The Perpetual Party Planner

The Party of Our Lives: All Good Things Must Come To An End

2011-03-23T06:12:00.000-07:00

Well, chickadees, the time has finally come. After a full year and a half of writing about our wedding between three and four times per week, I'm finally out of words to say about our day. The process of planning the wedding was filled with joy, happiness, stress, tears and just about every other emotion that falls in between. Mr. Cool and I experienced a ton of highs and lows during our fifteen-month-long engagement, but I can honestly say that I wouldn't change any of it for the world.

Words cannot describe what a truly rewarding experience it has been to create and write for this blog. I went from no followers to a whopping 117, some of whom have become "real life" friends. With your support and encouragement, I've re-discovered my crafty side and pushed it to limits I never thought possible. Meanwhile, you've all inspired me with your beautiful weddings and amazing stories. I truly cannot thank you enough.

So with these words, I'll leave you with a few of my favorite images from that drizzly October day on which I finally became a Mrs.

To Mr. Cool, I can't believe that it's already been five months (to the day!) since you and I tied the knot. It's been an amazing ride, and I can't wait for what's next!

As for me, I'm not completely going away - I've been bitten by the blogging bug, and fully intend to return with a brand new platform for my random musings. I had hoped to get my new blog up and running by the time I ended this one, but you know what they say about the best-laid plans. I'll be sure to post here with the new link when I actually get something on there that's worth reading. And of course, I'll still be commenting on all of your blogs.

Mrs. T., this one is for you!

Good-bye my lovelies! Keep the party going until I come back :)

XOXO,
Party Planner Gal

*All photographs by Paige Morrison.

The Party of Our Lives: Our Wedding Video!

2011-03-21T06:11:00.000-07:00

You may not remember me blogging about our search for the perfect wedding videographer, and that's because Mr. Cool and I decided early on that videography wasn't very important to us. After our wedding day came and went in the blink of an eye, however, I may or may not have regretted this decision. I'm not talking about a ton of regret, but enough to make me doubt the little discussion, if any, we had regarding videography.

Imagine my surprise when our good friends, Mr. V and Mrs. N, surprised us with this compilation of wedding highlights that they captured on their Flip video camera! While I wasn't sure what to expect when Mr. V told us he was working on our wedding video, I certainly did not anticipate the beautiful, lighthearted and thoughtful video that he ultimately delivered to us. It's clear that a lot of work went into creating this video. I hope you enjoy it as much as Mr. Cool and I do!

I've already watched this video more times than I care to admit. A special thanks to Mrs. N for helping Mr. V with the music selections. And to Mr. V, thank you so much for capturing our wedding on video in such a beautiful and honest way. Mr. Cool and I are so grateful that you took the time and effort to create this for us. We will certainly treasure it forever, (or at least for as long as YouTube is around)!

Mr. N in action at our wedding. Photo by Paige Morrison. You may also recognize him as the handsome groom in this post from way back when.

Did you splurge on videography? If not, were your friends able to capture some great footage of your wedding day?

The Party of Our Lives: Mishaps (Part Two)

2011-03-16T06:21:00.000-07:00

When we left off, I had shared some minor snafus I ran into on our wedding weekend due to my not taking proper care of myself and a last-minute emergency that prevented my cousin/MOH spending the night before our rehearsal with me. In this post, I'll cover four teeny, tiny things that went wrong on our actual wedding day. These issues were so minor that they're almost not worth mentioning, but I've decided to blog about them anyway in the hopes that future brides can learn from my mistakes. Moving right along . . .

Number Four: Not Packing an Emergency Kit for Myself

Do you remember the little emergency kits I made for my bridesmaids a few days before the wedding? Here's a refresher in case you don't:

personal photo

These little kits contained hairspray, tissues, Listerine strips, gum, Colgate wisps and Softlips lip balm. Everything my bridesmaids could possibly need, right? Well, for some reason, I didn't think to make an emergency kit for myself! I guess I just assumed that there would be five of these laying around in case I needed to borrow from one of them. At one point during our cocktail hour, I remember feeling like I wanted nothing more than to brush my teeth.

Bridesmaid Miss P accompanied me to the bride's room, but unfortunately she had forgotten her kit and we couldn't find another one laying around. Miss P ended up saving the day by running to the guest bathroom to steal a bottle of Listerine from our bathroom baskets. Although it did the trick, I would have killed for one of those Colgate wisps in the moment.

Lesson learned: pack a toothbrush or the equivalent on your big day!

Number Five: Quasi-Flower Fail

I have nothing but good things to say about our florist, Carolyn from Diablo View Florist in Antioch, California. From our bridal party bouquets, to our aisle decorations, cocktail table arrangements and reception arrangements, she absolutely nailed the bright, fall look we had hoped to achieve at our wedding:

I loved the way the beautiful, bright yellow flowers brought a pop of warm color to our wedding without looking too quintessentially "fall." So imagine my shock when I took a peak at our ceremony room and saw orange and red flowers mixed into the altar arrangements. I take full responsibility for this mishap, since I never explicitly told our florist that I did not want any red or orange flowers at all. At the end of the day, the arrangements were still beautiful, and they actually complimented the hints of red in the mandap nicely.

Lesson learned: if there is a color that you absolutely do not want to pop up in your flowers, let your florist know! I assumed I was safe since "all sunflowers are yellow." Um, wrong. There are red-orange sunflowers too. If you don't believe me, please refer to Exhibit "A" below:

Number Six: Not Having a Back-Up Plan for my Bustle

I mentioned previously that someone stepped on my French bustle and it ripped away from the top layer of chiffon on my wedding gown. While my seamstress did include an American-style bustle as a back-up plan, neither I nor my bridesmaids bothered to learn how to use that bustle since I was dead-set on sporting the French one. Big mistake, since I spent most of our reception holding my bustle in my right arm like this:

And this:

Yeah, not so cute. At one point Miss P pulled me aside and tried to figure out the American bustle, but then Lady Gaga's "Telephone" came on and I had to dance immediately. As a result, a bunch of our reception photos show me holding wads of my bustle in my right hand. At one point, I think I my have hit people on the dance floor with my bustle to try and get their attention. I had tons of fun, but in hindsight it probably would have been a classier move to let Miss P figure out the American-style bustle when she tried to do so.

Lesson learned: have a back-up plan for your bustle, and have someone in your bridal party practice not only your preferred style, but your back-up style as well!

Number Seven: Not Taking the Time to Fully Enjoy Some of the Things we Planned

My number one regret of the evening is that this is the only photo of myself with my new husband in our Fotomio photo kiosk:

photo by Fotomio

Back when we initially signed up for a photo kiosk, I had grand visions of Mr. Cool and I spending tons of time in front of the camera with our vintage-style props. Unfortunately, we just didn't have enough time to make my vision a reality. As it was, I was lucky to remember to pull Mr. Cool off the dance floor toward the end of the night so we could get some photo kiosk time, however brief it was. Looking back, I wish we'd made this more of a priority.

Likewise, Mr. Cool and I didn't really get to enjoy any of the cakes and pies from our dessert buffet:

Again, there just wasn't really time for us to sit back and enjoy dessert. At one point toward the end of the night, (probably when we were making a mad dash for the photo kiosk), Mr. Cool grabbed a fork and started eating banana cream pie right out of the dish! Don't worry - our guests were pretty much done with the dessert buffet by then. And the groom's germs don't matter on his wedding day, right?

Lesson learned: Designate someone to make sure that you enjoy all of the little details that you have worked so hard to plan! Our wedding day was so filled with excitement that it was hard to remember to take full advantage of everything in the moment.

And that concludes my wedding-day mishap list! In the grand scheme of things, none of these mishaps really mattered, nor did they detract from the sheer joy and happiness Mr. Cool and I felt at our wedding. Overall, we were actually pretty lucky! Our wedding day was nearly-perfect, and I know it's because of all of the planning we had done during our fifteen-month-long engagement.

Up next, our wedding video, courtesy of our good friend, Mr. V!

Unless otherwise noted, all photographs by Paige Morrison.

The Party of Our Lives: Mishaps (Part One)

2011-03-14T06:23:00.000-07:00

I almost titled this post as "The Party of Our Lives: What Went Wrong." But the more I thought about it, nothing really went wrong on our wedding day. Of course, there were a few minor glitches, but I seriously doubt that anyone's wedding day ever goes off without a hitch. Looking back, I can honestly say that if given the choice, I wouldn't change a thing about it, mishaps and all. So with that, here's my list of minor glitches, and the things I should have done to avoid them.

Number 1: The Weather

If you followed my blog during the third week of October, it won't come as a shock to you that I was completely bent out of shape about the rainy weather forecast for our wedding day. While there's not much I could have done to change the weather, I definitely could have changed my attitude about it. Instead, I chose to spend m last week as an engaged woman in frustrated tears and anxiety over something over which I had zero control.

At the time, it seemed like the end of the world. Looking back, I can't believe how ridiculous I was during those days. While it still tugs my heart strings to see gorgeous photos of sun-dappled weddings that have taken place in our venue's courtyard, I have come to terms with the fact that we were married on an uncharacteristically drizzly October day. And honestly, the gorgeousness of our ceremony space almost made me forget that we had ever planned to have an outdoor wedding. Almost:

Number 2: My Health

The Perpetual Party Planner

The Party of Our Lives: All Good Things Must Come To An End

The Party of Our Lives: Our Wedding Video!

The Party of Our Lives: Mishaps (Part Two)

The Party of Our Lives: Mishaps (Part One)

The Party of Our Lives: Horah and Dessert

The Party of Our Lives: Just Dance!

The Party of Our Lives: First Dance

The Party of Our Lives: Speeches

The Party of Our Lives: Cake!

Featured!

The Party of Our Lives: Introductions and Dinner

Happy Friday

The Party of Our Lives: The Details, Part Three (Our Reception)

The Party of Our Lives: The Details, Part Two (Our Ceremonies)

Happy Friday

The Party of Our Lives: The Details, Part One (Attire and Accessories)

The Party of Our Lives: Photo Kiosk Fun

Happy Friday

The Party of Our Lives: Cocktail Hour

The Party of Our Lives: Our Hindu Ceremony

Happy Friday

The Party of Our Lives: Costume Change

The Party of Our Lives: Our Catholic Ceremony

Happy Friday

The Party of Our Lives: Down the Aisle

The Party of Our Lives: In the Vineyard

Happy Friday

The Party of Our Lives: Formals

The Party of Our Lives: Venue Tour

Happy Friday

The Party of Our Lives: Our First Look

The Party of Our Lives: Becoming a Bride

Happy Friday - Christmas Eve Edition

The Party of Our Lives: Pre-Wedding Gifts

The Party of Our Lives: The Boys Get Ready

Happy Friday

DIY New Year's Eve Party Invites

The Party of Our Lives: The Girls Get Ready

Mangia! Mangia!

Happy Friday

Friday Evening Before the Wedding: We Rehearse

Friday Afternoon Before the Wedding: A Welcome Break

Friday Morning Before the Wedding: DIY Flower Arranging

Happy Friday

Thursday Before the Wedding: Gifting Our OOT Guests

Wednesday Before the Wedding: Lunch With My Co-Workers

Semi-DIY Thank You Notes

Happy Friday

Happy Thanksgiving

(Not At) Home for the Holidays

The Aftermath of a Wedding

Happy Friday

Let Them Eat Cake!

Our Big Apple Honeymoon: The Food, Part Three And Good-Bye

Our Big Apple Honeymoon: The Food, Part Two

Happy Friday

Our Big Apple Honeymoon: The Food, Part One