The last time you'll get presents as an adult...

... that's right- registering! Being engaged for a really long time means that you get really excited about silly things because 1. you're finally checking something off of your to-do list and 2. well, free presents people I mean, come on! Originally, Mr. Yankee and I were unsure of how we wanted to set up our registry. Did we want to do a honeymoon registry?! An online only registry?! Conventional store?! Or a mix of all three?! In the end, we opted for the conventional store registry and I'll tell you why:

• Most stores put their registries online anyway
• It was really fun to go into the store and start scanning away!
• Honeymoon registries are a little hard to look like anything other than "please give us cash for our honeymoon" and since we weren't going through a specialized company for our honeymoon, that was pretty much exactly what it was going to amount to.
• I really, really, really, really want a Kitchenaid. Really.

After we decided to go the store route, Mr. Y and I had to decide exactly what stores we were going to use. All sorts of stores were thrown out there: Crate & Barrel, Williams Sonoma, Macys, Target, Pottery Barn and so on. After browsing through websites and getting an idea of the things we really need, Mr. Yankee and I decided to go for Macys and Target. We both felt these stores carried an array of necessities at every price range that fit out style. So we set a registry date and were off early on a Sunday morning to scan to our hearts content.

the mecca of Wedding Registiring in the Bay Area (source)

To say that I was excited would be an understatement. Seven floors of home decorating goodness?! Yes please! Mr. Yankee and I took some time outside to enjoy the gloriousness that is the Macys in Union Square and then proceeded to the sixth floor to initiate our registry process. The sales lady was very nice as she took down our information and tried to get us to apply for a Macys card. Then the real fun began- I got a registry gun!

personal photo

I have to admit that other than going to the store and picking up the gun, we had no real game plan. We knew we would be there for a while and we knew that we would take a break and try the burger bar on the 5th floor. Other than that- we were registry babes in the woods. We started on the 6th floor and worked our way down. My purse got heavy and so I decided to make a quick run to the car so that I was carrying as little as possible (word to the other brides out there- carry light during registering. leave the purse, sweatshirt and any other miscellaneous items in the car. you'll only need the gun!). After roughly two hours of looking around (and one fire alarm scare), Mr. Y and I decided it was time for lunch and to go over what we got, what we needed and what could go on the other registry list.

personal photo (he looks so excited, right?!)

After registering for pans, sheets, pillows, towels and yes, my kitchenaide, we decided it was time to head home and enjoy the rest of our Sunday. The registering bug must have hit Mr. Yankee something hard because as soon as we were home, he hopped on his computer and started asking me what our password should be for our Target registry.

"You want to start that now?"

"Yeah, why? You don't want to?"

"No, I'm fine. I just thought you were tired of registering."

"Shoot! Never."

So with that, we proceeded to start our Target registry- him on his computer and me on my laptop. I have to say- it was a lot of fun and I am really glad Mr. Yankee got into it as much as I did. It made it go by faster and was a lot more enjoyable.

What about the other brides out there?! Any fun registering stories?

The Honeymooners

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The honeymoon... as traditional and America as Apple Pie. And something that was very important to me when figuring out the wedding budget. Our budget had to include our honeymoon because there was no way I was going to delay it. As you can guess, the honeymoon has been a subject of much discussion and strategy as Mr. Yankee and I tried to decide what we could afford and where we really wanted to go. My bucket list includes places all over Europe, United States and Canada; Mr. Yankee- well, lets just say that I am the travel planner in this partnership. Mr. Yankee and I set up some basic ground rules for our honeymoon:

1. Within our measely budget
2. A place that we both had never been before
3. No beaches! (getting married in October pretty much took care of no beaches with everywhere being in the middle of hurricane season and Mr. Y and I having already been to Hawaii)

Originally the idea was to go to Disneyworld; it's within the United States, would be a great, fun, giddy vacation and would be away from a beach- perfect! I also liked that Disneyworld had a great number of different activities. We could horseback riding or parasailing if we truly desired. Plus, me and disney?! Sign me up! I got to work pricing the trip and was a little shocked at how much a 10 day trip to Disneyworld was going to cost.

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While I was okay with going over our budget for our honeymoon, I wanted to make sure I did it for the right vacation. So it was back to the drawing board- if I was going to pay almost 5000 for a Disneyworld vacation, could I do the same for a European honeymoon too?!

I started asking around at work for anyone who knew a European travel agent. After a couple of days, I was given a name of a travel agent who specialized in European vacations. At this point, I let Mr. Yankee take point. I tend to get really excited when it comes to planning a vacation and I wanted to keep my game face on to get the best deal possible; this is where Mr. Y comes in. He is very even tempered and doesn't get excited over much outside of new video games, so I knew he would do fine. Shortly after Mr. Yankee shot off an email, we had shiny brochures in the mail from Brendan Vacations that described both guided and independent vacations. I would be lying if I said I didn't immediately swoon; I'm such a sucker for a shiny brochure.

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Mr. Yankee proceeded to set up a time to meet and discuss details for our desired vacation and, after a small delay due to unforseen circumstances, we met with Irma (our new travel agent) to map things out. And so where, you might ask, did we decide to go?!

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ITALY!!! Or to be more specific, we'll be seeing the magnificent cities of Venice, Florence and Rome. It will be 9 days of history, food and pictures and I am so beyond excited about it!!! Our travel agent is so awesome that she was able to get our air, hotels (which all come with a free continental breakfast every morning) and airport transfers for under $5,000!!!! The only thing left to purchase is train tickets (to get from city to city) which she will purchase for us the month before the wedding. And the best part?! It's EUROPE! I have dreamed of going to Europe my entire life and now I will get to see these amazing historical cities as I start my new life with my husband.

How did you decide on your honeymoon?! How do you prepare and plan your vacations?!

Table names and table games...

source: the knot

Something that I have struggled with is tables. When Mr. Yankee and I got engaged one of the things I knew immediately was that I wanted to have semi-assigned seating. Meaning that while I wasn't going to mark every chair with a name, I wanted people who knew each other to have the opportunity to sit together. There are some places where meeting new people can be really fun and interesting- a wedding isn't one of them.

Since I knew I wanted semi-assigned seating I had to think of how I was going to arrange it. I didn't want to do your typical table numbers. Again my love of weddingbee and theknot clouded my otherwise sane judgement and I just had to have unique table names. There inlies the problem- just what should I choose?!

I searched my normal sites for ideas and started churning some in my head. I am a big Disney fan (duh) and Mr. Yankee proposed there, so I started thinking of Disney themed tables. I came up with all sorts of ideas: disney couples with a history of their love, disney villains (they're misunderstood!), pictures of Mr. Yankee and I in front of different attractions and disney movies. The problem in going with Disney is that it is fine line between creative and cheesy. The next thing I thought of was the word 'love' in different languages, but I felt that was a bit cheesy and didn't fit Mr. Yankee and I just right. Where was my creative juices?!

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My current idea is to name our tables after the different places we plan to visit when we are on our honeymoon. Find a really beautiful picture and jot down some history (because I am all about little trivia ice breakers) about the locale and call it a day. The only problem with that is explaining how we came up with our table names. I realize that a lot of people probably won't care, but I know I will care and will be worried about people understanding our theme. Silly, no?!

How about the other brides out there?! How did you come up with your seating arrangement?!

When all else fails, dust yourself off and try again

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Isn't she beautiful?! I miss her all the time. And for those of you who know me- you knew Aaliyah was going to make an appearance in my blog somewhere!

I know I've been absent from this blog and for the three of you who read this- I am sorry. I've had some things happen within the last few weeks that have sort of killed my blog writing bug. First was my post on my father; it was an extremely hard post to write and when I was done I found myself having to go through those emotions all over again. And it wasn't pretty.

And I applied for 'bee-dom, only to be rejected. I realize I still have a ton of time before the wedding, but of course I was super duper excited and applied as soon as there were open spots. Have you seen their new sea creatures monikers?! Like O-M-G!! Alas, I was not accepted and so that put a cramp in my style.

And last, but certainly not least there has been some internal drama with the wedding party. I haven't discussed our wedding party much yet and I will get to them in due time. But needless to say someone made a commitment and has since backed out of said commitment while hoping everything will be peaches and cream. Leaving a very sad and disappointed Ms. Yankee in the dust.

.. However that is all over! And I will tell you why. Tonight I was catching up on my blog reading and I came across some posts over at Weddingbee that were really inspirational. It started out with Miss Hamster's post on how she became a 'bee. And of course that led to me reading about how other bloggers became bees and one thing remained current- do it for you. Blog for you. While yes, as a weddingbee blogger you will be writing for an audience it is important to remember to write for yourself and be yourself. And I think I let too many people get inside of my head about this blog and have punished it because of them- no more.

I want to do some things with this blog to make it a little more pretty and lot more me. The only issue is I am a little html/design challenged. My good friend Kendall gave me a good site to look for new layouts and so I may use one of those. Or I may try to get real creative and do my own thing. Either way, I am back. And I am more jazzed than ever.