I recently went to Rome, Italy for a week of vacation fun in Europe’s boot with Calla Lily Dude. It was kind of like a second honeymoon for us, and it was a little longer than our actual honeymoon. For this trip and our honeymoon, I made myself a honeymoon travel kit that came in handy for my general travel needs and all those romantic moments.

The first thing I did for my kit was create personalized travel-size bottles of my regular products such as body wash, shampoo and conditioner. All you have to do is buy an inexpensive travel set like the one below and use clear labels to personalize it (and I just used a few left over labels from other wedding projects, too).

from http://ecx.images-amazon.com

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As far as Calla Lily Dude knows, we did not exceed our wedding budget… and for the most part, we did stick to our budget. However, there are a few wedding “related” purchases that were not part of the budget. And by “related” I mean the things you never think to budget for because they are not direct wedding purchases like decorations or attire.

For example, because I planned on wearing my glasses at the wedding, I bought new glasses because they matched my wedding colors better than my old glasses. I didn’t need new glasses, and my vision insurance didn’t cover them at the time, but I just had to have glasses that matched my wedding colors.

I did make sure to have my photographer get a few feature shots with my glasses (and Calla Lily Dude’s glasses, too). He created magic in my humble (and totally biased) opinion  using our invitation and the labels for the BBQ sauce from our reception.

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I really loved the copper flowers that Calla Lily Dude and I wore on our wedding day.

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I had such an amazing time at my wedding that I wanted to create a soundtrack that I could listen to any time I wanted to relive the moment (which is at least once a day!), so it made perfect sense to create a wedding day greatest hits album.

http://www.beau-coup.com

To go about the business of making my wedding day greatest hits album, or wedding soundtrack, first I wrote down every song I could remember being played. Then I contacted my DJ to see if he had a play list of the songs that he played. I also asked a few friends and family members if there were any songs that they really enjoyed hearing/dancing to at the wedding.

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Weddings have a way of bringing out the best in some of us. But, they also have a way of bringing out the worst in us, even when we least expect it of ourselves. I already dealt with and got past my bridezilla tendencies, but now I find myself thinking thoughts I never thought I would have…

http://www.entertainmentwise.com

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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.

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

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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You might think after the big day you will be free of to do lists and be done with juggling a bunch of wedding-related tasks… but, trust me, this is not the case. Welcome to the world of the newlywed…

from http://digifree.blogspot.com

…and your new to do list! Imagine that, after two and a half years of wedding stuff, I still have some wedding stuff to do now that we are married. The Nest provides this list of newlywed to dos.

Here is my post-wedding to do list:

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If you remember, I considered not having a first dance at our reception because Calla Lily Dude doesn’t like to dance. But, I am happy to report, that I got my first dance… and it was beautiful!!!

I was planning on having James Brown’s “I Feel Good” as our song, but while watching TV I fell in love with the song in an AT&T commercial. I Googled “ATT commercial song” to find out what it was. So, Landon Pigg’s “Falling in Love in a Coffee Shop” was our song.

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