Weddingbee Blog

Welcome to the Ladyfinger wedding recaps! I’m so excited to have the opportunity to share our day with you—so let’s get this party started, shall we?

After months of planning, blogging, worrying, crying, grinning, crafting, and general thumb twiddling, the wedding week was HERE. I had arranged to have the Wednesday through Friday off from work so we could set things up down south, greet family, and try to relax a bit before the big day.

Because our caterer was awesome and set everything up for us at the venue, all my projects had to be done by that Wednesday—that’s when we had to bring everything to them, from the favors and champagne to the banners and the guestbook. We had already taken the collected centerpiece bottles to our florist three weeks out, so this meant my wedding crafting room was pretty much cleared out a few days before the big day. This made the rest of the week especially relaxing, with plenty of time for visiting with friends and family without the stresses of last-minute-favor-baking-and-program-folding. Over the next couple of days, family trickled in, and we tried to make as much time as possible for everybody.

Me, MIL and Mr. Ladyfingers

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Well, we have taken one giant step toward becoming even more adult than we already are (I’m tellin’ ya, that wedding ring throws me off every time!)—yep, that’s right. We bought a house.

I keep saying that, then qualifying myself. We haven’t technically bought it yet, right? I mean, we found it. And we placed an offer. And they accepted it. And we have a signed contract and are in the process of closing our mortgage. But it’s not our house until we have the keys—or so the husband tells me.

Still, I can’t help fantasizing about all the delicious things I shall to do our house. Errr… the house.

It’s a cutie-patootie 1950s number, concrete block, with a basement-level garage in the midst of quite the nice neighborhood. The front steps lead up to a slate-tiled front porch, the first sign that this house has been rehabbed in a serious way. In fact, the seller is still sprucing things up, putting final touches on the kitchen (uh, the brand-new, open plan kitchen with granite countertops, hardwood cabinets, stainless steel appliances, a stainless steel double sink and a wet bar YES ANOTHER SINK BASICALLY THREE SINKS FOLKS), bathrooms, and family room. The floors have been replaced with amazing dark hardwood. The windows are new. The bathrooms are all new – new tiles, new vanities, new sinks. The back yard is plenty big for Ro-Po to race around a couple hundred times.

Oh, and also? It’s ours. Like, we’re going to own it. Our house.
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This wasn’t Mr. Ladyfingers and my first Christmas together. That honor goes to the Christmas of 2009, during which I was laid up on my couch, unable to walk, sit, move, or lie comfortably due to a … weird medical thing.

It wasn’t our first Christmas living together, either—that would be last year, which was also our first Christmas as an engaged couple.

This season did have the distinction, however, of being the first Christmas we spent as a married pair. To celebrate the occasion, we carried forth a few of traditions we started last year, and started new ones for our new life together.

We bought our tree together last year — yes, a fake one.
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We hadn’t lined up our Puerto Rico or Grand Turk excursions before getting on the boat, but luckily, there was still plenty available. They say to book early, and some stuff did fill up, but we really weren’t sure what we could and could not do financially until we got down to the wire. In San Juan, we chose a Rainforest Drive up through the Yunque Rainforest, a 28,000-acre rainforest that is the only one in the United States.

But first: Castillo de San Felipe del Morro, from our ship

Our tour guide was funny and knowledgeable, regaling us with historical and political facts during the 50-minute drive to El Yunque. He was also resourceful:
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On our first full day, we dropped anchor off the coast of Half Moon Cay, Bahamas, where Carnival has a private island. Princess has a similar setup with Princess Cay. There’s no dock, so they tie tender boats to the side of the ship and shuttle you to the coast, which takes about 10-15 minutes. We were so stoked about settling down on the beaches, only to hear a disheartening announcement that the winds may prevent us from going to Half Moon Cay, since the tender boats were rocking to and fro, making for an unsafe load. Happily, they were able to tie up the boats on the other side of the ship, but it was still rocky.

Then, it started raining.

People were bailing off the boat, but not us! I was determined. And by the time we got to shore, the weather looked like this:
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Initially, Mr. Ladyfingers and I weren’t sure we could do a honeymoon at all, much less one outside the state. We tossed around the idea of St. Augustine — the oldest city in America and local, in Florida — but finally settled on a Caribbean cruise after running the numbers and discovering we could do it, after all. Yay!

Man, oh man, are we glad things turned out that way. We seriously had the best time ever, have been doing nothing but raving and reminiscing about our honeymoon cruise, and are already planning our next cruise for early 2013. Southern (or Western) Caribbean, here we come?

We researched (OK, I researched) the different lines to exhaustion, and finally settled on Carnival as the most cost effective option with the best itinerary at that time. We sailed out of Miami on the Carnival Liberty, on the way to Half Moon Cay, Bahamas; Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas; Old San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Grand Turk.

Miami, one of my all-time favorite skylines, pre-sail-away

Throughout the honeycaps, I’m going to attempt to provide you with some cruising advice, but be forewarned:
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What’d you do this weekend? I got married. No big.

For the record, it was perfectly perfect in every way. I forgot to wear my dress’ sleeves the way they had been tailored, a guest brought an unexpected date, I had a moment where I thought the Reverend had left without us having signed the marriage license (I remembered that we’d both signed it when we got it at city hall a couple of months ago), the DJ played a Spongebob Squarepants interlude in the middle of “Shout!” and played our cake cutting song an hour after the cake cutting, and somebody brought a baby, which made it awkward for those who we’d told could not bring their babies.

And you know what? I barely even noticed any of these things. Because we were man and wife, and that was that.
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The weather, so far, is so good.

On Tuesday, I said goodbye to my coworkers as a single lady, to return as a married woman.

On Wednesday, we carted all our items to the caterer and put them in their capable hands, leaving us with nothing to do but hang out with family and wait.

My stomach has been doing flips, even though I would tell you I’m not stressed out, and everybody’s been saying how calm I am. You could have fooled my tummy.

Family descended upon us.

Today, we rehearse our wedding. The girls and I will get our nails done, and then eat some yummy seafood. I’ll stay up way too late.

And then, we’ll get married.
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Have I mentioned how amazingly wonderfully generous and hysterical my bridesmaids are? Perhaps in my shower post I may have alluded to it. But they totally nailed it with this whole bachelorette weekend.

I had a few parameters: Nothing crazy like drinkin’ or clubbin’ (which none of us do anyway), no male strippers, beach-centric, and penile paraphernalia. Hey — when else in your life is it appropriate to walk down the street adorned in male genitalia? Never, so let’s get that stuff started up. Side story: When I revealed this choice, two bridesmaids were horrified, and my maid of honor was totally stoked. We were hanging with a friend who had gotten married this past spring, and she told me she thought maybe we should have switched bridesmaids. She was staunchly against that stuff, but her bridesmaids were decidedly not. In fact, they had hired a midget who makes his living dressed as a… well, you know. To walk around with them all night. She got wind of it and called him off but… maybe I’m juvenile, I just found that hilarious.

Back to the bachelorette weekend. MOH Ginger texted me a couple of days before the weekend was to begin and told me that she’d pick me up at 1 on Saturday and I should pack a bag that included a bathing suit, something comfortable, a dress I felt sexy in, and something to sleep in. This is my kinda party, clearly.

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Our final, final deadline was last Saturday, and we spent a couple of days beyond that tracking down some stragglers (like, oh, our Reverend and his wife). Like many before me, I feel compelled to share our breakdown and how we feel about it.

I love charts, so I spent way too much time this morning composing a few.

First, our out-of-town/in-town guest count.

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First in our final series of pre-wedding appointments was our florist. I knew that I was going to be beyond happy that we’d gone with a professional, and the particular florist we did. I’d heard nothing but great reviews, and could handle the price point. They have been nothing but sweethearts to work with, and have clearly understood my vision. I am completely comfortable letting them do whatever they want within a certain constraint.

That being said, I couldn’t have prepared for how excited the final floral consultation went. I met our designer, Stephanie, and administrative assistant, Collette, at their newly opened studio a few blocks from where I work, and brought them my collection of bottles, jars and vases. They were super stoked, which was a big relief because in the back of my mind, I was worried there weren’t enough, they wouldn’t be able to work with them, whatever. Not the case!

Much of what we’d originally agreed upon was the same, with the addition of some elements. And I can’t even describe how exciting it was to see and hear the FINAL FLOWER order and know that everything would be so beautiful the day of!

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I agonized over favors! First, there were none. Then, there were many. After writing this post and getting plenty of feedback on my options, I settled upon the one that would require the most effort, but the least amount of money: Homemade fudge.

Let me clarify: By “effort,” I mean melting chocolate, pouring it into a pan, and sticking it in the fridge. Yeah. Sooooo hard.

I used my mom’s fudge recipe, since it was the only fudge I can ever remember liking. I had it so much growing up that any other fudge just tastes too sugary, or too “off” to me.

The recipe:
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Programs were one of those things that I was insistent we did not need. It seemed superfluous to have one for a simple, 20-minute-tops ceremony with no special readings or rituals. People would tell me it would be nice to have something for guests to read while waiting for the ceremony to start, or to let them know who the members of the bridal party were. “Pish posh,” I’d say. “Nobody cares. It’s a hassle! We shall have no programs.”

And then I saw Mrs. Tartlet’s posts on Mr. Tarlet’s program project. And then I knew we needed programs.

Mine would look nothing like theirs. I’m just not that crafty. If I attempted, it wouldn’t look nearly as good! So I searched for something that would work with my skill set, time, and money.

I don’t know when I had the idea, but I decided to incorporate the belly bands from our invitations and the paper flowers from our hanging initial decor (more on that recently completed project soon), with a simple trifold program. I had some leftover ribbon (though I ended up needing a couple of extra spools) and plenty of paper, along with about a gajillion leftover paper flowers and a box of buttons I’d bought off Etsy back in January.

I’d initially priced a printing job that would have fallen at about a dollar a program. But then! MOH Ginger casually mentioned she had an extra printer because she’d just purchased a new one, and would I like it? Yes. Yes, I would.

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The past 11 months have been a rollercoaster of ideas, inspiration, wants, have-to-haves, needs, and chocolate (the last one more so in the last couple weeks). Along the way, I have semi-committed to plenty of things that I recently had to cut loose. There were also a few things that I swore up and down we had no need for (some of which vacillated between “we NEED” and “we don’t need”). So with 20-something-odd days to go until NUPTIAL TIME, I though it would behoove me to do a quick rundown of the things that have come and gone, as well as some of the minute decisions that we’ve finally settled on. No, really… there’s no time to change our minds again.

1. The cardigan-over-the-wedding-dress

Is there any wedding trend more controversial than the bride-in-a-cardigan? I think not. Most of you pointed out that a cardigan on an already stressful and sweaty day, in Florida—whether in November or not —might be a bit overkill. I had been going back and forth over whether I wanted one, or wanted to add sleeves to my dress. What finally made my decision? Seeing how awesome cap sleeves looked at my first and second dress fittings. That, coupled with a complete lack of cardigan-shopping and an aversion to sweaty pits, made the cardigan issue: Abandoned

2. Favor bell receptacles/trays/whatever
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My entire life could probably be retraced and pieced together through a series of shopping and to-do lists. Honestly: If I kept them all, they’d probably serve as a pretty robust basis for my day-in-the-life biography. Which somebody’s totally going to write about me when I die. Duh.

Lately, I’ve been fairly obsessed with the cruise packing list. For those of you catching up, we’re embarking on a 7-day cruise after the wedding, through the Eastern Caribbean, stopping at Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, Grand Turk, and St. Thomas. Neither of us have ever been. I’m simultaneously a packs-too-much traveler and a forgets-the-essentials traveler. So I like to turn to handy Google for advice. Today, it was “Cruise Packing List.” Naturally, I found some super long and scary-specific lists. Like this one from Cruise Direct. (Which makes me wonder, what are people doing on their cruises? Krazy Glue? Walkman? DUCT TAPE?)

So, by narrowing out the things we always pack for any trip—meds, toiletries, underwear—I’ve arrived at what I think is a pretty comfortable packing list for the impending honeymoon cruise.
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