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Weddingbee Blog
Wedding planning has been rolling right along at the Aardvark house. We have all of the majors out of the way and are somewhere near that “in between” time I’ve heard so much about. However, there are still little wedding things that pop up now and then that need to be taken care of.
Well, lately work has gotten really busy for me (in a good but still stressful way), and last night I came home and realized I had never actually booked a block of hotel rooms. I had, a few weeks ago, emailed back and forth with the hotel we had decided to book with. And then totally dropped the ball. It was not an emergency or anything, it had just fallen off of my radar and happened to pop back on when I was just too tuckered out to handle it. (Yes, folks, I am saying I was too tired to open my computer and type, “Sounds good. We’ll take x number of rooms. Please and thank you.”)
What’s a bride to do?! Well, the answer may be very clear to you clever ladies (and gents), but it seemed totally novel to me at the time. It went something like this:
Can you believe it’s already been a year?! I surely can’t. Our Napa wedding seems like it was six months ago at most. The whole day is still so vivid in my mind, it feels impossible that 365 days have passed.
We stuck to the traditional “paper” theme for our first anniversary and I promised I’d share the crest I made for the husband. I’m sad to say that the colors aren’t quite right, but we live on Guam…I have to take what I can get. He was very surprised and pleasantly impressed by my leopard drawing skills. I was too, to be honest!
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adelya21’s cake-card box looked almost good enough to eat!
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Like many brides, as soon as we got engaged I was ready to dive head first into wedding planning. For me, the first task at hand was finding the ideal venue, and finding the ideal venue meant one thing—a barn! Let me give you a little background so that you understand where I am coming from.
When I was little, my dream was to move to Wisconsin and live on a farm. My family and I spent every summer at our grandparents’ house in Door County, Wsiconsin, and I was in love with the grazing horses, cornfields, and dairy farms that passed by my window as we drove through rural America.
Personal photo from THE Farm (basically a giant petting zoo with lots of rural charm)
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All-Inclusion Invitation Suites
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Remember when I mentioned here how I am not a DIY person? Well, apparently I am starting to surprise myself, because I am discovering a whole new crafty side of me that I never knew existed. It must be the Girl Scout in me. It takes me a few trials and some defeat along the way, but the project I am going to detail for you today is one that I am really excited about. It is not a technically difficult project, but it is perfect for those of you who are new to the DIY scene like I am.
I started to venture into the alternative-guestbook-idea world. There are so many great options out there, but the one that really stood out to me was a wishing tree. Something along these lines:
{Image via Style Me Pretty’s Style Circle}
…or whichever deity you like to give thanks to. I’m flexible.
Don’t worry, this post isn’t about gas prices! As I mentioned in my introductory post, Mr. Warbler won a “Create Your Dream Vacation” Sweepstakes through his job at Chevron. He simply entered the raffle and won a few weeks later. Out of seventy thousand employees! The prize included an airline gift card and a Marriott hotel gift card. Our options limited us to a few different airlines and Marriott hotels. We immediately decided to choose Hawaiian Airlines, because neither of us have been to Hawaii. This was a few months before he proposed, but Mr. Warbs was already planning our honeymoon out in his head! Now that we’re six months out (thanks for the reminder, mom) it’s time to put those gift cards to use.
The airfare was simple enough. We decided to visit two islands:
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Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
The next phase was the Age of Mismatched Dresses.
Image via Cap Classique / Photography by Anjuli Paschall of Photorange Photography
People could choose one that fit their own body, style, and pocketbook. The cherry on top was this way, I wouldn’t be responsible for picking.
Mr. Foxy scored major awesome points in my book last Friday night.
See…I find ideas for wedding music daily. I have a whole playlist on iTunes called “Wedding Possibilities” that is full of songs I dream of using for our processional, recessional, first dance, whatever. Too many songs, honestly. I need more “moments” so I can have more songs.
Anyway. My teenage heart and I big puffy heart love Dashboard Confessional—always have, always will. One of my favorite lovey-dovey songs for the longest time has be “Stolen.”
Listen…now.
Ugh, I swoon. Love. Him. / Video via YouTube
I’m giving Mr. Skunk two gifts. I’m fairly certain he knows what one of them is because he’s seen the box. The other is to throw him off. I’ll discuss the latter first.
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Yes, I have skipped over the dinner portion of the day. There are no photos of it, but it was divine!
After our 20 minute cocktail hour, all the guests were seated. Mr Waffle and I took advantage of the “all guests were seated” business to go to each table and say our “hellos” and “thank yous.” This worked out perrrrfectly. I wanted to make sure we were able to talk to everyone that came and having captive tables of people waiting for Royal Fig’s heavenly BBQ to be served up was just the ticket!
Due to the fact that we were running a bit behind, Kristen of Royal Fig suggested a new reception schedule for us and I said “yes” without hesitation because that lady knows her stuff. She and her staff had run everything form their end seamlessly so far and I knew I could trust her expert opinion.
We grabbed our champagne flutes and started with toasts.
Best Man Rock Star kicked it off with a lot of funny one-liners and some embarrassing info on Mr Waffle. Everyone had a good laugh.
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Like a kid at Christmas time, I woke up at 5AM ready to go because today is the today! I am enjoying my last few minutes of calm before I climb in the car to Congress Hall. It is almost cliche at this point to say but I can’t believe how quickly we got here, from engagement day to wedding day. I am ready for this. I am ready for our new life to begin as Mr. and MRS Cucumber Sandwich.
This post is difficult to write because I am trying to find just the right words to say how much the hive has meant to me over this last couple of months. I don’t think I can ever say thank you enough for sharing your thoughts, inspiration and weddings with me. But thank you! It has truly been an honor to be here, surrounded by such amazing women.
To my friends and family; thank you so much for dealing with my crazy. I can’t wait to party tonight!
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| {Our last picture as Mr and Miss} |
Our hunt for a photographer was pretty simple. From the get-go we had planned on having a family friend do it. Cheap.Easy.Done. So, instead of obsessing over photographers I started to search for videographers. (I wasn’t sure if we needed a videographer at this point, but I had to obsess over something!)
Unfortunately one of the first videographers I stumbled across was WAY out of our (budget) league. They produced videos with the production quality of Titanic with dramatic music and timing that had zero “home video” feel to them. I was smitten. Mr. Aardvark was not. I pouted for a while about “wanting the best quality documentation” for such an important day. He pointed out that we could get a perfectly lovely video made that would not triple our wedding budget. And, being the sweetheart that he is, he looked up a whole heap of local vendors and sifted through them to find his favorite few. From there, there was one that stood out above the rest: Michael Terri Studios.
They were just what I was looking for—a husband and wife team who had been doing weddings for years and were within our budget and, most important, were very prompt to reply to questions and emails. We signed the contract and felt very good about ourselves.
Then, the wheels started turning again. You see, our family friend is an amazing photographer; however, he is also a close friend, and asking him to work and feel obligated to catch all of the little “moments” as opposed to kicking back and enjoying himself didn’t seem fair. We chatted and decided it would be best to hire a pro to ensure everyone had a good time and enjoyed themselves. Michael Terri Studios also happens to offer photography that, when packaged with videogaphy, is CRAZY affordable! Not only that, but the pictures were great. Not trying too hard, but still artsy, fun, and natural; he really seems to have a knack for catching great moments. Want to see a few of my faves?
My dad was once eating Chinese food with some coworkers, and one of his friends opened a fortune cookie that said: “Don’t compare yourself to others, you’ll only be disappointed.” Sounds fine at first, but when you stop to think about it, it is quite mean! We always joked that it was the worst fortune ever.
Then my sister told me about a girl who opened a fortune cookie, and on the little slip of white paper there was not an inspirational message but instead an advertisement for American Airlines. Can you imagine the disappointment?! OK, maybe not everyone shares my level of excitement for reading their fortune, but still, that’s pretty lame.
Now that we have covered the contenders for the worst fortune ever (if you’d like to see more check this out), let me share with you a little story about the night I received the Best. Fortune. Ever! You may know where I am going with this, but just pretend to be surprised as you read on.
There are many things for which Mr. Dalmatian and I share a love. One of these things is General Tso’s chicken. Our passion for Chinese take-out blossomed during our sophomore year of college, when we started a tradition of ordering it every Sunday night. Since graduation, we haven’t stuck to our weekly regimen, but we are still frequent customers at our favorite Chinese take-out joint.
The wedding-planning process has been fairly problem free so far. Because of this, I decided there were certain areas that I just did not need to worry about for a little while. Such as immediate decisions on beauty experts. A few weeks back I decided to halfheartedly start searching for a makeup artist. I actually prefer to do my own makeup, and I don’t think I am half bad at it. However, on my wedding day I do not want to be worried about doing my own makeup. I would rather just leave it to a professional.
I started browsing the different artists in the area, looking at reviews and so on. I did not feel like I needed to commit to anyone yet. There was one particular makeup artist who had fantastic reviews and came highly recommended. I emailed her with my wedding date and asked for some pricing. She emailed me back with a sad-face emoticon and a “Sorry, I am booked for your date.”
{Image via: Just in Case You Were Wondering}
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