Mrs. Cheeseburger, Baltimore, MD/State College, PAAge and Occupation: 25, Medical StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Medical StudentEngagement Date: June 28, 2008Wedding Date: March 2010Venue: Catholic Church Ceremony & Hotel ReceptionAbout 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!
We had always planned to light a Unity Candle during our ceremony. I think it’s a beautiful tradition with a lot of sentimental meaning. I love that Burger’s Mom and Mom Cheeseburger will light the taper candles individually, and that Burger and I will use them to light the pillar candle symbolizing the unity of our two families.
So, what’s the problem?
Well, I kinda forgot to get us one. Whoops!
I’m not sure how it works at other churches, but at the church we are going to be married in, if we want to light a unity candle, we have to provide the supplies ourselves. I happened to mention my forgetfulness to Mom Cheeseburger a while back, and just a few days later, she had a surprise for me!
When I realized that I forgot, I figured I’d just pick up two tapers, a pillar candle and some candle holders at Michaels and call it a day, but my mom really went the extra mile! Apparently the pre-made unity candle sets can be kinda pricey, so Mom Cheeseburger decided to break out a little DIY of her own.
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.
So, before the wedding I felt like my skin was fine, but I didn’t feel like it was all it could be. This became especially evident when I went through my two makeup trials. I typically wear very little makeup, but with the makeup trial I did the whole works, and my pores were SO obvious. I couldn’t believe it. So, last weekend I decided to go into Sephora to find something to help minimize pores.
I must have walked in with the look on my face that indicated I was going to buy a lot because everyone was very eager to help. Well, I stumbled into the Philosophy section and I was ready to spend some cash. I rubbed each and everyone one of the products on my hands, listened to the Sephora worker describe how each one would work and do wonders for my skin, and even managed to score several free samples.
Before this memorable trip to Sephora, my skin regimen consisted of two products: Read more…
Mrs. Taco, San FranciscoAge and Occupation: 29, writer/editorFiance's Age and Occupation: 37, editorEngagement Date: May 13, 2009Wedding Date: August 2010Venue: The Green Room at the War Memorial Veterans BuildingAbout Me: I like laughing and talking with good friends over good food and good drink, be it wine, cocktail, or brew. I write and edit things for fun and profit, but I rarely "write" these days without a keyboard and high-speed internets. Favorites include Mr. Taco, my Boston terrier, San Francisco, getting out of town, and the Roaring ’20s. I was kind-of planning a wedding since roughly 2006, when I discovered "Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?" on the WE channel. I ran and didn't look back with a theme I called "urban vintage," and it culminated in the most magical day a taco could ask for.
Fussing over centerpieces seems like the cool new ulcer-inducing thing for us brides. It helps immensely (i.e., keeps me sane) to remember my inspiration and my vision: feathers, Deco, branches, burgundy. Classic, beautiful things to match a classic, beautiful venue.
Our venue is decidedly indoors, but who says you can’t bring the outdoors in? Art Deco takes a lot of its inspiration from the outdoors: stylized gazelles and forest scenes are big. Behold the Paramount Theatre in Oakland, Ca., an Art Deco masterpiece:
More photos are here (scroll through with the arrows) That is the lobby, and it’s designed to be a stylized forest scene. The thing in the middle is a waterfall, but there’s no water, obviously. The terra-cotta columns are trees, but they’re not real, right? The light (the light!) is simulated sunlight. And, yes, their electric bill comes out to $9,000+ every month.
The ceiling is a dark green canopy, and curled details on the carpet are meant to be fallen leaves and branches. These are hints/shadows of things that complete a unified picture once they’re all together. I want that.
Given my penchant for this old-timey look (I fail at trends) flowering branches and feathers sounded like a great idea for our reception wonderland. Read more…
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!
This video doesn’t really have anything to do with this post, except sometimes I feel like the universe mocks me in such a fashion. You know, with the pointing, the “trololololol”-ing, and creepy ’70s atmosphere.
I was actually going to post a video that made sense – Confessions Pt. 1 by Usher. OK, so it really only makes sense in the fact that the song has “confessions” in it. I didn’t go floosie around on my love or anything. Work with me here, peeps. OK, I really need to move along to the actual confessions. I’m stalling.
I drank orange juice straight from the carton today.
Crap. Yes, I’m stalling. There is no way to go about this easily, so, ugh, here goes…
A reminder! Join the Denver area bees for a meet up at the Rio GrandeTOMORROW, Saturday, March 20. Come and chat about weddings and wedding planning with local gals in your area over margaritas!
Where: Rio Grande Mexican Restaurant - 9535 Park Meadows Drive, Lone Tree, CO 80124 (In front of the UA Movie Theater)
Who: Colorado/Denver Hive Members
When: Saturday March 20 at 1 PM
If you’d like to attend, head on over to the Colorado/Denver meet up thread and let us know if you’ll be there, so we can make the appropriate reservation! We hope all you Colorado bees can make it!
Mrs. Starfish, Boston/NewportAge and Occupation: 25, Operations AssistantFiance's Age and Occupation: 25, SalesEngagement Date: October 8, 2008Wedding Date: October 2010Venue: The Atlantic Beach ClubAbout Me: I'm a perfectionist who is a planner at heart. I don't do well with surprises. I love planning, crafting, Newport RI, family and friends, and most importantly, Mr. Starfish---all of which will be big components in our October wedding in our favorite little city by the sea.
To be honest, transportation was the bottom of my priority list. I figured we’ll get there somehow and it wasn’t the top of my list of things to splurge on. Well, then I realized we have a pretty large wedding party with a couple different photo spots. So, we really needed to find something that would get everyone from point A to point B to point C, D, E and F.
I don’t want to spend the wedding day stressing over a bridesmaid or groomsman or the groom or me not getting to the church or photos. So I did what I always do—I started to research. Since booking our photographer I tried to relax on the type A personality and slow down on who I contact. When it comes to transportation though, I really just wanted a good price and something that would hold all of the wedding party, our immediate families, the photographers, videographer and ourselves. That is on big group! We are looking at about 22-24 people!
I had no clue how much transportation would cost, but since everything wedding related seems high in Newport, I thought $1,000 would work. I contacted about 15 transportation companies, most of whom returned my emails. I had quotes for limos, buses, Hummers, party buses, and trolleys. Most companies gave quotes for a few different types of transportation. Prices ranged from $780.00-$1,650.00. Each quote included transportation for at least 22 people. Most did not include gratuity. To be honest, we thought we’d just go for the cheapest choice.
It wasn’t until after all the research that I realized we could afford my secret dream choice of transportation: Read more…
Mrs. Jellyfish, Pleasanton, CAAge and Occupation: 27, Law StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Air Force PilotEngagement Date: February 21, 2009Wedding Date: September 2010Venue: Casa Real at Ruby Hill WineryAbout Me: In a nutshell, I’m the most optimistic worrywart you’ll ever meet. My family emigrated from Romania to San Jose, CA when I was 8, and I've been a Nor Cal girl ever since! My fiancé is also a Bay Area native, so it’s funny that we met at UCLA, as college freshmen living on the same floor (go Bruins!). Between his career as an Air Force pilot and my path to becoming a lawyer, our relationship has been anything but typical. We currently live together in Berkeley with our puppy Stinson. In addition to spending time with the loves of my life, I enjoy crafting, attempting complicated recipes, environmental law and non-law school reading (Us Weekly, anyone?). Follow along as I plan an elegant 200-person winery wedding, graduate law school, take the Bar exam, get married and get used to the always unpredictable but never boring life of a military spouse!
The other day our travel agent emailed Mr. Jelly to ask him what name to book my tickets under for our honeymoon. She wanted to know whether I’d be keeping my maiden name or taking his, or hyphenating. This is a question I’ve been thinking about for months, and I’ve had very mixed feelings about. In fact, this has been one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make.
I’m really attached to my last name. It’s short, unusual, and often-mispronounced, but I love it. I’ve never met anyone with the same last name (except on Facebook, but that doesn’t count). It’s recognizably Romanian (at least to other Romanians) and I love that I get to carry a bit of my culture with me in my name.
Mr. Jelly’s last name, on the other hand, is very American. Or British. Either way, it’s quite WASP-y. Read more…
Mrs. Hot Wings, Chicago/San DiegoAge and Occupation: 28, ProfessorFiance's Age and Occupation: 32, InstructorEngagement Date: December 20, 2008Wedding Date: August 2010Venue: Ocean View Villas/Jasmine Seafood RestaurantAbout Me: I am a psychology grad student living in Chicago and planning my wedding to a fellow psych grad student. I am a Sunny So-Cal bred gal who trudged across the country to follow her love of psychology and ended up finding a partner in the process. I am overly passionate about anything I involve myself with. I am an activist, a foodie, a reality TV watching junkie, an over-analyzer, a photography obsesser, and am utterly cheesy to the core. This is a story of what happens when a boy and a girl meet, fall in love over academic dorkiness, and a shared love for life. We (mostly I) are planning our semi-destination wedding in my hometown of San Diego. We are excited to bring our families and friends together from across our lifespans to celebrate our future in a grand 400+ person culturally blended affair!
Remember how I didn’t want floral centerpieces? Yeah, well, like most things in wedding planning, things changed. My main reason for wanting non-floral centerpieces was the cost. Our large guest list and thus large number of tables means a lot of centerpieces. I had no idea centerpieces cost an arm, a leg, and sometimes a baby too!
So after much complaining from the Mamas, Aunts (geez… everyone), I decided to DIY something that would be easy to put together the night before.
Let’s start with the final product.
Three Gerberas wrapped in ribbon, stuck into some floral foam with daisies in a glass cube vase.
Cute right? It took a long time to get to this end. Here we go folks. Read more…
Mrs. Lace, Pasadena, CAAge and Occupation: 29, Elementary school teacherFiance's Age and Occupation: 29, EngineerEngagement Date: September 6, 2009Wedding Date: June 2010Venue: Orange County Performing Arts CenterAbout Me: Born and raised in Southern California, my fiance and I are marrying in Orange County. We're planning a vintage wedding with a modern twist. I am an elementary school teacher by day and a wedding planner by night. I love reading, blogging, scrapbooking, trying out new DIY projects, buying awesome finds at incredible deals and spending time with friends and family. Trying new restaurants, traveling and shopping also top my hobby list. I'm anxious to share my wedding ideas and planning with the hive!
Everyone struggles with what to get for their bridesmaids. I couldn’t decide if I wanted to just get them one big thing or put together a little “basket” for the day of. I found a happy compromise and just finished their gifts. Here’s what they’re getting.
Oh yes, Lace bridesmaids, please stop reading here. Come back tomorrow.
Are you gone yet?
Here we go, hive, now that the bridesmaids are gone. Read more…
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.
When Mr Pretzel and I decided to put off Hawaii until next winter we started to brainstorm ideas for a minimoon in the Pacific Northwest. There is so much beautiful country to be explored right in our backyard. We toyed with the idea of a camping road trip and got very excited when our eyes landed on this image on the pages of Sunset Magazine.
Ohhhh shiny! Ummm yes, I want me one of those. Apparently Mini teardrop trailers scaled down and airstream-esque are a travel trend for 2010. Read more…
Mrs. Turtle, Central CaliforniaAge and Occupation: 21, Art Student/TeacherFiance's Age and Occupation: 22, English StudentEngagement Date: August 16, 2008Wedding Date: July 2010Venue: Mr. Turtle's Grandparents' backyard, Arroyo Grande, CAAbout Me: I am a California girl who loves the beach and the mountains, but is quite satisfied living right in the middle where I can enjoy the best of both worlds. I am happiest when traveling to faraway places, wandering through museums, watching old movies, or baking up a storm. Mr. Turtle and I are high school sweethearts and fellow book nerds who both drive Mini Coopers and are most likely to be found browsing in antique stores. We're having so much fun planning our European garden wedding with a vintage twist and can't wait to share more of life's adventures together!
Soon after letting it sink in that Mr. Turtle and I were engaged, I turned to the Internet, hoping to become inspired about this wedding that everyone kept asking me about. I can’t remember which blog I first saw it on, but this is the first wedding picture that I saw that caused me to think, “I want our wedding to be like that!”
I don’t know what about this picture made me love it so much, but I immediately dragged it to my desktop. Not too long after this, I came across this picture and fell in love once again:
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!
Mrs. Hot Dog, Cheyenne, WYAge and Occupation: 23, Health Information SpecialistFiance's Age and Occupation: 23, Personal Trainer
Engagement Date: March 2009Wedding Date: August 2010Venue: Family Ranch outside Glenrock, WYAbout Me: I'm a city girl by birth and rural girl by choice. I'm ready to take on the world with a big heart and a big smile! I love all things crafty and DIY. I live in Cheyenne, WY with Mr. HD and our 2 fur babies, our dachshunds, Ollie and Mia. I love travel, adventure, Finding Nemo, '90s music, animals, and laughing. He is the cheese to my macaroni and together we spend more time watching movies than we probably should! I'm an old soul who is super duper excited to pull off our down home-rustic-chic-country wedding (on the cheap)!
***If you are a Hottie Bridesmaid, please avert your eyes*** kthanksloveyou
The past few days I’ve been finishing up the BM gifts. I wanted to give them something heartfelt and that I made, at least partially, myself. All of my ladies are so wonderful. They’ve put up with all my obsessive color issues, flip-flopping about design elements, and they’ve pretty much just been there for me whenever I would start to have a meltdown!
As soon as I saw this post by Mrs. Stiletto (who borrowed the idea from Mrs. Latte), I knew it would be a great idea. So, my gifts are a spin-off from that.
Mrs. Ribbons, Washington D.C./Bloomington, INAge and Occupation: 23, Research Associate for an international development firmFiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Proposal Coordinator for contractor
Engagement Date: May 2, 2008Wedding Date: June 2010Venue: Indiana Memorial UnionAbout Me: I'm an Indiana transplant living in DC with my fiance and our pretty kitty. I enjoy the color pink, I'm obsessed with the Dior New Look and tulle, and I heart my level 80 paladin. I'm a sucker for bad TV, literary theory, and cakes of all persuasion. I also happen to be marrying the cutest closet nerd around! It's all about Bloomington for us because it's where we met -- on the college paper. If there's a theme for our small summertime wedding, it's Dior meets Dorothy Draper on a lark in Bloomington; think poofy, plus graphic prints, bold colors, and a whole lot of prettiness.
Back in January, I made some fabric flowers. I won’t post a full tutorial: I used one found on OnceWed and it does a nice job of explaining the super easy process!
For each color, I bought a half yard of cotton fabric, plus a half yard of chiffon because I was in a daring mood. This produced 110 flowers. I also varied the size by using both the spool, suggested by the tutorial, and the bottom of a glass. You can easily make bigger ones than that, too. For the chiffon, which turns out to be evil, I had to cut large squares because I could not trace circles onto the fabric.
It is definitely time consuming, so I recommend using an assembly line approach. I enlisted Ribs and we spread the project out over several days, doing one color each day. I’d say it took over two hours to cut and sew a half yard, with both of us working simultaneously. Ribs took a bit of a shortcut and folded the fabric twice when he was tracing circles, producing four circles at a time instead of two. But seriously, it’s so mindless. You’ll become an expert at threading a needle and tying knots in no time — because that’s the most challenging part of this project.
If you have a ton of patience and perhaps an entire TV series to watch, these are great. I love that it’s a way to completely incorporate the color scheme and a little girly. Now, how do I use these in my wedding? Read more…
Mrs. Hamster, New York CityAge and Occupation: 28, Finance GalFiance's Age and Occupation: 30, Finance GuyEngagement Date: March 9, 2009Wedding Date: May 2010Venue: The Pierre HotelAbout Me: I'm an original Jersey girl living it up in the big NYC! I love baking for others, hosting brunches, and exploring NYC with my mans. Besides Mr. Hamster (of course), I'm attracted to shiny things, bold colors, snacks, matching and coordination, pork and duck fats, miniature versions of things, corny jokes and puns. We are planning a swanky Spring wedding in the heart of NYC, followed by a second reception in Singapore. From one city that never sleeps to another - I can't imagine a more exciting ride!
It’s getting down to crunch time, and there are still tons of to-dos that need to be done. One of these tasks is figuring out the rehearsal. So, I thought about that for a while, realized it was not that fun to think about, and added it to my ever-growing “Come back to this later” list. Instead, I turned to the fun part of the day - the rehearsal dinner! Come on now, thinking about processional orders when I could be pondering pizza toppings? What was I thinking?
All-Inclusion Invitation Suites
