Weddingbee Blog

It’s the D’orsay first anniversary, as far as anniversaries go, the 1st is a great one to celebrate. But the whole paper thing? Well, it had me pondering for a bit. I know I don’t have to follow traditions, but I like having a theme, as it narrows the field for decision making.

First up? A calendar modified from YHL’s template (thanks to Mrs. Bunny for modifying it for me)! Sadly, it was a struggle to come up with 12 quotes that would fit/look nice/have meaning. At first I had 12 quotes all from Superbad (long story) but figured while funny, it wouldn’t be a very romantic gift. I sourced from our favorite movies, past emails and ceremony music for the final quotes.

(YHL version)

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Next, our super efficient photographer had the ladies come out for photos before the rain returned.

This was a very fun, and happy time for me as a bride. I was surrounded by my friends and family and I was relaxed and having fun. It was typical Maryland August weather, which is hot, humid, and unpredictable.
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Once I was safely in the air conditioning of the library, with a glass of champagne in my hand, I began to relax. Everything would be fine, and if it wasn’t fine – it just didn’t matter. Avocado assured me that if it did start to rain again, they’d whip all the chairs inside and no one would mind.

I had the purple shoes I had hunted for so long:

Which as it turns out, were way more comfortable when I wore them to Hamster’s wedding than when I wore them at my own.
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Mr. D and I did not do a first look. Instead I wanted the suspense to build all day until I walked down the aisle. This caused a more hectic schedule than was necessary (not helped by my late arrival to the venue). We had to shoot the guys and the girls separately and we ran out of time to get the entire bridal party together. Mr. D and I missed cocktail hour to take portraits. I hid from whom I thought was Mr. D - which turned out to be the groomsmen doing a run through at the ceremony site.

(source: Evan Bishop)

Lamesauce.
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Hiiiiiiii… remember me? I know it’s been a while…

Maybe a wedding is a teensy (teensy weensy) bit like childbirth. By that, I mean that what comes after the wedding can be so wonderful that fast forward eight months and I’m already beginning to forget the not so great things.

That said, I figured I should hop on my recaps before I forgot the stark reality of wedding stress.
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Between moving to DC, and Mr. D being in England - I really dropped the ball on setting up a portrait session during cherry blossom season. I had also hoped that my dear friend of Jenna Cole Photography would be able to do the shoot, but alas she was busy… birthing a baby!

So I held off and considered 2011, but that puts us almost a year and half after our wedding! The vast majority of our portraits involve us kissing or about to kiss… what can I say, we were really happy to be married!

My thought process was that I’d swing by Whole Foods, make a decently looking bouquet that only needed to last a few hours at most. Then we’d take photos a bit like these (except, in a wedding dress) and Mr. D and me not kissing!

(via my darling new neighbor and Leo Patrone)

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I spoke with our accountant today, and thankfully Mr. D won’t have to pay double taxes. Since he will remain a citizen of Her Majesty, and not the US he will file his taxes in the UK.

Thankfully, the US and the UK have laws of reciprocity, essentially meaning that we don’t have to be taxed twice, though there are several countries where that isn’t the case. Mr. D will remain in the pension system for the UK, and pay UK taxes - which makes sense considering all his income is British. Whereas I will pay US taxes, as usual. He *could* choose to pay US taxes instead of UK, but that appears to make the process 369857698456 more complicated. If he has a US job, with US employers it could make more sense for him to file in the US. Since he doesn’t, we’ll be filing with two countries this year. Or rather, we’ll only be taxed once in each country.

I also worried that we would not count as a married couple this year for tax purposes. I thought this was a bit bogus since the US wouldn’t allow Mr. D to work here, AND they wanted to shirk my marital tax benefit? Jerks.
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After our sleepover Mrs. Avocado graciously offered to wake up early go with me to get my manicure. I’m dangerous with my nails, which is why I waited ’til the morning of the wedding to have them done. I was starving and I desperately wanted a Bagel Bin Bagel, and thank goodness for Avo, because otherwise I would have skipped breakfast saying I needed something healthy and there wasn’t enough time to make it. Avocado said it was okay to have a bagel, and so I did. So, between the carb flood and the manicure, I was beginning to calm down ever so slightly.

Why was I so on edge? I was already hyped from the night before, and on top of that the weather report called for rain. RAIN. I was in panic mode. In fact, I couldn’t stop getting upset about the weather. My reaction to stress is to cry, and on your wedding day, it’s just a really bad idea to cry so much. I also felt sick. Tears and nausea are not the best way to start the best day of your life.

All the guys met up with Mr. D to play 9 holes the morning of the wedding. The ladies? We all met at my mother’s house to hang out and be beautified by Mindy (hair) and Lori (make up). We ordered lunch, prayed for sunny skies, and BM Rachel and I ran out to get a larger pot for the cactus. Jenna woke up (she took a nap ’cause she’s preggggers!) after the British ladies had headed back to their hotel to finish getting ready. It was so nice to have all the women from both sides of the family there to get ready together. Enough talk though, here are some photos!
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Calling all MD/DC/VA metro area bees!

Join us for happy hour at Mar de Plata in Dupont Circle at 6:30PM tomorrow!

(source)

You’ll see and and

… and Tulip’s baby bulb, along with several other brilliant and sassy ladies from the boards. So go ahead, de-lurk and we’ll see you on Thursday!

P.S.. please comment on the board post or below so Miss Old Town VA will include you in the reservation!

Well, there would be so many wedding related things I would change. I was scoping out a Weddingbee reader’s blog and she posted about this beauty. I definitely would have gotten a matching pair of these rings from metalsmitten for our wedding bands!

(source)

Maybe I’ll still get one and wear it as a right hand ring, or a pendant. Either way, I’m in <3!

What are some of the more creative wedding bands you’ve seen?

Oh goodness, I almost didn’t want to recap the rehearsal because it was so stressful to me. I was stuck towing the line of acting calm like I didn’t care, and getting upset. I failed at both attempts.

One thing I wish I had known was that rehearsals aren’t very important in England. Nor do they have rehearsal dinners. So in retrospect, I would have better explained the importance of both to Mr. D so he could have effectively explained the importance to his groomsmen. I clearly failed at this task, because the only groomsman who was there was my MD-MOH’s boyfriend, who lives in Maryland. Two groomsmen were in Canada for their layover and the Best Man chose to stay later in NYC and skip the rehearsal. Mr. D’s mother, aunt, uncle, sister, and sister in law all thankfully filled in. I don’t have many photos of the rehearsal, mostly because I was trying to get down to business.

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… to encourage you with what could be a New Year’s resolution! Do you remember this post? Probably not - but it made a huge difference in my life!

This is what I looked like when I began training with Robert. In fact, that’s a week or two in, so imagine me larger than that. In fact, imagine me 20-30 pounds heavier like I was in England - but I’m not showing that picture.

Then, after two months of 3x weekly sweat sessions with Robert and my cousin Rachel, plus a pretty clean, mostly vegetarian diet (okay, I admit it, it wasn’t that clean—I stress ate way too often), and extra running/Jillian Michaels sessions I came to look like this:
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It may take a village to raise a child, but I’m pretty sure it took a village to make our wedding happen. The assistance and donations of dear friends warms my heart to this day.

The Gift of Joy: Mrs. Tulip kindly sent me a package of hankies from her wedding, along with a very sweet card. I used these as she did, displaying them at the ceremony for people to take. There were so many I was able to select the blue/purple ones to fit the color scheme. I’ll include the final product in my details post.

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Do you know what today is? It’s my Weddingbee One Year Anniversary! It’s true!

On this day, 365 days ago, I began to blog along with the hive. I was engaged 5 months and had moved to England 15 days earlier. Looking at back at my first post I couldn’t stop laughing—if only I had known! I joked about folding a million paper flowers, and cutting wine bottles, and creating place holder corks; all projects that would become miniature labors of love. Not to mention all the invitation related projects that I can’t believe I added in along the way!

Looking back from that first post, I had so much to learn and share about immigration, name changes, and ultimately deciding what country we’ll reside in (we’re still working on a few all of those). A year ago I had no idea I’d be celebrating our union without my Grandmother, or the profound effect her passing would have on me. Who could have imagined I’d “meet” such wonderful women to invite to our wedding?

I’d also like to confess that it wasn’t for lack of pro pics that I’m starting my recaps now.
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When I first imagined what my bachelorette party would be, I assumed it’d be a low-key, pajama and game night with a scavenger hunt. But my friends had other plans, and they were brilliant!

A friend of my MD-MOH let us use her house in Federal Hill for the night, so anyone who wanted to sleep over could. We went to dinner around the corner and then, my OZ-MOH organized a fantastic scavenger hunt complete with props—who doesn’t love props?
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