Our Circle of Life

As a graduate student, my specialty is sociology. I study people in groups... their behaviour, their expectations, their relationships with others. And given this choice of field, you’d probably jump to the easy conclusion that I love people, have an active social life and I have a ton of people who would want to attend my wedding.


You’d be mostly wrong.

MM and I discovered this when we started making out a guest list for the wedding. Even by stretching the numbers a bit and hoping that most of who we included on the list would actually attend… we ended up with 45 names.

45. That’s it. The sum total of who he and I know.

First of all, I should point out that I’m an orphan (by choice, but that’s a whole other story). Because of this, I don’t have siblings or parents to consider or include in our plans, let alone their family and friends. All those great-uncles, distant third cousins and dad’s former boss that get put on other people’s guest lists? Absent on ours.

On MM’s side, he has divorced parents and a brother. His brother is the best man, and his parents will be invited (along with their current significant others).

Add to that lives that have had both of us move around a fair deal around Canada, him because of army life and me because of… well.. life.. and it means that ties to friends are often tenuous and those people have a tendency of slipping away from us.

So between the two of us, our combined circle of friends and family who would want to attend our wedding comes out to 45 people.



This seemed to be a good number though. Smallish, true, but still enough to have a rocking party.

Or so I thought. Until we started actually working with Susan to find a place to hold our nuptial shindig. Then the problems cropped up.

...(to be continued next week)

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Round, Round, Round, Round, I Get Around

Actually, Tarriell does.

It seems one of her posts caught the eye of a researcher ...
Take a look .: over here :.

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Now Everytime I Go For The Mailbox ...

Now that wedding season is dying down a bit, I'm happy to focus more on invitations. For those who don't know (because it doesn't get posted about often enough!), Moments That Shine loves to get creative on paper, too! Actually, this time of the year is part of my favourite. Chaos seems to wind down and I'm able to focus more on being artistic. Perfect for those blustery days!

I love using fabric and different textures! This is an inexpensive yet trendy concept.
And yes, I know it should be 'Gwyneth' ... luckily this was just a sample ;)

Right now we're trying to come up with eco-friendly options for customers even if it's a suggestion as simple as 'get rid of inserts'. My biggest pet peeve is too much paper but I understand it has to happen sometimes. For that reason we're looking into 100% post-consumer recycled papers (check out .: Jennifer's post from last week :. to shed more light) and becoming more socially aware by donating portions of proceeds to an organization that is making a difference.

I did want to share some designs with readers today. All invites (or other stationary) from Moments That Shine is completely custom-made. We may start with a photo or two in mind but eventually everything evolves into a product that is uniquely you. Perhaps that why I love it so much! Here are some of my favourites ...

Suzanne opted for a custom drawn lamp post on a very simple single panel invitation. The final product was elegant and very meaningful to the couple!



Pocket folds are always a popular choice. As from the first picture, I was lucky enough to have Jennifer Images snap a photo of Jesara's invite for me. :) And of course, pocket folds come in many different shapes and colours!



For a destination wedding, luggage tags are the oh-so-favourites. This one for Lisa involved a custom map by .: Deeya Design :.


I think most readers remember this invitation. Along with Blogger Bride & Groom, I came up with one of the most unique designs yet. This echoed their personalities beautifully and was just so much fun!


Meaghan & Stuart were married in a private ceremony overseas (lucky them!) but wanted a party when they got back. The invite below is one of the first styles I designed for them and then afterwards they decided they wanted programs for the day as well. Turned out great as they were able to use their wedding photo on the cover!

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