Dancing with my Daddy

Last Christmas my father surprised my mother with a gift certificate to a local dance studio for some private dance lessons. Now I know none of you here know Poppa Coyote, but just believe me when I say that this is HUGE! The man does not dance. Oh sure, we have some friends and family members who just love to drag him on the dance floor, but after a few moments of awkwardly flailing around he skulks back to his seat to find his beer. Poppa Coyote is always a good sport, but when it comes to dancing he tolerates it, at best.

As his daughter's wedding approached however, Poppa Coyote realized that he would be expected to do a little bit more than hop out onto the dance floor for his obligatory 30-second shuffle and so he sought out a professional dance instructor. Surprisingly I think my father is actually enjoying the lessons because he recently called me up and asked if I would be interested in taking a lesson with him in preparation for our father-daughter dance. I have to say I was a bit shocked, but I wasn't about to say no, so last Saturday we headed over to the studio for our first (and only!) dance lesson. Our instructor was fantastic and taught us a nice, slow hesitated waltz that goes perfectly with our father-daughter song, I Loved Her First. I will admit we were both a bit stiff and awkward at the beginning, but by the end of the lesson we started to relax and were able to chat a bit in between counting steps. We even threw in a few twirls!

Poppa Coyote took our lesson a little bit more seriously than I did and even brought the video camera so we could review it and practice from home (Remember what I said about him always having the video camera out?! I wasn't kidding!). While my dad counted steps and sternly looked into the distance I followed his lead and then promptly cracked up every time one of us missed a step.

Oh and I wore my wedding shoes which was smart. I figured spinning around in them for an hour and a half was a good way to break them in and boy was I right! Even though my feet were a bit tired after all that steppin' my feet survived free of blisters or cuts so I'm considering it a success. (Although I'm definitely glad I have my back up flippy floppies just in case.)

I loved it so much that I came home and asked Mr. Coyote if he would be interested in sneaking in a lesson the week before our wedding. To my surprise he jumped at the opportunity! Seriously you woulda thought I was proposing to him or something -- the guy was so pumped he barely let me finish my sentence. And so, I will be returning to the dance studio in a few weeks with Mr. Coyote in tow.

Are you taking dance lessons for your wedding? 

Favors Revisited

A few weeks ago I talked a bit about choosing our wedding favors and the expectations that needed to be met. I was determined to have a non-useless favor, but I also wanted it to pass Momma Coyote's approval. When I stumbled upon these Martha Stewart favors I was pretty sure we found a winner:

Image via Martha Stewart Weddings

Momma Coyote approved, Mr. Coyote approved and there were high fives all around. I started researching how to make them myself because purchasing prepackaged bottles was quite pricey. Then Momma Coyote sent me this link and I honed in specifically on this sentence:

"The threat of botulism contaminating your homemade oils is very real and should not be ignored."

Yikes. The point is to thank our guests, not poison them. The only way I felt comfortable giving these out to our guests was if they were prepackaged, but a quick search proved that purchasing almost 200 mini bottles of prepackaged olive oil would be way out of our budget so we quickly shelved the idea and went back to the drawing board. As I continued my hunt for favors I kept finding myself drawn to this inspiration photo:

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

Even though the packaging is a bit casual for our wedding the idea of using coffee as a wedding favor stuck with me. It's no secret that Mr. Coyote and I are huge coffee addicts. Our first real date after he told me he liked me was at a local coffee shop and whenever we run errands on the weekend we always make it a point to end our day by swinging by a nearby Starbucks. It just seemed like the perfect choice. 

But how to execute it?! The burlap bags above are definitely adorable, but just not our style. These are nice and the silver packaging highlights our accent color, but Momma Coyote said it reminded her too much of those single serve packets you get in a hotel. Definitely not personal. And I have to agree.

Image via FavorFavor

I am crazy about these Starbucks favors, but at $10 a pop it was just too much (but you can bet your butt if we had a smaller guest list I'd be all over these!). 

Image via Favors by Lisa

It took a little more searching and brainstorming until we finally found a solution so stay tuned because the favor drama is far from over. ;-)

Did anybody else spend way too much time trying to decide on wedding favors?

What Really Grinds My Gears

You know what really grinds my gears? 

Image via Family Guy Wikia

Facebook. Well, social media in general, but mostly Facebook. Sure, sure, sure, I have a Facebook account... And a Twitter account... And a blog on a popular wedding website, but I enjoy having the ability to choose what is and is not posted about me on such sites. What really grinds my gears is the fact that other people can throw up a photo of me and suddenly the whole world knows exactly where I am and what I'm doing. 

Unless you received an invitation in the mail or read this blog the Coyote wedding might as well not exist. Mr. Coyote and I are very private people and we keep most of the details about our personal lives (including our wedding) off the interwebs. Oh sure I tell the hive every stinking little wedding planning detail here, but it's semi-anonymous and I can hide behind this cute little coyote avatar. When those who are not invited ask questions about my wedding the most they will get out of me is that it's "this summer". My Facebook updates are minimal and usually consist of photos of my cat:

I actually really enjoy using social media sites (as long as I am in control of what is being posted). There is just something very disconcerting about not having control over content of myself that is published on the net. Especially when it comes to such intimate and private moments as a wedding ceremony or a first dance. Now I don't have a problem with people posting pictures of our wedding on Facebook or even tagging us in them, but I do have a problem with photos of Mr. Coyote and I floating around Facebook just mere minutes after we are pronounced husband and wife. I can't put my finger on exactly why it bothers me, but it just seems so... intrusive to me. We carefully selected our guest list and now strangers all over the web (and "mutual friends" who were not invited for one reason or another) are peering into our wedding almost in real-time and without our consent.

I understand that we are in an age when technology and social media are just the way of the world (I myself am guilty of rolling out of bed in the morning and scrolling through twitter updates) but is nothing sacred anymore?

This is mostly a gripe and I have come to terms with the fact that there is no solution (you know, aside from banning cell phones and hiring a TSA agent to give everyone pat downs before their enter our venue). Sure, we could ask our guests to refrain from posting photos of us until after the wedding, but I have yet to find a tactful way to make such a request. And it's sad to say, but I know that certain friends and family members would not respect our wishes for privacy even if we did make some sort of announcement.

Instead, I'm trying to look on the bright side. Professional photos often takes months to come in so hopefully Mr. Coyote and I will be able to scroll through some guest photos while we're on the way to airport. I guess that would be cool. (I'm really trying to be okay with this you guys, I swear.)

Does anyone else think about how social media will affect the privacy and intimacy of their wedding? Or do I just need a reality check? ;-)

Get with the Program!

Remember how I said I wanted simple programs? I lied. I kind of got a little program happy and instead of a small, simple sheet like this:

Photo by: The McCartneys Photography on Wedding Chicks via Lover.ly

I ended up with a big ol' booklet program. I made a list of all the information I wanted to include in the program and realized that in order to keep it to one sheet of paper I was going to have to shorten it A LOT. I didn't really want to take anything out so I just ran with it... 

Okay, so what went into the program?

First there's the cover that welcomes our guests to our wedding ceremony. You'll notice that my monogram made yet another appearance here. I fought with the cover for a bit and ended up with a few different designs:

Some covers that didn't make the cut.

Until I finally settled on something I really loved:

The first page is just a little quote I found.

Sidenote: I searched high and low for a few appropriate quotes to include in our program that weren't too long or too mushy-gushy (aka not us). This was one of the few that made me giggle every time I read it.

"Love is when you break a cookie in half, but you let the other person have the bigger piece."

When you open the booklet you've got the full meat of the program.

The left hand side lists the order of events and right hand side introduces the wedding party (sorry for all of the blanking out, gotta keep my VIPs private!).

On the back page I included a little note about our wine box ceremony. Our officiant will explain it in greater detail during the ceremony, but it's a unique tradition - especially in my family where the unity candle is the norm - and we thought it would be nice to share some information about it. We also included a small thank you to our guests for sharing this day with us and our parents for their support along the way.

Finally, I managed to find one last quote that didn't make us want to vomit and slapped it on the back. The program itself is just two 8.5x11 pieces of paper folded in half and bound with some white thread:

I already had all the paper in my possession as well as the white thread to bind the pages together, so all this really cost me was some printer ink and just a wee bit of my sanity when it came to the design and assembly. ;) And there you have it!  My simple-yet-not-so-simple programs.

Are you designing your own wedding programs? What kind of information are you including?

Wedding Program Inspiration

Getting real creative with my blog posts titles, eh? ;-)

I love wedding programs. I know that sounds like such a weird thing to say, but it's true. I love being able to follow along during the ceremony and learn about who is involved in the wedding. Although I will admit that they are definitely a superfluous expense (like welcome bags or bathroom baskets), I absolutely want them for our wedding ceremony. The problem is there are way too many great options out there and I am easily overwhelmed by all the inspiration. Seriously brides!! Stop making such cute paper products because you are making me want them ALL!

Mrs. Elephant's Passport programs are seriously way impressive:

 Image via Mrs. Elephant on Weddingbee

These cootie catcher programs are hands down the most adorable thing I've seen in a long time:

Image via Daisy Gal on the Weddingbee DIY boards

Mrs. Mink impressed me with her gorgeous fan programs:

Image via Mrs. Mink on Weddingbee

These fabric covered programs are so unique and absolutely beautiful:

 Image via Ruby Lane Moments on Etsy

But at the end of the day we spent a boatload on our invitations  and I decided I wanted something simpler (but still informative!) for our wedding programs. I came up with a few different ideas and we finally have the final version nailed down. Stay tuned!

Are you having wedding programs? Where did you find your inspiration?