Chair Addict

Hive I have a confession to make. I’m an addicted whos hopelessly hooked on chairs. It’s a horrible addiction that eats up precious square footage and on a monthly base cost me money in the form of storage fees. Currently our tiny little home is filled with over 12 chairs with 3 alone taking up space in our bedroom but oh how I love all my chairs regardless of the space they eat up. I was looking for a way to incorporate this love of mine into our wedding day when I stumbled upon this picture-

Image Via Greenweddingshoes.com
Photo By Walter Pieringer.

Mini Eames chairs as cake toper and not just any chairs but the Eames lounge chair of my dream the one that I have made Mr. CC promise me we will own once we buy a home and become real adults! Loved it, wanted it, and had to have it! That is until I showed the pic to Mr. CC and he flat out said no, in his exact words he refused to have his likeness compared to something the size of a chair. Aye, men and their random moments of vanity.

Since Mr CC vetoed my chair cake topper I’ve been on the hunt for a way to bring a little chair love to our wedding. What do you guys think of vintage chair thank you cards?

Image Via Etsy designed by Storybymia

I can wear my love around my neck and sport one of these Modern Eames Necklaces.

Image via Etsy Designed by Tiderdesign

I can follow in Mrs. Taffy’s footsteps and slap these oh so lust worthy Eames Stamps on our invites. Since the stamps were limited edition and are no longer in production this might set us back a pretty penny but i still love them.

Image Via ATI Stamps

Or should I keep it classic and add some flair to our chairs?

Image Via weddingchicks.com Photo by Sara & Rocky Photography Signs created by the bride

At the beginning of our engagement I had this grand idea of finding and reupholstering mismatched vintage dining chairs for us to sit in but as time ticks by I think I’ll have to abandon that plan in favor of one of the ideas above.

Has your groom had a random moment of vanity during your wedding planning? How are you incorporating your loves into your wedding?

Inappropriate First Dance Song?

Mr CCandy and I don’t have a “song”. If pressed we’d probably say Why Can’t We Be Friends by War but more for comedy reasons than sentimental. Couple our lack of song with our taste in music that tends to favor rock and we have a potential case of inappropriate first dance songs.

The first song we considered for our first dance was You Really Got a Hold of Me by She & Him (also considered by the lovely Mrs Ribbons). It’s truly a beautiful song and the length is perfect for a first dance but I’m not sure the lyrics “I don’t like you but I love you” and “Oh ho ho you treat me badly” are the message we want to send during our dance.

Up next is The New by Interpol. Besides being one of our all-time favorite bands I love the lyrics but the song is super long and the instrumental that starts around the 3 min mark can get a little intense.

And finally we have Summertime by My Chemical Romance. This song makes me happy. I love the us against the world vibe it has but I’m a little concerned about the speed of the music and I’m not sure I want to go so Emo for our first dance.

My heart is leaning towards the She & Him song but I’m torn between the not so wedding friendly lyrics and my love of the music. What do you think we should do? She would say eff it and go with the song we love even though the lyrics aren’t appropriate or should we keep looking?

Why Weddings?

It happens to most Brides at some point in their engagement they will be questioned by well intentioned (or not depending on their motives) friends and family regarding the importance and prudence behind having a large and or “expensive wedding”. On the occasion that Mr CCandy and I cross paths with one of these well intentioned people we usually mumble something about our traditional families and quickly change the subject but sometimes friends I really want to let them have.

I want to tell them about all the hurdles we’ve overcome to be the couple we are now and why it’s important to celebrate our commitment with our nearest and dearest. I want to ask them about this so called house they claim we can purchase in lieu of a wedding and were in the hell they think we can find a house in LA for 15k down. Tell them about how much we value the institution of marriage and believe that it’s a precious right that unfortunately is not available to everyone and thus it needs to be celebrated in the hopes that it one day will. And if all that still doesn’t satisfy their curiosity and if I’m feeling particularly emotional I may even take it one step further and tell them about Mami CCandy. Share with them her health struggles and her illness and let them know that even though her health may be stable now I want to give her one day were we don’t have to worry about lung function or trial medication were we can just bask in the glow of family love.

A wedding to us is not just about a fancy party with fancy dresses and pretty pictures, it’s about the moments and memories we’ll create. Yes it’s expensive, more expensive than any other party we’ll plan in our lives, but at the end of the day our wedding day will cost less than 1/5 of our combined annual salary and less than the cost of a used economy car. In the course of our life time we will earn and spend that sum many times over. We’ll buy cars and homes, lots of lattes and fancy dinners but no purchase and no experience will be as memorable as our wedding day.

To those people who like to tell brides that it’s just one day I’d like to respectfully disagree. Our wedding is not just about the one day in June but about the 10 years we’ve spent together as a couple. It’s about the year and a half we’ve spent planning and all the memories created in that time. Some of my favorite moments from our wedding have already come and gone. I will always remember our closest friends excitement over being asked to be in our wedding party, the time spent side by side with Mr. CCandy crafting details for our wedding, afternoons spent with our moms talking wedding and weekends spent shopping for wedding supplies with friends.

I understand that in our economy it’s a privilege to have the expendable income that affords us the luxury to have a wedding celebration regardless of the size and budget. Mr CCandy and I have chosen to spend the expendable income that we do have on our wedding and all we ask is that you respect our decision.

This is what I would tell those well intentioned questioners if I was bold enough to say it their face but since I’m not I’ll continue to just mumble about tradition to those that ask. If really pressed I may even tell them a little bit of the truth and share how excited I am to treat our guest to one hell of a party full of love, laughter and free flowing cocktails and tacos!

Hive how do you handle the criticism surrounding weddings?

The Bridal Cherry on Top

Oh veils. What is it about a yard or two of tulle attached to a comb that can make you feel so bridal?

Image via Stylemepretty.com / Photo by Corinna Raznikov’s

I have a love hate relationship with veils. In theory I love them in all their frothy dramatic here comes the bride wonderfulness but in practice I’m not a fan. They get in your face (duh that’s the point right?) they can get in your way and for our tiny little wedding a veil might be a little too much. Sigh…I love them even if there too much for our wedding so I’ve decided to indulge in my love in moderation and sport a birdcage veil on our day.

After some shopping I’ve decided that a delicate tulle birdcage veil was exactly what my day of ensemble needs. Something like this-

Photo via weddingchicks.com Veil by Tessa Kim

Or this-

Veil via Twigs and Honey

Or even this-

Veil via Twigs and Honey

And if I was bold enough this-

Veil by Tessa Kim

As of right now I think I’m leaning towards the first one. It’s just enough veils to feel bridal but not to much that it overwhelms. I’m also a big fan of the puffiness of number two and the last one is so dramatic and lovely that it makes me rethink my whole bridal look.

Anyone else feeling the love for the tulle bird cage veil? What are you ladies topping you wedding day look with?

Put a Pin on It

A couple weeks ago I had the pleasure of sitting down with BM S and SD to discuss all things bridal shower. The girls pretty much had all the details handled but there was one element that I volunteered to take the lead on and that was the favors. Like the lovely Mrs Socks lately I’ve found myself swooning over fabric flower pins like these from Emerson Made.

source

I knew the style and feel of these playful pins didn’t quit jive with the overall look and feel of our wedding but our shower now that’s another story.

I know it’s a little odd for the bride to be creating her own shower favors but with all the other tasks the girls are taking on I didn’t want to burden them with another project and to be honest the crafty girl in me was itching to take a crack at creating some of these little beauties of my own.

Since I absolutely hate hand work (I blame my Sample Making I teacher) I had to come up with a way to create the look of a flower with little to no sewing which is how I came up with these-

All you need to make these little guys are a small or medium pom pom maker, chiffon and jersey fabric scraps, and some thread. They come together super quick and If you want to make them into pins like mine all you need to add is some felt scraps a pin back and hot glue.

Once you have all your supplies together prep your fabric by cutting it into long thin strips. I highly recommend you stay away from any quilter cotton fabric as it doesn’t really shape well in pom maker and just looks like a mess once you’re done.

With your fabric strips ready simply wrap them around the pom maker until both sides are full. Once completely wrapped snip the fabric along the ditch and tie together with embroidery thread.

Remove from the maker and give it a quick fluff between your hands and you’re done! If you want to add a pin back all you need to do is take a scrap piece of felt and cut a circle large enough to glue your pin back to. Take your glue gun and add a small bead of glue and gently press onto your felt circle.

Once cooled take your pin and felt circle and apply a generous amount of glue to the back and press onto the back of your flower and you’re done!

Easy peasy flower pom pins with no sewing!

Oh and if you’re a bride trying to green up her wedding these poms can easily be made by slicing up some old t-shirts. The black pom above was actually made using the sleeves of one of Mr. CCandy old t-shirts!

Take a Picture It Lasts Longer

The other night while I was looking through our vendor contracts it dawned on me that I never shared with you ladies our wedding photographer. Like most brides today photography ranked pretty high on our priority list second only to the venue and food. Photography was so high on our list of priorities that I actually began searching and contacting potential photog’s before Mr. CCandy and I had official set or date or even started planning a wedding. I know I was an eager beaver but let’s be honest folks searching for a photographer is kinda just an excuse to look at wedding porn and believe me friends I looked at a lot of porn during our search.

I first stumbled upon our photographer website during our search for a venue and I actually shot off an inquiry email to her at the same time I was contacting the venue. I was super disappointed when I heard back that she wasn’t booking for 2011 for another 4 months and had to anxiously wait until the first opportunity we had to meet with her and reserve our date. So who exactly is this awesome photographer that kept us waiting? Well folks meet the wonderful and talented Heidi Ryder.

One of the first things that jumped out at us when we first stumbled upon her work was her ability to capture the emotion of the day in every image she takes.
I was also happy to see a large diversity in the couples and wedding she features on her blog. Let’s face it’s easy to beautifully capture perfectly styled weddings with model couples but seeing her wonderful images featuring weddings of all sizes and couples of different ethnicities gives me piece of mind that we’ll end up with wedding pictures just as beautiful as those featured on her website.

Our e-pics with Heidi are scheduled for early May and I’m giddy with excitement to see what wonderful magic she’ll work for us with her camera! Tell me Hive what about your photographer won you over?

All Images by Heidi Ryder Photography