Amberism

The New Mrs. Steve'o

We did it! After two years of living in sin we finally tied the knot! It was a wonderful day and the party was a lot of fun. When the last song was annouced the room actually said "awwww" so I took that to be a good sign that it was a good party. I love me a good party.

The day started with a trip to the salon where we had our hair and make-up done, then we quickly drove back to Mom's, an hour late, to madly get ready and have some shots done at the house. Some pizza and the next thing I knew we were pulling into the ceremony/reception location and seeing Steve for the first time. That man looks FINE in a tuxedo, let me tell you.

Outside for pictures in the cold and before I knew it, we were nervously waiting for the ceremony to begin.

The ceremony was awesome. Perfect. I couldn't have asked for a better ceremony. My readers were fabulous, Sabby sang Blue Rodeo and just incredible! It was truly exactly what I had hoped for.

Some family pictures and a few cocktails, then we had dinner. My MC (my best friend's husband) was superb. He was funny and charming and the star of the show. EVERYONE is still talking about him. The speeches were heartwarming and absolutely fabulous. Truly fabulous. Re-reading them still brings a tear to my eye!

My one and only complaint was that my supper truly sucked. I didn't enjoy it one bit, but everyone else said their suppers were fantastic. Maybe nerves mess with your tastebuds?

Fearthainn sang our first dance and it was simply magically. She was amazing.

After speeches I danced my ass off. A really, really good time was had by me. Steve worked the room and talked to everyone there. Me? I danced. And danced and danced. Hell, it was my party!

I had oh-so-much fun, and let me tell you, being a bride ROCKS. Everyone says all these wonderful things to you and treats you like a princess. It's awesome.

I ain't ever doing it again, but it was awesome!

Pictures to come! hee!

I haven't gone crazy yet

I'm considering that a pretty good sign. I'll let you know if I go bridezilla on someone's ass though.

Currently my biggest concern is that the hotel I booked for our wedding night hasn't confirmed the booking and I've emailed twice and called twice. I think we're just going to have to "stop by" because showing up at 3:00 am on my wedding night and finding out I don't have a room would make me a very bitter bride indeed.

I wish I had more to tell you, but unless I bore with the minor details of wedding planning, there really isn't much to say. Things are chugging along. I'm tired, my family rocks with socks, and tonight I'm going to go and see a movie, probably the newest Bridgette Jones. heh.

oh, and I just spent a good 15 minutes deleting a shitload of spam that accumulated in the last few days. Good times, these.

Update: oh yeah, I found a tiara. I was considering wearing it and then returning it, but we've concluded that is bad karma. If you ever need a tiara in the future, though, hey, I could just be your girl! :)

A Wedding Update

The search for a tiara continues! Well, if you can call sitting on my ass in front of my computer thinking about it occassionally really a continuing search, then yes! The search continues!

I was thinking, I could just wear jewels in my hair and skip the tiara couldn't I?

Plus there is the issue of no wedding cake, but I've ignored the cake this long, I think I'll just keep ignoring it. Who knows, maybe one will just appear! Magic cake! Why do we need a cake anyway? We get dessert. How much sugar do people need in one evening?

I threatened no food for those who have yet to RSVP. That worked rather well, I have all my RSVPs in for just about everyone. Just a few people who I'll catch up with at the end of the week because the situation sort of depends on things like sick little boys and weather.

I'm just about done all of the "home tasks" I needed to complete with the exception of the bouquets for the girls and myself which I can't do until the last possible second anyway to perserve the greenery as long as possible. The girls are carrying evergreen boughs and I'm carrying a wreath. Since I have a forest in my backyard I couldn't bring myself to pay good hard money that needs to be thrown at my car every other day for evergreens so I'm making my own. Hopefully it works out (to be honest, if it doesn't I truly don't give a rat's ass but I'm pretending to care).

My worker bees are busily working away on my behalf as well. My Grandma has finished the little cloak for my flower girl and the cloaks for the bridesmaids. Last I saw of them, they looked fabulous. My family just oozes talent, not entirely sure what the hell went wrong with me! Mom made me the most beautiful cloak you ever did see, when I get home I'll post a picture - it's GORGEOUS. I love it. Mom has been doing so much sewing for me, my neices and nephews and Fearthainn that when it came to making her own outfit she was so sick of sewing that she kept making mistakes. I feel so bad for her, I wish I could sew myself to help out, but I think that would just be bad news. I don't sew. And then I have various friends doing various tasks for me, like picking up a few gifts I've yet to grab and the like. I must say, my friends are very efficient little workers.

If nothing else, this wedding has made me realize how truly blessed I am. You hear these horror stories of people ruining friendships or family ties over a wedding and in my case, everyone has gone above and beyond what I would ever expect anyone to do for me. It's just all about the warm fuzzies over here folks.

Everything is booked, we just have to do some follow-up interviews next week with the photograpther, attend the shower and the rehearsal dinner and then the last-minute tasks like table seating and filling in these tri-fold frames I have for picture displays (I'm a HUGE picture girl so there's a lot of pictures going on). All the little tasks will go by quickly, I figure, since I'll have A LOT of help next week.

The only thing I'm truly nervous about is saying my vows. I'm not an emotional person, one of Steve's nicknames for me is "cold fish", I shed a tear maybe twice a year but I think I'm going to be a real wreck when I'm saying my vows. I'm terrified to have to proclaim something that deep in front of everyone I know. The whole ceremony thing gives me butterflies, I wish I could have had a private ceremony and then the reception!

I fly out on Friday morning to spend the week before the wedding in Calgary so it's a hard call as to whether I'll be posting or not. Think of me on November 27th!

So, that's the wedding planning in a nutshell. There are a lot of little details still to happen but basically things are pulling together.

If you are interested in seeing my wedding site, email me. If I know who you are :), I'll send you the link. I don't want the two sites linked in anyway though because my last name(s) are in the wedding site.

I have one of THOSE floors

I have one of those kitchen floors that you can get down on your hands and knees and scrub it so clean you could eat off of it and two seconds later - it's dirty again.

I think I'm going to give myself a bloody ulcer every time I walk into the kitchen. I can't stand it. I sweep it, and within moments it looks like I haven't run a broom over the floor in weeks. Literally every day I sweep it, and then I swiffer it (because the dog hair seems to reappear within seconds after sweeping) and then it's dirty again. Moments later.

I think the floor will be ripped up in this house sooner than later. Even if it is virtually new and there's absolutely nothing wrong with it apart from the fact that it refuses to stay clean like a good little floor. We're not people who can live with carpet and lino, we need tile and hardwood or laminate. Floors we can abuse and our animals can't destroy.

(you know it's a slow morning when you're talking about floors...).

Princess Amber

Does anyone have a spare tiara lying around? Keeping any extra tiaras in your jewellery boxes?

Hey, it could happen.

I need something to wear in my hair the day of the wedding and I'm far too lazy to go out and shop for one and I don't have enough time to do any on-line ordering. It would be preferred if this just fell in my lap like so many other things related to the wedding have fallen in my lap. Take, for example, my Mom making me a beautiful cloak when I thought I'd have to find one to rent and surprising me with it last weekend (and it's BEAUTIFUL, I think she could rent it out to other brides after the wedding) or my friends doing all the leg work in researching Steve's wedding present. I like it when these things take care of themselves. It makes me all warm and fuzzy.

So go! Search those jewellery drawers! You just never know if you might have forgotten about that long, lost tiara from days of old. Lazy Amber thanks you.

Married Life Send-Off

I was sent off to be wed in style this weekend. The girls threw me a fabulous party with a Vegas-theme. It was so much fun. It was in the basement of Michelle's house and there were drinks named in my honour (ie: The Amberism, The World Traveller), a blackjack table with funny money made especially for me (Bamber Bucks with a picture of Steve and I, and underneath that is said "In Steve We Trust, All Others Pay Cash"). So many little details that were just so clever and so much fun!

And the piece de resistance - Elvis himself came and put on a show. It ROCKED. He was amazing and it was so much fun! Do you have a list of 100 things to do before you die? I do, and on that list is have someone sing for just me at a party. I can't believe the girls managed to make a wish on that list come true and they've never seen the list!

They also hired a dude to come in and deal blackjack. He wasn't suppose to strip, just come in and take his shirt off and deal cards for the girls and flirt with them. That sort of thing. The guy was a complete moron. He couldn't deal cards, he didn't know how to play blackjack, he couldn't even shuffle. So we said, fine, mix drinks and Michelle's Mom and my Mom would deal. Nope, he didn't know how to mix drinks. Wtf? Then he just takes off his clothes (basically) and wanders around aimlessly. And dances like a slut every so often. He actually looked more comfortable with no clothes on. He was annoying. And dumb as a fucking post. Michelle is trying to get her money back from the company that sent him out since they promised one thing and we got something we didn't want (they didn't want a stripper - not really my thing and a lot of the girls aren't comfortable with that anyway).

Still, we danced, we mingled, we had fancy drinks and played blackjack. Everytime someone got a blackjack, they'd asked me a really racey question. The lot of them now know WAY too much about me. At the end of the night there was an auction and they auctioned off a bunch of fabulous prizes. Everyone left with a prize!

It was really a fantastic party. Michelle and Fearthainn truly outdid themselves! I couldn't have asked for a better night!

The girls made me a sparkly maternity bra to wear - so if I look a little, uh, bigger than you remember. yeah. It's stuffed with shoulder pads. That was embarassing to wear. Thankfully one of the girls brought a sparkly scarf that I could cover up with and I didn't go out in public!

This Makes Me Proud to be Canadian

Saskatchewan legalizes same-sex marriage, and now gay couples can get married in more than half of the provinces and terroritories in this great land of mine. My heart literally swelled. I truly couldn't be prouder.

We joke about liberal Americans making the move north, we wonder if they truly understand how cold it is, how we don't have all the goodies they have down there, that we live without Krispy Kreme and a lot of the stores they're used to. Target? Yeah, I've never set foot in a Target. I have no idea if there is even a Target in Canada. Wal-Mart is here, sure, but it closes at 10:00, none of this 24-hour business.

We joke, but maybe it's more reality than talk. Our immigration website has been flooded with queries from the US. Liberal, middle class America might just be serious. This has been featured on our evening news every night since the election.

I'm cool with my US friends moving up here, as long as they understand what they're getting themselves into ;), and don't apply for any jobs I want. Because, you know, I was here first and all.

Also, I feel that they have to learn the Canadian National Anthem in English and French. Hey. I had to. Couldn't sing it in French now to save my life, but that's not the point, the point is I had to suffer and so should anyone else who lives here.

And you must love Tim Horton's, claim that it is FAR superiour to Krispy Kreme, and pretend it's Canadian even though you know it's American owned now*. We still like to pretend it isn't. You'll also have to learn to tolerate real beer. The stuff you drink hardly qualifies :)

There, I think I stole all that from a million other people on the web. Nothing like pretending someone else's words are your own. heh.

*eh, I think. I could confirm, but I'm leaving to catch a plane home in 5 minutes and truly can't be bothered.

The Press

He's alive, he's dead. I don't think the status of Yasser Arafat's condition should really be "guessed" upon by the media. Color me crazy.

Last heard: he isn't dead, but he is in a coma.

Wedding-Schmedding

I'm getting to the point where the wedding is getting on my nerves and I just don't care anymore.

Last night I printed up 80 programs, emobossed the top of each program with my embosser, and cut an antique edge on about 20 of them and then I noticed a SPELLING MISTAKE. I just about threw the works of them out the window. At this point, the god-damn spelling mistake stays. It's pretty obvious too (fore instead of for). Fucking wedding. And I just know a bunch of jackasses are going to come up to me the day of the wedding and say "did you know there was a spelling mistake in the program" because these are my friends and family afterall. There is probably going to be a mistake in the program layout too, BUT I DON'T CARE ANYMORE. People will figure it out, I'm sure. Honestly, it's a piece of paper. I'm throwing in a little candy cane so hopefully sugar will keep people from whining.

It's been all wedding all the time the last few days as I try to get everything done in the next week or so because I anticipate a bunch of stuff will rear its ugly head in the last week and I don't want to be scrambling to get everything done on time. I have this illusion that I'm going to get a lot of sleep the week before the wedding and just sit my ass on my Mom's couch and drink tea with my Mom, Fearthainn and Grandma. I'm not ready to shatter this illusion just yet.

Tomorrow night we fly out to Calgary for our stag and stagette. I'm really looking forward to it, it seems like there is going to be a few girls coming out to help me ease the pain of marriage (not that I'm pained, I'm rather excited about the marriage part, but who is going to say no to a party in their honour? Certainly not me!). It doesn't appear to be anything scandelous, just a gathering at my best friend's house with some fun and games. All those invited are very excited about it, so I'm also very excited! I think it'll be fun!

In three weeks, I can talk about my honeymoon. I can't wait!

I also think I'm going to change my name. Well, not change it exactly, I was thinking I'll add Steve's last name to the end of mine and I'll have four names. So I'll be Amber Dawn MyLastName SteveLastName. So I'll be referred to as Amber SteveLastName, for the most part, but I'll still have my own name in there too. Professionally I don't intend to change my name at all at this point. I wasn't going to change my name at all but I've changed my mind. It's my perogative as a female I think. I might change my mind again in the next three weeks so don't hold me to this! ;)

Uncle Ricky is Happy

Everyone else I know is not. I simply have nothing else to say about it.

On a more positive note, I will say that having 120 million turn out to vote is a good thing. It's only 60% of the voting population which clearly says to me that we're still at a state where most people are taking their freedom for granted. Spend some time in a country that remembers what it is like to not have the freedom to vote and the voter turn out is 90+% (ie: Belize). Still, that was the best turnout since 1968 for the US.

Originally I said that I didn't think 60% of Canadians turn out to vote, but I have to eat my words. Apparently 60.5% turned out for the last election, and that was the worse turn out EVER. (if you don't want to register to see the url, it's the Toronto Star - is it credible? I have NO clue).

Today We Learn Who The New Leader of the Free World Is!

Or whatever the tag name for the President of the United States is these days (I still debate the "President of the World" bit, but I don't make up these taglines). Hopefully the election isn't a huge fiasco. Canada wants you to vote for Kerry (ok, I want you to vote for Kerry, but I can pretend to represent the entire country of Canada).

In other news, Picture Peek #2 for Christine (who is very impatient ~grin~ - just teasing sweetie!)

1. My Favorite Pair of Socks

Hee! I love these socks! They're knee-highs and keep my toes toasty warm! The background is the trees of the new neighbourhood I live in, I took this picture on my drive to work (obviously, I wasn't doing the driving!). I multi-task!

2. My Office Coffee Mug

Very dull, isn't it? This isn't my favorite coffee mug, but coffee mugs seem to disappear in this office so I haven't brought mine in. I favour this particular blue mug instead.

3. The CD in the CD Player.

Michael Buble's self-titled cd. There should be an accent over the "e" but I don't know how to do that! I love this cd at the moment and could listen to it all day long.

And lastly, for good measure and to give you an idea how big my dog is, another picture of the pooch! I still can't believe something so ginormous can be so puppy-like. Can you imagine if I ever have children? I would be one of those annoying mothers, I swear.