…and it’s almost sold out!
Join Weddingbee and a slew of our favorite Northern California friends, vendors, and brands as we toast to YOU, 2013 brides, at The Lab Event THIS SATURDAY at Cline Cellars in Sonoma, CA!
Come by and get all the info, inspiration, and ideas you need for the perfect Nor Cal wedding. The Lab Event isn’t your typical “bridal show in a hotel conference room” – check out the trailer from last year’s event below, and join us for an even bigger and badder celebration this year.
The Lab Event 2012 {Cline Cellars} Sonoma from Lovespun ~ Handmade Films on Vimeo.
Weddingbee will be there as hive member foolsintherain’s inspiration board “A Midsummer Night’s Dream Forest Wedding” is brought to life by some of the most talented vendors in the area. We can’t wait!
There are only a few tickets left before The Lab 2013 is at max capacity, so grab one of the last tickets NOW. We’ll see you there this Saturday!
I buzzed in 14 months ago with the Sound of Music, so I found it only appropriate to buzz on out with the Sound of Music. 
Hive, it’s been fun but my time here has come to an end. When I first started blogging as a bee, I had no idea how this little world would end up shaping certain aspects of our wedding. Like when I didn’t know what to do about my cork board collage (or pretty much all my other projects). It looked terrible the way I originally had it, but you all gave me some fantastic tips and tricks and suddenly it morphed into a great project. Or when my first hair trial turned out to be a hot mess, you helped me out and guided me to a better option. How about the time I accidentally got locked out of my house when I was suppose to be going to pick up my dress? You offered up some of your own “uh oh” moments that were equally as hilarious.
Another one was when I thought our koozies would be trashy and you all supported my slightly redneck, yet totally awesome, decision to have them anyway.
All of your comments and helpful suggestions truly meant so much to me. I lit up every time I received a notification that I had a new comment and I took to heart all of your advice, love and sometimes constructive criticism.
When it comes to weddings and dancing, I’ve seen both sides of the spectrum. I’ve been to the weddings that were highly energetic with tons of people dancing and I have also been to the more laid back weddings where people were busier conversing at tables than hitting the dance floor. Both are great, but I really wasn’t sure what would happen at our wedding. I had an inkling that we wouldn’t have many people dancing at our wedding and I was totally fine with that.
Boy was I ever wrong. Apparently our friends and family really love to dance—who knew? I certainly didn’t.
I danced with my husband’s friends:
I busted a move, or whatever you want to call it, with my parents. The sad thing is I am fairly certain we were dancing to Sexy Back and NOT Walk Like an Egyptian, but whatevs.
I am going to jump ahead a bit in the evening. Mainly because I feel like talking about this right now. Good enough, right?
You know how people say that something will happen during your wedding that you won’t be prepared for? Coming from a grade A Girl Scout over here, I somewhat scoffed at the idea of not being prepared. I am always prepared.
But here’s the thing, you cannot control other peoples actions. What you can control is your response.
Once the open dancing got under way, people really started to let loose and have fun. Unfortunately, one of our guests broke one of the golden rules of bringing drinks onto the dance floor. You just cannot jump up and down and control your drink at the same time.
Insert the party foul of all party fouls. He spilled his drink. All down the front of my maid of honor’s dress.
I won’t completely point out which dude was the offender in this picture, but take a wild guess. This picture was taken literally the moment after it happened. You can even see my sister in the middle looking down at herself realizing that there is some type of alcoholic beverage all down the front of her dress. I obviously had not realized quite yet what had happened.
There are a few different ways we could have handled this situation. The big sister in me wanted to grab him by his tie and yell at him. I know accidents happen, but you really shouldn’t be getting sloppy on the dance floor at a wedding. Also, I would probably lose the whole “classy bride” thing.
We had a little switcharoo of the bouquet toss music the morning of the wedding. Originally we had planned on “Beautiful Girls” by Van Halen. However, around the same time as my wedding was when what I like to call the “Call Me Maybe” blowup occurred. My bridesmaids and I could not get enough of the song and such parodies as:
(Video via You Tube)
And while these were not out at the time, they are currently among our favorites:
…the bees envy me. But not you bees…the bees in “My Girl,” of course.
I always knew my dance with my dad would be to “My Girl” by The Temptations. That has just been “my” song for as long as I can remember. My dad was a bit more hesitant though, thinking that it has been overdone. But, the more we thought about it we realized, who cares? It is my fist and only wedding, so why does it matter? We decided to just go with it, despite a small concern that it is fairly upbeat. My mom told us just to dance around and we will be fine. Easy for her to say!
As it turns out, my mom was right. We did just dance around and get completely lost in our father daughter moment. I am glad we chose to dance to “My Girl” because it is just one of those songs that I can sing at the top of my lungs to and not care who is watching.
In almost every picture I am either laughing or singing along like some bad karaoke.
Although I always thought taking dance lessons before the wedding would be fun, I quickly brushed it off assuming Mr. Buck would have no interest. He surprised me when he brought up the idea approximately two months before the wedding. His biggest concern was the high school sway—which we have perfected up until this point in our life. He, of course, naturally assumed he would be burdened by two left feet. I did some research and decided to use Barbara’s Dancing Tonight in Davis, California. I found her prices to be reasonable and she was willing to customize different packages for exactly the type of instruction you want.
As it turns out, even though I had been a cheerleader for years growing up and performed in many theatrical plays, apparently I had somehow lost that talent. While I wasn’t a terrible dancer, I was, in fact, a slow learner. Mr. Buck on the other hand was incredibly coordinated and a very quick learner. We decided to keep our dance lessons a secret so that we could surprise everyone at the wedding—mainly his family who would never in a million years think he would do dance lessons. He is a baseball player, hunter…manly man. And apparently a pretty sweet foxtrottin’ machine as well.
I wrote a while back about my concerns of trying to dance to a song that is really neither slow nor fast. I am glad we decided to take lessons because we were able to learn the foxtrot, which is perfect for “Better Together” by Jack Johnson.
A quick yet funny side story before I move on. The night before the wedding, we were at the hotel and we were both very nervous about our impending dance. We felt as though we needed to practice a few more times until we felt more confident. I secretly asked the hotel if we could borrow one of their meeting rooms to practice in. (Hi, I’m the bride, please don’t say no. Insert cheesy yet impressive smile here.) They agreed, but asked that we make sure the furniture was moved back into place should we move it. Well, they gave us the smallest meeting room ever, so we did have to move the furniture around.
More important to this story, though, is that our friends and family had no idea where we were. They kept calling and texting us, but the problem was the only way we had to practice with music was with our iPhone. Which means every time they called us, we had to stop and then start again. Apparently, they all started cracking jokes about where the heck we were.
Soon after I had found my dress, I had thought to myself, “Wouldn’t it be cool if our cake could match my dress?” As you all have seen by now, the bottom of my dress was very distinctive in that it was ruffled and resembled whipped cream. Of course I couldn’t share that piece of information with Mr. Buck, but I did explain to him my idea of what I thought our cake should look like.
Kelly Dalisa, owner of our venue Monte Verde Inn, is the mastermind and creator behind all of the wedding cakes. I shared with her my idea, and not only did she says she could do it but she also threw in some of her own ideas. Up until our wedding day I was anticipating what our cake would look like, especially since we had such a specific look we were trying to achieve.
The morning of our wedding while I was getting ready at the Inn, Kelly Dalisa told me that our cake is among one of her favorites that she has done. Now, for all I know she tells all her brides that, but I believed her and she certainly succeeded in getting me excited. She wouldn’t reveal it to me, though, until it was time to actually cut the cake. She wanted me to have my “cake moment.”
We had a quick break before it was time to cut the cake. Kelly Dalisa retrieved us right before it was time to gather everyone for the cutting so she could personally show us our cake. I could tell she really was excited with the work she had done. I was excited myself, but I was simply blown away when I finally saw our ruffled cake in person.
It was everything I could have possibly dreamed of in all of my wedding-cake fantasies. The ruffles, the creaminess, the pale pink flowers, the way the “J” that I had feverishly worked on flocked the top…everything about it was spot on. It also weirdly perfectly matched my wedding gown…I have no idea how she was able to match it so effortlessly. Take a look at the comparison:
After the journey from the drizzling outdoors into the warm ballroom indoors, it was time to begin toasts. I am the type of person that enjoys giving toasts—receiving is a whole different story. Hearing people say such nice things about you and being surrounded by so many people is quite overwhelming. It also makes you feel incredibly blessed and loved.
My sister had worked so hard on her toast, and it definitely showed. It was the perfect mixture of humor and sentiment. She even made reference to the top movies and songs that were out during the time Mr. Buck and I met. Such as Kelly Clarkson’s “A Moment Like This,” Usher’s “You Got It Bad,” as well as the first Harry Potter movie. This definitely got the crowd laughing with big toothy smiles.
After our entrance into dinner, we were seated at our spot at the head table. At this point I kind of wish I had hired a second shooter to go with our photographer. It was his turn to eat as well, so there aren’t a ton of photos of dinnertime. But, that’s OK—words will have to do.
Everyone says the bride and groom never get to eat much on their wedding day. I tell you what, if you get married at the Monte Verde Inn, you will have your fair share of delicious food. They had saved us appetizers from when we were taking our photos and had them ready for us right when we sat down. This was beyond amazing because we kind of figured we wouldn’t have an opportunity to try any of our appetizers. They were one step ahead of us, therefore we were able to sample the delicious duck spring rolls, cucumber rounds with smoked salmon mousse, and mini Caribbean crab and shrimp cakes with mango salsa.
From there they made sure the bridal party had whatever drink they so desired in their hand. Our glasses weren’t even empty when the Monte Verde staff would be at our side again pouring us another drink. It was spectacular service on quite another level.
We were then served our entrees, which included spice rubbed sea bass with a cilantro lime & chipotle chili aioli and wild rice pilaf for myself, and smoked prime rib and a twice-baked potato for Mr. Buck. Although I think a buffet is a wonderful option, we were happy we decided to go with a plated dinner. Our guests were able to stay comfortable in their seats while they were served dinner. It worked out quite well, and from what we could tell our guests really enjoyed dinner.
Toward the end of dinner the rain started to make its entrance once again. Which provided my bridesmaids with the golden opportunity to look extra cute:
No umbrella? No worries! Dinner napkins work just as well.
Now that all the formal photos had been taken, it was time for our grand entrance into dinner. The bridal party was hidden toward the back of the property while our guests had just settled into their proper seats. I felt a huge sense of awkwardness heading my way, and I wasn’t entirely sure how to handle it.
You see, I have always envisioned what our grand entrance would be like. I have seen numerous photos here on the ’Bee where the bride and groom waltz down a tunnel made of their friends. The bride and groom throw their hands up and everyone claps and all is jolly. However, I was concerned I would look like a total nerd if I tried to pull this off. I really didn’t seen it happening the way I had always envisioned. Would we throw our hands up, bouquet held high in the air? Would we smile, kiss, and wave at everyone? Maybe we should break out in cartwheels and somersaults? I had no idea, but I didn’t like that I didn’t have a plan. Luckily I didn’t have too much time to dwell on this, so my natural reaction would just have to do.
As James Taylor’s “How Sweet It Is” began to play (which, by the way, is the perfect song for a wedding entrance) it was time for us to head on out and make our grand entrance. I am not entirely sure what came over me, maybe happiness and love took over in the driver’s seat? Either way, I ended up doing a slight shimmy and then my bouquet and arms went up in the air and my smile lit up the pathway.
I have no clue where that came from, maybe from my old theater days? Who knows, but it all worked out and I don’t think I looked too awkward. We walked through a tunnel of our bridal party and made our way over to our spot at the head table. Our guests clapped and cheered, and it was nothing but pure fun with a dash of shimmy thrown in for good measure.
Now that Mr. Buck and I had finished taking our photos, it was time to move on to family and bridal-party photos. We had taken our sweet time, so we needed to make a move on things. I was concerned we were going to leave our guests waiting too long. Little did I know that our venue already had a time schedule put together and they were subtly making sure we stuck to it. It was so helpful that they did this because I really had not thought much about a time schedule. You get married and things like time and food really seem to float out the door.
One of my all-time favorite photos taken from the wedding was not even taken by our photographer. It was in fact taken by my grandma, who happened to push the button at the perfect time. Mr. Buck had just cracked a joke and this was our response:
Mr. Buck: “Aren’t I so very witty?”
Me: “You are the funniest man alive!”
Dad: “Oh Buck, you sure know how to keep things lively.”
Mom: “I’m not really sure what everyone is laughing at, but Doe looks pretty flipping funny right now.”
As we headed out from the ceremony to begin taking photos, I quickly noticed that the rain was starting to reveal itself. Not to the point where you are saying “run for cover,” but more or less you realize that it is indeed raining. Kelly Dalisa, owner at our venue Monte Verde Inn, must have seen my rain frustration because she quickly handed us each a glass of champagne. It was that or the fact that we just got married. Yeah, that was probably it.
One of the first photos taken after the ceremony is one I am not too happy with. I’m sure I look normal to most people, but I look at that picture and I have flashbacks to what I was thinking.
Thoughts going through my head:
“Is it seriously raining? Memorial Day weekend?!”
“I curse myself for not ordering cute umbrellas.”
“I really need a Mary Poppins bag. Like right now. From which I could withdraw an umbrella.”
“Preferably a white lacy bridal umbrella.”
“This champagne is delish.”
Luckily the rain subsided for a bit so that we could head off and take some photos. Here’s some advice for all of you for taking photos. And no, I am not going to say to make a list of all the poses you want. I am going to say: MAKE SURE YOU BRING THE LIST WITH YOU. Yeah, I forgot it. So we had to wing it, but luckily we had that “just married” charm so the photos turned out pretty well.
I last left off with the birds and all the elements joining in on the excitement that was our wedding ceremony. Even after I wrote that post, I had some of my bridesmaids and guests tell me that they, too, thought the birds were fake. Come on people, I can be cheesy…but fake birds aren’t quite my thing. Someone even commented that luckily none of the birds did their business on any of our guests. I never even thought of that but that sure would have been a story to tell! Alas, the birds whistled their way through our ceremony as the thunder rolled and the rain drops begged to meet the ground.
Our ceremony was short and sweet, and before I knew it, our officiant pronounced us married and Mr. Buck could now kiss his bride.
Soon after that, the recessional song started and it was time to head back down the aisle. We chose “Do You Remember” by Jack Johnson because not only is it one of or favorite songs, it also refers to being together for over ten years. It just so happens to be the perfect tempo for walking down an aisle as well; I highly recommend for your walking pleasure.
Up until this point I have prefaced the fact that the weather was a slight concern to us. The clouds were rolling in with a vengeance. Here is a photo a guest of ours took with their phone (amazing, right?) that shows exactly what we started to deal with towards the start of the ceremony.
Not exactly how I expected our Spring wedding to be, but we decided to just roll with what the weather wanted and see what happens. Earlier in the day, the decision had been made to attempt to have the ceremony and dinner outside, with the rest of the reception inside the Inn. When we started the ceremony we had an inkling that we might be cutting it close.
