Weddingbee

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Check out all these paper goods that can be used for invites, thank you cards, or even gifts!

You can never have enough super tacky tape. This did wonders for my DIY projects! Was $7.75, now $5.51!

Everything in the Butter, Blue, or Jadeite families of paper goods are on sale! LOAD UP! Was $10.25 for 10, now $7.69!

There are so many other things on sale that you can use as gifts! Ivory Red Tile Camden Guestbook was $48.00, now $36.00!

Spring Business Card Holder was$36.00, now $27.00

Camden Fair Tiles on Red Spiral Photo Album 13″ x 12″ was $26.00 now $19.50

And there is so much more, so go check it out!
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I ain’t hating on myself but I wasn’t comfortable in my skin either and hadn’t been for a very long time. When I met Mr. CB I was at my thinnest; factor in years of happy dating, I packed that happiness into my skin. My weight has always fluctuated, lots of highs, never really any lows.

With the engagement, I always figured that’d be my ultimate motivation. One and half year’s worth of time to lose weight. Easy job, right? NO way! Even harder. With 6 months to go, I wasn’t making any progress. Then come late January, I really kicked my ass into serious shape with the help of a friend/trainer.

Even with help, work, the stress of the wedding, fixing the nest for our move in after the wedding, it took its toll and the work outs lasted a mere 3 weeks, if not a month at most. My trainer was extremely supportive and helped me with a serious diet. If anything, he’d tell me the least I could do is control what I ate. It was one of the hardest struggles I had, and it came with a lot of frustration. It wasn’t just about moderation, it was about eliminating tons from my diet.

In short it created a healthier lifestyle for me. I cut out sweets, soda, juice, and CARBS (reserved only for the two family day dinners that we shared with each of our families.) I ate 5 - 6 times a day (about every 2 hours), maintaining small portioned “meals.” The work week helped because it helped me create routine. I’d pack servings ahead of time and always kept something in my purse so I never felt too hungry. I’d alternate between servings of plain/roasted/raw nuts, a fruit, small salad, veggies and protein. When we ate out, Mr. CB and I would share a dinner and he’d make a small plate for me. I kept my portions small and drank tons of water and never ate til I was full but until I was satisfied. Over time, it became habit.

I never once weighed myself. I always maintained my satisfaction with myself and my progress by how I felt in my clothes. I didn’t want to make any sort of goal for myself to stress about reaching. It was about doing this for me, myself, and I and feeling great with me. At times, I rewarded myself when I felt like it (but in the tiniest of portions) and held back when I had the most self control. I’ve since introduced a little more carbs and sweets into my life and may have added back a few lbs but I’ve never been more happy and comfortable with myself.

Never thought it’d happen, but I actually returned to my old weight when I first met Mr. CB. I feel great and healthy. For the first time EVER in my WHOLE LIFE I wore a bikini on our honeymoon, and here I am, very very shy as I am about this, sharing it with you all.

For all of you in the same bandwagon, don’t do it for the dress, don’t do it for the wedding, do it for a healthier you! I support you 500%. If you need more, build a circle of friends for support …. and you can do it too! GO YOU!
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DISCOUNT BABY! (You should try this!) I spoke with a local nail salon, Classic Nails, and negotiated a discount of 10% off all the treatments for my party. I invited all the women (moms, aunts, G-mas and sisters) of our families and my BMs to set up an appointment anytime during the week before the wedding to choose any treatment of pedicure and manicure. I left a sheet with the salon to write in the treatment my party received and for each individual to sign as a confirmation that they received it. I made small deposits of payment and included gratuity on the final payment.

The pearl sets were purchased at the plaza on Grant Avenue in San Francisco where Empress of China is located. When you enter the main doors to the plaza, make a sharp left, and it’s the first counter to your left against the main window. Unfortunately I don’t have their name.

Presenting my gifts to them had to be as detailed as all the parties and gifts that they had given me. So I borrowed my gf’s idea for wrapping the gifts. My BM created wrapping paper by making sheets full of adorable text with names and graphics. I created my own through Powerpoint using a pattern I liked that my friend had created for me and copied and pasted the pattern until it covered the whole page.

Then I used Powerpoint to create a second page for the “ribbon” with the word “Thank You.” On a blank document, I created a line that was 40 pts thick that stretched across the sheet. What I liked about it is that it printed to the edge of the paper without defaulting a cut off border.

Next I used a text box and typed “Thank You” with Beautiful ES font, in white, and centered it on the ribbon. You can fit quite a few strips on there.

Cut the strips out, wrap your gift, and voila. Personalized wrapping paper. If the 8.5″ x 11″ sheet is too small, try piecing together multiple sheets with shipping tape to create one large sheet.

A close up of the final product …

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I even kept all the wish cards that were attached to gifts that were shipped to us. Did you keep these or am I the only pack rat?

I was thinking of placing them all in one of these simple Kolo Albums and filling the pages with just the wish cards.

My girlfriend made me an amazing guestbook in this same style for our polaroid guest book that I will post about in another entry. Should I just add more pages and add these cards to that book or keep the pictures and the wish cards separate?

Did you keep all your cards? How do you plan on storing them?
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Where were we going? My girlfriends went as far as to pre-program the Magellan navigator with addresses and renaming them so that my curious arse couldn’t dig in and find out.

Grub-town! My goodness, two weeks before the wedding, you’d think I’d be “careful.” My girls knew of my love for the Grand Lux Cafe chowdah, so there we went. Check them Kobe chili cheese mini hot dogs there in the center…*drool*. Good stuff. Good stuff. I ate like the oink oink that I am.

How do you top off dinner in SoCal? Since one of the gals was playing photog, we filled in the space for her.

Good fro-yo can make people do the weirdest things.

There was nowhere to sit, so we sat in the car and enjoyed our frozen delights before hopping in the car. Due to food-coma, I woke up when we were nearing our destination, nearly 3 hours later! Thanks R. for driving the whole trip, you are a trooper!

Destination: Palm Springs.

WHAAAAAAAAT?! We arrived at the grand Renaissance Esmeralda. Though it was 1 A.M., I was full of energy! So we went exploring the property.

Huge Suites!

The golf course view from our room’s balcony.

The hotel had a huge main lobby with TONS of areas to lounge, and massive ballrooms. Perfect for weddings, both indoors and outdoors. A few events and weddings were happening during our stay.

Oh so comfortable! I laid out as much as I could.

This was the perfect photo op when we saw this chaise. Does the pose look familiar?

These large round lounge chairs could be found outside, some were even surrounding fire pits outside near the pool where most people hung out ’til the wee hours.

Pool by night…

And by day…they even had a man-made beach!

This was one of the main lawn areas where a wedding ceremony was held one afternoon (imagine that for your backdrop!) and a late night open reception was held. There were so many weddings going on that weekend at the place, something to think about for the Palm Springs area! Check it out!

The next morning …. I couldn’t resist and gave my BMs the first part of their BM gifts.

*** The wrapping paper and thank you strip were all created on Powerpoint ***

Then the girls took me shopping at the Outlets for just about 6+ hours of good hearty shopping! Can’t beat that! On our way there, my girlfriends pulled over at a bus stop so that I could take a picture with a new friend.

Should I or shouldn’t I?

But I did succeed in shopping since I found the perfect cufflinks for Mr. CB for his wedding present.

That night, we feasted at the hotel’s restaurant, Cava. Good food I tell ya. The food and their lemonades were so delish!

The girls instructed me that we had an early check out the next morning and then told me that they had gotten lucky and were able to secure a private pool for all of us. Swimsuit in hand and out of breath thinking I was running to the private pool, they instead treated me to morning full of treatments at the hotel Spa. I got a facial, massage, and a mani/pedi.

The therapist was kind enough to clean and redo all my nails on my hands because I had ruined all her hard work hopping into a hot shower merely 20 minutes after all she was done. Be warned ladies!

Bye bye, Palm Springs …

Back to LA for some treats for the ride home… Sprinkles Cupcakes and mo’ Pink Berry… to make the trip complete.

Two weeks before the wedding I really didn’t think I could relax, but my BMs made it possible. It was the most chill, relaxing weekend, filled with the best treats: food, shopping, spa, great silliness, laughs, and great girlfriends.

Anyone else taking a trip close to their wedding date and worried about being able to fully relax?
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The first day we got there, it was kept pretty tame, because we had to conserve our energy… but we did load up on grub at Venetian’s Grand Lux Cafe (Clam Chowder on Fridays - YUM OH!). The next day, we buffeted it at Paris and chillaxed at the Bally’s pool where we stayed.

That night, the girls and I spent a good several hours getting dolled up to go a club hopping. We made it to one club, Tryst, and partied ’til the weeeeeeeee hours of the morning. Water on the rocks with a straw - HARDCORE I tell ya.

Yeah rock the water on the rocks baby! Girls - a warning - the guys there are aggressive. I was adorned with all these bachelorette accessories (not to mention my colorful boa you can’t see in these pics), so they felt like it was a ticket to be aggressive with me. Lucky we had a tight group of girls that saved each other when some guy was far from being friendly. The guys there are bold (nay, very aggressive)… so watch each other’s backs girls!

We tried to stay up as long as we could and met some cool peeps… after a really late night of grub!

Hence the reason we couldn’t get up to hit the pool again the next day. So we stayed in, lounged and watched a marathon of chick flicks, ’til it was the 5 hour window mark to getting ready for dinner again.

MMMmmmm Gallagher’s SteakHouse! There was more than enough for food for each person, so we ordered a few entrees and sides to share. The girls really shouldn’t have but they bought the picture from our dinner.

And surprise, surprise…. the girls treated me to a REAL show! Here’s my best Vanna White.

Can you guess where we went???

After our last night of good partying, we were left with only one good way to detox… more buffet and shopping.

Planet Hollywood buffet

Suh-weet deals!

My try at sporting a pink goatee.

A possible parting gift from Vegas…. NOT! After that it was home we went….Noooooooooooooooo …. I’m not ready to leave FUN town!

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Genius! She created an email address for the shower so that no one’s personal email address would get bombarded.  That way all the BMs had access to it too! I loved the themed shower, it helped us SO much! Since then I’ve received invitations that sported the same idea!

The back of the invitation (no corner of details, left undone)

My girls even rented a place just to throw the shower. Who the hell would have thunk it? I was so clueless, I was screaming out every place we passed by as a guess and completely missed this house that had balloons attached to the outside. Look at the spread….. details details details! Presentation! BOW DOWN!

Fancy shpancy party for moi! They even posted the shower invitation in a frame next to a digiframe showcasing pictures of me and my girls….

OH MY GAAAAAWWWWWWW - fancy shpancy food for the guests. Everyone was oohing and awwing and asking for recipes. SCRUMDILICIOUS! And lookie how pretty the DIY food card was! I kept every single one! No joke!

You can’t tell but each napkin was individually wrapped and had a little box sticker with the letter J on it. WOWEE!

Because they sick like that - color coordinated napkins and color coordinated soap!

Favors for the guests - individually wrapped tulips! They served not only as gorgeous decoration, but it was also something pretty guests could bring home to put in a vase and not feel guilty tossing later.

And the prizes, potted plants (served as decorations too!)

Here are the tags using exact color ribbons that we used for our wedding!

Okay okay… the party finally starts! And I arrive adorned with the UGLY CRY face ….

I seriously was so honored and happy so many people showed up just for me that I ran around the room, screaming and giving each individual person a hug. Each guest that arrived late, I’d run screaming SURPRISE and throwing my wide open arms and body at them.

I stopped short when I saw the super cute display of invitation and pictures (thinking secretly… please please can I have it?- indeed it was for me)

I have no idea what I’m doing here… maybe showing off my wedding colored nails (hand and feet?)

Soon after gorging my face with all the foodgoodness, we played the first game - 20+ questions which we failed miserably. No joke. I think I ate 1.5 lemons. It was pure sadness.

She created individual questionnaire forms for each question, questions about me were in pink, with Mr. CB in the bottom right corner!

That’s me, seriously, stressing and praying for the answer to come to me. Sad, I know. LOL! (Ooohee - you can also see the name tag each guest got that matched the invite!)

Next on to the blind makeup game. Let’s just say this is how they envisioned me to look on the wedding day. My adorable flower girl said I was a pretty clown and kept laughing at me.

Bridal transformation begins…




When Mr. CB saw the pictures, he was, um, speechless to say the least.

Haha - even I was shocked at my own beauty after Bridal Transformation.

Next came gift time! Talk about setting up home, these ladies really helped us fill our kitchen out! THANK YOU!

Of course my little flowergirl was awesome at helping me opening gifts. I still loved her even after she called me a clown, a pretty one at that. She’s sOOO cute!

Best wrapped present goes to ….

All the effort deserved a shot at me wearing my lovely gif … so kinky!

I so was going to wear the panties too, little girl’s size poo wee - let me try. The room screamed “NO!” Of course, a couple of these kinky lady sized goodies snuck their way into my big girl shower.

And last but not least, a chance to make a steal at the gorgeous potted plants. We played “pass the carrot”. My goodness it got harder and harder as the carrot got shorter and shorter. It sure was a workout! Man I sure look agressive - COME TO ME! LOL!

What better way to end the shower than with me on the toilet and the plunger! My BMs were the sneaky ones that were the first to buy things off our registry that I posted about.

Just when you thought that was the end of already a genius shower, weeks later I was dying to see pictures of the shower. They presented me with this on slave driving night.

That in my hand is a stack of cards that they had given each individual guest to write 3 things they liked about me and 3 adjectives to describe me. (to the right, you can barely see more details that she used to wrap the gift and the cd over that had all the tags used for the shower)

Why do I look so shocked? Check out the amazing book, they ordered through Apple for me. *sniff*sniff*

 
The cards! So prettay!

I am the luckiest girl in the world. Period.
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And the results …

Honey Glazed Bacon Wrapped Scallops

Balsamic Roasted Asparagus

And Shrimp Scampi …

Yum-to-the-friggin-OH if I do say so myself.

That’s dinner set for two.

Surprise Mr. Husband - WHAT?! WHAT?!

Oops I got busted …. It’s that daym good, ain’t none of it is going to waste on my behalf.

Happy One month hubs…. cheers and hugs and kisses to many more.

Y’all out there planning to make little celebrations to spice up the lovemance after the wedded bliss?
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So cute …. That’s one of my BMs peeking from the room I am anxiously waiting for Mr. CB to pick me up from, and outside he’s puckering up for the big smacker! Get ready baby! (to the right of the photo, that’s the traditional red cloth with blessings, etc. for our tea ceremony)

Here * sniff * * sniff * is my aunt (nay!) 2nd mom. I heart her so much, she’s raised me with my parents from day one. To the right, my handsome oh so full of wisdom Dad. I love that man! He’s my heart and soul!

My most beautiful, gorgeous, sexay, girls ……. * sigh * DAYAAAAAAAAAM they are hot stuff! Hubba Hubba.

That kiss….. Let’s give it a moment of silence please…. * sigh * Look at me gripping the man! LOL! And my ladies looking on…. there were no dry eyes thanks to one of my bridesmaids who shall remain nameless.

****This picture is TiiiiiiiiiiGHT YOooooo!**** I still remember this exact moment when he came over to our table to have us turn around. It’s very faint on my side but you can see the jeweled J’s hanging off of the back of Mr. CB’s chair, mine hanging off a pink ribbon is flushed to my dress. And to the right, all that hardwork my BM put into tying each perfect bow individually and GM stringing the ribbon through the tag.

Details. Details… I love detail shots!

Lookie at our etched glasses and our paper/ribbon votive candles and our cake! YUM FRIGGIN OH!

Last minute project with friends - our water bottles.

You have got to check out all of his other pictures off his website. Un. FRIGGIN. Believably. Siiiiiiiiick!!!!!
 
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I love how rustic this photo looks, something that will age so well with time, so classic, so chill, sOOOO coOOOOL!

Now on to the fun of the first day! There is no stopping my raving our two weddings. There were so many great things that went down - this is just a jist! These make me weep.

I wait I ponder, as I wait … “Where the heck are you Mr. CB?!”

* sigh * I can’t wait to see my hubby-to- be. (Oh how I love this photo! I’ve never looked more gentle! LOL!)

Time on the strap on darling shoes, he’s almost here. My heart pounds even faster …..

I heart you Grace Shoes. So sorry I treated you like crap those two days. I’ll clean you when I learn how.

One of my surprise groom’s gifts for Mr. CB. It’s too bad we didn’t have a free moment to ourselves for me to give to him in private, but it’s okay, he was surprised nonetheless.

Soon, we monkeys, will be united as one. Oh the drama with the rings we went through.  It came out more worth it than ever - we love his ring so much (it’s just so perfect). And of course, I love the eternity band my hubby got me.

A last send off kiss from one of my best gals. Oh how I love my girlfriends * I tear as I write this, I am way too lucky!!!! I really am. *

OMG, he’s here. He’s really here! Let’s peek at him. I was drooling from upstairs. He looked so gosh darn handsome and good looking and he was going to be all mine… ALL MINE! muahahahaha!

You goof ball. You think getting to me is going to be easy. Yeah I don’t think my girls aren’t going to let you off that easy.  This was just one of the obstacles he had to pass to get to me, yup that’s his lips. I declined this first card, and he made up for it on the reverse side (you’ll just have to wait and see).

Time to go to new In Laws. * sigh * Moi and my ladies. Enough said, they are just so gorgeous! Even Mr. CB couldn’t stop raving at how gorgeous they looked. Can you just tell from the photo, how attentive and supportive and there for me, they were all day … both days?!

I’m ready, sweep me away Mr. CB.

Oh you hot stud you. Hubba Hubba Hubby.

Don’t the boys look so handsome?! I’d say so. Oh the smiles and joy don’t stop there. The boys watch on as we’re going through the tea ceremony as Mr. CB’s parents’ home.

Scott and his nack for spotting the most awesome spots for photos, who knew… Mr. CB’s parents’ home had one of our favorite photo ops of the day.

You can’t tell but I am cheesing so hard in this picture (well all my pictures), I forget there are people staring at us. LOL!

ROCK IT HARD! Me and my bad ass gals and the boys are JUST SO cool, in a super hot preppy, nerdy but sexy way. I love how much they are rocking them socks. Hike that shiet up boys, argyle socks, are sOOOOOOOO hot!

This is one, among the rest of them, that are going in frames. I don’t know if we have enough wall space! I want me some argyle socks for myself now.

Want some of this hot shiet? Gotta get through me first ….

It’s “I do” time. Ready. Set. Go.

Surrounded by more love than we could ever embrace.

Ugly. Cry. It’s so sexy. Mr. CB kept trying to make me laugh so I wouldn’t cry hard. It was by far the most emotional, heart-felt love I’ve ever felt. His words just blew me away…..

Stealing away a few moments to ourselves after our I do’s. We’re husband and wife! Oh how sweet the love. Can you tell I am really at a loss for words, and I’m on a corny high kite of loooooooooove.

Hard work paid off, when I walked into our reception, I started crying.

Lay it on me baby!!!! We’re married!!!!!!

Stay tuned for more….
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