How Do You Measure a Year?

In checklists, obviously.  (I've been on a big musicals kick lately, and so of course Rent).

I can't believe this is the end of 2013.  It's been a crazy, busy year and it absolutely flew by.  Doesn't everyone always say that?  Maybe we should ajust our perception of how long a year is.  Still, even more amazing is that tomorrow is 2014.  It will be the year that we get married.  Holy cow.

With the wedding in May, we essentially have a semester to finish off everything for the big day - I've done more than this in that period of time before, right?  In honor of the completion of a year and the start of a new one, I want to take a look at some of the things that we've gottten done and when.

New Years Eve 2012 Fireworks Shenanigans- BM/FSIL Dino shooting her magic wand, and Sphinx being Sphinx.  Because why not?

If you're a newly-engaged Bee fresh out of a Christmas-season engagement, hello, welcome, and you should say hi in the comments!  The most overwhelming time for me was at the beginning, trying to figure out what to address first, so I hope this can give you some idea of what we prioritized.

I started out with lists on Wedding Wire to use as a guideline, mainly to make sure I wasn't forgetting anything.  I adjusted all the timing to fit our needs, since the app doesn't have you start doing anything until one year out.  Yea, my venue would have been booked up if I had waited that long!  So do what works for you, and make sure you realize the decisions that are depended on other decisions.  Like if you're getting married in a church, don't buy your dress (or the bridesmaids) until you've talked with them about the dress code.

Here's a rundown of what the Pyramids finalized every month in this engagement.

Welcome, Welcome One and All!

It feels like it's been forever, hive.  Bad, bad blogger! We're right smack in the middle of some wedding tasks (save the dates, food tastings, pre cana, oh my!) that I'll be sharing soon, so those have kept me pretty busy.  I also fail at all things required for Christmas - how did it still sneak up so fast when we've been complaining about it "being too early" since October? Note that I didn't write a "Holiday Gift Guide" for you guys.  Sorry, that'd be like the blind leading the blind (or just me telling you to go to Macy's two days before Christmas and pick out what looks good like we did).  It always turns out just fine but it's a crazy ride. Enough excuses for you?  Good.

Let's talk about something that we've got locked down and under control (and that I'm really excited about!) - the rehearsal dinner and the welcome party!
Two events?  How much attention do we want? Well, a lot, but that's not the point here.

Our church holds rehearsals for Saturday weddings on Thursday nights, as they usually have a Friday night wedding booked.  I thought this would be a problem since by the time of the wedding four of my five bridesmaids will live out of town, but they've all said they'll be able to come in by Thursday for the rehearsal (they're the best).  Most of our out of town guests probably won't be arriving on Thursday, though, so the etiquette of inviting those guests to a rehearsal dinner didn't really apply.

Sphinx's parents are graciously hosting these events for us, and when I spoke with FMIL Pyramid we decided that two partieswould work best.  Something you must understand is that FMIL and FFIL Pyramid are party people.  Every weekend they can be found going out to eat at somewhere cool or checking out some music at a concert or bar, so I knew that the events they are hosting would be absolutely awesome.  For the rehearsal dinner we decided it would be just those who were necessary at the rehearsal itself: close family, bridal party, and their dates immediately following the rehearsal at the church.  We had a restaurant in mind, and went there for FMIL's birthday before deciding and it secured the venue for us!

Photo via: Superior Seafood and Oyster Bar

Superior Seafood and Oyster Bar is a new-ish restaurant in the uptown area (not too far from the church), and it's got a lot of great New Orleans charm and creole dishes.  Several of our local guests probably haven't tried it yet, but it has plenty of classic foods for my out of town bridal party to get a taste of the city, literally.
We rented out the front patio that runs along St. Charles Avenue, and looks out on the streetcars running past.

The Color Purple - It's Difficult

You've seen some mentions here and there of my bridesmaids, and in total I've got five of them.  There's my sister, MOH Curls, Sphinx's sister, BM Dino, and my friends BM Perk, BM Taco, and BM Duffy.  These girls are my nearest and dearest and have been big parts of my life through some different stages, and I am so thrilled that they want to take part in the Pyramid wedding.

From the get-go, I wanted to make sure that their bridesmaids dresses didn't suck.  Pretty reasonable, I think.  Oh, and I didn't want them to be expensive, please and thanks.  So one of the first things I did was to start a group Pinterest board and started pinning some ideas of styles I liked.  Currently, we are all living four separate cities and by the time the wedding rolls around, that will be five, so we have that working against us.  We couldn't go do a shopping trip altogether, and whatever we chose had to be accessible for everyone.  We're also dealing with a variety heights, sizes, and skin tones, so I thought that having everyone's input would be useful.

One option would have been to allow the girls to all pick separate dresses with some guidelines on color and style, but I wasn't sure that was the look I was going for.  I was drawn to the look of different necklines on similar dresses in the same fabric and color.

Lovely gunmetal dresses with different necklines. /Dresses by Freja Designer Dressmaking/Photo by Vanishing Moments Photography

Then everyone was able to wear something that is comfortable and flattering, but it still remains a cohesive look.

Looking at You, Looking at Me

You may have caught that I alluded to our pre-ceremony pictures in my post about transportation.  And I  meant it just like it sounded, we'll be doing all of the bridal party, immediate family, and couples photos before the ceremony.

So that means we're in the First Look Camp!

I don't think there's a right or a wrong way to go about the first look decision, so I'm just sharing our reasoning for it here and it might help if you're undecided.  I loved the idea of a first look since I first heard about it years ago, and I always felt like it would be a good option for us.  I really love surprises - both planning them and being surprised - and the idea of a first look gives me the same kind of rush as executing a good surprise.  Or maybe I'm just narcissistic and want some good pictures of him observing how good I look in my dress.  Same diff.

Once we get to wedding planning, I'm even more confident in this idea. First, do you remember our church, St. Francis?

St. Francis church aisle./Photo by Art de Vie

Okay, so the angle and the lens may be exaggerating the image on the right a little, but it's still a very long aisle.  Our first glimpse of each other in the church will be from quite a distance, and we certainly won't be able to see each other's faces clearly.  I'm sure it will still be an emotional moment, but I'd much prefer our reveal to each other to be at a proximity where no one feels inclined to squint to see the other.  I want to see that look in his eyes and his smile when he sees me as a bride for the first time, and I can't do that from the vestibule.

Need a Lift?

With our church uptown and reception downtown (right about a five mile distance), I figured from the beginning that we would need to rent some vehicles to shuttle us around for the day.  One of my first thoughts was to charter a classic New Orleans streetcar to take us to the church.  

Pretty bride inside the streetcar./Found on Munaluchi Bridal/Photo by Erik Umphery

Posing on the neutral ground with a streetcar uptown./Photo by MQ Photography

The Last Ninth

Today, December 9th, will always hold a special place in my heart.  Today marks one year since Sphinx got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife on the rooftop of the Contemporary Hotel in Disney World. And eight years ago, we hung out together for the first time and he asked me out on a real date.  It's been eight years of crazy twists, turns, moves, emotions, and lots of hugs.

Even though it's a little silly, we've always recognized the ninth of the month.  We don't give presents every month, but we always try and tell each other "Happy Ninth!"  I was the one who started it, after I got up to college and realized how much I missed him.  He could have looked at me like a crazy girl...

Found on College Humor

but he played along with me instead.  And we've now gotten to 96 of these months together.  We'll be getting married just after 101 months of dating, and then the clock resets.  I suppose we can always acknowledge the date, but we'll have a whole new anniversary to celebrate together.

For now, I'm a little choked up at this being our last dating anniversary and our only engage-aversary.  We're keeping it low key and grabbing some dinner together, but the date has caused me to be very reflective.  While this last year has flown by with dresses, venues, food, and invitations, the heart of all of this is our commitment to each other.  It's sometimes easy to push the relationship aside when there are planning decisions to be made, this is what we'll have when all of the party-stuff is said and done.  Living together, planning a wedding together, and just growing up together in the last year has only helped to confirm that Sphinx is absolutely the person I want by my side for every single day going forward.  His very presence or voice can cheer me up when I'm having a bad day and he's my partner in crime for all of the adventures that we take on.

Some recent pictures - LSU vs. Arkansas game and Saints vs. Panthers game.

Dear Sphinx, I love you with all my heart.
And you'll only have to deal with crazy bride brain for a little longer. You can handle it, dude.

You Must be This Tall to Attend

My sister, MOH Curls, has a tendency to exaggerate about some of my not-so-fine points, so if you find yourself in conversation with her, just keep that in mind.  Little sisters, right? She likes to remind me that I "hate kids."  And this is not true.  I don't hate kids, I'm just not very good with kids.  I'm not Robin Scherbatsky or anything, but I just feel like I don't connect with them very well. 

My sister and I used to tag-team babysit sometimes and I was always in charge of preparing their dinner, making sure they got to bed on time, and that we didn't leave a mess behind.  She was the one that played games and kept them entertained.  But I'm only human female, and precious little kids will give me some pretty hardcore baby fever and that's something I'm trying to keep at bay for a little while!  I feel like I'm getting better at interacting with kids - being a cast member at Disney World will do that to you - but I'm not really around children in my life

Suffice to say, we won't be having any children at the wedding.  It's not because I don't like kids, it's just that we really don't know any.  

Found on Lover.ly/Posted on Wedding Chicks/Photo by Amanda Watson Photo

Ready for Our Close-Up

After a few weeks of planning, the Pyramids decided that they were brave enough to face a bridal show at the Hyatt Regency New Orleans.  It was a free event and we had a few details locked down (like the date and venues), so I figured it was worth a shot to see plenty of vendors all at once.  Sphinx was one of about two other grooms there - oops, how was I supposed to know it was all geared towards brides and their moms? He's a trooper though, and we got through it.    

We tasted some cake, easily avoided any booths for receptions as we were already signed with the Board of Trade, and grabbed cards from photographers, videographers, and florists.  Eventually I went through all of the cards we received and checked out websites, but that very night I went home and looked up one videographer who stuck out in my mind.  Brock, of Brock Gomez Productions, wasn't pushy when we walked past his booth and watched the video they had playing on screen, which was the wedding trailer for Emily and Chris.  

Emily + Christopher: A BGP Feature Film from Brock Gomez on Vimeo.

It is a fifteen-minute trailer, so skip down a little further for a teaser video if you're short on time.  If you love indulging in wedding videos for people you don't know (like moi), I hope you enjoy.  

Brock explained some of the details of the wedding they were featuring: the groom is an Army veteran and the wedding was held on Veterans Day weekend, so that's why they incorporated the parade at the beginning of the video.  I loved how they included that, and I also was a fan of the equal distribution of time shown for prep/first look, ceremony, and reception in the feature film.  

A Place for Cards

Card boxes: they're probably something you can put on your Skip List if you're short on time, money, or energy.  But people do need a place to put cards that they bring to the wedding, so I put it on my Don't Skip List (which, frankly, is probably way too long).  I figured it was a project that I could do well ahead of time without too much effort or money.  In my search for inspiration, I really loved the card boxes inspired by the Disney/Pixar movie UP, like Mrs. Fox's.  

Mrs. Fox's adorable UP inspired card box./Photo by Exclamation Imagery

However, we'll be using our balloon engagement pictures in a few areas, so I didn't want it to look like we were doing an UP themed wedding.  And I didn't like that it would probably go to waste after the wedding - our current neighborhood uses wall-mounted boxes as opposed to those mounted on the street so we couldn't actually use this.

In the search for more options, I came across pictures of  bird cages and decorated gift boxes, but those didn't feel quite right.  The card box will sit at a table at the entrance to the venue with our guest book and some pictures as one of the first things the guests will see when they walk in, so I wanted it to fit in to our decor well.

And at some point, I thought of lanterns and went searching to see if I could find any inspiration pictures.  Sure enough, I was able to find a picture of another wedding, and it looked like the cards fit in fine and it was pretty!

Lantern card box with a hinged top./Found on Style Me Pretty/Photo by Alders Photography

I went searching at Hobby Lobby one day when they were running a 50% off sale on lanterns, and decided to go with this one.  Actually, I had to peruse the shelves of lanterns from behind a couple who was standing in the way and bickering about whether or not they needed some lanterns and where they would put them in their house (she was for, he was against, if you can imagine).  There was only one left of the one that I wanted, so I snuck past them with an awkward "excuse me!" and grabbed my lantern and carried it around like some strange cave goblin while I finished my other shopping in the store.  And maybe it was a coincidence, but I swear that girl was around every turn I took, perhaps waiting until I put it down.  However, I had made my decision so I hung on to my lantern and proceeded to the checkout.  Hobby Lobby is not for the faint of heart.

Here's a picture I found of the lanterns used in a beautiful rustic centerpiece.  I love that you don't have to do much to it, it's already a nice color and has the pretty scroll work.  

The lovely lanterns used in centerpieces./Found on Rustic Wedding Chic/Photo by Miles Witt Boyer Photography

With a card box, though, you'll want to label it so that people can tell what it is.  I was going between hanging the little wooden letters from pearls along the top and putting these pearl stickers on the glass.  I figured the sticker pearls wouldn't show up well enough, so I went for the wooden letters.

I played around in store trying to decide which would be the best way to label it.

I ended up painting the letters teal and hot gluing them to the side since the pearl strand was hard to work with, and I love the pop of teal next to the grey-ish color of the metal.  

  

Finally, I needed a way to get the cards into the box.  This lantern did not have a hinged top, and I didn't want people opening the door to put in cards.  So the only option was to cut a slit in the top, which Daddy P did for me with his dremel.

Daddy P cutting a slit to put the cards into the box.  

After I touched up the slit with sandpaper so that it didn't have any sharp edges, we had a finished card box!

The final product.  

The open door now faces to the back and the slit is right in front, so I hope that's self-explanatory enough for guests.  Depending on how much we decide to do on that entrance table with candles and flowers, I might add some flowers to the base of this lantern, but I really do like it just as is.  I think it fits in pretty well with our chandeliers and other courtyard decor.  And the best part - it didn't cost too much and I didn't have to put in too much time on it!  

I can also see us reusing this (without the letters) on our backyard patio as decor with some large pillar candles inside.  That is...after the wedding when we'll be able to put in a backyard patio to decorate!

What did you do for a card box?