As our special day looms on the horizon, Mr. Palm Tree, MOH Mem and I are busy tying up all kinds of loose ends to get ready for the weekend. Bees like Miss Scepter have written about the day before the day before and I'm here to follow suit. Spoiler Alert: I didn't get to sleep in and have been on-the-go since about 8:00am. Boy, this shindig and the whole lifetime together thing better be worth it. . . ;)
Please accept my lack of an interesting segue and feast your eyes on All The Things, Palm Tree style:
The Nails
Many Bees have written about getting their nails did - Mrs. Turkey treated her girls to Nails and a Nosh, Mrs. Boa Constrictor discussed her bold color preference. This girl went to a nail salon in a mall, recommended by a friend, and opted for a gel manicure and pedicure in hopes that the color would last through the wedding AND the honeymoon.
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| You can't really tell because of the flash but I do have an accent finger! Some extra sparkle. :) |
Purple is my favorite color and it's not played a single role in our wedding so I wanted to incorporate it somehow. My fingers and toes are this subtle, shiny shade and I'm super pleased.
The Favors
I've kept my favors under wraps because I wanted to be able to share the final result. My friend A, who designed the cake from my shower, also made some edible goodies for each guest. My job enables me to attest to the fact that favors are often left behind at weddings so I wanted to make good use of Mr. Palm Tree's and my money while also pleasing our guests. I knew going with an edible favor (in addition to the take-home photo strip from our photobooth) would be the best bang for our buck.
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| And look how freaking cute they are! |
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| close-up of about one of five different 'bride' designs |
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| Mr. Palm Tree, MOH Mem and I spent about an hour and a half bagging and twist-tying these yums. . .and taste-testing a few in the interim ;) |
If any of you ladies are looking for edible, personalized favors please feel free to PM me and I'll share friend A's info - she has a side business and ships pretty much anywhere.
The Wedding Day Scents
Around Christmastime, Mr. Palm Tree and I bought each other the Sephora Fragrance Sampler with the sole goal to find our wedding day scents. Mr. Palm Tree lucked out and every single fragrance smelled a-maz-ing on him. Me on the other hand, not so much. I don't know if it's from years of wearing Lucky You body spray and assorted Bath & Body Works sprays or if my body chemistry is just a little wackadoodle but I had a HELL of a time. The fragrances in my sampler all smelled wonderful but they had little to no staying power. It was disappointing and frustrating - why did I pay $50.00 to find a scent when I could've spent $10.00 for my Cherry Blossom at BBW or $8.00 for my Lucky You at Target?
Enter: Dot by Marc Jacobs
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| image via Sephora.com | Look how freaking cute this bottle is, too! |
It's so fresh and flirty - I'm a huge fan of the scent and the staying power is incredible. I spritzed some on my wrists earlier just to re-test and I can smell it as I sit here typing. Perfect. Mr. Palm Tree loves it as well so naturally, I'm excited for him to associate it with one of the best days of our lives.
Mr. Palm Tree went with Play Intense by Givenchy.
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| image via Sephora.com | "This is a really cool bottle. Oooh, even the sprayer is cool." - direct quote from Mr. PT. |
Like I said, he had a much easier time than I did; all of his fragrances had solid staying power and smelled very manly. This was a favorite of both of ours, though - it has a little extra hint of sexiness and masculinity. SOLD.
No joke, you guys - purchasing these place cards from Joann's might be the best decision I made throughout the duration of my planning. These items are also always left over at the end of events so I had zero desire to spend a significant amount of time, effort, energy and/or money on this aspect. I used the template provided from the Wilton website and voila!
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| I'm kind of obsessed with Segoe Script lately. . . |
The Videographers
Many wonderful Bees have lamented the fact that they didn't have a videographer. I did NOT want that to be Mr. Palm Tree and I (especially because I am quite the Memory Lane frequenter), nor did I want to spend thousands on yet another vendor. Enter: Weddingmix by Storymix Media.
Arianne from Storymix actually reached out to me via the 'Bee, after seeing a comment on another blogger Bee's post. Personalized customer service = automatic win. After discussing options with her, we opted to go with the Weddingmix service. It's similar to Wedit (which Bees like Mrs. Bacon and Mrs. Treasure have utilized) in that you receive flip cameras to use for the ceremony, reception, honeymoon - whatever you want! You send the cameras back, they create a video, voila! It's a fun way to get others involved and to get more than the traditional video. We are going to have one Bridesmaid and one Groomsman video the 'before' moments during the morning of, then at the venue they'll hand their camera over to Friend B (also doing the ceremony reading), BM Blackout's youngest sister O (who is under strict instructions to catch Mr. PT's look as I walk down the aisle) and Family Friend L (family friend M's daughter, who went to school for communication-based cinematography/videography). I am so excited about this personalized service and cannot wait to see the ridiculousness that they all capture.
The Rehearsal Dinner
Many wonderful Bees have lamented the fact that they didn't have a videographer. I did NOT want that to be Mr. Palm Tree and I (especially because I am quite the Memory Lane frequenter), nor did I want to spend thousands on yet another vendor. Enter: Weddingmix by Storymix Media.
Arianne from Storymix actually reached out to me via the 'Bee, after seeing a comment on another blogger Bee's post. Personalized customer service = automatic win. After discussing options with her, we opted to go with the Weddingmix service. It's similar to Wedit (which Bees like Mrs. Bacon and Mrs. Treasure have utilized) in that you receive flip cameras to use for the ceremony, reception, honeymoon - whatever you want! You send the cameras back, they create a video, voila! It's a fun way to get others involved and to get more than the traditional video. We are going to have one Bridesmaid and one Groomsman video the 'before' moments during the morning of, then at the venue they'll hand their camera over to Friend B (also doing the ceremony reading), BM Blackout's youngest sister O (who is under strict instructions to catch Mr. PT's look as I walk down the aisle) and Family Friend L (family friend M's daughter, who went to school for communication-based cinematography/videography). I am so excited about this personalized service and cannot wait to see the ridiculousness that they all capture.
The Rehearsal Dinner
I'll go into details about the rehearsal dinner in my recaps but I just had to share my dress with you all:
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| image via ModCloth.com | The Once Upon a Gleam dress from ModCloth |
I love this dress, Hive. I can't imagine that I'll ever wear it again and will inevitably donate it to a worthy cause but I could not pass this up - it just called to me. It's so dreamy and feminine and pretty. It's not something I'd usually wear but if there is ever a time to get fancy and do something nice for oneself, it's while wedding planning. I didn't really go with the "Bride Wears White To All Wedding Activities" thing (as seen here and here) - but hey, better late than never, right? Like I said, I just could not pass up this dress. SWOON.
The Sign
Okay, Hive, I absolutely positively have to share this story. What I'm about to tell you just happened (about an hour and a half ago) and I still have goosies.
FMIL Palm Tree ordered a ton of cookies for our cookie table and went to pick them up today. She called me when she left the baker's house and said, "I have something I really need to tell you." I immediately went to uh-oh land.
"I just picked your cookies up from your grandma's house."
.......
My grandmother passed away a few days before Christmas in 2008.
"I pulled up to her house and I kept saying, I know this house. I recognized the carport, the lawn, the patio and couldn't shake it. When I met T [baker], I said 'I could swear that this was my daughter-in-law's grandmother's home'. T asked me who you were and when I said your name she screamed."
See, you guys, the lady who now lives in my grandmother's old house is a distant relative of mine (my great-aunt's daughter's sister-in-law, if you want to be specific). She bought the house shortly after my grandmother passed away and has since remodeled it. FSMIL had no clue who this was or even that T lived there currently; she said that it didn't click even when T gave her the address. It wasn't until she was pulling up the driveway that she couldn't shake the fact that she knew.
My grandmother and I were very close and she was one of the very few constants in my life. When she passed away, it kind of rocked my already rocky world and it took me quite a while to get back to normal. Since then, however, I have had tons of dreams about her and they have all had to do with my wedding - even before Mr. Palm Tree (whom she LOVED) and I were engaged.
FMIL Palm Tree said, "I really think this was your grandmother telling you that she's going to be with you on your wedding day." I couldn't agree more.
So that's it, Hive - all of my things. I have a feeling I'll be checking in again before I become a Mrs. but until then, I wanted to share with you a few of the details taking up my day before the day before.
Anyone else find themselves churning things out in the final hours? Anyone else have any 'signs'?
To all of us Memorial Day weekend brides: Sending you TONS of love and well-wishes. . .we're here!
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