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Weddingbee Blog
Learning to love the ’bee
I found Weddingbee sometime during the summer of 2008. A friend of mine was planning her wedding and had started her own wedding blog, linking several popular wedding blogs — including Weddingbee — in her side bar. I read posts here and there for months.
I have to be honest, after clicking over a couple of times, I was kind of scared. Everyone seemed so CHEERFUL and FRIENDLY. And at the time, I was struggling pretty deeply with anxiety and depression following the death of my grandfather and my sister’s move to California. Cheerful and friendly was a total turn off.
But then something funny happened … I started taking meds, and I started liking Weddingbee! I was astonished by Mrs. Avocado’s DIY chandelier. I was inspired by Mrs. Cherry Pie’s rustic nuptials and impressed with Mrs. Cookie’s gorgeous gown.
Soon enough, I didn’t remember what it was like before I loved every single bee!
Why blog?
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One of Mr. Peony’s and my favorite songs of all time is the Stevie Wonder version of For Once in My Life. As much as we wanted to use it for our first dance, we decided that the medium yet upbeat tempo would be a difficult song to dance to in our formal wear.
(Actually, Mr. Peony could’ve done it - he’s a better dancer than me, having taken ballroom dancing classes in college. Why did he take ballroom dancing classes? To meet girls. Psh. Isn’t it ironic that he married a girl who has two left feet?)
Luckily, another one of our favorite singers, Michael Bublé, has also done a cover of the song. It is short and jazzy and fun. Mission accomplished!
For Once in My Life
For Once In My Life - Michael Bublé
For once in my life
I’ve got someone who needs me
Someone I’ve needed so long
For once unafraid
I can go where life leads me
And somehow I know I’ll be strong
(all photos by Danny Weiss)
Say the phrase hand-painted wedding invitation and most do a double take…then ask “for small orders right?” or inquire “well you reproduce each one on the computer?”. All of these are valid responses I admit as the thought of individually hand-painting hundreds of pieces is initially mind boggling. Let me be the first to tell you, it is mind boggling, requires tremendous patience and skill, but YES, here at Momental Designs we have been hand-painting each and every invitation since our beginnings in 2003.
I thought I would take a moment to further explain the painting process and give a peek into the world of a Momental Invite.
Shortly after my wedding in 2000, I began Momental, very humbly. I worked another full time job, where my lunch hours were spent crafting the perfect business name, reading business books and sketching invitation ideas. My goal was to offer artistic invitations, featuring my original artwork, but to take the concept one step further. While many invitation designers at the time offered original illustrations none were individually hand-painting each invitation, exclusively, so the Momental Invitation was born! I sat for hours perfecting simple little illustrations that could be repeated entirely by hand over hundreds of pieces. Last month, I blogged about Kelley’s hydrangea invitations, where I shared a sample hydrangea from the very beginning. We still create invitations that are entirely hand-painted much like Carrianne’s, where over 30 strokes per invite were used!
Over time brides seemed to be requesting an increasing level of complexity in their artwork.
For the past month and half I can honestly say I’ve spent a fair amount of time wishing for all the planning to just be over, and for us to be married. Which in retrospect, is a complete shame. Yes, planning has been stressful, but I won’t ever plan our wedding again, so wouldn’t it be better to remain present and enjoy this stage of our lives?
I always see a fair amount of talk regarding “staying present” in the moment on the actual wedding day. I’m beginning to feel that it’s just as important to remain present for your planning. Here we are, in an in-between stage of life, a stage filled with excitement, hope, and promises and for almost 60 days I’ve just been wishing it were over.
Which isn’t to say because I wanted our relationship to be over, it’s more of the, “OMG there is so much left to do!!!!!” feeling that gets me down. Which, in reality, stems from the fact that I put too many crazy projects on my plate and should have finished them a month ago. Yet, I still find myself adding more projects even though we’re coming into our final week.
Both my and Mr. D’s stress levels have reached an all-time high. The other day we were in the car and he turned to me and said the things I’d been thinking for quite a while.
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Featured on Weddingbee
All-Inclusion Invitation Suites
“Make an elegant invitation statement without the fuss. Stylish invitation sets with matching envelopes, reception and response cards included.”
Hello Hive!
Once upon a time, I was a consistent blogger here on Weddingbee. I posted about all the regular wedding topics: DIY projects, planning, triumphs, and troubles. And then, I posted that I would be leaving the “Miss” world and be entering that of the “Mrs.”. Life was wonderful, and I was on top of it.
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I have always been the type of gal to be willing to give the latest and greatest beauty products and treatments a whirl. And with our wedding being under three months away, I find myself really looking for any way to put my best self forward for the big day. All of those suggestions you all gave me after my makeup trial for the best facial cleansers? Yeah, I bought them all. So when I saw a friend recently and noticed her eyelashes were looking ridiculously gorgeous, I had to try whatever mascara she was using. But she wasn’t using mascara at all, she had eyelash extensions! I was immediately interested, and even more so when I found out they were waterproof, meaning no streaky black lines down my face at the altar. I’m sure my ugly cry face will be making an appearance, but I can at least try to keep the ugly to a minimum with makeup that stays put.
I booked an appointment with Kendrick of Pandora’s Lashes here in Richmond. She was super nice and explained everything that she was doing and even took a nice little before picture for me.
Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
It’s dorky, and even a tad snobby. Since mister and I fancy ourselves foodies, when we’re dining out, we usually order two dishes we’d both like to try. Our meals arrive, and we taste our own first — but quickly load a fork with a bite for each other to sample. We often end up passing our bread plates back and forth, filling and refilling them — or we just swap entree dishes halfway through the meal. And if we’re really enjoying the cuisine, we’ll trade notes and attempt to guess any secret ingredients.
We never really even discussed the possibility of not having a sweetheart table. Mr. Bruschetta and I will attend most (hopefully all!) of our cocktail hour, and during this time, we’ll make the rounds and greet our guests — so we can spend our first married meal savoring each other’s company, and the delicious dishes!
Jilldoc14 is selling a white Anjolique wedding dress. The dress is a size 6 with a built-in corset and crystal detailing around the bodice. The asking price is $900 including shipping.
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:
After dinner, it was…
… time for dancing! (Big surprise, I know. No way you guessed that one.)
My youngest brother, pianist extraordinaire, played the song for our first dance. Ben Fold’s “The Luckiest”, which may be a bit cliche- but is one of my brother’s signature songs that he plays whenever he is around a piano.
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What do you guys think of this?
Karen Wise Photography captured the beauty of this deep purple bridal bouquet.
Don’t forget to check out all the professional inspiration from the top wedding vendors in the industry in the PRO Folio!
Ever since we first booked our venue for end of summer and decided on an outdoor ceremony, I’ve had to face the fact that Central Texas is hot. Not just hot; it’s sweltering. It gets so humid here in the summer that when you step outside it feels like you’re being blasted with truck exhaust. I love the heat, so for me it feels like being wrapped up in a warm blanket, but most people do not feel that way.
Enter my DIY solution: program fans! This project is one of the first ones I decided I wanted to do. However, figuring out how to accomplish it has been a little complicated. At first I thought I would go with the paddle shaped fans on a tongue depressor-type stick. But then I decided it would be more fun to create a paneled fan that folds out into a traditional fan shape.
Here is some great inspiration I found on the ‘net.
If I were going for the paddle fans, I’d do something like this. It’s pretty and simple, and that font is freaking amazing.
All photos below by The Wiebners. We purchased a disc of all unedited images from our wedding day, so some post-processing has been done by me for the purpose of sharing the photos with you. Click on any photo to enlarge.
I know you readers often hear apologies from us bees for falling off of the face of the Weddingbee earth for a period of time… I never thought it would take me over 3 months to get back on the recap bandwagon, but now I totally understand how it happens! Life has been extremely busy lately, and I guess I needed to take a breather from writing about our wedding. Sifting through the photos, choosing the “right” ones that will help me tell our story, and racking my brain to remember all of the moments I want to share with you all — it’s safe to say I put a lot of pressure on myself and it has caused me to procrastinate. But I am back, vowing once and for all to finish these recaps before our one year anniversary (which is just around the corner on September 20… how did that happen?!?). I hope a few of you out there still remember me after all this time… 
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I thought I’d jump on the bandwagon and join in on this series. Here’s my story.
How I Found Blogs
My days in the blogosphere started about three years ago, the summer after college. Blogs became a presence in my life during my first internship that summer at Food & Wine. I worked in online for the magazine and one of my tasks involved sifting through the vast ’sphere of food blogs that were out there (it was actually vast for the prehistoric days of blogs) and picking the top ten posts of the week. This was probably my favorite thing to do at work because it involved reading blogs. All. Day. Long. Which were my faves? Chocolate & Zucchini, Becks & Posh, Le Tartine Gourmande, Movable Feast, My Marrakesh, and The Amateur Gourmet. “Blogging” was just becoming a vital addition to magazine websites and Food & Wine and Travel + Leisure (both owned by Amex Publishing) were kicking off their own editor blogs. And with much trepidation to begin with. Nobody quite knew what the voice should sound like, who should blog, how to identify the editor blogging, and if each editor should have their own beat (wine, dessert, cooking, recipes, etc). Blogs were still fuzzy when it came to talking to an audience. At least an audience as big as a magazine’s readership which can reach into the millions.
And Then The Blogging Began
At first, I wasn’t quite sure what to write about.
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I have gone through some internal debates on how to handle my last official recap. After thinking long and hard (that’s what she said), I came across an article in the LA Times where the co-writer of the movie 500 Days of Summer states that “every relationship has a soundtrack.” How true!
Now, I know that everyone has different taste in music, but I personally love the songs we chose for our wedding reception and I feel that each one of them very well represents the many facets of my relationship with Mr. Peony, as well as our relationship with our families and friends.
wedding party intro: “Just Like Heaven” by The Cure
first dance: “For Once in My Life” by Michael Bublé
combined father-daughter mother-son dance: “To Sir, With Love” by Lulu
cake-cutting: “My First, My Last, My Everything” by Barry White
As a result, I have decided to divide our reception into four entries so that I can let the songs and selections from their lyrics tell the story of the Peonies’ reception.
(all photos by Danny Weiss)
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