How to entertain our guests?

Yes, I know we're throwing a great big rocking party for our wedding guests and that should be enough. However, with a 6:30pm ceremony, our out of town guests, even those that arrive Saturday morning, will have a decent amount of time to spare. What ever will they do to keep busy?

To help our guests use their free time wisely, Mr. Turkey and I spent time this weekend creating a section on our wedding website entitled "What to do in Philly". We took this pretty seriously, as we always enjoy exploring when at an out of town wedding and haven't always found a lot of help prior to our trips.

Visiting the Parthenon (Nashville)

Some couples' wedding websites gave us a generic website for information (e.g. a site like visitphilly.com) while others went unattended with a "coming soon" up until the big day. With the former, you can often use these sites as a great resource for browsing, but we've found it's most helpful (and efficient) when you receive feedback from the couple themselves on where you should go!

Can you find us in the bean? (Chicago)

Out of town bags are a great way to get information to guests (love the maps and tourist brochures), but unfortunately it sometimes comes too late, especially when you arrive prior to hotel check-in and have time to wander.

On Videography

When we started planning our wedding, Mr. Turkey and I were 100% set AGAINST hiring a videographer.

We saw videography having a number of "strikes" against it. Besides being expensive, what was the point? We already had a fabulous photographer to capture the moments of our day. We also worried about intrusive filmers. At a recent wedding, we found ourselves tangled up with the videography team on a number of occasions, including when they forcibly removed us from the dance floor to film a message for the couple (liked the idea, not the execution). Many of the guests commented after the fact about the hassle.

And even gorgeous links like Lioness' love story (never even knew this existed!) or Bee preview reels (most recently, Seal) couldn't convince me. I just didn't think there was a "use" for videography beyond sharing it on a blog and posts like Fox's just furthered that point of view. The Turkeys were non-believers.

But then something changed. Well, two somethings changed.

The Invite Dilemma

I don't know about you all, but the guest list was probably the hardest part of planning our wedding thus far. Honestly, aside from that (well, and the venue change), wedding planning has been pretty fun. I couldn't really understand why people found themselves so stressed.

Ha. And then HA again when I think about how I'll probably feel in 3ish months.

Anyhow, back to the guest list. Today I'm going to talk about one particular issue we debated when making our list and checking it twice. That is, the issue of inviting people to your wedding after they've invited you to theirs.

I've mentioned we've attended a lot of weddings together. You might vaguely remember that I once posted about that and think, hmm...was it really that many?

A snapshot of some of the weddings we've attended together
Only 4 of these dresses featured have been re-worn (I have a problem)

In 3 years together, Mr. Turkey and I have attended 32 weddings. That means, if we invited each and every one of these couples, they would account for 64 of our 200ish guests.

Blue for Shoes

There's been a decent amount of shoe talk around the hive the last couple weeks (Snapdragon, Mink, Mole and Coyote have all shared tales), so it seemed an appropriate time to jump in with my own shoe story. I'll keep it short for you, though, as you may be on shoe overload!

I decided early on that I was totally jumping on the colored shoe bandwagon.

I just LOVE photos like this
Yoko and Sean's wedding - Philip Gabriel photography

I'll talk about the rest of my "somethings" at a later date, but for me, it was a no brainer to have my shoes meet the "something blue" criteria. After all, I love shoes and one of our colors is blue. However, it was a serious struggle to find a cute navy shoe that wasn't a pump* / didn't require dye.

I've shared my brand love before, but when looking for shoes, I turned into a bit of a Kate Spade stalker, (not so) secretly wishing that some cute blue shoes would A) be available and B) be on sale. I almost considered writing a letter, but decided I wasn't that desperate.

Turkey's Favorite Engagement Gifts

T'Tis the season for engagements!

I don't know about you all, but it feels like more than half the couples I know were engaged between Christmas and Valentine's Day (is there a stat out there about this, Penguin?). The TV commercials and jewelry stores definitely encourage the behavior, that's for sure.

Anyhow, with all these engagements come great opportunities to shower a new bride (and groom) with love and attention (and presents)! I thought the timing might be right now to share some of the Turkey favorites for engagement gifts. This is a combination of both gifts given and received.

Ringing in the New Year

...with wedding rings!!

We've just returned from a quick upstate NY trip to pick out our wedding rings. Mr. Turkey wasn't the most excited about this part of the process based on our travel schedule and the overall prospect of wearing a ring (more a watch than a jewelry kind of guy). However, when I reminded him the trip would include chicken wings (from either Ralph's or Scubber's), a dinner at the Barnsider including their unlimited salad bar and, most importantly, saved money, he quickly got on board.

As I shared early on, Mr. Turkey had my ring custom designed with a jeweler my family has used for years. Due to this relationship (now including Mr. Turkey), it made the most sense to make the trek north to choose our rings.

Reflections on Marriage Prep

You call it Pre-Cana, I call it Marriage Prep….whatever you call it, I’m here to share today some thoughts on the required course for couples who plan to get married in the Catholic Church.

I’ll back up for a second. Mr. Turkey and I are getting married in the Catholic Church (not 100% sure I’ve shared that before).

This church, to be exact

This was a decision we made together, with the influence of my parents, who are Catholic and raised me as such. To be honest, my parents’ preference would have been to have us get married in the church where I was baptized, had my first Holy Communion and was confirmed…but the 4.5 hour trip required to have the ceremony in upstate NY and the reception in Philadelphia probably wasn’t going to fly with our guests.

With my parents after baptism 

All About Signals

Despite it being months away, I have a bit of bachelorette brain right now.

So, since I don't want to count down the days (because that makes the wedding closer and...scary!), I thought I'd put that energy to good use and share with you another bachelorette party idea!

For this one, all the credit goes to Mr. Turkey's aunt. She did this for one of his cousin's showers and I thought it was so creative and a little different from what I had done before!

Bachelorette Selection!

Thanks to everyone who helped me make a decision about the bachelorette! We must have been on the same vibe because I agreed with you all...

Source

Inspiration, Borrowed

I previously promised that I would share some of the inspiration for our new venue. In fact, when I go back and look, I realized that the only real reception inspiration I've shared with you all at ALL was in my post about the wedding brand. Bad blogger.

I mentioned early on that we were big on making the reception our own and avoiding the "I've seen that before" syndrome. However, now that we are in a more traditional location (with more weddings under their belt), there are likely to be fewer elements that would be completely "new". In fact, we know there are guests who have attended other events at the Rittenhouse (weddings, bar mitzvahs, etc). 

To be honest, after the drama of the venue change, we realized that in the greater scheme of things, being completely unique just wasn't that important anymore.

So, we "borrowed". A lot. 

Inspiration for having both high and low centerpieces
Kristina & Todd's  Rittenhouse wedding - Sophia Negron

Candlelight...and candelabras - how beautiful are they!?!?
Flor & Jared's Rittenhouse wedding - Jennifer Childress Photography

Making it Natural

Makeup.

I thought of it as "make stress", personally. Like other Bees around these parts, I'm not big on makeup. I pretty much rock the natural look...the bulk of my morning "beauty" routine is spent on my hair. My daily makeup application goes like this: some mascara, a little eyeliner (shadow if I'm feeling particularly ambitious), a brush of blush, swipe of lip gloss and out the door. 

OK - if I'm being really honest, there are days when I mix it up with concealer or bronzer.

Anyhow, the truth is, I never feel like I have too little makeup on...but I have definitely had times where I feel like I have too much. So, when seeking a makeup artist for the wedding, I really focused on those who had good reviews by brides who wanted to look "natural".

Bachelorette Planning

After a particularly busy day at work, on a dreary, rainy night, I received the following note from my wonderful bridesmaids.

Lists? My bridesmaids know me too well

The rainy, dreary night was turned around when I thought about the prospect of a fun girls’ weekend on the horizon and all the amazing ideas they had brainstormed. To be honest, I feel like I had almost forgotten about this part of the wedding festivities. Exciting!

However, they had put the ball in my court, which made me a bit nervous, as I was now under pressure to pick a location for the celebration.