Weddingbee Blog

From the Gallery:

Reader Horseshoe ordered samples of these great wedding invitations she designed, and wants your opinion as to which she should choose! Check out her samples and let her know which you like best!

From the PRO Folio:
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Hive, I kinda sorta misled you. In my recent post gushing over Peterene’s gorgeous garters, I neglected to include a key piece of information about the order I’m placing. Remember how I mentioned we’re putting a spin on the bouquet and garter toss tradition?

Well, the first tweak is the number of garters Mr. Bruschetta will be tossing. Not one. Not two. Not three. Yup, he’ll be launching four garters into the crowd — one in each of our wedding colors. And that crowd? Well, we’re going to encourage all our male guests — whether single or taken — to attempt to catch one of the four garters. Because attached to each garter will be a valuable little token: a penny.

Huh? Okay, see, after (or does it come before?) the garter toss, I’ll send four mini, monochromatic bouquets into a sea of our female guests (again, we really hope all the gals — married or not — will join in the fun). And tied to the handle of these toss bouquets will be…

(collage images source)

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Props to anyone who can let me know artist of the song in the title of the post (no Googling!!).

So, after sort of getting ideas of what I wanted to do with my makeup, I decided I’d take the plunge and line up two makeup trials. In the end, they were both different experiences. One is a professional makeup artist who works in television; one does makeup as a side job. One was VERY late; one was on time to the minute. One seemed very skilled; one seemed skilled, but not as much as the other. One used much more makeup on me; one used much less. For one, I was able to see her skills with airbrush, the other one I did not, which is hard, because she intended to use it on the wedding day. One felt like I was hanging out with my friend, the other was very sweet, but I wouldn’t say we could seriously chill (this is not a prerequisite for any wedding helper, but hey, it can’t hurt, right?).

So how did they both turn out? Before I show you, please let me preface this by saying that I am usually freaked out by wearing makeup, AND lately I’ve been taking some really, REALLY bad pictures.

Contestant #1

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Sometimes with wedding planning I become uneasy due to the cross Atlantic divide. There are certain cultural traditions that are different, and some are even flip-flopped. One of the expat bloggers I read frequently has been dealing with the processional. In the UK, the bride goes first, whereas in the US, the bride goes last. This poor blogger has been dealing with reactions from the church such as, “Flower girls? what and why would you want one?”, “But the bride goes first!”, “This is the music we use.” So naturally, I’m left wondering - will all the UK guests be confused by our backwards, possibly hat-less, US wedding freak show?

After Miss Perfume’s petal post I was pretty much cemented to the idea of using petals. When I showed the post to Mr. D, I was a bit worried he might find it strange. I mean really, what is the purpose of throwing things at the bride and groom? So I was a bit surprised when Mr. D said, “Oh, that’s normal, people always forget to bring their own confetti.”

BYOC? Bring your own confetti?
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This past weekend, like most brides-to-be including Ms. Perfume, I utilized the three-day weekend to wedding plan. A six-hour drive put me up near Denver on Friday night, ready for an appointment-filled couple of days. First stop: hair trial.

My naturally-straight hair in the Bahamas

As you’ve seen in past pictures, I have stick-straight hair. Always have. There’s nothing wrong with straight hair–I don’t have to “tame my curls” or worry too much about frizz–but, I’ve also never seen myself with curls. I’m often fond of wedding ’dos with soft, romantic curls, but since I’ve never had ’em, I wondered if I could feel like myself even with a little wave.

The minute I told my stylist, Tasha Valenti of The Look Beauty Salon in Denver, that I’d never had anything other than straight hair, she busted out the curling iron. I showed her my inspiration photos, and off to work she went.
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[source]

I really love shoes. I don’t have a ton of them (for a shoe-lover) but that’s only because of my usually strong-will against clothing-and-shoe-related expenses. I don’t go to the mall very often (but when I do, I often come home with a new “clearance rack” shoe or boot!).

As much as I love buying shoes, I have a few hang ups that have kept me from buying any for my wedding as of yet:
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We’re excited to see members creating profiles of their own using our new bios feature! Bios are a great way to introduce yourself to the hive, keep track of your inspiration photos, and share your wedding story. Check out the great bios being created by engageds and newlyweds alike. Hop on over to the bios tab to see that person’s entire bio. Or, get started on your own!

Samisomsam

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source

Ever since our very first “date” (which I’ll share more about later), Mr. Yorkie and I realized that in addition to running, we both share a passion for family history. I’m not exactly sure how we got on the topic that night, but before I knew it, we were heavy in discussion about surnames, census rolls, and subscriptions to Ancestry.com.

Our love of family is definitely something that has brought us closer together. One of our craziest adventures yet involved sneaking into a long-abandoned cemetery in the backwoods of Allen County, Ohio, in order to track down the final resting place of one of Mr. Y’s great-great-great grandfathers.
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From the Gallery:

MsBlossom’s gorgeous veil was custom made just for her!

From the PRO Folio:
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Before we got engaged, before we even had “the talk“, we talked one evening about how we didn’t want a priest to marry us. Mr. Bear Cub and I are not religious, and this tends to confuse a lot of people (especially my family). Luckily, those that don’t agree with our beliefs at least respect our right to live our lives the way we want to, and believe what we want. Mr. Bear Cub and I are both humanist.

Happy Human, the Humanist logo

I say that we have differing “beliefs” than those who follow religious sects because normally those who are religious believe that atheists don’t believe in anything.
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Hi, hive! I’m Miss Bunny, and I’m absolutely thrilled to be here.

I’ve been a fan of Weddingbee since before my engagement last September, and I started my own blog within a week of getting engaged. It seems unbelievable that I’m finally here as a Bee!

Mr. Bunny and I met through work. We’re reporters who write for competing weekly newspapers, so we got to know each other at school board meetings and at parties with mutual friends.

Out with work friends, May 2008

My first memory of Mr. B was when we were both sent out to cover a tornado and he tried to butt in on my interview with a Red Cross worker!
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….that’s MRS. Meatball to you!

It was, without question, the most mind-blowingly amazing, overwhelmingly beautiful, and unbearably fun experience we’ve ever had. The official word from the guests was that it was, in fact, the best wedding, ever. What more could we ask for?

I can’t wait to share every last detail with you, but for now I’ll leave you with this teaser…

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I finished the last batch of the macaron favors right before I left to go for our emergency dance lesson on Saturday.

Yes, that’s right. I’m making macarons for our wedding favors!!! Why would a girl who is notorious for not baking decide to bake one of the most difficult pastries in the world for her favors?

Because I love them and I’m obsessed with Laduree. By now everyone knows I love macarons. And no self-identified foodie could get away with NOT making her own something for her wedding, right? Right… if she’s crazy. And so it goes…

I attempted the ridiculous and actually succeeded after several tries.
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As of this post, we are focused on paper over here in the Swan household. We’re in the process of sending out our invitations, and so I’ll blog about some of our invitation elements, starting with the outside of our invitations.

Lemme be real; I’m not into paper. I think it’s pretty, and I love seeing some of the beautiful custom letterpress creations out there. However, this was not an area of importance for us in the planning. Also being un-crafty and lacking time, I was surely not going to be making my own.

As I mentioned before, I was surprised by how much I was into calligraphy for our invitations. It was great to find Fran of Little Flower Calligraphy on Etsy, and she was great to work with. She answered all of my emails promptly and was super helpful in making sure that this process was as smooth as it could be, given the fact we lived several states apart.

When I came home from a work trip, I was ecstatic to find all of this beautiful calligraphy goodness. Here’s a sample (since I am not Photoshop savvy and don’t even have the darn thing, names have been blocked by little strips of paper… go me!)

(courtesy of me)

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I am so excited to share that we booked a band for our rehearsal dinner!!! Mr. AC and I have talked a lot about wanting our rehearsal dinner to be a really fun event. We don’t want it to be too formal, too uptight, too serious… we want everyone to celebrate.

After booking our venue, an adorable old Apple Barn in Valle Crucis, NC, we knew that having a “down South country theme” would really fit. We decided that it would be awesome to hire a bluegrass band to play. We want people to have delicious country cooking and be able to dance! We found a bluegrass duet and they play everything from a fiddle, to a banjo, to a guitar, and they even sing!! We are spending $400 for 4 hours of music. I think the price is relatively reasonable.

(image from this awesome Flickr stream)

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