Weddingbee Blog

We left off after a wonderful welcome in Mexico and an amazing day in Cozumel, and things just kept getting better!

We spent day 4 enjoying our resort’s fantastic beach and pool.

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So far the guest count for our wedding is at 92 attending and 10 not attending. Pretty good, right? If you are reading this and you have been invited and are planning on attending our wedding… TURN IN YOUR RSVP CARD!!! Okee? Thanks!

I just realized that this is your first glimpse at our invitation suite! For our RSVP cards we decided to do a postcard to save on postage and envelopes, and make our lives easier (as we ordered our design through Overnight Prints).

Dolphin Kitty’s paw of approval!

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lululemonade

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No, Mr. Hot Wings, this post is not for you. Dress Photos ahead, y’all.

After all the complaining last time, it’s time to get back on track. With all of the schooling, graduating, grading, packing, moving, wedding planning, maintaining a social life, something had to give, right? Some of you mentioned on the previous post the need to prioritize. I agree. Let’s start with how to prepare my body for these dresses below.

(1) My bachelorette party dress that Hottie of Honor sent to for me. It’s a Free People gold and white sequin dress.

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*We are now back from our honeymoon so I can resume posting about our projects and then we’ll move on to the RECAPS!

{Image by awesome Mrs. Sprinkle }

I love wood; I have always loved it! Mr. Poodle does too, so we wanted a lot of it on our wedding day, but since I don’t have power tools, I had to ask for help from my FIL. I drew all the shapes and he cut them for me.
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How did I find Weddingbee?
Right after Mr. Starfish proposed, I turned to the internet to start researching. I was trying to find as much information as possible on a Newport wedding and I stumbled across Mrs. Corn’s blog on Weddingbee. It was the first time I had read a wedding blog and I was hooked! It took me a while to figure out the site, but soon I was learning about the wonderful world of DIY, terms like MIL, BIL, and the likes, amazing stores like Paper Source, and most importantly, I found a place that was had an awesome and welcoming community.

My application Story:
As soon as I found Weddingbee, I pretty much started my own blog. I thought it would be a fun way to document the experience and share fun ideas. We have had a pretty long engagement—two years, to be exact. So after 16 months of blogging I was deciding whether or not to apply. It was the eight month mark—the earliest you can apply, and I was debating on whether or not to send in the application. Then I heard the Sea Creature Generation was coming out and I knew I had to apply. I always hoped if I were a bee that I’d get to be Miss Starfish.

I sent in my application and was expecting I wouldn’t hear for a while. I heard it can take a while to hear back, since they get so many applications. I was so excited when I got my acceptance email from Pengy! It seemed pretty sudden and I wasn’t expecting the yes. The Sea Creatures weren’t even out yet! I had my first bridezilla moment and asked Pengy if I could hold off on being announced after the Sea Creatures came out. Then Mr. Starfish came home and took me out to celebrate. I was so excited when the new generation came out and Starfish was an option!

Why Blog?
When I first got engaged all I could talk about was weddings. Literally. I was driving my family and friends crazy. No matter what the conversation was about, I somehow found a way to turn it into a wedding convo.
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One thing I’ve always known I wanted at our wedding was a string quartet. I went to a wedding with one when I was a kid, and since I haven’t been to that many weddings in my life, I grew up thinking that all weddings had a string quartet! Come to find out, it’s actually pretty rare these days. I was only able to find two options in the whole area we’re getting married in! Thankfully, I found The Candlelight Strings, and thanks to them, we will be experiencing some beautiful string music on our wedding day, courtesy of these smiling faces:

Before the ceremony, we want to keep it feeling very classic, so they will be playing a mixture of mu and Mr. Turtle’s favorite Classical and Baroque pieces, including some old wedding standbys, of course! We’re mixing it up a little bit for our ceremony, though.

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I’m going to brag a teeny tiny bit—I have great skin. I know—I’m lucky. I know this because it hasn’t always been that way. About 8 years ago I had what I call the “facial that changed my life”. No joke.

The aesthetician informed me that I had very sensitive skin. I had no idea! I would get an ever-so-slight red blemish and go nuts picking at my face and rubbing it down with harsh products full of chemicals and exfoliants.

(source)

During the facial I was advised to try a simple, natural, facial cleanser. I promptly went to my local Whole Foods and picked up a bottle of Jason Natural Cosmetics Super-C Cleanser Gentle Facial Wash. Honestly, I chose it only because it looked “nice enough”.

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The other day, while digging for buried treasure in a Michaels dollar bin, I came upon these festive little cards:

Pineapple note cards? For me? Yes please!

I figured I could use them in our out-of-town bags, as some-sort of a welcome/thank-you-for-coming letter. I brought a few packs of them home and stuck them in a random “wedding-bin” in the house. Later, I took them out to show my mom, and then realized - there are two pineapples on the front. Are you following my train of thought?
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So I’ve been thinking lately about bridesmaids’ bouquets. I know, I’ve just lost any reader working in the floral industry. But hear me out. I’m not saying that brides should forgo flowers – I definitely think there’s a special place in a wedding for a bridal bouquet, ceremony flowers and reception centerpieces, among other floral adornments – I’m just thinking that in this economy, there might be other ways to address what a bridesmaid could hold that may prove to be easier on the budget.

Has anyone seen the incredibly creative things that some brides have chosen to do for their bridesmaids in lieu of bouquets? I saw one wedding where the couple met as kids, became high school sweethearts and decided to design their entire wedding in a school theme. The bridesmaids carried school books bound in a strap like back in the ’20s. I just loved that it worked in their theme but wasn’t cheesy. I also really love that I can’t find the photo or link to demonstrate. Have I mentioned how organized I am?

That got me thinking… what else could be substituted? What about using the bridesmaids’ gifts for this purpose? There are so many great clutches out there (like the ones below), and we all know girls love purses and will need something at the wedding to hold those few chosen items. Selecting a personal clutch for each girl that shares the colors of your wedding could add a splash of color as they walk down the aisle, plus it’s definitely practical.

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The coin toss is a tradition that the hive has heard about before. Does this couple look familiar?

(source)

Our very own Avocados pulled off this tradition beautifully! Basically, after exiting the church, the happy couple is showered with coins by their guests. The bride and groom have to pick up all of the coins by themselves, and this is supposed to ensure the prosperity of their union.

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We’re back from our honeymoon, and I have so much to share with you! While we’re waiting for our professional pictures, I’ll take you back in time to the weeks leading up to the wedding.

Between the two- and three-week mark, I worked on printing and assembling all the paper pieces for our wedding. My cousin Julie designed our invitations, menus, programs, table numbers, and photobooth signs. She is amazing, and I credit all the following gorgeousness to her! Here’s a look at our coffee table during paper-project-mania:

The place cards were simple—a pretty gray font on white cardstock, mounted on silver cards.
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Now we’re gettin’ down to the good stuff: our trip itinerary! Although we originally were looking at Margarita Island for the beach portion of our travels, I wasn’t super-excited by any of the hotel options. Most of the nice places were all-inclusive resorts (which isn’t what we were looking for) or seemed to lack the idyllic charm of other Caribbean islands.

And then while further researching hotels, I came across Los Roques Parque Nacional. It’s an archipelago of islands located about an hour west of Margarita Island but because it’s protected as a national park, there are only a smattering of bed and breakfasts located on the main island.

In short, it’s pretty isolated and natural and basically our ideal honeymoon location. It has a laid-back vibe, Italian bed and breakfast where they’ll cook all our meals to order, and a beach-side location. Plus, Los Roques has some of the best fishing and snorkeling in the world (and Mr Trail Mix is an avid fisherman. Me? Not so much, but I like to paddle about and look at the fishies…). Ah, I cannot wait to be swimming in the ocean here:

(Source)

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In the wee hours the night before our wedding I had pretty much come to terms that the barn where our reception was to be held wasn’t going to be nearly as beautiful as I had hoped. The decorations weren’t quite like I had wanted them to be, the barn seemed to have less room than it did on my spreadsheet, and I just wasn’t convinced it would be a very magical place for our reception after all.
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After seeing a post over on Ruffled featuring these cute little Table Numbers, I was hooked.

source Ruffled

They offer the template they used for these cute table numbers on their blog, but of course Mr. Dolphin and I had to design our own! During my girls’ weekend a few weeks ago, I picked up theses Tolsby frames from IKEA for .99 cents a piece (what a deal!).

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