Weddingbee Blog

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Three weeks before our wedding, I stumbled across a great idea for a DIY wedding gift on one of my favorite wedding blogs (aside from The ‘bee, of course!), OnceWed. The project is a pocket square (aka handkerchief) with a message to the groom. In the tutorial, Laurie used an excerpt from The Owl and the Pussycat by Edward Lear:

“And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
They danced by the light of the moon.”

Although this project would be easy to personalize with whatever content you choose, this particular passage struck me as perfect for our seaside wedding. And the price for this DIY project was right as well!

Here are the materials I used:

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March 22, 2009. I didn’t even check the weather once during the last few weeks of planning. I hardly check the weather on a regular basis, so why start now? I figured that nothing would change whether or not it rained. I would still wear the same dress, and the same shoes. The wedding would still go on, and they would serve the same food. I was very lucky though, because it ended up being such an amazing, gorgeous day.

The night before, I stayed at the hotel with one of my BMs. This BM is usually the logical one out of the group and rarely shows emotion, compared to me, who tends to overflow with too much emotion. She wrote me a very long and humbling card, which brought me to tears as I read it. We sat together hugging and crying. I think that is when it really hit me: I was really getting married! It was really happening!

Early the next morning all the ladies were to meet at Makeup Blush, located in Edgewater NJ, to get our makeup done. We decided to stay on location instead of having them travel to meet us at the hotel, simply because we thought it would be more convenient that way. They had chairs, mirrors, and all the tools needed to beautify us, and the location was just 20 minutes from the venue. I felt that it would probably do more harm then good to have Blush make over nine ladies in a cramped hotel room.

Jiyee starting on my makeup. As soon as she saw me when I walked in, she exclaimed, “Oh no, you cried last night didn’t you??” Apparently, my eyes were super puffy. 

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Momma Beagle is the sweetest, kindest, friendliest, and loveliest person you could know. I only hope that one day I will become half the woman she is. Over the past 5 years or so, she has become one of my best friends. My love for plants, sewing, music, and, of course, crafting, all stem from her love of them and I would like to think that most of who I am today is because of her. I could go on and on about what a wonderful person she is and how much she means to me, but I think this picture just about sums it up:

Momma Beagle, at her 30th Wedding Anniversary Party

Sadly, Momma Beagle has not been able to participate in this last leg of the wedding planning. I mentioned briefly that I would be blogging for a wedding website, but she hasn’t had much time to follow it. She has dealt with illness most of her life. And although she was able to be present for some key wedding decisions in the beginning, health problems have prevented her from playing a more active role these last few months.
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So uh, I have something to share with you. It’s not something I’ve been hiding: I mention it from time to time (though mostly on the boards). It’s not something I’ve openly and frankly talked about in any posts, either. In fact, I wasn’t planning on discussing it at all. It’s the past, and that’s where it belongs, right? Mr. Mary Jane’s and my wedding is happy, and way more fun to blog about. But as my wedding date draws nearer, my past is on my mind more and more, and I feel I need to share my experience with you all. My hope is that I’ll help someone or at least touch other ladies with similar situations to mine. I want you to know that I have been there, done that, and lived to tell about it.

So here it is: I’m divorced.

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When I was 19 and a sophomore in college, I met someone nice.
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In 17 days, my little sister and I will be switching roles from the ones we had last October. I’ll be the MOH and she’ll be the bride! LDS girls tend to have short engagements (mine was quite long at 7 months), and she’s pulling this thing together in just over two months.

I’m so happy for her, and I’m very excited to be wearing the black dress and new nude heels seen below (please try to pretend I’m wearing makeup and did my hair), but I’ve been feeling a little soft around the edges lately after gaining a total of 15 LBS since my wedding day in October.
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With just about two months to go, all of a sudden I hear Europe’s The Final Countdown playing in my head (this could simply be because Mr. Ducky is humming it). It’s one of those moments when you say, “Oh.My.Gosh, I have SO much to do!!” I think I’d redo this music video with flashes of loading my Cricut and Cuttlebug, with lots of glue and paper everywhere, and wedding magazines scattered across the floor. (Maybe without the ’80s hair as well!)

The biggest things are all the DIY projects that I need to get moving on.
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Personal training, that is. Although I’ve recently had great success with weight loss, I’ve pretty much plateau-ed since returning home. My cousin (and BM) and I decided to start buddy training with each other and our new personal trainer - Robert. We chose to train with Robert because of the crazy success of some of his past clients. I don’t mean the kind you see on an infomercial; I’m talking about people I actually know - a friend from my high school who lost over 50lbs since January, or Robert’s own younger brother who, no joke, completely transformed his physique over the course of a year. I wish I had before/after photos of these guys to show the hive, because you can’t help but be impressed.

Buddy training has been pretty great for my cousin and me. We are teammates, there to push each other along and we root for each other. There are even several exercises which are more fun to do with a friend, like medicine ball squats! I thought Jilian pushed me hard, but I had no idea! I can honestly tell you that in all my years of dance, rugby, and soccer, I’ve never worked as hard in one hour as I have with Robert. We’ve been doing resistance training 3 times a week, but I know I need to step up my cardio game on the off days if I want to hit my goal weight by the wedding. Going practically every other day also helps me stay on target with my dietary goals. Have you ever visited a personal trainer and had a hangover? It’s a bad idea, and reminds you to just say no to those liquid calories.

Buddy training also inspires me to work harder.
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It’s been a festive — and hectic! — past few months for the Bruschettas.

My birthday follows closely on the heels of Mother’s Day. May ended with a bang, as we celebrated Mr. Bruschetta’s graduation. Next came our eight-year dating anniversary. Sister and BIL Bruschettas’ birthdays are in late June, and Mama Bruschetta’s is coming up in mid-July.*

And then there’s our wedding at the end of August. Phew!

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We selected our date knowing full well that the months leading up to it would be packed with these festive gatherings — most involving dinner out and ending in cake. And that’s not the most wedding-friendly schedule or diet, you know?

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Did I ever mention my rehearsal dress? The vintage one? No, not the getaway dress, but the one for the rehearsal and welcome dinner…

From top: 1, 2, 3, 4

I love the crisp, lady-like style of the ’50s and ’60s cocktail dress. Oscar de la Renta has done a great job of creating lovely clean, classic lines (as demonstrated above) throughout his career. And he continues that today in his contemporary interpretation:
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Mr. S and I really laid a lot of the groundwork for our wedding over the winter. Sure, we booked our reception site last May and our photographer and church last July. But our florist, day of coordinator and limo were booked in the winter, while many planning details and projects were thrown around.

So, on a regular basis we held wedding meetings right here:

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At first we tried having wedding meetings at Starbucks. Even though it got Mr. S away from distractions such as his laptop, he still had that pesky iPhone. Which of course meant that getting his attention at home was virtually impossible… I could never get him to focus in on the task at hand. Since I opened Mr. S’s eyes to the wonders of the bubble bath at the beginning of the winter, I knew I had him right where I wanted him!
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I’m a jealous person. I know, I know, not the most flattering of personality traits, but since honesty is one of the better of those, I may as well admit it.

I went to a wedding just two weeks after ours, and though it was surprisingly just like ours (funny what they say about imitation), I was a bit jealous. That couple did very little of their own planning, and I thought about how nice it would be to just walk into a well-planned wedding.

I saw the lovely Mrs. Meatball’s pics and I was OH, so very jealous. She looks like the cutest and happiest freaking fairy (I say that with love!) and I wanted to be just like her. Just like that. Exactly like that.

But then I got a sneak peek at a few of our pictures and I remembered: Oh, THAT’S who I am. I’m the loud mouth who laughs with her whole body.

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One of the Dude’s only requests for our wedding was a giant double doozie cookie cake instead of a groom’s cake. That means two cookie cakes sandwiched together with frosting in the middle. I liked the idea in theory, but for practical purposes, I suggested we make him a tower of cookies instead. I’m pretty sure he’s just as excited about the cookie tower as he was about his original idea. Since all the other food we’re serving will be organic, I wanted to make the cookies organic as well.

Cookie Tower Inspiration

Rather than look for a bakery in Austin to make us some organic chocolate chip cookies, I figured it would be cheaper to make them ourselves. I can make a pretty mean chocolate chip cookie, if I do say so myself.
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Remember when I was on a mission to lose weight? I was doing pretty darn well… 20 lbs. down. My, how things have changed since the wedding!

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I found myself not caring about going to get a meal at Chick Fil-A, eating ice cream everyday, and only working out 1-2 times a week, if that. What happened to me? I gained 10, count that, 10 POUNDS back since the wedding. Yes, our wedding that was a little over a month ago. Just a month! How did that happen?
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So, I’ve been dreaming up our wedding since I was about four years old. I’m not kidding. I was totally the little girl with a veil (or pillowcase held on by a head band) fixed to my head regularly. Things got worse when I was 6 or 7 and a distant cousin got married. Think late ’80s/early ’90s wedding: big hair, big sleeves, lots of tulle—I loved ALL OF IT. My cousin let me be in the room when her dress was bustled, and I felt like I was really part of the action.

What I really remember though, was the cake. It was HUGE (well in relation to my size at the time, of course). Tiers of white icing held up with plastic pillars, and a colored waterfall running underneath. Yeah, you know what I’m talking about.

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I guarantee the water matched the bridesmaids’ dresses. And I thought it was PERFECT!

The best part of this whole cake experience?

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Yesterday we tweeted an open call for new bee applications, so I thought we could take a few minutes and share a bit of what we look for in bees! We receive anywhere between 20-40 applications a month, and usually accept 2 new bees per month, so we read a lot of applications!

Great style - No matter your budget, we look for people that are able to work within their means to create gorgeous, inspiring, and cohesive weddings. Being able to take aspects of your wedding day and making them uniquely your own is something that is really key to being a bee!

Willingness to share - Bees not only have the unique ability to hunt down the best and freshest ideas, tips, and sales, but they’re also awesome at sharing them with the hive! From how-tos, to great sales, to negotiation methods, bees are all about making the inaccessible accessible!

Emotional openness - We’ve noticed that people that are really willing to share not just the aesthetics of their weddings, but also the emotion involved in wedding planning are received really well by the hive. Bees are not just pretty faces; they are real people with real emotions, triumphs, and tribulations, and they are all willing to share their stories publicly.

Unique perspective - $1K wedding? Platinum wedding? Courthouse wedding? 2nd wedding? Same sex? Older brides? Interfaith? Younger brides? Planning from afar? We’re open to everyone. Bees aren’t cookie cutter, and part of the success of the hive lies in the fact that all the bees provide different and unique perspectives in their wedding planning.
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