With a yip and a yap and a short bzz bzz!

Things may have just gotten a lot cuter around here!

Why yes, I am Miss Spaniel!

When I got the email from Pengy on an otherwise nondescript Monday night, I think I flapped my arms so quickly in my excitement that I may have actually buzzed. Could it be? Was it me? Am I really a Bee? Will D (henceforth, Mr. Spaniel) need to pinch me again?

Miss Spaniel's excited face!
So why did I pick Miss Spaniel?

The Spaniels: Miss Spaniel, Chelsea, Mr. Spaniel
Because as much as we all love Chelsea, the girl just cannot write!

While the Bee is catching up with me over the next couple of weeks I will be posting just a little less frequently here, so come visit me at Weddingbee!

Those who forget the pasta are condemned to reheat it

On a Sunday not too long ago, Mr. Spaniel and I had the meeting we had ever so eagerly awaited since we'd booked our venue: it was the day that Mr. Spaniel and I selected our menu!

We decided to go with an hour of unlimited passed hors d'ouvres, including melon-wrapped prosciutto, crab stuffed mushrooms, teriyaki beef skewers, and potato pancakes with apple sauce. Prosciutto e melone is Mr. Spaniel's all-time favorite appetizer (so it was an easy choice, even though I don't eat pork), and we are both pretty happy with the stuffed mushrooms and beef skewers, but we're not totally crazy about the vegetarian option... we might still switch it out for the spinach and feta puffs or the vegetarian spring rolls. But my grandma will love the pancakes, so they're staying on the menu for now. As for the entreé, we already knew what we were selecting as dinner options (chicken with artichoke and prime rib) so that was relatively uneventful, but the vegetarian option turned out to be a happy surprise: egg noodle goat cheese ravioli! It sounds so good, Mr. Spaniel and I will probably both end up ordering it!

I hope our dinner looks like this!
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Less eagerly awaited was the selection of our linens. Our choices were basically these: white floor length tablecloth (that's it), and polyester overlay and napkins in one of 15 (bleh) colors. We went with a black overlay and ivory napkins, which didn't thrill me to death or anything, but it will be functional and at least our ivory (or green, or lavender) rose petals among the centerpieces will stand out against the dark tablecloth. We thought about doing green napkins, but I think they will be too difficult to match in other accents (they were more mint and less olive), so we passed. It kind of makes me wish I could throw money at linen rentals, but I think we are getting a more substantial impact by throwing it at the chairs instead—we upgraded the white wooden folding chairs (which I saw set up for a wedding, and which were in dire need of a thorough cleaning) to dark Chiavari chairs.

Dark tablecloth, light napkins, and Chiavari chairs
(source, via)
And: it's done. The only decor-related decisions we have left to make, I think, concern table numbers and place cards (and maybe choosing which picture frames to use for our old wedding photo collection). This is a weight off my shoulders!

By the way, can I just mention how weird it is to start writing about things like the menu, linens, and table numbers? Like, is my wedding actually so close that it's okay to talk about details now? This is so weird!

Wedding ring fail

I love my engagement ring. In case you haven't seen it before, it's an oval halo setting with a flat pavé ½-eternity band on three sides of the shank.


One of my favorite things about my ring is that it is designed to sit flush with a wedding band. Unlike a lot of halos which have wide, low baskets, mine is prong-set above the band, and open below so that the wedding band can come right up against the engagement ring without leaving a gap.

vs.

When Mr. Spaniel and I picked my ring out, we tried it with the matching band. The band was made by the same manufacturer—the pavé band was the same width and height, with diamonds of the same shape and size and spacing. It was a perfect match, and Mr. Spaniel and I planned to buy it closer to the date.

A bit of advice: when you want something, and no substitute will do, BUY IT WHEN YOU SEE IT. Recently, we decided we were ready to buy my wedding ring and went back to the shop where we purchased the engagement ring last September to get it. Apparently, the store no longer does business with the company who made my engagement ring; they don't carry the matching wedding band anymore, and can't or won't tell us who made it so that we can find it ourselves. The only information we have to go on is that the manufacturer is in Hong Kong, which is about as close to no information as I can imagine.

I tried a few other pavé wedding bands, but none were quite right: the metal was more prominent causing the spacing of the diamonds not to align, or the band didn't come up high enough, or it was too wide, or it was way too expensive. We were looking for the perfect match, at $500. The best we could find was a similar ring that wasn't a match (or even quite as good) for $750. I may be the only one who ever notices a mismatch that slight, but you can bet your spaniel I'd be noticing... every day. And I'm not really the kind of person to forget it over time, either.

So instead of the beautiful and bling-y match, which we can't find, we'll be getting me a plain white gold band, which will be a more practical option for me that I can wear daily and during most activities. I'm pretty okay with this. It will be a comfortable ring, and I won't have to worry about little diamonds coming loose and falling out or needing to be cleaned all the time. But don't get me wrong: I am hugely disappointed. I loved the way the matching ring looked with my wedding band, and I was looking forward to all the extra sparkle. So we're thinking that, on some future anniversary, we'll either get a custom band to match the engagement ring, or buy a new engagement and wedding set and re-set the oval diamond in it. Maybe we could do the Ritani Endless Love setting that I loved first?

(source)

If you got your engagement and wedding rings separately, did you end up with a different set than you'd imagined?

Processing the processional (music), Part II: Getting traditional

Previously:
Part I

Some of our musical choices may be a bit offbeat, but with the seating of the mothers and the bridesmaids' processional, we'll be showing our traditional sides (would that be the right, or the left? Ha!).

Seating of the mothers: Prelude from Bach's Cello Suite No. 1

Obviously we won't need the Vitamin String Quartet to cover this one, but I love this music and I think our mothers would prefer something a little more classical and traditional to accompany them down the aisle.

Bridesmaids' processional: Canon in D

Is this played at every wedding? Yes. Is the reason for that because it's completely beautiful? Yes! :) I first heard this piece when I was three years old at a dance recital (I was quite the little ballerina, if by "quite the little ballerina," I actually mean I was hopping around the stage completely missing cues, just like all the other three-year-olds on the stage). The seventh-graders, one of whom was my babysitter at the time, were performing to Canon in D, and I just thought they were so glamorous and I've loved it ever since. And the first time I heard it at a wedding, I was convinced I'd walk down the aisle to Pachelbel's Canon. As it turns out, I won't—but five women at my wedding will!

As for the song that I will walk down the aisle to... you'll just have to wait for that one. :)

What style of music did you choose for your ceremony? Did you go classical or contemporary? Or a mix of both?

Coming to terms

You might not believe it from the sheer number of posts I've written about this, but I'm starting to come to terms with my follicular shortcomings. In fact, I'm starting to have a pretty good idea about what my hair should look like on game day, and although it's not strictly necessary, I'm thinking it will involve a sparkly clip of some sort. I used to imagine I'd wear a flower in my hair, but I don't think it's the look I'm going for, after all.

(source)
I have a couple of criteria in mind. First, I'm looking for something around four inches wide—no dainty hair pieces for my 'do. Second, I'd like it to be sparkly rather than "organic" (that is, something that looks more like hair jewelry and less like a fabric flower). And third, I'd prefer it to have a gold tone rather than a silver one. Here are some pieces I've encountered that I would consider.

Bel Aire Bridal comb, $93 at Best Bridal Prices
Anthony David Angelina barrett, $34.99 at All Things Trendy
Gold Sabine comb, $72 at Lulusplendor
I'm not totally sure where or how I will wear my "hair jewelry" yet, but I'm pretty sure I will—if just to keep it interesting once the veil is off (I won't be wearing the veil at the reception).

Which is your favorite? Or do you have a better idea?

Saying thank you

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I admit it: I'm a bit of a stickler about sending thank you notes. It's not that I'm an etiquette freak or anything—okay, maybe I am a little bit—but I think it's super-important to acknowledge someone's generosity as soon as you benefit from it. I guess I view most etiquette rules as "guidelines"—they are always safe to follow, but it's okay to sometimes bend them if it seems appropriate to your situation. But on the issue of thank you notes, no bending! Skipping or delaying the gesture of a written thank you note is not ever okay!

(source)

"Emily Post" tells me that thank you notes should be written within three months of receiving a gift, and who am I to argue? Mr. Spaniel and I are determined to stay within this time frame, but do you know what falls about six weeks after our wedding? Graduation, preceded by the two week final exam period (my last! ever!) and followed by frantic studying for the Bar exam. There is no way we are going to delay writing our thank you notes for three months! So although I love (love) the idea of a photo thank you card from the wedding, we won't be able to wait for our photographer to get back images to us to get these babies printed, written and mailed. So we're making them now!

Similar to our international RSVP inserts, I used the PDF proof from the existing stationery to create our thank you cards. (I've gotten a lot of mileage out of those proofs!)

Nope, still not our names!

To simplify the process (and because I couldn't find the 4-Bar size envelopes that I wanted at Staples, just the ones that fit a sheet of letter paper folded into quarters!), I created another 1/4 sheet design—this time, I remembered to account for the margin printing problems!—and then doubled the canvas size in Photoshop to create a folding card template. I then placed two of the designs side by side, printed and cut, then used a bone folder to crease the cards in the middle for a nice, smooth fold.


Sixty pages and 120 thank you cards later, voilà! Finished thank you cards, all ready to be written during our honeymoon! They might not be as cute as the photo cards, but at least they're still personalized, they'll inform people of my new married name, and we'll be able to reuse any extras for other occasions.

How will you thank your guests?

Processing the processional (music), Part I

I don't think I've mentioned this previously, but we've finally found an officiant. It's a whole story that I'm not ready to tell yet (as I haven't met the guy... but that's yet another story! Or maybe the same one?), but it's basically given us a lot of freedom to write our own ceremony—but not our own vows—which, while awesome, is a ton of pressure (and therefore I am avoiding it like the plague).

What I'm working on instead? Figuring out our ceremony music. We're dividing our processional's music into the groom's processional (yes, Mr. Spaniel gets to stand by himself for the entire time), seating of the mothers, bridesmaids, and my walk down the aisle, and we're following the ceremony with the recessional music. We've decided to go primarily with Vitamin String Quartet covers because I find lyrics kind of distracting and not always straightforwardly aligned with what I want to say. (Have you ever noticed how difficult it can be to find a love song that isn't also about loss or pain? That's not the message we want for our wedding!)

Prelude: The Book of Love

We're thiking of playing this one (this version, with all its silly lyrics) before we start the ceremony as a cue to guests to take their seats because the real processional is about to start. I knew it was the song when I played it for my mom and she said, "This is nice..." when the music started playing but looked at me and said, "Miss Spaniel, how did you get so weird?" by the end of the first line. Well, maybe that isn't the tone we want to set...

Groom's processional: Falling Slowly

I loved this movie. I love this song. We would use the instrumental (string quartet) version, which is beautiful (some of them are kind of... not that good). I win. As soon as Mr. Spaniel agrees with me, that is (which hasn't happened yet! But I'm sure he either will eventually, or come up with something even more awesome).

Stay tuned for the rest of the ceremony music!

Meaningful and authentic

One of the ways that Mr. Spaniel and I hope to personalize our ceremony is by finding readings from different faith and cultural traditions that are meaningful to us now, or that speak to our particular backgrounds. This isn't necessarily as simple and straightforward as it sounds, though. In our first year together, we attended three weddings, and at two of them we heard the "Apache Wedding Blessing." It may be familiar to you:

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Now you will feel no rain,
For each of you will be shelter to the other.
Now you will feel no cold,
For each of you will be warmth to the other.
Now there is no more loneliness,
For each of you will be companion to the other.
Now you are two bodies,
But there is one life before you.
Go now to your dwelling place,
To enter into the days of your togetherness.
And may your days be good and long upon the earth.

(You can even buy calligraphic prints of it here or here!)

Sounds sweet and sentimental, right? Old and traditional? The perfect reading for a couple of semi-hippie types like Mr. Spaniel and I? Yeah, except that it's a giant fraud. Mr. Spaniel thought it sounded just a little too perfect and did a quick Google search on it, and discovered that it actually has no connection to any Native American tradition at all, but was instead written for the 1950s Western Broken Arrow by Brooklyn-born Albert Maltz. Naturally, we've decided to continue the search to find something both meaningful and authentic to incorporate into our ceremony.

Am I being too sentimental? Does it matter if this is a real Native American tradition or not?