A [watermarked] sneak peek

Blu Studio Photography

While waiting to get our wedding photos back from Blu Studio, I repeatedly asked myself, How long is too long? Part of the excitement in seeing your wedding photos for the first time is the anticipation, but there comes a point when anticipation diminishes into frustration and eventually disappointment. Our friends and family stopped asking us if we had them yet, our work colleagues gave up on their inquiries after two months, and I quit checking my email after nine weeks. We didn't get so much as a one-photo preview. The email that promised the photos in six weeks certainly proved anticlimactic. All of the guests' thank-you cards have sat on my desk collecting dust, waiting for their 4x6 photo inserts. (And who knows how much longer it will take to get those prints for the thank-you cards?)

After ten weeks and one day, our photos finally arrived to sighs of relief.

My advice to wedding photographers: if you're running behind, at least give your clients a taste of what's to come. When the promise of wedding photos becomes so stale that their arrival begets only relief rather than excitement, the magic has been sucked out of the experience.

This is a Post-Wedding Chop

Long hair before the wedding

Visit your friendly neighbourhood salon for a good old post-wedding chop and....

Short hair after the wedding

The name is Kage, and I'm sticking with it!

Of all the recently wed ladies I know, I would say half have changed their last names and the other half have not. As you can see, I changed mine. I like the idea of our family going by a singular name. I'm looking forward to sharing the same last name as my husband and my children. And a good thing about marrying at a younger age (I'm a just-turned 26...that's still young, right?), is that it doesn't really matter yet professionally. I have some published work, but not enough to warrant holding on to my original last name. And I'm only entering the publishing industry as a full-time employee next week, so I haven't been networking under "Gladiuk" for an overly long period of time. As for those women who keep their last names, that's their prerogative, and I don't really wish to discuss the virtues of name changing/keeping on my blog, not in a serious way, at least. Everyone does what's right for themselves.

But then there comes the issue of my blog name and the nickname that most people call me by: KG. And also, Kage. I can't say I won't miss that dearly. I secretly hope (take note, friends....) that people continue to call me KG, it has a nice ring to it! And as for "Kage"....sit back as I rationalize that one for you:
My friends began calling me Kage as a shorter form of "KG"....say KG a few times really fast and you've got Kage. Kay-Aich (KH) sounds understandably silly, but hear me out....say K-H a few times fast....kinda sounds like...Kage! And there you have it, I'm changing my last name but retaining my nickname. Viva le blog!

On some recent accomplishments

It's been a while, yes, but I'm back from wedding mania and home from the honeymoon and I have lots to report. I'm just going to start with some things that I recently knocked off my 101 Things To Do in 1001 Days list.

Let's start from the top...

#13 - Get a job in publishing
Check! I was fortunate enough to be offered a full-time position by the company I did my internship with. I start in a week and I couldn't be more excited. Although working full time means writing my thesis will take a bit longer (pushing graduating to a later date), this is the kind of opportunity I've been hoping for since I went back to school. And bonus, we can finally start looking for our own condo! So maybe that "buy a home" item on the list will be the next thing to be checked off?

#26 - Order room service
A honeymoon is the perfect time to indulge, so I'm happy to say that this item can be checked off several times! Pictured below is a champagne breakfast on our balcony. This is moments before I shot the cork off the champagne bottle into the pool area below. Whoops!

#47 - Read 100 books
I'm getting ever closer to my 100 books. My most recent conquest was "Committed" by Elizabeth Gilbert, the infamous "Eat Pray Love" author. I received it as a birthday gift and thought it would be an appropriate post-wedding read. Maybe not, though. Although Gilbert eventually comes to peace with her second marriage and finds her own nesting spot in legal matrimony, the entire book is basically her squinting skeptically at the strength and longevity of modern marriage. There was a bevy of fascinating historical information on marriage, but it was a little bleak for a beach read.

#54 - Swim at the bottom of a waterfall
We left our resort for one full day, and on our agenda was climbing a waterfall. We took a tour bus down the North coast to Ocho Rios, where we climbed Dunn's River Falls. It's a 700 foot high, unique waterfall that is broken into several shelves. Many spots involve linking hands in a human chain to increase stability when scaling the rocks. The most fun was swimming around at the bottom of the falls and the spot where the rocks had formed a waterslide.

#73 - Watch a sunrise
It's pretty much against the rules of vacationing (let alone, honeymooning) to get up at 5:00am, but after watching several amazing sunsets, we really wanted to take in the sunrise as well. We actually snuck onto the roof of the hotel...and it was worth it.

#80 - Take Luc to the spa for a massage
Not only did Luc get a massage, but we also did the sauna, steamroom, hot tub, water therapy, freezing cold plunging pool, and couples facials. He probably doesn't approve of me telling my blog readers that...but after my lengthy absence, I'm not even sure how many of you there are left!

#98 - Go an entire week without checking the stat counter on my blog
Needless to say, with the wedding and the honeymoon I've been pretty disconnected from everything digital. And it's been a nice break. But make no mistake...it's nice to be back!

First post as a married woman

I don't have the energy just yet to describe how wonderfully amazing and fun our entire wedding day was, but I do have a few photos. We managed to snap a few pics on our own camera. Just post-reception pics, but there will be more to come when we get back from our honeymoon. 

Our wedding video

Bride-to-be Banner

My September banner is a tribute to my upcoming wedding. I designed it after our wedding invitations and even scanned part of an invite and pieced things together in Photoshop. The rest was done in InDesign. The first of the month marks 4 days until I say my vows. And I'm pretty excited.

Eyebrow threading

I have only one thing to say: do it, do it now! And obviously I'm going to say more than just that. I went to She to Shic Beauty Lounge for my first eyebrow threading this afternoon and I left a changed woman. Not only do I have a finely manicured brow for the first time in my life (for the incredibly reasonable price of $8) but I have a new monthly routine. I mean, she told me to come back every 2 weeks....but that seems like overkill. If I had a regular beauty regimen, this would definitely be number one on the list.

The eyebrow threading experience

When I arrived and laid back in the chair, I started to say that I didn't want them thin and I got as far as, "I..." before the woman cut me off saying, "NO! No, don't say anything...NO...." even as I tried to get a word in edgewise, she kept cutting me right off. Then she told me how messy my eyebrows were, how bad I was at plucking them, how they were two different shapes and then told me not to say anything...again.

My palms started to sweat and I was getting really nervous...letting her go wild on a facial feature—with no direction or indication of how I wanted them done—two weeks before I'm getting married. Not smart. But maybe I just have trust issues, because she did a fantastic job. I like it when someone tells you how it's going to be and they don't let you down. This woman just found herself a loyal customer!

Eyebrows are one of those things that you don't notice how bad they are until you see them looking good. So if you haven't tried eyebrow threading, here's all you need to know...

Eyebrow threading 101

-Cheap (mine was $8 at She to Shic in Kerrisdale)
-Takes about 5 minutes
-Yields unbelievable results
-Less painful than waxing
-Your eyes will water a lot

DIY Wedding Update

Things have been crazy busy around here with wedding planning fever. We've got 15 days until we say I do. I just wanted to share a couple of projects that we finished today.

Colouring books for the kids

I blogged about the colouring books a while back, and for a few good months progress stalled. They're pretty labour intensive, but after seeing the finished product, I know for sure that they were more than worth it. We also have princess crayons for the girls and jumbo crayons for the boys.

I used a long-arm stapler to bind the books and 3 layers of patterned japanese masking tape—polka dots for the girls, stripes for the boys—to line the spines. Our main wedding colour is eggplant, so I put a strip of solid colour over the patterned tape. If you want read more about how I made the books, check out my colouring book blog post.

Welcome bags for out of town guests

Since a lot of our guests are making the trek from Saskatchewan, we wanted to have something special waiting for them in their hotel room. We threw together a few food and drink items, a "Kristen and Luc" notepad, city activity info, map to the ceremony and reception, and a little note from Luc and me.

And as you can see, everything we do has the purple theme!

Oh the things you'll hear

There's nothing like the sweet giggles of a baby to warm the cockles of your heart. It's been sweltering in our apartment for the last couple of weeks, so each window is open to max capacity all day and all night. We hear a lot of interesting things—crows that sound like they're strangling cats, car alarms, lovers quarrels, people belching, cats meowing, our neighbour piping away ever so irritatingly on her recorder—so it's always nice when the sound floating through the window is a pleasant one.

Yes, there's nothing quite like the laughter of a small child to make me smile and calm my nerves, which have been frayed by the final days of wedding planning. Seventeen days, to be exact. Seventeen days of ribbon tying, cardstock cutting, decision making, organizing, and the never-ending emails that haunt me in my sleep. I finally understand why everyone says planning a wedding is so stressful. But take my word for it, it's only as stressful as you make it. I keep working away on these projects, thinking DI-Y the hell am I doing this? Why? Because deep down I love the frenetic pace of wedding planning and minutia that make the wedding day distinctly your own. And I don't think I've ever been so excited for anything in my life.

My Bridezilla Confession

By telling you this story I'm hoping to relieve myself from the residual guilt of acting like a total psycho. Luc and I agreed to forget it ever happened, but for me, writing about it is cathartic, and entirely necessary.

The bridezilla story

As many of you may know, Luc and I went to visit his family in Saskatchewan for a week. Our flight was on a Friday night, and since Luc works until 6 pm, he was taking the skytrain straight to the airport. I, however, was racing home first to check the mail (for the many wedding RSVPs I have been anxiously awaiting). Upon arriving home I realized that Luc had the mail key....at work....downtown....which meant the locked mailbox stuffed full of RSVPS (I could peer at them through the slits in the metal) would remain there for the week that we were away. The week that I planned to call the non-responders, start sorting out table arrangements, and generally get a hand on things that were guest-count dependent. 

I'm not proud, but when I realized that I couldn't get at the reply cards for another week, I kinda went crazy. First I called our landlord and asked if he could come to the building and open our mailbox. Not happening. Then I called Luc and strongly suggested that he leave work early to bring me the mail key. He thought that was a bad idea. So I called him again. And maybe a few more times after that. Finally realizing that he wasn't coming home, I grabbed the first few things I saw: a paring knife, a fondue fork, a bobby pin and tweezers, and walked as calmly as I could down the stairs to the lobby of our apartment building. And by calmly, I mean that I burst into the hallway brandishing my McGyver-esque weapons, eyes wide with delirium, palms sweaty with anticipation of busting up that stupid mailbox. Thank the lord none of the neighbours were around. Actually, they may have been, but I was too focused on the task at  hand to notice.

I proceeded to hack and pry into the mailbox, tearing up the contents with the surprisingly sharp prongs of my fondue fork. Using my mixed arsenal of kitchen wares and grooming products, I managed to partially wedge open the mailbox and pluck out all of the RSVPs. Granted, most of them were pretty messed up when they were finally released from the maniacal grip of my tweezers.

Standing in the lobby, surrounded by shreds of envelopes, I had an overwhelming sense of satisfaction. But after taking a moment to assess the situation and my bizarre behaviour, I felt like a total Bridezilla. By sharing this story, I'm hoping to wash my hands of this incident and move on. But after all, isn't there a little bit of Bridezilla hiding somewhere in all of us?

A few engagement photos

Engagement Photo Fun

This evening we did our engagement photoshoot with lovely husband-wife team at Blu Studio Photography. And despite the first 15 minutes of gut-wrenching awkwardness, the rest was a blast. It turns out looking cute on camera isn't as easy as it seems. There was a lot of "uhhh...should I look at the camera? Look away? At the camera? Away?" And plenty of "smile? Should we smile? Serious? Too serious? Smile again?" And then the inevitable bouts of uncontrollable laughter from both Luc and me.

I'm glad that we did the engagement photos, it's definitely going on my list of advice for brides-to-be. Lots of friends will surely be getting engaged in the next few years and I'm slowly compiling tidbits of advice based on our own wedding-planning follies. Here are a few pieces of annotated advice from the journey thus far.

Test out DIY wedding invitation designs

When we did our DIY wedding invitations, I knew it would be a lot of work, but we faced problems I definitely hadn't anticipated. Did you know that printers won't print a full bleed if you have custom-sized paper? Neither did we. In the end, we worked it out, but there was probably a better way of doing things than buying and returning 4 printers just to make the design work.

Do engagement photos with your photographer

Posing for "candid" photos—an oxymoron, I know—is awkward enough. But pile on a couple of strangers and wedding day nerves, and it's probably going to be a lot more uncomfortable. So if you have the chance to do a photoshoot and get to know your photographer pre-wedding day, do it! It's actually pretty fun!

Plan ahead for your engagement photo shoot

We played it pretty casual when choosing the location: the train tracks by our house, which didn't turn out terrible, but probably wasn't an ideal location in the photographer's eyes. We also picked our outfits the night before. And as it so happened, the dress I was supposed to wear was very wrinkly from a trip to Saskatchewan in April, and our steamer...broken. I took the dress to the dry cleaners this morning at 7am, went to pick it up after work and they were already closed. Luc pulled off a total knight in shining armour move when I showed up at home in tears, 45 mins before the photoshoot. He wandered over to the dry cleaners, worked some magic, and voila, arrived home 5 mins later, dress in hand. Moral of the story: get organized more than 24 hours in advance.

Don't pay for wedding hair prices

This nugget of wisdom hasn't been fully tested yet, but you'll know where I'm going with this when you see how much salons charge for a "bridal updo." My friend Liz is doing my wedding hair, so all that will cost me is a nice bottle of wine. And when my friend Kate gets married, she's telling the salon she's a bridesmaid, not a bride. Not a bad way to avoid the inevitable "because you're a bride" markup.

And unfortunately there's nothing you can do from preventing your reception location from burning down.

It's not all about me, I swear

It's been a hectic week here in the city, so Luc and I have planned another weekend escape to the mountains. These mountains, however, are significantly more populated than the ones we trekked into last weekend. Not so much mountains, per se, as an overly developed town.

We're going to relax and read and pretty much just hang around. After all, I need my beauty rest, we have our engagement photos next week. In preparation I got my hair dyed, just a touch-up to add a little excitement to my otherwise mousy look. According to people at work though, my darker hair makes me look like an evil-twin version of myself.

After all of that self-indulgent "me" talk, I feel I owe you, my lovely readers, a story:
Last week a woman on the bus had her cat with her in a carrier. When she noticed me staring at her kitty she began talking to me, telling me how much the cat loved buses. I asked if she was just taking the cat for a ride, she replied that the cat was sick and she was taking her to get help. Then she got off. At the hospital. The human hospital. I wonder how that went?

Success!

After months of endless searching, trying on way-too-sky-high heels that make me a giant, lamenting over the hideously trampy shoes some designers try to pass off as "bridal"...I finally found white wedding shoes with a low heel. Halle-freakin-lujah!

Wedding photos in the wild

Luc and I managed to get out of the house on this particularly lazy Sunday and find the good weather that was hiding in the city next door. We drove to Steveston for frozen yogurt and to scout out our location for the post-ceremony photo shoot. We chose the Britannia Shipyard in Steveston because of the beautiful, natural surroundings and the great, beat-up old buildings. The way I described it to Luc was, "you know, the contrast of our fancy clothes and the shitty old buildings. It'll look kinda cool and vintagey and all that crap." Luc said that was "very elegantly put." I agreed. And if we have time after photos here, we're planning on heading down the boardwalk for ice cream before we arrive at the ceremony. Here's hoping that I don't get chocolate hedgehog on my white satin.

I want my baby back

It's been nearly a year now since I blogged about getting my engagement ring resized, and I finally got around to doing it this week. It's a good thing the rest of our wedding plans haven't been moving forth at such a glacial pace. It feels weird though, my finger feels light in a sad way. The ring was cozy and I miss it. It's made me realize how often I stare at it and replay in my head the moment when Luc asked me to marry him. I like that story.

The Intern, the Bride and the Blogger

Lately my brain has been so occupied with work and wedding that I've barely had a chance to think like a blogger. Usually I'm grasping at paper and pencils every 5 minutes because I can't keep up with my internal dialogue of blog writing, but lately it's been nothing but crickets up there. However, that's because my everyday life dynamic has changed in the past month. The blog writer is sitting there scratching her head and picking knits from her hair, but the intern and the bride are running around, arms flailing like a mom on the dance floor. And the grad student is studiously working on her thesis in the backdrop, trying to keep to herself.

I'm knee-deep in the second month of my internship and 11 weeks out from the biggest day of my life (until, that is, we start with the baby making). My 9-5 is filled with writing, reading, editing, html and other fun webby magazine things that require enough brain power that I can't be simultaneously writing blog posts. My evenings are consumed with little wedding details that I churn out until they defeat me and I collapse with exhaustion in my bed that is never quite soft enough to catch my tired, heavy limbs.

It's been busy, but it's been good. And the strange little things that always seem to happen to me still happen, I just haven't had the will and the wit to jot them down. Like when one of our neighbours stole the quarter out of my laundry basket (filled with my, ahem, delicates).  My basket was waiting in line beside the washer and some crazy decided to snatch my shiny laundry money. I'm not pointing fingers, but I'm going to just assume it was the panflute player. I put in an honest effort to blog about that, but then I'm quite certain I fell asleep with my eyes open. But life goes on, I got another quarter and I'm telling the story now.

I'm writing an article this week for BC Living about Luc's and my hike to the peak of the Stawamus Chief in Squamish – which I will post a link to when it's done – so for now I've got this amateur, made-in-one-hour iMovie of our trip to the top.

So while I try to balance life as an intern, bride and blogger (and grad student, eek!), please amuse yourselves with this little ditty.



Update: check out the full story on BC Living.

Thoughts

Weddings are fun and exciting, but they're also annoying because you sometimes find yourself saying really lame things out loud like, "now...do we want shimmering silver cocktails napkins, or metallic silver cocktail napkins?" Barf.