Weddingbee Blog

My coworker M, who sits across from me and will be attending our wedding, is an absolute RIOT. I adore her so much and I can go on and on about all the crazy times we’ve had during happy hours and even during office hours. She seriously keeps me sane during the dreadful workweek with her contagious laugh. She could be laughing about anything and even if I don’t think it’s funny, I can’t help but laugh along with her. I make fun of her for this all the time because she laughs at just about anything!

After I bought my dress, M couldn’t wait to see me in it in person and insisted that I send her a picture. When I did send her a picture, she said she loveeedd it. She went as far as to called it “classic”. I told her that although I did love my dress, I was worried because I had heard that that particular type of dress was going out of style, and I didn’t want to look back on my pictures 20 years from now and regret my decision. Although it might be nice now, I have no idea what the style of wedding dresses will be in the future.
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I asked my mom to come with me to the first bridal salon since it was in the area, and my dad overheard and sheepishly asked, “Can I come too?”. I thought it was so cute that my dad was actually interested in this stuff, so of course, the two of them tagged along. I brought my trusty SLR with me and instructed my parents the basic uses of it so that they could take pictures of me in the gowns. While I was in the dressing room changing into what I think was my second or third gown, I heard them bickering outside in the waiting room.

Dad: Stop it! Stop!
Mom: Just do it!
Dad: No just sit down she’ll be out soon.
Mom: Just once!
Dad: FINE.

The hilarious thing was that when we got home after trying on 5 gowns, I was flipping through the camera and almost fell off my chair laughing when I saw pictures of my parents. While I was in the dressing room changing, they were taking pictures of each other!! My parents were playing around with the camera and eventually my dad got annoyed at all the picture taking that my mom was doing and that was the conversation I overheard.

(omg, they’re totally going to kill me when they find out that I am posting this!)
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Mr. Martini’s family is from CT and mine are in NJ, so our parents never met before we got engaged. Luckily for us, both our parents approved of us getting married. When Mr. Martini asked my parents for their permission to propose to me, my dad just had this huge smile on his face, and my mom didn’t say anything for about 10 seconds before finally blurting out, “We were waiting a long time!”

Now that we were engaged, the next step was for our parents to meet for the first time. Dun Dun Dun!!!! The big day! At first the engagement was going to be a low key dinner with immediate family so that we could get to know each other.

Then it was suggested that maybe it was a good idea that we invite our church pastor to say a few words and pray for us. All of a sudden my dad went a little nuts with the planning. Before long he had invited all three pastors of our church, an elder, and their wives! My dad claimed, “you can’t invite one and not the other!”.

My dad also invited his dearest friend and his wife. He has been there for my dad through multiple fights with cancer. My dad is battling cancer even now and his friend has really gone above and beyond to be there for him. They really are considered family to us, so it was only natural that they were there.
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One of my BM’s has been trying desperately to get me to watch the show “How I Met Your Mother” for a while. I don’t watch any TV at all, and only watch shows on DVD so I didn’t even know what that show was about, but she swore I would love it and made me swear to rent it. Two days ago she told me about a proposal story that occurred on the show and it made me tear up because I thought it was so original and romantic! I decided to try and look up the scene on YouTube this morning, and I found this CNN clip reporting the episode.

Apparently the show focuses on different types of relationships, including a newlywed couple hopelessly in love. Do you watch "How I Met Your Mother"? Is it worth the rent?

When I first got engaged, I didn’t know anything about owning a ring or how to take care of one. I never wear any jewelry at all, so wearing a ring all the time took a little getting used to. This might sound a little dumb, but I didn’t even know if I was supposed to take off my ring before I go to bed or before I take a shower. I was just that clueless and I was terrified of losing it (if you know me, you know how clumsy I am and how often I tend to lose/break things).

About 2 weeks into our engagement, I went on a business trip to Washington, DC. I never took my ring off at all because I wanted to avoid having to tell Mr. Martini that I lost my ring and risk being told not to come back to NJ (kidding… he would never say that… or would he…). By the time I got back, I started to notice that my ring wasn’t as bling bling as it was when I first got it. I was all set to buy a jewelry cleaning machine and started asking around for suggestions on different types of cleaners. I found that I generally got the same advice from most of my newlywed friends - a jewelry cleaner is a huge waste of money. So if it’s a waste of money, how do I clean my ring?
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My first experience with a band was about 8 or 9 years ago, when I attended my very first wedding. It was for one of my BM’s older sisters, and it was a lavish NYC affair. I remember walking into the reception hall and seeing a swing band perform for the first time. I had so much fun listening to the band that from then on, I knew that one day when I got married, I would want a band too.

Fast forward a few years to when I attended a wedding for a friend. It was the first wedding I attended that wasn’t for a sibling of a friend or family friend (yes, she was the first of my friends to go). It was a gorgeous NYC wedding in a loft, and when I walked in I was pleasantly surprised to see a band playing as well! They were just soooo good and it just reconfirmed my hopes in having a band (although the whole “swing” phase has long since died off).

If you know me you know that I’m a huge fan of concerts and live music. Years ago my friends and I would spend our weekends cheering for local bands at nearby bars, and I’ve even been to Bon Jovi concerts FOUR times, among many others.
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Everyone knows that true love isn’t all fun and games. I don’t know of any couples that can claim that their relationship is perfect in every single, absolute way. There are definitely hardships, but the fact that you can overcome them is what makes it love, right?

I would be lying if I told you that Mr. Martini and I don’t fight. Of course we do! If we didn’t, it wouldn’t be a relationship. Luckily, he is the sane to my craziness, and sometimes when I get over-emotional, he knows just what to do to calm me down and work things out in an adult manner.

I also don’t know of any couples that don’t get annoyed at some of their partner’s habits. Some of my habits irritate Mr. Martini to no end. One annoying habit of mine that gets on his nerves: I wear daily contacts, and when I take them out I tend to toss them on the ground instead of throwing them in the garbage like I should. He gets sooooo mad when he’s walking around and he accidentally steps on a contact with his bare foot! My argument is that contacts will eventually disintegrate and disappear (wow, this theory sounds totally stupid now that I’m writing this out on a public blog, but I digress). But according to him, the only reason they “disintegrate” is because he crushes the dried contact into a million pieces with the heel of his foot.
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I know every bride always says that they love their ring, but…. I really love my ring! Mr. Martini searched high and low for months in order to find the perfect stone and setting – and the entire time I had NO clue he was even looking! He was lucky enough to have found the setting pretty early with a jeweler that he really liked, but the stone itself was another issue.

To be honest I still have no idea about any of that cut and clarity stuff. Because of his search he became pretty knowledgeable in diamond lingo and once tried to explain all that he learned to me, but he lost me within a couple of minutes (damn my ADD). All I know is that it is a cushion cut stone with a platinum band that was hand made to fit around the smaller diamonds. The band is super thin and delicate, which was really the only thing I was hoping for because my hands are pretty small and I didn’t want anything too elaborate. I wanted something simple, yet pretty… so this ring really is the perfect ring for me!
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Part I 

After my facial, the manager told me to keep my robe on because I had another stop to go to. She walked me upstairs and through what has to be the nicest and most luxurious gym I’ve ever seen in my life, and led me to the women’s locker room.

When I walked in, my friends Elle and Young were sitting there waiting for me (cue more tears)! They also had all of my makeup with them (how? magic??) AND a Victoria’s Secret box - with a new set of underwear. I was given instructions to take a shower and freshen up. After I reapplied my makeup and got all ready for the rest of the day, Elle and Young gave me my next clue.

Location 6: Third Floor Cafe

The Clue was, “When you wake up from your rest, go to where a 3rd became a 1st and order a coffee”

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In my last entry I mentioned that I was a bit of a “spaver”. Someone asked me to clarify the definition of a “spaver”, so I looked it up on Urban Dictionary but found that there wasn’t even a definition listed for it yet. When I thought about how I could best define a spaver, I suddenly thought of an old phrase I once read on an email chain:

A man will pay $2 for a $1 item he needs
A woman will pay $1 for a $2 item that she doesn’t need but it’s on sale.

A spaver will usually spend money on something they don’t really need because they got a really good deal on it, and then justify spending the money because they “saved” what they would have spent had they paid full price.

I spave once in a while, but Mr. Martini and I always joke around that he is the biggest spaver ever. He once bought a high tech wine refrigerator because he found a great deal at 50% off. It’s nice that we now get to drink perfect temperatured wine, but he probably wouldn’t have bought it at that same price if it wasn’t 50% off!
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Mr. Martini somehow masterminded the most elaborate proposal for me. I had absolutely no idea it was going to happen at all - it was just a complete shocker for me! Although we have briefly spoken here and there about marriage in general, I didn’t like talking about “our” wedding or “our future life together” until we were actually engaged. I saw engagement as the next step, something completely different than being in a relationship. Although I knew and he always said he knew we were going to be forever, I didn’t want to get ahead of myself. What, me? Jaded? No way!

Little did I know, he had been plotting for quite a while. To sum it all up in a jpeg, below is a snapshot of the actual spreadsheet he sent to our friends a couple of weeks before E-Day:

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Whenever I think about my teeth, a certain commercial comes to mind. I’m not exactly sure what the commercial was for but I think it was for a whitening toothpaste. In the commercial, a grade school teacher is addressing her classroom. She is pointing out objects in the room and the children respond with the color of the object in unison.

“What color is this pencil?”
“Yellowww”.
“What about this book?”
“Greeeennn”

Then she asks the class, “What color are my teeth?” with a huge smile on her face.

The class sits in dead silence for a few seconds while the kids try to figure out the color. One by one the kids try to guess.
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Since our wedding was only 7 months away, we considered not sending out Save the Dates. But my high-strung personality was scared of attempting to DIY the invites, programs and place cards without first trying something a little easier first, JUST in case I freak out and have to be taken away in a straight jacket.

My 21 year old cousin, who is one of my bridesmaids, attends Rhode Island School of Design and is amazingly talented. I asked her if she would be able to create a few characters for us to use on save the dates, place cards, and other little things throughout the wedding. It was a huge favor but she was very excited to help out with something she was good at. A couple of weeks later, she sent me this:

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So much pressure!

I’m so excited that I have been given this opportunity to share my wedding planning with you all. I have to admit I’m a little nervous - I have been writing on a personal blog for years but writing as a “bee” is so different. I am now writing about a specific topic that is completely new to me. I have never attempted to plan anything remotely close to something as huge as a wedding, and I am still having panic attacks just thinking about those three terrifying letters - D.I.Y.

When I was asked to choose my Weddingbee character, I couldn’t choose between two favorites, sushi and martini (this is going to be a common theme for the next 7 months, let me just tell you!). In the end I chose to be Miss Martini because well - I just love martinis! Grey Goose dirty martinis are my favorite, and I actually ordered one (and then another one) as my first drink after being introduced on Weddingbee during dinner with my girlfriends. I paid for it the next day with fat fingers and swollen eyelids from all the salty olives, but man it was so worth it.

Thanks for coming along with me on my journey. It will either be great, or it will be a disaster (I pray not), but I’m excited and ready to dive into wedding planning.

So this Sunday is Easter Sunday. It is also when Hannah (4 yrs old & one of my flower girls), Isabella (10 months old), and their mom (my BIL’s wife but I call her my SIL) are all getting baptized. Because of this special occasion, my SIL had her girlfriend, who owns a Bridal Boutique, custom make dresses for Hannah and Isabella.

My SIL gave her girlfriend Hannah’s flower girl dress I bought for my wedding to copy, and asked her to make the dresses similar but in white and baby blue. Well she dropped off the custom-made dresses today and Oh My God they’re sooo cute! The only thing that’s different is she sewed on pleated, capped sleeves. Soooo cute! Had I known she was this good I would have gone to her for my flower girl dresses. She charges $160 for these.

Esther’s Bridal & Tuxedos
254 1st St
Hoboken, NJ 07030
201.217.9711
Ask for Ally

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