Multiple Mini-moons

Mr. Pineapple and I would love to go to Ireland for our honeymoon. We looked into several different trips to the emerald isle, but in the end decided to skip the honeymoon for the time being. Hopefully, next summer we will have enough saved for the trip or maybe next year we will buy a house. Either way, we'll make it there eventually.

We do want to do something after the wedding. Just to get away and be together for a couple of days. I know many couple do it, but I couldn't imagine getting married on Saturday and going to work on Monday. So, Mr. Pineapple and I are going on a couple of mini-moons.

The first stop: Cleveland. That's right, tropical and exotic Cleveland, Ohio. Cleveland is just a hop, skip and a jump from Pittsburgh so it would be an easy get away. Mr. P and I love to watch Iron Chef America and their new chef Michael Symon. Symon owns two restaurants in Cleveland, Lola and Lolita. Dinner at one of the two locations was the starting point of our planning. For the rest of our plans we will scope out some of Mrs. Dahlia's recommendations.


Our second mini-moon only sorda-kinda half counts. I am originally from Palm Beach, Florida where some people actually go to honeymoon. We had planned to head there for Christmas this winter and thought we could extend our trip to give us some more alone time in the sun. Either we will go on the might-be-free vacation from Viva resorts or we'll just trip around south Florida.

Mr. Pineapple has never been to Key West and in my opinion it is a place you have to go to at some point in your life. Where else can you stare in amazement at men dressed as Hooter's ladies while tripping over six-toed cats and eating chocolate covered, frozen, key lime pie on a stick? It is a crazy one-of-a-kind place that I think Mr. Pineapple would enjoy. Maybe we will even go deep sea fishing or something else uber-touristy.

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Are you going on a mini-moon or two? Any Cleveland recommendations?

Our New Family of Six

With the addition of Rooney the puppy a couple weeks ago, there are now six members of the Pineapple household.

Here is a quick recap:

Rooney

Onyx

Zazu and Harrison (who like to pretend they aren't friends, but obviously that's not true)

So, my question to the hive is: how can we incorporate our pet collection into the wedding?

We don't want to actually have them at the ceremony or reception. Honestly, that is just begging for trouble. Rooney does not have the amazing attention span of miss Betty White and the cats, well they are furry and not really wedding appropriate.

I love Miss Cream Puff's bar menu. It is an idea I just might steal.

Any suggestions for our furry family?

The Toaster Broke, So We're Getting Married

With surgery approaching I assumed that I would have a lot of free time to lay around and not move my right arm. So, I decided to look for some new reading material. Since I love reading wedding blogs so much I thought that wedding memoirs would be right up my alley. I searched amazon and ordered two, both were less than $1.50, brand new from the "used" books section. This is probably the only time in my life I could really relate to the authors and possibly get some insight as well.

The first to arrive was "The Toaster Broke, So We're Getting Married." It was short and sweet with a bright pink cover, fun right?
After reading the book I thought you might appreciate a review from a certain bride-to-be with too much time on her hands. (I am in no way being rewarded for reviewing this book, see editorial policy.)

The author, Pamela Holm, writes about planning her second wedding. She has been a single mom for 16 years and decides that this wedding she wants to do "right." The book is broken into sections, much like our blogs are here at Weddingbee, with a chapter entitled "The Dress" and another "The Guest List." She describes many of the same issues that most brides go through during the planning process and the effect it has on her family-to-be. Her view of the wedding is pretty realistic with my favorite excerpt being the content of a postcard sent to their guest list:

"On the subject of gifts, we love burlwood clocks and brass-plated fondue dishes as much as the next happy couple, but aside from needing a toaster we have more than enough possessions to run a household. In lieu of gifts we would like to suggest you celebrate our marriage in one of the following ways.
A. Donate money to your favorite charity
B. Dance naked in a rainstorm
C. Call your mother once in a while, it won't kill you"

Overall I would give "The Toaster Broke" 3 out of 5 pineapples (arbitrary, but cute, no?) a fun, quick read and sometimes quite funny, but she's no David Sedaris.

Would anyone like to trade wedding reading materials? (or I can just give it to you if you have nothing to trade)

I LOL'd for Real

I mentioned in my life goes on post that Mr. Pineapple recently landed his dream job. One of the reasons he wanted this job so badly was the community in which he would be working. He is an alum of the Honors College at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and now he is also the assistant director.

The students that Mr. Pineapple works with knew he was engaged, but it wasn't until they stumbled upon his facebook profile that they also discovered he has a secret life, where he was known solely as a sweet and tart, prickly fruit.

At the end of the day yesterday a group of students presented him with a welcome gift, a nameplate for his desk:
How cute are those students! It is even copper! The words around the pineapple say "The Robert E. Cook Honors College, IUP • A Community of Excellence." Excellence and fruit! He is going to proudly display the gift on his desk and forever have to explain why the heck he is a pineapple. I love it.

Just another example of how wedding planning has infiltrated every aspect of our life.

The Big Picture

I have shared with you a lot of the little details of our wedding, but have yet to give any sort of "big picture" visual. What better way to do so than to create one of the ever so popular inspiration boards. (I guess a few of the images below are no longer inspiration since they have been created and/or paid for.)

you can click to enlarge
{cake and bridesmaids images, suit}

What kind of look is it? Well, I don't really know. The colors are fall-ish, but more muted. The style is a bit vintage with the paper roses. The clay flowers, miss-matched attire and cowboy boots make it slightly off-beat. So, I guess it could be called Favinoff. The visual I have been going for is soft, warm and romantic without being too girly.

When I imagined my someday wedding, I always pictured bold modern colors, like teal and brown or all white with punches of raspberry. Once we had our venue selected I realized it wasn't completely up to me, it was also up to our space. In addition the dress and my rose gold ring influenced many color choices.

Even though it isn't exactly the color palette of my dreams, I have fallen in love with it. The colors are not a major player in the game, but will hopefully tie everything together in the end.

Did your color palette just kind of happen once you had a few of the major elements selected? Is anyone planning a wedding without a specific color palette in mind?

If You Give a Guest a Cookie

When Mr. Pineapple and I visited our first venue the hostess kept mentioning wonderful places to put our cookie table. Our cookie table? Weddings have cookie tables?

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Apparently so. The wedding cookie tradition is very popular, and thought to have originated, in western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio. Cookie tables are also common in West Virginia, Virginia, New York, New Jersey and Delaware. The tradition is that the women in the bride's family (her mother, aunts, sisters, grandmothers etc) bake cookies using recipes that have been within the family for years. We are not just talking a couple cookies here either, usually each lovely lady bakes several dozen.

The origin of the tradition is largely unknown. It is thought to have begun with Italian and Roman Catholic weddings during the height of the steel-mill industry. Presently, the tradition sees no religious or cultural boundaries and hardly a wedding takes place in western Pennsylvania without cookies.

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I love these cookies and milk featured on The Bride's Cafe. These shot glasses of milk topped with a cookie would be adorable snacks at the end of the reception. Mr. Pineapple also likes this idea and I think it would be a great twist on the Pittsburgher tradition. We have not yet decided if we are going to partake in the tradition, but I have a feeling that once it is mentioned, our western PA relations will say something along the lines of, "What?! You can't have a wedding without cookies!!"

Mrs. Gardenia also had a cookie buffet at her wedding in lieu of the popular candy buffet.

How are you incorporating quirky regional traditions into your wedding?

With These Rings

One afternoon last summer Mr. Pineapple and I were laying around the house being lazy when he asked, "so when the day comes, do you want to help pick out your ring?" My response was a quick, "no thanks, I love surprises and I trust you." I tried to forget the conversation because it was still pretty early in the relationship and I assumed he was asking for future reference, way future reference. Apparently, not so much. It wasn't long after this short exchange that Mr. Pineapple purchased my engagement ring.


He choice was perfect, a Gelin Abaci tension set rose gold solitaire with 26 little diamonds set in the band. I was simple yet very unique and, in my mind, perfect. Because of the unusual shape of the ring there were few options when it came to the wedding band.

Mr. Pineapple and I went to a local jeweler, Goldstock, who carried Gelin Abaci rings. Mr. P had a whole slew of options to choose from. He decided on a hammered rose gold band. I, on the other hand, just left my engagement ring in the hands of the jeweler who then sent it to Gelin Abaci in California to create a matching "shadow band." I really wasn't sure what the band would look like. I had images in my head of what I would do if I were a jeweler, but no actual images from GA.

My engagement ring was gone for six weeks, a very long six weeks. While it was MIA I wore one of two fakies from Claire's and googled the heck out of Gelin Abaci wedding bands trying to find someone with a similar ring. No such luck.

Finally, our rings were in and here is the result:
Since my band is not a complete circle the common symbolism does not really apply; "...the circle of a ring represents undying love and the continually renewed vows of the married couple. Circles have long been archetypes for not only timelessness, but also wholeness and homecoming." {source} That's ok though, unusual ring or otherwise, our love will still be timeless.

The one thing I truly did not expect during this whole process came after we picked up our rings. When Mr. Pineapple put his ring on I was overwhelmed with "oh my goodness, I have never seen him so handsome." It's true, I didn't want him to take it off. It looked so lovely, so perfect on his hand.

Did anyone else have a band made to match their engagement ring without seeing it first?

Specs!

Last summer my car was broken down -- again. This time a squirrel had built a nest on my engine block while it sat unused for two months. What I had on my hands was a dead battery and a whole lot of squirrel hair under my hood.

The squirrel nest, on a road in a neighborhood called Squirrel Hill, go figure.

I had my car parked a little ways away because parking at our house was very limited. Mr. Pineapple was out of town on a business trip. My plan was to use his car to pick him up from the airport. As I was heading out, I realized I had left something in my car that I needed, so I drove to my car in Ryan's car. As I pulled up behind my car I hit a piece of metal sticking out of the curb and BAM his tire explodes. Not only that, but I dented to rim too. Meanwhile, Mr. P is at the Philly airport and his flight has been canceled. He and his coworkers ended up renting a car and driving back to the burgh. Which worked out on my end since I had destroyed both of our cars.

The next day I went to the eye doctor. Go figure, Miss Running-Cars-Into-Curbs needed glasses. So, almost a year later I am pretty used to my specs (well, that is when I remember to leave the house with them). I definitely think they change the way I look. I am still not sure I want to wear them for the wedding though. They kind of drop low and "cut my eye in half." I think I am going to give contacts a test run soon and see if that is an option for the big day, but I haven't decided.

my "goggles"

I could also just go completely corrective eye wear free. My eyes aren't that bad. Everything just looks kind of wet, like I am swimming in a pool with my eyes open, when I don't have them on. Although, I may actually want to see my groom as I begin my walk do the aisle.

You don't see many brides in glasses. So, I did a google search and found this post from Offbeat bride, Brides in Glasses. Some of those glasses make for hottie brides. Mr. Pineapple, who has been wearing glasses since forever, will be sporting his new copper specs.

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So ladies, I am asking the same question once asked by Mrs. Kiwi... glasses, contacts or nothing? Anyone opting to wear their glasses on the big day?

Great Unexpectations

Believe it or not life goes on whether you are planning a wedding or not. And boy oh boy has life thrown the Pineapples for some loops lately.

Mr. Pineapple landed his dream job a couple weeks ago. He now works in his hometown at his alma mater, Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He absolutely loves the job so far and I cannot be more proud of him. The downside? IUP is an hour and a half away from our home. These last two weeks mark the first time he and I have worked more than two miles away from one another. There is no more commuting to work together - which began very soon after we started dating, no more lunch breaks or quick trips to grab coffee in the afternoon. I no longer have a buddy to ride with me to work, first on the trolley and then on a lovely port authority bus. We see each other about 3-4 hours/day less than we ever have. Not a big deal, no. However, I miss him. It's crazy because we still live together and have dinner together and run the puppy around the backyard together, but I miss him.

Yesterday I had an interview myself at IUP. The position is amazing. It is pretty much the same job I have now, but better. I would still be able to design for the college community, but with an even wider audience. I would also, once again, be working at the same university as Mr. Pineapple.

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If I get this job we will be moving to Indiana, PA. No more 3 hour/day commutes. Moving? Really? Now? Yep. If I get an offer the boxes will come back out of the basement and once again be filled with our stuff. We have a lot of "stuff." Moving is stressful for anyone, but I particularly loathe it. This will be home number 6 (move number 5) for me in 2 years. I have yet to fulfill a lease agreement. That's crazy. Lucky for me my landlords have either let me sublet my space or work out some other arrangement. The last time I moved, I ended up in the ER. My rib cage became inflamed from lifting heavy boxes combined with all the stress.

Of course the "big things" don't end there. This may be too much information for some readers, but I think it is important and you all love boobies right? Well, last December I felt a lump in my breast. I always wondered if I would be able to tell if there was a lump. Not knowing if it actually was anything I made an appointment with a doctor the next morning. He confirmed that is was a lump, but didn't know if it was a cyst or tumor. A few weeks, an ultrasound and a biopsy later I was told it was a tumor, but it was benign - called a fibroadenoma. I am 24 with a boobie tumor. Apparently, it is much more common than you may think, so ladies feel your boobies at least once a month ;)

Six months later, it has grown and it has to be removed. My surgery was schedule for last Friday. I was prepped for surgery, IV and all, when the doctor came in and said there was a humidity problem in the OR and my surgery would have to be canceled. I am very thankful that they didn't take a risk and proceed, but I was also disappointed. I really just wanted to get the whole ordeal over with. New appointment, June 20th.

The kicker? The new job, interview, surgery are just the tip of the iceberg for the Pineapples. When it rains, it pours and we are drenched.

We are lucky though. We have wonderfully supportive friends and family. Yesterday was a hard day, but when I got home and my puppy and a FedEx box were waiting for me the stress started to melt away. My bridesmaid, and one of the most wonderful people in my life, Christy had sent us a get well present assuming I would still be recovering from Friday. It may seem like a little gesture to some, but it was huge to me.

Inside the box was another box, of Blissful Brownies - a dozen huge brownies and a note.
She ordered us three of the ten available flavors: Classic Chocolate, German Chocolate and Chocolate Caramel. They are soooo yummy and the packaging is adorable to boot! They even make wedding favors if you are looking for something delectable and unique.
Here is her note, she and I call each other "B" a total coincidence now that I am a bee. So, for the time being the paper roses sit in a box unfinished, the invitations are unassembled and 30 more escort cards are merely pieces of ribbon and copper. I'm okay with that. For the moment projects are on hold, but I have a brownie in my mouth and wonderful people in my life.

Has anyone else gone through major life changes while planning a wedding?

"Congratulations! You have won!"

If you have attended a bridal show I am sure you have then received a call congratulating you on winning one prize or another. A couple weeks after dragging Mr. Pineapple to a fairly horrifying bridal event I received such a call. Congrats to us! We had "won" a free honeymoon. The catch being that we would have to attend at 90 minute cooking demonstration.


Well, Mr. P and decided why the heck not. We would check it out, sit quietly for 90 minutes and see if there was any legitimacy to the free vacation. The demonstration was put on by American Prestige and it was fairly awkward. We were in a small room in a rundown hotel here in Pittsburgh with a bunch of other couples. After an hour and a half of bad jokes and whispered chuckles between Mr. Pineapple and I the demo was over.

We were then told what a great deal the cookware was and why we should spend a large chunk of change that night. We didn't have to actually buy anything to get the free vacation and we didn't. Our choices were either 2 nights and 3 days in one of several hotels across the country or 2 nights and 3 days in one of 4 all-inclusive Caribbean resorts. Both very short stays considering we would still have to pay for airfare.

Mr. Pineapple and I had already planned on going to Florida to visit my family this Christmas. Since the Bahamas are just a hop skip and a jump from Miami we went with the Caribbean stay. We have not decided if we will extend the vacation beyond the free days. Other than a $40/night fee for taxes it seems to be legit and there are no blackout days. We will obviously look into it further before actually buying our plane tickets and giving anyone money, but I think it will be a nice short get away before all the craziness of the holidays.

Here are some photos from the Viva Wyndham resort where we would be staying:

Has anyone actually gone on one of these free vacations or known anyone who has?

Our First Registry Gift

This wedding planning program will be temporarily interrupted to bring you the first gift off of the Pineapple's registry...

A few weeks ago, I posted about the Pineapple Dream Registry and number one on the list was a puppy. I have wanted a puppy for years, but with three cats it always seemed a little crazy to add a dog to the mix. Well, love won over logic and Saturday Mr. Pineapple and I drove 4 hours to Bowling Green, Ohio to pick up our new puppy, Rooney!



Ok, maybe I am biased, but is he not the cutest puppy you have ever seen? We got him from a rescue. His mom is a mini schnauzer and his dad is a yorkie-poo. So, that makes him a Shorkie-Poo or a Schmutt for short.

We are amazed at how good he has been. We thought with such a young pup we would have a lot of work to do. But he is already crate and house trained at 9 weeks. He sleeps through the night, and even the cats are warming up to him.

Now all we need to complete our dream registry is a tulip farm, a fancy camera, brake rotors, season tickets, and cooking classes with Alton Brown... but I don't think that will be happening. Which is a-ok because we have A PUPPY!!!!

This Registry Brought to You by...

things I think Miss Candy Corn would like.

After seeing Miss Candy Corn's polyvore registry I had to create one myself. Mr. Pineapple and I buzzed around Macy's and Target adding things to our registry without any sort of plan. I tried to create an image in my head of what I would like each room to look like. For the bathroom brown and blue; for the kitchen reds, yellows, and blues; for the dining room reds, browns and white and for the bedroom brown, orange and blue.



Then after I created my collage I thought, oh gee that looks like Miss Candy Corn's wedding! Lots of brown and blue and birds. Putting together the collage was fun, I love getting the big picture view of all the little details.

Anyone else run through your registry without any sort of plan in mind?

Rehearsal Dinner Photographer

Miss Cupcake wrote a lovely post on the rehearsal dinner photographer at her mother's wedding. The images really are great, they are so relaxed and natural. Our rehearsal dinner will be the immediate family and our bridal party. Having a photographer present would be a great way to get shots of these VIPs without all the extra wedding hubbub.

I posted earlier about the wonderful Charlee Brodsky who shot our engagement photos as a gift to Mr. Pineapple and me. Well, she is at is again. One of Charlee's students, Mingwei Tai, mentioned that she would like to build a wedding and event photography portfolio. Charlee suggested Mingwei contact us about the possibility of working at our wedding.

Mingwei sent me a link to her online portfolio. She photographs a lot of events at Carnegie Mellon such as Spring Carnival, fashion shows, commencement and the Dancer's Symposium. I really wanted to give her the opportunity to grow her portfolio. I know what is it like to be a student dying for some "real" work.

Unfortunately, We had already booked our photographer at this point and she had an "exclusive photographer" clause in her contract. So, we would not be able to hire Mingwei for our wedding. We also did not have it in our budget to hire another photographer. I explained all of this to Mingwei and discussed with her the possibility of coming to our rehearsal and dinner. Lucky for us, she thought this was a great idea.

Mingwei also told me that she didn't need to be paid, that she would love to do it either way, just so she could have the experience. I, of course wanted to give her something for her time, so Mr. Pineapple and I have been fiddling with our budget to find a little wiggle room.

I am very excited that we will have images of the night before the big day and that we, like the Gingerbreads, were able to give this opportunity to a student. Mingwei doesn't know this yet, but I am going to talk with our photographer and see if she wouldn't mind Mingwei being at the wedding as well. Our photographer is very sweet and I have a feeling this may work out.

Anyone have any suggestions on how we could quickly turn around the files and create something cool for our reception?

Registry Adventure

This weekend Mr. Pineapple and I decided to pop over to Macy's and Target to start our registries. First, we headed to downtown Pittsburgh where there is a 12-story, super old school Macy's. The clock outside has been a landmark for over a century and is known as the "Kaufmann Clock." The Kaufman family was very influential in the Pittsburgh region and the clock used to be on the corner of the Kaufman department store, until Macy's purchased the chain.
On the seventh floor we set up our registry and were mesmerized by the carpeted walls.

The associate helping us get everything set up was Debbie. She was very helpful, maybe a little too helpful. Being the salesperson she was, she kept pointing out things that were "fabulous." She was kind, but a bit over the top. Just let us start playing with the scanner for goodness sakes. Here she is instructing Mr. P on how to use the scanner. For the most part I left all cooking related items and small appliances up to Mr. P to choose. I took over when it came to baking and more decorative decisions.

This photo documents the one and only time Mr. P allowed me to use the scanner. His past as a stock boy was really shining though.

Mr. Pineapple saddened that the giant wooden dragon would not scan.

Our next stop was at Target the following morning.
I love Target. Many of the same items we registered for at Macy's we ended up re-registering for at Target because the prices were so much better. I may have been overly worried about the price of the items we were picking out. I shot Mr. P down a couple of times when he wanted to register for something I didn't think we needed (like a counter top cereal dispenser). For the most part though we agreed on what to add and what not to. We also took turns picking out essentials that neither of us were really passionate about. At one point, I was looking at the digital SLRs considering adding one to our registry so we could get the extra 10% off after the wedding and Mr. P said "I wouldn't worry about registering for a camera." I didn't push the issue, but I sure hope he means what I think he might mean!

The only thing I am disappointed about is the lack of puppies for sale at either store.

Did you find it hard to register for fancy items that you normally would not buy for yourself?