So Charming!

I recently discovered Links of London and I am in love with their bracelets. This one is the one I am lusting after:

sweetie bracelet, here

You can get it on ebay for much less, thank you very much!

Normally I am not that into charms, but I thought I would just see what they have - and they have a ton! Here are some that I think are cute...

heart sunglasses, just married, wedding cake, and bee charms HERE!

They have a ton of bee character charms - makes me so jealous! No Polar Bears though.

You see, what had happened was....

You see, what had happened was this. Mr. Magic and I went to check out a caterer for our magical feast.

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Background: I knew, from reading Harry Potter more times than the average human, that food is one of the five Principal Exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration. So even if I was a witch (no commentary needed, Mr. Magic!) and did know magic, I couldn't just conjure up food with my wand. Bummer.

I also knew, from my intensive research (reading Brides magazine and Weddingbee, natch) that catering is, like, super expensive. I think it's like 40-60% of the overall alleged budget's costs. I'm sure there is some hard and fast (kinda) number or percentage or integer or equation, but honestly, I can't be bothered to do this math stuff.

Seriously. I realllllllllllly cannot be bothered. One time I took a personality test at work (all my coworkers did, I wasn't singled out for being a freak or anything like that) and when my analysis came back, it actually said this:

"You eschew rational thinking, especially regarding finances."

Well, duh, I knew that. This just validated what I had known for years! Money just ain't my thang. I mean, I like having money. But I'm not really good at managing money. And when the IRS sends me a letter saying I owe over $2000, I tend to burst into tears and then avoid, avoid, avoid!!!! I am a champion avoider. Whenever anything changes to make me anxious, I just bury my head in the sand (or drink margaritas - same diff, really).

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OK, back to the story. So what had happened was, we went to check out a local catering company. This catering company had decent reviews, appeared only moderately pricey, and served mini hamburgers. Seemed like a good option.

I was really excited to go, because I thought that once we figured out our catering budget, we could figure out our actual total budget.

Yes, that was the sound of a record scratching.

Confession Time. Uh, yeah. So we might not know our total budget yet. I mean, I know what some aspects will cost...and I'm trying to save as much money as possible on other aspects...but since the final number is an estimate anyways, can't we just estimate it after we find a caterer? Am I insane??? (Remember, I do eschew all rational thinking!)


Well, we went to the caterer, and first it was really fun! We talked about menu options for our heavy hors d'oeuvres wedding (mini burgers! bacon wrapped things!). Then, the fun ended. He asked what we wanted to drink, and would people want sweet tea, or coffee, and how many people did we think would want coffee, and would people want regular and decaf, and how many coffee mugs would we need? UM, SERIOUSLY? WTF? TOO MANY DECISIONS! BRIDAL SHUTDOWN!

After going through the food and the FREAKISHLY EXPENSIVE AND RIDICULOUSLY DETAILED RENTALS...we were about $2000 over what I had wanted to spend. And since I also owe over $2000 to Uncle Sam...well, this was not looking good. My eyes must have either glazed over or welled up with tears, because Mr. Magic and the catering guy both started looking concerned and asking me if I was ok. I verbally told the guy it was a bit more than we wanted to spend, but I'm pretty sure my non-verbal communication clearly conveyed "Are you f*#@ing kidding me?!?"...and so he went back and made some cuts. He cut $500 and looked at me as if to say "Better?"

Um, no. No, it's not "better." Because that would mean we would still be paying more than I think we can afford for only a heavy hors d'oeuvres reception. Not even freaking passed hors d'oeuvres, y'all. Buffet.WTF!

The guy could tell I had hit the wall. He assembled all our papers and a print out of our itemized list with costs, and said he would be in touch. I spilled my coffee on the way out. And as soon as I got ten feet out the door, I burst into tears. Then I rejected Mr. Magic's hug (because I was mad at the world, dammit!), got in my car, and promptly drove the wrong way on the highway and got lost.

And since then, I've been avoiding, avoiding, avoiding any talk about money, wedding planning, and especially caterers!

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Have you avoided anything about your wedding? Can you recommend a way for me to embrace catering and finances, instead of avoiding it? If not, can you come do it for me? Thanks so much.

E-Pics Porn

Miss Magic's Memo: I wrote this July 2010 after taking Mini Magic to Paris! She had just graduated high school and it was her first time on a place. She puked in the aisle on the flight over and we got upgraded to first class! It was awesome. Maybe you could try that on the flight to your honeymoon destination....   

 

Oops, sorry to leave y'all hanging! I was recently out of town...on vacation...with Mini Magic...to Paris, France. Since I am a carnival bee, I thought I'd share some French carnival pics!

Before I left, I meant to post some more of the awesome engagement pics to tide you over until I got back. But I didn't because I was too busy trying to figure out what to wear to look like my most Parisian self. It's pretty easy actually...just wear black, stripes, a scarf, and/or some gladiator sandals (for real!) and you're in! I don't own gladiator sandals (I am 30, after all - I try to [at least sometimes] dress and act my age) but I could rock the rest quite well. It also helps if you looked pissed off and snooty. See?

Anyways, back to the e-pics porn!










I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out, especially since it was in over one hundred degrees when we took them (excellent planning, Miss Magic!)...although sometimes I look at my smile/laugh lines and wonder if those are normal or if I am getting wrinkly. I do love my newly straight teeth (adult braces: more fun than you could imagine [that's sarcasm] but the teeth did turn out awesome!). Thoughts? Do you over-analyze your appearance?

The Bachelorette Party: That's How We Roll!

After Miss Penguin's shower, everyone went their separate ways for a few hours before meeting up again for the big night out. My separate way led me to Taco Bell. I hadn't had much of a chance to eat at the shower (I can't ever eat when I'm hosting a party...something about anxiety and nerves getting in the way) and I was starving!

One burrito supreme and a (crunchy!) taco supreme later, I was feeling full and ready to take a short rest in bed. I knew if I took a nap I'd wake up and be grumpy, so I just read a bit and then scurried around to get ready for the Bachelorette Party portion of the evening. The plan was for the ladies to head over to my house at 8:30 for some snacks and pre-drinking. Then we were gonna head to the bustling metropolis of Raleigh to do some bar-hopping!

Raleigh is totally hotter than Las Vegas!

Miss Penguin is pretty laid back. However, she did not want any penis-paraphernalia at her bachelorette, and put me in charge of spreading the word on this. She said she doesn't find penis decor funny, just embarrassing, and I 100% agree. I know some people like it, and if that's what the bride wants, then I'm all for it. I'll drink out of a penis straw or eat some penis cupcakes for any bride who desires it. But I don't want that for me, and neither did Miss Penguin. I found it interesting that some of the guests were really stuck on bringing penis-related items, even after I told them several times that she expressly stated that she did NOT want this. I had to get kind of firm, and say "It's the BRIDE'S party, and what she wants is what she gets." I would never in a million years say this about myself, but it was a bit easier to be bossy and stick up for someone else!

So instead of genital decor, we kept it simple. We recycled the flowers from the shower, added some streamers and balloons, and made some cute cupcakes!

I don't have a good pic unfortunately, but these wrappers were homemade using a template I found here.

We pumped up the jamz courtesy of a playlist Sister PB made. I just had one stipulation for a special song to be included...



Then it was time to get in our ride and head to the Big City! How were we getting there?

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A sweet SUV limo, that's how! As you can see, Miss Penguin is decked out in a Bride tank and boa, like any good bachelorette would be. Also, you might be wondering who that guy is on the end...um, we may have picked him and his buddy up at the second bar we went to and made them come with us in the limo to the next club. Because that's how we roll!

Ladies in the limo!

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First we went to a sophisticated martini bar called Oliver Twist...

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Then we went to Rum Runners for singalong and dancing fun. And our group really loves a good singalong!

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We immediately got onstage and sang "I Will Survive" and, unfortunately, "Party in the USA." Yes, I know that I have now referenced Miley Cyrus two times total in my blog posts. I'll try to refrain from that in the future.

Also at Rum Runners, Miss Penguin was called onstage to be hopefully only mildly embarrassed.

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She looks kind of pissed, huh?

Finally, we went to some swank, fancy-shmancy bar named Solas. Someone might not have very good memories of what this place was like. Someone might have just kept drunkenly saying "This place is like Miami!!! Why is there a bar like Miami in Raleigh???"

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Yep, that's yours truly in the green. Miss Polar Bear was totally over-served by those bartenders through absolutely no fault of her own, of course.

In my defense, it was a bachelorette party and someone had to be a drunk fool. I was happy to take one for the team!

Overall, everyone seemed to have a blast, and Miss Penguin especially did. It's so much fun to be a part of her wedding, and for us to be able to plan our weddings together!

Do you have a wedding buddy to share all the fun events with? And have you ever been, um, over-served during any wedding activities of your own or someone else?

Oh snap - our e-pics are up!

Check out Samoancuban Photography for a teaser of our e-pics! I look mostly not sweaty, which I think is a miracle!

http://samoancuban.com/blog/

Thanks Ana and Gabriel!

Which one is your favorite?

British Shower: The DecorUM

Get it, decorUM? Because British folks are so proper? O-kayyyyyy....

Quick side story about England and decorum: Living in North Carolina, I am really not used to mass transportation, and prefer the personal space of my car. Mass transit makes me nervous and I usually do something stupid while I'm on a bus, train, plane, metro, etc. One time I was in London on a bus with BM Bunny and another friend of ours. The bus stopped, and I let go of the pole I was holding onto briefly. Then the bus abruptly started and I went flying down the aisle, and the only way to stop myself was to grab onto something, and what I grabbed onto happened to be an older woman's boob. #lack of decorum

Anyways, I know you are dying to know how we decorated for this Britsh Shower. Luckily, I have a coworker who lived in England for a while. She donated most of the decor, and it was awesome. She had books, records, stuffed animals, and British cars...see?

We also used some of my milk glass vases, Cadbury minis, and British magazines I got in Ireland. The Beatles poster above - I got that for free, as well as a Queen of England sticker decal, from one of Vistaprint's awesomely free (just pay shipping) promotions!

The flowers were supposed to be red and blue but were actually purple, in case you were wondering. Don't ask.

There were some other posters and pictures and flowers scattered about as well. All in all, I think Miss Penguin really enjoyed the shower, and I think most of the guests enjoyed it as well. Sometimes I think showers can be too stuffy or formal or boring, but hopefully this one was not - my perception might be slightly biased since I was so excited about the planning and execution. But I think everyone had fun!

Have you been to a shower where it was not very fun, or even awkward? I want to hear all about it!

British Shower: The DecorUM

Get it, decorUM? Because British folks are so proper? O-kayyyyyy....

Quick side story about England and decorum: Living in North Carolina, I am really not used to mass transportation, and prefer the personal space of my car. Mass transit makes me nervous and I usually do something stupid while I'm on a bus, train, plane, metro, etc. One time I was in London on a bus with BM Bunny and another friend of ours. The bus stopped, and I let go of the pole I was holding onto briefly. Then the bus abruptly started and I went flying down the aisle, and the only way to stop myself was to grab onto something, and what I grabbed onto happened to be an older woman's boob. #lack of decorum

Anyways, I know you are dying to know how we decorated for this Britsh Shower. Luckily, I have a coworker who lived in England for a while. She donated most of the decor, and it was awesome. She had books, records, stuffed animals, and British cars...see?

We also used some of my milk glass vases, Cadbury minis, and British magazines I got in Ireland. The Beatles poster above - I got that for free, as well as a Queen of England sticker decal, from one of Vistaprint's awesomely free (just pay shipping) promotions!

The Favors:

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Cadbury Double Decker candy bar wrapped in a cute label courtesy of BM K.

The faux-to booth:

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Also created by BM K. Princes Charles, William, and Harry are all there as well as Paul McCartney and Elton John, and of course the Queen!
(That's me and Mini Magic!)

The recipe box:

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A box for the recipes was tough to find, so I got a tiny lunch box and decorated it. Her kitchen colors are red and black so I used those instead of a British theme. And there was a similar sticker on the inside that said "with love from your family and friends" - the sticker also helped to anchor the ribbon down.

Queen Accessories:

A throne, a sash, a crown, and a scepter. Scepter made by Mini Magic - she helped SO much, I decided to take her to Paris as a way of showing my gratitude!*

Other details:

Name tags that showed the person's relationship to the bride, and let each person complete the sentence "my favorite thing about england is...."


Straw Flair! Tutorial here.


Stupid Gooco-ed napkins.

This was such a disaster that I cannot elaborate on it anymore at this time, but promise I will in the future. Once I figure out how the damn thing works. And get some ink blocker - apparently that's like, important or something.

Finally, the games! We played two games. One was a quiz for guests to fill out about how well they know the bride. It was pretty vicious and people were negotiating for partial credit! In the end, Bridesmaid K won!

The next game was to spice up the gift opening some. For Pumpkin to open a gift, she first had to answer a question correctly. The questions corresponded to different categories such as London, Miss Pumpkin in England, The Groom in England, and Pop British culture. I think people enjoyed it, and it was just another little way to bring in the British theme (which as you hopefully can see, we had fully committed to!)

What are some of the details you loved about a shower you attended - or your own shower?

*Just kidding, I was already planning on taking her to Paris. We leave July 12th!