Ohmigoodness! - The PWC

... and by PWC I mean the post wedding chop!

I joined the bridal masses and cut of my lovely lady locks. I have not had short hair since an uber-traumatic hair cut at age 6 where I was called out as "a boy with a dress on." I have to say though, I am lovin' it!
I spent a day last week back in the 'burgh to take my gown to be cleaned and to have my hair cut by the lovely Jamie at Philip Pelusi who did my wedding hair. Working in a creative field can be tough and I love it when clients give me a lot of freedom so I try to do the same for other creative folks. I just told Jamie I wanted to go shorter and just to do whatever she thought would be cute.
When she finished with the cut it felt sooooo light and cool. I was, for the first time in a long time, conscious that there was a back to my neck. I feel so much older and sophisticated. Having the same hair cut for almost 20 years is comforting, but I am so happy about this change. (And Mr. Pineapple keeps telling me how cute I am, which is a nice perk!)

Do you plan on doing the PWC?

Cleveland Foodiemoon: The Brownstone Inn

Our foodiemoon began everyday with a wonderful breakfast from the Brownstone Inn Bed & Breakfast just two miles from the heart of downtown. The inn was such a wonderful choice by Mr. Pineapple. I loved staying at the Brownstone Inn because for the most part a beautiful hotel is still just a hotel and often they lack charm and character. The was definitely no lack of character here.

The home was built in 1874 and is on the National Register of Historical Places. The owner, Robin Yates, was a great cook and an amazing host. He has been living in the home for 34 years and has run it as a B&B for eight. In the morning he would chat with use making sure we were enjoying our stay and recommending some of his favorite spots.
Mr. P and I had "the wedding room" at the top of the town house. It was a nice big room with a private bathroom. Above the bed was a turn of the century wedding photo. The price was right too at $89/night.

When I used to picture those who stayed at B&Bs I would imagine my parents, on the verge of retirement. However, the other guests who were also staying at the Brownstone were all 20-somethings who shared our same interest in politics and Mr. P's interest in micro-brews. Breakfast was always really yummy and full of lively conversation.
We may be back to Cleveland in a couple weeks and if we are, we will most certainly stay at the Brownstone again.

Do you enjoy staying at bed and breakfasts?

Cleveland Foodiemoon: West Side Market

When people asked us where we were going for our honeymoon we would tell them Cleveland and we mostly got looks that were a combination of confusion and pity in return. Pittsburghers are not known for loving Cleveland, in fact because of ye old football rivalry, we are supposed to despise Cleveland. Sorry fellow 'burghers we loved it!

One of our favorite places in Cleveland was the Westside Market. Mr. P and I love to buy local produce when we can. Living in the city we were part of a community supported agriculture program where 15lbs of produce was delivered to us once a week. Now that we live on a farm we take advantage of the few fruits and veggies we have around and get most of our produce from the Amish market down the road. The Westside Market was huge and delicious and amazing. We even ran into some friends there!

Mrs. Pommegranite and...
Mrs. Avocado!

In an outdoor corridor there were probably a couple dozen vendors selling produce. Much of which waas local, some of which came with a Dole sticker (like my Pineapple relations). There was so much to take in and take home!
Have you ever heard of a pear apple? Neither had we, it's a hybrid pear and apple. Creative name, no? Guess what it tastes like? Like a fruit with an apple momma and a pear daddy.

Inside the market were a couple dozen more vendors selling meats, cheeses and all sorts of other goodies.
Mr. Pineapple doesn't have much of a sweet tooth, but he had to grab one of these Ohio favorites, a buckeye.

The market is open Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Many of the restaurants in Cleveland buy and cook only locally grown food. Which is wonderful and I hope it is a trend that catches on! Even if you don't buy anything the market is just a cool place to browse, a feast for the eyes I suppose.
Do you and yours enjoy going to local markets?

My Two Passions: Mr. Pineapple and Line Dancing

copyright: Mary Mervis Photography

During my senior year of college an amazing thing happened. A dirty lovely "rockin' country saloon" opened on the South Side of Pittsburgh called Saddle Ridge. I was already known as "the designer who loved to line dance" at Carnegie Mellon (it's not that popular for city chicks - go figure), when one of my photography professors suggested I do a series of photos at Saddle Ridge. 1600 photos and 6 months later I had revived my passion from high school and made some of the best friends a pseudo cowgirl could ask for. Saddle Ridge is where bridesmaid Christy and I spent Thursday-Saturday nights and where we met BFF Free-J Mike.

Mr. Pineapple does not share my passion for dancing in a line, but he is really good at hanging out by the bar, spectating and keeping my water cup full. So with a few of my Saddle Ridge friends in attendance and running the music machine, there was definately a lot of line dancing happening at our wedding. Sister Pineapple ran the family camcorder by setting it atop her table so the video is not great quality (hello boodies in front of the lens), but I thought you may like to see what it looks like to see a bride atempt to boot scoot in a huge gown.

First we have one to a song called "Life's a Dance" by John Michael Montgomery. This video starts with the end of "Save a Horse Ride a Cowboy" also by Big & Rich, where you can see Mr. P next to me dancing along by spinning in circles. Hey, at least he tried. This is one of the most exhausting of our favorite line dances. After it was over I plopped into my chair and attempted to cool off. Luckily I had ditched my crinoline in the bathroom earlier. (It was much to hot with all those layers.) Look out for the part where Mike tries to hold my gown up for me. The other fella in the video is Mike's brother Ryan.


Next we have one of the first dances Mike taught Christy and I, we call it "chicken" because it goes to a song called "I Play Chicken with the Train" by Cowboy Troy and Big & Rich. Eventhough there weren't many to attempt the dance with us, you can hear some people singing along. Gooood times.


One of the hardest parts about line dancing in a wedding gown was when my hair fell in my face my choices were to a. drop my dress to fix my hair and potentially trip over my gown and kiss the floor or b. deal with it. I went with option b.

Did you have plans to do something you are passionate about at your wedding?

Deeeeeeep Breath... The Budget

Budgets are sticky topics, but when I first started planning I wanted to know how much people spent on everything. I knew weddings were expensive but I had no idea why. So, if you want to throw a Pineapple wedding of your own, here is the post for you.

From the get go Mr. Pineapple and I wanted to throw the party of our lives, but we didn't want it to keep us from actually being able to afford living. I was constantly worried about the bottom line, about spending more than we had, about regretting the cost of just one day. In the end Mr. Pineapple and I came in about $3,000 under our goal budget and I wouldn't have changed a thing. Here is the breakdown of our wedding day (which excludes rehearsal dinner, hotel, and foodiemoon, partly because I don't know how much we spent eating the last 5 days and maybe I don't want to know.)

Stationery:
$171.00 including stamps and programs
Since I make wedding invites and such for a living I was able to do ours on the cheap, including the printing donated by a friend. The photos used on our save the dates were also a gift from my friend and former professor Charlee Brodsky.

Bridal Attire:
Including gown, alterations, crinoline, veil, headband and date embroidery.
$1,175.00 (a very generous gift from Momma P)
My gown retailed for $1000, but I got it during one of their regular sales. The veil, headband and crinoline were $310, the alterations were $65 and the embroidery was free after the mess that had been made.

Bride Hair and Make-up:
$150 including tip (a gift from Momma P)

Groom's Suit:
$200 (a gift from Mr. P's Mom)

Wedding Bands:
$1,000 for his
$1,350 for mine
Our bands were quite a bit more than we had ever intended to pay, but in the end I am glad we chose the bands we did. My band had to be custom made to fit the lovely crazy shape of my ring. Mr. Pineapple's was made to match mine in rose gold. We will have them longer than our TV that was the same price, that is my justification. :)

Bridemaides' Gifts:
$50 more about what they were to come!

Groom's tie and GMs' ties:
$160 we got these all on sale at Macy's.

Officiant:
$40 for a basket of goodies from Harry and David (a gift from Momma P)
Superior Court Judge Mary Jane Bowes officiated our wedding. She was incredible. She was so funny during the rehearsal keeping the mood light and the ceremony was perfect. Since were we already married she was in no way obligated to re-marry us, but she did and for that we are truly grateful.

Ceremony:
$500 for the room set-up at the Rivers Club
$25 for the hand painted aisle runner
$0 for the ceremony muscians, more on them to come

Photography:
$2450 + photo disks (we don't know how much they will be yet)
We had three wonderful photographers with us on our wedding day. Including Mingwei Tay who is a student at my alma mater and asked us if he could shoot our wedding for his portfolio.

Flowers:
$825 after packing and shipping (a gift from Momma P)

Reception Decor:
$162.00 for centerpieces
$50 for escort card trees
$12 for the copper silk and satin used on the candy and cake tables
Thankfully the only decor we needed to add to the already cozy venue were the centerpieces.

Reception Dinner, Open Bar, and Cake:
$5,750 including tax and gratuity for 74 guests (very generous gifts from Mr. Pineapple's family helped us pay for about half of this total)
The food and service were out of this world and deserve their own post, but for now just know that this was mony very very very well spent.

Reception Details:
$150 for the favor scarves
$110 for the candy table (a gift from Momma P)
$0 for our free-j DJ, more on him to come
$0 for the dance floor, included with the venue
$0 for linens and such, included with the venue

Total:
$14,330

Yes, 14 grand is a down payment on a new home, but it is also about half of what the national average is these days. I am happy with what we were able to pull off. With so much help from Momma P while she was here these last 7 weeks, with gifts from friends and family, and diligent saving by Mr. P and I, we were able to squeak by debt-free so I consider that a win for the Pineapples.

Amazing.

We're back from our Honeymoon (which turned out to be a foodiemoon) and we are hitched! Saturday was just simply amazing. Everything went perfectly, everyone was so generous, happy, and full of champagne and sugar. Already our wonderful photographers Tammy and Marella of Mary Mervis Photography have a slide show up for us! Here is just a little sneak peak:










More to come and hopefully soon!

Brace Yourself

I cannot believe it is the day before our wedding. Although we were married in a small ceremony a month ago, nothing quite compares to the excitement I feel about tomorrow. Tomorrow is the day I finally get to vow my life, love and support to my best friend with our friends and family there to witness. Tomorrow is the day we get to celebrate our love with those we love.

Thank you Mr. Pineapple for showing me what it is like to be truly loved unconditionally, for already taking care of me in sickness and in health, and certainly for richer or poorer. I love you, I love our home filled with laughter, cats and a crazy pup.

A big thank you to the hive for all your wonderful ideas and encouragement. Mr. P and I went through some rough times this past year and without Weddingbee, I probably would have been a mess. Not to mention Mr. P's head would have exploded thinking about things he has never had to before like shoes and crinoline.

After this you probably wont hear from me for a few days. Mr. P and I are heading to the lovely state of Ohio for our minimoon. We'll be back though with tons of stories and photos to share!

Thanks again and LOTS of love!
-Miss/es Pineapple

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All Wrapped Up

Yesterday I spent a couple hours wrapping the handles of the a Diane made. All of the ribbon I used I got on sale at Michael's for $1. It was a cheap project, but really not all that easy. If I were to do it again, I would probably just pay Diane to do it for me.
I wrapped my bouquet using a scrap of copper satin. The rest of this satin will be used as a runner of sorts on the cake table.
The bridesmaids' bouquets, bouts and corsages are wrapped in that wonderful dollar ribbon.
Did you wrap your own bouquets?

Centerpiece Mock-Up

Remember these?
Well, I can't even tell you how many hours I slaved over these coffee filter roses. Then we moved and the box was stored in a closet for a couple months. Yesterday I pulled out the box to mock-up the centerpiece and all the flowers were smashed. They are very light so they couldn't have smashed each other. I don't know how it happened, but it wasn't good. I was able to salvage just barely enough for our centerpieces.

In addition to the paper roses the centerpieces include these crazy (and borderline tacky, let's be honest) copper leaves/sticks and candles atop mirror tiles from Ikea.

(ignore the plastic wrap left on the mirrors)

I am pretty happy with the outcome. It is warm and cozy and has that handmade feeling I love. The tables we are using are rectangular 6 person tables with big cushy chairs. So that alone will give the reception an intimate feel, plus scarves and candle light --mmmmmmm.

As far as cost goes I wanted to keep each centerpiece around $10, but with a decrease in the number of tables we have the individual cost went up a couple dollars. The flowers cost about $30 total, the copper sparkle plants were about $30 total, the mirrors were $1.20 each and the candles were $7/table. Making each centerpiece cost about $12.20.

Now as long as the candles don't burn down to the mirror and catch the flowers on fire and burn down Pittsburgh, we'll be in good shape! hrm.

Are you going for a fresh flower alternative for your centerpieces?

Photo Projects: Table Numbers & Guest "Book"

A while back I asked the hive for suggestions on how to incorporate our herd of animals into the wedding. Many of you suggested doing something with the table numbers, so I did.
I purchased 2-sided frames from the dollar store and used my photo printer to create the images. On one side is just a photo of either Rooney, Harrison, Onyx or Zazu.
And on the back is the name of said pet and the number. This was a surprisingly quick and easy project, especially with the help of Momma P.

Next we have our photo guestbook. I had grand ideas for the guestbook, possibly a sketch book. In the end we decided to go with a photo people can sign around to keep things simple. The logistics of something so complicated and possibly messy as a guest book were just too much to worry about. We put it in the frame and removed the glass. We are having a rather small shindig (70 guests) so there should be plenty of room to sign.

Are you incorporating photos into some of the details of your wedding?

"Getch Yer Programs!"

When it came to the programs I wanted to keep it simple, but still in keeping with the rest of our paper goodies. We decided on a vertical half-sheet for the layout and to open with a little blurb about our first wedding, written by Mr. Pineapple:

"On September 20, 2008, we were married in a ceremony with only our parents in attendance. The ceremony was planned to ensure that our families, the people who have loved and supported us for entire lives, could see us commit the rest of our lives to each other as husband and wife. We are thankful to them for everything, including sharing that special moment with us. We are honored to have our friends and families here to join us as we celebrate our new life together."

The paragraph is followed by a simple listing of our parents, bridal party, musicians and officiant. We then backed the programs with the same copper card stock used on our invitations.

Done and done.

Did you decided to keep your programs simple?

Mailbox Card Box

Beyond the copper in our wedding, Mr. Pineapple and I really love the use of copper in other elements in our home. Someday we are going to be billionaires and have copper all throughout our fabulous kitchen. When it came to the card box I thought it would be cool to use a copper mailbox that we could then use for real mail. Once I began searching though, reality hit, copper mailboxes are crazy expensive. So, I made one for $15.

As you can see, I used an inexpensive black metal mailbox and copper metallic spray paint. The paint actually covered pretty nicely. I used many many very light layers to make sure there were no drips.

There was one mishap during the painting process. After I painted the back and walked away, it blew over and got newspaper stuck to it and I couldn't get it off. I spray painted over it and hopefully no one will look at the back of the box. :)
Card box. Check!

Our coordinator is going to put the card box out of site once all the guests have arrived so we do not have to worry about any sticky fingers.

What are you using as a card box?

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