Weddingbee Blog

…and the Latte wedding party is complete! As promised, Mr. Latte went to visit his favorite little girls this weekend, and with felt bouquets in tow, asked them to be our flower girls. They said yes and I’m so excited that they can both make it out to NYC for the wedding! They are so cute and will definitely steal the show on the big day. Don’t be surprised to see me up at the altar, turning around to sneak a peek at the cute girls all dressed up!

You saw our special little guys last week… are you ready for more cuteness???

(It was Valentine’s Day so Mr. L tied heart-shaped balloons to the bouquets.)

Now comes the fun (edit: hard) part.
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I had my hair and makeup done by Ai Sakai for a recent event (Ai also did Mrs. Snow Pea’s wedding hair and makeup).  This is a horrible self-portrait taken in my bathroom after a very long day, but you get the picture.  Ai is so sweet, and she was such a pleasure to work with!  She started out as a hair stylist, so I especially loved my curls, but she also did a fantastic job on my makeup!

I typically stick to very neutral colored lipsticks, so I love that she used a bolder color on me.
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Part 1

So we met in November 2003. Mr. Bee flew to southern California to visit me the first week of December, and we drove down to La Jolla/San Diego for 4 days. In retrospect it seems a little crazy that we went away for the weekend the second time we ever saw each other. But we’d been talking on the phone every day, including a record breaking 10 hour conversation, and it felt like we’d known each other forever. The weekend was relaxing and wonderful. Spending 4 days, 24 hours a day together without fighting is a good sign - we really got along.

I flew to New York to spend Christmas and New Year’s with Mr. Bee. We did all the couple-y things like go to Rockefeller Center, ice skate at Wollman Rink, romantic dinners and drinks out on the town. On Christmas Day we had tons of presents for each other. The first Christmas together as a couple is always so exciting. This was my favorite present - I’m a scrapbooker so Mr. Bee bought me a scrapbook and filled it with scrapbooking supplies…

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I originally posted this story on my personal wedding blog over 3 years ago.  It was transferred into the Weddingbee archives so some of you may have read it, but since the vast majority of you haven’t, I thought I’d repost the series this week!

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I joined xanga, a blogging community, in April of 2003, and little did I know that it was soon to become a part of my daily life. The site is very addictive if I do say so myself! In June of 2003, I posted about a serious problem I was having with my family businesses. I was stressed, overwhelmed, and just venting. Mr. Bee contacted me through an email link on my site, after he read the post, because he thought he might be able to help me out. I’d never had any prior contact with him, but I gave him my work phone number, he called, and we talked briefly. He gave me some advice about different things I could do and if that didn’t pan out, he said he’d call in a favor from someone he knew in local government. Luckily, the problem worked itself out soon after, and I emailed Mr. Bee to thank him for offering his help to a complete stranger.

Months went by. We commented on each other’s sites from time to time, but we didn’t really have any other interaction - not a phone call, not a text message, not an email, not an instant message. One day I blogged about coming to New York for a vacation in November (I was living in LA at the time), and through a series of comments back and forth on each other’s sites, we somehow decided to meet up while I was there. I didn’t know anything about him other than his job and his age because he didn’t really blog often, but I wanted to thank him for trying to help me out. He had an unfair advantage because knew me thru my xanga where I had detailed pretty much every moment of my life for the past six months.
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A while back, I posted about the special little ladies we hope to have as flower girls at our wedding. I say hope because Mr. Latte still hasn’t asked them! Remember those felt flower bouquets I made? The personalized ones with the ceramic initial letters and pretty pink ribbon handles? Yup, they’re still sitting in the trunk of Mr. Latte’s car.

Now before we start getting angry at the Mr’s in our lives (I can see this turning into an entirely different kind of post), it’s not entirely Mr. Latte’s fault. Both Mr. Latte and the girls’ family have been super busy so they haven’t been able to meet up for him to pop the big question to the little girls. He has promised me that this is THE weekend, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Anyway, I wanted to do something equally fun for our special little guys. These two boys are brothers and they hold a very special place in my heart… I’ve watched them grow from tiny newborn babies into big boys that love to run around, crack jokes and make people laugh. The older one, “N”, is super smart, has a stellar memory and is friends with THE John Malkovich. (No joke). The younger one, “J”, loves to play sports, helps clean up around the house and is going to be the biggest heartbreaker one day.

What could I do for these Star Wars, basketball, and Lego-lovin’ kids? Well, since Star Wars scares me, basketball bores me, and “N” can out-build me with his eyes closed (he’s really THAT good), I decided to go the boooring route and make them something wedding related.
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Last weekend, I escaped the freezing Boston weather and jetted to the Bay Area to visit Mr. Latte. Since our last few visits had been crammed full of wedding planning, we vowed not to do anything wedding related. Well, that was until I saw that Crate & Barrel was having their “Wedding Party” Registry event!!! I quickly signed up and proceeded to persuade Mr. Latte into going with me while I was in town. He gave in quickly when I promised him that they would have food, drinks and… a free gift! (I didn’t tell him that the free gift was going to be a hand blown glass heart bowl, but those are just details, right???)

So we got up early on Sunday morning and headed over to the huge Santana Row C&B. Doors opened at 9AM, and we would be able to roam freely with our scanner for about 2 hours. Armed with a cup of coffee, a copy of our existing registry and my TO DO list, we waited in line for the doors to open. Yes, there was a line… and yes, we had already started our registry. Actually, we were almost done with it, but I had a couple of items that I wanted to get finalized.

The doors opened, we checked in, got our scanners, and were led on a mini-tour of the store. We were then set free and I got to work tackling the items on my TO DO list.

Mr. Latte apparently had a TO DO list of his own, which looked a lot less complicated and a lot more fun than mine:
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One of the very few wedding-related tasks that I completely delegated to Mr. Latte was researching and reserving blocks of hotel rooms. I made up some lame excuse about why he should take care of it… something about how his friends were the ones that would need the hotel block, and since he knows them better than I do, he should be the one to do it. I know, super lame… but it worked!

In reality, I did not want to have anything to do with this aspect of wedding planning. I had heard horror stories from friends about hotels not honoring discounted rates, high minimums and unrelenting customer service representatives. I just didn’t want to deal with it! And to be honest, I just can’t get that excited about a hotel. I am not a fan of sleeping in strange beds, in strange rooms and hearing strange noises at night. This is unfortunate because I travel a lot for work. Sure, I’ve stayed in some really nice hotels, but it just takes a lot for me to get excited about a hotel stay.

But when you can say “bunk bed,” “hammock,” and “sunken bed,” all in 1 sentence, how can you be anything but excited? Yup, these can all be found at the NU Hotel in Brooklyn. A new boutique hotel (opened in July ’08), this hotel boasts fresh designs that looked so cool online that I had to go see it in person. I immediately loved the trendy feel of the lobby, and the clean look of the rooms. Check out these pictures from their website:

(NU’s lobby)

Their standard rooms are nice, but check out these suites:
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In my previous post, I told you all about my J.Crew letdown that left my special ladies without special dresses. So we decided to go the old-fashioned route and actually went to a store to try some dresses on. I wish I could tell you that we went to 1 place, found our dresses and were done, but c’mon, this is the Latte wedding. Remember me? The one with the 4.5 part dress saga???

Yup, I dragged my poor BMs to 6 shops before finally deciding on some dresses. I know, I’m one meanie bride. But it gets worse. I dragged them out in the snow. And changed my mind. A lot.

Honestly, I would’ve been happy with any of the dresses we tried on. But I really wanted them to like, no, LOVE their dresses. I know what you’re thinking… that’s impossible! No BM loves her dress! And who cares… she’s never going to wear the dress again anyway! Well, I think it IS possible and I care! I want them to feel special and beautiful on my wedding day, and ladies, we all know that when you look good, you feel good!

Now the challenge was finding a dress they would all love and feel beautiful in. And although we fought the good fight, we lost. My BMs have different body types and style preferences, so finding one dress that would be perfect for all of them was next to impossible. So we changed up our game plan, and decided to look for two styles in the same color and fabric. The search continued… but finding two coordinating styles was harder that we thought!

That is, until we walked into Allegria Bridal in Belmont, MA. With the help of THE most wonderful consultant, Barb*, we found four perfectly coordinating styles! They all have similarities that tie them together (empire waists, strapless, full skirts) but are different enough to fit each girl’s style and body shape. BM H doesn’t like strapless, so she can add spaghetti straps. My MOH can have the rouched top that she loves.

They are all from the Jim Hjelm Occasions line so we are assured that the color and fabric will be the same. So without further adieu, here they are!

(Yes, I Photoshopped the dresses together. I’m a visual person.)

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For the right bride, this would be the most amazing bouquet!

Giant crepe paper rose
(approx. 18″x12″)

I admit it. I DVR Martha Stewart because I love watching her make things and grill her guests. Even though I subscribe to MS Living, I still like seeing the action live and she often provides better tips on television than what’s printed in the magazine. And I have to say that I feel like I’ve got more of an insider’s perspective after attending the show with a few bees in September.

Yesterday, while watching one the recent episodes, Martha invited one of her staffers, Morgan Levine, to show off her crepe flower making skills. I’ll be honest, I’ve seen crepe flowers before and have never been very impressed, but WOW these were amazing.
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J.Crew and I have had a loving relationship for over a decade. She (He? Would J.Crew be a “he”? Nah!) always provided for my every clothing need. When I needed a dress for my high school graduation, who was there? J.Crew. When I needed a suit to wear for my very first job interview, who provided? J.Crew. When I needed “cool” outer wear to impress my friends, who came through? J.Crew. Yup, she has always been there for me with fashionable clothing that keeps me rollin’ in style.

(Remember this bad boy from the mid-’90s? This J.Crew anorak was STYLIN’!!!)

Naturally, I turned to her first for bridesmaid dresses to outfit my special ladies. And faithfully, she provided me with some beautiful dresses. Taffeta, cotton cady, and silk chiffon in a wide array of styles and silhouettes. Colors like light flamingo, fresh mint, tea rose and spiced wine in reasonable prices that made me… WAIT, hold up J.Crew. $225 for a taffeta dress? Since when did you get so pricey, missy?!?

Oh, that’s right. I’d been hanging with J.Crew’s stepsister, Miss J.Crew-Sale Rack. I couldn’t possibly ask my BMs to shell out that much for a dress, so as a result, my relationship with J.Crew was severed. We were officially in a fight.
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I have seriously been thinking about how to reduce the clutter at home and was also inspired by Mrs. Bee’s post on Weddingbee Pro about organization. I have a confession to make: Although we moved over a year ago, Mr. Canary and I still have a room (meant to be our office) that is stacked to the brim with stuff that we keep shifting around the apartment because we, a) don’t know what to do with it, b) are too tired to deal with it, or c) started to work on, but never finished it. The room is at the point where we have to move about three boxes and then climb over a few other items in order to get something. There is no room to work. Ultimately, we deal with it by shutting the door and ignoring it until it starts to bother us again and we attempt to organize it some more, but we never manage to get the job done.

Despite having very specific interests, we accumulate A LOT in keeping up with our collections. My vices include: Etsy finds, paper/stationery, shoes (I own over 60 pairs!), and books. I realize a lot of this has to do with me and less so with Mr. Canary who only has a few dear possessions (CDs and books) and is very nice and never scolds me on my purchases. When I am overwhelmed and try to organize, I tend to see it as an opportunity to go nuts at the Container Store and purchase more junk to hide the stuff I should be getting rid of. It’s a vicious cycle!

And it’s not about being clean or messy. Mr. Canary and I are super clean. We even caved and hired a house cleaner who visits every two weeks, but that didn’t help the office situation much. The bottom line is that although we have a clean home, we just never make the time to really tackle the “stuff” we don’t need or want.
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Although I was born and raised in New York, it has taken me a while to venture out of Manhattan to explore new neighborhoods. It wasn’t until Mr. Canary and I moved to an up and coming neighborhood, did we start venturing into the outskirts of Queens and Brooklyn to check out new restaurants and shops.

With the economy the way it is, I’ve been trying my best to support local vendors, particularly artists and crafters. Lately, I’ve been spending a lot of time in Williamsburg, Brooklyn where there are a plethora of great boutiques, not to mention fantastic music venues and restaurants.

A new shop that has become a big favorite (I’ve already been there twice this week!) that I’ve been telling all my friends about is Tria. I wish I had discovered this store when I was planning the wedding because I would have adorned my wonderful bridesmaids (and myself!) with the coolest jewelry and hats!

Tria is the brainchild of three collectors/artists/designers: Ryan Wilde, Valerie Bowers, and Georgia Varidakis. Like a superhero team, each brings her own talent. Ryan is the resident milliner. Her creations have graced the pages of bridal magazines and appeared in Patricia Field’s (SATC costumer) shop. Valerie is a vintage scout. She fills the store with the best finds from estate sales. When I’m in the store, I have to stay away from Valerie’s collection of vintage earrings. I’ve already gone home with several pairs, since they’re all just too irresistible! And last, but not least, Georgia is the jewelry designer. She is self-taught and makes the most delicate and charming necklaces and rings.

A perfect bridesmaid gift. I love these simple charm necklaces. They can be customized with initials, numbers, and stones.

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Hi, my name is Miss Latte and I have an addiction. It’s the first thing I use in the morning and the last thing I do before going to bed at night. I can’t leave home without it, but just in case I do, I leave stashes of it in random places: in my car, top drawer of my work desk, even in the side pocket of my gym bag.

And it’s no secret. For my birthday last year, instead of a cute bag or sweater, people got me what I really wanted. Yup, I got 5 more to add to my stash.

What is this addictive substance, you ask? It’s this:

OK, so I was being overly dramatic. It’s not illegal or incredibly hazardous to my health, but it might as well be; it’s some powerful stuff. Now this is not your average Chapstick or lip balm. It’s like Chapstick on steroids… it’s got it all. It’s shiny and smooth and gives you that “just glossed” look. It has just the right amount of that minty tingling feeling that every good lip product needs. And it has peppermint oil infused in it so it smells great and leaves your breath minty fresh. Yes, I’ve tried it… it tastes pretty good, too.
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This is just a reminder for anyone who is interested:

Swap sign-ups close tomorrow on January 30. If you are still interested, please sign up following the directions here.

Also, many of you signed up for a Swap-Bot account and requested membership in the Weddingbee group, but did not sign up for the swap. Make sure you do! Otherwise, once the deadline passes we can not add or remove participants.

I’ve already started planning out my valentines and am looking forward to mailing them out!

It’s been 3 business days since my STD post, and you know what that means… it’s finally unveiling day!!! After months of racking our brains for a unique STD idea, Mr. Latte and I finally came up with a STD postcard that we thought screamed “us”.

You like?

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