Weddingbee

The weekend before last found Mr. CP and I dragged apart by our well-meaning friends. We went willingly, of course. After all, it was our Lady/Man Party weekend!

We started out our Friday evening waiting for the Oregon contingent to arrive so we could get the party started. Mr. CP and one early arrival went out to the Elysian on Capital Hill to celebrate his graduation from the Seattle Uni Accelerated Nurse Practitioner’s program. CONGRATS, JUSTIN!! And I, well, I took a shower and drank some beers.

Once everyone arrived, it was time to let the games begin! In the spirit of the Olympics, the first order of business was a challenge. A little friendly competition for Mr. CP and I. A contest to see who was manlier.

See, I’m a bit of a tomboy and Mr. CP is a bit metrosexual. So it’s a toss-up as to who wears the pants in our relationship at any given time. The contest, our friends explained to us, was designed to test our masculine prowess by awarding us points in the form of “man cards” for various manly feats. These feats, given to us on a handy list, ranged from little things like drinking a dark beer to hilarious and awful things like chopping wood, getting a lap dance, and asking strangers if they bought their tickets to the “gun show” while flexing biceps. There were also freestyle points for “random acts of manliness.” YEAAAHhhh…
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We’re leaving. Leaving for Montana. And, believe it or not, my goal is not to think about our wedding until September 5th, when we rehearse. It will be hard, but not as hard as the last two weeks have been.

I’ve shouldered my burden and kept pushing on through. I’ve put on a happy face, especially when talking to others or writing for Weddingbee, where things tend to be fun fun happy wedding-landia. The truth is that the last two weeks have been absolute hell, and I have wanted, very badly, not to be dealing with this wedding any more.

I’m lucky because nothing has “gone wrong.” No major vendor disaster or family drama has befallen us. I simply cannot cope with the stress of planning any more. I no longer feel like I can balance my career, appease my family, and tie together a plethora of details with businesses in another state. I am tired of unreturned phone calls and email, missing critical details, and misinformation. I am ready to break up with our wedding.

Thank God I planned for this in advance.
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You know those photo-sharing cards that all the Bees made for their wedding guests? Well, maybe not every Bee but Lemon, Cream Puff, Cherry Blossom, Penguin, Flamingo, aaaaaannnnd *pant, pant* probably at least five more that I have forgotten.

Well, I made some too! Not to be a copy-cat, but because they’re such a neat idea and many bees have reported great success with them:

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Cherry Pie here, with another quick and easy project for you!

This time, the idea is to make life a little easier for your wedding party. They’ll probably be carrying around big bouquets of live flowers for most of the day and will want to set them down somewhere. Why not give them a special place to put their bouquets aside?

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After our Seattle Weddingbee meet up in July, I stopped by the Paper Source in Bellevue to brainstorm programs. We had in mind that we wanted to just print two long rectangular pages on cover stock, round the corners, punch holes in them, and secure them with ribbon. That would have been simple enough, but Paper Source tempted me with pre-punched khaki-colored backings (available in packs of 25 for $10) that would save me the hassle of buying a corner-rounder and the time of rounding 200 corners. Yes!

I got a couple packs of the khaki backings, some 8.5″ x 11″ paper in Luxe Cream, chocolate brown ribbon, and a tiny hole punch. I was all set to go.
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Holla, hive!

It’s pre-wedding madness here at chez Cherry Pie, especially as we are leaving for Glacier National Park THIS FRIDAY and will be AWOI (Absent W/O Internet) until the wedding. Or at least mostly… I will schedule some posts to reach you and check in from the wi-fi friendly Montana Coffee Traders in Columbia Falls.

I’ve been working on a slew of DIY projects, most of which I’ve already blogged about (can lanterns,raffia-hanging jars, and favor tags, to name a few). But I’m not done yet! Today’s project is brought to you by this photo inspiration, which I have had forever on my hard drive:

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For those of you following the saga of my dress, you’ll remember that what was lost was found, and we questioned to V or not to V?

Well, all the drama has passed like clouds on a summer’s day. My dress is done, complete, finis! I went in for my third and final fitting (more of an approval than a fitting) on Monday and returned home with a car full of silky goodness…

Some of you asked me how to make the raffia’d jars we’re using in combination with our shepherd’s hooks for hanging candles and flowers. Well, here’s a little DIY instructional!

Step One
First, you choose your weapons. In this case raffia and jars… any size jar will work, really, as long as you have sufficient strength in your shepherd’s hooks and use enough raffia. In this case, I am using a 12-oz Ball jar from Wal-Mart.
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Here’s an update on a few projects I delegated to our lovely friend, officiant, and artist, Cathy Weber. If you remember, Cathy has a wood shop and some funky tools. So she gladly helped us check a few things off our list…

One wood slice ring holder (to be adorned with white and/or burgundy ribbon)… Check!

Three hand-routed wedding signs… Check!
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[Bird Shipping Tags with Twine]

I love shipping tags!

I first saw shipping tags used as price tags on some of my early antique purchases for wedding decor. They immediately struck me as pretty, shabby-chic and insanely appropriate for wedding ambiance. I decided to use them somehow.

My first idea was making tags into place/escort cards for everyone. In my vision, they were either laid out on a table in rows, or tied to wine glasses to help guests keep their glass as well as find their seat.

But the place card idea was quickly shoved under the rug for the amount of work that went into it as a last-minute project:
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