Dear FedEx,

I just received this email from my wedding band designer (no, you did not miss a post, I haven't told you about it yet).

Hi Miss French Bulldog,

I just wanted to update you on your ring order. Right now I am waiting for the diamonds for you ring to arrive by fedex, which will be this afternoon. If I can get all of the stones set before 5pm, I will be shipping the ring today. Otherwise it will be tomorrow morning.

Ok, let me know if you have any questions!

Justine

If it goes out today, I will get it tomorrow! But if it goes out in the morning, I won't get it until Monday! The early I get it the early I can try it on and forget to take it off and the earlier I can tell you all about it...

Dear FedEx,

Please deliver my pretty little tiny diamonds to Justine early enough for her to get them set by 5pm.

Thank You,
Miss French Bulldog

P.S. Did I ever tell you you're my favorite express delivery service? *bats eyelashes*

What wedding item are you waiting on pins and needle to receive?

Bye, Bye Birdies *sniff*

Mama Frenchie received an email from My Wedding Favors on Tuesday saying that our adorable birdie favors were on backorder and wouldn't be available until the Monday before the wedding.

Source

I immediately called and asked what that meant. Did that mean the birds would ship on thatMonday? Because, then we would get them by Tuesday, which could work. Or, did that mean they would process my order again on that Monday? Because then I most definitely wouldn't get them before Thursday, when I would no longer be in Orange County. Although, Michelle (with My Wedding Favors) was very helpful, understood my concern and apologized that it took them so long to notify me about the backorder. (I should have been notified 3 days after my order was placed, not 11, which is what happened), I still wasn't confident that the order would come in time so I cancelled.

Mama Frenchie immediately sniffed around for other options. We really liked the photo/memo clip place card doubling as a favor idea. It was really hard to find plain memo clips.

Globes, Apples, Flip-Flops, Beachy, Western

Some of those would be really cute for someone else's wedding, just not mine.

Luckily, Mama Frenchie found these on Displays2Go.

Aqua Base w/ Alligator Clip, Clear Base w/ Bird Clip, Aqua Base w/ Heart Clip

You may be thinking, "Bird clip! Miss Frenchie you should go with the bird clip!" Yeah, about that - I'm not a huge fan of the gold metal. I know I'm weird, it has a bird, it's perfect... ish. We're doing Birdie signs on all the table, coming out of the centerpieces, and the shaped of the those birdies don't match the bird clip. (Mama Frenchie and I are working on that this weekend so I promise to blog about it soon). Mama Frenchie really wanted them to have a color and I wanted them to be more than just a cube and a clip, so we ended up ordering the Aqua Base with Heart Clip.

Source

Now for the best part - Each birdie from My Wedding Favors was about $3.45/bird, it was pricey, but we liked them so much we went with it. The new favors are costing us $0.71/clip! 71 CENTS per clip!

Did a disappointment end up saving you money?

How I found our Photographer...

I recently received an email from a reader asking me about how I found our photographer and I realized I never shared the story with the Hive!

Source

I started stalking photography blogs after the very talented Jessica Claire photographed my friend Tiffany's wedding 3 years ago.

Photo by Jessica Claire

This is when I discovered Photography blogs and teaser photos and all of that. So, when I began my search, I knew I wanted a wedding photographer with a photojournalistic style and, I would never had admitted this aloud, a blog. I wanted teaser photos and all of that!

My first stop in finding a photographer was the Weddingbee boards. I posted a thread in the Orange County Boards and the San Diego Boards and got a ton of great recommendations. I emailed everyone of the photographers that were suggested. Some were booked for our date, some were too expensive and some took too long to respond. I did find a couple possibilities, but none were local to San Diego, so I was also looking at a travel fee.

Then one day reader sal75 recommended her photographer, Melissa McClure. After looking around her blog I contacted her right away. Not only were her photos great, but I knew with her cherry watermark, we were kindred spirits.

Quick, where is the closest field to my venue?

Sadly, Melissa was alread booked for our date. (SAD FACE!) But, she offered to help us find a photographer. (HAPPY FACE!) She asked me to email her exactly what I wanted and what our budget was and she would email all her photography friends to see if anyone was interested. (SCORE!) So I did and she did. The next day I got an email with a list of everyone who had responded and a sentence (or two) of what she knew about them. As I was about to start looking at all their websites and blogs Melissa emailed me again with 2 more photographers. One of those photographers was Ohana Photography, who had done Melissa's engagement photos.

Dang it, someone find me a field! (Source)

Confession, I started to tear up, Ohana Photography was exactly what I was looking for! And, the extra bonus was that I didn't have to email them and ask them if they were available the date of our wedding and get crushed when I found out they were booked because they already knew my date. AND, I didn't have to fall in love with their images only to find out they were out of my budget, because they already knew my budget. I called David Baxter with Ohana that night and spoke to the nicest most energetic guy on the phone and I was sold.

I later found out that Melisssa had done all this for me the week of her wedding! In between getting married and leaving for her honeymoon cruise she helped me find a photographer. Who does that? Apparenly, Melissa and girl who "Tweeted" her wedding...

Check out her bridal outfit! HOTNESS! (Source)

Now, Melissa is one of my Twitter friends and we've arrange an after wedding Bridal shoot. We're hoping to talk Mr Frenchie into coming with a 6-pack of beer and I think it may work.

How did you find your wedding photographer?

So Excited! (and I just can't hide it!)

Mr Frenchie has known since our first date that I am not a HUGE fan of Chinese Food. I'm surprised we went out again because Chinese is his favorite! Especially Chinese Buffets.

Mr Frenchie's dream! (Source)

Since I'm not an evil French Bulldog, I do go to Chinese with Mr Frenchie occasionally. However, I'm also not a dumb French Bulldog either, so we made a deal and we switch off between Sushi (my favorite) and Chinese. Currently, were on Sushi because Mr Frenchie foolishly suggested Pick-Up Stix for dinner last night. HA! That means I get to squeeze in one more Sushi dinner before our rehearsal dinner.

Yep, that's right, I agreed to have Chinese food for our rehearsal dinner. A couple months ago, Mr Frenchie and I were spending a weekend in San Diego. It was Chinese's food turn and Mr Frenchie wanted to take me to a restaurant he used to go with FMIL Frenchie, called China Camp. (For you San Diegians it's behind the pink Denny's on PCH).

Source

"China Camp at Fat City is a theme restaurant, a re-creation of the 19th century camps where Chinese immigrants lived while building railroads, working in mines and working at other grueling jobs. So you'll see waterwheels, old photos, camp memorabilia, hanging abacuses and a huge Chinese dragon -- all meant to commemorate the immigrants' struggle while celebrating their contributions as culinary artists." - Kat Forcades signonsandiego

I wish I had a picture of the inside! China Camp was the most enjoyable Chinese restaurant experience I had ever had. In fact, I was the one who suggested it as a rehearsal dinner spot. Shock and Surprise Mr Frenchie was in ;-)

Now, with our Wedding invitations off in the mail and our RSVPs rolling in, we needed to get crackin' on the rehearsal dinner invites. One reason I hadn't started yet was because I had NO CLUE what I was going to do. That was until I saw the illustration Mrs Gummi Bear did for The Toucan's first anniversary and I knew! I contacted Gummi and she drew this awesome picture of Mr Frenchie and me on a Chinese take-out box.

I was going to hold off and show these to you after my order from Vista Print had come in and I had already mailed them out. But, no-one in my family, except my awesome cousin Katie, reads WB and I know she won't spoil the surprise. (Hint, Hint Katie). So, with Gummi's adorable illustration I went to Vista Print and did a little magic with an oversized postcard.

Front

How FREAKIN' ADORABLE is that illustration?!? I LOVE IT!

Back

I seriously cannot wait to get these in the mail! A special thanks to Mrs Gummi for getting this to me while she was in the middle of moving! I heart you Gummi :)

Are you having a less than conventional rehearsal dinner?

**If you're intersted in a Super Cute illustration by Gummi, hop over to her etsy shop, franceslovesyou.**

OC County Bee Meet-up

Miss Duckling and I are trying to organize another Orange County Bee Meet-up before we're knee deep in last minute wedding maddness.

Check out the Orange County Board Thread here, for more information.

We hope you can make it!

Ball & Chain

Mr Frenchie and his dudes went to Palm Desert this past weekend for his Bachelor party. I've heard bit and pieces of what they did, most of which involved staying out of the heat as much as possible. It was only 117!

This picture cracked me up and reminded me of a story I heard from Papa Frenchie's bachelor party.

While Mr Frenchie only had to carry around a red cup, Papa Frenchie's friends made him a cement ball attached to a chain for him to carry around all night! I'd say Mr Frenchie got off easy!

What crazy Bachelor party stories have you heard?

We love kids, but...

The topic of children at a wedding is a controversial one. Some people believe strongly that children should be part of the day, while other believe they should stay at home. Like us, I'm sure most peoples' opinions are a per wedding decision. We've been to weddings where we couldn't imagine what it would have been like not seeing the adorable flowers girl forget to line the aisle with petals, or the ring bearer swinging the pillow around by the ribbon tied tightly around the rings. However, we've also been to weddings were an uncomfortable baby has cried in the middle the vows or a bored toddler talked loudly throughout the ceremony.

Every couple decides what is best for their wedding based on their venue, their guests, the time of day etc. Mr Frenchie and I made the unpopular decision, early on, that we are not going to have children in our wedding and we we're not going to invite children under a certain age. As you know our wedding will take place at a winery and will take place completely outside. In our opinion, our venue does not lend itself to young children.

We have a few friends with babies (whom we absolutely adore) that are have shared with us how excited they are to have a night/weekend for just the two of them. However, we also have a few friends who really want to bring their children along. We understand that finding a sitter cannot always be easy, we've spent many nights hanging out with friends at their houses, instead of going out, so they didn't have to hire a sitter. We also understand that, for some, that means they will not be able to attend our wedding. But, if we bend our rule for one couple we have to do it for everyone, so we're standing our ground.

To get "the word" out we decided to approach any opposition on a case by case basis. We made sure to put the names of all the invited parties on the invitations and decided that if someone RSVP'd for more we would just explain to them "our policy". A couple guests have emailed us, before RSVP'ing, to ask and we've responded to each as diplomatically as possible. One couple has been less understanding than the others, but again we are standing our ground.

Have you decided not to invite children to your wedding? How did you get "the word" out?