Weddingbee

(The Cactus Moon is a super cheesy-but-fun country bar we all go to every so often.)

Um, ok. When I saw all of this, my jaw fell open and didn’t close for about ten minutes. It’s from our friends Mike and Molly (though they mailed it from his office at the newspaper) - that’s Mike in the face mask. How absolutely freakin’ hilarious are they? Seriously. This is ridiculous.

Just had to share. Miss all of you like cuh-ray-zee.
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Venue - Arizona Inn: A There’s no way around it: getting married at The Arizona Inn isn’t cheap. There are separate charges for the ceremony and reception sites, high minimum food costs (depending on weekday vs. weekend weddings), and lots of service fees (we had to pay $250 to use their projector, in spite of the thousands we were already giving them). On the other hand, the Inn doesn’t advertise itself as a provider of budget weddings, either. And there’s a reason it’s rated so highly by Conde Nast and Travel and Leisure. It’s beautiful, historic, and totally unique. Catering manager Kathleen Sedberry was very easy to work with; she was prompt, professional, and enthusiastic about our wedding. She even followed along on Weddingbee, which was not only flattering - it was a huge relief, knowing she knew how I visualized our wedding. On the day of, she was there helping me with last-minute details and putting out fires (gluing wayward typewriter keys! fluffing my train!). Really, between her and the catering captain, I had a de facto DOC. The waitstaff was incredibly attentive to Mr. LB and I throughout the day and night, and they even packed up all of our centerpieces, candy jars, photos, placecard holders, etc. so we could make a late-night escape to the bars with our friends.

Flowers by Elaine Taylor: A+ If you’ve driven down Camp Lowell, you’ve probably seen The Grey House - an adorable antiques shop overflowing with furniture, china, and other delightful odds and ends. For several years, this has been the base of operations for Elaine and her shopmates. Unfortunately, The Grey House is closing (to reopen in another location later this year), and Elaine has moved on, as well. Her contact information can be found here, but I’m not sure that she’s going to be doing weddings anymore. Which is a shame, because she did a superb job. She put together beautiful arrangements and displays, a gorgeous bouquet, and everything was delivered and set up quickly and perfectly. Oh yeah, and she came in $1000 under budget, even using peonies!

Cake by Ambrosia of Tucson: A+ When Mr. Lovebug and I originally went cake hunting, we had plans to go to this bakery, two hours north of where we live. Logic prevailed, and we decided to get our cake locally. So we went to this popular bakery, where disaster ensued. In fact, we’ve filed a Better Business Bureau complaint against them (which you can see on the BBB website); it’s probably better that I leave it at that. However, our problem with them led us to the wonderful, talented Jaynie of Ambrosia of Tucson. I can’t say enough good things about our experience with her. Her cakes are delicious, she’s incredibly warm and enthusiastic - and she’s so, so talented. (Hello? She published a book on cake decorating.) Day of, the delivery and set up of the cake just basically happened, without me or Mr. LB having to be there to supervise. And it was a PERFECT replica of the photo I’d given her for inspiration. We were absolutely just delighted with it.

DJ and lighting by Luke Bishop of Satyr Entertainment: A+ Again, another vendor I couldn’t have been happier with. Luke’s turnaround time on (my zillion or so) emails is about half a second. When I was confused and overwhelmed by our lighting options, he went out of his way to explain every single one in detail with examples. He handled communication with our venue about some technical issues, and completely took the problem off my shoulders. He followed my control-freak playlist to a T, and the sound and music for our ceremony was perfect. At the reception, he and his assistant and set everything up without a hitch - he even brought three different shades of pink lighting gels for me to choose from, in case at the last minute I didn’t like the one I’d chosen. Throughout the ceremony, his MC’ing was fun, funny, upbeat, and basically perfect. Everything went so smoothly, from the introduction to the cake cutting to playing any random song that popped into our heads.

String Quartet - The Camus Quartet: A+ If you’re shopping for a quartet in Tucson, check ’em out. Especially if you like your stringed music to be a little different. Such as, oh, Radiohead, the Beatles, the Plain White T’s…

Invitations - Ephemera Custom Letterpress: A+ If you’ve seen our save the dates, our invitations, or our programs and charity cards, then you already know how I feel about Tara’s work. She’s the perfect vendor: down to earth and funny, and totally talented and professional. A dream to work with, period.

The one last “vendor” I want to review is our officiant, Melissa Mantha, who deserves an entire post of her own. (But you can check out her website here!)

In addition to these, I also met/interviewed a number of other local wedding vendors. I’m happy to share my experiences with any Tucson brides - just shoot me an email if you have a specific question!
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Pretty much every twenty feet, I was making Mr. Lovebug pull over so I could satisfy my urge to photograph every cute, weird, funny, or ironic sign we passed:

There were countless cool pub fronts to be photographed:

…and of course, the headstones. Every tiny town has a towering church filled with a yard of crumbling crosses:

The Antrim Coast in Northern Island was breathtaking:

…and as animal lovers, we were pulling up alongside every roadside farm to say hello:

The steps down to the rope bridge at Carrick-a-rede in Northern Ireland:

Every forest we passed looked like it was made for “little people” and other sprites:

Vintage Guinness bottles line the shelves at the storehouse in St. James’s Gate, Dublin:

…and a lovely lakeside cottage near Donegal:

The half-sunny, half-cloudy conditions seemed to make every patch of greenery explode with color:

…and around every corner is an old manor or ruined estate peeking out from a well-worn road:

Signs don’t get more Irish than this:

…or murals, than this:

A viaduct near the Antrim Coast:

…and the rope bridge we braved (twice!):

This guy was all ready for his closeup:

The pool at the spa at Solis Lough Eske Castle (an absolutely incredible hotel Ireland honeymooners must not miss!):

Mr. Lovebug gets his bearings at Giant’s Causeway:

A path in the woods near Kingscourt:

…and the overgrown ruins of a friary:

Mr. LB strolls the grounds at Lough Eske Castle:

Lucky wishing in a lucky country:

The sheep we helped to herd with our tiny rental:

A bust in St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin:

And a few quick shots from our stopover in London:

As much fun as London was, I would have to encourage anyone with second thoughts about honeymooning there to have third and fourth thoughts, as well. Everything in and about the city - at least right now - is just comically expensive.

But for those of you planning a jaunt through Ireland, don’t let my stories of exhaustion scare you. It’s a really, really fun place to explore, especially by car, not to mention a photophile’s dream.

I would only say to give yourself plenty of time to get from city to city - there’ll be so many side trips you’ll want to take from the main roads (famous ruins, graveyards, castles, farms, etc.). And pack boots! Waterproof boots (my Wellies did the trick) - the almost constant mist/rain soaks everything, and you’ll be miserable without dry shoes.

A few other tips/suggestions for the Emerald Isle-bound:

1. Don’t bother trying to drive around Dublin. You’ll go insane, period. Leave your car at your hotel and bus around the city.

2. Solis Lough Eske Castle, in Donegal, is the best hotel I have ever stayed at in my life (and that’s including an over-water bungalow in Bora Bora). The castle itself is spectacular, the service is superb (they surprised us with rose champagne, upgraded us to a HUGE suite for free, allow guests full use of all spa facilities), and the town of Donegal is adorable and very friendly (check out old man McGinley’s sweater shop, but whatever you do, don’t let him get started on the fishermen’s knitting guild…). You can see the Lough Eske Castle website right here.

3. The Antrim Coast is gorgeous, but though the area looks small on a map, it takes several hours to get around (very curvy coastal roads). Visiting Giant’s Causeway, the rope bridge at Carrick-a-rede, and the Glens of Antrim aren’t something you can bust out in a day. Plan on spending several hours to get to any one place.

4. And finally - if you plan on drinking in cool little country road pubs (there’s a cute village about twenty minutes along every motorway in Ireland - the roads go right through them), bear this in mind: it gets really, really dark on those tiny, narrow, two-lane roads at night. No street lights, very few street signs - it can be totally disorienting if you’re driving. Just something to keep in mind.

Ok, guys. Thanks for letting me get this last bit of honeymooning out. Next up, professional photos from the wedding, finally! Woooo hooo!
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The first shot is from Carrick-a-rede on the Antrim Coast. See those little islands trailing off? You can walk a short rope bridge across to the first one and wander around unsupervised on some terrifyingly sheer cliffs. Which we did, natch.

Bottom left is from Castleconnell, outside Limerick. I wanted to walk down and get closer shots of the water, but swarms of mosquitoes scared me off. Bottom right is a shot of what was everywhere during our stay: gorse. Between that and the dandelions, the entire island was an explosion of yellow.

Favorite “OMG! Look at the ___!” captures:

The minute we left Dublin and got into the countryside, the sheep started appearing. I have never. Seen. So many sheep. In my life. And as it was spring, that meant something even better…LAMBS! I kept making Mr. LB pull over so I could take pictures. But every time I got close, either they got scared, or there were no lambs nearby. I was so psyched to get the nursing shot.

Along with sheep, there were loads of cows. Big, healthy beauties, and most of them oh-so-picturesque Holsteins. But this guy was right alongside the country road we were on; we had to stop and say hello. And the sheep on the bottom right were hilarious - so curious about us, they came trotting over and had a whole conversation with us. Just the four of us, bah-ing at one another for ten minutes. It was fantastic.

Favorite plant/flower prettinesses:

These shots were basically my camera showing off. I couldn’t believe how crisp and colorful the detail shots were coming out - so I couldn’t stop! The rose was photographed at Dromoland Castle gardens, the walkway is St. Stephen’s Green in Dublin, and the greenery from the wood near Cabra Castle.

Favorite castle pics:

See that incredible twilight? That wasn’t until almost 9:30 at night! (Astronomy is so cool!) We were eating dinner at the restaurant inside Solis Lough Eske Castle (where we also stayed two nights), and it was getting darker and darker…and I was getting antsier and antsier to get outside for some night shots. I finally abandoned Mr. LB and ran out to get this one.

Bottom left is Dromoland Castle (another hotel we stayed in); bottom right, Donegal Castle.

Favorite “iconic Irish” moments:

When we came upon the scene in the top photo, we thought we’d died and gone to heaven. We followed this 21st century shepherd for about ten glorious minutes - at one point, he encouraged us to join in and help herd the sheep along the road with our tiny car. It was AWESOME.

Bottom left photo - I was dying to get some good photos of the locals, but kept getting shy whenever the opportunity came up. Finally, about a week in, we were just driving by this chap having a round of golf. “STOP!” I yelled. screeeech! I jumped out of the car and tried to like, politely holler at him to get his attention. He quite obligingly smiled and waved.

Favorite doorways:

I loved both the color of the top door and the “IRA” graffiti. Not that I’m endorsing graffiti. Or any political agenda. I just thought it was a great shot.

The bottom right doorway was in Kingscourt, where we stopped to buy a converter and ended up befriending a massively tall shopkeeper named Paul.

Favorite natural wonders:

Natural wonder #1: Giant’s Causeway, Northern Ireland.

(Not so) natural wonder #2: ruins at Clonmacnoise. Natural wonder #3: that we fit ourselves and two weeks worth of luggage in that tiny Kia.

Favorite “us” portraits:

Mr. LB walks the rope bridge at Carrick-a-rede; I snap a self-portrait in a gold plate at Dromoland Castle; oddly, there was a mirror hung on the outside wall of one of the buildings at Cabra Castle; we kick it with some ale at Durty Nelly’s, a 350-year old pub in Bunratty.

Favorite headstones:

Celtic, classic; Brian Curly, whose 18th century kin had excellent taste in fonts; doing my duty as a former English major and paying my respects to a master.

Favorite road signs:

Favorite random finds:

It’s a phone. Plugged into a hill. That’s all I know. Plus, a freaky vintage mannequin models the latest in tweed hats, a massive grocery store mural urges me to be carnivorous, and a sign warns me away from trying to walk through fire to ride a seagull.

I’m hivesick like crazy and can’t wait to get home and start posting our wedding photos. In the meantime, thanks for indulging me in this moonblogging session - I’ve been starved for the ’bee love!
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Of course, when you stay in a castle, you don’t get an electronic room key.

This is Sarah’s Bridge, in the forest near the castle, where the young woman was hanged by the townspeople in 1810.

The perfect Burton-esque cemetery, just outside Kingscourt. We walked around, just taking it in, and all these ravens kept screaming at us as they circled overhead. They say ravens are the protectors of the dead…

A country road I wanted to go exploring, but I was overruled due to rain (and Mr. Lovebug’s lack of dry shoes); at least I have a zoom lens!

We don’t have colors like this in Arizona. We just don’t.

We went exploring in our tiny rental down some backroads yesterday. Found all these cool ruins, which, of course, I wanted to climb around in. Overruled on that, too - doh!

The view, pretty much every which you way you look.

A footpath in the forest near Cabra Castle.

I promise on my next update, I’ll have an inventory of all ghostly goings-on!
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We’re at Clontarf Castle just outside of Dublin, and I have some serious developments in the hunt for paranormal activity to inform you of. Mr. Lovebug is in the shower, so I snuck onto the castle’s wifi to bust out a quick honeymoon update. My name is Mrs. Lovebug and I am a blogging addict.

Our trip over here (via Chicago) was relatively uneventful. We felt like total hotshots when we got to breeze through check-in and security thanks to our updated status (yay, frequent flier miles!):

Once on the plane, I got busted for trying to take photos of the cool, sleeper seats in first class (post-911 rules), but I did manage to snap a shot of this contraband they gave me:

And check out this ridiculously pimp “Admiral’s Club” lounge we got to kick it in, between flights:

It had a fully stocked kitchen and bar with, oh, everything. We plied ourselves with berries, muffins, and ginger ale until it was time to board. And I only took, like, two bananas.

We crashed in a London hotel airport for the night then headed back in the morning to await our Dublin flight. Mr. Lovebug made the mistake of leaving me alone in proximity of an internet booth. Ten minutes for one euro! I surfed immediately over to my home-away-from-home:

I also got started on my Quirky Quaint UK Sign Photo Collection:

Finally, we got to Dublin where we headed straight to Rent A Dinky:

Driving on the “wrong” side of the road was only disorienting for the first…ok, it’s still totally terrifying. But we’re not doing that bad! We only missed our exit and had to go through the same toll tunnel three times before we found Clontarf.

Seriously. This place is straight out of Harry Potter:

And now for the best part. Having requested the most haunted rooms at every stop along our way, Mr. Lovebug has secured for us THE COOLEST room at Clontarf. What makes it the coolest room here? Oh, just the fact that it’s the only room built around a section of the original castle wall:

Now. Get this. We check in, unpack, get our bearings for the for night - and guess what we find? A description of the history of the hotel, informing us that the battle of Clontarf occured on April 23rd, 1014.

In other words, almost one thousand years ago LAST NIGHT, the famous, bloody battle of Clontarf occurred. The very night we check in to kick off our haunted honeymoon!! What are the chances or that?!

So, what do we do? We pass out cold for 12 hours. So much for ghost hunting. Mr. Lovebug swears he heard some weird stuff going on in our room last night. Me, I was dead to the world. But he says he heard things on the desk being knocked around…and children’s laughter…

Well, tonight we are both 100% prepared for the full investigation. We have our recording equipment ready. We will not sleep. We will not fail.

This has been Ghost Hunter Lovebug, reporting live from Clontarf, Ireland.

p.s. Am still reeling from the incredible, mind-blowing show of love on my quick day-after post. You guys are just so, so awesome.
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Our wedding was the most exquisitely perfect day of my life.

And then yesterday, when we got back home, I opened my inbox to see some seventy-odd well-wishes from the hive, and that was truly the crown jewel of the experience.

I can’t even begin to describe how smoothly everything went, how much love was poured on us, how gratifying all our hard work was. I will - just not right now. In the meantime, I have something much, much better than my limited words could ever express. I have a handful of teaser photos, emailed to me yesterday from the incredible, unbelievable, utterly amazing Chris Richards, showing precisely how the day felt:

The hour before the ceremony, Chris spent some time with both myself (as I valiantly braved the world of DIY makeup) and Mr. Lovebug (as he paced, sat, stood, and paced some more.)

Chris told Mr. LB to do his best Bond, James Bond.

Mr. Lovebug got to have a little pre-game cuddle with Chaucer the ring bearer (who performed like an absolute champ and stole everyone’s hearts). Can’t wait to show you more of his big moment coming down the aisle.

Meanwhile, back in the bridal chamber…

All my girlfriends were actually in the room at this moment, all wearing their backstage passes, all giddy with excitement for me. Friendship has never felt so palpable as it did for that half hour.

I know everyone wanted me to go wider on the ribbon, but I really liked how the bouquet handle came out.

When it was time to start the ceremony, Kathleen Sedberry, the (incredibly sweet/helpful/awesome) catering manager of our venue, gently knocked on my door and said very quietly and simply, with a smile: “They’ve just walked up.” It was my cue, and it was the most peaceful, calm, and yet intense moment of the day so far. I stepped out of my room, and Chris snapped this shot of her fluffing my train as the music started. He was literally inches away from us when he took it, that’s what so spectacular. That, and the wind. Wait till you hear about the wind…

The entire ceremony, the wind was blowing like mad. And right before I walked out, a huge branch broke off one of the trees, causing this really intense, dramatic moment. Everyone just sort of froze. At the time, the wind annoyed me. But everyone said it made the scene so dramatic and cool.

I read my vows from the ceremony book I made (didn’t get to blog about it yet). I don’t know if it shows up in the smaller sized photo, but there’s a single tear on my cheek (which is what happens when your husband surprises you with self-written vows more perfect than you ever could have imagined).

The moment. It was so strange, switching over my engagement ring to the other hand before the ceremony. One of those “Wow. This is really happening.” moments.

During cocktail hour, Chris, Mr. LB, and I snuck off and roamed the grounds, just goofing around and taking any fun shot that popped into our heads. We couldn’t stop laughing, my lipstick was long since kissed off, and I didn’t even care.

This was the first time I walked with my dress on the street. The dirty, icky street. It was soooo hard to do. I knew it was going to get filthy. But then I just kind of had to give in and go with it. And from there, it only got worse. It got dipped in a fountain, dragged through a garden, stepped on, yanked - at the end of the night it ended up in a dive bar called “The Red Garter Saloon”. Oh yeah. I got my money’s worth outta that thing.

The Inn is known for its stunning landscaping. Everything about the whole day was so vibrant - I love how this shot captures that.

Yeah, I pretty much don’t even have words for this one. 

And finally, my favorites. The library shots:

Once I’d draped myself across his lap, I couldn’t get back up. I practically had to be rocked back into a sitting position.

We randomly picked books off the shelf for this shot. I grabbed something insanely fitting, like “In Search of the Other” or something - it was unreal - there’s a detail shot of it to come.

I couldn’t believe the way he was looking at me. It was the way he looked at me the night we met. Just took my breath away.

Pretty ridiculous, right? And this is but a tiny taste. During dinner, Chris uploaded pics from the ceremony and cocktail hour, and ran a slideshow (on this awesomely huge flatscreen) out in the courtyard outside our reception. He put up about 50 of the best shots so far, and people were literally gasping at how incredible they were. One after another, just mind blowing.

And the best part is, working with Chris was like hanging out with a really cool, hip, edgy friend. His humor and easygoing manner are exactly the energy you want to be around on your wedding day. Tucson has no idea how lucky it is to have him.

I can’t WAIT to show you how everything came together. All the details, all the stories behind what made the day so special…

But in the meantime, I have a 5pm flight to catch. « Hide it

And on a more personal note, I want to express my deepest appreciation for such a warm and enthusiastic readership this past year; I can’t tell you how rewarding it’s been. As a writer, it’s pretty much heaven to have a ready made audience, receptive to my ideas and appreciative of my humor. I wake up every day to an inbox full of incredibly sweet comments; it’s positively addictive, and I don’t know how I’ll go without. Weddingbee has truly been a blessing, and I’ll never be the same because of it.

Ok, kids. I’m off to the hitching post.

Much, much love,

the Bug
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On the back, I had her print my wedding poem for Mr. Lovebug. The hubris, I know. But I just couldn’t see myself reading it, and this way, all the punning gets a chance of hitting its mark:

CHARITY CARDS!

These will be tucked into everyone’s napkins, to explain our crazy charity tokens-as-favors:

The bowls for these will all be accompanied by small, table-tent descriptions and explanations that will hopefully photograph beautifully.

CLUTCH!

I don’t consider this a luxury. One, I’ll use it all the time. And two, it wasn’t insanely expensive:

It’s a “custom order” (not like it’s any fancy fabric or whatever) silver satin “Eve” bag from Lauren Merkin, with my new initials!

FLOWERS!

I stopped by my florist to bug her about some micro-detail, and found her already at work on our stuff! I present, the lovely Elaine Taylor of the Grey House:

Pomanders for the (alternating) chairs:

And two of our centerpieces!:

Cabbage roses, peonies, sweet peas, dusty miller, and other goodness I don’t know. She definitely brought in a bigger range of pinks than I was expecting - some cooler, some warmer - but that’s my fault for giving her the charity tokens as color reference. But, again, I’m ok with that. I think it’s still a sweet, vintage look. Plus, these colors are actually found in our candy buffet (it’s hard to get only soft pinks), so it’s all good.

Ok, I’m off to get ready for tomorrow. One last pre-wedding post from me tomorrow morning, and then I’m outtie!
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