Weddingbee Blog

Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, a Weddingbee Blogger named Mrs. Magnolia started posting her wedding pictures……and then she stopped, because life intervened, and she started traveling like a madwoman, and all of her free time was devoted to cleaning and gardening and raising a puppy, and oh yeah - being a newlywed and spending quality time with her wonderful husband.

But she’s back, and ready to post more wedding day photos, so here goes nothing!

With our wedding scheduled for 7:30 pm in January, nighttime pictures were a given from the start, especially since Mr. Mags and I decided not to see one another before the ceremony. I wasn’t worried about it, because I really do love the ambiance of evening pictures. In fact, I was looking forward to seeing what our photographers came up with.

Anyway, with that said, the boys did get their group shots in before the sun set completely, and I just love how the “city at dusk” lighting came out!
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I have got to say, we have had a TIME trying to complete our everyday china since the wedding. We received approximately four bread and butter plates, forty-seven salad plates, twenty-one dinner plates, one soup bowl, a sugar bowl, and a notification that a mug has been on backorder since Christmas. Thanks a million, Macy’s and Bloomie’s.

We selected Wedgwood’s Night and Day pattern, and while it doesn’t seem to be heading into retirement anytime soon… well, it’s also not the *easiest* pattern to find. I do take partial blame, since I insisted that we not register for the five-piece place setting. While that would have been easier, I couldn’t be less interested in a cup/saucer combo. Bring on the soup bowls on mugs! Anyway, I’ve suggested to Mr. Magnolia that we supplement our everyday china with some plain white pieces (hello, Martha!), but he’s surprisingly adamant about keeping our stuff very “matchy-matchy.”

I do love the contrasting fluted/checkerboard patterns on this china. I just wish we could collect all of it! [Image courtesy of wedgwoodusa.com.]
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While we were primping for literally hours at our house about four and a half miles away, Mr. Magnolia and his groomsmen walked around Piedmont Park, toured the Coke Museum, and eventually made their way back to the hotel roughly fifteen minutes before they were due to start taking pictures. Our photographer, Ray, actually sat around at the Four Seasons for a couple of hours, waiting for the boys. At one point, he was approached by a security team and questioned about his photography equipment - it turns out, the Chicago Bulls were in town to play the Atlanta Hawks, and they were staying at the Four Seasons as well. Security was afraid he might be paparazzi! (Well, he was - but for me, not them!)

But hey, he got this great shot:

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Okay, here we go! I’ve shown y’all some details, and you’ve seen some non-pro pics, but it’s now that time to really start posting our professional wedding pictures by the fabulous 35 Atlanta.

So here we go - pictures of me and my girls getting ready!

We didn’t actually start getting ready until about 1:30 or 2:00 in the afternoon. Since our ceremony was scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m., we actually had other things going on that day. I ran a 5K that morning, and my mother-in-law’s best friend threw us a perfectly lovely bridesmaids luncheon at the perfectly-Atlanta Swan Coach House. We were a little rushed leaving lunch, and we headed back to my house to begin getting ready as quickly as we could.

Things were pretty hectic - at one point, we had one bride, six bridesmaids, three beauty professionals, two friends, one mom, one cousin, and two photographers in our little 1200 sq. ft. house, but I wouldn’t have changed our setup for the world. I was kind of frazzled, rarely sitting down and constantly coming up with “one more thing” that needed to be done, but someone was always one step behind me, taking the dustpan out of my hand, cleaning up the wine glasses from the coffee table, and steaming the bridesmaids dresses and sashes.
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See part one (favors) here.

Flowers are a detail that just about every bride worries about, right? Well, I was no exception. Choosing a florist proved to be one of the most difficult wedding-related decisions I had to make. (And truly, this was a decision that I had to make, because Mr. Mags wanted no part of it!)

I interviewed several florists, but I just didn’t get a feel that anyone was going to take my requests based on my (very) limited knowledge of flowers and run with it. I didn’t want someone who was going to execute exactly what I asked for, because I had very little idea what I was actually talking about!

Enter desperation mode. At a staff meeting one Friday morning, one of our managers asked if anyone had any additional business, and I blurted out, “Does anyone happen to know a good florist?!” Smooth move, Mags.
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NASCAR came to Atlanta this weekend, and this article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution totally cracked me up:

Atlanta NASCAR Fans Start Race with “I Do”

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Technically, I guess my post on oliviamoon’s pendants was my first in the “detail” series, but since I didn’t number it as such, we’ll just start this one as one, shall we?

Mr. Magnolia and I didn’t spend a whole lot of time thinking about favors. We basically figured that if a great idea came to us that wouldn’t break the bank, then we would have them… but if nothing came to mind, we just wouldn’t worry about it.

Initially we considered hiring The Varsity Catering truck to show up at midnight and serve chili dogs, onion rings, and F.O.s (Frosted Orange drinks), because there’s very little that’s more “Atlanta” than the Varsity. Plus, I was hoping they’d give us a discount since our reception was pretty much around the corner from the restaurant. Ultimately, we decided that it was out of our budget, plus there was the issue of the catering department not being particularly responsive… something I have a serious problem with. Anyway, eventually I decided on another course of action in the favor department - something that was definitely still intricately linked to the city of Atlanta…
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Lately, I’ve noticed a strange kind of reasoning coming from my husband. I’m a girl, I struggle with my weight, I break out from time to time… basically, I have the same superficial concerns that you’ll find in many young women - single, engaged, or married.

Except now, when I whine to Mr. Magnolia about my favorite jeans being too tight, his response is, “But you’re married…” On our trip to Wal-Mart this weekend, I snatched up some ever-helpful Oxy 10, and he asked, “What do you need that for?”

“To help clear up my skin,” I replied. You can guess his response:

“But you’re married…”

I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t look at a wedding ring on my finger as a reason to “let myself go.” First of all, I have a corporate job that really prefers me to look put together, and second of all, it’s not really about looking a certain way for other people. I like it when I know I look good. And yes, I like to look good for Mr. Mags as well! I didn’t start running to “catch a husband,” and I don’t plan to stop now that I have one! Similarly, I would prefer to keep my skin clear, because it kind of grosses me out when I’m overtaken with pimples.
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I think it’s just because Atlanta is in the middle of (what I hope is) the last big cold snap of the year, but I am just dying for spring to be here. Seriously, y’all… I bought a tube top yesterday. And if you know anything at all about Mrs. Magnolia, it’s that she’s not usually a tube top-type of girl. So you know the mid/late winter cabin fever must really be getting to me.
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When I started thinking about my bridesmaids and the things that I wanted to give to them on our wedding day, of course I took into account my experiences as a bridesmaid in the past. What would I change about being a bridesmaid, if I could? I did come up with one very small idea that was a huge hit with them… and this is the detail that I’ve received the most compliments on since getting our pictures back.

Having been a bridesmaid three times, the thing that drives me up the wall is getting to the reception, putting down my bouquet by the cake, and not knowing which one is mine at the end of the night. Call me anal, or even overly sentimental, but when a bride hands me a bouquet, that’s the one that I want to stick with for the rest of the day/evening. It’s the one I want to take home with me and put in a cylinder to display for the next week or so.
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Last Friday, I met up with our amazing photographers, Ray and Erica Tisdale of 35 Atlanta, to pick up our wedding pictures… all 992 of them!

I’ll be blogging about the entire wedding day in the near future, but in the meantime, I’d like to brag on Ray and Erica for a minute. We interviewed a few different photographers, and they were clearly the best option in our price range. We opted for a package which included unlimited coverage, unlimited locations, all images fully edited and presented in an album/archival box, an online gallery, and all digital images on disk.

It was pretty much a given that Mr. Magnolia was going to be completely uncomfortable in front of the camera, so my goal was to find someone who would be able to ease his mind just a bit, and I truly think Ray and Erica were the best people for the job. They were absolutely wonderful for our engagement pictures last April, and they were even better for the day/evening of our wedding in January.

I highly recommend 35 Atlanta for any Atlanta brides out there - and to anyone else as well who is interested in their editorial style. They do travel for clients!

Plus, they take fabulous pictures….

Mr. and Mrs. Magnolia on the 35 Atlanta Blog!

image by 35Atlanta

For months, it seemed, I drooled over the shoes at Shannon Britt. Why I didn’t just suck it up and buy her blue and gold Olivia flats like Mrs. Lemon, I have no idea. I’m thrilled with the shoes that I eventually wore on my wedding day, but every once in a while, I go back to the Shannon Britt site and just… drool.

I hadn’t visited the site in a while, and today I was thrilled to see that it was updated! Check out some of these amazing shoes…

Olivia, this time with feathers!

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Hey y’all, Mrs. Magnolia here… still sick, and still waiting on professional pics. Our photographers told me on Monday that the pics were at the lab, so I should have them by the end of the week! Man, I can’t wait. Just yesterday, my Matron of Honor sent me a link to the pictures from her little brother’s wedding… which was two weeks after ours!

In the meantime, we’re going to talk about our rehearsal dinner. My in-laws decided to plan a seated dinner, since we would be having a buffet at the wedding reception. After debating several venues, including the Piedmont Room and Ansley Golf Club, they settled on 103 West.

103 West is a private event facility in the Buckhead area of Atlanta, managed by an upscale restaurant group. Both Mr. Magnolia and I had attended several work-related functions there, so we had no doubt that the food was fantastic. Initially, though… I had some reservations about the decor. Maybe it’s just because I tend to be more traditional, but the upstairs of 103 West has never appealed to me:

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If I had one piece of advice for brides-to-be, that would be it. Take your vitamins.(At least, that would be my advice right now. Next week, it could very well be something different.)

Clearly, the stress leading up to the wedding took a bit out of me. But the thing is that I was running on such adrenaline, for so long, that I simply didn’t have time to notice. However, now that the whole production is over, my immune system is shot.

I’ve been married for exactly a month (tomorrow!), and I’ve been sick twice since we got home from our honeymoon. With this round, I got knocked over by what appears to be the resurgent flu…a flu which all of the newscasters in the area are telling me has taken a toll on school attendance in the Atlanta area. That’s great, except that I’m the only adult I know who has succumbed to this miserable sickness so far. I’ll know what it is for sure in a couple of days, once the doctor has gotten the flu test back. I do know that it’s not strep, which is good, but not actually having a name for this phlemmy, chokey, pins in my throat, half-nauseous mess is no fun either. Just tell me what’s wrong so that I can fix it.

And then I promise I’ll start taking a multivitamin. And hey, you guys start doing so too (if you haven’t already). We don’t need any more sick newlyweds on our hands, okay?

Like just about every other bride out there, I have a big ol’ list of thank you notes to write. After being married three weeks, I’ve barely made a dent in that list.

However, earlier this week, I did sit down to write notes to several people who didn’t actually give us a gift…vendors. I have vendor reviews coming soon, but I can preface those by saying that I truly believe that I worked with some of the most talented people in Atlanta for our wedding. I didn’t hire a wedding planner, partially because I had this ridiculous need to be in control of every aspect of the planning, and partially because I had complete faith in every single person that I hired.

Mr. Magnolia thinks I’m a little crazy for writing thank you notes to our vendors after they’ve been paid in full (and in some cases tipped), but I think of it as a personal gesture of appreciation….as opposed to the very impersonal check. And as a friend of mine said yesterday, it kind of closes the loop on the relationship in a nice way, you know?

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