How the Stag and Doe Prepared us for the Wedding

Part I
Part II

I'm not quite ready to jump off the Stag and Doe topic yet. Having a party with 100+ people where we had the role of "bride and groom to be" taught us a few lessons that were very useful in preparing for our big day.

Since I'm sort of fresh out of photos from our Stag and Doe (bad blogger), I decided to just pull out some other favourites from our engagement session. All photos courtesy of Isos Photography. 

Spreading yourselves over 100+ people is not easy, but incredibly heartwarming.
I mentioned that Mr. Narwhal and I didn't take any working shifts, because we wanted to be able to circulate and visit with as many people as possible. It still moves me to tears when I think about how many people came to celebrate. It was so much fun visiting with friends and family, and meeting people that just came out to support us. We heard nothing but good things. Lots of people thanked us for such a great event, and many told us it was the best Stag and Doe they've ever attended! This means much more than the financial aspect of throwing the party.

Both Mr. Narwhal and I were a little surprised at how quickly the night went by and by how difficult it was to visit with everyone. I think there were approximately 100 people in attendance at a time (with some leaving early, some arriving later), and it was really hard to visit with everyone. Maybe I'm naive (okay I'm naive), but I thought that not having a formal dinner at our wedding would make it really easy to spend time with everyone. Well, we were wrong. I knew we wouldn't get to spend a lot of time with everyone, but now I know we need to come up with a strategy, given that our invite list is at 160 people.

We know our people.
Having a cocktail reception is what we're meant to do. With a similar timeframe as our wedding, and less food, we still had a ton of food leftover after our Stag and Doe. People will be coming about 1-2 hours earlier for our wedding, so we definitely need more food than we had at the Stag and Doe, but having finger foods out throughout the night kept everyone more than happy. We definitely learned that the revolving station of food worked really well for our crowd.

While we were setting up the afternoon of the Stag and Doe, we set up five tables of eight (about 40 seats) and were ready to call it a day. When my parents walked in, my dad's eyes nearly popped out of his head and he said we had to set up more seating. After a bit of negotiating, we settled on seating for about 70 people. Throughout the night, there were definitely people sitting, but I would venture a guess that there was only about 30-40 people that sat throughout the night. I've given seating for the wedding a ton of thought since my last post, and while we still aren't going to have seating for everyone, we have landed on seating for 100. Much like the Stag and Doe, I believe that the seating won't be fully used. I think seating for 100 will be the safe and err on the side of caution option, that will make everyone happy.

The lesson at the end of the day is that we know our guests, and I feel even more comfortable with the style of reception we're having.

Hard work on the details pays off.
I have described myself as a mix of a Phoebe and a Monica before. The Monica in me is a bit of a control-freak, and when it comes to the details of planning something, I obsess over making sure everything is planned. I put a lot of time and energy into planning the Stag and Doe to ensure that things went smoothly. I personally think that this effort is the reason why the night ran seamlessly. We didn't have any hiccups other than a run for more ice and juice. All of the work upfront meant for less disorganization and chaos when we were trying to host a party with 100+ people.

I just have a lot of relief in knowing that I'm doing the right thing, and even though less than four months doesn't seem like much left to plan for such a big event, it is enough, it will get done, and it will all work out.

We have the best family and friends. 
I just cannot say enough about the effort from our family and friends. The work they put into planning the Stag and Doe just showed us how truly blessed we are. There is nothing better than feeling like your best friends are family, and your family are best friends.

To our wedding party who gave so much time and energy before, during and after the event, to our family that did the same, and to everyone that came out to support us. We had some family drive many hours to be there, and it just meant the world to us. We have never felt so loved in our lives. It's a pretty amazing feeling. When I think about how it will feel on our wedding night, I get chills. I've had this long standing debate with myself whether or not I will cry on our wedding day, but I think it's safe to say I'll just be a crying machine. All the happy tears.

There are certainly other things we learned (like, Coke isn't actually that popular of a mix for drinks), but the bottom line is that while wedding planning is a lot of work, you definitely gain back what you put in. That isn't saying that the more you pay or the more you do, the more you gain ...quite the contrary. The more love you put into your commitment and bond, and marriage, the more love and positivity you will get back. Every time. Our Stag and Doe was just a small example of this. We had so much fun planning it, put so much love into the night, and it exceeded our expectations a million times over.

What kinds of things surprised you most about wedding planning?

The Stag and Doe: Part II

Part I

This post contains a lot of information, so my apologies if it seems a tad bit convoluted!

After a whole lot of planning, and attention to detail, we were suddenly on the eve of our Stag and Doe, with a house full of supplies and alcohol. We hosted a little get together with some of our bridal party and family making Jello shooters, preparing food, and getting the last of everything organized.

On Saturday morning, GM Coach met us at our house, we loaded up both of our vehicles, and headed to the Hall to set up. GM JB and BM Mel met us there, and we all got busy unloading and figuring out how to arrange everything. My parents also came with a load of things, and helped get everything mostly set up***. We all went home for a few hours to get ready and met back up at 5pm to go over the night and eat pizza.

All photos personal.

On route to the hall with GM Coach and Nelson (who made a short appearance)

The doors opened at 7pm, and we had to cover the night until the last shuttle bus**  at 1:30am. The wedding party, and some family members covered about 2-3 one hour shifts throughout the evening. We divided shifts by the bar, ticket sales and games. My mom acted as a floater taking care of food and helping where possible, and Mr. Narwhal and I also floated helping and mingling with our guests throughout the night.

My one regret from the night? I forgot our camera at home. Major sad face. I have a few photos to share; however all cell quality.

At 7:30pm our first bus arrived, and two people walked off. I would have panicked; however, I heard the same thing had happened at the Stag and Doe the weekend prior, when it was too late to change the schedule. The 8pm bus was packed full, and by that point we had a large portion of people that had drove, and the night was off to a start.

Family Jello Shooters - My aunt, BM Megs, Father Narwhal, BMan TLW and my cousin

People got all of their tickets at the entrance, and the only cash they spent inside the doors was on the games. We set up the room with games around the parameter, and the stage in the centre of the room surrounded by all of our prizes.

Games
I mentioned in our last post that we had three full night games, with one 'event' game and the Penalty box. While I gave the boys a general schedule to follow in running the games, I'm almost certain they didn't follow it. They all stayed by the games a majority of the night circulating through who was running it and playing a fair share for themselves. At one point Mr. Narwhal even took on the role of Referee at the Penalty box.

Mr. Narwhal in the penalty box!

Cast Away
This game was a fishing game with targets set up with different point values (I forgot to take a picture of this station). People had one minute to cast into the targets with a goal to score as many points as they could. The leading score of the night won a bottle of Crown Royal Black, Southern Comfort sign*, a Jagermeister hoodie* and Jack Daniels hat*.

The Snipe Show
This game was a hockey net target game. Similar to Cast Away, players were given eight hockey pucks, and each target had a different value. The leading score of the night won a Calgary Flame jersey (gifted from GM Coach) and second place received a Jagermeister hoodie*. This was the biggest hit of the evening, with a line up all night.

Minnow Races
Don't ask me why this is oh so popular, but it is. One of the most common games at a Stag and Doe. Yes, racing minnows. My dad collected some minnows the morning of the party for us. Players would catch their minnow and place them in a container (which we rented) that had four race slots. Don't worry, the minnows weren't hurt, especially considering they're usually used as fishing bait. I'm pretty sure someone released them after the party (at least that's what I'm telling myself). The minnow that swam to the end fastest won. This was a 50:50 game, winners took half of the pool.

We were both quite disappointed by the "rental" minnow races - when we could have made something much nicer and better for the $20 we spent renting this thing!

Penalty Box
The Penalty box actually didn't end up being too big of a hit, other than people putting me in there. My mom paid for me to be in there at the beginning of the night, and not too long later, Joel's brother (GM Bro) was dragging me back in for another five minute penalty. Everyone was laughing and taking photos of me when the biggest surprise of the night walked in.

Backstory: BM Click and I have been looking forward to our Stag and Doe for a very long time. When Mr. Narwhal and I first started dating, something BM Click said very early on was that we would have the best Stag and Doe ever. She had been an incredible help in all of the planning, with many long phone conversations. The week before the event, there was a tragic death in her family, and she was unable to make it. I was really sad for her and her family's loss, and that she was unable to attend. MOH L was also on that list of being unable to come. Living in Ottawa (4 hour drive) her and her fiance both had to work on the Saturday and wouldn't be able to make it.

So, you can imagine how much of a surprise it was for me as I was sitting in the penalty box and MOH L walked in the door. Shock and instant tears. Many many tears. I had no idea, and it just meant the world to me that her and her fiance jumped in the car after work and drove over 4 hours to come to our Stag and Doe.

Is it just me, or are the late night blurry photos always a favourite?

Toonie Toss
The Toonie Toss was held at 10:30, and was a prize of $100 to the LCBO (liquor store) and a 1.5L bottle of Crown Royal (donated by a friend). The bottle is placed on the floor and everyone lines up for a turn tossing their toonies to try and get as close to the bottle as possible. I was pretty happy when MOH L had the closest toonie and won!

Prizes
Door Prizes
We wanted to have a variety of prizes to give away for people attending the event. Throughout the night we pulled admission tickets from a jar, and let people pick out a door prize. We had probably 30+ door prizes including Jagermeister swag* (t-shirts, sunglasses, mugs, hats, etc.), Jack Daniels swag*, and a few other prizes.

Glass Turkey
This was a prize donated by the parents of the hockey team Mr. Narwhal coached. For $5, you could purchase a number, and at the end of the night, a number was drawn to win a large prize pack of a variety of bottles.

Dime Prizes
We had a huge variety of dime prizes, that were another huge hit from the night. A majority of these prizes were donated from local businesses or from the wedding party. They included:

• A grass trimmer*
• A car detail*
• A prize pack from our local outdoors store*
• A kitchen prize pack (mainly gifted from Momma Narwhal)
• A candy prize pack
• A restaurant prize pack with various local restaurant gift certificates*
• A Bath and Body Works prize pack (gifted from BM Click)
• A Montreal Canadiens Price jersey (gifted from GM Coach)
• A BBQ prize pack with a M&M's gift certificate (gifted from my aunt)
• 1L of fresh Maple syrup (gifted from GM D)
• 3 bottles of wine*
• 1 month gym membership*
• Hair blowout and travel size skin care pack*
• Two decorative pillows*
• Local farm prize pack*

Grand Prizes

We purchased the two main grand prizes and the week prior to the Stag and Doe, a family friend that owns a car dealership donated a foursome of golf to a Deerhurst Highlands Golf (valued at $600+). Our other two grand prizes were a Go Pro prize pack and Vitamix blender. 

The prizes were raved about from guests, we announced all of them at about 11:30pm, followed by the pie in the face. 

Pie in the Face

Throughout the night I was in the lead for the Pie in the Face competition, my jar consistently had more money in it. My aunt, Father Narwhal and MOH Cass (thank-you!!) were bartending a majority of the evening, and were always trying to get people to save me from the pie. After we announced all of the prizes and thanked everyone for coming, we went to count the jars. I had raised around $84, and Mr. Narwhal about $68. Victory! Or...not so much. At the last minute, Mr. Narwhal's boss threw a crisp $20 in the jar, giving Mr. Narwhal the lead. I will let the terribly blurry photos tell the story from here.

I was not looking forward to being smashed in the face, as Mr. Narwhal was telling me he was going to try and get as much in my hair as possible. 

As I braced myself for the pie, Mr. Narwhal dropped the entire pie! 

In that moment, I picked it up and asked everyone if they think he now deserved a pie in the face for dropping the pie, and everyone cheered. A new pie was prepared, and I got to smash Mr. Narwhal instead. 

Much to my dismay, he felt kisses were necessary in that moment, and I think I ended up with more on me as a result.

Best moment of the night!

Finances

Now, the financial aspect of the event. We spent around $4000 for the event, and made just over $7000 (with a profit of about $3000). Between all of the tickets we sold, and the approximate 130 people that came through the doors, each person probably spent on average of $50 with their ticket purchase. 

Hall Rental, Insurance and Liquor License - $624.00

Shuttle Bus - $340.00

Prizes - $1050.00

Liquor and Beer - $1500.00

Mix and Food - approximately $300 (Momma Narwhal and BM Mel and GM JB also brought food) 

Miscellaneous (tickets, decorations, etc.) - approximately $300

Overall, this night will forever fill my heart with joy and positive memories. We have had countless people message us and thank us for such an amazing night, which is just crazy to Mr. Narwhal and I. We are so thankful for the people that spent an evening celebrating and supporting us and to our wedding party that worked so hard to help create such an amazing night. 

End of night clean up crew selfie with Mr. Narwhal's coaching friends, GM D and BMan TLW

*** You may notice that we didn't go above and beyond with decorating. This is fairly common practice, so set up doesn't include fancy linens, or flowers. So while in photos this not look the best, the point of the night isn't to be fancy with decorating, but to create a night of lots of fun. I promise this isn't an indicator of what the wedding will look like, or how much fun we had :)
**We hired the same company that we're using for our wedding, so this was a great test run. I did not go on the bus, but we heard nothing but wonderful things.
*This indicates a donated prize.

The Stag and Doe: Part I

Oh my dear bees. I have been a little absent lately for two reasons. One, because not a whole lot has been going on that is post-worthy in wedding planning, and two, because I have been very busy planning another event.

Now, before I jump into all of the gory details with you all I must preface this post with a disclaimer. I definitely considered not sharing this part of our wedding journey with the blog because Stag and Doe* parties are not a widespread wedding practice and I have read criticisms in the past. That being said, they are very popular in some areas of Ontario and Manitoba (particularly in small towns where there aren't a lot of things to do). Until I entered the wedding world, I had no idea they weren't done everywhere! When it came to planning our wedding, we discussed not having a one, but there was a lot of support and encouragement (perhaps even some "You have to's!") for us to throw one, and they are oh so much fun!

We all have different traditions depending on where we live (cash bars, dollar dances, for example),  so my disclaimer for my series of posts on our Stag and Doe are to keep things kind.

First things first, what exactly is a Stag and Doe?

Stag and Doe's are a party hosted by the wedding party, family and couple before their wedding for the purpose of raising money for the wedding. When you write it out like that, it's certainly cringe worthy. I get it. But the reason why I decided to share this part of the journey with you all, is to attempt to give them a better name on the interwebs and perhaps one day help someone out in their planning. Sure they're a take it or leave it party, but for the partying crowd, they're a blast. And, well, we like to party. 

The party is more so a community event, open to friends and family, and friends of friends and friends of those friends. It's not a wedding guest only event. It's a party where you can drink for very cheap (much less than a night out at the bar), play fun games, and win some pretty amazing prizes. I would put it in the realms of engagement party.

In Thunder Bay (where Mr. Narwhal is from), they're so popular that complete strangers will show up just to have a good time and win some cool prizes. They really vary depending on where you live.

When it came to planning our Stag and Doe I really came up pretty dry in the research. There are several sites with some advice on how to throw one and popular games, but most of what we found was mildly helpful. We have relied on past events we and our wedding party have attended and/or planned for the "how to".

Our Stag and Doe was this past weekend, and I have been moved to tears several times leading up to this event, during and after. Both of our hearts are so incredibly full from the love, support and more support we were showed this past weekend. It was clear that our guests were in it for more than just an inexpensive night out, our friends, family and community showed us more support and love than we could have ever anticipated.

All photos personal. 

Mr Narwhal and I getting ready before everyone arrived 

The amount of people that came up to us on Saturday, and the messages we have received since thanking us for such an amazing event is enough to make my heart burst. It's a wonder I'm still standing. I actually ran into one of my mom's employees a few days later and she thanked me endlessly for such an amazing night, and when I told her that I was the one that was so thankful, she said, "It was just exactly what everyone needed - a great night out."

Our priority was to make this a fun and worthwhile event for everyone attending, so we went about our planning a bit differently than usual, and I think this is why it was so well received. Instead of putting in a minimal effort, we cautiously and carefully planned out every aspect of the event (and spent a great deal of money upfront ourselves) to ensure that our guests had a great time, as well as hopefully making a profit for ourselves.We also decided in the week leading up to the event that it was important to us that we pay forward a portion of what we made (roughly 5%) to a local charity.

Today I'm going to give a breakdown of all of the steps we took to plan the Stag and Doe, and in my next post I will give a recap of how the night went. Spoiler alert: it was perfectly perfect.  While lengthy, my hope is that the details will be helpful to someone in the future. Instead of having many posts on the topic, I'm going to try and keep it to two, recognizing these posts will only be beneficial for a small audience!

Step one: Find a suitable venue
In preparing for our own Stag and Doe we started with a date and searched for a venue. After polling our wedding party, we had a clear winner for the end of April, and I set out to find a venue that would work for us. There are several venues in Huntsville that are regularly used for Stag and Doe's, but you need to be careful to find one that will allow you to serve your own alcohol versus having to hire a bartender and serve their liquor.

We landed on Port Sydney Hall, with a capacity of around 200 people, which included a full kitchen, tables and chairs in our rental. We also had to pay a fee to the venue for insurance and obtain a liquor license from the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO).

Step two: Figure out how you're going to structure the night. 
Beyond the basics, you're left with a blank slate of how you would like to run your event. There are certainly a few classic games** at Stag and Doe's to include, but the possibilities are endless. BM Click has been to four Stag and Doe's during this season, and my parents have attended one, all in the city. We used their experiences as a learning opportunity for things that would be important for us to include in the event.

One thing that was very important to Mr. Narwhal and I in the planning process was that drinks would be affordable, prizes would be well worth the attendance and more than anything we wanted it to be fun! We weren't obsessive over how much money we could make, but wanted to be able to cover our costs and make enough of a profit to make the time spent planning the event worthwhile.

Based on the feedback from our wedding party and parents attendance at other Stag and Doe's, we decided to offer three all night games, one limited time game (the Toonie*** Toss), a penalty box, a pie in the face competition, a grand prize table, what we called "dime prize" (i.e., smaller prizes) table and a door prize table.

Step three: Figure out your pay structure 

There are several income streams for the event.

Ticket sales: We decided on $10 in advance, $12 at the door. Admission tickets enter guests into door prizes. These include the smaller prizes that were donated to us (e.g., alcohol promo/swag items, coffee, etc.) and were pulled at random throughout the night.

Prize tickets:  Tickets were available for grand prizes $5 each or 5 for $20 and the dime prizes $2 each or an arms length for $20.

I purchased way too many tickets. 

Drink tickets: Drinks were purchased through ticket sales, at $4 each, 3 for $10 or 7 for $20.

Game play:  Games cost $2 to play, winners were able to double their money (i.e., $4 back) or win prizes.**

Penalty box: We also had a hockey penalty box as a nod to Mr. Narwhal's role of a coach. People could pay money for people to put in the box for either 2 or 5 minute penalties. We charged $2 for a minor 2 minute penalty or $4 for a major 5 minute penalty. Mr. Narwhal and I costed double.

Working on signage the week prior

Pie in the face Competition: By the bar, there were two jars place to "save" either the bride or the groom from a pie in the face at the end of the evening. Whoever raised the most money gets to put a pie in the face of the other.

Bundles: We also put together bundle packages that included drink tickets and prize tickets.

Toonie Toss: In the middle of the evening we held a "Toonie Toss" to win a large prize, where the closest toonie wins the prize.

Step four: Obtain prizes and sell those tickets

Our wedding party took charge of ticket sales, and were wildly successful. We pre-sold in the realm of 100 tickets, and around 20+ tickets that were donated from those unable to attend. Most of the sales, and information for the event were shared on a Facebook event that the wedding party created.

Being from a small town, most people know and have connections to many small businesses in town, and the wedding party was able to get a huge amount of donated prizes from local businesses, and Mr. Narwhal and I purchased two grand prizes and a few of the smaller prizes to add to the pool**.

An example of some of our dime prizes 

Step five: Buy all the things you need to have a rockin' party

This includes all of the alcohol, drink mix, food, supplies and decorations. We offered rum, vodka, whiskey, red wine, white wine, two kinds of beer, Jagermeister and Jello shooters.

Our house was taken over by prizes and alcohol in the days leading up to the event. 

We planned to have lots of food (probably too much), including three kinds of meatballs, chicken nuggets, bruschetta flat bread, veggies, soup and your regular variety of munching snacks.

Step six: Set-up and party
After all of the set-up, it was time to open the doors and party the night away. In my next post, I'll share how it went in more detail.

Have you ever been to a Stag and Doe? 

*Also referred to as Buck and Doe's, Jack and Jills, Shag's and Socials depending on where you're from.
** More details in my next post.
***Toonies are $2 coins.

Dressing the MOB

Momma Narwhal is the definition of a busy bee. As the owner and operator of a restaurant for over 36 years in Muskoka and an avid volunteer, penciling in time to go dress shopping meant looking a month ahead in time. At the end of March I was given the choice of three days from the middle of April to beginning of May and we settled on this past Monday as the day we could find the second most important dress for the wedding: the Mother of the Bride dress. 

Personal photo

Shortly after getting engaged, the mothers (and my grandmother for that matter) were asking me what I wanted them to wear to the wedding. I hadn't given it any thought, I just wanted them all to feel their best, but they wanted more guidance. 

After some brainstorming, I decided that I wanted my mom to stand out on her own, without wearing the same colour as the bridesladies. We decided a dark turquoise would play in nicely with the turquoise stone necklaces the ladies are wearing. I told Mr. Narwhal's mom that she could aim to wear navy to go with the boys. 

Momma Narwhal and I decided to go to Barrie rather than driving all the way to Toronto (one hour versus two). Our first stop was the mall to see if we might be able to find a dress for her. At approximately 4' 11'' (rounding up) my mom is quite petite, which makes dress shopping not exactly the easiest of tasks. The mall wasn't really our friend when it came to mother of the bride dress shopping. Stores are filled with prom, grad and summer dresses - basically a whole lot of pastels and patterns. 

Store after store, we were coming up dry. A little burnt out and out of options, I suggested it was time to hit up a bridal boutique. Google led us to Helen's Bridal. We were immediately greeted by an enthusiastic consultant that knew her stuff. She started pulling dresses that she felt would suit my mom the best and we were off to the fitting room. 

And, wouldn't you know it? The first dress she tried on was the winner. The dress needs some petite accommodating alterations (imagine less on the straps and length), but it was the clear winner. The dress came in the perfect colour*, it met my mom's wish list of having straps and not being too form fitting... and of course it made her feel like the mother of the bride. 

My beautiful momma! / Personal photo

After grumbling a bit about being the most she's ever spent on a dress (besides her own wedding dress), we left the boutique happy and satisfied to have another thing checked off the list. I'm really excited to see how amazing she looks with it altered to her size! 

Where did your mom find her dress? 

*This photo isn't the best representation of the colour in person.

Make me up

As someone that grew up in a household with a mother that didn't ever go anywhere without her "face" on, I developed an early fascination with cosmetics. I started rocking some colourful eyeliner in public school and my mom always allowed me to explore and find my own look and style.

My brother and I in high school - Bright eye shadow, lots of black eyeliner and no eyebrows / Personal Photo 

In my early 20s (and late teens for that matter) I too wouldn't be seen in public without my "face" on. Girls wore make-up and that's how it was in my world. Advancing from the drug store aisle to an expensive affair with Sephora, I loved spending my money on a new palette or the latest mascara. 

Then I met Mr. Narwhal. 

When we first started dating, I asked him what kind of look he preferred on girls and he told me it didn't matter to him, and I continued to wear my routine face and never thought anything of it. As time progressed, it became known that the "it didn't matter to him" actually was a preference for a more natural look. Mr. Narwhal grew up in a home with a mother that didn't wear any make-up and he appreciates natural beauty. 

So with time, I would wear less and less make-up and became more confident in a natural look than my more made-up look. It's funny how things change, but I started to feel better about myself and more confident in my own skin with this transition. 

Since I work from home, I slowly transitioned from wearing make-up every day, to make-up some days. If I wasn't leaving the house for anything other than the gym or grocery store, there wasn't a sense in getting myself all made-up. 

While I still have my love for Sephora, Youtube tutorials and the occasional eyeliner, my everyday look has become overly simplified in comparison to before. And, I like it better that way. I just feel more like myself. Insert cheesy line about how finding the one brings out the best version of ourselves.  

So where does this little back story leave me? Sort of lost on where to go with my bridal make-up.

Unless you're a celebrity, your wedding day is most likely the one day of your life when you will have the most photos ever taken of you. Being the centre of attention for an entire day is the part of the wedding that doesn't sit well with me. As an extrovert, you would think I wouldn't have any issue with this, but thinking about everyone starring at me and commenting on how I look for an entire day makes me want to reach for a paper bag to breathe into. So, naturally I want to feel confident in my bridal look, and part of that confidence will come from my make-up.

On the other hand, I also care about what Mr. Narwhal thinks about my bridal look more than anyone else. While I know he'll love what I choose regardless, I want him to really love my choices, and this includes make-up. 

So what's a girl to do? I know that when the camera is on I need more make-up than usual, but I also want Mr. Narwhal to love what he sees in person. 

Colour me confused.

You may recall that for our engagement photos I got eyelash extensions and did my own make-up. I was really happy with how it turned out and while I plan to do eyelash extensions again for the wedding, I think I want a little more oomph, a little more summer and a little more bridal for the wedding day. 

Engagement photo look / Photo by Isos Photography

And so, while I don't think I'll be figure it out until after my trial in June, my inspiration has come from a major love and admiration for the make-up artist Ania Milczarczyk. I love how her make-up pulls together a natural, dewy and fresh feeling, while still putting emphasis on the eyes and brows. 

All images from Ania's Instagram account 

How did you decide what your bridal make-up look would be?

After note: I showed Mr. Narwhal this post after drafting it and for the first time ever he loved a make-up inspiration photo (the first of Ania's photos). Every other Ania or make-up inspiration photo I had shown him in the past had been deemed "too much make-up" in his books. So I think we finally have a make-up inspiration winner! 

Blocking up with Ironman

One of the things I love most about Weddingbee is that you have an opportunity to learn from other brides. I vividly remember reading Mrs. Hen's post on picking a wedding date and how Pride caused issues with getting a room block and mentally noted that I would need to make sure I did my research. When we picked our date, I did a quick search and nothing came up in Muskoka the weekend of our wedding. I figured I was good to go.

Wrong.

When it comes to planning, we were quick to book our major vendors since once they're booked, they're booked. One thing on those early checklists that I had been patiently waiting to do was room blocking. I figured since my guests wouldn't be booking until the new year and there were about five possible hotels in Huntsville to choose from, we'd be golden. I didn't want to be the crazy bride calling too early.

Wrong.

Momma Narwhal is a Rotarian, and one of her fellow Rotarians runs a hotel in town, so I figured I'd do a room block with him. Check it off the list. Easy peasy lemon squeazy.

Wrong.

I think you get where I'm going with this. Sometime in the early fall I emailed my mom's fellow Rotarian and he politely informed me that I wouldn't be able to do a room block because the Ironman triathlon will be in Huntsville that weekend.

I think you can pretty well picture my face.

GIF captured from one of the cutest youtube videos 

I don't exactly know how I missed this, but I did. Fortunately for us, we only have about 22 rooms that need to be blocked. This includes Mr. Narwhal's family and friends that are coming from the other side of Ontario (15+ hour drive) and my family coming from the Toronto area (2+ hour drive).

Most of the hotels in Huntsville have reserved room blocks for the 3000+ people coming to our community for the Ironman. Every hotel was already sold out, required a two night minimum stay or had increased their prices by at least 50% and nobody was willing to offer me a small block.

After what seemed like months of emailing tag with a seasonal inn close to our home in Port Sydney (we live between Port Sydney and Huntsville) we were able to secure the entire inn of 14 rooms for the wedding. They asked for a two night minimum, and Mr. Narwhal and I decided to prioritize his family coming for a few days from the Thunder Bay area and a few of my work colleagues. This left us with a remaining seven potential rooms that we needed to find for my family.

This guy is still wondering where he's going to stay too / Personal photo

This issue became one of those things where instead of dealing with the problem I procrastinated and ignored it. Sometime in February Mr. Narwhal's mom was visiting and we drove past a little motel in town and she asked if we had tried there yet. I said no and that I had completely forgot about it because they didn't have a webpage.

The next week or so I called the motel and miraculously they had rooms! Hallelujah! She was a bit apprehensive to give them to me, and said she would call back. I waited, and no response. A few weeks later I called her back and she agreed to give them to me for a maximum of one month. I asked if I could come check them out and she said anytime and I said I would be there in the next week or so. This had been our biggest wedding planning obstacle thus far and it felt so good to finally have it sorted out.

Things got a bit kerfuffled in my schedule, and the next week I asked Mr. Narwhal to stop in and snap a pic of a room so we could send it out to my family and ask them to book as soon as possible to ensure they had a room.

Later that day my phone lit up and it was Mr. Narwhal. After exchanging hello's he quietly said, "You're going to be upset." As my stomach sank (naturally thinking something terrible had happened), he proceeded to explain to me that the lady at the motel was extremely rude and completely lost it on him for me sending him instead of going myself and taking too long to visit (even though it had been less than a week). While biting his tongue, Mr. Narwhal politely told the lady that he was disappointed with her customer service and we would no longer be requiring their motel. As she started back peddling he left. I completely agreed that this was the right decision, as I did not want to send my family there only to be treated poorly.

At this point, I decided it was time to resort to Plan Z: another town. I've mentioned before that Muskoka is a district with many small towns, and we live closest to Huntsville with about an 8 minute drive. Bracebridge is the next town over and is about 20 minutes from our house. So, after failing on the Huntsville front, it was time to get a hotel in Bracebridge for my family. Not ideal, but it was what we were left with.

A visual of the rough distances between locations. 

Fortunately, this was as easy as a phone call and emailing my family to get their rooms as soon as possible. The hotel we landed on didn't provide a block, but had more than enough rooms left. Since we're providing a shuttle, we have asked my family to drive to the ceremony, and offered to have the shuttle available take them back at the end of the night if they would like.

Many have told me I could have just left this one to our guests; however, I felt really committed to doing the legwork for them. I wanted it to be a simple process for everyone, and given the Ironman debacle, I knew it would be easier for me to do it for everyone else. So far, this has been the only part of planning we've encountered that caused us some panic. We were getting pretty worried that our guests would have nowhere to go* and while it took months to resolve, we finally came up with a solution!

So my dear bee friends, if you didn't learn it from Mrs. Hen, learn it from me. Do some research on your wedding date if you're going to need a place for people to stay before you officially set your date.

Did you have any issues with a room block?

*Our local family guest rooms are already occupied by other out of town family that were not included in the rooms we needed to be part of the block.

What Things Look Like 5 Months Out

We are less than five months out from our wedding day, and rapidly approaching double digits. After hitting the six month mark, things started to feel very real, and my long mental to do list started to have a little bit more urgency than it had before. We're in this weird state of limbo, where there is much to be done, but little that can be done right now. We still have a lot of snow and that sort of impedes things a bit.

So, what sort of things are on the list right now, with less than five months to go?

Invitations
We have all of our invitations and envelopes, sans details card. The details card is basically drafted but needs a few key details added first. We had to finish figuring out our room block (more on that next week) and now that that is done we have to secure our shuttle bus pick up information (waiting on a call back). After that, I can order the final piece of the puzzle and get ready to assemble and mail out in late May/early June.

DIY Project Time
Before the snow melts, and we get busy doing the outside prep, I have to finish up my tree block photo project, wedding belt and favours, so the indoor projects can be off my plate.

Photos in Image by Isos Photography / Personal Photo

Random Vendor Sorting Out 
I need to do a lot of vendor sorting right now. This involves things like finding a seamstress, getting the toilet vendor confirmed, securing the shuttle, connecting with our other rental vendor and booking  my makeup trial.

Shopping and Spending
I finally got my hands on a couple white dresses for upcoming festivities, we're going MOB dress shopping in a couple of weeks and I seem to be making random little purchases on the regular. Recent purchases include cute invitation stickers, thank-you cards, part of my bridesmaid gifts, a return address stamp and labels for our favours.

Mini Heart Stickers / Etsy shop: studiotreatsbynaomi 

Mr. Narwhal's List
Mr. Narwhal has been a sounding board and opinion giver up until this point, but with Spring and warm weather on its way (hopefully) his list is about to grow. This involves bench building (for the ceremony), Spring clean-up, landscaping and lots of tree pruning.

The snow has to go! / Personal Photo 

And the best part of five months out planning? A surprise trip to Florida from MOH Cass and her parents (my aunt and uncle)! Instead of a bridal shower gift, they graciously offered to fly me to their house in Florida for Easter to have a little mini-celebration in honour of everything to come. Mr. Narwhal missed out on the sunshine, but was oh so sweet and supportive of the trip.

Wedding planning perks sometimes involve palm trees / Personal photo

What does your wedding planning to do list look like right now?