Mrs. French Bulldog, Orange CountyAge and Occupation: 28, Administrative Assistant & Interior Design StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Purchasing AnalystEngagement Date: November 8, 2008Wedding Date: August 2009Venue: Bernardo WineryAbout Me: I've lived in Atlanta, Dallas and Laguna Niguel; although I've lived in Orange County, CA most my life, I'm a Southerner at heart. I work full time for a Commercial General Contractor (aka my father) and I go to school for Interior Design at night. I love modern design, music, wine, crafting, DMailing, my family, my Westies, and of course, Mr Frenchie! Mr Frenchie and I met 3 years ago on Match.com and have been best friends ever since. I love his "old soul" and how he laughs with his whole body, among many other things. We are planning our summer wedding at the winery near his hometown, just 45 minutes south of Orange County.
My day actually started out pretty early. My sister and I stayed in the same hotel room at the Rancho Bernardo Inn the night before. We both had to shower, get all of our crap together and get over to my parents’ (larger) room to get ready. I also had to make sure everything I brought with me was packed and put together separate from Sister Frenchie’s things. The hotel was going to pick up my luggage and relocate it to Mr Frenchie’s and my room once it was available.
Sister Frenchie and Mama Frenchie had a 9:30 hair appointment and my makeup artist was getting to my parents’ room around the same time to start making my bridesmaids prettier, so we booked it over to my parents’ room just in time for Mama Frenchie and Sister Frenchie to head off to the salon.
This portion of the morning was all a blur to me. While Mama Frenchie and Sister Frenchie had hair appointments I decided to do my hair myself. My morning went something like this… Read more…
Miss Rainbow, TampaAge and Occupation: 22, Makeup ArtistFiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Electrical Engineer/ProgrammerEngagement Date: November 27, 2008Wedding Date: May 2010Venue: The Gamble PlantationAbout Me: I'm a quirky (and slightly Type-A) freelance makeup artist who was born in Washington State, raised in Alabama, and now living with my one and only in sunny Florida. I'm fashion and beauty obsessed, and have recently discovered my inner domestic diva extraordinaire. I'm a wannabe chef, decorating addict, and trying desperately to be as crafty as possible---albeit only with a glue gun. I'm hopelessly in love with my fiance, and all things sparkly and feathery. Despite the glittery exterior, I'm a total hippie on the inside. When I'm not making up pretty faces, I love doing what I can to help people, animals, and the environment. Someday the FI and I will change the world, but first we're tackling our modern-vintage-Marie-Antoinette-meets-Alice-in-Wonderland inspired wedding. I just can't wait to be Mrs. Rainbow!
Lately, I’ve been racking my brain trying to figure out how to jazz up our table numbers. Granted, we’re having a very small wedding and will only need 6 tables to accommodate our guests, but still. I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve got Bride Brain, and with Bride Brain comes the irrational desire to incorporate every cute detail that I come across, no matter how small. So, naturally, while surfing Weddingbee—particularly Mrs. Perfume’s archives, as I’ve found that we have an almost identical sense of style, I came across these:
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!
A tragic thing happened four months before the wedding. So tragic, it hurts me to even think about it.
Our computer died. The little Mac laptop that could. It was four years old and working fine until one day, during a crazy Los Angeles heat wave, the motherboard sizzled. We were not fortunate enough (or smart enough!) to backup any of our work.
We lost four years worth of digital photos and about six months worth of wedding planning. Sadly, all of my budgeting spreadsheets are gone. This is actually where my spending took a nose dive, and probably part of the reason we ended up over budget. So, while I no longer have the amounts written down, I will do my best to break down our budget for you!
First, a few budget tips:
The best thing we did was open up a second checking account at our bank that was only used for wedding things. It made it super easy to keep track of spending, and it was connected to our regular account for easy money transfers.
Pay with a check whenever you can. We paid cash for a few vendors, and one didn’t have our payment recorded and sent us a second invoice. Luckily it all got cleared up, but that could have been a costly mistake for us.
Only buy things after you have already been planning for a few months. Even if you see some great sale, unless you are 100% sure you will use the items, it isn’t worth it.
So here is a very, very basic version of our budget from my memory (and a glance at our wedding bank account before we closed it last week!). Read more…
Mrs. Moonbeam, Los Angeles/San AntonioAge and Occupation: 26, Intern ArchitectFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Studio Analyst, aspiring ScreenwriterEngagement Date: May 20, 2009Wedding Date: November 2009Venue: Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church (LaCoste, TX) and Mary Gray Events Center (Castroville, TX)About Me: I was born and raised in Texas, but after college I moved to Seattle for a couple of years and loved it. Then I followed my beau out here to LA and we're getting settled in. I've been making things since I can remember. I was raised by crafters. I love to sew, draw, paint, build, cook, bake (anything with a tangible end result is fair game). In that same spirit, I've been hosting since I was old enough to cook and set a fancy table. I kind of take after my grandmother, who believes that your morning OJ always tastes better out of the good crystal.
Miss Trail Mix, New YorkAge and Occupation: 26, PE TeacherFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, MBA StudentEngagement Date: March 2009Wedding Date: June 2010Venue: Tannery Pond at the Darrow SchoolAbout Me: I'm a country girl who somehow found herself living in the Big Apple and loving every minute of it. I'm planning a rustic, country-chic wedding in my hometown in upstate New York and it's going to be a Party with a capital P. White wine, flea markets and running keep me happy and my friends, family and fiance are my world. I'm a little bit crafty, a little bit crazy but mostly just crazy in love.
Did you like my little pun in the title? If you haven’t already figured this out, I am beyond obsessed with mason jars in general. Blue Ball mason jars, specifically. I’ve already found enough to serve as flower holders for the centerpieces at our wedding, so I thought I’d do a little research and find some inspiration for the flowers and settings of these beautiful jars. Here we go…
There’s just something about the combination of blue and yellow that slays me every time. I like both of these flower arrangements, even though they’re very different.
Miss Spaniel, Los AngelesAge and Occupation: 28, Law StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 29, PsychologistWedding Date: March 2010Venue: Calamigos RanchAbout Me: I'm a third-year law student trying to balance graduating with starting my career, keeping up a relationship, and, oh yeah, planning an Old World, multi-cultural, "mountain lodge" wedding for 180 guests! A South Asian Jewish girl getting ready to marry my handsome Catholic Dane, I'm hoping to blend our cultures in our wedding just a bit more gently than by providing samosas as appetizers and offering æbleskiver for dessert. (Although that would also be awesome.)
When I got the email from Pengy on an otherwise nondescript Monday night, I think I flapped my arms so quickly in my excitement that I may have actually buzzed. Could it be? Was it me? Am I really a bee? Will Mr. Spaniel need to pinch me again?
Miss Spaniel’s excited face!
The Mister and I met back in January 2006, and after a whirlwind! three-year romance, we decided to make it official and announce our intentions (which were to get married, sillies!). 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!
Screeeech - My recaps are a bit out of order! Before we get to the wedding I want to share our rehearsal and a gathering at my folks’ house! I hope you’ll hang in there with me just a bit longer!
It was the day before our wedding. I woke up with 101 things to do, as you may have guessed from my previous post. One thing that wasn’t mentioned was that among my already scheduled appointments and to-dos, I found out I had to completely redo our seating chart. With no time to do this, I ended up fixing our seating chart in the car on the way to our rehearsal dinner, which was scheduled for 4:30PM. Read more…
Wiley Valentine, CaliforniaVendor: Invitations and Paper ProductsWebsite: Wiley ValentineAbout Me: Wiley Valentine is named for our artistic grandmothers, Mary Wiley and Norma Jean Valentine. Our company is 4 years old and growing strong. We specialize in invitations, stationery, and all sorts of paper delights. We love the forest, vintage books, thunder storms, butterflies, fairy tales and the smell of rain. We strive to think of our environment first when creating our paper products, and only use 100% recycled or 100% cotton papers.
This invitation suite we just did with our fabulous retailer, The Dandelion Patch, came out so pretty I had to share. The bride chose the Vintage Romance collection from the Letterpress Album and customized the design with her color palette of Champagne and Blush.
Miss Pudding, Greater Toronto Area/VermontAge and Occupation: 26, High School TeacherFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Computer EngineerEngagement Date: August 2008Wedding Date: July 2010Venue: Catholic Ceremony, Cultural Hall ReceptionAbout Me: Quite literally a citizen of the world, I was born in Poland, grew up in Canada, and now live in the beautiful state of Vermont. I love reading historical biographies, multi-tasking, teasing my hair, and, despite my height, wearing high heeled shoes. I am the ultimate klutz with an uncanny ability to put on a graceful front. Mr. Pudding and I have been dating for over six years, and are very excited to finally merge our (very large) families. We are planning a traditional Polish-Catholic wedding that is anything but predictable.
The way I see it, damask is the undisputed champion of weddings these days. Wedding blogs are full of inspiration for the “damask bride”. I have to admit, I love the idea of damask. It’s romantic, it provides a theme and central focus to the wedding, and gives texture to the decor. However, I had a problem with jumping on this bandwagon. I really wanted to find a theme that had a similar feel, but was a little bit more unique.
After deciding on the ivory and navy blue colour scheme, I began searching for inspiration. I had this idea in my head to find striped table cloths. I didn’t manage to find any, but I did find this:
This is ToiledeJouy, and according to wikipedia: Read more…
Miss Snow, Madison, WI/Asheville, NCAge and Occupation: 28, PhD student
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Graphic DesignerEngagement Date: August 5, 2009Wedding Date: June 2010Venue: Claxton FarmAbout Me: I am true Southern gal displaced in the beautiful and blustery midwest. A true theatre geek at heart, I love any kind of performance and spend most of my time researching old productions in dank library archives. When not in the library, I love music (punk rock, bluegrass, and everything in between), design in all forms, any reality TV show on Bravo (especially those that feature housewives or sharp knives), beer and wine from Oregon, and exploring the outdoors. My fiance and I are true best friends, and he inspires me every day. After a long and happy dating relationship, we’ve decided to tie the knot in the mountains of North Carolina, our home state. We’re planning a long-distance, largely-DIY, eco-conscious hip farm affair that celebrates family, friends, and love.
Mr. Snow couldn’t wait any longer to play with it, so a few weeks ago, we went out and bought some basic linen-like napkins to use in the first Gocco experiment. Mr. Snow quickly put together a logo (literally, it took him five minutes), and we started to print. At best, this first project will be restroom towels or rehearsal dinner napkins, mainly because the design was quick and dirty.
Our camera was dead for the process (I’ll get pics with the next project), but I snapped some pictures as they dried. We also experimented with printing on our veneer sample (the real stuff is en route… exciting!) and it turned out much better than I anticipated. Man, I am in love with this handy printer.
Mrs. Star, New York CityAge and Occupation: 22, ActressFiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Casting AssistantWedding Date: October 2009Venue: Ceremony: The Kraine Theatre, Reception: Midtown Loft & TerraceAbout Me: I’m a professional actress who’s always had New York City in her blood and I'm finally getting the chance to make a home in Manhattan with my fiancé, my dog, and my big dreams! I love polka dots, craft projects, Dunkin’ Donuts’ iced coffee, and anything sparkly. I’m having a blast planning our elegant/dramatic/New York City/acting-themed/largely-DIY wedding and am thrilled to be the youngest current Miss Blogger!
Getting to and from another country and then all around said country is not always an easy feat. It requires a lot of planning, a whole heaping helping of patience, and is often one of the largest vacation budget items, behind lodging and food.
Over the course of two weeks, The Stars utilized just about every method of transportation possible. But don’t worry, we documented it so you would know what we were getting into.
This is on the train to Newark airport from NYC. We weren’t even an hour into our honeymoon and Mr. Star was busting out the crazy faces. Transportation count: 1.
Miss Pretzel, SeattleAge and Occupation: 32 Learning, Training, and Development SpecialistFiance's Age and Occupation: 28 Manufacturing EngineerEngagement Date: September 2, 2009Wedding Date: July 2010Venue: Catholic Church & The Engine Room at Georgetown StudiosAbout Me: I’m just a thirty-something girl who never dreamed of weddings, poofy dresses, or ritzy receptions. I am a rabid knitter, except recently, wedding projects have replaced my yarn and needles. I’ve been fiercely independent since the age of 2 and 30 years later I think my family and friends had given up on me settling down and getting married.
Ironically, I had to go all the way to Seattle to find a boy from Purdue. We fell in love over Seattle Beers and cooking together. I love NASCAR, he loves Legos. I can talk like a Muppet and he can fit a whole McDonald’s cheeseburger in his mouth. We are a two reception couple, currently planning a brewery inspired bash.
I’ve got opinions… lots of them. I also fancy myself a creative-type. That’s all well and good, but Mr Pretzel has the same characteristics. This really hasn’t been a problem… until wedding planning, more specifically, the save the dates.
Mr Pretzel and I decided very early on that we wanted to design all of our paper products ourselves. I was excited because Mr P was a computer graphics major in college, so I knew I would have some help in this department. Little did I know that the design process would thrust us into the biggest head-butting competition of our relationship. It might sound funny, but even though we are both opinionated people, we don’t argue much. When we talked about inspiration, we were on the same page. We both wanted our Save the Dates to have a “rock ‘n’ roll poster” feel to them. The problem came in articulating the vision that that term brought to mind.
I am a get things on paper kind of girl. As soon as I have an idea, I boot up Photoshop and try to get my idea from my head to the screen. Mr P looked at my first mock up and said, “I don’t like it.” I asked him what he was thinking of, and he said, “a punk poster with bright paper and black text,” and I said, “no freakin’ way.” We talked a little more and I tried to incorporate his ideas a second time. “Nah I don’t like that either.”
After a minor blow up, I got him to sketch on paper what he was envisioning. This is what he drew. Read more…
ClassifiedsFeature Launched: April 30, 2008About: A roundup of the best Weddingbee Classified listings.
Mel0463 is selling 215 gold charger plates from Pier 1 Imports. The plates are 13.5 inches in diameter. Due to the heaviness and fragility of the plates, pick-up in the Metro Detroit are is preferred.
She’s asking $400.
Have a wedding item for sale? Post it with pictures in the Weddingbee classifieds and you might see it featured on the blog!
Miss Parfait, ChicagoAge and Occupation: 26, TeacherFiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Senior Online ConsultantEngagement Date: February 14, 2009Wedding Date: April 2010Venue: Signature EventsAbout Me: I have a soft spot for all things sweet and romantic. Desserts, love songs, sappy movies? Yes, yes, and ohh yes. My fiance and I enjoy singing to our dogs, creating crazy ice cream sundaes, and generally being lovey dovey cuddle bunnies. We also do socially acceptable things like dancing, throwing Frisbees, playing high stakes board games, and taking unreasonably fun road-trips. We're planning a Korean/Serbian wedding with plenty of playful, personal touches!
When I started wedding planning, I had all these dreams of making my own tablecloths, napkins, bridesmaids’ dresses, fabric draping, and centerpieces. A lack of sewing skills caused the fabric-related DIYs to fall away, but I was still determined to add a homemade touch to the centerpieces.
So I went and bought 50 vases, all of which have been sitting in my basement, waiting to be personalized and Parfait-ized. And here’s what I plan to do with them!
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!
Today we’re welcoming our newest doggie bee—Miss Spaniel! She’s planning a multicultural wedding in Southern California, and we can’t wait to hear of all the details! Say hello to Miss Spaniel!
Miss Spaniel, Los Angeles Age & Occupation: 28, Law Student Fiance’s Age & Occupation: 29, Psychologist Wedding Date: March 2010 Venue: Calamigos Ranch About Me: I’m a third-year law student trying to balance graduating with starting my career, keeping up a relationship, and, oh yeah, planning an Old World, multi-cultural, “mountain lodge” wedding for 180 guests! A South Asian Jewish girl getting ready to marry my handsome Catholic Dane, I’m hoping to blend our cultures in our wedding just a bit more gently than by providing samosas as appetizers and offering æbleskiver for dessert. (Although that would also be awesome.)
