Category: Life

I see now it’s been nearly a month since I last posted. I’ve not been sewing. I’ve worked a little on Jordan’s jacket and gotten some good feedback from Robin on it too. I’m going to see my Dad and help him arrange some things the first weekend of May and have spent an inordinate amount of time on the Tampa Bay craigslist looking for used Berninas. The prices are easily hundreds less than they are in the Baltimore area. Feel free to give me your thoughts on the old Bernina 830, 930 and 1130 if you have or had one of those machines. There’s a 1130 in Brooksville (where my dad is) that I’m partial to (automatic buttonholes). But, I won’t be there for another month.

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We had our 180 person wedding reception a couple weeks ago and I did not wear my wedding dress. I wanted to. But, umm, well. It just didn’t fit. Here’s the thing, pre-wedding I was traveling to China, stressed out and purposefully dieting to lose a few creeper pounds. And the end of last year and the beginning of this, I was engaged in a grief spiral that was best soothed with wine, french fries and Otterbein cookies. I tried on the wedding dress and Jordan said, ‘You’re not going to be happy with this this.’ And he was right. I wasn’t.

So, I wore the cream dress from the rehearsal dinner that I had made in China.

It’s a beautiful guipure lace and a copy of a Valentino dress. That weekend of trying on dresses and finding that most didn’t fit was a good wake up call for me. I’ve cut out weeknight wine, processed food, refined sugar, treats, snacks etc. I’ve also started exercising again (I’d gotten off track due to a sprained ankle, pulled back muscle, a bout with the flu, two infections — honestly, my body kind of shut down mid December and has only started to cooperate the last two weeks). I’m pretty good now. It was just a bad few months. The party was a lovely start to this next phase.

My dad  (above left) came in to town. He was kind of the life of the party. He’s talking about getting on to Facebook. Which means I will likely need to get off.

My inlaws who threw the party (Ugh. I look a little like a stuffed sausage)

This dress has a side zipper. I asked for that so the lace motif in the back was maintained. But, it is a beyotch to get in an out of.

And you all know my bestie Trena. Plus Lisette, Robin and two other ‘internet sewing friends’ who don’t have blogs (Shirley and Elizabeth — who is also a neighbor!) were able to come. That’s the nice thing about having ‘just’ a reception. We were able to invite WAY more people than say to ‘just’ a wedding.

All in all a wonderful wonderful time. We had friends and family from all over (New York, Chicago, DC) come in to town. That’s my oldest brother and my neice with me above.  It was a little overwhelming and a whirlwind. But, I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Oh! In honor of going old school and ordering an actual wedding album last week, I made a gif (below). I cannot express to you how proud I am of accomplishing this. The gif I mean.

Even though I ‘own’ all my photos I still got a photographer’s album.  One of my fondest memories as a kid was going through my parent’s wedding album and asking them questions about people and what was going on. Plus, this way I can force everyone who comes over to look at my photos.

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We’re visiting Jordan’s brother in NY soon. I need fabric for a black tie dress event at the end of the April, tuxedo vest fabric for Jordan for the same event (buying a tux was expensive enough) and a second black tie dress for middle of May. Pray for sewing inspiration and good fabric finds. I am terrible fabric shopping under time constraints. Or, when people are watching / waiting on me. Never mind two dudes in the garment district.

OK. Back to the 30 thank you cards I still owe!

We got our wedding professional proofs yesterday. And, I am so thrilled I can’t sit still. I hope you can stand one last wedding related post.  And, if you can’t, I don’t blame you. I have been there. Bored off my rocker. I did poll two sewing/ internet friends and they said it was acceptable for me to do one last wedding post.

Here’s the slideshow the photographer made. And, below, one I’m working on for our post-wedding party next month. I needed to do a separate slideshow with more family photos included. It is obviously not as good as our photographer’s. Because, she’s amazing. If you need a photographer in the Tampa Bay area, I can’t recommend her enough.

I’ve been asked how we pulled off a wedding in six weeks. The answer is internet shopping and friends. We could not have done it without our friends and family.  A very talented photographer friend of mine told me years ago that expensive weddings are great to photograph because they have lots of details and are pretty. So, I was determined to (not spend a ton of money) make sure there were plenty of details to photograph.

I also got over the idea of having a timeless wedding per se. It doesn’t exist. Your wedding is of the moment because it’s what is happening to you at that moment and captured on memory card forever. I fully expect these to look dated in a few years. I chuckle now when I look at my parent’s album from the 70s or photos from the 80s. There are totally trends in wedding photography.

Finally, when you have 20 people, you can kind of do whatever you want. We used a pop-up wedding company that set up the wedding site. We went to a nice restaurant for dinner. Easy peasy and really really perfect. I was low stress and high happiness.

I just wanted to share some quick details from the wedding that made it really special.

It’s Veteran’s Day here in the US so I’ll start with a photo of my mom.  I am wearing the pearl necklace she gave me for my 30th birthday. The headband is an eBay find. My earrings match my ring and were a gift from our officiant and my dear dear friend. My ring is a vintage piece that he picked out with the help of my friend Liz. I had nothing to do with it other than saying, ‘I don’t want a diamond’.

These shoes were the devil.  Pretty, right? Evil. I wore them about five minutes (no, seriously. Five minutes) before I switched to a more comfortable pair. Who knew flats could make your feet burn like fire? Thank you Zappos for taking them back!

We chose to have an interfaith wedding since neither of us are converting and our religions are mutually important to both of us. My father walked me down the aisle instead of both my parents. We recited both Christian vows and Jewish vows and had readings from both the new and old testament. There were prayers in English and Hebrew. And, our Jewish officiant, who is an internet ordained minister, spoke about the role of marriage and the church. We also had a chuppa, Jordan wore a talit, broke glass, we signed a ketubbah (designed by an artist friend of Jordan’s) and the men in his family wore kippahs. I love that our service reflected both our religions and cultures. I’m Caribbean and he’s a nice German Jewish boy 🙂

Jordan wore his father’s prayer shawl. We talked about using his late grandfather’s, but it was already framed. And I got him the Baltimore Raven’s yarmulke as a gift. The buttonaires are from Etsy.

As are these menus and program fans. Both are from Etsy.

The fans were a total wash. It wasn’t warm, it was super breezy. No one needed a program. But, they look really good in photos.

Kind of the same for our invitations. By the time I mailed these, everyone coming already knew about the wedding. But, I wanted an invitation for framing. And, again, they look good in photos. You’d be horrified to know how much 10 nice invitations cost. I can’t fathom sending 100 of these!

We hired a steel drummer who played Caribbean music for the ceremony as a nod to my West Indian roots. TOTALLY WORTH IT.  Before we walked down the aisle, my dad was singing to me and we were dancing to the calypso. It was g-r-e-a-t.

My flowers were just ok. I wanted to upgrade from the included package, but couldn’t stomach $210 for flowers. Isn’t that bananas?? I added pins to personalize them.

The US flag for my parents who are immigrants. The Baltimore city flag because that’s where we met. And, my sorority pin since none of my sorors could be there that day.

Here are the plaques Liz made in action.

And, here is the ‘Besheret’ banner she made too. Besheret is a running joke between he and I. It’s the name of the blessings column in the Baltimore Jewish Times. It was my faux dream to get featured in Besheret when I worked for a Jewish organization. Don’t think I won’t still submit it now!

Our cake topper is really fun. Also from Etsy. Liz sent me the link while in China and I just plugged in the information to customize. She even added the headband!  The cake was a gift from my friend Julia. I was so exhausted by the fast planning that I emailed her from China. I was hysterical. I just wanted a cake and everything was crazy expensive (like $200+ for a GROCERY STORE CAKE) and they were asking me questions that I just didn’t care about (colors, flavor, fondant, etc.) She swooped in, ordered the cake and had it ready for us day of. Truly, a lifesaver.

This figurines were the cake topper for Jordan’s German great-grandparent’s wedding. His grandmother brought it down from Maryland for us. Sadly, we won’t be eating cake for our one-year anniversary. We managed to leave it all in the freezer of the hotel 🙁 Sigh.

I also brought these vintage cameras to Florida from home. You know what? I bought these in Australia with my mom! Heh. Again, more props to work with.

I also hired someone to do my makeup in Florida. Obviously, since I have never looked so good in my life, it was worth it. I found her through wedding vendor reviews. And, Google found us our amazing photographer.

So, that’s it. I promise. Last wedding post 🙂