Last month, Wolfman got this in his inbox:
How neat, right?! We were really getting to the point where we needed to order our wedding bands, so we thought it’d be really cool to buy them from the dude who designed them. We got a little dressed up and headed to the Yurman store in the “fancy mall.” It was pretty swanky—champagne, a DJ, passed appetizers, a photographer—and for the most part, we were the youngest people there by a long shot. We figured they must have invited those who spent a lot of money at Yurman in the recent past, and although my e-ring was certainly a big purchase—it’s a once in a lifetime kind of thing. We were surrounded by people who spent that amount of money on jewelry regularly. The people-watching (and jewelry-ogling) was really fun. Wolfman joked that it looked like some couples were leaving after robbing a pirate ship.
We also got to talk to Mr. Yurman himself!
I wish I was joking, but this is a question Mr. Squirrel really asked me.
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Here I am, with a GOR-geous ring on my finger, and my fiance is asking me to define a wedding. Hmm. Maybe he should’ve thought about this on the front end?
So here’s the back story…
I come from a VERY large, VERY loud Catholic family. I have six siblings and about 60 first cousins. This is just the immediate family, plus SIL and BIL. Here we are in our full Squirrel glory:
If you had asked me pre-pregnancy what Mr. B and I planned to do while on our honeymoon, you would have gotten lots of different answers. I would likely have told you things like zip-lining and hiking; zip-lining because I’d never done it (and the honeymoon is the perfect time to try new things) and hiking because it is one of our favorite things to do on vacation. Things at the top of Mr. B’s list would likely have been hanging out at the beach and snorkeling; the first of which I was definitely willing to compromise on (we were, after all, going to Hawaii) and the second of which I said I’d think about (which, trust me, is an improvement). But when I found out I would be pregnant on the honeymoon, we had to adjust our plans for adventure.
We arrived in Maui around 5:45 PM, right when it was getting dark, and since it was a Sunday night, there wasn’t much to do in the way of adventures. So we scouted out what turned out to be a great (and quick!) dinner (more on that in the upcoming food post) and called it a night. The next morning we set out on our way toward Wailea to see what adventure we could stumble across. Seeing as it was still pretty early (thank you, time change!), nothing seemed to be open, so we just kept on driving. We followed the road all the way till it ended at Makena Beach and got out to walk around. Now, prior to leaving the condo that morning, we hadn’t discussed any strenuous activities, and while I did bring a bathing suit in my bag, I had worn a strapless bra under my sundress (not a mistake I would make again). So when Mr. B decided he wanted to take a mini-hike, as I call it (OK, it wasn’t REALLY a hike, but it definitely was more than a stroll in the park, and definitely more than my strapless bra was willing to commit to), I wasn’t completely on board right away. It was a beautiful walk, though, and we saw a lot of beautiful scenery and a LOT of wild goats!
One of the many goats we saw! We loved that this one was on the beach!
Laura is selling two jadeite milk glass cake stands. She is asking $45 each.
Have a wedding item for sale? Post it with pictures in the Weddingbee Classifieds, and you might see it featured on the blog!
Other great items for sale:
I’ll speed through these. After we made our exit, our guests cleared the chapel, and we took a few more pictures at the altar.
When we came back out, our guests were still mingling! I had expected those who hadn’t been asked to stay for pictures to get a move on to the reception, but everyone was there, which, admittedly, stressed me out a little. It’s hard enough to wrangle my huge family into pictures without a whole bunch of other people to navigate through. So, although I tried to get everyone together, I eventually just gave up and let Sara take over. The only unfortunate part about this was it was hard for me to get the auxiliary groups of people I was hoping to get photos with. But we did get all the ones on our list, which is great! Word of advice, if you really want those extra shots, put them on your list!
We went from the biggest groups to the smallest.
Before we knew it, it was time for toasts…
…and Mr. Hawk’s brother, Best Man J, was up. Since J is a bit of a jokester, I’ll admit I was slightly apprehensive to hear what kind of stories J was planning to tell in front of all our family and friends.
Last time, I told you about my discovery that I (despite my previous intentions) wanted a veil. Once I decided I wanted one, the question became…which one? I had no idea that there were so many different choices of veils out there!!
Birdcage, blusher, mantilla, cathedral, chapel, ballet…what? Then there’s the choice of where to wear it. On top of your head with a little pouf? Further back on the head? Under your hairstyle? Or up front if you’ve got a birdcage…so many choices!!
Right off the bat, I nixed a few choices. No mantilla for me (that’s the veil with the lace on the edges).
Image from Bridal Styles Boutique
To me, mantilla veils are the stars of the show. Because I’ll be wearing a dress with a lot going on, the mantilla veil would be overkill in my opinion.
Also, no birdcage.
After sharing a few quiet moments together during our first look, we started off our portraits under the outdoor ceremony arch.
I had a really bad habit of forgetting about us in regard to this whole wedding thang.
All photos by Exclamation Imagery unless otherwise noted
Example: I don’t think I remembered to add our own names to final guest list until three months beforehand, and I definitely had to reorganize room assignments for the weekend when I realized that we actually neglected to give ourselves a room to stay in. Super.
Hello hive!!
I am so excited to become Miss Squirrel and share all of our wedding details with you! I got Mrs. Penguin’s email late Friday afternoon. Things were pretty quiet around the office. My coworkers were starting to head home and I was finishing a few things up before I saw my last patient of the day. I was sitting in my office, I saw the email, and my heart didn’t even pitter-patter because I figured it was a no-go. Then as I skimmed the page…BAM…I saw a link to the characters. I freaked! YES! In those 0.5 seconds I sent a quick prayer that no one had been selected between Miss Bat and me so my first choice of animal was still available. Double YES!
My brain was running a million miles a minute—I got accepted! I forwarded Mr. Squirrel the email and sent a quick text that said (not to paraphrase or anything) “OMG.OMG.OMG. Check your email!” I snapped an awkward pic to attempt to document the excitement, then pulled it together, put on my big-girl face, and slipped off to see my patient! I feel so privileged to be picked, and I cannot wait to share this journey with all of you!
Miss Squirrel
In my last post, I recapped the first four days of the Wallaby honeymoon Down Under, which we spent a) resting and recovering from the frenzied wedding week, b) staying at the best.honeymoon.cottage.eva., and c) hiking around New Zealand’s stunning Abel Tasman National Park. I left off with Mr. W and me boarding a plane to Queenstown.
I wish I could say it was a smooth journey, but let’s be real. It was an awful day. We had booked a short flight to Queenstown, with a 15-minute layover in Christchurch. Our flight to Christchurch was uneventful, but halfway through our second flight, a stewardess announced that due to bad weather conditions in Queenstown we’d be landing in a different city. Being uninformed Americans with very little grasp of New Zealand geography, we had no idea where we landed. We waited for over an hour for a coach bus, which transported us the remainder of the way to Queenstown. What was supposed to be a three-hour trip took 10 hours, and we ran out of tissues (and cold medicine) after hour two. We finally arrived in Queenstown around nine at night. It was Saturday night, so being party animals we dressed up in our finest and hit the town.
False. We scouted out a quick dinner—downtown Queenstown McDonald’s—scarfed down some chicken nugs, and were asleep in bed by 10.
anemonie and her husband share photos from their outdoor fall castle wedding!
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I know I’m sort of rounding the last lap on the way to my wedding date, and at less than three months away is sort of an odd time to talk about saving money (as most of the big bills are coming up), but alas I was prompted by the weather so I’m going to go with it.
This past weekend Minnesota had a nice-sized snowfall. The photo below was taken at the MSP airport where lots of flights were cancelled due to severe weather conditions. I guess it snowed like 10-12 inches around the Twin Cities and close to 16 in other areas up north.
image via Kare11.com
Now there is nothing weird about this. It snows quite a bit during the wintertime in Minnesota. And you’re only a true Minnesotan if you’ve driven at NIGHT in a BLIZZARD by YOURSELF in what I like to call my “near death experience.” This is much like the theory that you’re not a true Chicagoan until you’ve had your car broken into (twice myself and most recently MOH/Sister Big Eyes was also initiated into Chicago the same weekend as my Hen Do even though she doesn’t live here). The snowiest months for Minnesota are usually December to March.
What does this have to do with saving money you ask? I’m saving a pretty large chunk of money by hosting a rather large event (AKA our wedding) in early March (one of the previously mentioned snowy months). It’s actually a really good deal, and a deal that wasn’t available just few weeks later in April. You know how hotels and other wedding venues charge for everything per head? We are getting ten dollars off per person which is HUGE if you’re inviting 150+ people.
Sorry for my extended absence…life has a way of throwing you some crazy curve balls when you least expect them!
As the days close in on our big day, it’s time to make some game day decisions—like what song I’ll dance to with my dad.
Over the years, I’ve shared so many dances with my dad. From dances in the kitchen when I was little and dancing on his toes, to bat mitzvahs and family weddings, they are special moments in my life I’ll never forget.
Personal photos: Clockwise from top left to bottom—at home in the kitchen (circa 1985?), my sister’s bat mitzvah, my bat mitzvah (1993—rocking that sweet bow), and my brother’s bar mitzvah
The dance itself is very important, but finding the song was equally important to both of us. My dad has shaped my musical personality, he has always been on the cutting edge of the musical world, and has introduced me to some of my favorite musicians and always encouraged my siblings and I to be adventurous in our musical taste. My dad’s musical taste ranges from classic rock to hipster indie rock to heavy metal and almost everything in between. I knew finding a song to dance with my dad to at our wedding wasn’t going to be the easiest task, mostly because I knew how opinionated he’d be about it. It needed to be something that wasn’t too overdone, not too trendy, but not too obscure that we couldn’t actually dance to it. And I preferred that it would be lyrically moving.
I used a similar tactic that Mr. Ly and I used for choosing our first dance song. I sent him an email with five choices, and hoped he liked at least one of them.
My top five dance with my dad songs:
Our driver sped through the fifteen minutes to the reception venue, which we meant we arrived before most of the guests.We used our our time wisely by sneaking in a short photo shoot on the grounds of the reception venue while we were waiting for the guests to arrive.
This was definitely my favorite part of the day! We were able to sneak away for some “alone time” and relish in all the bubbling emotions…the joy, the excitement and the realization that we were married, that the moment that we had been looking forward to for so long had come and gone. We were alone in a little bubble of wedded bliss and I love that these pictures captured at least the essence of all our emotions.
