First Dance Songs

Posted in Family & Motherhood, Thoughts & Stories by Jennifer | Stick Girl JAM

this is what our summer looked like!

Mumbles and I just finished one heck of a wedding season. We will forevermore dub 2012 as “The Year of the Wedding” because we had seven — yes, seven! — weddings to attend in the span of five months, plus one that we couldn’t attend because it fell on the same day as another. Not to mention bridal showers, baby showers, graduations, and the whole moving to Virginia thing. Dr. T (Mumbles’s sister) and the Deputy were married earlier this year (see her “Love Birds” Bridal Shower), along with childhood friends, a former coworker/friend from college, a business partner, two sorority sisters (one who married one of Mumbles’s fraternity brothers and the other a rockstar, like I always knew she would), and a friend that Mumbles plays softball with married the sister of one of his fraternity brothers who used to date a former co-worker of mine (whew!). Our summer was jam-packed with love and marriage, and every ceremony was a happy flashback to our own wedding day, giving us time to reflect on our life together and how thankful we are for the growth and experiences we’ve shared since saying “I do.”

Our first dance as husband and wife
(photo by Brandon Kidd Photography)

Aside from watching the groom as he sees his bride walking down the aisle, my absolute favorite part of any wedding is hearing what the newlyweds selected as their first dance song. When choosing a song, you’re looking for something sweet yet significant, it needs to communicate your love and devotion to each other, spur a collective sigh from all your guests and it should probably shoot not to offend anyone. It’s a big deal. Picking just one song is made even harder if you don’t particularly have a song to call your own (go ahead, right now just take a moment to picture Dermot Mulroney softly singing “The Way You Look Tonight” in your ear…I’ll wait while you enjoy that.). You’re welcome. Back with me? Great.

I obsessed for hours on end, poring over options to ensure just the right music was playing at all the important moments of my big day, willfully guiding how I wanted to feel and how I wanted guests to feel. (Kinda like music in movies will tell you when to shut your eyes because something scary is going to happen. Yeah, like that but romantic and lovely and happy. Not scary.) From the processional (“Happy as the Sun” by Tyrone Wells), the song I walked down the aisle to (“Lullaby” by the Dixie Chicks), the recessional that celebrated our first kiss as Mr. & Mrs. (“This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)” by Natalie Cole), our entrance into the reception to get the celebration started (“I Gotta Feeling” by Black Eyed Peas), and the cake cutting (“Sugar So Sweet” by Tyrone Wells)…all of these songs elicit nostalgia and happy memories for me. Gosh, even some of the songs I almost picked get me a little gushy when I hear them, sometimes announcing to Mumbles “this is the song we almost played while our moms were seated!” like he cares at all. I know I’m not alone in the whole nostalgia thing because I asked some friends if they would share their first dance songs and got a lot of responses that said things like “oh, I love our song!” or “how special” and a lot of exclamation points and smiley faces accompanied them so I know I was on to something.

So here they are, some of the first dance songs chosen by some of my favorite people (myself included):

Mumbles and I swayed and looked into each other’s eyes all dreamy like while Brad Paisley crooned “Then.”
Mumbles’ brother and his wife danced to “She’s Everything” by Brad Paisley (what can we say? that guy knows how to make a lady swoon!)
Dr. T (formerly Merrett) and the Deputy chose one of my almost selections: “Feels like Home” by Chantal Kreviazuk (you’d recognize it if you’ve ever seen How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days).
Our good friends from college, Brent & Amanda (whom we affectionately refer to as “Cappy” and “Panda” — hey, we like nicknames around here) danced in the grass surrounded by their bridal party to “Pistol” by Dustin Kensrue. Dancing in the grass was so intimate and romantic, it just makes me sigh seeing the photo I took from that day. Just lovely.

Back when I officially became BFOTB (though I’ve recently been promoted to BFOTBM: Best Friend of the Baby Mama), my BFOTB (she’s still mine…I’ll longingly wish to forever be a bride!) and her hubby have great taste and chose “God Only Knows” by The Beach Boys. Good one, friend.
Kacee (of Kacee Geoffroy Hair + Makeup…maybe you know her? You should. She is simply fabulous and has done hair and makeup at half of these weddings I’m referring to — mine included! — and you should check out her blog for product recommendations, makeup & hair tips, and more) and her stud of a husband went classic country with Alan Jackson’s “Like Red on a Rose.”
Mumbles’s cousin Ryan & his wife Page took to the dance floor with “Never Love You Enough” by Brian McComas. Page is my favorite friend-turned-family-by-marriage and you’ll adore her just as much as I do if you read her blog, Page on Paper, which chronicles her adventures through moving from SoCal to SF and now to Arizona plus home and crafty goodness we all love. Also, I should note that it was my job during their ceremony to press the play button for Adele’s version of “To Make You Feel My Love” (Perfection! This song is good no matter who sings it!).
Our friends Ashley & Anthony chose a song that suits their beach-chic lifestyle: the “Better Together” remix by Jack Johnson & Paula Fuga. Makes me smile and relax every time I hear it!
Elissa & Bobby (Bobby performed our wedding ceremony!) also had a song that really suited them in “Me and You” by Kenny Chesney. Love it.
My gold friend Mel (we bonded over our Girl Scout adventures when we met in sorority because we’re dorky like that but come on, sorority life is pretty much an extension of Girl Scouts…matching outfits, volunteering, fun outings…anyhoo…she’s skinnybmel and I’m Stick Girl JAM…it works!) and her husband Kelcey are big music buffs (Kelcey is in the band The Local Natives. Word to the wise: buy everything they’ve ever done. You’ll love it. Promise.) so take note of their song “I’d Have You Anytime” by George Harrison which played during the #melceylove extravaganza that was the wedding they won from YEAH!weddings. True story.
I was a little flower girl when my sister Diane danced to “Just As Long As I Have You” by Don Williams…with puffy sleeves, big fabulous hair and all. (Sorry sister, couldn’t help it!)
Some of you may know my friend Matt from his site the Princeples of Dating. Matt and his new bride Nicole took their first spin on the dance floor to “I Won’t Give Up” by Jason Mraz and also had a choreographed dance planned to “You” by Chris Young.

My friends on Facebook chimed in with great ones including some of my almosts and some I had fun looking up and listening to such as “Someone Like You” by Van Morrison (one of my all-time faves!), “Everything” by Michael Buble (super fun and sweet), “True Companion” by Marc Cohn, “Forever” by Ben Harper, the duet “Lucky” by Jason Mraz & Colbie Caillat, and “Stars Would Fall” by Monk and Neagle (had to look it up but I love it now!).

Sometimes I hear Joshua Radin’s “Lovely Tonight” and wish we would’ve chosen that one. I love it so much it almost makes me sad that I can’t hear it and think “this is our song!” but since Mumbles and I don’t officially have a song, this might just be one of those things where I can announce “this is our song!” whenever it comes on and he’ll be none the wiser. Or I’ll simply close my eyes and image Dermot Mulroney singing softly…okay…yeah, I’m back. Joshua Radin performed “Today” for Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi at their wedding reception because, you know, celebrities are lucky like that. Also a stellar song for your wedding day. (On a side note: my brother and Mumbles did sneakily call Tyrone Wells to try to arrange for him to surprise me at our wedding with a few songs, but alas, it didn’t work out.)

I don’t know of anyone shopping for a song right now, but my pick of the moment would be “Wanted” by Hunter Hayes…I melt a little every time I hear it.

What was your first dance song or what song would you choose today?

5Oct2012

Happy Birthday, Mumbles!

Posted in Family & Motherhood by Jennifer | Stick Girl JAM

A happy Friday to you, my friends, and a very happy birthday to my dashing husband, Mumbles! Cheers!

the handwriting on this cake looks a bit like Hagrid’s (a little Harry Potter humor for you cool kids out there…)

Mumbles and I in San Fran where we’ll be celebrating his birthday soon! Can’t wait!

7Sep2012

Vintage Circus Baby Shower

Posted in Family & Motherhood by Jennifer | Stick Girl JAM

I am so excited to share this post with you. My fabulous friend Sarah and I threw a vintage circus themed baby shower for my beloved BFOTB (and henceforth I shall be known as BFOTBM: Best Friend of the Baby Mama – talk about a title promotion!). Sarah is probably the best co-hostess you could ever wish for because she is extremely thoughtful, resourceful and crafty (plus she comes with a handy carpenter husband too! be sure to check out her Pinterest page to see the impressive bean bag toss they made…themselves…from scratch. it was wonderful!) so this was a super fun celebration from brainstorming, buying, pinning, and setting up all the darling details. Here are some notes, sources, inspirations, and lessons learned. As you can see, we had plenty of pinspiration on this one!

Invitations with a whimsical vintage font were ordered from Tiny Prints. I should digress to say in a mortifyingly bonehead move, I forgot to include the time of the event on the invitation (gah!) but on a positive note, I’ve never received RSVP responses so quickly as guests needed to find out the time! Ha! Clever little trick, I’d say! To add some layers of glam to the white invites, we ordered blush pink cardstock (on clearance!) from Paper Source and regal burgundy envelopes, each dusted with a gold stamp ink pad along the edges for some gilded charm.

BFOTB’s main request for the theme was centered around a pin she saw of cotton candy in martini glasses. Sarah and I had a marvelous time perusing the aisles of local Goodwill stores where we found a three-tier cake stand for $9.95 (!) and I later scored a pristine set of 12 martini glasses for $10. (note: Sarah cleverly used this trick to get a dreamy pink seaglass look on the clear glass cake stands to fit with our theme). Here’s the kicker: cotton candy looks playful in martini glasses for all of 18 minutes on a hot day. Minute 19 and they are a melted, small, sad looking glob of pink sugar. Bust! I’m not even including a photo because it just looks like a pink, sticky mess. So, take it from us, folks, leave the cotton candy indoors or, at the very least, get photos of it while it’s all cute and fluffy and fabulous before it melts the happy grin right of your aren’t-we-so-awesome-for-pulling-this-off-face.

In the battle of crepe paper v. ribbon, ribbon wins. We had grand ambitions for a circus tent-like canopy of crepe paper, which would have been lovely indoors, however, the breeze (thankfully present on this hot day) was a little too swift for the crepe paper to sit still and look pretty. The ribbon, however, rose to the occasion, fluttering like a lovely dream above.

Tickets are an easy, creative prop and would even make a great backdrop if you had a bunch of lines hanging down or draped haphazardly behind a dessert table (dang, wish I would have thought of that before!). I found large yellow and pink rolls at Smart & Final and Dollar Tree.

I adored this impressive elephant Sarah bought at Toys R Us… it was on the pricey side, so we let him preside over the food. The gold bookends holding the nakins together were another fun find from Goodwill.

Boxed white wine sangria from Target (it’s delish, promise) with frozen fruit slices to keep it cool, organic strawberry lemonade from Trader Joe’s, and the classy lady party staple: chillled water with fruit. The bottles of berry lemonade didn’t get opened but I thought they were cute enough to contribute to the decor.

a parade of animal figurines from Party City freshly painted gold (spray paint would have been quicker but I had a great Martha Stewart gold paint left over from other projects). I also used a sponge brush to water down the gold paint and washed it over vintage looking old bottles to use as decor.

The centerpiece consisted of a “Guess How Many?” game with tickets for guests to jot down their guesses, paper pinwheels and starbursts, terracotta pots Sarah brilliantly painted to look like a circus stage filled with peanuts and our animals on bamboo sticks, all on top of stripes of ribbon laid across the table.

The gold animal figurines were inspired by this pin.

organic lollipops, saltwater taffy, circus cookies and animal crackers in matching round boxes were laid out for guests to snack and sample.

In our circle of friends, desserts sometimes constitute full meals so we didn’t skimp here. Our dessert spread included itty personal sized bundtinis in White Chocolate Raspberry, Red Velvet and Pecan Prailine from Nothing Bundt Cakes, homemade (by my Mama) cake balls, and Sarah used her Pinterest prowess to find this divine baked mini cannoli recipe (I’d recommend them to a friend).

Sarah’s superhero husband made this amazing trellis for their wedding (I know, go ahead, take a moment to gush about that) and she created this super cute set up for an easy DIY photo booth, complete with props to make everyone smile!

While it’s a darling way to present fruit, these sugar cones can’t fit much in the way of fruit. But, that wasn’t a problem at our party, seeing as we had waaaayy too much food. (pinspiration found here)

Another ingenius idea: individual veggie cups with dipping dressing at the bottom, made even more enticing by displaying them in a cupcake holder. Too much goodness, I tell ya!

The pennant flag banner was made from a stack of vintage pink scrapbooking paper, hot glued onto twine – quick and easy! – and even found a home in my work office for festive decor following the event.

Check out the stunning view from Sarah’s in-law’s house (where she and her husband wed). It was such a fun and gorgeous setting for the shower!

Beautiful baby Harper Grace arrived a few days fashionably late (already fitting in with our crowd!) on August 26! It was such a blessing to have a day to celebrate friendship and family, and shower our dear friend with love and joy before she arrived.

Love Birds Bridal Shower

Dr. Merrett is officially getting her doctorate this weekend and so I thought it would be timely to share some of the special details from her darling “love birds” bridal shower that the Merrett women hosted in her honor. I had such a blast making the decor and will soon be featuring some of it for sale in my Etsy shop so stay tuned or feel free to shoot me a message with any requests for orders.

I think maybe my favorite part of the shower was Pin the Bow Tie on the Groom. Usually I hate shower games but this was so much fun! (tip: I didn’t know this but a lot of copy places will make pretty cheap engineer prints in black and white, so something to think about if your large photo doesn’t need to be too high in quality or resolution.)

The Bride-to-Be pinning the bow tie on her dapper groom!

Even Baxter got in on the bow tie action! I definitely need to find him a darling little bow tie to wear on his collar. Too cute.

Decor included:

Yarn wrapped monogram “T” from a craft wood letter found at Michael’s, along with fabric flowers that were leftover scraps from my DIY Wave Wall Art project.

“Love” sign made of corks cut in thirds, mounted on cardboard.

The ethereal Initial mug from anthropologie was a perfect compliment in red floral on the dessert table.
T zinc letter from anthropologie on the gifts table, to be used as home decor in the newlyweds’ new nest! I love these because they are so industrial chic and go with everything! I think buying letters to spell out something would be stunning at any party.
Jute wrapped coffee cans (up-cycled) from Trader Joe’s, painted turquoise, along with fabric-covered tea tins.
Hemp balls and bowls to resemble nests
Mason jars
Red ranunculus and gerber daisies from Trader Joe’s (I could not get over how gorgeous the ranunculus were! What a find!)

Cake topper made with bamboo skewers, burlap, cotton tape and rubber stamps.

A pair of hot air balloons found at Goodwill (Deputy Tejeda proposed to Dr. Merrett in a hot air balloon – swoon!).
Scrumptuous fresh strawberry-filled cake from Lindmair Bakery in Riverside.

My mama made delicious goodies including cookies, macaroons, butterscotch bird nests (that’s my mother, so appropriate!), turquoise cake balls, almond butterballs, brownies, bon bons (and I grabbed some meringues from Trader Joe’s because they’re just so pretty) for guests to take home in little favor boxes stamped with a thank you and a darling little bird.

Ever my son, Baxter guarded the desserts for most of the day.

The table settings were repurposed from our wedding two years ago – we got the turquoise and robin’s egg blue plates at Dollar Tree, the silverware at Smart & Final, and the polka dot napkins at Ikea.

Table with a view featuring StickGirlJAM’s handmade decor

Love Birds Bridal Shower with turquoise, red, and hemp, burlap and jute decor

We are so excited for the wedding which is just a few weeks away, and I’m busy at work on some of the decor which I’ll be sure to share as well. Cheers to love!

2nd Anniversary in San Fran

Two years ago my best girlfriends and I went to San Francisco for my bachelorette weekend getaway. Minus Sunday morning napping on a couch in the hotel lobby and the nauseating plane ride home, it was all the perfect fun and laughter this bride-to-be could handle. We had champagne in our room with a view of Union Square, got dressed up like flappers and went to Bourbon & Branch in the Tenderloin (no matter we didn’t know they didn’t serve food – we found an awesome pizza place open late!), went out dancing, had a marvelous breakfast downstairs at Sears Fine Food, a delicious dinner at Pinnocchio Trattoria where our waiter and some foreigners called us all “Bella” throughout the evening…oh, it was just lovely!

This past weekend was another such lovely trip to the Frisco Bay. Wedding related, yes, but oh-so-different. Mumbles and I flew to San Fran for our second anniversary and were so lucky to spend quality time with our cousin/friends Ryan & Page and our friend from college, Muki. The weather was gorgeous; so much so in fact that it almost felt like we could manage living there (we couldn’t; I think 75° is cold sometimes plus the wind and my hair? Forgedaboudit.).

We had a delicious lunch outdoors on the patio at Momo’s across the street from AT&T Park, home to the Giants. I had the most delicious Basil Ginger Lemonade and now I crave it every day! Following our lunch, we took a stroll around the ballpark and even got to watch an inning in the outfield from this neat little tucked in space where you can look on through the fence or watch a flat screen tv (very cool that you don’t even have to pay!).

That night our friend Muki picked us up and took us for a drive through the Financial District and to dinner at House of Nanking, a very popular place – so popular that you line up outside on the street to get in and then are seated alongside other diners at tables pushed together. It was intimate, funky and fun, plus the food was delicious!

After dinner Muki played chauffeur and took a drive up to Coit Tower for phenomenal views of the city.

The next morning, Ryan, Page, Mumbles and I crossed the Golden Gate Bridge up a windy mountain road to get to Muir Woods for a glorious hike through redwoods.

Our destination was the Nature Friends Tourist Club for Maifest. They are celebrating their 100 year anniversary and we were happy to join in the festivities with beer, sausages, sauerkraut, pretzels, cabbage, and polka. Hikers, hipsters, and lederhosen all mashed together in one place…too much fun!

Cheers to love, fun adventures, beautiful weather, great friends, and weekend getaways!

Be sure to check out Page’s charming blog, Page on Paper, and tell her how awesome she is. (She is, promise).

Stick Girl JAM

…sweet stuff

Category Archives: Family & Motherhood

First Dance Songs

Happy Birthday, Mumbles!

Vintage Circus Baby Shower

Love Birds Bridal Shower

2nd Anniversary in San Fran

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