Happy Anniversary!

My hubby and I are celebrating our wedding anniversary today!  We've been married two years, and together for nine.  We were planning to elope, but our family protested so we had a bit of an un-wedding-y wedding.  Here are some pictures from our wedding day:

My dress was based on the wedding dress Grace Kelly wore, but mine had 3/4 sleeves, a shorter hemline and I opted for peach silk and black lace instead of white.  I don't get to wear fancy dresses as often as I'd like, so I didn't want to waste the opportunity on the obligatory white wedding dress.  Although I "designed" the changes I wanted and purchased the materials, I had a dressmaker make it for me.  I did DIY my own hair and makeup, flowers, plus a gift for each guest, as well as the box for cards and our guestbook/scrapbook (scroll down for details).  Our invitations were from Target.  We just added our own text and printed.

We were married at city hall in Toronto, which was really nicely decorated because it was Christmas.  We then had a very small brunch reception at the Hôtel Le Germain, Toronto. 

For wedding favors, I made "Christmas Spiders" (because we were married so close to Christmas).  According to German folklore, every Christmas tree has to have a spider, a reminder of St. Nicholas turning cobwebs into tinsel.  There's a super cute story that goes with these glittery guys.  

I wrapped the spiders in these cream boxes with black ribbon (Our invitations were cream with black text) and they also served as place cards because each had a tag with a guest's name.  I used special scissors to create the scalloped edges on each name tag.  I also asked the chef to make a Christmas cake with icing made to look like presents for dessert.  

I made our box for cards from an old cardboard box.  I wrapped it with fabric and ribbon to make it look like a present (sense a theme?) and then embellished with some handmade ribbon flowers and leaves, made by my mom. 

Instead of a having a guestbook, I created pages for our scrap book with photos of us through the years in the middle.  We asked guests to write us messages using a gold pen.  Then we inserted the finished pages into a scrapbook I made, which chronicled the day.

Our "getaway" car!  We left for our honeymoon in Greece the same afternoon.  It was lovely to have our family wave goodbye to us as we departed.  We were headed someplace warmer, that's why we were grinning ear to ear.  Joke was on us.  We brought the cold weather to Greece.