Weddingbee Blog

Mr. Lollipop’s family is less centralized than mine, so I had met only a few in the 7.5 years of our relationship. We wanted to organize some time so that I could meet all of them before I married into their clan. While both Mr. Lollipop and I had wanted to throw a welcome barbecue, a quick calculation of the guest list led us to conclude that we couldn’t afford the time or money to throw what would essentially be a second reception.

Rowr! No barbecue for us…

So, we went with a second option: brunch at the Carnegie Museums, dutch. This allowed us to open the guest list to everyone invited to the wedding, an option much more fair to all of our family and friends. Plus, we were able to put the small amount of money designated for the barbecue towards better beer for the reception. (Hoegaarden and Yuengling! Yay!) Our families were game despite having to pay their own way and we had a lovely time eating the Museum Cafe’s excellent food and mingling.

The Museum Cafe is my favorite place to eat in the Oakland neighborhood. The menu changes often, so there is always something new to try, and the desserts are fantastic. As a result, the seating area can get crowded, so we used record covers as place mats and to reserve tables. Luckily, it was a slow morning and there were plenty of extra tables so we didn’t intrude on other patrons.

The album covers came from a local record store, Jerry’s Records, that gives away boxes of damaged records once a year. A few friends and I sifted through the box and pulled out the ones with funniest, ugliest, tackiest covers. My place mat was a little different and featured a bride and groom and ‘MAZELTOV’ in big red letters. I still have a big stack of album covers; if there is enough interest I’ll post the cream of the crop after my camera comes back from repairs.

Photos courtesy of my Cousin Aileen via our wedding photo pool.