Mrs. Emerald, Chicago
Age and Occupation: 26, Hospitality Administration
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Paralegal
Engagement Date: October 8, 2006
Wedding Date: September 2007
Blogging Since: November 29, 2006
Venue: Hyatt Lodge, Oak Brook IL
About Me: I have been dreaming about my wedding forever, and flipping through bridal magazines since high school, so I am in my element! I am calling our theme "Vintage Inspired French/Asian Fusion." Mr. Emerald is very involved in the planning process, but of course he generally defers to me cuz I have a strong opinion of how I want everything to be :-).
I really, really, REALLY want a group picture of everyone that attends our wedding! Maybe something like this, but I’d like to be able to see everyone a little better:
(pic from knottie Mrs. Julia Goolia - amazing bio by the way - love the Wedding Singer reference!)
Now has anyone done this? When is the best time, and how do you round up your guests? I was thinking of including a line in the program booklet, probably at the end of the order of the ceremony which says, “Please remain in your seats for a group picture!” What do you think? This will certainly be a test of my photographer’s skill and swiftfulness!
Mrs. Plum, Dallas
Age and Occupation in 06: 22, Accountant by day/Floral and Event Designer by night and weekends
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Security Admin
Engagement Date: December 31, 2004
Wedding Date: June 29, 2007
Venue: Marie Gabrielle Restaurant and Gardens
About Me: I have been engaged for about two years now - yes, a long engagement, because my fiance and I wanted to wait until I graduated college, which I did this past summer! He proposed after dating just two months - crazy, I know, but 2 years later, here we are, still crazy in love :-). We are having not one, but TWO weddings and TWO receptions in one weekend - American-style and Vietnamese-style - in Dallas, Texas, where I was born and raised!
photography by Vanessa Gavalya
our sign-in table
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Mrs. Corn, Newport, RI
Age and Occupation in '07: 31, HR for public accounting firm
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 33, Consultant for public accounting firm
Engagement Date: October 7, 2006
Wedding Date: September, 2007
Blogging Since: June 1, 2007
Venue: North Lawn of Fort Adams State Park
About Me: I am a lazy scrapbooker who loves the instant gratification of making cards and I am very easily distracted by all things shiny. In honor of my childhood nights spent hibachi BBQing on the beach with my family, we are hosting a traditional New England Clambake for our reception.
**warning…lots of pictures below 
So, I have to admit, I am a desk jockey and most, if not all, of our vendors were found via the good old fashioned internet. This isn’t to say that I didn’t research the people that I hired, but for the most part, booking our vendors has been a testament to the powers of the World Wide Web.
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Mrs. Licorice, Atlanta
Age and Occupation: 25, Full-time Interior Design Student
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Pilot
Engagement Date: February 6, 2006
Wedding Date: September 1, 2007
Blogging Since: July 18, 2007
Venue: John Oliver Michael, a historic farm house and barn replica
About Me: I love artistic pursuits of all sorts! I'm creative and organized, but my downfall is obsessing over details. I enjoy running outdoors, trying new restaurants, and staring at décor and wedding magazines for hours on end. I hope to one day design a hotel in a foreign country, preferably France, Greece, Japan, or Australia. I am elated to marry Mr. Licorice and experience life’s adventures with him!
I’m having a dilemma. I cannot decide how to thank my beautiful bridesmaids for, well, being my bridesmaids. The brightest ideas I’ve had so far consist of two options:
1) A tea party at Vintage Tea in Alpharetta, GA. I’ve attended tea there before. The food was so good (and cute, due to it’s teeny, tiny size). The decor is shabby chic and very southern. Old hats and furs line the walls for patrons to wear during their meal. And yes, everyone does try them on! What’s not to love?
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Mrs. Pearl, Los Angeles
Age and Occupation: 26, High school history teacher
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 37, Software engineer
Engagement Date: No official date, we just decided :-)
Wedding Date: July 2007
Venue: St. Anthony's Greek Orthodox Church, Ritz Carlton Huntington Hotel
About Me: Mr. Pearl and I have been together for about four and a half years now. We've been "engaged" since 2004 and were originally supposed to get married in June 2006, but postponed the wedding to July 2007. I love shopping for housewares and office supplies, music, reading chick lit, football, and the diverse world of Los Angeles dining.
Just checking in quickly to say that we are officially married!!!
Some people say their wedding day was stressful. I’m in the opposite camp. I had the best possible day I could imagine. I don’t think I’ve smiled more, laughed harder, or felt happier than I did on Saturday. I would go so far as to say it was the best wedding EVER, but of course that’s my personal bias. 
Here are a couple of pictures shamelessly stolen from a friend in attendance.
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Contests
Feature Launched: Oct 5, 2006
About: Weddingbee contests and giveaways.
Congrats to harugirlie! You’re the winner in yesterday’s Ideal Favors’ gift certificate giveaway!
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Today we’re giving away a premium package from LifeOnRecord, a new service which allows your guests to create an audio keepsake for your wedding. (Read a full description of the service below.) To win, just leave a comment using the words “life”, “on”, or “record”! Contest ends 8:00 pm Tuesday.
LifeOnRecord is also offering a 15% discount for Weddingbee readers through the end of August; just enter code “weddingbee” at checkout!
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Mrs. Lemon, Los Angeles/Monterey
Age and Occupation in 06: 26, Graduate Student (Public Policy)
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Environmental Consultant
Engagement Date: April 7, 2006
Wedding Date: July 7, 2007
Venue: Rosary Chapel & Monterey Marriott, Monterey, CA
About Me: My FI and I met online, but we like to tell people that we met at a "cookie shop" which is the technical location of our first encounter. He proposed exactly 1 year, 1 month and 6 days after our first date (it's the only part of his proposal speech that I remember), and we're planning long-distance from Los Angeles for a July wedding in my hometown of Monterey, CA. I have a passion for all things "cool, cute and quirky" and I enjoy video games, reading blogs (WeddingBee, trashy celeb, consumer & political) and crafting in my spare time, if I have any!
It was a hit with the guests long before we ever saw them: our OOT bags!
Most of our guests were travelling to reach our wedding… some from SoCal, others from the midwest and the east coast, and we wanted to make sure they made the most of their trip. For that exact reason, I made sure I bought reusable bags that people could keep… which was obviously a good idea since Mr. Lemon’s mom used hers throughout the entire trip!
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Mrs. Emerald, Chicago
Age and Occupation: 26, Hospitality Administration
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Paralegal
Engagement Date: October 8, 2006
Wedding Date: September 2007
Blogging Since: November 29, 2006
Venue: Hyatt Lodge, Oak Brook IL
About Me: I have been dreaming about my wedding forever, and flipping through bridal magazines since high school, so I am in my element! I am calling our theme "Vintage Inspired French/Asian Fusion." Mr. Emerald is very involved in the planning process, but of course he generally defers to me cuz I have a strong opinion of how I want everything to be :-).
Actually, no, I’m not a big drinker (in fact, I am a total light-weight) but I still love the idea of a signature drink! I’ve been scouring the web for some fun, fruity mixed drink ideas that will be easy for our venue to concoct (at no extra charge). So that means I must stick within the basic alcohol types/brands included in the package and the usual mixers. Nothing too fancy schmancy, but definitely tasty!
(image via onthehouse)
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Mrs. Lollipop, Pittsburgh
Age and Occupation: 26, Computational Linguist
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Project Manager
Engagement Date: August 2, 2006
Wedding Date: September 2, 2007
Blogging Since: July 17, 2007
Venue: The PPG Aquarium at the Pittsburgh Zoo
About Me: I'm a Pittsburgh transplant who grew up in the deep south. I have a weakness for exotic alphabets, DIY projects, mobster movies and international travel. My fiance and I are both non-native Japanese speakers and we have a bullfrog named Skinny.
When I was a little girl I was obsessed with the Funk and Wagnalls science encyclopedias available in our supermarket. The first volume covering A-Aq sold for only 9 cents so it was easy to talk my mother into buying a copy. For months, it was my most prized possession and I read from ‘aardvark’ to ‘aquarium’ savoring each entry. By far, my favorite entry was ‘animal’. It contained a massive taxonomy tree covering two pages. I studied the chart like it was for a grade.
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Reader Buzz
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Mrs. Bee here.
Miss Lollipop linked to a metafilter thread earlier today that asked, “Do you regret having spent all of that money and energy on your big, splash-out wedding?
Commenter aoedorothee wanted to hear weddingbee readers’ responses, so I’ll start!
I don’t regret any of the time that I put into planning our wedding (approx 6 months), because going through the process helped me a great deal in launching weddingbee. Being one of the first of my friends to get married, I really had no idea what I was doing back then… but now I live, eat, breathe, drink weddings. If I could do it again, sure there are things I would have done differently, spent less on, etc. But overall, I don’t really have regrets about our wedding.
For those of you that are already married - do you regret the time and money you invested into your wedding?
