Weddingbee

I’ve talked quite a bit about our honeymoon, and now that it’s coming close, I realized there are some things that I need to figure out.

Like what to pack. As we are traveling with carry-ons only (since spending a month backpacking in Europe, I have a hard time packing more than just a carry-on), space is pretty limited. I thought I’d share my packing list for other people traveling to warm climates who hope to pack light, as well as open it up to any suggestions for items that I have forgotten.

Clothes (including what I will wear on the plane):
2 knit dresses
1 pair shorts
1 pair pants
2 short sleeved shirts
1 cardigan or long sleeved shirt
birkenstocks
sneakers
socks
underwear
3 swimsuits
1 pashmina
rain jacket
(I plan on buying some nicer sandals once we’re in Bali.)

Congratulations to commenter #129 jenniferb - the winner of the Perfect Details Earrings!  

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Today’s giveaway comes to us from Perfect Details, purveyor of elegant bridal shoes, accessories, gifts and more. They’ve also recently opened a boutique in lovely Santa Cruz, CA, and to celebrate they’re giving away a pair of earrings to one lucky weddingbee reader!  

These are some of their bestsellers: clockwise, dangling pear drop chandelier, vintage teardrop, pearl drop w/ cz, godfather waltz

Simply comment below with your favorite, or click on over to their gorgeous earring section and let us know if there are a pair that you like better – one lucky winner will win her pair of choice! 

You have until midnight 4/30 to enter.  Good luck!

Working on all of the little details for our wedding is turning out to be WAY more difficult then searching for vendors. Right now I’m on the hunt for 8-9″ black table stands. I don’t want anything fancy or theme related. Just some decent, plain looking stands. So far, these options are the only two that I’ve come up with (found at Food Service Direct):

When first faced with the task of planning a wedding, I honestly thought I could have a super fabulous wedding in San Francisco for 10k. After only a tiny amount of research, I discovered that I was seriously out to lunch. Most of the venues in San Francisco have rental fees upwards of 6k–which, in my fantasy budget, left us with only 4k to decorate and feed people. Not gonna happen. So the budget was re-evaluated, and I found much less expensive options for pretty much everything. But everything is still adding up, and recently I crunched some numbers and started to freak out a bit.

First, we added 20 people to the guest list. This was sorta-kinda necessary, as the 130 people we were aiming for only covered our families, but not our friends.

Second, there was the videographer, which we all agreed we should have, but we hadn’t budgeted for.

Third, there were the decorations–our flowers are WAY under budget, but we went with fancy linens and chivari chairs (which, as it turns out, we will now only get to split 2 ways, as the 3rd couple can’t afford them). All of this would have been fine, if it weren’t for the extra tables. The extra tables mean extra centerpieces and extra fancy linens, not to mention extra service staff.

As time passes, I seem to change my mind on what I want to do for the table numbers. At first Mr. Flamingo had suggested having vintage movie posters, but I soon realized that they could be very complicated and hard to understand. First off, if the guests don’t know the movie specifically, they will need to search to find the actual title on the poster. In those years there was type all over the place - the actors’ names were more prominent than the actual movie title - so I think it may be hard for the guests to find their table. Another important point is that the majority of the guests are French and all the movie titles are in English.

I really liked the imagery of the 1933 movie The Songs of Songs. Not only is the imagery beautiful, but it’s vintage and wedding perfect… and it’s actually a love story too.

Here is the original poster :

source

After putting it off for months, Mr. Hum and I finally bit the bullet this past weekend and picked out our rings. We had looked at some conventional jewellery stores, but in the end, we decided to go with Kalupe, a Toronto jeweler we’d known of for a while and who Mr. Hum had dealt with a few years ago when he purchased a beautiful necklace for my 23rd birthday (I’ve worn it constantly since I got it, I love it so much).

Because we were looking for something a little original and funky, their pieces were perfect for us. Not only are they customizable, but many take their cue from historical designs dating back as far as the 5th century which I totally love. I mean how cool is it to think that something you’re making the commitment to wear for the rest of your life has endured for so many years?

Anyway, as for what we ended up choosing, I’m not spilling the beans on the specifics just yet, but suffice it to say Mr. Hum picked out a band design he liked and I am getting a customized version, using the same design motif but modified for my smaller hands.

We’re thrilled to see that so many people are using the Classifieds right here on Weddingbee to buy and sell all kinds of wedding related stuff, so this week we’re launching Weddingbee’s Classified Roundup!

Every week we’ll feature the best of what’s currently for sale by readers. So if you’ve got something that you’d like to sell, post it in the classifieds, include a link to pictures, and you just might see your item featured here on the blog! As usual, you’re always welcome to check out everything that’s for sale over in the classifieds section.

Today, reader janeoak is selling four brand new sets of Swarovski pearl necklaces and earrings. They’re beautiful, classic, and would make a great gift for your bridesmaids. They’re all for sale for $100 plus s&h, a fantastic deal!

A couple of weeks ago, I posted about adding a pop of pink by having my bridesmaids wear hot pink shoes with their blue dresses. Finding pink shoes for two of my bridesmaids (one of my sisters and FSIL) wasn’t hard at all - they have “normal-sized” feet. The other two were an entire different story - my cousin is a size 5.5 like me, and my little 17 year-old sister is a freakishly small size 4!

If you recall, the two with “normal-sized” feet had picked the same styled-dress, and the two with tiny feet chose the another dress, so I didn’t feel the need for them to have matching shoes either. But now, the hard part - where to find size 4 pink heels?!?!

Tra-la! Nordstrom to the rescue!
 

BP. ‘Dazzle’ Satin Sandal*

While planning our wedding, I loved the idea of staying at a nice hotel the night before the wedding (by myself) and on the wedding night (joined by Mr. T). Unfortunately, we couldn’t spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars for the privilege. Originally, my plan was to bid on Priceline a few days beforehand and see what came up. But then my favorite travel discount site, Travelzoo, shared the great news that a new Hotel Monaco had opened in Alexandria, just 3 blocks from our ceremony site, and they were having a $99/night special.

And it turns out, staying there was a fantastic decision — they made the wedding weekend an absolute dream!

(Taking a pre-ceremony break on the world’s most comfortable bed)

When we first started planning the wedding, we ran into the question of how we’d get down the aisle. Would each of us be walked down the aisle by someone else? Would one of us be waiting at the end of the aisle as the other walked towards her? Would we each walk towards each other? Would we walk down together?

Of these options, I liked the idea of either walking towards each other or walking down together. We are well past being given away. But our ceremony site presents a bit of a challenge to either vision.

Here is where the ceremony will take place.

We can either seat guests on the deck or in front of the deck. I like the idea of having them on the deck because it gets them closer to the amazing view. However, the shape is funky. And where is the aisle? On the left? But then we have to snake around to get to the front. Or on the right? I suppose that could work if we have everyone seated on the left. The asymmetry is not making me happy.

The other option is having the guests sit in front of the deck. Then we can put an aisle where ever we want. It just feels like we are wasting the deck in that case.

What do you think?

Bonus question: Is anyone else planning to walk down the aisle with their future spouse?
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