Weddingbee Blog

It seems like I have been gone forever. The last few weeks of wedding planning were so hectic and then the wedding flew by faster than I could have ever imagined. When all was said and done…

I GOT MARRIED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My wedding was like a dream. Truly. My biggest hesitation in writing this blog was that it really makes it feel like it (the wedding) is all over… yet, all I want to do is experience everything all over again! People say that the day goes fast. I knew it would, but the whirlwind is more than I could ever accurately explain.

I stare so happily at my brand new wedding rings (I now wear two bands), and recall the day over and over and over in my mind. If there was a rewind button, I would jump at the chance to experience it again, because it really was such a special day.

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This was a collage of our Thailand engagement pictures that was blown up and put into a 30×40 frame for me. More blogging later. I’m still jetlagged.

Although this has probably been blogged to death, I have a question about registries. As has been mentioned before, many couples don’t feel the need to register. I understand the reasoning behind this, but still question the gift angle.

For weeks leading up to the wedding we recently attended, I asked any and everyone where the bride and groom were registered. I figured they may want something off that for the wedding. No one knew. So, Mr. Kiwi and I went to the wedding sans gift. *Gasp!* Since she wasn’t taking her honeymoon until this summer, we knew she’d be at work the following week, so we’d just get it for her then. Well, I asked her where she was registered, and she said, “Nowhere.” What? She didn’t register for anything? Okaaaay…

So, while we were planning to get her something off registry, we figured giving them cash would be easier. Until she said that “Cash was appreciated.” Hmm. It’s all well and good when it’s our choice to give them cash. We like giving cash. When there is no other choice, I feel cornered into giving money or nothing. Who wants to be an ungrateful guest? So, we’ll give her cash.

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Hi everyone!

I saw a comment in our moderation queue today where the commenter was wondering whether she had been banned. With all the comment policy hoopla this past week, I can understand why the commenter may have thought that!

We’ve mentioned this several times in the past, but a good 20-30 comments automatically go into our moderation queue every day, and we have to manually clear them. We have no idea why certain comments get caught in moderation - sometimes they’re perfectly good comments, sometimes they’re spam. But if you include a link in your comment, it might go into moderation because links usually = spam. If you leave more than one link in a comment, your comment will definitely go into moderation.

So if your comment doesn’t show up right away, it’s probably just hanging out in our moderation queue until we approve it (which we do throughout the day). We did have an instance this week where one reader’s comments were automatically going into our spam box. If you don’t see one of your comments appear in the same day, please let us know. Once our spam filter program identifies one of your comments as spam, all of your subsequent comments will automatically go into our spam box. If we go in and identify your username/ip as not spam, you’ll be good to go.

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Today, we started to learn the intro to our first dance - my fiance has a cute little solo! Take a peek at him learning.

Oh yeah! When we were leaving, we met a fellow Weddingbee reader - she shouted out "HEY! Aren’t you from WeddingBee?" I was taken aback a bit, but I thought it was so cool! She and her FI just started dance lessons today - I bet it was the booty-shaking video of my Fiance learning the merengue that convinced ’em . I’ve been anticipating the day when someone off the street would recognize me lol - I’m such a nerd!

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I’m seeing if Miss Caterpillar’s Shoe Secret really works…

So far, so good! I’m lucky that my shoes are already insanely comfortable and are made of very soft leather, but as a victim of shoe abuse with many strappy-sorority-scars to prove it, one can’t be too cautious! Plus I’m getting too old to wear my “Malibu Couture” knee socks out on the town… so I can frolic indoors like it’s 2004 again!

….I agreed.

You see, Mr. Apple is a huge Lord of the Rings fan. He has the LOTR Trilogy Series on dvd. He also received this leather bound LOTR 50th Anniversary Edition book from me a few years back for Christmas. So after seeing a LOTR post awhile back from Miss Blueberry, he suggested why not have towns from LOTR as our table “numbers”.

With these unique and somewhat difficult town names, we thought it would be a better idea to include photos of fruits - for those older guests whose English isn’t so good. I even used some Asian fruits like the rambutan and lychee. I actually thought of doing different varieties of apples since I am Miss Apple! But I realized most guests wouldn’t even get it since they don’t read WB, plus apple variaties are so close in color and shape that people wouldn’t be able to distinguish between the apples. At least from the quick search I did on google.

I d-i-y’d the table names by using MS Word and printing them off my personal printer. The fruit images were downloaded from google images.

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Lots of my coworkers have babies since I work at a relatively young company, so I have always enjoyed the occasional baby pictures and stories. But now the new girl in my department has a baby, so every time I walk by her desk I see her smiling baby face wallpaper, and every time we have an awkward silence it’s…”so what did your baby do that was cute last night?”

I may sound like I’m complaining of too much Baby in my life… but not for the reason you might think. The truth is, I loooove the baby pictures and stories, and go out of my way to ask the QA guy who I rarely lay eyes on to pleeease show me those new videos of his toddler! So the only reason this new infiltration of Baby is bad for me is because we were solidly in the “wait several years” camp (and Mr. Bluebell still is! Ha!) so this is just making my brain go “baaaabiiiiiiiies!!!!!” all the time and not actually think real thoughts. Yeeeah. So we’re still planning to wait a good couple years, but maaan baby-vibes, leave me alone!!

I am sitting with tears in my eyes now…but in a good way.

I have been absolutely stressed out lately. Last night was the first time in more than 2 weeks that I’ve gotten a full night’s sleep (more than 5.5 hours) because I’ve been incredibly busy with work and wedding stuff. I was frustrated with Mr. Pearl because he hasn’t been following through with his wedding obligations in a timely fashion. Add an extra helping of family drama on top of that and I was prime for a crying spell and vent session this afternoon.

After I finish venting to Mr. Pearl on G-Talk, he IM’s me back the following

Miss Pearl… from the first weekend that we spent together in Las Vegas to last night after I spent an hour at Blockbuster and Hollywood Video looking for “Platoon” [wanted it to have some visuals about the Vietnam War for my students today]…. I have loved you… I have always loved you with all my heart. I will always love you with all my heart because, at this point, you are part of my heart and my soul. I couldn’t imagine not waking up next to you. I couldn’t imagine not seeing your little girl smile when I walk through the front door. I couldn’t imagine going to bed without you saying “Cuddle me.” I couldn’t imagine raising a family with anyone else. I couldn’t fathom growing old with anyone but you. I couldn’t imagine wanting anyone else to be the last face that I see before I die. I love you

Dammit, he just made it so hard for me to be mad at him!

Update: I never thought so many people would enter! So now we’ll use our nifty random number generator to select one winner… and we’ll throw in a Paperbride Tip Kit for your trouble.

~~~

Mrs. Bee here.

I have some goodies from Monday’s Wedding Salon bridal show to give away. This year’s gift bag wasn’t nearly as awesome as it was last year, and the turnout was also pretty disappointing. It’s too bad because I thought last year’s show was great. Did you attend? What did you think of it?

(sample table set up @ the Wedding Salon)

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When Mr. Kiwi and I got engaged, I told him that if we’re marrying in a church, I wish it would be at St. Augustine Church in Culver City, CA (my hometown). The church is so classic looking, and is just so beautiful to be married in. That idea was tossed by the wayside when we decided to marry in the tent at the Radisson. Which was also tossed by the wayside when we got a “deal” at Mr. Kiwi’s church.

So, even though we’re not marrying there, we do get to take our marriage prep class there! Yes, it is sad that I’m super excited about that, right? Well, I called in early April to put our names on the books for the class. Our priest had told us they fill up early, which is why I called more than a month in advance. Having left a message, I called back the next week, since I hadn’t been called back yet. The girl answering the phone said they don’t have their list yet, and they’ll call back.

Apparently, I have a trust issue, since I called the following week after that–and again, the list hadn’t been made and they’d call me back. Finally, three weeks after calling them we are booked. It’s really a relief to know that the class has been booked–now I can go back to worrying about what they’ll ask me. Read more…

In today’s hive:

1. Since Miss B isn’t changing her name, she’s curious what the mc will announce at the end of the ceremony. Just her and her husband’s first names? Both their first and last names? Anyone know the protocol?
2. iheartq is hosting a bridal shower, and wants the guests to return a small card (mailed with the invitation) filled in with their advices and well-wishes for the bride. She’d like to use these in a scrapbook that will also serve as a guestbook, but she’s not sure if this is an etiquette no-no. What do you think? (See her full dilemma here.)
3. Jann is considering an outdoor wedding (at a vineyard), but is concerned about bugs. Has anyone been to a wedding where this was a problem? And are there any solutions besides yucky citronella candles?
4. jen wants to know how much contact you had with your DOC prior to your wedding. Did they prepare a timeline for you or give you a template for you to modify? She wants to know if she’s expecting too much from the people she hired.

To add your question to the beehive, leave a comment below and we’ll update this post to include your question. See all past beehives here.

Having (prudently? foolishly?) decided not to hire a professional wedding planner, Mr. Lovebug and I went recently to our local big box bookstore in search of some DIY guidance. A recently married friend assures us that a self-planner is all we need to stay on track, on task, and on budget.

The section housing these frighteningly saccharine tomes is housed intuitively enough between Pregnancy and Etiquette. I figure an hour’s research in this row, and I have every conceivable social scenario covered, leaving me no excuse to violate decorum when my water breaks during high tea.

Apparently, wedding planners are pretty much all subsets of the sames species: pastel, flowery, and feminine. Imagine if your Filofax was the sort of Filofax that douched–that’s what a wedding planner looks like. Mathematically, that’s: Read more…

One of the few things that I just can’t seem to get right in my wedding planning is the gift for my MOH. I had ordered this stationery cube:

from BeauCoup in February, and it would have been perfect because she loves sending cards and notes in the mail and adding personalized notes to gifts. But I’ve since found out that it has been discontinued. So now I am starting from scratch! Read more…

I have a problem. It’s three weeks ’til my wedding and the venue just informed me that we can’t hang anything from the walls or ceiling for the reception. To save money (we are on a tiny budget), we are having our reception in the fellowship hall of the church where the ceremony is. (And after reading so many wedding sites, I feel like the only one out here having a reception in a church hall.) Anyway, they originally told me we could do whatever we want to decorate. It’s a very old church built in the 1930’s with a tiny old congregation to match and the trustees are scared we’ll ruin the wall or ceilings.

I’m so bummed because I was going to hang strings of globe lights and paper lanterns. I thought with those and some soft lighting, it might not feel so much like a basement.

I can’t think of anything way to hang them without building some type of poles or renting 12-foot trees of some kind to string them from across the room (though I’m sure we can’t afford either of those ideas, anyway). I don’t know if I should call and plead with them or give up.

Any ideas?

meredith