Weddingbee Blog

It’s that time of year again… get out your glue guns and glitter for another year of Valentine’s crafting! This year, to make sure that everyone gets a valentine, we are using Swap-Bot to help coordinate the swap. For all you crazy crafters and swappers out there, Swap-Bot is a great way to collect handmade goodies and share them with other aficionados. It’s easy! Just sign up for an account and join the Weddingbee group. After you are accepted into the group, sign up for the group swap. After the swap deadline, you will receive an email containing the addresses of your swap partners.

How it works:

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When Mr. Latte and I started looking at e-rings, I had a pretty good idea of what I liked and disliked. I knew I wanted a round center stone, and to keep it company, some little buddies on the side.

I thought I was all set… until I started reading posts like this. And this. Wait, what? I have to think about my wedding band sitting flush? I relayed this information to Mr. Latte and gave him some extra things to “consider.” OK, I’ll fess up. I gave him a picture… or two. Maybe more.

(One of the pictures Mr. Latte received.)

Poor Mr. Latte had a hard time finding a ring similar to the one in my picture.
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A few weeks ago, I attended an annual event at my company, where I had to give a speech in front of 200 people. I have to do this every year, and every year, I look at photos of myself and wish I had gotten a professional makeup application. So this year, I decided to do just that.

Too cold… Here I am on a normal day without makeup. I hardly wear makeup during the week.

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It’s official, the Lattes are getting married! Our Save the Dates were mailed out today which means that they should be in the hands (or refrigerator doors) of our guests in a couple of days. I can’t wait to share them with you!!! But since snail mail takes some time, I’ll tell you the tale of how they came to be.

Our STDs were months in the making. Actually, even longer if you count the months they were being created in my head. So even before the engagement, I knew that I wanted to do a photobooth style of STD. You know, the ones with the happy couple making silly, but cute faces while holding up signs that have the words “SAVE”, “THE” and “DATE” on them. Very cute and SO very Latte.

Apparently, it’s a pretty popular idea because I started seeing them everywhere. I knew it was a matter of time before someone in my circle of friends and acquaintances would snatch up my precious idea. Every time a STD would show up in my mailbox, I would hold my breath and will it to be anything but a photobooth style card.

So when the time came to make our own, I quickly set up my camera’s automatic timer and forced Mr. Latte to smile… then laugh… then make funny faces as we took shot after shot holding up a large white sign. It did not work.

Exhibit A:

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Much to Mr. Latte’s disappointment (or maybe relief is a better word), he couldn’t get out to the East Coast for the 2nd installment of the big, bad venue search. So, Day 2’s victim? Momma Latte. I dragged poor Momma Latte around town to check out three more venues. Our first stop?

The Central Park Boathouse, New York NY

There is nothing more “New York” than Central Park. And the CPB is located right smack in the middle of it. It’s also right next to the lake, home of the Venetian gondolas, and also where Mr. Latte and I spent a lot of time talking and getting to know each other on our first date. The ceremony would be held inside the main ballroom, cocktails would be outside on the terrace, and everyone would come back indoors for dinner. The room itself is beautiful… the dark wood and huge windows just gives it a super romantic feel.

Momma Latte loved it! And apparently, so did everyone else getting married in NYC. Not surprisingly, the CPB books up FAST. They didn’t have our holiday weekend available, but had a couple of nights open later in the summer. I wanted to check with Mr. Latte before making any hasty decisions, so we decided to move on to our next location.

The lakeside terrace

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This is the final part in our series that Mr. Canary has been graciously writing about our Italian honeymoon. Mrs. Canary promises not to be a bad blogger and finish up the rest of the wedding recaps ASAP!

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Days 9-11: Siena

It didn’t take long after arriving in Siena to understand what people mean when they describe the city’s “cool”. It is not a large city by any means, but substantial enough to field one of the most beautiful epicenters in the entire country—the main square, Il Campo, bowed in the middle and shaped like a clamshell—a sizeable collection of art and architecture destinations, and an easygoing, assured vibe that makes Florence, its longtime rival, seem hectic and tourist-saturated by comparison. (One of our guidebooks even goes so far as to recommend visitors to Tuscany to stay in Siena and do Florence and its treasure trove of attractions as a day trip—which, all told, is a great idea.)
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I love NYC, the “City” (not the new MTV show… well ok yeah, that too). I grew up in small town NJ, about 25 min outside Manhattan. Although I didn’t venture in that much growing up, that all changed when I started attending grad school in the city. I quickly fell in love with the different neighborhoods, the hustle and bustle of the people and OH MAN, the food!!! Food holds a special place in my heart.

And so does Mr. Latte, of course. I love NYC even more because it brings back so many wonderful memories of Mr. Latte and my relationship. We had our first “dates” in the city… watching broadway shows, walking for hours in Central Park and eating at awesome restaurants (see? FOOD! yum).

So when we started thinking of potential venues for our wedding, we toyed with the idea of having it in Boston (where I live) or in the Bay Area (where Mr. Latte lives). And OH the possibilities those two locations would bring! Picture this: a New England wedding on the banks of the Atlantic, with a striped lighthouse and white Adirondack chairs. OR how about this: saying our vows in a small vineyard tucked away in Napa Valley, where the wine runs like water. Sigh. But in my mind, it was NYC all the way.

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I love summer nights in Boston. I love the comfortable temperature, the smell of summer rain and all the fun things to do outside. From free movies on the Esplanade to camping under the stars, we Bostonians know how to take advantage of our short summer months.

My absolute favorite summer evening activity is to take a trip out to the Berkshires. This region in MA is the summer retreat of the Boston Pops Orchestra, where they perform outdoors at Tanglewood. Laying out under the stars hearing the orchestra play beautiful classical pieces is so relaxing and peaceful… and oh-so-romantic! It was my secret dream to get engaged out in Tanglewood. Well, secret until the summer of 2006 when I blurted it out to some friends who came to Tanglewood with me that year. Sigh, me and my big mouth.

Fast-forward 2 years.
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Mr. Latte and I love kids. Many of our friends have children and we’ve been privileged to watch them grow from tiny newborn babies to loveable, huggable kids. Most of them are between the ages of 3 and 5… making them the PERFECT age for flower girls and ring boys!

Now the hard part… which of these kiddies do we ask to be with us on our big day? We finally decided that to be fair, I would ask 2 of my favorite little boys to be our ring boys and Mr. Latte would ask 2 of his favorite little girls to be our flower girls. I’m all about fairness.

The 2 flower girls are twins and will be 3 1/2 years old by our wedding date. They are actually flower girls-to-be, as Mr. Latte hasn’t asked them yet! They are adorable little girls and our wedding would be their flower girl debut. For this reason, I wanted Mr. Latte to give them something special when he asked them. I’m sure they would’ve been perfectly content with a lollipop or a cupcake, but c’mon peeps, those aren’t wedding related! Plus, I was feeling the urge to craft so I decided to make (little) lady versions of my bridesmaids flower ideas…felt flower bouquets!
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(Disclaimer: as I am not Chinese, some of the things I write below may be incorrect. Please correct me if I’m wrong! And, as always, all photos are courtesy of our wonderful photographer Danny Weiss.)

The Chinese Wedding Tea Ceremony between the couple and the groom’s family is designed to formally introduce the bride to the groom’s family. It is probably, if not, the most significant part of a modern Chinese wedding.

Traditionally, the tea ceremony takes place early in the morning of the wedding. Although the ceremony is usually performed at the groom’s home, we decided that shuttling everyone to and from New Jersey would take up too much time and money. As a result, Mr Peony’s family set shop in a suite in the same hotel where the bridal party got ready.

Mr Peony’s uncle, waiting patiently for the ceremony to begin:

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Choosing the ladies to stand next to me on my big day was easy. How to ask them, however, was not. These ladies mean a lot to me and have contributed in different ways to my life, so I wanted to do something special and memorable for them. But even after hours of surfing the web, was at a complete loss for a unique idea. So, I did as I always do when I’m online and have nowhere to go (after Weddingbee, of course) and headed to www.paper-source.com.

As I clicked through their collection of Gocco inks and new rubber stamps, I found this:

(paper flower kit)

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Remember those SAT analogies we all despised back in high school? Yeah, I blocked them out of my memory too. C’mon, let’s try one together…

Miss Latte : Mr. Latte ::

(A) East : West
(B) Lunch : Breakfast
(C) Bed Time : Video Game Time
(D) All of the Above

Answer: D

Get it??? This shouldn’t be hard… refer to my previous post for a clue. OK fine, I work in education so to be fair, here’s a bigger clue for you visual folks.

(A card I made for Mr. Latte early in our relationship)

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In addition to the Chinese Tea Ceremony, Mr Peony was also eager for us to participate in Chinese Wedding Door Games.

I am not too familiar with the tradition, so I will let China Bridal do the explanation:

Door game originated from ancient time which implies that the bride is a lovely girl and her family and friends do not want to marry her away. The groom will be blocked at the bride’s door, and her friends will try to stop him from entering by asking questions about the bride, a way to test if he really cares about her. They may also do other tricks to delay the bride’s leaving. The groom will try to buy his way in by presenting “Li Shi”, token money wrapped in red envelopes. The entire “bargain” process is joyous and good-natured.

There is a large variety of games that can be played, and some of them can be rather embarrassing! For some examples of funny door games, see here and here. Many times, the groom is not able to fulfill the task by himself, so his groomsmen will need to step in and help out.

Since our wedding party was at a hotel, we decided to keep the door games relatively short and painless…

The boys arrive at the girls’ suite:
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Now that the dress search has come to a happy ending, are you ready to move on? YES, me too. Next up? Wedding colors!

I think wedding color combos are super important as they can pretty much set the scene/feel/mood of the wedding. Other aspects, of course, work to create a final “look”, but colors invoke such a strong feeling that will translate to the wedding day. For example… close your eyes… what words come to mind when you think of these colors?

Yellow and white? Light and fresh!

Black and white? Formal and modern!

Orange and brown? Warm and cozy!

As usual, I had a hard time choosing colors. Mr. Latte and I wanted our wedding to have a clean, crisp and casual feeling for our guests. So we had to think outside of the proverbial (Crayola) box to come up with a palette that fit our wedding style.

Mr Latte’s only request was that the colors weren’t too “girly”.
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With all four bridesmaids, my mother-in-law, and myself all scheduled for hair and makeup, we girls started the day bright and early at 8AM so that we would be ready for the traditional Chinese tea ceremony at 1PM.

The only problem with this plan was that we had booked our photographer, Danny Weiss, for 10 hours. Would we sacrifice “getting ready” pictures for more photos of the reception?

In the end, Mr. Peony and I decided that reception photos were more important to us. As a result we scheduled Danny to arrive at 12 noon. He got to the hotel just in time to catch Claudia Pedala, my hair stylist, add finishing touches to my ’do (all photos by Danny Weiss):

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