Play That Funky Music Part 1

Time for some Elephant ceremony music!

As a nod to my dad's home country Trinidad and Tobago, we will be having a steel drum duo for the ceremony music. The seating of the parents will be to "Jesu, Joy Of Man's Desiring"



Followed by the bridal party to my favorite traditional wedding song, Pachelbel's Canon in D



I had a hard time picking the song that I wanted to walk down to. Both Mr. E and I love Somewhere Over the Rainbow by Israel Kamakawiwo’ole and wanted to work it into the wedding day one way or another. When I found this clip, we knew that was it!



I can not wait to walk down the aisle to this song. I tear up just thinking about it right now. Want to know a secret? After we selected this song, we were watching last season's finale of Glee, where they sing it at the end. Mr. E and I both shed a couple tears. I was so happy to see that it affected him the same way it affected me.

Once our first kiss as husband and wife has ended, we'll head off to Bob Marley's One Love.



Stay tuned for Part 2 with our reception music selections!

Did you work with your FI to select the ceremony music? Do you have a mix of traditional and non traditional wedding songs?

Something Old

We all know how the saying goes: Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue. While there are some obvious items for my something new (dress, hairpin) and I love my somethings blue (shoes, earrings), I haven't nailed down my something old or borrowed yet.

Sadly, I will not be able to share this momentous occasion with any of my grandparents, as they have all passed on. There will be a memory page in the programs, but I knew I wanted to incorporate their memory with something more.

Picture of me and my two grandmothers at my first tap recital. Mom Mom is the one I am looking up at.

Thankfully my mom still has several pieces of jewelry from her mom (my grandmother more affectionately known as Mom-Mom to all of her grand kids). When I mentioned to her that I would love to use a piece of Mom-Mom's jewelry for my wedding bouquet, Mama Elephant came to the rescue with this brooch. (Doesn't it look very similar to icon of our very own Miss Brooch? minus the green)

Is that Gypsy looking on?

I love it! My plan is to have it pinned to the front of my bouquet similar to this.

Source

Did you incorporate any family jewelry pieces into your wedding?

Readings Of The Ceremony Kind

When it comes to planning for our actual ceremony there were 3 main things to consider: the vows, the readings and the music.  I'll be talking about the music later, so lets discuss the vows & readings today, shall we?

The vows were the easiest part to nail down.  We will not be writing our own vows, but instead using the traditional vows that have been used for many many years before us.  Both Mr. E and I are extremely lucky to have parents that have been married for over 30 years, and we wanted to use the same vows that they used on their wedding days and still ring true years later. 

With the vows taken care of, we moved onto the readings.  Although Mr. E is more spiritual than into organized religion, we decided to have one reading from the Bible and one from another source.  I have always loved hearing 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8 at weddings, so that will be our scripture reading. 

The other reading took a little more research.  Enter Google.  I googled popular wedding readings and read... and read... and read some more until I found a couple that could be contenders. Some of my favorites included an excerpt from Nicholas Sparks' book The Notebook as well as the poem "True Love" by Author Unknown.

But nothing touched me like “The Art of a Good Marriage” by Wilfred Arlan Peterson.

"Happiness in marriage is not something that just happens.
A good marriage must be created.
In marriage the little things are the big things.
It is never being too old to hold hands.
It is remembering to say "I love you" at least once a day.
It is never going to sleep angry.
It is at no time taking the other for granted;
the courtship should not end with the honeymoon, it should continue through the years.
It is having a mutual sense of values and common objectives.
It is standing together facing the world.
It is forming a circle of love that gathers the whole family.
It is doing things for each other, not in the attitude of duty or sacrifice,
but in the spirit of joy.


It is speaking words of appreciation and demonstrating gratitude in thoughtful ways.
It is not looking for perfection in each other.
It is cultivating flexibility, patience, understanding and a sense of humor.
It is having the capacity to forgive and forget.
It is giving each other an atmosphere in which each can grow old.
It is a common search for the good and the beautiful.
It is establishing a relationship in which the independence is equal,
dependence is mutual and the obligation is reciprocal.
It is not only marrying the right partner, it is being the right partner.

I read several to Mr. E and his favorite was my favorite too!  I can't wait to hear it read by BM Philly's mom, Mrs. M  (Mrs. M and Mama Elephant met in Lamaze class with our older brothers and our families have been friends forever.)  She has been a second mom to me and I am so honored to have her stand up and read this on our wedding day.
 

Mama Elephant, Mrs. M, BM Philly & me in North Carolina.

Do you have a special person to read at your wedding?  What readings did you select?

No Rain

"All I can say is that my life is pretty plain,
I like watchin’ the puddles gather rain
And all I can do
Is just pour some tea for two
And speak my point of view,
But it’s not sane… it’s not S-A-A-A-A-N-E-E-E"

As I sit here listening to Blind Melon’s No Rain (who can forget that iconic bumblebee?), I find it fitting to write about a huge fear of mine…

Source

I originally envisioned our ceremony indoors, most likely in the church that my family has been apart of since we moved to Texas back in ’95. No worries for the weather minus the walk into the church. No weather.com stalker in the weeks leading up to the wedding. No plan B needed.

Fast forward to our venue search and me falling in love with the Tribute and their beautiful outdoor gazebo. I couldn’t be more excited about getting married outdoors, but now I do have to be a weather.com stalker leading up to the wedding. Our photographer said that she has never had rain at a wedding in the month of April, so we’re knocking on wood that her streak continues for our wedding.

We do have a Plan B that I’m not overly excited about, but will not stress about using it if we need to. Our plan B is to hold the ceremony in the same room as the reception, using a partition/curtain to hide the tables. Plan B means more work for our planner and the team at the venue to turn the room in a shorter amount of time.

Either way, I know that the day with be special and memorable, rain or shine! :)

Are you planning an outdoor wedding? If so are you worried about the weather? Do you have a Plan B?

Premarital Counseling

Wiggles, rewind! (can anybody name that movie?)

Back in May, Mr. E and I headed to Hot Springs, AR for the first of 3 meetings with the family pastor that will be officiating our wedding. Since my parents have never been to the bed and breakfast run by our former pastor and her husband, they joined us for the drive up there for some R&R for a couple of days.

We sat down with Kristie for a couple of hours and talked about everything from the wedding basics, money, and values to religion, vows, and the 5 languages of love. It was truly amazing to really think about ourselves and what we want in our marriage aside from the one day of celebration. I won't lie, some of the questions were a little harder to answer then others, but Kristie was awesome and asked more questions to help us think deeper and truly answer questions such as what the other person is passionate about, and what our personal goals are.

There were some homework assignments to take away which included:
- Reading the 5 languages of love (discussed by Mrs. Paisley here) and making a plan to speak to each other in our languages
- Finding our Meyers-Briggs personalities
- Mapping out a financial plan
- And my personal favorite, Mr. E takes the reins and plans a get away for us

We will meet with Kristie in the fall or early winter when she is in Dallas and then one last time a couple of days before the wedding to just relieve some last minute stress and remember what we're doing it for.

And just because I love pictures in posts, here one of my parents, Kristie and us :)

Did you do any premarital counseling? What did you learn from it?

Check: Videographer

EEEEEEE! One more vendor check, and it's another splurge!

The videographer search involved a lot of internet searching, 2 meetings in person and we can't wait to work with Austin Walton! He won us over with his amazing HD quality, his charming personality and best of all his low price! hey, it's a splurge but we're still tight on the budget ;)

Here's a sample of his great HD quality, it's not a wedding (we got 3 of those samples to watch at home before booking and there's a couple on his website) but just know that his weddings are just as clear!

Christina & Steven - Engagement Shoot from Austin Walton on Vimeo.

I am truly excited to know that we will be able to hear our vows for years to come!

If you booked a videographer did you go for HD filming or something else like super 8?

A taste of the islands

Last year my family and Mr. E took a trip to my dad's home country of Trinidad and Tobago. This was the first trip ever for Brother Elephant, me and of course Mr. E.

The Whole Family

Arriving in T&T

We had some quality relaxation time on the beach. 

We were able to try regional drinks (Sol) and food (like Roti and Conch & Dumplings).  It may look weird, but that Roti tasted so good!!! You may be able to see the awesomeness of Roti from that pic of Brother Elephant and Mr. E chowing down.

We toured both islands learning so much about Daddy Elephant's childhood and culture while enjoying family time together.

While there we heard a lot of steel drum music which originated in Trinidad and Tobago.

Little kids practicing the steel drums

I thought that it would be awesome to somehow incorporate the steel drums into our wedding as a nod to Daddy Elephant's heritage. Early in the game I requested a quote to have a local group play at the cocktail hour, which ended up being a little out of our price range. So I tabled that idea for a later discussion.

As the months rolled by, I thought more and more about it, and thought that having the steel drums for the ceremony would be something that all of our guests would remember and could be a surprise to my dad (a small token of thanks for all of his monetary help for this wedding). So I reached back out to Island Boogie and found out that their price was very reasonable! Here is a you tube video of some common wedding songs played on the steel pan.


Source

I am so excited to work this into the budget and surprise my dad on the big day... let's hope I can keep this secret better than I do with most of Mr. E's Christmas gifts!

Are you planning any music forms for your wedding that incorporate your heritage?

Embossing up a storm

Our travel themed programs are by far the wedding detail I am most excited about! I knew that embossing these bad boys would take some time, so I decided to do them ahead of schedule since I had some free weekend time.

Let's take a quick photo tour of my embossing good time, shall we? (all personal pictures)

First off the set up, I figured out that I had enough embossing powder to do 3 passport covers at a time.

A little commentary on my set up


After much trial and error, I determined that I had to use 2 different powders. One more sparkly for the top half, and a different one for the text on the bottom so that it is readable.



Here's a shot halfway through the heating process where you can see it turning from powder to awesomeness.



The green cardstock and gold powder was a lot darker prior to heating.



Here's my little helper Gypsy, doing what she does best!



120 covers later, and I'm all done!



A close up of the blue/silver cover...



And here's the green/gold cover.



I love love love these! Once we nail down the order of the ceremony with our pastor (closer to the wedding), I'll print out the inside text and complete these.

What was your favorite DIY project to work on?

Travel themed programs

I’ve been a little all over the board when it came to programs. At first I wanted something simple and easy, probably similar to our save the dates in a square fashion with cardstock and paper.

Square program from the Knot

After immersing myself in the world of DIY I thought it would be great to add a little personal effort and make programs that could double as fans for the Texas heat (although I’m hoping for not that much heat in April).

Fan Program via Mrs. Mouse on Weddingbee

I was pretty set on the fan programs after finding an easy to follow template online so I pushed that thought aside and worked on other DIY mock ups. One weekend while reading Wedding bee archives I came across Mrs. Sushi’s Passport Save the Dates for her destination wedding and changed my mind once again on our programs.

Mrs. Sushi's Awesome Save the Dates

I was in LOVE with the passport idea and knew that it would be perfect for our travel themed reception.

I got the ball rolling by putting out an Alchemy request on Etsy for another custom stamp (my 3rd custom stamp for wedding related purposes). This stamp would be used on the cover of the passport since 1- I couldn’t justify purchasing a Gocco machine like Mrs. Sushi used, and 2- the cardstock that I am using for our other paper products and my printer do NOT get along.

While waiting for the stamp to come in I played around with the number of pages and layout of information for the content. I used a free template found online here for the sideways page, but all of the rest are my own layout.

Including the pages that are actually connected to the passport cover, we’ll have 10 pages of information. Don’t worry; there are no novels in there, so it’ll be a quick read for guests while they wait for the ceremony to start. When creating your own remember that certain pages need to be on the back of other pages. Here’s how my pages lined up:

- Page 1 & Page 10 (this page is stuck to the cardstock)

- Page 2 & Page 9 which is printed on the back of Page 3 & Page 8

- Page 4 & Page 7 is printed on the back of Page 5 & Page 6

Once the stamp arrived I followed these simple steps to complete my mock up.

1. Print out information on home printer

2. Use personal cutter to cut pages - I put a faint gray box around the pages so it was easier to know where to cut.

3. Trace & Cut out cover from cardstock. I could get 2 covers from each page of 12x12 paper

4. Attach the first/last page to the inside of your cover. I used my Xryon runner to glue the page.

5. Attach other pages by using a stapler. One single staple in the middle should do it for you.

6. Round the edges of the paper. I justified the purchase of a corner rounder since we’ll be using it on the table names as well as the escort cards.

7. Stamp the cover with embossing ink and cover with embossing powder. Use heat gun (or any other heat source you want) to heat the embossing powder. (more in-depth embossing instructions can be found here)

8. Let dry and there you go. Passport Programs! We'll be doing half in blue & silver and half in green & gold

Will your programs tie in with a theme? How many do you plan to make with your given guest list?

Travel themed programs, Part 1

I’ve been a little all over the board when it came to programs. At first I wanted something simple and easy, probably similar to our save the dates in a square fashion with cardstock and paper.

Square program from the Knot

After immersing myself in the world of DIY I thought it would be great to add a little personal effort and make programs that could double as fans for the Texas heat (although I’m hoping for not that much heat in April).

Fan Program via Mrs. Mouse on Weddingbee

I was pretty set on the fan programs after finding an easy to follow template online so I pushed that thought aside and worked on other DIY mock ups. One weekend while reading Wedding bee archives I came across Mrs. Sushi’s Passport Save the Dates for her destination wedding and changed my mind once again on our programs.

Mrs. Sushi's Awesome Save the Dates

I was in LOVE with the passport idea and knew that it would be perfect for our travel themed reception.


Here's a sneak peak of the mock up.

Stay tuned for the steps in the next post!

Did you change your mind several times before finally settling on one thing?