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Weddingbee Blog
Mr. HC and I figured out this weekend that we are idiots. Morons. Stooopid.
This Sunday, FFIL HC called and said, in a voice reserved for things of unusual importance, “It’s daylight savings.” Mr. HC replied, “Yeah… we know.” After a few rounds of this, FFIL HC notified us (in a tone he probably only reserves for patients of his who are dying… of stupidity) that sunset on our wedding day is 7:10 pm, not 6:10 as we expected.
Holy $#&*!
We’re having a Jewish wedding, which is not supposed to take place until after shabbat ends — shortly after sunset. When we were planning our ceremony and before we sent out our invitations, we looked on a number of websites, including the Naval Observatory and various Jewish calendar sites, to figure out when sunset was going to take place on our wedding day. 6:10 they all said. We put 6:30 on our invitations.
Well, they must have all meant 6:10 Pacific Standard Time, not Pacific Daylight Time. D’oh.
Mr. HC’s reaction to this news: panic. My reaction: laughter. Maniacal laughter.
The Rehearsal, Rehearsal Dinner, Rehearsal Dinner Gifts, Getting Ready
Mr. Pineapple and I decided to go ahead and do as many formal portraits as we could before the ceremony. Seeing each other before the wedding ended up not being a big deal anyway since we were already married. Any jinxing that was to be done had been already done at the Clymer magistrate.
Pittsburgh is known for its cold and cloudy days. Why it was 55 and sunny on an October day is beyond me, but I was thrilled. In fact, if it were any warmer, the thousand layers of pouf may have made me melt. The boys waited at the Omni while we headed to Mellon Square Park. It was the perfect location for us: right behind the hotel, three blocks from the River’s Club, surrounded by city-ness, but still with plenty of fall foliage.
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Being in a long-distance relationship is hard stuff. Besides the obvious things like the physical distance, relying on the phone for communication, and (for us) the time difference, wedding planning brings on a whole new set of challenges. Our short visits are now packed with appointments, our phone conversations are often wedding related, and the time difference makes it hard for Mr. Latte to contact East Coast vendors, adding more items to my never-ending “To Do” list.
The distance has forced us to think of creative solutions to some of the inevitable wedding related problems that arise. Do the pink socks Mr. Latte bought perfectly match my pink shoes? Let’s Skype and find out! We both need access to our budget document? Let’s share it on Google Docs! The wedding party is scattered across the country and will need to meet each other before the wedding? Let’s make a wedding party newsletter!
We all know that a fun wedding party = a fun partay. And parties are always more fun when you’re with friends. Since most of the guys are on the West Coast, and all the ladies are on the East Coast, having them become the best of friends just wasn’t going to happen. (Yes, I realize that doesn’t happen in real life either.) But even having them meet face-to-face before the wedding was next to impossible. We needed a creative way to have them “meet” each other. Cue newsletter.
Following the lead (and borrowing the ideas) of Miss Piglet and many of the other Bees before me (thanks ladies!), the Latte newsletter was born. I call it… SCOTHEOOP. “The Inside Scoop”. Get it? Yeah? I know, cheesy… don’t judge.
Here’s the cover:
Featured on Weddingbee
All-Inclusion Invitation Suites
“Make an elegant invitation statement without the fuss. Stylish invitation sets with matching envelopes, reception and response cards included.”
I’m sure you thought the wedding posts were over by now. I’ve taken you through 28 posts, detailing everything from the moment I woke up, to our Seattle skyline finale. But, I loved my wedding so much that I found a way to drag out it all the way until the next weekend, with an after wedding shoot and a hometown reception.
The biggest reason for having a semi-TTD (I hesitate to call it such because there weren’t any activities that even hinted at trashing since I had to wear it in front of family and friends the next day), was to capitalize on the chance to do a shoot with my mom, Denise Andersen. I didn’t realize how much pride I would feel each time someone came over to my married apartment and said, “I love this picture, who took it?” I’ve watched my mom practice her craft for years, and after years and years of taking pictures she can do some really fantastic stuff (as evidenced by my bridal portraits in Rome).
Mr. Avocado made one last huge sacrifice, and took these pictures with me on our honeymoon. My advice to you if you are considering the same thing? Prepare to look a little puffy from the gastronomic indulgences you will be making while taking your ultimate vacation. One night we sat in our bed and ate a huge wedge of cheese with crackers and finished it off with an enormous piece of chocolate cake. No wonder our faces look puffy in most of these photos.
If you remember, there are no photos taken inside the temple, and because of this I had no pictures of me wearing my mom’s wedding dress and veil from the wedding day. After working so hard to lose 50 lbs over the last 3 years, I was happy to find I could even squeeze myself into the dress at all. My mom had something like a $400 wedding, and she hated her dress, but I’m in love with the meaning behind it.
Well, so far, I’ve had three gift ideas for my bridesmaids.
1. Jewelry set - earrings and necklace
2. Prettied up Old Navy flip flops using tons of bling!
3. A surprise gift (my bridesmaids have been known to read this blog and I do NOT want them to see this gift until the big day!)
Here’s a fourth fun idea that I found while registering for towels at Macy’s.
These are hand painted martini glasses, and while there are glasses that are wedding related, I wanted to give the girls something for them to relate to and for them to place on their desks at work or at home with pride!
I’d rather not show off the exact ones I will be giving them (yet), but I noticed Lolita has made a few fellow bee martini glasses. It’s kind of neat to see these!
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Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
From the moment I laid eyes on tissue paper pomanders, I knew I wanted to make them for our aisle decor. The pomanders reminded me of tissue paper carnations I made as a child. My mom still has a bouquet of tissue paper circles crinkled atop pipe cleaners that I gave her for Mother’s Day well over a decade ago. Last week, I relived my childhood, as my mom and I made hundreds of tissue paper carnations. We then turned the carnations into pomanders.
If you too would like to make tissue paper pomanders, I’ve put together a little tutorial:
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… this Saturday?! If you’re in the UK and anywhere near the midlands/Birmingham area, I hope you’ll be joining me at the National Wedding Show at the NEC. The show looks like it’s going to be a ton of fun, especially since we’ll be meeting up at the Celebrations Bar at 12:30. Woo hoo!
If you can make it, comment below and I’ll PM you my number since I imagine it will be a bit crazy inside. Maybe I can wear bee paraphernalia!
I hope to see you there!
While we were home for Thanksgiving, we took our engagement pictures. My cousin (who happens to be a photographer) just got our pictures back to us and I am so excited to share them with you!
We haven’t had too much conflict over wedding planning issues. Some questions have come up, but we usually resolve them quickly and reach a happy compromise. However, there is the one thing that has continually come up and always ends in a disagreement. Part of me feels so silly for sharing this, but if anyone can relate, or it helps someone, then it’s worth posting.
Our great debate is over what to do for the music during the reception. I know many bees (Mrs. Bell Pepper and others) have pondered this same issue and I’ve seen it discussed on the boards. Even after reading many of these discussions, we still can’t decide. Recently we’ve just put the decision off, but we are getting to the point that we really need to book the DJ now, if we go that route.
Ready for the arguments? Just kidding, but I’ll break down the reasoning and issues we are going back and forth with.
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You still have until this Friday, March 13, to enter the Kathlin Argiro bridesmaid dress giveaway! Kathlin Argiro is giving away up to 5 bridesmaid dresses to one lucky bride, and a rehearsal dinner dress to another lucky gal! This is one of our biggest giveaways ever, so send us your entries featuring an inspiration board or a Polyvore board using one of Kathlin’s dresses to guest at weddingbee.com.
To get your creative juices flowing, here’s an inspirational entry by Weddingbee reader Katie, entitled “Winter Wonderland Wedding”.
While I hope there isn’t a blizzard on the wedding day, snowflakes have been the inspiration for my design and decor. In keeping with the season, my color palette is neutral — black, white, ivory, with a little bit of silver thrown in. The black and ivory bridesmaid dress by Kathlin Argiro would blend in just perfectly with all the things I’ve already picked out. I actually love the simplicity and quiet calmness that comes with a snowfall. I hope to channel some of those same feelings on my wedding day! 
Image sources: Row 1: 1 2 3 4, Row 2: 5 6 7 8, Row 3: 9 10 11 12
Check out the contest, and enter today!
The RSVP portion of the invitation can be tricky. Many couples struggle with how much—or how little—detail they want to include on the cards.
The RSVP wiki is particularly in need of etiquette tips, as well as general tips about RSVP cards. What information is good to include on your RSVPs? What is the ideal amount of time that you should set your RSVP deadline by? How do you deal with delinquent RSVPers? Contribute your tips and ideas to the RSVP wiki:
If you’re unsure how you can contribute to the wiki, take a peek at this wiki article on how to edit a wiki. Check it out and share your expertise! Or, if you’re shy, just leave your tips in the comments, and we can add them to the wiki for you!
Need I say more? Actually I should. This is my disclaimer, and I have no objections to anyone else wearing new diamonds. I eat meat and others don’t. No harm no foul. Now that that’s out of the way…
About 6 years ago I read about diamonds called Diamond: The History of a Cold-Blooded Love Affair. The book put me off on diamonds, well, more the industry, ever since. Because of the book, I wasn’t sure I wanted a diamond engagement ring. I definitely didn’t want one mined out of Africa and while I know there are Canadian diamonds, I wasn’t sure about which company owned which mine. I think if I really, really knew where a diamond came from and knew everything about the company that mined it, I might be OK with a diamond ring. That’s a lot of research to do, and these days you can never be so sure. I see other people’s rings and wish I didn’t feel that way about diamonds. They are really beautiful.
Knowing how I feel about diamonds made it tough on Mr. Joey. He asked me if I was opposed to an engagement ring with a pearl or other stone. I told him I didn’t care. It was up to him. I was no help at all.
A few months before getting engaged, Mr. Joey and I were stuck behind a passing train and we were all agitated in the car, so we decided to pull into an Antique Mall we passed frequently but had never been in. I’m so glad we did. In one of the cases were these beautiful antique wedding sets. Absolutely gorgeous! I told him so, and he asked if I’d wear one of them. I told him I was actually happy with a diamond as long as the money went to someone besides a mining company or big international jewelry chain. Ding, ding, ding. He found his loophole.
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I hope that after the wedding, whenever I hear the songs that we will choose for our wedding day, it will bring me back to the day. While I know that I’ve been trained over the course of the years to associate “The Wedding March” with weddings, it’s not like I’m going to load it onto my iPod after the fact and listen to it when I’m feeling reminiscent.
So, of course, Mr. S and I are weighing out every single (non-traditional, of course!) music option for the wedding day. We’ve opted to not use the organ in our church and instead play whatever music we think will make us smile. But for whatever reason, the recessional is proving to be a struggle. How do you choose a song that is beautiful, meaningful, and the right tempo for excitedly strutting back down the aisle, that also includes church-appropriate lyrics?
We’ve narrowed it down to two strong contenders, but they are so wildly different…
Option #1: Clare & the Reasons “Everybody Wants to Rule the World”
I’m going to write this as “I” instead of the usual “we”, because I am up to my ears in projects. Mr. Dumpling, on the other hand, has had his list of to-dos done for quite some time. I think the theme of this wedding (for me) should have been “Don’t waste money on DIY projects”, because I have really almost paid double for stuff that I could have just bought pre-made. The invitations were a disaster (that got fixed thanks to Wedding Paper Divas!), that pomander thing I tried to make, the place cards…. all things I should have just ordered from a professional.
Just to give you an update on how far behind I am, here’s a list of things that still need to get done:
I could have done them over the weekend, but my printer was acting crazy and, honestly, I’m so over this wedding. I just want to be married!!!!!!!
*LUCKILY* we have this awesome photography team who just emailed some pictures over of a recent wedding they did, and the eye candy took my mind off all the stuff I put off to the last minute. Let’s have a look…
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