Weddingbee Blog

Is this thing on? *waves hi* Remember me? I’m Pretzel, the short dress wearing bee with the colorful brewery inspired wedding…ring a bell? I think I might be the last of the snack food generation to start recaps, but better late than never, right? Let’s ease into it, though. I still find this recap business a little daunting.

A week before the wedding I waved “bye” to the Hive from the “wedding room” and was off to hang out with family and to finish a few last-minute projects. Mr P and I both took the weeks before and after the wedding off. I bit the bullet and took some of that time as unpaid leave (because of my vacation issues) and it was the best decision ever. Mr P’s family arrived 8 days before the wedding and my MOH/Sis in Law Tig, my niece (the girl) and nephew (the boy) arrived 5 days before. We did our best to balance spending time with both families and we had a meet the in-laws BBQ the Wednesday before. The rest of our guests started showing up on the Thursday before the wedding. I was more than a little stressed about the weather because many of our guests were visiting Seattle for the first time, and well I wanted them to come back! It rained on the 4th of July (as it commonly does in Seattle) but the next day it was clear skies and stayed that way all through the following week.

Qwest Field, Safeco Field, and Mount Rainier

I am so happy that during the days leading up to our wedding we were surrounded by friends and family. Most of Mr P’s family stayed at a rented a house just 15 minutes from us. My sister-in-law and the kids stayed at the house I shared with Mama P. Mama P also took the same 2 weeks vacation so she could help out before the wedding and spend quality time with my brother’s family and my Aunts and Uncles. Mr P’s youngest brother/Best Man and his wife (Bridesmaid S) stayed with us at our townhouse. We loved having them there and they certainly were helpful. Bridesmaid S and Bridesmaid M helped assemble all of our programs which was a relief. I tell you, BM S is a pro with the glue stick!

A labor of love

In a scene straight out of an  I Love Lucy episode we assembled our wedding favors. Playing in the background was our ”Getting sh!t done” soundtrack. The soundtrack consisted of having the People Eating People (a Seattle Band) CD playing loud and on constant rotation. Whenever I listen to it now I think of our wedding week festivities.

People Eating People performing “Rain, Rain” seriously, they rock… check ‘em out

Yes, I may have led you to believe that we were going to package our homemade beer bread mix in a mason jar, but we found a much cooler (and more difficult) packaging. 22 oz beer bottles! With the help of Groomsman V and his wife W (she was my glasses rocking bride idol), Mama Pretzel, and later MOH Tig and “the Girl” we mixed 70 batches of dry beer bread mix, poured it into the bomber bottles using silicone funnels (funny fact, you actually had to “milk” the funnel like an udder to get the flour mix into the bottle—fun times) and packed the mix down by “tapping” the bottle. Finally we capped the bottles using Groomsman V’s capper.

W “milks” the funnel

Mr P “taps” the bottle to make more room for mix

The aftermath

Jr Bridesmaid “the girl” and Mama P help me tie recycled beer box tags on our bottles

MIL Pretzel and Mr P’s sister (BM M) pitched in and helped make my Martha Stewart chocolate dipped pretzel dreams come true. We packaged over 100 of these up for a post ceremony snack for our guests.

Nom, Nom

Mr P tackled the ribbon place mats with a little help from Mama P.

And he finished making chalkboards out of old cabinet doors

While I transformed this nine-pane window

into a unique family wedding photo display

We got a lot done, but we also decided to cut some things, too. By the time the rest of our guests started arriving on Thursday we had all of our projects finished and we couldn’t have done it without the help of our friends and family.

Coming up in recaps: A more in-depth look at the favors and our programs.