Cocktails, anyone?

One of the things that impressed me about our venue is the quantity and quality of food they provide for their wedding receptions. But what really impressed is their extended cocktail hour. Yea, that's right. Instead of a cocktail hour we get a cocktail hour and a half. Okay so that doesn't flow as well as I thought it would, but you get the point.

The cocktail hour is definitely my favorite part of every wedding I've been to and I always feel like it goes by way too quick. I'm really excited that we get to sneak in an extra half hour of cocktail time.

Image via Access Hollywood / It would be extra exciting if we got an extra half hour of cocktail time with Tom Cruise, but I think I remember him saying he has other plans that night.

Now I have never had the pleasure of attending a wedding at Franklin Plaza so of course I had some concerns. I mean, aside from having Tom Cruise himself as our bartender, what could possibly keep our guests entertained for an hour and a half?

Oh that's right! Food! Delicious, delicious food.

Image via I Can Haz Cheezburger

And I have to say, Franklin Plaza totally delivers when it comes to food. When we were looking through the packet of info they gave us we noticed that there were three whole pages just dedicated to the cocktail hour! Unfortunately that packet didn't come with photos so bear with me as I take you on a literary adventure for your taste buds. (Yea, that doesn't make any sense either... Just go with it, okay?!)

First there's a fruit and veggie spread. I don't have to describe that one to you right? Pretty standard stuff.

But then there's the antipasto display:

Imported cheeses (provolone, fontinella, jarlsberg, etc), Italian meats (salami, pepperoni, mortadella, prosciutto... omg is your mouth watering yet? Mine is!!), bruschetta, roasted red peppers, olives, marinated artichokes and mushrooms and foccacia.

As an Italian, I have to say that antipasto is one of my most favorite things in the world. Honestly, I would be the happiest wedding guest ever if I saw a cocktail hour full of nothing but Italian meats and cheese. Yummmy.

Image via Dave's Gift Baskets 

But wait, there's more!

Aside from the spreads we also get to choose eight different passed hors d'eourves. Some of our selections so far are spinach and cheese wrapped in filo dough (I have a feeling Mr. Coyote will be chowing down on those), scallops wrapped in bacon (my personal favorite), chicken tempura and mini beef wellington.

Finally, we get to choose three hot chaffing dishes. This was actually the most difficult food-related decision for us because our venue provided us with almost 40 different options to choose from! And with everything sounding so delicious how on earth could we possibly only choose three? Well, the truth is... we haven't yet! But some dishes that are in the running are eggplant rollatini, mussels marinara, veal marsala, cheese fondue, and beef stir fry. Wowza!

Oh and of course it wouldn't be a cocktail hour without cocktails right?! I'll get into more detail about our booze fest later, but don't you worry... No one will go thirsty!

Yeesh, I haven't even gotten to the main meal yet and I'm already full. What do you think? Is that enough food to keep our guests satisfied for an hour and a half?!

The Longest Veil

So I kinda did things backwards here by showing you my hair flower without talking about any of my other wedding day accessories. I couldn't help it! I was just super excited with how it came out and HAD to show it off right away!

What I should have told you is I have a huge crush on wedding veils. More specifically, on cathedral length veils. How can I resist when I see photos like these:

Image via Pretty Chicky / Photo by Jessica Claire Photography

Image via Fishtale Photography

Image via Fishtale Photography

Image via Global Times Forum

Okay, so I'm kidding about that last one (what the heck?!), but seriously... I love long wedding veils!

My mother wore a cathedral length veil at her wedding too and told me that she loved it so much she refused to take it off -- even for the reception! She just draped it over her arm and carried it around all night.

Now, I can't see myself having that kind of patience so the hair flower is my back-up for when my veil starts to piss me off. And I'm sure at some point during the reception it's going to piss me off. ;)

But for the formal photos and the ceremony I can't imagine wearing anything other than a long, flow-y veil.

I haven't chosen one yet, but I've definitely been checking out Etsy to find the perfect headpiece. I thought about using my mom's veil, but there is a lot of beautiful detailing on it that doesn't quite jive with my heavily beaded dress. I need something light and simple. Something that won't overwhelm my dress or (more importantly) me --  oh, have I mentioned that I'm barely five feet tall? And so my hunt continues.

So let's hear it. Are you wearing a veil for your wedding day? Maybe even a cathedral length one like me?

Peek-A-Boo!

Recently I have been giving some thought to our wedding day timeline.

When we first started planning many of the vendors we met with raved about doing a "first-look" and taking a majority of our formals before our ceremony. Now, I tend to lean toward the traditional and instantly scoffed at the idea of chillin' with Mr. Coyote before the ceremony. And yet, everyone I talked to trying to persuade me. Even my parents thought it was a good idea! I agree that logistically it makes sense to get all those photos out of the way so we can enjoy our cocktail hour, mingle with our guests, EAT SOMETHING! But c'mon, where's the romance in that?! I always envisioned myself rounding the corner, trying not to trip down the aisle, locking eyes with my soon-to-be husband for the first time...

But then I started to think about the day itself and how fast it goes. I mean, we only get a 5 hour reception and I'm going to give up almost an hour of it just take photos? For some silly tradition? The rational part of me did not approve of this scenario. The rational part of me wants to eat some awesome hors d'oeuvres and visit with our guests who have come to celebrate with us.

As the months went by and I read about the many brides who did a first-look, stalked their photos and I started to think that maybe it wasn't so bad. I mean, we can still have that special moment together, where Mr. C sees me for the first time. And we have the added benefit of it being a private moment between us (oh and our photographers of course) without 150 pairs of eyes watching and staring.

Plus how could not I not fall in love with a first-look when I see photos like these:

Image via Mrs. Poodle on Wedding Bee / Photo by Next Exit Photography

Image via Future Mrs. Martin on Wedding Bee / Photo by Toogood Studios

I have to admit that every day, with every first-look photo I see, I lean a little bit more toward having one with Mr. Coyote. And if, at the last minute, I decide that I still want to save that special look for our walk down the aisle there is always Mrs. Hyena's "non first-look":

Image via Mrs. Hyena on Wedding Bee / Photo by Danny Boyle Photography

What's your take on the first-look? Are you doing one or are you saving your "first-look" for the ceremony?

Flowers in Her Hair...

Flowers everywhere!

Okay, maybe not everywhere, but definitely in my hair.

I still haven't completely decided what kind of accessories I want for the wedding day. I'm sure a veil will make an appearance at some point, but for the meantime... I can't help but be smitten with hair flowers. I have found so many beautiful ones, but they all seemed a bit pricey. I know many a bee has made their own, so I thought I might try to tackle this simple DIY.

I made a few trips to Michael's to gather all of my supplies and then I got started. I used a fake flower, lace ribbon, a sparkly brooch, an alligator clip and a needle and thread.

(Personal Photo) / There are some alligator clips somewhere on this table, but I think they are hiding behind that mountain of lace.

My fave tutorial so far came from whitesonnet's post on our very own DIY boards. I was so absorbed with finishing this project that I only randomly snapped photos while I was making it, so I suggest you check out her tutorial for better photos and explanations. I'll do my best though!

First, I took apart the flower and separated the petals. Then I rolled out some ribbon, pinned one of the petals to it and cut out a few lacy petals.

 (Personal Photo)

I played with the arrangement for a while until I found something I liked:

 

(Personal Photo)

Then it was time to sew! I used a simple stitch and sewed the petals together. Then I began to sew the brooch on as well. (The brooch is quite heavy so I later went back and reinforced it with glue.)

Finally, I sewed the alligator clip to the bottom of the flower. And of course, did not take photos of any of this. I did take lotsa photos of the final product though... Wanna see?!

(Personal Photo)

(Personal Photo)

(Personal Photo)

I am kinda super in love with it and have been resisting the urge to wear it every time I leave the house.

Plus I managed to keep the total cost under $15 (thank you Michael's and your amazing 50% coupons!) so no complaints here!

Well, okay, I do have one little complaint. I only used a teeny tiny bit of that huge spool of lace ribbon. What on earth am I going to do with it all? Any ideas?!

DIY Goddess

DIY Goddess I am not. We're lucky I can hem a pair of pants Oh wait, I can't. I bring them up to my Mom and have her do them for me. Dang. Anyways, because I am not a DIY girl whenever I accomplish the simplest of tasks I start to think that I am Martha-Freaking-Stewart. This is one of those times.

The other day I saw this ridiculously awesome DIY for rubber stamps. You can check out the tutorial here.

Image via The Sweetest Occasion

SO CUTE! I freakin' fell off my chair from excitement when I saw it. Now, I still do not understand the mustache trend, but I just knew that I could totally make something with this. I hunted around for a little bit and found two never-been-used-before erasers in my desk. SCORE! 

After printing out what I wanted the stamp to look like I practiced tracing my design a few times on a piece of paper. Then I used a pencil to trace it onto the eraser.

(Personal Photo)

And now came the fun part. I started cutting away at the eraser so only the lettering remained. (The tutorial suggests using an X-Acto knife... I concur.)

My design was a little more complicated than a mustache, but I figured I could handle it. Just remember... if you decide to use letters or numbers you will need to print them backwards on the stamp.

Now start carvin':

(Personal Photo)

I started to carve along the bottom and then made my way around the top.

(Personal Photo)

Carving out the individual letters was the most difficult part, especially the "e" and the fancy parts of the "L".

(Personal Photo)

Somehow I managed to accomplish this with minimal personal injuries. Hooray! I grabbed a little stamp pad that I had found in the $1 bins at Michael's...

(Personal Photo)

And gave it a go!

(Personal Photo)

Not too shabby! You can see where I got lazy around the "e", but no big deal, I just went back and carved a bit more off the eraser at that end and BAM! Perfection!

Oh and remember our love potato story? I also recently learned that you can do this with potatoes! Add that to the list of reasons why potatoes are better than flowers. ;-)

Image via OverBlog

Since this ended up being such a quick and simple little project I might make one with our wedding date on it or our initials. The possibilities are endless! 

Now I just have to figure out what to use this cute little thing for. Stamp it on the wedding envelopes? Maybe our wedding day stationary? Or on favor boxes? 

What do you think?