The Elephants Are Married!!

EEEEEE!  I can't believe that it came and went and we are now husband and wife!

With a little bit of elephant luck, and good weather vibes from the hive the rain held out long enough for our outdoor ceremony.  It rained during our reception and then stopped long enough for our sparkler exit.

There were a couple of little hiccups throughout the day - someone still sleeping in our room that we were going to get ready in, 2 people wearing white (one of whom actually asked me what colors not to wear, and then still wore white) and the fact that I forgot the marriage license at home.  But none of those things could put a downer on our wedding day, it was AMAZING!

The day was beautiful, a little windy (but I'll take the wind over rain any day!), and our absolutely wonderful photographer Lynn Michelle already had teasers up the next day!

I know that the wedding day is all about the groom and bride, but I could not stop smiling every time one of our guests came up to us and told us how wonderful everything was.  I loved that they were all enjoying our big day as much as Mr. E and myself.  All of those little details that we worked on did not go unnoticed.  I saw numerous guests still holding onto their passport programs and boarding pass escort cards well into the night.

I can't wait until we receive the rest of our pictures from Lynn, but until then I hope that these teasers will hold you over.  We were pretty much set leading into the week before the wedding, so I don't really have any last minute projects to share with the hive. I do have a post or two that I wanted to hold off on until after the wedding (so they would remain a surprise), hopefully you won't forget about me while we wait for the Elephant recaps.

755 days later - It's Time to Get Married!!!

I can not believe that I am actually sitting here, bright and early the morning of the day before our wedding.  Ok I take that back.  I've always been an early riser, and I couldn't really sleep with the excitement of the bridal breakfast in a couple of hours.  Actually I haven't been able to really sleep through the night all week, waking up at 3 am.  Not sure if it's the excitement or worrying about the weather or my brain thinking non stop of the little things here and there that needed to be done.

I never thought this day would get here when Mr. E proposed 755 days ago.  These past 2 years have been filled with ups and downs, but I am so thankful that our relationship has only gotten stronger.  I love that man more than words can express and I can not wait to call him my husband!

To the Hive - I can honestly say that our wedding would not be what it is without you!  I have been so inspired by my fellow blogging bees and their amazing DIY projects, and have cherished each and every encouraging comment that you bees have left on my posts.  I started the DIY projects to kill time in our long engagement, but have really come to love the personal touches that will help to make tomorrow something all of our guests are sure to remember!

To Mama E & Daddy E - Your love and support is something that I can never thank you enough for.  You both have treated Mr. E like part of the family from day 1, and that means the world to me!  You have been there every step of the way in this engagement, and I still can't believe that the 4 of us managed to pull together to save for the big day.  I hope that you both will enjoy tomorrow as much as Mr. E and I will!

To my fellow April 23rd bees: cafegirl, Hgiel46137, Girliebride, franks.katie, MissJay, double0bride, Linecita1987, Eca813 and anyone else I may have forgotten.  I hope you all have an amazing wedding day tomorrow!! :)

To Mr. E - I never knew a wink could lead to what we have.  You are the love of my life and I can not wait to be your wife!  You are the calm to my crazy and I can't wait to spend my life with you.  Eric Benet and Tamia sing it so perfectly...

"Now baby the days and the weeks
And the years will roll by
But nothing will change the love inside
Of you and I


And baby I'll never find any words 
That could explain
Just how much my heart, my life
My soul you've changed"


OK, I need to stop with the tears, because I'm sure there will be enough of those tomorrow. We really are jumping for joy that our wedding day is finally here!

 Big Day iPhone app, Engagement Photo via Lynn Michelle

See you when I'm a Mrs!

-Love Always

Miss E

Love in Ink

You may or may not have noticed from various pictures of Mr. E through my time blogging on the Bee that he has some tattoos on his arm.

Engagement photo taken by the fabulous Lynn Michelle

When we first started dating, he was finishing up his 3rd masterpiece.  He has always wanted to get more tattoos, but in the past 4 years his extra money was going to rent, bills, school, date nights, his car and the wedding.  Since our guest count came in lower then we were budgeting for and have saved more than we need for the wedding he decided it was time to get more ink.

I've never seen someone get tattooed before, so I thought it would be fun to go with him.  I asked what he was planning on getting and he said a grim reaper.  This goes with the theme of tattoos that he already has (zombie, dragon, skull) so I didn't second guess it.

As we walk into Innovative Ink and started talking with Paul I almost cried happy tears.  Turns out Mr. E has been working on a tattoo that would represent our love!  We always talked about how he would never get any names tattooed, but I never thought that he was planning on getting something that represents both of us.

After outlining the tat

The tattoo is a heart shape with a hint of a ying yang, the circles replaced by a casino chip on one side (for my love of Vegas, and our very first big trip together) and a movie reel on the other side (we are pretty big movie lovers).  The heart is filled with the Philly Love sign to represent my state of birth, and the UNT logo to represent Texas, and Mr. E's college.  There wasn't enough space, but the original heart also included the A&M logo for my college, and the Texas lone star for Mr. E.  It really touches my heart that Mr. E would get something so meaningful to both of us tattooed on his body!

Do you or your FI have any ink? Do you have any tattoos that are meaningful to yourself and someone else?

DIY Chocolates Revisted

Remember our awesome idea to make chocolate favors inspired by a post by Mrs. Starfish?  Well I wanted to share a quick follow up with you.  There was a TON of great advice in the comment sections from bees that have much more experience then Mama E and I, so if you are interested in this idea you should definitely check those out.

 We previously made around 60 pieces of chocolates and froze them. This was about a month ago.  After reading the comments about not freezing them I called up Mama E (the chocolates were being stored in their other refrigerator) and had her place them in the refrigerator side.

We decided to test out a couple and had her place one piece directly from the freezer to the counter, and another piece went from the freezer to the refrigerator.  5 days later we tasted them. Of course the piece that sat out was kinda blah, and looked a little discolored, but we were surprised to see that piece that went from the freezer to the refrigerator was doing just fine!  It tasted good and we didn't see any sweating or other blooming.  Even though the chocolate was fine, we didn't want to take any chances so when we did the real deal we skipped storing in the freezer (still "set" them in the freezer) and have them all in the refrigerator.

Mama E and I knocked out 7 or 8 more batches (all of the batches started to run together) and have them stored in the fridge. The plan is to leave them in their bags and then put them in the refrigerator at the Tribute when we drop off all of our DIY projects next week.  The morning of the wedding Kathie and her team will place them in the mini take out boxes as they are setting them out on the tables.  This way the chocolates stay cool for as long as possible.

This project was another fun bonding experience with Mama E (while Daddy was busy watching lil' Gypsy and doing yard work for their upcoming house guests for the wedding), but I think we can both safely say that it is probably not something we'll be doing again anytime soon.  It takes forever (since we only had 4 molds, and so much space in the freezer), so be prepared for the cycle of melting, pouring, freezing, waiting, popping out (and for us bagging and tying).  I hope our guests enjoy their homemade Texas and Pennsylvania chocolates!

Did you have any DIY projects that you loved, but looking back may have decided on something easier?

Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?

Are there any other bees out there that watched the geographical game show based on the computer game?  Brother E and I used to love trying to outsmart the "gumshoes".



Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego theme song via You Tube

Since our tables are not numbered but instead named after places we have traveled to Mr. E thought it would be smart to give the guests a little help finding their tables.  Being the computer wiz of the Elephant duo, he whipped up a floor plan of our venue in Photoshop with a layout of the tables.  I took the file to FedEx Office, enlarged it to 20 x 30 and used spray adhesive to attach it to a foam board. This will give the guests a general direction to head once they enter the ballroom.

The heading is a play off of the Carmen Sandiego show (thanks to our planner Kathie for the suggestion!).

We are planning on either setting this map on a stand behind the escort cards, or on an easel next to the table with the escort cards.

And a couple more gratuitous shots of the escort cards.  The wine corks may have been brutal, but I didn't realize we would start to hate folding, spraying, and holding the little paper stand until they stuck!   It may have taken some time, but I LOVE the look of them standing up.

And a shot from above, how our guests will look for their name.

Since there are only 13 guest tables we're hoping no one gets lost :)

How did you display your table assignments?  For those that did not number your tables, did your guests have a hard time locating their tables?

Assembling the OOT Boxes

Tick, Tick, Tick...

What's that I hear?  Is that our countdown clock nearing 2 weeks??

Thanks to Daddy and Mama Elephant, we knocked out the out of town boxes that will welcome our guests to Dallas.  Mr. E and I did all of the bulk shopping at Costco then I headed up to my parents to put them together (and store since we have no room left in our apartment) while he was recovering from his bachelor party.

I started the assembly line by wrapping the boxes in the Washi tape and using spray adhesive to attach the welcome sign.  Daddy E was very meticulous about making sure every box had the right amount of snacks, which Mom would then pack up.

Each box contained:

- 2 bottles of water with our DIY labels

- chips

- pretzels

- 100 calorie snack pack

- 2 bags of fruit snacks

- 3 pieces of chocolates

- pack of gum

- peanut butter crackers

- 2 travel packs of Advil

- welcome note (printed by Vistaprint)

Once all 35 boxes were packaged up and tied with a little ribbon, we boxed them up for transport to the hotels the week of the wedding.  Of course nothing is really done without final inspection by Gypsy.

What are your favorite types of snacks?  Are you more of a sweet or salty snacker?

Too Late to Turn Back Now

It's getting real you guys!!!

Mr. E had to renew his car registration, so we went ahead and applied for our marriage license since they are in the same building.  One quick form, our driver's licenses, and $67 later and we're ready to get married!!  I joked with Mr. E when we were walking out that it was too late to turn back now.  He replied that he still had 17 days ;)

Great minds must think alike because when I sent this picture to Mama E, she started singing the words to that song from Cornelius Bros and and Sister Rose.

How soon before your wedding were you able to apply for your marriage license?

What's Left To Do?

As the Elephant wedding planning train begins to slow down with less than a month to go, I find myself asking what's left to do?  I'm trying to reduce the stress but also want to make sure everything is accounted for.

We have paid off all vendors with the exception of the venue and hotel send off brunch, which we decided to hold off on until their due dates because some guests are backing out of their "yes" responses.  If we can save some money, you bet we will!  We finally saw our steel drummer in action and dropped off our cake topper with the baker.  We completed our final walk through at the venue with the coordinator, our planner and our DJ/Lighting guy.  I hope we aren't tempting mother nature as we decided to extend the cocktail hour from the inside foyer to the outdoor patio.  Our planner Kathie made the great point that if the steel drums are outside, our guests will gravitate outdoors as well.  We went over all of the little details that didn't really make my radar before like the order of the processional, the timing of the cake cutting and toasts, and how we would like the ceremony set up if we have to resort to plan B (knock on wood, no rain!).

I've been on the hunt for some cute blue flats to change into for the reception, but wasn't finding anything that I loved. After expanding my Zappos search I went for fun and ordered these.

They are super comfortable (as Mama E says, all Clarks shoes are) and I think would add just a pop of color and fun to the reception if I ever lift my dress up.  I'm still debating between these and my chucks.

One of our engagement pics taken by Lynn Michelle

I think the chucks would be cute since Mr. E will be changing into his for the reception as well as the groomsmen. Decisions, decisions...

We've finished all of the major projects with the exception of the chocolates, which Mama E and I are going to knock off this weekend.  The escort cards are almost done, just need to add the backing support.  I'll be sharing that soon along with something Mr. E has worked on to make the seating easier for our guests. I had some free time this past weekend, so I decided to make a new thank you sign out of cardstock I had left over from our projects. I can't wait to have a picture taken with it on our wedding day and use it for our thank you cards.

Other than that, I don't know what to do with myself.  I guess I should enjoy the calm before the storm, and just nail down as much as possible so when I hand off our DIY projects to the venue the Tuesday before the wedding I'm officially in happy bride mode.

What did you have left to do in the month before your wedding?