Weddingbee Blog

After all of the suggestions on my previous post, I decided to bite the bullet and go with the most heavily recommended one- Jergens. When I was shopping at my local Meijer, I stocked up on two products.

Jergens Natural Glow
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After the shower, I knew that I would need to do something about thank you notes. Like most of our other wedding stationery, these thank you notes got dressed in nice red envelopes.

I didn’t want to do anything to fancy or complicated, but I still wanted something that reflected me (i.e. was red) and was clearly for a shower. With the help of a little Microsoft Clip Art and my parents’ super crazy awesome HP laser do everything machine, I (and my awesome maid of honor) came up with this:

(That is the same cardstock I used to make the wedding thank you notes.)
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The one thing that I have cared the least about in the process of planning has turned out to be one of the (relatively) bigger headaches. We shopped around and spoke with no fewer than seven (7!) florists before settling with our current florist, who is familiar with both the church and the reception venue.

Early on, I had decided that I didn’t want to have bouquets. When Mr. Dahlia’s mom asked me if I would change my mind, my response was, “Then I’ll go to Trader Joe’s the day before the wedding and buy myself a bouquet.” But upon reflection, I decided that I actually did want a bouquet.

However, the florist quote came back, and including bouquets for myself and the three bridesmaids put us at about $400 over budget. And it included roses, which I specifically requested not to have. In a fit of frustration, I thought that I’d see what happened if I tried to make a bouquet for myself, with the following hypothesis: Flowers are pretty. A group of pretty things together will look pretty. Therefore, a group of flowers bunched together will look pretty.
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I’ve already mentioned it a couple of times before, but after recapping the rest of last weekend (what with a shower surprise, dress fitting, dance lesson and makeup trial), I feel like I can finally get to the main event of the weekend: my shower.

Since my bridesmaids live out of town (and don’t all know each other), and my extended family is not especially close knit, my mom, Mr. Dahlia’s mom and Mr. Dahlia’s mom’s best friend graciously hosted the event at my parents’ house. There were about 25 or so people in attendance for the afternoon tea, from some of the “kids” I used to babysit for 10 years ago, to the women from church who were like second moms to me growing up, to some of the women who played a significant part in Mr. Dahlia’s life. It was, in a word, overwhelmingly amazing.

The crowd:

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I scheduled my hair and makeup trial for Saturday, just before my shower. (If you are doing hair and makeup trials, I’d highly recommend scheduling them for some sort of occasion, so there is a reason for getting beautified.)

I headed to Studio Palmieri, located in the Warehouse District in Cleveland. The studio was chosen strictly based upon location- it is only 3 blocks from the hotel where I will staying the night before the wedding. When I was speaking with one of the receptionists on the phone, she decided to set me up with the amazing Dena to do both my hair and makeup.

For the hair, I just wanted a simple french twist. Dena graciously offered to take pictures of every angle of my hair, so that if I want something changed for the wedding, I’ll be able to tell her exactly what I want done differently.

The back
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Mr. Dahlia and I have been taking dancing lessons off and on for close to a year now, and have had such a good experience that my parents decided to take lessons as well. So when I was in Cleveland this past weekend, I went along with them to their dance lesson, and got to spend some quality time with my dad.

Getting a little help from Joel, my parents’ instructor
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I was a little nervous last week as my final dress fitting was quickly approaching, and while I love my dress, at the previous fitting in March, it had been snug. (Snug enough that I decided to have the seams let out just a little bit.)

So Friday morning, I actually went out and bought every pair of Spanx that might work under my dress at my favorite local department store. Power panties, Higher Power, Slim Cognito- I tried them all. And I also tried similar ones made by Wacoal and Bali. I’m talking about 9 or so pairs of these slimming sausage makers, coming in at the astounding price of nearly $500. Fear not, lest you think I’m spending almost as much on foundation garments as my dress- all are returnable with a receipt and the tags still on them.

I did a quick try on of all of the pairs just before leaving for my fitting, which led to the quick rejection of about 4 pairs, and one clear front-runner in the “slim my middle” contest.
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No, I didn’t have a surprise shower- living in Michigan with a wedding in Cleveland, it would not have been possible for the shower planners to make it a surprise shower.

Instead, my mom (and Mr. Dahlia) conspired to bring a shower surprise. I drove into town on Friday for a dress fitting, with a hair and makeup trial and shower on Saturday. I was up late chatting with my parents, but decided around midnight that it was time to head to bed since the next day was going to be busy.

I call Mr. Dahlia (as I typically do) as I crawl into bed, and he is Mr. Chatty that night- I assume that he was highly caffeinated and was up late playing video games, which he does from time to time when I’m out of town and he’s home by himself.

And then my mom calls me to come downstairs. It’s 1:15am. I’m exhausted, cold and in my pajamas. And who is there waiting for me?

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I saw this column/post about the font used by Barack Obama on the campaign trail, and it got me thinking about the reasons why we chose the font that we did. The point in the column is that the Obama campaign’s use of the font “Gotham” is strategic, and that it evokes certain feelings that other fonts don’t. Like this:

Image found here.
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There’s a bit of a popularity contest running right now between the registries. (And no, I haven’t peeked.) Dillard’s is single handedly destroying the competition, as it seems that most people thus far greatly prefer shopping at Dillard’s over Williams-Sonoma or Crate and Barrel.

My explanation for that? It’s a generational thing. People in my parents’ generation much prefer to shop at traditional department stores, whereas our friends would be much more likely to go to Crate and Barrel.

And popularity items? China wins, hands down. Confirming the observation by Mr. Dahlia’s mom and her dear friend, people just love giving a 5 piece place setting. (Maybe it helps that our china pattern is priced at the totally-reasonable-for-china price at $70/place setting. But it’s so pretty)

Gratuitous china picture from here.

What registry have you found to be the most popular?

Right now, my skin is a nice shade of pale. Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m looking to add a little bit of color to my skin prior to the wedding. Normally, I’d go about this in a “normal” way, like going out on walks wearing a tube top, but the weather here in Michigan is cold and/or gray.

So self-tanners, Mystic Tan, or tanning beds would be the way to go, right? The only thing is, I’m terrified with looking like this:

Jessica Simpson in 2005; courtesy of Go Fug Yourself and Daily Celeb.

She looks scary. Really scary. And not at all what I want to look like at our wedding.

Are you planning on tanning prior to your wedding? Anyone have a favorite product or technique they’d like to recommend (or advise staying away from)?

Dear luggage,

I’ve traveled quite a bit with several of you, and I want to take the time to let you know how I feel.

Kelty Redwing Backpack,
you are amazing. You were absolutely faithful in the 3 mile walk to the ferry in Stockholm, never letting in any bit of moisture despite the continuous downpour. You remained faithful going from Budapest to Bratislava, and lasted much better than any rolling bag would have in the cobblestone streets of Riga. But it’s been several years since I graduated from college, and I’ve found that I increasingly need to travel with a suit. We’ve shared some good times, and I will come back to you.
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No, I don’t mean the manual hours I put in to addressing the invitations or working on the website. I’m referring to the labor conditions for the workers at our reception venue.

You see, I’m a member of a graduate student labor union, and our current contract expires at midnight tonight. Tomorrow, unless something miraculous happens, I will be working a picket line.

This has gotten me thinking about the labor conditions of the people involved in the wedding. The photographer and musicians are self-employed, and the minister works at the church. But the workers at the reception, from the servers to the people washing dishes to the people checking in our guests at the desk?

They’re not unionized, because the Renaissance Cleveland Hotel is not a union hotel. Nope, no Unite Here here. One of my younger brothers has been fairly active in labor organizing, and actually worked at the (unionized) Renaissance Hotel in St. Louis for a bit. (Maybe I’ll ask him to share his opinions about bridal parties in a guest post.) He’s got a lot of stories to tell, and I feel like I’ve learned quite a bit from his experiences.
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Way back before our invitations were finished, I found myself getting antsy one night to just take care of a wedding project.I present to you the recipe for our simple but tasty thank you notes.

The Dahlia’s Thank You Notes
1 stack of cardstock (I got ours from Office Max)
1 embosser*
1 paper cutter
envelopes (Ours are from Envelope Mall. They are leftover from our response card envelopes.)

The supplies
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Our invitations are going.

As I was addressing the invitations, I was surprised to see just how far away some of them are headed. Since both Mr. Dahlia and I grew up in Ohio and currently live in Michigan, I figured that the vast majority of our invitations were headed to those states.

And they are. But they are also going to a lot of other places: 58 cities in 19 states in 3 countries. Closest place is to our home (we addressed one to ourselves!); farthest away is in Ulm, Germany.

Was anyone else surprised to see the places their invitations were going? What’s the farthest place your wedding invitations are going?