I'm overreacting about shoes.

I'm having a shoe dilemma. Which is actually kinda funny since it only took me 5 minutes to find a wedding dress I like, but it's taking me MONTHS to find 1 pair of shoes. I wanted a pair of fun, funky, red shoes. Preferably peep toe. Here were some shoes that inspired me:

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These are really starting to grow on me. source

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From Delman's Spring 2008 Collections

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I bought these wedges, mainly thinking that if they didn't work with my dress, I could still rock them with a cute pair of jeans. Welp, with jeans it will have to be. Not only are they a cream color (too yellowish to go with my dress) they are also made of a canvas material. Still super cute shoes though!

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I also bought these; which are my current contender for our wedding ceremony.

My Dilemma: while they are super cute, they are also 4 inches high, so they super hurt. Plus, my ceremony is on grass so I'm quite concerned about the stiletto heel. Although I guess I could use heel stopper to prevent from sinking into the grass. I guess I'm just not 100% on them.

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I did purchase comfy Colin Stuart slippers to change into after the ceremony. They are 3.25 inches high. They were the closest ones I could find to 4 inches.

I got the red ones! source

Do I suck it up and live with the ones I got, or do I find new shoes that maybe have a heel closer to the slipper's heel height and a thicker heel? Suggestions?

A bouquet of flowers or paper or...

I'm more and more leaning towards holding onto daddy Mek with two arms; no flowers needed.

But in continuation of should or should I not have a bouquet....I really love the look of peonies.

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But I'm not a fan of their prices. Ouch! Carnations, on the other hand, look similar to peonies when bunched together and are great on the wallet. I'm really loving the look of carnations.

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Mrs. Lime's beautiful centerpieces

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I've also thought of doing something less ordinary, like paper flowers.

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I actually bought this Martha Stewart crepe paper rose kit; I'll make sure to post results once I've actually made them.

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How about origami flowers!

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Looking for something less traditional? Check these out!

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Bouquet of Buttons!

Bouquet of Ribbon

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Did you DIY your bouquet or use something other than fresh flowers?

Leis

For those of you who don't know, I'm a budget bride. While my guest list is small (15-20 peeps), trying to plan a Hawaii wedding from the East coast can be quite costly. To save some cash, we've cut out the bridal party and have decide to forgo the traditional reception (more on that later). We also hope to save in the flower department. While flowers can definitely jazz up a place, I can't justify spending thousands of dollars on them (if I had the $$, it might be a different story). Plus, the wedding is in Hawaii; there is sooo much natural beauty, why should I pay for more?

Here's my ceremony site...

photographer: Frank Amodo

So how can I add some color without adding major cost? Awhile ago, Mrs. Cherry Blossom posted this inspirational photo:

I totally lucked out and scored 8 inch, red lanterns from Michaels for .72 cents a piece. Between buying the lanterns and ribbon, I spent less than $25 on our ceremony decorations (with the help of Michaels coupons, of course)!

With only Mr. Mek and I as the wedding party, we are also saving on bouquets and bouts. Mr. Mek and I are doing a lei ceremony. A lei ceremony is the exchange of leis between the bride and groom. We will also be providing leis for our immediate family members.

knottie: Married2MrWright; lei exhange

They also did a lei exchange with all her guests.
Check out her bio for images of the great ring warming she also had!

I will be wearing a 3-strand pikake lei. If you've never smelled a pikake flower, it's sooo yummy!

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Mr. Mek will be rockin' a maile lei.

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Since we're doing leis, should I have a bouquet too? If I don't have a bouquet, what do I do with my hands while walking down the aisle? I picture myself walking down the aisle "raisin' the roof". hehe, kidding. If I do, do a bouquet, it will most definitely be DIY.

Up next, bouquet inspriations!

I'm Uber Amazing!

Mucho thanks to Silvia from s + d- The DIY route to wedding planning! for nominating my blog for The Uber (AKA Super) Amazing Blog Award!


Uber (synonym to Super) Amazing Blog Award is a blog award given to sites who:~ inspires you~ makes you smile and laugh~ or maybe gives amazing information~ a great read~ has an amazing design~ and any other reasons you can think of that makes them uber amazing!


I'm passing on the love to:

A Wedding in Hawaii. How Original.

Tattooed Bride

Zombiebride

The Sunset House

Isn't She Lovely

The rules of this award are:
* Put the logo on your blog or post.
* Nominate at least 5 blogs (can be more) that for you are Uber Amazing!
* Let them know that they have received this Uber Amazing award by commenting on their blog.
* Share the love and link to this post and to the person you received your award from.
Mahalo!!

Ring Orb-nament

Ring orbs are a great alternative to the traditional ring pillow! Apparently I'm not the only one who thinks so, Mrs. Bell Pepper and Mrs. Kiwi both loved this idea too.

For those who liked this idea but are having problems finding such a thing, look no farther! Here's a lil' twist on the idea...

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And these could be hung on your Christmas tree for years to come in remembrance of your special day. Red Envelope suggests that "write your dreams on the paper scrolls that accompany these ornaments, then tuck them inside the vivid enameled interiors and hang them on the tree. It’s the perfect vessel to hold your hopes for the year"

Thanks Malia for the suggestion!

Our dating years, in book form.

I have a habit of starting craft projects and then never finishing them. There was the pair of bell bottom pants I tried to hand sew in high school, or the sock monkey I never finished and I have a couple scrapbooks that are less than halfway done.

Most of my projects end up looking like this...not finished. source

Last year, when I was a bridesmaid and a friend's wedding, another bridesmaid and I started meeting once a week to scrapbook the bride's wedding events. In 6 months, we were able to scrap all the bridal events; the shower, the bachelorette party, and the wedding. We had gotten sooo much done that we decided to continue to meet once a week and start scrapping our own memories. She worked on a book for her husband and I started to scrap all the dating memories of Mr. Mek and I. ::click on images for larger images::

Mr. Mek and I (with friends) white water rafting in West Virgina.

Chillin' at the beach.

The condo Mr. Mek and I bought!

Our trip to Vegas.

Mr. Mek and I at a Little Brother hip hop show.

I've been working on the book for 5 months now, and I'm maybe halfway done. With a lil' over 3.5 months before we leave for Hawaii (YIKES), I'm hoping to have the book done by then so I can have it on display at our welcome BBQ. I've been working double time to get it done and am real excited to finally have finished something. I might actually finish a craft project! Mr. Mek knows I've been working on it and as much as I've tried to show it to him, he refuses to look at it and wishes to be surprised when it's all done.

Any projects you've been working on that might not be done before the deadline?

A guest at Tony n' Tina's Wedding

Once upon a time, before I had the honor of being a bee, the weddingbee honored me with 10 free tickets to see Tony n Tina's Wedding; an interactive off Broadway play.

Okay, okay, so I wasn't the original winner, but apparently the original winner of these tickets couldn't use them, so they were offered to me. There was no hesitation on my part to accept these "golden" tickets!

I was able to gather and coordinate with 6 of my bestest girls (do you know how hard it is to schedule a date between 7 girls?). We rented a 7 seater mini van and 6 of us drove the 2.5 hour drive to NYC together; the 7th girlie met us in the city.

We got to NYC a lil' early so we stopped in at the M&M store and walked a good mile to try Beard Papa's infamous cream puffs (and moochi ice cream! Yum!).

We knew we would be walking a lot so most of us wore sneakers and carried a pair of heels in our purses to change into later.

A and I chillin' at the M&M store.

Then it was onto the show! We had great, front and center seats. While the show lacked in plot, the characters where wonderful! They did a great job interacting with us and were just too damn hilarious!

The way the show is set up is you're guests at...well..Tony n' Tina's wedding. There was an entertaining ceremony, reception (Italian dinner! Yum!), complete with a wedding singer, dancing, champagne toast, and throwing of the bouquet.

One of the bridesmaids joining us for dinner.

I lil' pole dancing done by the father of the groom's girlfriend; the father of the groom is the one with his hands in the air.

My friend, K is preggers and so was one of the bridesmaids at Tony n' Tina's Wedding. Doesn't the bridesmaid kind of look like Debra from Everybody Loves Raymond?
Actually, 3 of my girls who trekked to NYC are pregnant! K is actually 8 months preggers and was walking around NYC like she owned the place!
Don't worry K wasn't really drinking, we just thought it would be funny to pose this shot.

These girlies were my old college roomies. We went to an art school outside of Philly for photography, so we HAD to pose with the wedding photographer. I asked him if he had a business card and this is what he pulled out of his pocket: Erotic Funerals?! I called the number later, out of curiosity and got the voicemail of someone named Joe. Maybe Joe is on Sal's revenge hit list? hehe. I blurred out the rest of Joe's number so he wouldn't get a million prank calls. Poor Joe.

At the end of the night, the wedding singer belted out a few tunes. I somehow got dragged up front with him. I have no idea what I'm doing in this photo; kind of looks like I'm singing with him (For the sake of all people, I don't sing in public!)

A lil' dancing. J, the girl in the grey pants on the end, is 5 months preggers and doing high-kicks. My friends are unbelievable.

The whole group with a couple cast members.

We were invited to the after party, but we had to unfortunately turn down the offer; we had a 2.5-3 hour car drive back to good ol' Central PA.

Most of my friends have kids (or are currently pregnant) , which makes it difficult for them to attend my wedding in Hawaii. I'm really glad I had the opportunity to have a girls day with them.