V: The Great Bridal Shower Compromise

Momma Bird graciously desired to throw a traditional Bridal Shower for her first daughter to marry. Normally, this would be a lovely occasion for the ladies, however it seems all my friends have flown the coop to go get advanced degrees. Before their departure, they planned a rockin Wedding Weekend, and I just couldn't see them coming back to Atlanta for another party in my honor.

So, rather than a formal Bridal Shower for girls only, how about a Fiesta?? They called it an Engagement Party so it was clear this was a girls plus boys minus presents kind of affair. Casual, fun, Taqueria del Sol extravaganza.

Thank god it's cooled off in Hotlanta. Our building's courtyard was the perfect setting for the Moms to conspire.

Party begins! Love Sister Bird's beautiful blue & green maxi dress.

Naturally, Victory dives into the incredible Taqueria del Sol goodies. Did I mention we're fans?

Momma & Pop Bird with Mr. B's parents. Fast friends for years!

Bride and groom to be. Note the very timely coozies.

Sister Bird & Poppa Bird testing out the banana/chocolate ganache and chocolate/cream cheese cupcakes! Sister Bird is quite the talented baker.

Relaxed, fun, delicious. All words I hope our actual big day will live up to.

Pre-wedding reading

Has anyone read "I was told there'd be cake" by Sloane Crosley? If not, this is a must. It's absolutely hilarious, if you enjoy the likes of Sarah Vowell and other witty social observers. The book is a series of essays that discusses her life in New York, growing up, singlehood, friendships, etc. Last night, I read a story so funny that I woke up my housemate from laughing so hysterically. I laughed so hard, I cried. I couldn't help it! There is even one story about being a bridesmaid that is so painfully awful, it's hilarious.

It seems like humor is pretty important at this stage of the game. Things are getting hectic! Less than four weeks to go!

SL: Get Out of My Head, Knot.com!!!

According to http://www.theknot.com/, I have 89 things left on my to do list before the wedding and 66 days to do them. This means that in order to stay on track, I will have to do an average of 1.348 wedding related tasks per day, some of which require hours of time and most of which require significant moolah. Oh knot.com, you are a cruel mistress!

I feel like a slave to the checklist- I hate it but I keep going back. It's like an abusive relationship. The knot.com has begun to infiltrate every aspect of my life- I search the site at work, at home, in my sleep....ok, maybe not in my sleep. But seriously, I feel like it is insidiously working its way into my brain and is taking over!! Sadly, I have it open in another tab right now. I better get back to my checklist.

Signing off,

Samantha Livalittle

Deliver me from myself!

It's only 92 days until our wedding and I'm starting to feel the pressure. I fear that I am becoming a bit of monster. Blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrr!!!!!!!!!I think that part of my problem is my obsession with lists. I have made a monthly list of things to do that includes everything I think will possibly need to be addressed between now and when we return from our honeymoon. Sometimes I review the list again and again, trying to figure out what to do next and then my vision starts to blur and then I look around longingly, hoping that some magical person will bring me a glass of wine. Then I realize that I'm not supposed to have wine right now because I'm on a strict wedding diet. Then I think, "damn."

Bridal Showers of Yore

Almost one year ago, a very special girl to both Samantha and I, got hitched! With her anniversary just around the corner, I felt it appropriate to trot out the pictures from the super fun shower we hosted at my house last April.

A special chair for the bride!

Floating flower puffs for cheap, impact-ful decor.

My secret source for flowers: Costco. The vase was wrapped in tulle for an extra feminine touch.

Fresh flowers for spring! Also, love the Dwell for Target runner I got just for the occasion. They even used it in this wedding, featured on Style Me Pretty.

Of course, we had to make the bride's favorite recipe: Goat Cheese Tart. It's a delicious concoction of goat cheese, pesto and sun-dried tomato pesto. Just to die for! 

More lovely bridesmaids with the incredible food spread. It was too bad Jolyn didn't mention that she can't eat cheese . . . EVERY single item included some form of the substance, except the cake and some grapes. 

The maid of honor decked out in the winning toilet paper dress.

The beautiful bride! What a great shower dress.

Another classic shower game, but with a technological assist. We had the groom pre-record answers to questions, and had the bride guess what he would say. Hilarity ensued!

And a parting shot of Mr. B in the bridal throne. Thank god he doesn't read this blog.

Fast forward to present day, and now our dear friend is returning the favor by serving as bridesmaid extraordinaire for both of us! Happy Anniversary Laurie!

I have friends!

It's quite exciting to know that someone out there likes me enough to come visit from thousands of miles away! Woohoo! My wonderful friend and bridesmaid extraordinaire Anne came this past week and we had a blast. We kayaked out to some islands of the beach near my house, hiked a rainforest waterfall trail, went on a sunset cruise in Honolulu, toured some art galleries late night in Chinatown, went for dinner at my favorite pupu bar, saw the Pearl Harbor memorial, enjoyed rum drinks in pineapples, went to Palm Sunday service (we provided our own palms- it's Hawaii) and in our grand tradition, made a cherry pie.
In the spirit of I hate planning my wedding and others, Anne gave me the book One Perfect Day: The Selling of the American Wedding. This book essentially talks about everything that is wrong with the wedding industry, how much it all costs and tries to get to the root of the hysteria. Has anoyone read it? I've just started and I think it may be the perfect book for when I am feeling in a "if I have to write out one more address of one more distant relative, I'm going to shrivel into the fetal position" kind of mood. Any other bitter bride stuff out there?

Wedding Event Hangover

Why hello!

Yes, posting has been light lately. Mainly for two reason:

1. Mr. B is now officially stationed in Atlanta for work for the rest of the year, meaning we are readjusting to him being around every night [read: fighting for the couch and control of the TV. Why is he suddenly interested in this basketball business?? There is GREAT historical programming on! I mean, it's the week before Easter and every channel is running a biblical archeology special.]

2. I packed in two wedding/bridal events in one week [enough to kill a horse is the fitting expression, I believe]

So, I've got a bit of a wedding event hangover. Though, there were some seriously great discoveries, and I can honestly say the NotWedding was NotFabulous [haha, that means it was fab, get it?]. Recaps, discoveries, wedding awesomeness to be chronicled soon. 

Happily Ever After

Hey friends! Recently, one of my lovely bridesmaids told me that she will be able to come for the week before the wedding to help with last minute stuff. I couldn't be more excited! She and I discussed watching some wedding movies that week, if we have time, which made me think of the best and worst wedding movies I've seen. According to the web, the highest-grossing wedding movies of the last twenty-five years are the following:

1. My Big Fat Greek Wedding
2. Wedding Crashers
3. Runaway Bride
4. Mamma Mia!
5. Sweet Home Alabama
6. My Best Friend's Wedding
7. American Wedding
8. Father of the Bride
9. The Wedding Singer
10. 27 Dresses

If you think about it, in all of these movies, the same thing happens: everything goes terribly wrong before it is all perfectly right! This is why I love the wedding movie genre. The more I watch, the more excited I am for my own wedding because I know that no matter what happens, it won't be as bad as, say, Mamma Mia, when the bride is trying to figure out which of three men are actually her father. I don't think I'm going to have this kind of drama. I know that something is bound to go wrong, but if wedding movies can teach us anything, it will all turn out ok! Below is my favorite scene from My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Enjoy!

More dress ideas for the bridesmaid brigade

Liking the tights idea! I think, however, that I would do the tights in a lighter color than the dress. Perhaps light grey with a charcoal shift dress? Or-- GASP!-- light grey with mimosa short dresses? Could be cool! Your maids would be a walking version of your color scheme! Wouldn't it be pretty if they carried white/ivory flowers? mmmm.
Speaking of bridesmaid dresses, I came across the following book yesterday in the Kailua Public Library-- You Can Wear It Again: A Celebration of Bridesmaid Dresses. Fairly hilarious. It basically features some pretty hein frocks of the past few decades. I would recommend bringing the book along before unveiling your bmaid dress...just for some comic relief. It might also help them to remember that even if they don't love it, it could be A LOT worse.

The name game

Let's all agree to drop the 'bridal party' or the 'wedding party'.

We're going to be the Youth & Beauty Brigade. 

Partly because I'm a huge Decemberists fan and will be traveling with some of the Y&BB to BONNAROO in June to see them. It will be an incredible all-girl camping music hippy fun fest. Awesome.

Also partly because of this and this. It's great to see people customizing tradition and expectations to meet their own needs, and I highly respect their arrangement. I LOVE the idea of handing out a paint chip and giving the Y&BB free reign to pick out their dress.

And also partly because, like Juno, I am dealing with things far beyond my maturity level. Honest to blog! It's weird to think that in some of the geographies of my life, people my age are settled with a house and kids, and in others, the idea of marriage this young is laughable. It's a crazy world, and I'd like to remember that I'm only 23 once and a while.

You have questions? I have answers!!

Wow, so this blogging thing is really pretty fantastic, isn't it? It just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy to think about getting tagged and people reading it! Really, I'm not being facetious.

So anyway, in response to Victory's question and answer thingy majiggy, behold! An insight into my world!

Favorite football team: Easy! The San Diego Super Chargers. I can also tell you which teams I hate vehemently-- the Oakland Raiders (evil!) and the New England Patriots, who my fiance loves, unfortunately. We try not to talk about sports to avoid throw-downs.

What are you wearing now? A hawaiian print dress/nightie given to me at my bachelorette party #1 in Atlanta by my friend Laurie.

What color is your bedroom? White with pink carpet-- but I'll have a new one very soon.

What’s the last thing you read/are currently reading? Out Stealing Horses by Per Peterson. An excellent book, so far! Before that, it was The Professor and the Madman about the making of the Oxford English Dictionary and The Undomestic Goddess. I'm also currently reading I was told there'd be cake and Master and Margarita.

What is the last thing you cooked? Last night: Hibachi miso peanut chicken with cilantro rice. We grilled it and it was goooood.

What is your favorite restaurant of all time? Style wise: Two Urban Licks. Food wise: Taqueria del Sol. mmmmm. Recent: Pinky's bar (awesome Hawaiian pupu platters).

What’s your current obsession/addiction? Wedding planning and the beach.

What was the last gift you gave? the movie Casablanca to Brad.

What was the last thing you bought? I spent money on renting a black Ford Mustang convertible and drove it around Waikiki and Kailua!

What are you listening to right now? The next door neighbor's lawnmower...and before that, Wilson Pickett- Mustang Sally.

What movie do you know every word to? Beauty and the Beast and Zoolander.

If you could have any super power, what would it be? Flying, definitely. That way, no traffic, no plane tickets, no waiting around, ever!

What is your favorite weather, and why? Fall in Atlanta- crisp and beautiful!

If you could have a house–totally paid for, fully furnished–anywhere in the world, where would you want it to be? I've thought about this question extensively (I do travel-related things for a living after all) and I would have five-- one in Kenya, one in Paris, one in Bali, one in Greece and one in the Virginia Highlands of Atlanta.

Favorite vacation spot? Tahiti and Oxford, England. Next on the list: Vietnam

Name one thing you just can’t resist no matter how bad it is for you: Cheese.

If you could meet anyone famous - dead or alive - who would it be? Puccini

If you could have any job in the world , what would it be? Jet-setting travel writer!

So there you are friends, hope it was enthralling. More on bridal stuff later!

It's a double posting day

For everyone! With the news the Ms. Livalittle will be headed back to Hawaii for the next few weeks, I will honor her precedent with two posts today. 

So, I've been following the journey of Southern Weddings Magazine from their time as blog-only to the publishing of their first print issue this month.

Here's the question: Would anyone want to come to their launch party with me?! It could be fun! Or totally lame. But it's free and it's in a new restaurant I've never been to and it is my life's work to visit every single restaurant in Atlanta.

Let me know!