Weddingbee Blog

Remember how I said that after we let go of our first photographer we were lucky enough to find another amazing photog with our wedding date available? Well, that is not exactly the entire truth. The truth is that the amazingly talented photographer only had our date open because prior to us hiring her, she was going to be our guest! Jessica Oriole Salay of Oriole Photography is a good friend and sorority sister of mine and I have been obsessed with her work since we lived across the hall from each other in the dorms as freshman. I know, I know, I should have hired her from the start but after standing by her hubby through multiple deployments (who doesn’t love an Army wife?) and having an adorable baby boy, she and her family finally settled back in Richmond and she officially opened up shop at Oriole Photography a few months AFTER we hired photographer number one. That’s what I get for being impatient!!

Fast forward to less than two months before the big day. I had the break up talk with our original photographer, hired Jessica, and set a date to have a far more successful engagement shoot than the first. We had canceled a few times because of weather or Mr. Cloud’s crazy scheduling issues, so even though it was raining on and off all day I was determined to get the pictures done—even to the point of risking frizzy hair! Lucky for us, Jessica was down and tramped around downtown Richmond with us to get some amazing shots!

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As I wait for my final discs with our wedding pictures on them, I figure it’s time to come clean and explain to the hive a pretty big mistake that I made early on which almost risked the beautiful images I am waiting for!

When we first got engaged I wanted to jump head-first into planning; I wanted to book vendors and start crafting as soon as possible. We knew right away that we had a fairly long engagement in front of us and even though many vendors wouldn’t even consider talking to me that far out, I knew some would. Photographers in particular tend to book early and I was determined to get someone I liked. The problem with that was that I had no idea what I was doing. I hadn’t even discovered wedding blogs, never mind the treasure-trove of ideas and knowledge that is Weddingbee! I was too eager to slow down and do my homework, so with Mama Cloud in tow I met with a photographer that had shot a family friend’s wedding. Her results were good and she had even managed to capture a candid of Mr. Cloud and I that we had framed and put in our living room. We had a short and sweet meeting with her and hired her within a month of being engaged. I was ecstatic—not over her, though—just to feel like I was doing something when it was still too early to be doing much of anything. I made other mistakes at that point, too: I bought supplies for projects I never started or didn’t fit in, and researched hundreds of ideas that would never pan out. But with the photographer, I dropped a heavy deposit and scheduled a date for engagement pictures.

We took the pictures, and they turned out OK, but at this point I had discovered the ‘bee, and blogs—lots and lots of photography blogs, especially.
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I have a lot of hair. That’s really all there is to it. It’s thick and large and in charge, causing me to constantly battle the poof with flat irons (love my Chi!) or a multitude of styling products. Because there is so much of it, when it gets long it can take in excess of an hour or two to blow-dry and style. I rarely let it grow too long before I go in for a chop to keep it at a more manageable length. But for the last year and a half I have been growing it out to wear it long and curled for the wedding. Now that the wedding has come and gone I am OVER IT! So, bright eyed and bushy tailed early this morning I walked into my local salon for the big post wedding chop.

The famous before picture (poor Mr. Cloud works nights right now and I made him wake up early to take this on his camera phone, as super-smart me forgot to charge the camera battery. So I apologize for the quality…):

Almost TWELVE inches later I feel like a new woman!
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When this whole wedding planning shenanigans started, Mama Cloud and I decided that we were going to go it alone—just me and her on a big fat planning adventure. I like to think I’m pretty resourceful and persuasive when I want to be, and Mama Cloud is the most downright organized person I’ve ever encountered. I figured between the two of us we would have this wedding locked down and ready to go in no time. Trouble is, like mother like daughter; we are also both very emotional and very excited ladies. Emotional as in the tears come quick when we get upset, and excited like we have so many ideas and want to start making things happen quickly before thinking it all through (OK, I’m way worse than she is at both of these, but that is not the point…). It wasn’t far into our twenty one month journey (I’m sorry but I still cannot believe it was TWENTY ONE months, it seems like an eternity!) it was obvious that we were going to need some help, if not only just on the big day.

Enter Windy Jennings of Weddings By Windy (aka lifesaver and wedding goddess extraordinaire!). I really cannot say enough about this woman. If I were to write a review on her with a rating system it would be an A with so many plus signs afterward you would think she was paying me to say it (which of course she’s not, I just love her that much). She not only made me love her but also made me realize the value and importance of having a planner or coordinator for your wedding. We used Windy for her “partial coordination” package even though we set out looking for just day of services. I didn’t even know there was a middle level between DOCs and the whole shebang, but it turns out a lot of coordinators offer personalized packages to handle whatever small or large tasks you need help with.
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I’m BAAACK! And I have an extra little ring on my left ring finger! That can only mean one thing of course… WE GOT HITCHED!! It’s funny—after all the planning, all the projects, all the time that is spent leading up to the wedding, you still never really know what it is going to be like. I had no clue what it was going to FEEL like until it was happening, or what it was going to look like until I got to see it all. And I have to say, after all of the obsessing I did about how everything would turn out it was nothing like I expected… it was way, way BETTER!

Sure I still had a meltdown here and there, like when everyone took off to the rehearsal and I was left at the hotel alone with no valet ticket, and the ever important flowers weren’t what I really wanted. But a kind valet man took pity on a crying bride and hunted my car down, and even though the flowers were wrong, I have to admit they were still gorgeous and I was really the only one who knew. But those little things were worth it for the good stuff, and there was lots and lots of good stuff. Endless surprises from my groom, tear-filled dances with Daddy Cloud, seeing Mama Cloud with the biggest smile on her face looking more stunning than I have ever seen… and then there was the love. The love from all of our friends and family who I feel like finally got to enter the wedding bubble I had been living in for so long. And the love between my now husband and I that caused us both to have tears in our eyes most of the day. I have never seen and felt so much love in my whole life and I know I will carry that with me for a long time.

The problem is, everything was too perfect and by the time we were on day two of our honeymoon I was starting to feel a little bit of PWD. Mrs. Lab and I hit the wall at about the same time, but ironically for very different reasons.
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Here we are, 21 months later and I’m finally able to say that today is my wedding day! I can’t believe its here, and even as I sit in a hotel room with my big beautiful white dress hanging next to me, it still hasn’t fully hit me.

To the hive—thank you for your amazing support and every single word of encouragement and love you have sent my way. It has truly been an honor to share my journey with you, and I still have so much to share (funny how time just kept running out in the in the past few weeks!). Hang in there with me and I will have a lot more to show you as the wait for recaps begin! I really just cannot imagine where I would be without all of your ideas and feedback! Are there really brides out there who never find the ‘bee and make it to the altar while still sane? Because I would not have been one crazy gal had it not been for all of you!

To the bees- I consider it an honor and privilege to blog with you all! You are amazing ladies, and your support (especially in the past few days) has been incredible and means more to me then you will ever know!
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We take Weddingbee and being a bee very seriously over here in the Cloud house. So you can only guess what our fur baby Bella was dressed as for Halloween this year!!!

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I have always been a big fan of paper: paper products, paper crafts, anything to do with paper! My neighbor growing up had a drawer in her basement that was filled with scraps of anything from construction paper to scrapbooking scraps and anytime I complained of being bored, Mama Cloud would send me over looking for a project.

It’s no surprise when we got engaged that I immediately had visions of paper projects dancing through my head. And what did I need to complete all of these fabulous projects? A Gocco, of course! I searched for weeks for a new PG-5 model at a reasonable price. This was right after it was announced that no more supplies would be manufactured and new machines were going for over $500 on eBay! I was not that desperate! I called Northwood Studios on a whim, knowing they would probably be out of stock (they now are completely out of all supplies as well) and to my surprise, there was ONE left! It was meant to be. A week later I was a proud new Gocco owner and have since done a number of small projects to perfect my skills. But this past weekend was the Gocco weekend to end all Gocco weekends. I decided all the projects I had planned on doing needed to be knocked out.

Up first: napkins.
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When I had my first stress moment about the wedding (and when I say stress moment, of course I really mean complete and utter major freak out with tears and screaming) my fabulous family stepped up as always. They are pretty awesome like that; Mama Cloud does whatever she can, Daddy Cloud knows how to calm me down, and even Brother Cloud has words of support. Well when he offered to do whatever I needed, I don’t think my dear brother had any clue what he was getting himself into.

Brother Cloud has been drawing and painting for as long as I can remember. I can draw a mean stick figure, but it’s pretty obvious where the family talent went to. So when I decided that I HAD TO HAVE cartoon characters of Mr. Cloud and myself for various wedding projects he was my obvious choice; after all, he did offer! Well, after about 700 drafts I finally had a final picture. I’m not even kidding, I was a rough client—I kept saying, “no, change this or that,” and at one point I even made him start over completely in a new style. It’s a good thing we are related, or he would probably not be speaking to me anymore!

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We had a few moments of free time the other day, which is rare for us working complete opposite work schedules most days, so we decided to take a little trip down to the courthouse and take care of one little to-do we had almost forgotten about… our marriage license!

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I always assumed I would change my name when I got married. It was a pretty simple idea—in theory, of course. But the thing is I fell in love with Mr. Cloud, who instead of having a simple and easy to pronounce last name like my maiden name, has a difficult last name that is not only very often mispronounced and misspelled, but if you say it quick enough, it sounds like a bodily function (trust me and use your imagination on this one, it’s not so good). I could already see my future children being teased to tears on the playground.

I had a few big factors to consider when deciding if I would go ahead and embrace the new name or not. First, my heart broke a little to think that if I did change my name, in a way I would no longer be me. I felt like giving up my maiden name would be giving up who I have been for the past 25 years, and letting go of a piece of my family. A family that is not only large and in charge, but whom I am also very, very close to. I know deep down my name doesn’t really change who I am, but still it was bothering me. I’m connected to my last name, and my initials. I wasn’t really sure I could let them go.

The second thing to consider is that Mr. Cloud’s last name isn’t just something he was born with, it was something he also chose.
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I need to start by apologizing for my disappearance. After getting over the flu, Mama Cloud flew in for a long weekend of appointments, running around, and turning my apartment into a hot mess of wedding craftiness. In the end we made a MAJOR dent into the never ending to-do list. I have lots and lots to share (and of course, never enough time to sit down and actually write about it) but I am so excited to share my favorite project to date: the programs!

I’m being incredibly unoriginal here. If you’ve been stalking Weddingbee (and the archives) for as long as I have you have probably stumbled over the beautiful programs by Mrs. Tiramisu, Mrs. Eggplant, and Mrs. Emerald. I saw the big ribbon on Tiramisu’s and was immediately interested. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to put that much work into the whole thing, until a friend who was married a few years ago in the same cathedral warned me of their program requirements. I’ve talked about them before, and they are no joke. None of it was going to fit on a single page and make my life easy either. I tried to come up with an original plan of my own, I really did, but I just kept going back to being a copycat. Imitation is the best form of flattery, after all!

So we printed, Goccoed, cut, scored, assembled, and tied until our fingers were numb, and I could not be more pleased with the result! All the paper is from PaperSource, and we ordered ribbon in bulk for this and a few other projects from Paper Mart. Black coverstock Goccoed with white ink made for what I thought would be an easy cover. Not so much, as it turns out white Gocco ink hates me. Luckily that was the hardest part of the whole project, and with a little extra force on my presses, it’s not a crisp white print, but it has a vintage-y look to it. Yeah, our wedding has no vintage vibe going on, but I’ve decided to move past that and love them anyway!
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Yes, I realize this is starting to get a little bit ridiculous. I went over and over and over what I wanted it to look like, and finally settled on something I love. That should be it, right? Not so much. I blame the fabulous Mrs. Cupcake for this one.

Here I was all settled with my cake decisions, and then I got the flu. Not the swine flu, thankfully—just the regular old can’t-do-anything-but-eat-soup-and-sit-on-the-couch kind. (Ironically, every time I tell someone I had the flu last week, the first question is if it was h1n1, and the second question was if I licked any wedding envelopes. For the record, I didn’t do that, but that is not at all the point to my story.) So, I have the flu, and I’m super bored, chillin’ on my couch. What’s a girl to do other than read back on some of her favorite Weddingbee archives? Well, I have always been a huge fan of Mrs. Cupcake’s wedding and all of her glorious details. I’m not sure how I missed this one the first time, but I saw the following picture again recently and was officially obsessed.

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My parents lived in the same house for most of my life, up until a few years ago when they moved back to Massachusetts. When you live somewhere for that long, there is a good chance that your neighbors become more like family. We were no exception, and I grew up with a pseudo big sister who is about six years older then me. I’m pretty sure she was still in high school when I informed her for the first time that I was going to eventually need both a flower girl and ring bearer for my wedding and I was counting on her to make that happen. She always just laughed at me, especially when I told her husband of this request on their wedding day. Sure enough, three years ago they had a little girl who I absolutely adore. And then less than two years ago they rounded it off with a bouncing baby boy who I also fell in love with at first sight.

Our ring bearer (who we will call little man, because he really does look like a little man!) is still pretty young; he will be only 20 months on the big day. People started warning me early on, here we are having an adult only affair and I was expecting a BABY to go down the aisle. But I was determined. My two favorite kiddos were going to be there. And I just knew little man would be walking, quite well even, down the aisle (we had a pep talk when he was a few months old, and I took his silence as an agreement that he would be good to go).
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By the time I was ready to get in the car and make the trip to Baltimore, MD for my bachelorette party, I was officially going stir crazy. I love surprises, but only as long as I am the one giving them, or if I’m at least in on it. I hate hate HATE not knowing what’s up. So it was a pretty big thing for me to have known something was coming since receiving that super cute invitation, but not knowing what to expect. The weekend couldn’t have come at a better time; after a stressful week I was ready to have a great time with my favorite ladies. And they really outdid themselves.

I was greeted by a hotel decorated with everything we would need to enjoy the weekend in style. And let me tell you, I was SURPRISED!!

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