In today’s hive:
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Virginia,
I ordered my dress online and it was smooth sailing. I loved how polite and knowledgeable they were and ended up ordering the BMs dresses from them as well. Yes, I know I sorta missed the whole buying from a salon, but I didn’t really want to deal with the sales ladies and am happy with the route I took.
joan: try searching for fonts in animal characters. here’s a link: http://www.abcwebworx.com/fonts/ (select “free fonts” -> “animals” on the left menu bar)
hello! i am looking for “games” for the bride and groom to play during the wedding - we’re looking forcrowd pleasers and nothing raunchy - thanks!!
Di - see Mrs. Tomato’s post here about a game they played at her wedding:
Joan, http://www.mountaincow.com has a wedding program that has icons and fonts that you can use for weddings. you have to purchase it though. 
here’s the link:
looney_tina, you can have the officiant introduce that part of the ceremony by saying something like this:
Officiant: Now that we have heard what a marriage is (they had a reading on marriage), Bride & Groom, have you come here freely and without reservation to give yourselves to each other in marriage?
Bride & Groom: We have.
Since it is your intention to enter into marriage, join your right hands, and declare your vows to each other before your friends and family.
… and the groom starts with his personal vows, then the bride follows with hers.
i’ve helped friends write their ceremonies before, so let me know if you need anything else! aoedorothee [at] yahoo.com hope that helps and good luck!
virginia, i ordered mine from http://www.pearlsplace.com and i was absolutely floored at how wonderful that experience was. the ease of ordering, the speed of delivery (3 weeks!) and the value for my money (almost half the price at the salon!) gave them an A+ in my book. you do have to be very specific about which dress you purchase, so you have to try them on at a salon at some point. and they only take phone orders. but really, it was the best phone call i had ever made.
I am looking for some ideas for programs. We are having an outdoor ceremeony so we are having sandlewood fans and am thinking of attaching the program to the fan as a little booklet. The ceremony is being proformed by a judge and will be short so there wont need to be alot of information needed in the program. A friend swears she saw something similar on some wedding show on TV, but I am having a hard time finding an example. I was just wondering if anyone has done something similar or has any ideas about how to go about this. Thanks 
Hi! How does one acheive “movie-star” perfect underarms with absolutely no stubble?
Susan
LS’s - I think thank-you cards are perfect. Maybe include a cute group picture from the weekend as well.
Joan -
istockphoto.com
I’d like an opinon on a wedding favor idea. My family owns a small winery and I like the idea of doing wine glasses as a favor, however, I’m not sure if they should be engraved or not. I was thinking of having our monogram with the date on it, but then wondered if people would really appreciate this or not. My second thought was that we are getting married next fall, so simply having a leaf design engraved on it could also be a possibility since i’ve incorporated that in other aspects like the invitations and having the ceremony outdoors.
Any thoughts would be really really appreciated thanks!!!
second for istockphoto.com
Great site!
I remember seeing an RSVP somewhere (knottie page or invitation website) that listed menu options with little icons. I remember for sure there was a cow and I think the other two were maybe a pig and a fish, they were outlines of the animal. I am looking for a picture of this RSVP if anyone can help me out.
joan - there’s a stamp on paper source with the icons…i’ve unabashedly hit copy/paste on many a design if you don’t have a problem with that [you'd crop to get the ones you want]. other than that, i third istockphoto though you will have to purchase it.
alli - i’d honestly go with something neutral like the leaf design you mentioned. monograms are nice…if they’re yours. you can always add a monogram tag with your date.
Tina,
I used this book to write our own ceremony: The Wedding Ceremony Planner: The Essential Guide to the Most Important Part of Your Wedding Day. It provides great examples of every aspect of the party, great for picking and choosing prewritten sections. You can get it on Amazon for less than $12; I believe I picked it up at Barnes and Noble.
I meant, “every aspect of the ceremony” OOPS!
Soon2BeMrsV - you can make your own paper with clip art from this website: http://www.weddingclipart.com/
They even have some basic design software built into the site that will let you layout your project.
I found the site when looking for some cute borders for my guest book pages. They have some great wedding art.
There’s a fee for the site, but they also offer a 14 day free trial.
alli, i like the leaf idea better. it’s hard for people to reuse items that are monogrammed. to personalize, you can attach a small tag or wine charm to the stem that has your monogram on it.
Joan- checking out http://www.stampingup.com I am addicted to this company as they have every stamp you can imagine. I know for a fact that they have the animal types you are looking for.
Thanks Christine- I will check that site out and hopefully be very sucessful!
LS: I agree w/ EK. Use great stationery and say something really sweet to each of them; a thoughtful meaningful letter from a dear friend is the best keepsake of all.
Virginia-
I bought my dres off Ebay (scary but SOOO worth it) and my b-maid dresses from Netbride (quite a bit cheaper than local.) I say local retailers are just overpriced- fun to shop at, but overpriced.
virginia- i ordered my gown online and i’m glad that i did! i tried on the gown in a salon to make sure i had the correct color, size, style name, etc before placing the order.
I found val collections by doing searches online for the gown i was looking for. I was able to pay with paypal. (which provided a little added protection for me since i’d never purchased something so expensive online before.) And the best part was it was $500+ cheaper than any of the many salons i called in several states!! Plus I was able to pay for the gown in 2 payments- half when i placed the order, and half when the gown was ready to ship.
Val collections has a store in california and i’m in the east. My gown was a Pronovias gown (a designer based in Spain) so i still had to wait the 5-6 months for the gown to be made and shipped, (i haven’t set a date yet so time wasn’t an issue for me) but the gown arrived as scheduled. Val herself called me to tell me when the gown was in and she was very friendly and helpful on the phone. I love my dress and I couldn’t be happier!
http://www.valcollections2.com/storefrontprofiles/default.aspx?sfid=111804
alli- The wine glasses sound like a good favor idea. I would go for the leaf instead of your names/monogram and date b/c honestly, nobody wants a glass with someone else’s name on it, but the leaf idea sounds really cute. Or even grapes/vines to go with the wine ‘theme’. I second the idea of using a tag on the stem if you wanted to use your monogram, that way it’s not permanently on the glasses.
Virginia, I had a great experience ordering my wedding gown from netbride. I know everyone raves about them for BM dresses but did I want to risk my wedding gown? I’m glad I did because I saved 40% and I got in just 2 1/2 mths!
I say order early just in case something DOES go wrong, but as long as it’s reputable company, I think it’s a great option.
As a follow up to Virginia’s question- when ordering online and giving measurements what is the hallow to hem? How does that change the sizing?
looney tina- if you want to check out our vows, click on the link to my blog. our officiant made our ceremony very personal and before we exchanged our vows he asked for the audience (as our community and support network) to promise to love and support us by saying ‘we do’
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alli- definitely the leaf, although you could also do glasses with stems in your colors or just little stars, etc. and attached a color monogram tag.
Thank you sooo much for all the advice regarding online ordering. I appreciate all the responses. Luckily, I have a year before the wedding, but it seems like the internet could be the way to go…..as long as you can find a good place for alterations. Thanks, Katie B, Penguin, Thea, Vanessa, aoedorothee, Linda and Mrs. Bee!
After seeing Miss Peony’s video post, I am wondering if anyone knows of any good but affordable videographers in the LA area!
[...] Di is looking for nonraunchy, crowd pleasing games for the bride and groom to play during the wedding. [...]
Susan,
If you want nice underarms start plucking. It is a big pain because it takes a while, but it really does make your hair grow back slower and the hair looks thinner too.
There is a reply card with the icons of chicken or veg here:
Many thanks to the weddingbee community You rock!
Mindy- I think Miss Gummi Bear’s RSVP cards have what you’re looking for. They’re letterpress and just gorgeous. I remember they had different icons for food choices.
Hi Di
Is this something new or am I behind the times - games at weddings, I mean? Maybe I know a staid bunch of people
Anyway, why not try some of the wedding shower games http://www.squidoo.com/wedding_shower_games/
or
http://weddingshowergames.wordpress.com/
Hope they help 
Beehive
Feature Launched: Aug 31, 2006
About: A forum for readers to post questions and get feedback from the hive, aka the weddingbee community.
Joan, you can find cow note cards here:
http://www.lindaandharriett.com/pc/cows/notecards/Cows+Waiting+in+Line%3Cbr%3EN-C01
I hope this helps!