Weddingbee Blog

After the cocktail hour, the hotel staff nudged and herded our guests to the reception room. To inform guests where they were going to sit, I loved the idea of edible escort favors. It would not only let guests know at which table they were sitting, but also, who doesn’t enjoy a little something tasty?

My original idea was to make some shortbread cookies, plop ’em in a cello bag, tie it with a tag and be done with it. My sister, who was my much more ambitious right hand during the wedding planning, wanted to do something more complicated, like these:

Source

Despite my protests, she was determined to make them, and make them she did.
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After we said our vows, it was time to mingle, eat, drink, and celebrate with our loved ones!

I love a good cocktail hour. Love it love it love it. A drink in one hand, a tasty morsel in the other, mingling, laughing, and the fun vibe of getting the evening started. It was crucial to me not to miss the cocktail hour. We did steal away for a few minutes with our photographer somewhere in there (honestly, I can’t remember exactly when), but otherwise we were present and in force for the festivities.

To start things off, immediately after the ceremony—and I mean immediately, as in, the servers were waiting with trays at the back of the ceremony—guests were greeted with our Bee’s Knees cocktails…

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I wanted to pause my recaps and hash something out that’s been on my mind.

As far as any big changes that came along with getting married, there were not many for us—we live together, have two dogs together, we are each keeping our last names, etc. Of course it’s been a trip getting to call him my “husband”, but otherwise it’s been low-key.

So I am weirdly excited about deciding what to do with our finances. (Freudian blip: I first typed that as “my finances” and had to go back and edit to “our finances”. So telling.) Anyway, there’s the whole question of whether to do completely joint, completely separate, or a combination where you have a joint account as well as individual accounts.

I had always assumed that we would do the combo—a joint account as well as separate accounts. But now I don’t know. Here are the reasons I can think of for the combo route:

1. Maintaining financial independence. Hm, I may have lost this race before it started. I’m not financially independent from Mr. Pug. We already share expenses and I could not afford to do many important things without him—like, um, live in our apartment.

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Now that our guests were busily *not* reading the programs we made, it was onto the ceremony.

I’ve written about the fact that originally we did not want a ceremony. I felt like no one would be interested in watching us stand up for 20 minutes blabbing about our commitment, but as I mentioned our no-ceremony idea to more people, I heard subtle hints like: “Stop. You should have a ceremony.” I was talked out of that resistance, and I have to say I am very happy that I surrendered. And yes, I was wrong. I WAS WRONG. Okay??!

The ceremony provided a meaning and focal point for the day, and set the celebratory yet deeply meaningful tone to the day. Yes, this point is obvious to many—but in case anyone out there is feeling blase about the whole thing, take a lesson from me.

The music started, and our officiant and families walked down the aisle…

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While we were having our paparazzi moment and I was pretending that Edward Cullen was watching us from the treetops, guests began to gather at the ceremony site.

Naturally, they would be poring over our ceremony programs, killing time before the big show began. And where did these programs come from? The Pug wedding elves.

Let me come clean and say that I did not physically make the paper goodies for our wedding. I designed and typed them in Microsoft Word, but then promptly shipped the materials to my sister and brother-in-law (aka elves) out in California for assembly.

The Pug wedding elves swooped down on my wedding prep and with a wriggling of their magic fingers (and hours of hard work), they turned my ideas and blank paper into wedding reality. They were hands-down unbelievable and we absolutely would not have had the weekend that we did without their incredible help and generosity (with the paper products and far far beyond).

Personal photo

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After the first look and family portraits, we were whisked away on a golf cart (woohoo! speedsters!) courtesy of the hotel for some portraits with our very own personal paparazzo, CK Hwang. I swear I heard him mutter something about being our biggest fan and following us until we loved him, but I can’t be sure.

So there we were, with our big fan base (population: 1, our hired photographer), striking a pose on a bridge…

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So after all that excitement…

The wedding day, as well as the weekend, was wonderful. It’s difficult to say that it met or exceeded my expectations, because truthfully it’s difficult to form expectations of the warmth, love and laughter that will surround you on your wedding day.

We can plan certain details, like who will give the second toast, and determine whether things went according to plan, like did that toast happen at 7:45 PM or 8:02 PM but as cliche as it sounds, there were more important things afoot.

While the details and logistics certainly contributed to the wedding, what stands out to me the most about our wedding weekend was the feel of it—that very loving, happy feeling intertwined with the smiling faces of our family and friends.

I was pleasantly taken off guard by how much of the happy momentum of the wedding came from our guests—not from whether I had left out enough ceremony programs or picked the right hors d’oeuvres, but rather from the sincere joy, love and good wishes that truly made the weekend what it was.

I am so thrilled that we have the lovely images below, taken by our photographer CK Hwang of 39 East Photography (talented and genuinely kind, to boot) unless otherwise noted, to help capture and remember the feel of that day.
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I came across some pictures that were taken in the few days leading up to the wedding that, as a montage, I  title, “No Really Honey, I’m So Excited to Marry You.”

As I mentioned, we went to San Francisco City Hall the Thursday before the wedding. It’s a gorgeous building.

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The Pug family (me, Mr. Pug and two pugs) flew from NYC to San Francisco on the Tuesday night before the wedding to finish preparations and spend quality time with the families.

My awesome sister and her husband had taken care of making many of the paper details (i.e. programs and menus, which I will post about later), but we had to make the OOT bags and take care of the crapload of other stuff that pops up before a wedding.

Like getting our marriage license on Thursday from San Francisco City Hall…

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After selecting the goodies for our out of town bags (OOT bags), we had to package them. This happened in overwhelming part due to my sister, brother in law, mom and dad. Where me and Mr. Pug were, I have no idea. Useless.

We placed the homemade spiced peanuts and granola in clear cello bags (*premium*, no less) in the 2.5 x 2 x 6 size. The bags were not long enough on top to tie with a ribbon (planning doh!), so we folded them down, punched in a few staples, and hot glued some hand-tied ribbons made with purdy gold ribbon.

Turgid, roly poly granola bags pre-ribbon

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Before I share pics from the wedding, I wanted to go back and share some details that I didn’t get to blog about before the wedding.

While out-of-town (OOT) guest bags are totally unnecessary, it’s a nice surprise for guests to receive this little goodie bag of welcome treats. It’s yet one more unnecessary wedding detail to which I was fully committed. Because I am Pug the Magnanimous. Or because I was looking for ways to use up my time instead of doing real work.

Here’s what I chose for the bags:

Kettle Chips, New York Cheddar Flavor, 2 oz bag

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After the wedding, we took off for our honeymoon in Bali. Our first stop was Jimbaran Bay, a beach resort area in the southwest of Bali. The first night, we had the luxury of relaxing at the beachfront cafe/bar at our hotel in Jimbaran Bay, sipping a drink and watching the sunset.

In my post-wedding, jet-lagged state of amazement of actually being anywhere mentally and physically that didn’t require planning a wedding, I found it necessary to comment on every little thing to fully revel in the ability to just think about and be in the present.

Unfortunately the post-wedding brain had not yet caught up to normal functioning speed, and my chattiness had the unintended side consequence of demonstrating to Mr. Pug serious gaps existing in my brain.
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As I’m waiting to start my recaps, I just wanted to share a few things…

Chances are at some point you will create a day-of timeline for the wedding, which may expand into a larger timeline for the overall weekend, and include important information like important cellphone numbers that will be distributed to key people.

So not mine but isn’t this pretty?

But I’m talking about something more hardcore than the above, with minute timing and tons of details, like that of Mrs. Daffodil.
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We’re married now.

Preview pic posted by our awesome photographer CK Hwang of 39 East Photography

And to give a little taste of what married life is like…

1. Scene: Walking the dogs in Central Park

Me: So, does it feel any different being married now?
Mr. Pug: Hm. No.
Me: Yeah, me neither.
Mr. Pug: [putting his arm around me and smirking] Oh, honey, it feels *just* as not special as it did before.

The nerve.
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Just a quick note.

We’re getting married today. I think Mr. Pug is pretty great, and I’m kinda sure he feels the same about me. I’m far from perfect and so is he, so it makes it all the more special that I think he’s pretty great and he feels the same. I’m very lucky, and so is he. Yes he is. Lucky bastard.

A big thank you to all of you for your support, ideas, humor, and whatever other good qualities one truly appreciates with all her heart during wedding planning.

I can’t wait to share all of the last minute planning and wedding details with you!