
Sorry this is sooooo late! I have been combing through all of my photos to find the ones I wanted to share with the Weddingbee world vs. which ones to send to friends vs. which ones to put in my album. Phew! I had no idea that this would be such hard work! Anyway, here they are!
Getting Ready…

I have a dilemma.
I don’t really know what I’m going to do with my wedding dress. I mean, I loved (LOVED!) my dress and yes, there are some sentimental attachments that I have developed in the past few months. However, am I really going to wear it again? And is anyone else really going to wear it? Will my daughter (if I have a daughter) really want to wear my dress? What about my baby cousin aka my junior bridesmaid? Will she want to wear it 15 years from now? I don’t think so.
So I want to donate it to the Bridal Garden. I mean, it’s only been worn once, plus it’s tax deductible! And it could help a bride who’s on a budget.
But my husband thinks I should keep it and have it preserved. I think he’s grown fond of it as well. ![]()
I’m torn. Do I donate it for a good cause or do I preserve it for sentimental reasons? Both are very compelling choices. Help me!
I’ve seen this question on many boards before, but I never seem to get a good answer.
There was a guest at our wedding who did not send us a gift. Not that we expected gifts from everyone, but this particular guest said that the “gifts are on the way” during the wedding. We have not received anything from this guest. I’ve called the registries and tried to find out if maybe this person sent something and we just never got it. But, it looks like we’ve received everything that was bought. So now I’m trying to figure out maybe this person went off-registry? Or maybe this person sent money?
How do I find out if this person sent something and it got lost, or if they accidentally forgot to send something?
What is the right etiquette? I will thank this person for coming to the wedding, but I would feel horrible if I didn’t thank them for a gift, if there was a gift purchased.
What do I do?
I am not a picture taker. In fact, about half the time on our honeymoon, I didn’t even have my camera on me. Yes, I am horrible! We ended up with only 2 good pictures of the two of us from the entire honeymoon! But I will post about it anyway…
Part 1 - The Ritz Carlton in San Juan, Puerto Rico
We got complimentary champagne upon check-in, and a free bottle of champagne and stawberries the first night! Plus a little gesture by the cleaning staff!
I had so much help in planning my wedding, but to tell you the truth, you have no idea how your day is going to turn out. Sure, a few minor details were missed. And of course, I would change some things, in retrospect. But I know there were more than a few things that I did right. This is where talking to other brides, and going to other weddings really helped.
1. I scheduled in buffer time throughout the entire day.
Starting the Friday before my wedding, the traffic was unbelievable. I was late to everything, and everything took much longer than expected. So it was a good thing that I had put in about 30 minutes of buffer time in between everything. I scheduled hair from 9am to 12pm, even though I thought we’d be done by 11am. We were done at 11:30. Makeup was scheduled from 12 to 2pm, but because we ended hair early, we had enough time for the makeup for me and my bridesmaids.
2. I didn’t travel in packs.
I think I had the idea that I would be with my bridesmaids all day. We’d all do our hair together, then all go for makeup, then all go to dress, etc. However, I decided the week of the wedding that I would have 1 bridesmaid finish her hair at the salon and then go to the hotel for makeup early. Either way, we got 2 bridesmaids’ makeup done before noon. Then the rest of us got ready while the last bridesmaid was getting her makeup done.
To all the Houston readers,
I will be in Houston from December 29th to January 1st. I know it’s just a couple of nights, but if there is enough interest, I wanted to have a Weddingbee meetup.
Please let me know if anyone is interested in meeting up on Saturday night (December 30th) by emailing me at butterfly@weddingbee.com. If there are enough replies, we will decide on a time/location later. If not, since it is the holidays… then I guess I will use that time to go eat some pho!
Sincerely,
Mrs. Butterfly