 to destroy the book)
- look through my contacts to find that business card of Carlos Bulosan's editor who I met in 2007. Maybe he has an extra hard copy he can sell me?
The last option would be to figure out how to make this a paperback into a hardcopy. I'm sure someone crafty can help me with this…
Ugh. Gotta figure out our options with this one!
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