That's right! Mrs. Pyramid visited the Great Pyramids!
And Sphinx was there too!
But of course the real deal Sphinx was there as well.
We've had the trip booked since earlier in the year, and the entire thing was absolutely amazing.
But what else have we been up to? Well, we celebrated our first anniversary at the end of May. Talk about the fastest year of my life! We kept it low-key with brunch at one of our favorite restaurants, breaking into the year-old cake, and hosting a little "Game of Thrones" viewing party with some of our fellow fans.
Verdict? Delicious and really moist! My FIL really did a great job on preserving it - I think the key was the double layering with plastic wrap and foil. Hardly any of it went to waste, either! Most of it ended up in my belly over the next few days, but I still count that as a win.
Because our trip fell around our one-year anniversary, we bought a souvenir to count as our first year present to each other - a personalized painting on Egyptian papyrus from Luxor!
Besides eating year-old baked goods and trotting the globe, life is pretty steady right now. I got a new position at work, which has been challenging but a better fit overall and we're enjoying being puppy parents to our little goofball Riley, kicking booty at bar night trivia, being up in the gym just working on our fitness, and starting planing on our next vacation.
And since we're bouncing all over the place in this post, why not do it just a little more? I'd been jotting down some "random advice" snippets over the past few months and never worked them into a post of their own, so here they are, my final words of wisdom on wedding planning!
The small ones:
- Don't use chalk paint ink pads for thumbprints. I mentioned this in my post on our guest book photo - but just don't!
- Have more checks that you think you might need. Running out of checks when there are so many vendors to take care of was a pain in the butt, so be prepared.
- Let housekeeping come into the hotel to make up the bed, at least. When housekeeping knocked on the door of the hotel suite, we were in the midst of hair, makeup, and some minor crisis, I'm sure. My first thought was "Tell her we're fine. We can't fit another person in here!" Then someone (probably my mom) mentioned that it'd be good to just get the bed fixed up since we were about to start taking pictures. A good call!
- Don't forget to calculate the tax. If you're using a budget tracker like Wedding Wire, make sure you're putting in final numbers with tax and service fees so you aren't surprised at the last minute! I had a close call with that, but caught it early enough that it didn't cause any trouble.
- Spring for the automatic flight check-in if you're flying Southwest. This is a very specific one, but something that never even crossed my mind beforehand. Say you're flying Southwest to your honeymoon destination (or as a connecting flight like we were), and you're supposed to check in 24 hours beforehand to get your boarding assignment. Easy enough. Unless 24 hours before the flight, you're in a limo on the way to the ceremony, so you never think about checking in until the next day. In that case, the newlyweds are the last people to board the plane, with only center seats left, and you kick off your honeymoon sitting 20 rows away from each other. I mean, it was fine, I just took a nap. But if there was ever a flight where I should have paid the automatic check-in fee, it was for that one.
And general advice:
Do your pet projects early. When you're staring down t-minus two weeks or so, you start giving up on them. I experienced some combination of thinking the idea was now dumb or it wouldn't look good/couldn't be executed and just not having enough time. Even my precious chandeliers fell victim to this mindset. We didn't put the last two together until about a week and a half before the wedding (for sake of storage space) and I sure was questioning if it was all worth it as we were hanging all of the little plastic gems on the fixture. I'm glad I pushed past that feeling for the chandeliers, but it definitely was a struggle to deal with the little-bitty details when there were larger issues looming.
Stay Excited. I know, I know - putting together your day-of timeline might sit on your to-do list for weeks because you've got more important things to do like vacuum behind your couch. Some tasks are annoying and you just have to do them, but that's not what I mean. If you truly are not excited about a portion of the wedding planning, if it's becoming more of a chore, find a way to drop it. If it makes you happy as a clam to hand stamp color-coordinating napkins for your wedding - go for it, get down with your bad self, girlfriend. If you lose that enthusiasm, though, take a step back, think about if it's really important or if you should just toss it. Maybe it's something you'd really rather delegate or pay someone to do? That's totally okay. Guests probably prefer that they won't be wiping their mouths with something containing bridal blood, sweat, and tears.
Your wedding favors do not define your personality. No one is going to wonder what your choice of cake flavors means about you as a couple. Not everything has to be unique. Everything doesn't have to be "classic with a twist." If you haven't got any better ideas, it can just be classic or plain! Go with what fits your personality, guest list, venue, or type of wedding - but don't force it. Your wedding will be special because it is about you and your spouse, not because you crafted table runners better than anything anyone else has ever seen. Of course you've got talents and a personal style and interests, so absolutely showcase that - but pick out a few good ideas and focus your energy on those. Keep in mind that everyone will have different priorities, and if you try to take on every little idea you see on the internet, you (and your guests) will get overwhelmed. In our case, the only vision that I had for our program was to have the correct information on them, so they were pretty plain. Would it have been cool to have amazing programs like Mrs. Crab and Mrs. Dragon - yea, of course! But those obviously took a ton of time and effort and programs didn't make my list of priorities and that's just fine.
Obey the golden rule. Your guests are not your props. Your family and bridal party are not your minions. Your wedding vendors can't perform miracles. And just because you are under a lot of stress, spending a lot of money, and only get to do this once and it has to be perfect does not give you the right to treat people like shit. Yes, wedding planning brings out the worst in people - but you get back what you put out into the world. Take the high road, think about where others are coming from, how everyone might feel, and do the best to be respectful to the people you care about.
 |
| See why it's so hard to leave? Where else could I use all this moniker-related humor? |
We've had the trip booked since earlier in the year, and the entire thing was absolutely amazing.
But what else have we been up to? Well, we celebrated our first anniversary at the end of May. Talk about the fastest year of my life! We kept it low-key with brunch at one of our favorite restaurants, breaking into the year-old cake, and hosting a little "Game of Thrones" viewing party with some of our fellow fans.
 |
| Good to know our two-person knife-wielding skills were as strong as ever. |
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| Apparently he's been waiting a while to put a blob of that icing on my nose. |
Because our trip fell around our one-year anniversary, we bought a souvenir to count as our first year present to each other - a personalized painting on Egyptian papyrus from Luxor!
 |
| Which still needs to be framed. But hey, wedding pics still need to be printed too. Get in line, papyrus. |
Besides eating year-old baked goods and trotting the globe, life is pretty steady right now. I got a new position at work, which has been challenging but a better fit overall and we're enjoying being puppy parents to our little goofball Riley, kicking booty at bar night trivia, being up in the gym just working on our fitness, and starting planing on our next vacation.
 |
| "This packing thing seems so exciting - I can't wait to see where we're going!" Sorry, girl, ,not this time! |
And since we're bouncing all over the place in this post, why not do it just a little more? I'd been jotting down some "random advice" snippets over the past few months and never worked them into a post of their own, so here they are, my final words of wisdom on wedding planning!
The small ones:
- Don't use chalk paint ink pads for thumbprints. I mentioned this in my post on our guest book photo - but just don't!
- Have more checks that you think you might need. Running out of checks when there are so many vendors to take care of was a pain in the butt, so be prepared.
- Let housekeeping come into the hotel to make up the bed, at least. When housekeeping knocked on the door of the hotel suite, we were in the midst of hair, makeup, and some minor crisis, I'm sure. My first thought was "Tell her we're fine. We can't fit another person in here!" Then someone (probably my mom) mentioned that it'd be good to just get the bed fixed up since we were about to start taking pictures. A good call!
 |
| Neat and tidy bed for our cute "getting ready" pictures!/Photo by Eau Claire Photographics |
- Don't forget to calculate the tax. If you're using a budget tracker like Wedding Wire, make sure you're putting in final numbers with tax and service fees so you aren't surprised at the last minute! I had a close call with that, but caught it early enough that it didn't cause any trouble.
- Spring for the automatic flight check-in if you're flying Southwest. This is a very specific one, but something that never even crossed my mind beforehand. Say you're flying Southwest to your honeymoon destination (or as a connecting flight like we were), and you're supposed to check in 24 hours beforehand to get your boarding assignment. Easy enough. Unless 24 hours before the flight, you're in a limo on the way to the ceremony, so you never think about checking in until the next day. In that case, the newlyweds are the last people to board the plane, with only center seats left, and you kick off your honeymoon sitting 20 rows away from each other. I mean, it was fine, I just took a nap. But if there was ever a flight where I should have paid the automatic check-in fee, it was for that one.
 |
| Selfies in the Rolls before we set off - naturally. But airline flight check-ins never crossed my mind. |
Do your pet projects early. When you're staring down t-minus two weeks or so, you start giving up on them. I experienced some combination of thinking the idea was now dumb or it wouldn't look good/couldn't be executed and just not having enough time. Even my precious chandeliers fell victim to this mindset. We didn't put the last two together until about a week and a half before the wedding (for sake of storage space) and I sure was questioning if it was all worth it as we were hanging all of the little plastic gems on the fixture. I'm glad I pushed past that feeling for the chandeliers, but it definitely was a struggle to deal with the little-bitty details when there were larger issues looming.
 |
| So worth it./Photo by Eau Claire Photographics |
Stay Excited. I know, I know - putting together your day-of timeline might sit on your to-do list for weeks because you've got more important things to do like vacuum behind your couch. Some tasks are annoying and you just have to do them, but that's not what I mean. If you truly are not excited about a portion of the wedding planning, if it's becoming more of a chore, find a way to drop it. If it makes you happy as a clam to hand stamp color-coordinating napkins for your wedding - go for it, get down with your bad self, girlfriend. If you lose that enthusiasm, though, take a step back, think about if it's really important or if you should just toss it. Maybe it's something you'd really rather delegate or pay someone to do? That's totally okay. Guests probably prefer that they won't be wiping their mouths with something containing bridal blood, sweat, and tears.
Your wedding favors do not define your personality. No one is going to wonder what your choice of cake flavors means about you as a couple. Not everything has to be unique. Everything doesn't have to be "classic with a twist." If you haven't got any better ideas, it can just be classic or plain! Go with what fits your personality, guest list, venue, or type of wedding - but don't force it. Your wedding will be special because it is about you and your spouse, not because you crafted table runners better than anything anyone else has ever seen. Of course you've got talents and a personal style and interests, so absolutely showcase that - but pick out a few good ideas and focus your energy on those. Keep in mind that everyone will have different priorities, and if you try to take on every little idea you see on the internet, you (and your guests) will get overwhelmed. In our case, the only vision that I had for our program was to have the correct information on them, so they were pretty plain. Would it have been cool to have amazing programs like Mrs. Crab and Mrs. Dragon - yea, of course! But those obviously took a ton of time and effort and programs didn't make my list of priorities and that's just fine.
Obey the golden rule. Your guests are not your props. Your family and bridal party are not your minions. Your wedding vendors can't perform miracles. And just because you are under a lot of stress, spending a lot of money, and only get to do this once and it has to be perfect does not give you the right to treat people like shit. Yes, wedding planning brings out the worst in people - but you get back what you put out into the world. Take the high road, think about where others are coming from, how everyone might feel, and do the best to be respectful to the people you care about.
Be Happy. I suppose this is more of a wish, rather than advice. I hope all of you brides are able to have drama-free, sunshiney, perfect days where you are able to truly treasure each and every happy moment, because that's what it's all about. The best compliment I received during and after the wedding was not about the musical performances, the menu selection, or even my dress - it was that multiple people told me how I was one of the happiest brides they'd ever seen. I know I was far from a carefree bride, but in my case, I was able to just sit back and enjoy the day because we'd put in so much effort beforehand. And I think that kind of attitude from the bride and groom ripples through your crowd and makes for an awesome time.
Now, I'm sure I won't be able to resist popping in here now and again, but if you want to hear from me more often than that - first of all, thank you, you're a dear. And you can find me - and my sister MOH Curls - on our joint blog Guac-a-scuse Me? We'll be over there chatting about some of our favorite topics like tried-and-true recipes, beauty reviews and tricks, home decor and renovation, fashion, and travel! If you'd like to see more pictures and hear more about our trip to Egypt, that would be the place to check out very soon!
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| All the thoughts of what I could have change about our wedding evaporate when I see pictures like this. The whole night was so full of joy and love - and TIGERS!* |
I think I hear the music playing, telling me I need to scoot off this stage, but I've got a few more sappy words left. Big thanks to Sphinx for letting me broadcast our relationship and our special day on a public forum - and for being so supportive and encouraging the whole time (even if it meant I had to stay up way too late to finish a blog post and thus was grumpy the next day). I love you and I'm absolutely thrilled to be your wife and to share in all of life's adventures together.
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| Finishing it up, just how we started. |
Finally, thanks to each and every one of you who have read my posts and those who were sweet enough to reach out with a comment or a message. And thank you to the Bee bloggers who welcomed me into this little family, especially the amazing women of the Honeymoon generation. You ladies are constant sources of inspiration and amusement, and I'm so glad we had the opportunity to get to know each other! I've never put myself out there online like this before, and it just felt great to be able to connect with readers from all over the world and share our story - and hopefully offer a little help along the way! When I was worried I would annoy my fiance and friends to death with wedding chatter, when I needed a bit of a distraction from the stress of real life, or if I needed some feedback on a wedding detail - the Bee was there for me. In some ways, it's hard to believe I've reached the end, but I've been writing on here for nearly two years now and it's certainly time for me to move off of the "active bloggers" page. But the Bee will always hold a special place in my heart!
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| Wherever I go, I'm on the lookout for some bees! |
Lauren
* Are you wondering "Who is this girl and why is there a mascot at her wedding?" Looks like you might want to check out Monumental Love: The Pyramid Wedding Recaps!
* Are you wondering "Who is this girl and why is there a mascot at her wedding?" Looks like you might want to check out Monumental Love: The Pyramid Wedding Recaps!
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