My Vintage Wedding: Honeybee Crafting Party/Bridesmaids Luncheon

A few weeks ago I had my Honeybee's and a few of my bridesmaids (not everyone could make it) for a crafting party/bridesmaid luncheon. So, I just wanted to share a little bit about the afternoon with you. But first........one of the perks to getting married.....

lots of free delicious cake! 

We went to a new hip cake shop in town to get a price quote to see if our wedding cake was more expensive then it should be or not. The baker came up with a cake for us using our theme, but it still looked so modern and typical- exactly like you would see on "The Knot". Also, it was $150 more for 50 less servings then the previous quote we got. After that we were 100% set on the cake shop and design we chose. But the visit was not a total loss, we got free cupcakes to take home as our taste test! We enjoyed them immensely and may go back for cupcakes or cakepops in the future. 

Now, back to the main event- wedding crafting! 

I wanted to make a "congrats" pennant flag, so I started it before the gals arrived. 

This was my first time making one and it was so fun and easy! I will have to make more! 

Basically, you cut the fabric using a triangle pattern you make out of paper. Then you pin it on the cord how you want it (I liked this gold cord so I picked that, but a lot of people use bias tape) and then stitch it down with a sewing machine. Then you cut the letters out of felt and glue or sew them on (I have yet to finish that part). 

Reagan, my Honeybee V.P. and Deen, my bridesmaid. Love these gals to death! 

I made sure to hang up my flag banner before they came! 

I made us a cocktail with fresh juiced strawberry, lemon and lime. 

I made croissants and blueberry scones served with English lemon curd.  I also made a little honeybee hive cake and matching cupcakes! 

I put together a little veggie tray with hummus and made some chocolate chip cookies too! Reagan brought the chocolate from Hawaii! 

Once we had enough to eat and drink we started crafting. 

We were glittering my glass coke bottle centerpieces! 

I love my new up-do inspired by Constance in "American Horror Story." I want to age gracefully just like her! She is gorgeous! 

This is about 1/3 of my bottles, in my wedding colors- pink, teal and gold!

I am so thankful that they came to help out! I would have gone crazy glittering all of those bottles by myself. 

Once Sandra got there we took another break. 

Close up of my Hive cake! It had little bees flying out of the top. 

Honeybee hive honey jar. I have started collecting honeybee stuff since forming the ladies club. 

This close up of the food is making me hungry! 

Time to eat this cake! 

This is the top layer, just a perfect mini cake! 

After the cake and champagne we got back to work making more table centerpieces out of vinyl 45 records. We also made more little paper flags. No pictures yet, so I have to take some for you! 

XOXO

Dollie

My Vintage Wedding- Rockabilly Prom

I know you have all been dying to know the theme of my wedding reception (yeah right, I am so self-centered, I know), and today is the day I tell you! Drum roll please……

ROCKABILLY PROM!!!!

I have always dreamed of having a 1950’s prom themed wedding. Crazy fun idea, right? I  know, I am so excited! Poofy pastel prom dresses as far as the eye can see, live bands, balloons and streamers, the stroll……..ahhhh heaven! But we didn’t want it to be too bubble gum sweet, we wanted a little rock-n-roll too, so Rockabilly Prom was born! The colors are pastel pink, teal, (the 50’s part) mixed in with gold and a little black (the rock-n-roll part). I will be wearing a poofy prom dress, but while holding a beer- just what a juvenile delinquent in the 50s always dreamed of! I am a bit obsessed with 1950’s high school stuff, so I am uber excited about all of this! It’s not a traditional wedding reception by any means, but exactly what I always dreamed of. If my guests don’t agree, those squares can stay at home!

After hearing all of the details in coming posts you will think this doesn’t seem like a wedding reception at all (which Zack likes. For a musician he sure doesn’t like to be in the spotlight! He tried to tell me a first dance would make us seem arrogant!), but we will have some touches that make it seem like a wedding, such as the ceremonial cake cutting! We ordered a beautiful traditional tiered wedding cake in our main wedding color, pink. With the vintage cake topper from our elopement, of course! It cost a small fortune so we are really looking forward to it.

We mostly tried to take normal wedding tradition stuff and put a prom spin on it. Although, stuff like a limo with grand entrance, father-daughter dance, bouquet toss, garter toss, rice throwing when we exit…..won’t be happening, much to the MIL’s dismay. But, that stuff is just not important to us. I mean, nowadays it seems like a sin to not have escort cards, a photo booth, and a Viennese hour (what the heck is that?), but that stuff is soooo far off our radar as a rockabilly couple. I think that all of those expensive extras that we “must have” just adds to the headache of planning! It also distracts from the real point of the day, celebrating the love of the couple. But, that is just what is right for me, doesn’t mean it is right for everyone. We are adding one (only one!) recent modern wedding trend- the candy bar! I couldn’t help it! I love sweets and always think the candy bars are so cute and fun. So that will be our favors to the guests. We are doing it all ourselves with stuff we got on sale to keep the cost low. I did a mini mock up the other day and it is so darn cute!

Following prom tradition, we ordered matching pink corsages instead of bouquets for the girls in my bridal party, or “Prom Court” as I like to call them! The boys will be sporting classic pink carnation boutonnières we ordered for them. I imagine it like the song, “White Sport Coat and A Pink Carnation.” They will be darling! More on what will be worn in another post coming soon. For now I guess I should mention who my “Prom Court” is…..

Gals:

Sandra Sprague

Amber Foxx

Deen Dioria

Alana Amarillas

Guys:

Chris “Sugarballs” Sprague

Bobby Cavener

Brandon Dixon

Rene Cervantes 

We are so excited to have them to share our special evening with. I am most excited to see who the guests crown the Rockabilly Prom King and Queen! The suspense will kill me! And yes, there will be vintage crowns involved! Squeal!!! Then the prom king and queen will have their special dance and after the rest of the prom court will join in the celebratory dance.

But we can’t dance without music! You knew that was coming into play at some point, right? We have a ton of amazing musician friends who lovingly agreed to play for us. Because so many people are willing to play, they each only have to play a few songs, allowing everyone time to socialize, dance and have fun! We also have an amazing DJ who will be spinning vinyl 45s in between live bands! I anticipate that dancing the night away will be a highlight of the event. In order to foster the dance party atmosphere I might have a jive contest so the best jivers can show off a little! Sounds fun, right?

This is just a little taste of what is to come. I felt so bad planning this amazing (to me) party and leaving all of my loyal followers in the dark! So sorry about that. I am trying to make up for lost time now.  I will continue with the My Vintage Wedding series to include details on the venue we booked, the DIY crafting, etc. Stay tuned!

XOXO

Dollie

My Vintage Wedding- Looks Nothing Like A Modern Wedding!

Hello friends, new and old! I am sorry for my absence lately. As you all realize, I am engaged and planning a wedding. But since I have not told you any of the details, you have no idea what, where, and most importantly when I am planning it. If you are a Facebook friend then you are much more “in the know,” as I post there pretty much daily. So, the reason for my lack of posts is because we are rapidly approaching my wedding- already! I never told you all this, but we are planning my bachelorette party at Viva Las Vegas, then my elopement/destination wedding shortly after, and then my reception a month later when we are back in town. It’s all coming up so fast! I have been in the thralls of wedding planning, but doing a pretty good job of keeping my head on straight (in my opinion). Therefore, really cementing in my head that an elopement/destination was the right thing for us.

What we are doing can’t really be classified as an elopement because it was planned out (a year in advance due to the high demand of the location!), so really it is more like a destination wedding for two! This elopement (what I will call it for the sake of this post) wedding is to-the-tee exactly what we have always wanted, and we couldn’t be more thrilled. It has the feeling of high school sweethearts who just woke up one day and decided to get married, while also having a few extra things that are important to us: like a photographer (to capture it for the family) a pretty bouquet, and a boutonniere. It is low-key, romantic and personal-just right for us. Although, it’s not exactly what our friends and family would have picked for us. Especially Zack’s mother who wanted us to have a golf course wedding, white limo, and all the traditional what-not (which in reality is not “traditional” anyway because most weddings weren’t like that when our grandparents got married. That is all modern mumbo-jumbo sold to us by the big bad white wedding industry). While I just couldn’t stomach the thought of that, we can compromise. So, we decided to plan a “formal” reception about a month after the ceremony back in town. This way our friends and family can share in our joy and celebrate the marriage with us. We will wear our wedding outfits again to please the parents, cut a cake, and do a first dance (sort of). But, being us, we still couldn’t conform to traditional white wedding standards, so we are having a really rockin’ themed reception (details to come in another post-stay tuned). This reception may be for the friends and family (and honestly, something we could do without), but if we have to plan it, pay for it, and execute it, it has to be 100% us. It’s not going to be sophisticated, chic or ritzy, but it’s not going to be a hillbilly barn dance either (but I would have loved that, no way would MIL go for that!).  What we want it to be is FUN FUN FUN! We will eat, drink, and dance the night away. Luckily, we have pretty modest tastes (compared to most modern wedding couples), so we don’t have to spend an arm and a leg to be happy. So, we are paying for it all in cash, all by ourselves (go us!). We also don’t have to save for a down payment on a house right after the wedding because we did that all over a year ago and already own our lil’ dream home (again, go us!).  So, like a said before, I have been mostly low stress and have really been enjoying our engagement. We have been super busy with wedding crafting though, so I look forward to everything being done so we can just enjoy some quiet along time together again. I have enjoyed the wedding crafting (I love DIY!), mostly because of the one on one time it has provided with my bridesmaids/honeybees and myself. I adore these girls second only to my soon-to-be husband, and I could not have done this whole “wedding” thing without their continued help and support. Nothing like a wedding to make everyone come together and feel all warm and fuzzy! Really, that is what a wedding is all about, so that is what I have been doing- basking in the joy of an upcoming wedding instead of sitting on my computer and talking about it.

We did have one setback though, that sent me into a bout of depression for, oh, about a week. We were counting on another large tax return from the purchase of our house to finance our dream honeymoon to High Rockabilly in Spain (last years tax return paid for the ring and ½ of the elopement costs, thank god). We don’t normally count our eggs before they hatch, but we trusted our tax guy when he said we were in for a large return. Unfortunately, he was dead wrong and we got nothing back. That meant that a lot of things were on the chopping block, the honeymoon being the most expensive was an obvious choice. We have been trying to go overseas for years and can’t seem to afford it, so I thought if we couldn’t do it this year we won’t ever be able to do it. I was heart broken to say the least.

We thought about canceling the reception to use that money for the honeymoon, but it wouldn’t cover all of the costs, and so much time and planning had already gone into it from our loved ones and us. I mean, people had already bought dresses and matching shoes! Save the dates had gone out, people had booked hotel rooms, everyone was so excited! So, we just couldn’t do that to everyone.

We brain stormed mini-moon vacations. We knew we wanted to do something we had never done before, but something in California that would be within our tight budget. So, we decided on our absolute cheapest back up option- Palm Springs! We have only been there on a day trip to see Amber Foxx play, but we loved it and have really wanted to go back. I was so disappointed at first that I couldn’t see the good in it. But now after talks with Zack and lots of contemplation, I stopped being a brat and started to look forward to Palm Springs. I mean, most people our age doing it all on their own are not lucky enough to go on a honeymoon at all! And really, Palm Springs is totally cool to us and a place we have always wanted to go for a little get away. It is more in line with what a honeymoon would have been for a (well off) couple in the 50s. It also makes for a more suitable honeymoon in the fact that it will be just us and not a ton of friends and fans like the High would have been.  There will be more relaxing time, instead of us running all over town trying to get to the next thing, and it will be more private. The hotel we booked, The Orbit Inn, is a 21+ mid-century modern boutique hotel that is quiet, peaceful, and kid-free. We have always wanted to stay there. Each room is full of mid-mod furniture, a record player, and has views of the surrounding mountains. They also offer a free breakfast, free beach cruisers to take to town, and a free nightly cocktail hour! The room we booked has a fireplace, private patio and outdoor shower- romantic, yes? We can spend our days lounging by the salt-water pool, and our afternoons vintage shopping.  We can go on mid-mod home tours, and visit museums. And at night we can try the town’s nice restaurants. And since Palm Springs is only a few hours away, we can relive our honeymoon anytime we want! It’s not an overseas adventure, but what do we think we are, rich? We have a mortgage to pay for, for Christ sake! But we are now really looking forward to a peaceful getaway, just the two of us.

There you have it, the first mention of my modest elopement ceremony, reception, and honeymoon. It’s not “The Knot” worthy, but if anyone wants to look down on me for keeping my dreams within a realistic budget that we can actually afford, then you are reading the wrong blog!

XOXO

Dollie 

Deke's Guitar Geek Festival Day 2

On the second night of the guitar geek festival one of our oldest friends Brandon took us to Clearman's North Woods Inn for dinner. I always have wanted to go there! It stands out because you can see it right off the freeway and get this- the restaurant is covered in snow! 

See the snow in the roof???

The inside is all themed out like a log cabin. 

There is a big stone fire place, warm toned wood furniture.....

and a bear!!! Ahhhhh!!!

The bear is not alone though, he has friends like this buffalo

and this moose! 

This is also the kind of place that gives you free peanuts and you get to throw the shells on the floor. So fun! The food was super yummy too-I was so full when I we left! 

Once we got to the Guitar Geek Festival Deke was inviting a few people up on stage for an impromptu jam session. It was so fun and a great warm up for the evening. 

Then Nathan James and and James Harman took the stage. They did some great blues on a washboard guitar. I dug it- I love the blues! 

We had four more guitars that Gretsch donated, so we raffled one off between each band. This one was a beauty! I made sure to represent Fender by wearing an old highschool tee- "groupie looking for band members". 

Next up was a super fun act- Rick Vito as King Paris! He has something going for him with this King Paris act. Hard to even describe, you should youtube him!

He even had super cute belly dancers on stage with him! 

Next up was Freddie Roulette backed by Joel Patterson, Deke Dickerson and Chris Sprague- an All Star Band! 

Here is another beautiful guitar we raffled off. I kept trying to win them for myself, but I guess I am just not that lucky! 

Deke was always so nice to introduce me to the audience. I made a lot of new friends! 

Next up was the incredible....the amazing.....the talented........

LOS STRAITJACKETS!!! 

Can't beat this show- period! 

After the show everyone ran straight to me-

to buy some Los StraitJackets merch! 

I fit right in! 

Who could follow that act???

The last act of the night was The Hellecasters. We are so lucky to have been able to see them play, apparently they have not played in over 10 years! They put on a fantastic show and were a real crowd favorite. 

After all the excitement of the weekend I was pooped! What a fantastic weekend it was though!

Thank you so much to all the of the bands that played, all of the event staff, and especially Deke Dickerson for puting this monumental event together! Also, thanks for having me be apart of it! 

XOXO

Dollie