Mrs. Lamb, NorfolkAge and Occupation: 25, Homeland Security ConsultantFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Graduate StudentEngagement Date: January 2009Wedding Date: January 2010Venue: Trinity Presbyterian Church/Harrison Opera HouseAbout Me: I’m a Homeland Security Consultant with a tendency towards pulling office pranks, taking lunch breaks, and drinking Wawa shakes. I’m also an English major with a serious obsession with alliteration and rhymes. While I’m not keeping America safe, I’m training for half marathons and the Escape from Alcatraz swim. Or moving for the third time this year. Or baking. Or wedding crafting. Or crying about wedding planning. All the while, I’m getting myself into Lucille Ball-esque scrapes and making Jim Carey-esque faces. Our big fat Czech/Baptist/Jewish/Italian wedding is a combination of vintage eclectic, DIY, and little spoonful of sugar from our Event Coordinator. It’s going to be a Norfolk flavored wedding with the verve of an only-daughter-blow-out bash!
Mrs. Lamb, NorfolkAge and Occupation: 25, Homeland Security ConsultantFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Graduate StudentEngagement Date: January 2009Wedding Date: January 2010Venue: Trinity Presbyterian Church/Harrison Opera HouseAbout Me: I’m a Homeland Security Consultant with a tendency towards pulling office pranks, taking lunch breaks, and drinking Wawa shakes. I’m also an English major with a serious obsession with alliteration and rhymes. While I’m not keeping America safe, I’m training for half marathons and the Escape from Alcatraz swim. Or moving for the third time this year. Or baking. Or wedding crafting. Or crying about wedding planning. All the while, I’m getting myself into Lucille Ball-esque scrapes and making Jim Carey-esque faces. Our big fat Czech/Baptist/Jewish/Italian wedding is a combination of vintage eclectic, DIY, and little spoonful of sugar from our Event Coordinator. It’s going to be a Norfolk flavored wedding with the verve of an only-daughter-blow-out bash!
I feel like I’ve come to the end of a TV series that I really liked at some point, but have gotten sick of and just want to find out the ending so that I can move on to a new show. If you feel the same way about the Lamb wedding, don’t worry - there are just three more installments. I want to tell you about the day chronologically as we prepared, anticipated and then celebrated. Let’s start the story in the morning.
I looked at the clock, looked through my Blackberry, looked at the clock, and then back to the phone again. Willing myself to lay in bed until at least 7:00 am, I watched the digital numbers change from 6:59, then smiled as I swung my legs over the side of the bed. I started the coffee maker and opened my laptop to log into Weddingbee. I read every comment I had received on my last Miss post. I also called Kinko’s and arranged with a friend to pick up our seating assignment chart. After checking off the last wedding “to-do” task, I turned my attention to the serious business of breakfast. A bagel baby soon emerged from my stomach when I downed two carbalicious bagels at Yorgo’s in the Ghent neighborhood (sesame with veggie cream cheese and chocolate chip with butter in case you want my recommendations).
The Lambaids and I rolled into my parents’ suite at the Marriott as our last minute hair/makeup savior, Liv Lethal, finished setting out her beautification tools. Read more…
Mrs. Lamb, NorfolkAge and Occupation: 25, Homeland Security ConsultantFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Graduate StudentEngagement Date: January 2009Wedding Date: January 2010Venue: Trinity Presbyterian Church/Harrison Opera HouseAbout Me: I’m a Homeland Security Consultant with a tendency towards pulling office pranks, taking lunch breaks, and drinking Wawa shakes. I’m also an English major with a serious obsession with alliteration and rhymes. While I’m not keeping America safe, I’m training for half marathons and the Escape from Alcatraz swim. Or moving for the third time this year. Or baking. Or wedding crafting. Or crying about wedding planning. All the while, I’m getting myself into Lucille Ball-esque scrapes and making Jim Carey-esque faces. Our big fat Czech/Baptist/Jewish/Italian wedding is a combination of vintage eclectic, DIY, and little spoonful of sugar from our Event Coordinator. It’s going to be a Norfolk flavored wedding with the verve of an only-daughter-blow-out bash!
After our engagement and a few frightening experiences in planning the wedding that left me in tears, I began to cling to the idea that our wedding needed a philosophy. From the pages of 2000 Dollar Wedding and A Practical Wedding, I borrowed aspects with which I identified and built my own philosophy. I would love to say that we had an amazingly transcendent family sit down where every one understood the importance of having a wedding philosophy and participated in building one. However, I was the lone crusader on the warpath of defining it. Others thought it was overkill, granola, heady, unnecessary, etc. From the perspective of being on the other side, having a wedding philosophy, even just one that I adhered to, was pivotal to keeping me sane and freeing me to truly enjoy our wedding.
When I got down/upset, it seemed like everything was out of budget, or every craft was failing, I thought of the most important thing about our wedding: It was the beginning of our marriage. In the grand scheme of starting a marriage, finding the perfect wrapping paper to line envelopes could be put into its proper category of “not that important, after all”. Stemming from this main philosophy, I focused on a few sub-principles that I thought would enhance the intimacy, ease the coordination, or decrease costs. For fun, I labeled these principles with a catch all phrase: High on Style, Low on Budget - Just how Mother Likes it. In the following paragraphs, I highlight a few of the principles and the application to our wedding planning.
Mrs. Lamb, NorfolkAge and Occupation: 25, Homeland Security ConsultantFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Graduate StudentEngagement Date: January 2009Wedding Date: January 2010Venue: Trinity Presbyterian Church/Harrison Opera HouseAbout Me: I’m a Homeland Security Consultant with a tendency towards pulling office pranks, taking lunch breaks, and drinking Wawa shakes. I’m also an English major with a serious obsession with alliteration and rhymes. While I’m not keeping America safe, I’m training for half marathons and the Escape from Alcatraz swim. Or moving for the third time this year. Or baking. Or wedding crafting. Or crying about wedding planning. All the while, I’m getting myself into Lucille Ball-esque scrapes and making Jim Carey-esque faces. Our big fat Czech/Baptist/Jewish/Italian wedding is a combination of vintage eclectic, DIY, and little spoonful of sugar from our Event Coordinator. It’s going to be a Norfolk flavored wedding with the verve of an only-daughter-blow-out bash!
Lighting seemed like one of those frou-frou unnecessary expenses to me, until Pavaune showed me pictures of the differences between unlit rooms and uplit rooms. Pavaune found Blue Steel through recommendations from some of our other vendors and handled all of the contract negotiations. My mom really loved the idea of a personalized gobo (seen during the father daughter dance in the picture below), so we ordered that and the amber uplighting seen in the dance picture below.
Mrs. Lamb, NorfolkAge and Occupation: 25, Homeland Security ConsultantFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Graduate StudentEngagement Date: January 2009Wedding Date: January 2010Venue: Trinity Presbyterian Church/Harrison Opera HouseAbout Me: I’m a Homeland Security Consultant with a tendency towards pulling office pranks, taking lunch breaks, and drinking Wawa shakes. I’m also an English major with a serious obsession with alliteration and rhymes. While I’m not keeping America safe, I’m training for half marathons and the Escape from Alcatraz swim. Or moving for the third time this year. Or baking. Or wedding crafting. Or crying about wedding planning. All the while, I’m getting myself into Lucille Ball-esque scrapes and making Jim Carey-esque faces. Our big fat Czech/Baptist/Jewish/Italian wedding is a combination of vintage eclectic, DIY, and little spoonful of sugar from our Event Coordinator. It’s going to be a Norfolk flavored wedding with the verve of an only-daughter-blow-out bash!
Having a wedding is sort of like an extended Christmas/birthday season. The gifts seem to just keep on coming! The only weird thing is that you sign up for the gifts you want and you can see what gets purchased and when. It reminds me of looking for our Christmas presents when my brother and I were little. One year, we found them hidden in our parents’ closet. Thrilling. I dislike most surprises because I find a lot of joy in being in the know, so the registry was super fun. That said, some of my favorite gifts were strays from the registry. Here a few of my favorite gifts:
Since I already inherited a KitchenAid from my grandmother, I was on the hunt for attachments that we could add to our registry and that I would be most likely to use.
Mrs. Lamb, NorfolkAge and Occupation: 25, Homeland Security ConsultantFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Graduate StudentEngagement Date: January 2009Wedding Date: January 2010Venue: Trinity Presbyterian Church/Harrison Opera HouseAbout Me: I’m a Homeland Security Consultant with a tendency towards pulling office pranks, taking lunch breaks, and drinking Wawa shakes. I’m also an English major with a serious obsession with alliteration and rhymes. While I’m not keeping America safe, I’m training for half marathons and the Escape from Alcatraz swim. Or moving for the third time this year. Or baking. Or wedding crafting. Or crying about wedding planning. All the while, I’m getting myself into Lucille Ball-esque scrapes and making Jim Carey-esque faces. Our big fat Czech/Baptist/Jewish/Italian wedding is a combination of vintage eclectic, DIY, and little spoonful of sugar from our Event Coordinator. It’s going to be a Norfolk flavored wedding with the verve of an only-daughter-blow-out bash!
We hired an event designer/wedding planner for oru wedding. I feel like I just confessed to a horrible crime. I’m a bee! I DIY! I believe in the philosophy of a practical wedding! And I hired a wedding coordinator. The. FULL. package. Not that I feel like I should defend that decision, but I wanted to explain the process of making the decision and working with a coordinator.
I have always loved weddings and originally thought I would have a huge role in planning my wedding. My parents liked the idea of day-of coordinating and it seemed to be a good match at first. However, upon further consideration, I evaluated several factors:
Up until 5 months before the wedding, I was planning an out of town wedding (vendor complications resulted in our ultimate decision to wed in Norfolk). I couldn’t make it to all the vendor appointments out-of-state and I wanted a representative who could act as my proxy.
As a people pleaser, I wanted someone in my corner. My bridesmaids were wonderful and affirming, but since they were all from out of town, they weren’t able to be present all of the time when I needed back up.
Mrs. Lamb, NorfolkAge and Occupation: 25, Homeland Security ConsultantFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Graduate StudentEngagement Date: January 2009Wedding Date: January 2010Venue: Trinity Presbyterian Church/Harrison Opera HouseAbout Me: I’m a Homeland Security Consultant with a tendency towards pulling office pranks, taking lunch breaks, and drinking Wawa shakes. I’m also an English major with a serious obsession with alliteration and rhymes. While I’m not keeping America safe, I’m training for half marathons and the Escape from Alcatraz swim. Or moving for the third time this year. Or baking. Or wedding crafting. Or crying about wedding planning. All the while, I’m getting myself into Lucille Ball-esque scrapes and making Jim Carey-esque faces. Our big fat Czech/Baptist/Jewish/Italian wedding is a combination of vintage eclectic, DIY, and little spoonful of sugar from our Event Coordinator. It’s going to be a Norfolk flavored wedding with the verve of an only-daughter-blow-out bash!
Remember when your wedding was just an idea? I was reading through my archives and it was so fun to see how all of my thoughts were executed, evolved, and even discarded.
Mrs. Lamb, NorfolkAge and Occupation: 25, Homeland Security ConsultantFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Graduate StudentEngagement Date: January 2009Wedding Date: January 2010Venue: Trinity Presbyterian Church/Harrison Opera HouseAbout Me: I’m a Homeland Security Consultant with a tendency towards pulling office pranks, taking lunch breaks, and drinking Wawa shakes. I’m also an English major with a serious obsession with alliteration and rhymes. While I’m not keeping America safe, I’m training for half marathons and the Escape from Alcatraz swim. Or moving for the third time this year. Or baking. Or wedding crafting. Or crying about wedding planning. All the while, I’m getting myself into Lucille Ball-esque scrapes and making Jim Carey-esque faces. Our big fat Czech/Baptist/Jewish/Italian wedding is a combination of vintage eclectic, DIY, and little spoonful of sugar from our Event Coordinator. It’s going to be a Norfolk flavored wedding with the verve of an only-daughter-blow-out bash!
One of my favorite things at our wedding was our makeshift photobooth (aka fauxtobooth). I see a lot of people asking on the boards if these are overdone or tacky. Besides my former roommate, who was planning a wedding at the same time as me, we’re the only two weddings that I’ve seen a photobooth at (she rented a real one that spit out the classic four picture black and white strips - very cool!). If you love it, I say, “Do it!”
During the cocktail hour, my event designer worked with our photographer, Sam Hughes, to create a small studio space. Read more…
Mrs. Lamb, NorfolkAge and Occupation: 25, Homeland Security ConsultantFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Graduate StudentEngagement Date: January 2009Wedding Date: January 2010Venue: Trinity Presbyterian Church/Harrison Opera HouseAbout Me: I’m a Homeland Security Consultant with a tendency towards pulling office pranks, taking lunch breaks, and drinking Wawa shakes. I’m also an English major with a serious obsession with alliteration and rhymes. While I’m not keeping America safe, I’m training for half marathons and the Escape from Alcatraz swim. Or moving for the third time this year. Or baking. Or wedding crafting. Or crying about wedding planning. All the while, I’m getting myself into Lucille Ball-esque scrapes and making Jim Carey-esque faces. Our big fat Czech/Baptist/Jewish/Italian wedding is a combination of vintage eclectic, DIY, and little spoonful of sugar from our Event Coordinator. It’s going to be a Norfolk flavored wedding with the verve of an only-daughter-blow-out bash!
We had, what I considered to be, a very traditional wedding. We married in a church, hosted a sit down reception on a Saturday, and partook of many other traditions (bird seed toss, first dance, cake cutting, etc.). Our families and the Lambster thought our wedding was quite different (online RSVPs, red bridal shoes, individual cakes, pictures before the ceremony). Even though I could have broken the mold more, I think that our details were the expressive icing on our cookie cutter base.
I’ll take you on a little tour of some of the details that made our day.
Our semi-DIY invitations were ordered from eInvite.com (invitations, response cards, inner envelopes and outer envelopes). I cut belly bands, sealed them with a wax seal, lined the outer envelopes, and hand wrote calligraphy on the envelopes. Read more…
Mrs. Lamb, NorfolkAge and Occupation: 25, Homeland Security ConsultantFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Graduate StudentEngagement Date: January 2009Wedding Date: January 2010Venue: Trinity Presbyterian Church/Harrison Opera HouseAbout Me: I’m a Homeland Security Consultant with a tendency towards pulling office pranks, taking lunch breaks, and drinking Wawa shakes. I’m also an English major with a serious obsession with alliteration and rhymes. While I’m not keeping America safe, I’m training for half marathons and the Escape from Alcatraz swim. Or moving for the third time this year. Or baking. Or wedding crafting. Or crying about wedding planning. All the while, I’m getting myself into Lucille Ball-esque scrapes and making Jim Carey-esque faces. Our big fat Czech/Baptist/Jewish/Italian wedding is a combination of vintage eclectic, DIY, and little spoonful of sugar from our Event Coordinator. It’s going to be a Norfolk flavored wedding with the verve of an only-daughter-blow-out bash!
Two weeks before our wedding, I considered my to-do list and then promptly cut it in half by losing pipe dream projects. There were items that we no longer had a budget for (black and white snack table with Oreos on shots of milk and homemade whoopie pies!), items I couldn’t find (perfect parents’ gifts), and items that were just not that big of a priority anymore. Our card box fell into all three categories. I had thought I wanted something cool and antique to fit our vintage vibe, but never ran across the right piece at the right price. I was sick of spending money on things that weren’t going to last but one night. At the end of the day, I came to the conclusion that I would make a box with items I had on hand.
Mrs. Lamb, NorfolkAge and Occupation: 25, Homeland Security ConsultantFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Graduate StudentEngagement Date: January 2009Wedding Date: January 2010Venue: Trinity Presbyterian Church/Harrison Opera HouseAbout Me: I’m a Homeland Security Consultant with a tendency towards pulling office pranks, taking lunch breaks, and drinking Wawa shakes. I’m also an English major with a serious obsession with alliteration and rhymes. While I’m not keeping America safe, I’m training for half marathons and the Escape from Alcatraz swim. Or moving for the third time this year. Or baking. Or wedding crafting. Or crying about wedding planning. All the while, I’m getting myself into Lucille Ball-esque scrapes and making Jim Carey-esque faces. Our big fat Czech/Baptist/Jewish/Italian wedding is a combination of vintage eclectic, DIY, and little spoonful of sugar from our Event Coordinator. It’s going to be a Norfolk flavored wedding with the verve of an only-daughter-blow-out bash!
Lamberdoodle’s sweet cousin handed out programs on the day of our wedding. She was so excited to be part of the festivities and took her duties quite seriously. Read more…
Mrs. Lamb, NorfolkAge and Occupation: 25, Homeland Security ConsultantFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Graduate StudentEngagement Date: January 2009Wedding Date: January 2010Venue: Trinity Presbyterian Church/Harrison Opera HouseAbout Me: I’m a Homeland Security Consultant with a tendency towards pulling office pranks, taking lunch breaks, and drinking Wawa shakes. I’m also an English major with a serious obsession with alliteration and rhymes. While I’m not keeping America safe, I’m training for half marathons and the Escape from Alcatraz swim. Or moving for the third time this year. Or baking. Or wedding crafting. Or crying about wedding planning. All the while, I’m getting myself into Lucille Ball-esque scrapes and making Jim Carey-esque faces. Our big fat Czech/Baptist/Jewish/Italian wedding is a combination of vintage eclectic, DIY, and little spoonful of sugar from our Event Coordinator. It’s going to be a Norfolk flavored wedding with the verve of an only-daughter-blow-out bash!
Lambster and I attended our first wedding as a married couple the other week. We had been looking forward to its as we had grown with our friends from college dating, through Navy long distance relationships, and into engagement land.
Not only were we able to rejoice with them as they joined us on the married side of life, but I found my wedding joy again. I wasn’t sure if weddings would ever be the same to me as when I was a wishful singleton dreamer. Planning our own wedding exposed me to the stressful, headache inducing side of things and though I’ll never forget the experience, I’m so glad that I can enjoy weddings again since they’re not my own!
I held my husband’s hand while they repeated their vows, and I rubbed his wedding ring. I appreciated the natural beauty of the outdoor ceremony space, the fragrance of the flowers, the taste of the wine, and the laughter at the toasts. I ate Pennsylvania and Ohio shaped cookies from the cookie buffet (representing the bride and groom’s home states). All simple joys. Read more…
Mrs. Lamb, NorfolkAge and Occupation: 25, Homeland Security ConsultantFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Graduate StudentEngagement Date: January 2009Wedding Date: January 2010Venue: Trinity Presbyterian Church/Harrison Opera HouseAbout Me: I’m a Homeland Security Consultant with a tendency towards pulling office pranks, taking lunch breaks, and drinking Wawa shakes. I’m also an English major with a serious obsession with alliteration and rhymes. While I’m not keeping America safe, I’m training for half marathons and the Escape from Alcatraz swim. Or moving for the third time this year. Or baking. Or wedding crafting. Or crying about wedding planning. All the while, I’m getting myself into Lucille Ball-esque scrapes and making Jim Carey-esque faces. Our big fat Czech/Baptist/Jewish/Italian wedding is a combination of vintage eclectic, DIY, and little spoonful of sugar from our Event Coordinator. It’s going to be a Norfolk flavored wedding with the verve of an only-daughter-blow-out bash!
I realize that many of you are planning honeymoons with more than 12 hours notice. These tips and book reviews are for you. I’ve broken down the advice into 3 sections: Guide Book Reviews, General Tips, and Budget. If you are going on a surprise honeymoon like we ended up doing, then my advice is much simpler:
Anything you don’t have, you can buy (warmer clothes, guide books, disposable camera, etc.).
I bought my copy when I studied abroad in 2003. In a panicked search as we packed the morning of take off, I found it buried in one of my moving boxes. It was a honeymoon day miracle. Read more…
Mrs. Lamb, NorfolkAge and Occupation: 25, Homeland Security ConsultantFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Graduate StudentEngagement Date: January 2009Wedding Date: January 2010Venue: Trinity Presbyterian Church/Harrison Opera HouseAbout Me: I’m a Homeland Security Consultant with a tendency towards pulling office pranks, taking lunch breaks, and drinking Wawa shakes. I’m also an English major with a serious obsession with alliteration and rhymes. While I’m not keeping America safe, I’m training for half marathons and the Escape from Alcatraz swim. Or moving for the third time this year. Or baking. Or wedding crafting. Or crying about wedding planning. All the while, I’m getting myself into Lucille Ball-esque scrapes and making Jim Carey-esque faces. Our big fat Czech/Baptist/Jewish/Italian wedding is a combination of vintage eclectic, DIY, and little spoonful of sugar from our Event Coordinator. It’s going to be a Norfolk flavored wedding with the verve of an only-daughter-blow-out bash!
I had a ton of fun here in Durham at Foster’s Market, meeting some fellow brides and bloggers last month! Fun ladies/gents + delicious food + a sunny brilliant day = good times had by all.
Southern Weddings publishes out of Chapel Hill and Emily, one of the editors, suggested a meet-up. It was perfect timing with the turn of spring weather, and even more exciting, Mrs. Bunny and Mrs. Pineapple made the trip too! Read more…
Mrs. Lamb, NorfolkAge and Occupation: 25, Homeland Security ConsultantFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Graduate StudentEngagement Date: January 2009Wedding Date: January 2010Venue: Trinity Presbyterian Church/Harrison Opera HouseAbout Me: I’m a Homeland Security Consultant with a tendency towards pulling office pranks, taking lunch breaks, and drinking Wawa shakes. I’m also an English major with a serious obsession with alliteration and rhymes. While I’m not keeping America safe, I’m training for half marathons and the Escape from Alcatraz swim. Or moving for the third time this year. Or baking. Or wedding crafting. Or crying about wedding planning. All the while, I’m getting myself into Lucille Ball-esque scrapes and making Jim Carey-esque faces. Our big fat Czech/Baptist/Jewish/Italian wedding is a combination of vintage eclectic, DIY, and little spoonful of sugar from our Event Coordinator. It’s going to be a Norfolk flavored wedding with the verve of an only-daughter-blow-out bash!
In part 1, we did as the Romans and then headed to Florence. After perusing the must-sees (David, the Uffizzi, the Duomo), we wanted to take in the countryside. We armed ourselves with a rental car, GPS, Google map printouts, and an adventuresome spirit, then took to the road. Lamma-bamma had been looking forward to renting a car in Greece in order to learn how to drive a stick shift, so he was especially excited that we ended up renting a car after all. I drove first and we were pretty psyched with the upgrade we got to a Fiat 500. Thankfully, it was just like riding a bike and I worked my way through heavy traffic in the city without incident.
Later, in a parking lot, Lamma-ramma-speedy-mcspeederson-ding-dong took to the wheel to try his luck. After a few false starts… he declared himself a “naturale” and pulled out of the parking lot.
Mrs. Lamb, NorfolkAge and Occupation: 25, Homeland Security ConsultantFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Graduate StudentEngagement Date: January 2009Wedding Date: January 2010Venue: Trinity Presbyterian Church/Harrison Opera HouseAbout Me: I’m a Homeland Security Consultant with a tendency towards pulling office pranks, taking lunch breaks, and drinking Wawa shakes. I’m also an English major with a serious obsession with alliteration and rhymes. While I’m not keeping America safe, I’m training for half marathons and the Escape from Alcatraz swim. Or moving for the third time this year. Or baking. Or wedding crafting. Or crying about wedding planning. All the while, I’m getting myself into Lucille Ball-esque scrapes and making Jim Carey-esque faces. Our big fat Czech/Baptist/Jewish/Italian wedding is a combination of vintage eclectic, DIY, and little spoonful of sugar from our Event Coordinator. It’s going to be a Norfolk flavored wedding with the verve of an only-daughter-blow-out bash!
All-Inclusion Invitation Suites
