Weddingbee Blog

Funny title, huh?

I’ve proposed to Lady T, but she hasn’t proposed to me. In most relationships, I’d say normally one proposal is sufficient, but early on in our relationship we discussed the importance of both of us proposing.

But we’re planning a wedding.

There’s a multitude of reasons for this.

First of all, we’re not rushing to be formally engaged. We sort of already feel that way. In fact, we actually already feel married anyhow, so it’s just not a big rush.

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Because our wedding is in the evening and a bit on the formal side I instantly knew that I wanted the dudes in tuxedos for the wedding day. Mr. Coyote is a bit disgruntled about having to wear anything other than jeans and a black t-shirt, but said he will happily wear a tux for our wedding day. His only request was no bow ties, what a good sport!

Damn.

While I really, really love the classic tuxedo with bow tie look:

Photo by: Elizabeth Messina on Kiss The Groom via Lover.ly

I’m not the one who has to wear this thing so I’m letting Mr. Coyote take the reins here. Of course, that doesn’t mean that I don’t have a few teeny tiny suggestions for him.

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I made sure our photographers had some time to sneak over to our reception venue to capture a few photos before guests were able to see the set-up. While not important to everyone, our cocktail hour and reception were in the same room. I wanted a few photos where no one had yet touched any of the decor. Crazy? Maybe, but what can you do.

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A few weeks ago, I had problems with my laptop, so I took it to the Apple Store to get it fixed. While the Geniuses fixed it, I had some time to kill. I figured I might as well get my ring cleaned, so I walked across to the street to the jeweler where Mr. T bought my engagement ring.

While my ring was cleaned, I perused the selection of wedding bands. Roberto, the salesman Mr. T worked with to buy my engagement ring, pulled a few out and let me try them on.

I tried on this ring. I loved how thin and delicate it was, but I didn’t like the way the diamonds looked. They were almost too sparkly next to the understated Asscher-cut center stone in my engagement ring.

Then I tried on this ring. I liked how the baguettes complemented the baguette side stones in my engagement ring, but I didn’t like that the center diamond was bigger than the others. My engagement ring’s setting is such that no wedding band will sit flush to it. I’ll have a gap between my engagement ring and wedding band (unless I get a specially made contoured band, which I don’t want). If I wore this ring, it would constantly turn and look off-center because I can’t solder the two together. This ring made me realize that I want an eternity band.

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Wedding dress fittings can be an extremely stressful event for brides. Concerns about fit and weight are brought to the forefront, and if there is any dress regret, a fitting is a make or break moment. So with my fittings now underway (I can’t wait to show you the dress, she is amazing!), I thought I would discuss some quick rules to follow to have a happy, successful dress fitting.

1) Clean Up—please don’t go to your fittings dirty/smelly. Remember that your dress is most likely white or some permeation of that, and it stains easily! Sure it can be washed, but do you really want to take that chance? Wash your hands before touching your dress, especially if you have recently been playing around with makeup! Moreover, your seamstress is more than likely to be all up in your personal space, but she didn’t ask to personally get to know your armpit hairs or BO, so freshen up a little.

2) Don’t forget—It is important that you wear the undergarments you plan on wearing to the wedding so the fit of your dress is spot on. Also, bring the shoes you plan on wearing to the wedding so the length of your dress is perfect and to avoid any dress trippage the day of.
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The instant the parent dances were over, we scooted into the hallway outside the ballroom to take some group photos. This part of the evening is the only chapter that caused stress and the mildest case of unhappiness. It wasn’t terribly well planned, communicated, or executed, resulting in people running all over the place and missing photos they belonged in. Additionally, we had guests handing their personal cameras to other guests and the photographer’s assistant, so each posed group had to smile for a small handful of cameras, drawing out the entire process. All the while, Mr. Snow Cone and I stood there, hoping this part would wrap up quickly so we could get back to celebrating and growing antsy and mildly upset when it felt like it was dragging on.

I don’t mean to sound ungrateful for these photos, as it’s nice to have some shots of the various family and friend groups. However, truth be told, I still can’t really look at these pictures without feeling badly. I feel bad that I caused myself and Mr. Snow Cone stress by not planning this out better, I feel bad that certain loved ones didn’t make it to the photo station in time to be involved in all of their shots, I feel bad that those loved ones in turn felt bad, and so on. The fact of the matter is, the photos didn’t go that badly. They just seemed to be chaotic in comparison to how perfectly the rest of the evening was going.

After the wedding, Mr. Snow Cone and I talked through the evening, and we both came up with some solutions for how to reduce the stress associated with corralling a couple dozen people in various permutations.

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My cousin C, one of Wizard Aunt’s daughters and more like a sister to me than a cousin, is graduating high school next year and wants to go to pastry school. She started taking cake-decorating classes a year or so ago, and she’s gotten so good at it that she’s now the designated cake baker in her group of friends (as well as our family!). I mean, seriously, can you believe a then-16-year-old made this?!

Cake by Cousin C / Photo by Wizard Aunt

How awesome is she!? She makes cakes for everything now, so of course we wanted her to make our wedding cake, and she happily agreed!

There were a few problems with this, however. They live about a nine-hour drive away from here, so we were trying to figure out if C would bake the cake there, bring it with them in pieces, and assemble/decorate it here, or if she would bake the whole thing here after they arrived.

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VirginiaR and her husband pose for a portrait while their twin daughters hold up a pictures frame.

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While I plan to buy all new Mason jars for drink vessels, I’ve been saving every pasta and pickle jar that comes through our kitchen for our DIY centerpieces and some other decor undertakings. I’ve noticed that many tutorials go ahead and assume you have a squeaky clean jar to start with, without explaining how you get the paper and glue off in the first place.

With the help of Mr. Dragon we’ve locked down a pretty easy method of prepping jars, which I’m going to share today!

Personal photos

The first step, after you’ve cleaned any remaining food/product out of the jars, is to soak them in hot, soapy water. Make sure you fill up the insides of the jars with water, too, because it helps soften the labels from the inside and outside.

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