Weddingbee Blog

My cousin Susan’s husband Mike (Kaitlyn the flower girl’s dad) took these pictures; they’re some of my favorites that we’ve gotten so far!

Before most of the guests showed up:

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These were taken by my cousin Julie and her family–Emily and Olivia, her daughters, were two of our flower girls!

Not much here that y’all haven’t seen before, but there are some new angles and such that I like

The girls filling out cards for the ‘wishbowl’:

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Maid of honor and MOB dresses: Fashions at Large, Overland Park, KS (a KC suburb)

I went to Fashions at Large twice in two days. The first time was a culmination of a whole day’s worth of MOH dress searching. In finding her dress, I tried to be *really* easygoing with Katie: I asked that the dress be blue, and probably tea-length. Those were the only requests I had. So Katie, her mom and I set out early one Saturday morning and began searching. We tried unsuccessfully at many department stores before heading over to Fashions at Large. This place retails Alfred Angelo, as well as many other brands of BM dresses. When we got there we were greeted by a nice girl (I’m pretty sure her name was Lauren). Katie tried on several different dresses, and ultimately found hers. Lauren was extremely fun to work with—very friendly and easygoing, and not afraid to offer her honest opinion. She really made us feel comfortable and appreciated, a feeling we hadn’t really gotten in the other stores.

One problem: the owner of this shop is a *talker*! She kept going on and on, long after we had ordered the dress and were ready to leave. She had Katie’s mom cornered for at least an hour, talking about this and that. We were all afraid to look at each other for fear we’d crack up laughing. Finally, and at her first opportunity (no, really), Katie’s mom grabbed us and we dashed off.

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Tuxedo rentals: Sir Knight’s Formalwear, 6065 Ne Antioch Rd, Kansas City, MO 64119 (816) 453-6755

Sir Knight’s provided us with all the guys’ tuxes. We met with them late last summer, and, like most couples’ tux-choosing attempts, this one went quickly and smoothly. We walked in the door and Mr. Blueberry immediately decided on his tux: a slender 4-button one. From there we looked at a couple swatches and decided on two vest/tie combos: blue paisley with a blue tie for Mr. Blueberry, champagne and black paisley with a black tie for the dads and Chris. The dads decided they would both be more comfortable in their own black suits rather than rented tuxes, so we only arranged to rent ties, vests and cufflinks for them.

We did hit one snafu, though. When we visited by the shop we were helped by an employee, not the owner. This employee told us that due to the dads’ hard-to-fit size, they wouldn’t be able to provide shirts for them. So I began looking for nice ivory dress shirts to fit. Finally, just a few weeks before the wedding, I became frustrated and called the shop to ask if *they* could suggest anywhere I could find ivory shirts in the sizes needed. It was then that I spoke with the owner and he told us that yes, Sir Knight’s could *definitely* fit our dads (I believe his exact words were, “We can fit everybody—even if you’re four feet tall and have six-foot-long arms”). With that, my search was over. We arranged to rent shirts for the dads, as well. But I was upset that we’d spent so much time looking for ivory shirts, when I didn’t even really have to.

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I’m currently blogging from our ’backyard’ (I put that in quotes because it’s really just the small yard behind our house-turned-into-apartments, and because there are no gnomes.  It’s not a real backyard without gnomes.)

Since you asked, our ring-a-ling-a-ding-dings:

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Here are some snapshots from the day-after brunch.

It was just what we wanted–a casual affair with our close friends and relatives, the opportunity to unwind, eat some yummy leftovers (and Krispy Kreme!!!), and celebrate in a very relaxed way. I think everyone had a great time Everyone met at my parents’ house around 11:00, where Mom and Dad had set out leftovers from the day before, plus doughnuts, bagels, fruit, OJ, and coffee.

Near the end of things, people started urging us to open our wedding gifts–so of course we obliged.

I’m only putting this one up because the look on Mr. Blueberry’s mom’s face cracks me up:

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(I’m officially starting my vendor reviews….NOW!.  Hope this helps another Kansas City-area bride!)

My wedding gown: The Bridal Shoppe, Kirksville, MO 120 N Franklin St, Kirksville, MO 63501 (660) 665-0122

I thought I’d start my vendor reviews with one of my absolute favorite vendors. In June 2006, my parents were visiting me for an afternoon in my college town. I mentioned to my mom that there was a dress I’d liked in the window of the local bridal shop, so we went down to check it out. We’d already had one massive marathon dress-hunting expedition, and I didn’t find anything I really loved. So even though it seemed like a shot in the dark, we headed over to the small bridal shop.

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My uncle Gordon (the 4 flower girls’ grandpa) just sent me a *bunch* of wedding photos! Here are a few more to tide you over ’till the pro pics come in.

Before the ceremony:

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Despite the title, I’m really not suffering post-wedding depression! Oh, no, I’m suffering post-wedding:

1) Antsy-ness. Any pictures yet? I want pictures! When will I have pictures? There has been a disappointing lack of snapshots from friends and family, and it’ll be at least another week until the pro pics come in.

2) Laziness. Unpacking from the minimoon? Meh, I’ll do it later. Why don’t I just sit and stare at my ring some more? Or practice writing my new name?

3) Disbelief. “Ooh, I must remember to have ___ at the wedding.” Oh. Wait. It’s over. Yippee!!! This leads to…

4) Excitement. NEVER AGAIN (until my at-this-point-nonexistant daughter gets married) will I have to worry about vendor meetings, wedding DIY, or the like.

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I’ve got all my vendor reviews written up, and they’re sitting safe and sound in my laptop…at home…where we don’t currently have internet

So, for the sake of putting up *some* sort of relevant (and perhaps even marginally interesting!) post, I’ll publicly answer several of the questions I’ve gotten here and on Weddingbee these past few days.

Minimoon–a recap–Part II
AS asked, “why are all your pictures so blurry?”
Oh, come on–I don’t think they’re that bad! And the ones that are blurry–that’s because my camera sucks (it is flash-happy on autoflash, and doesn’t do so well indoors), and so do I. Buy me a Nikon D40 if you want good pics Read more…

Sunday morning we woke up bright and early, and after a breakfast of leftover sugar cookies and kourambiedes (my mom sent a whole tray with us)…

we hit the outlet mall. Osage Beach is famous for its outlet mall–this thing is massive, and it can easily take a day or even two of shopping to hit every store. That would’ve been above Mr. Blueberry’s tolerance level, though, so we just hit a few places (my die-hard favorites): Coach, GAP, and BCBG. Gotta love cute stuff for cheap .

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Because of Mr. Blueberry’s car troubles, we didn’t leave for our minimoon until about 7 pm–meaning we didn’t get to the lake until about 10:30 pm.

We got to the Lodge and checked in, and Mr. Blueberry asked the desk clerk if we could get a free upgrade since it was our honeymoon. We had booked a regular room in the main lodge; he gave us a two-bedroom, two-bathroom condo with full kitchen and sunroom that was a couple miles offsite. Talk about an upgrade!

Here are a few pictures I took of the condo, that night:

The living room:

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Mr. Blueberry is gone to get new rear tires put on his car before we can run off on our minimoon (we were looking at them after the brunch and Mr. Blueberry’s dad noticed they were so worn that they had torn). Anyway, so I’ve got some time before we leave. These snapshots are thanks to Mr. Blueberry’s mom, my friend Robyn, and just a few from my own camera.

Me and MOH Katie before the festivities began:

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Well, here I am! My wedding ended less than 12 hours ago.

My thoughts are too scattered and discombobulated to put them together in any sort of an articulate manner, so here we go:

(because I’m a pessimist)
THE NOT-SO-GOOD:
~They say that on her wedding day, all a bride’s problems just melt away. Let me tell you: This was NOT the case for me at all. Putting on the big white dress didn’t stop people from constantly pestering me, even though my two coordinators were following me at all times. I barely had time to talk to our guests, or even Mr. Blueberry, because I was continually putting out fires.
~Speaking of my coordinators, I had a sort of scary event: while at brunch, Lynette called to say she was too sick to make it to my event, and that she was sending her daughter/business partner, and their associate, in her place. This scared me–Lynette knew all my details way in advance, and knew just how things were supposed to flow. Would her daughter? YES. What could have been *very* bad and scary worked out marvellously–they were SO helpful, and we had some time before the ceremony to chat and relax so I was ultimately very comfortable with them. Couldn’t have gone better .

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I’m getting married! In 8 1/2 hours, I’ll be Mrs. Hoops.

So, hmm…where did I leave off?

Wed. night bachelorette party was a BLAST. It was really wonderful–Katie, Stefanie, Mandi, Jess and Claire–my 5 best friends from high school. It was a night of unwinding and chilling with these wonderful girls down on the Plaza (yay! I did get to go back!). Oh, and penis straws, penis pencils, penis pins….yeah, you know the drill.

I only have a few pictures since my camera died early on, but…

Stefanie and I linked arms to drink our Blue Moons:

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