US meets UK

How much can you love this engagement shoot?

wait for it….

BOOM!

All photos via weddingjojo

Could zombies be the new large red balloons? I sure hope so!

After everyone hit the buffet, we settled in for the toasts. In England, the best man’s speech is longer than in the US and more akin to a stand up comedy routine/roast for the groom. Mr. D’s brother is not that wild about public speaking, so he opted for the US tradition.

It was sweet, funny and brought a smile and a tear to everyone’s face.

Since I had two MOH’s , OZ-MOH began with humorous and touching stories.

Stories, that apparently made me feel I might need a swig or two…

MB-MOH closed the bridal party speeches with a task for Mr.D and I.

She asked him to place his hand on top of mine, and proceeded to let him know that that would surely be the last time he had the upper hand in our relationship.

Mr.D stood, and thanked everyone for coming and supporting us in this part of lives. While not a lover of public speaking, he did a fabulous job.

Then my father went to the mic to give his speech,

and rendered us both speechless- he choked up,

I choked up, we hugged it out.

It was overwhelming to feel the love pouring from our friends and family. The toasts were one of my favorite parts of the day. Hearing how much our family and friends love us is something I will always cherish and the humor and kindness with which the message was delivered with will never be forgotten.

In case you were curious about the detail or DIY aspects of dinner:

the cork place holders turned out well

as did the table settings

(Image via Jenna Cole)

This post was hard to write because I’m still irked by mistakes from our caterer, which I’d rather go over while discussing dinner instead of the reception. The food that was served was not the food we contracted for at the tasting. While much of it was similar, the mains were different and it would have been an easy consultation to make with us. I loved the catering staff the day of, but our coordinator was a huge frustration. I’ll simply say that she chose to ignore her contract and chose to try and shut the bar down an hour early. I was livid, we were having a relatively short reception as it was and removing an hour from it was not in the contract. Since I did not have a DOC, I had to find the caterering coordinator to ask what was going on (in four inch heels and a wedding dress). I couldn’t find her in the kitchen, or in the house, or in the parking lot. I finally asked one of her staff to help me since it had already taken 20 minutes to search the previous places. After finding her I asked what was going on, re-explained the terms of the contract and she agreed to shut the bar down at the proper time and to focus her break down efforts elsewhere. If you’re an MD/DC/VA bride I don’t mind sharing who my caterer was, but I’m choosing not to link to them for this post.

Did you cry (or have a bit of champers) during your toasts? Any major frustrations at your wedding?

All photos from Evan Bishop unless otherwise noted

Curious what happened before?

• US meets UK: The In-Between
• US meets UK: The Details of the Ceremony
• US meets UK: We Get Married!
• US meets UK: Heading Down the Aisle
• US meets UK: Everyone Arrives…Except For My Dad!
• US meets UK: I Can’t Believe We Also Forgot The…
• US meets UK: I Can’t Believe We Forgot The…
• US meets UK: A Spoiler Alert!
• US meets UK: Where I Am Late for My Own Wedding
• US meets UK: Getting Ready
• US meets UK: I Get by With a Little Help From My Friends

After the ceremony we greeted all the people who came to share in our special day

took photos as a newly married couple

grabbed a few formal photos while our friends and family grabbed cocktails and the usual fare. At least, I think they did, I was outside praying that the rain would stay to an infrequent drizzle.

Then we were announced to La Grange by ZZ Top. We saw a band play this on our first date in Austin and chose it to remind us of our beginnings as a couple. Later, I learned the song is about a whorehouse. Cool. It was our plan that after being announced we’d cut the cake to save people from going between the house and the tent. Except, we walked past the cake to our seats, and had to turn around! Whoopsies!

(Image via Jenna Cole)

I love, love, LOVED our cake buffet, our bakery and the delicious cake they gave us on our anniversary. Our cake was originally supposed to just have a single (non edible) flower on top – instead they did an arrangement that I was completely in love with.

It was SUCH a nice surprise and I smile every time I think of our cake. I can’t recommend them enough!

(Image via Jenna Cole)

We loved all the cakes on our buffet. I’m pretty sure Mr.D and I tried to eat a bit of each flavor…

We cut into our two tier cake (pretty sure I’m thinking “oooo…. CAKE!”)

and I made the ugly cake face that one makes when trying to avoid being covered in cake while wearing a white dress. Neither of us wanted to do the cake smush, but I can see how it might be tempting after the wedding planning process. I kid, I kid!

I should have been Ms. Python with my giant retractable jaw.  Up next? Dinner and toasts of course!

Did you/will you make ugly cake face? Will you smush or no smush?

All photos from Evan Bishop unless otherwise noted

Need a refresher?

• US meets UK: The Details of the Ceremony
• US meets UK: We Get Married!
• US meets UK: Heading Down the Aisle
• US meets UK: Everyone Arrives…Except For My Dad!
• US meets UK: I Can’t Believe We Also Forgot The…
• US meets UK: I Can’t Believe We Forgot The…
• US meets UK: A Spoiler Alert!
• US meets UK: Where I Am Late for My Own Wedding
• US meets UK: Getting Ready
• US meets UK: I Get by With a Little Help From My Friends

Uh… hey…. it’s me, your favorite split shank purple shoe…. Just so I don’t give you a case of recap blue balls (again) I’ve actually finished writing them and am publishing them one at a time. Being a Weddingbee blogger has meant so much to me and I apologize for taking so long. In case anyone who was here in 2009 is still around, thanks for keeping me company! If you’re new to the hive – welcome! I’m a semi-old timey  Bee who is about to celebrate her two year anniversary!

*Where we last left off*

Before I move ahead with the reception, I just wanted to take a moment to highlight how several projects turned out. Some I didn’t even blog about (for shame!).

Those pomanders? That everyone helped so much with? Looooooooved them and for me, they were so worth it! (Big ups to Mr.D, my cousins Megan and Rachel, my sister Regan, my best friends and MOH’s MB and Beth, and Candy Corn). It takes a big village to make 10 pomanders. They’ve since visited Mrs. Cowboy Boot in Colorado, my cousin Megan, and now one of Megan’s friends!

(image via Jenna Cole)

Mrs. Kitten had posted about the lavender bags from Mint Blog and I enlisted my sister in the construction. Mr.D redesigned the tag, I filled the bags and my sister sewed them with her friend. As a side note, I wish I had used less lavender per bag and created little sachets (the kind you put in your drawer to make things smell nice) with a cute tag as a favor.  I had enough rice, and could have easily ordered two bags to have been sure and it would have been pretty cute.

A few weeks before the wedding my bridal party showed up to help me assemble the ceremony program fans that Mr.D designed-while Mr.D was out on his US bachelor outing (with my father, BIL, and OZ MOH’s Dad/our neighbor) to Hooters. Oh yes.  The night ended with him coming home IN a hooters outfit – as in, wearing a waitresses’ outfit (don’t worry she had another one to change into). Also displayed in bins were hankies gifted from Mrs. Tulip, OFF mosquito repelling wipes (6 pm ceremony+August+Maryland = total necessity) and lavender packets.

After lots of glue gun burns, corner punching cramps and glasses of wine – they were finished.

I also borrowed vintage handkerchiefs from Mrs. Tulip, and found mosquito repellant wipes to set out for guests.
Though not exactly a detail, my mother had the foresight to purchase an aisle runner. She was worried that because of the rain, my dress would get muddy and the lace would snag. During the outdoor photos with the bridal party we learned that yes, in fact my dress loved nothing more than to snag. My dress wanted to get all sorts of friendly with the parking lot, the side walk and the stairs.

And a detail that didn’t happen?

We purchased a large quantity of San Pellegrino Orange and Limonata, and I created signs and zotted purple ribbon to two large galvanized metal tubs. On the afternoon of the wedding we weren’t even sure we would be getting married outside, and made a split second decision to leave them home.

In retro, retro, retrospect, it would have been nice to have them. – but probably not worth the stress of trying to get them assembled (while wearing evening wear) with ice in the buckets prior to the ceremony.
What ceremony details are most important to you?

Can’t remember back to 2 years ago?

• US meets UK: We Get Married!
• US meets UK: Heading Down the Aisle
• US meets UK: Everyone Arrives…Except For My Dad!
• US meets UK: I Can’t Believe We Also Forgot The…
• US meets UK: I Can’t Believe We Forgot The…
• US meets UK: A Spoiler Alert!
• US meets UK: Where I Am Late for My Own Wedding
• US meets UK: Getting Ready
• US meets UK: I Get by With a Little Help From My Friends

Ask and ye shall receive.

<3

d’orsay

Hi, I’m sorry for leaving I really am. I’ve been adjusting to a new job, an injury through which I seperated my shoulder (not recommended) and in general trying to get a hold of my life. I think I have a relative hold on said life, so to thank you for sticking around I’m hosting a giveaway!

I love this game so much and I happen to have an extra copy. Not only to you get a bunch of songs on the game itself, you can purchase additional songs to dance to. My personal faves are Viva Las Vegas, and Spice Up Your Life – don’t judge me. So, if you have a Wii and want the game yourself, or if you want it to gift to someone else – enter below!

How to enter:

1. Simply comment saying you want to win

2. Tweet “I just entered to win a copy of Just Dance 2 on @msdorsay’s blog http://bit.ly/ibgaK8″ return here and leave a comment to let me know you did!

3. Share on facebook and comment to let me know you did!

Giveaway ends Friday, April 22 at 8pm EST

It’s nice to be back!

I have entered myself in not one, but two weight loss contests. One runs till mid April, and the other goes till August. I typically like to look at dramatic weight loss photos to provide me with motivation to say no to unhealthy habits.  This one really struck a cord with me….

(source)

It’s amazing the amount of unhealthy, organ surrounding fat there can be, and it reminds me why having a  healthy waist to hip ratio is important. Often, the outside appearance is what motivates many towards weight loss – but sometimes it’s good to pause and think about your insides too!

Paying off Credit Card debt is really the “easy” part of this month for us. With Nick’s Christmas bonus we paid off our flights and the remaining balance.  The trickier part is creating a plan for the rest of our finances.

I checked my student loans since I have previously been paying the minimum amount, but that is pretty silly. Especially considering that three of the loans have an interest rate of 2.47% and one has 6.8%! Wowza. So even though it’s the largest loan of the three, we’ll focus on paying that one off the fastest so we don’t lose any more money in interest.

Changing banks. I’d like to switch to  more rewarding checking and savings accounts. Currently, we’re with Bank of America which has been nothing but trouble since we opened our joint account with them. Changing to a no fee checking will save us $108 a year. Banks I’m looking into? Ally, FNBO and ING. First step though, is changing my name at BofA. Since many of these are online banks, they dislike that I have an additional name now and nothing short of the Spanish inquisition will prove otherwise. So it’s easiest if I change my name at BofA, and then try again to open an account.

Retirement accounts. As much as I’d like to set up a separate retirement account, the max I can contribute to my work 401k is bit toooo much at this point in our lives. My new job will match at 5% so we’ll contribute a lower amount till we pay off that big honking student loan above and then increase the amount.

I can hope for a minimum return of 6% on my investments – so it makes more sense for us to pay the minimums on my other student loans (the 2.47% interest) and increase our investment portfolio and emergency savings account since we’ll still (hopefully) make a profit.

What has helped you most on your journey to becoming financially savvy?

I’m hunting for a cute pair of nude or blush pink shoes… but all I can find that I love are these Badgley Mischkas… which I probably shouldn’t buy.

Any suggestions on where to look? I’ve tried Zappos, DSW, Shop Style, Endless, Piper Lime, Nordstrom, Macys and Nine west…. where am I missing?

I have a year of prime for continuing to have access to my .edu email address, and I have kindle…. which usually means we do a fair amount of shopping on Amazon. Oh… and they have almost everything I could ever want. Living Social has a deal today where you pay $10, to get a $20 Amazon giftcard.

Yes please!

Get your deal here!