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The M&M buffet at Swymrocket’s reception was a candy-lover’s dream.
Keep on loading your inspirational wedding pics to the gallery to see them featured here on the blog! Remember, your images must be under 1MB in size, or they won’t load.
Birdcage veils.
Yet another thing I had never heard of until I started reading wedding blogs. I recognized them as the veil styles from Sweet Home Alabama and Fantastic Four 2, and also from vintage wedding (and funeral) pictures, but I hadn’t realized that they were all the rage right now. After seeing them in pictures over and over again, I started to wonder if I could possibly become a birdcage bride…
“Would the style look right on me?”
“Am I going to “date” my wedding with this look (not that the purple shoes aren’t already doing that for me) ;)?”’
“Would this look ’go’ with the rest of my bridal vision?”
Sigh.
I remained undecided for quite some time.
I spent a lot of time thinking about music before our wedding. The ceremony music alone took up, oh, a good couple of months of thought process. Our rehearsal dinner required its own fairly lengthy soundtrack. And then there was the playlist and do not play list. Um, yeah, I thought about those for so long that I was frantically finalizing those the morning before the wedding. Whoops.
Needless to say, I was relieved after the wedding. I was finally done thinking about all that wedding-related music… or was I?
Dun dun dun. (Or however you crazy kids are indicating melodramatic music these days.)
It seems that we need some music for our wedding video. Well, specifically, our videographer would like us to pick out a song for the highlight/recap section at the end of video. I’d also like to give him some Bollywood tunes to use for the more Indian portions of our wedding.
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I found my dress while shopping with Spaniel Bridesmaid (and former roommate!), BM-Y. I didn’t know exactly which dress it was at the time, but I knew that I had found it!
I went into Kraoza Bridal in Glendale because (1) I knew they carried Allure Bridals gowns, which I liked a lot, (2) I knew they were big and had a lot of dresses in stock (and so maybe they would have the two dresses that I absolutely must try before I committed to anything!), and (3) they have a reputation for, if not great customer service, at least really competitive prices. I brought BM-Y because of her great taste and fashion sense, and also because Mama Spaniel? Well. She is just not much fun to shop with.
Anyway. I must have tried on about 15 dresses. Nine were good enough to photograph, and three were definitely my favorites. I really didn’t know which of the three I’d end up with, but I was almost certain it was one of them.
Nine might be dress overkill, so you get the short story and the top 3. And keep in mind that all of these dresses looked better in person. 
Ironically, the best looking picture was one of my least favorite dresses.
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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.”
So after running all over the beach, feeling like a superstar couple because we were being chased by paparazzi (aka our groomsmen and family members), we gave all of the leis away to our guests and got ready to start the ceremony. 
{ Image by Groomsman Scott J - Our leis modeled by FMIL }
Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
For my bridesmaids gifts I purchased reusable water bottles and had their names engraved on them. Then I purchased plain canvas tote bags and “silkscreened” the bird image we’ve used throughout the wedding. I wanted something that was leaning toward being eco-friendly and that would remind them of the our wedding. I say “silkscreen” because I didn’t use photo emulsion or screen blocker, I really used a stencil. If you’re only doing a few items with a simple image, then a stencil is perfect. Here is how I did it, D’orsay style. Acquire a Speedball silk screening kit (do a Google search), the fabric ink in the color you’d like (available online and at Jo-Ann’s) and choose your image.
Print your image, then trace it to freezer paper.
Wedding lingo is quite extensive. From FI, to MOH, to STDs, you can really get lost in all of the acronyms! Recently, I have made an important addition to my bride-to-be vocabulary: friendor.
Now, from my understanding, a friendor is a friend or acquaintance who agrees to “work” at your wedding for a minimum or no fee. I plan on fully taking advantage (uhm… exploiting) the talents of my family and friends at our wedding, and will post about this in the future.
So here is a question for you: what do you call a future Mother in Law that agrees to replace an important vendor for your wedding? A MILdor? Is it just me, or does that sound too much like Frodo’s destination?
I am extremely lucky to have a Mother in Law who is a wedding cake expert. She has made the wedding cakes of all the brides and grooms in her family (and the fact that she has 10 siblings makes this quite a feat!). She is not a professional baker, but her work is definitely professional.
Here are some examples:
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Hello, everyone!
My, how I’ve missed you! I’m in wedding blogging limbo still waiting for our pics to come through from our photographer. It’s definitely hard, but I know that good things come to those who wait.
In the meantime, I thought I would tell you about one of the more fulfilling experiences that I had while I was engaged. Last October, I took a week-long trip by myself to Brazil. I’d never traveled completely by myself internationally before, especially to a country where I didn’t have total command of the language, so on many levels this was a total challenge for me (after a year of college Brazilian Portuguese I have the vocab of an 8 year-old… okay, better make that a 5 year-old.).
I had a different outlook on this trip, though. It was the first time that I would be leaving my future husband at home. I will give Mr. Swan a shout out for being so encouraging and not freaking out when I said that I wanted to a plan a trip by myself to a city that did not necessarily have a reputation for always being super safe (Rio; I went to Salvador, too.). Mr. Swan hears way too much about my wanderlust and has learned to appreciate (for lack of a better word) my independent streak. I so appreciate his confidence in me, and his willingness and ability to let me be me.
After the excitement of getting engaged I stopped myself one day and came to a deep realization: this is it, Swan… you’ve got another person who will be your partner in making decisions (even about things like vacations..uh oh 
), who may occasionally worry when you walk out the door for the day and for whom you’ll need to do the same.
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What do a hamster and a burlesque dancer have in common?
Well. Not much - except for some general hair and makeup fabulousness. Yep, while I was searching for hair and makeup inspiration photos for my trial, a lot of the photos I picked were of Dita Von Teese. I was a little surprised and a lot amused, but I realized this made sense - I’m looking for a down-do of structured waves, and clean but defined eyes with bold lips. Think old-school, classic ’40s. And the lovely Dita has that look down pat. Witness:
A U Haul truck!
This weekend will mark sixth months of marriage for the Taffys. We will spend our anniversary moving out of Ann Arbor and closer to Detroit. Leaving Ann Arbor is bittersweet for me, but I have some big news that will explain the move: I have a new job!!!
Job searching for the last year in the current economic climate has been very challenging! The Weddingbee community was a great source of support not only during my wedding planning, but during the job search. I want to thank the bees, and all of you who provided support through my blog posts and on the boards. You are awesome, and I cannot thank you enough for your support!
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Once the ceremony was over, Mr. HC and I, per Jewish custom, giddily scrambled off to yihud. Yihud means “seclusion,” and it refers to a tradition in which a newly married couple spends a bit of time on their own immediately after the ceremony. In ancient times, this is the first time the couple would be alone with one another and when they’d get it on for the first time.
In honor of the custom, Mr. HC and I engaged in some hot and heavy activity of our own…
by ravenously devouring the plate of hors d’oeuvres that had been delivered to the yihud room for us. Over a platter of sushi, satay, and fried artichokes, we giggled over the amazing and wonderful fact that we were married!
When Mr Pretzel and I started to talk about getting married we didn’t spend more than a minute talking about where the ceremony location would be.
Mr P: You want Fr Jim to marry us?
Miss P: Of course.
Mr P: OK, Saint B’s it is.
You see we are registered at two different Catholic parishes located a mere 5 miles apart. We split our time at both Churches, but we are more involved at the Church I am registered at. The choice didn’t even warrant a full conversation—easy-checkitoffthelist-done.
We did, however, spend more time talking about the type of reception venue that we wanted. Both of us had attended our fair share of wedding receptions in banquet halls and country clubs. We agreed that neither of these fit “us”. The words that we used to describe the type of location we wanted were urban, loft, brick, airy, open, modern. In early summer I did some web research to get an idea what was out there and how much it might cost.
The criteria I was working with:
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I love J.Crew, I really do. Someday I even hope to afford their clothing. Zing!
But seriously, I’m inspired by what they’re doing lately, all funky-preppy. I enjoy their catalogs. I like to sit and read them and imagine myself within their pages, doing what their models do. No one does Catalog People quite like the Crew. I kinda want to jump in their pages, where life seems stylish and simple: have brunch with friends somewhere perpetually warm, in tall boots and crisp jeans and a little cashmere sweater (grab one in every color!), scarves artfully arranged around necks. Join in on summer trips involved hiking, many of us in distressed camp shorts and tall socks and galoshes—who knows why?—hoisting a canoe above our heads, mouths open laughing.
No one does Catalog People like the Crew! And their wedding shots are always the picture of easy-breezy-whimsy-cheer.
But tell me if this doesn’t make you LOL.
Can we dissect this for a moment?
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Nerves were at their peak in the reception barn as we waited for guests to fill our ceremony site. As I previously mentioned, we did not have a rehearsal, so this was the first time things were really starting to feel real. We were really doing this. I was calm and excited all at the same time, waiting at the back of the line with my dad.
Our ceremony site:
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