And to Top it All Off...

Mr. C and I just cannot decide on a cake topper. Mostly because I kinda hate them and he kinda thinks they're awesome.

For a long time I had been envisioning just a few blooms arranged on the top of the cake. Something small and simple, like this:

Image via Elizabeth Anne Designs / Photo by Susan Stripling Photography

Or maybe even our new initial?

Image via Have 2 Have It on Etsy

But where I see something as simple and classic Mr. C sees it as booooor-ing. I think he would be happier  with something a little more... unique. Like this:

Image via yumsugar

Okay, okay I'm kidding. But I do know that he would probably love to put something like this on top of the cake:

Image via Awesome Toppers on Etsy

Unfortunately, I don't think my grandmother will appreciate Mr. C's sense of humor on this one.

And yes, while I do find the Domo cake topper freakin' hilarious I think it will leave a majority of our guests scratching their heads.

Image via The Air Castle on Etsy

(Sidenote: This Etsy seller has created so many different animal toppers... Maybe she would be interested in tackling a coyote or two? Hmmm....)

In the meantime, we have been on the hunt for something that will show off our personalities without totally offending our guests.

Maybe something classy like this?

 Image via Bridal Xpress

Hee. Okay, the back can be our little secret. ;)

I think this "two peas in a pod" cake topper is totally adorbs even if it doesn't match our wedding colors at all.

Image via Lesley Wellington on Etsy

I'm also kinda in love with this Mickey & Minnie topper:

Image via Fairly Tale Wedding Store / SO CUTE!

Or what about a customized cake topper? So far I've only seen toppers with dogs, but I'm sure someone out there will be willing to recreate a little kitty for us too.

Image via Greetings from Mars on Etsy

The more I keep looking the harder it is to make a decision! So tell me Hive, are you having a cake topper? What will you be using?

Oooh That Smell

Can't ya smell that smell?

Yeah, that'll be stuck in your head allllll day. You're welcome! ;)

I have seen the topic come up a few times and I wanted to chat a bit about wedding day scents and the type of perfume you're going to wear that day.

Some brides wear the same thing they wear everyday. Usually because they love it, their significant other loves it and it's something familiar.

Sometimes they look for something new and different. Scents often trigger memories and feelings of nostaglia. Wouldn't it be wonderful to be able to take a whiff of your perfume and be transported back to one of the happiest days of your life?

And then there's me.

I won't be wearing any perfume for our wedding day. Now, I don't normally wear perfumes, but on a special occasion I have been known to splash on a lil somethin' sweet.

That is, until I met Mr. Coyote and his extremely sensitive olfactory receptors.

Image via Educate Your Senses / This is how you smell things!

Anything with even the slightest scent will send the dude into a tailspin -- and sometimes it's not just scents. Mr. Coyote even suffers from ACHOO snydrome - a totally ridiculously named, but completely legitimate condition that causes you to sneeze when exposed to bright lights (usually the sun).

The point is... Even if I spray a few squirts of perfume on the opposite side of the apartment with the door closed and the windows open, Mr. Coyote's superhuman odor detection sense tingles. He sneezes, his eyes water, and even worse, he bitches and moans about it for an hour.

And so, there will be no wedding day perfume for Miss Coyote. At first I was kinda bummed about it, but is it worth it to smell pretty if my poor groom is all sniffling and sneezing at the altar? I guess not.

Plus, I figure I must smell pretty darn good without perfume if Mr. C is willing to hang around me all the time (without sneezing, coughing and cursing) so it might not be that bad to go au naturel on my wedding day.

Is anyone else forgoing perfume on their wedding day?

Yo Lemon, You Comin' to the After-After-After Party?

My friends and family like to party. Well maybe not like Tracy Jordan likes to party, but pretty close.

You coming to the after-after party? from marcelo sobreiro on Vimeo.

Our reception will end around 11 PM, but I can tell you that the partying will continue long after that. At BM J's wedding (my dad's sister), a majority of our family and the bridal party headed over to the after party and I'm proud to say that my family stayed out until somewhere around 2 or 3 AM.

Hair-spiration

Even though I have a love/hate relationship with my hair right now, the beauty of it is that I'll pretty much be able to do whatever I want for the wedding day. And so every time I think about locking myself in the bathroom with a pair of scissors I browse purdy hair-dos instead.

I do this more often than you'd think, so I hope you're ready...

I love the look of elegant buns:

(I'm also super in love with her hair flower.) / Image via Updo Guru

 

Although a pretty hair clip works just as well! / Image via Bridal Beauty Salon

Then there's, well I don't know what to call it really. A messy bun? A loose bun? All I know is that it's purdy and I wish I could make my hair look like this everyday:

 

 

Image via The Wedding Salon

Image via Easy Updos for Long Hair

But then I think about the sheer willpower it's taken to not cut my hair. Shouldn't I show it off?

How about a side-do with pretty curls that flow over my shoulder? Although that would probably last about five minutes before it pissed me off and I pushed it back. Okay, fine, maybe I could tolerate it for the photos.

 Image via Lovehair

There's the classic half-up/half-down look:

 

Image via Woman Place

Or maybe I'll just let it all hang out with some loose curls.

Image via Lovehair

Sidenote: Her hair color is freakin' gorgeous!

So long-haired brides... Let's hear it! Up-do? Side-do? Half-up/half-down-do? Down-do? Monkey-see, Monkey-do?

Rapunzel, Rapunzel...

WHY do you have so much hair?

Hive, my hair is SUPER long right now. It's seriously out of control. I'm like the brunette version of this chick:

Image via Disney Wiki

I usually keep my hair shoulder length. My hair is kinda curly and frizzy and crazy and sometimes it can look like this:

(Personal Photo)

Yeah, I can't believe I just let the whole internet world see that. On the other hand, on a really good day it looks like this:

 (Personal Photo)

(Personal Photo)

Ohhhh, so pretty and curly and perfect!

Well, a little bit after these photos were taken I decided to try and grow it out a little bit. And then I got engaged and I thought maybe I'd try to grow it out a little bit more. And now we're four months out and it looks like this:

Photo Credit: Nancy Choi

Except, that photo was taken a few months ago now so it's really even longer than that. I just don't have a good photo because it's become such a pain in the ass to take care of that I just wear it up in a messy bun or ponytail like 99% of the time.

Anyways, the end goal is to hopefully have it look something like this:

(Personal Photo)

Yeah, my hair looked ridiculously amazing for BM J's wedding. 

It's getting harder and harder to resist the urge for a Pre-Wedding Chop, but I just keep reminding myself how freakin' awesome my hair will look on W-Day and constantly reassure myself that the second we get back from our honeymoon I will be free to take a pair of scissors to this crazy mop. 

Anyone else as excited for their Post-Wedding Chop as I am?!

And the Paper Obsession Continues...

Did you guys really think I was done showing you invitations? I don't think you fully understood me when I said that I have been OBSESSED with paper. Since I'm still pretty sure we can't afford letterpress, I've been searching for some more affordable options:

I love the gorgeous monogram. / Image via ShineInvitations on Etsy

Simple and sweet. I think the lace adds a nice touch along the bottom. / Image via Storkie

Love, love, love this die cut invite wrapped with ribbon. / Image via TrendyTreasure on Etsy

Do I even need to explain? So beautiful. / Image via Minted / Designed by Beth Perry Design

Okay, I swear I'm done... For now. In the meantime I'm still debating if I should design my own or outsource it. It was fun to make our save the date and even my bridal shower invitation, but I'm thinking I might leave this one to the pros. There are still plenty of paper goods for the wedding day that I can DIY (programs, menus, escort cards, etc.) and the list seems to be growing longer and longer as the number of days til the wedding grow shorter and shorter!

Did you DIY your invitations or leave it to the professionals?

Adventures in Registering

A few weeks ago I talked a bit about how Mr. C and I started the whole registry process and how we even tried to do it all from our couch. Yeah, that was a giant fail. We decided that we really needed to get our butts to the store. Bet you can't guess what happens next!

First, we headed over to the Disney World for your home, Bed Bath and Beyond. And just like Disney, we knew we couldn't see it all in one day. The game plan was just go in and zap things with the scanner gun until we were too bored and/or tired to care about the prettiest design for our flatware (seriously, there are so many different types of forks in that store... WHY???).

Thankfully one of the employees just handed us the awesome scan-y thing and sent us on our way. We scored some serious necessities like a new set of dinner plates and a shot glass that helps you measure drinks. Okay, maybe not all necessities, but that shot glass was just too awesome to pass up.

Sango Roma Caramel Dinner Set / Image via Bed Bath and Beyond

(Personal Photo)

We already received the Mini Measure. What can I say? My parents like to fuel our drinking problem.

Once we hit the bedding section I started to crash. Instead of making life-altering decisions like which color comforter to purchase I deemed it more important to pet all of the towels and squeeze all of the pillows. Seriously, they are SO soft. Mr. C took that as our cue to leave.

Oh and if you remember my last registry-related post, yes, we did indeed register for a nutcracker. And not a sexy one. Just a nice plain boring one:

 Image via Bed Bath and Beyond

A few weeks later we headed to Macy's for part two. We had such a great time at BB&B that I think we started to get a little cocky. Don't worry, the universe quickly put us back in our place. It started the second we scored a sweet metered spot right near the entrance. If you live in NYC or any of the surrounding areas I'm sure you can appreciate how rare it is to find a parking spot, let alone one right near a store's entrance. Of course, it was only after we had already fed the meter that we realized it was one hour parking. DAMMIT. Okay, okay, no big deal, we would just zap some china and hopefully some bedding and/or towels before the meter ran out.

Yeah, like I said, we were getting cocky.

We ran inside and hunted down an employee. We explained we had already started a registry with Macy's online and that we just needed the scanner, but when she saw that we hadn't actually registered for anything yet she took it into her own hands to educate us on the ins and outs of registering. Meanwhile, the meter was ticking. Ticking. Ticking.

Now, I want to stop here and say that I have nothing against this woman. She was the sweetest, nicest woman around and Macy's should be proud to have her as their employee. Seriously! The lady knew what she was talking about and did her job well.The problem was we were on a serious time crunch. And we told her that. Multiple times. And she still. Would. Not. Shut. Up.

By the time she finally handed over the precious scan gun we were down to 30 minutes. And even as we walked away she kept following us yelling out things like, "Don't forget your bakeware! Oh my, you just CAN'T forget your bakeware! And your luggage! And..." Siiiiiigh.

At this point we just wanted to get something on our registry so the trip wouldn't be a total waste. We managed to zap about three pieces of china before the meter was up (literally). Although I will admit precious minutes were wasted because I allowed Mr. Coyote control of the scanner gun. Bad idea. He spent half the time trying to scan my boobs. They are not for sale Mr. Coyote, do you hear me?! NOT FOR SALE!

Anywho, we did manage to score some sweet China.

Mikasa Dinnerware, Platinum Crown Collection / Image via Macy's

Since we had been able to browse both stores we able to finish up everything else on our list from home. And so ends the Coyotes' registry adventures.

Parting tips from Miss Coyote?

1)  Give yourself plenty of time. We did that at our first stop, but foolishly though we could finish up round two in an hour.

2) On the flip side, don't try to do too much in one day. When you start petting towels it's time to leave.

3) Don't let your pervert fiance have control of the scanner gun at any point!

Tell me about your in-store registry experience! Did you make multiple trips to the store? Did you have an associate assisting you or were allowed to roam free? And who controlled the scanner gun?!

Gutenberg Would be Proud

I seem to be on a pretty paper kick lately (and by lately I mean for the past year that we've been engaged). I have gathered so much invitation inspiration and I'm just dying to share it with... well, with anyone who will listen really, I'm not picky! But, since this is a wedding blog and all I figured you are much more interested than anyone else I know so... Shall we take a looksie?

Oh, but first, I need to get this out in the open.

My name is Miss Coyote and I am obsessed with letterpress. Seriously, it's bad.

Image via Smock.

Image via Invitations by Ajalon

Image via InvitedInk on Esty

Wait, wait, wait. I'm sorry to interrupt, but can we just get a close-up of that last one?

Siiiiiigh. Yeah, that's the stuff. / Image via InvitedInk on Esty 

I <3 the heart-shaped text. / Image via Bella Figura

And of course, an invitation for the Hive. / Image via Dolce Press

Once I started collecting letterpress inspiration it was difficult to stop. I wanted to adopt every cute little invitation set I found and give them warm and loving homes. Yes, I am both a crazy cat lady and a crazy invitation lady. You can find me on my rocking chair petting both my kittens and my letterpress invitations. Soooo soooooft. 

Anyways, as beautiful as they are, caring for letterpress invitations isn't cheap and I have a feeling that the adoption fees for 100 letterpress invitations just isn't in the budget right now. I mean, I can barely afford to take care of these guys:

(Personal Photo)

And so, the hunt continues.

Is anyone else as smitten with letterpress invitations as I am?

A Different Kind of Invitation

This is the story of how I designed my own bridal shower invitations.

Because I live three hours away from where the bridal shower will be held it didn't really make sense for everyone to keep it a surprise from me. And because my mom is doing most of the planning she has been using me a sounding board for ideas. I helped her pick the location, the favors and, well, the invitations. 

At first we ordered a few samples from Wedding Paper Divas. Our favorite was this little number:

Image via Wedding Paper Divas

Unfortunately we didn't realize how tiny they were until they arrived. We thought we'd be getting a regular 5x7 inch invitation. Not the case. For some reason this particular invitation clocked in at measly 4.10x5.25. Well, that wouldn't do. We continued to search around, but kept coming up empty-handed. 

Finally, I decided that this whole process would be easier if I just made something myself.

After all that practice I'd had with making our save the dates with Photoshop it was actually super simple. I followed the general wording and layout of the invitation above, since we knew that we liked it, and knocked out three different versions in about a half hour. Some we liked more than others, but the end result was this:

(Personal Photo)

Ah, simple and clean, with a little pop of color. It kills me to have to blur out so much of the invitation, but I think you can still get the gist of it! Oh and I left in a serious typo too. Can you find it? (Don't worry, I managed to catch it right before they went to print, but we almost had a serious uh-oh on our hands!)

We decided to save ourselves some sanity (and some ink cartridges) by outsourcing the printing to CatPrint. We went with their 100lb linen paper and can't say enough good things about their customer service, their prices and their quality.

So there it is. The story of how this crazy bride became so involved in her own shower that she designed and ordered her own bridal shower invitations.

Is anyone else way too involved in their bridal shower?

John Hancock? It's HERBIE Hancock. DUH!

Now that we have a bajillion engagement photos we've been trying to figure out what the heck to do with them. You already saw our save the dates, but I have a few other tricks up my sleeve for these photos.

And one of them just arrived:

(Personal Photo)

Meet our combo engagement album and…. guestbook!

I have been drooling over photo guestbooks for quite some time now:

Image via Abundant Moments Photography

Image via Marley & Mel Wedding Photography

I love the nostalgic feeling I get when I see photo guestbooks. They remind of yearbooks from the good ol' days. The shiny new yearbooks would arrive and everyone would flip through its pages, leaving silly notes for their friends and promises of great summer adventures together.

As soon as our engagement photos arrived I set to work on creating our guestbook. There are a ton of programs out there that can help you create your own photo album. For me, it came down to AdoramaPix  or Photobook America.

In the end I decided to go with Photobook America. It has some mixed reviews, but overall I was pretty impressed with what I read. Oh and I stumbled across a great Groupon deal which may or may not have influenced my decision. I was a bit nervous since I had never designed a photo album before, but I have to say that I found their software to be pretty easy to use. Even though it was hard to initially navigate, once I got the hang of it, it was smooth sailing.

As a side note, if you are planning on making your own photo album and are having trouble deciding on which company to go with I highly recommend checking out PhotoBookGirl as well as Jason Dunn's in-depth reviews. They both created photo albums with at least a dozen different companies and detailed their experiences. It was infinitely helpful to me.

I am so, so happy with the final result and the total cost (including shipping) was only $50. Now I just need to find a good pen that will write on this black paper. Hmmm…

(Personal Photo)

(Personal Photo)

Are you going the photo guestbook route? Tell me about your experience (and what kind of pen you're using)!

PS. 100 Wedding Bee points to anyone who gets the reference in my title.

Floral Progress!

First of all I want to thank each and every one of you for your thoughtful and helpful responses on my florist dilemma post. You were all so encouraging and gave me a lot of things to think about!

And now, I'm happy to report that the Coyotes have finally decided on a florist. Yippee!!

To recap, Momma Coyote and I met with two florists. One was very straightforward and gave me exactly what I showed him in photos while the other was more creative and kind of ran with my inspiration to create something new. Both were great options, but after a few conversations with the more creative florist I realized that we just had two very different visions. I found that I had trouble explaining to her the kind of feel I wanted for our wedding -- something that I did not run into with the other florist.

We are meeting with our florist in a few weeks to nail down the specifics and in the meantime I'm gathering some more inspiration so I'm better prepared for our next chat.

Hey Mr. DJ

Even though you can have a rockin' reception with a band (I am taken back to Mrs. Pretzel's amazing recaps) Mr. Coyote and I decided to go with a DJ. We can be a little picky with our music so we want to make sure that every song played will be available to us in the version we want.

Choosing our DJ was literally the easiest wedding decision we made. BM J recently wed in June 2010 and everyone had a blast at her reception. Her DJ kept the party going all night long and gave them the exact type of atmosphere we want for our wedding day. When Mr. C popped the question a few months after J's wedding we quickly snatched up Nate Miller of Conway Entertainment to be our Deej for both our ceremony and our reception.

 Personal Photo / The dance floor was packed the entire night at J's wedding thanks to Nate. You can see my little bro and full-time dance partner (Mr. C isn't much of a dancer) in this photo.

Personal Photo / We are fully expecting this to happen at our wedding too. No pressure Nate! ;-) 

Choosing Nate as our DJ was the easy part. Choosing the music? Not so easy. Our playlist isn't even close to being finished and is constantly changing and evolving.

The problem is, Mr. Coyote and I are huuuuuge music lovers, but we have very specific tastes - most of which isn't appropriate for a wedding. Nine Inch Nails? Soundtrack from Avenue Q?  Yea, heavy metal and soundtracks from vulgar Broadway musicals are not exactly wedding material here folks.

And so we've had to branch out a bit and get creative. Whenever I hear something that I love and is family appropriate I immediately jot it down. And then I change my mind. And then I change it again. And again. And... You get the point. One day Jason Mraz seems like the perfect fit for the processional and two weeks later I've crossed it out for Elvis or The Beatles. Even though we are all over the place with our music choices we know we have time to sort out these details. In the meantime, we've been having a lot of fun listening to music together and experimenting with different options for our wedding day.

The only thing set in stone right now is our first dance. That's been a constant for a while now, but I'll get to that story later.

So tell me Hive, did you go with a DJ or a band? Have you been experimenting with your playlist like we have?

PS. At the risk of revealing my true identity as a total nerd: If any of you are familiar with Avenue Q and World of Warcraft you may want to check out this video. 

The Engagement-Photo Saga Continues

Remember the huge dilemma we had about where to take our engagement photos? How I wanted to take them at on the college campus where we met and Mr. Coyote was adamantly against this idea? Well, about a week or two before our engagement sesh with our awesome photographers Mr. Coyote began to have a change of heart.

One day, out of the blue, he looked at me and said, "You know. I've been thinking. We aren't from upstate. It doesn't make any sense to get our photos taken there. It would make much more sense to get them taken down here. At the college. You were right."

Double-You Tee Eff, mate?!

I couldn't believe it. First I asked if he was joking. He wasn't. Then I asked if he had lost his mind. He hadn't. Then I asked him what the hell I was suppose to do about it now because we were scheduled to go upstate in one week and we already had to cancel once and now I'm not only going to cancel again but I'm going to ask them to reschedule and then drive their butts all the way down to Westchester and why didn't you THINK about it when I first brought this up to you in freakin' December?? And yes, it all came out in one long, run-on sentence like that too. What can I say? I have healthy lungs!

Well I wasn't about to let this one go just because we'd already scheduled a session upstate. You bees should know by now that I am way too stubborn for that! And so I did some stalking on the awesome Wedding Bee Classifieds and found a photographer in our area who was just starting out and offering free engagement sessions in order to build up her portfolio.

And that is the story of how we ended up with two sets of engagement pictures from two different photographers.

Are you ready for photo bomb part two??

Here ya go!

Huge shout out to Nancy Choi for coming out on a ridiculously hot summer day to take these photos:

How did you agree on the location for your engagement session? Anyone out there crazy like us and have TWO separate sessions?