Weddingbee Blog

The Office totally cracks me up. You gotta check out these fake public service announcements about weddings - words of wisdom! (It’ll start after the commercial.)

• Invite
• Cake

(thanks, Monsur!)

Mr. Caterpillar and I attended the Sapuquezes’ wedding in mid August. By the end of August, we had a thank you note filled with lovely handwriting and heartfelt sentiments. Mr. Caterpillar and I are not the Sapuquezes. We have yet to write a single thank you note.

I’m tempted to blame our lack of thank you notes on our current homelessness, but I’m pretty sure more organized people would have just found a Starbucks in which to sit and write, throwing fear of artic air conditioning and repetitive stress injury to the wind. I suppose that the real problem is just not knowing where to start.

The Morning News has a great primer by Leslie Harpold, which breaks note writing into these steps:

1. Greet the Giver
2. Express Your Gratitude
3. Discuss Use
4. Mention the Past, Allude to the Future
5. Grace
6. Regards

Very useful.

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Hi! I’m so excited to be a part of Weddingbee. I’ve been an avid reader since I discovered the site back in June or July and am thrilled to have the opportunity to contribute.

My fiance and I are planning a wedding for May of next year in my hometown of Kansas City, Missouri. My parents live there and my mom has been the biggest help with wedding planning. We’re both very crafty and into DIY projects, and I hope to be able to help other brides out by posting instructions, ideas, and inspiration! Plus, we’re on a budget, so I love the challenge of creating high-end results from not-unlimited resources!

As for the wedding, we found the perfect venue — a historic mansion for the reception with lovely grounds for the ceremony. Our colors are cobalt blue and silver with accents in ivory and black, and I’ve been having a great time working with the subtle “star” theme we are using. I’ve got twinkle lights to decorate the reception area, we are doing all the stationery DIY with star shaped rubber stamps, and so many other little touches that I hope will create a magical, dreamlike environment for our guests!

Mr. Blueberry and I are both dessert fanatics, so instead of a sit-down dinner we’re having a dessert buffet with a wedding cake, groom’s cake, two chocolate fountains, cookies and pastries, candy, and fresh fruit. We’re also going to offer our favorite wine, and Boulevard beer–a Kansas City tradition!

I’m very detail-oriented, and more than a little bit of a perfectionist, so I hope that our wedding day will be as perfect as I’m envisioning. I’m so grateful that I’ve been given the opportunity to share my process here on Weddingbee, and hope I can help other brides as much as the current bloggers have helped me.

Angel Sanchez Evening and Bridal Sale
What: Tulle gowns were $3,400, now $200; lace cocktail gowns were $3,740, now $500.
Why: Whether you’re always a bridesmaid, occasionally a bride, or sporadically a mistress. When: Thurs., 9 a.m.-7 p.m.
Where: 526 Seventh Ave., b/t 38th & 39th Sts., 9th flr. (212-921-9827).

(via dailycandy)

These are the favorites in the Most Romantic contest as picked by the weddingbees! You can check out all the Most Romantic Contest entries here.

• Entry 4 - Erin’s hubby saves piece of the gazebo where they shared their first kiss and turns it into a plaque.
• Entry 10 - Ocicat’s post-it note surprises.
• Entry 20 - Erynn’s 5 hour movie quote/rose bouquet surprise proposal.
• Entry 29 - Tankbear’s boyfriend leaves a letter for her mother at her gravestone.
• Entry 30 - G’s hubby helps her cross the finishline after she suffers a stress fracture during a marathon.

I don’t remember if I’ve mentioned this before, but I hurt my left foot a while back. Even though it’s a lot better now, my friend (who is an acupuncturist) said I should give it a try. Last night, I went to my very first acupuncture session. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I was a bit nervous about all these needles sticking out of me, but honestly, after the initial prick, you can’t feel them at all!

So my friend and I were talking as she was poking me with needles, and I just happened to ask if you can lose weight via acupuncture. She said that she has had clients who are currently using this method and that it is successful! Of course, you still have to eat healthy and exercise (as with any other weight-loss program), but acupuncture will give you more energy, speed up your metabolism and tone up your abdominal muscles.

I have now signed up for 4 more treatments of acupuncture for my foot, knee and weight loss. Also, a few needles will be used for stress. She also gave me a ground up seed for my sleeping problem. I woke up this morning feeling completely refreshed for the first time in a long time!

I will definitely be posting in the future about the results, so stay tuned!

Name: Miss Blueberry
Age: 21
Occupation: Full-time student
Fiance’s Age: 23
Fiance’s Occupation: Full-time student
Engagement Date: September 10, 2005
Wedding Date: May 2007
Venue: the Wynbrick Center–a historic mansion in my hometown
About Me: We’re having an intimate, 125-ish person wedding with a full-blown dessert reception. When I’m not obsessing over wedding stuff or studying for my BA in English, I’m usually playing with our two kitty cats, blogging, doing crafty things, or hanging out with Mr. Blueberry!

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We’ve actually run out of reader questions!

So if you have an open question you’d like to pose to the weddingbee community, or you need advice from the wonderful Miss Beetle, leave a comment on this post or send them to ask@weddingbee.com!

Once upon a time when I was but a single lass, I heard about a phenomenon called “date night.” A friend I used to work with had a standing date every Sunday with her then boyfriend (and now husband). Without fail he brought her flowers on every single date night year after year after year. I thought it was the sweetest thing and always wanted a date night of my very own.

Then one day I met the dashing Mr. Bee and we fell in love and married. My dreams of having a regular date night finally came true! But eventually both of us got so busy, we stopped having one. As luck would have it though, Mr. Bee started teaching a class every Wednesday this semester, so he gets home by 6:30. This means date night has returned - hooray!

Do you have a regular date night?

We need to choose two photos for our 20″x30″ enlargements by the end of TODAY. Which picture is your favorite? Thanks~!

Water

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Several readers have forwarded me an email that says Bloomingdales has started a new cosmetics line called ELF (Eyes, Lips, Face), and they’re selling every product for $1 for a limited time only.

I did a little digging and found out that ELF has actually been around since last year, and was founded by Scott Borba - the man behind the Hard Candy and Neutrogena Men lines. There’s even a disclaimer on the ELF website that says it “is an independent company not affiliated with Bloomingdales or any other department store or national chain.” Must have been one of those pesky internet rumors that got started somehow.

Anyway, ELF’s products are all actually $1 all the time! Eye shadows, lip gloss, mascara, tools, everything! Our readers suggested they’d make great bridesmaids gifts and shower favors. I’ve seen mixed reviews online, but most agree that their brushes are very nice for the price!

The ELF website also has a great looks section where they list the how to and the products needed to create popular looks like the “smokey eye” or “perfect brows” or “fresh face.” At $1 a pop, I’d try the line to experiment with new colors.

Have you tried the ELF line? What do you think?

We have several different programs installed on weddingbee to track our traffic, but one of the online tools we use is Alexa. When I looked up weddingbee on Alexa today, we finally had a screenshot image! It wasn’t there when I checked yesterday, so it was quite exciting!

Weddingbee is the 74,438 most popular English language site in the world… and growing!

Mrs. Bee’s blog on 8 fights couples should have before they get married got me thinking… a marriage is about much more than a beautiful wedding and the perfect flowers (duh!). So how do we all get through not just the good, but the bad and the ugly? What I mean is, it’s inevitable that couples will fight at some point. But how do we get past these spats? I would love for the readers to share a bit about what they do to get past a fight and keep their relationship healthy. I think it would be interesting to hear how we all handle things differently!

I took extensive notes of the makeup and tools Miss Snail used during Miss Butterfly’s trial makeup session this past weekend, because I thought sharing the tools with weddingbee readers might be really helpful.

Miss Snail did Susie (MOH) and Angie’s makeup below. They’re sitting in the back of a 4Runner because we rode ghetto style with 7 of us in the car.

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This is our first batch of fruit characters! You could be the next Miss Apple, Plum, Pear, Blueberry, or Orange. Right now we’re looking for bloggers in LA/OC, SF, Dallas/Houston, and Chicago, so go here to apply!

We’ve already received many applications from our newly launched cities, but most of them are from people who are already married or not yet engaged. I guess that’s because a whopping 54% of weddingbee readers are not currently engaged!

Unfortunately we can only consider brides who are actively planning their weddings to write on the site. But we truly appreciate all our loyal readers - we have the best ones around!