Weddingbee Blog

“YOU ARE SO PRETTY AND YOUR RING IS GORGEOUS, BUT YOU SHOULD HAVE GOTTEN YOUR NAILS DONE BEFORE YOU TOOK A PICTURE OF YOUR HAND”

Someone left me this comment in my guestbook yesterday. It made me laugh out loud.

I pcked up my engagement ring yesterday. I really missed it! I had it resized so that it fits on my right hand. I can’t wear my wedding band and engagement ring together because they don’t fit together; my engagement ring is an antique and we purchased the two rings separately. My ring size on my left hand is a 31/4 but it’s a 4 on my right hand so I actually had to get the band on my engagement ring replaced - it was too thin to stretch out that much. It’s so sparkly since the jeweler steam cleaned it - you can’t get results like this at home.

This is my wedding band. We found an antique-ish design that’s very similar to the small stones on the band of my engagement ring. I really love my rings because they’re different and unique.

We’ve been married for almost 2 months now. I still stop and marvel every once and awhile… I’m married!!! I was thinking maybe it still doesn’t feel real at times because I didn’t change my last name. I’m pursuing some business venture and thought it might be beneficial to maintain my current name. But now I’m thinking about doing it anyway. It was something I was going to do eventually.

Are you planning on changing your last name after you get married?

Mr. Bee told me a story about an engaged couple this past weekend. The bride-to-be knew that her extremely wealthy fiance wanted her to sign a prenuptial agreement before they tied the knot. She kept putting it off thinking that maybe she could put it off forever. On the day of the wedding, they were still fighting about the prenup - he refused to marry her if she didn’t sign it. The ceremony was delayed for one hour, but she eventually signed it and they got married.

A lot of people think that a prenup represents the idea that money is more important than love. Maybe also a lack of trust and faith in your partner and the relationship. And of course it’s horribly unromantic. How does the concept of a prenup fit into a Cinderella-Prince Charming story?! But would you feel differently if you were extremely wealthy and the person you were marrying was poor? What if you came from wealth and your family pushed you to get a prenup to protect the family’s assets?

I read an article recently that said in this day and age, it’s just a practical safeguard “just in case” the marriage doesn’t work out. It doesn’t mean that you love your partner any less. And you don’t necessarily have to be wealthy to have a prenup. You’ll just go out with what you came in with. It’s the easiest and fairest way to divvy up assets in a complicated situation. With the divorce rate at over 50% in the US who’s to say that your marriage is one of the ones that’ll make it.

To tell you the truth, I don’t have a firm position on prenuptual agreements… then again I don’t really have m(any) assets. Mr. Bee on the other hand hates prenups. He thinks that they represent a lack of commitment to the relationship. Marriage is not just about love - it’s a lifelong commitment. He thinks the only circumstance in which a prenup may be justified is when the relationship arose out of an affair.

I can’t say that I’m opposed to prenups, but I am a hopeless romantic. I know I would be very hurt and offended if asked to sign one.

Mother’s Day is May 8th. To my mom, Mother’s Day is much more important than her own birthday so I never forget to get her a card and a gift and let her know that she’s appreciated. Mothers do so much after all!! Now that I’m married of course, I have 2 mothers to think about on this holiday so I went to Hallmark this weekend to buy a couple of mother’s day cards for me and Mr. Bee. I’m also sending our mothers framed family portraits that we took at the wedding. It’s usually so hard to choose a mother’s day present, but it was easy this year!

Brides-to-bee should get their future mothers-in-law a mother’s day card and maybe a small gift. Thank her for raising such a wonderful son. She’ll love you for it.

Then I put them in these leather albums I bought from Bed Bath and Beyond (pretty good deal at $40 and it holds 432 4×6 pics) so it would be easier to select the pictures for our wedding album. I put little colored dots on the pictures I’m considering using - red for absolutely, yellow for quite possibly, green for maybe because it tells part of the wedding day story, blue for when the pictures are shot in this really grainy b&w film that I love.

I’m too lazy to scan them, so here’s some pictures of pictures. The wind blowing my veil over my head.

The reflection of the Brooklyn Bridge is in the door.

Us sitting in the car. I didn’t even know she took this picture!

Arriving at the venue with my mom.

I love this entire series where we’re signing our marriage license with our witnesses. Alas I can only show you my hand.

This was taken in the dressing room right after the ceremony. There’s beading running down my train as well but otherwise my dress is very clean and simple.

My adorable flowergirl.

The groomsmen’s bouttonaires.

This pic is taken when I’m changing into my hanbok after the ceremony. I like how you can see my wedding band.

I love detail shots.

My bouquet.

My ringbearer taking a picture of his sister the flowergirl.

The ribbon tying off the aisle.

I like how you can see Mr. Bee’s ring.

I LOVE this picture! It’s one of my bridesmaids after she missed the bouquet.

My flowergirl leading a conga line!

Our wish bowl.

Ringbearer intrigued by cookies.

I love these candid shots she captured. I’m looking at a digital camera right here.

We have a lot of great pictures and I can’t even show you the beautiful panoramic shots we took in front of the Hudson River and the Brooklyn Bridge because I only have a contact sheet. It’s really going to be hard choosing the best ones for our album.

I went to AI Friedman near Union Square to buy a photo album this weekend. I’m putting together a couple of wedding albums for our parents and relatives and found the best selection of archival museum quality albums here. I didn’t find anything I loved at Kate’s Paperie. AI Friedman is an awesome store for art and photography presentation materials. Along 18th and 19th streets between 5th and 6th avenue, you’ll find Paper Access (for all your paper needs), Print Icon (custom and premade paper and invitations), Calumet and Adorama (all your photography supplies), Sam Flax (art supplies and furniture) and AI Friedman. You’ll find me in this area at least once a week.

I love this 10×10 wine colored album. The cover is made with a gorgeous bookbinding cloth with 50 black leaves inside. Even the box it comes in meets museum quality preservation standards. Our black and white photos will really stand out against the black background. This baby cost $126 but AI Friedman gives you a 10% discount with a student ID.

The albums we purchase through our photographer run around $1000-$1500. To save some money, I’d like buy one album through our photographer and make parent albums myself since our photographer is giving us our negatives. I’m going to get the prints and enlargements done at a professional developing studio so hopefully they’ll turn out really nice. The only problem is that it takes our photographer around 3 months to make an album which means I won’t have the negatives to make the parent albums. I had no idea that it took that long. I want our album as soon as possible, but parents are clamoring for their albums too! Hmmmm… what to do.

I picked up our proofs from our photographer and we looked over them at dinner last night. There are around 1000 of them (that’s a lot of proofs!). I am super duper picky when it comes to pictures - mostly because I’m horribly UNphotogenic. Yes ’tis sad and true. It’s not so much that I’m horribly unphotogenic, it’s that everyone tells me I look much better in person. That’s what my husband would call a “complisult” - a cross between a compliment and an insult.

Anyway we had lots of blinkers in our wedding party, but overall there are lots of beautiful shots. I’m in the process of choosing 50 pics for our album. I think I’m going to buy one album through our photographer and make 3 albums for our families by myself because professionally made albums can get expensive.

We asked for our photographer to shoot 50% black and white and 50% color but our proofs had much more black & white pics than color. I looooove black and white photos, but the color photos are so beautiful. They’re so vivid and really seem to capture the moment. If I could do it again, I would ask for 60% color, 40% black & white.

Mr. Bee and I celebrated our one month anniversary dinner at the River Cafe. A beautiful and romantic restaurant in Brooklyn with a view of the Manhattan skyline and the Brooklyn Bridge. Married life is grand.

You can see the Manhattan Bridge in the back of the second pic.

The restaurant has tons of fresh flowers everywhere. It smells absolutely wonderful when you walk in.

Everything was delicious! Lobster flan w/ pear.

Our appetizers. Left: Frisee salad wrapped in prosciutto. Right: Tuna sashimi and Hamachi over cucumber and rice.

The main course: Lobster tail and steak.

We licked the plates clean!

For dessert: Pannacota with rhubarb ice cream.

I can’t believe it’s already been a month!

This Sunday Mr. Bee and I went to Barnes and Noble to finish our thank you cards. Writing thank you cards is hard work!! I might even suggest inviting less guests so you have to write less thank you cards. Haha.

Mr. Bee says that now that he knows just how much work goes into having a wedding, he’s going to send a thank you note to the bride and groom after any future weddings we attend. This makes sense doesn’t it? I mean the bride and groom work so hard to put together a wedding and then as soon as they get back from the honeymoon, they have to write a million thank yous to their guests. What about thank yous for the bride and groom?!?! It’s really nice when you get a note or email from a guest telling you what a good time they had, thanking you, congratulating you. We’re definitely sending thank yous for any future weddings we attend.

Tomorrow is our one month anniversary as husband and wife!! Mr. Bee is taking me out to dinner.

****

Update!!! I just got my first thank you!

Hey Bee,I hope your trip to Spain with Mr. Bee was wonderful. Did you get to do
all the tourist-y stuff and still have time to enjoy the country side
of Spain? Anyway, I wanted to thank you and Mr. Bee for the beautiful
thank you card. And thanks for the links for the pictures. Everybody
had fun that night. That was the best wedding I’ve been to. I got to
see old friends, mingle, drink, dance, and of course see you and Mr. Bee
tie the knot. If you and Mr. Bee are ever in the Arizona area, look me
up and I’ll take you to great southwest mexican places. Until next
time, best wishes to the two of you.Did you hear that?!?! That was the best wedding I’ve been to. That was the best wedding I’ve been to. That was the best wedding I’ve been to. That was the best wedding I’ve been to. That was the best wedding I’ve been to. That was the best wedding I’ve been to. That was the best wedding I’ve been to. That was the best wedding I’ve been to. That was the best wedding I’ve been to.

Did you hear that?!?!I LOVE wedding feedback. Makes me feel all giddy.