Since we rocked an iTunes playlist for our music instead of a DJ, I wanted to share with ya'll the complete music sets for our wedding. At the end of the series, I'll let you know what worked, what didn't, and if we would have done anything different in retrospect. I'll also talk about logistics and the details of our self-emceeing!
But to get there, we have to start at the beginning. The ceremony music.
Pre-ceremony music: We started this playlist about 30 minutes before the ceremony began, so our guests would have music to listen to as they waited. Remember, all the ceremony music needed to be "fitting of a Christian worship ceremony."
• "Praise to the Lord, The Almighty" by David Nevue
• "Simple Gifts" by Jim Brickman
• "Amazing Love (You Are My King)" by David Nevue
• "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" by David Nevue
• "Joyful" by Jim Brickman
• "How Great Thou Art" by Jim Brickman
• "Wedding Bells" by Jim Brickman
• "Words Left Unsaid" by David Nevue
• "Jesu" by Jim Brickman
• "If You Believe" by Jim Brickman
Processional:
• "Hallelujah" by Vitamin String Quartet (the Paramore cover) - for family
• "Bless the Broken Road" by Rascal Flatts - for bridal party and bride
Communion/Thanksgiving: We decided to serve communion during our ceremony instead of doing any kind of unity candle (or alternative) ceremony.
• "Your Love" by Brandon Heath
Recessional: We did get our pastor's permission to use this!
• "Throne Room (Star Wars)" by John Williams
What music did you play/are you playing in your ceremony?
Monday, May 30, 2011
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Break It Down Now
I didn't get a chance to share our RSVP breakdown with you before the wedding, but since I'm always interested in what percentage of invitees attend weddings, I figured I'd take care of that now.
I chose to break down our list a little differently than just "local" and "not local." This is because both of our extended families live within four hours of the wedding. While I wouldn't call them "local," they are close enough that the majority attended the wedding, and I didn't want these numbers to skew our numbers for legit out-of-towners.
176 people were invited
48 were local (27%)
55 were in-state family (31%)
72 were out-of-state family, or friends more than two hours away (we'll call this OOT to keep it simple) (41%)
Of all those invited:
128 attended (73%)
48 did not attend (27%)
Of those attending:
41 are local (32%)
52 are in-state family (41%)
35 are OOT (27%)
Of those not attending:
8 were unused plus-ones
(We only gave plus-ones to our bridal party, those who were in long-term dating relationships, those who were living together, and those who were engaged. Spouses of all married guests were invited, of course.) (17%)
7 are local (15%)
3 are in-state family (6%)
30 are OOT (63%)
All in all, we had about the number of "yes" responses that I expected. I had estimated early on that we'd be hovering around 130 attendees, and I'm glad we could keep it at that.
Mom Hyena was pretty surprised though. She told me at the beginning of our engagement that only about half of people invited show up at weddings, and didn't believe me when I expected such a high number of people to come!
Were you surprised by how your RSVP numbers broke down?
I chose to break down our list a little differently than just "local" and "not local." This is because both of our extended families live within four hours of the wedding. While I wouldn't call them "local," they are close enough that the majority attended the wedding, and I didn't want these numbers to skew our numbers for legit out-of-towners.
Thanks, Dad.
176 people were invited
48 were local (27%)
55 were in-state family (31%)
72 were out-of-state family, or friends more than two hours away (we'll call this OOT to keep it simple) (41%)
Of all those invited:
128 attended (73%)
48 did not attend (27%)
Of those attending:
41 are local (32%)
52 are in-state family (41%)
35 are OOT (27%)
Of those not attending:
8 were unused plus-ones
(We only gave plus-ones to our bridal party, those who were in long-term dating relationships, those who were living together, and those who were engaged. Spouses of all married guests were invited, of course.) (17%)
7 are local (15%)
3 are in-state family (6%)
30 are OOT (63%)
Yay!
All in all, we had about the number of "yes" responses that I expected. I had estimated early on that we'd be hovering around 130 attendees, and I'm glad we could keep it at that.
Mom Hyena was pretty surprised though. She told me at the beginning of our engagement that only about half of people invited show up at weddings, and didn't believe me when I expected such a high number of people to come!
Were you surprised by how your RSVP numbers broke down?
Thursday, May 26, 2011
White and Ivory in Perfect Catastrophe
Like the hilarious Miss Biscuit, what the men wore was of little consequence to me. Mr. Hyena wanted to wear a tuxedo to the wedding, and I agreed that sounded like a good idea (he looks real gooood in a tux). :) So I put him in charge of what he, the dads and the dudes were going to wear.
This is the look we were going for. I'm not sure if this is actually what Mr. Hyena picked, because I have little to no knowledge on dude-wear, but it looks close to me.
Now, we had planned to just go with a white shirt for under the vest and jacket, and we told our Men's Wearhouse consultant this. The consultant asked if my dress was white or ivory, and when I said ivory, he told us we should go with an ivory shirt instead because if we went with white, my dress would look dingy beside the groom.
Uh huh...
I'm calling B.S. on this one. Yes, for the all of four inches you can see of his shirt under his jacket and vest and tie, I'm sure those minute inches of white fabric are going to making me look dingy.
Luckily, my dress came with this fabric shawl-thingiemabobber that I wasn't going to use for anything, so I brought it with me down to the store. I held it up to the white shirt — HA, my dress is white! I held it up to the ivory shirt — HA, my dress is ivory! Either one would look fine. You seriously could not tell the color difference next to my (gigantic) fabric swatch.
I get that they want to make sure the groom looks as good as possible on his wedding day. That's their job, but I think it's terrible to tell a bride she's going to look dingy in the dress that she likely obsessed over for months, spent hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars on, and that she was so excited to wear for her friends and family and new husband. Isn't there a nicer way to convince a bride that an ivory shirt is a better choice for an ivory dress? "An ivory shirt will complement your dress better than a white shirt," perhaps?
Did you have to deal with the white vs. ivory issue?
This is the look we were going for. I'm not sure if this is actually what Mr. Hyena picked, because I have little to no knowledge on dude-wear, but it looks close to me.
image via Men's Wearhouse
With a vest and Euro tie (the patterned one) in this color:
image via Men's Wearhouse
Uh huh...
I'm calling B.S. on this one. Yes, for the all of four inches you can see of his shirt under his jacket and vest and tie, I'm sure those minute inches of white fabric are going to making me look dingy.
Luckily, my dress came with this fabric shawl-thingiemabobber that I wasn't going to use for anything, so I brought it with me down to the store. I held it up to the white shirt — HA, my dress is white! I held it up to the ivory shirt — HA, my dress is ivory! Either one would look fine. You seriously could not tell the color difference next to my (gigantic) fabric swatch.
I get that they want to make sure the groom looks as good as possible on his wedding day. That's their job, but I think it's terrible to tell a bride she's going to look dingy in the dress that she likely obsessed over for months, spent hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars on, and that she was so excited to wear for her friends and family and new husband. Isn't there a nicer way to convince a bride that an ivory shirt is a better choice for an ivory dress? "An ivory shirt will complement your dress better than a white shirt," perhaps?
Did you have to deal with the white vs. ivory issue?
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
A Bee's Life: Hyena Style!
The Bee's Life series is so fun, and I had to get in on the action!
1) How did I find Weddingbee?
You should know right off the bat that I LOVE lists. When I got engaged, I didn't even think to look online for inspiration or planning advice. Instead, I went for ye olde Brides magazine. In that first magazine I ever bought, they had a list of the top 10 wedding planning Web sites. So of course, being the list-freak I am, I added all 10 to my Google Reader. One of them was the 'Bee. Over time, some of them got removed from my blogroll, some just didn't float my boat, some I didn't find very useful ... but Weddingbee fascinated me. Here was a great community of brides! And they liked each other! And they were freaking brilliant! And OMG I wanted to be a part of that so badly.
2) My Application Story
I started blogging WAY before I was even eligible to apply. I blogged about everything. Some of it was not particularly relevant or useful or even interesting to anyone else. I didn't use many pictures. I was over-excited and over-confident, and I sent off my application about two weeks before the eight-months-out limit. I got rejected.
Never fear! I worked on my blog a lot. I edited, I added some pictures, I tried to adjust my "voice" to be more "me." In retrospect, I may have exaggerated myself for the sake of getting a laugh. I tend to do that in real life too, but it wasn't a good representation of myself. My second application got rejected as well.
I waited a while before I applied the third and final time. My wedding was quickly approaching. I knew if I didn't get accepted this time, it just wasn't meant to be. I didn't tell Mr. Hyena I was applying a third time, because I didn't want to get my hopes up, and I didn't want him to get too excited for me in case it didn't pan out.
Over the previous months, I had built up a small audience so I could get used to writing for other people, which I found extremely helpful — it made me really consider what I was writing and how it would be perceived. I revamped my third application and injected more of "myself" into it. This time, I got accepted! I was shocked, and thrilled.
3) What's it like blogging for Weddingbee/being a Bee?
It is FAB. Writing for Weddingbee has been the most fun I've ever had blogging, hands down. I love having people interested in what I'm writing, and I love my fellow Bees. I love love love this community. I love getting new comments and feeling like I'm helping other brides with all my crazy ideas. Mr. Hyena thinks I'm funny because I talk about all of ya'll as if we were BFF in real life!
With that said, I'm going to be totally honest here. In previous "Bee's Life" posts, when Bees commented about how time-consuming blogging is, I kind of scoffed at the idea. "It's writing a couple of posts a week," I thought. "How hard can it be?" Oh, Hive, I had no idea. When I got accepted to blog, I had about 10 months worth of archives that had to be sifted through and edited. In addition, being an active participant in the Hive and writing new posts takes more time than you'd expect. Every time I write a new post, I usually let it sit for a couple days before I publish it, just to make sure I'm saying exactly what I mean.
If you want to be a bloggin' Bee, here's my advice: Write as if you are talking to your friends. Use pictures often, and start carrying your camera with you everywhere. Edit edit edit before you publish. Post your blog link in the monthly blog-share thread to get a couple of extra eyes on your writing — their feedback will be invaluable.
1) How did I find Weddingbee?
You should know right off the bat that I LOVE lists. When I got engaged, I didn't even think to look online for inspiration or planning advice. Instead, I went for ye olde Brides magazine. In that first magazine I ever bought, they had a list of the top 10 wedding planning Web sites. So of course, being the list-freak I am, I added all 10 to my Google Reader. One of them was the 'Bee. Over time, some of them got removed from my blogroll, some just didn't float my boat, some I didn't find very useful ... but Weddingbee fascinated me. Here was a great community of brides! And they liked each other! And they were freaking brilliant! And OMG I wanted to be a part of that so badly.
2) My Application Story
I started blogging WAY before I was even eligible to apply. I blogged about everything. Some of it was not particularly relevant or useful or even interesting to anyone else. I didn't use many pictures. I was over-excited and over-confident, and I sent off my application about two weeks before the eight-months-out limit. I got rejected.
Never fear! I worked on my blog a lot. I edited, I added some pictures, I tried to adjust my "voice" to be more "me." In retrospect, I may have exaggerated myself for the sake of getting a laugh. I tend to do that in real life too, but it wasn't a good representation of myself. My second application got rejected as well.
I waited a while before I applied the third and final time. My wedding was quickly approaching. I knew if I didn't get accepted this time, it just wasn't meant to be. I didn't tell Mr. Hyena I was applying a third time, because I didn't want to get my hopes up, and I didn't want him to get too excited for me in case it didn't pan out.
Over the previous months, I had built up a small audience so I could get used to writing for other people, which I found extremely helpful — it made me really consider what I was writing and how it would be perceived. I revamped my third application and injected more of "myself" into it. This time, I got accepted! I was shocked, and thrilled.
3) What's it like blogging for Weddingbee/being a Bee?
It is FAB. Writing for Weddingbee has been the most fun I've ever had blogging, hands down. I love having people interested in what I'm writing, and I love my fellow Bees. I love love love this community. I love getting new comments and feeling like I'm helping other brides with all my crazy ideas. Mr. Hyena thinks I'm funny because I talk about all of ya'll as if we were BFF in real life!
With that said, I'm going to be totally honest here. In previous "Bee's Life" posts, when Bees commented about how time-consuming blogging is, I kind of scoffed at the idea. "It's writing a couple of posts a week," I thought. "How hard can it be?" Oh, Hive, I had no idea. When I got accepted to blog, I had about 10 months worth of archives that had to be sifted through and edited. In addition, being an active participant in the Hive and writing new posts takes more time than you'd expect. Every time I write a new post, I usually let it sit for a couple days before I publish it, just to make sure I'm saying exactly what I mean.
If you want to be a bloggin' Bee, here's my advice: Write as if you are talking to your friends. Use pictures often, and start carrying your camera with you everywhere. Edit edit edit before you publish. Post your blog link in the monthly blog-share thread to get a couple of extra eyes on your writing — their feedback will be invaluable.
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Knot: Tied
Well guys, we did it! The Hyenas are officially married!
Pre-ceremony — we didn't want to see each other ahead of time!
Photos by Sister in Law Hyena
I'm so sorry I didn't leave ya'll a "last post as a Miss." I really wanted to, but the Hyenas are really paranoid about posting stuff online. (Hi, I'm Mrs. Hyena, and I am a blogger...) Especially stuff like, "I'm getting married today, and therefore not going to be home. Come rob me."
Like I said, paranoid.
But, I absolutely wanted to let you know how excited I was leading up to our wedding, and how much I appreciate you guys following me and commenting. I love you guys so much! All your support these past few months has meant so much to me. You provided me with inspiration and advice, and our wedding absolutely would not have been the same without you.
I've got some additional projects and posts I want to share while I wait for our pro pics, so stay tuned for that! I can't wait to show you our beautiful wedding day!
I'm so sorry I didn't leave ya'll a "last post as a Miss." I really wanted to, but the Hyenas are really paranoid about posting stuff online. (Hi, I'm Mrs. Hyena, and I am a blogger...) Especially stuff like, "I'm getting married today, and therefore not going to be home. Come rob me."
Like I said, paranoid.
But, I absolutely wanted to let you know how excited I was leading up to our wedding, and how much I appreciate you guys following me and commenting. I love you guys so much! All your support these past few months has meant so much to me. You provided me with inspiration and advice, and our wedding absolutely would not have been the same without you.
I've got some additional projects and posts I want to share while I wait for our pro pics, so stay tuned for that! I can't wait to show you our beautiful wedding day!
Monday, May 9, 2011
Are We Married Yet?
The Hyenas are officially licensed to wed!
In the state of Texas, you're required to get your marriage license within 30 days of actually gettin' hitched. So a few weeks before W-day, us Hyenas scampered down to the county courthouse to get this to-do scratched off the list. (Well, we scampered, but to the wrong county building. They had to direct us to the real courthouse a few blocks over. Fail.)
Anyway, once we got to the right building, the whole process was pretty straight-forward. After forking over $72 and swearing up and down we weren't already married to other people or related to each other (!!!), we got our pretty marriage license! I was surprised; I was expecting it to be some boring-looking legal document, and I'm really glad it's got a little design flair going on! Huzzah!
Did you get lost on the way to the courthouse, or are we just that ridiculous?
In the state of Texas, you're required to get your marriage license within 30 days of actually gettin' hitched. So a few weeks before W-day, us Hyenas scampered down to the county courthouse to get this to-do scratched off the list. (Well, we scampered, but to the wrong county building. They had to direct us to the real courthouse a few blocks over. Fail.)
Anyway, once we got to the right building, the whole process was pretty straight-forward. After forking over $72 and swearing up and down we weren't already married to other people or related to each other (!!!), we got our pretty marriage license! I was surprised; I was expecting it to be some boring-looking legal document, and I'm really glad it's got a little design flair going on! Huzzah!
Did you get lost on the way to the courthouse, or are we just that ridiculous?
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