A Rock Hugger Dress

No, not THAT dress!  For those of you that have not heard yet, I am wearing Momma Rocks wedding dress on the big day.  It is the in the process of being altered to fit my 3” taller frame, and to convert it to s strapless dress…BUT, the alterations are almost done!  (I am so excited – it looks awesome!!)

But enough about that dress.  I am talking about my “Sunday Brunch” dress!  Mr. Rock's mom (i.e. “Chicago Rockette”)  was kind enough to buy me not one, but several very nice dresses in January.   One of those dresses I wore to the Chicago Shower (and received many compliments on it!!).  I am planning on wearing another new dress to the “morning after brunch”:

(Again, sorry for the yellow tint of the photo!)

I call this the “Sexy in the City” dress, because I look like an actual, for-reazy grown-up in this dress.  So, when you stumble downstairs and out the back door of the hotel for breakfast on Sunday morning (Mr. Rocks and I will be there from 9AM – 1PM), we will be waiting for you in a pretty spiffy dress!

(Oh – and the real bonus here – the dress fit me in January, but now it is TOO BIG!!  I will have to get it taken in on the top so it can fit me properly!  These are the kinda wardrobe issues I like!!)   

The Family Tree

So, one item I worked on (annnd completed) over the past few days was the "family tree" for the wedding reception.

(Sorry for the yellow tone of the photo!)

This involved finding a nice "y-shaped" tree branch, which I coated with, like, 1 million coats of clear spray paint.  Then I stained the base (using the leftover golden oak stain we had in the garage).  Then I found 7 little picture frames from Michaels (yay coupons!).  All that was left was finding (and scanning) pics of our parents and grandparents.  I don't want to post the pics I am using in the tree (you need to come to the wedding to see those!!), but here are a few pics that I really liked, but did not make it into the final cut:

 This is Mr. Rock's mom's parents: "Big D and Ciro."  I really liked this pic, but it was oriented the wrong way for the tree.

These are my parents.  I really like this one - for the color in the window and the way my parents are looking at each other.  I really hope that Mr. Rocks and I can take a pic like this on our wedding day.  However, it did not make the cut since the photo is a little off center (Papa Rocks is a bit cut off).

Our "Guestbook"

So, Mr. Rocks and I did not want a "traditional" guestbook at the wedding - we would rather have something that our guests "sign" for us to display.  So, we are having a "fingerprint tree" instead!  Our guests will "leaf" their fingerprint on our tree and sign their name, and then we can display the tree at home.

This was relatively easy to make.  I found a blank template here, which I downloaded and personalized with our names and our wedding colors (blue and orange birds).  Then we just had to print it out, get a nifty frame, some inkpads, and some nice pens.

We also made a "sign" for our wedding tree, so that our guests know why there is a bare tree at the wedding:

All I need to get is some baby wipes (so our guests don't have green fingers!) and a small trash basket for said baby wipes, and I will be done with this project.  I can't wait to see it filled with leaves!!
(All photos are by me.)

Dressing the dudes.....

So, the "2-month to go" mark passed a few days ago (yaayyy!  Oh....wait...holy-crap-I-still-have-so-much-else-to-do!!!)  I am in the middle of several projects, and once they are done, hopefully I WILL post about them!

But for now, let us take a gander at what the men of the wedding party will be wearing.  First - some background.  Mr. Rocks is not a tux guy. At. All.  He is most comfortable in jeans and a t-shirt.  While I think a t-shirt is just a bit too casual, I definitely wanted my man to be comfortable as he is standing in front of ~ 100 people telling the world he is going to marry me.  So he and I talked about it, and went through some of our options.....
Option 1:  Obnoxious hawaiian shirt

(Image from Collectorsweekly.com)

Hmmm....could work.

Option 2: Pirate costume

(Image from Go4costumes.com)

This one goes against Rule #1 - no pirates at my wedding!  (No plundering of booty!)

Option 3: Cuban shirts!  Winner!

(Image from Pennersinc.com)

Since there is a strong Cuban presence in Miami and the Keys, we though the shirts were appropriate.  They look nice, are a bit unique, and will be comfortable in the FL heat.  We will pair Mr. Rock's shirt with a pair of light khakis.

For the grooms:

(Image from Pennersinc.com)

We will pair this with a blue pocket square that matches the BM dresses (they will also be carrying orange and yellow bouquets).  And khakis.

And for the dads:

(Image from Pennersinc.com)

We will be giving our dads a boutonniere to match the Mom's dresses (I hope).

And to top it all off, all the guys will be wearing a panama hat (cuz we need to keep those shiny domes covered!!)

"Terror 1 and Terror 2" (aka the Ring Boyz - which, by the way, sounds so much more legit than Ring Bearers) will be in white linen shirts with khankis. (sorry - no pic!)  I am hoping that they can withstand running in the water for just a few minutes so we can get pics of them before they get wet.  (Which they will....and I'll probably encourage it - sorry MOH Momma!!)

So, what do you think?