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Weddingbee Blog
My parents lived in the same house for most of my life, up until a few years ago when they moved back to Massachusetts. When you live somewhere for that long, there is a good chance that your neighbors become more like family. We were no exception, and I grew up with a pseudo big sister who is about six years older then me. I’m pretty sure she was still in high school when I informed her for the first time that I was going to eventually need both a flower girl and ring bearer for my wedding and I was counting on her to make that happen. She always just laughed at me, especially when I told her husband of this request on their wedding day. Sure enough, three years ago they had a little girl who I absolutely adore. And then less than two years ago they rounded it off with a bouncing baby boy who I also fell in love with at first sight.
Our ring bearer (who we will call little man, because he really does look like a little man!) is still pretty young; he will be only 20 months on the big day. People started warning me early on, here we are having an adult only affair and I was expecting a BABY to go down the aisle. But I was determined. My two favorite kiddos were going to be there. And I just knew little man would be walking, quite well even, down the aisle (we had a pep talk when he was a few months old, and I took his silence as an agreement that he would be good to go).
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With the final alterations on my dress complete, the only thing left to figure out was the bustle. With all of the horror stories I’ve heard about with bustles that don’t turn out so great or brides getting into arguments with seamstresses over the “correct” bustle for each dress, I was nervous about getting mine done. I mean, no one wants to be this upset about their wedding dress:
Luckily, the experience was a breeze with my dress and especially with my seamstress, whom I love to death.
(Photo by lovely bridesmaid N… I’ll return to that little centerpiece in another post)
Before I share our wonderful portraits in all their vintage glory, I thought it best to start at the beginning…
On the morning of the wedding I was still making name cards. A lot had gone wrong during the days that lead up to the Saturday and so I was left with this last mammoth task on the morning of - even though I swore I wouldn’t let this happen (best laid plans, as they say). Anyways, by 9AM I had them done and we were off to the venue to place the paper goods and flowers on all the tables.
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Sooo… I’m a teacher. An excessively bookworm-y teacher. Books were my first love as a kid, and now I’ve become a teacher who loves introducing classic, innovative, and/or hilarious books to my kids. I also love making books with my students. Flap books, lap books, accordion books, tab books, shape books… they are so fun to create, and they can be a keepsake of a unit of study! (Dork-alicious, I know.)
I’ve assembled hundreds of them, so I wonder, what would be 200 more? Only these 200 books would be used for our wedding! And they would probably consist of more than folded paper, stapled binding, and crayon illustrations. 
Here are some book-like invitations from Zenadia Design that I admire:
Top secret? I’d be so excited to read it!
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.”
Mr. H and I said I do. Time really does fly - it still seems like yesterday. I can’t believe that a year ago, I was about to rehearse, walk down the aisle, and party with Mr. H. 
I must tell you - the first year has not been the easiest for the Hydrangeas - there really is something to that saying, “the first year is the hardest.” We have dealt with a family death, family divorce, family health issues, weight gain (it’s like the freshman 15 on steroids), and employment changes, just in the first year. We married each other because we love each other, and, luckily, we both really stuck to our vows - we’ve been in it through the good and the bad.
We have learned so much more about each other, and, in turn, have learned to appreciate our quirks, faults and differences. Our life together, as our own family, is only beginning, and this first year has proved just that - we know we are ready for the second year, and many more after that.
I’ve loved my time in the hive, but it’s time now for me to move on to other things - I have taken a leap of faith and started my own business, but you can also find me blogging about our life here. I’ll still be poking around the hive, leaving comments and maybe an occasional post; it really is hard to just leave Weddingbee, cold turkey.
So, with that, I leave you with this…
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Yay Lake Street Catering! The food was… well, all I can say is NOM NOM NOM! I know I’ve been singing their praises a lot, but seriously, I can’t think of two nicer people than Neil and Lynn. The night was perfect and really, that was all because of them.
OK, now that the thanking and praising is over, let’s eat!
Everybody get in line! Food’s on!
Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
Don’t forget to hop in your time machine for the Bunny Bridal Countdown!
Previously …
Bunny Bridal Countdown: The Showers (30+ days)
Bunny Bridal Countdown: Dress disaster (28 days)
Bunny Bridal Countdown: Dress decision (25 days)
Bunny Bridal Countdown: Bunny goes Playboy (23 days)
Can you believe that in all my days of planning, I was still without a plan for a wedding cake with less than a month to go?
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… our Hallowedding invitations!
One of the reasons I’m so excited about our “Hallowedding” party is that we’ll have such creative freedom over the decor… anything goes! But, Halloween is in just over a month. That’s not a whole lot of time considering I have projects for our actual wedding in the works. My first priority is figuring out what we’re going to do for our Halloween invitations; I only have about a week before they need to be sent out, and I haven’t even started them yet!
Here’s where you come in:
I have a handful of ideas for our invitations, but I just can’t decide. If you were a prospective guest, which invitation would impress you the most?
Message in a bottle invites from Martha
Here’s some background information on how those invites came to be.
The belly bands are super simple. Take a 20″ length of trace paper (I’m using an 18″ roll) and pleat it down 23the center. Sew down the pleats (I used a straight stitch, a zigzag stitch, and a hemstitch for some variety). Then take your X-Acto and a ruler and cut it into about 1″ strips. Then, fold the strips around your invites and secure (I used neatly cut strips of masking tape; it’s almost the same color as the trace).
So I already talked about what we want the flower girls to wear, and I thought it was only fair that I also talk about the ring bearer boys, too! The flower girls were easy, but the ring bearers were harder for me. I knew that I wanted them in something semi-casual but still somewhat wedding-ish, which proved to be a little difficult to find. And then I stumbled on Velvet and Tweed, and everything I was looking for was on those pages. I wanted to get the boys some linen-type pants, but not fully linen, because I thought that might be too beachy. Well, enter the cotton and linen mix:
Do you see those suspenders? I know they are a little nerdy, but I also think they are so cute!
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The years I spent riding the bench and shagging balls during batting practice finally came in handy this past October. I was raring to go to my friend Catie’s wedding. She and I had bonded over our long distance submariner boyfriends long before we were engaged. I was really looking forward to her wedding at the Naval Academy, and I had my eyes set on a certain prize.
Lamma-ramma-ding-dong and I had been dating for 4 years. For about the past 2, I had been actively pursuing the coveted bouquet at every wedding we attended. In 2008, we were invited to 8 weddings and attended 6 (3 were on the same day!). Catie’s wedding was the last wedding of the year, and my last chance to score the lucky blooms. I had been so close on previous occasions and I had been testing the right distance to stand behind the bride based on her height and my perception of her arm strength.
Finally, the wedding day had come. Mr. Lambalicious was part of the sword arch and was dressed in his formal whites. Those whites just make me weak in the knees. Seriously – look at this blind look of adoration!
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I am a super shy lady. Have been my entire life. When I was a tot, I could be found hiding behind my mom’s legs, and when I got older, hiding behind my wall of hair or a BSC book. I somehow got over this affliction when I started a band right after high school, but sometimes it strikes me in certain situations. Like parties, meeting new people, and… photo shoots.
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Over the weekend, Mr. Cookie and I celebrated our first anniversary! I can’t believe that a year has come and gone. It’s crazy how time flies when you are having fun. In honor of our anniversary, we decided to trek up to the Colorado high-country to see the amazing fall foliage.
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First things first: Happy National Punctuation Day everyone! On this special day, let us all give thanks for the syncopation of the serial comma, the breathy pause of the semi-colon, and… wait for it… the anticipatory sigh of the ellipsis.
Gosh I’m a nerd.
Alrighty. Back to the recap. After Mr. HC and I finished our couples portraits, we met up with the rest of the wedding party (who were off rehearsing for the ceremony with Angel). By then, we were running behind schedule, and we had only about a half hour to get our group shots done before our bedecken was supposed to start. Oy vey, indeed.
Nobody warned me, but getting two large families together for group shots is like herding cats. Chatty cats. With short attention spans.
There’s nothing like a wedding to create a lengthy to-do list. And as Mr. Bruschetta and I have recently discovered, that list doesn’t magically disappear after the last piece of cake’s been eaten. Nope, we’re still plodding along wrapping things up with vendors, starting to tackle our thank you notes and finding spots in our tiny apartment for our shiny new cooking tools.
Which brings me to… our registries. Mr. Bruschetta and I plan to spend our monetary wedding gifts — and shower gift cards — stocking our kitchen. (And our nonexistent china hutch; we were gifted two flatware settings and one china set — which would make for a reeeeally awkward dinner party — so we definitely need to add some more Kate and Vera to the family.) We’d discussed giving our exhausted credit cards a much-deserved reprieve, and revisiting our registries in early 2010.
But then Macy’s called. It turns out that our china and flatware are buy three get one free through October 4. Not tempting enough? Well, how ’bout an extra 10% off? Yup, Macy’s dangled the carrot. The completion discount carrot.
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