It's the Final Countdown

Well it's that time folks.

Screenshot via The Weather Channel

My wedding day has finally appeared on the 10-day forecast. I'm feeling sort of apathetic about the weather at this point because as the daughter of a meteorology enthusiast (a nice way of saying my father is a crazy person who tracks and chases snowstorms in his free time) I know that it is impossible to predict the weather this far in advance.

The other reason is because, in the grand scheme of things, the weather on our wedding day doesn't really matter. I'm not having an outdoor ceremony or reception and because the ceremony is taking place at Franklin Plaza no one will need to travel to a different reception venue. Now this was no accident my friends. Mother Nature has never been kind to me and I refuse to give her the satisfaction of toying with my emotions on one of the biggest days of my life.

So why am I still stalking the 10-day forecast? Well, I put together a list of times where I will be outside and it looks a little something like this:

• Walking across the street from the hotel to the venue before the ceremony begins.
• Taking a few portraits outside after the ceremony.
• Walking across the street from the venue to the hotel after the reception.

I really won't be outside very much, but I am starting to wonder if I should invest in an adorable umbrella a la Mrs. Turkey:

Image via Mrs. Turkey on Weddingbee

Okay, the reality is there is a very slim chance that it will rain during my 30 second walks between the hotel and the venue and honestly even if it does, I'm pretty sure my storm chaser of a father has a few golf umbrellas to spare so it's totally unnecessary. But come on you guys.... It's SO cute!

Any other remaining June brides stalking the weather forecast? How are you preparing for the weather?

Face Paint

I am not having a hair or makeup trial.

Whew. Glad I got that off my chest.

I recently booked a hair and makeup artist, but due to the long distance and scheduling conflicts I was unable to schedule a trial before the wedding day. I'm actually okay with this, especially because it felt very strange to spend money getting all dolled up with nowhere to go.

Plus, I'm not looking for anything intricate or complicated when it comes to hair and makeup. I know I shared some wedding day hair inspiration photos with you already and I've decided that I would like to keep my hair down. It has reached lengths of epic proportions:

It just keeps growing.. And growing.. And growing.. But my hair does hold a curl pretty well so I would love to just have some nice, loose curls for the day:

Photo by: GPT Photography on Bridal Musings via Lover.ly

My makeup has been a bit more difficult. I don't wear makeup... Ever. In fact, on the rare occasion (three to four times a year) that I do put makeup on, Mr. Coyote always asks me what's wrong with my face, to which I fondly reply, "What's wrong with YOUR face?!" 

The truth is, I have a fear of makeup. I don't know how to apply it and every time I put the teeniest bit of mascara on I'm convinced I look like Mimi:

Image via Villain Wiki / Anyone remember this show? Anyone??

Really, I just want to look like myself. I tried searching for inspiration photos, but kept coming up empty-handed. Instead all I've managed to find is a single photo of myself where I actually liked how my face looked and hopefully my makeup artist will be able to recreate something similar for the wedding. In the meantime I've been browsing her online gallery and plan to snag a few photos on her site that I like.

Is anybody here surprised that I chose this photo?!

Are you foregoing a hair and/or makeup trial? Did you have difficulty finding inspiration?

On (Not) Being Cohesive

Eclectic – Adjective: Deriving ideas, style or taste from a broad and diverse range of sources.

Although we are having a fairly traditional wedding I have still been sneaking in some personal touches here and there. And now that a large number of those touches are coming together I’m starting to notice that they don’t always jive. For instance, we like wine, but we also like coffee. Our cake toppers are Charlie Brown and Lucy, but our toasting glasses are dragons. And I haven't written a post about it yet (whoops!), but my bouquet will have both bees and some cute coyote charms I found.

I’ve been giving a lot of thought to themed weddings – especially since Miss Potion gave us her awesome breakdown of how she and Mr. Potion chose theirs – and I started to wonder if I was a bad bride for not having one. When people ask me what my wedding vision is (one of my most hated wedding questions by the way), I usually respond with, “Our vision is to get through the day with the least amount of things going wrong as possible.”

And while I’m being tongue-in-cheek with my answer, it’s the truth. But sometimes I am paralyzed with fear that our wedding day is going to look like a big ol’ smorgasbord of “Things The Coyotes Think Are Cool” because we chose not to have cohesive theme like “birds” or “carnival” or even just some key words like “beach” or “pumpkins” to describe our wedding and bring everything together. But then I think, is that what we really wanted to bring to our wedding? Seashells on our invitations and our tables and our cake?

The truth is Mr. Coyote and I are kind of eclectic. He likes biking and video games and wine. I like hiking and reading and coffee. And our life reflects both our mutual and diverse interests. Why shouldn’t our wedding reflect the same aspects of our relationship? And so, our theme will be a compilation of our favorite things on one of our favorite days. We basically want to say to our guests: “Welcome to the Coyote wedding. We are so happy you are here with us today, now please enjoy a few of our favorite things.” 

Are there any other theme-less brides out there? Are you worried about how it’s all going to tie together?

The Perfect Blend

Ah yes, my obnoxious hunt for favors. Aren't you tired of hearing about this? Well, I promise this is my last post about them! After Mr. Coyote and I decided on coffee favors I hunted high and low for cute little packaged favors that wouldn't break the bank. I was just about to give up hope when I turned to Etsy. Oh, Etsy… I cannot sing your praises enough. It is here that I found David and Julie of Idea Chic. They sell a myriad of party favors and stationary, but what really caught my eye was their "Love is Brewing" coffee and tea favors. 

Image via Idea Chic on Etsy

These guys are so freakin' nice it hurts. When I was waffling back and forth, they sent me a sample. When I couldn't properly describe the ribbon color they told me that I could send them a swatch and they would match it for me. And when I wasn't sure about the wording they let me customize it to my liking. They even told me I could order the favors preassembled or assemble them myself to save on costs. They were in constant communication with me and never once made me doubt choosing them to help create our wedding favors.

I chose to order the favors unassembled because I am a cheapskate, but they provided me with step-by-step instructions and answered my ten billion questions almost immediately. To say that I was impressed is an understatement. As soon as the box arrived I got to packaging. First I shoveled the coffee into the tins:

My apartment still smells like I just walked into a Starbucks. Yummmmm.

Then I used glue dots to secure the ribbon and tag and viola! The cutest stinkin' coffee favor I have ever seen!

But the story doesn't end here! Remember the Italian confetti? Well thankfully Momma Coyote handled this part of the favors and stuffed small silver organza bags with five pieces of confetti. Why five pieces? Well, I'm glad you asked! Each piece of candy signifies a wish for the bride and groom: health, wealth, happiness, fertility and longevity. 

I may or may not have sampled some of these while assembling, y'know to make sure no one died of botulism (gotta take one for the team sometimes). Apologies to any Coyote guests who receive a bag with four, or possibly only three, candies. Just remember, I'm doing this for YOUR safety. 

While I finished assembling the coffee tins I lured two of my minions bridesmaids over with promises of pizza and wine to help finish the rest of the favor "package". The coffee tin and confetti were placed into a clear bag and tied with curling ribbon:

Oh and I slipped our photo share cards in the back of the bag:

What's that? I didn't tell you how I solved my photo share card dilemma? I got myself a Vistaprint groupon and reordered the damn things for like $2 that's how.

Hey, look at that! That top card is actually legible now!

And then I bought this shirt because I'm awesome:

The Future Mrs. Coyote (except y'know, with my real soon-to-be last name)

Thank you Vistaprint! Any other brides out there have a love affair with Etsy and/or Vistaprint?

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?