leigh2011

It was so nice to relax this weekend. Now I just have to figure out what I am going to do with all of the left over wedding and AHR stuff. At some point I will get up the energy to try and sell some of it. What are you ladies planning on doing with your dress? Mine would certainly need to be dry cleaned if I were going to sell it, but that can be pretty pricey so I don't know if it is worth it in case I can't find a buyer. Thoughts? So I did have the guts to chop off my hair but it doesn't really look like the picture I took in. I think I will need to go back in a month or so for a reshaping. The stylist put so much volumizing stuff in my hair (she even tried to weigh it back down with wax) that when she asked if there was anything I wanted to change I really couldn't tell because it was too poofy. Here is a picture of what it looked like later last night (after some of the volume had fallen out): Paul likes it a lot more than I do at this point - we will see if it grows on me. Pucca - I think most guys prefer longer hair, so I think Paul must be odd. I think I will be wearing a lot of scarves this winter so I don't feel too exposed....

Last night was my At Home Party - and I can say I am honestly so happy my wedding events are over I enjoyed all of them, but I am such a planner (and thus one who stresses) - so it will be nice to not have a constant wedding to do list hanging over my head. Our party was from 8-midnight last night at a smaller reception hall in the area with appetizer foods, cupcakes, beer, wine, and a DJ. Apparently the food was great (I didn't get a chance to have any), but we had a lot left over so we might be reheating that for lunch today. The cupcakes were definitely good - I didn't get a chance to have any of those during the party either, but at 2am when we were back home with the left-overs I had 2 of the different flavors. There was quite a bit of alcohol left over. For ~100 people we had 48 bottles of wine and 500 beers (my husband thinks of his friends as significant drinkers). I bet we probably brought home 10 bottles of wine and ~120 beers. Seems like Thanksgiving at our house this year might bring out the alcoholics in all of us. Complete change of topic - are any of you ladies fed up with long hair that you grew out for your wedding? I was engaged for ~17 months, so my hair got pretty long while waiting for the wedding (it wa already past shoulder length when I got engaged). Now I am soooo sick of my hair that I have an appointment at 1pm today to chop it off. If I have the cajones, I will cut it very short like Sienna Miller. I have heard it is pretty common for brides to chop their locks after the big day..... I really hope I don't regret this! (Paul is the one that suggested cutting it really short) http://shorthairstyles.org.uk/sienna_miller_short_hairstyle_photos.htm

Pucca - I just checked out your planning thread and it was great. I think you should post that last pic on the planning thread (right after walking back down the aisle) in the Happiest Wedding picture thread. I think your wedding pictures posted below are beautiful, but I really love the TTD pictures - esp the black and white one.

Everything looks wonderful! Congratulations on being a Mrs! And I love that last picture....you two look soooo happy. Your dress looks great on you - much better than on the model.

We did the legal wedding with just family and then dinner afterward before we left for our DW. We will also be having the AHR now that we are back. My suggestion would be to have a different and far less fancy dress for your legal wedding so it doesn't feel like it is taking away from your DW and big white dress. I actually wore a red dress (traditional Chinese dress - to honor my husband's heritage) for my legal ceremony, so it was a polar opposite to my DW dress. Although it seems like too many events to you, if having the separate ceremony and dinner is what will make your family happy (and therefore prevent them from creating other drama) then I think it is worth it. Best of luck.

Here is a picture of my escort cards and table numbers. My husband is Chinese, so we incorporated his heritage with the Chinese characters (the tables were "double happiness", "family", "love", and friends"). Because we used a symbol, we were able to make that a focal point of the escort cards. I think you could do the same thing with a photo. I had planned to tie my escort cards to starfish and place them in sand, but honestly I didn't have the energy left to worry about the starfish breaking on the way to Mexico. Instead I used a starfish punch and the wedding coordinator still had the cards upright in sand. FYI - that frame is actually quite small (less than 4x6" opening) and was quite cheap at Michaels.