Before the Mane Event: Bridesmaid Brunch

We've already talked about Wednesday, and I caught you up on my last minute projects that I knocked out on Thursday.  As Rebecca Black will tell you, Friday is next!  I'm so sorry.  You're going to have that song stuck in your head all day now, aren't you?  I can sing "It's a Small World" if you'd like!  No?  Okay then.

Seriously though, Friday is when the fun truly began!  I kicked off the wedding weekend with a brunch in honor of my bridesmaids.  I had reserved a cozy private room in the back of the Flying Biscuit Cafe in Candler Park, one of my favorite neighborhoods in Atlanta.  Since all of the Flying Biscuit locations are so bright and colorful (and since all five of the Lioness Bmaids were Gators), I figured an orange and blue theme was a great way to make my girls feel special.

I brought a blue mason jar which I filled with orange roses...

Then, I gave each bridesmaid a "party favor" of alligator-shaped soaps, as well as orange and blue earrings.  (They also received their bridesmaid gifts of shoes and fascinators that day!)

I also printed individual menus on some leftover cardstock.  I had discussed this menu with the store manager previously, but after he offered to print it out in "something cute, like Comic Sans," I decided to make them myself.

For those of you who are just reading this post to find out about the food (that'd be me if I wasn't writing this), allow me to list the dishes so you don't have to zoom in on that picture.

Appetizers:

• Field Greens Salad & Soup
• Fried Green Tomatoes
• Side of Love (cutest name ever!), which is a black bean cake topped with salsa verde and sour cream

Entrees:

• Egg-stravaganza, your basic breakfast: eggs, chicken sausage, turkey bacon, grits, and french toast topped with raspberry compote and creme anglaise
• Shrimp and Grits, topped with a roasted red pepper and tomato sauce
• Chicken and Black Bean Quesadilla
• Tofu & Tater Salad
• Biscuit Pot Pie, a twist on a Southern classic

Oh, and of course everything's served with a biscuit!

I decorated each place setting with a little monogrammed mug from Anthropologie, as well as a thank you note.

 They're making those faces because I decorated the thank you card envelopes with vintage Disney stickers.

They're making these faces because I included a photo with each thank you card.  Each photo was specific to that bridesmaid and taken early on in our friendship.  The most recent photo was taken in 2004.  Crying ensued.

As I inhaled my food (sorry, no time for a photo), I gazed around at the five women who surrounded me.  For years, these had consistently been some of the most important women in my life.  We became friends as kids, and our friendships grew as we grew.  I felt an incredible sense of pride towards the women they had become.

Then, the moment finally hit me: I was getting married that weekend.

When have you had one of those "reality" moments?  Pretty incredible, huh?

Before the Mane Event: Mr. Lion's DIY Project

Nothing better illustrates the differences between my personality and Mr. Lion's personality than how we respond to a to do list.  I look forward to crossing off each item with pride and a satisfying sense of accomplishment because I'm just a bit Type A.  My laid back husband, on the other hand, needs a deadline.  "This has to be done by when?  Oh okay, I'll make it happen."  But, don't you want to just do it now?  Wouldn't that just make you feel like you could take on the world?!

"Assemble the chuppah" was on Mr. Lion's to do list for months.

For months, our living room was home to 8-foot aspen poles that had nowhere to go.  By the way, we ordered these from Nature's All, Inc., a company that sells aspen and birch poles specifically for chuppahs and arbors.  This way, you can be certain that the width, height, and shape of each pole is uniform throughout.

{via Nature's All, Inc.}

I had also purchased birch flower pots from Save On Crafts.  These were to serve as bases for each pole.

{via Save On Crafts}

About a month before the wedding, Mr. Lion decided that the flower pot bases weren't sturdy enough to support the heavy 8-food poles.  He promptly made a trip to Home Depot, where he purchased cement to fill the pots and wooden dowels to connect the tops of each pole.  Then, these additional materials sat in our living room for a few more weeks.

You'd think that a neurotic planner like myself would be getting a little apprehensive about Mr. Lion's last minute plans, but I know the guy pretty well and I knew that it would get done eventually...even if we had different ideas of when things should get done!

The Thursday before our Saturday wedding, Mr. Lion got to work.  He filled each birch-covered flower pot vase with cement and allowed it to set to the pole.  He drilled holes in the top of each pole so that the dowels could connect at a 90 degree angle.  I hot glued some lace (which I had bought earlier because I like to plan ahead) to two of the dowels.  This allowed the lace to be stretched over the top of the chuppah to cover it, but it could easily be rolled up like a scroll for portability purposes.

This illustrates why 1) I'm glad we have vaulted ceilings and 2) why we need a garage:

And this illustrates how the dowels and the poles connect:

The final product was amazing, especially once our florist added her finishing touches!  The chuppah is supposed to symbolize the home you build together, and ours was a literal symbol of craftsmanship, too!

What DIY projects has your fiance helped with?  Did his timetable stress you out?

Before the Mane Event: Assemble!

Approximately 85% of our final guest list was traveling to Atlanta from elsewhere.  Some folks even came from overseas.  The least we could do is make them feel welcome in Atlanta with some OOT bags.  Y'all sent over tons of fabulous ideas, but I ran out of time chose to create a grocery-themed bag.  I figured a bag of groceries would make me feel at home, so why not?

We began our OOT bag assembly with a few dozen Trader Joe's reusable bags.

The bags were Atlanta-themed in design, so we decided to fill them with Atlanta-themed groceries!  I was able to buy local pecans and peanuts from the Dekalb Farmer's Market for a pretty reasonable price.  We bought in bulk, so we divided the ridiculous amount of snacks among lots of small gift bags.  Each OOT bag got a small bag of peanuts and a small bag of pecans.  Lion Corgi was very confused as to why there were mixed nuts spread all over her living room.

Please ignore the disaster that is in the background of that last picture.  Mr. Lion was working on our chuppah, and we don't have a garage.  Don't worry, that post is on its way!

Remember the cards we ordered via iPhoto to personalize our OOT bags?  They turned out great!

{image by Evan Hampton / via Weddings by Evan Hampton}

Since Apple's iPhoto lets you print on both sides, we decided to fill the reverse side with fun places to go.  The only problem was that we had a very limited amount of space.  So, we stuck to the bare necessities: Chick-Fil-A, Starbucks, and places to watch the NCAA Men's Basketball Semi-finals.

We punched a hole in the corner of the card.  Then, we tied it to the grocery bag with some baker's twine.

We really wanted to include some peaches among our groceries, but they were nowhere to be found.  Peaches apparently do not grow in Georgia in late March.  At first, I was disappointed that the fruit behind our state's nickname was totally unavailable.  How could we have an OOT bag based on The Peach State without any peaches?!  After about the fourth grocery store, I got over it.

We may not have had the most important Georgia food item, but we were able to get our hands on the most important Atlanta food item...Coca Cola!  We bought a couple of cases of Mexican Coke (also known as Kosher Coke) at Sam's Club.  These sodas are made with cane sugar, rather than corn syrup, and they taste magical.  I recently learned that this is similar to a Dublin Dr. Pepper...something I'll definitely need to try some day!  Anyway, the bottle was glass and vintage-looking, and the label was in Spanish.  They were a big hit.

Spoiler alert: the Coke may have made an appearance later in our wedding...

{image by Evan Hampton / via Weddings by Evan Hampton}

What did you end up putting in your OOT bags?  Was it similar to what you had initially planned to include?

Before the Mane Event: Mikvah

We got a flash drive in the mail yesterday.  It was a flash drive filled with over 1,000 image files.  And they were awesome.  We're still waiting on photos from our second shooter, and I still need to sort through all of them, but I figured we could get started on the non-wedding recaps in the meantime!

The Lioness wedding weekend kicked off with something a little out of character for me: I did something religious.  I choose to immerse myself in a mikvah.

 {image by Janice Rubin / via The Tablet}

A mikvah (also spelled mikveh) is a ritual bath used by Jewish women, and sometimes by Jewish men.  Orthodox Jewish women are required to immerse themselves in a mikvah after menstruation and childbirth, and before their own wedding.  For the rest of us, it's optional.

The water used in a mikvah has to be "living water," that is, it has to be naturally occurring.  The water has to be drawn, so that it isn't subjected to ritual impurity.  A mikvah must be deep enough to allow for complete immersion.  Yep, there's a lot of rabbinic debate about height and volume when it comes to this!  I used the facilities at B'nai Torah in Sandy Springs, a suburb of Atlanta.  They have a hashakah mikvah, which means that it uses an inner chamber and an outer chamber.  The water from the outside chamber is pure and untouched, while the water in the inner chamber is regular old county-supplied water.  The two waters "kiss," thus purifying the inner water so that it's suitable for immersion.  Oh, and it's heated...phew!  It basically looks like this:

{via Chabad Potomac}

And here's a fancy one:

{via Chabad Flamingo}

And here's a really old one:

{via Bible Places}

The individual using the mikvah must fully immerse themselves in the water.  This means that nothing is allowed to come between them and the water, so clothing, jewelry, nail polish, even band-aids have to be removed.  Rabbinic tradition considers hair to be part of the body, so hair has to be down and combed in order to ensure contact with water throughout.  However, most rabbis say that dreadlocks are okay.  True story.

So why do all of this?  It seems like such an ancient tradition, and any ritual mentioning menstruation can sound a little...umm...intimidating.  Well, I found this explanation from the National Center for Learning and Leadership via Mayyim Hayyim Living Waters Community Mikveh and thought it summed everything up perfectly:

Immersion in water softens our form, making us malleable, dissolving some of the rigidity of who we are.  This allows us to decide who we wish to be when we come out of the water.  The water changes us neither by washing away something nor by letting something soak into us, but simply by softening us so that we can choose to remold ourselves into a different image.

Pretty cool, right?  I was pretty psyched.  I brought Sister Lioness with me to serve as my attendant/spiritual adviser.  We arrived at the synagogue and I got set up in the locker room.  I showered, put on a bath robe, brushed my teeth, combed my hair, and made sure all of my make up and nail polish was removed.  Sister Lioness handed me my little prayer cheat sheet, as I left her in the locker room and stepped into the private chamber.

Some synagogues will ask you to bring a rabbi along with you, and he or she will help you with your prayers and everything to make sure the ritual is legit.  This synagogue was less conservative and pretty laid back...they even told me that they use their mikvah for non-Jewish rituals!  Yay for open-mindedness!  I took advantage of this flexibility and googled around to find prayers that really spoke to me.

This is the part where I really step out of my comfort zone: talking about my experience with religion.  It's always been a very private thing to me.  I don't really follow Judaism strictly, though I do consider myself to be Jewish.  But, I was really excited about the resources I found to use as my prayers, and I wanted to share them with you.  Besides, some brides might be looking for something similar!

At the mikvah's edge, I read the following from Anita Diamant's The New Jewish Wedding:

Our mothers Rebecca and Rachel were betrothed and began new lives at the gently flowing water of the well. Our mother Yocheved gave renewed life to her child Moses in the ever-flowing waters of the Nile.  Our sister Miriam danced for the saving of lives beside the overflowing water of the Sea of Reeds.  Water is God’s gift to living souls, to cleanse us, to purify us, to sustain and to renew us.  I am now prepared to leave behind that which I no longer choose, to become one with another life, to become a creator of new possibilities, to become a partner in sharing the joys of life, to teach and to learn the lessons of married life.

 I stripped, and stepped into the mikvah.  I don't know if it was the two types of water, or just my imagination, but it was the warmest, softest water I'd ever been in.  It was softer than a bath or hot tub, almost like an ocean without salt.  I immersed, and when I came up I recited the following:

 Praised are you, God of all creation, who sanctifies us with Your commandments and commands us concerning immersion.

I immersed a second time and read the following:

I will betroth you to me forever.

I will betroth you to me with righteousness and with justice,

with lovingkindness and with compassion.

I will betroth you to me in truth; and we will come to know God.

(from Hosea 2:21-22)

Before the final immersion, I read:

My God, Creator and Sustainer of all life, may I step forth into a life filled with continued wisdom and deeds of kindness.  May I step forward into a  life filled with the blessings of new beginnings.  May I be a loving mate, partner, and friend to my beloved.  Be with me as I enter this new time in my life.  May you, God, who has blessed my coming forth into this day, bless my going out into this life, fulfillment, and peace. (from Charlotte Goldberg Mikveh, Park Synagogue, Cleveland, OH)

 I immersed one last time and recited one last prayer:

Blessed are you, Majestic Spirit of the Universe, who gives me life, sustains the rhythms of my body and brings me to this moment of renewal.

 

I'm not a very religious person, but I have to say this was one of the most incredible things I've ever done.  I got out of the water feeling a way I've never felt before, and there are simply no words to describe it.  I was overcome with joy.  I felt happy to be marrying Mr. Lion, thankful for everything I had gone through in my life that had led me to him, at peace with all of the plans and details, and eager for the future.  I really tried to be present for every word I spoke, and to really consider the depth and significance behind each statement.  I truly felt prepared to enter my marriage.  The rest of the weekend took on a different tone, and I think it's because I had those words in the back of my mind.

What about you?  Are you participating in some kind of religious ritual prior to your wedding?

Coming Soon to a Blog Near You

When we first started wedding planning, we set up a budget according to our priorities.  The first priority, of course, was food.  We set aside a little for flowers, a little for music, and a little for more food, err, cake.  After my cousin's wedding, I fell in love with her videographer's highlights reel and decided to add another priority: documentation.  Fortunately, our good friend is a very talented photographer, so we were able to use our "friend discount" to hire him at an affordable rate.  Then, we shifted some things around in our lower priorities to make room for videography.

Our videographers, Three Ring Media, became some of our favorite vendors instantly.  They not only saw my vision for a vintage and whimsical wedding, they took it to the next level, adding their own touches of creativity.  We had a ball when we filmed our pre-wedding interviews with them, and we were eager to work with them on the big day.

They did not disappoint.  They showed up on our wedding day with props and a bunch of ideas inspired by Disney/Pixar's "Up," thanks to our hot air balloon proposal story...and probably my slight obsession with Disney in general.

We're still waiting on the finished product, but they sent over something to hold us off in the meantime: a cinematic trailer to our "love story!"  Enjoy!

{Mr. Lion & Mrs. Lioness' Cinematic Trailer by Three Ring Media / via Vimeo}

I'm a Married Spud!

Last Saturday began as any ordinary weekend morning.  No wait, that's not right.  It was the opposite of ordinary!  I woke up before the crack of dawn, my apartment became instantly crowded, and I spent the next few hours in a cloud of make up and hairspray.  The cloud cleared, and my bridesmaids raced me over to our wedding venue.  I met Mr. Lion under the chuppah, and we exchanged some very significant words.

Yep, Mr. Lion and I are now married!  It's crazy, it's surreal, and it's AWESOME!  Married life is good, and our wedding was absolutely spectacular.  Every time I talk about our wedding, I feel like one ginormous cliche.  "It was the happiest day of my life."  "Everything was perfect."  "It was better than I ever dreamed it would be."  I'm embarrassed to admit that all of these words have come out of my mouth, but I don't know how else to describe it!  It really was the perfect day.  We had gorgeous weather, our decor came together really nicely, and everyone keeps telling me how much fun they had!

Our friends and family are starting to post pictures on Facebook, and it's been fun seeing our wedding through their eyes.  While we're waiting on our pro-pics, I thought I'd leave you with this photo (taken by a friend's Blackberry) in the meantime.  It was the first photo we were tagged in on Facebook, and I think it's my favorite so far because it perfectly sums up the emotions of the day.  Mr. Lion is gesturing the universal symbol for victory, I'm holding my dress like a little girl pretending to be a princess, and our guests are smiling and waving flags.

I just wanted to poke my little married head in and let y'all know that everything went swimmingly.  The wedding was fabulous...and our minimoon, though brief, was very relaxing.  I promise not to keep you waiting too long for recaps!

See you real soon!
Mrs. Lioness

Through Despair and Hope, Through Faith and Love

These past few days have been a blur of happiness, excitement, and laughter.  It's overwhelmingly wonderful to be surrounded by so many of my favorite people.  In all of the last minute preparation, and in all of the final plans, it still didn't feel real until about 5:30 Friday afternoon.

We were rehearsing at our venue.  I locked arms with Papa Lioness, ready to practice-walk down the aisle.  Sister Lioness, my fabulous MOH, had been everywhere I needed her to be for nearly a week.  That moment was no different, as she stood in front of me.  I watched her walk away, towards the altar.  My dad and I stepped forward, ready for our turn to practice.  Mr. Lion came into my line of sight, and our eyes locked.  I know you can't see goosebumps from yards away, but I knew from the look on his face that that's what he felt.

The Lions were ready.

Screencap from Disney's "The Lion King" / via Magical Screencaps

Tonight, the sun sets on almost 20 months of wedding planning.  For a moment, though, it also looks like it's rising.  Though my journey as Miss Lioness ends tonight, tomorrow will mark a new chapter in my life...a chapter I can confidently say that we are finally ready for.

Hive, I don't even know where to begin in thanking you for everything you have done for me throughout this journey.  I have so much love for this community, it just makes me want to burst with joy.  You have provided ideas, advice, and insight that most people couldn't even begin to formulate, and I am forever indebted to your expertise.  More importantly, you have provided me with so much unconditional support.  Your comments have brought both smiles to my face and tears to my eyes.  You've made me feel so welcome here, and I'm honored to now call many of you friends.

Mr. Lion, there is nothing that I want more in the world than to marry you tomorrow.  I love you with all of my heart, and I can not wait to be your wife.  If seeing you across the aisle gave us both such a thrill during rehearsal, I can't even imagine how incredible that moment will be tomorrow.  Thank you for being so wonderful this week; you really are the most amazing man I've ever known.

Hive, I'll see y'all on the other side of things!