Wed recap: Raise your hand if you're sure!!!

I was definitely sure on April 16th that Mr Fix It was the man for me

and that I was truly Born to be Mrs. Beever!

I wish I could say the entire day felt like this for me...but as I have said before and will continue to share, the day went by in such a blur.  I have no recollection at all of what was going on at this moment for me to be raising a fist above my head like that.  I am due to get my raw footage from our wedding DVD back on Wednesday this week (that means hopefully tomorrow).  I am hoping maybe there is some video footage of this moment that will help me remember.  :)

Anyone want to have some fun today and write a caption for this photo?!?  Come on, make me laugh!!!

We interrupt the wed/h-moon recaps for...

...a little fun from our family life on Thursday night...stick it out til the end for a funny joke :)

Get ready for this...Little Miss's uncle's partner (whew!) is trying to break into photography as an art form and so he had his first official exhibit in a small gallery in their building in Los Angeles Thursday night.  Since we are pretty close with Little Miss's family on her father's side and all attend each other's events (sports games, birthday parties, weddings, etc), my mom, sister, Little Miss and I all decided to brave the traffic from the OC into LA.

They live right near Staples Center and so we were thrilled when we remembered that the playoff Lakers game was being held in Boston that night (bummed though that the Lakers lost) :(  So we really didn't hit any traffic at all on the 405.

We got to the exhibit about 6:30 pm and browsed around our friend's photos and got to hear the stories behind the shots...like the beautiful photo he snapped of the steps at Mansanar (a Japanese internment camp that is now pretty much torn down due to embarassment I am sure).  And then there was the photo titled Cabin Fever which was of a broken-down-busted-out-window-falling apart cabin in the middle of Joshua Tree desert.  Little Miss's grandmother proceeded to tell us how it belongs to her relatives and they used to go there 25 years ago for little weekend trips.  Very interesting.

Unfortunately, I didn't snap any pics of the photos out of respect for our friend's artform and not wanting to 'plagiarize' his stuff, though he probably wouldn't have minded.  However, I did snap this little pic of my sister:

Yeah, that's Brad Wollack and Ross Matthews (comedians from the Chelsea Lately show).  We got to chat with them for a bit since Little Miss's uncle and aunt are friends with Chelsea and several of her staff attended the event.  It was pretty cool.  Very down to earth fun guys.  Since I was following the Laker game on my cell, they asked me about my new Droid phone and if I liked it?  Then they told me that even though they both have the iPhone, they don't like the service AT&T provides.  Which then led to a fun little joke they wrote up for a future comedy act about how they 'forgive' AT&T because even though it's not great, they get service that 'goes down on them about 6 or 7 times.'  Silly boys!

The thing after the rehearsal that wasn't...

I didn't really thing our rehearsal was a rehearsal at all since all we did was line everyone up and show them how to walk down the aisle and where to stand at the end of the aisle.  We didn't rehearse anything and somehow the one thing we did rehearse (timing the walking down the aisle to the music for the processional) ended up getting screwed up on the day of the wedding.  When I watched my wedding video I noticed that the bridemsaids were practically *running* down the aisle!  I asked my daughter why the heck everyone was sprinting and she said because the coordinators told them to go fast because the song wasn't long enough.  First of all, this wasn't true at all..so either the DJ started too early or the coordinators did not tell people when they were supposed to start their walk.  But whatever...and don't worry, I'm in the process of figuring out how to convert the raw footage I received from my videographer to use on my PC so I fully intend to show you the 'sprint' down the aisle :)

At the end of our practice walk, my coordinator says "That's the fastest rehearsal I've ever done!"  Yeah, well, that's because it *wasn't* a rehearsal, silly girl!

I then handed out the pre-printed directions I brought for the wedding party from our venue to the restaurant which was about 30 minutes away and we piled into cars and took off.  We arrived at the Spaghetti Factory in Newport Beach and had a great little banquet room upstairs all to ourselves.  They had tables lined up and the first thing Mr Fix It says to me when we are all looking for where we should sit is "Babe, would you be upset if I sit at a table with all the guys?"  I gave him this look like "Are you serious right now?"  This is our rehearsal dinner and you don't even want to sit with me?!?  What the heck?  But since once again, I was just trying to go with it and not throw a fit about anything, and since he said with his puppy dog eyes "If it will upset you, then I won't but I just would love to be able to hang with my brothers."  (Several of them live out of the area and flew/drove in for the day so how could I possibly deny him?)  I told him fine and went to sit with my family. 

My daughter, Little Miss made the rounds at the tables and snapped bunches of shots of everyone...

Me and Mr Fix It (of course he has to stick his tongue out - moron!)

My mom, bridesmaid D, and Little Miss (daughter)

My dad and his wife, J

Mr Fix It's Dad, Mom, sis-in-law J and niece M

Mr Fit It's brother (Groomsman C), Mr Fix It, Mr Fix It's best friend (Groomsman T) and best friend's wife

My sis and her hubby

My bestie, Bridesmaid L (who flew in from Idaho but just moved back to our area today!!!)

My flower girl (cousin T) and her mom (Bridesmaid cousin E)

Mr Fix It's Aunt & Uncle (who flew in from MN)

Mr Fix It's brother (Best Man K) and friend (Groomsman J) and our Jr Groosman (nephew J)

Mr Fix It's sister C and sis-in-law T with their kids (2 of our ring bearers)

Mr Fix It's bro-in-law with another one of our ring bearers

My cousin Bridesmaid A with her hubby and son

So after dinner, it was time to give out our bridal party gifts.  I asked Mr Fix It to help me pass them out.  You can read about them here.  I then thanked everyone for coming and told them how grateful we were for each one of them.  Then I told the bridesmaids and groomsmen that they were supposed to wear whatever was in their gift box on the day of the wedding.  This was referring to the red argyle socks that I had wanted to get a super cool pic of all the guys showing off on wedding day.  However, we didn't even end up getting pictures of this because I forgot to mention it to my photographer...again, another reason why you should make a list of must have shots!  I had forgotten that one of the things I also put in their gift boxes were these cute little tins with bandaids in them that read "Hugs and Kisses from the new Mr. & Mrs."  These were for potential accidents on wedding day and believe me, in a future recap I will share why it was a good thing I had them!  Well, one of Mr Fix It's brothers (Chad or Keith?) then joked about putting on all of the bandaids for the wedding since I said they were supposed to wear what was in the boxes.

After they opened their gifts, I finished off my speech by reminding them of when and where they were supposed to be for photos.  I then proceeded to tell them that if they wanted to stress me out or upset me on my wedding day, all they had to do was be late.  So "You better not be late!"  Luckily, Little Miss snapped this shot of me reiterating this :)

(Don't you love my cousin's face in the right side of the pic?  He knows I mean business!)

And that was it, our wedding rehearsal was over and Mr Fix It didn't even sit with me...silly boy!  I told you 2 days ago in my post that boys are stupid...just another reason why :)

TODAY'S WEDDING TIP:  (Or rather rehearsal tip)  Remember to bring the things most often forgotten for your rehearsal:

*  A boom box to practice the music you will be walking down the aisle to (both ways) - or have the live musicians there to practice and be sure their songs run a good length.  If it's too short, ask them how they'll lengthen it...and if it's too long, tell them to fade it out early.

*  Directions for your party members from the venue to the dinner.

*  A few copies of your script with the key elements of the ceremony so you can run through the walks, hand offs (of bride, flowers, rings, etc), readings, etc.

*  The readings, poems, and other elements for communion, unity ceremonies, etc.  Typically, you can bring these items to the rehearsal to leave overnight at your venue or hand off to your officiant, coordinator or another trusted party member to bring on the day of the wedding. 

H-moon Recap: Random run ins all over the world

Unfortunately, I don't have much in the way of pics to include in this post, but it's one that I love and want to journal about because it deals with meeting new friends (and running into acquaintances) halfway across the world!

Australia didn't provide much in the way of random run ins...however, once we got to Bali, it was a different story.  For one day, while Mr Fix It was out surfing in the ocean, he came in and mentioned that some guy walking by was named John as well (that's Mr Fix It's real name if you didn't know).  I asked, "How do you know that?"  He said, "Because he works in Huntington Beach about 10 minutes from us and he is friends with Pat."  Pat is a friend of ours who attended our wedding with his wife, Shelley.  I've known Pat and Shelley for over 10 years as their daughter grew up playing softball in the same league as Little Miss.  We have been on teams together, coached together and Shelley and I served as board members on the softball board for a couple years together.  How random that somehow Mr Fix It runs into a guy and strikes up a conversation with him about where he lives, works, etc and somehow it gets around to a mutual friend that doesn't often come up in our conversations.  Very strange...

Then one day in Bali we headed down to a place called Bingins Beach where Mr Fix It likes to surf when he is in Indo.  He told me about these little huts that people own and use for restaurants and to offer massages to surfers and others who come down to the beach.  He took me to this one hut and when we walked up, the ladies there all came up and greeted "Mr. John."  (I shared some pics and a post about the food here.)  They remembered him from his last trip there which was four years ago!  Mr Fix It had told me that they will remember you once you visit and won't forget your name, but I was totally surprised at how well they remembered him.  So much so, that one of the elderly ladies asked him 'where his lady friend was.'  He didn't really respond and she said, "You had a girl friend with you that I gave a massage to...where is she?"  Mr Fix It laughed and said "Watch it...I'm here with my wife now!"  I asked about this girl and found out it was a spanish girl that Mr Fix It had met on his last solo trip to Indo and he hung out with her for a bit.  Though they 'hooked up' he swears he wasn't intimate with her and I laughed...turns out that it was during the year that Mr Fix It and I had taken a break from our dating relationship so what did I care.  We all thought it was funny how the woman 'threw him under the bus' in front of his wife.

At our resort in Bali, Mr Fix It befriended a couple who was celebrating their honeymoon on their one year wedding anniversary.  They lived in South Africa and though Mr Fix It had run into the guy several times and had a few surf conversations with him, it wasn't til the very last morning that we were leaving that I met his wife.  They invited us to sit with them at breakfast as we were both leaving the resort that day.  We literally sat for probably 3 or 4 hours just getting to know them and sharing stories about our lives and countries and such.  We talked about politics and our election system and religion (found out we are both Christians and they have served in mission trips)...it was great.  By the time we left, we had gotten their names and e-mail address and they had extended an invitation for us to visit them in Durban, South Africa for a surf trip.  Mr Fix It *insists* that we will absolutely be connecting with them and trying to meet up some time in the next few years for a South Africa trip.  :)

While hanging with the couple from South Africa, he told us a story about how he almost got into a fight with another surfer out in the water one day.  The other guy had been cutting him off catching waves and what not.  He then proceeded to tell us how convicted he felt about telling the guy off and threatening him and so he went back over to him a little later and apologized and had a short conversation with him.  We kind of laughed about it.  Later that afternoon, we headed off to the airport and began our plane trips back to LAX.  Once we arrived in LAX (like 21 hours later), we were waiting for our luggage and then in the customs line.  Mr Fix It made friends with a guy who was standing near us and had just returned from Bali as well.  They began talking about how much they love Indo and surfing and what they do for a living.  Then randomly, the guy mentions this altercation he got into with another South African while surfing in Indo one day.  Turns out, we had run into the same guy that our South African friend had told us about!  So random.

We totally laughed about it and told him how we had become friends with that guy.  Isn't funny how in this huge world, somehow, we are able to make it all seem so small by the friendships and encounters that we build along the path of our life? 

Have you ever had any random run ins while far away from home?

Wed recap: Why boys are stupid (the cake cutting)

Today's wedding recap comes from a big moment during your wedding day:  the cake cutting. 

All I will say is that the cake has been the one thing I was least excited about throughout the planning process.  This was mostly because Mr Fix It and I debated on the cupcake tower vs. traditional cake decision and I lost out having to go with a normal cake...well, sort of normal.  Because then the cake designs we found and asked our caterer and others to make ended up coming back with outrageous quotes on pricing.  So we reconsidered all our options and in the end we went with just letting a family friend making a cake for us.  It wasn't what I had dreamed of, but it was simple and it was ours and most importantly - it was DEEE-LICIOUS! 

Anyway, as does any good bride and groom, eventually you will have the "Will we or won't we?" discussion on your cake cutting. Mr Fix It and I had talked about whether or not we thought it was a good idea to 'smash' the cake in each other's faces while feeding each other the first bites.  I did not like this idea but before I voiced my opinion, Mr Fix It said he would never do that because you have all your hair and makeup paid for and done up in this gorgeous dress (and tux or suit) so why would you mess all that up for a food fight?  I was totally thrilled and totally on board with this and so we both agreed (on several occasions) that the nice simple placing a fork gently in each other's mouths at the same time was the way to go for us.

But I didn't count on one thing...peer pressure!  I'll let the video speak for me:

Yes, boys are stupid.  We girls have known it all along, but it's little things like this that just confirm our already known opinions.  Boys give in to peer pressure and other boys egg the one boy on.  It's how so many things go wrong in our society.  If it hadn't been for Mr Fix It's brothers and best friends standing there chanting "In the face! In the face!" then we would have stuck to our planned nice cake cutting and feeding.

Alas, it wasn't meant to be.  And so I ended up with red velvet cake under my nicely manicured and long acrylic nails for most of the rest of the night.  So stupid!

However, I got him back...you see, while I was smearing cake all over his gorgeous little face, one of those long nails accidentally scratched him right above the eyebrow.  You can't see it in the video, but a few minutes later, I told him he was bleeding.  I didn't mean to do that, but it's a consequence of your stupid actions so he deserved it.  Besides, it was only a little scratch.  And this was definitely not the only war wound we had on our wedding day (more to come).

To finish, here's the pro pics courtesy of Robert Mullins of the cake cutting and ensuing smearing...

Cutting into the bottom layer of red velvet and cream cheese frosting:

Mr Fix It letting me know he's not going to 'stick to the plan'

Me telling the boys they better watch what they're saying while chanting!

Me pointing at the troublemakers

Threatening that the boys will be the ones getting the cake 'In the face!'

Mr Fix It just before he smashes it up my nose!

Me deciding that I should try for the plate in the face

Since the plate didn't really work...he was able to deflect it...

...I decided to go the easy route and just smear it all over.  It's more effective anyway :)

And of course, we have to kiss and make up :)

'What are you gonna do?'

TODAY'S WEDDING TIP:  Have the "Will we or won't we?" discussing on smashing the cake in each other's face.  And then, have it again...like 5 more times.  And then after you've had it several times, decide what the consequences will be if one of you chooses to break the pact!  :)

Wed recaps: My one bridezilla moment

Today is June 4th...it's a special day.  Know why?  Because today, both my mother *AND* my sister celebrate their birthday.  That's right, baby sis (MOH J) was born on my momma's 20th birthday :)  Kinda cool I think.  To celebrate, we are renting a little electric boat to ride around in Newport Beach harbor...we're bringing some pizzas and wine and sodas and hanging with my sister's hubby and my little niece and nephew, my mom, me, Mr Fix It and Little Miss.  Good times.

So today, on the birthday of my sweet MOH baby sis J, I want to share with you the one bridezilla moment I had on wedding day.  And I am so *NOT* proud of it!  I wish I could have a do over!

This is me and my baby sis MOH J:

Isn't she gorgeous?

She worked her little behind off that day...she showed up around 9 am I think and was helping my mom with unloading cars full of food, gowns, accessories, and so on.  She did things that the photographer and coordinators asked her to help with and followed me around all day carrying my train and straightening my gown.  It really started with her picking up this bad girl and getting her ready for entry when it came time for me to get dressed:

Then there was the following me around like a shadow as the train keeper:

And the train straightener...for both pre-ceremony photos:

And during the ceremony:

She looked adorable as she walked her son, Ring Bearer PJ down the aisle...look at the sun shining on her like she's an angel!

And made me laugh during the great toast she gave at our reception (more in a future recap):

But for some reason, it didn't seem like she was around me that much on the actual day of the wedding.  Looking at these pics, it's obvious she was doing her duties well.  And let me tell you, she really wanted to give a toast at the reception but she is deathly afraid of public speaking so this was a truly stressful thing she was thinking (and worrying) about all day.  She rocked it though...can't wait to share with you from the video!

The unfortunate thing was that we did all of our photos before the ceremony...right during her son and daughter's nap time.  And my little nephew really needs his naps.   So I was truly disappointed that he is not in ANY of our shots taken before the wedding...not in the one shot I got with me and the other 3 ring bearers and flower girl and not in the shots we took with our immediate family :( 

When he finally did show up on the day of the wedding, he was apparently still tired and hubby was having a hard time getting him into his tux.  So my sis had to run off to handle him...she wasn't real happy about that hoping Daddy could have handled it along with his mother (Grandma Kiki) because she was busy enough as the Matron of Honor. 

Then earlier when we were wandering the grounds for photos I had another maid come along to carry my bouquet and train because my sis was nowhere to be found.  Apparently the coordinators or someone asked her for some help.  I didn't know that at the time. 

Later, when it was time for our first look, I was standing by myself getting ready to walk.  And none of my maids were around me...I learned a little trick where I would pick my train up over my arm and then spin around in a big circle...as I was spinning, I would throw (release) the train of my gown and it would fly out around behind me and land perfectly unfolded and flat and laid out behind me.  Pretty neat, huh?  The videographer even asked me to do it again at one point to try to catch it on film.

But at some point during this little trick I happened to say the following:

"Yeah, I had to figure out how to handle all this myself since I have the worst Matron of Honor ever!  Here's a hint, don't ever ask someone with kids to be a bridesmaid!"

There were a few family members and vendors around when I said it...and my sis was there, too :(  She looked at me and I know she said something back to snap at me.  I felt really bad after the words came out of my mouth.  I tried to eat the words back up saying "Well, I just mean you have other things to tend to and worry about."  But it was too late...the bridezilla in me got out for that brief moment and it was a truly horrible thing to say.  I really didn't even mean it...I mean, she went above and beyond.  So I profusely apologized that day and on the day after the wedding and a few times after we got back from our honeymoon.

So that was it...the one thing that I did that I was not proud of.  Thankfully, my loving sister is full of mercy and forgiveness and doesn't let those things linger once we've made amends and moved on.  :) 

I didn't need to say it like that, but as much as I hate to admit it, my wedding tip for today does come from a bit of truth in my mean girl comment:

TODAY'S WEDDING TIP:  Truly consider the roles and responsibilities you expect of each of your maids when you ask them to be a member of your wedding party.  Every single one of my maids had children, jobs and other commitments that made it very difficult to get them together or to have them help with wedding related appointments, to-do's and tasks.  If the people you want to stand up with you and assist you in your planning process have children, very involved work schedules or other responsibilities or relationships that may prevent them from giving you every bit of time and attention you'd like, you may want to consider whether or not to ask them to be in the wedding.  Or if you do, then remember not to have high expectations. 

I have to say, I would have had no other woman next to me on that day and my sister went so far above and beyond through all of the planning process with helping me design stationery, assemble favors, go shopping, and attend to all of my needs on the wedding day.  I was very blessed with the amazing and thoughtful shower and bachelorette party she threw me and all the time she found outside of her wifely and motherly duties to make me feel very special...and for that, I want to wish my baby sis, J the most amazing birthday ever today!  (And of course a huge birthday shout out to Mom, too!)

Here's the only shot I have of me and Mom on our wedding day thanks to my wonderful cousin, Bridesmaid A!

Wed recap: Bustling nightmares

So I told you that my recaps will jump around.  :)  To hold true to that, I am going to start with some helpful info on your wedding day timeline regarding something most girls don't consider when thinking about where they want/need to be when:  the bustling of your dress!

Now, for those of you ladies who have pretty, simple gowns that either have no train or a minimal train that you simply want bustled up with one or two or even three hooks, this post is not for you :)  This is for those of us ladies who went big!  We wanted the ball gown or the ridiculously long 10 foot train and we got it!  It looks so gorgeous in pics, doesn't it?

But that thing is monstrous!  You typically don't want to be carrying it around all night, so you want to have a good old fashioned beautiful bustle.  Here you can see that Mr Fix It played 'train keeper' during our photo session. 

Well, I opted for two bustles...because of the fact that my dress kind of had two different fronts/sides, we had two different bustles....a french bustle on the side where all those gathers are in the pic above (on the right) and a standard 'pulled up' bustle on the left where the dress had all the lace and beading.  And in my fittings, it looked like this:

My amazing, seamstress, Janet Brunton (that's her in the pic above), did a phenomenal job of hemming my gown and adding the bustles for my sister (MOH J) to handle it mostly alone on the wedding day.  She even used colored bows and tacks to help MOH J to know which little ribbon/tie went with which little hook (blue ribbon to blue hook, red ribbon to red hook).  MOH J got real good at it in about 3 different fittings.  She could handle it on her own even though we had cousin A (a fellow Bridesmaid) help her out on the last time just to have a helping hand.  But see, on the day of the wedding, when it came time to do the bustling...yeah, it didn't work out that way. 

Here's a pic of me and all my bridesmaids in our bridal cottage - the place where all the prep work (makeup, hair, dressing, etc) took place on the property.  See that gown?  It may not look it, but it's huge!

As soon as the ceremony was over, me, Mr Fix It, my sister J, and I piled into this room.  Our officiant and Best Man were also there to sign the marriage license but then they headed off for cocktails.  We had purposefully taken *ALL* of our photos pre-ceremony (yes, we had a first look that will come in a future recap if you didn't already see it in our video trailer).  We didn't want to keep guests waiting for longer than an hour for cocktails and *we* wanted to enjoy the cocktail hour and that extra time with our guests. 

Well, MOH J and BM A began bustling away with the little ribbons and the hooks.  Now I don't know why, but it seemed like it was taking them longer than it did in the fittings.  Like 20 minutes maybe!  Did it take that long in the fittings and I just didn't realize it?  Were they having problems stressed out about the actual wedding day?  Who knows?  I didn't really care...but Mr Fix It sure did.  He let us know that he was getting antsy and wanted to head into cocktails.  I asked him to wait for me because I had this image in my head of us heading up to the cocktail area together and making a pre-grand entrance with all the guests clapping and greeting us on the patio.  But he just wanted to get out there without me!  Little twerp!  He began to get stressed and began to say that he was tired of waiting and we needed to hurry up.  I knew that this was just stressing out my poor sister who had already had a long day (more to come).  So I just told him to be patient..."It takes time to do this, baby...just a second and we'll be ready."  He wasn't having it.  So my options were to let him head up to cocktails without me or to just leave the bustle and forget it.  I opted for choice B.  I told my sister not to worry about the bustle...I was going to be changing out of the dress as soon as cocktails were over anyway so it didn't matter if it wasn't perfect for 45 minutes.  I think that really disappointed my sister and probably made her feel like she was failing in her bustling duties.  But I seriously did not care.

So we headed out to cocktails with my bustle half done and part of my train dragging on the ground...I didn't notice and I didn't care.  And no one (especially not the photographer) got any pictures of me with the bustle anyway so who cares?!?

TODAY'S WEDDING TIP:  Plan on giving yourself a good 20 to 30 minutes to handle the bustling of your dress.  Don't be stressed...kick everyone out of the room that doesn't need to be there.  Mr Fix It was really rushing us and stressing out my sis who had made such great effort to learn how to do it right.  Let your maids do their job and don't let anyone rush them in doing something they have probably practiced several times already.  And by the way, be sure that you take a maid or whoever will be handling the bustling with you to at least a few of your fittings to practice there with the seamstress!