Autumn Mums (31DC2016)

All right, so there’s not a terrific load of orange in this manicure for day two’s theme of, uh, orange in the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge.  But I’m on a bit of a floral bender at the moment, and the cutest little orange flowers I could think of were Chrysanthemums, a flower Mr. Finger Candy and I had a virtual meadow of at our Halloween wedding.  Autumn Mums are just adorable, and not hideously expensive either – really the prettiest and most economical choice of flower for any Fall wedding, if you don’t care to splash out on major floral dollars.  Plus, at this time of year, available in front of any old grocery store or gas station!  You know, for those super on-the-fly weddings. 😉

Happy Anniversary to Me!

I don’t often talk about my life on this blog without tying it to nail art in some way, but today I simply feel like tooting my own matrimonial horn, because it’s my 11th wedding anniversary! Today’s weather is very much like the weather we had the day of our wedding (cool, windy, sporadic rain), although Halloween fell on a Sunday the year we were married – purely from a party perspective, this year’s Saturday is obviously THE choice time.

But pleasantly enough – and I’ve spoken about this before in another wedding-related blog post with some TERRIBLE accompanying nails – it wasn’t the party part of our wedding that I enjoyed the most. Sure, I had a great time mingling, nibbling and dancing the night away with my family and friends in a gorgeously decorated old barn, but the ceremony itself is where I actually had the most (unanticipated) fun, suddenly becoming quite giddy at the prospect of marrying this terrific guy. Our vows were even fun, the two of us kind of winging it. And even though we made a number of personal changes to the standard, non-denominational ceremony in advance, neither one of us got that wound up about memorizing, well, anything or about “performing” in public – I chalk this up to his formative years spent in the theatre and mine spent in the ballet studio; we’re comfortable on a stage. And that comfort made for a fun experience – lots of banter and goofy smiles and the perfect certainty that comes with knowing that you got one of the great ones. That we should all be so lucky. 🙂

And so happy 11th anniversary to the man who puts the Mr. in Mr. Finger Candy. I’d marry you again in a heartbeat, my love, and not just because you’re easily-bought tech support. Well, mostly not. 😉

Calla Lilies

I carried dark purple calla lilies in my wedding bouquet, the 11th anniversary of which Mr. Finger Candy and I will be celebrating this Halloween. I had initially wanted to carry black roses, which I knew were no such thing – “black” roses are actually just very, very dark red or purple roses. I knew this! And yet every single florist but the one I eventually went with almost gleefully told me that black roses didn’t actually exist and they were really just very, very dark red or purple roses, sometimes even after I told them that these were things I already knew, almost like a mea culpa. It unfortunately took a lot of the fun out of it. Also, I could see that “black” roses were going to be a real light-suck when it came time for photographs. And so I eventually ended up going with blackened purple calla lilies and bright green pepper berries, with a smattering of dark purple mini roses and fresh greenery. It was gorgeous! So here I tried to capture the bouquet of lilies and pepper berries I carried, with a little holographic shimmer for extra pretty measure.

Candy Appletini

Mmm mmm good is the candy appletini. And I’d know, because it was the signature drink on offer at my Halloween wedding and I drank about 10 of them (you’ll be glad to know I wasn’t one of those sad, sloshed brides, though – I powered through that day on pure adrenaline (and a lovely cheese plate that seemingly apparated out of thin air; come to think of it, where did that cheese come from?) and I suspect the alcohol just burned off the second it passed my tonsils.) Of course, those 10 cocktails led to one tremendously awkward, yet hilarious, trip to the ladies room with a friend, the two of us in near-hysterics, squished into a stall in which my dress was taking up about 80 percent of the space, and that’s a wonderful memory I wouldn’t trade for anything (not even the sugar hangover I had the next morning. Mmm mmm good is the candy appletini, but I’m pretty sure one drink contains more than your lifetime allotment of refined sugar.)

Joyeux ‘Ween, One and All!

I’m taking a break from my usual nail art and blogging activities today on account of the fact that it is my 10th wedding anniversary! Ten years doesn’t seem like a particularly long time (and my husband and I are thankfully both on on the same page that it doesn’t feel like a long time), but when I think about all of the couples, married or not, that I’ve known over the years that are now no more, I realize what a very rare accomplishment a decade of marriage truly is. Plus there’s that part where we’ve co-existed now for over 10 years without completely losing our minds, which is a tremendous achievement in and of itself! He also fixes my computer, which means we can’t ever part – do you know how hard it is to find quality IT support that will work for homemade mac and cheese? VERY.

So while I’m off being all nostalgic and lovey dovey with Mr. Finger Candy (around here that means I swear furious blood vengeance on the player that scooped his special holiday box in GTA V this afternoon – screw with my man’s avatar, will you?!), I thought I’d acknowledge the other importance this day has, namely ghosts and goblins, oogies and boogies and, of course, sweet candy greed with a gallery of some of my favourite Halloween manicures from the past two years. Perhaps you’ll find the perfect one to adorn your nails this evening, whatever spooky fun you get up to. As always, stay safe tonight, gang, and Happy Halloween!

All Hallows Bride (OMD2)

I was married on Halloween, so I am perhaps not the person to consult on all things traditionally bridal. Not that our wedding was some ultra gothed-out, be-costumed free-for-all, mind you. It was actually quite traditional (you know, apart from the goat sacrifice we scheduled between cocktails and appetizers.) 😉

So when I saw that day 28’s theme in the Oh Mon Dieu nail art challenge was bridal, I knew I’d have to stay true to the person I was on that day nearly 10 years ago and painted what I know.

With that in mind, here I’ve shown a couple of nails’ worth of my dress, a gorgeous embroidered gown with a corset that I was so tightly strapped into, I actually started having breathing problems towards the end of the night (prior to that it had been quite comfortable and obviously insanely supportive – plus my boobs looked fabulous! – but somewhere around midnight it decided enough was enough and tried to kill me. I remember my friends laying me out on a couch in an adjoining room like a side of beef, trying to relieve the pressure on my chest. It was ridiculously stupid and funny and one of my favourite memories of that day.)

On my index finger, I’ve shown a version of the purple satin dresses my girlfriends wore as they had my back (my fourth attendant, one of my oldest friends, wore a tux, because he’s a dude and classy like that, although he probably would have looked pretty great in that dress, too.)

The candy corns on my ring finger represent the little Halloween loot bags we passed out as favours (trust me, no one wants an engraved candle with your names on it; ply your guests with mini chocolate bars instead), and the iconic curly cliff from The Nightmare Before Christmas draws inspiration from our Jack and Sally cake toppers.

But having said all sorts of good things about my wedding reception (and I haven’t even discussed the food, Thanksgiving-type fare with a heavy emphasis on yum), I’d just like to point out that my very favourite part of my wedding day was the ceremony itself. It was warm and touching and spontaneous (especially the part where we had to move the site itself inside due to rain), and my husband and I, both being goofy show-offs, had a lot of fun making moony eyes at each other and playing up the spectacle of it all. And then I got to marry my best friend! As the great Ice Cube might say, it was a good day. 🙂