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.
I’m here, poking my head out of the wedding room for just a brief minute to say, “HOLYCRAPWE’REGETTINGMARRIED!” I’ve been holed up in here for the past month working diligently on crossing items off of those to-do lists. It hasn’t been too hectic but it has been steady—Mr Pretzel and I have filled every available minute these past few weeks working on both the material and the spiritual preparations for our wedding. Read more…
Ms Seahorse, BostonAge and Occupation: 25, Veterinary Jane-of-all-tradesFiancee's Age and Occupation: 36, former non-profit fundraiser in search of something betterEngagement Date: October 17, 2009Wedding Date: September 2010Venue: Fort Pond LodgeAbout Me: By day I'm a cat-wrangler, vet tech assistant, pet-sitter, receptionist, and pre-vet student, but the rest of the time, I'm a former-roller-derby girl turned dedicated-wedding planner. I love reading, writing, bicycles, animals, roller skating, and antique-y things of all sorts. I'm a vegetarian who likes spicy foods, while Fiancee Seahorse is a meat eater who does not like spices. We live outside Boston with our menagerie: a fifty pound dog, a one-eyed, seventeen-toed, toothless cat, and a perfectly put together cat who has a penchant for pooping near rather than in her litter box. In addition to planning our small lake-side wedding, we enjoy running around with the puppy, playing board games (Scrabble, anyone?), having little adventures, talking about how we should really clean the house more, and maintaining our little garden of vegetables and wedding flowers.
We had our “official” engagement shoot with our amazing photographer on Friday night. I can’t talk enough about how awesome Ellie is, and how anyone needing a photographer in/near Boston/Providence should probably use her. She. Is. Awesome.
Anyway, I have my first evening with Fancee in a few days (she was gone for the weekend) and I promised myself I wouldn’t spend a lot of it on the internets, so there won’t be anymore comments/deep insights, just some pretty pictures for you!
Mrs. Locket, Ithaca, NYAge and Occupation: 25, Research TechnicianFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, former Banker hoping to become an Officer of the LawEngagement Date: June 15, 2009Wedding Date: September 2010Venue: Heron Hill WineryAbout Me: I am a little bit of everything all rolled into one: A girly gal with rough edges---I love to get dolled up just as much as I enjoy throwing on some sneaks to toss a ball with Mr. Locket. My love for crafting and creating is quite apparent and I've been referred to as a Wonder Woman/Martha Stewart/Stepford Wife hybrid (yup, I'll take that as a compliment). I adore sewing, photography, sculpture, good eats (mmm tapas), baking, snugging and oh, pretty much everything in between (there's not much I dislike). I am super excited to be planning our vineyard wedding and couldn't be happier to be marrying Mr. Locket. We are a quirky, fun-loving couple residing in our college town with our two pups Maple and Molly. We love to go on hikes, visit our local dog park and to bask in the beauty of many of the local falls and gorges. We are an indecisive pair, but together we somehow manage to make up our minds (it's the easy stuff that's tricky).
In case you don’t already know… our wedding is going to have an elegant-vintagey vibe and I am doing my best to think of creative ways to bring that vision to life.
A while back I came across an oh-so-pretty picture of this lovely purple cameo (see image below)
When I saw it I thought to myself, “Wouldn’t it be great if they had a candy mold of a cameo to mold some white chocolate into…” I knew if I could find one that I would be in heaven. Read more…
Mrs. Pin Cushion, Oakland, CAAge and Occupation: 25, Nurse Fiance's Age and Occupation: 26, PhD StudentEngagement Date: November 23, 2008Wedding Date: July 2010Venue: Radonich Ranch, Los GatosAbout Me: I'm the 3 Cs: crafty, creative and quirky (oh, that's not a C? Close enough!). I'm also a recycling fanatic, fluent in bad accents and I have the loudest laughter this side of the Mississippi. I have not just one sweet tooth, but a whole mouth full of sweet teeth. I cry at 97.4% of all movies I see, but my fiance's always there to hand me a tissue. My geek-chic fiance and I are planning a wedding full of color, cookies and handmade goodness and I can't wait to spill the beans on all of our crazy ideas!
After many deep discussions and much philosophical pondering, the Pin Cushions decided to DIY our invitations. Or perhaps it was due to our own procrastination. Nah. It’s definitely the philosophy thing.
One afternoon I sat down and sketched (scrawled) out 3 invitation ideas with some very sophisticated artistic writing implements (crayons). Mr. PC played some eenie meenie miney moe to pick his favorite sketch. And then we got to work. I drank some tea while he worked on Illustrator. I nibbled on raw cookie dough while he triple checked measurements. I serenaded him with songs from “Oklahoma” while he quadruple spell checked. After all that great teamwork, here’s the end result:
Hot pink envelopes! Envelope label made on Illustrator by Mr. PC.
Mrs. Sand Dollar, HoustonAge and Occupation: 24, Graphic DesignerFiance's Age and Occupation: 22, Electrical TechnicianEngagement Date: January 8, 2010Wedding Date: September 2010Venue: MacLean ParkAbout Me: I'm a domestic diva down to the core. I heart cooking, sewing, baking, decorating and making sure we have a hand-crafted home. The best part about the wedding is I get to incorporate it all! I make sure I put my art degree to good use by screen printing, craft knife cutting, and a whole lotta graphic design. We're having a big-time party on a small-time budget, and I promise to show you a boot-scootin', barbecue-eatin', finger-lickin' good time! Mr. Sand Dollar and I spend most of our time on DIY projects or traipsing around the outdoors with our two pooches Rory and Juno. I'm looking forward to sharing our journey with all of you!
Well, here they are! I hope you’re ready for a photo heavy post, because I am one proud mama of this labor of love. I spent the better part of two days assembling six bridesmaid bouquets and my much spiffier larger bouquet. The colors are vibrant and happy and the ribbons make the look so luxe.
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. 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!
I woke up on the morning of the Hamster wedding to a sunny, scorching hot day. After a low-key breakfast of fruit and bagels with Mom Hamster, we were ready to get prettied up!
It was an early Sunday morning, and a holiday weekend at that, so NYC was pretty quiet: Read more…
Mrs. Trail Mix, New YorkAge and Occupation: 26, PE TeacherFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, MBA StudentEngagement Date: March 2009Wedding Date: June 2010Venue: Tannery Pond at the Darrow SchoolAbout Me: I'm a country girl who somehow found herself living in the Big Apple and loving every minute of it. I'm planning a rustic, country-chic wedding in my hometown in upstate New York and it's going to be a Party with a capital P. White wine, flea markets and running keep me happy and my friends, family and fiance are my world. I'm a little bit crafty, a little bit crazy but mostly just crazy in love.
I don’t mean to brag with the title of this post, but well, we did make some pretty kick-ass welcome bags. Buying the supplies and assembling them were tasks that we left until the week before the wedding, just to make that week that much more fun and not hectic or stressful at all. We made a run to BJ’s and went a little crazy in the snack aisle. Once the dust had settled, we hauled the following items out to my parents’ station wagon:
Bottled water
Mini bags of Snyder’s Pretzels
Wrigley’s gum
Ghirardelli chocolates
Welch’s fruit snacks
Starlite mints
Dum Dum lollipops
Planter’s peanuts
Enough butter, flour, sugar and chocolate chips to bake over 300 chocolate chip cookies
Mrs. Pashmina, NYC/Catalina Island, CAAge and Occupation: 28, Arts EducationFiance's Age and Occupation: 34, IT AdministratorEngagement Date: April 26th, 2009Wedding Date: July 2010Venue: Catalina Country Club, Catalina Island, CaliforniaAbout Me: I'm a laid-back Cali girl who moved to NYC for school, and ended up staying for love. My fiance is a quick-witted Jersey boy, a self-proclaimed Foodie and the funniest man I've ever met. Together we love exploring the city streets embarking on our next misadventure---and yes, this often involves eating off food carts and trying "the next big thing". I'm the girl in the sundress, snapping photos and collecting trinkets of memorabilia along the way. As a girly girl at heart, I am excited about our romantic natural island wedding incorporating our American & Filipino traditions.
I love Kate Spade. Who knew I would? At first it just seemed like preppy 5th Ave floral nonsense. Then I actually went in the store. Looking a little further it has everything I like. Groovy neutrals with an added (and unexpected) pop of bright color. Traditional, simple lines. Details you notice on second glance. It is very American feeling––playful yet bold. Much of their stuff screams resort wear, too (perfect for Catalina Island).
Here are two items I might purchase to complement my gown.
Congratulations to our winners - Caitlin, who won the $200 gift certificate and seattlemeg, Knubbsy-Wubbsy, and ceamoste who won the flower girl and ring bearer gift sets!
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Unveiled Bridal features all things to add glamour to your wedding! From bridal jewelry and glimmery hair accessories, to gifts and favors, you can find all the stylish wedding accessories you need in one shop. Today Unveiled Bridal is giving away a slew of wonderful prizes! Up for grabs is a $200 gift certificate for one lucky Weddingbee reader! Additionally, Unveiled Bridal is giving away 3 sets of their “Her Floral Highness” and “Ring Protection Agency” gift sets, perfect for the flower girl and ring bearer in your wedding party.
Right now, Unveiled Bridal is offering Weddingbee readers a discount of 15% off of anything in their store! Just enter the code BEE15 upon checkout to receive the discount. This code will expire on July 15th, 2010.
To enter this contest, visit Unveiled Bridal’s online shop and let us know what you’d purchase with your $200 gift certificate! And for a second chance to win, follow Weddingbee on Twitter and retweet this contest (if you’re already a follower, simply retweet by clicking here)! Then come back here and let us know that you followed/retweeted. You have until Wednesday, July 7 at 11:59 PM PST to enter. Good luck!
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!
For me, the most overwhelming part of this whole engagement has not been crafting the guest list, hiring the vendors, or designing the details. It has been the realization that this wedding day signifies a whole new life for me… literally.
I just finished reading the biography of Marie Antoinette and strangely, I found myself identifying with her early life. I recognize that’s a bit of an exaggeration… I’m not a fourteen-year-old Austrian princess, nor am I marrying the Dauphin of France, and I’m definitely not moving to Versailles. (I wish!) But like the young Dauphine, my new marriage will bring a lot of change with it.
Mrs. Cloud, RichmondAge and Occupation: 25, Sales RepFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Customer Service Manager/DJEngagement Date: February 14, 2008Wedding Date: November 2009Venue: Cathedral of the Sacred Heart & The Jefferson HotelAbout Me: Mr. Cloud and I are Yankees planning a Southern wedding to show our families from Boston and New York our fabulous city. We are complete opposites, resulting in a wedding to include bridesmaids in pearls and groomsmen in Adidas shell toes. I’m a sorority girl at heart with strong addictions to my blackberry, cherry Chapstick, Coach purses, the Boston Red Sox and our fur baby, Bella. I can’t wait to the throw the party of our lives and of course, marry my best friend!
After we got all that practicing out of the way (never mind the bleeding and puking parts) it was time to get started with the good stuff! Mr. Cloud and I rode together to our rehearsal dinner at Bottoms Up Pizza in the Shockoe Bottom area of downtown Richmond. We wanted the dinner, which was the first real celebration of the weekend, to be completely opposite of the next night’s very formal ballroom reception. Bottom’s Up fit the bill for the laid back and casual feel we were going for.
Mrs. Cardigan, AustinAge and Occupation: 21, Student/Soon-to-be Special Education TeacherFiance's Age and Occupation: 20, Student/Soon-to-be Accounting Systems AnalystEngagement Date: August 16, 2009Wedding Date: January 2011Venue: Vintage VillasAbout Me: I'm a native Austinite who was raised as a die-hard Aggie. Luckily, I'm a pretty persuasive girl because I managed to convince my high school boyfriend (now fiance!), Mr. Cardigan, to ditch his hardcore Longhorn ways and join me up at A&M, where we currently reside with our adorable dogs, Cullen & Ranger. We're currently planning a bright, cheery wedding with a ridiculous amount of DIY projects that I can't wait to tackle! I love crafting in any form, reading, and margaritas (I think I love them the most!). Organization is what keeps me sane and I love helping others, which is probably why I ended up as an education major. It gets a little chaotic sometimes when you're planning a wedding among all of the papers, projects, finals, and certification exams, but we're having the time of our lives and we can't wait to get started on our journey as husband and wife - and we're so excited to share our wedding with the hive!
Remember thesetwo posts where I talked about our aisle decor? Those cute, innocent looking Kusudama balls? Yeah, they’re evil. They totally made me their bitch.
Let’s start from the beginning: it was a normal Saturday afternoon and I was working on homework, when suddenly the crafting bug bit me. In the middle of my homework – inconvenient, right? Well, we all know that you can’t ignore the crafting bug, so I begrudgingly (HAH!) set my homework aside and began to think about what I was going to do. My mind immediately went to the Kusudama balls – I knew it was too early to actually be making them, but it’s never too early for a practice run, right?
So, I grabbed some scrapbook paper that I knew wouldn’t be needed for any other projects and I set to work.
First, I got some music going:
What? I listen to Mandy Moore. Got a problem with it?
Then, I cut (and cut… and cut. 60 damn petals worth of cutting. For one flower.) 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!
Way back when, I asked for your help in picking out our wedding invitations. After weighing all our options, I decided to go with the letterpress invitations from Ajalon Printing & Design, a small letterpress shop in Santa Rosa, CA. Due to a special they were having at the time - 100 invites and RSVP postcards for $439 – the invitations were almost the same cost as getting digitally printed invites from Wedding Paper Divas, so it was a no-brainer for me.
Though I could have ordered them online, I thought it would be fun to venture out to wine country so I drove to Santa Rosa and met with the shop’s manager, Trish Jackson, in person to order my invitations. She was delightful to work with – incredibly patient with my many questions and very professional. She even let me take home the envelopes so I could get a head start on calligraphy! When it came time to selecting the wording and fonts for the invite, she had great suggestions and we came up with a stunning invitation based on the Kourtesis design:
(this is the design our invitation is based on – not our actual invite) Source
Niagara Falls serves as the dramatic backdrop for katiebobatie’s stunning ring.
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.
All-Inclusion Invitation Suites
We made a run to BJ’s and went a little crazy in the snack aisle. Once the dust had settled, we hauled the following items out to my parents’ station wagon:
