Weddingbee Blog

Have I ever told you how we found our photographer? No? Well, here goes…

Not long after we were engaged, I found an old box of photos from earlier times in my life (which is a euphemism for my first wedding/ marriage, because I’ve decided it’s time to stop talking about it so much now that the chapter is finally, blessedly, peacefully closed). My fiance found me sitting on the floor in tears while I struggled to deal with the rush of memories taking over my heart.

Until that point, I didn’t care much about photography, figuring the best experiences were meant to be enjoyed, not captured, and the best memories would always be in my head. But then I found a picture of my now-deceased grandparents dancing. And I remembered the long-forgotten drama that raged around our choice of centerpieces; saw myself in all of my youthful naiveté; found my favorite picture of my favorite kid. I realized that someday I’d want to share my story – the whole story – with my children, and I’d want to show them these pictures as evidence of the life I lived before I met their father.

With newfound appreciation for the merits of photography, I set about finding a photographer stumbled upon a listing for a photographer on Craigslist. She was looking to expand her portfolio and so offered reduced sitting fees (of course that caught my attention, don’t you know me well enough to know that yet?). I was looking for an inexpensive way to remedy the fact that my beloved and I had perhaps one good (non-goofy) picture of us both.

When I jumped over to her website, I was stunned.

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I just wanted to take a moment of my time to share this cuteness with everyone.

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I arrived at the Ritz Carlton Cayman Islands around noon yesterday, worked by the pool until I got too hot (but I don’t miss that rainy NY weather), and enjoyed a fantastic welcome party on the beach designed by Michelle Rago, complete with fireworks!

Engage09 officially begun 30 minutes ago, and I’ll be live blogging throughout the day.

Cayman Islands time (1 hour ahead of EST)

8:45am - Rebecca Grinnals, the mastermind behind Engaging Concepts and the Engage conferences, gave her intro.

9:05am - Carley Roney of theknot is doing a presentation on wedding statistics based on a study they conducted in 2008. Some interesting facts: the younger the bride the bigger the wedding. 2/3 of couples have at least one signature element. Biggest area brides are cutting back in this economy: videographers and wedding planners in this economy. 15% use a wedding planner - almost half used “day of” only. 20% of couples have destination weddings (200 miles or more away).
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Many bees have generously shared their wedding dress budgets with us! First up, wedding gowns under $1000 (before alterations).

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Mrs. Cupcake’s Dress

Dress: Casablanca 1860 in Champagne from The Wedding Touch in Frazer, PA
Cost + Alterations: $980 + $200 at The Wedding Touch ($1180)

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After our full day enjoying the architecture and beach in La Serena, we jetted on over to Coquimbo with our photographer Kyle Hepp. Coquimbo is the neighboring port town to La Serena. At the edge of Coquimbo is an old fort that looks like ramparts of a castle - a very romantic location for an evening photo shoot!

There’s a café at the fort, and in the summer there’s live jazz in the evenings outdoors!
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If you’re in a semi-rural location and you’re considering a courthouse wedding, this post is for you.

Your town isn’t San Francisco. Don’t assume that you can stroll in to your local or regional county seat and ask them to marry you! I pretty much assumed that, and boy was I wrong. I’ve now called four counties.

Grand Forks only does weddings on Mondays, and they’re at the jail.

Two of them (Red Lake and Pennington) don’t have a judge or magistrate available on a normal schedule.

And Polk couldn’t commit to the date; they wanted us to give a time-span so that the gal could call us when she was available to ’do a wedding’. That just won’t work for us: my family’s flying in to be here, plus we have a pro-photographer scheduled for a specific date.

I was pleasant; I wasn’t a bridez*lla to anyone, but I was firm on my date. I asked for exceptions, asked if schedule changes could be made (since we’re still well over 2 months out), asked if there was anything we could do to make it work. One lady gave me a firm, “No exceptions.” Two of them pushed me off onto someone else. Another gal did give me a possible option I’ll discuss in a minute.

Of course, I didn’t expect everyone to be gushing and oohing and ahhing.
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In my last post, I discussed making a grand exit. Some of you took a guess at what we chose to be showered with as we made our getaway, and for those of you that guessed lavender… you were right! So why did I post a picture of birdseed? Because I am totally head over heels for this wedding-toss packaging!

Ellie at Mint Design Blog created these little birdseed bags for her wedding (she also designed tags for a rice throw). And aren’t they adorable? I love the witty explanation on the tag and the colorful stitched closure at the top of the bag. I was SO ready to take on this project.
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Looking over her registry the other day, a friend of mine asked me for suggestions on things she could add. I came up with a list of things some people don’t think to add, and a couple things Mr Frenchie and I love to use.

1 - Tools - Right now, any tool I want is at my disposal in my parents’ garage. My dad is a contractor, so I pretty much have my pick of screwdrivers, drill bits, hammers, and pliers. Target sell this great 133 piece Home Project set by Black and Decker. I’m really excited at the possibility of having my very own power drill!
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My Mom sent me this amusing link to a really clever wedding invite set this morning. It had me laughing as I go into overtime on our own invites.

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Reader Ms. Dragondee livestreamed her wedding for her friends and family back in the Philippines! Check out her great story behind this pic!

Keep on loading your inspirational wedding pics to the gallery to see them featured here on the blog! Remember, your images must be under 1MB in size, or they won’t load.

Since I recently made my first fitting appointment, I realized I needed to get cracking on finding all the “underthings” for the dress. First stop? Shapewear.

I had been recommended to Trousseau in Tysons Corner, VA; but that would mean an hour drive in a car with no A/C. So instead, my mother and I swung by Bra La La in Laurel, MD. The main problem with finding undergarments for my dress is that the deep v in the back instantly knocks Spanx, and many others, out of the running. After finding a few low backed styles, we settled on my favorite, which to my surprise was more on the “delicate/pretty” side of the spectrum, vs. the “industrial/military style” that I suspected would be needed.

I then asked for more shapewear because the corset we decided on doesn’t exactly reach the “pouch” area. The girl brought several items that were more on the pretty side and less on the functional side, until I finally had to tell her - I needed her to bring on the big guns, the “tough gals” of the shapewear world. She protested only a moment that I “would want something pretty on my wedding night”. So I informed her of my super secret plan to just change all my underthings before Mr.D and I headed to bed that night. Just try to envision getting industrial strength shapewear off in 7 seconds - it’s possible, but pretty humorous.
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I am done. The wedding is over*, the marriage license was signed, toasts were made, the cake has been cut, but the Peeps still have a party to plan.

As I said before, Mama and Papa Peep are throwing a hometown reception for all of our Southern California loved ones. Up until now, Mama Peep has been graciously planning this shindig, but during a bout of post-wedding energy, I asked Mama Peep what I could do to help.

My task: inspiration pictures for the centerpieces to provide the florist. It sounded fun and exciting on the phone, but now, now I am totally uninspired.

So hive, I need you to point me in the right direction. Help me give Mama Peep some super fabulous post-wedding reception centerpiece inspiration.

Here’s what we’ve got so far: A causal, beach-side family and friends reception.

The invitations:

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Today’s budget comes from a reader who got married yesterday! She’s graciously shared her planning budget with the hive.  Congratulations Sarah and Brad!

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Date: 6/20/09
City, State: Long Beach, CA
Budget: $55k (not including honeymoon, rehearsal dinner, brunch or rings)
# of Guests: 220

Original budget did not include rings, honeymoon or rehearsal dinner & brunch. My parents paid for the wedding, his parents paid for the rehearsal dinner, brunch & bar bill at wedding. We paid for wedding
bands and our hotel room.

Wedding Day Costs

Ceremony Site Fees/Type of Venue: $1611 - At Sunset Deck at the Reef on the Water. The total includes ceremony set up and chairs as well as the rehearsal coordinator.

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The last few days have been a roller coaster of emotions and frustrations and stress. My last shift ended Tuesday evening and it’s been nothing but work, work, work since. There have been some almost crises… but everything is coming together nicely and I even had time for a nap and a trip to the comedy club Thursday night!

To my future husband: This has been an incredible journey. I am beside myself that today I will become your wife. It’s still hard for me to believe you chose me. You deserve the absolute best and I hope I can be everything you want. I love you with all my heart and soul. I’m so excited to start this chapter of our lives together. And, yes, tomorrow we will be lounging on the beach!

To the hive: Y’all have been so wonderful and supportive! I couldn’t have done this without you girls helping out! Being able to share this experience with y’all has been amazing! I’m so blessed to have been chosen to share my ups and downs with you!

I love you all!!

Miss Crab Cake

From the get-go, the Dude and I knew we didn’t want a traditional registry. We’ve been living together for over three years at this point. We have everything we need. Not to mention, we just bought a house last October, so we’re pretty settled where we are and with everything we’ve accumulated for ourselves over the years.

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I didn’t want to forgo the registry entirely because people like to give gifts at weddings, especially family and close friends.
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