Mrs. Guinea Pig, Baltimore, MD Age and Occupation: 26, PhD student Fiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Operations Director at a non-profit Engagement Date: December 25, 2008 Wedding Date: May 2010Venue: The Chesapeake Bay Beach Club About Me: I'm a tomboy science nerd whose girly side has made a startling appearance thanks to wedding planning! I love to bake, knit and sew but I also ride a motorcycle (that Mr. Guinea Pig wouldn't touch with a 10 foot pole). We live with our three crazy cats and love to read, travel, watch movies, and do home improvement projects together! My parents/family are Canadian but I'm definitely American, although I've lived in 5 different countries, 6 different states, and speak Russian fluently. Mr. GP and I met online (did I mention I'm a scientist?) and had a whirlwind romance - now we can't wait to get married & celebrate with all our friends and family in a blue and yellow waterfront affair!
Once Mr. GP and I had finished oohing and ahhing over each other at our first look, it was time for some portraits! At this point we were getting close to ceremony time, and guests would be arriving on the shuttles any minute. How was time passing so quickly?!
First, my shoes got their moment to peek through and shine:
(Note Mr. GP not wearing argyle socks. The man steadfastly refused!)
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.
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.
OK, friends, I need your help with this one. First of all, here’s quick rundown of the situation. Mr Trail Mix and I are attending a wedding in September on Cape Cod and the reception is going to be in a tent. Since I was on such a dress-buying binge before my own wedding this past June, I made myself promise not to buy a new dress for the rest of the year (I will totally admit, I have quite the dress collection.).
Shoes, however, are another whooooole ballgame. Yesterday, I went to consign some clothing, which is a great way to streamline your closet and make a few bucks! Peeps in the Northeast, check out Second Time Around, which has branches all over New England, New York and DC, it’s my favorite!
Anyways, while I was dropping of my clothes, I noticed a certain pair of shoes. They happened to be wedges, which would be perfect for an outdoor wedding. Oh yeah, and they were Jimmy Choo. (I’m a label-whore, I totally admit it!)
So there they were, this beautiful pair of wedge Jimmys that happened to be in my size and that happened to be on sale…
You know where this story is going. Of course, I bought the dang shoes… Read more…
Mrs. Plaid, AustinAge and Occupation: 26, Pastry ChefFiance's Age and Occupation: 34, Cabinetry CarpenterEngagement Date: August 8, 2009Wedding Date: October 2010Venue: Kindred Oaks, GeorgetownAbout Me: I am a Jersey girl born and raised but have since migrated to Texas and embraced its twang and Tex-Mex. I could probably eat chips and queso every day but instead I eat popcorn. I use the word “awesome” way too much but I just can’t seem to stop myself. I am addicted to all things DIY and am planning what I call a Texas-Chic wedding. I love snuggling with my two adorable dogs and of course, my adorable fiance. I can’t wait 'til I can call him my husband some day! October 2010, here we come!
Sorry, Pretty in Pink was on TV over the weekend, and it inspired the title of this blog entry! (PS…don’t you just love Ducky!) OK, as promised, here is the first of many DIY posts. And can I just tell you, I have been B-U-S-Y!!! So first up are our arbor decorations!
Do you remember the bouquets I made for myself and my ladies? If not, check ’em out! (Although actually, they look a bit different now—another post is necessary. But same concept!) Well, when I finished with the bouquets I had a bunch—and by bunch I mean hundreds (I think Co-MOH S and I got a little carried away) of tissue paper circles left over. I knew I’d find some use for them, so I slipped them into an envelope and saved them for later.
Well then a couple weeks ago, my sister and I headed out to my venue to take some measurements and photographs of some specific areas of the site, one of them being the arbor. They have a metal arbor already set up with fake ivy and twinkle lights wrapped around it. When we got there, flowers were still up from a wedding over the weekend. It immediately gave me an idea of what I wanted.
Mrs. Barrettes, Tumon, Guam/Napa, CAAge and Occupation: 29, DancerFiance's Age and Occupation: 31, Licensed Building ContractorEngagement Date: November 16, 2008Wedding Date: October 2010Venue: V. Sattui WineryAbout Me: I'm an East Coast girl, living on a tiny little island in the Pacific, twirling, leaping, and shimmy-ing my way through life, and now, wedding planning! I'm equal parts nerdy and cool... okay, mostly nerdy. I love satin bows, red lipstick, black & white graphic anything, the shine of sequins and the sound of a champagne "pop". My favorite books are The Portrait of a Lady, by Henry James, and Tender is the Night, by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I can also conjure a pretty good Patronus Charm. I started my appreciation for good red wine while traveling on the high seas, and it's only fitting that my passion for wine drinking led me to my Napa-bred honey. We bonded over bottles of Cabernet on my oceanfront porch and haven't looked back since. We're sealing the deal at a winery in the Napa Valley on a 'perfect ten' of a day!
I have tattoos. Seven tattoos. My first one was inked here on Guam 10 years ago and rests on my lower back. It’s your typical “tramp stamp,” as my Mom fondly calls it, as it’s a magnolia bloom with the sign of the Pisces in the middle. Easily hide-able. Number two is a small purple Hershey’s Kiss in the nook of my hip (cover-able by a simple bikini bottom), that was inked in Buenos Aires.
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!
Hello there hive! I know I’ve gone MIA in the past 3 months; waiting for your pro pics to arrive is definitely a study in patience.
However, in the days/weeks after our wedding, I’ve been going through an incredibly varied range of emotions. For the first couple of weeks after the event, all of our family and friends couldn’t stop talking about the day. We reminisced about the fun we all had, and how smoothly everything ran. It was bliss.
Then a few more weeks passed. The online photo gallery became available to us, and the questions and nit-picking started to occur. I was officially depressed.
This is the thing: it doesn’t make a lick of sense. We had a wonderful day, overall. The weather was lovely, Mr. Buttons and I were able to share our wedding day with our family and friends, and the party was a fabulous time. So, why the heck am I upset over it? Read more…
Mrs. Glasses, Tokyo/Los Angeles, CAAge and Occupation: 24, English teacherFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, English teacherEngagement Date: September 2008Wedding Date: October 2010 Venue: Parents' backyardAbout Me: I’m an expat living in Tokyo. I’ve been in Japan for almost three years now, where I met my fantastic English fiance. It’s time to leave Japan, so we are planning a fun, intimate, backyard ceremony back home in the suburbs of L.A. in October. Our wedding will be a mix of my love for food, beer, my Japanese culture, and Mr. G’s Englishness. We are on a tiny budget and DIYing almost everything!
We are super busy all the livelong day. It’s hard to get in a free weekend that isn’t devoted to packing or moving details. Next month will be even worse! But our invitation deadline is looming, and we need to get on it.
As I explained here, I thought our best option would be to pick out some pre-made invitations and just print our info onto them. I visited Tokyu Hands tonight, and it turns out I was wrong, wrong, wrong wrong, wrong wrong wrong wrong.
What’s Tokyu Hands? It’s a department store like Macy’s, but it’s a little more comprehensive, with no clothes (if you can imagine that!). First, I started out on the fifth floor, which the floor guide told me was stationery. Really, it turned out to be office supplies, although they had a small stationery offering.
Kuroneko no gigi and Totoro stamps! We would love to find a way to incorporate them into our invites, but only the Japanophiles would understand.
Mrs. Lobster, BrooklynAge and Occupation: 29, Finance GirlFiance's Age and Occupation: 33, Finance BoyEngagement Date: July 25, 2009Wedding Date: August 2010Venue: Stage 6 Steiner StudiosAbout Me: I'm a New York-born, Virginia-bred girl who's found her way back to the big city. Mr. Lobster and I met in grad school and have been together ever since. I'm clueless about DIY but am an avid online shopper and love all things polka dots, stripes, and ruffles! When I'm not making wedding lists, you can find me looking for snacks, watching Gilmore Girls, or hanging out with Mr. Lobster and our new puppy Buddy! We are planning a fancy-pantsy Brooklyn wedding for a hot New York summer night which is sure to be a misadventure in the making.
My days have lately been consumed by paper products, paper problems, and paper parties! I consider what I’ve gone through a tour of paper hell. Let me recap…
Menus: A Mini-win for Lobster
Last time on Lobsters Shouldn’t DIY, I had major fails with the printer when working on the menus. After taking the hive’s advice, I cleaned the print heads and did some printer maintenance. It didn’t find fix the problem. But by some miracle, the menus turned out 98% perfect. How not-so-perfect with the 2%?
The dreaded dashed line was still there. Before you think I’m crazy, I know that the dashed line isn’t noticeable. And so I carried on.
Mrs. Frog, Phoenix, AZ/Chelan, WA
Age and Occupation: 29, Public Relations
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Online SalesEngagement Date: February 8, 2009Wedding Date: July 2010Venue: Amy's ManorAbout Me: I'm an opinionated Midwestern girl now living in the Valley of the Sun marrying a laid back Northwestern guy. I'm equal parts sass, silly and sweet. I'm fiercely loyal with a strong devotion to my family and friends. I have a not-so-secret obsession with apple juice, a new obsession with DIY projects and I love a really good cheese plate...with lots of wine. After 7 blissful years of dating, I'm having the time of my life planning the destination wedding of my dreams to my Mr. Frog-turned-Prince Charming.
Hey friends – sorry to be a bit MIA—married life has been blissful so I took a couple of weeks to enjoy. And can you believe it, yesterday was exactly one month since Frogger and I got hitched?! In that time, there’s been a flurry of activity in our happy lives:
We spent a few days enjoying time on the lake as a sort of mini-moon after the wedding.
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!
With the wedding less than 3 weeks away, I have begun tackling projects that have been put off for too long. One such item is the Wedding Card Box, which I’m told is a must-have at the wedding for guests to slip cards into. Here are some examples of card boxes:
Miss Handbag, Smyrna, DE/JamaicaAge and Occupation: 25, AdministrationFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, SalesEngagement Date: Christmas Night 2008Wedding Date: March 2011Venue: Rosehall Resort, Montego Bay, JamaicaAbout Me: I am a Type A, emotional Italian fireball, who on a weekly basis must be brought back to reality by my level headed, calm, cool and collected fiance. We are planning an intimate, all white with hints of black, vintage inspired wedding on the old sugar aqueducts of Jamaica, with 30 of our closest friends and family flying in to witness the occasion. We are not traditional by any means and will be doing things very differently. :)
The past 6 years have been a journey of not only getting to know Mr Handy, but learning who I am. We started dating when I was 19 years old; he was 21. We were still very young and very naive. I had my own place and was quite comfortable doing my own thang and not having to answer to anyone. Within 7 months of dating, we made the decision to find an apartment together. I have learned throughout the years that my biggest struggle is either to be the traditional Italian wife who cooks, cleans, takes care of her husband’s every need, or be the independent, sassy, go-getter kind of gal. I grew up with a mother who tended to her husband’s every need and she put her career and her needs on the backburner for so many years because that’s just what she was taught wives do. Today’s woman is strong, independent and sassy. I love both worlds.
During the first few years of our relationship I was very much the traditional Italian (soon-to-be) wife. I cooked every night, I did the laundry, I cleaned the apartment, I took care of everything and I LOVED it. The only job he had was his normal 9-5 and to take care of the finances. That was OK with me. I felt needed and I felt like this was exactly how it should have been.
After three years of the apartment living, we decided to buy a house. Read more…
Wedding BiosFeature Launched: September 12, 2008About: Wedding bios of real brides.
Start your own Weddingbee Bio and you could be featured on the blog!
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!
Pre-wedding (obviously), the Pin Cushion spent some time searching the interwebs to find suggestions for less-than-traditional songs for our ceremony. What did I stumble upon but a Weddingbee post? Mrs. Peppermint’s post from 3 years ago, “Non Traditional Ceremony Music“, was a treasure trove of suggestions. People are still leaving comments and song choices 3 years later. Impressive, Mrs. Peppermint. Very impressive.
After a morning filled with heated musical debate, a few (not-too-willingly-made) compromises, and many many YouTube videos watched, we created our ceremony playlist.
Here are the songs we chose to have playing while guests were being seated.
Mrs. Hippo, New York City/Dallas, TXAge and Occupation: 34, Event Planner for a Non-Profit Fiance's Age and Occupation: 35, Finance ITEngagement Date: August 8, 2009Wedding Date: March 2011Venue: Samuel Lynne Galleries and Marc EventsAbout Me: I’m a thirty-something bride living in New York City and planning a modern-ish wedding in Dallas, Texas. I love trashy reality television (Jersey Shore, anyone?), online shopping, Sunday brunch, Central Park, and random celebrity spottings on the streets of Manhattan. While I love NYC, I miss good Tex-Mex, my college friends, central A/C, and being in close proximity to a Target. I’m thrilled to finally be planning an event that’s not work-related and to be marrying my best friend in what I hope will be a unique and personal ceremony followed by a reception with plenty of good food, good drinks, and dancing (regardless if it’s good or not).
I love navy blue. I love that it’s dark and crisp and has more personality than just plain black. I was pretty certain that I wanted navy to be one my wedding colors right away, but I wasn’t set on the secondary color.
Mrs. Plaid, AustinAge and Occupation: 26, Pastry ChefFiance's Age and Occupation: 34, Cabinetry CarpenterEngagement Date: August 8, 2009Wedding Date: October 2010Venue: Kindred Oaks, GeorgetownAbout Me: I am a Jersey girl born and raised but have since migrated to Texas and embraced its twang and Tex-Mex. I could probably eat chips and queso every day but instead I eat popcorn. I use the word “awesome” way too much but I just can’t seem to stop myself. I am addicted to all things DIY and am planning what I call a Texas-Chic wedding. I love snuggling with my two adorable dogs and of course, my adorable fiance. I can’t wait 'til I can call him my husband some day! October 2010, here we come!
Are you having a library-themed wedding? Maybe you’re just incorporating books into your decor. I was reading through one of my favorite blogs today, lillyella, and found this awesome project!
All-Inclusion Invitation Suites
Kuroneko no gigi and Totoro stamps! We would love to find a way to incorporate them into our invites, but only the Japanophiles would understand.
