Weddingbee Blog

Hallmark Magazine recently published this little ritual from reader Judy Soman of New York: Since 1949, every time we have a family gathering we pull out a huge, cream-colored tablecloth and each person signs it. If something funny has happened, we write that down. When there’s a new baby, we might add the baby’s handprint. One year, my grandmother took my cousin and me to Europe, and we wrote that. After the holiday, we embroider what’s been written. The embroidery is amazingly dense, and of course there are stains, but our family document is all about continuity. It ties us together.

I love this! LOVE it! Wouldn’t this be a great idea for a guest “book”? I can’t embroider worth beans, but I’m sure I could get someone to do it for me after the wedding.

Excuse the ancient cup and saucer (it was either that or use my crazy hula-hoop woman mug, and I really didn’t want to send anyone into shock). After coming across a similar picture on the knot, we’re considering giving our guests our initials in chocolate as favors.

This was the first attempt, so the letter ‘B’ is not quite up to standards. The ones after this looked much better!

I got my chocolate making kit at Rite Aid on sale for $10. I bought the dark chocolate mint chocolate at A.C Moore for 40% with a coupon, plus it was on sale to begin with, so it came to about $1.10 per bag.

The only down side is that the maker came with only one set of alphabet molds, so that means I can only do the A and the O, freeze ‘em, wash the molds, and repeat the process. I was not a happy camper when I realized this.

Has anyone seen candy letter molds with just one letter repeated? I will give you a hug and a host of virtual cookies if you can help me!

The other night my mum and I were looking at the wedding invitation and I had a little ‘oooooops’ moment: We messed up on the reception time! (How is this even possible? Please… don’t ask. I’m still kicking myself about it.)

So, I logged onto the Knot and yelled for Chad, a notoriously genius guy when it comes to all things proper and refined. He told me that the best thing for us to do would be to tell all of our guests ahead of time, since we’re close to them, and also include the information in the programs/directions that will be handed out at the church… as well as ask our officiant to mention it at the end of the ceremony. Quite a lot of work for one very silly (”stupid” is probably a better word, but it’s so harsh!) mistake.

D’OH!

Have you made any “silly” mistakes in the planning process?

Look! It’s a clutch (I love clutches!) and it’s brown (I love brown!) and it looks somewhat lacy (I love lacy things!)… and it’s only $22! And I would SO use this little baby after the wedding as well– yay!

Find more affordable clutches at www.amiciaccessories.com.

I hope my photographer doesn’t mind… I stole this picture from off of her blog. I’m going to show this pic when I go in for my trial.

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We keep going back and forth between favors. Well… I keep going back and forth. Mr. Broccoli doesnt seem to care whether or not we have favors. Actually, Mr. Broccoli seems to be pretty oblivious to most things involving this wedding. Just the other day he found out that we had a jr. bridesmaid.

“What jr. bridesmaid?”
“Hello? My little cousin?”
“What about her?”
“She’s a jr. bridesmaid.”
“Who’s a jr. bridesmaid?”
“My cousin.”
“What about her?”
“MY COUSIN IS A JR. BRIDESMAID.”
“Oooooh. You should have said so in the first place. Since when?”
“Since before I met you, that’s when, buddy.”
“Mmmm. What’s her name again?”

Will wonders never cease?

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So, if we were to do this whole wedding thing over again…

Cocktail Hour:
Russian shish kabobs. They’re not like the ones pictured. Russian ones have loads of meat and no veggies (well, sometimes crazy people add onions…). These are not your itsy-bitsy, delicate little shish kabobs. These shish kabobs are BIG. The skewers are long. Little kids run around trying to poke each other’s eyes out with them and cry when their parents threaten to take them away. Messy and fun.

Cotton candy machine. I can just picture the kids pressed up around the cotton candy man. Regular cotton candy is great, but in Maine we have something called Maple Sugar cotton candy, which would be great for the adults.

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I guess this might be something that you would hang in your apartment if your boyfriend were really, really slow.

I sure do love ebay…! Don’t you?

This is the deck outside of our venue (actually, this is the deck as viewed through a window. It felt like minus 30 last week with the wind and I really didn’t want to step outside. Not even for your benefit, dear readers).

This is where Mr. Broccoli and I will (hopefully) lead all of our little kiddie guests sometime during the reception and help them dismantle a pinata.

I’m thinking a Fiona pinata for the girls, and a Shrek pinata for the boys. Unfortunately, I’m having a hard time finding the ones I’ve envisioned, so I may have to find something more boring. Like a wedding cake pinata. But who wants to whack a wedding cake pinata? I think they’ll have more fun attacking a bride and groom pinata!

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I think we may have found our mini-moon destination! A quaint little four guest-bedroom B&B in Camden, Maine. It’s still in town, but located on a quieter street (not that there will be much traffic there in April). The other plus is that the owners have avoided decorating the room in Victorian/Laura Ashley motifs—Mr. Broccoli despises both (and I have to admit, I get a little freaked out in places like that too).

This room, called the Copper Beech Suite, is the largest one in the B&B, has a stove fireplace, a little sitting area, and a bathroom complete with a 2-person jacuzzi tub. Oooh-la-la! Not bad for $165 a night!

Anyone else taking a mini-moon? If so, where to and what made you decide to wait before going on the “all-important, real honeymoon” ? (as I’ve heard it called)

My friend and bridesmaid Sara moved to Maine when she was 14 or so. She had been an army brat for years, and Maine was the first state in which she really began to feel at home. Unfortunately, while she was attending college in Florida, her father was reassigned to Vermont. She’s just finishing up her schooling now, and is planning to move back to Maine once her boyfriend pops the question. The point of this story is that since I am doing individual gifts for each of my bridesmaids, I’ve decided to do a “Maine” theme for my dear friend Sara.

Part #1:
An LL Bean tote! LL Bean is Maine personified, and I thought that a tote would be really useful since she’s currently in Florida and practically lives on the Beach.

For an extra $5 you can get it monogrammed. I’m going to have the folks at LL Bean write out the letters “CAPA” which means “Sara” in Russian: Sara is practically half Russian, or has been for the past three years when she has joined myself and Mr. Broccoli in working in Russian orphanages over the summer. Unfortunately, she will not be able to join us this summer, so I thought it would be nice to remind her of all of her hard work.

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There are going to a LOT of kiddies at our wedding. Consider this: Mr. Broccoli’s father has NINE brothers and sisters and all but a couple have 4+ kids. And let’s not forget the second cousins and their kids. No way! You say… Ha. I wish.

But really, it’s not that bad. Kids lend an air of fun to weddings, especially if you’re not set on having an ultra-fancy affair.

So I thought, why not give the kiddies something fun to do? We’ll probably have a pinata, and perhaps set aside some tables for kids only, complete with candy and board games, coloring books, etc. (granted, we’ll need to make sure we have room to do this).

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Wow, I didn’t expect all that controversy to my Shhh! post. Thanks for all of your very different opinions! I’d like to think I’m above defending myself, but I’m not. Because I’m human and like most of the world, I enjoyed being loved more than I like being given the cold shoulder. So, please hear me out:

First off, Miss Mouse suggested that I tell my coworkers about my engagement right before the wedding, which is something I never considered (because I’m dense that way). Since we’re not very close to begin with, I really don’t believe that they’ll be upset at being the last to know. They’re very, very respective of my very, very private life, and so we live and work quite well together. Thanks Miss Mouse for the idea! I’m sure it will work out better than coming back and announcing that I’m married (”What? We didn’t even know that you had a boyfriend!… Are you PREGNANT?!”… Um, yeah, that’s the only reason anyone would want to marry me…)

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My father gave this necklace to my mother a few years ago. The little kid inside of me that drools over anything big and yellow loves it to pieces. The chain needs to be cleaned up some, but otherwise, everything about it is perfect. It looks nice with the sweetheart neckline of my dress, and brings in some of the yellow that I’ve included in our wedding plans.

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A friend recently asked me if I was going to invite any coworkers to the wedding, to which I replied, “Of course not. How can I invite them if they don’t even know that I’m getting married?”

Why all the secrecy?

Well, I really wanted to avoid all the drama. I work with women. A number of women. A good percent of them have daughters older than me, and they’ve been planning their weddings for years now (albeit without the ring). I also don’t wear my engagement ring… like… ever. I don’t like rings, and this thing is too big for my hand anyway (Poor Mr. Broccoli! He tried, he really tried!). So they have no reason to suspect that I’m even engaged… except for the fact that I constantly leave work early, and that I have suddenly, in the past few months, been unable to work certain hours…

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