V: Back in Action!

Wow.


What a wild ride it's been. That was one F-ing fantastic wedding.

Not too mention the two glorious weeks in Europe.

And the new found joy in everyday life with my HUSBAND.

*Gah!!*

The plan is to start a food/life blog with my lovely Sissy in the next few weeks since a wedding blog doesn't really cut it anymore. However, there is a distinct possibility that I could post recaps, DIYs and my secrets to success. But seriously, is anyone still listening??

IT"S OFFICIAL!

CONGRATULATIONS to Mr and Mrs Birdsbee, married on October 24th! The wedding was exquisite and perfectly suited to the tastes of Mrs. Birdsbee. My goodness, it was cool! There were so many neat elements, which I will name below:

Cool thing #1: M/M Birdsbee created balls of moss and attached them to ribbons and used them as decoration for the gorgeous ceremony spot. Very neat!

Cool thing #2: The bridesmaids wore matching yellow headbands and instead of carrying flowers, carried demure little handbags, which also doubled as their bridesmaid gifts. Instead of buying a belt, each girl used the same mimosa colored ribbon. Awesome!

Cool thing #3: Mr. Birdsbee's dad officiated the ceremony, which was punctuated by messages from each mother to the bride and groom as readings. The service was created completely by Victory and Mr., so it was perfectly tailored to the two of them.

Cool thing #4: The clouds cleared away for the 30 minutes of the ceremony, as if by providence!

Cool thing #5: The bride and groom were both escorted by BOTH parents coming down the aisle. I liked it. Also, they had a banjo player serenade them into the ceremony.

Cool thing #6: Instead of using flowers on the tables, Victory collected hundreds of different shaped glass containers and put white tea lights inside. On my table, which sat 6 people, we had twenty clear glass holders of different heights and widths. It was very romantic, yet modern.

Cool thing #7: When it came time for the toasts, all of the members of the bridal party stood up and spoke. It made for the most hilarious and tear-inspiring night, ever!

Cool thing #8: They had a photo booth. PHOTO BOOTH with PROPS! I wore the Viking helmet for a majority of the night and felt that it was quite fitting.

Cool thing #9: They had everyone stand in two lines for their exit and then ran through. Coincidentally, the entire wedding serenaded them with "Don't Stop Believin." Initially, when I walked outside and everyone had already formed, I said, "Is this a dance off?"

Cool thing #10: The cake was totally delicious. I mean, totally. The layers had yellow velvet ribbon lining the bottom and it was the perfect way to end the night.

YAYAYAYAYAY! Victory, are you back from Italy? Tell us about it!!

V: In homage

It's marriage time bitches.

V: Have we lost our minds? Confirmed.

A real exchange between the reception restaurant owner and my dear fiance:

Can we squeeze an extra chair into the 12-seater?
Thanks again!

Mr. B
Senior Stella Liaison


No problem on 13 guest at each table. I see your significant other has already promoted you to Senior Liaison. Congrats!

Rich


Thanks
It was actually a coup d'etat. She's now in reception exile.

Mr. B
Supreme Stella Commander


But seriously, Stella Restaurant and Daria of Circle of Love Weddings [our Day of Coordinator] rocked our faced off last night in a four hour prep meeting. I highly highly recommend them both!

V: Two weeks

to go. And I have to admit, adding "documentation of the DIY" to the DIY list is just not gonna fly. So you'll have to wait til post-wedding for all the details. More importantly, post two-week-dream-vaca-in-Italy-extravaganza. Cause OMG we just got the details and it is going to rock my face off.

Can you say Renaissance art in Florence, modern art Biennale in Venice, wine library in Sienna, palm trees + Alps in Lugano, truffle season, Lake Como and my birthday in Paris? Whoa.

Samantha's Thought of the Day: Make a photograph list for your photographer!!

Samantha's bride tip #2: Make a photo list for your photographer and assign a "photo wrangler" who is either one of your friends, a family member or your wedding coordinator. I found that this was key in making sure that our photos were taken efficiently. We were actually done far ahead of schedule when the wedding was over! Part of making this work is having a plan for photos to be taken before the ceremony. Mr. L and I didn't want to see eachother beforehand, but even so, we were still able to take hundreds of family, bridesmaid and groomsman pictures at separate times. Since we finished so many photos ahead of time, the photo taking after the ceremony was minimal, except for our bride/groom portraits, which we took all over Georgetown on the way to the reception. We tried to be very organized with the post-ceremony photos so that groups of people could make their way to the reception or do whatever else they needed to do. I planned in advance which group would go first, second, third, etc. Our ministers needed to change and go on to other things, so we had their photos taken first. My parents needed to head off to host the party, so their photos were taken second, Mr. L's parents needed to go host their guests, so their photos were taken third and so on and so forth. Finally, were just left with the two of us, my maid of honor (who helped to bustle me) and my brother, who drove the two of us and our photographer around Georgetown for portraits. Perfect! Now we'll have to see how the portraits come out...

Samantha's thought of the day: Go the distance.

Samantha's bride tip #1: Fake eyelashes are the bomb! Ok, so I wasn't totally sure about the idea of wearing false eyelashes- what if they come off? But on the wedding day, I took a risk having never experimented with them before and they came out so well! All you do is buy DUO glue, purchase the eyelashes (I bought the kind from MAC that start in the middle of the eyelash and extend to the end- they look more natural), put the glue on fake lashes, place them on your eye and dry with a blow dryer until the white glue disappears! It took about 5 minutes total and lasted until I took them off the next day in the Denver airport, already one flight down and an entire wedding day later. The best part is that it sort of substitutes for eyeliner, so all I did was add some eyeliner to the part where the eyelash wasn't (toward the inner eye) and my eyes were pretty much done! It makes a big difference in pictures and definitely gives a slightly more glamorous and dramatic look.