Something Old

Grandma's Ring

When my Grandma Blanche died in the Summer of 1995, my family and I joined my Grandpa in packing up her things and cleaning out his house. He told us that he had no idea where her wedding rings were. He couldn't remember what she had done with them and didn't think she even knew what she had done with them. Maybe she had hidden them away somewhere?
At one point I found a pair of rings that looked like a wedding band and an engagement ring. They had been slipped onto the top of a bottle of nail polish. I was so excited I ran downstairs to the basement where Grandpa was cleaning out a pantry closet. I showed him the rings and he examined them under the light. Nope. Not them. "Probably decoys," he said. Grandma was always paranoid that someone was going to burglarize their home and take her valuables. I get it.
Back to cleaning and packing things up.
Since I inherited Grandma's little feet I got to take home a bunch of pairs of vintage shoes. I also brought home some dresses and a pile of flannel pajamas. I was happy to have some things of hers to help me remember her.
One night I was getting ready for bed and I pulled out one of those pairs of flannel pajamas. As I pulled the top around my shoulders I realized there was something stuffed into the breast pocket. It was a tissue. Honestly, the first thought that crossed my mind was gross. Then I realized it wasn't a used tissue. It had something in it. Something small but substantial.
Tears streaming down my face, I ran downstairs to my Dad who was sitting in his chair, watching TV.

I found them Dad! I found the rings!

We called Grandpa immediately. He cried too when I told him.
We gave him the rings. There were three. One was an engagement ring, one was a wedding band and one was a cocktail ring. The cocktail ring was made from a pair of earrings that belonged to Grandpa's mother. She had taken the diamond earrings and made them into two rings. She gave one to each of her two sons, my Grandpa and his brother Fred. Grandpa gave the ring to Grandma.
Grandpa used the diamonds from the engagement ring and the wedding band to make a new wedding band for himself. When he died, Dad took that ring and had it remade into his own wedding band.
The cocktail ring? Grandpa gave it to me for finding the three rings. He called me bright eyes after that. He gave me a card when he gave me the ring. I still have it. The card and the ring. I'm proud to have worn it as my something old.

Gettin' Pretty: Remembered

The morning of the wedding, I woke up at The Residence Inn in Bloomingdale, Illinois. The church was just a hop, skip and a jump away but we had hours to go until I got there. I jumped in the shower at 7:30 a.m. Allison and Christine were in the other bedroom in the suite and Nydia, Beth, Stacy and Amber were across the hall. Jackie was at her parents' house, but would be joining us later. At 8:00 there was a knock on our hotel suite door. Right on time. It was Angelica and Antje from Tigerlilie Salon. We had arranged that they would come out to the suburbs with their hair dryers, rollers, bobby-pins, curling irons and make-up kits to get us all prettied up. A consultation and a trial with Antje confirmed that I would be wearing my hair like Rita Hayworth's.


The bridesmaids would be sporting vintage style up-do's... like these:

Before long, we were taking turns getting our hair done, reading magazines, sipping mimosas and munching on the treats Beth and Nydia had gone to pick up for us, including Pirate's Booty.

After our hair was done, Antje and Angelica did our makeup. Antje had recommended that I get some MAC foundation and lipstick for the day so I got that out for her. We waited on the lipstick, though. She wanted to put that on after I put my dress on. So... on it went. Nydia and Stacy came in with me and my mom. It sounds like a lot of people, but there were a lot of buttons... and high heels.

On went the lipstick... the high heels... the veil.
Time to be a bride.

Family Photos- Parents of the Bride

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

Weddingbee

As a Weddingbee reject, I have a hard time recommending this site to any bride-to-bees, but, alas, it is such a wonderful resource, I'm even going to add it to my wedding resources on the right-hand side of my blog. I wish I would have kept the rejection email, I really do. It would have been fun to glance at every now and then --to remind myself that I'm only a bride once and that I probably enjoyed the experience more because I didn't feel a blog deadline breathing down my neck. Ahhhhh. Check it out: http://www.weddingbee.com/

The Cake... Remembered

For the cake we didn't want anything too over the top. Pretty, with flowers was the goal. Nothing pink or brown like the rest of the wedding, just some ivory colored frosting with some flourishes. I had found a pretty cake topper that we ordered online. It's two doves resting their heads on one another. I brought Patty Cakes a picture of a cake I found online at The Knot and they promised to recreate the four-tier cake. They drew out a plan for me and I couldn't wait to see it in person. To my delight, the cake looked just as pretty as the picture I had provided them.
Of course, Joe and I never even had a chance to eat any of the cake, but on our one year anniversary, the bakery will provide us with a recreation of the top tier for us to celebrate with (instead of trying to defrost and munch on a cake that's been sitting in our freezer for a year). This is such a lovely bonus service they do for couples provided they send in a photo of the cake for their books. Now to decide which photo to send!
The bottom layer has a lattice effect , created in butter cream icing, stripes on the next, then swirls and dots on the top. The flowers are white roses and white dendrobium orchids. Inside is marble cake with chocolate fudge filling. Each guest's plate was drizzled with raspberry sauce and garnished with a few raspberries. Decadent!

Funny Story: The Sign

I love this sign. I love all old signs. Especially ones with my name on it. The photo above was taken early in the evening. Probably around 5:30 PM by a friend of ours, Eric. This is before the big party began, before the wedding party even arrived.

Eric took another picture of the sign. He took another picture later on in the evening. Well after several of the groomsmen got to the sign. This is what happens when you have men around you who don't know how important the sign is to you. Or who know and just really don't care.


I'm really not as miffed about it as I sound. A little photo editing will hopefully clear that right up. Photoshop... don't fail me now!
We asked the photography studio to edit the photo for the album. We'll see if it turns out and if they're even willing to do it.

Joe Bernstein and Jamie Meo, I know you did this. I know where you live. There is no hiding. We're all family now!

The Could-Have-Been Dresses

Now as my bridesmaids know, I bestowed upon them the decision of picking out their own bridesmaids dresses. I did set limits, giving them a choice from fourteen dresses (that's twice as many dress choices as bridesmaids) and they each happened to choose different ones. This here is a little photo collage of what they picked out.
I thought that, now that the wedding is over, I'd post some pictures of some of the other dresses I was considering for all of them to wear. You know, just for fun...
I know these are small, but they're all I could find now that the whole thing is out of date... sorry...