My Little Princesses

You may or may not remember one of my very first posts way back when about my little sister (the flowergirl) and my littlest sister (the honorary flowergirl).

I just thought I'd give you an update on how my little ladies' looks are progressing! We took them to the tailor earlier this week to get their dresses altered to fit them perfectly.

My little sister looks gorgeous and loves her "Belle" dress, although you can't tell from this picture:

She was very upset when she found out we had to leave the dress there to get worked on! I feel the same way about my dress, babe! ;)

My littlest sister looked adorable, too. And always sooo happy!

My little sister even got to practice getting her "princess" hair! Thank goodness she's going through a princess phase or I have no idea how we would have convinced her to go through all this primping!

My little sister also has a tiara and sparkly shoes and my littlest sister has a polka dot bow that is so precious. I am almost as excited about how they're going to look as I am about how I'm going to look. Almost!

How elaborate are your little ladies' looks?

Sparkling in the Spotlight

Like many other brides before me, I just love the look of a sparkler send-off. I love the drama (of course!), and it makes for such a perfect end to a classy, city light-filled wedding.

(Photo Credit )

So I bought some sparklers off of Ebay. But they looked pretty drab, in all their gray loveliness. So I made cutesy little tags to accompany them:

And tied the darling little tags on with purple ribbon leftover from another project:

And took a yellow metal bin that I had been storing toys for my sisters in, threw the toys in a drawer, and painted it black.

The end result was this:

Another quick, DIY project that I've been busy whipping up in the final days before our wedding! Don't worry, there are plenty of lighters tucked in the back of the bin ;)

What are your send-off plans?

Bouquet Holder Tags

We are officially less than two weeks until the wedding and I am furiously turning out polka-dotted craft projects (you may have noticed that I'm hardly ever on the boards anymore -- things are heating up around here!) !

The other night I took some vases I found at the dollar store, some ribbon I already had from other projects, and some leftover invitation cardstock and made:

Bouquet holders for my bridesmaids' bouquets to serve double-duty as reception decor!

I used each of their Weddingbee nicknames instead of their actual first names because I thought it would be cute :)

Nothing fancy, but cute and functional! I'm hoping to get a lot of worth out of our really expensive (but hopefully, gorgeous!) bouquets.

How are you wisely using your splurge items?

Adventures of a Young-ish Bride, Cover It Up!

This has definitely been the hardest young-ish bride post for me to write because it's not something that I usually like to admit to. Well, not to anyone except Mr. Star.

Many times during this nearly two-year process of engagement, I've gotten nervous or stressed or anxious or scared about [insert ridiculous wedding detail / legitimate marriage anxiety / partially unresolved divorced parents issue here].

(Photo Credit)

A lot of times I get super duper nervous, like Mrs. Cheese. I also worry about all the details like Mrs. Powderpuff. Sometimes, I just get those normal bridal butterflies. No matter what, I feel like I have to hide it.

Why is that? I have a loving family and wonderful friends with whom I talk about nearly everything. So why would this be any different?

I think the answer is somehow twisted up in the fact that I'm a young-ish bride. Along the way, we've met with some reticence about us getting married so young from family, friends, and acquaintances alike, which has caused me to feel throughout our engagement that I needed to be proving why we were doing this and how strong a couple we are together.

I'm probably not alone in being a young-ish bride who feels the need to constantly keep up a brave front about my wedding nerves for the sake of calming the nerves of those around me who are worried about my young age.

The thing is, I think wedding nerves are pretty healthy, actually. Don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about "should I call off the wedding or not?" type nerves. I'm talking about the earnest, heartfelt nerves that you get when you're making any life-changing decision or starting off in a new life direction -- the kind of nerves you get the night before you move into your first college dorm room, the kind of nerves you get when you break tradition and actually ask a guy out on a date, or the kind of nerves you get when you know you're about to make the decision about the person who will be your partner for life, through thick and thin.

Nerves are normal and healthy for people who really think about the levity and depth of the decisions they're making...or, at least they are for me. I'm once again lucky to have Mr. Star, who makes me feel totally comfortable in telling him when I'm feeling nervous and is understanding enough to know that it has nothing to do with him or us, it's just something that I'm going through because my life is changing forever.

I'm done trying to hide it from other people, though. I've decided to tell people when I'm feeling nervous.

Person: "So, big day is coming up -- you getting nervous yet?"
Me: "Yeah, actually, I am a bit nervous, but I think that's normal. I'm also super excited!"

Have you felt like you had to conceal your wedding nerves and pretend to always be a calm bride (young-ish and not so young-ish brides alike!)?

My Dream Dress, Part VI: Bustle That Babe!

With the final alterations on my dress complete, the only thing left to figure out was the bustle. With all of the horror stories I've heard about with bustles that don't turn out so great or brides getting into arguments with seamstresses over the "correct" bustle for each dress, I was nervous about getting mine done. I mean, no one wants to be this upset about their wedding dress:

(Photo Credit )

Luckily, the experience was a breeze with my dress and especially with my seamstress, whom I love to death. She shortened my very elaborately beaded dress without a hitch and chose a fabulous way to bustle my dress that makes it look even prettier than without the bustle, which I always think is important, since most of the time people see the dress it will be bustled!

This is basically how my dress will look bustled, although it's still a little lopsided because she didn't pin it all the way around:

I don't know the names of the different types of bustles, so don't ask me which kind it is. All I know is that it's gorgeous!

Of course, I had to practice sitting in my dress, too. Me trying to be graceful:

Yeah, I am one cool bride...NOT!

Hemming down, bustle down -- Houston, we have a dress! I even made my final payment on it, so that bad boy is all mine now. I can't wait until the bustle is finished and it's all steamed so I can take it home to torture Mr. Star with ;)

Was your bustle an easy process?

Stay tuned for a sneak peek at my boudoir pics coming soon, I hope!

Living Proof That Delegating Actually Works

Just like Miss Beagle wrote about, I have a really hard time letting people help me out. I guess I think it makes me look weak or like I'm failing to accomplish everything that I had set out to do. Logically, I know it's silly to feel this way, but I struggle with being able to delegate in actuality.

Well, folks, we're coming into the home stretch over here at the Star household and some of my intended craft projects were starting to fall by the wayside. That is, until people started generously stepping up and helping out without me even asking!

At first, I was hesitant because I'm such a control freak. But my options were either 1. Don't have things like rehearsal dinner invites because they're not necessary and I'm running out of time or 2. Let my fabulous MOH handle them herself, since she so graciously offered.

I am so glad she did, because she did a fabulous job!

Doesn't it look just like something I would have done myself? She knows me so well :)

So here I am saying thank you to my wonderful MOH and wanting to share with the world (or at least, the Hive!) how well delegating really can work out.

What have you gotten help with? Was it hard for you to let some projects go?

Oh yeah, this is why I'm marrying him

Is it weird to feel more secure in your relationship during the tough times?

If so, then I'm definitely weird. No, wait. I'm definitely weird either way. But that's a different post for a different day :)

As it always does, life has been busy handing us a heaping helping of GOOD and BAD. Only lately it seems like the GOOD and BAD have been thrown at us in rapid-fire succession and my head is spinning so fast that I can't keep up with my own emotions.

We are officially 20 days away from being married (eek!), but my focus has been all over the place trying to keep up with the GOOD and the BAD in our lives lately.

One of the GOOD things is captured right there in that gorgeous picture. Yes, that was actually the incredible sunset view from our balcony the other night. Most nights, we can see the sky turn that fabulous pinky-purple right from our couch and it is breathtaking. Mr. Star and I can hardly believe that we live here and are afraid some morning we'll wake up and it will all have been a dream.

Moving, though? That was BAD news right there. We hired four moving companies before one actually showed up to help us move. Yeah, you heard me right. And the move itself took fourteen very long hours. We were cranky and wiped, to say the least. And we've been trying to unpack like crazy people to get ready for the wedding. Mr. Star has been a prince, never complaining and always volunteering to do the dirty work, like sanding down furniture to be re-painted (I hate sanding!).

Take a look at that charming piece of GOODness right there! Yeah, we just got a puppy as a gift from Momma Star. I've been wanting a Yorkie to call my own for some time and now I have a little 10-week-old 1.6 pound bundle of love named Stella. She is fabulous and adorable and we all love her (Duncan , included).

Mr. Star often sneaks around and cleans up her BAD potty training accidents before I have the chance to find them myself. What a sweet guy, right?

Reuben and I danced together as we all picked Reception music together

We've been so lucky lately with so many amazing GOOD things in our life, that my worst piece of BAD news has been all the more sad. This past week, I had to make the very difficult decision to put my 20-year-old family cat, Reuben, to sleep. It was BAD, my friends. Very bad. I held him in my arms and said all the nice kitty things I could think of in his last few moments. The only GOOD part about it was that I was able to be there comforting him and that he left this world the way every person and animal should: being held and surrounded by those you love.

Mr. Star was right there with me through it all, holding me as I said goodbye to Reuben and talking to me all night as I sobbed in bed, and suddenly all the wedding jitters and marriage anxiety that has been creeping in on me lately just faded away as I thought: Oh god, this is why I love him. This is why we're getting married.

I know that we'll always be there for each other, holding hands and looking outward towards the world together, and while all the GOOD in our lives has been really uplifting, it's definitely the BAD times that make me know we'll be okay. Twisted as it may sound, that's how it is.

So I guess my Reuben's last gift to me was the GOOD of reminding me that I am definitely making the right choice and doing the right thing in marrying Mr. Star, who celebrates the GOOD times with me and holds me close through the BAD.

What reminds you of why you're marrying your sweetie?

Where does your wedding dress hang out?

This morning, Mr. Star and I were awakened by the doorman buzzing up to tell us that the post office was delivering a package we needed to sign for.

The package was pretty unassuming, except for the cute little note written in red that said, "do not bend :)"

But when I opened it up, I was thrilled to find my latest completely-unneccessary-but-totally-adorable-anyways wedding purchase: the wedding dress hanger.

I have thought for a long time that I would not be participating in the special hangers for wedding dresses  trend, but when reader ejs4y8 posted a thread on the board with these adorable little works of dress hanger art, I knew I had to have one.

Etsy seller lilafrances makes these hangers with a variety of sayings (or pretty much anything short enough to fit in there!) and I just think they're so precious.

This was the style of hanger that I originally fell in love with, but because of last name changing complications (which I will blog about at some point!), I decided to stick with our first names.

Are you doing anything special for the hanger for your wedding dress? Have you ever originally decided not to follow a wedding trend and then changed your mind?

Band-ing Together

Mr. Star and I had a terrible time finding rings we liked in your traditional jewelry store. There were lots of gorgeous options, for sure, but none that really seemed to be "us" and the ones that even came close were just soooo expensive.

On top of that, my gorgeous engagement ring has a bit of an odd shape, and I couldn't find a single band that would lay flush up against it. Some ladies don't mind that gap, but for my overly picky self, it irked me to no end. My E-ring by itself in case you don't remember the beautiful cluster diamonds on the side that made this process so complicated:

Adding to the complication was the fact that this one wedding detail proved to be Mr. Star's slight foray into "Groomzilla" land -- he was SO picky about his ring, which was only striking because he's usually incredibly laid back about everything. In truth, it was totally fair because I know he spent just as much time finding me the perfect E-ring as we did on the quest for his wedding band, but at the time, I was getting pretty frustrated.

At some point in the process, Momma Star suggested looking at rings on Ebay. I was, at first, slightly appalled. I thought it sounded so tacky. But one night, I decided to check it out and sure enough, there were some really unique and well-priced rings on there!

I knew I wanted and Enhancer style ring and was able to find one right away that matched the style of my E-ring so well. He knew he wanted a two-toned ring with some sort of interesting embellishment and we stumbled across this tungsten ring with an infinity symbol that goes all the way around, which was perfect for him because the infinity symbol has kind've been our thing since the first few days we said I love you ("times infinity to the infinity power" in the Star household!).

I was very concerned about ordering quality jewelry online, so I made sure to only order from Ebay sellers with great return policies. Worst case scenario, we hated the rings and sent them back within 30 days for a rull refund. But that's not what happened!

So without further ado, here they are together:

At first, I was worried about how they TOTALLY don't match, but we quickly decided that we love how non-matchy they are because they both represent each of us so perfectly and we are, in fact, such different and complementary people.

This is how our rings look together with my E-ring making an appearance :)

And a fun shot, just for kicks. I mean, come on, who doesn't love them some Ben & Jerry's?

Did you get your wedding bands at a jewelry shop or did you find them in a more unconventional place?

My Dream Dress, Part V: Fitting It In!

What is that, you might ask? My wedding shoe? Why, yes, it is!

Wait, Miss Star, haven't we already seeeen your wedding shoes? Yes, yes, you have! But not poking out from underneath my dress!!

Or paired with the veil I painstakingly stitched!

Or worn with the smile of a bride who's trying on her dream dress in her size and in the color she wanted for the very first time!

Or with the awkward dance moves of silly young-ish bride in a birdcage veil!

By now you've probably figured out that I had my first dress fitting this past week and it went swimmingly! I'm in love and Mr. Star seems pretty okay with sharing my heart with a dress. The dress fit perfectly except for the fact that it's about a mile too long, so I'm even coming in under my alterations budget if all goes according to plan! 

The only thing I discovered is that I think I need some undergarments to smooth things out in the torso-thigh area because I've got some lumps showing in pictures that I'd like to take care of pronto, but I don't think that's any big deal. I'm guessing I need to buy some Spanx, unless anyone else has a better suggestion.

Did your dress fit like a glove right off or did you need a bunch of alterations? Did you have to purchase some unexpected undergarments?

Internet-less Wedding Planning

Alright, I admit it. I have NO IDEA how they did it in the old days.

Wedding planning, that is.

Maybe it's just because I'm young enough to only barely remember the days when I was forced to look things up in the phone book and the encyclopedia, but I cannot imagine how much harder it must have been to plan a wedding before there was the internet.

Because of our move, I have been internet-less for precisely 11 days and it has been k-i-l-l-i-n-g me.

(Photo Credit)

We are just under a month out from our wedding, and I feel like I haven't been able to get anything done in two weeks! I have had vendor emails go unanswered for several days (wow, I need to have more of their phone numbers handy!), I haven't been able to google things like "where to rent a projector and screen in NYC" and I couldn't copy and paste the text of our chosen readings off of a website and into the ceremony document I was creating.

I had no idea how hard it would be to try to wrap up wedding planning without computer access for a few days until I was forced into it, which got me thinking about how one might go about planning a wedding if there were no such thing as an internet. Wait, people planned weddings before Weddingbee??

Maybe I sound like a spoiled Generation Y-er, but I don't think I'm alone on this one! What would change about your wedding planning if you couldn't use the internet?

Candlestick Centerpieces

It occurred to me a few days ago that I have mentioned several times how I'm not using floral centerpieces, but never actually let you all in on what WILL be gracing our tables.

I knew right off that big, lush floral centerpieces wouldn't be in our budget and I have always loved candlelight, so I admit that I was pretty drawn to candle centerpieces right from the start. I wanted to make them dramatic, though, and I figured that the best way to do it would be to have tapers at each table, but didn't have any idea how to make it enough of a statement. That is, until I ran across this picture in a magazine probably at least a year ago:

(Photo credit for Martha, of course)

I loved the look immediately. I also saw right away the potential for a very "Phantom of the Opera" type drama for this look in our deep purple.

The problem then was how to get enough candlesticks. Let me tell you, most taper candlestick holders are not cheap! I tried the usual suspects: Ebay, Craigslist, etc., but finally settled on thrifting them from around the city. It was an ambitious project, given that I needed about 100 candlestick holders to have enough for all of the tables, but after about four months of thrifting once or twice a week (and a few additions from my dad and stepmom's adventures!), I was able to collect over 100 of them.

This is just a small sampling of our collection. I love all the different heights and shapes!

*Please excuse the poor quality photos, we're in the middle of unpacking and it was just a drive-by mock-up!*

I also picked up some wax candle adapters, which I had never heard of until I started wedding planning:

(Photo Credit)

They apparently keep tapers from tipping over in holders that aren't sized perfectly (which is a definite risk when you're thrifting them!), so we won't have crookedness like the middle candle in the picture I took above.

Then I ordered the purple taper candles in bulk for $75 from the cheapest place I could find them and voila, we had centerpieces! I resolved not to spend more than four dollars a piece on each of the holders and most were only a dollar or two, so all in all I spent about $350 getting gorgeous centerpieces put together! That was one of greatest budget-slashers, since the floral quotes I was getting here in the city were running in the several thousands, even for simple arrangements.


Are you incorporating candles into your centerpieces? How are you trying to make them unique?

Adventures of a Young-ish Bride, Blazing the Trail

There are a lot of perks that go along with being the oldest child: scoring a later bedtime, never having to wear hand-me-downs, getting the bigger bedroom…the list goes on, I’m sure.

There are also definite downsides: getting blamed for something that your little brother actually did, the strict rules you have to follow as a teenager that your sibling ends up somehow getting out of, and, when you add into the mix the deadly combo of a young-ish bride and a young-ish groom, you get Super Duper Wedding Trailblazer status.

(Photo Credit )

Let me explain.

Both Mr. Star and I are the first among our generation in our families to get married. This means a few things:

• No one is exactly sure how they are supposed to behave or what the family wedding planning dynamic is. Both Moms have been unsure of what their specific roles in the planning will be: how much involvement is too much? Should they give their opinions or not? Who will throw the bridal shower? What should they wear? If you’re not the oldest sibling who’s getting married on the young-ish side, it’s often likely that your families will have figured out these crucial dynamics before your wedding planning even starts!
• We are creating the benchmark for future family and friend weddings to live up to and surpass! I feel like there’s a lot of pressure when no one else has done this yet, so we have no idea what our guests are expecting in terms of traditions, level of formality, or even how much each family was willing to contribute monetarily. We’re making this up as we go, here, and I definitely think it’s true that future weddings will take from ours, whether they decide to follow in our footsteps or “outdo” us ;)
• Although my bridesmaids have actually been absolutely amazing, there are a lot of young-ish bridal parties who have no idea what they’re doing. Miss Lightning made her ladies booklets to get them up to speed on wedding etiquette, and Mr. Star has had his work cut out for him in teaching his groomsmen how to be bridal party experts! Older couples often have more married or engaged bridesmaids or groomsmen, which is a huuuuge bonus. I mean, I know that I will be an infinitely better bridesmaid in the future, after having planned my own wedding, don’t you?

There are a lot of unique challenges that accompany a young-ish bride as she fulfills her Super Duper Wedding Trailblazer duties. How have you been a Wedding Trailblazer, young-ish brides and not?

Movin' on up!

Sorry to have been a little les active around the hive for the past week or so! Mr. Star and I have been moving apartments and it has taken quite the toll on us, especially with just over a month until the wedding! I definitely lifted some things on moving day that I shouldn’t have (like one end of the air conditioner and some large IKEA pieces) and totally pulled something in my back, too!

I had intended to move in the spring of next year, once wedding fever had died down and things were less crazy, but we have been having a dispute with our landlord over some serious maintenance issues (don’t get me started on how long we’ve been forced to sleep on the couch because of it) and we got him to agree to let us out of the lease before things escalated.

Lucky for us, we got a seriously spiffy new place! We’ve moved from a fourth-floor walkup with a view of the alley, to this:

And did I mention it has five closets (up from ONE!), level floors, more square footage, an ice maker, and a brand new kitchen and bathroom?? Much as I loved our first place, two out of the four kitchen drawers didn’t open. Period.

Even though it was unintentional, we’ve ended up getting what is pretty much a newlywed home! It’s really exciting to get a new place right as we’re getting married because it feels like even more of a fresh start to a whole new life.

As I’ve been griping about having to move so close to the wedding (hello, stress!), many of the Bees have consoled me with the fact that it would have been much worse to move AFTER the wedding and have to move alllll the wedding gifts and my dress and so on. I see the logic in that argument, especially after how much stuff we accumulated just from my bridal shower. However, we did have to move 8 plastic bins and 6 or 7 big boxes full of centerpieces, ceremony décor, my veils, the mask-favors, and more, so it kind’ve feels like a wash at this point.

What do you think – was it an easier move because it was pre-wedding gifts? Were you already living together and did you move right around the time you got married? How did your new married home feel different from your old “dating” home?