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Things I Learned From My Sister’s Wedding: #3
If you’re getting ready at a hotel, your house, or anywhere other than the ceremony location, you might want to invest in a hand steamer. We had a 20 minute ride between the hotel and the church, and when we climbed out of the limo we were all wrinkly. Luckily, my sister had thought ahead and had a steamer waiting for us at the church!
We were able to steam the wrinkles from all four of our bridesmaids’ dresses, my mom’s dress, and even the bride’s dress! If you’re worried about taking a steamer to your own dress, though, at least have one there for the bridesmaids’ dresses. The steamer worked wonders and brought us back up to looking picture perfect!
You can find hand steamers at any of your basic home stores like Bed, Bath & Beyond or Linens n’ Things…or even register for one like my sister and her husband did!
Taking turns steaming each other in the church basement.
Mr. Magnolia and I love to spend our Sundays poring over the newspaper. By mid-afternoon, it’s inevitable that the various sections will be strewn about the living room in complete disarray.
This Sunday, after we both devoured everything we could about a particular football victory, I moved on to the advertisements. Pre-wedding, I always went straight for Target, Best Buy, Cost Plus World Market, and the much-anticipated seasonal Ikea booklet. I still browse those weekly circulars, but now I’ve added craft stores like JoAnn’s and Michael’s to the mix.
About halfway through the Michael’s ad was the following picture:
Hi everyone! Countdown is on. Countdown to how long it will take to lose it! Honestly, while I’m terribly enjoying this time of single-hood before the wedding on Saturday, I’m also finding out there are more and more things to do. Let me list them:
- I must pick up the centerpiece vases from the valley - an hour long drive if there is traffic.
- I must also pick up a hot glue gun or some of that 3M Double stick tape. Somehow I trust the glue gun more, although I was banned from using anything with the words “hot” and “glue” when I was a girl scout.
- While picking up that tape, I must also get some more of those handy colored bead/marbley things to put in the centerpieces. They should have that at JoAnn’s right?
image courtesy of amazon.com
In a revealing Salon.com interview, Deborah Merrill, author of the book “Mothers-in-Law and Daughters-in-Law: Understanding the Relationship and What Makes Them Friends or Foe”, acknowledges that mother-in-law and daughter-in-law relationships can occasionally be fraught with tension and conflict because “while the daughter-in-law is trying to create her own family, her mother-in-law is trying to maintain relationships in her family as they have always been.”
Featured on Weddingbee
Unique Wedding Favors
“Add a memorable touch to your wedding with unique favors that match your theme.”
After setting the date, it was time to decide on a theme. Even though themes aren’t necessary, I knew I wanted one for my wedding. This was one part of the wedding that wasn’t really hard to figure out. Being a fan of anything glamour, I thought it would be a neat to incorporate it in my wedding.
Mr. Flamingo left me with majority of the decision making, and I basically had carte-blanche. So my ideas started flowing. I wanted a modern glamour wedding, so that meant pearls, chandeliers, golds, pinks and champagnes.
After our official countdown began, my sweetie started to show interest in the planning. I was really happy about this, because not many guys (I know) take part of the planning. As time passed, I realized that the glamour part of our theme was more me than him, and we needed to find something that suited the both of us! It finally came to me at 2 o’clock in the morning on a weekday. Mr. Flamingo is a fan of anything movies, so we decided to combine the two.
I recently stumbled across this site, which has a really different take on wedding dresses. The creator’s mother purchased a wedding dress for her that cost $1,000. According to Sonya Neumann, the creator of the site and project,
I went shopping for a dress with my mother, and in the end, she purchased a thousand dollar dress just for me; just for one day. The thing is, I realize now that it wasn’t about the price which I was extremely uncomfortable with; it was about the dress. The beauty, the flow, the sparkles that awoke amidst the light. It was about the vision, my mother’s vision, and her maternal desire to create that ‘dream day’ for her daughter. This was her gift; even if it was in a barn strung with Christmas lights.
Because she hated to see the dress just sit unused in a garment bag, Sonya has embarked on a project to photograph 1,000 individuals wearing her dress. Here are some of her pictures:
Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
As someone who loves architecture and travel, when I came across these cool wire building sculptures, I couldn’t help but fall in love with them. They’re a little out of our budget, but I thought I’d share with them with since they could not only make awesome centerpieces, but could be used in lieu of table numbers (I mean why would anyone want to sit at boring old table 7 when they could be sitting at Paris? 
)
An assortment of buildings.
Okay, not really. But holiday entertaining is already on my mind thanks to the latest issue of Blueprint magazine. I love this setup and it could totally be done for a wedding as well! I love Christmas themes that aren’t done in your typical red and green.
I only shopped for dresses while living in Seattle/Olympia, so sorry, NYC brides, I don’t have any local reviews. But for all you Seattle area brides, I hit almost all the shops in the area!
Here goes!
Bellevue Bridal Boutique - Downtown, Bellevue
I went here twice. It was also the first place I tried on dresses. It’s a nice shop - small but they have a huge selection. They also had a lot of great dresses marked down to almost 50% off. I’m not sure if that’s available all the time, but it was both times I was there.
I found a gown I really liked here. It was a sample gown close to my budget, but still required a lot of consideration. I was sooooo close to buying, but after looking at photos and sharing with the bridesmaids, I realized it was making me sea-sick. 
I love bustling and pick ups in dresses, but this one was way too symmetrical. Also, after trying on dresses here, I decided I did not want a veil. I felt too bride-y… though I guess that’s the point.
Here are some pictures of our wedding! Since we have sooo many, I’ll show them a few at a time. First off, here are the “Getting Ready” shots.
My beautiful shoes!
I’d like to share some of the many blogs I read, because you never know where you’ll find wedding inspiration! 
Let’s start off with something fun and silly that’s been cracking me up lately. Lolsecretz is a cross between Post Secret (where people anonymously confess their secrets on postcards) and Lolcats (where people combine a picture of a cat with funny, misspelled captions). Here are some of the wedding themed ones!
Invitation design: Fine Stationery
Greetings to all you current bees, future bees, and not to forget you awesome readers. I am so excited to be part of the hive. Like many of you, I’ve been reading weddingbee for some time now, and being part of this great ‘family’ is an honor. I will try my best to maintain it.
What could be better on a rainy Friday than a DIY project!
A few weeks ago I tuned into Martha Stewart’s show and saw Darcy Miller showing off some of her great ideas for weddings. I absolutely fell in love with one of her table settings, which showed up on her blog soon after.
Photo courtesy of Darcy Miller’s blog.
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