Mrs. Hydrangea, DallasAge and Occupation: 26, Administrative AssistantFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Network AnalystEngagement Date: June 2007Wedding Date: September 2008Blogging Since: January 14, 2008Venue: Catholic Church and Reception at The W HotelAbout Me: Mr. H and I come from very different cultures and backgrounds so I'm excited to plan our wedding with a balance of both traditions. My mom has always been a DIY queen, and I'm just now starting to get into it with a new house and a wedding to plan!
The company that we bought our cocktail napkins and matchbooks at is offering some great discounts and I didn’t want the hive to miss it! Read more…
Mrs. Piglet, Virginia/OahuAge and Occupation: 28, ConsultantFiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Entrepreneur/Fashion Apparel Wholesale ImporterEngagement Date: June 22, 2008Wedding Date: August 2009Venue: Ceremony at the Lanikuhonua Phase II private estate, reception at a historic hotel in WaikikiAbout Me: I'm an East Coast gal with intense road rage and an addiction to romantic comedies, fast food, gadgets, Korean BBQ, and my wiener dog George aka Georgia May. I carry mustard packets in my purse and I love perusing the aisles at discount stores. A self proclaimed shopaholic, I impulsively buy electronics, software, and craft tools; none of which I know how to use. I'm excited to dust
these babies off and immerse myself in DIY projects galore in
preparation for our DW in paradise!
Work expands to fill the time allotted to it. So true. So me. Rather than work on our save the dates, I watched the Making of the Band Damaged Special one… two… maybe three times. Despite setting up our workspace a couple hours prior, I was too intimidated by the Gocco to start on anything. Anyhow, it just takes me a bit to get up and running with a project.
George slept through most of it.
Mr P and I read up on every tutorial we could find, and watched tons of You Tube Gocco videos. There are some talented crafters out there; several of which are buzzing around this hive! We decided to go with a photocopy of our design to burn our screen and failed with flying colors. The master screen had blotches of the design missing. I’m not sure what to attribute this failure to… perhaps because we were newbies? Who knows. Read more…
Mrs. Duckling, San DiegoAge and Occupation: 23, Psychology Grad Student, Youth Diversion Specialist/Marriage and Family Therapy Trainee and an Executive AssistantFiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Marketing and PR CoordinatorEngagement Date: May 17, 2008Wedding Date: September 2009Venue: Rancho Bernardo InnAbout Me: I'm currently living in Orange County, but planning our wedding in my hometown of San Diego. We are a DIY wedding "2fer", as I'm the crafty one and Mr. Ducky is in charge of all of our graphic design and technical aspects. When not wedding planning or reading wedding blogs, I'm attending grad school and rotating between two different jobs to keep things exciting. My favorite things include shoes, Post-Its, Labrador Retrievers, traveling, psychology, delicious food, photography, reading, craft gadgets/supplies, and of course, my wonderful Mr. Ducky!
I wanted to share some decor inspirations from Martha Stewart. Every time I see a Martha Stewart magazine I feel like I am on overload with ideas. Even her “non-wedding” magazines have things that you can add to your wedding. Below are some photos from her general entertaining and crafts.
Wouldn’t these butterflies and lanterns be perfect for an outdoor whimsical garden wedding?
Today’s wiki is Card Box. It’s a great idea to have a card box on your gift table for guests to deposit their cards into. Because cards at weddings typically contain gift cards, cash, or checks, security is often a big concern for card boxes, so it’s always a good idea to assign an attendant to the card box that will stash the box in a safe place after all the guests have arrived.
Popular card boxes are made from hatboxes, bird cages or mailboxes. But there are so many creative ideas for card boxes and many cute poems to indicate to guests where the card box is located! What did you use for your card box? How did you keep your card box secure on the wedding day? What are some fun ways to spruce up a box to make it “wedding ready”? Share your tips with us in the card box wiki:
Miss Cherry Pie, Seattle/Polebridge, MontanaAge and Occupation: 25, Marketing Communications SpecialistFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Nurse PractitionerEngagement Date: August 26, 2006Wedding Date: September 2008Blogging Since: April 1, 2008Venue: A tiny town just outside of Glacier National ParkAbout Me: I think of life as a journey and I love the places it's taking me! I went to school to study Magazine Journalism, ended up with a second major in Japanese language, and now work at a company that makes software for libraries. I love writing, computers, photography, and the great outdoors. I spend most of my time playing Guitar Hero and Rock Band or geeking out online with Mr. Cherry Pie. I'm happiest when I'm on the road, especially traveling abroad, or just nesting quietly at home with my sweetie, who is a fabulous cook and bakes a delicious rendition of a certain cherry-filled dessert!
( My bridesmaids and I on our personal “limousine” )
When planning our wedding, we decided to use school buses as wedding shuttles for several reasons. First, our venue (Polebridge) was about 20 miles from the Lake McDonald Lodge in Glacier National Park, and a number of our out-of-town guests weren’t renting cars. Second, about 12 miles of the road to Polebridge are rough and unpaved—we knew that some people might not be comfortable with rural driving and we wanted to make it easy for them. Finally, we wanted our guests to be safe coming back from the wedding in the pitch dark, after a night of drinking. Read more…
Mrs. Cheese, KnoxvilleAge and Occupation: 29, Engineering ManagerFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, CAD DesignerEngagement Date: July 31, 2008Wedding Date: May, 2009Blogging Since: October 16, 2008Venue: Our home and the two acres it sits onAbout Me: I’m an emotional girl who loves sentimental things, parenthetical asides, and trying to do things herself. I can cook, sew, am a whiz at planning, terrible at delegating, and totally in love with my fiancé (who will be my second husband but first love of the rest of my life). For our home/ garden/ DIY wedding, we’ll be moonlighting as interior designers, home improvers, and gardeners with the help of our fabulous friends and neighbors. We can’t wait to be married, and are learning how fun getting married can be.
Y’all know how much I like analogies, right? And that I’m bound and determined to carry them through to their last wheezing gasps? Boy, do I have a treat for you.
{If you’re related to me, please stop reading. Now. Seriously. Please?}
Today, we’re going to talk about Brazil. And it’s not to see this guy.
Mrs. Stiletto, ChicagoAge and Occupation: 26, Non-Profit/FundraisingFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Engineer and PhotographerEngagement Date: March 2, 2008Wedding Date: September 2009Venue: The 19th Century ClubAbout Me: My fiance and I love living in the city of Chicago with our cats Basil and Linus, and vow to never move to the suburbs if we can possibly avoid it! We’ve poured ourselves into planning a wedding that reflects our personal style - modern and high contrast with a vintage twist. Blogging keeps me creative, baking keeps me happy, and grande nonfat no foam sugar free vanilla lattes keep me sane.
I’ll admit it, I have just the slightest addiction to Excel. It all started with a job where I claimed to have a little more Excel knowledge than I actually did. Hmm. But the white lie got me in the door and I soon became entranced with tracking everything with spreadsheets.
So just days after Mr. Stiletto and I got engaged, it came as no surprise that we already had a spreadsheet going for creating our guest list and managing details about possible reception venues. However, there was a slight twist to our spreadsheet happiness - Google Docs. While we easily maneuver within Google Docs because we have Gmail accounts, those of you who don’t can simply set up a Google account and you’ll be ready to spreadsheet.
Mr. S and I share our spreadsheets with each other, so we can both have access to them anytime, anywhere… and even at the same time! There’s even a chat feature within the document so we can chit chat back and forth as we make changes to the document. Genius!
Things started off innocently, at first. The document was simply called “Wedding Budget”. And yes, it started off that way, but it has quickly ballooned from there to a whopping 12 worksheets. Ahh!
Mrs. Apple Cider, New York/CharlotteAge and Occupation: 27, Corporate Communications ManagerFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Grad Student – Clinical Mental Health Engagement Date: September 13, 2008Wedding Date: October 2009Venue: Banner Elk Winery & Blueberry VillaAbout Me: I am a North Carolina girl with a New York City spirit. I love crafting, blogging, laughing and dreaming. I know every word to the Anne of Green Gables and Little Women movies. I own every single Martha Stewart Wedding Magazine and have been dreaming of weddings since I was little. I believe life is about doing what makes you happy. If you aren't happy re-evaluate what you are doing. You should never look back on your life and not be proud of what you are doing. If you want to travel - travel. If you want to sing - sing. If you want to start a company - start a company. If you want to blog – blog!
So, I have shared with you the story of the ring and now comes the story of the proposal. We planned this engagement to a tee. And when I say “we”, I mean “we”. We knew a year ago that we wanted to get married in 2009. We also knew that we wanted to get married in October of 2009, so we started planning.
We decided to buy the ring together. I didn’t feel like it was fair to put the financial burden on my grad student groom so we did it all together and shared the cost.
We planned, designed, talked, researched and finally got the ring. We made one rule: the ring would be shipped to Mr. Apple Cider and I wouldn’t see it. We had one slip up… the jeweler sent a picture of the ring to my email, but I knew what it was and deleted it from my inbox (I also deleted it from my deleted items, thanks to Patrick, my bridesman).
So then the waiting game started. I knew Mr. AC had the ring, and since we were long distance, I thought there was no way I won’t know when it could come. Read more…
Miss Blush New York/AtlantaAge and Occupation: 25, StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Law StudentEngagement Date: July 13, 2007Wedding Date: January 2009Blogging Since: October 14, 2008Venue: Church ceremony, country club receptionAbout Me: I’m a Southern Girl marrying a Midwestern Boy, planning our Southern winter wedding from Manhattan. I love paper, photography, hand-sanitizer, high ceilings, colored pencils, brunch, and Frosted Mini-Wheats. If I could, I would hand-write everything, travel without a map, stare at diamonds all day long, don my favorite stilettos to the supermarket, play with the NY Philharmonic, attach a Karaoke system to my car, and run 3 miles at 6 AM every morning. Mr. Blush and our families mean the world to me, and I can not wait to share our wedding preparations with you!
My previous post mentioned these cookbooks from my bridal shower.
People close to me know that I am a horrible cook. On top of that, I don’t enjoy cooking. I really don’t like the idea of following instructions in such detail that one tiny teaspoon will ruin the entire meal. I realize that I have to follow instructions first before I can create meals on my own, but I wish I could do that now. Let’s just say that cooking and I just don’t get along. For example, I made pasta one night for Mr. Blush. I wanted to be “innovative” so I added BBQ sauce to it… TERRIBLE IDEA! Mr. Blush usually eats whatever I make him (because he’s so sweet and will eat whatever horrible thing I create). However, he couldn’t finish his “BBQ pasta”. I felt so bad! Although we laughed so much about it afterwards, I really wish I could cook! He thinks it’s cute that I can’t cook, but I tell him all the time that it’s not going to be so cute when we’re 50, 50 pounds heavier, and a whole lot unhealthier from eating out everyday. (I’m a bit neurotic when it comes to unhealthy and restaurant food.)
However, things changed after my bridal shower! How you ask? Well… Read more…
Weddingbee PROFeature Launched: January 29, 2009About: A roundup of great Weddingbee PRO posts
Mrs. Bee, New YorkAge and Occupation: 29, Weddingbee PublisherFiance's Age and Occupation: 33, InternetEngagement Date: May 7, 2004Wedding Date: March 5, 2005Venue: Westside Loft, New YorkAbout Me: Yes, my name really is Bee! I love my blogging, wikis, and tabasco sauce!
I (Mrs. Bee that is) recently had lunch with Sabrina from Hello! Lucky (and Weddingbee PRO) when she was in town for the Gift Show. She is so adorable, sweet, talented and smart! It just makes me love their stationery that much more — I’ll definitely be stopping by their shop on my next trip out to San Francisco!
To celebrate their new digital invitation line, Hello! Lucky is giving away 50 invitations and RSVP’s to one lucky Weddingbee bride! Any of their gorgeous letterpress invitation designs are now available through a very affordable digital printing process. I have a bunch of samples, and they’re truly stunning! You’d never guess they were digitally printed because the paper is so thick and luxe.
Mrs. Champagne, DC/Vail/ColoradoAge and Occupation: 26, Eye DoctorFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, AttorneyEngagement Date: March 13, 2006Wedding Date: February 2009Blogging Since: July 30, 2008Venue: Small church ceremony with mountain-view log cabin receptionAbout Me: I'm a small town mountain girl with a city heart. Found my way to the east coast, and Mr. Champagne kept me here so we're planning a wedding from afar in my hometown Vail, Colorado. I'm secretly obsessed with reality TV, Wii games where I can shoot a gun, country music, and Caesar: Dog Whisperer. I also spend time pretending to golf, backseat driving, having one way conversations with our MinPin Maxwell, loving champagne, and wedding perfecting… I mean, planning. I use way too many repeated symbols and letters when I write, and I'll love Mr. Champagne endlessly…
Well we’re at that point where we’ve finalized our seating chart, and things are really falling into place! I’ve been a little MIA lately, but have every intention to show you what I’ve been working on. First off, I’ll show you our place cards and table numbers. We fooled around with the idea of using “love” or “I love you” in different languages, and here’s what we got:
And for a little close-up action, here are our choices. We used our engagement photos from Girls With Big Cameras as a background, so be prepared for some lovey dovey crap. I had them printed at a local camera shop and taped two pictures back to back on some leftover antique gold cardstock.
Mrs. Kitten, Austin/Grand CaymanAge and Occupation: 25, Law StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Dental StudentEngagement Date: October 19, 2006Wedding Date: April, 2009Venue: The Grand Old House, Grand CaymanAbout Me: In 2009 I will get married (after a two and a half year engagement!), become an Army wife, graduate from law school, take the bar, move from Austin to Washington, D.C., and start my career as a lawyer! With all this going on, Mr. Kitten and I decided to have a tropical, "stress-free" destination wedding. Nevertheless, my micromanaging, detail-oriented, perfectionist side has prevailed---I am currently obsessed with every last detail of my "stress-free" destination wedding! But most of all, I'm beyond excited to become Mrs. Kitten on a fabulous Caribbean vacation surrounded by my friends and family!
While at my parents’ house last week I discovered that one of our family friends had dropped off a wedding gift for Mr. Kitten and me! I REALLY wanted to tear it open the moment I discovered it, but since the gifts are for us as a couple, I restrained myself. I had to wait over a week to see Mr. Kitten and open the gift, but today we finally got to unwrap it!
Mrs. Perfume, DCAge and Occupation: 36, Consultant (and Part-Time Professor)Fiance's Age and Occupation: 41, ConsultantEngagement Date: May 13, 2008Wedding Date: May, 2009Venue: The Homestead, Hot Springs, VirginiaAbout Me: I'd like to think that I'm a modern day Little Edie Beale. Only not as..."talented". More realistically, I'm a foodie who can't bake; a dancer and dilettente; an art collector with a penchant for the whimsical and subversive. I live in the city and adore the country, but not much in between. I like smart design, great craftmanship and good value. Most of all, I love the new vintage aesthetic: classic, sweet, delicate, bespoke. If I had to do it all over again, I'd go for a culinary arts degree rather than a PhD; but wouldn't trade Mr. P for the world.
When Mr. P proposed and informed me that I would select the ring, I was at once excited and dismayed. A little part of me wished he had chosen the ring himself, wanted his tastes and ideas to be reflected, and had hoped he knew what I wanted. That of course, was impossible, because I, myself, hadn’t a clue. So after several weeks of idea-gathering on the internets, I narrowed it down to the emerald-shaped diamond. Quiet, delicate and hopefully not too ostentatious.
The company that we bought our cocktail napkins and matchbooks at is offering some great discounts and I didn’t want the hive to miss it!
All-Inclusion Invitation Suites
Front Side
