Big Syd Silver Formals Sale

Is your groom thinking about buying his suit? Then you’ll want to check out the massive Syd Silver Formals bankruptcy/receivership sale that’s running all next week.

The popular Canadian formalwear chain declared bankruptcy a few months ago and while this was undoubtedly bad news for those couples who had booked their suits through the chain, there is a big plus side: amazing suit deals.

The chain’s entire rental inventory is being sold off, with the basic adult package going for $99.99. For that price you’ll get a tuxedo jacket, pants, a shirt, tie, cufflinks, studs, suspenders and a pocket square. Fancy deluxe packages, that include such extra as shoes, and packages for ring bearers and teens are also available.

The main sale site is 79 Wingold Ave, North York (west of Dufferin St.) and you can call 416-256-4784 for more details, including the addresses of the other two sale locations. You may also want to ask what brands are being sold. My understanding is that suits from Syd Silver could really vary in quality.

The sale runs Monday - Wednesday, 11 am - 7 pm; Thursday - Friday, 11 am – 9 pm; Saturday, 10 am - 5 pm and Sunday 11 am – 5pm.

Happy shopping!

Custom M&Ms & Promo Codes

By the time you’re reading this, I will have just gotten back from my trip to New York City.
One of the things I was originally planning on picking up while I was there were some customized M&Ms to use as our favours.

The reason why I was going to pick them up in NY is because Times Square is home to a big M&M store and I was thinking that by picking them up there, I could avoid having to pay for shipping. Sadly, you can’t get personalized M&Ms at M&M stores, you have to buy then online. Sort of annoying…

Thankfully, through the magic of Google, I was able to find some promo codes that at least make buying these things a little cheaper. I did a test order with the Thanks15 code and it totally worked but I think I’d save more with the free shipping code so I’m going to try that when we go to make our actual order.

Hopefully a few of you will find those codes and the site they live on, RetailMeNot.com, useful. While that site definitely caters to Americans, you can find the odd promo code that can save us Canadians some cash when we’re doing our online shopping.

My Florist Now Has A Website

Jenn, my florist, now has website! You can check it out at: http://www.flowergirlsdesign.com/.

The best part about the site is the blog section. It showcases some of the arrangements that Jenn has put together and provides a bit of background on them. While there’s not a ton there now since the site is quite new, it looks like it’ll shape up to be a great source of inspiration for brides.

Finding An Officiate

For some people, finding the officiant is one of the easier parts of wedding planning. They go with the family priest, the aunt who’s a justice of the peace, the guy who did their cousin’s wedding.

But if you don’t know off the top of your head who your officiant will be then this can be pretty tricky. I was actually dreading this part but thankfully our venue had some recommendations and then I left this task in Shawn’s hands.

Those recommendations were the two ministers over at Metropolitan United, a church located just down the street from the Berkeley. While we originally planned to go with a justice of the peace, we decided to give these guys a shot since they often do weddings at the Berkeley and we were told they were pretty open minded and flexible when it comes to conducting ceremonies.

While one minister was already booked for our wedding day, the other, John Joseph, was available so we met with him back in March. He was a perfectly nice, friendly guy who asked us plenty of questions in order to get to know us. He also told us about himself and by the end of our meeting we both felt quite comfortable with him.

While we did discuss a bit about the ceremony and what we pictured, that first meeting was really just to get to know each and see if this could be a good match. Since it was, we booked him.

We then met him a couple weeks ago and talked a bit more about the ceremony (something short and sweet with no readings) and looked over the vows we’re going to say. We also figured out the rehearsal time.

I thought this would be a fairly quite meeting but it probably took close to an hour because the minister did spend some time asking Shawn and I about ourselves and our relationship. While it was unexpected at the time, it kind of makes sense now that I think about it. I mean, this guy is a minister after all and I’m sure he wants to check and see for himself that we’re not some couple that’s going to end up in divorce court in a couple of years. And since none of the questions were overly probing or personal (they mostly focused on our communication styles and personalities), this part was less weird than it sounds.

I don’t know if trying to get a good sense of your relationship is something more officiants try to get but hey, it’s something to be aware of.

Anyway, if you’re on the hunt for an officiant, definitely start with your venue because they can likely recommend someone who they’ve worked with before.

If your venue can’t help you out, you might want to check out Kettle Creek Weddings, a company that hooks couples up with Toronto officiants. While they aren’t cheap (the basic package is $400), they are quite reliable and professional (or so I’m told).

There’s also always Google, if you’re looking for someone with a particular background (certain language, religion, etc.). Google actually led me to this site, TorontoOfficiants.com, that allows you to pump in a few basic details and then get a list of suitable officiants back. They aren’t reviewed or anything like that, but you can always turn to the bridal boards if you’re hoping to get more details on a particular person.

Off To NYC

I’m off to New York City this afternoon for a few days to visit my sister. While there, I hope to accomplish a few wedding-related tasks:

• find earrings
• possibly find something for my hair
• figure out my sister’s accessories

I do have a trio of posts lined up for while I’m gone, including one about M&Ms.

See you next week!

Green Wedding Services in Toronto

Green weddings are the in-thing these days and if you want to make your big day as environmentally as possible, check out this blog post over on BlogTO that highlights some of the city’s greenest wedding venues.

Here my thoughts on a few of the places they’ve highlighted.

Cabaret Vintage: a must-stop for any bride who wants vintage, or vintage-style dress. While the dress prices are hardly steals, they are reasonable for a wedding dress.

Vert Catering: I’ve heard great reviews about these guys but I’ve also been told that they are on the expensive side.

Mill St. Brewery: I don’t drink beer but Shawn and many other beer drinkers I know love this brewery. I think we’re actually going to get these guys to provide all the beer for our bar.

Pure + Simple & Elixir Organic Spa: While I’ve never been to either of these spas, I’ve heard great things about both of them and am considering both for them for my pre-wedding pampering.

Toronto Botanical Garden: We checked this out last spring and my review is over here. It’s a nice place, just not for us.

Kortright Centre for Conservation: Another venue we checked out and that review is here. Kortright is quite pretty and eco-friendly, but it was a bit too far out-of-town for us (plus it didn’t have AC).

Ring Picked Up; Invites Almost All Sent

Friday night we picked up my custom wedding ring from Made You Look and it looks just like the jeweller said it would.

When I first put it on it was too tight but I was told that that’s to be expected since it’s easier to make a ring too tight and then have to loosen than to have to deal with the opposite situation.

The store was able to get one of their on-site jewellers to stretch it out a bit and now it fits just fine.

It also fits just like it should with my engagement ring. The whole reason we went the custom route is because the stone setting in my engagement ring has these “bump outs” that don’t allow it to sit snugly with a regular ring. My wedding ring has a pair of notches that accommodate the bump outs and allow the two rings to sit nicely beside each other.

My ring’s designer is Jill Maddin and I totally recommend both her and Made You Look for any custom work you need done. Made You Look also some great already made pieces is a variety of price points.

In other good news, all the invites are out except for a small handful that is waiting on Shawn to find addresses for them. They’re for family on his side and as soon as he calls this one aunt and gets the missing addresses, we can get them in the mail and be all done with invitations (well, at least until we have to start tracking down RSVP cards).