I have my heart set on a Pronovias gown. I love them. They are simple, and elegant, and romantic. I can't really imagine having another dress.

I had tried on a few of their dresses over the summer and had thought I had decided on one. But being the indecisive me that I am and wanting to check out the 2010 collection, I decided that going in to try some more dresses would be a wise decision. WRONG! Now I am just plain confused, surprise surprise. So I want to put this out there to my blogger pals and see what you think. I will be posting the links to the pictures of the dresses, as Mr. Milk frequents this blog, and he is not to see the dress till its time.

1. First Dress

I love how romantic this dress is! My only concern is the way the material is bunched at on side. While it looks soft and flowy in the picture, it is more stiff in real life. The bodice of this dress is gorgeous!  

2. Second Dress

Again I love how romantic and elegant this dress is. I think the top is beautiful. If I were to buy this gown, I would have the pleated layer on the bottom removed, I think it doesn't suit the rest of the dress. I asked at the store and was told this can be done. Try to picture it without if you can. 

3. Third Dress

This is the dress I tried on in the summer and thought would be the one. Now looking at it, I think it is a little plain and also more expensive than the other two. 

Photo Credit: Pronovias, Google Images

I am excited to be writing this post! As some of you already know Mr. Milk and I have recently been working on our invitations. We've been looking at colors, fonts, wording, paper, envelopes, monograms, ribbons, you name it we've looked into it!

So without further ado, here it is: (Click this link for a larger image)


Photo credit: Google Images

Hahahahaha. Just kidding! Mr. Milk found this while browsing for invitation wording and we thought it was HILARIOUS!

So back to being serious. We have debated over what items to purchase. Mr. Milk has some good connections in the printing business due to his work, and we are fortunate to be able to use these connections for our invitations. We have decided that we want pocket-fold invitations. We can get the paper for the invitation, inserts, and mats from the printer, so all we needed was the pocket-folds and envelopes.

So over the weekend we made the purchase. I found a wonderful site called Cards and Pockets a while back and bookmarked them in my favorites! I encourage you to check them out! I ordered a sample set with the colors I wanted for only $10 with free shipping. I highly recommend doing this. We were able to play around with these and get an idea of the inserts we wanted, the sizes and so on. 


Photo Credit: Cards and Pockets

I ordered them in pearl metallic cause I just love the metallic papers. Our invitation mats will be a tiffany blue. Neither of us was keen on the European Envelope, so even though the other style only comes in cream and white, we opted for those. I can't wait to get them! I know its only the outside but it means we are closer to making them happen! Stay tuned for more to come on the invitations!

How are you invites/stationary coming along?

So since the Sugar Doll award has also been passed on to me over here at Blogger Brides, I thought I'd post what I'd already written on my personal blog for you gals over here. Not sure if it will be interesting to you, but here goes:

1. I have lived on 3 continents and each place feels like home.
2. Mr. Milk proposed Christmas morning and I was totally clueless about what was about to happen (some of you may know that already). 
3. I have something chocolatey every day (surprise surprise)!
4. We recently started ballroom dance classes at our community center and I have trouble being led! 
5. I would love to have a dog or two but can't imagine putting them on the long-ass plane ride to Cyprus if we decide to move back. I also can't imagine leaving them behind. Sigh 
6. I love pasta and could never do the no carb thing (What are these people thinking! No offence). 
7. I love receiving things in the mail (non-bill related obviously). Thanks to online shopping I can still experience that! 
8. I hate it when people are inconsiderate and judgmental. Its one of the few things that makes me really angry 
9. Almost there... I am addicted to TV (yes I make a great couch potato!). Grey's Anatomy, Oprah, DWTS, you name it, I watch it. Clearly I would go nuts without the DVR! 
10. And last but by no means least...Well... Lets see what Mr. Milk has to say. He's coming through the door right now...Come on hon the ladies are waiting... "She's always right" (I swear no coaching was involved!) 

So there you have it. My list :)

I have truly been inspires by so many of you over here! Its hard to select just 10 people, and it seems like most of you have received it already. I just want to say a big thank you to Born to be Mrs. Beever, BiCoastal Bride, CapeCod Bride, Heather N Will, PinkLoveBird, Sassy Bride, New Mexican Bride, and marcheleven10 for being so great!

I think some of our community bloggers should do this little exercise, so I pass the award on to them! :)

I never thought I'd be discussing what suit to wear this soon, but Chocolate Lover has been keeping me busy looking at a gazzilion bridesmaid dresses over the past two weekends so this way I'll have a chance to balance things out a little bit. 

I always wanted a Boss suit but never found the courage to spend that kind of cash for a work suit. I have custom tailored suits from China, I bought Zara, Mexx, and other brands unknown even to the company itself, but I've never owned a brand name suit before. See, the worst thing a man can do is try on a Boss suit when his budget is destined for Zara. It's like driving a BMW and buying a Mitsubishi. Good luck being happy after that!

But this is my wedding, emmm I mean OUR wedding. I hate wasting a perfectly good suit for a single ocassion so what I would like to do is make sure I buy a suit that will be elegant enought to be worn on my wedding day, and toned down enough to be worn at a formal dinner without making others feel that royalty is expected to arrive any moment now.

Boss. Bose. BMW.

Those are my favourite brands. In the quest to acquire all B's, September 25th will be my excuse for the first one. I already have a Bose system. BMW.... hmmm, what excuse can I think of to work on that one?

Ok ladies (and any men that would like to contribute), I am rallying up the troops to ask for advice! 

This past weekend Mr. Milk was sweet enough to drive me all over Vancouver (and then some) so that I could check out bridesmaids dresses. He was such a sport I have to say. In a world full of women, he came along, waited patiently, helped me pick out options. and offered his opinion. It was definitely a productive weekend. 

So I started out on a mad hunt for this dress by Alyce Designs:





It was one of the first bridesmaids dresses that I really liked. I can't believe how difficult it was to find! The only thing I could find was the color swatch for their chiffon dresses. But sadly, no dress. So then the lady helping me find something similar came up with these:



This dress was beautiful. It's one of those dresses that flatters most body types. I would even buy it as a regular dress to wear out!



I fell in love with the color combo of this Alfred Angelo dress! Unfortunately it wasn't very flattering. The ruching at the hips makes them look bigger than what they are. I liked the colors so much I tried the dress on a few times just to make sure. 

So then we came home and I did some more research online. And I found this:





I think this is my favorite. It also comes in the colors I am interested in! 

I am now putting it out there for my blogger pals to offer up any advice, suggestions, opinions? What do you all think? Which do you prefer?

Photo Credit: Alfred Angelo, B2 by Jasmine, ALyce Designs, Mori Lee

I must admit that before all the wedding planning and blogging I had no idea what Etsy was. After seeing it on blog after blog, I thought it was about time I found out. What a great site! There are so many things that I like and have added to my favorites. And just by browsing I've gotten several ideas for gifts.

Well the other day I made my first purchase! So exciting! This is what I bought...

Initially I wasn't too interested in what our champagne toasting flutes would be like. That was until i came across these by Nambe...

They were so beautiful that we just couldn't resist buying them for the wedding. Particularly since we got them at 40% off! Don't you just love getting things you like at a discounted price?!

 
Photos: Nambe Toasting Flutes

So it occurred to me the other day that I haven't really talked about our reception. While the ceremony and dinner here discussed in a previous post I failed to mention that our reception will be on a totally different day!

This is for several reasons. To begin with we want to be able to enjoy our ceremony and dinner with our close friends and family. This will hopefully allow us to spend enough time with the people that are special to us and who potentially travelled hundreds of mile to be with us on our day.

Another reason involves the culture and size of Cyprus. We are basically a dot on the map. Unless you know what you are looking for, you will most likely miss this lil' island. Due to its size, it's easy to imagine that between our two families, we know a lot of people. The only thing I guess I can equate it to in terms of North America is living in a small town and knowing more or less everyone. But on a bigger scale.

Our parents have people they want to invite but not necessarily people Mr. Milk and I know or are close to. Having the reception on a different day will allow our parents to invite the people who are closer to them. While Mr. Milk and I were ok with missing this step completely, we realized that it is important to both our parents to share their kids joy with their friends and colleagues. My dad and his mom initially did not like the idea of having the reception on a different day. My mom and his dad thought it was a great idea. Go figure. Anyway, the reception will be at a different venue altogether, somewhere cheaper, and will be on a weekday, I think it's a Wednesday. We came to realize that one of the issues people complain about face in Cyprus, is the huge number of weddings they have to go to, starting from May and probably going through all the way to November. Sometimes several Saturdays are taken up by weddings. In a row! And these can be weddings that include THOUSANDS of people. No joke! It's no coincidence the movie was called My Big Fat Greek Wedding! So we thought having a cocktail reception during the week would be appreciated by most of these guest who are coming to support our marriage, but mostly our parents. We will be leaving their weekend untouched.

Since our wedding venue is a little out of the way by Cyprus standards (if someone here heard Cypriots complaining about distance they would just laugh at them!), the second venue is in a more convenient location in the center of the capital city, Nicosia. We came to realize that a large majority of our guests, for both the dinner and the reception, reside in Nicosia. Around 80 to 90% if I had to guesstimate. So we also wanted to make it a little easier for these guests to get to our reception, which will only last a few hours.

Photo Credit: Hilton Primary School

As you may have figured out, culturally, family is very important to us. Not that it isn't to people anywhere else in the world, but I think we are more inclined to take our parents desires and wishes into account. Initially it was difficult for both Mr. Milk and I. We are not what we would refer to as traditional Cypriots by any means. He has lived in Canada for the last 10 years and I was in San Francisco for the last 5. Not to mention that I grew up in Saudi Arabia and only moved to Cyprus when I was 14. So no, not traditional. We were gung ho on having our wedding the way WE wanted it. But we realized that this went beyond our little worlds and that there were elements of us getting married that were important to our parents, that they took pride in, and I think, to some degree, they would have been hurt if we just went about our business and didn't take into account the things that were important to them.

The resolution came in the reception. The way we see it, our wedding day, the day of our ceremony and dinner, is OUR day. That day will be geared towards what we want. With the people we want, and the favors we want and so on. The reception is more about our parents and giving them the opportunity to celebrate our marriage in a way that makes them happy. Not that they aren't happy about the wedding day. They most definitely are. Its more about being proud of their kids and sharing that with their group of people. While it took a while to get here, and we are still working out the details for the reception venue, I think all parties involved are happy with the final decisions. And the best part? I get to wear my wedding dress twice! After all, this is all about the bride... ;o)

Have others faced cultural/familial dilemmas, issues, concerns? Would love to hear your views!

When we were first engaged I scoured magazines and books to get ideas for wedding decor, planning, flowers and what not, being that this was new and all. While in a bookstore, I came across Colin Cowie's book Wedding Chic. I remember seeing him for the first time on Oprah and was stunned, jaw-on-the-floor impressed by the beautifully gorgeous weddings he created. This was all before getmarried.com and blogger brides. Heck it was even before I knew I wanted to blog about my wedding!

Well I figured the only way I was going to get remotely close to having even a suggestion from this famous event planner regarding my wedding, was to buy his book [please feel free to change that Mr. Cowie ;)]. So I did. And I thought I would share some of my favorite images with you.

I love this beach wedding

natural and elegant


love the purple


vibrant colors


we are hoping for a warm night for an outdoor dinner


really like the white flower contrast


Beautiful lighting


stunning


again, love the contrast

And these are just the ones I could find on his website! The book is full of beautiful photographs of decor, cakes, centerpieces, paper goods, food and much more. I haven't bought another book since purchasing this one, and I feel like between it and the internet, I have enough to get me going.

Photo Credit: Colin Cowie website.

Once the venue is booked, the photographer is the next most important item on the wedding checklist. Well...we just got ours! On the many hours spent online, I came across this photographer. We both fell in love with his pictures and how he captured the essence of the weddings he photographed. The only "downfall" was that he lives in Greece. While we didn't see this as so much of a problem, you should have heard other people's reactions! It's funny to see how people react and what they have opinions about!

The most common reaction was: "Why!? There aren't any photographers in Cyprus?!" And it seemed like no matter how much we explained that we wanted a photojournalistic photographer, one who wouldn't make us pose for hours and hours taking the same cheesy pictures with different people, who would be able to blend into the background and leave you wondering where and how he took that shot, the idea that we wanted to bring him from Greece (its just an hour plane ride away people!) was beyond them.

So back to our photographer. His name is Petros Sordinas and he is based in Athens, Greece. Here is a sample of his pictures.

 
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Photo Credit: Petros Sordinas

All images are copyright of Petros Sordinas Photography and you can see more pics on his blog. Now the question remains if we should have a videographer or not...