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Something old…
All photos by the ultramagnificent Jane Heller.
One of the signs around the house indicating locations of the ceremony/reception/house/etc. With the help of one of my cousins and my maid of honor, I just sketched the rough letter outlines in pencil and we filled them in in black sharpie! Very simple and easy, and no one could ever tell it wasn’t handpainted without getting up really close and staring.
A few photos by the phenomenal (I’m starting to run out of superlative adjectives to use for her!) Jane Heller of the ceremony site, and around the house, from right before the ceremony while I was getting ready.
The house that morning, with the ladder still up from when my psycho-helpful friends were hanging the glass bottles in the tree.
I got each of my bridesmaids a customized tote from LL Bean, personalized with a color scheme that (I hope!) they liked, and with my nickname for them embroidered on it. The options I chose were the medium totes with long handles and the zip top. My main beef with totes in general is that when they don’t zip I’m always paranoid something will fall out or someone else’s hand will make its way in, so that was worth the minimal extra cost for me! I did each bag in two tones with the straps and bottom the same color, and then the zip top was either the same as the straps/bottom or the base (oddly, which looked better really depended on which colors that bag was in.)
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Seeing as Burlington, Vermont was the closest real city to our Adirondack wedding, we tried to find the best cake place there, without looking much of anywhere else. And the consensus from everyone we talked to and everything I saw online was - that was Mirabelle’s! Mirabelle’s is a really great cafe that also offers an extensive wedding cake selection! We wanted a non-fondant and largely chocolate cake, that was a lot more low key and less fussy than the average wedding cake, since that didn’t seem to jive with our wedding so much. Which is to say, Mirabelle’s can create much more elaborately decorated cakes for those who are interested!
Some shots of me and Mr. Bluebell getting ready just before the ceremony!
All photos by the fabulous Jane Heller.
Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
Post Number…something…about the Bluebell wedding will be about: our flowers! We worked with the incredible Danika of Blomma Flicka, based in Greensboro, Vermont. As I posted previously, we came to her through an amazing instance of kismet, but even with my “wow it’s all working out perfectly!!!” overly high expectations, Danika blew me away! The pictures she brought of various weddings she’d done before were all astonishing (and there are a TON that’s not on the website). She was extremely reasonably priced, willing to do only our bouquets & bouts herself and just bring us a zillion loose flowers for the arrangements.
And now, time for a million pictures! At the end, I’ll copy the list that Danika gave me of (most of) the flowers in our bouquets / arrangements, but honestly, I can’t tell you which is which for the majority of them!!
<all photos by the superfantastic Jane Heller unless otherwise noted>
I’m going wedding dress shopping today!!! 
No, the Bluebells haven’t decided to renew their vows barely a month after the wedding - it’s for my best friend/maid of honor at my wedding, who’s getting married in May, now with me as her maid of honor!
But…saying that got me thinking. We were both engaged at the same time for a several month long overlap, so we got in the habit of referring to each other as “mutual maid of honors.” But now that I’m married…aren’t I technically a matron of honor?
Regardless, I just can’t quite get myself to say “matron.” It just sounds icky. Without even getting into the actual meanings of the words “maid” and “matron,” you really do have to admit that “maid of honor” just sounds like what that role is called, and “matron of honor” sounds…matronly.
When we were first trying to come up with a good idea for favors, we wanted something that would make a unique keepsake nice enough that even someone like the Tchotchke Nazi wouldn’t want to throw it away. That…proved difficult. Every time we came up with a good idea, we’d be all gung ho for a while, and then realize well <insert large group of people> won’t like that one! Where the groups would be things like “our friends” or “all the male guests” or similarly gigantic chunks that we couldn’t justify saying “well we can’t make everybody happy!” to.
So, after my exceedingly difficult time at the DMV last week, I finally dragged myself over, in fear, to the Social Security office in Queens. It took me about an hour to get there because I live way way way closer to the Manhattan office, but hey, that’s okay! I still love you!
I get out, walk about a block, turn into the office, and go up to the 2nd floor. The guard says to get a number from the machine (side note: this is totally pointless, because then you go stand in a regular line and they call people by “next in line” not by number, and never collect your number either.) I stand in line for about….five minutes…then they call me! 
[I expect to stand in line longer than that at the grocery store, and I don’t even have Harry Potter for that line!]
The woman very pleasantly asks me what I’m there for, and takes all my documents. Smiling (!!!), she makes small talk with me, and answers all my questions extremely pleasantly and helpfully. I ask about the DMV and she says that they have to recognize what’s on my social security card, so I just need to tell them that my new last name is my only “last name” and they HAVE TO write it that way (!!!!). Then, before I go, she takes a moment to compliment my ring (!!!) and wish me congratulations (!!!!!) and tell me I’ll get my new card, exactly how I want it, in the mail within ten days (!!!!!!!!).
As I posted nearly a year ago, I’ve known what I was going to change my name to for a long time: Firstname Middlename Maidenname Newlastname, with no hyphen, where my last name is simply Mr. Bluebell’s name, but my maiden name serves as a second middle name.
Not so much.
Yesterday I went to the DMV with my marriage license (that said First Middle Maiden New, exactly as I wanted) and all my other crap, waited 2+ hours, then stepped up to the window to complete my simple routine transaction.
First, the woman ignored me for a full minute while I was standing there at her counter. A bit annoying after such a wait, but nothing to get upset about. Then she turns and asks in a not particularly pleasant voice what I’m here for today. “I’m changing my name since I got married.” “Driver’s license & marriage certificate.” I have all my important documents all out and arranged on the counter so I instantly hand her the two she wants. She promptly crosses out my maiden name and draws an arrow pointing at my new last name.
First batch of pro photos (by Jane Heller) is portraits of us! Immediately after the ceremony, we took some family photos, enjoyed cocktail hour a bit, then headed down to the lake (Lake Champlain) to get pictures on our family’s land right by the water.
![Honeymoontastic! [Part 2 of 2] : wedding honeymoon new york post wedding Z990876 z990876](http://www-static.weddingbee.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/z990876.jpg "DSC05662")
And the story continues…
When our time at Anjajavy was over, because of weird flight issues (the Anjajavy private plane that’s the only source of transportation only runs three days per week, and Air France screwed up our return flights), we had nearly two days in Antananarivo (don’t worry, everyone just calls it Tana!) which is an incredibly vital and real, although poverty stricken, African city. We loved what time we spent in Tana, but probably wouldn’t have wanted to spend more time there. Read more…
…my pro photos!!!!
The absolutely magnificent Jane Heller sent us this teaser pic when we were still in Madagascar, and then sent us our photos on Friday!!!! Seeing as I’m still plowing through honeymoon photos at the moment, I’m going to have to leave you all with just the teaser for now, but hopefully a decent batch tomorrow!
We just got back yesterday from…paradise!
![Honeymoontastic! [Part 1 of 2] : wedding honeymoon new york post wedding Z990836 z990836](http://www-static.weddingbee.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/z990836.jpg "DSC04767")
[a zillion more pics below the story]
Seriously, our resort - Anjajavy, in northwestern Madagascar - is the most amazing place on earth!! And as Mrs. Pumpkin said about her honeymoon, well, it was definitely the best honeymoon I’ve ever had!
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Mrs. Bluebell, New York Age and Occupation in 07: 26, Finance Manager Fiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Playing with the cat and/or Consulting Engagement Date: December 25, 2005 Wedding Date: June 2007 Venue: Bride's family summer home in the Adirondacks About Me: Trying to find the perfect balance between family tradition (marrying at the house everyone else in my family gets married at), making our's modern, interesting and different from everyone else in my family's, and incorporating some Chinese tradition for my Chinese fiance. I really have no idea what it's going to end up looking like! Also, I picked Miss Bluebell for my name because I have blue eyes and I'm a loser like that.
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