(Oh and I have to mention that lilcshelli and hunni8unni actually already
knew each other in real life and didn't even know it until they arrived
at the meet up! It really is a small Weddingbee world!)
I had originally said that I would only stay until 7:30 since I have quite a commute back to Westchester, but because I suffer from FOMO (yes, this is a very real and very terrifying disease) I stuck around til about 9. Way past my curfew, but I couldn't help it! These ladies are just too sweet and I was having way too much fun to leave!
We shared our proposal stories and photos of our soon-to-be husbands -- except for me. I seem to be the only girl in the world without a picture of my SO on my phone. (Sorry Mr. Coyote!) Instead I shared lots and lots of photos of my kitty:
This little monster was super excited to play with all of our new toys from this weekend's bridal shower. I can't wait to share my experience with all of you!
For what it's worth, Mr. Coyote just notified me that he has 41 pictures of our cat and none of me on his phone. What can I say? We are both crazy cat ladies!
Okay... Back to the meet up! Even though we were sharing the bar with one too many Knicks fans (come on dudes, didn't you know there was a Rangers playoff game on last night??) we still had a blast sharing wedding planning stories and tips.
Many thanks to futuremrsfishy for getting the ball rolling on last night's meet up and I hope we have another soon!
If no one is around youuu, say baby I love youuuuu.
Was anyone else as obsessed with Destiny's Child as I was in the '90s? Just me? Okay, moving on.
Here's the deal: After the wedding I will be taking Mr. Coyote's last name and up until recently I had no problem with it. To be completely vain, my last name is kind of ugly sounding, often misspelled and mispronounced and ethnically does not flow with my first name. My first name is very Italian, while my last name is of Swiss/German descent (which, by the way, is a very small percentage of my heritage. I identify with and was raised in an Italian culture). Suffice to say, the two just don't mix well together. Mr. Coyote, on the other hand, is Italian and his last name flows perfectly with my first.
I am actually very excited to take his name; to have one common name to identify with and to share with our (future) children. Plus there's that added benefit of a having a last name that ethnically flows with my first. ;-) To date, mentioning my current last name brings up questions like, "what kind of name is that?" and "well, you don't look Swiss/German". Really?! I never noticed! I could go on a long rant about the ridiculousness of tying a person's ethnicity to their last name, but I will spare you from all of that right now and get back to the point.
The point is that, even though I am excited, I still feel a bit of trepidation when I think about changing my name. My current last name is very unique and there are few people in the world who have it. In fact, if you were to google my full name right now you will probably get less than five legit results - all of which lead to me.
Mr. Coyote however, has a very common last name. Google my soon-to-be full name and you will get thousands upon thousands of results. Oh and pretty much every variation of my new name has already been taken in terms of email accounts - which is a problem I've never encountered before. And so, I can't help feeling a bit sad about losing my name and maybe even a bit
of my (unique) identity. Even though I never particularly liked my last
name it was still my name.
At the end of the day I will still happily take Mr. Coyote's name to recognize the creation of our new family unit, but it feels, well, a little weird. Are you changing your last name after the wedding? How are you coping with the change?
Interestingly enough, wedding favors have been a bit of a hot topic in the Coyote household. I have to admit, I am not big on wedding favors. It's almost always some sort of useless trinket that sits around my apartment for six months until I decide to throw it out. And when I finally do I feel guilty that I have thrown away something that a couple put time and money into choosing. Because of all this, I am pretty hell bent on giving our guests a favor that won't sit around on their shelf collecting dust. Thankfully there are so many unique and interesting favors nowadays so I figured this would be an easy-peasy decision.
Oh, silly Coyote, thinking something wedding-related would be easy. When I brought up a few of my ideas to Momma Coyote I quickly learned some interesting things about what is acceptable and what isn't acceptable in the realm of wedding favors. I am not sure if this is specific to my family, or maybe to my Italian culture, but in my circle wedding favors have a few different components and are apparently a Big Deal.
First, You absolutely must have jordan almonds. A wedding without jordan almonds will have you excommunicated from the famiglia FOR LIFE. I have to been to enough family functions to know that jordan almonds are on the must have list. And so, a few weeks ago I sat down with Momma Coyote and we ordered ourselves a few boxes of "confetti":
Sidenote: If you want some serious culture shock take a look at that website. It is phenomenally Italian.
Second, while the jordan almonds are a component of the favor, they cannot be the only favor. Usually they are wrapped up in tulle and then attached to the actual favor. Again, I kind of expected this and had long ago fallen in love with Mrs. Jellyfish's lottery ticket favors. I brought it up to Momma Coyote and while she loved the idea she didn't think it was enough.
Momma Coyote suggested a donation (perhaps similar to Mrs. Doily's favors), but the jordan almonds AND a lottery ticket AND a donation just seemed like too much for me. Too much paper, too many explanations.
And so it was back to the drawing board.
I kinda love edible favors. At the last wedding I went to the bride and groom had wrapped up M&M's and placed them inside a glass. I quietly went around the table eating my little baggie of M&M's. And Mr. Coyote's... And my brother's... And the random cousin I was sitting next to... Heh. Yum. The more I stumble across edible favors, the more I want them in our wedding.
Last week Mr. Coyote received an invitation in the mail from Poppa Coyote:
While the ladies are enjoying Miss Coyote's wedding shower... What is a man to do to pass the time??? Hmmmmm... What to do... What to do... Well, the shower just HAPPENS to be at a golf course! Pretty clever of me, eh? If you would like to join me for 9 holes of golf, please RSVP so that I can make a tee time!
The idea first popped into my dad's head when Mr. Coyote's father mentioned that he would be making the three hour drive north with Mr. Coyote's mom and sister for my bridal shower. As the RSVPs trickled in Poppa Coyote noticed that there might be some other guys (out of town and local) that would be looking for something to do while the ladies were occupied with the shower. So a few weeks ago he printed out the awesome photo cards seen above and extended the invitation to all of the husbands and significant others on the list.
I think this is a such a great idea. While us ladies are inside playing silly shower games and fawning over gifts the boys will be right outside practicing their swing and hunting gophers! Or something like that. I don't know much about golf except what I learned from Caddyshack:
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:
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:
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 afewbees 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:
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?
