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Mrs. Buttons, Clearwater, FLAge and Occupation: 24, "Working on it"Fiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Financial ServicesEngagement Date: June 13, 2009Wedding Date: May 2010Venue: Carlouel Yacht ClubAbout Me: I'm a self proclaimed perfectionist and a professional nomad (seriously, I've lived in TX, WI, MI, FL, NC, and now VA!). I love wine, cooking, curling up with a good book (nerd alert!), spoiling the furbaby, and of course, the wonderful Mr. Buttons! We are planning a lighthearted and whimsical wedding (with a good deal of DIY projects) in Clearwater, Florida, but from a distance of 800 miles away! We are looking forward to sharing our day with our family and friends, and most importantly, starting our lives together as husband and wife!
I had been waiting for the moment when the reality of wedding planning was going to strike me. It struck… hard… about 3 months into our engagement.
When I started the process of wedding planning, everything seemed like rainbows and unicorns and sunshine… it was so fun! I had so much inspiration (and still do), and it seemed like there was an endless list of aspects that I wanted to incorporate into our day.
Then… you get price quotes from vendors. And for me at least, I wanted to just throw up. Mind you, I did realize that the price quotes were going to be extremely high, and most likely much more that I’d be willing to pay for certain things (around $1000 just for ceremony flowers?!?!?! Gasp…), but nevertheless, seeing the numbers on a piece of paper or a computer screen really made the reality sink in.
Mrs. Scissors, LaGrange, GAAge and Occupation: 25, Photography & Graphic DesignFiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Engineering Grad StudentEngagement Date: January 1, 2009Wedding Date: June 2010Venue: Ceremony - First United Methodist Church; Reception - My parents' house!About Me: I’m a six-foot-three bride with a fifty-foot personality! I love great art, fabulous design, intense color, tons of music, indie photography, watching movies on repeat, and being really awesome. This super-tall, Southern, loud, quirky, neurotic artist is marrying a German, quiet, silly, super-amazing roboticist in an eclectic, funky, fun, snazzy, technicolored June wedding. Anything is game for this shindig, for it is all about us! We’re bringing giant paper cranes, six-foot-tall portraits, fortune cookies, a photo booth, a club-circuit DJ, handcuffs, and possibly a kidnapping to this small Southern town. Watch out, y’all, and try to keep up!
I have bookmarked these lovelies not once, not twice, but SEVEN times on my computer. I have the images saved like 0238432 times. I have a super-secret (or not-so-secret) crush on these knuckle rings, and then it went into overdrive when I saw them on the pictured set of bridesmaids circulating the wedding-blogosphere. Read more…
Mrs. Pug, New York City/Half Moon Bay, CAAge and Occupation: 33, LawyerFiance's Age and Occupation: 32, dittoEngagement Date: July 2008Wedding Date: March 2010Venue: Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon BayAbout Me: The Mr. and I are two 30-somethings who enjoy tasty sweets of all kinds, our neighborhood wine store, and cuddling with our pug. NYC is where we live and the city we love, but we’re doing the deed out in Northern California. We are trying to keep the affair small, intimate, and manageable. Our motto is: the less people, the better! (I’m kidding.)
Per my directive of “try again” after Mr. Pug proposed the first time, Mr. Pug took it to heart and tried proposing a few more times.
Proposal #2
I don’t even remember when exactly Proposal #2 happened, but I do know that Mr. Pug treated me to a very lovely and special meal at Daniel restaurant. I thought this could be the night he would propose.
So before we went to dinner, I looked at Mr. Pug in his fine suit, all handsome:
Mrs. Nachos, Chicago/St. ThomasAge and Occupation: 33, Commercial Real Estate & HairstylistFiance's Age and Occupation: 36, Radio ProducerEngagement Date: May 22, 2009Wedding Date: April 2010Venue: Wyndham Sugar Bay Resort, St. ThomasAbout 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.
So today at work, I got an IM from Mr. Nachos informing me that if you Google Wyndham Sugar Bay Wedding under images, a picture of me comes up. I thought that was kinda funny considering we haven’t had our wedding yet. Then, out of curiosity, I decided to Google myself. Come on now, you can’t tell me that you haven’t done it. And what do I find? A link to my Wedding Channel profile.
Hold the phone. I never signed up for anything on Wedding Channel!?@?!
My “profile” was full of info complete with my full name and Mr. Nachos’ full name, our wedding date, and a link to our registry (on which nothing has been bought yet but I digress).
Now, I personally don’t particularly care too much, but Mr. Nachos likes to be more on the private end of the internet spectrum. So I went on the BBB registry website to see if this was something through them that I could disable. Um, negativo.
My next step was to go on the BBB Live Chat. Read more…
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.
The very first time found Weddingbee was while I was searching for inspiration for our invitations. While researching through the blog I found several amazing invitations, and a weird word to me at that time! It was Gocco. I wanted that little machine so badly! Not just because I wanted to have DIY invitations, but because I loved the freedom you had to design, plus the fact pretty much any surface can be printed. Yes, I was in love. Sadly, Gocco did not have a long future in supplies, and the price was not within my budget.
I thought about different alternatives to make our invitations budget friendly and really pretty! My first idea was to save ink by using fabric as pops of color on our invitations. I had an idea of the kind of fabric I wanted for our invitations, but after I drew the pattern, I became obsessed with that particular pattern.
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!
Something that I wanted to incorporate which has become quite popular in wedding ceremonies these days is what’s called the “declaration of support”, or the section of the ceremony where the officiant asks the wedding guests to promise to support the couple in their marriage.
I loved the idea of getting our wedding guests involved like that, but wanted to make it a little more powerful than just getting them to say, “we do,” so we decided to have a moment where we created a literal circle of love.
Mrs. Sewing, San Mateo, CA/Honolulu, HIAge and Occupation: 24, Electrical EngineerFiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Electrical EngineerEngagement Date: June 27, 2009Wedding Date: July 2010Venue: Anela Garden Chapel & Japanese Cultural Center, HonoluluAbout Me: I'm an easily entertained, compulsive idea-scheming machine who loves good art, good food, and a good engineering challenge. I'm planning a half-destination wedding on the beautiful island of Oahu - imagine a plethora of movies, art and games; savory Hawaiian food; blended Chinese and Japanese cultural details; lush, fragrant tropical flowers and all the air conditioning a NorCal native could want! And once I marry the love of my life, we'll come back to the 'mainland' to party it up all over again in my hometown of Salinas, the salad-bowl capital of the world!
A few months into our first year of dating, I proposed to Mr. Sewing with this:
For the non-electrial-person, it’s a zener diode. I had turned it into a ring while in an analog design lab. And much to my continued, pouty-faced annoyment, he refused me.
“There’s lead in that thing, dummy. I’m not wearing that.”
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!
This is what our ceremony area looked like before people started to sit down:
Some benches and chairs, a couple of tables up front, our musician hanging out in the corner, all calm and peaceful like.
This is what our ceremony area looked like after our coordinator had everyone find a seat: Read more…
Mrs. Frozen Yogurt, DallasAge and Occupation: 28, Special Projects CoordinatorFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Equity TraderEngagement Date: March 19, 2009Wedding Date: April 2010Venue: Marie Gabrielle, DallasAbout Me: I was born and raised in Texas, and have lived in several of the cities across the state, but I currently reside in Austin. I went to college in Boston and have a special place in my heart for the Northeast. I love reading, shopping, wine, reuniting with college friends that are scattered across the country, reality TV, trying out new recipes, and attempting all the DIY projects that come along with wedding planning. I'm a "bleeding heart, save the world type" and thankfully my job allows me to work on legislation and policy to help out those in need. I met Mr. Frozen Yogurt in a bar, though he doesn't even drink! And now we are planning a modern yet vintage wedding in Dallas while dealing with the trials and tribulations of first time homeownership.
There is no part of your face that gives away more about you than your eyes. They express emotion, you can smile with them like Tyra, they can display the puffy remains of too much boozing, or the all-nighter you pulled for work or school. There are two tricks you probably already know about to disguise tired eyes––cucumber slices and MASSIVE sunglasses, but massive sunglasses might not be the way to go for your wedding. The final two tricks I have are part of a little group I like to call Baked Potato Beauty.
Mrs. 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!
I always figured I’d spend the least amount of time on the RSVP part of our invitation suite. After all, people will only have it in their possession for a short period of time. Perhaps the invitation will be tucked in a special drawer (or lovingly framed on the wall?) and the Save the Date magnet will stay on the fridge. But the RSVP? It’s temporary. Forgettable. A glance, and it’s gone.
But then I saw these beauties! Multiple events on one card? Artful designs and fancy dancy letterpress? While writing their names, our guests couldn’t help but touch the deep, flourishing imprints. The cards would come back to us—fingerprinted, slightly worn, and perhaps marked with a smidgen of drool. Oh, the power of stationery.
Mrs. 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.)
As you already know, Mr. Spaniel and I are pretty jazzed about our wedding menu. Unfortunately, we couldn’t fit full descriptions of every entreé on the RSVP card (they’re described in more detail on our wedding website, but I have little faith that many people will make it there), and we’d like to minimize people’s culinary surprise. Or something.
Enter the wedding menu card! (Cue music. Or the sound of chewing. Don’t eat the menu card, please; it’s not edible.)
Mrs. D'orsay, Baltimore/Lancaster UKAge and Occupation: 24, nonprofit communications Fiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Web site developer and designer; co-owner of men's skincare shopEngagement Date: August 10, 2008Wedding Date: August, 2009Venue: Oakland ManorAbout Me: I'm a Maryland raised environmental policy wonk/activist/organizer and communications aficionado. In the past year I've lived in Baltimore, MD, Tucson, AZ, Miami, FL and Lancaster, England. In my not so spare time I enjoy planning trips with Mr. D' Orsay, visiting friends and family and crafting like a mo-fo. I also enjoy modern dance classes, rugby and soccer but have been banned by my mother, MOHs, and Mr. D' Orsay from playing till after the wedding. I have an unnatural addiction to cheese and shoes, but love Mr. D' Orsay more than either and can't wait to become Mrs. D' Orsay!
Oh goodness, I almost didn’t want to recap the rehearsal because it was so stressful to me. I was stuck towing the line of acting calm like I didn’t care, and getting upset. I failed at both attempts.
One thing I wish I had known was that rehearsals aren’t very important in England. Nor do they have rehearsal dinners. So in retrospect, I would have better explained the importance of both to Mr. D so he could have effectively explained the importance to his groomsmen. I clearly failed at this task, because the only groomsman who was there was my MD-MOH’s boyfriend, who lives in Maryland. Two groomsmen were in Canada for their layover and the Best Man chose to stay later in NYC and skip the rehearsal. Mr. D’s mother, aunt, uncle, sister, and sister in law all thankfully filled in. I don’t have many photos of the rehearsal, mostly because I was trying to get down to business.
Mrs. 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.
He is my Lego-obsessed, engagement ring-in-shoe wearing other half. He was the one who encouraged me to apply to become a bee and he is a trooper with the DIY. I suggest all sorts of DIY touches for the wedding and he jumps right on board. He has great ideas and loves the Gocco. We collaborated on our Save the Date design successfully, but he can also be a little competitive about some of the wedding stuff.
He thinks I got a little carried away with my bridesmaids’ invitations. Before I sent out my custom hankie bridesmaid invites his plan was to make a slightly random phone call to his friends & brothers asking them to be in our wedding. After seeing my invites, he decided to step up his game. Here’s how it all went down- as narrated by Mr ‘zel:
Mrs. Swan, New York CityAge and Occupation: 31, Legislative RepresentativeFiance's Age and Occupation: 33, Finance GuyEngagement Date: August 9, 2008Wedding Date: August 2009Venue: Battery GardensAbout Me: I am an un-crafty but resourceful, Caribbean-born but New York-raised woman who's been known to analyze "Dancing with the Stars" and “So You Think You Can Dance”, buy stinky cheese, and use way too many parentheses. I keep lists for fun, am constantly daydreaming of my next international travel adventure (four continents down, three to go), debating sports (let’s Got Mets/Giants!) and dancing around my apartment to stay sane. I am excited to share our wedding planning journey as I hope to plan a streamlined, personal, and fun wedding with the greatest life partner I could ever imagine, Mr. Swan.
When we last left Swan Wedding Prep 2009, I’d made my way into my dress and shoes, but I was about to put on one of the trickiest parts of my wedding outfit: my veil. My lovely Kasia Fink birdcage veil was so light and delicate… I loved it! I loved it so much that in the weeks leading up to the wedding I had manhandled it trying to make sure that it fit they way that I wanted it to. In the process, I sort of almost FUBAR’ed it. By the time the wedding rolled around, my lovely delicate veil had a little bit of a… dent (hangs head in shame). It still looked lovely, but even I recognized that I didn’t handle it with the care that it deserved, so that morning we tried to revive it just a little. First Christine, my DOC, tried to cover up my mistake.
All-Inclusion Invitation Suites
Then, out of curiosity, I decided to Google myself. Come on now, you can’t tell me that you haven’t done it. And what do I find? A link to my Wedding Channel profile.
but I digress).
By the time the wedding rolled around, my lovely delicate veil had a little bit of a… dent (hangs head in shame). It still looked lovely, but even I recognized that I didn’t handle it with the care that it deserved, so that morning we tried to revive it just a little. First Christine, my DOC, tried to cover up my mistake.
