Weddingbee Blog

My name is Mrs. Pearl and I am a baby stalker.

That is my husband’s (eeeee, just getting used to saying that!) term of endearment for me regarding my absolute infatuation with babies. I love ’em. They smell great — like baby powder, milk, and sweetness. They’re soft. They’re adorable. I can pretty much find a baby in any crowd and make eyes with them the whole time.

Babystalker.

Don’t get me wrong — I know that babies aren’t always fun and games. I used to really not want to have children and if I did, not for years and years. Over the last year, Mr. Pearl and I have talked a bunch about having a baby. It was fun when it was what we would talk about — how our biracial baby would be super cute with the potential for green eyes, how our baby would be so smart, how it would be bilingual.

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Just checking in quickly to say that we are officially married!!!

Some people say their wedding day was stressful. I’m in the opposite camp. I had the best possible day I could imagine. I don’t think I’ve smiled more, laughed harder, or felt happier than I did on Saturday. I would go so far as to say it was the best wedding EVER, but of course that’s my personal bias.

Here are a couple of pictures shamelessly stolen from a friend in attendance.

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Hand cancelling may turn out to be one of the bigger mistakes in wedding planning.

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For our wedding favors, I planned for us to give out cookie favors like the one Miss Lime is giving out. The cookie shop is one that is right by the college we both went to and is famous for their delicious cookies at rock bottom prices. The problem, however, is that the cookies do not save very well — we’d have to pick up the cookies, bag, and tag them on the Friday before the wedding. I don’t know about anyone else, but that doesn’t sound like a lot of fun to me.The alternative is possibly just as crazy (if not moreso). My maid of honor and I would bake two different types of cookies on Thursday night and bag them up then.

The pro is that homemade cookies seem to hold up better than the cookie shop cookies. We can have them done the day before and not have to stress on the night before the wedding/rehearsal day. Oh, and it seems like a more personal touch that I think hope my guests will appreciate and enjoy.

The cons are obvious — having to have a big baking production is the biggest one. Also, there’s only one day difference, so is it worth it in the long run?

What do you think?

“I am sick. I am sick, sick, sick of your shit. And when I’m not sick, I’m tired. I am sick and tired!” - Wanda Sykes, “Monster in Law”

This is approximately how I feel about the wedding planning process right now. I am just so over it. I’m ready to be married. I have had a stomachache for the last 24 hours or so due to stress and anxiety. Similarly, my left eye has been twitching for about the last 24 hours, also due to stress.

Why does wedding planning usually look like so much fun on TV and movies? The fun moments have been there, for sure, but it’s been predominately stressful. I just need to be done with all this. I’m tired of looking at ribbon and paper and card stock. I’m sick of designing menus and looking at veils and discussing flowers. I just want to spend forever with my soulmate.

Well, it’s finally upon us. July 7, 2007, the most anticipated wedding date ever. I had heard as much on The Knot (and figured since there are a good 10 girls getting married on that day on my local board), but this was a story of obsession on the local news all day today. News stories estimate approximately 38,000 couples will say “I Do” on this date, about three times as many for any average Saturday in July.

My favorite comment by a bride being interviewed about her 7-7-7 wedding was that the date was a big deal for them and their first choice of date because “it only happens once per century.”

Dear readers, please tell me why her comment is hysterical.

It’s that time of year again! Rosebud Cakes in Beverly Hills is having their semiannual cake sale. When you order your cake from them in the month of July, take 15% off the total cost.

Note: your wedding can be any time, but the order needs to be placed during this calendar month. Also note that you need to pay 50% of the cake fee as a deposit.

Rosebud is an awesome bakery that has been featured in InStyle Weddings and the like. When I went to do my cake tasting there, they were crafting a cake made into the shape of Buddha…yes, THAT Buddha…and it was scary good! This was some of the best cake we (Mr. Pearl and I) have ever had. We decided on the chocolate cake with “the most” filling (chocolate bavarian cream with fudge, chocolate chips, and raspberry) and white cake with strawberries and whipped cream filling. The white cake with white chocolate bavarian cream and raspberry was a close runner-up. You really can’t go wrong here.

Don’t be scared because of their zip code. For the famous Martha Stewart petal cake, we were quoted HALF of what other bakeries quoted.

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I had my first dress fitting on Friday. I will warn you in advance that I have no pictures because I went alone.

The good: My dress looks really good on me. I was afraid of having pick-ups in the skirt because I was afraid it would make my butt look big(ger), but it was actually kind of slimming (and believe me, I did look from ALL angles).

The bad: I didn’t lose enough weight to fit into the dress without alterations. However, I did lose enough to make it possible for me to wear it with alterations. I know, circular logic, right. But I know you all know what I mean

The good: I can totally see the vision for my wedding and it made me a little teary-eyed when I looked in the full length mirror. Read more…

I know I promised pictures of some of my amateur calligraphy work, so here we go!

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I blogged about my invitations many moons ago when trying to figure out which design layout to use. However, I haven’t given y’all the up front and proper scoop when it comes to the invitations (in part because I’d been procrastinating taking the pictures and uploading them to share).

Several months ago, I contacted a letterpress invitation designer who created another bee’s wedding invitations. He was going to do ours too, but a health issue forced him to back out. I was desperate to find another letterpress designer who was creative and did great work, but was reasonably priced . . . to me, “reasonably priced” meant under $1000 for the invitation, RSVP card, and inner and outer envelopes. Frequent Weddingbee poster wsukarebear referred me to Tara at Ephemera Letterpress. I emailed Tara for samples and told her the key words for the wedding — ostrich plumes, vintage, and chocolate brown and pink. She created a masterpiece. I literally teared up when I opened up the box of invitations at home. Both Mr. Pearl and I agree that she hit a home run with these invitations.

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Thanks to all the readers who commented about my wedding burn out. I took all your advice to heart and as such, I’ve actually made some progress! Of the things I complained about, I’ve done the following:

1. Address invitation envelopes and mail them out — OK, I haven’t mailed them yet because I’m waiting from my stamps from USPS.com. Ummm…don’t you guys like, RUN the postal service?!?! What’s taking so long?!?! But I have finished addressing the invitation envelopes.  This was probably the one task I was looking forward to least…but I sat down and finished with the help of some interesting TV programming to get me through it.

2. Finalize cake details — I set up a cake tasting that both Mr. Pearl and I attended. We have now decided to go with a baker instead of using the hotel and have hammered out the change for our menu. This was probably the most fun part. Cake = yummy! Read more…

Several months ago, I took a short calligraphy class at my local Paper Source store in hopes that I would become great enough to address my own wedding envelopes (and thus, save us some coinage). I have been exposed to calligraphy before — we had to learn a little bit when I went to Catholic school as a child; and I kind of look at samples of calligraphy and attempt to emulate. The class was excellent for a beginner like me. She taught us some fundamentals of writing and spacing that were seriously lacking in my writing before. After approximately three hours of class, I felt confident that if I kept practicing, I could do a good job addressing invitations.

Fast forward about four months.

After deciding that I didn’t want to pay someone $200+ to address our envelopes, I took on the task of calligraphing (calligraphying? calligraphically? who knows??) invitations envelopes. I am by no means a master calligrapher, but I think the results came out pretty well. Unfortunately my scanner isn’t cooperating right now and I can’t find my mini USB cable to upload pics from my digital camera (I know, boo to me), but they look quite fabulous. I promise to post pictures soon!!!

For those who are interested in this as an option, here’s some advice: Read more…

I have been inspired by many readers to create my own wedding mood board. Some of the pics are of things already purchased during the wedding process and some pics are of those things (items, words, visions) that inspire and drive our vision.

Enjoy

I have loved Iomoi ever since I first heard of the site and found cute, stylish thank you notes and other small stationery items. Iomoi is now throwing some love back with their Private Sale (which isn’t so private since it says you can tell your friends…and who are better friends than blog readers??).

From now through June 11, save 20% on orders over $100 with the code “Private2007″.

I am truly envious of the brides who go into their wedding day all blushing and innocent, full of all the hopes and dreams of their childhood and beyond. The brides whose parents have been married for their entire lives and have that great type of marriage you see on TV or in movies.

I can’t say I’m one of those people.

My parents have been divorced since I was about three years old. I don’t have one single memory of my parents together as a married couple. Since their divorce over 23 years ago, they’ve gone on to each marry and divorce again before both remarrying (for those keeping score, they’re both on #3). Read more…