buttons!

i love these!

some of the phrases on the buttons:
"i heart weddings!"
"i'm a dance machine!"
"stirred not shaken"
"which way to the bar?"
"sorry i'm taken"

so cute! i should remember to use this idea for a party..

from oh so beautiful paper

*shakey fist* ash cloud

last weekend i was supposed to go to london for four days - arrive friday, leave monday. instead, being cautious about the ash cloud, they closed heathrow between 1am and 7am on monday, which resulted in a lot of cancelled flights for that day.. (if no planes were able to come in, then there are obviously no planes to take us out!) i was rescheduled to fly out on thursday; earliest they could get me out *sigh* oh well, i'm home now.

is it sad all i could think during the extended portion of my trip was that i was losing 3 days towards getting wedding things done? ugh.

the biggest thing though.. got my wedding shoes! actually i bought two pairs. one to bedazzle, and one as a back-up in case i ruin the other pair. we'll see how it goes. i've already bought the crystals off ebay, so i just sit and wait with the trusty glue gun.

because i was stranded in london for a few extra days, my masi's daughter took pity on me and took wednesday off work. we wandered around london. going on the eye was ridiculously boring.. maybe the champagne pod would have been more interesting *hic*. i went a bit crazy in primark. had delicious dessert at a place i don't remember the name of. then 50% off drinks at on anon for happy hour :)

kind of glad she didn't bring a veil with her (she considered making it into a sort of bachelorette).. thanks sister from another mother!

81

81 days to go!!  81 days :S  oh crud.

silly sophisticated'ness

*sigh* busy, busy. we'll finish delivering all the invites over the next few weeks i hope!

my really good friends back home organized a weekend of sophisticated silliness! there was nothing raunchy all weekend, which i really appreciated:

	wild oat - fantastic vegetarian food. as you're walking towards this place, all you can smell is yumminess!
	hotel indigo - quaint boutique hotel with an awesome glass ceiling. we found the voyeur window from the room into the shower a little disturbing. thank goodness there were blinds!
	sir john a pub - home of the banana mothership connection! a "friendly" drink the bartender served on the house. banana liqueur, amaretto, orange juice, and one other type of alcohol i can't seem to remember.. tasted like banana medicine - yum :)
	canada science and technology museum - this was one of the fun field trip spots growing up! super cheap: $9/person entry. it's not very huge.. really, you're paying the $9 to walk through the crazy kitchen! it's totally worth the $9 for the silliness :)
	midway family fun park - so much silliness. cheesy'ness to the n'th degree :) this is the place you go to play games with tokens to win tickets; then redeem the tickets for prizes. we redeemed our 400+ tickets for four shutter shades shaped liked stars! class i tell you, real class :)
	beau's all natural brewing company - mmm.. beer. the beer's rather delicious! unfortunately our bottles did not travel well.. :S
	chateau laurier - BEST SURPRISE!! their standard rooms are the size of a suite. their beds are so comfortable. i could live there if i was rich enough.
	social restaurant and lounge - we tried a variety of martinis and cocktails here. some good, some super disgusting. at one point i left my drink full to the top, only to come back to it empty.. *raises eyebrow* the girls were obviously thirsty. :|
	elgin street diner - home of ottawa's yummiest poutine! one serving could feed a family.. they use mushroom gravy too, which is a definite bonus.
	cora's - my favourite place for breakfast. huge servings, fresh fruit, deliciously greasy and deliciously healthy options.
	le nordik spa en nature - the perfect ending to a great weekend! hot and cold baths. sauna. steam rooms. massage. hammock swings. serene environment. *sigh* i'll have to go with kiwi at some point.

this was definitely a MUCH NEEDED break from life! i owe these ladies big time :)

dream a little dream..

do weird dreams come with wedding planning?  well, maybe i can't blame the wedding.. i usually have weird dreams that make absolutely no sense.

one time i had a dream that the three little pigs were robbing our house in the middle of the night, while everyone was home passed out in their beds.  they were gutsy enough to be rummaging through our bedrooms.  they were wearing those retro jackets that b-boys wore in the 80's and all spoke like a 40 year old new york pizza shop owner.

in another dream, i dropped my friend off at her home, got out of my car and started running down the streets of downtown.. just running.  i seemed to know where i was going, but i didn't know what i was running to.  then as i pass this dark alley, a hand pops out and grabs my arm. (at which point i woke up)

anyway, last night's dream is a really odd one.  i opened the front door to do something and i see this little girl running up the driveway.  i quickly shut the door and frantically try to lock it and turn on the alarm.  i tell my brother, "it's that little asian girl trying to sell insurance again.." when i say little, i'm talking about a 5 year old with pig tails dressed like she's going to church (you know, pretty dress, white cardigan, shiny black mary janes); cheek pinching-ly cute.  why a 5 year old asian girl would be selling insurance is beyond me, but she was and really insistant.  she went as far as putting her hand through the mail slot on the door.  it was sort of like a zombie movie almost, except the little girl wasn't a demon of the undead, she just really wanted to sell insurance.

maybe i should start documenting my dreams.. might explain why my every day train of thought is so demented.

that's my kind of mrs.

if know me well enough, then you know about my obsession with all things yellow.  usually people grow out of colour obsessions; mine has stayed strong since elementary school.  it's gotten to the point where my parents groan whenever the word yellow comes out of my mouth.

oh well.  anyway, i came across this post about mrs. meyer:
It is with pure pleasure that I introduce the lovely Mrs. Meyer - she's super sweet, seriously - I'm no liar! She's got a funny thing for lemons - so much so that she imports them from Yemen! Although she's mostly sweet at times she can be a little sour - but her moodiness is usually short lived, and gone within an hour. And for that matter she keeps all kinds of sugar laying around - she prefers it in cube form and stocks it by the pound. She enjoys partaking a good lemon drop - at which point she'll pick up the phone and call you to talk. Mainly, she likes to chat about all things yellow - and for the most part your conversations are pretty mellow. And if you have an ailment, she's got just the thing - a hot spiked cup of lemon zing! According to her, lemons are great even when you're sober - not to mention the perfect thing for a Mrs hangover! She's a fabulous Mrs, despite being a little tart - she's a loyal friend who'll love you with all her lemony Mrs heart.

i only hope to become a mrs. like mrs. meyer! currently i have periods of bitterness more so than tartness. who knows, my sour days will come with age. kiwi certainly has a lot to look forward to! ;)

from mrs. lilien styling house

the hijra tradition

i just read this blog post about hijras.

when i was fourteen, we travelled to india with my foi's family to see part of the country properly. we travelled mostly the north and west parts of india. while visiting the ganges (a holy river), there was a group of 4-5 hijras that followed us as we walked through the streets of haridwar (i think that's the city we were in.. i don't quite remember :S). now, i don't remember if we gave them any money or just kept walking, but i do remember my fuaji not realising they were hijras. he just thought they were female beggars asking for money.

a few years back, my oldest bhai got married in india. during his santhak (pre-wedding ceremony), a hijra showed up asking for money. dad came up to me after the negotiations to point out the hijra from the window telling me that one did in fact show up. i was incredibly disappointed i missed it! had i known, i would have taken video of the incident. apparently they had the hijra sign a letter stating that money has been given to a person of the hijra community in case another shows up later.

i've been told that if a wedding has happened overseas, hijras will show up to the family's house in india demanding money, otherwise they will curse the newly weds. sometimes a hijra will show up even a month after the wedding asking for money. this doesn't actually happen in north america mainly because hijras don't really exist here (well to my knowledge anyway..). hijras are a unique category that is different from transgender since hijras don't perceive themselves as a man or a woman.

maybe in a warped honour of this "tradition", we could have drag queens during the cocktail hour! how much fun would that be? or, going on a previous idea, we could have one of the drag queens be a fortune teller. i would die of jealousy if someone pulled this off during an indian reception.

jaan's entrance

this totally amuses me.. bring on the horse power!




i'd been bugging kiwi to come in on an elephant but then stopped when i found out how ridiculously expensive it is.  perhaps someone can concoct an entrance for him that rivals the fun atmosphere the idea above brought!

from photos by jay

palm reading

on monday bhabhi got a call at work:

caller: do you like hands?
bhabhi: i have never really taken an interest in hands..
caller: is your date of birth 12/7 or 7/12?
(weird.. he's right :S)
bhabhi: no sir, it isn't.
caller: does your last name begin with m?
(more creepy.. he's right again)
bhabhi: no sir, it doesn't.
caller: i'm only asking because i read hands so i realise that's an interesting hobby.
bhabhi: thank you for calli..
caller: by the way, the test will be passed.
*dial tone*

not long after that phone call, i emailed mum, dad, the bro, and bhabhi letting them know that kiwi passed his citizenship test that morning! so creepy.. but if he reads hands, then how did he know all this when the entire conversation happened over the phone? *dun* *dun* *DUN!*

on a kind of related note, how much fun would it be to have a palm reader or fortune teller during the cocktail hour?

perhaps an elephant isn't such a good idea..

Elephant bolts jumbo BSP wedding in Meerut

Some fireworks Meerut did expect as BSP MP Kadir Rana's son got married to the party's Rajya Sabha MP Munquad Ali's daughter on Wednesday night. What it didn't bargain for was a 15-hour chase by 200 personnel drawn from three states, smashed vehicles, a blocked road and a town in panic - all over an elephant believed to be part of the grand wedding celebrations, which went berserk as "gunshots were fired", also as part of the celebrations.

Apparently it was a bad night for 35-year-old Sheru. Every year, a male elephant is in heat for up to seven days - a period called Musth, where they become aggressive and difficult to control - and Wednesday happened to be one of those days for Sheru. His mahout Shamil had bungled with his calendar calculations, and when the elephant went berserk around 11 pm, he simply disappeared.

As the venue was on the Meerut-Delhi road, one of the first casualties of the runaway tusker was traffic to and from the national capital. Sheru overturned parked vehicles, including a Ford Endeavor and a police highway patrol vehicle, damaging more than a dozen, held up traffic on the Meerut Bypass Road till 3 pm on Thursday, and tore down sugarcane plantations, before he was finally tranquilised and caught.

With the wedding drawing more attention than they had bargained for, both the groom and the bride's side were in denial mode on Thursday. There were conflicting accounts over how Sheru happened to be at the wedding venue in the first place: the first version said it was part of Rana's son Shah Mohd's baraat, confirmed by the MP's PA Shahzad; later he claimed the elephant was one of 15-16 lined up by bride Sumbul Parveen's family to welcome the baraatis; and then said Sheru may have strayed across from an elephant ashram nearby.

A report by the Chief Conservator of Forests's office says the elephant got out of control at a wedding venue and a case had been registered against the mahout for negligence in his duties.

There were as many stories on what set off Sheru's 15-hour frenzy. While eyewitnesses said guns had been fired, the PA blamed it on the traffic outside.

The Meerut police that sent more than 100 of its men on the elephant's trail realised quickly that they needed expert help. Chief Conservator of Forests (Western Zone), Meerut, A K Dwivedi got the first call around Wednesday midnight. He mobilised teams from Dehradun, Delhi and Lucknow, and armed with ropes, tranquilisers, rifles and darts, set off for the Meerut Bypass Road.

The team included members from the Wildlife Trust of India; an elephant specialist from Delhi, Dr Ashraf; Director of Wild Rescue Programme of the WTI; specialists from Rajaji National Park, Dehradun; an emergency team from Lucknow, consisting of Dr Utkarsh Shukla, a veterinarian at the Prince of Wales zoo; and divisional forest officers.

Dwivedi realised the gravity of what they were dealing with. "When elephants are in heat, they become dangerous. If left in a public place, they can cause a lot of damage," he says, adding that in period of heat, elephants are best kept confined.

When the teams reached the spot, they managed to corner Sheru in a tiny sugarcane field off the road, and dug trenches around to keep him confined. But Sheru simply jumped over the trenches and in no time was back on the road.

Finally at around 2 pm on Thursday, Dr Ashraf managed to tranquilise Sheru. An hour later, the animal was bound.

While a probe has been initiated against the mahout, who surfaced as quickly after Sheru had been caught and told officials he hailed from Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh, till Thursday evening Meerut Forest Department officials were undecided over where to keep the elephant.

They are also tracing the owner of the elephant to check if he had a valid licence to keep Sheru, as elephants are Schedule I animals. If needed, inquiries will be initiated against wedding parties, officials said.

[source]

6 ways to secretly find her ring size

if you're planning on proposing to your fiancée and don't know her ring size, here are six ways to find out:

phone a friend: contact a family or friend of your soon-to-be fiancée who may have bought a ring for her recently.
[kiwi called dad for permission to propose AFTER he bought the ring..]

borrow a ring: take a ring your soon-to-be fiancée wears (preferably on the ring finger..) to a jewellers to have it measured.
[considering kiwi and i live in different countries.. that's a bit difficult. really, the only way to pull this off would have been to have a family member do this on his behalf.]

when the ring can’t leave the home: estimate the ring size. try one of your soon-to-be fiancée's rings and mark where it falls on your finger. make an impression in a bar of soap or clay. trace the inside of the ring.
[i repeat: considering kiwi and i live in different countries.. that's a bit difficult. really, the only way to pull this off would have been to have a family member do this on his behalf.]

sleeping beauty: while your soon-to-be fiancée sleeps, wrap a piece of paper or string around her ring finger.
[creepy?]

when in doubt: size up! guess the ring size and get it resized after you propose.
[what if you guess a size that's TOO big? will she assume you think she's fat? she won't be able to wear it for the rest of the day/evening after you propose.. what if you guess a size that's TOO small? will she think she's fat? and again.. she won't be able to wear it for the rest of the day/evening after you propose.. if kiwi did that and i'd have to have it resized, i wouldn't have gotten my ring back for two months :S]

tell her it’s for someone else: tell her you want to buy a ring for your sister or mother.
[i can't see this going well at all.. a definite giveaway.]

so how did kiwi find out my ring size? when i went to visit him for valentine's day, we went wandering in a mall. we stopped by a jewellery store because he wanted to look at watches. when the sales person came up to help, he didn't ask about watches.. instead, he asked her to measure my ring finger. immediately after she measured my finger, he said thank you then started to walk away. i stood in the jewellery store awkwardly, quietly thanked the sales person, ran to kiwi and kicked him. i was so embarrassed! and a little disappointed that we didn't actually look at any of the rings.. i shouldn't complain because it worked out well for me in the end. i got a beautiful ring that fits PERFECTLY!

from groom's advice

six more weeks of winter..

today's groundhog day. and all three famous groundhogs around canada and the u.s. saw their shadows, which means six more weeks of winter! :)

a friend showed me video of the celebrations in wiarton.  loads of people had groundhog noses like the person here.. and some had crazy blue groundhog wigs.  she made a funny comment while she was showing me the video, which is quite true if you think about it, "if someone who has never been to canada or met a canadian saw this video, they'd think all canadians were nuts."

i swear we're not all like this.. please come to canada for the wedding.

from wiarton willie website

white guys do bollywood

these guys are actually quite good! (for a bunch of white guys.. ;) ) just a hint to our white friends.. *nudge* *kidding*

predicting my future mate

googling wedding stuff tends to result in weird links.. such as this:
love predictions..

with an apple and a knife, stand before a mirror. slice the apple into pieces. stick a pieces on the point of the knife and hold it over your left shoulder. as you gaze into the mirror, you will see a vision of your future spouse appear behind you to take the apple.

creepy!!!! i don't like mirrors to begin with (all those bloody mary stories growing up didn't help at all..) so this would freak me out. i have shivers up my spine just thinking about it. ugh..

ring of truth

apparently engagement rings say something about the wearer..

Round Cut: Traditionalist
Also known as brilliant-cut, a round diamond symbolizes traditional values. Round wearers appreciate the ring's clean lines and symmetry. It has no beginning, no end and beautifully symbolizes romance! And it reflects more light than any other diamond. Ladies who like round diamonds are trustworthy and team players, but they sometimes lack spontaneity. Avril Lavigne and Christina Aguilera both wear wedding rings with round diamonds. It's the most popular cut! Wedding Prediction: You'll have a lovely, vintage-traditional wedding with pink roses, a white dress, and tea light place card holders.

so .. traditionalist? i guess you will know what to expect for the wedding!