Six Months: It's Not Goodbye, It's See You Later

I can hardly believe that I'm writing this, but the time has come, Hive. 

I know that I alluded to posts including in-depth vendor reviews and a list of music for our wedding, but having recapped our day from beginning to end, I feel as though it is the right time. In addition, today is our six month anniversary - I can't ignore the nice-and-neat feel of that. ;)

Our wedding day was, without a doubt, my favorite day of my life. It was everything that I dreamed of, hoped and planned for over the course of seventeen months. It was full of love and laughter, friendship, dancing, drinking, music, memories. . . I sincerely don't know that I could ask for anything else.

I stumbled across Weddingbee prior to even being engaged, in about November of 2011. I became obsessed shortly after and dragged BM Y into my obsession as well. Mr. Palm Tree asked me to marry him on December 22nd, 2011 and as we shared the news over Christmas Break, one of my relatives asked if I was still writing and encouraged me to write about the experience. From that point on, I knew that I wanted to be a Weddingbee blogger.

personal photo | I really wanted this picture, haha.

Behind The Scenes: A Life of a Vendor

Quite a while ago, I wrote a post about what it's like to be on the vendor side of the fence when it comes to wedding planning and executing. Since that time, my career path has changed pretty drastically. I am now a full-time Wedding and Event Coordinator for a local catering company. The account that the company is contracted for is one of the larger colleges in the Pittsburgh area and the venue at the college holds between 50-70 weddings a year. If you're thinking, "but there are only fifty-two weeks in a year, you dope," I am here to tell you that Friday and Sunday weddings are definitely A Thing in this region. 

I love my job and it's kind of a dream come true for me. When my friends will ask me what all my job entails, my short, jokey answer is, "I plan shit and tell people what to do." The response is almost always, "that is perfect for you." It wasn't until fairly recently though, through communication with BM Y, that it hit me: I'm a vendor. 

Since that thought took place, I've been sort of writing this post in my head. I thought that it might be helpful for those in the planning stages to have a sort of behind-the-scenes glimpse into what a vendor does for your wedding. Mr. Palm Tree consistently comments that he would never think to inquire about so many of the things that I handle on a daily basis, but he would expect them to be done. 

Treely, Madly, Deeply: All The Things (The Details Post)

I know that the Wedding Industrial Complex is A Thing and it puts a lot of pressure on Brides to have the 'OMG MOST PERFECT DAY EVA' day - but Hive, all outside pressure aside, my wedding day really was one of the (if not the) best days of my life.

Looking through these detail pictures makes my OCD heart happy because I really do feel that my vision (even if it changed a bit) was brought to life. 

All photos via Limelight-Images unless otherwise noted.

Our centerpieces:

Our centerpieces started out as a grand idea that would be a semi-nod to the Zelda lanterns and fairies, combining two loves of both Mr. Palm Tree and myself, and resulted in what you see in the above pictures. Like quite a few of my ideas, this got pushed to the "if I have time list". I had purchased much of the items needed sporadically throughout the course of our engagement and the week prior to the wedding, I sat down with my cousins B and O and we threw them together. 'Aqua' colored marbles that I purchased from various craft stores, blue fairy berries hidden amongst them, this shredded filler that BM Y amazingly found and purchased for me that I still can't remember the name of, and they were topped with assorted yellow silk flowers purchased from JoAnn's. The lighting in the above pictures really doesn't do them justice, but then again, there isn't a lot of justice to be done: simple yet effective. Moving along.

Fun Stuff: 

Our Bride and Groom Mickey ears, purchased by BM Blackout as a surprise for us.

One of the best inventions ever, our tumbler cups that I originally gifted to my girls at my shower. These were purchased from Debi DelaCruz on Etsy (on Cyber Monday - hint to all Brides-to-be planning to shop: DON'T FORGET ABOUT CYBER MONDAY! I scored so.many.deals). 

Our favors, Bride and Groom cookies, homemade by a wonderful baker friend of mine. You can find her website here. She's pretty fabulous and one of the cakes. 

Our cake, by Brenda McGee, which was included in our package at The Fez. I did not care one iota about our cake so this was Mr. Palm Tree's baby. My wonderful DOC/Friend E decorated the cake table with the extra flowers and, even though you can't see them in this lighting, assorted fairy berries. 

Our place cards, another  'they'll be cool if I have time" thing. Bought the templates from Staples, I think, and printed these out the night before our rehearsal dinner. Boom.

These programs were nearly the death of MOH Mem, Mr. Palm Tree and myself. I painstakingly designed them and was super proud of them but Hive, please learn from our mistakes and unnecessary hard work (also mentioned in the post about our invitations): OUTSOURCE ALL OF YOUR PRINTING. Getting the right parts to print on the right sides and then figuring out how to turn them around and dealing with the ink running out and computers freezing and just. . .it was a mess. We were in tears of laughter over it the night before the rehearsal dinner because by the end of it all, some things that were supposed to be gray were pink and what else can you do at that point?

As you can see, DIY played a veeeeery tiiiiiiny role in our wedding. This is super representative of real life. I am far from DIY savvy, as I've stated many times. Our personal touches came more from the decisions we made and our actions: the music that we played, the reasons behind our wedding colors, our vows. 

I made a sort-of haphazard Inspiration Board way back when. Let's revisit and compare, shall we?

Once again, my MS Paint Skillz hard at work. From left to right: One via Bells and Whistles; Two via Style Me Pretty / by The Rhoads; Three via Sun Kissed Weddings; Four via Sakura Photography; Five via Wedding Channel; Six via Curbly; Seven via Wedding Wire; Eight via Etsy and Nine via Etsy

All photos courtesy of Limelight-Images except for the top left, which is courtesy of BM Y.

In this case, I'd say reality beats the inspiration by a landslide.

Treely, Madly, Deeply: My Somethings - including my bees and some familiar jewelry!

We all know the saying: Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed and Something Blue. There's the line about the sixpence in a shoe but to be honest, I didn't know that existed until Weddingbee so it was not even remotely on my radar. I loved all of my somethings and am happy to be able to write about them.

All photos via Limelight-Images unless otherwise noted.

My Somethings: 

Don't hate on my hanger, guys. ;)

My beautiful dream dress was considered as my Something New. Is this considered cheating? I loved this dress and am truly sad that I will never wear it again because I felt like such a beautiful Bride in it. This comes from a place of complete honesty that is devoid of any sense of arrogance, I promise, but I felt like it was my wedding day and that I was stunning. I hope that every Bride feels this way on her wedding day. 

Once I get my dress cleaned and snip a piece of it from underneath for some future daughter/niece/cousin/someone of a future generation, I plan to donate it. I haven't decided where. . .maybe Goodwill, maybe Brides Against Breast Cancer. Regardless, it won't sit in my closet for the rest of my life, because it is truly too special to me to have that fate.

Treely, Madly, Deeply: After The Party There's The Hotel Lobby. . .

Our ride back to the hotel was a ride to remember. We were all so full of fun and love and. . .well, alcohol. I honestly would not have wanted ti any other way and could not imagine it being any other way. We put on BM Tiny Dancer's playlist and had a blast.

*photos courtesy of BM Y.

When we got back to the hotel and walked into the bar, I was so happy to find almost all of our guests. Seriously, we took up pretty much the entire space. And of course, we all mingled with one another and shared stories. GM Pythagoras' sister had made a Sheetz run and brought me Mac and Cheese bites (I am so loved, you guys) so I housed those in between drinks. I did so many shots with so many different people and loved every minute of the after party.

We closed the bar down and there were a handful of us left - Mr. Palm Tree and I, the Y's, GM J and his parents, GM L, Mr. Palm Tree's mom and stepdad, Best Man R and his date, our friend V and our friend J. Mr. Palm Tree's mom mentioned that we should keep the party going, to which I heartily agreed, so we made our way to her room.

On our way, though, we encountered some friends in the lobby.

GM Pythagoras' sister's husband and our friend D were playing the piano. You guys, I was so excited that we caught this - I was clapping my hands and encouraging it to continue.

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High-fiving my excitement with Sister Pythagoras.

A very accurate representation of my state of mind at this point.

We were up so late that night - seriously. We did a tour of rooms, first stopping in MIL Palm Tree's, then in GM J's parents, then we ended up in our room. We ended up with a bottle of champagne after BM Y and GM J's dad went on a hunt for one, during which he said that he was my stepfather and that I was crushed that I didn't have anything waiting for us upon our arrival (some might say shame on him for lying, but I say, GOOD THINKING). I know that slowly but surely, people started leaving us and that Friend J was the last one out of the door.

And thus, our wedding night officially ended. . .or started, depending on how you want to look at it. ;)

So ends the Palm Tree Wedding Recaps. Don't worry, Hive, I'm not going anywhere just yet! I have a few more posts and details I'd like to share with you before I say my official goodbyes.

Treely, Madly, Deeply: The End of the Night: Push It and We Go Together

I have known so many of my friends for so long and have spent so much time with them that we all have inside jokes/stories. So many of us have dances and songs that are intricately linked to memories and times we've shared together. It was really important to me to include as many of these things as possible in our reception because honestly, Mr. Palm Tree and I would not be whole without the fabulous people in our lives.

One of these songs is Push It by Salt-n-Pepa. In addition to vivid memories of GM Pythagoras and his friend singing and dancing to this down the hallways in high school, MOH Mem and I share a connection to it. We (along with BM Y) saw the movie Something Borrowed together in theaters (one of the best book-to-film adaptations I've ever seen, for the record) and like many other 20-somethings, became obsessed with the dance scene. 

When it would come on at bars, we would immediately try to re-enact this scene. We never discussed it, it's just what we did. Some time in the week before our wedding, I said that I wanted to really learn it, so we spent quite a bit of time watching this tutorial and practicing. 

True Confessions: come the night of my wedding, every bit of practice flew out the window and I forgot so much of it. I've mentioned multiple times that I was a terrible dancer but I honestly thought I'd at least remember the moves. No such luck. I remember thinking afterwards that I completely botched it. . .and then, I saw our pictures.

*all photos courtesy of Limelight-Images

You guys, these pictures make me look as if I know what I'm doing!

Right after this, our photographer Jimmy came up to me and told me he was leaving. I have no clue what time it was but I know it wasn't quite the end of the night - however, I can not fill you in on the appropriate timeline for the rest of the night because I barely remember what happened after this point, let alone the order of events. I know that, at one point, we were all singing My Heart Will Go On on the dance floor (so fitting for us, of course). I know that, at one point, our DJ announced that the first shuttle was leaving and that quite a few people left. I know that, at one point, I started to say goodbye to people and I also got sucked in to quite a few 'serious' conversations that I don't remember. I know that I was leaning on Mr. Palm Tree and we were being ooey-gooey-lovey-dovey. Finally, our DJ announced that it was time for the last song.

I was so careful with our song choices, as I mentioned in a few earlier posts. When I thought about what our last song would be, there was really no other choice - it hit me and I swear, the stars aligned and fireworks were going off in the distance.

Our last song was We Go Together from Grease. It was so perfect, too - everyone screamed and ran to the middle of the floor and started singing and dancing. Mr. Palm Tree grabbed me and we were dancing in the middle of everyone. I wish we had pictures of it, but at the same time, I'm glad we don't - it means that everyone there was involved. We were all so freaking happy, hive. It's something I vividly remember - down to Mr. Palm Tree sort of dragging me through the circle at the end and me turning and waving, you know, like the driving away into the clouds scene at the end of the movie. It was so great, so all of us, and a great note on which to end the night.

While the guests trickled out and DOC E gathered all of our belongings and loaded them into our car, I got the bartender to fill up my drink one last time before we boarded the trolley to take us back to the hotel.