This post is somewhat of a continuation on having a plugged-in wedding. I already noted that I wanted to encourage the use of cell phones and cameras during our wedding—especially during the reception. To try to get more people to take pictures, I created the I Spy cards I told you about earlier. But then of course there’s the issue of actually getting the pictures.
Many of our friends and relatives have smart phones, so we looked into paid apps like Wedding Snap or Snap the Wedding. In the end, we just didn’t want to allot any amount of money toward this when 1.) We were already paying a professional photographer and 2.) We weren’t sure how many people would actually download the app and take pictures with it. We also weren’t sure about those who had cameras—why pay for a service when only half of the guests at the wedding could use it?
We moved on from this idea and set about creating a wedding website. We decided on mywedding.com (more on how we chose a wedding website later). While setting up our free website, we noticed that they had a wedding app available for download and integration, at no extra cost. Thinking it probably wasn’t all that great, I downloaded it to test it anyway.
Kind of a cute icon! Once you open up the app and join our wedding, you see a screen like this.
Shereen is selling a complete wedding reception decor package. She is asking $700 for the package, which includes table decorations for 100 guests.
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:
One of the things I’m most excited about are The Wedding Shoes. This was actually a really easy decision for me. It was something I had tossed around in my head for a long time and, after a few encouraging discussions with Bridesmaid Y, I went for it.
Let me start by clarifying: there was no way in h-e-double-hockey-sticks that I would be wearing anything close to heels for our wedding. Period. Number one: I’m tall. I’m 5’9″. Mr. Palm Tree, on the other hand, is like 5’11″ (“and three quarters!” he would add). Number two: I am clumsy. As in, I can barely walk barefoot without tripping, falling, stumbling, etc. Number three: I have a bunch of ankle/foot/back issues, most of which stem from a combination of my completely flat feet and my weak ankles that required me to wear high tops until I was 10 (no joke, hive, no joke). Number four: They. Are. Not. Comfortable. Period. All of the above combined meant that I was very clearly going to be rockin’ flats from the get-go.
I wasn’t upset about this fact. I’ve been joking about it for years. “Well, I’ll be in ballet slippers anyway,” was my standard comment. I would also follow it up with, “No one’s going to see my shoes anyway, who cares?”
Uh, apparently everyone. Turns out, Wedding Shoes are a big freakin’ thing. Wedding Shoes are deserving of a dedicated blog post. Wedding Shoes inspire polls and inspiration collages. Wedding Shoes get their own picture (or set of pictures) on the big day. Even my own photographers had a few Wedding Shoe shots in their sample portfolio online:
Photo via Limelight-Images / Our photographers rock—taking something that goes on your stinky feet and making it look awesome and interesting.
A married friend of mine recently said to me, “You’re getting married in about three months. Shouldn’t you be more stressed right now?” And I guess the world agreed I wasn’t stressed enough with my wedding, my dissertation, and my second bachelor’s degree. Because today…
I broke my wrist.
Mr. Whale is always teasing me about my apparent inability to know how much space I take up, because I’m always running into things. I’m a bit clumsy. And today that culminated in a very epic, very embarrassing spill just outside of my work building.
So hive, a few words of advice… First, those people were serious when they said not to catch yourself with your hands if you fall. And second, you can’t plan for everything. The doctor assures me that my cast will be off in time for the wedding. But you know, anything could happen. Life doesn’t stop for your wedding. You just have to hope that the stars align on your special day and allow it to go on without too many hiccups.
Anyone else get thrown a big curve ball before the actual wedding day?
(P.S. I may be absent for a little while. It’s kind of hard to type with one hand.)
Sweetescape1976 shows off her gorgeous wedding-day makeup.
Keep on loading your inspirational wedding pics to the Weddingbee Gallery to see them featured here on the blog! Remember, your images must be under 1MB in size, or they won’t load.
If your photo is featured as the Gallery of the Day, you’re eligible for a special Weddingbee badge for your blog or website! Check out instructions on how to grab the badge here!
At this point in the game, I’m pretty sure I email and talk to our vendors more than I do my friends and family. I kid, but I do feel like my relationship with the people I’ve hired to do our wedding is growing rapidly. The closer we get, the more questions they have, the more questions I have, and the more decisions there are that need to be made, which means we need to be in constant contact.
Photo by: Jay Eads in the Switchcities QLD Floods store on Polka Dot Bride via Lover.ly
(All of the photos in this post are just for fun! I miss the days of browsing for inspiration and I figured pictures of other people’s weddings made sense for this post about vendors. In the photograph above, those chocolate centerpieces remind me of the my initial decor idea that was thrown out by, wait for it, EVERYONE. Pine cones. Sigh.)
The cake cutting: one of life’s many mysteries. Why do brides and grooms cut cake in front of their guests day in and day out? Why do we feed cake to each other while everyone watches? Why are we expected to smear it on each others’ faces? And most importantly, how the hell do you actually cut a slice out without ruining the whole cake?
A quick trip to Wikipedia will answer the first few questions, but the last still perplexes me.
Photos by Jennifer Shaffer Photography
We got up to cut the cake with our fancy Kate Spade cake cutting set and toasting flutes (I was convinced I wouldn’t have a good wedding/marriage without them, and, while I really enjoyed having them, they haven’t seen the light of day in eight months. So no, you do not need a cake cutting set or toasting flutes. Unless you want them).
I’m a wine drinker. The occasional sparkling-wine drinker. I’d be a champagne drinker if I could afford to buy it all the time, but since I can’t, I’ll settle for the still stuff.
 |
My Facebook cover picture / Image via FBCoverStreet
Jack, on the other hand, is a whisky drinker. A tiny bit annoying, because I hate whisky. He will drink my wine and I will not touch any of his stash. Must keep reminding myself that this is better for my waistline.
Yes, we’re covering two topics in one post. I’m a multi-tasker that way.
Before I get to either of these topics, however, I gotta backtrack a little bit and tell you how we got to making decisions on what Mr. A will be wearing and where we’ll be spending our wedding night…because we’re getting both for a STEAL.
At the beginning of February, Mr. A and I (along with my parents) attended our city’s annual charity ball, held every year in our reception venue. Proof of our attendance, you ask? Sure, no prob:
BM Mascara, Mama Dillo, and me all gussied up! The theme was “The Black and White Ball.”
