Weddingbee Blog

On Sunday, Mr. Pearl and I attended A Soolip Wedding at Social Hollywood. We were both excited to go because we’d heard good things about Social from other friends who had been there. Since Mr. Pearl works a couple of blocks away, we parked at his work site lot and walked over. Good thing too, because the parking was valet only and there was a long line (more on that later).

One thing we both hate about wedding shows, and this was no exception, is the info sheet each place asks you to fill out. We just find it particularly intrusive that they ask about our household income. In any event…

Upon entering the building, we were given a tote bag from Sephora to lug around our show wares. Much better than the typical plastic bags that either break or cut into your hand at other brida shows! Servers on the first floor walked around bearing tray-passed goodies, courtesy of Social — sliders, hazelnut chocolate chip cookies, and a bunch of other yummies. There were other exhibitors on the first floor, including Red Loft Studios (the fabulous photographers who took pics at knottie WeezerMonkey’s wedding), BBJ Linen, and Jo Malone (who was advertising their orange blossom scent as *the* wedding scent). One of the exhibitors there was Linnae from Asiel Design, who is our florist. It was great to see her display her floral loveliness for everyone. Oh, and they also served lunch. It was an inordinately long line (waits of about 45 minutes), but delish food! Also, the open bar served champagne, Pinky vodka drinks (one of the sponsors), water, etc.

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I just realized yesterday that it’s been about a month since I last updated readers about my diet and exercise journey. Bad Pearl!

I have been continuing on with my diet, though my exercise has been slipping for various reasons (sickness, work, etc). Since my birthday is on March 16, I have decided to make a renewal of my New Year’s resolution to work out three times per week. I need to make time for working out because I feel like I have way more energy when I do…not to mention I feel so great about myself when I go. Endorphins are ab fab.

In any event, likely due to my lack of exercise and going solely by diet, I have lost an additional 6 lbs in the last month (bringing my total to 23 lbs). People have asked what I am eating, so here’s a sample from what I ate yesterday.

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Thanks to a poster on my local Knot board…If you would like to attend A Soolip Wedding show, but have been discouraged by the price (like me), then it’s your lucky day! Thanks to the Billion Dollar Babes, if you go to the Soolip Wedding website to purchase your tickets and enter BABES as your discount code, you will receive $30 off each ticket (making them the more palatable $35 a piece).

A Soolip Wedding not only features quality, professional vendors, but has short workshops during the course of the day. One of the workshops I’m most excited about is one with Jo Gartin from Love, Luck, and Angels. She’s a consummate professional with loads of style and I’m hoping some of her magic rubs off on me.

Did I mention there’s a goodie bag at the end of the day? I hope the IRS doesn’t bust us. I know a lot of people are confused about which bridal shows are the best (if any are, in fact, good). I will be there with Mr. Pearl, so I will report back to my loyal readers.

A Soolip Wedding
Sunday, March 18, 2007
11 am - 3 pm
Social Hollywood

Sorry I’ve been so MIA lately. I have been a bit sick and busy as heck with work! As a result, the wedding planning has suffered because I’ve tossed planning to the side as I try to deal with the curveballs thrown professionally.

That said, I did have a bit of “fun” to deal with on Friday. Mr. Pearl’s priest finally emailed me back with some awful news. As it turns out, the church will be undergoing some construction in July and they will not be performing any sacraments for the entire month. He left open the possibility of one date in late June and one date in August. Unfortunately, we already have a contract with our reception venue and stand to lose thousands of dollars if we changed the date. It’s frustrating because it’s due, in part, to his church’s lack of organization. We talked to them a long time ago about the new date, but I’d been calling and emailing recently to make sure we were on the church calendar. They are awful about returning calls though! Finally, I got the response when I emailed the priest, though it was definitely NOT the response I anticipated.

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Have you ever been so tired after work, you’ve resorted to a meal of fast food?

Do you wish you were a better cook?

Do you want to eat delicious, well-balanced meals without the huge mess?

A friend of mine told me about a great service called Dream Dinners. It’s a service where you can assemble all the ingredients for a delicious, balanced meal into containers. You take the food home and freeze it, then when you’re ready to eat, just cook it and enjoy!

The first step is going to their website and viewing their menus for the month. The menus change monthly and can accomodate a variety of tastes.

Meals for the March are:

1. Seafood cioppino
2. Herb-Dijon Chicken Breasts
3. Apricot Glazed Pork Chops
4. Santa Fe Shredded Pork Burritos
5. Homestyle Chicken and Dumplings
6. Baked Chicken Tetrazzini
7. Mexican Meatballs
8. Honey Spiced Pork Roast
9. “Sunday Morning” Skillet with Biscuits and Gravy
10. Shrimp and Sausage Jambalaya
11. Chicken with Lemon and Artichoke Sauce
12. Steak Gorgonzola
13. Sesame Marinated Flank Steak
14. Apple Crisp

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One of the most frustrating parts of being a plus-sized bride is that I see all these wonderful ideas that smaller brides have, but know that it will be hard to find the clothing item in my size (if at all possible). Granted, I really don’t have any desire to wear a garter, but it would be great to wear those cute ruffle butt panties or the terrycloth wraps that other people wear.

No worries, friends. I have found sites that have the aforementioned items.

Hipsandcurves.com sells ruffle butt panties (albeit not in blue) that fit anywhere from 1X-3X. The panties are either white or red and are called “Rhumba panties.”

Two sites that have the terrycloth wraps are: Embroideree and Plussizebathwraps.

Now I’ll get to wear the ruffly panties I <3 and get myself and my bridesmaids the terrycloth wraps. The trouble I go through for a couple of pictures!

Anyone out there have other sources for ruffle butt panties for not tiny girls?

One reader commented in her Weddingbee feedback that she didn’t know the point of a groom’s cake. To be honest, I didn’t know what the point was, either! My first exposure to a groom’s cake was watching the movie “Steel Magnolias” as a child and seeing Dylan McDermott’s (Julia Roberts’ husband in the movie) hideous, but hilarious, gray armadillo groom’s cake made of red velvet cake on the inside…so it looked like a poor animal was being hacked to pieces when slices of cake were being cut!

The tradition of a groom’s cake originated in the South. Originally, a groom’s cake was sliced and boxed for unmarried girls at the wedding to take home and put under their pillows. The legend was that the girl would dream of their future husband. The groom’s cakes were also likely to juxtapose the wedding cake. Traditional wedding cakes used to be only white, so the groom’s cake was usually chocolate.

Currently, groom’s cakes tend to reflect the interests of the groom — profession, hobbies, favorite sports, alma mater, etc. They can be as “traditional” as being made from real cake, or as unique as being a croquembouche or a stack of Krispy Kreme donuts! Some people still serve the groom’s cake as a wedding favor. One easy way to do this is to package the cake in a Chinese food takeout box (which can be purchased relatively cheaply from warehouse/bulk stores like Smart and Final). Others serve the cake at the reception. Another popular option that people take is serving the groom’s cake at the rehearsal dinner, since most guests will be full from dinner and cake at the reception.

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A while back, I was dining in one of my favorite restaurants in Los Angeles with Mr. Pearl when we started talking about how awesome it would be for a reception venue. The restaurant, Windows, is located on the top floor of the SBC Tower in downtown LA. True to its name, there are windows all around the restaurant, allowing for spectacular views of the city. The atmosphere is lovely and the food is downright sublime. I’ve turned a couple people onto this somewhat unknown restaurant.

We had already booked our venue, but inquired with the manager how much it would be to rent out the restaurant. At that time, they told us it would be $18,000 in catering costs to rent the whole restaurant out for a summer evening. Not wholly unreasonable, I thought.

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This weekend, Mr. Pearl took me for V-Day, Part Deux. The location of the trip was kept a secret up until we got to South Orange County…he even took roundabout freeways on the way there to keep me in suspense. We ended up going to San Diego, one of our favorite towns for a quick getaway.

We ended up leaving much later than we planned on Friday, so we missed our dinner reservation there. We stayed at the Hilton in the Gaslamp District, which was very cute! On Saturday morning, we were exhausted from our late night, but Mr. Pearl made an appointment that we had to keep. He surprised me with a day at the San Diego Wild Animal Park, which is not only a zoo-type atmosphere (and btw, I LOVE zoos), but also one of the nation’s foremost natural conservatories (as they work on the conservation of not only animals, but plant life as well).

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I met with a florist on Thursday in my seeming never-ending quest to find the perfect decor artist. Her ideas were fabulous and I really felt like she understood the vision I was trying to set. She was helpful and gave great suggestions without being pushy. Another thing I liked about her was that she gave me her quote on the spot after we talked - doing it in front of me made me feel like she wasn’t going to take her time to think over how she could best nickel and dime me.

I loved it all…except the price.

I have always said I was a princess born into a pauper’s lifestyle. Flowers were no exception.

So, here’s a bit of a poll to see where the readers are at! Excuse my kind of poor rendition of a Likert scale.

In an effort to get into better shape over this wedding, I have made a solemn vow of diet and exercise. I have been at it for the last 4 weeks and thus far, have managed to shed about 17 lbs. Unfortunately, the diet alone didn’t work, so I MUST exercise. Tragic for a wannabe princess like me who hates to sweat.

I’m lucky that Mr. Pearl used to work out with a world-level competing bodybuilder, so he’s given me good tips on how to effectively work out. For example, did you know that walking at a decent incline on the treadmill is just about as effective as running on a flat treadmill? Much better on the joints, too. He has also shown me the proper technique for weight training so I don’t hurt myself.

On Sunday, we went to the gym for our back workout. I have a pretty weak upper body, so I was looking forward to strengthening up. After we left, I felt good about my workout because I’d tried so hard and done so well with my form.

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I found out from Mr. Pearl that he’ll be taking me on a “surprise” trip this weekend. All I know is that we’re leaving Friday and coming back on Sunday. He won’t even tell me what to pack! I guess I have to prepare for a variety of weather occasions (which shouldn’t be too hard when it’s likely somewhere in California).

This is the first time he’s actually planned something that’s a surprise like this. The only reason I know is because I occasionally have work things that pop up on the weekend, so he had to clear it with me first. I digress. I love when he plans stuff like this, particularly because I’m the gushy romantic type and he’s more practical and straight-forward. I kinda feel like my sappiness is rubbing off on him. It’s so sweet that he’s trying a little harder to be more romantic in the way that I like — I guess it’s good I had him look at the Five Love Languages!

What things does your SO/FI/DH do that you find romantic?

I’m a bit of a dork for the holidays. I love themed stuff. I love cards. I love wearing the colors of the holiday. My favorite holiday for a long time was St. Patrick’s Day. Why? Because it’s the day after my birthday, I can drink novelty (green) beer, and it coincides with the NCAA tournament, typically. Since Mr. Pearl and I began dating, I’ve begun to love Valentine’s Day more and more (super cheese, I know).

This year, I am expressing my cheese in a couple of ways.

1. I bought him a corny card from Paper Source.

2. I am *this close* to getting him a gift basket sent at work. I mean, why should I get all the fun of people gushing ’cause I got something (flowers) sent to me at work?! And because I’m a major nerd, I was going to send an organic fruit basket, since he’s doing a wedding diet with me.

3. I am putting little love notes in his computer bag, in his car, etc.

4. I’m leaving work early to drop off some special cupcakes to him (red velvet, for Valentine’s Day of course!) at work.

Are you doing anything cheesy for Valentine’s Day?

I began the arduous task of trying to find a wedding ring. You see, I am not what you would call “normal.” I am ready to announce here and now…to come out of the closet…

I have fat fingers.

I mean dang, overall I could lose weight (and am…YAY for me!), but my fingers have always been unnaturally short and pudgy. It makes finding a wedding exceptionally difficult because most women’s rings aren’t made so big.

I’ve found a couple so far on e-Wedding Bands that I like a lot. I’m familiar with the quality of their rings and I’ve found them to be quite nice. That said, here are the ones I’m considering.

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To follow-up my previous post about finding and ordering my dress…

Thanks for all your comments and helpful suggestions. Based on reader feedback, as well as my visit to the salon to see it all in person, I decided to order the gold sash from Jasmine. I will probably order some satin ribbon in chocolate brown to possibly use for the reception, but for now, gold wins.