It's Official: He's My Dad

Mr. Pin Cushion and I? We don't like to feel clueless. We like answers. We like feeling like know-it-alls. Our thirst for knowledge runs nearly as deep as our thirst for chocolate.

My desire to feel smart extends all the way to my photography poses.
(I seriously have boatloads of photos like this.)

So we didn't like it when we realized we were feeling clueless about our wedding officiant. We felt lost. Adrift. We brainstormed and created flow charts and acted out scenarios and set up computer algorithms to work out the problem.

One day, we finally got a break in the case. Our combined 41 years of education helped up come up with the perfect candidate: my dad. And at once, our know-it-all-ness was restored. Of course my dad would be our officiant. We felt smart once again. We knew the answer, and the answer was perfect.

My parents know Mr. PC and I as a couple better than anyone else. They have been witness to every stage of our relationship, as evidenced by the fact that:

1. My dad picked Mr. Pin Cushion up for our first date together.
2. We've spent a solid 10% of our relationship at my parent's house (hard to turn down free food and a quarter-free washing machine).
   
3. We have shared a hotel room with my parents. . . on multiple occasions.
4. I talk to my parents nearly every day so they hear about nearly everything that's going on in our lives.
5. Mr. Pinster worked at my parents business for a summer.
   
6. My dad taught Mr. PC how to snow board and play tennis. Mr. PC taught my mom how to do algebra. My parents taught the Pin Cushions how to work on our problems like adults.
   

My dad really was the perfect answer for our unfilled officiant position: he has always been more than supportive of us as a couple; he would be able to work with us to personalize our ceremony; he could speak about us as a couple; and he's a hilarious, easy going guy with a voice that has no need for a microphone.

Here he is, being hilarious. And easy going.

Check out those sweet glasses my dad was sportin'. But please ignore my apparent lack of pants.

My ability to take awesome photographs was apparent from a very early age.


While the left one is nice, the right one says "I'm a bit of a weirdo." Much more fitting.


And my dad sure can rock a tuxedo.

We were happy that our feeling of smartness had been restored. But mostly, we were happy to have an officiant who we loved and loved us back! But our cluelessness returned shortly when we realized we now had to write our own ceremony. . .

Out of curiosity of what the statistics may be:

Who is (was) officiating your wedding ceremony?
(A) A clergyperson (priest, minister, rabbi etc)
(B) A non-denominational officiant (judge, county clerk etc)
(C) A friend
(D) A family member

How did you pick your officiant and why?

Musical "Discussions"

Pre-wedding (obviously), the Pin Cushion spent some time searching the interwebs to find suggestions for less-than-traditional songs for our ceremony. What did I stumble upon but a Weddingbee post? Mrs. Peppermint's post from 3 years ago, "Non Traditional Ceremony Music", was a treasure trove of suggestions. People are still leaving comments and song choices 3 years later. Impressive, Mrs. Peppermint. Very impressive.

After a morning filled with heated musical debate, a few (not-too-willingly-made) compromises, and many many Youtube videos watched, we created our ceremony playlist. 

Here are the songs we chose to have playing while guests were being seated.

"Going to the Chapel" by The Dixie Cups

"Love and Marriage" by Ol' Blue Eyes. My mom lovingly demanded we include this in our wedding. She recommended it as our first song. We declined. And yes, this is the opening song for "Married with Children." We brought nothin' but class to our wedding . . .

"When I'm 64" by The Beatles. This was a contender for my processional song (the mister's choice), but eventually lost the race to another song (though Mr. Pin Cushion argued his case strongly, even bringing up hanging chads and unethical polling practices [like the bride having veto privileges]).

"That's Amore" by Dean Martin. Another Mama Pin Cushion suggestion. Plus, it's a song about pizza. . . mmm . . .

"Happy Together" by The Turtles. I love this song. It's my go-to shower singing song.

"All You Need is Love" by The Beatles. Classic.

"You Send Me" by Sam Cooke. Another contender for my processional song (my choice).

We then had to figure out the processional songs for the wedding party and for me. Our "debate" and "discussions" might have veered into the "argument" category a few times at this point, but only momentarily. These were big decisions, and Mr. Pin Cushion and I had strong opinions, which it seems, neither of us wanted to do much compromising on!

We finally managed to choose The Beach Boys, "God Only Knows" as our bridal party processional music. This was only after it was vetoed as our first dance song by Mr. PC (he's didn't like that the first lyrics are "I may not always love you . . ." [if you keep listening, it's actually a romantic song]).

And after too many hours, we decided on my processional song. It's been used before, but that didn't diminish our love for it. The guitar intro kills me every time.

"Here Comes the Sun" by The Beatles

I didn't notice until just now that we have no new songs. Like no songs made in the last 4 decades. I guess we're not the musical hipsters I had thought we were  . . .

Please share your suggestions for ceremony music! I know that WeddingBee was an invaluable resource for coming up with our playlist, so maybe we can get some new recommendations up for people to use!

A Very Sweet Gift

Yesterday, UPS delivered an unassuming box to my front door. It was large and heavy (perhaps it felt extra heavy because my arms look like chicken legs, having not seen the inside of a gym in 27.8 months).

I opened the box to reveal a late arrival wedding gift. As I peeled back the wrapping and saw the contents on the gift, my heart began to pound. I felt lightheaded. Small sweat beads formed across my upper lip. Could it be? Were my eyes deceiving me?

(Can you, sneaky readers, tell what this fantastic gift might contain?)

I (lovingly) pried back the flaps of the next package . . .

My suspicions were correct! My friends had sent Mr. Pin Cushion and I a lifetime's supply (ha, I mean a year's supply) of Rainbow Chip Cake Mix and Icing! (Aka Funfetti [though Rainbow Chip is infinitely times better, due to its chewy icing balls]).

Betty Crocker, I give thanks to thee! (from here and here)

My friends gifted us a dozen boxes of Rainbow Cake Mix, 8 cans of Rainbow Chip Icing (the hot dog-hot dog bun irony strikes again) and a cake plate.

I made a beeline to the kitchen to try out our new gift.

And it was delicious.

What gift have you received that was a total shock to you? And, if anyone dares to say that Funfetti is better than Rainbow Chip, I'll see you in the parking lot after class!!

It's For The Good of Humanity

When it came to gifting the ladies in our wedding (my bridesmaids and Mr. Pin Cushion's groomswomen), I chose presents that were based completely on altruism and selflessness and helping out mankind and stuff. Because I live a life of giving. And I'm not at all into possessions. Or cute shoes. Nope.

We gave our deserving ladies these lovelies:

Tom's Shoes!

We gave each of our 6 wedding women a pair of Tom's Shoes because with each purchase, Tom's donates a pair of shoes to a child in need. And like I said, I'm all about helping out the world and not at all about awesome footwear. We didn't give Tom's shoes as gifts because they are super cute or because they are ridiculously comfortable or because we could choose colors based on personality. No, sir. It was definitely the altruism thing.

My fancy packaging (because with all the goody-goodiness of the gift, I couldn't taint it with environmentally unsound wrapping paper, could I?). And yes, I forgot to take my classy post-it note name tags off for the picture . . .

We handed out the shoes at our rehearsal dinner, and the recipients were very excited. Bridesmaid Sarah already owns 27 pairs of Tom's (okay, maybe just 6), but even she was stoked to get another pair, 'cause, ya know, it was helping give kids more shoes.

Check out the nice snuggle I got from maid of honor Ratha after she saw the gift.

She's telling me, "Thank you so much for helping out those needy children, Miss Pin Cushion. These fabulous shoes are just an added bonus."

What is the best gift you have ever received? Was it humanity-helping? A inside joke gag gift? Completely useful or useless (in the best way--totally unessential)?

Who Comes First?

Me or him? Mr. or Mrs. Pin Cushion? It seems like most of our guests think Mr. Pin Cushion.

I'm talking about names here, dear readers. It seems that when it comes to our names, our wedding guests think that Mr. Pin Cushion's first name should come before mine. Since anonymity is not my strong suit (as evidenced by my lack of blurring in my invitation post), I'll just come out with our names: Chris and Kendra. (See? Even I say his name first. Sheesh.)

Since our engagement, Mr. Pin Cushion and I have received piles of lovely cards and well wishes. And it is undeniable that people write Chris' name before mine about 80% of the time.

    
See? A random sampling of cards. My name first on the left and his name first on the right

Out of pure curiosity, do people say your name or your fiance's name first? Do you think name order has to do with gender? Or how the names sound when they are said together? Or are you just busy thinking about how much of an over analyzer Mrs. Pin Cushion is?

Get Away Car Giddiness

Photos of wedding get-away cars make my heart flutter (which you'd think, as a nurse, might concern me a bit . . .). There is just something about objects tied to the back of a car that screams "wedding" (which now that it's written down, sounds ridiculous [as ridiculous as pine trees in your living room for Christmas and eggs to celebrate Easter, I guess]).

Silly or not, I love the idea of a get-away car.

[Awesome car pics from here, here & here]

Granted, all of those cars are old classics, bumping the cuteness factor up by about 73.4%, even without any decorations. And the Pin Cushion were working with  my 2000 black Honda Civic (give it a few decades and it will be a classic too, right?). So, to make up for my not-as-cute car, we went for the cutest decorations, which Mr. Pin Cushion thought was the yarn pom poms.

Mr. Pin Cushion took over making the decorations. And while he looked online for good pom-pom directions, he didn't like any of them. They all call for wrapping the yarn around your fingers, and Mr. PC said that about 7 seconds into the process, he lost circulation to his fingers. So, here is Mr. PC's more 'engineer-ish' method for making pom-poms.

Start with: scissors, yarn, and some sticks (we used the yard stick for big pom-poms and the spatula for little pom poms)

Cut a piece of yarn about 8" long and tape it at the ends to the stick of choice (pom-pom yoda Mr. PC had a method which didn't require tape, but I wasn't that skilled).

 

Start wrapping yarn around the stick, trying to keep it even.

 

Keep wrapping.  Prevent boredom from setting in by watching How I Met Your Mother, or rooting for cutie-pie on Kent on So You Think You Can Dance. We never counted how many times we wrapped the yarn (a lot). But the thicker you wrap it, the denser your pom-pom will be, so experiment a bit.

Untape the ends of the yarn and slide the whole thing off the stick. Make sure you know where the ends of the 8" yarn piece are! (It looks like a strange green cocoon at this point).

Take the ends of the 8" yarn piece and tie them together (don't knot them yet), making a doughnut out of the lovely cocoon.

 

Now, finesse it a bit to tighten up the loop, making a doughnut hole from the previous doughnut (mmm . . . doughnut holes . . .). Tie the ends in a tight knot.

 

 Start cutting the loops . . .

 

Work your way around the doughnut hole, cutting all of the loops.

 

Ta-da! Sit back and look in awe at the cute pom-pom ball you just created.  You can even out the ends a bit if you want, but we liked this look (Mr. PC's method seemed to require much less trimming than the other online-finger methods, which seemed to always come out wonky).

 

Keep making them till you have a pile of cute pom-poms. I wanted to stick googly eyes on all of them and give them names. And maybe carry them around with me as pets.

For the wedding, we had our bridal crew tie them onto yarn and attach them to our car, plus my maid of honor made a sweet "Just Married" sign for us. I'll show you the final product, get-away and all, when we get our photos back.

Are you decorating your wedding day car in a special way?

A Mature Missus

The Pin Cushions got married. And I think being a married woman, a decidedly adult thing to be, has made me more mature.

Ha. No, not really. I'm still the same goofball I was before. Now I just have someone legally bound to say that they married this goofball.

See? There we are. One goofball marrying another.

We had a fabulous, glorious, hot, lovely, fun, wonderful and totally rad day. I cannot wait to begin re-counting everything about the wedding day. But that will have to wait . . .

Because I have so much to tell from before the wedding! My time as a Miss here on the 'Bee was too short (and perhaps I lack certain skills [organization, time management]) so I have many pre-wedding projects that I hope you'll let me share, though I'm already a Mrs.

To end this post, I'd like to add a Public Service Announcement for all outdoor brides. Wear sunscreen! By the end of the night, my shoulders looked like this:

Pink! And may I also add . . . Rawr!

Surprisingly, on your wedding day, the sun does not give you a 'free pass' to not wear sunscreen. I believed that my bridal aura would be able to kick some UV ray butt. Well, let me be the bride to tell you, that is not the case. So unless you like the lobster-look, stock up on some good SPF.

Mawwiage Is What Bwings Us Togetheh Today

It is the Pin Cushion wedding day.

It has been a whirl wind of a week. I feel as though last weekend somebody threw me into a time machine and pushed the button for one week forward. And I just tumbled out of the machine and it's Saturday and I'm not sure how I got here!

There has been a lot of crafting around the Pin Cushion wedding headquarters. Lots of this:

Getting help from my grandparents on our favors. And this . . .

Me hunched over working on something sweet for the wedding. And also lots of . . .

Friends helping us with last minute projects (like programs).

Even while I was in that time machine for the past week, the love and support we have felt from our friends and family was palpable. They have glued and cut and listened and laughed. And it has been amazing.

Today I get married. If my 16 year old self had known I would be marrying the skinny, smart boy that sat in front of me in Spanish class, I might have just keeled over out of pure bliss 10 years ago. And, with the joy that I feel today, I'd say there is still a chance of me keeling over with a fatty smile plastered on my face.

Hive, thank you for your support and love. I will be back with more craftiness and photos then you will know what to do with. Until then,

Miss Pin Cushion

Totally Unnecessary

How many wedding items do you have that are not entirely necessary to you actually getting married?

A. 5?
B. 75% of your wedding items are unnecessary?
C. You could count the necessary items on just one foot, even if it were missing a toe or two?

I fall into that last category (because let's face it, what do you really need? An officiant, a license and a willing fiance). But some things are just so darn cute (or chic or modern [you fill in the adjective]).

Case in point:

We originally collected these adorable boxes (from a nice farmer's market vendor) with the hopes of transforming them into this:

[Source]

Using the strawberry boxes to hold our centerpiece flowers didn't work out [though the image still flits around in my head [along with unicorns, and my dream of swimming in a pool of jello]).

So now I have to come up with some new way to use them (I've grown too attached to them [a human developing a strong emotional attachment to a cardboard box is totally normal, right?]). I went a little hot glue gun-crazy and lined a few of the boxes with red and white striped fabric, which you can see in the first picture. This only made me love them more.

I need your advice, dear readers. What can I do use these strawberry boxes at the wedding for? Or should I break my ties (and thus break my heart [sob]) with these cute-as-a-button boxes?

The Touch, The Feel . . . The Fabric of Our Lives

In a move very apropos to my Pin Cushion moniker, our wedding is filled with fabrics. Lots of fabrics. And not soft, sophisticated, romantic fabrics. The Pin Cushion fabrics are in your face. In fact, when we brought some up to the counter at the fabric store, the cashier asked, "Whoa! What the heck are you doing with these fabrics?" Which is probably not a good question to be asked when said fabrics are for your wedding. Oh well, subtle has never been my specialty . . .

A mix of many of our fabrics. Colors! Stripes! Gingham! Crazy flowers!
We're using these to line bread baskets, wrap our favors and . . .


. . . Make cute bunting! Many hive members suggested making bunting with the extra fabric, so I went for it! We'll wrap it around our cake and guest book tables. (If the fabric patterns and the crazy color and stripes of the chair are making you dizzy, please feel free to stick your head between your knees.)


We also ordered a ton of green burlap which we made into table runners. Here is Mr. Pin Cushion watching T.V. . . I mean helping cut the burlap.

Our piles and piles of burlap runners. They shed. A lot. We looked like muppets by the end of the cutting process.

And RIBBONS! Do ribbons count as fabric? We have so much ribbon we could mummify ourselves and our entire bridal party.

Like many a bee before me, I made ribbon sticks, with the hope of running down the aisle in a shower of waving ribbons.

Like I said, subtle? No. But fun and crazy and wild? Most definitely. What aspect of your wedding is reflective of you as a person?