Weddingbee Blog

I believe wedding inspiration can be found anywhere and at any time. The Christmas season is no exception, no matter what time of year you are getting married. There are so many unique and colorful ornament styles that could be translated into wedding goodness!

To start off this series, I searched the internet for an ornament that was interesting, colorful and featured some sort of pattern. I kind of wanted to stay away from the typical seasonal colors of red white and green. When a Google image search resulted in finding this ornament, I couldn’t help but think how the colors and flower patterns would make for a great summer wedding theme.

From there, I began to find images to build my inspiration board on Polyvore. I’ve never used Polyvore before, but was surprised at how easy it was to gather photos and put them together to make a decent looking inspiration board.

Based on my ornament, here is the wedding inspiration board I came up with:
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We have not one, but TWO adorable flower girls! E will be 5 and G will be 2 1/2 on our big day.

G is the daughter of one of my cousins, and both he and his wife also went to Penn State! E is the daughter of another one of my cousins, and I was a bridesmaid in her wedding a few years back. It means so much to be able to involve family in our day as much as possible, and we are truly honored to have these little ones be our flower girls!

Dressing them has proven to be really fun so far. After talking with their moms, we all agreed that flower girl dresses, like the bridesmaid dresses, were not something we wanted to break the bank on. We had originally decided to shop in person at some local department stores around the holidays, but then E’s mom found some gorgeous (and reasonable!) dresses online at Gymboree!

The dresses are ivory silk dupioni and straight up adorable. For G, there were two options - a shorter, sleeved version and a longer, sleeveless version. In E’s size, the longer, sleeveless version is available. We ordered the dresses (available online only) in their sizes to try on, and then E gave my family a lovely fashion show at a recent get together. Unfortunately I couldn’t be there, but I heard she was totally adorable, and that the dress has been totally “spinning approved”. Two thumbs up!

Check them out:
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Our wedding favors are not really “favors” in the traditional sense. I’m actually not 100% sure how I’m going to work out the placement of them and whether everyone will receive one or if just the ladies will (this will make sense in a minute when I get to what and how I actually made).

My original idea was to buy little glass bud vases and fill them with dried flowers with a little tag tied around the neck of the vase. Unfortunately, that was going to get expensive, fast, so it was nixed.

Remember how much I love lavender? I went ahead and ordered 4 bunches of dried lavender stems from Save-On-Crafts. I also ordered a large bundle of raffia, which I like to describe as a cross between a ribbon and a cornhusk. Very rustic chic. Once the materials arrived on my doorstep, it was time to get my craft on…

First, I had to get a puncher to make my little tags. I used a 25%-off coupon at Michaels to buy a Martha Stewart Craft Punch as well as a 1/8″ hole puncher. I used the same Scriptina font that I used for our signs to print out our names and our wedding date on some leftover brown and yellow paper, and then punched away.

Here are all my materials, including a sheet of pre-punched tags…

(Personal Photo)

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Recently I’ve started prepping the invitations. I know it was early—I didn’t actually plan to send our invites to most of our guests until late January—but my dad wanted to hand out invitations to my Pakistani family while he was there through late November. And it makes sense, I suppose, except for one thing: all those extras I was going to add to the invites, like envelope liners and belly bands? Yeah, I hadn’t done that yet. I hadn’t even ordered the paper yet. OOPS! In fact, the only special fixin’ that the early invitations got is a special RSVP insert with our website URL and instructions to RSVP online (all of our international guests will get this insert instead of a postcard, which I’m afraid will get lost otherwise). Here’s what I had with five days to go.

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It’s a sad day when I have to say that my recap posts are quickly winding down! But, it’s a fabulous day because I’m sharing a lot of the little detail shots that didn’t end up in the other posts, yet are oh-so-spectacular.

Even though I experienced massive dress envy along the way, I still can’t help but love the floaty, dreamy feel of my dress. After asking for no beading, no lace but some sort of detail and all for under $1,000, I really lucked out.

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Look inside and see all the decorations! (Anyone else remember that little saying and accompanying motions that were a staple in my childhood Sunday School classes?)

Before the beginning of Advent, the committee that I chair at our church was responsible for decorating the sanctuary. With the beautiful, clean lines and the serene green paint, we had an easy job. Everyone pitched in to provide decorations and manpower. I even brought the wine and cheese for a little snack break!

There are 5 large windows on each side of the church (on the lower level). The arches are colored glass are already decorative, so we just spruced them with bay leave wreaths on every other window and then candles in every window. The candles are covered with a hurricane and we added fresh cut magnolia branches from a member’s yard.

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Although I briefly contemplated buying pre-designed Save the Dates (STDs), I just couldn’t shake the feeling that I really wanted us to design them ourselves. Since we’re not designing our invitations, I wanted to try my hand at something, and STDs seemed like they would be the perfect, fun option. So, I got started (checking in with Mr. Guinea Pig every now and again, who would always say, “Looks fine.”).

It turns out, there is a reason I am not a graphic designer or artist. I’m a scientist and also a perfectionist, so not only did I struggle to design our STDs, but I nitpicked each draft of them, as well. My very first designs are completely different from where we ended up, so I thought I’d share the evolution of our STDs thus far.

(example of a ’typical’ STD, from Magnet Street)

In the very beginning, we started with what I considered a fairly typical Save the Date idea.
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If you have 4 minutes of your life to waste that you’re OK with never getting back, this is the weirdest video that I was introduced to and found myself quoting on a regular basis a few years ago…

Now that you’re sufficiently weirded out but find yourself wanting to call someone “betch”, here’s my dilemma – I’m trying to figure out what kind of shoes to wear with my wedding dress. Anyone that knows me knows that I don’t wear heels over 3 inches pretty much ever. Not because I don’t like them; I actually love looking at pretty pairs of high heels as much as the next girl, but I just can’t walk in them and I’ve reluctantly accepted that fact.
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St. Impatieus, to be exact. I know for some people, waiting for the wedding proposal can really wear on the nervous system and create anxiety, frustration, and sometimes spouts of anger. I’m not saying I was ranting and raving, throwing myself on the bed with high-pitched wails or gnashing my teeth, but there were definitely moments of impatience in waiting for the proposal.

Shortly after Mr. Pug and I began dating, it seemed natural that we would get married (that lucky bastard). Since I knew it was going to happen, I wasn’t waiting on pins and needles for the proposal, and we talked about marriage openly.

However, that doesn’t mean that impatience didn’t raise its tiny head once in a while.

Source

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Trends get a bad rap. Trendy is the red-headed* sulky teenage sister of Classic, as in,

I don’t like trends. I prefer a more classic look.

And I like Classic. I do. Classic is the lovely, shiny-haired big sis, the one with the good job, the Burberry trench, and the Hermes silk scarf collection. Trendy is temperamental, with her headbands and colored tights and vampire books. She watches too much Jersey Shore.

Hive, as I sit here typing, wearing leggings, (fake)Uggs, and a big scarf around my neck, I hereby go on record in defense of Trendy.

Tiffany blue and brown? I don’t hate it! Apple green and pink? I’m doin’ it! Cupcake tiers, candy buffets, photo booths, birdcage veils, colored shoes, rustic barn receptions, mismatched bridesmaid dresses, pick-up skirts, hair flowers, peacock feathers, damask patterns, bird themes… these are the signs of the times, my friends. These are the Zeitgeists (one of my favorite words ever) and I think that’s just grand.

Source

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I know I can’t be the only one who’s done it. Obsessively and repeatedly searched the web for photos of other weddings at your wedding venue. I do it at least a couple times a month. And I even signed up for Google Alerts, so I’ll get an email any time Google crawls a site with our venue, The Mountain Terrace, cited. It’s so fun to look at ANY wedding photos, and even better to look at ones from your venue. I’m collecting ideas for our own photo ops, as well as falling in love with our location all over again!

Here are some of my favorites I’ve found so far, mainly from photographer’s blogs:

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A reflection of love. Magenchambers and her husband-to-be shot their engagement photos on a gorgeous fall day by the water.

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.

You know how a lot of brides stress about choosing a photographer? I’ve read many a blog post obsessing over finding the right person to document one’s wedding day. As they say, the pictures are really all you have left once the wedding’s over.

I did not do this. The truth is, the photographer was the second vendor I booked, right after the venue. It was before I had really gotten into sucked into the online wedding blogosphere/black hole and didn’t really know what I was doing. But I know it will work out for the best because our photographer rocks!

Kelly Griffith of Closed Circle Photography in Boston has the honor of photographing our wedding and I’m so excited to have her!

Kelly is actually a semi-friendor. She is (get ready for another Ferris Bueller-esque connection) the college roommate and close friend of the daughter of a family friend and actually made a few visits to my parents’ house waaaay back in the day to celebrate a Jewish holiday or two.

When I started looking for a photographer, I really didn’t know where or how to start. I made a few half-hearted attempts at contacting some random photogs off of The Knot’s list of recommended vendors in my area, but that was about it. When my mom suggested contacting Kelly, I jumped at the chance to work with someone who was not a complete stranger and someone I knew I could trust.
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I have been meaning to write about our photographer for quite some time. She is totally awesome, and so “us” that I know we will make magical pictures together.

My quest for a fantastic photographer was long and tedious, but well worth it. I started by combing the internet, starting first at my go-to resource for all things Penn State Weddings, nittanyweddings.com. I also went through the Pennsylvania Wedding Photojournalism Association, theknot.com, and Wedding Wire, as well as good old-fashioned Google searches.

I bookmarked every photographer I came across - ones specifically in the Central PA area, ones in Philly and Pittsburgh, even some in NYC and DC who were willing to travel. Like many other brides, I was interested in a specific style - photojournalism. Lots of candid shots with plenty of post-processing for cool and unique effects. This is very popular, but can be expensive. Thus, another budget-friendly quest began.

I created a spreadsheet with column headings like price, location, first impression, pros, and cons. I went through each photographer’s portfolio and contacted them for pricing information if necessary. By using the spreadsheet, I narrowed my search from the initial 40 photographers down to my top 10. From there I got it down to 5. This is when I brought in Burger and our moms to help make some cuts.
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After our first look, we took portraits together and separately. I’m gonna share the Dude’s first—he’s such a natural in front of the camera! (I’m not the only one who thinks so—recently he was spotted by a local actor/comedian who asked him to play Jesus in a fake commercial he was filming! I’ll share the video with you guys when it comes out if I get permission.)

Anyway, back to the Dude’s wedding portraits.

I’ve just got to say that I’m so happy the Dude didn’t cut his hair off or shave his beard for the wedding! At one point, we were discussing him doing this–I’m glad he decided to represent for all those shaggy boys out there.
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