Bridal Bracelet Beauty

Now that I'm officially back, and you've seen a glimpse of my wedding day ensemble, I wanted to introduce you to one of my very favorite parts of my wedding day look (who am I kidding, they all were my favorite parts), my bracelet.

personal image taken by Doloris Petunia

Unlike my everlasting search for earrings, I knew exactly what I wanted in my bridal bracelet. Something delicate, but not subtle or small. Something shiny & organic. Something unusual and romantic, nestled on a band of tulle. I searched and searched, but unfortunately I couldn't find it anywhere. I had an image it my head and nothing else would do.

I soon became aware that I would have to go the custom route if I wanted to get my hands (or wrist?) on my elusive dream bridal bracelet. Then one lucky day I found Doloris Petunia. I quickly shot her an email where I attempted to describe my bracelet idea. And she got it. And better yet, she could make it.

The perfect-amazing-gorgeous bracelet she made surpassed all my expectations. Here I am wearing it my wedding day:

Photo by Amelia Lyon. Bracelet by Doloris Petunia

And the best part? Unlike my dress, I get to wear this baby again.

Did you have anything custom made for your wedding day?

The Cheetahs Got Married!

And it was amazing.

Photo by the unbelievably fabulous photo rockstar Amelia Lyon

Hello Hive! Oh, how I've missed you since I got married 6 months ago (Wha?!? 6 months!). It'll still be a little while before I'll have all the photos and video for recaps, but don't you worry now, I'll be popping in with some last minute projects and a couple other posts to share in the meantime!

Royal Wedding Predictions: Cheetah Style

Hello Hive! Oh, how I've missed you! Soon I'll be back with some last minute projects and of course recaps, because, well, I got married a few weeks ago! But before I get back to the Cheetah Wedding, I had to pop in to give my Royal Wedding Predictions, or RWP, for all you acronym lovers out there. Oh, lets make that CRWP (Cheetah's Royal Wedding Predictions, of course!).

The Dress

I will be one of the crazies up at 3am staring at my TV while wearing a fun hat, just waiting to see the Princess Bride's gown. Who's with me? And who's bringing the scones?

I picture Kate's dress being ivory, elegant, and regal. It will be made of rich stain, with lace details and perhaps a bit of beading here and there. Her dress will be classic and full, much like Grace Kelly and Ivanka Trump.

via: iamthechildofthemoon

via: smile wedding tips

The Jewels & Accessories

We already know the bride will be rocking her beautiful engagement ring as her something blue. To complete her bridal bling she'll add large diamond drop earrings and a simple bracelet. As a Princess Bride she is pretty much required to wear a tiara so she'll just send someone over to the Tower of London to pick something up for the big day. Kate will have a long, long veil (25-30 feet, or should I say about 8 meters?) that will mimic some of the lace details on the dress. Her shoes will be classic ivory heels with a little sparkle.

Perfect Details

The Ceremony

The ceremony will be about a hour long and traditional (they don't even get to kiss until afterward the ceremony!). At least we will have some great people and hat watching to keep us entertained during the long ceremony!

via: glamour.com

The Cake

Or should I say cakes? There will be 2 cakes (at least), both over 6 feet tall. One will have 15 tiers, the other will have 14 tiers to equal their wedding date, 29. One will be white and have finely piped romantic, swirling details, the other will be dark chocolate adorned with fruit.

but much, much larger

The Bridesmaids

The bridesmaids will be dressed long soft dresses in a soft romantic color like pale pink, deep cream or peach. I also can see Kate's ladies in deep blue to reflect her gorgeous sapphire ring.

via: bloomingdale's

The Groom & Groomsmen

William and his men will be in their military finest.

via: Love, Flora

First Dance Song

This one is easy: Spice Girls - 2 Become 1

The Prominent Theme

Romance, luxury, and timeless elegance.

via: The Wedding Main St.

The Color Scheme

Ivory will be the dominant color, but it will be accented with soft romantic pastels like blush, peach, and powder blue (royal blue may also make an appearance).

via: Wedding Paper Divas

The Flowers

Flowers will be everywhere, starting with Kate's lush and large ivory bouquet. Her bridesmaids will have similar, but much smaller bouquets. Roses and lilies will be the most prominent flowers and they will adorn every surface at Westminster Abbey and the reception sites.

via: Martha Stewart Weddings

I'll see you all bright and early on Friday for the big event! Don't forget your hats!

Today is the Day

I'm getting married today.

Just a few more hours, baby.

Hive: Thank you so much for being a part of this journey. I am forever grateful for all the comments, suggestions, advice, and PMs. I can't imagine planning this wedding without the glory that is Weddingbee. Blogging Bees: You guys are the best! Mr. Cheetah calls you my bridal sorority--I had no idea being in a sorority was so fun! And so helpful.

I still have so many posts/projects I didn't have a chance to share with you before (OMG, I haven't even showed you my invitations yet! Bridal Blog fail.), so I still have a quite a few planning posts left for you guys. Weddingbee is the best place on this big wide inter-web and I feel honored to be a part of it.

Mr. Cheetah: I am am so excited to become your spouse today. Let's do this!

See you all on the other side!

Ties for the Guys

After finally finding a black slim fit suit at a reasonable price for our groomsmen (Many, many thanks to awesome hive member kirabee for directing me to LA's fashion district for affordable suits!), we moved onto the ties.

Mr. Cheetah loves the way a skinny tie looks with his amazing suit, so he'll be wearing the black striped skinny tie in the middle. Our two ushers will be in the fuchsia number on the right, and the groomsmen will all be wearing the black and silver (it looks white in the photo) bold stripe tie. Bonus: All these ties were at least half off at Macy's and Nordstrom Rack!

Which tie is your favorite?

The Last Pair Standing

Mr. Cheetah: It's not long before you get to see me in my full bridal get-up, so just wait a wee bit longer. Thanks!

So, I think the epic earring search may finally be over. What do you think?

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And of course I have a few back-up pairs up my sleeve, just in case. ;)

And There Will be Noms

Warning: Not to be read on an empty stomach.

One our favorite parts of planning this whole wedding shindig? The tasting! Mr. Cheetah and I made the two hour drive to and from Palm Springs in one afternoon just to attend our tasting--and those four hours in the car were not a waste, my friends. The Viceroy knows how to feed a person!

First up, Apps!

Bruschetta: Buratta Cheese, Marinated Tomatoes, Arugula Pesto

Sliders

Crab Cakes with Corn

Truffled Mac & Cheese

Tuna Tartare with Avocado, Tomato, and Crisp Wonton

We had our choice of four of these, which one do you think got the boot (even though it was super yummy delicious)?

The Salad:

Greens with Strawberries and Walnuts

Heirloom Tomato Salad

We only get one salad option, any guesses what we picked? Hint: It tastes amazing!

The Main Course (served family style):

Local Channel Island Halibut, served with a Farm Fresh Organic Yellow Corn Succotash (quinoa is pictured)

Petite Filet, Creamed Spinach with Roasted Tomatoes and Point Reyes Blue Cheese (Sauce on side)

Free form Spinach & Mushroom Lasagna (served plated)

The Specialty Cocktail:

Raspberry Lemondrop. I'll take one now, please.

I better find some time to eat at the wedding--there is no way I want to miss all this glorious food!

The Final Countdown

We are dangerously close to single digits in the Cheetah Wedding countdown.

I can't wait for all these last minute projects to be finished (and out of my house) and I am so freaking excited for our wedding to finally be here. I'm looking forward to standing at the altar with Mr. Cheetah, reciting our vows, surrounded by our nearest and dearest. It's going to be amazing to be on the dance floor in the best dress I'll ever wear, dancing the night away with my new spouse and all our fabulous guests. Hearing the toasts our loved ones are writing for us is going to be a beautiful, once in a lifetime experience. But the fact is I'm really going to miss being engaged.

We've had ten plus years as a dating couple. We'll have decades of marriage. But we've had only about 10 short months of engagement. Mr. Cheetah has also expressed sadness that this special period in our relationship is almost over. Being engaged has been fun. Sure, there have been lots (and lots) of stresses and hurdles in planning this wedding, but we've also enjoyed it. It's not everyday we get to plan an awesome party for all our favorite people. We've enjoyed the genuine interest and excitement that people have for us when they hear that we're engaged.

We're sad to end the engagement chapter in our relationship, but we're ready and thrilled to begin the next one. Here's to hoping that being a newlywed is just as fun!

Do you like being engaged as much as I do? Or are you ready to have it over with and just be married already?

All the Pretty Flowers

The Cheetah wedding is almost here and I just realized I haven't written one post about our florals yet!

Since I come from a long line of women who love flowers, it was always clear that we would have fresh flower centerpieces and bouquets for our wedding. We set up meetings with four florists on a big planning trip to Palm Springs. One wouldn't show us any pictures or samples (for reals), one had a different aesthetic than us, one was very talented--but took months to get us a proposal--that was twice our budget, and one was just right. It turns out that the first florist we met with was the perfect fit. He immediately got the pink, white, and yellow modern romantic look we're envisioning.

As we are having three long tables and a family style dinner, there isn't a lot of room left so centerpieces will be minimal and scattered.

Like this, but more spread out

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Not only am I super excited about how great the simple design will look, it also frees up more room in the flower budget for my absolute favorite wedding florals: bouquets!

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Oh man, I'm so pumped for my bouquet.

I gave our florist a bunch of images of bouquets I love (including those above) and I trust him to make something wonderful. Likely flowers include: roses, peonies, ranunculus, billy buttons, anemones and more!

Are you having fresh flowers at your wedding?

Love Letters

While on an envelope run to the Paper Source over the weekend, I impulsivly picked up these two bad boys:

Our Intials

I'm just going to give them to our DOC and let him figure out where to place them for the wedding. All I have to do is figure out how to decorate them. I think they'd look great with twine or yarn wrapped all around them, but I may just go down easy street and paint them a solid color.

Here are some letters at work at weddings:

Maybe I should have also bought the ampersand...

How perfect is this for a beach wedding!

Anther great idea for a beach wedding!

Hmm, maybe I don't need to decorate the letters at all...

Pretty in Pink

Do you have any suggestions on how I should decorate my new craft letters?

Wedding Locks

I'm pretty easy to please with formal hairstyles. I think I'm just so bad at doing my own hair that anything a stylist does looks like a masterpiece next to my everyday styling (or lack thereof). Even so I brought in a bunch of inspiration photos for my hair trial last month. While my inspirations styles were all over the hair-style map, the one thing they had in common was that they were all up-dos. I like wearing my hair down, but after a few hours I get sick of it and soon it's in a pony tail or weird bun-knot-thing on the top of my head. Plus, I feel fancier with my hair styled in an up-do and I want to feel like Ms. Fancy-Pants-Bride come the wedding day.

Since I'll be wearing two veils throughout the day, my stylist and I decided that a low asymmetrical style was in order. Here's what it looked like right after the appointment:

It's hard trying to take photos of the back of your own head

After the trial I went home to contemplate my hairstyle in the mirror:

Overall I'm really happy with the style. For the wedding day we will add in some extensions for a lot more volume (my poor fine hair) and move the chignon (Is that what it is? I have no idea.) forward a bit more, which I think will look fantastic.

Are you having a hair trail? Are you easy to please like me, or do you know exactly what you want for your hair?

Dress for Rent

I've been wearing new dresses for all my bridal events, but I haven't bought anything. I've rented.

At Rent the Runway you can rent designer dresses at a fraction of the cost for a few days at a time--perfect for all those special events leading up to your wedding. They even have a new wedding section to make it that much easier to find that perfect dress for your shower, bachelorette, and other wedding occasions--maybe even for the wedding itself! Of course there is always the risk that the dress won't fit or look good, so I always make sure to have a back-up outfit ready from my own closet.

I rented my two bachelorette dresses from RTR:

"She's about yay high"

Singing with Kenny

And my shower dress (shower post to come soon!):

Ready to be showered!

I was planning on renting again for my rehearsal and dinner. I knew exactly what I wanted. An asymmetrical sleeve with some sex appeal. In fact I had the dress all picked out:

I will wear you some day

But then while at the mall looking for groomsmen ties, I was introduced to this dress:

Karen Millen

As soon as I put it on I fell for the elegant modern style and that amazing asymmetrical shoulder (and the fact that it was very heavily marked down). The only problem: it was about 3 sizes too big. My very helpful sales consultant offered me an additional 10% off, so I bought the too-big dress. I pick it up from the tailor on Friday--cross your fingers that it fits!

Since I'm not rocking colored shoes for the wedding, I decided to pair the dress with these hot red pumps I scored for $19 on that same shopping trip:

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What are you wearing for your rehearsal?

Here Comes the Bride...

Sixteen Candles is one of my favorite movies--if you haven't seen it stop reading this blog right this second and go watch it.

Okay, you're back? Isn't the movie awesome? See, I told you it was good. Okay, back to the post.

Jake Ryan Awaits (en Espanol)

The ending gets me every time. Sam is walking out of the church after her sister's wedding when all the cars starting driving away to reveal Jake Ryan waiting there for her. So now every time I hear the song from that scene it makes me melt--it's the excitement and romance of seeing the guy you love and knowing he's there for you. That is exactly how I want to feel when I walk down the aisle towards Mr. Cheetah. So it was decided pretty early on the I would be walking down the aisle to If you Were Here by the Thompson Twins.

The only problem? The lyrics. The song starts: "If You Were/I Could Deceive You." Um, yeah...not exactly the words I want to hear at the start of my wedding ceremony. So I'm on the hunt for a lyric-less version of the same song. So far I've got nothing. We do know a couple audio engineers, but it's unclear if they can remove the vocals from the song file we have. Any other ideas on where I can find this song without the vocals?

Oh, and just for fun, check out this shirt:

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