Weddingbee Blog

And so begin the Quiche recaps! The task of sorting through & organizing all of our pictures into a coherent (and interesting) sequence of events is DAUNTING. We have the majority of our guests’ pictures, along with our photographers’. Added up, we’re looking at THOUSANDS of pictures. Thousands. Eep!

Let’s go back to a chilly April morning in Chicago. Luckily, Mama and Stepdad Quiche had been in town for a few days to help get everything sorted and packed. Packing was, well, interesting. I was still freaked out about going through customs with all of our decorations, gifts, flowers, and my dress. We divvied up all of the goods and handed them out to bridesmaids and groomsmen. Mama & Petey Quiche also lugged A LOT of stuff for us. Then, very early on Wednesday morning, we headed for O’Hare. Boarding was a breeze & we were on our way!

A flight attendant noticed my dress bag & upgraded us to first class! SCORE!

I think I slept for most of the trip. We ended up on the same flight as our friends from Virginia, so it was great to see them in the middle of the trip! Imagine my excitement, though, when seeing this out of the window:

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Having a kick-ass Out of Town Bag for our guests was high priority on our list. I mean, our awesome friends and family were traveling all the way to Jamaica to celebrate us, so the least we could do was try to thank them with a few goodies!

Letter and agenda for our guests, rum, waterproof camera, coffee, DIY CD, sunscreen and mosquito wipes!

One of our first tasks upon arriving in Jamaica was buying two local items: a bottle of Appleton Estate Rum & Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee. We had our driver take us to a slightly shady grocery store/bar/I don’t know what, where we ended up bargaining down the price of the rum about 30%! Score!
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What do you buy for the guy who has everything he needs? While I might lust after something for months, Mr. Quiche is one of those people who, when he wants something, just goes out and buys it. (It has made birthday and Christmas shopping quite difficult at times. Grr.) I needed to think of something truly unique for his wedding gift. He loves french cuffs, so naturally I thought of cufflinks. Having already bought him Wrigley Field wooden links the year before, I was fresh out of ideas. Until I saw Mrs. Tiramisu’s gift for Mr. T - map cufflinks! Mr. Q loves vintage maps, so these would be perfect for him!

I searched for the best deal on Etsy and contacted the seller, dlkdesigns. She will custom make your links to your desired locale. Montego Bay was the obvious choice for one, and I went back and forth between Chicago (where we live) and Dublin (our honeymoon spot), ultimately deciding on Dublin to keep it in the wedding family. What’s great is that she actually emails you pictures of the map that will be used, so if you don’t like them, she’ll find something else! In keeping with our pink accent theme, I told her I’d prefer there to be some pink in them.

Here was the proof:

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Mama and Stepdad Quiche flew to Chicago 4 days before we left for Jamaica to help organize, pack, offer moral support, etc. They wanted to treat Mr. Q and me to dinner, so that Saturday night we headed to The Gage. We decided that we would give Mama Q her “thank you for being such an incredible mom and all that you’ve done for me and us and the wedding and everything else” gift that night. Sharing a love of Tiffany with me, yet never owning anything from the store, I decided to get her a necklace. For the past 2 years, Mama Q has been wearing this pearl necklace that I bought for her. It’s a simple pearl on a champagne colored silk thread from Dogeared. The thought is that you’re supposed to make a wish on your necklace & when it falls apart, your wish comes true (gag!)… however, my clever mother bought a spool of champagne silk thread and changes it as it starts to wear

In keeping with the dainty theme of that necklace, along with throwing in some Chicago love, we settled on the Bean necklace (I am not sure if this necklace has anything to do with the Bean in Millennium Park, but we decided to pretend that it does ).

As soon as Mama Q read the first line of the card, she slapped it down on the table. We are a super emotional family, and the tears seem to fall when we’re happy or sad.

Mr. Quiche then pulled out a flat blue box. Pour moi? Oui! I was so excited - this was completely unexpected.
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Great news! We have our disk of images back from our photographer! You cannot imagine my and Mr. Q’s excitement. We look at them every. single. day.(!) Since it will take me a looong time to not only a) figure out how the heck I’m going to organize and blog my thoughts and experiences from the wedding, but also b) decide which pictures to use, I’ve decided to go back in time and blog about things that I didn’t have time to do prior to the wedding. And if you happen to get a glimpse or two of our wedding pics, well, so be it!

Let’s start with jewelry. From the beginning, I had this image in my mind of what I wanted my necklace to look like. Dainty. Dainty, dainty silver chain. Something omewhat long-ish, that incorporated pearls and crystals. I searched Etsy until my fingers bled, then decided to try my luck with Alchemy. I listed those previous requirements & added that I wanted to look like it was “floating” around my neck. A lot of great jewelry designers replied, but somehow A Finishing Touch was able to decipher my babbling thoughts and turn them into an awesome reality (Sidenote - the necklace is now a design available in their shop for anyone to purchase! Yeah!).

We went back and forth a few times, as they were open to whatever thoughts I had. Finally, this lovely image was sent to me, and I was sold!

And see? It’s “floating”!
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As the post-wedding days fly by, I realized it was about time to design, think of, write, address, stamp, and send thank you notes. Seem overwhelming? Even typing all of those steps out makes me start to sweat and panic, and I only have a fraction of the “normal” amount to send.

In the past, I’ve divulged my love for Dear Abby and Margo. No B.S. advice, handed down to you daily. I also love Annabel Manners—etiquette and advice for the preppy girl in me. While perusing her site (and justifying my LOVE and expense for a LWD - little white dress), I came across this service - “That’s Gratitude” - personalized, handwritten thank you notes. Done by someone else.
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Hello Hive!

Long time, no see. Wow, what an incredible few weeks it has been in the Quiche world. I’ll just start of with one thing for today - WE’RE HOME!

(Umm…can I give some MAJOR love to our ridiculously fabulous photographer, Ashley Colhouer [and her equally awesome hubby, Philip!] of 13:13 Photography? Not only do we have AMAZING pictures because of them, but we also came away with some pretty sweet friends, to boot! It can’t get much better than that! XO!)

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…is the soon to be Mrs. Quiche!

Mr. Quiche-

As I sit here watching our family and friends strolling around, having the time of their lives, I think about how lucky we are to be blessed with an amazing backbone of love and support from everyone here. Hearing the laughter and shrieks from all of the kids as they run from the pool to the beach (and back again…and again) brings me such joy.

The Quiche family on the reggae catamaran cruise.

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So, Jamaica in May? Yeah, it’s HOT. I wanted to have either a fan or a parasol for each chair, but needed something that (again) was easily transportable. Considering that our multiple suitcases are already bulging at the seams, parasols were eliminated. I saw these fan/programs that I liked (but again, they are a little too bulky for our suitcases!):

source
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There are lots of kids in the Quiches’ world, and I can’t imagine our wedding WITHOUT kiddos running around. Mini Quiche A is the junior best man, and my nephew J is the ring bearer (you can see their duds here). So, that leaves us with the little ladies. Mini Quiche J and my niece B are our (adorable) flower girls. They couldn’t be more excited! J, who isn’t a fan of dresses (to put it very mildly) did NOT want to take this dress off over the weekend. She loves B and is just excited to be wearing matching outfits. Thank goodness!

I bought the flower girl dressed the same weekend I bought my dress and when I already knew what I wanted the bridesmaids to wear. Mama Quiche and Sister Quiche Nen were in town and we popped into Gap Kids. Hanging on the wall was the perfect flower girl dress and we snapped 2 up! Plus, they were on sale for $21 - score!

The body is cream with a navy border on the top and a tropical print bottom. Well, let’s let Mini Quiche show you!

Posing with Mini Quiche A (lookin’ handsome in his newly tailored suit jacket! Too bad his eyes are closed )
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With a Jamaican wedding, a Jamaican menu is a must! Our all-out Jamaican feast will be happening on Friday night (I’ll write about that soon!), and the menu for the reception will focus on tropical flavors as well as personal favorites of ours. While we didn’t have a specific tasting during our “research” trip in October, the food we did eat while there was delish. No tasting = no pretty food pictures, so I’ll give you our DIY menu tutorial instead!

First, design and print your image on your paper of choice. We used white linen paper, as we did with our invitations.

Again, like our invitations, we used the same header, but swapped the colors, since we are backing these with bright pink cardstock.
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The Chicago Weddingbee crew had a wonderful night last week! Miss Mascara, Mrs. Emerald, and I met up with readers LatteLove, yogigal, hellopanda, Rinstar, msbelgianian and eileen marie. What an awesome group! We swapped planning and other stories over wine and pizzas, and just had an overall great night.

I think I speak for all of us when I say - can’t wait to do it again! For those of you who missed it, we will plan another meet-up in the summer. Nothing says summer in Chicago better than al fresco dining!

Without further ado, the group!

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Happy Monday, everyone! Can you guess by the title of this post where we decided to go on our honeymoon? That’s right - Ireland!

Mr. Quiche had an email alert that direct, round-trip flights on Aer Lingus were around $350! Cheaper than flying to L.A. from Montego Bay! We did some checking around, and similar flights on American were just a little bit more, so we decided to book with them in order to beef up our air miles (score!).

We’re flying in and out of Dublin, but are planning a trip through the countryside after a 2 night stay in Dublin. Mr. Q has a friend who travels to Dublin frequently and recommended The Westbury Hotel.
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Mr. Quiche and I love to travel. We’ve had many awesome adventures together - be it Italy or NYC - so it’s only fitting that our honeymoon should follow suit. With the wedding in Jamaica, we are essentially going to be honeymooning, times 2. Yeah!

There were 3 major contenders vying for the spot of the Quiche Honeymoon, all very different, yet fabulous in their own way.

First up: Indonesia

Specifically, Bali. Ah yes, the magnificent isle of Bali. A place that Mr. Quiche and I have wanted to go to, yet haven’t been able to justify the expense (or time off) that it would require. What better way to see this beautiful part of the world than on your honeymoon? The Amankila Resort in Bali is breathtaking. We’ve had friends who’ve vacationed here and say it is the best hotel, hands down.
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For those brides who are changing their names post-wedding, WOW, what a pain in the arse! I’ve had friends who’ve gotten married take months to get all of the necessary paperwork filled out. And for completely understandable reasons - it’s a pain in the arse! Not only do you have to travel to each different office and wait in obscene lines, but you also have to fill out paperwork over and over again, and usually it’s the same information on each different form.

There are many places where your name needs to be changed, including:

• IRS
• Passport
• USPS (if you’re changing your name AND moving, they take care of that, too!)
• Drivers License
• Voter Registration
• Utilities
• Credit Cards

… and the list goes on, which will be different for each person.

Confused yet? Frustrated?
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