UGH!!!! Please don’t assume that one partner will take another partner’s last name when they marry!!!!

from http://teriberi.wordpress.com/2009/04/

I have always known that I wanted to keep my name, and Calla Lily Dude is more than supportive about it. All my coworkers, friends, and family knew that I would be keeping my name.

I don’t mind it when people call me “Mrs. Dude.” I get a kick out of it when people call Calla Lily Dude “Mr. Blossom.” However, I ran into a major problem with someone assuming that I was taking the Dude last name….

So, designing my own beautiful wedding album went off without a hitch, and the album that was shipped within 1 day of placing an order, but it took over 2 weeks to get to me at no fault of Shutterfly…

Why, you ask? Because my apartment manager assumed I would be taking the Dude last name… and took it upon herself to not keep my last name on our mailbox directory. Apparently, UPS will not deliver a package to an address if the receiver is not listed on a posted directory. Good for UPS, bad for me!

It took a week and half of back-and-forth between me, my apartment manager, and UPS. I got the album delivered, but my last name has not been added to the mailbox directory yet…

So, the moral of the story is to be more up front whenever your name is concerned, whether you are changing or not. While people should not assume that you are going to change your name, you can’t assume that people are going to double-check with you about it either.

We did it! I can now officially write my first post as Orchid Blossom…or should I say Mrs. Orchid Blossom!

We made it through both our ceremonies and are now busy packing for our move tomorrow, but I wanted to say a quick hello to everyone before any more time flew by.

We tied the knot!

Both of the ceremonies went off without a hitch and turned out to be fabulously fun days. Our Halloween wedding turned out just as I envisioned. It was wonderful to see all the hard work and planning we had done come together the way it did…and I had a blast partying and dancing into the wee hours of the morning!

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So a friend recommended that I look into Jessica Klepac for invitations. Not only are these invitations amazing looking, but they are also very affordable!! Would you believe I’ll only be spending about $40 on my invitations? Granted, I only have a few to send out, I still thought this price was great. Here is a picture from her portfolio:

Is her work not fantastic? You can ask her to design something for you and she will ship them to you wherever you are. I contacted Jessica and she was great to talk to and very nice. I’m going to be using her for our save the dates and our invitations. I will definitely post pictures when those are available!

When we selected our photographer, we already planned on making our own wedding photo album using an online service. There are many services out there, so I suggest researching which one is right for you. I looked at a lot of sites, like Snapfish.com, Picaboo.com, and Blurb.com.

After this research, I choose to go with Shutterfly.com. I found the site easy to use and I had a blast creating our wedding photo album. I used my favorite photo for the album cover after using the tools provided to make it a sepia tome: Continue Reading

If I were to have a flower girl in my wedding…this would have to be one of their outfits! I am loving the tutu look for ME…and even more so for a little girl. My niece will turn one just about two weeks after our wedding and I would love to see her in one of these tutus.  They are hand made and range in price from $25-$60 for a custom color.

These are all from the Etsy seller, bbstutus

This will be difficult without seeing my dress…but, unfortunately, I can’t post it. My fiancé follows all of my blogs. Yea, it is sweet of him but not when I want to show you the dress!

Anyway, think: Retro Glam. Marilyn Monroe, Rat Pack, etc. There is some jeweled detail on the dress… I am looking for a large cuff bracelet or several bangle bracelets in a jeweled pattern of squares, rectangles, triangles, ovals, you name it.  For my earrings, same jewels but a drop earring, nothing round or hoop-ish.

This is my jewelry inspiration from Haute Bride:

What fabulous jewelry ideas have you found?

Photo books seem to have become a very popular way to easily add a personalized touch to any one of life’s events – from new babies to new houses, its a fun DIY project that you can cherish forever.

I’ve seen many buds post here about their personalized photo books, and became more and more intrigued about creating a book of my own using the engagement photos that Orchid Dude and I took.

I had explored a few sites and checked out what they had to offer in terms of design and overall look, and through the recommendation of Canadian Living Magazine, I decided to check out Picaboo.

Picaboo.com

In addition to creating a book with our engagement photos, I wanted to turn it into a guest book so that I could easily share them with my wedding guests.

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Whenever I receive wedding invitations, two things come to mind: I can’t wait to see the bride in her dress and I can’t wait for the cake! Some people will probably be more eager to have the free food and drinks…but hey… what can you do?!?

From SweetThings Blog

Cake tasting was the one thing that I looked forward to the most in wedding planning. I pictured plates full of sweet, sugary goodness and I wanted to taste every cake in town! Well, timing and this little thing called Diabetes really didn’t allow for all of that cake tasting to happen. So, we selected our baker and went to two tastings with them.

It was important for us to have a cake that was both visually appealing and appealing to the taste buds. I wanted to capture each dessert craving with each succulent layer.

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As you may recall, me and Calla Lily Dude both wore engagement rings, which were simple wedding bands worn on our right hands.

We switched our rings to our left hands during our ceremony, after we said our vows.

"With this ring, I join my life with yours."

Since I was fresh out of college and blew my savings on the trip to Italy where we got engaged, our rings were inexpensive sterling silver. We planned to upgrade to white gold before the wedding, but it got pushed aside in the flurry of all the other wedding stuff we had to take care of…

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So lately I’ve been trying to decide on what would be a good, inexpensive way to decorate the tables at my Cuban-themed wedding. I’m kind of at a loss when it comes to what I should do to stick with the “Cuban” part of things, so I decided to just choose things that Freesia Dude and I like.

I was browsing the lovely Amore Bride etsy shop and found these wine centerpieces:

I thought that would be a cute and functional way to decorate, but I’m also scared that it’s not big enough to be a center piece. What do you think? I’ll have to tell you my final decision on centerpieces when it comes to me!!