Say My Name, Say My Name

If no one is around youuu, say baby I love youuuuu.

Was anyone else as obsessed with Destiny's Child as I was in the '90s? Just me? Okay, moving on.

Here's the deal: After the wedding I will be taking Mr. Coyote's last name and up until recently I had no problem with it. To be completely vain, my last name is kind of ugly sounding, often misspelled and mispronounced and ethnically does not flow with my first name. My first name is very Italian, while my last name is of Swiss/German descent (which, by the way, is a very small percentage of my heritage. I identify with and was raised in an Italian culture). Suffice to say, the two just don't mix well together. Mr. Coyote, on the other hand, is Italian and his last name flows perfectly with my first. 

I am actually very excited to take his name; to have one common name to identify with and to share with our (future) children. Plus there's that added benefit of a having a last name that ethnically flows with my first. ;-) To date, mentioning my current last name brings up questions like, "what kind of name is that?" and "well, you don't look Swiss/German". Really?! I never noticed! I could go on a long rant about the ridiculousness of tying a person's ethnicity to their last name, but I will spare you from all of that right now and get back to the point.

The point is that, even though I am excited, I still feel a bit of trepidation when I think about changing my name. My current last name is very unique and there are few people in the world who have it. In fact, if you were to google my full name right now you will probably get less than five legit results - all of which lead to me.

Mr. Coyote however, has a very common last name. Google my soon-to-be full name and you will get thousands upon thousands of results. Oh and pretty much every variation of my new name has already been taken in terms of email accounts - which is a problem I've never encountered before. And so, I can't help feeling a bit sad about losing my name and maybe even a bit of my (unique) identity. Even though I never particularly liked my last name it was still my name.

At the end of the day I will still happily take Mr. Coyote's name to recognize the creation of our new family unit, but it feels, well, a little weird. Are you changing your last name after the wedding? How are you coping with the change?

Favor Flav

Interestingly enough, wedding favors have been a bit of a hot topic in the Coyote household. I have to admit, I am not big on wedding favors. It's almost always some sort of useless trinket that sits around my apartment for six months until I decide to throw it out. And when I finally do I feel guilty that I have thrown away something that a couple put time and money into choosing. Because of all this, I am pretty hell bent on giving our guests a favor that won't sit around on their shelf collecting dust. Thankfully there are so many unique and interesting favors nowadays so I figured this would be an easy-peasy decision.

Oh, silly Coyote, thinking something wedding-related would be easy. When I brought up a few of my ideas to Momma Coyote I quickly learned some interesting things about what is acceptable and what isn't acceptable in the realm of wedding favors. I am not sure if this is specific to my family, or maybe to my Italian culture, but in my circle wedding favors have a few different components and are apparently a Big Deal.

First, You absolutely must have jordan almonds. A wedding without jordan almonds will have you excommunicated from the famiglia FOR LIFE. I have to been to enough family functions to know that jordan almonds are on the must have list. And so, a few weeks ago I sat down with Momma Coyote and we ordered ourselves a few boxes of "confetti":

Image via My Italian Wedding Favors

Sidenote: If you want some serious culture shock take a look at that website. It is phenomenally Italian.

Second, while the jordan almonds are a component of the favor, they cannot be the only favor. Usually they are wrapped up in tulle and then attached to the actual favor. Again, I kind of expected this and had long ago fallen in love with Mrs. Jellyfish's lottery ticket favors. I brought it up to Momma Coyote and while she loved the idea she didn't think it was enough.

Momma Coyote suggested a donation (perhaps similar to Mrs. Doily's favors), but the jordan almonds AND a lottery ticket AND a donation just seemed like too much for me. Too much paper, too many explanations.

And so it was back to the drawing board.

I kinda love edible favors. At the last wedding I went to the bride and groom had wrapped up M&M's and placed them inside a glass. I quietly went around the table eating my little baggie of M&M's. And Mr. Coyote's... And my brother's... And the random cousin I was sitting next to... Heh. Yum. The more I stumble across edible favors, the more I want them in our wedding.

How about these fortune cookie favors?

Image via Sschaf on Weddingbee

Or some tasty treats with your own monogram on them?

Image via Gracious Bridal

Canned or jarred treats can be really personal and last a lot longer than a cookie:

Photo by: Katy Gray on The Brides Cafe via Lover.ly

As a coffee lover (and one of Starbucks' most valuable customers) I am head over heels for these coffee bean favors:

Photo by: Katrina Louise on Wedding Chicks via Lover.ly

There are so many great ideas out there... Now I just need to choose one! Are you having favors at your wedding?

An Outing for the Men

Last week Mr. Coyote received an invitation in the mail from Poppa Coyote:

While the ladies are enjoying Miss Coyote's wedding shower... What is a man to do to pass the time??? Hmmmmm... What to do... What to do... Well, the shower just HAPPENS to be at a golf course! Pretty clever of me, eh? If you would like to join me for 9 holes of golf, please RSVP so that I can make a tee time!

 
The idea first popped into my dad's head when Mr. Coyote's father mentioned that he would be making the three hour drive north with Mr. Coyote's mom and sister for my bridal shower. As the RSVPs trickled in Poppa Coyote noticed that there might be some other guys (out of town and local) that would be looking for something to do while the ladies were occupied with the shower. So a few weeks ago he printed out the awesome photo cards seen above and extended the invitation to all of the husbands and significant others on the list.

I think this is a such a great idea. While us ladies are inside playing silly shower games and fawning over gifts the boys will be right outside practicing their swing and hunting gophers! Or something like that. I don't know much about golf except what I learned from Caddyshack:

Image via PB Pulse

Now here's hoping the weather holds out!

Miss Coyote's Sing-Along Blog: Special Dances Edition

I always love the special dances at weddings. There is almost always a story behind the song choice and I feel like it's one of the few times you really get to see the personality of the couple, their relationship with each other and their relationships with the most important people in their lives.

Mr. Coyote and I haven't quite decided on a first dance song yet. We do have a song that is decidedly "our song", but because of our alternative taste in music (classic rock/metal/grunge) we're not really sure if it's appropriate for a wedding. Either way, we've decided to keep our first dance choices under wraps for the time being. Sorry!

But in the meantime, let's move on to parent dances. The mother-son dance was an easy choice for Mr. Coyote. In order to understand this choice you need to understand something about Mr. Coyote. He is part muppet. Seriously. The guy gives Frank Oz a run for his money with his impressions and can contort his face in ways only a muppet could:

Image of Kermit via Muppet Wiki / Image of Mr. Coyote as a muppet courtesy of me

Because of this, Mr. Coyote's momma always associates the muppets with Mr. Coyote and "The Rainbow Connection" in particular always, always reminds her of her baby boy and brings tears to her eyes:

Video via YouTube

Choosing a father-daugher dance was a bit more difficult. My dad and I are close, but our relationship is a little different. Although I am his only daughter I consider my dad my buddy more than his "little girl" (although he may beg to differ). We are both huge sports fans so a lot of our bonding is over the latest Yankees win over the Red Sox (15-9, what!) or the Giants Super Bowl win (Adios Brady!). 

Because of this I was having trouble deciding on a song for us. Everything seemed too sentimental and sappy for a pair like us. And so I did what any other bride would do. I passed the buck and asked Poppa Coyote if he would choose the song. ;-) He grumbled a bit and then sent me this:

Video via YouTube

Wow. I have to say Poppa Coyote totally blew me away with this choice - I was not expecting such an emotional song from him. I had heard of Heartland's "I Loved Her First" before and I know that a few bees have also used this song for their father-daughter dance, but I never really paid much mind to it. This time though I really listened to the lyrics and my heart melted. Thankfully Mr. Coyote wasn't home because I started bawling right then and there at my computer.

When I reported back to Poppa Coyote that I had cried big, stupid tears when I listened to the song he responded that it had an effect on him too and suggested that "maybe we can talk about the Yankees or the Giants during the song to take our minds off of it." Now I have only seen my father cry once in my entire life and that was when his own father passed away (although I swear he teared up when I came out in my wedding dress) so this whole walk down the aisle and father-daughter dance thing is going to be interesting for both of us.

Oh and because I left you hanging with our first dance song (and because I'm tearing up again thinking about the father-daughter dance), I'll share with you our cake cutting song instead:

Video via YouTube

I am a huge Beatles fan and "When I'm 64" always, always brings a smile to my face. Here's hoping that Mr. Coyote and I will still be needing and feeding each other when we're 64!

Are you incorporating special dances into your wedding? How did you choose your songs?

Dressing the Dudes

Because our wedding is in the evening and a bit on the formal side I instantly knew that I wanted the dudes in tuxedos for the wedding day. Mr. Coyote is a bit disgruntled about having to wear anything other than jeans and a black t-shirt, but said he will happily wear a tux for our wedding day. (What a good sport!) His only request was no bow ties.

Damn.

While I really, really love the classic tuxedo with bow tie look:

Photo by: Elizabeth Messina on Kiss The Groom via Lover.ly

I'm not the one who has to wear this thing so I'm letting Mr. Coyote take the reins here. Of course, that doesn't mean that I don't have a few teeny tiny suggestions for him. ;)

We both agree that we'd like him a black tux, with a black tie and vest :

Photo by: Jan Garcia Photography on The Brides Cafe via Lover.ly

And that we'd like the groomsmen to wear something similar, except we'll probably change up the color of their ties or vest to match our wedding colors:

Image via Dante Zeller Tuxedo & Menswear

Finally, we need to decide how to dress our fathers. Mr. Coyote's dad has already made it clear that he does not want to wear a tuxedo because he "will look like one of the waiters" (his words, not mine). In fact, because I have been so insistent on him wearing a tux I am pretty sure he is currently conspiring with one of our guests to ensure that they arrive looking like this:

Image via Costumes of Nashua

Let me tell ya, my future father-in-law is one funny guy. 

Although I'm almost tempted to let him get away with it (just because it would be the most ridiculous and hilarious wedding get-up I've seen) I was thinking more along the lines of a black tux with a silver vest and tie for the dads:

Image via Dante Zeller Tuxedo & Menswear

Silver is our accent color and it will actually coordinate perfectly with what our moms are wearing.

One we had this down I thought we were good to go. What I didn't realize was that choosing a tux is almost more complicated than choosing a wedding gown! We still have some questions to answer. What kind of jacket, shirt and shoes everyone should wear? Do we want pocket squares and cuff links? Yikes! There are still so many decisions left to make, but I'm glad we at least got the ball rolling!

Was picking out wedding day attire for the men in your life more complicated than you thought it would be?

All Aboard the Fail Train

Sometimes I get so pumped up about an idea or a project that I don't give myself enough time to really think it through. I just kinda start working on it and assume that it will turn out perfectly. This is one of those projects.

Many a bee before me has shared their take on photo sharing cards, but I particularly liked Mrs. Snow Cone's so I quickly whipped up a similar business card-sized design of my own in Photoshop (stole the wording and everything. Thanks Mrs. Snow Cone!):

(front and back images for the business card)

I researched a few different photo sharing sites, but in the end I decided that a Shutterfly share site would be best for our needs because it's free and offers unlimited storage (yippee!). I also looked into sites like Flickr, Photobucket, and Picasa. There are SO many photo sharing sites out there now and they all come with their own set of pros and cons so feel free to check them out if you're interested in doing something like this.

Choosing the site and designing the cards was the easy part. I thought about just printing them myself, but Vistaprint was having one of their awesome deals on business cards (like they do every other 30 seconds) so I figured I'd spend a few bucks and save myself the aggravation of cutting out 150 little business cards. Because I am a cheapskate and was trying to finish this project for as little moo-lah as possible I did not opt to take advantage of their "print preview". For the low, low price of just $1.99 you too can order a print preview of your design! (AKA a pdf that you can print out yourself to make sure the design/dimensions are exactly to your liking.)

I'm sure you can guess what happens next. The happy day arrived and a little package from Vistaprint showed up on my doorstep:

I gleefully tore the package open to discover my lovely little business cards... That look like they have been printed in size 3 font. Seriously, what was I thinking?!

(I know it's hard to tell from my grainy cell phone pic, but just trust me on this one.)

I immediately handed one to Mr. Coyote who suggested we attach the cards to magnifying glasses. And then cracked a joke about it saving us from our wedding favor dilemma. Thanks a lot buddy. What ever happened to "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all?!?!"

So there is my giant wedding fail for the day. I really can't use these cards so I find myself left with three options. Reorder the business cards in a readable font (saving time, but not money), suck it up and print them on my own computer (saving money, but not time), or scrap the project all together (saving time AND money). Since I'm in the middle of invitation HELL right now (oh, aren't you so excited to hear about my invitation shenanigans Hive?!) I'm kind of ready to just scrap the whole damn thing, but we'll see how I'm feeling when the invites are in the mail.

Have any of your projects turned out not quite as you expected them to?

The Best Dudes

So I've talked a bit about the leading ladies in my life and what they'll be wearing on the big day, but I haven't mentioned a word about the dudes! And they are some very important dudes who definitely deserve to be introduced!

But first, a word on learning to be not-so-traditional. I come from a family that does things the traditional way and this means an even number of ladies on the bride's side and an even number of men on the groom's side. Because I had six ladies that I really wanted to stand by me on my wedding day I automatically assumed that we would find six groomsmen for Mr. Coyote. I knew that he didn't have a large circle of dude friends (in fact, most of his friends are ladies!), but I have a large family with an endless supply of cousins who would be more than happy to stand with us on our wedding day.

When I brought this up to Mr. Coyote he didn't quite agree. While he gets along great with my family he just felt strange stacking his side of the wedding party with my family members. And since he comes from a smaller family there really isn't anyone on his side who he would like to ask. We had come to a bit of a stalemate on this issue so I told him to sit down and think about who he would really want to be in his wedding party and this is who he came back to me with:

Best Man M:

Best Man M and Mr. Coyote have been friends for as long as they can remember. They went to elementary school, high school and even college together. I have to say, Best Man M might be one of my favorite persons in the world. He is incredibly outgoing and is known for his ridiculous stories and impersonations. Oh and because I love embarrassing people (and his girlfriend reads my blog and will be certain to share this with him) here he is impersonating Miss Cleo:

If you'll remember, I am asking Mr. Coyote's sister to be a bridesmaid so asking my brother be a groomsman was a no brainer. In fact, I'm pretty sure Mr. Coyote likes my brother more than he likes me. A few years ago my brother crashed at our apartment for the summer and I swear I somehow felt like the third wheel while he was here:

Yep. These two are definitely soul mates.

Groomsman J:

For the record, I have no idea what is up with Mr. Coyote's expression in this photo. I can't tell if he is scared or disgusted with J right now.

Groomsman J was actually my friend long before he was Mr. Coyote's. He was one of my first friends at college and has been through more shit with me than most other people. I have to say, I am a better person for having him in my life.

We have an incredibly awesome friendship and throughout our years together Mr. Coyote has become very close to him as well. I have say I am incredibly happy that Mr. Coyote and Groomsman J hit it off so well and it's very fitting that he will be standing with us on our wedding day.

If you've been counting along that brings us to six ladies and three dudes. I didn't want to leave any of my close friends/family out for the sake of even sides just as Mr. Coyote didn't want to stack his side with people he's not particularly close. And while I have never personally attended a wedding with uneven sides I've looked at many wedding photos (here on the 'bee and elsewhere) and most of the time I didn't even notice unless I was really looking.

So that's that! Although it took me some time to get used to the idea of uneven sides I'm pretty sure it's going to work out perfectly. At the end of the day it doesn't really matter how many bridesmaids or groomsmen there are, what really matters is that the most important people in our lives will be standing next to us on our wedding day.

Are you having an uneven bridal party? How did it work out for you?

Matters of the Heart

So, I'm about to get real with you today Hive. I hope you're ready!

You may or may not have noticed by now my little badge of honor. Honestly, you probably haven't. It's glaringly obvious to me, but we are our own worst critics. I have been told many times that it's not noticeable (but the self-conscious part of me thinks everyone is saying that just to be nice).

Anyways, I'm done being vague. 

Here it is:

See it? No?

How about now?

When I was two years old my mother took me to a routine checkup with my pediatrician. He heard something in my ticker that concerned him and referred my mother to a pediatric cardiologist. I'll spare you all the medical-speak, but things were not good and I underwent open heart surgery at the ripe old age of two.

Due to my thorough pediatrician, a wonderful cardiologist and an incredibly skilled surgeon (not to mention about a billion prayers) everything went smoothly. I have no restrictions and have lived a completely normal life. I'm lucky to be alive, let alone totally healthy, and you bet your butt I count my lucky stars every day that I'm here, breathing, living and enjoying my life.

I'm sure you're wondering right about now what this has to do with weddings. I promise it's relevant.

The only physical reminder I have of my heart condition is this doosy of a scar. I've already shown off my dress to you… It's strapless and it has a sweetheart neckline. Not very conducive for hiding a large scar.

Now, I know I am not the only person to have a noticeable scar and in the grand scheme of things I count myself lucky that it's not any worse. Regardless of that, I am incredibly self-conscious about my scar. I know it's vain, but I can't help it. Up until about age 17 I would only buy shirts that covered my scar. Although my parents were probably thrilled that their teenage daughter was uninterested in plunging necklines (like many of my friends were) it was also incredibly difficult to find "cool" clothes that were fit for a nun. Scoop neck shirts were my best friend:

I wore this particular swim suit for years simply because it almost completely covered my scar. (Okay, okay, and the dragon is pretty kick-ass.)

Now I know it's faded tremendously over the years, but I see it all the time… Especially in photos. 

I wish I was brave enough to rock my scar. I feel guilty even as I type this out. But I'm just not that strong. And I'm vain. I  want to look my best on my wedding day and unfortunately no amount of dieting or tanning will make this go away. And at the end of the day the photos are for me and my husband. Even if I am oozing happiness and beauty that day I know I will focus on my scar if it shows up in photos.

I am hoping that the combo of an awesome make up artist plus my photographers' amazing editing skills will do the trick. I went back through our engagement photos and noticed that it's actually not very noticeable at all once they worked their magic:

Hopefully I will get similar results for our wedding day photos! Do you have any badges of honor? Are you covering them up for the big day or proudly showing them off?

Registry Stalking

Well friends, it is T minus three weeks until the Coyote bridal shower and you know what that means! Items are slowly starting to disappear off of our registry and some gifts are even starting to arrive at the house:

Now, I have mixed feelings about registry stalking. On one hand, I think it is a very, very bad thing to do. It's kind of like sneaking into the basement a few weeks before Christmas and purposely peeking under that random lumpy blanket that you've never seen before and discovering an entire stash of unwrapped gifts. Not that I ever did anything like that. Nooooope. Never ever. ;-)

But on the other hand, I am pretty aware of every item we registered for and therefore pretty aware of the gifts we will be receiving . It's not that much of a surprise. (Wow you mean to say that someone bought me the pizza stone that I registered for and then asked my guests to purchase for me?? No way!) Plus, I personally enjoy checking in on our registries from time to time - making sure nothing has been discontinued and that there are still enough items on the list. And until I actually receive a gift I have no idea who any of the gifts are from so there is still some aspect of surprise. (Well, except for the vacuum cleaner. Mille grazie Nonni! Ti voglio bene!)

Now, because I am a bad girl and did in fact sneak into the basement to find unwrapped Christmas gifts, I have been registry stalking. And just the other day I saw that someone had purchased the espresso machine that we registered for. When I saw this I nearly fell out of my chair in excitement and immediately sent the following message to Mr. Coyote on gchat:

me:  OMFG SOMEONE BOUGHT US THE ESPRESSO MACHINE

I AM SO EXCITED I AM GOING TO PEE

Apparently they aren't kidding when they say that caffeine is a diuretic because every single time I mention/think about this espresso machine I have the sudden urge to urinate. By the way Hive, I swear I wasn't doing this to be funny. This was not one of those, "Oh ha ha ha, look at that silly Miss Coyote. She talks about peeing in her blog. How gross." moments. No. These were two completely unrelated comments and I never meant to share my private messages between Mr. Coyote and myself with the Hive. But once the words came out of mouth (fingers?) I realized what I had done. Honestly, I think all this says about me is that I might be using this phrase a little too often.

So let's hear it. Are there any other registry stalkers in the Hive?

Don't Show Them the Dress!

A few weeks ago my wedding dress arrived (SQUEEEE!!!) and Momma Coyote, Bridesmaid P and I popped over to the dress shop to retrieve it. It's been hiding out in my parents' closet until I take it in for alterations, but last weekend MOH D stopped by. It was the perfect excuse for me to try it on again and model it for her. A few hours later some family friends stopped in as well and I was encouraged (without much prodding) to show off the dress and try it on again. As I carefully tread down the stairs for a second time that day MOH D whispered in my ear, "Now don't go showing it to anyone else, it has to be a surprise!"

I have to say, I quickly protested. There are so many other people I would love to show my dress off to before the wedding day. First of all, I'm happy to try it on again for any of my bridesmaids that want a sneak peak as well as FMIL Coyote. I would also really love to show my grandmother. She bought the dress for me and I know it would mean the world to her if she could see me in it before the wedding day.

Honestly, I'm not really sure why the dress needs to be a big surprise to anyone other than Mr. Coyote. And while Mr. C won't be seeing me in the dress before the wedding day, this could also be debated. How many times have I witnessed a groom make an appearance on Say Yes to the Dress? I mean, come on, it really doesn't get any sweeter than this. 

Although the dress is arguably the most central and important part of a bride's attire, it's not the only part. Let me tell you Hive, even though I was wearing a beautiful white gown, as I stood there with my frizzy hair and glasses on and without my shoes and veil, I have to admit that I didn't feel (or look) very bridal.
 
Maybe because I am an over-sharer of information by nature (hell-ooooo, I'm a blogger for goodness sake!) it just doesn't seem that important to me to "hide" the dress from everyone. With a guest list of over 180, I don't see the harm in showing some of my closer friends and family members my wedding dress before the big day. I have a feeling that when I put the dress on for realz, with my hair and face all done up and all of my accessories on, anyone who saw me in the dress beforehand will be just as wowed at how freakin' amazeballs I look (Oh come on, I wouldn't be a true blogger if I wasn't a bit of a narcissist too):

Video via YouTube

So let's chat Hive. Has your significant other seen you in your wedding dress? How about your bridal party? Your family and friends? Do you think it should be kept a surprise from all of your guests or do you think it's okay to show some of the VIPs in your life?

Cake & Champagne

As soon as I arrived at my parents' house last weekend I was greeted by a small pile of packages. Because I'm so far from our venue I find myself sending certain packages to my apartment and certain items up to my parents' house. Our cake topper for example, was sent to my apartment because I wanted to make a veil and bow tie for my little figurines. All things shower related and anything that doesn't need to be immediately opened by me is sent to my parents' house. And so, a small mound of packages have started to accumulate in my old bedroom.

One of those packages was the wine box for our wine box ceremony. I'm so, so happy with it, but not quite ready to share it with the Hive yet. Sorry to be a tease! ;)

I did find something else that I do want to share with you though:

To be honest, I hadn't given much though to things like cake servers or toasting glasses, but Momma Coyote dug up the cake server from her wedding and I think it's beautiful. Mr. Coyote and I have decided to borrow it for our wedding day. Although as I am writing this I realize that we don't have a cake knife. Just the server. Hmmm...

As far as toasting glasses, well, I apologize that I never mentioned this to you Hive! Waaaay back in November of 2010 my parents threw us an engagement party (holy shizz, was that really a year and a half ago?!). If you remember, I had a total breakdown at the end of the night because I was so floored by the generosity of our guests and Mr. Coyote's parents were no exception to this.

I still remember my voice catching in my throat when I pulled out the box:

His parents had gifted us our toasting glasses:

They are so absolutely beautiful and I can't wait to break them in on our wedding day! ;) By this point I had gotten through most of the packages in my room. But there was one last (completely not wedding related) package left to open. And it might be my favorite one so far. It was nothing but a bag full of delicious, delicious candies that my uncle brought back from his most recent trip to Brazil (we have some family members there).

Ohhhh, sweet, sweet Sonho de Valsa. These are literally the most amazing freakin' chocolates I have ever had and I CANNOT find them anywhere in the US. Every time my uncle makes a trip to Brazil I beg him to bring back the "Brazilian candy" (I know, I'm so cultured) and then, like the true addict I am, I lock myself in the bathroom and refuse to share them with anyone else. Actually, if you can't tell, in this particular photo the bag is laying on my blanket. Yes, I cuddled with them last night and then hid them under my pillow so Mr. Coyote couldn't steal one. Believe me, you would too if you knew how good these things were. 

Have your purchased your cake server and toasting glasses yet? Did you receive them as gifts or are you perhaps borrowing someone else's? And does anyone want to send me more Sonho de Valsa?! My stash is running low!

Expectations: Not Met

A few weeks ago we scheduled our rehearsal with our venue and immediately began to hunt for rehearsal dinner locations. We thought about hosting it at my parents' home for a hot second, but decided that it would be too much work for them the night before the wedding. Plus, most of the wedding party will be staying at the hotel next to the venue and the drive to our parents' place would be pretty far for the out of towners. It just made more sense to keep it close to our venue. Of course, for us this meant relying on restaurant websites and Yelp reviews, but we did find a few locations that seemed suitable. We eventually narrowed it down to a seemingly nice Italian restaurant just a few blocks from our venue.

Since Momma Coyote and I happened to be in the area this weekend we decided to take a quick detour and check out the rehearsal dinner location in person. I have to say, I'm glad we decided to drive by because the place was not at all what we were expecting:

Well hello there weird sketchy restaurant with an awning that hasn't been cleaned since 1908. Momma Coyote clearly does not approve. Unfortunately, they don't open until 5 pm on Saturdays so we weren't even able to pop in and have a looksy at the inside, but our first impression was severe disappointment.

This place is seriously an enigma to me because they have rave reviews and even come recommended by our venue. I'm not really sure what to think. I've always been told not to judge a book by its cover so we're considering stopping in and having dinner there next weekend, but I'm not holding my breath.

So what you think about our potentially shade-tastic rehearsal dinner location? Should we give them the benefit of the doubt or should we cut our losses and start the search again? How was your hunt for a rehearsal dinner location?

Wedding Planning Whirlwind

This past weekend was one of many upcoming wedding whirlwind weekends. Living three hours from our venue and the rest of our vendors means that a majority of our decisions are made on weekends when we travel to my parents' house. This weekend was no exception. Mr. Coyote was unable to make the trip, but I was able to spend lots of time with Momma Coyote, so it all worked out perfectly.

Our first stop was a visit to our fabulous venue, Franklin Plaza, to finalize some deets. While most of the meeting consisted of Momma C and I passing on info to our coordinator (ceremony timeline, menu choices, etc) we were also filled in on some new information.

For example, our coordinator explained to us that they would to able to handle our cocktail hour music if we wanted them to. Apparently they have their own sound system in that room and a soundtrack that includes artists like Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. Or, if we're picky, the coordinator told us that we are welcome to bring in our own music. I have to say, I am more than happy to pass this task on to our venue, so Franklin Plaza cocktail hour music it is! 

We also popped back into the cocktail hour room for a bit and our coordinator showed us the connecting "Board Room" that has a few different purposes for our wedding. First, the wedding party is ushered into the room for a few minutes while our guests leave the ceremony space and enter the cocktail hour room. Then our photographers can sneak out and snag any family members we want for our formal portraits. It's a gorgeous room for photos:

(Personal Photo) / I absolutely love the fireplace at the far end of the room.

After we are done with our formals we can either shut the door and have some quiet time to relax with our wedding party or we can open the room up to the rest of the cocktail hour and mingle with our guests. I love the flexibility we have for our cocktail hour!

We were pretty much done with our meeting, but I was feeling picture happy and so I wandered around, snapping a few shots of our venue. I managed to get a sneak peak of the card box that our venue provides. A beautiful wooden birdcage that I am so in love with: 

(Personal Photo)

I swear every time I visit our venue I find new reasons to fall in love with it. They recently installed a new lighting system that somehow makes the room look even more gorgeous than it already was:

(Personal Photo)

I know I've mentioned it before, but our venue was built in 1887 and was originally home to various financial institutions. The building has changed hands over the years, but when it was renovated to become the Franklin Plaza Ballroom a number of the building's historical nuances were kept intact. One of them is this absolutely stunning bank vault (that is now curiously used as a coat check):

 (Personal Photo)

Yep, definitely still in love with this place!

After our visit, Momma C and I hopped in the car and were ready to take off when I told her to wait for a minute. I looked around and once again soaked in the convenience of our wedding location. Directly in front of us was Franklin Plaza:

 (Personal Photo)

As my mother went to pull out of the parking lot she turned the car to the right and we were instantly greeted by the hotel where my ladies and I will be getting ready on the morning of our wedding day and where Mr. C and I (and all of our guests) will be crashing on the night of our wedding.

(Personal Photo)

(Personal Photo)

Finally, I took a quick glance out the passenger side window and saw, just a few blocks away, the bar where we'll be hosting our after-after-after party. The only way this whole shebang could be any more convenient is if we had decided to hold our wedding inside a hotel. Honestly, when we booked with Franklin Plaza I certainly wasn't thinking about where we'd get ready, an after party, or even hotels for our guests, but I have to say that I'm pretty impressed with how it all seemed to fall into place!

How did you choose locations for all of your wedding related parties and activities?