Weddingbee Blog

Being engaged is about so much more than just wedding planning. Yes, wedding planning is a very big part, but if that becomes a the sole focus I think you miss a big part of the process. The change from dating to marriage is a big one.

When Mr. Ducky and I got engaged we knew we wanted a longer engagement. Part of that was because of grad school and planning, but also because we really wanted to invest in our relationship and prepare ourselves for marriage. It should come as no surprise for those of you that know my background that we wanted to go to couples’ counseling or premarital therapy. After all, if I’m going to be a marriage and family therapist I better know what if feels like to be the one “on the couch”.

Instead of taking a class or going to a pastor, we decided to go see a licensed marriage and family therapist. Not that the other options are bad, they just weren’t right for us. I think any preparation that you do before marriage is great and can be so beneficial for the relationship. Many friends have asked us why went this particular route, so I thought it might be helpful to explain why we really wanted to have our own private sessions with a therapist or psychologist.
Read more…

You get your wedding minions family members to do things for you!

This weekend I had my future SMIL (step MIL) pick up a chalkboard that I found on Craigslist.

I’ve mentioned how we’re trying to cut down on paper usage for our wedding by including the use of plantable paper. Another major source of needless paper (that will be thrown out within the hour) is dinner menus at each place setting.

I should tell you right now - Mr. Cubbie and I are major foodies (you didn’t catch on to that with my baking endeavors?). I admit to daydreaming about beautifully prepared menus to align with our beautifully prepared wedding dinner! However, I can’t justify the use of these 80 or so extra pieces of paper (no matter how lovely).

There are other ways to attaining beauty and style when it comes to educating your guests on their impending adventure in Gastronomia - a chalkboard menu!

source

I also plan on getting some liquid chalk pens to make the handwriting look cleaner.
Read more…

Our registry finder is powered by Wedding Channel, and if you or the couple you’re searching for has a registry at the following stores and have enabled the registry to be searchable, those registries will conveniently show up in the search! Now it’s simple to find all of a couple’s registries, right on one page here on the ’bee.

Try it out! Check it out on the right hand sidebar of Weddingbee, right under the PRO Folio
pics.

You can search for yourself, and then search for your ex boyfriends to see if they’re getting married and have a registry.

Extra, extra! Read all about it! That’s right, our first wedding newsletter is out in in-boxes everywhere! Well, by “everywhere”, I mean my wedding party members’ in-boxes! I designed the entire thing using my trusty MacBook Pro, PowerPoint, Picasa, Picnik.com, the ever-handy Google image search, some inspiration from Mrs. Eggplant’s newsletter, and my own imagination and creativity. Check it out!

For the cover I used one of our engagement photos taken by our very talented photographer Lindsi Jones (she just got back from shooting back to back weddings in Mexico & Las Vegas!). I used a barcode generator to make it look like a real magazine cover and as a way to sneak in our wedding date! I set the page orientation to portrait in PowerPoint and used the picture as the background so all the text would show up on top. There’s really no tutorial to this, just a lot of trial and error with different fonts and sizes and positioning of the text. (All sources found on last page.)

Read more…

Hanging initials are all the rage right now. I’ve seen so many cute styles out there!

Floral…

source

Read more…

I feel completely awful for not blogging about my bridal shower sooner. My bridesmaids completely spoiled me with an amazing one about a month before the wedding and I have to give them all credit for such a fantastic job! I know they put a lot of time and effort into planning and executing the great food, fun games, super-cute decor and just making the whole event wonderful.

And I was also very spoiled by the plethora of gifts bestowed upon me by my very gracious shower attendees.

Read more…

Recently, we got serious about finding Mr. Mary Jane a ring.

After a stringent paring-down process (in which we looked at pictures of the rings and said “yes” or “no” :D), Mr. Mary Jane narrowed it down to two options:

[source for both]

OK! Two options! We could work with that.
Read more…

I guess my wedding dress search was pretty atypical: I didn’t step foot in a bridal salon, I didn’t suffer from a ton of indecision, and I spent under $500.

I decided pretty early on in the game that I wanted something vintage. It goes along with the whole “eco” theme I had in mind from the beginning–you know, there’s no need to buy something new when something old will do. But also, I happened to stumble across this amazing online boutique based out of California that sells beautiful, one-of-a-kind vintage clothing and accessories, Posh Girl Vintage. They have a ton of dresses that either are or could be wedding dresses, and they also have a lot of other cute evening wear.

Right away I was drawn to these two tea-length numbers.

… but, alas, they were both sold already.
Read more…

My fabulously fruity shower was this past Saturday and I’m still waiting for the rest of the pictures to roll in. In the meantime, I’m going to show you what I ended up giving my ladies as a “thank you”.

Sister Frenchie and BM J’s gifts were very similar. While they didn’t “host” the shower, I know they put a lot of work into making the shower happen. I wanted to get them something to show my appreciation.
I got these SUPER cute and totally fitting Cherry bags at my local Hallmark.


Inside I gave each girl a sampling of my favorite “shower” products.
Read more…

This post is about cupcakes…chocolate peanut butter cupcakes to be exact. I brought these cupcakes along with a dozen coconut cupcakes with cream cheese frosting to one of my church’s outreaches a while back. Baking for people is my passion, and I find so much fulfillment in being able to put smiles on people’s faces and a good memory in their hearts and minds. To jazz these cupcakes up, I used chocolate transfer sheet designs and cut mini Easter eggs out of them for the top of the cupcakes.

Read more…

So, I haven’t posted anything about my dress since it arrived in March. My reason being that I was just SO unsure about it. I felt like I had jumped in a little too fast and bought my dress without doing much research, and I wasn’t sure if it was really “the one” for me anymore.

Despite my hesitation, I had my first fitting on the weekend of my bridal shower. I’m getting my alterations done by a friend of Mr. M’s family, who actually altered both of his sisters’ wedding dresses as well. I would have had no problem altering my dress at The Bride’s Room, where I bought it, but I figured I’d save the money and get it done at home. By someone who knows me. Or at least knows my soon-to-be family.

For the fitting, I brought my dress, veil, shoes, and jewelry. My mom, future mother-in-law, and littlest sister (and BM) Gaby all came with me. It was my mom’s first time seeing me in my dress, so I wanted to make sure she got the full effect. I also wanted to make sure that I got the full effect, and was hoping it would get rid of the doubts I had about the dress. I put it all on and we got right to work figuring out what needed to be done.

Since I’d lost some weight since I bought the dress (officially 10 pounds as of today, yippee!) it was too big on top and needed to be taken in about an inch on each side. I’m decently tall (5’8″) and wearing flats, so the dress length was perfect. I talked to her about removing some or all of the beading on top (I am really not a fan of beading and sparkles) and we decided to take it slow and just remove the sequins in the centers of the flowers for now. No problem. The only other thing we had to worry about was the bustle.
Read more…

(source)

Oh my, hive!

I feel like I am jumping through hurdles right now. This is the height of my busy season for my job. I am now traveling four days per week. I’m beat. I’m tired of traveling, and I’ve still got to plan a wedding. It took us a month to schedule the appointments with our minister because she’s pretty busy, and I’m never home!

When I am home, I spend time running errands and making a feeble attempt at actually relaxing. Sometimes I actually get some work done. I will say that I am glad that I have stuck to my “Keep it Simple” mantra and that has allowed me to not have an exhaustive list of to-dos. Planning ahead during last fall truly helped. I also have to give a big shout to Mr. Swan who has been holding down the fort at home and has been extremely helpful.
Read more…

I alluded earlier to having a grandiose plan for baking ourwedding cakes. Well, maybe my plan isn’t exactly grandiose, but I’m the one eating cake over here, so I’m not complaining ;).

Let’s talk numbers. Mr. Bear Cub and I figure about 80 people max will come to our wedding (how did we come to that number? I don’t know, cuz we sure didn’t use math!). There are some fancy cake cutting guides, but let’s be honest with ourselves - we’re not going to get all technical about the sugar rations after cake is smashed in my face! Ahem - cake is NOT smashed in my face.

I read smittenkitchen pretty often (read: religiously), and I’d seen some pretty smashing (har har!) cakes on her site. What - you’ve never heard of this lovely site before? Go there - now. I’ll wait. (I can certainly lose a hefty chunk of time with those recipes!)

…

Back? Hungry yet? Don’t worry, there’s still cake!

Honestly, I got my first inspiration for “wedding” cake from the pictures on her website (which she sells, BTW).

Pistachio Petit-Four Cake, via smittenkitchen

Read more…

Reader Nurseheather30 posted a photo of a rustic pine cone escort card! An inexpensive, simple, and creative DIY.

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.

{And before you ask, yes, I promise I will post pictures — real pictures! — of our wedding just as soon as I have some and get my mind around how I want to tell the story. Really. I’m not planning to accidentally forget to give you proof that we did indeed have a wedding in spite of my procrastination and general unwillingness to do anything ahead of time. Pinky swear.}

So, along with the name-changing party going on around here (I’m trying to put a happy spin on it), we’re also buried under a mountain of post-wedding paperwork. Rather, I’m buried, since we long ago agreed that I’m the Paperwork Doing part of this couple and he’s the Dealing with Plumbing part. Fair, I think, though I still reserve the right to be resentful sometimes.

Whether or not you change your name, there are records to share, beneficiaries to update, and insurance policies to adjust. We all know that I’m no bastion of organization, but I don’t have to be. Trent over at The Simple Dollar has an astoundingly comprehensive Information Disaster Plan. Build the plan and you’ll soon discover what needs to be done post-wedding.
Read more…