Weddingbee Blog

Guests don’t care about the wedding’s details like we do. But there are certain sentimental aspects that give all of us warm fuzzies. I don’t know about you, but for me, the best weddings are the ones where I come home and I want to fall in love all over again. Here are some things I guarantee they will and won’t remember.

WILL: That the bride looked radiantly blissful and confident in her dress.
WON’T: That the bride was five pounds thinner.

WILL: Vows said with meaning and heartfelt sentiment.
WON’T: Brilliant, original vows that showcased impeccable writing style, but failed to say what you truly meant.

WILL: A fun reception where everyone got a chance to dance and shake their booty without judgment.
WON’T: That every single song you told your DJ to play got played.

WILL: A warm ambience and welcoming decor.
WON’T: The exact flowers used in each centerpiece or that the shade of mauve in the table linens matched the mauve in the napkins.
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For all of you ladies embarking on a tropical honeymoon, J. Crew has done it again with their endless array of pretty swimwear. While Mr. G and I haven’t decided where we will honeymoon, summer is on its way and I’ll need an excuse to go to the beach! Here are some of my favs…

Is a polka dot bikini, cliche? Not this one.

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I love the gesture of a well written and thoughtful thank you note. It isn’t wedding time yet, and already I can’t wait to thank our wedding guests!

For a DIY infant such as myself (who doesn’t own a Gocco), paper products and crafting are somewhat of an enigma to me. I’m not attempting to make my own invitations, but maybe I can handle the thank you notes. Without many original ideas of my own at the moment, I turn to Martha Stewart for details on how to create my own thank yous.

Go crazy with an embosser and create these pretties.

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… and an uncanny sense of balance? Check out the bridal collection at Steve Madden for some killer (and affordable) wedding day shoes. Mr. G is only 3 inches taller than me, so the 4+ inch heels would make me beastly compared to him. Not to mention, I’d probably fall and break my ankle before the ceremony. But for my brave, heel-loving friends, check out the following:

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We just passed the four month mark before the big day. It is making me a little nervous, because for some reason, three months until the wedding seems a lot closer than four. Last week I looked at our timeline and realized that our unfinished guest list is staring me in the face. My hesitancy to produce the final list has come as a result of some decision-making issues. Let me explain. Beyond our list of definite invites, there is a group of “indefinites” (for lack of a better word). These are friends we were once close to, yet, we have drifted apart from either physically or emotionally: childhood friends, high school friends, college friends, and friends from old jobs. Well, you get the picture. We are on the fence about inviting many of these people. On the one hand, they have been significant people to us at certain times in our lives. On the other hand, these are not people that we interact with every day. A friendly note via Facebook, an email, or running into them at a social gathering is just about the extent of our communication.

Where do you draw the line as to which friends get an invite and which don’t? We have some room on our guest list. Not a lot, but some. I feel conflicted because several of my future in-laws’ friends will probably get an invite (don’t get me started on this subject), and we barely know a lot of them. So why then, should we fail to consider old friends?
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I went to Catholic school for almost ten years. We wore plaid skirts, collared white shirts, and penny loafers every day (pre-Britney Spears’ “Hit Me Baby One More Time”. So, it wasn’t sexy or cool to dress like that at the time). But I guess you can say, I have always been a tad bit preppy. Our wedding will not reflect much of my preppy beginnings, but if it did, I might include elements such as these:

Plaid bridesmaids dresses

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For the past couple of months I have been taking better care of myself and have been trying to prioritize my health and skincare (e.g. cutting out nasty habits like eating junk food and falling asleep with make-up on, increasing my workouts to every other day, and finally starting to take vitamins daily). I have been so busy worrying about myself (how vain!) that I forgot about poor, little ol’ Mr. G!

Mr. G is an accountant, and as every accountant out there knows, it is currently “busy season”. (That wonderful time of year from late January to May when Mr. G works ridiculous hours and I’m lucky if I see him at all during the week.) The high work stress, wedding worries, and everything else, has taken its toll on Mr. G. He has less motivation to work out and has gained about 5 pounds (darn those company provided meals!). His skin has paid a price and he has been suffering from mini-breakouts and stress zits. The list goes on.

Now that we are about 4 months from the big day, I want Mr. G to feel healthy and look his best, too. Plus, I feel bad that he is working SO hard and his health pays the price. We have had a few conversations about how he can make some improvements. His main issue is weight loss, and he wants to lose 15 pounds by June. Here is the plan we’ve come up with thus far.

Diet
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One of the biggest of those issues has been the bridesmaids dresses. From the beginning, I decided that I wanted to pay for the dresses myself. My ladies were hauling themselves all the way across the country. The least I could do was try and help them out with a few of the expenses, right? So I got the cost question out of the way quickly, but then it gets a bit dicey. I also wanted them to be able to try the dresses on themselves. I am a firm believer in trying on clothes before you purchase them because you truly never know what they will look like on you. (This makes internet shopping very difficult for me!)

I wrote a post many moons ago about dress lengths and colors. Well, I finally made some decisions (a huge deal for an indecisive girl like me).

Color: Black.
Length: Tea Length.
Style: Simple, elegant, with a hint of vintage.
Price: $150 or less.
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I’m talking about chairs and chair covers today. I know, don’t get too excited. But, when you think about it, even though chairs are such a minor consideration compared to other aspects of the day, they will probably sneak into a good amount of the wedding photos. And I don’t want them to look out of place. Yet, in the same vein, our budget didn’t and still doesn’t have a wedding chair contingency plan. Hmm, what’s a girl to do? Let me relay our mini-dilemma.

The first time we toured our venue, our ceremony room was set up for a business conference. Picture long tables covered with white linens and mauve cloth covered metallic legged chairs manufactured in the 1980s, possibly the early ’90s. I perused the room, completely skipping over the chairs, because in my bratty (albeit naive) bridal mind, I assumed that our venue would be providing us with those pretty, “ladies lunching”, delicate chairs that I had seen at friends’ weddings before. Something like this:

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This weekend, Mr. G and I will have a flower consultation with the lovely Courtney, owner of Flush Designs in South Pasadena. I am super excited because I have been admiring Courtney’s work for some time now! She is a Weddingbee PRO blogger, florist, designer, photographer, and wedding planner, all rolled into one - super talented, I tell ya! I also got the pleasure of meeting Courtney and her husband, Erin, at the LA Bee meet up in January.

We are meeting mainly to discuss flowers, design, budget, and all of that good stuff. I am really keeping my fingers crossed that we have found our florist and maybe even wedding coordinator… TO BE CONTINUED.

For your viewing pleasure, here is some of the work of Flush Designs…

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I have read numerous board posts on Weddingbee about wedding guests and who gets a plus one and who doesn’t. Mrs. Jasmine even wrote her own post about this very subject. Here is my take on it.

Some brides have the plus one down to a science. Something like this:

Allowable Plus Ones - Married couples or significant others who have been dating for 12 months or more. By “dating” this means they have had been on more than 25 consecutive Friday night dinner dates with one another and/or have slept over one another’s places at least 50 times. In addition, you (as the bride and groom) both must have met this alleged significant other no less than 20 times in mixed company.

I’m kidding! Every couple has to make up their own rules about this situation. I get that. But seriously, what is it that makes brides go bananas over plus ones?

Mr. G and I have been working on our wedding guest list, and we have been faced with the plus one conundrum. But, we’ve decided we need to breathe and relax. Whether second cousin Jim gets a plus one or not is not the end of the world.

Here are a few things I have jotted down to keep some perspective. (These tips, in no way, are endorsed by the Weddingbee community. They are all my own personal opinion.)
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While I am on the subject of rings and wearing them or not, I thought I would write about one related subject that was on my mind.

Mr. G and I have friends who got married a few years ago. A couple of months after they got hitched, her new husband stopped wearing his ring. First, he said it didn’t fit properly. So she offered to have it re-sized. Then, he said he was just not the jewelry/ring wearing type of guy. So now he goes everywhere—without it. He never wears his wedding band.

I know I just wrote a post about my ring and not wanting to feel dependent on wearing it. I proclaimed that I want to be able to walk into a room, and feel the same way, regardless of whether I have my ring on or not.

But what if your man wants to go sans ring? What then? Does he not want to feel dependent on his ring either? Is he not a “jewelry person”? Does he want to appear single? All of these questions, I would think, would be common reactions for a woman whose man decides he doesn’t want to wear his wedding band.
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Lately, I have become acutely aware that sometimes when I am out in public, I look down at my engagement ring and it gives me an air of confidence. Not because I am necessarily thinking, “This was given to me by the man I love.” Let me clarify. The ring and the ring’s presence on my finger has been known to make me feel different, and sometimes better, about myself.

This is difficult for me to admit because it sounds so… well… shallow and materialistic. What kind of woman would feel better about herself because of a ring? Me, apparently.
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“All single ladies, please report to the dance floor immediately! It’s time for the bouquet toss,” the DJ belts out.

“Come on, single gals, you know who you are. Don’t make us call you out by name.”

A few uncomfortable moments pass. No one is moving.

The bride takes the mic in her hands. She begins pointing at her single girlfriends and calling them out one by one. I sit coyly in the corner thinking I’ve got this one in the bag. I’m engaged after all. I’ve redeemed myself from participating in this long-standing tradition once and for all. At this particular moment, my self-confidence is soaring. But then I hear, “Miss Glitter!! I see you back there hiding. Just because you are ENGAGED doesn’t mean you CAN’T participate. Single is single. Get out here NOW!!”

Drats! What good is being engaged if it can’t get me out of a simple bouquet toss?!

The bride may have been technically correct. I may still have been “single” despite my engaged status. But, come on. There is a reason I didn’t run out and claim my spot center stage. I didn’t want to. And I would guess some women might agree with me. That’s usually why they hide behind the centerpieces or are conveniently in the bathroom when this sacred event takes place.
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I wrote a previous post about how Priceline.com has helped Mr. G and I spend many nights in luxurious hotels at super cheap rates. Last week, the lovely Miss D’orsay inquired about Mr. G’s methodology and the mysteries of bidding on Priceline. I asked Mr. G how he works his magic, and to my surprise, he wrote up a whole outline on the subject!

So without further ado, I give you Mr. G’s Guide to Priceline Bidding.

Before you do anything, go research 4 star and 3 star hotel prices via Travelocity.com, Expedia.com, etc. This way you will know what the going rate is. The key to bidding on Priceline is to change ONE criterion at a time. First, change the area criteria one at a time. Then, change the star quality. A price increase does not constitute a “change”.

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