Thank You, Brides!

A big thank you to all the fabulous brides who stopped by the Epiphany Designs booth at the Calgary Wedding Fair today. I enjoyed getting to speak with many of you personally, and only hope I was able to answer your questions as completely as possible.

I look forward to working with many of you in the near future! Now for some rest and relaxation ...

*image courtesy of Epiphany Designs*

Epiphany Designs Favorite Invitations of 2007

I rarely post pictures of my own work, but my invitation company, Epiphany Designs, will be one year old this Monday. One year!! Thats right, the Calgary Wedding Fair in 2007 was our big "coming out" party, and now its time to celebrate.

Seeing as this is such a momentous occasion, I've compiled a few pictures of some of my favorite invites Epiphany Designs created over the past year. These are all favs for various personal reasons, but they're all beautiful in their own way. Enjoy, and please let me know what you think.

*all images property and courtesy of Epiphany Designs. Copyright protected*

The How-To's of Bridal Fairs

Christine over at Think Like A Bride has recently posted some ridiculously helpful tips about navigating the ins-and-outs of bridal fairs which I, in an act of pure, unadulterated kindness, am passing along to you. I am also passing along the link to my blog post from last year titled "Are You Ready For Wedding Fair Season?", which has some of the same, and a little of the different (?).

Across North America, January is the big month for wedding shows. If you have never been to one before and are at all considering going, I beg of you PLEASE read at least one of the two posts listed above. It will save your sanity. Really. And perhaps arthritic-esq cramping of your writing hand. Don't know what that last reference was about? Then read the article, for the love of all thats holy!

As a side note to all my local readers, my invitation company, Epiphany Designs, will once again have a booth at the Calgary Wedding Fair next Sunday, January 20th. For show and ticket information please head to the wedding fair website, http://www.theweddingfair.ca/.

Please feel free to stop by booth #130 (across from Blue Sky Limos) and have a chat!

BIG Contest Announcement!!!

... and when I say big, I mean BIG. (*totally random thought* -- isn't "BIG" an odd-looking word? I mean, really weird looking. Big. BIG. Short and ugly to look at. Kinda reminds me of a few ex-boyfriends, HEYO!! Anyways ....)

I got an email a few (well, more then a few ... apologies, Karen) days ago from the fantabulous Karen Gordon over at Karenscape Photographers. Why do I say fantabulous? Because this lovely lady is offering up a FANTABULOUS opportunity for you to get your wedding photography done for free. Thats right, FREE. And you get not one, not two, but three chances to win! Sounds exciting? Read on ...

Karenscape Photographers is giving away a free complete wedding photography package every four months in 2008 (thats three different opportunities to win, ladies). The wedding will personally be shot by Karen, bringing the total value to $9700 per wedding.

"Well Andra," you say, "this truly does sound fantabulous. But whats the catch?"

No catch, oh readers of I Love Weddings. None. Anyone, located anywhere in the world (Canadian girls, can I get a whoop-whoop!) may enter this contest. If you are not in the New York City area you will have to pay for the (reasonable) travel expenses. Thats all. So start entering!!

"But Andra," you say, "you haven't yet told us how to enter! Is it a random draw? What do I have to do?Please, I'm begging of you, tell us!"

This is NOT a random draw. Karenscape is searching for the most romantic, serendipitous, poignant, funny, and inspiring stories of how you found the one (and lets hope you're talking about your dearly-betrothed). To enter, you must create a 3-minute-or-less video relaying your story; upload it to YouTube.com and send them an email. Be as creative as you'd like! For full contest entry details, please visit http://www.karenscape.com/ and click on the "Win a Free Wedding" link.

Have fun, ladies! And if any of you wind up entering this contest, I would love to see your You Tube uploads!

*image courtest of Karenscape Photographers*

Fab Resource List

How appropriate that my first post of 2008 should be a fantastic list of resources for your upcoming wedding?

I just received a note from Amy about this fabulous resource posted at the Bootstrapper blog: "The Bride-to-be's Toolbox: 100 Online Tools and Resources to Affordably Have the Wedding of Your Dream". Essentially, this is a huge, ginormous (is that a word?) list of cost-effective strategies for your wedding.

I am in awe. All I keep thinking is that gathering all this information must have taken forever! Absolutely any question you could think of will be answered by this list, as well as giving you tips and tricks to try for your own Big Day. Each link has a short writeup beside it so you know if its something you would be interested in reading or not. Just a sample of some of the clicks:

How to Trim your Guest List

Saving on Wedding Cakes Without Sacrificing Style

How to Buy Cheap Flowers for Wedding Centerpieces

Throwing an Engagement Party

Seriously, bookmark the page, sit back, and start absorbing the information.

BTW, happy New Year ladies! I hope its a good one for you.

Trash Your Dress?

By now most brides have heard of "Trash the Dress" photography shoots. If you hadn't, the concept is simple ... either at the wedding or (more commonly) a few days later, re-wear your precious wedding dress and "trash" the hell out of it in front of a photographer by any of the following methods:

(a) swimming in it

(b) rolling around wet sand/mud/grass

(c) doing anything else non-wedding-day-ish that dirties the dress (and get your mind out of the gutters, ladies!)

(d) all of the above

It seems like trashing the dress started back with beach weddings, and have since spread to all sorts of places. I briefly thought of doing it for my own desination wedding, but am such a sap for memorabilia that there is no way I could have gone through with it. My question is, would you?

I can appreciate the artistic quality of TTD shoots. They tend to be taking from either an ethereal perspective or a "to hell with this wedding crap, I'm a modern bride" perspective, and both show up nicely in print. While I couldn't personally live with myself for ruining my wedding dress, I give kudos to those brides who can -- it takes balls, ladies, and I don't got 'em!

There are two things (only two!) that I take issue with:

(1) Those people who post about their TTD shoot, and then its only a bride, like, walking through a meadow or something. I mean, come on! If you're going to trash it, TRASH it! Don't chicken out and then call it something its not! I guess some brides/photographers assume that if the train gets a smidgen dirty, then it automatically becomes a de rigeur TTD shoot. And its so not. Its SO not. I mean, crap ... I walked down a beach at my Mexican wedding, and wandered all over a soggy farmer's field at the at-home reception, but I don't call that "trashing the dress". Sure, I got a couple hundred gnats in the tulle, but whatever. It added a spash of green ....

(2) TTD shoots that seemingly portray violence against women. I've only ever seen this a few times, but am surprised to see it called "art". See pic, below as an example. I know these are supposed to be taken very tongue-in-cheek, but I don't know .... maybe the fact that I've worked with abused women & girls in the past has just made me sensitive to the issue.

Whether you decide to do a TTD shoot or not, a great website to check out is the aptly-named TrashTheDress (with European and Australian affiliates). Here's a few more images to tickle your fancy:

*images courtesy of the following websites, in order from the top: Sol Tomargo Photography; Chelsea Nicole Photography; AltF; Henry Aarvold Phorography; AltF; Olaf Siebert*

Tag, I'm It

I've been tagged by the lovely Jessica Lynn over at Tying the Knot, and (a) need to post 7 random or weird things about myself, (b) link to the person that tagged me and post the rules on my blog, (c) tag 7 random people at the end of my post and include links to their blogs, and (d) let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Wow. Lots of rules for an itty-bitty game! :) Seeing as I've already accomplished (b), here goes with (a), (c), and (d):

Seven Random or Weird Things About Myself

1. In the past 4 1/2 years, husband and I have built 3 houses. Its a sickness, really. But this last house (#3) that we move into in January is the LAST one. I swear. Well, maybe not LAST last, but close to the end ....

2. Though I would love to design invitations full-time, currently the big bill-payer is my position as a Special Education teacher. I love it as much as I love making invites. I work with Grade 1 & 2 severe behavioral and emotional children (all boys), and they are my heart.

3. Up 'til I was 5 years old I had a quasi-British/Australian acccent, even though I was born and raised in Canada. This was thanks to my various British/Australian nannies I had from ages 1 - 5. I had no idea I spoke differently then the other kids until a snotty little girl named Kristy made fun of poor little 5-year-old me for the way I said "Mirror". Bitch. I went home and vowed to learn to talk like a regular Canadian. Here I am, eh? :)

4. Husband and I have 3 foster children through various agencies (ie. World Vision) from Ethiopia, India, and Thailand respectively.

5. I am a reading freak. I have in excess of 400 books, and have read them all at least once.

6. I really, really, REALLY wanted to be a criminal profiler for the FBI growing up, so much so that I obtained a bachelors degree in psychology and went to numerous training courses regarding profiling violent crimes. I should have worked on my "investigative" skills a bit more though, because halfway through my 3rd year at university I discovered that you have to be an American citizen to work for the FBI. Crap. The Canadian equivalent, CSIS, is SO not as cool.

7. Husband and I actually won our destination wedding to Mexico through a month-long reality contest in our local paper. We beat out 300 couples AND weren't even "officially" engaged yet (I should give lessons on trapping a man). Due to time restrictions on the prize, we got engaged, planned our wedding and got married in the span of 3 months following winning. We had a huge at-home reception when we got back to accomodate all those people who weren't able to attend our wedding.

There! Thats it. I don't normally fill these things out (they're akin to a chain-letter in my mind), but what the hell. Might as well follow all the rules and pass it along to 7 of my "bloggie buddies". I choose .... Autumn Wedding, Bride of Rochester, A Dash of Diva, These Little Moments, Another Wedding Blog, Love Family Life, Smiles From Lloyd. Tag, you're all it.