Weddingbee Blog

Our vows are something that took Mr. Cola and me a while to decide on.

On one hand, I didn’t really want to do the more traditional vows, where we would just repeat the same thing our officiant said. I wanted something a little more personal and meaningful for us, especially since we pieced together the ceremony wording ourselves.

But on the other hand, Mr. Cola thought that writing our own vows would be a lot of work. And I couldn’t argue with that, because I agreed it would be. And then I read Miss Sewing’s post about vows, and she brought up the very good point that when a bride and groom both write their own vows, and don’t see them in advance, there’s a good chance they could end up being vastly different in length and/or tone.

So Mr. Cola and I came up with a compromise: Vow Libs!
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So sometimes life gets in the way and I can’t write nice things about my life or our wedding.

Today, lucky you, is not one of those times.

Tonight, I would like to talk about hair. Unfortunately, I do not have as many pictures as I would like to show you my many fabulous hair experiences, but I will do what I can.

In the internet wedding blogging world, everyone talks about hair. They show their hair up and down and in a ponytail. Here are three pictures of me with my hair up, down, and, um, swept to the side?

Uh, spunky, right?

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I have mentioned before that we will not be having a formal wedding party. Mr. Hermit Crab and I both have big groups of close friends from many different periods in our lives, and we felt that choosing some friends and excluding others in this way was simply out of the question for us. We will be including many of friends in other ways, however, so stay tuned for more information on that!

However, we will not be alone under the chuppah. In addition to our Rabbi, of course, we will have our siblings and parents stand up with us. Our siblings will be holding the chuppah, and our parents will be standing by our sides. (My little sister will actually be acting as flower girl, which is as close to a wedding party as we came, but hey, she’s 5!)
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After another Saturday at the hospital, Mr. Seashell and I had plans to enjoy the evening over a yummy dinner and drinks at Primebar. We were partially celebrating my new job (woo hoo!) and partially taking the time to do something special together amidst the craziness that has been our lives lately.

After nibbling on course after course of amazing food, and chatting the night away, Mr. Seashell took a moment to lean close to me, and pulled out a little black box. He popped it open and said, “I was just wondering… will you still marry me?” Then he presented me with my reset engagement ring!

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Check out these great projects hive members have uploaded to Weddingbee’s DIY section! Click on the title of each project for tutorials!

Ring Bearer “Flower” Pillow by Mrs.KK

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As a guest, one of my favorite parts about a wedding is the toasting. It’s fun to when the BM and MOH give you a little more insight into the couple getting married and often tell embarrassing stories. I sort of wish everyone at weddings would do a toast—but of course that would eat into dancing time!
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In my previous cake-related post, I was pretty frustrated with the entire cake designing process. Since we were only about a month and some change out from the wedding date at that point, panic had officially set in. Must… find… baker… NOW!

I consulted various wedding vendor directories for my area, and frantically sent out emails/inquiry forms to about a dozen, hoping that they would be available on our date! After sending out the S.O.S.s, I sat back on the couch for a moment of respite. About 20 minutes later, my phone rang. It was one of the bakers, returning my inquiry… talk about a quick response! She was very sweet on the phone, and we set up a meeting for later on in the week.
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We’re getting married on a cliff with crashing waves, but that’s not where I want to bring the wave in. I want it on my head. Yup, you read that correctly. I want our Coastal Chic wedding to have some old Hollywood glamour that showcases the classic bang wave. Check out some of these classic beauties!

Maybe some Grace Kelly…

source

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In an effort to find as many friends’ and family wedding portraits as possible, I employed the help from my parents and the Mr’s parents. Not only that, I created a “plan” of sorts to get started. How’d I start?

1. Send out a mass email to friends and family.

You’d be surprised to know how many people responded. Obviously, all of our friends who have gotten married in the last two years were able to email me a copy, but even those who have hard copies responded to say they would make a duplicate of one of their originals. Score.

2. Ask Mom and Dad to tell everyone on the family (who doesn’t have email) to dig through their photos to find one.

Oddly enough – this worked out pretty well, too. My parents have received quite a few in the mail (as in snail mail). I’m pretty stoked about this. And, when Mr. A’s parents return from their 6-month stay in Florida this month, we’ll be able to gather a few more.

So far we have about 20 photos, with promises of several more! And, a few weeks ago, my parents were down visiting with my grandpa (my Dad’s Mom), and they were able to find these beauties:
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Finding a florist was, by far, the most torturous process in our wedding planning. Honesty first: we had a very, very bare-bones floral budget, and I couldn’t find any possible way to juggle the money enough to beef it up. I felt bad and self-conscious about our skimpy budget, and I knew that we were most definitely not a florist’s ideal client. However, I do wish that some of the florists I spoke with had been a little kinder. I felt bad to begin with, and I felt worse every time I got laughed at, sneered at, or ignored. I went through a lot of phone consultations, emails, and in-store consultations, and had earnestly begun to Google “weddings with no flowers”.

Then, on our last trip to Pittsburgh, in a last-ditch final attempt, I found the right florist for us. HOORAY! We are using Parkway Florist, and I could not be any happier about the choice. This photo of Cheryl’s beautiful work totally sold me:

(Source)

I’ve mentioned already that the whole color scheme for our wedding was built around the idea of a dark red bridal bouquet. I told Cheryl that I was imagining a fluffy, full bouquet, using flowers that have lots of petals. I brought in these inspiration pictures…
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The Friday before the wedding was already flying by, unlike these recaps, which I realize seem to be dragging on forever. I have a small confession to make, hive: I’m already sad thinking of my recaps coming to an end and I have barely started! Six months later and I am still a little sad to think our wedding is over. Who wouldn’t want to go back and feel the kind of love and support you can only get from being surrounded by all your friends and family, every single day? I was still a calm and collected (although a bit butterfly-filled) bride after our salon trip, but I was soon to be a big teary mess from all the love and goodness coming my way!

I knew from the beginning I wanted to show my mostly northern guests as many Southern traditions as I could, and the bridesmaid luncheon was no exception. I couldn’t think of a better way to spend the afternoon than at a tea party with the women I love! Of course, things are always easier said than planned.
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While brainstorming with my FIL about what we should do with the top of the door on our outdoor chapel, he came up with the idea of hanging a window right above the French doors. I loved the idea!! He suggested that maybe we could paint the window and keep it in my office as a keepsake of the day. He really got me with that one!

I asked one of MIL’s friends that is a great glass artist to paint it for me, and she was very very happy to help us. But sadly she got really sick so I came up with a backup plan—I made a template and painted our window with MARKERS!

Unfortunately it’s not everlasting because we tested the markers on a piece of glass, and after 2 days in  direct sunlight it faded to the point that you would never even know that the marker was there.
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Remember this picture?

A long time ago, way back in May of last year, I posted a picture of myself in a little red bikini on Waikiki Beach. At first glance, it may have appeared that I was super bloated from too much room service and fruity drinks, but upon closer inspection, hopefully you noticed my belly was growing a teeny tiny Baby Dumpling.
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Congratulations to our winners, soontobekatieb and amanda.lynn!

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Sally Hansen has a great giveaway for us today in honor of their huge contest, launching tomorrow! Sally Hansen and Brides Magazine are partnering to give away a custom diamond eternity band valued at $3,000 and a collection of Sally Hansen® wedding-worthy products, including Diamond Strength® Nail Color for brilliant nails and Diamond 12 Hour Lip Treatment for lavish lips and lasting moisture. The big contest will go live on Brides First Look tomorrow, May 11, so check out the site to enter and win!

And to kick off the contest, Sally Hansen is giving away 10 wedding-worth shades of Diamond Strength Nail Color and 10 shades of Diamond 12 HR Lip Treatment to two lucky Weddingbee readers!

To enter this contest, check out the shades of Sally Hansen Diamond Strength nail color here and let us know what your favorite color is. And for an additional chance to win, follow @weddingbee on Twitter and retweet the contest by simply clicking here. From there, comment again here and let us know you retweeted! You have until Friday, May 14 at midnight PST to enter. Good luck!

So I’ve begun the DIY wedding journey. One of my slated projects is below - these cuter than cute little flags.

As you can see, the example I found has them being used in cupcakes, however, I’m not big into cake and neither is Frogger.

Back when we went on a long weekend trip to Chelan, we stopped at an adorable little bakery in a tiny town nearby. We wanted to get some pie samples to see if we could find a fit for our wedding. Upon walking into the homey, delicious smelling store, I was blown away by the amount of choices that were available. They had pies of every flavor you can imagine and even better…
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