W-2, Saturday January 17th, 2009
This morning, I woke up with my head full of the things that I still had to do. Today was the tea party, and DHs thing at the ESPN Zone. And we had a combined bachelor/bachelorette outing at Jellyrolls that night. I was particularly excited about that, since it was our opportunity to let loose with only our friends without everyone else around.
In the morning, MOH came over to finish up the Welcome Bags. We decided to distribute them at the tea party, because it was the first official event of the weekend. I had emailed the newsletter before I left for the wedding, but I wanted to make sure everyone had the information on the bus times for the Welcome Dinner. And at any rate, almost ALL of the guest families had a lady coming to the tea party. So, it made it simpler.
I also worked on the gift bags for the BMs, since I planned on handing them out at the tea party, too.
I found these for the Bachelor/Bachelorette
I had these made from a vendor on Etsy
I also bought them a coach wristlet
And I found a pearl necklace, earring and bracelet set on Overstock.com. I didnt intend on them wearing them for the wedding, but they chose to on their own. In the end, I think it looked good.
I had to leave DH and MOH in the room finishing up the bags to get to my mani/pedi. It was convenient staying at the GF for this, because I was able to walk over to the spa in just a few minutes. I made the appointment with my mom (although she only wanted the manicure). I thought it would be something nice to do with her before the wedding. Well, I should have made that clear when I scheduled the appointment, because they took me to a room with a spa chair for the pedicure, but took her to a totally separate room. The whole experience was really nice, and the pedicure in particular lasted over a month. So, I have no complaints about the service. Just make sure that if you have an experience in mind...that you communicate it. I didnt think that they would take us to separate rooms, but they did.
After that, I had received a call from Michelle Wenzler-Dorr to tell me that because of the temperature, they were moving the tables inside the WHR to set up. I had really wanted the tea party on the patio, but it was a little on the chilly side that morning. I think it would have been fine by the time the tea party rolled around at 2:00pm, but oh well. It was still nice. She also told me that she had another wedding at that time, but stopped by to make sure things were okay. She was super excited to hear what I had to say about the cake, and she had found a few props to decorate the room as well.
I had bought some stuffed penguins to decorate, and she let me know that the floral folks were looking for them. I had TOTALLY forgotten to drop them off at Francks. She told me to call bell services and have them transport them to the WHR. That turned out to be a HUGE time saver. We used bell services several times to save our behinds (or really our legs), so I recommend staying at a deluxe hotel near your events for that reason alone.
I was SUPER excited about the tea party. Because of my location (in Germany), I didnt get to have a shower, which was a real bummer. So, the tea party was a chance to do girly things.
I lucked out in finding my outfit at the Dress Barn on sale and the hat on clearance at TJ Maxx. I had ordered the shoes to wear to the Welcome Dinner, but they went with this outfit, too.
Problem: I did not walk around in these shoes, and I actually tried to wear hose. Big mistake. I slipped forward in the shoes and could not keep them on my feet. I was so frustrated just walking across the GF to the convention center to the Whitehall Room. It made me feel rushed and stressed instead of relaxed and ready to enjoy the event.
Tea Party Lesson Learned #1: walk quite a distance in your shoes before the event...not just across the room or the store. And buy those foot pad things, just in case.
By the time I got there, most people were milling about in the hall way not sure what to do.
Tea Party Lesson Learned #2: I wish I had tagged someone with the cruise director title to get people into the room.
When I walked up, it was really cool, though, because I hadnt seen some of these girls in 3 years! And some of DHs family I had NEVER met. Shortly after I walked up, but before we all went into the room, DH and all his boys came in carrying the welcome bags. MOH had enlisted their brawniness for the job. We caught a few pics before we went in.
The room was decorated beautifully. I loved the colored table cloths, and the carousel horses looked great. The flowers were beautiful, although I thought it was a little weird that they were just placed around the horses, and not in some type of water or foam.
you can sort of see the carousel horse Michelle (WP) found for the room!
Shelley from Impressions did a great job with the menus and the napkins. Now, I loved these details, but in an attempt to save money, you could TOTALLY dispense with these.
And the Pièce de résistance. The GF Bakery outdid themselves on this, because I gave NO guidance. Michelle (WP) told them it was a Jolly Holiday Mary Poppins theme and they did the rest. Amazing.
So, anyway, the room and cake blew me away, but as I was admiring all the details and chatting this brings me to...
Tea Party Lesson Learned #3: assign seating or have smaller tables to encourage mixing or one large table.
We had 10-tops, and since MOH and I were the last to sit down, she and I, her mom and MIL and SIL and I ended up at a table by ourselves. Dont get me wrong...I love these people, but Ive seen them more frequently over the years. At some of the other tables were some of my dearest friends whom I havent seen in YEARS!!! Because of this, it was hard to circulate, and I hardly got to talk to them. So, even though the party was beautiful, it really didnt flow like I wanted it to.
After everyone was seated, I opened up the buffet. I didnt do a tasting of this menu, and only swapped out a little bit from the stock tea party menu. I wish I had been more specific or had tasted it. Everything sounded really good, but I cant think of a single thing that was particularly good. Some was down-right bad.
We were surprised!
Only a few more months...
...but we were definitely happy with our pictures! I hate that some brides haven't been...it's really sad, but the pictures I've seen in the past few months have been great (Goldeelox9 for one!), so I'm hoping that's the trend! 
My Mom is German (born and raised in Munich)...hence "Heidi" as a first name. 
Oreo bon-bons. But I agree that dipping them is a pain. When I made them last Christmas instead of dipping them I just drizzled them with chocolate (put the melted chocolate in a piping bag and cut the tip a little). This was much easier and they still tasted really good.
