Mrs. Rainbow, Tampa
Age and Occupation: 22, Makeup Artist
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Electrical Engineer/Programmer
Engagement Date: November 27, 2008
Wedding Date: May 2010
Venue: The Gamble Plantation
About 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!
My hair has always been the bane of my existence. It’s naturally super curly—like individual boingy ringlets curly. It’s also an unbearably frizzy mess if I don’t have a million and a half products in my hair at any given time. Needless to say, it is also a big pain in my butt. I kid you not, this girl has almost the exact hair texture that I have… curly sue on the loose! No joke. To add insult to injury, it also grows soooo freeeeakin slooooow.
source
Of course it doesn’t help that I dye it, chemically straighten it, AND flat iron it.
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Mrs. Cheeseburger, Baltimore, MD/State College, PA
Age and Occupation: 25, Medical Student
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Medical Student
Engagement Date: June 28, 2008
Wedding Date: March 2010
Venue: Catholic Church Ceremony & Hotel Reception
About Me: I'm a passionate girl from Pittsburgh, currently living in Baltimore for school, who loves Penn State, seeing movies, football, thunderstorms, black and white photos, Christmas, good beer, my amazing friends and family, and of course, my mister! We met, fell in love, got engaged, and will be married at our alma mater (go lions!) in a traditional Catholic ceremony followed by a hotel reception with lots of DIY details. It means so much to have our families and friends meet at our favorite place on earth to celebrate our love for one another - I truly couldn't ask for anything more!
Like many other brides, when I first saw Lia, I knew that we were destined to be BFFs. I swooned over all of the pictures of her online. I drooled over her when she was for sale on sites like preownedweddingdresses and oncewed. And I was never deterred by her unending popularity on the bridal circuit. I mean, LOOK AT HER!
(source)
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Mrs. Stiletto, Chicago
Age and Occupation: 26, Non-Profit/Fundraising
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Engineer and Photographer
Engagement Date: March 2, 2008
Wedding Date: September 2009
Venue: The 19th Century Club
About 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.
Even though we were able to sneak in and see the ballroom before the reception, it was SO exciting to come back in to a room full of guests! It was so fun to be introduced as the new “Mr. and Mrs. Stiletto”!
Because we nixed our head table at the last minute in favor of having everyone sit a different round tables, I had a momentary freak out about where the wedding party would go once entering the ballroom. We were all sitting close to the door we’d enter through, so it would be a rather lackluster grand entrance if people went straight to their seats!
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Weddingbee Gallery
Feature Launched: April 10, 2009
About: A collection of inspirational wedding pictures from readers and bees.
Newlywed thencomeswife proudly shows off her stunning 2.6 carat cushion-cut diamond.
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.
Featured on Weddingbee
“Make an elegant invitation statement without the fuss. Stylish invitation sets with matching envelopes, reception and response cards included.”
Featured Product: Laura Ashley Delicate Damask Invitation
Mrs. Pretzel, Seattle
Age and Occupation: 32 Learning, Training, and Development Specialist
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 28 Manufacturing Engineer
Engagement Date: September 2, 2009
Wedding Date: July 2010
Venue: Catholic Church & The Engine Room at Georgetown Studios
About 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.
There has been some inquiry about how a Gocco works. This is my best approximation of it.
Note: I’m not an artist, nor do I play one on TV… these are my horrible little doodles. This tutorial shows how the PG 10 SUPER and the PG 11 handle print registration.
According to Wikipedia:
Printing Registration is a term that applies to different methods of overlapping colors on one single image. There are many different styles and types of registration, many of which include Registration Marks in desktop publishing.
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Mrs. Penguin, Northern California
Age and Occupation: 27, Weddingbee Editor in Chief
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 30, Doctor of Physical Therapy
Engagement Date: January 29, 2007
Wedding Date: June 7, 2008
Blogging Since: September 14, 2007
Venue: Winery in the Gold Country
About 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!
In a perfect world, I would have nachos for (at minimum) one meal a day. The squeeze-cheese kind. Mmmmm…
That being said, I’m always thrilled to welcome another destination wedding bride to Weddingbee! Join me in welcoming Miss Nachos to the hive!
Miss Nachos, Chicago/US Virgin Islands
Age & Occupation: 32, Real Estate Agent Trainer & Hairstylist
Fiance’s Age & Occupation: 35, Radio Producer 103.5 KISS FM
Engagement Date: March 22, 2009
Wedding Date: April 2010
Venue: Wyndham Sugar Bay Resort, St. Thomas
About Me: I’m a happy, laid back city girl that can find the silver lining in any situation. An optimist at heart, my motto is to turn your “what ifs?” into “so whats!”. My fiance is a radio producer and the biggest Cubs fan you’ll meet - our apartment decor definitely shows it. He and I grew up next door to each other and because of it, we have the best home videos and easiest holiday dinners. We are planning an intimate wedding in the Virgin Islands and a cocktail party in June for 150 of our closest friends.
Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
Mrs. Cola, Mountain View, CA
Age and Occupation: 27, Product Communications and Promotions
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Managing Partner and Senior Designer
Engagement Date: March 5, 2009
Wedding Date: June 2010
Venue: The Mountain Terrace, Woodside, CA
About Me: I’m a Washington State native, enjoying life in Silicon Valley California with my fiancé, our three kitties and one leopard gecko. I like reading wedding blogs, Photoshopping wedding design mock ups, making lists, and planning, planning, planning! I’m a bit of an anomaly, on one side I’m a very girlie girl, I collect shoes, I lay out my outfits 4-6 weeks in advance, and I’d never leave the house without my hair curled and makeup on. But on the other side, I’m a total tomboy, I love to go camping and hiking, play drinking games (hey, I’m Irish!) and most of my closest friends are guys. My fiancé and I are planning a DIY-focused wedding with a balance between easygoing (what he wants) and chic and stylish (what I want), and are tying it all together with elements in lavender, sage, butter cream and chocolate.
Who doesn’t love a Flash intro to a website? (Unless you’re on a slow connection, of course.)
So, I set out to try to figure out how to get one for our website. Of course, I have zero experience with Flash, but no worries—Google to the rescue! I found this super easy free Flash Slideshow Maker, and promptly downloaded it to try.
This is what pops up when you download and open the program… it really is this easy (and did I mention, FREE!):
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Mrs. Pudding, Greater Toronto Area/Vermont
Age and Occupation: 26, High School Teacher
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Computer Engineer
Engagement Date: August 2008
Wedding Date: July 2010
Venue: Catholic Ceremony, Cultural Hall Reception
About 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.
During my practice teaching term in college, I started drinking lots of water. As a teacher, I HAVE to constantly hold something in my hand to ease the awkward moments when I ask a question, and my students don’t know the answer. Instead of standing at the front of the room feeling like an idiot during the longest silence ever, I would take a sip of water. Coffee works too, but I was too lazy to get up in the morning to make it, and it cost like $1.25 in the cafeteria. Hey, I needed that money for shoes!
Anyway, my Nalgene bottle (BPA and all) became my prop of choice. I was thrilled to discover that there were other benefits to the habit! Mostly, my usually acne-prone-when-stressed-or-about-to-get-a-visit-from-that-certain-aunt skin had never looked better!
(source)
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Mrs. Ramen, Phoenix
Age and Occupation: 26, Optometry Student
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Industrial Designer
Engagement Date: January 3, 2009
Wedding Date: December 19, 2009
Venue: Phoenix Art Museum
About Me: I'm an SF-born, Seattle-raised girl, transplanted to Phoenix where I'll be getting married, and planning all the way from Orange County where I go to school (yes, it feels as crazy as it sounds). I loooooove Yogurtland, am slightly very obsessed with all things paper, am heavily addicted to wedding blogs, deeply desire a puppy, thoroughly enjoy cooking, cry when I watch (almost all) movies, thrive on solo car-karaoke, can't stop being sarcastic, am neurotic about taking pictures of almost everything I eat before I eat it, and aspire to travel the world. My super-talented fiance and I are attempting to DIY a majority of our massive (~350 guests) "clean & modern, yet romantic, but completely unexpected, with a teeny dash of vintage" wedding, stay within our not-so-massive budget, and somehow get a really luxe (but still fun!) look/feel at the same time. In music terms (since we're both really into music) think Coldplay meets Motown meets Kanye meets Sinatra.
Woo hoo!!!
I am happy to say that we will NOT go over our max capacity of 350 - it actually looks like we’re going to be UNDER! It makes me so happy!
This may seem like a(nother) small feat, but let me recap the statistics for you: we sent out ~210 invitations. We invited a whopping 444 people, which means we would be BARELY safe if 20% said no. And we were getting a TON of yesses from our OOTowners. So, I was definitely getting the Guest List Sweats.
So now we’re contemplating: do we try to fill it up a bit? Boost up the appetizers? Or just pocket the extra savings? Hmm.
Did you get the number of yesses and nos that you needed/wanted? If you came in under your goal number, what did you do with the extra $$$?
Mrs. Spaniel, Los Angeles
Age and Occupation: 28, Law Student
Fiance's Age and 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.)
The first time I went dress shopping, I went into David’s Bridal with MOH-S for my first round of dress shopping (round 2 was scheduled for the following day with Mama Spaniel at a smaller shop). My goal was to limit my options, because I could not commit to a style: one day I liked satin, the next I liked lace, and next thing you know I’ll be walking down the aisle in a chic potato sack (yes, I actually Googled “chic potato sack” to find this link… who knew that would work?).
I was completely unable to do this (limit my options, that is) while engagement ring shopping, which is one of the reasons why I had to pick out the ring for Mr. Spaniel instead of letting him to the legwork (that, and he just wasn’t getting on the ball fast enough for impatient me!). Sure, I liked round cut stones, but mostly only in six-prong solitaires. And I didn’t like princess cut, but I might if it were in a clean, modern band. And I didn’t want side stones, but I might if they were in halos. And I didn’t like too much sparkle or bling, except when the band was a sparkly vintage style. In other words, I couldn’t narrow down anything until I saw it on my finger (but ended up getting the very first ring I tried on after we started seriously shopping).
It shouldn’t be a surprise that I was so wishy-washy with dress styles, also, but I did narrow it down to three of their styles that I would have considered (and they are all totally, totally different from one another).
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Classifieds
Feature Launched: April 30, 2008
About: A roundup of the best Weddingbee Classified listings.
Stephanieliss is selling a custom 2009 Badgely Mishka gown. The size 2 strapless dress is made of beautiful ivory silk satin and has a modified A-line silhouette that hugs at the hip and flares out gradually. She purchased the gown for $6000 and is willing to negotiate the resale price.
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:
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Mrs. Cheeseburger, Baltimore, MD/State College, PA
Age and Occupation: 25, Medical Student
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Medical Student
Engagement Date: June 28, 2008
Wedding Date: March 2010
Venue: Catholic Church Ceremony & Hotel Reception
About Me: I'm a passionate girl from Pittsburgh, currently living in Baltimore for school, who loves Penn State, seeing movies, football, thunderstorms, black and white photos, Christmas, good beer, my amazing friends and family, and of course, my mister! We met, fell in love, got engaged, and will be married at our alma mater (go lions!) in a traditional Catholic ceremony followed by a hotel reception with lots of DIY details. It means so much to have our families and friends meet at our favorite place on earth to celebrate our love for one another - I truly couldn't ask for anything more!
When we last spoke shoes, we were here:
(source)
The beautiful Boutique 9 Udells in a luxurious purple. Then I found this picture while browsing purple wedding details on The Knot:
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Mrs. Lamb, Norfolk
Age and Occupation: 25, Homeland Security Consultant
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Graduate Student
Engagement Date: January 2009
Wedding Date: January 2010
Venue: Trinity Presbyterian Church/Harrison Opera House
About Me: I’m a Homeland Security Consultant with a tendency towards pulling office pranks, taking lunch breaks, and drinking Wawa shakes. I’m also an English major with a serious obsession with alliteration and rhymes. While I’m not keeping America safe, I’m training for half marathons and the Escape from Alcatraz swim. Or moving for the third time this year. Or baking. Or wedding crafting. Or crying about wedding planning. All the while, I’m getting myself into Lucille Ball-esque scrapes and making Jim Carey-esque faces. Our big fat Czech/Baptist/Jewish/Italian wedding is a combination of vintage eclectic, DIY, and little spoonful of sugar from our Event Coordinator. It’s going to be a Norfolk flavored wedding with the verve of an only-daughter-blow-out bash!
I must have said that about 10 times to the Lambster during our engagement shoot. Hubba hubba, that stud is going to be all mine!
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Mrs. Cowboy Boot, Santa Fe
Age and Occupation: 25, Magazine Editor
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Artist and Whitewater Rafting Guide
Engagement Date: April 28th, 2008
Wedding Date: October 2009
Venue: Devil's Thumb Ranch, Colorado
About Me: I grew up in Los Angeles and have since lived in San Diego, Boston, Italy, Hawaii, New York City, and Santa Fe. I speak Italian and love pasta. My real passion is the outdoors, though. When I'm not at work, I'm snowboarding, hiking with my two dogs, mountain biking, surfing, cross-country-skiing, or boating New Mexico's rivers. Despite my boyish love for adventure, I'm a girly-girl at heart and am overly-excited to pull off the romantic, vintage-inspired, country wedding of my dreams.
After the pictures of the bridal party were complete, we made the decision to do family portraits after the ceremony. There just wasn’t time. To be honest, I don’t even know what time it was but someone was keeping track. I think it was our day-of-coordinator, Danielle Odil of Something Classic Events, who was back and forth between us and setting up the barn for our reception. We went back into our gathering place for pictures, Heck’s Tavern at Devil’s Thumb Ranch, and, to my dismay, some our guests were starting to gather there, too. It hit me that they were all seeing me before the ceremony and I wasn’t happy about this. I wanted out. And fast.
Post bridal party portraits but pre-ceremony
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Mrs. Penguin, Northern California
Age and Occupation: 27, Weddingbee Editor in Chief
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 30, Doctor of Physical Therapy
Engagement Date: January 29, 2007
Wedding Date: June 7, 2008
Blogging Since: September 14, 2007
Venue: Winery in the Gold Country
About 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!
This will be only my 3rd year of hosting Thanksgiving, but both years prior, I would write out a detailed game plan for the week, and an hour by hour plan for Thursday, and each year I’ve lost the list or thrown it away. Here, I’m recording the game plan for posterity. I’m including recipes (some mashed up from recipes I’ve tried in the past, some tried and true) and a grocery list. Maybe if you’re taking on the task of hosting this year or next, you’ll benefit from this time breakdown. This post is broken down as follows:
- Things you should consider registering for if you’re hosting Thanksgiving
- Brief overview of dishes
- Recipes
- Grocery list
- Schedule/Timeline for Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
Section 1: Things you should consider registering for if you’re hosting Thanksgiving
I don’t know why I chose to link to stuff from Sur La Table… it’s all very expensive! But it’s organized nicely in a Thanksgiving section, so it was easiest for me.
SECTION 2: Brief overview of dishes
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All-Inclusion Invitation Suites
