Beware the... Momzilla?

Disclaimer: Yes, my mother reads my blog. Yes, a majority of what is in the post to follow I have said to her in person so none of this will come as a shock to her. This is *mostly* meant in jest. If there is one thing you should know about me it's to never take me too seriously. Right mom?!

Miss Mink talked a little bit about mothers not being present during wedding planning, but what happens when you have a mother on the other end of the spectrum? You get a Momzilla that's what happens.

You guys all know how important my family is to me, so I'm sure it won't come as a surprise that my mom and I are super close. Even though we are separated by a three hour drive we see each other often and call each other weekly (although with the wedding approaching our phone calls have increased in frequency).

Momma Coyote and I at my bridal shower last month.

Now my mom is a pretty rational person (most of the time). She has a good head on her shoulders and I've always looked up to her and respected her greatly. But in the months following my engagement something changed and it is clear to me that Momma Coyote has been bitten by the WIC bug. Badly. This lady wants ALL THE THINGS and she's not afraid to say it.

In fact just the other night she called me and said, "You know, I was talking to my friend about her daughter's wedding and they made these bags for the guests who booked a hotel room and put all sorts of fun things into them! Like homemade cookies!"

Miss Coyote: "Oh yea, those are called welcome bags… I've heard of them before."

Momma Coyote: "We should do that!"

Miss Coyote: "Mom, we have just over a month left til the wedding. I still have to assemble the favors and print the programs and menus. Oh and there's that pesky little full-time job that's been taking up a lot of my time. I think it's a nice touch, but there just isn't enough time. I think it's okay to do without."

Momma Coyote: "Well I can do them! We wouldn't really need that many…"

Miss Coyote: "Okay, if you really want to do them you can. But you've got enough on your plate right now and I just think they're going to end up being really time consuming."

Momma Coyote: "No you're right. It's just another thing to buy anyways." Laughter. And a pause. She's thinking. This can't be good. "How about bathroom baskets?!?!"

Miss Coyote: "Sigh."

I love you Momma, but you're drivin' me crazy!

My mom has been with me for every step of our wedding journey. Mr. Coyote is an amazing person and he has many wonderful qualities, but planning a wedding is not one of them. Basically, I make all major decisions, wave them in front of his face for approval and move on. I'd love for him to be more involved in the planning, but he has told me from day one that he's just not that interested. And although my bridesmaids have been super supportive the reality is they just don't care about all the minute details that go into a wedding. And to be honest, half the time I don't really care either! That's where Momma Coyote comes in. This woman is interested in EVERY aspect of wedding planning... Maybe even a little too interested.

Need another example? A few months ago we all sat down together to finalize the menu. Each entree comes with a vegetable and a starch. I thought the zucchini sounded nice for the vegetable side, but Momma Coyote really wanted the asparagus. We went back and forth a bit until I relented. I added it to the list of things-about-the-wedding-that-I-really-don't-care-about and moved on. That is until last weekend when the phone rang:

Momma Coyote: "Miss Coyote? I'm in the car. I'm driving to your grandparents' house and all of a sudden I thought of something. I know we decided on asparagus, but now I think maybe we should do the zucchini. Do you think people would prefer zucchini or asparagus?"

Miss Coyote: "Zucchini. That's why I suggested it."

Momma Coyote: "Yea, you know I'm just not sure. I think people like both. And I think the asparagus will be presented better on the plate."

Miss Coyote: "Right. That's why we decided on asparagus."

Momma Coyote: "But what if people don't like asparagus? Maybe more people like zucchini. I wish we could take a poll and see what people like better."

Miss Coyote: "Mom, I don't care. But we've only got a month left and we need to tell the venue if we're going to change our mind. I don't care which one you pick, you really just need to make a decision." (I can't believe I just said to my mom regarding a decision for my own dang wedding.)

This went on for a few minutes and a decision has yet to be made concerning the asparagus-zucchini debate. In fact, my friends are so excited about the outcome that they are in the process of creating "Team Asparagus" and "Team Zucchini" shirts to don on the big day. It's going to be an all out vegetable war. In the meantime a separate battle has cropped up pitting the penne against the cavatelli. 

Here's the thing. I really appreciate that my mom is so interested in the wedding. Planning a wedding can be an incredibly lonely process when your friends are single and your groom is more interested in Diablo 3 than if the program should have a purple or silver border. I consider myself very lucky to have someone who is genuinely invested in our wedding to bounce ideas off of. And if that means letting Momma Coyote make decisions about asparagus or zucchini or favors or bathroom baskets then so be it. It makes her happy and at the end of the day these decisions are just not that important to me. All I really care about it is that 20 minute little ceremony that will bond Mr. Coyote and me together as husband and wife. Everything else is just fluff.

But for Momzilla, it's the most important part of the day.

Is anyone else struggling with a Momzilla?

I'm in Every Picture!

Right after we booked our photographer Mr. Coyote and I discussed having a videographer at our wedding. I know for most brides this is a less important priority and many couples chose not to hire one, but honestly I just could not imagine not having a videographer for our wedding day.

Why? Because I am a total narcissist and attention whore, that's why. Just kidding. (Kinda.)

The reality is I LOVE HOME MOVIES. My father has had a video camera for as long as I can remember and is constantly filming us. Every once in a while we will pop in an old movie and reminisce about a certain vacation, someone's birthday, a school play. He's recently been converting all of our old VHS tapes into DVDs and sent along this gem:

I told you guys I was a narcissist! Look at that wee little Coyote all up in the cameraman's business! Now that's the only embarrassing clip you're going to get out of me so I hope you all really treasure it. Because I grew up with a video camera around me all the time, it was an absolute must to have our wedding day captured on film. But just like our hunt for good photography, I was absolutely floored by the high costs.

The truth is we had already splurged a bit on photography and there just wasn't that much let over for videography. Apparently in the wedding world my budget for videography will get you nothing more than some schmuck who snatched up the last camcorder on clearance from Best Buy and enjoys filming blurry, wobbly video of their great-Aunt Bessie's birthday parties. Sigh. Finding someone with just an ounce of talent that didn't jack up their prices because every package MUST include some crazy Academy Award winning full feature film was proving difficult. 

Now, because my father has always been known as the guy with the video camera a few of our family members have actually asked him to film their weddings for them. At one point I became so desperate that I actually contemplated going this route, (you know, to save on costs and all) but I'd already asked him to walk me down the aisle so that was out. Damn. Finally, just when I had reached the end of my rope, I stumbled upon Shaw Video Productions. I knew I struck gold when I read the little mantra on his site:

"My philosophy is simple. Your wedding is about you. My job is not to produce a wedding video that is my artistic interpretation of what I think your wedding should look like."

Video via Shaw Video Productions on Vimeo

No frills, no crazy bells and whistles necessary, just the highlights of a beautiful wedding day to relive and cherish for the rest of our days together.

Are you hiring a wedding videographer for your wedding day?

Coyote Invitation Reveal

Well we've already received about a third of our responses back so I'm going to go ahead and assume that all of our wedding invitations have safely arrived at their respective destinations.

We went semi-DIY with these bad boys and even though we hit some bumps in the road I absolutely love the final product. And so, without further ado... It's time for some Coyote invitation porn!

We ran all of the envelopes through the printer (shhhh... I know this is bad etiquette, but I have horrible handwriting and a calligrapher just wasn't in the budget). I went with the boring wedding cake stamps because nothing else really jumped out at me:

I sealed the outer envelope with an envelope moistener that I picked up from Staples for like a dollar. I gotta say, it was totally worth it to not lick 100 freakin' envelopes:

 I used three different types of scrapbook paper for the envelope liners:

And wrapped the whole thing up in a belly band:

It KILLS me to blur out so much of the invitation, but here is the main event:

There were lots of little pieces to our invitation suite and I promise to go into more detail in the next post, but for now, here is the whole set laid out:
 

Whew! Again, they were a ton of work (and I didn't even make them from scratch!), but I am so, so happy with the result. Did you make your own invitations? How did you do it without having a mental breakdown?!

The Tale of the Two Toasting Flute Sets

Way back when we had our engagement party we received an absolutely beautiful gift from Mr. Coyote's parents:

Gorgeous, right?

The problem is... Mr. Coyote and I kinda, sorta already have our own set. You see Mr. Coyote and I are really dorky and super into that whole medieval/fantasy thing so every year we try to make it to our local Renaissance Faire. We love browsing the shops and every year Mr. Coyote tells me that THIS is the year he will come home with sword. (Whatevs dude.) Anyways, a few years ago we stumbled upon the most beautiful flutes we had ever seen:

Now this was a long time ago, way before thoughts of engagements and marriage ever crossed our minds so we did not purchase them with the intention of one day using them at our wedding. It was kind of on a whim, but I absolutely love these glasses and now that we actually are getting married I really want to use them at our wedding.

Of course, the glasses Mr. Coyote's parents bought us are also beautiful and I'm sure they're expecting us to use them at our wedding. So what's a bride to do?! I have been thinking about using one set at our rehearsal dinner and the other set on our wedding day. Or possibly using one set during the speeches and then have our own little toast with the second set after we cut the cake. I'm still floating a few different possibilities around in my head, but now I'm reaching out to you!

How can we incorporate both sets of flutes into our wedding?
- One set at the rehearsal dinner, one at the wedding
- One set for speeches, one set for cake cutting
- Choose one set and stick with it for all wedding events
- Another more awesome idea which I will explain to you in the comments section

Mr. and Mrs. Fancypants

You'd think because Mr. Coyote and I are having a super long engagement (22 months, what?!) we'd be totally ahead of the curve on everything. Aaaand you'd be wrong. Sure, we got most of the big ticket items out of the way, but one thing we totally dropped the ball on was the tuxedos. I have no explanation for this, but for some reason we just kept putting it off and putting it off until it was almost too late. In fact, the consultant we (finally) met with this weekend even chided us a bit for procrastinating so long. Whoops!

If you remember, I shared my tuxedo vision with you a few weeks ago and am proud to say that the entire color scheme I had talked about is being tossed out the window. Mr. Coyote, lil bro Coyote, and even our consultant decided that the sangria vest/tie combo was "too girly" and was instantly vetoed. Silly men and their opinions. What do they know?! (Just kidding!) Actually, after discussing all of our options I have been converted and am completely on board with what they want.

Mr. Coyote will be donning a two-button notch lapel tuxedo with a silver vest and necktie. I fought long and hard for the bow tie, but eventually lost the battle. I thought that *maybe* if he tried it on he'd see how freakin' sexy he looks (I repeatedly told him that he looked like James Bond), but he was unconvinced. I did manage to snap a picture of him though it wasn't a total loss. I now have this photo to drool over for the rest of my life:

James Bond? Try Pee-wee Herman.

Sidenote: Do you think he'd be upset if I made a Mr. Coyote-sized cardboard cutout of this photo and carried it around with me on our wedding day? Because the more I think about it the more I realize that it needs to be done.

In reality, he'll be wearing something more like this:

Except it will be a bit darker (think of a silver color that falls in between the bow tie in the first photo and the neck tie in the second photo). Oh and his shirt will be a spread collar instead of a wing collar. Whatever. You guys get the point. I know so much about men's formalwear now that I'm just about ready to open my own damn tuxedo shop! Anywho, the groomsmen and fathers will wear the same tux and pattern, just with a black vest and tie. Simple, elegant, classic. Exactly what I was looking for. I'm glad the guys were able to convince me to drop the brightly colored vests cuz I think they are all going to look mighty fine in silver and black.

As soon as we finished up our appointment Mr. Coyote and I parted ways so I could head over to the seamstress and pick up my wedding dress! Even though we didn't plan it this way it was kind of awesome to see Mr. Coyote in his tuxedo and then immediately put on my dress. I was really able to visualize how freakin' awesome we are going to look together on the big day!

Did you help pick out the attire for your fiance/fiancee? How much of an input did you have on the final decision?

"I Like Like You"

While I'm stalling on the invitation reveal I figure it's time to share another Ted Mosby style story.

A long, long time ago when I was just a little baby blogger bee here at the Hive I told you the story of how we met. And I told you how we got to know each other over that summer way back in 2005. I was living on campus and spent most of my free time hanging out with a group of friends at the school's radio station. I know this sounds weird, but the station was outfitted with a few computers, a TV and even a couch. It was almost like a mini student lounge area. Almost. My group would hang out there all night long, often until the wee hours in the morning, watching movies and goofing off.

Mr. Coyote was part of this group and as the days went by I found myself developing a little crush on him. I started to wonder, "Does this guy like me? I think he likes me. No, no. I don't think he likes me. I think he just wants to be friends." Turns out Mr. Coyote was having the same exact thoughts about me. And because we were both way too shy and awkward to bust-a-move, I had pretty much resigned myself to the fact that he just wanted to be friends.

Mr. Coyote and I hanging out (in the middle of the night, as usual). That's my "yea, it's totally cool, we are just friends" face. And that's how Mr. Coyote looks all the time.

Hanging out in a group meant that neither of us were able to really explore these feelings or find out how the other person felt. Because Mr. Coyote was desperately trying to find a private moment alone with me and because I was just happy to spend time with him (whether in a group or solo) it quickly became a competition of who could stay up later. As our friends would one by one say good night and start to head home Mr. Coyote and I would proclaim that we weren't tired yet and wait for everyone else to leave.

Oh sure, I'm smiling here, but I'm really just wishing you guys would all go home so I can spend some QT with Mr. Coyote!

This is how I really got to know Mr. Coyote. I lived for those stolen moments at three and four and yes, sometimes even five in morning. Now before you get any ideas, you should know that this was strictly platonic. We would talk all night, Mr. Coyote would walk me back to my dorm, say good night and then go home. Nothing ever happened. Not even a peck on the cheek. Now, Mr. Coyote tells me that he was just trying to be a gentleman, but I mistook his chivalry as indifference. I desperately tried not to get my hopes up and continued to tell myself that he just wanted to be friends.

Then, late one night at the end of June, Mr. Coyote and I once again found ourselves alone in the radio station. I was taking summer courses that started at 9 AM and even though I had still managed to stay out later than all of our friends, by four in the morning I was ready to head back to my dorm and sneak in a few hours of sleep before my class. But on this particular night the quiet, shy Mr. Coyote was feeling particularly loquacious.

The minutes ticked by and soon it was almost 5 o'clock in the morning. I had already mentioned a few times that I had an early morning class and really needed to get going, but Mr. Coyote completely ignored me and kept right on talking. Eventually I even stood up and began walking to the door, explaining that I was utterly exhausted and that I would see him tomorrow. And yet, he refused to acknowledge me and continued to babble.

At this point I started to get angry. I mean really, what the hell was wrong with this guy?? I was exhausted and had to wake up in less than four hours to go to class! Why wouldn't he let me leave? I began to tap my foot impatiently and tried to interrupt to tell him I was really leaving this time, when suddenly he blurted out, "I like like you."

And I was stunned. Cranky Miss Coyote here did not realize that he was stalling. Stalling because he liked me. No wait, he didn't like me. He liked liked me. And that's not a typo. Everyone knows that when you say a word twice it gives it so much more meaning.

We super like each other. Can't you tell??

And so, in June 2005, at 5:30 in the morning, I sat myself back down on that couch and told Mr. Coyote that I like-liked him too. And exactly seven years after that fateful night (morning?), Mr. Coyote and I will stand up in front of all our family and friends to tell them exactly how much we "like like" each other.

And that my friends is the very, very long version of how Mr. Coyote and I chose our wedding date and each other.

Does your wedding date have any special meaning behind it?

The Ring Bling Arrives!

I know I talked a bit about ordering our wedding bands, but I didn't take any photos of my own so all I could do was find some that looked similar. I'm happy to report that our bands have finally arrived and it's time to show off the real deal!

Here they are in all of their glory:

Shhh. I took a sneak peak of my wedding band on when Mr. Coyote wasn't looking. I absolutely love how perfectly my two rings go together.

And of course, I couldn't help having a mini photo shoot with our new bands:

Mr. Coyote discovered that my fingers are so tiny that my band fits perfectly inside of his:

I am so in love with our bands and have been trying SO hard not to take them out of their secret hiding spot to try them on again and again and again. I still can't believe that we will be exchanging vows and rings together in less than two months!

What are you doing with your bands until your special day? Do you try them on over and over again like I do?!

...And They're Off!

Sure, the Kentucky Derby was last week and we all got to watch a bunch of horses run around in circles and see some ladies wearing crazy hats:

Image via ABC News

But the main event was the official mailing of the Coyote invitations. Woooohoooo! I went the semi-DIY route with mine and yes, they came out beautiful, but holy cannoli I was ready to just start a bonfire with them in the backyard after some unfortunate shenanigans.

Thankfully all turned out well and on Cinco de Mayo Mr. Coyote and I walked a big ol' box of invites over to the post office. I was super excited to be done with them, but I will admit that I was having a bit of a nervous breakdown about actually mailing them out. Before we left I called the post office to make sure that they would hand cancel them for us. They assured me they would and when we arrived the postal worker (who was very nice to a very neurotic bride) simply told us to leave the box with her and that she would take care of them. I eyed her up and down suspiciously, my fingers still gripping the sides of the box that contained weeks of my blood wine stains, sweat and tears. I interrogated her to make sure that the postage was correct and that they would indeed be hand canceled.

Not my proudest moment.

I'm still going to wait a bit before the big reveal, just to make sure that everyone has received them but it won't be too much longer as we've already received our first few responses! I'm taking that as a sign that all of my guests are sitting home right this second drooling over their beauty (as good Coyote guests should). But for now, here's a bit of a sneak peak for ya:

A Place for my Cards

One thing you should know about me is that I am a borderline hoarder. I hang on to things for way longer than I should and it's so hard for me to throw things out - especially if they have some sort of sentimental value to them. Because of this I knew that I wanted to keep the cards I received at my bridal shower. There were so many beautiful cards and many of them had sweet heartfelt notes inside. I didn't want to just throw them away! But the only other alternative was to put them in a box that would hide on a closet shelf somewhere for years to come.

I knew there had to be a better option so I decided to bind them into a book. It was actually a really simple project that I was able to finish in one evening. First, I took all of my cards and stacked them together. I took out the largest card and, using a piece of cardboard, made two cut outs that were the same size as my largest card. They acted as the front and back covers of my card book. I wrapped the pieces of cardboard in patterned paper and punched two holes on each side:

And then decorated the front cover with some scrapbooking stickers to make it all pretty-like:

Next I stacked up my cards and hole punched them, making sure to align them with the holes I had punched in the cardboard:

I originally tried to use some keychain rings I had laying around:

But it soon became clear that I had way too many cards to go this route:

#FAIL

I sat around for a while trying to think of how else I could bind my book together when it hit me. Ribbon. Duh. I strung some thin ribbon through the holes, tied it up and...

My little card book is done! Now I can just pull it out and flip through my shower cards any time I want:

I can't wait to repeat this easy little project with my wedding cards! Are you a hoarder like me? What did you do with all of your cards?

I've Got the Power!

I showed you all the shower details last week, but I wanted to take a few minutes to share some of my favorite parts of the day.

As I said earlier I came early to help set up so I was there to greet guests as they came in. My bridesmaids were under strict instructions to greet everyone and take their gifts to the gift table, but I found myself saying, "Hi, how are you? Thank you so much for coming. It's so good to see you again... Ohmigosh let me take that huge gift off your hands!" And so, I schlepped a lot of my own gifts to the gift table (and was scolded a few times for doing so). What can I say? I was just trying to help!

It actually worked out perfectly because I was able to chat with everyone and really feel like I got to spend time with all of my guests. Especially my nonna who lives three hours away and originally wasn't going to be able to attend. At the last minute she was able to come and I was so happy to see her again:

After a few minutes, I was chatting to -- somebody, I don't even remember who -- when the coordinator turned the lights off. It was a bright shiny day and with the light streaming in through the windows it actually didn't make that much of a difference, but I did think it strange that the coordinator would just shut the lights off completely. I looked up at the ceiling and made a joke about it being time to sit down (you know, like when they dim the lights in a theatre...Okay, maybe not so funny. Whatever.), but after a few seconds a different set of lights came on. I cracked another bad joke about making sure I looked good in this lighting. Apparently I make really awkward jokes when I'm the center of attention.

Turns out our venue had a full blown power outage and the second set of lights had been kicked on by their generator. It was super windy that day so my only guess is that a tree knocked down a power line somewhere because we later found out that the whole vicinity lost power!

The coordinator ran out to tell me that everything was fine, the food was done cooking (thank goodness!), but we'd have to serve it a little earlier so it didn't get cold. Fine by me! Honestly, the power outage was just a little reminder that no matter how well you plan for the day things WILL go wrong. It reminded that  I can't control everything so the best thing to do is just enjoy yourself and embrace the chaos.

Five minutes later the food was out and we got to eating! I don't have photos of the food, but we had a great buffet with roasted chicken, cavatelli, eggplant parm, potatoes, veggies, salad, rolls, oh my it was delicious! Directly after lunch we served the cake:

And then it was time for gifts! I have to admit that it was kind of nerve-wracking to have all those eyeballs focused on me and I kept thinking to myself, "Uh, I hope I'm doing this right" (because there is totally a right/wrong way to open gifts). I found myself torn between wanting to rip the packages open as quickly as possible (because I know how boring it can be to watch someone else open gifts) and wanting to acknowledge the gift/gift giver and not just toss it off to the side and grab the next one.

Thankfully all of my bridesmaids divied up the tasks and everything ran like a well oiled machine. BM P was behind the camera snapping photos, while BM J called out bingo words and handed out gifts to the winners. BM C handed me gifts while BM D (aka FSIL) stole all the bows from me and made one of those ridiculous ribbons hats:

(I will wear your stupid ribbon hat as long as you keep this glass of wine full!)

MOH D sat next to me and wrote everything down for me as I opened:

And MOH A couldn't be there, but her momma was. And she happened to have a picture of MOH A in her wallet...

So, she was with us in spirit!

I will try not to bore you guys with too many more photos, but I have to share some of the gifts. Obviously anything with wine will put you on my BFF list and give me crazy eyes:

Seriously! Vino is the way to this girl's heart:

And then there was the gift that made me cry:

Remember the espresso machine that I wrote about not once, but twice? Well due to my registry stalking I knew that someone had purchased the coveted machine for us, but I didn't know who. Turns out my girls found out about my obsession (hmm.. I wonder how?!) and pooled together to purchase it for me. It was hands down the most generous and unexpected gift I received that day.

(A not-so-hot photo of me with my favorite ladies. Apologies for the glare.)

My most important tip is to wear something comfortable. I had agita over what I was going to wear that day and in the end I went with the dress and shoes I felt most comfortable in. I am SO glad I did because I was standing a lot and maneuvering around in weird ways as I lifted, unwrapped and moved gifts around. Oh and on that note... Wear a good deodorant! Between the nerves and the lifting I was a hot mess (literally). I know it's hard to tell from the photos since I'm pale to being with, but my face was super flushed the whole day and I was so hot. Thankfully I recently started using Secret clinical strength and it saved me from an embarrassing underarm situation. I know, I know, TMI, but you will thank me later!

Other than that, just try to soak in as much of the day as you can. My shower came to a close way too quickly and all I can say is that if the wedding day goes by as fast as this I am SO in for it!

Have you had your bridal shower yet? How did it go??

Top 10 Signs You're Obsessed with Wedding Planning

With less than two months to go I've been noticing some very psychotic minor changes in my behavior. It seems like my whole world has been taken over by wedding planning. For example, Mr. Coyote recently made a comment about how disheveled our apartment looked. I just let out a huge sigh and told him it would probably look like that from now until mid-July. I giggled after I said it because even though I can be a little messy and scattered at times I'm usually pretty good at keeping my home in order. I started thinking about how much wedding planning has consumed me these past few months and came up with a (very tongue-in-cheek) list of wedding planning overload signs:

1. You are the mayor on FourSquare of not one, but two, neighborhood Michaels.
2. You find a way to spin every conversation into something about wedding planning. Example: Your boss is leaving for the day and tells you to have a nice weekend. You lament about how much you have to do and sit him down for a 45 minute discussion about the pros and cons of using twine versus ribbon to decorate your favors.
3. You DVR every wedding show imaginable and then watch them while completing wedding crafts on your couch. You start to think those girls on Bridezilla are not that crazy and even start to sympathize with some of them. (Just kidding, those chicks are batshit insane!)
4. You wake up in the middle of the night drenched in sweat because you had yet another nightmare in which you lost your wedding bands, the florist gave you orange and yellow flowers when you asked for pink and purple, no one showed up, etc.
5. You refer to your wedding party and family as your MOH, BM, FMIL, or FI when talking about them in person.
6. You actually know (and care about) the differences between white, diamond white, eggshell and ivory.
7. You may or may not have downloaded this app to your smartphone. Or this one.
8. You wake up every morning and text your bridesmaids, your parents, and your cousin's girlfriend's sister's dog with the number of days left until your wedding.
9. You check your mailbox three to four times a day for response cards even though the mail carrier has already delivered the day's mail.
10. After your ten millionth fight with the glue gun, you seriously consider scraping the whole thing, getting on the next flight to Vegas and eloping.

Has wedding planning has taken over your life yet? Share your telltale signs with me!

April Showers...

Bring May flowers!

Last weekend I had my fabulous bridal shower in upstate New York. I can't even begin to tell you how much fun I had!

It'll be easier for me to break this one down into two posts, so today it's all about the details!

The first thing you should know is that there were no surprises at this shower. I designed the invitation for goodness sake! ;) Momma Coyote pretty much single handedly tackled the shower herself and came to me for opinions and approval whenever she needed to make a decision. In fact, I was so involved with the shower that I even woke up early on the day of to run some pre-shower errands with Momma Coyote and Bridesmaid C. We packed up the car with a few things that didn't get dropped off the day before and headed out to pick up the cake and cookies from Villa Italia Pasticceria. Nom. Nom. Nom.

Even though we hit a little snafu at the bakery (at the last minute we decided that there weren't enough cookies and ordered more) we still arrived at the venue over a half hour early. Everything was set up perfectly at Stadium Golf Club and I was so glad to have the extra time to wander around the room and enjoy it before the party started. There was a cute little sign out front to greet our guests:

My mom and a family friend had wrapped up the favors in beautiful silver wrapping paper that went perfectly with the burgundy napkins and calla lily centerpieces. The room truly looked beautiful:

The venue even had their own decorations that I didn't even know about! I am totally impressed by all of their hard work and little touches:

We also played some bridal bingo with cards that Momma Coyote and I printed together. We used Printable Games for the bingo template. To be honest, we probably could have done these ourselves, but for $7 it was totally worth it to have them provide us with the printables. It took us less than ten minutes to print 50 of these bad boys at home:

Image via Printable Games

Bridesmaid J randomly called out "bridal words" while I opened my gifts -- this really helped with what can be a ridiculously boring part of the shower. Let's be honest here, I freaking loved opening every single one of my gifts, but as a guests my attention usually starts to wander after the first ten minutes. After the gifts and games I directed everyone over the cookie table for some more sweets. We of course encouraged everyone to take them home and provided little baggies for them:

Oh and it's a good thing we decided to order more at the last minute because by the time the shower was over there were just a few crumbs left for future father-in-law Coyote to nibble on. ;)

Along with the favors:

Image via La Favorita

Momma Coyote also made torrone, a delicious Italian candy. She cut the candy up into bite size pieces and stuffed pieces them into organza bags. As the guests were getting ready to leave I went around and handed out the little bags as a parting gift. My bridesmaids offered to do the grunt work for me but it was actually a great way for me to stop and visit with everyone before they left!

I don't have a photo of the torrone in the cute bags, but I do have a photo of the just finished block of candy:

Yuuuummmy!

Wowza... That was a buttload of details! Next up: friends, family and being the bride at a bridal shower.