Weddingbee Blog

Hello hive! Do you mind if I pop in for a second to tell the tale of my wedding dress’s after-life?

Post-wedding, my poor dress was a bit of a mess. The bustle broke, tearing the chiffon in the back slightly, and the bottom was dirty from having run November-Rain-style through the post-after-party downpour. I thought, “well, that’s that…” but my mom, only slightly aghast at my lack of sentimentality, cleaned it (I think in the bathtub) and even fixed the tear.

On a recent visit, I went up to my old bedroom, which is now the guest room. Although my mom has kept the ludicrously bright pumpkin-colored paint I’d chosen, she’s since redecorated in her folksy, crafty, turn-of-the-century bed & breakfasty style.

Darling, right? But wait, what’s this? Hanging on a lacy hanger on the closet door is a now-permanent installation piece!

My friends, I’ve reached the end of my recaps. I’d like to offer you two things: outtakes and obrigada.

I. Outtakes

These are photos and memories that didn’t really fit anywhere else, but that make me laugh or smile.

These first two photos are from our favorite RI bar, where we dined and drank with friends two days before the wedding. We signed a dollar bill to commemorate the occasion.

Throughout the evening our photographs directed guests to our fauxto booth. It was a hit, as expected, and I personally returned to it time and time again, striking ridiculous pose after ridiculous pose. Here are some of my favorites!

In between the karaoke, we danced!

We did our father/daughter, mother/son dance simultaneously, to Rascal Flatt’s “My Wish.” I think we had one other slow song that evening…the rest of the night, it was ON! Our DJs were fantastic, playing a solid mix of top 40s + old school classics.

Who doesn’t love singing terribly in front of lots of people?? Okay, a lot of people don’t enjoy it, which is why we decided to integrate the karaoke within the dancing and to spread the word months in advance so guests could practice their “Cracklin’ Rose” in the privacy of their own cars.

Our DJs happily provided the necessary equipment and Mr. PH and I came up with a list of the best of the worst karaoke songs which we printed out and left at the DJ table for guests to pick up at their leisure.

My sister and our friend opened the karaoke floor with a wonderfully harmonizing version of The Pina Colada song.

Next, the newly married couple took the floor with some classic “Don’t Stop Believing.”

As special as the first dance is purported to be, we giggled throughout ours and felt Very Aware that all eyes were on us. Later, we would belt out Journey karaoke in front of our guests and not feel half as self-conscious as we did during the first dance!

Luckily, we’d chosen Ingrid Michaelson’s “I Way I Am,” which is only 2 minutes and 15 seconds long.

Me: Pretend we’re alone!!

All I wanted at our wedding was pizza. That’s all I wanted! I wanted Wedding Pizza. Not 2 a.m. Sidewalk Pizza or 12 p.m. Pool Party Pizza or 8 a.m. Shouldn’t-Eat-This-for-Breakfast-But-I-Will cold pizza. Wedding Pizza. (See, I wrote about it here.)

I also wanted ice cream. And, thrilled with the POWER and RESPONSIBILITY of choosing the vegetarian entree, I also decided that I wanted sandwiches. With sweet potato fries. (Mr. PH, the meat-eater, chose the meat entrees.)

Solution: the Wedding Pizza cocktail hour. Our plan was to have a pizza buffet table, featuring four varieties:

• margarita (vegetarian)
• buffalo chicken
• Mediterranean (vegetarian)
• BBQ chicken

Since our cocktail hour was inside due to rain (and the space couldn’t accommodate the Wedding Pizza Table), the pizza was passed with the other hors d’oeuvres, charmingly cut into small slices and delivered on pizza peels. Um, no photos. Too busy eating. How embarrassing. But not really, just really delicious.