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Weddingbee Blog
Mr. Joey and I are about to bust. Not in a good way, not in a bad way, and not in a financial way (yet). It’s been wedding, wedding, house, wedding, house, house, house, non-stop for the last 3 weeks. And it’s not just our wedding, but everyone else’s weddings, too. Mr Joey went to a friend’s wedding two weekends ago, and we’re headed to a wedding in San Diego this weekend. Of course, you know that a wedding isn’t just a ceremony and reception, but all the dinners and parties that go along with it. Like I said: wedding, wedding, house, wedding, house, house, house.
Take Saturday, for example. We started the day off well, with a nice long lie-in, followed by a yummy breakfast prepared by Mr. Joey. As soon as the last bite was in my mouth, my phone rang. It was my Dad asking us to meet him at Lowe’s in an hour to look at fences.
After Lowe’s, we followed my Dad to the cabinet and counter place. We’ve been going back and forth about cabinets and counters for weeks. After finalizing the cabinets and counters, we headed to a great local wine store to pick up a bottle for dinner. While we were there, we perused the their selection for possible wedding wines. We ended up there longer than we planned. We got to talking with one of their staff members about how much wine we should serve.
I blogged about my role as our family’s CFO, so I thought it only fair to tell you about my guy’s role: CEO (that’s Chief Executive Officer). I’ll admit, I paused for a second before declaring him CEO; I like to think that I run things around here, ya know? But after full consideration of his talents and duties, I’m fully confident that he will successfully carry out his roles and responsibilities.
The CEO — according to me, anyway — is responsible for balancing long-term goals and short-term execution. He or she keeps an eye on the big picture, never allowing themselves to freak out or lose sight of the goal. (S)he is also responsible for drumming up new business and ideas while meeting current commitments.
I pretty much lost that gig on “never allowing themselves to freak out or lose sight of the goal.” Oh, yea, and “short-term execution”.
Unlike my bi-monthly financial summaries, he doesn’t need a scheduled time to do his CEO job. Every time he asks me for my thoughts before tearing something apart, he’s doing it. When he reminds me to call the cable company, he’s doing it. Every minute spent quietly stroking our scaredy cat to improve feline-human relations, he’s doing it. He may not have a full grasp of the financial impact of his ideas — hello, unplanned rental of a Ditch Witch, fifth trip to Home Depot, emergency hiring of a professional siding guy — but that’s okay, that’s why we have me. And if it’s common knowledge that 90% of our projects would never get started because one of us is too busy blogging (*cough*), that’s okay too… that’s why we have him.
The idea of two people balancing each other is one I have learned with difficulty.
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If you recall, I decided on using dried flowers for our centerpieces—with the focal piece being dried wheat. In order to get more inspiration, I visited the dried floral sections of Hobby Lobby, Michaels, and Garden Ridge. I bought a few supplies and took them home for some experimentation. After a few trials and errors, I finalized two different designs for our centerpieces.
I used dried wheat, on the left, and dried setaria (deep purple), on the right—I’m not exactly sure what that is, but it matches our color scheme perfectly. 
This is the post you’ve been waiting for. Not only do you get the proposal story, but the ring pix too! (Go ahead, scroll down and look… I’ll wait.)
Back? OK. Where were we?
Oh yes. Mr. Mary Jane knew what kind of ring I liked. He had a specific jeweler he wanted to work with and they were able to give him exactly what he wanted. They found a gorgeous center stone and the perfect setting to match. But was I allowed to have it right away? Oh no.
Since I played a major part in picking out the ring, I pretty much knew it was coming. Mr. MJ and I talked about what we’d do with the ring when it was ready. We realized that it wouldn’t be a very romantic story if we went down to the store, bought it together and walked out with that pretty thing on my hand. Though we’d made the marriage decision together, he wanted to do the proposal alone. This drove me NUTS, but I agreed to it. (I don’t think I had a choice.) Part of me really DID want a romantic surprise proposal. Nothing fancy, but romantic just the same.
At this point, I feel I must also stress how hard it was for me to keep all of these happenings a secret from family and friends.
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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 was finally holding hands with my husband-to-be, after having just dealt with two very long minutes of wedding ring drama. Our lovely officiant, Natalie Kita of SoulMates, addressed the room with a confident, booming voice. I will be including the transcript of what was said in italics. Keep in mind she didn’t actually say, “Mr. and Ms. Candy Corn,” since that would’ve majorly confused most of our guests.
“Welcome everyone. I want to begin by thanking you all, on behalf of Mr. and Ms. Candy Corn, for being here to share this wonderful day with them. They would like all of you, their family and friends, to understand that you mean the world to them and that your presence here makes their happiness complete.”
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Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
This is about half of our crap. Double it, add a big white dress/veil/accessories, 7 pieces of luggage, a dog bed big enough to accommodate an 80-lb. fur baby, me, and Vida, and you have our haul. I don’t comprehend the meaning of “pack light”.
Today I leave Austin for San Antonio. In a few short hours my mother will be headed north in a rented van to pick up all of the wedding items, my dog, and me. Thus begins the whirlwind of activity (and more than likely a bit of chaos) that is my wedding weekend.
I am super excited to see my family that has been trickling in over the last few days.
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Reader pleatherhatt is selling an ivory veil. It is 1 tier, elbow-length, with pearls and beads along the lining. It has never been worn. Make her an offer!
Have a wedding item for sale? Post it with pictures in the Weddingbee classifieds and you might see it featured on the blog!
Other great items for sale:
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I’ve never understood why wedding cake toppers are so effing expensive. Even the boring plastic ones run more than $30 for a set. Plastic birthday cake cowboys, however, are about $1 each, further proof that anything involving the word ’wedding’ comes with a premium attached.
For those brides who are changing their names post-wedding, WOW, what a pain in the arse! I’ve had friends who’ve gotten married take months to get all of the necessary paperwork filled out. And for completely understandable reasons - it’s a pain in the arse! Not only do you have to travel to each different office and wait in obscene lines, but you also have to fill out paperwork over and over again, and usually it’s the same information on each different form.
There are many places where your name needs to be changed, including:
… and the list goes on, which will be different for each person.
Confused yet? Frustrated?
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A while back I posted about the idea of creating trivia cards to keep guests entertained during our cocktail hour. I printed them on Moo business cards. Moo cards are great because not only can you print on both sides, but you can print a different image on each card! I’ve been getting some questions about how the process works, so here’s a little tutorial on how to make your very own Moo cards.
Here’s how it works–say you have two sides to the card, Side A and Side B.
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What’s the buzz on the Chicago boards? Why, it’s a bee meet up, and we want YOU to join us!
When: TONIGHT!
Where: Rivers Restaurant (in the Chicago Mercantile Exchange)
30 S. Wacker
Time: 6:00 PM
Please respond in the comments if you want to join us. Hope to see you there!
Occasionally, I break out the stack of wedding magazines I’ve obtained over the last year (can’t believe we’ve been engaged that long!) and sift through them to see if any articles are relevant to where I am now in the planning process. It’s amazing how certain articles become of interest at certain points throughout the planning process (i.e. dress pictures vs. invitation wording). Note to self: don’t throw any magazines away—even if you think you’ve ripped out all the “relevant” articles and pictures.
(source)
Last night, I was flipping through a Brides from a few months ago when I came across an ad for a dress. It made me stumble in my tracks. Had I selected the right dress? Oh my, I need to try this on now. Could I forfeit the $500 deposit I’d already paid on my dress and bolt for another? And when was I going to get to a dress shop that carried this dress? The closest store was six hours away. Yes, hive, I got a wee bit frantic.
I thought that Mr. MJ’s and my little ring-shopping trip would ease my questions about what kind of ring I wanted. Boy, was I wrong! As soon as we got home, I was buzzing with excitement and confusion. The saleswoman at one of the mall jewelry stores had shown me a few styles I liked. They were emerald and cushion-cut stones in antiquey “halo” type settings. But she’d also shown me a shape I’d never considered: the pear. I didn’t think I wanted a pear (I like symmetry), but I loved the idea of it: it was so unique. I hit up the internet for some help.
I went to The Knot (though I’d combed their archives hundreds of times already). I went to blogs like Rocktographers, where photos of rings are featured. And, I checked out online jewelry stores like Blue Nile, James Allen and Robbins Bros.
And, I found it. It was so beautiful. The ME16 by Danhov @ James Allen.
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True, we’re a couple of Philly fanatics. But with our rehearsal at the Villanova church, I thought a dinner location along the Main Line would make the most sense.
So, we made a list, and started visiting some tasty spots close to the University: 333 Belrose in Radnor, Blush in Bryn Mawr, Plate in Ardmore and Tango in Bryn Mawr.
But, a frustrating pattern emerged — “minimums” set high above the per-plate cost for a Friday night private party (meaning we’d have to add on a significant number of extras, driving up the overall price of the event). $2,500 for a 30-person event just isn’t in our budget (and would actually translate to higher food costs than the estimate from our wedding caterer!).
Venturing into the city seemed like the only way to find an affordable spot, so we looked at several Old City restaurants, located walking distance from the hotel where we’ll be staying (separately) the night before the wedding: Triumph Brewing Company, Spasso Italian Grill, and the spot we ultimately selected, Positano Coast. (All pictures courtesy of Positano Coast.)
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