What are your thoughts..........

Young couple, early thirties.  Two children 5 and 2.  Lived together for nearly six years, bought a house together.  Both work; he will be well paid, her not so much.  Decided to get married in March of 2016.

So far asked to buy ticket to Buck and Doe (joint Stag and Hen night).  Dh only bought one as he has no intention of going and they cost a lot more money on the night anyhow. $10

Bridal Shower; being thrown by future mother-in-law and sister-in-law in a banquet hall (sister-in-law's wedding reception there, very fancy place).  Bride registered at Sears; lots of stuff on the registry. Money spent........? Hoping to spend under $100; very doable.

Wedding: $300 cash gift for couple.  As the people who will be invited will be the same people who went to the last two weddings we've been too, I will have to buy at least a new top, so hopefully only $50 spent there.

My gripe, I think they are being greedy having not only a Buck and Doe, but a bridal shower when they have a house and live together.  Okay you may want the whole Bridal experience, but couldn't you have the Bridal Shower for close friends and family; I am neither.  Or have the Bridal Shower with no gifts.

I am quite sure most of the wedding will be paid for by their parents, as his parents put on a big fancy wedding for their daughter.  They are good parents and will want to make their children equal.

I am not going to the Bridal Shower as I have other commitments that weekend.  I will just send a gift and my regrets.

Are they being greedy?  What are your thoughts?

Bridal shower........

First let me apologize about the lack of photos in this post.  The maid of honour and her mother took all the photos as I was so busy, so won't have photos until they email them to me.  There will be links in this post for you to see certain things.

The maid of honour, "K" went above and beyond with what she did.  The theme colour was purple and she had a stem of orchids in a gorgeous little vase which turned out to be the take home gift for everyone.  All the table cloth's and napkins were purple.  The cake was from Dufflet cakes and it was a lemon cake with tiny purple flowers on it and purple writing, just gorgeous and tasted yummy.  WARNING: clicking on the Dufflet cakes link will cause you to drool!!!!

Should say the event was held at Zion Schoolhouse,  which was built in 1869 and has been restored to the 1910 period to reflect schooling as it was in the farming community of L'Amaroux at the beginning of the last century.  It was a very unique location to hold a bridal shower.  We played a couple of games.  The first one you had to look in your purse/handbag to see if how many items on this list you had.  There were 18 items and the winning lady had 17 of the 18 items.  No one had any British Pounds on them despite the fact there were five of us who were British/Canadian.  The winner won a gorgeous Matt and Nat clutch, similar to this one.  We also did the what is the Canadian word for this British word.  Everyone won a little chocolate that had dd name on it and the Bridal Shower date, which was cute.

The food was good, or at least everyone said how good it was, and there were plenty of leftovers for us to bring home.  "R" butter chicken and rice went down a treat for everyone except me, it was too spicy for me!!!

Dd did so well regarding gifts, she was a very lucky girl.  She got all 8 place settings from various people of the china pattern she selected.  It's an everyday one and is by Sophie Conran for Portmerion, her place settings are in the Celadon colour which is a heck of a lot darker in real life than on the web site.  All the accent pieces she got were in white and she also got these glasses from the collection.  She got 4 boxes of them, from one person, plus a couple of accent pieces.

She was/is registered with Home Outfitters, and we have discovered that their system isn't without it's glitches, as she still ended up with two Cusinart Slow Cookers. Luckily gift receipts were enclosed so she can take one of them back.  She got so many other things as well, too many to mention. 


The one thing that really struck me was how much everyone who was there thought of dd, she was surrounded by people who love her and think a lot of her.  I was so very proud of her, as she made sure she made time for everyone there and after she opened all her gifts she went around and hugged and thanked everyone personally.  I know she still has to go to the store and pick up more gifts, from people who didn't go to the shower.  As people can order online and get the items shipped to the store.

All in all it was a major success and all of it due to "K' impressive organizational skills, and her mother and sister who were the best.  Also "J" her other bridesmaid who really worked her tail end off, and "A" the other bridesmaid for pitching in.  Also the grooms mother who made a lot of the food as well.  However without "K" it wouldn't have been what it was a great success.  As I was saying to both "K" and her mother, I want at least a year's notice of when "K" gets married, as dd and I will need that to sort out her bridal shower!!!!

I can't wait for the wedding, as everyone was saying how they are all looking forward to it.  Only another 33 days!!!

Just in case you're wondering.....

why I didn't post yesterday, crazy busy at the moment.

It's dd bridal shower today, so I am doing the prep for that and did a lot yesterday.  Just waiting for some scones to come out of the oven, before putting some mini quiches in.  Scones homemade, mini quiches bought!!!  Going to start on the finger sandwiches next.  Luckily maid of honour taking care of the sweet stuff and grooms mother helping out on the savory, as well as "R" who is making her famous butter chicken and rice.

I will post lots of photos for tomorrow, as long as I am not too tired.  Looking forward to it, and there should be around 36 people there.  It's being held in an old schoolhouse in Toronto.

Also been decorating, and will be decorating for the rest of this coming week.

Enjoy your Sunday, I am certainly looking forward to ours.

Gill

10 dozen down & my Bell Canada bill

now onto my own jam for the year.  There is actually 9 dozen and a half dozen of raspberry jam and 9 jars of blackcurrant jam.

Dd, surrogate dd and maid of honour are coming over next month to put them in decorative boxes and tie some fancy ribbons around them, so I have been told.  As long as I don't have to do it I really don't care!!


I may make another batch which is 8 jars of raspberry jam for just in case, as we haven't got a full count yet of who will be coming to the wedding; and it's better to have too many than not enough in my humble opinion.


Also look what turned up on Friday morning:

That was pretty fast I thought, also it comes with the bonus digital timer and four mixing bowls, so that was good.  Weighs a ton weight though, luckily for me the UPS guy brought in right into the house for me.

Spent a delightful hour on the phone trying to get my Bell Canada bill cheaper........oh joy!!! After speaking to various people I managed to get and getting no where I ended up at the loyalty department and got somewhere...YEAH!!!  My monthly bill for the tv and telephone prior to me calling was $153.15 plus taxes, after calling $110.65 plus taxes for a savings of $42.50 per month.  I am a happy camper........

Neighbour called by to say he was shooting the coyotes on Saturday that have been hanging around as they are bothering his dogs.  He asked dh if I was feeding them.............I told dh I can be a dimwit but I am not that stupid!!!!

Book Review, Bridal Shower, Kitchen Aid Mixer & Swagbucks

"Fall's Like Lightening," by Shawn Grady

Smokejumper Silas Kent never expected to see pilot Elle Westmore again. In fact, reuniting makes him realize what a mistake he made all those years ago. But before he has a chance to try to make amends, he's called to lead a new crew into battle against a massive fire in the Sierra Nevadas.

And then things go very wrong, very quickly.

A suspicious engine explosion forces the crew to parachute early while Elle barely survives a crash landing. Silas reaches the ground safely, but in beginning a desperate race to reach the downed plane, he soon realizes he has more to fear than just a raging forest fire.

Not sure what to say about this book.  By reading the preview you will never guess what else this story is about, and I am not going to tell you...LOL  It wasn't a book I hated, but it wasn't a book I loved.  Why I say that is the book felt a bit cliche to me, sort of boy meets girl, they fall in love, he leaves her, she picks up the pieces and they meet years later and realise they have always loved one another.  Meanwhile a massive fire starts and then the rest of the story is intertwined in amongst it.

I found some of it a bit too much far fetched for my taste, but it still was an easy book to read, and I thought the guy posing on front of the book reminded me of Kevin Bacon, not that I am a huge fan of his, what do you think?

Star out of 5: 2.5 I neither loved this book or hated it.  It was an okay book and an easy read.  Just wish it wasn't so far fetched with the other plot line.

"Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.
Available at your favourite bookseller from Bethany House, a division of Baker Publishing Group". 

We are having a bridal shower for dd in October, it's being held by me, groom's mother and maid of honour; figured it was easier throwing one shower than three separate ones.  Dd knows about it, doesn't know where it's being held though, so can't mention it here.  Anyhow, we (her dad and I) are getting her a Kitchen Aid mixer  I have been saving up my Amazon e-cards that I get from doing Swagbucks and while talking to her the other night I discovered they were having a sale on Kitchen Aid at Amazon, so I have ordered her this one:

She did want the Apple Green one, but this one has a more powerful motor and is the professional grade one so will last for years.  She knows about it so it isn't a surprise.  So with it being on for half price, plus free shipping and having over $250 in Amazon e-cards from Swagbucks, I paid less than $80 for it.

So now I am back to square one with my Amazon e-cards.  I know I have another $5 one to come this month and am busy saving up for August.  I think I will save them up for Christmas.  For anyone wanting to join Swagbucks just let me know and I will give you some pointers. 

If you do join up I would really appreciate it if you joined under my referral link: http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/Appleby

By the way what colour is your Kitchen Aid mixer if you have one, and if you don't want colour would you like to own?

Mine is cream and I got it for my 40th birthday off dh and yes I did ask for it.