Weddingbee Blog

I was initially very resistant to theme our wedding. While I totally admired weddings that carried a cohesive “feel” from the paper products through the reception, I doubted I’d be able to mastermind something similar on my own. I was also hesitant to select an element — graphic or otherwise — on which to “build” the wedding; what if I tired of it in the middle of the planning (don’t forget: the Bruschetta engagement is just shy of two years!) or after the wedding? Would I look back and roll my eyes at the contrived theme? What would feel “us” enough, even 10 years from now?

Well, as you know, we opted for bright, bold colors as part of our theme. And by our one-year countdown party, Mr. Bruschetta and I had acknowledged the other thematic element that had infiltrated our wedding plans: food! The custom whisk and spoon stamp that adorned our countdown invitations served as inspiration for the name of the Blogger site which will be an information source for our wedding guests. And we featured one of our engagement pictures from Reading Terminal Market on our save the date cards.

This theme is really just so us. Mr. Bruschetta and I definitely enjoy cooking for each other, and we also love visiting restaurants in South Jersey and Philly. So, inspired by our culinary commonality, I arrived at the ideal guest book idea for our wedding pretty quickly. While brainstorming, I really only had one requirement — it had to be something we would use often, so we could frequently enjoy the comments, well-wishes and loving messages I hope our guests will be inspired to write for us.
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And here we get to the touchy subject of money.

Confession: neither Mr. Bunny nor I are good with money. We both spend on pretty much whatever we want and hope that our money will last until the end of the month. Which, fortunately, it does — most of the time.

I’ve managed to sock away a couple thousand dollars, mostly from when I lived at home with my parents and from the stimulus check I got from the government last year.

Mr. B has saved up small amounts from time to time, but emergencies — a surgery earlier this year, an untimely car accident — have used up that money. Even if his proposal hadn’t been spur-of-the-moment, he wouldn’t have had the money to buy my engagement ring for a few months. (I’m still waiting for the actual ring, though it’s been picked out and he’s put half the money down.)

So we’re relying on my family for the wedding expenses. Mama Bunny has set a budget of $5,000 — and to be honest, even if she hadn’t, that was my original goal. I didn’t think that what I envisioned should cost much more than that.

But then I looked at the beautiful pictures on the wedding blogs I love so much.
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Thanks for all the comments on the last post about our favors. We decided to go with the circle pattern for the simple reason that we wanted to add a few more luggage tags that weren’t on a grey background.

I also mentioned in the last post that we came up with 2 new designs.

The first one was inspired by Mr. Joey’s decision to train for the STP (Seattle to Portland) bike ride this summer. He’s always wanted to do it, but he didn’t have a road bike. Last year for his 30th birthday, I surprised him by having a road bike built for him. A friend gave him a frame a few years ago, so I bought all the parts and had our neighbor and a friend build it up for him. I don’t think I have ever seen him so happy. I swear, he was smiling in his sleep for weeks.

I love the simple lines.
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I may have mentioned that I did not like dress shopping very much, but I felt like one of the easier places to go shopping in the early stages was David’s, as the store carries a lot of styles and silhouettes in a price range I knew I could afford on the spot. At the end of my initial experience, I felt like Arnold from Diff’rent Strokes mumbling under my breath, “Whatcha talkin’ about, David?” as I tried on some of these dresses (by the way, who’s David?). I felt like David was trying to straight up play me with some of these dresses. I came to find out over the course of time that I really wasn’t into most wedding dresses AT ALL. Looking back at the process now, I will say that I did like having a range of styles to try on at first, especially since me and my picky self had some criteria for the dress (y’all know I’m gonna write a list, so sit back and enjoy):
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During the two months I was “waiting” for Mr. Cubbie to officially propose, my mind wandered [fairly] often to rings. Big surprise, eh? Which of you couldn’t stop trolling eBay and Etsy and millions of other resources for engagement ring inspiration?

Mr. Cubbie was really good about my new hobby - he especially was trying to figure out if I wanted a diamond or another stone! Before I post about my engagement ring, I want to post about his engagement ring. I got kind of sick of thinking about the bling that would sooner or later be on my finger. A finger I’ve never worn jewelry on. Actually, I rarely ever wear rings at all! Don’t get me wrong - I was still happily giddy at the thought of the eternal (sparkly!) sentiment I could always peer at on my hand! The trouble is, I get a little uncomfortable when all attention is on me. Why should I be the only one getting an engagement ring? Why should I be the only one to shove my left hand in someone’s face as evidence of my new bridal gang sign?

To avoid the weightiness of someone thinking of me, I decided to craft my own little engagement surprise for Mr. Cubbie! I planned a weekend at home with my dad to hand-craft a wooden engagement ring!
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The Seven Principles of a Highly Effective Marriage
By: John Gottman

Well, I have the last recap for our first Weddingbee book club book. For those of you that haven’t read the book or any of the posts so far, you can catch up by reading Part I or Part II.

Chapter 8: Principle 5: Solve Your Solvable Problems

In this chapter, Gottman discusses how to resolve conflict in a loving relationship. There are 5 steps.

1. Soften Your Startup
2. Learn to make and receive repair attempts
3. Soothe yourself and each other
4. Compromise
5. Be tolerant of each other’s faults

Basically this principle comes down to giving your partner the same respect that you give others in your life. If you have the book, Gottman gives examples of exercises you can do to work on each of the steps.
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Reader cmendiola is selling 60 new bird lemon juicers. They are in their original packaging and would make great favors. She is asking for $3 each, or $150 for the lot.

Have a wedding item for sale? Post it with pictures in the Weddingbee classifieds and you might see it featured on the blog!

Other great items for sale:
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This morning I opened my Gmail to find an email from Amazon. Well, probably more like five emails from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk, but there was one that stood out in particular. For a while now I’ve been using Amazon’s universal wish list to add items to my wish list. As of this morning however, we can now add universal items to our wedding registry!

So this cute apron and kitchen set from Uncommon goods, as well as these heart mugs, are now getting switched from my wish list to our registry. Not to mention a certain copper compost pail I’ve been coveting, a juicer from Anthro, bits and bobs from Crate and Barrel or Sur la Table… the possibilities are endless! All you have to do is add this button to your toolbar. Hooray!

While I still think Bed, Bath, and Beyond is the “daddy” of wedding registries for their ability to be a brick and mortar store, send out 20% off coupons and have a fantastic return policy - this new feature certainly makes me enjoy Amazon a bit more.
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Come join us for a meet-up in Boston!
We will be meeting on Tuesday, June 2nd at 6:00PM at Radius.

Radius
8 High Street | Boston, MA 02110

Please comment below to let us know if you are coming! We’d love to meet you all!

I just came across these welcoming ideas on Style Me Pretty, courtesy of Etsy (have I mentioned how much I love Etsy? ) seller The Wedding Chicks:

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We’ve gone through a lot of gift ideas for the guys - we’ve considered ties, beer mugs/highball glasses and/or money clips, and even Chucks. But the mister just couldn’t decide, so we tabled the discussion for a while. Guy gifts are so hard… a lot of guys don’t wear ties or cufflinks regularly. We don’t want to gift them something that they wouldn’t really have a use for… that doesn’t feel very much like a gift!

Mr. S was looking online the other night for ideas, when he thought of the Flip video cameras. Small. Handy. Kind of fun. And a lot of people don’t have actual video cameras these days. They may record video through their phones and still cameras, but a Flip would be fun to have when you’re on vacation or somewhere you don’t really want to risk damaging your nice digital camera. So… enter the Flip!

Source: Amazon

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See my big smile? Nope, it’s not because the box I’m holding contains a yummy cake (Puhleese, that smile would’ve been MUCH bigger!). This picture was taken right before I walked into the post office today. Yup, today I mailed out the Latte invitations.

Yes, they are VERY late, and I know that this is a total bridal no-no. And yes, I hang my head in shame. But I am just so relieved that they are done and out the door that I couldn’t suppress my smile. See YA, invites!!! Much like Miss Cheese, I was SO OVER wedding invitations. Let me explain…
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Sorry for blogging only one posting a week for Miss Popcorn’s amusement park pillow but believe me it is totally worth the wait! This part looked like it was going to be a piece of cake, but I had to play around with different shapes and sizes quite a bit. I wasn’t sure how I was going to give the illusion that it gets smaller from afar or how the flags were going to look in front of the sky trolley.

Anyway, I think it works and it’s always fun trying something new. The party flags were sewn with white thread and they go across the pillow. Next week, you’ll be able to see the flower cluster, and then I’ll be posting the final piece!!

Here’s a question for you! What color ring ribbon would you like to see on this pillow: red, yellow or blue?
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On Monday, before heading back to Santa Fe, I had my makeup trial with Katelyn Simkins, one of Denver’s favorite makeup artists. It took almost two hours and we still didn’t quite achieve the look I like, but we got darn close. My inspiration was heavily based on the Vogue cover I blogged about here. We were aiming for dewy skin, a pewter, smudgy eye (although, not too smoky), rosy cheeks, and a glossy, stained lip. Before I show you the results, though, you deserve a makeup less picture (even though I wear a little bit of natural-looking makeup on a daily basis).

Me (left) hiking with my two MOHs

Now, onto the trial. Here’s the first iteration:

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When Mr. Bunny and I got engaged back in September, the first thing I did (after calling friends and family to announce the news) was run to the grocery store to pick up a copy of that quarterly wedding planning bible, Martha Stewart Weddings.

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*cue angelic choir*

I never wanted to be that girl who had her whole wedding planned before she even got her groom. But, knowing my obsessive self, I knew it would be impossible NOT to become her if I let myself look at wedding magazines before I got engaged.

Honestly, allowing myself to indulge in Martha wedding porn was one of the biggest perks of official engagement! I bought the two latest copies and toted them around in my work purse for a few weeks.
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