Mrs. Glitter, Los AngelesAge and Occupation: 27, Research Consultant/WriterFiance's Age and Occupation: 29, AccountingEngagement Date: May 6, 2007Wedding Date: June, 2009Venue: Millenium Biltmore HotelAbout Me: I was born and raised in West Los Angeles, California. I spent eight years in the Northeast working and completing my education. Having split time between two sides of the country has given me a true appreciation for both coasts. It has also provided an overabundance of cross country drives, flights and long distance relationship fun/misery! I love my family, my doggy Emma, fabulous wine, Anthropologie, politics, reading, being outdoors, exploring new cities, and good movies! My fiance and I are complete opposites, but somehow we have managed to fall completely and hopelessly in love.
When planning our wedding, I read a lot of interesting articles about how to plan a “green”, eco-friendly event. In general, I am always open to learning new ways to reduce my carbon footprint.
I was sifting through the latest issue of Parade Magazine yesterday. In the “Ask Marilyn” section, Marilyn vos Savant made an interesting comment about efforts to greenify weddings these days. She pointed to air travel as one of the main reasons that weddings have a larger footprint than other events their size. Her suggestion: “To really go green, couples could invite only local guests and beam the event to everyone else via webcam.”
For me, it posed some thought-provoking questions, and I’d love to hear what others think about this. I am not one to judge anyone for their choices. My maid of honor and bridesmaid flew from New York to LA to attend our wedding. Mr. G’s aunt flew from Korea to LA to attend. A few other friends flew from out-of-state. The remainder of our guests were local.
Would you sacrifice having your long distance loved ones attend your wedding, for the sake of reducing your carbon footprint? And as long as we’re on the subject, would you trade a lavish international honeymoon to stay local and “green”? Where do you draw the line?
Mrs. Penguin, Northern CaliforniaAge and Occupation: 27, Weddingbee Editor in ChiefFiance's Age and Occupation: 30, Doctor of Physical TherapyEngagement Date: January 29, 2007Wedding Date: June 7, 2008Blogging Since: September 14, 2007Venue: Winery in the Gold CountryAbout Me: I love the Spice Girls, dogs with underbites, bean burritos, making messes, high fives, avoiding showers, crossword puzzles, blogs, weddings, and blogs about weddings!
You may have noticed a new feature we launched recently but haven’t officially announced: the leader board! If you look on the left hand sidebar of the boards, you’ll notice the top ten posters of the day (a number that’s a combination of board posts and blog comments). Here’s a screenshot of yesterday’s standings:
We also wanted to take a minute to recognize one super-duper-pooper-scooper special uber-active bee that’s been all up and down the boards and the blog for quite some time…
Mrs. Apple Cider, New York/CharlotteAge and Occupation: 27, Corporate Communications ManagerFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Grad Student – Clinical Mental Health Engagement Date: September 13, 2008Wedding Date: October 2009Venue: Banner Elk Winery & Blueberry VillaAbout Me: I am a North Carolina girl with a New York City spirit. I love crafting, blogging, laughing and dreaming. I know every word to the Anne of Green Gables and Little Women movies. I own every single Martha Stewart Wedding Magazine and have been dreaming of weddings since I was little. I believe life is about doing what makes you happy. If you aren't happy re-evaluate what you are doing. You should never look back on your life and not be proud of what you are doing. If you want to travel - travel. If you want to sing - sing. If you want to start a company - start a company. If you want to blog – blog!
All of the fun/stressful/DIY details will be coming very soon, but today we sent our invitations out and I AM SO THANKFUL THEY ARE OUT, OUT, OUT!!!!! It has been such a process.
Originally I was going to have our invitations made. I felt great about that decision, and was ready to spend the money, BUT one day I decided to do a “test” invitation on my own and my world came together/fell apart. I decided that I could save the money do the invitations myself.
Mrs. Poodle, Santiago, Chile/San Bernardino, CAAge and Occupation: 27, Industrial & Web DesignerFiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Firefighter & Mountain PatrolEngagement Date: February 25, 2009Wedding Date: January 2010Venue: Mr. P's Grandparents’ RanchAbout Me: I’m a Chilean girl who's crazy about nature and swimming. I enjoy carving, drawing, reading and sewing; I drool over computers, fabric, pretty paper, purple and patterns. To me, chocolate should be one of the seven wonders, right next to lemon pie. I never thought an exchange work experience program was going to change my life forever, but while working in California, I met Mr. Poodle, and ever since my days are better and brighter. We are two goofy souls that, after finding each other, couldn’t help but want to be together forever. It has being a long and sometimes hard road, since we have to deal with such a long distance between us, but we are now facing the last stage of our Fiancé Visa, and soon we will be together. You know the best part? We will be married! So I’ll be blogging from Chile until just a few months before our “green and purple” wedding.
I’ve always loved lemonade, but it wasn’t until my first trip to the USA that I first tried strawberry lemonade. I thought it was awesome, so I drank it nonstop on every trip, and now I just can’t get enough. So when I first saw all these pictures, I fell in love with the idea. Mr. Poodle is a huge fan of iced tea, so it would be cool to have that, too. Read more…
Check out the gorgeous vibrant flowers and decor used in this Indian wedding reception, captured by Karen Wise Photography.
Don’t forget to check out all the professional inspiration from the top wedding vendors in the industry in the PRO Folio!
Mrs. Powder Puff, ChicagoAge and Occupation: 25, Preschool TeacherFiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Career ServicesEngagement Date: May, 2008Wedding Date: July, 2009Blogging Since: November 12, 2008Venue: Outdoor ceremony, banquet hall receptionAbout Me: I am your typical Midwestern girl attempting to plan a sane, budget-friendly, fun wedding to the man of my dreams. I love shoes, laughing at “Platinum Weddings”, crafts, inspiration boards, candy, and basically anything I can DIY. While weddings can certainly be all-consuming, I honestly can’t wait until the ceremony is over and I can finally call Mr. Powder Puff my husband!
When the girls and I arrived at our venue, it was a little like a mad dash. Our photographer was ready and waiting, and we still had a few last minute projects to set up. So while Sam photographed some details of the day, the bridesmaids and I ran around the venue making sure everything was ready.
After a few rushed moments, everything was perfect, and it was time to get into my dress.
Mrs. Lightning, Cape Town Age and Occupation: 22, Journalist and Graphic DesignerFiance's Age and Occupation: 23, Computer ScientistEngagement Date: December 27, 2008
Wedding Date: September 2009Venue: Hout Bay ManorAbout Me: I'm a young American living abroad in the beautiful city of Cape Town with a wonderful South African fiance and our crazy kitty Zeus. We're young, driven and madly in love. Together we're pursuing our wildest dreams including our biggest undertaking yet, a vintage retrospective wedding filled to the brim with DIY madness. I have an unnatural attraction to cake, a passion for blogging and a love of good design. While I might be an overly obsessive creative with too many ideas and nowhere to put them, Mr Lightning is my biggest fan and I can't wait to make my true love mine.
A few months into wedding planning I organized for my 5 bridesmaids to join me for a spot of tea, cake and mini sandwiches. While we didn’t drink much tea, we certainly polished off a few bottles of bubbly.
The purpose of the event was to show them my ideas, get their input, and allude to some of the tasks I may need them for. This last part was most important for me because being in my early twenties, I will be the first to walk down the aisle, and most likely the only one to be in this stage of life for quite sometime. It’s something the girls are still getting their heads around, and while they are all trying their best to be supportive, they don’t really know where to start or how to respond to the situation.
Miss Candy Corn, PhiladelphiaAge and Occupation: 27, Freelance Writer, Photographer and IllustratorFiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Front End Web DeveloperBlogging Since: May 6, 2008Engagement Date: November 10, 2011Wedding Date: September 2012Venue: Our backyard!About Me: I’m a 27-year-old photographer, writer and illustrator who enjoys shooting weddings, catching typos in magazines, geeking out with Google Reader, watching Wonder Years marathons with my fiancé, and hanging out with our menagerie of pets. I’m an encore bride planning an intimate, offbeat backyard wedding with my fiancé (known around these parts as “The Ginger”), as we explore our adventures of homeownership.
During the weeks leading up to our wedding, I gave myself a ton of DIY projects that I knew in my wedding-obsessed heart were absolutely unnecessary, but I insisted on doing them anyway.
Did anyone really notice the VIP seating labels I had made for our immediate family? Probably not. Did the French guests notice I made cake signs especially for them or did they just grab the first flavor they spotted? I’m going to go with the latter on that one. Did all of our guests notice I had a photo of them with Mr. Candy Corn or me on the back of their place card to add a personalized touch? Yeahhhhh, no. Read more…
Mrs. Duckling, San DiegoAge and Occupation: 23, Psychology Grad Student, Youth Diversion Specialist/Marriage and Family Therapy Trainee and an Executive AssistantFiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Marketing and PR CoordinatorEngagement Date: May 17, 2008Wedding Date: September 2009Venue: Rancho Bernardo InnAbout Me: I'm currently living in Orange County, but planning our wedding in my hometown of San Diego. We are a DIY wedding "2fer", as I'm the crafty one and Mr. Ducky is in charge of all of our graphic design and technical aspects. When not wedding planning or reading wedding blogs, I'm attending grad school and rotating between two different jobs to keep things exciting. My favorite things include shoes, Post-Its, Labrador Retrievers, traveling, psychology, delicious food, photography, reading, craft gadgets/supplies, and of course, my wonderful Mr. Ducky!
Well, first I must apologize for the delay of this post and my absence. I know I promised you the tutorial long ago, and I figure I should probably finish that before I show you all my invitations. In the middle of my wedding craziness, my computer hard drive crashed and I lost a whole bunch of blog pictures and posts along with address spreadsheets, contracts, and all sorts of other stuff that stresses you out. Not to worry, I think I’ve pieced a lot of it back together in the last few weeks.
Ready for the tutorial for the Duckling save the dates? I’m warning you ahead of time that there were quite a few steps. So stay with me and let me know if it stops making sense.
Mrs. Sprinkle, Los AngelesAge and Occupation: 26, Preschool Teacher
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 30, Television Production/WriterEngagement Date: December 24, 2008Wedding Date: September 2009Venue: The Marvimon HouseAbout Me: I'm a Bay Area native trying to create a life for myself (and my fiance, and our three cats!) in the vast city of Los Angeles. I love vegan red velvet cupcakes, pilates ,and mid-century furniture. Mr. Sprinkle and I met when my band toured through his city (we bonded over cake and a mutual love of Morrissey) and we are getting married on the four year anniversary of our first date. When I am not teaching preschool (or blogging!) you can find me perfecting recipes, petting kittens, hiking in Griffith Park, and overusing exclamation points. We are planning a vegan, green-as-possible, DIY wedding, and I couldn't be more excited to share all of the details!
Our original rehearsal dinner plan, from months and months after we first booked our venue, was to throw a backyard party in our neighbor’s large yard. We were also going to rehearse there, since our venue could not guarantee there would not be another wedding on the Friday before ours. Both of our families were fine with this, and everyone seemed to understand it would be really hard to rehearse in a restaurant, and our budget couldn’t handle another big dining expense!
Then we got word that the event that was planned at The Marvimon the day before our wedding was canceled, and the space was ours to use for an hour to rehearse! We were still going with the neighbor’s yard idea until I noticed our lovely tree. And our cute fence. I decided we had the time and resources to get our (rented) backyard nice and cleaned up before the wedding. We are now looking at a scaled down version of a rehearsal dinner, in our tiny backyard. Still super casual, still in a yard, just smaller and a bit more personal.
Hopefully, this will be the last change. I want to send out invites soon! However, some family members are still a bit wary of the idea. Read more…
Mrs. Sunbeam, San Francisco/Grove City, PAAge and Occupation: 26, Grad Student & Office ManagerFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Motion DesignerEngagement Date: May 10, 2008Wedding Date: September 2009Venue: Harbison Chapel & The Maple Lane FarmAbout Me: Mr. Sunbeam and I are high school sweethearts. We both come from a small town in PA but are growing to love the California lifestyle. He loves wine and I love cheese... the perfect combination! When I'm not drooling over wedding blogs, I'm attending grad school, out being a foodie, or attempting to "walk" our cat at the park. Two things guaranteed to excite me are wedding cakes and breaking out my suitcase to travel. Mr. Sunbeam and I are personalizing our hometown wedding to celebrate our high school sweetheart status and PA roots with a few CA touches. After ten years of dating we couldn't be more excited to call each other husband and wife!
It’s true. Emanuela from Moda in San Francisco won me over. Besides being an absolutely adorable older Italian woman, she has mad skills and even worked for Chanel.
If you remember the post where I finally showed off my dress, you might remember it looked like I was doing the chicken dance. The top of my dress was humongous, I’m talking DD at least, but the alterations needs did not end there. When I shopped for my dress I had kitten heels on because, well, I am not a heel person. Think baby giraffe attempting to walk. That’s me in heels.
Mrs. Cloud, RichmondAge and Occupation: 25, Sales RepFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Customer Service Manager/DJEngagement Date: February 14, 2008Wedding Date: November 2009Venue: Cathedral of the Sacred Heart & The Jefferson HotelAbout Me: Mr. Cloud and I are Yankees planning a Southern wedding to show our families from Boston and New York our fabulous city. We are complete opposites, resulting in a wedding to include bridesmaids in pearls and groomsmen in Adidas shell toes. I’m a sorority girl at heart with strong addictions to my blackberry, cherry Chapstick, Coach purses, the Boston Red Sox and our fur baby, Bella. I can’t wait to the throw the party of our lives and of course, marry my best friend!
I now have a large and in charge to do list, so I figured I should also explain how I am getting organized in other ways, as well. When we got engaged I was overwhelmed with ideas that I was pulling from magazines and printing off of my favorite blogs and websites. I needed a system to organize everything, and one day I came across Brooklyn Bride’s explanation of her own wedding binders. It was just what I needed and I already had most of supplies stashed away in my office, just waiting to be used.
Mrs. Stiletto, ChicagoAge and Occupation: 26, Non-Profit/FundraisingFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Engineer and PhotographerEngagement Date: March 2, 2008Wedding Date: September 2009Venue: The 19th Century ClubAbout Me: My fiance and I love living in the city of Chicago with our cats Basil and Linus, and vow to never move to the suburbs if we can possibly avoid it! We’ve poured ourselves into planning a wedding that reflects our personal style - modern and high contrast with a vintage twist. Blogging keeps me creative, baking keeps me happy, and grande nonfat no foam sugar free vanilla lattes keep me sane.
I randomly decided I “needed” menus and proceeded to invent what seems to be the most time-consuming method for creating said menus. And, considering the fact that I think I just wanted menus because I thought my photographer would take cute pictures of them, I probably could have just made one and pretended after the fact that they were at each place setting.
Rest assured, I’m not that jaded about them and I know they will look cute on the tables, but I did spend the better part of my Saturday working on these, and I’m only 1/3 of the way done.
Mrs. Taffy, Ann ArborAge and Occupation: 28, Color and Materials DesignerFiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Automotive DesignerEngagement Date: May 9, 2008Wedding Date: May 2009Blogging Since: September 14, 2008Venue: University of Michigan UnionAbout Me: I’m a girl who is crazy about Mr. Taffy, sewing, dancing, almost all types of sweets, and our cute pet canaries. I dislike touching fuzzy fabric of any kind, eating somewhat squishy food, and Michigan winters. Mr. Taffy and I are having a blast planning our Ann Arbor wedding, and cannot wait to share our day with friends and family.
The wait for our pro pics is over! I am so happy to give you a peek into the Taffy wedding. We haven’t received all of the images yet, but as soon as we do I will begin our recaps.
For now, take a look at these (and don’t mind the low resolution!):
Mrs. Poodle, Santiago, Chile/San Bernardino, CAAge and Occupation: 27, Industrial & Web DesignerFiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Firefighter & Mountain PatrolEngagement Date: February 25, 2009Wedding Date: January 2010Venue: Mr. P's Grandparents’ RanchAbout Me: I’m a Chilean girl who's crazy about nature and swimming. I enjoy carving, drawing, reading and sewing; I drool over computers, fabric, pretty paper, purple and patterns. To me, chocolate should be one of the seven wonders, right next to lemon pie. I never thought an exchange work experience program was going to change my life forever, but while working in California, I met Mr. Poodle, and ever since my days are better and brighter. We are two goofy souls that, after finding each other, couldn’t help but want to be together forever. It has being a long and sometimes hard road, since we have to deal with such a long distance between us, but we are now facing the last stage of our Fiancé Visa, and soon we will be together. You know the best part? We will be married! So I’ll be blogging from Chile until just a few months before our “green and purple” wedding.
I thought I should show you all the very first DIY project I did for the wedding. Unfortunately I have no record of the process, but I’m planning on adding some small white clay flowers because it’s TOO purple. I was so excited about adding purple to everything that I didn’t even think about not having a purple garter, so here it is:
{ I’ll add the flowers and final touches to it, and show it to you, I promise. }
Now, moving on to what I really wanted to show you all!
As usual, click through, and If your name is Mr. Poodle… DON’T! Read more…
All-Inclusion Invitation Suites
