You're Not Seeing Double, No Need To Adjust Your Screen

In our wedding, we have lots o' people. That may have been mentioned once or twice so far. Our wedding will look like this:

Image: 34 Person Wedding Party / Photography by Digital Photography School

That wedding had 34 people. Ours is just shy of that. We are including everyone in our count because they're all important. Mr. Kettle and I both have a Best Man and Maid of Honor. So that's 4.

He has 8 more groomsmen, bringing our total to 12. I have 2 more men standing up with me which brings our total to 14. I also have 6 more bridesmaids, bringing our total to 20. Add in 2 jr. bridesmaids and we're at 22. Then 2 ring bearers and 2 flower girls and we're at 26. Tack on 3 hostesses and 2 ushers and the number is now 31. Don't forget our 2, yes 2, officiants and we're at 33. Don't forget Daddy Kettle, Mr. Kettle, and me. That makes 36! Yup. 36 people.

I want to take this time to answer I've gotten in comments on previous posts. The question was about our hostesses and ushers and what exactly they were. Some people double groomsmen as usher, helping to seat people as they arrive to the ceremony. That's not the case with us.

Momma Kettle, ever the etiquette stickler (I get it honest, you know, so I  know exactly what to rebel against), tells us we should have one usher/hostess for ever 50 guests. This is particularly important when our venue is at a house that has thousands of square feet spread over 3 stories. We'll need people to help get all those people into the ballroom conservatory for the ceremony, out to the rest of the house for cocktail hour, then back into the ballroom for the reception. They'll need to know where to sit and when. The mansion provides staff to do this, but having extra people on hand could only help out.

Think of a combination between a hostess at a restaurant mixed with a regular usher at a wedding, and that's what our hostesses and ushers will be. Why not make them honorary bridesmaids and groomsmen? Well, because then they'd get their names on the programs and we'd get no work out of them! Just kidding, but I know they'd want to be involved more than just in name.

One of our hostesses is my niece, Hostess Cheery, who's 19 and too old to be a jr. bridesmaid. The other is a high school girl I mentor, Hostess High,  who's friendly with Mr. Kettle ever since they were both in the wedding I met Mr. Kettle at last summer. The third is one of his nieces, FNIL Sniffles, who's also in college and also to old to be a jr. bridesmaid. One of our ushers is my god-brother and the other is Mr. Kettle's cousin. They're both in high school.

Our wedding has been used as a tool to accommodate all our close family and friends that have been in our lives for a long time. Besides the flowers girls and ring bearers who are both 6 years old, we've known everybody else in our wedding party at least 10 years (including the officiants).

So, yeah there are a lot of folks, but they're our close friends. We're both just super friendly people who are close to our families. It happens.

And now for your viewing pleasure, some lovely photos of random wedding party members.

Personal Photo: our two flower girls. My lovely new nieces. Aren't they adorable twins?



Personal Photo: our two ring bearers. They're also twins, they just don't look it as much.



Personal Photo: FNIL Sniffles and Hostess High at our engagements party.

GM Hubby, MOH Sis, GM Mac, Mr. Kettle, GM Cuz, GM Light at the engagement party. I really should do something special for whoever can keep all these folks straight!

BM Doc, BM Mon, BM Law, BM Libra, BM Milk, me at our engagement party

 BM in this case stands for Bridesman and Bridesmaid. We're still sorting out exactly what to call everybody in our wedding party.

Personal Photo: GM Dark at a gig we all went to. I love the look on his face. He was resigning himself to being the only single and never-married one of his friends. His level of melodrama fits in nicely with Mr. Kettle and I.

Personal Photo: I love this pic.
From left to right: FNIL Tiny, Mr. Kettle, FNIL Sniffles, and BM Cuz's daughter who's my new great-niece.

Soooo many people. Judging by the engagement party, I know our wedding will be exactly what we want: a big party that includes all the people we love and cherish. I will now stop alluding to our engagement party and actually give recaps in my next posts.

Put On Some Pants!

Alternate Post Title: Clothing The Kettle Men. I chose this title because one of my favorite moments in The Hangover. It makes me think of Mr. Kettle because he's morally opposed to wearing pants when he doesn't have to. I alluded to that in a comment about MOH Sis in a previous post. Our wedding is such an occasion for which he must wear pants.

Watch the clip here. Around 2:43 is when the pants funniness begins.

Needing to have pants for our wedding, Mr. Kettle went with his best man to find tuxes for the males in our wedding party. There are a lot of males in our wedding party. There is: Mr. Kettle, my best man, his best man, my two guy attendants, and his eight groomsman. Oh, plus both our fathers, 2 ushers, and 2 ring bearers. That makes 17! Yikes!


Freak Out! Image by Bezinga

Okay, hive, I just had to get that out. I'm calm.

Mr. Kettle went out that first time and narrowed down the possibilities to two options. I asked him to take photos for the hive... but... well... there aren't any. He went back with his best man GM Light and another groomsman GM Dark (named for their skin tones, think white chocolate and dark chocolate, they have great skin) to try on the suits again.

The one picture he took shows his preference for clothing. They decided on black tuxes and black vests. Apparently, colored vest look too prom-y. This is what I get for telling Mr. Kettle the clothing was all his decision. The other thing is that he wants to wear an ascot. An ascot!!

Hive, am I being ridiculous for hating the idea of Mr. Kettle in an ascot? He likes it a lot. A lot. I think it makes him look short. I think it makes him look pretentious. He disagrees. I don't know what to do except let it go and let him wear what he wants so he's happy in his clothes on our big day. At least the groomsman will be in regular ties...

Here's a picture from my inspiration board on Weddingwire. It's more along the lines of what I saw the men wearing.



Image via

Personal image: Mr. Kettle's crappy iPhone pic

Poll: If you could choose would you go for no ascot or ascot? In full disclosure, he's going to wear a solid one, not a striped one.

Option 1: Ascot Yes! Why don't you see how awesome this looks?
Option 2: No Ascot! Is he trying to be funny by suggesting this?