Weddingbee Blog

The weather, so far, is so good.

On Tuesday, I said goodbye to my coworkers as a single lady, to return as a married woman.

On Wednesday, we carted all our items to the caterer and put them in their capable hands, leaving us with nothing to do but hang out with family and wait.

My stomach has been doing flips, even though I would tell you I’m not stressed out, and everybody’s been saying how calm I am. You could have fooled my tummy.

Family descended upon us.

Today, we rehearse our wedding. The girls and I will get our nails done, and then eat some yummy seafood. I’ll stay up way too late.

And then, we’ll get married.
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First in our final series of pre-wedding appointments was our florist. I knew that I was going to be beyond happy that we’d gone with a professional, and the particular florist we did. I’d heard nothing but great reviews, and could handle the price point. They have been nothing but sweethearts to work with, and have clearly understood my vision. I am completely comfortable letting them do whatever they want within a certain constraint.

That being said, I couldn’t have prepared for how excited the final floral consultation went. I met our designer, Stephanie, and administrative assistant, Collette, at their newly opened studio a few blocks from where I work, and brought them my collection of bottles, jars and vases. They were super stoked, which was a big relief because in the back of my mind, I was worried there weren’t enough, they wouldn’t be able to work with them, whatever. Not the case!

Much of what we’d originally agreed upon was the same, with the addition of some elements. And I can’t even describe how exciting it was to see and hear the FINAL FLOWER order and know that everything would be so beautiful the day of!

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I agonized over favors! First, there were none. Then, there were many. After writing this post and getting plenty of feedback on my options, I settled upon the one that would require the most effort, but the least amount of money: Homemade fudge.

Let me clarify: By “effort,” I mean melting chocolate, pouring it into a pan, and sticking it in the fridge. Yeah. Sooooo hard.

I used my mom’s fudge recipe, since it was the only fudge I can ever remember liking. I had it so much growing up that any other fudge just tastes too sugary, or too “off” to me.

The recipe:
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Programs were one of those things that I was insistent we did not need. It seemed superfluous to have one for a simple, 20-minute-tops ceremony with no special readings or rituals. People would tell me it would be nice to have something for guests to read while waiting for the ceremony to start, or to let them know who the members of the bridal party were. “Pish posh,” I’d say. “Nobody cares. It’s a hassle! We shall have no programs.”

And then I saw Mrs. Tartlet’s posts on Mr. Tarlet’s program project. And then I knew we needed programs.

Mine would look nothing like theirs. I’m just not that crafty. If I attempted, it wouldn’t look nearly as good! So I searched for something that would work with my skill set, time, and money.

I don’t know when I had the idea, but I decided to incorporate the belly bands from our invitations and the paper flowers from our hanging initial decor (more on that recently completed project soon), with a simple trifold program. I had some leftover ribbon (though I ended up needing a couple of extra spools) and plenty of paper, along with about a gajillion leftover paper flowers and a box of buttons I’d bought off Etsy back in January.

I’d initially priced a printing job that would have fallen at about a dollar a program. But then! MOH Ginger casually mentioned she had an extra printer because she’d just purchased a new one, and would I like it? Yes. Yes, I would.

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The past 11 months have been a rollercoaster of ideas, inspiration, wants, have-to-haves, needs, and chocolate (the last one more so in the last couple weeks). Along the way, I have semi-committed to plenty of things that I recently had to cut loose. There were also a few things that I swore up and down we had no need for (some of which vacillated between “we NEED” and “we don’t need”). So with 20-something-odd days to go until NUPTIAL TIME, I though it would behoove me to do a quick rundown of the things that have come and gone, as well as some of the minute decisions that we’ve finally settled on. No, really… there’s no time to change our minds again.

1. The cardigan-over-the-wedding-dress

Is there any wedding trend more controversial than the bride-in-a-cardigan? I think not. Most of you pointed out that a cardigan on an already stressful and sweaty day, in Florida—whether in November or not —might be a bit overkill. I had been going back and forth over whether I wanted one, or wanted to add sleeves to my dress. What finally made my decision? Seeing how awesome cap sleeves looked at my first and second dress fittings. That, coupled with a complete lack of cardigan-shopping and an aversion to sweaty pits, made the cardigan issue: Abandoned

2. Favor bell receptacles/trays/whatever
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My entire life could probably be retraced and pieced together through a series of shopping and to-do lists. Honestly: If I kept them all, they’d probably serve as a pretty robust basis for my day-in-the-life biography. Which somebody’s totally going to write about me when I die. Duh.

Lately, I’ve been fairly obsessed with the cruise packing list. For those of you catching up, we’re embarking on a 7-day cruise after the wedding, through the Eastern Caribbean, stopping at Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, Grand Turk, and St. Thomas. Neither of us have ever been. I’m simultaneously a packs-too-much traveler and a forgets-the-essentials traveler. So I like to turn to handy Google for advice. Today, it was “Cruise Packing List.” Naturally, I found some super long and scary-specific lists. Like this one from Cruise Direct. (Which makes me wonder, what are people doing on their cruises? Krazy Glue? Walkman? DUCT TAPE?)

So, by narrowing out the things we always pack for any trip—meds, toiletries, underwear—I’ve arrived at what I think is a pretty comfortable packing list for the impending honeymoon cruise.
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Bride Brain [’ˈbrīd’-’ˈbrān’]:

A less invasive, but more expensive version of a frontal lobotomy. Experienced by most brides, as they enter a catatonic state which renders them incapable of sustaining any thought or conversation that does not involve cake, caterers, flowers, wedding dress designers, Chinese wedding dress knock-off designers, updos, hair pieces, color schemes, wedding themes, and personalized M&M’s.

Bride Brain symptoms include, but are not limited to, driving erratically because they can’t stop staring at their shiny diamond ring; being amused by the resentment of all their single girlfriends, rewinding songs several hundred times while imagining themselves walking down the aisle, and starvation induced bitchiness which is generally followed by late night binging at a Dairy Queen. (Note that this can only occur outside of the bride’s native geographic area, where they can’t possibly run into anyone they know.)

Symptoms are ordinarily well controlled with valium, alcohol and endless hours of watching youtube “first dance” videos.

- Urban Dictionary

Yesterday, it was like a flip had been switched. I suddenly moved from a state of relative yet appropriate obsession of all wedding-related details, to an insatiable desire to answer ALL QUESTIONS IMMEDIATELY.

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I have this issue where I always have my head in the future. There’s a saying I love: if you have one foot in the yesterday and one foot in tomorrow, you’re bound to be pissing in today (sorry for the unladylike language). And that’s always what I end up doing: pissing on today because I’m so busy turning the past over in my head and making plans for the future that’s not even here yet. With me so far?

It happened when Mr. Ladyfingers and I were dating and living separately. All I could think about was living together, to the point that I had to nearly restrain myself from bringing up the idea before it was necessary. It happened when we moved in together before we got engaged. All I could think about was being engaged, planning a wedding, all that jazz. And now it’s happening while we’re engaged and before we’re married. It’s not just that I have my head in the wedding and OMG when will it get here 30-something days feels like FUREVAHHH.
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Guess what we did on our lunch break?

Personal photo

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She’s almost ready! I went for the second dress fitting this past Saturday, and it was so thrilling having the dress perfectly tailored for me, looking 99% like it will on the wedding day.

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The shopping list for an impending wedding sure does grow in the final weeks, doesn’t it? Or… maybe that’s just mine. At any rate, I’ve been wracked with anxiety for some time now about how our serving staff should hand out bells at the end of the evening – the farewell bells that guests will use to signal our exit from the reception and our trek back to our wedding-night hotel.

I browsed Target’s site for a bit, but only came up with melamine, wooden and leather trays that were just too pricey for our needs — about 5 trays/baskets/boxes to hold the bells as they’re being handed out. I don’t want to have them just freely sitting out for guests to take themselves — for one, we’re low on surfaces in the reception area, I’m afraid they’d be too out of the way for guests to notice, and frankly, I don’t want bells ringing the whole live long night. I’d like the handing out to be more controlled. Therefore, I’m really looking for something with handles, or easily manageable by the staff.

So I jaunted over to IKEA, and found a few options that just might work.
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My shower was the beacon of hope at the end of my long, long week. With a weekend of hair and makeup trials and bridal showering, I just couldn’t lose. I got to BM Preggo’s house around 2 on Sunday, to find this beautiful spread, just for me.

They had put together cute little favor boxes with a pack of wildflower seeds, a vanilla sachet, a sleeping mask, and lots of candy. Mmm… candy. Which is currently stockpiled in my purse.
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My wedding-day hair and makeup artist came over today to do a trial run of my wedding day look. I’d talked before about my extensive inspiration—natural, curly, loose side bun or ponytail and fresh, rosy romantic makeup. I was weirdly nervous when Marci from Kyle Lynn came over, since I hadn’t ever had my makeup done and was frankly afraid she’d make me look like Tammy Faye out on the town. So I awkwardly paced around our living room while she set up. She was quiet, which made me think she thought I was weird. As always.

But I showed her my inspiration file, and we got started. She was so great! We nearly nailed the makeup the first time around—we just had to try a couple of shades of lipstick before we found the right one, and tone down the lower lash line’s eyeliner. The hair, too, was about 95% there—the day of, we’ll be doing it a bit looser and less structured, with some more ends showing. But I felt like a total princess—and the bonus is I barely felt like I was wearing any makeup, which is very important for a makeup-phobic chica like me.

First, the before—apologies in advance.

Gah.

And—drum roll—the after!

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Now that we’re at the under-60-day mark, we’re checking off a tremendous number of purchases, and starting to pack things up to cart to the caterer the week of!

First, we ordered our cake serving set from Oneida, from the Michelangelo collection (plus, it was on sale — score!).

Then, I picked up our thank-you notes at Target. I originally coveted several designs on Etsy before realizing the last thing I wanted to spend $150 on was thank-you notes, regardless of how adorable they are. Cue Target, with 100 thank-you notes for about $20. They’re not exactly in our colors, but black is basically gray, and I like the design, and I love how they fold out for a different kind of note.
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I’d caught onto the whole eclectic-mismatched-bottles-and-jars trend early on in planning, and started collecting random glass receptacles way back in February. I was off to a bit of a slow start—began my hunt at local thrift stores, but was really only uncovering old glasses and non-vasey-vases. There wasn’t anything with that antique thing goin’ on—no milk bottles, no old soda bottles. In retrospect, I’m not sure why I thought I’d find that stuff for a buck or two at Salvation Army, but I was nonetheless set back by my initial finds.

Then, in March, MOH Ginger and I drove out to Mount Dora, about two hours from here, to go to what was promised as the flea market to end all flea markets:
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