Weddingbee

Originally my mom and aunt made some colorful knot-things to hang off the side of the chuppah, and we were especially feeling doubtful about those. We really needed to put the whole thing up to see how it looked, but we had no way of doing so because we don’t own any poles. We decided to take the chuppah to Afikomen, the Judaica store in Berkeley were we are renting the poles and stands for the chuppah, just to try it all out. Thankfully, the wonderful people at the store had no problem with our setting up a chuppah in their back lot.

We tried it with the colorful knot things (unfortunately not pictured), but they really didn’t look good. I suggested using white knot things, but we didn’t have any. The only white we had was a table cloth, which weighed one side down so far that it fell on Momma Puff and we couldn’t seem to get it upright again! As it turned out, the white looked like crap, too, so we are going to forget about the hangy things.

So we tried the chuppah naked (without any knot things). We were a little bit worried that the 8 foot poles looked too stark without anything hanging off the sides. However, we also realized that during the ceremony, people (the Puff Parents) will be standing by each pole, so maybe that didn’t matter. The poles will only be naked for a short period of time.

After we took the knot things down, we were a still worried about the color. We were kind of concerned that it looked tie-dyed. So, we asked some advice from one of the women who worked at the Judaica store. She liked it, and after looking at it long enough, we decided we liked it too.

I have since decided that I love it, and I must have been on crack to be worried about it (although I am really glad that we ditched the idea of the colorful knot things). Instead, we’re going to add another bit of white ribbon to each side (see where the colorful ribbons are blowing in the wind? Right there). We realized that because it will be an outdoor ceremony, there will be a lot of green and outdoorsy colors to distract from the brightness of the bridesmaid dresses and the chuppah. I think it will look awesome.

Our multicultural chuppah. I guess I hadn’t showed FMIL Puff the chuppah, because when I showed her this picture she said, “OMG! How did they make the double happiness?!” She was very impressed. And so am I.

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DISCOUNT BABY! (You should try this!) I spoke with a local nail salon, Classic Nails, and negotiated a discount of 10% off all the treatments for my party. I invited all the women (moms, aunts, G-mas and sisters) of our families and my BMs to set up an appointment anytime during the week before the wedding to choose any treatment of pedicure and manicure. I left a sheet with the salon to write in the treatment my party received and for each individual to sign as a confirmation that they received it. I made small deposits of payment and included gratuity on the final payment.

The pearl sets were purchased at the plaza on Grant Avenue in San Francisco where Empress of China is located. When you enter the main doors to the plaza, make a sharp left, and it’s the first counter to your left against the main window. Unfortunately I don’t have their name.

Presenting my gifts to them had to be as detailed as all the parties and gifts that they had given me. So I borrowed my gf’s idea for wrapping the gifts. My BM created wrapping paper by making sheets full of adorable text with names and graphics. I created my own through Powerpoint using a pattern I liked that my friend had created for me and copied and pasted the pattern until it covered the whole page.

Then I used Powerpoint to create a second page for the “ribbon” with the word “Thank You.” On a blank document, I created a line that was 40 pts thick that stretched across the sheet. What I liked about it is that it printed to the edge of the paper without defaulting a cut off border.

Next I used a text box and typed “Thank You” with Beautiful ES font, in white, and centered it on the ribbon. You can fit quite a few strips on there.

Cut the strips out, wrap your gift, and voila. Personalized wrapping paper. If the 8.5″ x 11″ sheet is too small, try piecing together multiple sheets with shipping tape to create one large sheet.

A close up of the final product …

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Below is a posed shot not too long after we saw each other!

And here is a ring shot that Esther (Scott’s assistant) took, on the church’s organ. I thought this was so cool, as it totally didn’t cross my mind that detail shots like these were getting taken while we were getting ready, and I was so pleasantly surprised!

Pretty awesome shots huh?! I am so shocked and impressed! Now, I am just dying to see more of our pro photos and to share them with the hive!…I can barely bear it!!

Photos posed by Scott Robert Photography (with exception of ring shot)
All photos taken by Esther Lee Photography
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Where were we going? My girlfriends went as far as to pre-program the Magellan navigator with addresses and renaming them so that my curious arse couldn’t dig in and find out.

Grub-town! My goodness, two weeks before the wedding, you’d think I’d be “careful.” My girls knew of my love for the Grand Lux Cafe chowdah, so there we went. Check them Kobe chili cheese mini hot dogs there in the center…*drool*. Good stuff. Good stuff. I ate like the oink oink that I am.

How do you top off dinner in SoCal? Since one of the gals was playing photog, we filled in the space for her.

Good fro-yo can make people do the weirdest things.

There was nowhere to sit, so we sat in the car and enjoyed our frozen delights before hopping in the car. Due to food-coma, I woke up when we were nearing our destination, nearly 3 hours later! Thanks R. for driving the whole trip, you are a trooper!

Destination: Palm Springs.

WHAAAAAAAAT?! We arrived at the grand Renaissance Esmeralda. Though it was 1 A.M., I was full of energy! So we went exploring the property.

Huge Suites!

The golf course view from our room’s balcony.

The hotel had a huge main lobby with TONS of areas to lounge, and massive ballrooms. Perfect for weddings, both indoors and outdoors. A few events and weddings were happening during our stay.

Oh so comfortable! I laid out as much as I could.

This was the perfect photo op when we saw this chaise. Does the pose look familiar?

These large round lounge chairs could be found outside, some were even surrounding fire pits outside near the pool where most people hung out ’til the wee hours.

Pool by night…

And by day…they even had a man-made beach!

This was one of the main lawn areas where a wedding ceremony was held one afternoon (imagine that for your backdrop!) and a late night open reception was held. There were so many weddings going on that weekend at the place, something to think about for the Palm Springs area! Check it out!

The next morning …. I couldn’t resist and gave my BMs the first part of their BM gifts.

*** The wrapping paper and thank you strip were all created on Powerpoint ***

Then the girls took me shopping at the Outlets for just about 6+ hours of good hearty shopping! Can’t beat that! On our way there, my girlfriends pulled over at a bus stop so that I could take a picture with a new friend.

Should I or shouldn’t I?

But I did succeed in shopping since I found the perfect cufflinks for Mr. CB for his wedding present.

That night, we feasted at the hotel’s restaurant, Cava. Good food I tell ya. The food and their lemonades were so delish!

The girls instructed me that we had an early check out the next morning and then told me that they had gotten lucky and were able to secure a private pool for all of us. Swimsuit in hand and out of breath thinking I was running to the private pool, they instead treated me to morning full of treatments at the hotel Spa. I got a facial, massage, and a mani/pedi.

The therapist was kind enough to clean and redo all my nails on my hands because I had ruined all her hard work hopping into a hot shower merely 20 minutes after all she was done. Be warned ladies!

Bye bye, Palm Springs …

Back to LA for some treats for the ride home… Sprinkles Cupcakes and mo’ Pink Berry… to make the trip complete.

Two weeks before the wedding I really didn’t think I could relax, but my BMs made it possible. It was the most chill, relaxing weekend, filled with the best treats: food, shopping, spa, great silliness, laughs, and great girlfriends.

Anyone else taking a trip close to their wedding date and worried about being able to fully relax?
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The first day we got there, it was kept pretty tame, because we had to conserve our energy… but we did load up on grub at Venetian’s Grand Lux Cafe (Clam Chowder on Fridays - YUM OH!). The next day, we buffeted it at Paris and chillaxed at the Bally’s pool where we stayed.

That night, the girls and I spent a good several hours getting dolled up to go a club hopping. We made it to one club, Tryst, and partied ’til the weeeeeeeee hours of the morning. Water on the rocks with a straw - HARDCORE I tell ya.

Yeah rock the water on the rocks baby! Girls - a warning - the guys there are aggressive. I was adorned with all these bachelorette accessories (not to mention my colorful boa you can’t see in these pics), so they felt like it was a ticket to be aggressive with me. Lucky we had a tight group of girls that saved each other when some guy was far from being friendly. The guys there are bold (nay, very aggressive)… so watch each other’s backs girls!

We tried to stay up as long as we could and met some cool peeps… after a really late night of grub!

Hence the reason we couldn’t get up to hit the pool again the next day. So we stayed in, lounged and watched a marathon of chick flicks, ’til it was the 5 hour window mark to getting ready for dinner again.

MMMmmmm Gallagher’s SteakHouse! There was more than enough for food for each person, so we ordered a few entrees and sides to share. The girls really shouldn’t have but they bought the picture from our dinner.

And surprise, surprise…. the girls treated me to a REAL show! Here’s my best Vanna White.

Can you guess where we went???

After our last night of good partying, we were left with only one good way to detox… more buffet and shopping.

Planet Hollywood buffet

Suh-weet deals!

My try at sporting a pink goatee.

A possible parting gift from Vegas…. NOT! After that it was home we went….Noooooooooooooooo …. I’m not ready to leave FUN town!

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I felt very pretty (haha!). It turned out that I was wearing all white! How bridal!

Kathy and I drinking a delicious drink. I am not much of a drinker, so the idea of going out and touring a bunch of bars didn’t really appeal to me. Luckily, Katie knows me pretty well and didn’t plan something like that. There were no strippers, which also aren’t my cup of tea. Instead, she had a bunch of really fun and creative games for us.

The first game Katie planned involved underwear. She had everyone at the party bring a pair of panties, and I had to guess who brought which pair:

It was actually pretty difficult! In the end, I think I got, like, TWO right (haha).

After the panties game, it was time for more food. Everyone knows how much I love sweet things! There was chocolate and cookies!

Last week we suffered from a crazy heat wave here in California. Unfortunately the heat seriously affects children, the elderly, and…penis cupcakes:

Some of them looked as beautiful as they did right after being frosted and hair-ified, and some of them did not. They all TASTED delicious, though. FSIL Puff is obviously a very talented baker!

After the penis cupcakes, Katie announced that we were going out on the town for a bachelorette photo scavenger hunt. We had a list of a bunch of things we had to take pictures of, and we split into two teams. Below are some of my team’s successes:

At one point, we went into a bar to get a “big group picture,” when a guy in the bar made me sit at a piano that was surrounded by a bunch of people. The guy playing the piano had a microphone, and he started asking me all kinds of questions. We left after one of the (nasty) guys asked me to jump on the piano and take my shirt off. Joy. I love Marianne for quickly and effectively getting me out of that situation!

When we got back to the hotel, there were still more fun activities to be had! Katie put me in the bathroom with a blindfold on. She led me out to the main room and sat me in a chair. When my blindfold was removed, I was the only member of the audience for an amazing and shocking fashion show: Tacky bridesmaids.

They modeled some of the world’s most INSANE dresses, I kid you not.

Left to right, some of the best: Katie, Sarah, Julie and Kathy.

Me with all mah hot ladies (except for Marianne, who I am beginning to notice is in hardly any pictures because she’s always behind the camera!). Julie, June, Sarah, Katherine, Katie, Marion, Kathy and Amanda and me. I’m the one in the tiara.

It was a REALLY fun night. Afterwards, we had a slumber party in the hotel room. Thanks, Katie! I couldn’t imagine having a more fun bachelorette party.
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Did you see that? That bowl is full of chocolate covered gummy bears! My favorite!

And there was a sundae bar!

Clockwise: enjoying my sundae, Momma Puff and bridesmaid Julie making sundaes, Marianne and Marion, and Kathy creating a sundae masterpiece. And then there’s me, never one to turn down more sugar:

Thanks, Cousin Carol!

The thing I was most worried about regarding my shower was that I’d have to open gifts in front of everyone. Well, my friends, I am here to tell you that a) I survived, and b) it really wasn’t that bad! I am really thankful for all the gifts, too. I love them.

Marion and FMIL Puff made the lovely shower bouquet:

One of my favorite things about this shower was the Video 20 Questions we played. Amanda and Marianne conspired with Mr. Cream Puff to get him to answer 20 Questions on video. Then Amanda’s fiancé, Jason, edited the whole thing with funny music and we watched Mr. Cream Puff answer the questions.

The questions were things like:

1. When Mr. Cream Puff and his sister, Katie, were little, Mr. Cream Puff helped her look pretty by putting what in her hair? (answer: vaseline)

4. What is Mr. Cream Puff’s favorite board game? (answer: Scrabble). I totally did not know the answer to this question. When I saw the answer was Scrabble, I said, “he hasn’t played that game ONCE in the three years we’ve been together!” The group of us then watched Mr. Cream Puff show the box to the camera as a visual aid and blow three years of dust off the top of it!

10. What did Mr. Cream Puff do on your first date when you introduced him to your pet rat? (answer: he dropped her!)

18. Mr. Cream Puff once lost a baby tooth while eating and he thought it was a bone. What was he eating?
a) Chicken
b) Sea Cucumber
c) A marshmallow
d) An eggroll
The answer to this one, believe it or not, is c–a MARSHMALLOW. Yes, I got this wrong.

Overall, I did pretty well (sort of). I got thirteen right, and Mr. Cream Puff said he would have given me extra credit for getting so many details on the other ones.

Obviously, my shower was amazing. I loved it! Thank you Amanda and Marianne, and to all my friends and family who came!
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