I hope everyone had a great holiday season!
I have several cool things to share with you in the coming weeks, including bridesmaid dress shopping (although I’m still waiting on some photos Mama Fondue took) and my fauxtobooth epiphany. However, I’m still recovering from New Year’s Eve, so all you’re getting today is some photos of my New Year’s party decor. 
Most of it was based on designs from the Hostess with the Mostess site, so I won’t take credit for it. I went with a red and silver color scheme to match my house (which is mostly decorated in red, black, and white–can you tell these are our favorite colors?). I always decorate my Christmas tree with red and silver, as well, so it gives the added bonus of being able to reuse a lot of the stuff for next Christmas.
You can see here that I did some of the Martha Stewart pom-poms above the bar, although I used less tissue paper so they are a little flatter. I was also in a major hurry when I was trying to do all of this stuff.
Mrs. Canary is selling several items from her wedding! Take a look!
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Hello All! I am finally getting around to sorting the accessories and items that I didn’t use in my July wedding. I would prefer pickup in Manhattan or Queens, New York, but if you are willing to cover shipping costs, I’d be happy to ship. Just email me your zip code for a shipping quote. Many hair accessories and brooches are new and never used. I purchased and amassed a small collection to try and find the perfect brooch for my dress. Please email canary@weddingbee.com with any questions or requests. Below are the available items. Thanks for looking!
Small Bird Cage $10 Used as a card holder. Painted metallic gold (15″H, 7.5″W)
Large Bird Cage $15 Painted metallic gold (17″H, 10″W)
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Well, after reading Anne Ruthmann’s post, and then after seeing this and this and then this. I kinda had to…
I waited ’til all my soon-to-be-in-laws had left the house and then I got down to business. Without any further ado:
Since we are having a destination wedding, I initially thought it would be pointless to send save the dates. Why not just send the invitation with all of the information so that everyone could get their trip booked? Mr. Quiche actually stepped in and said that we “have to send save the dates. The invitations can’t go out until February”. Okay, I thought – he wants to do STDs, we will do STDs!
Then me and my indecisive brain took over and I couldn’t. decide. on. ANYTHING! Panic set in when I realized that this was only Step One of wedding planning and if I couldn’t make up my mind on these, what could I make my mind up on? Wouldn’t this set the tone for the entire wedding? I did some Googling around and decided that if other couples could have fun with their STDs (ha), then so could we!
We initially liked the idea of sending a postcard. After playing around with pictures on Photoshop that we took on our “research” trip, I came up with a black and white burnished picture of the beach (very cool, in my opinion):
Featured on Weddingbee
All-Inclusion Invitation Suites
“Make an elegant invitation statement without the fuss. Stylish invitation sets with matching envelopes, reception and response cards included.”
I’ve been thinking lately about family and the many ways in which a bride and groom can choose to honor family heritage. The first things that pop into my mind when I think about the word “heritage” are cultural (makes sense): a native dance, traditional wardrobe, food, maybe even a minister who conducts the ceremony in a native language. All of these special elements are so fabulous and I am constantly fascinated when I learn new things about different cultures. However, when I think about my family, we are so far removed from anything Japanese. Seriously. I have white friends that are more Japanese than me.
My family has lived in Los Angeles for four generations. Generational ties to my native city rarely come up in the course of normal conversation - however, it is a pretty cool factoid (at least I think so). So I was thinking about how I can incorporate my L.A. heritage into the wedding somehow. Then it hit me… earth to Miss Glitter?! I’m getting married in downtown L.A. Why not try and honor my family history by taking wedding pictures that capture downtown? We could blend new with old, because downtown L.A., like many major cities, has retained its historic value in some places and continues to erect modern infrastructure in other places. Here are some photos I gathered for inspiration…
The Old
I never imagined I would be saying this, but I am in love with maps. If you are not, than you probably haven’t seen Laura Hooper’s maps. If Mr. Spring Roll and I had an unlimited budget, we would commission a custom wedding map. Unfortunately, our budget is nowhere near unlimited. Instead of forgoing the map altogether, I decided to create my own:
For those of you who would like to create your own map, I have put together a tutorial:
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Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
I am overflowing with excitement today.
Not because it’s 2009, not because I’m getting married in six short months, and not because I’ve had three cups of coffee this morning.
No siree, I am thrilled beyond belief because I’ve finally found the perfect wedding-day makeup!
Take a gander at this:
Today’s DIY rewind comes from Mrs. Raspberry. She designed the stationery for her wedding, and the results were incredible! This DIY project was originally posted on May 31, 2007.
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They are FINALLY all out and we have started to receive some of the RSVP/menu cards, so I think it is safe to share a few pictures with you.
Since making invitations is what I do for a living, I thought it most appropriate to make ours. 
And after many renditions, I am so happy with the final result. So without any further ado…
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Option 1: Diamond-shaped Centerpiece
For a self-proclaimed wedding aficionado like myself, big name wedding industry professionals are my version of celebrities. If they made a wedding industry version of People magazine I would wait with breathless anticipation for each week’s edition. “Oh my goodness!” I would exclaim. “That photographer is dating that florist! And look, my favorite wedding cake baker had a baby!”
So when I found out that Jessica Claire (she is Mr. Avocado’s dream photographer) would be shooting the New Years Vow Renewal I attended this week, I immediately started scheming ways to introduce myself to her. You know that scene in Win A Date With Tad Hamilton where she practices introducing herself to Tad multiple times in front of the mirror attempting to get her smile, tone of voice, and pose just right? That was SO me. I love love love photographers and the pictures they take.
Of course Jessica was super nice and turned to me the afternoon of the ceremony and said, “Hi my name is Jessica.” I giggled and said, “I know,” and then the bride outed myself as the stalker that I am.
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Hi everyone,
So, I already bought my wedding dress. It’s a Melissa Sweet Valentina. I bought it at only the 2nd store I visited and I went with my parents and my grandmother because my bridesmaids couldn’t come. It was a Melissa Sweet trunk show so I felt pressured to buy because everyone was saying how beautiful I looked in it and because of the discount. So I bought it for well with in my price range.
Afterwards, I was feeling complete remorse because I didn’t have my MOH or my friends with me. So, I decided to keep my wedding dress a secret and continued to shop “just for fun”. What a bad idea that was.
I fell in love with the Ines Di Santo Susanna dress with the detachable rosette train and jeweled belt, which is totally out of my price range, but I love it.
The Melissa Sweet dress is not returnable and all sales are final. But now I’m stuck with the feeling that I’m not going to wear my dream dress down the aisle.
My MOH says that it’s my day and if it means having 2 dresses, then so be it. But it almost seems ridiculous to spend that kind of money on a dress you wear for 6 hours.
Any advice? What should I do? Thanks in advance.
amberlaguna
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Dear amberlaguna,
Every bride has second thoughts, whether it be about her dress or another wedding detail (hopefully not about the groom). Every bride has dreams too, whether it’s a dream dress or a dream venue and so forth. Most are in no financial situation to get their dreams, whereas you are…maybe. But does that mean you should go for it?
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Okay, well, that isn’t EXACTLY true.
We’ve already set it. A few times…
Mr. D’orsay and I were engaged on August 10th, 2008. I think we set a date the following weekend and wrote out our guest list on the back of a used envelope at happy hour on the beach. There are some days that I really miss Miami… I digress.
I mistakenly thought setting a date was the easiest part of planning a wedding. In my mind, we set the date and people would show up; we began with the wonderful date of 10/10/09. I have a terrible memory so my though process was obvious. I could see myself being unable to recall the exact date and thinking, “what is our wedding anniversary? Well, we got married in October—the tenth month… oh, I know! 10/10 is our anniversary!” Not to mention 10/10/2009 is the same in both the British date writing (day/month/year) and American (month/day/year). Pathetic I know, but useful and handy!
Additionally, October is very beautiful in Maryland. The humidity begins to die down, the heat subsides and we begin to get little pops of colors in the trees. So I began to imagine our Maryland fall wedding, with bright orange trees and our wedding colors of deep aubergine and chocolate brown.
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(Calligraphy by Michele)
I guess I should start at the beginning. You may or may not know that Mrs. Tiramisu and I are good friends. We are in the same profession, and we met along the way. Basically, she introduced me to Weddingbee, and I was quickly obsessed! She also introduced me to the Gocco, and truthfully, after we did our save the dates on her Gocco, I knew I had to purchase one for myself.
I may be slightly biased, but I do believe that I may have the best proposal story. Ever (yes, biased).
Let me take you back to a gorgeous July 2nd… (It’s long, but bear with me - it’s worth it!)
Having celebrated our birthdays (they are 5 days and x years apart) the week before with a group of our closest friends, Mr. Quiche had the idea for the two of us to celebrate on this particular Wednesday night – make dinner together, watch a movie. We both worked all day, and around 4 PM, he called and offered to pick me up from work. Excited that I wouldn’t have to slink into the underworld that is the Grand Red Line el stop, I said, “Great – thanks!” We got home around 5:20 and Mr. Quiche told me to just relax and read or watch TV, and he would take care of making dinner. Once it was ready, I came out to a lovely cheese fondue (my favorite), a bottle of wine, and candles on the coffee table. Just before we ate, he suggested that we watch “Love Actually”.
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I love the little details that make each wedding special and unique. As brides-to-be (and grooms-to-be), we are always searching for those elements that will make our day stand out from all the others. I thought I’d showcase some wedding ceremony and reception details that I find particularly stellar.
The first:
A chic aisle that transports you from Point A to your significant other.
I like that the aisle is a blank canvas. The plates serve as aisle markers (kinda) and hold flower petals. How very zen…
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