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?