This is tashasita's Purple Wedding!

We were featured on the Real Etsy Weddings feature. It is just kind of a fun thing. I thought it was kinda exciting so I thought I would share :)

http://realetsyweddings.com/2010/12/real-etsy-wedding-natasha-mark/

For all you crafty ladies, or just for ladies who love this idea, I just saw this guestbook on Etsy and think it's absolutely awesome!

You make a puzzle out of a wedding or engagement photo and the guests each sign the back of a puzzle piece. I think this is uber cool! The Etsy seller is a little pricey but it's a wooden puzzle and probably takes a ton of work. But maybe one of you uber crafty DIY brides wanna tackle this yourself?!

This may be a project for our anniversary party or 5 year vow renewal lol.

Here is the Etsy seller info:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/BellaPuzzlesToo?ref=seller_info

We all love her, from her GORGEOUS wedding inspirations, to her amazing sense of style and her obvious aesthetic beauty. But all of us WBC brides who have had the pleasure of 'knowing' Nidhal, know her beauty is equivalent on the inside. Nidhal is definitely a WBC fave, she has earned the right - by her fabulosity but also her generosity. She gave as much as she posted. I obtained a life, style and spiritual guru unofficially on WBC because of her. Honestly, I love WBC for the community, the inspirations and the fact that all of us brides understand each other, but something special happened on this site. I formed relationships that I will cherish, and the most precious friendship formed was with Nidhal, or Niduuuuu (the Indian in me calls her this) or Ninu as my baby nephew calls her. He's never met her, but kids know good things, and when he sees her picture or saw her wedding video, he blows her kisses. :)

I honestly think God places angels in your life just when you need them, and in an unlikely spot and medium, he put her in mine, and all of ours. I know mine was not the only life and heart she touched. :)

As we all know, Nidhal is amazingly kind, supportive and honest, and always had something nice to say or advice to give. I just wanted to shout out a beautiful woman, and say I thank God for today, because I thank God for you. :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NIDU! Let's all show her some love!

Here are the pretty thank you cards Shayne designed for us! :) Thought I would share - she come sup with such lovely ideas and templates. I <3 the font she used too - I said I kinda wanted a vintage chic fairy tale kinda vibe, and that font really kinda gets that! :)

She is so good ladies for invites, monograms, photoshare cards, thank you cards, all of it!

Thanks again Shayne honey!

I am using Vistaprint to print these babies and excited to get 'er done! LOL

I would like to really thank Shayne - unpredictablebride and Amy - trombonechick for alot of our details.

Shayne made us an awesome monogram for our seating chart and also our awesome photoshare cards which I and our guests absolutely adored! She is also making our thank you cards and will probably want to punch me by the end of this project but is being uber-awesome with my picture pickiness. <3 you Shayne! SORRY! LOL. You are amazingly patient and I am so sorry I am so picky with pictures of myself!

Also Shayne, thank you for introducing me to the wonders of Vistaprint when you made that poster for me way back when - got my programs and stuff from there! YAY!

Shayne
WBC screen name: unpredictablebride
Website: http://printablebride.com/

Amy - trombonechick - made tons of our stationery/decor - our aisle runner, table names, favour tags, wish cards, poems and signage and our invites. Also a couple pomanders for decor. :) She was great. Our guests really liked the little touches, mostly other women who had planned weddings! :) But still, they were loved by many, esp. me! HUGE thank you!

Amy
WBC screen name: trombonechick
Website: www.unmistakablyyou.com

So here's some pics of what Shayne and Amy did along with some other fun details from the wedding! Nobody really gets excited with me about these except other brides LMAO

Hope you enjoy the little details. I love these pics. :) Brings all the little planning and projects to life :)

Enjoy lovelies. I managed to upload a few more thanks to rmmharrison's suggestion to take em from Shutterfly - the files weren't so big so easier to get on here. :)

Forgive the bra strap - was a crucial addition day-of - top was far too big and built in bra was NOT working and neither was double sided tape! OYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY! I know it's hideous. Photoshop needs to become my friend.

xoxox
Tash

A few. The uploader is cooky like normal but I was able to do a few for you to see.

Unfortunately, I really don't love alot of the ones of Mark and I together, though I love so many of the shots taken that day, not alot of them are of the two of us, at least not face forward LOLOLOL.

But anyway, here you go! I will try and do some more tomorrow when I have more patience lol

Feeling nostalgic today for many reasons and remembering alot of my life, but particularly the last year. It has been an amazing year full of joy, blessings and happiness. Like life, it has not been perfect, but I sit here counting all the good things that have happened and all the people who love me and my heart is very full. And alot of you girls have become blessings to me, and I thank you for that. You were blessings and inspirations during wedding planning, reminders to stay positive, and just generally great ladies to talk to, vent with, and enjoy the journey of getting married with.

Last night I remembered how far I have come, the days when life looked bleek, and then I had to smile as rays of sunshine have definitely taken over my world. And though my reasons for happiness far exceed Mark, he is the sunshine of my life. He is much more than a husband, but to me represents what God thinks I am worth, a constant reminder that I am loved, not just by Mark or my friends and family, but by God, who brought me such a wonderful man to share my life with. There was a time when I thought I would never find happiness, and it is true, it was like I was questioning God Himself, but He showed me LOL.

1 year ago today was the day Mark proposed. And it was a funny proposal which is documented earlier in my blog, but it was a wonderful day - at that time the best day of my life - the day a fantasy went from reality and the man of my dreams wanted me to be his wife. :)

1 month ago yesterday I really married that man. We had a civil wedding in May and I meant the vows I took, but it didn't feel real, I didn't feel married until a month ago. That was when the dream and the fairy tale came to a beautiful moment when I looked into my Prince's eyes and said I Do. The way I wanted to, with all of our friends and family around. It really felt like a fairy tale evening.

Today is the start of a brand new year for me - it is my 33rd (I KNOW I AM OOOOOOOOOLD) birthday. And I really honestly feel good about it. I don't feel old, I feel great. Like I am entering a phase of knowing who I am, Whose I am, and what I want out of life, and I feel like the best really is yet to come. The fairy tale has started, and now comes the love, laughter and happily ever after. :)

But my walk down memory lane this morning was very sweet, and since you are all a part of that walk, I wanted to share.

Lastly, I just wanted to say that over the last week I have been reminded by very wise people that when life seems tough, it is so much easier to feel sad, but try to remember how far you have come down your walk, look down your memory lane not with regret but with relief LOL, and focus on how bright the future looks for all of us, not only planning a wedding, but entering a beautiful phase of life as part of something very very special. Finding the love of a lifetime is rare, and those of us who find it, should cherish it always. :)

xoxoxo
Tash

Here are some pics from the Cocktail Hour and Reception/Dancehall Sound Clash (aka really loud Jamaican reggae party lol). This post may be really long (SORRY!) cuz our reception was.... well, interesting lolol and I have to share!

The Cocktail hour was not as I expected, we spent most of it outside taking pics - ah well. By the time we came in, my dad was almost finished playing the piano but as we walked in, he was playing and the venue coordinator was singing with him. Somewhere Over the Rainbow - how cheesy and adorable! The hors d'oeuvres were great I am told, I did stuff a cod fish fritter in my mouth while changing shoes, and it was yummy!

Then after too brief a time, we went back to the meeting room to regroup as a bridal party and be introduced. That was fun. The bridal party danced into "I Gotta Feeling" and Mark and I danced into "Say Hey (I Love you)" - then we just acted like morons with our really bad dancing (tried to do the robot - more like a sloppy alien but hey lol) and Mark wanted to look "cool" in shades but forgot to tell me his plan so I looked ridiculous in a pair of his shades that were far too big and slipping off my face every 2 seconds. But still fun, and I have no problem making a fool of myself lol. Do it often!

I can't believe no one got pics of my uncle's intro cuz it was really something. We came in and he did a Caribana tribute. Caribana is a Carribean parade that takes place every year in Toronto, like Carnival in Trinidad - celebration of West Indian Music and culture, etc. Mark and I have gone together for years now, just as friends. Well, Uncle Raj has to put on a show, so he gave us some Caribana supplies. People wave something at the parade, usually their country's flag but sometimes a small towel. So we got kitchen towels to wave, we got sun hats (not normal sun hats,cheesy umbrella sun hats with the Canadian flag all over them) to cover us from the sun while we party, and Canadian flag luggage tags to plan a trip to jamaica or Trinidad for one of their carnivals, which Uncle Raj is 'willing to accompany us to' lolol. The sun hats were hysterical, I think people were in too much shock to take pics of this apparently lol. Then we got a Canadian flag, since we both work for the Canadian govt. Mark being in the Canadian military, and we proceeded to all sing O Canada as an entire reception. I am not kidding. It was really something LOLOLOL.

Then cut the cake and had our first dance. That was uneventful and nice. :) No cake on face, a bit of tripping during our first dance but I had strong arms to hold me :) Trying to dance with my dad proved tricky, he is far too good a dancer (he's literally a certified teacher in like 9 different ballroom styles) and he tried to get all fancy with me, and I tripped every 5 steps on my long skirt - OOPS!

Then sat down to dinner. Dinner was delicious and we got rave reviews about it. :) We then walked around and handed out our favours to each guest, which I am glad we did, got to actually talk to a few people and that was really nice.

Then there were speeches and a few 'performances' - oh boy. My mom did a line dance which was ok, was actually kinda cute, and recruited my cousins to help her, and then a bunch of other guests got up and joined. It was cute and the song was called beautiful Sunday - very appropriate. But then my cousins got up and sang a song that 90% of the guests didn't understand but the ones who did were thoroughly offended - OOPS. This was NOT a pre-approved performance by any means. Yikes. Love them, but horrible place and time.

Time to get over that though. The speeches were amazing, I truly loved them all, and Mark could hardly talk, he was so moved by everything. When it came time to speak, he was in tears and couldn't really finish. He was actually very emotional all night and very humbled by everything and was pretty darn teary-eyed, this from a guy who internalizes ALOT was surprising but not without humour, as everyone started to call him Sprinkles... Poor baby! LOL I held it together pretty well - surprisingly (the ugly cry in the morning helped lol) and said my speech and it was well received. My brother's touched me beyond belief - not often you hear your idol tell you they want to be like you - I was sooooo touched and then the floodgates opened. :) Other than that, I was not too bad - no ugly cries lol. But my hanky got some use, that's for sure.

There were some other highlights. Mark's uncle did a wonderful tribute to Mark in a slideshow, and it was super sweet, and told everyone how proud he was of Mark, how he's like his son, but how he wants to actually be a man like him and not vice versa. Was wonderful and touching. He had some pics of me as a kid and with us together too, but it was a beautiful tribute to an amazing man that I wholeheartedly agreed with and enjoyed. :)

Then the party started! It kicked off great and just kept getting louder and better. There was a LOT of reggae, which requires some energy lol, and it generated a lot of heat. Which is when the HULK (Mark's former nickname from his boys) came out. Literally, Markie (Mark's best friend and one of mine too) disrobed Mark. Took his jacket off like a champion boxer and pushed him into me to dance with me and said, and I quote "Finish her" LMAO! It was hilarious and fun and hopefully no one was offended by the Hulk's appearance LOL.

The party continued and we all had a blast, taking some time to have a few periods of quality time with our guests when we could and a brief moment together, but basically just danced our hearts out with all our loved ones. It was really fun!

Ok this is probably my last post till the pro-pics, I got nothin more to say! LOL

Hey girls,

So I'm sorry these are somewhat dark some of them, but here are some more shots from the ceremony and then the posed family pics lol. I don't love posing for pics, but all our families wanted some so here we go lol.

So I figured I would share some of them with you girls. Also some cool shots of our ring bearers and flower girl who are all little hams lol. Love them!

Enjoy!