Getting married.... Sept 3, 2011

As I'm sitting here at work, taking a 5 minute break, I step back and wonder.... what-ever happened to our small little budget for our small little intimate wedding. LOL

My initial idea was, let's not go overkill with the wedding, let's keep it sweet and simple. When my friend Carole found a website for my wedding dress..... I thought.... GENIOUS! I can get the wedding dress of my dreams for under $100, it's just coming from half way around the world! (Hong Kong) (not to mention when it arrived, it was too big, so I ordered another one, smaller size.... for $20 less than the first one.... :)  It came..... and it was ..... just beautiful! (did I mention it's red!?) I can't wait to see his reaction on our wedding day!

Never the less we did find some really good deals on dress, tux, shoes, flowers, gazebo, wedding favors, wine, cake tiers* and envelope box* (Carole and I had the brilliant idea of going splits on it, where she's getting married in November).

Not to mention the photographer who gave us a great deal, unfortunately, easily broke our initial budget.... :) JP, wedding liscence, gifts for the wedding party, RINGS!

We decided to use my mom and dad's original wedding ring set, since mom passed away in 1993, my sister still had her set and dad still had his ring.... so we decided to use those for our wedding bands..... not realizing how much it would be to have them repaired. But it's all going to be worth it in the end.  It is so special and sentimental to be able to use Mom and dad's rings for our wedding.

All in all, when I compare to other weddings I've seen or attended, ours will probably be in the $2-3,000 range..... once all is said and done, and we'll have a very nice little intimate wedding, in our quaint back yard, having a BBQ and corn boil.

We'll have some little butterflies on clips, for our wedding party and as a decoration.  Butterflies have a funny story in our family. 

After mom passed away, my sister, one year around Feb-Mar, was part of a beauty pagent, and I attended one of her practices one night, when they were practicing the "question".  Her question was "who is your role model and why?"  She went on saying that her role model was our dad, because he's such a strong person in our life and would go out of his way to take care of his little girls.... something along those lines.... and all of a sudden this beautiful white butterfly came out of nowhere and flew up above her head and disappeared in one of the spotlights.  Everyone at the practice fell silent.... not understanding what had just happend.

Then some time went by.... another year, my sister was home with my dad around Feb-Mar and they were in my dad's wood shop.  Dad was showing her one of his projects he was working.... we're talking about winter weather in northern New Brunswick, where it's really cold.  When they left dad's shop, they were astounded to find a beautiful large yellow and black butterfly on the snow bank! 

They told me the story and I asked them, what they thought about this unusual phenomenon.... dad replied calmly.... it's your mom checking in on us.  Which just confirmed how I was seeing it, but wasn't sure they felt the same way.

Hence, the little butterflies on clips, for our wedding. :)

Mom Bercier will be holding a little reception for us in Mike's "home town" of Regina Saskachewan in December, when I'll have the opportunity to meet his relatives.  I've already met mom and dad, brother Ryan and sister-in-law Ruby, with their tall little guy Taylor, looking forward to meet their new addition, Lucas.

Dad will be holding a reception for us in Grand Falls NB sometime in September, where we'll be able to invite the whole family and friends from home, should be a pretty impressive gathering.

Feeling exciting about the big day, we've only been together for 2 years and engaged for about 2 months, and I'm not sure how people are engaged for years..... but I know it's been alot of fun planning our big day, I"ve never seen Mike so happy, I know we'll have a wonderful life together, we've grown so much in the last little while and have so much more to learn but, there's nothing better than growing together.

Love <3
Danielle

How to prevent eye shadow from smudging

Good morning!

Do you you have hooded eye lids? (where your top lip rubs on itself when blinking)

I love to be creative when applying my makeup, and this was causing me some problems..... when I would apply my makeup in the morning it would look great, but halfway through the day, the colors would start blending in together.... and just end up looking like a big smudge by the end of the day.

I discovered 2 fabulous solutions!

1.  Use an eye primer, it hold the makeup in place, and makes the colors bolder.
2.  When applying the eye shadow, especially in the area where your lid rubbes agains itself, imagine a vertical line.  Place your favorite (darker) shade on the outer part of your eye lid, place the next shade (lighter) on the inner side of your lid. 

(Next, this is where I get a little creative and add a couple of different shades in the areas on the lid that is exposed and doesn't rub on anything.)

When you create this look, the area where your eye lid rubs on itself, is acutally rubbing on the same shade, therefore preventing the different colors from blending in togheter and avoiding the whole smudge blob I was struggling with.

Hope this helps keep your fabulous look in place!
Don't forget your mascara for the finishing touch!

If you have any questions, don't heistate to ask!
xo
D