From the Desk of... Wendy

After another 4 day weekend - this time up north with the family for our annual camping trip - it's back to some normalcy at the office. I almost forgot what it was like to work 5 days a week after these last two weeks, lol!

And to start off this week, I thought I'd share the wonderful story of how my friends Wendy and Greg got engaged! It took 5 years in the same high school, 4 years in the same university, and then a graduation before these two scholarly lovebirds realized they were meant to be together :)



"It happened on October 28, 2005. Greg made up a story that his friend was coming in from London to celebrate a birthday (which is in November) - and his friend's girlfriend was hooking him up with a night at the Westin (I am super gullible). So he picked me up from work - and took me to the hotel. We went up to the hotel room, and we knock on the door - and no one comes to the door! I remember being SO annoyed that he didn't have things organized with his friends.

So I walked away from the door - and he actually calls another friend to keep up the facade that he was trying to hook up with everyone. And then I hear him say "What? The key's in my pocket?" I was so confused! I turned around, and he reached into his pocket - and there was the key to the room (it all happened so fast!).

He opened the door to the room and there were little white lights hung up all around the room, rose petals on the bed and a bottle of ice wine chilling in the ice bucket. Once I realized what was going on, I began to cry (blubbering in fact) and he got down on one knee. What he actually said still escapes me (and he won't tell me again!). Once I said yes though, I guess all of the pressure was off and he plopped himself down on the chair and opened the ice wine...and helped himself! Ha!"

From the desk of Wendy.

Paging all Office Brides - Part 2

Did you plan most of your wedding from 9-5 in a cubicle? Then The Office Bride wants to hear from you! Contact officebride@gmail.com and tell us your story, and you might be featured in a "From the Desk of..." blog!

From the Desk of... Julie

I.T. by day. Icing by night. Meet Julie, one of my co-workers who's a whiz with both computers and cake flour. Julie has quite a reputation at work for her delicious (and beautifully decorated) baked goods, and it's always a good day when she brings in samples for everyone in the office to taste test. And without fail, every sample I've ever had is absolutely delicious - which is why I asked her to do our wedding cupcakes! I love that she has a good balance between work and play, and I asked her a bit more about it...

How did you get involved in making cakes?
I started taking classes at Michael’s craft store.

Who are your culinary idols?
I was able to meet and take a class from Bronwen Webber which was amazing! Lorraine McKay does wonderful figures and I am looking forward to taking a class in July. She is coming all the way from Scotland! I am also addicted to Bakerella.


Source

How do you juggle between your day job and your passion?
I really enjoy my full time job in IT - now I have a day timer that allows me to schedule my time. It's all about organization but I could not do it without my Mom. She does all the baking. Just love her.

Source

What is the hardest cake that you’ve made?
My first tiered cake was hard because I was so afraid it was going to fall over. Now it is like "You want 10 tiers? Bring it on!!!"


Source

What is your favourite flavor / type of cake?
Chocolate with whipped chocolate ganache filling. There is this chocolate mud cake that is making a splash in North America coming from Australia and I cannot wait to try and make that! Maybe there might be some taste testers at work?

(Hells, yeah! Sign me up!)

For more photos of Julie's fabulous work, check out her Flickr site!

From the Desk of... Amy

My co-worker Amy proves that planning a destination wedding can happen from the comforts of her work desk...

"Sometimes an overly organized, control freak needs a well deserved break! That was my attitude when my fiancé and I set out to plan our wedding. We opted for a destination wedding right off the bat – a chance to get away with our family and closest friends and a good way to sit back, relax and let other people plan it for you. Sure there was some stress, but all in all it was by far the perfect choice for us.

The first step was choosing our destination. We decided on the Dominican Republic as it was one hot spot that we both had never been to and we had heard from several people that the beaches were to die for – and boy were they right! We figured that choosing a resort was going to be the tricky part as every travel brochure makes every resort look good and the online reviews should be taken with a pinch of salt. I didn’t have to go very far to get some ideas; it was in my very own office that two people suggested a particular resort as their friends had currently gotten married there. I told my fiancé right away and to my surprise he said that his co-worker suggested the exact same place! Little did we know that the recommendations would keep flying in throughout the year ahead, as more and more people exclaimed how wonderful the resort was! It was certainly an amazing feeling knowing we had made the right decision.



So what can I say about the planning? Well, it was pretty much organized all over email. In a day’s work I would be corresponding with my wedding coordinator in the Dominican Republic, sometimes several times a day. She was so quick and thorough, answering all my never-ending questions. In the end, the wedding day was summed up on a one page questionnaire which allowed us to choose everything from the ceremony site to the dinner menu. Easy peasy! Since it was so easy, even the Groom wanted to get involved. As we all know ladies, sometimes it feels like the man’s only duty is to show up. Well, not in my case. The Groom was just as pumped about the destination wedding and just how simple it was to organize that even he had a lot of say…even though I had the final one haha!



One thing I would highly recommend is having a very good and efficient travel agent. I think our biggest stress was dealing with ours. She was always slow to respond to our emails and messages and even had the audacity to not respond to our guests’ questions. It was pretty frustrating, especially when we were only a couple weeks away from our wedding trip and we still didn’t have our tickets! It wasn’t until the week before the trip that she finally apologized and mentioned that her father was recently diagnosed with cancer and she was taking care of him. Now, I’m not a completely heartless bitch, but I really wished she had told me sooner than later or maybe passed her workload on to someone else in her office. It would have definitely alleviated some stress in our lives and probably hers.



Ahhh…the wedding trip. There was no disappointment here. The resort was spectacular and the wedding day was truly one to remember. I figure it’s a great compliment when all of our guests asked if we could all go back again in a few years to renew our vows. Hmmm...do I sense another destination wedding to plan? Definitely!"


From the desk of Amy

From the Desk of... Marcie

Nothing says "Love" more than matching outfits and a Sears photo shoot. Read how Marcie and her husband Jon pulled off one of the best and most original wedding invitations I've ever seen...

"Ok. Here is how it started. Jon came across a Christmas calendar with David Hasselhoff. It was hilarious! Jon finds these types of pictures really funny, the kind that are super cheesy and ridiculous. We also saw these pictures in American Pie, Juno, and some other funny movies.

We decided to make a Christmas card that was really cheesy and similar to these types of photos. Our first card was the two of us, sitting by our tree, in silly sweaters and santa hats, holding all three of our cats. This became an annual Christmas tradition.

When the wedding was approaching, we wanted to save money and do a wedding invitation that was similar to our Christmas cards since we got such positive feedback every year for the hilarious pictures. Jon thought that it would be a good idea to get the pictures professionally done.

We went to Sears and asked the photographer to do really cheesy poses. We got our outfits from Value Village and just happened to find a pair of yellow shorts and a yellow skirt that matched perfectly. We found two white turtlenecks and two pairs of white golf shoes. We were a matching pair.

I decided to do my hair and make-up like I was from the 80's. We changed at the photography place, although I had to walk around with my 80's hair and make-up, and the photographer was awesome with understanding the exact cheesiness we wanted. We had the photos on a CD and just placed them on card in powerpoint and printed it off on blue paper. We kept the large 8x10 photos, framed them, and displayed them at the wedding.

It will haunt me until the day I die."

FRONT OF INVITE



INSIDE OF INVITE







From the desk of Marcie

From the Desk of... Miss JY

Living proof that you can plan a huge event from the comforts of your desk :) Introducing Office Bride, Miss JY!

"Aside from my 2 hour stint at the dress boutique and a 1 hour consultation at our reception venue…

I have done all of my planning from the place I call my second home: my cubicle/desk at work!

It started off small, just researching a few pics of wedding/BM dresses to take with me to the trunk show sale. Then, I randomly stumbled upon MyWedding.com, thus beginning the creation of our wedding website. From there, the ball just kept rolling.

I honestly think it’d be a shorter list to tell you what I haven’t planned, than to go through everything I’ve accomplished in my cubicle haven.

From

- researching vendors via the internet,
- creating invitation templates via Microsoft Word,
- blocking off hotels via my office phone,

To

- keeping up with my pastor, bridesmaids via on-line chat,
- setting up our three registries via online tools,
- getting real-life advice/references via recently married coworkers,
- setting up DIY projects via our exclusive printing department…

I have literally planned everything up to this point sitting in my office chair, staring into the abyss of the internet wedding world.

I guess it works that I’m an efficient person. I’m not too picky, so my decisions about the wedding have been quick. I’ve figured out my office/workload habits to actually find the time to log onto WeddingBee for wedding inspiration or blog on my journal for personal amusement, all in the midst of completing a “full-day’s work.”

It’s worked out really well for me, because without these resources, I would be completely lost in the planning process!

Happy Planning!"

From the desk of Miss JY

From the Desk of... Emily

Introducing the first real Office Bride, Emily, from MD, USA!


"Our wedding invitations were designed by fiance's sister, based on a crappy little Paintbrush drawing I emailed her. She did a wonderful job, as you can clearly see.

The invitations use our color scheme of burgundy, black and slate blue as main colors, as well as off-white and silver as accent colors. In addition it also showcases our "themes", which are astronomy and cats. Fiance and I are both astronomers, and we're getting married at the Arecibo Observatory -- and a photo of the radiotelescope can be seen faded in the clouds at the bottom of the invite. The moon and lots of random little stars are also a really nice touch. And we have two cats, and our cake topper will be two kitties), so it was really nice to have two kitties silhouetted there in the invite. The fonts used were Freebooter Script and Centabel Book.

We had five insert cards -- "Information", "Map", "Directions", "RSVP" and "Reception", in order from tallest to shortest. They were designed to be staggered, so that the titles are visible when the cards are arranged by size. In the "Information" card we included info about a reserved block of rooms at the hotel, transportation from the ceremony to the reception sites, and the URL to our wedding website, along with the password to enter it. For the "Map" card, I took a screenshot off Google Maps and then traced over it in Keynote and exported it to a PNG file to then send to FSIL to include in the card. For RSVP we decided to not do the usual mail-back RSVP card, but rather wrote in an email address we created exclusively for dealing with wedding stuff and our phone number and gave guests the option to email or call us to let us know if they're coming to the wedding.


After FSIL finished designing the invitations, she emailed us all the files and we took them to FedEx Office for printing. We had them printed on 80lb cardstock in an off-white color called "natural". We got them back the next day and the printing job was fantastic.

The invitations and insert cards were then mounted on pocketfolds that I ordered from Cards and Pockets.I used the Signature Pocketfold (5x7) in "Black Tie" color (matte finish black), and had "Chili" colored invitation mats mounted on them (to go under the invitation, for a layered look).

I also ordered some custom-cut cardstock in "Chili" color to make belly bands. I had them cut the cardstock in strips 2 inches wide by 11 inches long, then I used a bone folder to score and fold them to size. Then I printed up some name cards (in the same 80lb "natural" cardstock from FedEx Office; 2.5 inches tall by 3 inches wide, and rounded the corners with a corner-rounder punch thingie) to put on top of the belly bands.

The finished invitations were then stuffed into envelopes that I also got from Cards & Pockets, in color "Hydrangea". Before stuffing I ran the envelopes through our inkjet printer and printed the addresses in them, along with a wedding bells dingbat on the top-left corner of the destination address. I also printed our return address on the back flap of the envelope, in smaller font size. To finish it off, we used a wedding cake stamp.

It was quite a lot of work to assemble the invitations into the pocketfolds and envelopes, but totally worth it. We've already started to receive RSVPs and so far everyone has loved the invitations!"

From the Desk of Emily.

Paging all Office Brides

Did you plan most of your wedding from 9-5 in a cubicle? Then The Office Bride wants to hear from you! Contact officebride@gmail.com and tell us your story, and you might be featured in a "From the Desk of..." blog!