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If you’ve been following the progress of our wedding day schedule, you know that our ceremony is really early, which means our reception is pretty early, as well. Our awesome venue, Lake Union Café, hosts two receptions on Saturday, and we’re the afternoon one. I actually don’t mind that the reception is in the afternoon. The room will be filled with natural light, and people will get to appreciate the beautiful daytime views of Lake Union. Fitting right? Celebrating our union on the side of Lake Union. I just figured that one out. 
So here’s our current planning dilemma: the after party. We know we want to have one, but we don’t know where, and what time it should take place.
Option 1
Somewhere close (walking distance) to the reception venue where we could go immediately after. It probably won’t be super nice, because most of the bars around there aren’t too amazing looking.
Option 2
Somewhere else in the city (within 20 minutes drive) that’s nicer. This party would still take place right after the reception.
Option 3
Somewhere downtown, or within 10 minutes of downtown, that is nicer and serves food. This after party would take place around 8PM. That gives everyone to a chance to change (if they want to), and gives visitors time to enjoy a little of the city during the day. It also gives us time to enjoy what just happened (the getting hitched part).
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A master of the Master Cleanse, that is. Okay, maybe I’m a novice, because it was my first cleanse/fast/detox, or whatever, but I succeeded.
This blog post is by no means telling you to do a cleanse/fast/detox, or what have you. I’m just letting you know my experience with it, because hey, it’s part of my journey. So let us journey…
As most of you know, I can’t work while I’m in the UK. This gives me a fair amount of free time (in other words, all my time). There is definitely ample time to try things like the Master Cleanse. I have a confession for you guys… are you ready for it?
I actually enjoyed the Master Cleanse.
The cleanse gave me time to consider my relationship with food, what food I enjoy, how food affects my mental state, how/when/why I consume food. I realized that a lot of the time I eat, I’m not actually eating because I’m hungry, I’m actually eating because I’m bored, emotional, or worse, out of habit. Yes, that’s right, I’ve actually been eating food because it’s a habit. At this point I realized, ’WTF have I been doing?!’ Mr. D and I always get popcorn at the movies (habit), and he also enjoys garlic bread with pasta, so I eat it too (more carbs habit). Not to mention, I also realized the portions I’ve been consuming are out of this world. If I’ve been surviving/thriving on 1-2 liters of the MC, juice then why have I been overstuffing myself?
When my grandmother passed away it was the first day of the cleanse, and all I wanted to do after I spoke to my mother was to drown myself in macaroni and cheese (emotional habit).
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I still haven’t been able to get the idea of a reception dress out of my mind. After Max Azria seriously let me down, my search (and resulting frustration) has soldiered on.
Like my issue with shoes, I haven’t really found anything that jumped out at me, shouting, “Me! Pick me! Wear me! Love me!” Especially something that would justify the added expense in our wedding budget. A few friends have told me to just drop the search and wear my dress all night long – I mean, that’s what most brides do, right? – since it is light and airy (I had been using the “What if I get too hot?” line).
Mr. Quiche and I were stalking photography blogs of fellow Coyaba weddings and came across this picture…
Photo credit: Climie + Co
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After the Running of the Brides, my girls and I drove about an hour to a bridal salon that carried the Jim Hjelm gown I’ve been eyeing since getting engaged. I was disappointed with my luck at the ROTBs, so I was hoping to lift my spirits by trying on a dress that was really my style. I decided before we got there that if it looked good on me, I would do anything necessary to get it. I already had a gown in my possession that I could sell to offset the cost, but I was contemplating selling one of my kidneys on the black market after trying on this baby…
Mr. Lab take note: If you happen upon this post and read any further, I WILL go Lorena Bobbit on you!
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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.”
Look what I found a few weeks ago at DSW!
Off-white, peep toe and d’orsay (holla, bees!), with a not-too-high heel, a cute accent — and, at $35, an amazing half-off price!
I’m concerned, though, that they just don’t fit properly — nipping at my toes and rubbing at my heels — and worrying my poor feet will be painfully protesting before we’ve even reached the church. So, although I’m hanging onto these for now — I’ve already returned and repurchased them once to extend the (way too short!) 30-day return policy — I’m also continuing my search.
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Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
When we first started planning our wedding, my dear fiance was less than interested. In fact, he even surprised himself with how much he didn’t care about anything related to the wedding (besides the fact that we were getting married, of course!). It was a little frustrating, to say the least. I’d ask a question about the reception site, colors, guest list, ANYTHING, and he would respond with, “whatever you want to do,” or, “I don’t care,” or some other generic statement that didn’t help me at all. This went on for a month or two before I couldn’t take it anymore. I am not really a crier, but on a trip back from the UP, the tears came out. I told him that I wanted his opinion on things, whether it was the same as mine or not. He felt bad for making me feel like he didn’t care, and said he’d try to get more involved in the wedding stuff. And has he ever!
He has helped me book vendors. I give him a phone number, the he calls and gets quotes. We decide together which vendor to go with, and then he calls and takes care of it. He researched and booked our honeymoon. I am ever so grateful for this one! Planning trips overwhelms me a bit because there are so many options! He pretends to care about things that no guy should ever care about. Flower girl dresses, centerpieces, you name it, he knows what we’re doing. He comes with me on all of the wedding shopping trips. Want to know where to look for cake pedestals? He is your guy.
He has helped me with the crafty projects. He manned the paper cutter while we made our save the dates. He helped me make our mossy initials. And his latest project was… bathroom signs! Check them out!
Alright ladies, I am here to continue to provide some eco-friendly options for your wedding. I have to start off by saying that the green world is confusing, at best. And I am well aware that the Peeps’ wedding will have an impact on the environment. My goal here is just to throw out a few options that the Mr. and I have tried to incorporate to reduce that impact. (And yes, we could always be better, do more, use less, but we are modern people living in a consumerist world just trying to put one foot in front of the other). And just to give myself a bit of street cred—I do have a Master’s in Environmental Policy and I did spend a year working on myfootprint.org. But, there will be more on that later.
Oh, and Mr. Peeps—stop reading now, or no surprises for you!
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When Mr. B and I started talking more seriously about an engagement, we had a number of discussions on religion. He is Catholic, and a majority of his extended family is Catholic. I am Lutheran, and my family is either Catholic or Lutheran. Although the two religions are very similar, there are some key differences between them. I didn’t, and still don’t really care about the location of our ceremony, but I was more concerned with who conducted the ceremony. My family has been attending the same church for the last 20 years, in which the same pastor has presided. It was/is important to me that we were both comfortable with the person performing the ceremony. For me, that meant someone we were very familiar with and knew well. Thus, an obvious choice was my pastor. However, it was/is important for Mr. B to have a Catholic ceremony. We discussed many different alternatives that would appease the both of us. For a while, I considered having an outdoor ceremony outside of either church. Of course, I quickly changed my mind when I remembered how unpredictable the weather in Texas is, and how expensive it would be to have a Plan B in case of rain, cold weather, or sweltering heat.
I think the most beneficial result of our discussions was that each of us was able to understand the other’s views of their own religion. We both respect that we were raised with different religious backgrounds, but we are more open to explore each other’s religions now that we have a better understanding of its importance.
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We’re fascinated by how social media like Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon, and Kirtsy help people recommend and discover cool internet content (like Weddingbee! 
). So over the next couple of months, we’re going to be experimenting with these mediums to help some of our best blog posts gain visibility on the web. We’re pretty new to all of this stuff, so we’ll be sharing what we learn as we go along. Hopefully we can help you utilize social media to promote your own blog posts and businesses!
When one of our posts gets “stumbled” by a lot of people, we often see a big increase in visitors, so we’ll start by explaining how StumbleUpon works.
Let’s say that you’ve just finished reading Miss Gloss’ fabulous DIY save the date post, and you want to share it with the world. Head to stumbleupon.com to register for an account, then head back to Weddingbee and click the 
icon under a particular post to “stumble” it. Clicking the icon will take you to this page:
From there, just click on the THUMBS UP button, add a review of the post if you’d like, and you’ve just told the world that you think this post is great!
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Mr. Taffy is technically in charge of all things music for our wedding. He is doing a great job, but we have really been stuck on ceremony music, especially the song for the processional! Lately, when I’m blogging or working on wedding projects on the computer, I have been listening to tracks from the Beatles Anthology. Two days ago, as I was listening, it hit me: the perfect song for our processional had been right under our noses the entire time!
I mean, come on! How could I have been listening to this song, one of my absolute favorites, over and over the last few months and not see how fitting it was for our wedding? Maybe I wasn’t paying attention after having given the responsibility to Mr. Taffy. Although our music will be instrumental, I love knowing how cute the lyrics are:
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I am getting married in 3 weeks—it is the second wedding for both of us, and one of the highlights is that we have all of our children in the wedding party. My bridesmaids are my two daughters and his two daughters (ages 15-23), and the groomsmen are his two brothers, my son, and a friend.
My fiance had a child when he was very young, and that child was adopted and raised by the mother’s aunt/uncle. He and the child had contact a few times about 10 years ago, but a relationship didn’t develop. They have very recently come into contact again, and are developing a relationship.
So my fiance’s son will be attending the wedding, and we are trying to find a ’place’ to include him in the wedding party/ceremony. At this late stage I don’t want to add another bridesmaid to make him a groomsman, and he’s 28 years old, so I don’t know that making him a ring bearer would be a good idea (although he’d be willing to do it, LOL).
While I may be concerned about the flowers going into my bouquet, I’m just as concerned about the bouquet’s “down there”. That’s right, ladies and gents, I’m obsessed with stem. A too small stem is a little bit stingy, and if it’s too big to grip with one hand, then it is just slightly over-the-top in my book. I want my bouquet to be just right.
I’m planning a full-blown post later about the details my bouquet will have, but one element I will share is Mrs. Lovebug’s typewriter key adornments. I had been inspired by Mrs. Lovebug’s theme very early on, and had hoped to do a full vintage typewriter theme, but as planning has proceeded, the L-O-V-E on the bouquet is the only detail that has remained. And I love it to pieces.
Source: Weddingbee
After leaving Pepperdine (go here for Part I if you are just catching up), we headed to an awesome beach spot that Mike knew about. We definitely hiked down a small cliff to get to it, but I think it was well worth it. The day was coming to an end, and the gentle lighting just was perfect for the beautiful setting.
All Photo Credits go to Mike Larson Photography
I’ve decided that I’m going to make our centerpieces a DIY project. I’m just not big on floral arrangements because quite frankly, flowers die. Of course, if we had an unlimited budget, I’d be more for elaborate floral arrangements in a heartbeat.
So my idea for the centerpieces is to focus on mood lighting. I’d like a soft, romantic feel to the reception hall. And since I have a slight love for vintage/antique items, I think I’ve found my choice for the focal point for the tables. We’ll be doing a combination of lanterns, tea lights, floating candles, candelabras, and submerged flowers (preferably orchids).
Every other table will have either the lantern surrounded by tea lights, the floating candles and submerged flowers in mason jars, or a vintage-style candelabra to keep with the Southern theme.
One of the clear perks of making my own centerpieces is getting to keep my creations after the wedding. I will be able to use them as home decor, or even dress them up as gifts for friends! Not to mention, I’ll save money on the floral bill.
Here are some pictures of the items I have my eye on:
These are the main lanterns I’d like to use for the reception site. I can get enough of these to decorate the whole space for less than $100! They’ll look super cute after the wedding as indoor and/or outdoor decor for our home.
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