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I am serious. I didn’t realize it before now, but I don’t know many of my friends’ addresses. I know their personal e-mail addresses, their work e-mail addresses, and their cell phone numbers. I am their myspace friend, and their facebook friend (but I refuse to join friendster). I read their blogs, watch their videos online, and have long instant message conversations.
I have been to many, if not all, of their houses, but I don’t remember such things - I just plug the address in Google maps and go. Or know that they live four houses to the left of Hot Lips Pizza.
It is amazing in this world of instant, accessible communication, that you can be friends with someone and never know their precise location to mail them something as simple as a letter.
Mr. Robin has been on the phone for two days gathering addresses from friends and family alike! The guest list however, is finally almost done. Hooray!
Here is a scene from one of my favorite wedding movies, Father of the Bride. The family is in the middle of cutting down their guestlist…
Nina: All right, what about Harry Kirby? We haven’t seen him in ages.
George: I don’t know.
Annie: Didn’t Harry Kirby die last year?
George: Yes! Good! (upon seeing the look on everyone’s faces) Oh, uh…sorry.
I admit that I just had a George Banks moment. Our guestlist has ballooned from an already healthy 250 to a staggering 350. 
Mr Peony and were going down the list for the bazillionth time, trying to see if we can spare to cut out a few more people, when I came across a plus-one next to a friend (we’ll call her M)’s name.
Mr. Dahlia and I have been working on our wedding website off and on since, well, June. Last night Mr. Dahlia put on the finishing touches, and now we are up and running! We sent the link to our families late last night, and barring any unforeseen problems, should be sending out our virtual save-the-dates to friends and family either this weekend or next.
I now present to you our website:
The intro page. For some reason, the screencap didn’t come out as clearly as it actually is.
After looking at some of my wedding photos, Miss Magnolia reflected and thought, “Wow, I wish I was a guest at that wedding!” I was thrilled that she was able to feel that way just by looking at some of our photos because that was a HUGE priority for me. I tried to keep our guests in mind as much as possible.
Click photo to enlarge
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Unique Wedding Favors
“Add a memorable touch to your wedding with unique favors that match your theme.”
So far, Mr. T and I have been blessed to be surrounded with easy-going people during our wedding planning. My divorced parents have been supportive of each other’s roles in the wedding. The bridesmaids gave me free reign to dress them in whatever I want. And our friends have responded with enthusiasm to every decision we’ve made. I’m sure most issues generally arise as a wedding date draws closer, but so far everything has been smooth sailing.
That is, it HAD been smooth sailing…. Yesterday, Mr. T got an email from his mother protesting the limit on the number of people she is allowed to invite to the wedding. He has told his parents that they can invite 10 people – granted, not a huge number, but it’s ¼ of Mr. T’s total invitations. He doesn’t have any extended family in this country. And our venue is small, so every person counts. Also, to be quite frank, we’re paying for everything ourselves, and I believe that means we get to make choices that work for us – in this case, a small venue filled only with the people who mean the most to us.
The New York Times recently published an interesting article on the “plus one” controversy. What is the etiquette of allowing wedding guests to bring a date?
Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
In the last month and a half, Mr. Jasmine and I attended three out-of-state weddings! Since we expect to have many out-of-town guests at our nuptials next June, I’ve been paying close attention to what made the trips easiest for us. Here are my thoughts on how to make your wedding stress-free for out-of-towners:
As I mentioned in a previous post, “How to Entertain Guests Pre-Wedding,” the day before the wedding we arranged a private tour and tasting at the Magic Hat Brewery in South Burlington, VT. It was a great way to spend time with our guest who’d arrived early. There were about 16 of us for the afternoon. We had a private tour and a tasting. Nothing loosens your guests up and helps them get to know each other like great micro-brews!
My mom and I during the tasting
The very last DIY project I had to do before the wedding was the Out-of-Town bags. I got the bags on sale a while ago at AC Moore for something like 23 cents each. They were on the small side, so we only put a few things in them. Each bag had:
I love a bride that introduces her guests to local fare. One of the easiest ways to leave a lasting impression on your guests is to introduce them to the area. Sure, you can serve salmon, but why not serve fish native to the region? And yes, Heinekens are a crowd pleaser, but why not treat your guests to beer from a local microbrewery?
Many guests travel hundreds, even thousands of miles to attend a wedding. Caesar salad, steak and steamed veggies with a country club backdrop can certainly equate to a successful affair, but I can travel 15 minutes down the road any day of the week to eat that meal. So even if your wedding takes place in a banquet hall or at a country club, you may want to mix up a little “local flavor” for your guests to enjoy. Here are some of my favorites that we’ll include in our Northern California winery wedding, and brunch the day following:
You guys have heard of Tears of Joy packets, right? It’s the tissue that you package in a cute way for guests to use during your romantic and life-melding ceremony. Well, have I got news for you: make way for this year’s Tears of Joy packs!
It’s the Box O’ Sobs of Ecstaticness! I am aware that’s not a word. But it spells B.O.S.E, and I like it. Anyway, while I was at CVS (yes, the second time in two days), I saw these CVS brand tissues, a must-have for fall season brides. 
Even though I long ago tossed the idea of a guest basket in the restrooms, I totally want to put these tissue boxes in the bathroom.
Mr. Kiwi thinks I’m losing it because I want to put these in the bathrooms at the reception. Would it look crazy?
Being fairly technologically savvy- (Well, Mr. Dahlia is, seeing as he works in IT; me, well, I’ve taken Introduction to Java, and have taught myself basic html using this excellent tutorial- really, it is, if you ignore the blinking things and really bright colors)- one of the first things that we talked about was a wedding website. We knew that we wanted one, and absolutely didn’t want to use a premade template.
Now, if you are looking to take the path of least resistance, MyWedding.com and WeddingAnnouncer.com both offer free wedding websites. If you register with Bed Bath & Beyond, you can get a free website from them as well.
But like I said, the easy way is not the way for us.
To gather ideas, I dug around in places like google and indiebride for websites that I liked. And I did find some that really stood out to us:
Dial DIR-ECT-IONS (347-328-4667) is a FREE service you can use to help your guests find your wedding.How does it work? Your guests call DIR-ECT-IONS (or 347-328-4667) from their cell phone, state your event name (like “Penguin Wedding”), state the address or intersection that they are currently at, and a text message will be sent to them, free of charge, with turn by turn directions to your venue!
Of course, you must add your wedding to their database in order for your guests to be able to find it. To add your event to their database, go to their website and in the upper right hand corner, you’ll see an “events” button. A scroll down will pop up for you to “add an event” where you can post your event name, address, and date.
Mr. Kiwi and I are thinking of upgrading our “pyramid deluxe” room at the Luxor for the two nights we’ll be there post-wedding. We’re not really looking for a huge suite, but something a little fancier than just a bed, an armoire and a toilet. Random bit of info: I fit in the armoires.
The pyramid is where I want to stay. Mr. Kiwi has never been in the Luxor, and I know he’d get a kick out of the odd elevators that take you up slanty-like. Sure, he may throw up a little, as he gets slightly sick on motion simulator rides and weird slanty type rides, but he’ll enjoy it nonetheless. Anyway, the pyramid deluxe has these features:
When you host a “destination” wedding, all of your guests are from out of town, so it’s really nice to make them feel welcome. And packing welcome bags is almost as much fun as Halloween candy or holiday gift bags.
Mr. Onion and I went to visit our parents this weekend (both of them live within 10 minutes of each other which is great) and we got a lot done. The bags were purchased at Papermart.com and were reasonably priced at $.40 each. I chose these bags because of their color, size and the quantity. You could purchase these bags in sets of 25 — you didn’t have to buy 200+. We also packed all 30 of our welcome bags for our guests. I’m really happy with how they turned out.
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