Let's get suited up!

Here are a few of the guys in their tuxes and my review of my vendor. They all looked great!




Mens Wearhouse-Tukwila
C- I know mistakes can occur but rudeness just isn't what I wanted to deal with. I worked in costumer service for years so bad customer service will totally kill an experience for me. At the wedding show in January I paid $10 to get $25 off all our tux rental at a free grooms tux with 5 rentals. We placed our tux orders a few months prior to our wedding date. All the men came in and were measured. The people at the store were totally nice and helpful during that visit. Then it came time for the tux pick up.
Mr Butterscotch and one of the groomsmen went in two days prior to get their suits just as requested. Well the groomsmen jacket was the wrong size. It was too small. So they asked that he come back in the store tomorrow at 5. Uh problem our rehearsal starting at 6 on the dot. But as long as it was for sure ready at 5 he would be able to get to the church in time. I called the store later that night to confirm the order would be ready at 5 that day or hopefully I could get it when I went in to get the ring bearer tux in the morning. I was totally nice. Here is how the conversation went:
Mrs Butterscotch-Hi, I am calling about a tux rental
Store-Oh, hold on I need to get someone that can help you
MB-Ok...On hold for 10 minutes
Store-Hello
MB-Hi I have a question about a tux
S-oh sorry hold on...a few more minutes pass
S-Hi how can I help you
MB-I have a question about a tux
S-What is your question (hooray finally, some help)
MB- I have a groomsmen who had a jacket in the wrong size yesterday and he was told to come in tomorrow and pick it up at 5. I wanted to confirm it would be ready at 5 or maybe a little sooner.
S-Our truck comes in normally around 5 so we will have to unload the truck and sort through it so it maybe a little after 5.
MB-Ok. Here is the situation, we are having our rehearsal tonight at 6 so is there a way you can have the tux jacket at the top of you "sorting list"
S-No. The jacket will be here when the truck gets in and we will get it for him as soon as we can. It is coming from another location
MB-Alright, can I go to that location and pick up the jacket? he will be in at 5 like he was told to be and hopefully it will be ready to go.
S-No.
MB-Uh...(waiting for an elaboration of why I cannot go to the other store)...
MB- Ok then, he will be in at 5 like he was told to be and hopefully it will be ready to go.
At this point I am a tad bit annoyed, mostly because the long hold and the semi tone from the sales lady. I still needed to go pick up the ring bearer tux so I figured I would double check on the 5pm arrival time.

I arrive at the store the next morning and no other customers were there.
MB-Hi I am here to pick up a tux and check the status of another one.
S-Ok go to our tux desk.
I go back to the tux desk two girls are sitting there chatting neither looks up to acknowledge I am there at first, and they do I got the look as if I was interrupting them.
MB-Hi I need to pick up the tux for my ring bearer.
She get his name and goes get the tux
MB-Ok great thanks, Now I have another tux for this groomsmen the jacket was the wrong size, I guess a truck comes in today with the new size. What time will it be here?
S-after 5
MB-(dratz!) Great thanks. Now if the ring bearer jacket doesn't fit what time do you open so we can get a replacement.
S-(totally rude)Uh well... he really needs to be here now, and if it doesn't fit then we need to know by 3.
MB-(uh ok I was just asking)The thing is he is in summer camp so he wasn't able to come with me to run around the day before the wedding. And I won't actually see him until tonight at the rehearsal.
S-Well then there is nothing we can do if the tux doesn't fit.
MB-Nothing, you don't have any extra sizes kept in case this happens?
S-No, it is all at our warehouse.
MB-Ok, thanks.
At that point she obviously didn't want to deal with answering simple questions, so I left with the tux completely annoyed. So here is by beef with the store, they were rude. Also the lack of not having spare sizes at the store for quick fixes on there mistakes seems inefficient. I totally understand mistakes happen and in the end everyone tux fit. But I would not advise this location due to the lack of good customer service from the staff. The tuxes were in great shape and the guys looked good in them. The cost per tux was $100 (with the $25 off). It was a little steep but I got the look that I wanted.

Morning sadness

As of yesterday the Butterscotch's have been married for one full month. I am loving all the extra moments we share together now. The only thing I am not loving is when I have to leave in the morning and he is still sound asleep. Most day we leave at the same time but his days off fall on days I have to work. So on those mornings it is so hard for me to leave. I just want to stay in bed all snuggled up and warm next to him. I get a pain in my heart when I leave. I finally fessed up to his about my morning sadness and he just kissed me on my forehead and said "I like it when you leave, I can stretch out" But then he laughed and gave me a kiss. Between us, I don't think he was joking!
Does anyone else have this problem?

Here comes the bride....

Our ceremony was perfect! And I am not just saying that because it was my wedding, it really did go very smoothly. At five o'clock and preceremony pictures are over. I had one more look at my self, dress, veil, earrings, necklace, bouquet all check, ok lets get this show on the road, I was ready to go.

Time to go and hide before guests arrive.

The outside of our church. We got married at Mount Baker Park Church and they are wonderful. The pastor met with us many time during the past year he was patient and never judgemental. He really made our premarital counseling all about what was best for us.


The stained glass windows really set the ambiance.

Guests start sitting down


Line up ladies


Our wonderful church coordinator begin to light candles

Are well all here...

I was wasn't picky at all and I kept the music really tradition. The moms and the girls all walked in on Ava Maria by Schubert

Tears of joy!

The doors are opening

Here we go! I walked down the aisle to Bridal Chorus from Lohengrin by Wagner




Yeah! We are getting married!


Everyone looks happy!


Whoa! That went by fast! Kiss, love you babe!

I am now a Mrs!


We hide away while everyone went outside. We had a few moments to ourselves to really enjoy what we just did.
The Church bells began to ring so it was time for our fabulous rice toss exit to the reception!



Up next its time to party!

Making it my own

A few months back I mentioned I was making a change to my dress. http://www.weddingbee.com/2007/06/28/new-dress/. Originally my Private Label by G dress went straight across in the back. I knew my dress was the the best for my body and it really had all the elements that I wanted in a wedding dress. But something was missing...there was something that I just knew I wanted to be different. It wasn't until the dress arrived and I had my first fitting that I realized I need some extra pizazz in the back. When I went in for my second fitting I asked the seamstress what could we do to have it dip in the back. A few pins later she was ready to start my dip. I think the results turned out great! I loved the back of my dress. I really felt like the dress was a little bit more of my own and not like any other bride.
This is the back after I had the dip detail added.


Here is the before from knotbio of southerngrl *her dress is also in a different color than mine but you get the idea :)

Posed vs. Candid

I wanted really wanted a mixture of both posed and candid shots throughout the day. We all have seen the wedding albums were it is just page after page of forced poses. No matter how many times I watch Top Model I still don't have my model pose totally perfected. So rather than worry about that I wanted to make sure we had many candid pictures throughout the wedding. I really want to be able to look at our pictures in 50 years and have them look like a day in motion.
But then I started thinking the benefits of having posed pictures can also be timeless if done in a natural way. I was very lucky to have a good photographer that made this happen. I had a mental list of posed pictures I wanted captured beyond the bride and groom shots. For example I really wanted to be able to capture all of our families together, my siblings and I needed a new picture together as well and a individual shot of us with each bridal party member.
Then their is was grey area of pictures types that i didn't know about until I started to take my pictures. They are I will loosly call posed candid. They are pictures that look candid but they are actually somewhat posed.
When you hire/hired your photographer what style of photographs did you request more or less of?
Here are a some of my favorite posed and candid pictures.
I love this one because it is posed (Tor asked me to stop and look back), but it looks somewhat candid(mostly cause I didn't know what I was doing :)).

Posed sibling picture

Then candid ones when we went looking


This was during a bridal shot when our niece decided she wanted to run and play so it turned into a candid!

This is a posed bridal group shot.

Ok I went a little over buget...

But it was worth every penny! When I originally started reviewing our wedding budget with my dad we allotted $200 for flowers. I know some of you are the "WHAT!?!" Well the thing is Mr. Butterscotch and a few of our other family members are very allergic to pollen and even have a skin reaction to grass and flowers. So I didn't really see a need to have a large floral budget. I thought I would find some practical alternative. Well after a few months of looking into other ideas I decided to at least see what a florist had to offer. I went into each meeting with only one request, my bouquet had to have Iris's in it. I met with about 6 florists and while their ideas were great, either the price was all wrong (i.e. too much) or I just didn't really click with them. Since we originally didn't have a large floral budget we decided to reviewed the estimates thus far, I had quotes ranging $1400-$5000. Based on my needs we agreed $2000 was more than enough to allot to flowers but of course I was going to do my best to come under that.
My last florist I had to meet with was Kendra at Loves me Flowers www.lovesmeflowers.com. At this point I was ready to resume my alternative ideas search. But once I sat down and talked with her, I had hope again for flowers. Kendra was very knowledgeable of the different types of flowers and what I could or could not get away with for allergies. Bonus for me was Kendra was familiar with our venue she came up with centerpieces that would compliment the room and incorporate iris and hydrangea! She is also very nice, I can easily say she was the nicest florest I met with and wasnt the least bit turned off when I really did not have many ideas of what I wanted. She was more than happy to help guide me to what she thought would work with the room and our colors.
Her final estimate was very affordable and she was willing to work with me if that wasn't within my budget. But her quote was well within our budget and as soon as I had the "ok" I speed dialed Kendra to book the date! :)
On the wedding day Kendra was right on time and as soon as she brought in my bouquet at the church I knew I had made the correct choice in having Kendra do my flowers. It was breathtaking!
Here are a few shots of the flowers by Tor Clausen.
My bouquet had white Iris and white roses.


I just loved how the flowers are so striking against their dresses.



The groomsmen and my brother/usher wore the purple iris

My brother aka the usher

The groom, my dad and grandma wore all white iris. His Mom and Dad white orchids. This picture is funny because my grandma was cold so she left her sweater on, it was like 80 degrees out. Gotta love the Grandma!

So for under $2000 I was able to get
1 Bridal bouquet
5 Bridesmaid bouquets
8 boutonnieres
16 centerpieces
cake flowers
tea lights for all the tables
and Kendra was even nice enough to throw in a gift table arrangement!
My guest were able to take the centerpieces home which was a huge hit!
Here are a few candid shots at the reception so you can see the centerpieces.


Our ring bearer at the gift table before the reception started with our complimentary bouquet. P.S. Check out my last minute DIY card box!