Weddingbee Blog

After the tea ceremony, it was time for me to change from my potato sack-ish qua to the far sexier, and oh-so-appropriately named, Mona Lisa.

By “change”, I don’t want to imply that I got myself dressed. No sooner had I put on my uber sexy, high-waisted, granny Spanx (ooh la la!), than did Team 愛-Vey swoop into action. I had more well-manicured hands on me than a discount Prada bag at a Barney’s tag sale.

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Not many of you know, but a week after Mr. Poodle and I got engaged, I found some cute little purple shoes for 60% off, so I bought them!!! They look close to this shoe:

{ (Image Source) with Photoshop color change }

But I also drooled over these others at the time, too:
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Source

I’m going to jump right into the gym stuff now that you’ve been introduced to a new way of looking at diets and food. Again, make sure you’ve had a recent physical and clearance from your doctor before starting any new exercise program. And certainly don’t start off too quickly! It took me a long time to work up to the weights I use. Just be patient. Pretty soon you’ll be challenging me to a lift-off!

When it comes to cardio and weightlifting, you’ll need to determine a “split” that works with your schedule. A split just means how many days of the week you dedicate to working out all the muscle groups of your body. I currently have a 4-day lifting split.

My lifting split is as follows:
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Sunday, July 27th, 2008. That’s the day that Mr. M got down on one knee in the middle of the Chicago Botanic Gardens and asked me to spend the rest of my life with him. It was an incredibly special moment, and I was the happiest girl in the world.

Then he gave me this…
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A few months ago I had a little brain scare and ended up in the ER for six hours. Although I am fine now, things were a bit scary. I had to get two bags of fluids. The nurses couldn’t find a vein. When a nurse finally got the needle in, I was relieved until my hand started to swell — the hand with my two day old engagement ring on it!  It took me a few minutes to get it off but I managed. Close call!

Mr. S proposed to me with my mom’s original engagement ring… then he had me pick one out for myself! So now I have two. I don’t wear them very often because most days I am elbow deep in Play-Doh and worm bins, but when I do wear one I secretly giggle at it every time I catch a glimpse.

My set (vintage, 1940’s, bought from etsy.com):

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I sort-of attended a bachelorette party a couple of weekends ago. I say “sort of”, because I didn’t really participate. Why? I’m too damn old.

Actually, the bride was a little older than me. But I’m pretty sure I’ve always been “too damn old” for some things. The party had food, drinks, and plenty of naughty games, all of which I enjoyed very much. But once we went out to the bars… I found myself hanging back, drinking water, and distancing myself from the fun-loving gals who were having a ball partying the night away.

[source]

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As I mentioned in my last post, I left the cake in the capable hands of our coordinator. We don’t love cake, and it was last on my priority list of details. But… the cake was, obviously, too big a detail to be laissez faire about. I don’t know what I was thinking.

Anyway, in the weeks before the wedding, we were focused on macarons, and escort cards, all the final little touches. And the weekend came, and the rehearsal, ceremony, cocktail hour were all wonderful, and we were on a just-married high!

We walk in, get introduced as Mr. and Mrs., do our little first dance (more on that later - it was hilarious). We sit down, enjoy, smiling, taking in the scene of everyone around us… then I look over my shoulder… [all images are by guests of the wedding unless noted]

Do you see it?
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Meggles and her husband sneaked away for a quick kiss and photo after they said, “I do!”

We are currently hosting a Gallery contest where we are giving away 10, $40 coupon codes for My Publisher photo books. To enter the contest all you have to do upload your wedding pictures on the gallery and if we feature your picture on the blog, you will receive a photo book! Remember, your images must be under 1MB in size, or they won’t load.

For a variety of reasons I’m just getting around to having my initial hair trials. My hairstylist and I call this the “rough draft”, in part because my hair is in a bit of a state. It’s about time for me to get my hair did, and so there is a lot of growth at the roots. I’ll explain this at some point, but just know that you really can’t get the full effect of my hair when it’s in its “frizzy/needs to be attended to” stage.

After lots of thought regarding logistics, I decided I wanted to not curl my hair, but to instead keep it straight and wear it up. As I mentioned before, my hair takes about two to three hours to just to do the basics. If I were to have it curled, it would definitely add an hour. Since we’re having a late morning wedding and hoping to do some pictures beforehand, I’m not waking up at 3 AM. Heck to nah, y’all! Plus we’ve for our welcome drinks that I mentioned before, so Friday night is out in terms of getting a hair appointment then. Right now the plan is to split things up by getting my hair washed and re-twisted the day before and then getting my hair pinned up in the morning bright and early.

So, shall we begin? After looking at some of my inspiration photos again I narrowed it down to couple that I thought would work best.

Here’s contestant #1

(source)

I love Sanaa Lathan (and so does Mr. Swan… ahem!). My stylist said that she could recreate styles with straightened hair, which she did. So here’s the rough draft:

Not a bad replica, I think. You can see the frizzies, huh? I liked it but was not sure. I then added the veil…

Before I show you, I should let you know that I have not become one with my veil. Yes, it’s a Kasia Fink original (thanks, Mrs. Sea Breeze) and while lovely, I’m definitely trying to make sure that I’m putting it on correctly in part because my hair doesn’t necessarily take to most hairpieces. There’s a reason why I don’t wear many things in my hair. I love my veil (thanks again), but in general I find things that can actually be inserted in my hair can be hard to find, and I had to be careful about choosing things with certain types of clips. I always emailed any hairpiece seller beforehand to ask what kind of clip was attached to the piece.

Anyway, here’s the first style with the veil.

That little fascinator looking thing on the top is actually a headpiece from Portobello. My stylist kinda just stuck it in there. I had not intended to wear the veil and the fascinator/headpiece together, but maybe I will. What do you think?

Here’s contestant #2:

Let me say that this is the style that has captured my attention since I first saw it.

(source)

I’m pleased with the result, and I am leaning towards this. Here’s the real life trial version:

Hopefully the right side will look a little better the second time around.

I didn’t do a very good job with the veil this time around. Here’s this style with the veil:

The fascinator/headpiece is in a funky place too. Hmm… I’ll need to work on that. I plan on becoming one with the veil if it kills me. I wasn’t sure how I felt about the placement, and I think it’s going to require me to play around with it.

I went home and put on the headpiece on without the veil to see how that looked. I liked it. I was thinking about just wearing the headpiece during the reception. I think I’ll be veil-less for that part of the wedding.

I think that the clip on the headpiece works pretty well with my hair. It’s an alligator clip.

Anyway, that’s it. Like I said, it’s a good beginning. I will be going back for a full run through that will include actually washing and re-twisting my hair. I think some of you are probably wondering how that all works, so maybe I will show you how.

Did you have multiple hair trials? What was the hair trial process like for you?

I know I haven’t really talked about it much yet, but we’re not having floral centerpieces. I think flowers are absolutely gorgeous and love having them in our apartment, but I couldn’t justify the expense of centerpieces. At any rate, I’ll talk about what we did decide to do for that later.

As you know, we’re having silkies for bouts because I thought I could pull that off, but I wasn’t so sure I could handle arranging the ladies’ bouquets. Plus, I think my bridesmaids and I will really appreciate the fragrance and luxury of having real flowers, whereas the groomsmen expressed that they couldn’t care less whether or not their bouts were silk. So, I decided to go for the gold and get gorgeous bouquets for the ladies, since we’re not having a florist do flowers for anything else. I’m pretty sure the bouquets will end up displayed somehow at the reception, too, just to have those pricey beauties do double-duty.

So, I needed some floral inspiration. I didn’t really have a clear idea of exactly what I wanted, only that it needed to fit into our color scheme and be as much on the unique side as possible. With that in mind, I scoured the internet and came up with these:

(Photo Credit)

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For all of the brides and grooms who are having a friend officiate their wedding, here are some tips and ideas from a professional wedding celebrant to make sure that your day runs smoothly. Feel free to print this out and hand it to your officiant, and it may help to look it over yourself as well!

*Be prepared! Read through the ceremony a few times, and feel free to make notes on your version of the script. Make sure all of the props are set up, and that you have copies of the vows and the readings.

*Format it! Format the script in a way that is easy for you to read - perhaps color coding or highlighting important elements or directions. Make sure to take page turns into consideration, and format it so it is easiest for you to read, in an easy to read, large font.

*Plan where you are going to stand! For my ceremonies, I prefer the couples to face each other, or slightly face out - not facing the officiant (I am sure the bride’s dress is beautiful in the back, but everyone wants to see their faces!). Find the best place for you to stand - perhaps in between them, or maybe slightly to the side, with the couple in the middle.

*Get amped! Using a microphone and amplification is a must - you want everyone to be able to hear you, the readers, and the bride and groom during their vows. The DJ, venue, or ceremony musicians can often provide a wireless mic to use. Pass it to the readers and the couple for the readings and the vows.

*Keep the love! When readers or other participants come up - feel free to have a moment, and give the bride and groom some love (a big hug!) afterwards.

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Sometimes I think I’m crazy. What was I thinking when I decided it’d be “great” to sign up for a marathon? While planning a wedding??

Oh right. I wanted to look like this.

Kara Goucher: H-O-T

Last weekend our long run was 14 miles. Let me tell you, that’s a lot of running. So. Much. Running. Every day - running. Get home from work - running. Plan some wedding on Saturday? Running. It really feels like I’m planning two marathons. Or running two weddings. I can’t remember.

The good news, though, is that we’re still chugging away!
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Flowers. I’m still feeling clueless about them, but I’m doing all I can to help my indecision along to see the light. I’m now 90% sure I will DIY and order in bulk online. Like any other online shopping, it’s always nice if you can see the product before making your purchase. In early July, I stopped at a flower stand to look for the flowers I’d been considering, so I could see and work with them firsthand. They didn’t have what I was looking for, but they offered to pick them up for me on Monday. Perfect! I requested several bunches of sweet peas, garden roses, anemones, and wax flowers. I said I preferred whites and creamy colors but would take any color since some flowers were not in season. This is what I picked up on Monday:

One bunch of spray roses, one bunch of sweet peas, one bunch of dahlias, and 5 peonies from another stand for free, since they were near death!
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Tropicalbridey is selling a brand new BCBG Max Azria silk chiffon gown. The dress has a gathered bodice and and empire waist, and is perfect for a destination wedding. She is asking $275.

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 have an amazing group of friends. Seriously amazing. They threw two bachelorette parties in my honor.

In March, my New Orleans bridesmaid threw me what was supposed to be “The Best Bachelorette—Ever”. The plan was for a large group of my friends to meet in New Orleans and enjoy a girls’ weekend, culminating  with my bachelorette party on Saturday night. Invites went out, and the “nos” started rolling in. Apparently, we picked a very bad weekend. There were so many declines that I began to think my friends were playing a mean joke on me. By the Wednesday before the party, we hadn’t received one yes. Not one. I was sad, but was determined to go to New Orleans, spend the weekend with my girlfriend, and have a good time. And we did. We had a blast. She had already purchased all the party supplies, so we pinned fire hoses on firemen and did MadLibs. We took a ton of pictures of our antics and, sadly, my memory card died and ate all my pictures.

Meanwhile, back in Georgia, my local girlfriends were (I suppose) feeling guilty about not making the party and decided that they would throw another party. My friend LD’s husband was one of the guys helping with Mr. CC’s bachelor party, so the girls decided to plan them for the same night.

I had no idea what we were getting into.
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