Same idea...two different outcomes!

I'm really interested in Miss Rainbow's wedding. Like seriously fascinated. I've been planning my retro-inspired Alice in Wonderland wedding for three years now...and she just started planning her retro-inspired Alice in Wonderland wedding! I'm really surprised that someone would hit upon the exact same idea...yet we are completely different.

Her wedding (from the handful of posts she has put up) looks like Art Nouveau. Like this:

And this:

It's very Great Gatsby, very sunny garden party. I'm really excited to see how she incorporates Alice in Wonderland too- and why she chose Alice.

I chose Alice because she's been my favorite Disney character since I was but a wee lassie. My mother used to put the VHS tape in for me on Sunday afternoons when I was a toddler and I would fall asleep, mesmerized by Alice's adventures. When I was seven or eight I read the book, and was fascinated by it. Alice remained one of my all-time favorite literary and Disney characters.

When I was eighteen years old, I had the amazing opportunity to become a Walt Disney World cast member. Even better, I was selected for one of my dream jobs: I was made a Tour Guide on the Great Movie Ride. I spent six wonderful months getting held up by gangsters, running from bandits blowing up banks, driving cranky old trams, and basically having a merry old time in the Happiest Place on Earth.

(that's right, I photobombed Bogart and Bergman!!)

It was during my time on the Disney College Program that I rediscovered my admiration for Alice. I also discovered I was just the right height to play her. I was even extended an offer to play her, but turned it down in order to spend time with my brand new boyfriend, who was back home in good ol' Nashvegas. Although it was a bittersweet decision, it was the best choice I ever made: that boyfriend was Patrick, and he proposed just a year after we started dating.

I knew from the start that Alice in Wonderland was going to make a big impact on our wedding. Originally the colors were going to be pale blue and black- perfect for a classy, glamorous wedding. But the idea evolved...and evolved...and evolved.

The first thing I realized was that while many brides have lovely black-and-bright-color weddings, it didn't suit me. The elegant black slowly faded away to be replaced by sunshiny yellow. Now there were yellow roses (my grandfather's favorite flower) and daisies, and the whole mood of the wedding changed from a glamorous event to a hyper-happy party!

Fabric slowly wormed its way in as well. I have an almost unhealthy addiction to cloth. I started adding in two of my favorite fabrics: gingham and eyelet. Now there were bows everywhere (I also have a brilliant love affair with bows, btw) and ribbons and all sorts of charmingly mismatched patterns.

I still felt like something was missing. And then I realized it...the retro element!

I started getting into retro stuff a couple of years ago. I discovered a band called the Pipettes, and FELL IN LOVE WITH THEM. Seriously. Girl crush. Right there.



(They're typically not animated, by the way. They're usually real people.)

Once I started getting into music influenced by the '50s and early '60s, I started falling in love with clothes influenced by the time period. After that, it was only a matter of time.

Granted, the retro flair on the wedding is still subtle, but it's there. It's mostly in, well, the music and clothes. But it's a special touch that I'm simply in love with. It also tied it in surprisingly well with Alice in Wonderland. You see, Disneyland opened in 1955, and when it opened, women wore their pretty full-skirted frocks and pearls and gloves and heels (which sunk into the still-soft asphalt on opening day!). I really want to evoke that feeling.


(and no, I have no earthly clue why there's a can of black beans on the railing...)I still felt like something was missing, something that would finalize the vision that I had, the whimsical party I wanted to throw to celebrate FINALLY marrying the guy I've totally been in love with for the past three and a half years. And on Christmas, I found it in the form of a present. It was a storybook version of Alice illustrated by Mary Blair.

Mary Blair was a prominent Disney concept artist in the '40s and '50s. She was one of the artists Walt sent to South America, she created beautiful work for Song of the South, Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, and Peter Pan (as well as some early early early images for Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast!), and she completely designed the whole look for it's a small world. Her illustrations completely summed up the look and feel I was going for: nostalgic, sweet, full of whimsy, and super playful. Add Alice in Wonderland, the '50s (Alice premiered in 1951), and a blue-and-yellow color scheme, and there you have it!



"But how," you may ask, "IN HOLY BLAZING HECK are you managing to incorporate all of this?"

Well, let me explain.

Wait, there is too much to explain. Let me sum up.

-A color scheme of blue and yellow (Alice's hair color and her dress color)

-The flower girl will be dressed as Alice

-The ringbearer will wear a vest with a pocketwatch (the White Rabbit...but suuuubtllle...)

-Topiary trees by the doors with white roses painted red (get it? Painting the roses red?)

-The flowers are inspired by the Garden of Live Flowers scene in the movie (lots of roses and daisies and bluebells)

-The guestbook is a copy of the aforementioned Alice in Wonderland storybook

-Playing cards as table numbers

-Lots of hanging pomanders and hanging Chinese lanterns (like the Mad Tea Party)

-The centerpieces are mismatched teapots filled with flowers and surrounded by floating candles in mini mason jars

-Instead of a cocktail hour, there's going to be a tea party

-Using a vintage Alice in Wonderland magazine ad from 1951 as the basis for our "hey, the wedding's here!" sign

And a bunch of other stuff that I'm too tired to think about right now...

So why am I babbling about this, you ask? Well, a couple of reasons. A lot of it is because I've explained what I'm going for, and really, telling people about your retro fabric-inspired Alice in Wonderland Disneyland on opening day wedding causes a LOT of raised eyebrows. It's nice to have my whole idea laid out and step back and see what it looks like. (And I'd like to hear what people think of it. Too crazy? Possibly...)

I also really want to be a Bee. (Seriously...someone tell me if I'm allowed to blog about the fact that I'm applying. Is this frowned upon? Or am I allowed to blog out my worrywart-ness? I don't know! So I shall keep writing!) And I don't know if I'm automatically out of the running because my wedding is potentially so similiar to a new Bee. I feel like I have a unique voice and a lot of quirkiness and a great wedding to blog about. Am I still being considered? I just don't know.

Oy.

Well, they haven't turned me down quite yet. And if I get rejected again, I'll try one last time. (I mean, if Mrs. Bunny got rejected twice, there's still hope for me!).

Gargh. This is like audition purgatory all over again. Except that instead of a pool of local actresses, I'm against a bajillion awesome brides all over the internetz.

Double gargh!

aaaaaaand rant is done. (And Guys and Dolls rehearsal!). Time for sleep. Tomorrow P and I shall purchase our invitations! That will be an adventure. I shall photograph it and be happy.

(But after sleep. After this SUPER LONG rant, I most def need the sleep.)

Oh, sad day...

So I really want to be a Bee.

I opened Weddingbee to see this morning that Miss Rainbow has been claimed.

She is also twenty-two.

She is also having an Alice in Wonderland wedding.

Crap.

Oh, well. I'm still going to hold out hope. My wedding has slowly become more retro than Alice, anyways. And I still feel like I have something unique to offer the Hive. Plus I'm a reliable blogger, and I feel like I have a good writing style.

I'm also pulling for the fact that I'm a March bride, and right now there is neither a March bride nor a February bride. That's a two month lull with no weddings, y'all! Maybe they'll be like, "Uh...no March brides...um...oh, well, let's just take her!". And I would rejoice.

I'm also hopeful because I sent my application in September...and haven't heard anything back yet. I mean, they didn't send my rejection letter right away. That's a good sign, right?

When I applied the first time (because yes, I've been rejected before), they waited about a month to very gently turn me down. I deleted the email because it made me sad, but I recall them saying that they did like my blog and asked me to apply again. So that's another good sign, right?

Since my first application, I've changed my blog layout, worked on updating regularly, and tried to make my voice as distinct as possible. And I've tried to make it very personal. My competitive nature has driven me on more than one occasion to check out blogs of other brides who applied and were rejected from being a Bee, and I've noticed that most of the girls who are rejected have lovely blogs full of lovely wedding-related entries, but there's just not much personal material. Hopefully that'll help me. Unless I'm too personal...and are you even allowed to blog about applying to Weddingbee? I don't know. I might have broken a taboo. But I neeeed to blooooog. It cheers me up to write.

I think the Bees are still checking out my blog. (At least I hope they are.) I hope they don't judge me too much for writing an entry about applying. I hope they like me. I hope they pick me. (I really really do!)

So yeah. I'm rather mopey at the moment. But I shall still hold out hope! I think I have a shot.

And if I get rejected again, I can always apply again. :)

I was going to write a mopey blog entry from Guys and Dolls rehearsals, about how I was languishing in the theater, but they let me go after we finished "Sit Down, You're Rockin' The Boat." So I went home and ate chocolate ice cream instead.

I bet a lot of other people have discovered MakeMeBabies.com, but I find it absolutely hilarious. P and I will apparently procreate a new Anne Shirley:



What do you think about my little new baby Anna Victoria Lily?
MakeMeBabies.com - What will your baby look like?

And our son is a pirate. Piratepants, Jr. But I love his curls.



What do you think about my little new baby Gabriel Charles Brent?
MakeMeBabies.com - What will your baby look like?

(and if Zac Efron and I had a baby.)



What do you think about my little new baby Sparkles McGee?
MakeMeBabies.com - What will your baby look like?

In P's favorite quote: "Whoa, uglay baby! Can't give those away!". It's slightly gratifying to know that even CyberLand, P and I will have cute babies. Of course, we've known that from the start. Kat was the first person I ever told about my crush on P (waaay back in the day, which was a Wednesday, by the way, in December 2005). The first words out of her mouth?

"You'll have cute babies! Don't tell Rose."

Of course, I didn't know why I couldn't tell Rose. I found out later that she dated P in high school and it, uh, didn't end well. Luckily, Rose knows, everyone's friends again, and she is tickled pink to inform people that she's a bridesmaid in her ex-boyfriend's wedding.

As silly as it is, seeing those goofy composite pictures makes me wonder what our real babies will look like. I'll admit it: I have babies on the brain.

P and I both want children. We really want children. As in five of them. But, like our wedding, we know we have to wait.

-We're really really young. We have plenty of time to start a family.

-I want him to be out of school and working full-time before we start adding babies to our lives. That's going to take a while for him to graduate.

-For pete's sake, we've waited nearly three years to get married! Let's enjoy it!

A lot of the wedding blogs I've browsed recently talk about life after the wedding, which inevitably leads to babies. There are so many brides who go right from planning their wedding to painting their nursery, and truth be told I'm a little jealous. It makes me think of the line in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers: "I've always wanted to be a June bride, and have a baby right off...in the spring, maybe."

P will be an absolutely amazing father. If we walk past a baby he has to stop and admire and make cute faces. He also confessed shortly before he proposed that one of his most important criteria for a future wife was that she would be a good mother, and that I won that battle hands down (which I am quite glad about).

Man, everything is baby-related. I'm watching frickin' Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and even Meatwad is pregnant. Oy.

For some brides, the timing works for them to go from a couple to a family right away. It's not going to work for us. We'll enjoy the heck out of our new marriage, don't get me wrong, but as soon as we're at a point that we can start trying for a baby, we are going to start!

That is, if we're able to get pregnant. When P was sixteen, he was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, and there's a possibility because of medications he took then that we won't be able to have babies. But that, my friends, is a bridge we shall cross when we come to it.

On a lighter note, has anyone else watched I DIDN'T KNOW I WAS PREGNANT? (It must be written in all caps.) It's just like it sounds- women DIDN'T KNOW THEY WERE PREGNANT and gave birth in cars and bathrooms and emergency rooms and they DIDN'T HAVE ANY PRENATAL CARE. The show is full of cheesy reenactments and a foreboding announcer. It gets to the point that everyone thinks they might be pregnant. I'm like, "Gaugh! Maybe I'm pregnant! Maybe I'm going to go into labor RIGHT NOW! Maybe I'm...oh, wait. Virgin. Never mind."

And with that, I shall close this slightly loopy, slightly emo entry. I guess I just want to let off a little steam about going from one waiting game to the next. But hey, at least once my wedding is taken care of, I'll be married to Patrick for good! And that, my friends, is worth the wait.

When things don't always go as planned

I thought I would write a rather jolly post about my floral inspiration board from Afloral.com, but right now, it's the last thing on my mind. It's been a really, really rough day.

Today began with an argument with my father, followed by a World Lit II exam I wasn't properly prepared for and two hours' worth of shop practicum, where I had to use a radial saw and build a 14' tall flat with curved edges. (Which is a pain.) Then I had to sit around and wait for rehearsal until 8:30, and I just now got home.

On top of that, this weekend heralds the end of Beau Jest. We perform Friday and Saturday, then strike the set on Saturday night. I've worked so hard on this show, and finally got a lead, and now none of my best friends (and BMs) are coming to see it.

The worst part is that today marks one week since my grandfather passed away. Some of my friends have been really sweet about it, making sure I'm okay and asking how my family's doing. Some of my friends- suprisingly, some of my long-term friends- haven't even mentioned it.

There are some days where it just seems like nothing goes right. I hate it, but it's inevitable.

So I called P and talked his ear off. I had a little bit of a cry (more of a tearing-up). And I drank a hot cup of peach black tea. So life is looking up.

Besides, tomorrow will be better.